Chapter 30 Chapter 28 Little Dawn

Miss Prinkle Record The sun is coming out!How strange - the sun seems to rise so fast in this slowly turning world!Of course of course - the sun is too small, so it jumps out of the horizon all at once... But it has no effect on the overall brightness - if you don't look in that direction, you won't even notice that there is a sun in the sky. But I hope the Europeans have noticed. After the "little dawn", it usually takes less than five minutes for them to start coming ashore.I don't know if they already know I'm here, or I'm a little scared... No - it could be the other way around.Maybe they are very curious, and even anxious to see what kind of strange visitor came to Qian's Village... I hope so...

Here they come!Hope your spy satellites are watching - Peregrine's cameras are recording... How slow they are!I'm afraid it would be very boring to communicate with them... even if they want to talk to me... They look a lot like the thing that crushed the Tsien Hsueshen spaceship, but much smaller...reminds me of a small tree that walks on five or six slender branches, hundreds of them, branching, branching... Branch again.Like most of our omnipotent robots... how long did it take us to realize that developing humanoid robots is a ridiculously stupid thing; the best way to walk is with lots of little "autonomous feet"!Every time we invent something we think is clever, we always find that nature has thought of it long ago...

Those little guys are so cute, like moving bushes.No idea how they reproduce - do they reproduce by budding?I didn't realize they were so pretty, almost as brightly colored as tropical fish - maybe for the same reason...attracting mates, or pretending to be something else to bluff predators... Did I say they are like groves?Just say rose bushes - they really do have thorns!There must be a good reason... I'm so disappointed that they don't seem to notice me.They all headed towards the village as if a visit from a spaceship was a daily event... only a few remained.Might be useful... I guess they can pick up sound vibrations - most sea creatures can - but maybe the atmosphere here is too thin to carry my voice too far...

Peregrine - Outboard Speakers... hi, can you hear me?My name is Frank Poole... umm... I am a Messenger of Peace for all of humanity... Makes me feel pretty stupid, but, do you guys have a better suggestion?It would be nice to have an explanation... No one paid attention to me at all, all big and small crawled back to their huts.When they get there, don't know what to do?Maybe I should follow along.I'm sure it'll be safe--I'm moving much faster-- I just had a fun idea.These creatures are all headed in the same direction—like the twice-a-day commute between home and office before the development of electronics.

Let's try again before they run out... Hello everyone!I'm Frank Poole, a visitor from that planet Earth, can anyone hear me? I hear you, Frank.I'm David.