Methane, She Pinkie (part 1) (Patreon)

As promised (if late), here's an early-release bit of writing- first draft material for an entry into a science-fiction writing contest over on fimfiction.net .

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Tinat looked out through the darkened window at instant flaming death.

Well, probably not flaming death, even though the atmosphere outside contained a ludicrously high content of oxygen- twenty-one percent of the total. More likely he'd just melt or even sublimate, considering the temperature outside was over two hundred increments warmer than the surface of his own homeworld. In fact, as he thought this over for the thirtieth time, that was actually worse than burning to death. Death by oxidation was quick. Melting, by all descriptions, ran slow and dreadful by comparison.

Of course, he had no intention of actually going out there, not even in his extravehicular activity pod. Even the spacesuit's advanced polymers couldn't withstand the temperatures outside. It was so hot that the very substance that made up most of his own bones- dihydrogen monoxide- ran in torrents through a natural channel not far from where his spaceship lay hidden.

All in all, this planet was a true hell-world- insanely hot, a bit too heavy (half again the surface gravity of his homeworld), and flooded with gaseous free oxygen. Indeed, that had been why he'd come to this world. Molecular oxygen just did not happen, not naturally. Like hydrogen, it wanted to find something to bond to. If there was a lot of free oxygen somewhere, something had to be making it.

So he'd come down in the ship's shuttle- by himself, since the captain refused to risk more than a single crew member on such a risky mission, even if they were a survey ship. And it hadn't taken him long at all to figure out where the oxygen came from- that had been obvious even before he'd landed.

This hellworld had life. TONS of life. In fact, a collection of sessile life forms had served as a canopy to hide his ship from view from above. That became necessary the moment the signs of intelligent life became obvious, even before he entered the atmosphere. 

The people of Konsor had encountered intelligent life before- one spacefaring but not yet interstellar species, two planet-bound primitive species. (All three species came from worlds similar to Konsor itself. After all, the Konsori had been surveying for suitable planets or moons well away from the primary, where you'd expect to find life. Nobody had even speculated about life below the ice line before, so deep in the star's gravity well.) After those experiences they'd established a protocol for contacting new sapient life forms- in one word, Don't. It just caused too much trouble.

That said, Tinat had a duty to study the world's life and learn all he could in the short period his shuttle could remain on the surface. Thus, he'd landed on a low hillside covered by the tall sessile life forms, overlooking a native settlement of moderate size- not an isolated family dwelling, but not a major city either. The camouflage screens had been deployed, and small probes had been sent out to collect samples from various life forms in the vicinity. Other probes had flown down into the settlement to observe the natives and get some basic idea of biology, behavior and culture.

What he'd found astounded him. All the life he'd sampled thus far used DNA, with two of the four nucleobases changed from those used in Konsor life. There were certain structural similarities, particularly in the animal life. And there the resemblances ended. The cells were filled with water, not methane. Unlike his own hydrogen metabolism, life here used oxygen. The green life also had specialized organelles not present in the other life sampled, which seemed to be the source of all that atmospheric oxygen in the first place. 

Compared to the biology, the sociology was totally unsurprising. The natives weren't primitives, exactly, but neither were they going to space any time soon. They had some technology- they used engines on rails, they had some primitive electrical systems- but the quadrupeds seemed satisfied with muscle power for most applications. They had some kind of market system, public gathering places, and a rich spoken and written language with a broad vocabulary. Most notably, the natives had no sign of any organized military forces- indeed, none of the video Tinat had reviewed even hinted at the presence of weapons.

That suited him fine. He had one hundred eighty-two more hours before he'd need to return to the main survey ship to refuel. It wasn't much time, mostly because the ship's cooling systems had to work almost as hard as during atmospheric re-entry to maintain a normal temperature inside. The idea of having it cut even shorter by a wave of frightened locals attempting to attack the ship (as had happened in all three prior encounters with intelligent life) horrified him.

But still, so long as the natives didn't know he was there, that wasn't going to happen. And even with the blinding light outside (almost a thousand times the sunlight he was used to), the camouflage screens would hold up to anything short of someone actually walking through them and right up to the ship. The natural canopy above the ship made a convenient back-up. Between them, and considering the lack of advanced technology in evidence, it was unthinkable that the natives would spot him before it was time to go.

Tinat glanced down at the readouts on the current biological sample analysis and took a few notes. When he looked up again, one of the natives was staring back at him through the porthole.

It was pink. It had eyes almost as large as his own. 

And, to his horror, it was showing its mouthparts at him.