Methane, She Pinkie part 6 (Patreon)

The ship proximity alarm woke Tinat up.

The natives, as Tinat had observed, tended to be active during the bright periods, much less so in the dark, with a few exceptions. Like autrenkt, they slept, though they spent only one-third of their cycle asleep as opposed to his people's almost even split between wakefulness and rest. They stayed awake for six Konsorian hours, as he did... but then he slept for almost six Konsorian hours, as opposed to their three. Long story short, his wake-sleep cycle didn't line up with the planetary rotation at all, so while the environment outside his ship was hellishly bright as usual, he'd been blissfully unconscious of it for once.

Truth be told, he'd been shorting his sleep as it was, and between that and the pink native, he was beginning to feel a bit boiled. He'd only got to sleep about an hour before, thanks to a prolonged argument with the mission navigator back on the mothership. The navigator was going planetic over the apparently erratic movement of the hell-planet's moon and its irregular rotation in respect to its primary, and he had threatened to have Tinat recalled so a proper scientist could take over the astronomical observations. The call had only ended when the planet and moon twitched again, and the world outside his tinted window blazed with light, and the navigator had lost the capacity for coherent speech.

Recall. As if! Leaving aside his contacts with the pink one (which he'd dutifully reported to the captain, and which the captain had reprimanded him for), his observations of the village below had yielded vast insights into possibly the most alien civilization any autrenkt could have even imagined, much less encountered. In the brief time he'd been here he'd gained material for centuries of research by sociologists back on Konsor. 

And the biologists would be working on what he already had for millenia. Why, just yesterday (as the natives called it) he'd discovered things living in the river of liquid ice! Plants, animals, a vast array of microorganisms- a fully functioning biota. Considering how the land flora and fauna had such a high proportion of water in their cells, it didn't stretch the imagination to suppose that, just as Konsorian life had first arisen in hot spots within its hydrocarbon lakes, so life on this world had arisen somewhere in its liquid-ice depths. How that could happen in an environment composed of the universe's most common solvent, on the other hand? That would fuel speculation long after Tinat's grandspawn returned to the oils.

What with one amazing and terrifying discovery after another, Tinat had stretched his waking time and shortened his cooling-down periods. In his final report, he would cite this as explanation for his state of mind when he clambered out of his bunk, looked at the monitors, and saw the very large creature approaching the ship.

Its mouthparts were enormous, as were the slashing claws at the end of its limbs. Rearing up on its hind limbs, it could stand almost as tall as Tinat's ship. And yet this fearsome creature, which in Tinat's mind must be the apex predator of this entire planet, hesitated after stepping through the short sessile flora. It turned to look behind it, grunting something at a creature pushing through the plant life.

The creature was another native.

It was partly pink- the fibers on its head and tail, at least- but most of it was a yellow scarcely less brilliant than the planet's star. And, also unlike Pinkie Pie, this one was of the flying subspecies, though her wings stayed tightly curled against her sides at all times. Other, smaller creatures followed in her wake, including several of the ones Tinat had taken tissue samples from. A couple of them reared onto their hind legs and pointed at the drone observing all of this, then at the ship.

Tinat watched the newcomer look at the ship, saw the eyes go wide with obvious fear. It tried to scurry back, but the smaller creatures blocked her, and the gigantic predator reached one of its immense paws behind her and gently but firmly shoved her forwards. 

Tinat's perfuser sank. As if, indeed. There was no way this native wouldn't bring trouble. No matter how much remained to be done, it was time to leave.

He rushed to the control room, mounted the flight seat, and began the emergency pre-flight sequence. Immediately the safety interlocks popped up: Lifeforms within danger zone of vessel. Clear area prior to launch.

A faint susurrus barely managed to resonate through the ship. In a somewhat louder tone, the computer's translator said, "H-h-h-hello? Is s-someone there?"

One of the reasons Tinat later plead short sleep and overheated brain in his report was how he answered the new native: "No! Go away!" 

A moment later he realized how stupid that was, and how unlikely it was to make anyone or anything go away. A native second later, the newcomer confirmed this. "Oh, I'm sorry, Maybe I'll just come back later- ow! Please stop pushing!" The other animals were practically carrying the yellow one to the ship at this point. "I really am sorry about this," she added, "but it won't take but a minute. If you don't mind. Please."

Tinat sighed and left the flight seat, moving to the laboratory and its observation window. "What is it?" he asked. "Did the pink one send you?"

"No," the newcomer said quickly. "I haven't spoken to Pinkie Pie all this week. Should I have? I really am sorry, if I'm intruding, I'll just-" A clang rang through the ship as the creatures more or less tossed the native up onto the hull next to the observation window and its speaker. "Eep! I'm sorry!"

"It doesn't matter," Tinat said. "Please move the creatures out of this clearing. It is dangerous for them to stay here."

"Actually, that's what I need to talk to you- ooooh my!" Tinat flinched as the native looked through the tinted window and saw him. "I've never seen anyone like you before! And such an interesting body plan you have! A wide, flat body, with eyes that rise above everything- is that an air intake between them? You must have been an ambush predator in some sort of liquid-ice environment, like (untranslatable)s and (untranslatable)s!"

"Er... are you a scientist?" Tinat asked. The creature had lost all appearance of fear. actually stepping right up to the tinted glass to stare at him. She'd been close to the mark- the autrenkts' ancestors of some forty million years before had been just the kind of predator she described, grabbing prey and drowning them. 

"Oh, no," the native said. "I'm an animal caretaker." She blinked, then continued, "Actually that's why I'm here. The animals who live in these trees are unhappy because they keep getting poked and bit by strange metal things. Do you know anything about that?"

"I promise," Tinat replied, "that will stop immediately. In fact, I'll leave right away, so your creatures won't be bothered any more."

"Oh, that isn't necessary," the native said. "You're welcome to stay as long as you like, but please don't bother my friends any more."

Tinat sighed. Even with the translation nearly perfect, there was still some sort of communications disconnect. "I have to leave," he said. "I'm supposed to leave if I encounter any natives at all. I told your Pinkie Pie that I would have to leave if any more of you showed up. Now I have to."

"Oh, that's a shame," the native said, her eyes dropping. "I was hoping to learn more about you."

"Believe me, you have no idea how much I feel the same way," Tinat said. "But I just can't. Now please move your friends out of the clearing so my ship can take off."

"Okay," the yellow one sighed, turning to step off the ship's hull.

And for reasons which, again, Tinat would put down to a cooked brain, he added, "And tell the pink one that I'm sorry she never got to have that celebration for me."

The yellow one froze just before dropping to the ground. For the first time her wings spread. "What?" she asked. "You mean Pinkie was going to throw you a party?"

"Yes, well, I told her it was impossible," Tinat mumbled. "She can't come in here, I can't go out there, I can't eat anything you natives eat, nor the other way-"

Tinat never saw the yellow one move. One moment her back was to him, and the next she was right next to the window. Those huge eyes, which had shown him trepidation and curiosity, now slammed into his with righteous fury.

"You're skipping out on a party my friend is planning just for you?" the glaring eyes said.

(next time, the finale!)