Realms of Sci-Fi

Song of Sqia'lon Seven

The flying saucer broke through the violet clouds and descended upon the alien forest with a stuttering resonance of its anti-gravity drive. Settling in a clearing, the ship released a number of landing supports. Unfolding like spider legs, the thin supports unfurled from concealed recesses on the underside of the vessel, cushioning the landing upon the greenish soil of the seventh planet of the Sqia'lon system.

After the two travelers inside the vessel checked the seals on their helmets, the clear dome in the middle of the dorsal section of their saucer rotated to put the covering underneath the cockpit instead of over it.

"Come on, kid," encouraged the pilot as he climbed out of his seat and onto the upper surface of the ship. "It's nearly time. We need to hurry."

"I'm coming," the co-pilot assured.

Once out of the cockpit, the two visitors gave a short burst with their spacesuit jetpacks to float off the ship in the planet's light gravity and land softly on the alien terrain.

"Dev, why did you insist on taking me to this remote corner nowhere?" the co-pilot asked.

"The galaxy is a treasure-trove of wonders if you just know where to look," Dev answered. "Since you'll assigned solo explorations in the next few weeks, I wanted to show you this before you ship out. Look closely at those trees, Soren, and tell me what you find."

Soren half walked, half floated in the low gravity over to one of the trees and began an inspection.

"This is strange," Soren commented. "In addition to not having any leaves, the tree branches are hollow tubes."

"They have a strength greater than most composite alloys," Dev mentioned. "Do you see anything else?"

The reflective silver bubble of his helmet moved around one of the lower branches as Soren examined the limb from different angles.

"It looks like there are holes at evenly spaced intervals," Soren related to Dev.

"Those are from the method the trees use to gather nutrients," Dev explained. "Unlike Earth trees drawing in through the roots, these collect sustenance through their branches. They concentrate everything they collect into pellets before releasing them, leaving behind the holes. The pellets fall through the hollow branches into the trunk where they're absorbed."

"Interesting, but why were you in such a hurry to show it to me?" Soren questioned.

"That's why," Dev answered while pointing north.

A great cloud of dust was rolling toward their position. Currents within the cloud twisted and writhed like a nest of ghostly snakes. It was barely a moment after Dev had pointed out the approaching disturbance that it swept over them. The wind was swift but it lacked the harshness Soren had been braced for. With the wind shifting directions constantly, the two men were softly buffeted by an invisible force they could only see through the movements of the native soil it kicked up in its wake.

A sound rose around the visitors as the wind slipped between the trees and their branches. It reminded Soren of when he was a kid and would blow across the opening of a bottle, but this sound was a great multitude and in various levels of pitch.

"What is that?" Soren asked.

"It's the trees," Dev replied. "Because their branches are hollow with multiple holes down their lengths, they act as flutes or the resonating pipes of an organ depending on their size and the intensity of the wind passing over and through them."

Soren and Dev stood motionless, their eyes closed as the air trembled around them with a physical presence of the sound.

"Once a year, a great wind flows over this forest," Dev stated. "This is what I brought you here to experience. It is the song of Sqia'lon Seven."