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Chapter 48

Chapter 48

 January 31st, 2158 (station time)

"Remarkable," Manuel whispered to himself.  Everyone had stopped paying him attention long before.  

Eighteen hours had passed from the time the fog had lifted and the village became visible.  The sun was now beginning to make it's way over the horizon.  For most of the team, the magic of seeing the Clothans for the first time had long since passed.  Each one going about their assigned tasks as if this was their daily routine.

Manuel alone remained lost in discovery and awe.  At first every time he said something, everyone would stop what they were doing and listen.  But, as each new thing from Manuel became more mundane, the others in the group lost interest and stopped paying attention.

For the past eighteen hours, Logan watched the Clothans as they went about their day.  He watched their movements and their behaviors in an attempt to learn about their culture.  He studied the buildings, trying to determine the function of each.  He searched for any signs or writing, but was unsuccessful.

Logan spent a particularly long portion of his day studying the clothes of the Clothans, in an attempt to understand the class set up.  Every new Clothan spotted was examined, and every detail of their dress was catalogued.  It didn't take long to determine that the two genders wore roughly the same clothes, but in slightly different styles.

Assuming that the larger of the genders was the male form, the cloth was wrapped broadly across the chest and back.  This covered more skin than the smaller genders twisting style.  The smaller gender would twist the robe into a thick rope that would wrap around the shoulder.  On both groups the back was left bare, and the chest was mostly covered.

Logan stopped looking though his head set and sat back on a chair he had set up several hours before.  He closed his eyes and gently rubbed his temples with the palms of his hands.  After several seconds, Logan opened his eyes and was about to continue his observations of the Clothans, when he noticed Manuel.

Manuel was shaking with excitement.  His eyes never looked away from the village, but his hands moved at lightning speed entering data into his DNAC.  In the short time that Logan had known Manuel, he never saw him like this before.

Logan slowly stood up, picked up his portable chair, and walked over to Manuel.  "What are you so excited about," Logan asked as he set up his chair and sat down next to him.

"I am becoming more and more confident that we are on the verge of a breakthrough in discovering the origins of life."  Manuel said failing to hold back his excitement.

In confusion Logan's head tilted slightly to the right.  "I'm sorry, what?" he said dumbly.

For the first time Manuel looked away from the village and directly at Logan.  "The origins of life. Were did life start, how did it start?  With more discoveries on different planets, we get closer and closer to the origins each day."

"Wait," Logan said skeptically.  "You are saying that by bumping into this primitive sentient life that we have taken a step towards understanding the beginning of life, I... its origins?"  Logan felt stupid saying it, but that is what he understood Manuel to have said.

"Yes, yes!" Manuel said.  He turned and looked back toward the village.  "When you see the Clothans, what do you see?"

Logan turned toward the village and took another look.  It appeared just as it had the last time, when he was studying their clothes.

"What am I suppose to be looking at?"  Logan asked dumbly.

"Find a Clothan, and describe it to me," Manuel said excitedly.