The sails early the next Summer had surprised everyone. They had been gearing up to send an expedition north to find the next settlement, but somehow it had not occurred to them to go by sea.

The quantity of silk that must have gone into the sails was shocking at first, until someone pointed out that this settlement had converted most of its silk to fuel and plastic. Apparently these visitors had not found out how to use the silk that way, but used it in it's raw form instead. Alternately, maybe they just had more silkmice in their area, and could afford to use silk as sailcloth.

Then of course, as one of the children pointed out, maybe the sails weren't made of silk.

Since the ship was furling sails and dropping anchor, it appeared that their questions would soon be answered.

"Silk!" laughed the leader of the visiting group. "Gar nicht! We compress silk into pellets and use it for fuel, mostly. The rest goes into bedding and so forth.

"The sailcloth is made from a fibrous grass which grows plentifully back home. It makes good rope, sailcloth and tarps, but it's too coarse for much else."

Nathan was the only one of his peers to hang around when the newcomers sat down to the town meeting Lars had called. Nathan had tended to gravitate toward adults when Heinrich and Rolph weren't around. (He wasn't allowed to do much of what the other kids liked to do, anyway.) He had found that talking with adults was much more interesting than talking with other kids. So he didn't feel self-conscious asking a question during this pause in the conversation.

"Don't your silk pellets make a lot of black smoke?" he asked "I've seen silk burn before."

"That is a problem," the visiting leader admitted.

Lars had been looking sharply at Nathan, but now said "Once we get to know you people better, we may be able to help you with that problem."

Nathan wondered why Lars had not just mentioned their clean-burning liquid fuel. He opened his mouth to say something, but when Lars gave him another sharp look, he said nothing.

"Getting to know you is part of the reason we're here. I am Gerd, by the way. Laser spectroscopist. Which makes me of little use in this environment. Good thing I had a useful hobby - sailing. At least I get to do something I'm good at."

Everyone else introduced themselves, including Nathan - which turned a few heads.

So Gerd, any way I can tour your ship?" Lars asked.

Gerd smiled broadly. "Absolutely! I designed her myself. I think you'll like her. Nathan, would you like to see The Seeker as well?"

"Nathan?" Dan asked, perplexed. "I'm his father. Why would you invite him, of all people?"

"Such a young lad, taking an interest in matters like this? Why not let him see things from the inside, so to speak. You are invited as well, sir."

"He's not as young as he looks, but we accept," Dan replied.

A sailing ship? He was going aboard a sailing ship? Nathan realized everyone including himself had been brought here on a starship, but that was different. Anyway, no one remembered the starship because they were in storage at the time.

Nathan had seen several videos about the old wind powered ships that had explored Earth centuries before. His attention to the current proceedings waned greatly as he imagined what the ship must be like. He enjoyed the irony that they had been brought here through extremely high-tech means, and now they were exploring a new world with sailboats - but this time it really was a new world. New Earth, he thought. "We should call this place Neuerde," he blurted out while someone was speaking. "Oh, I'm sorry," he added, realizing his blunder.

Lars looked sharply at Nathan, but simply said "Dan."

Daniel looked at his son and said "Children should be seen, but not heard." No one saw the simultaeous wink he gave Nathan.

As they were about to climb the rope ladder from the dinghy to the ship, Gerd said "Young Nathan. Please let Lars ask questions first. When he's done, then you can ask anything you want."

Nathan blushed, then nodded. The four of them then boarded.

The tour was as grand as Nathan had hoped it would be. By keeping quiet and paying attention, he found Gerd answered most of the questions that popped into his head. Gerd was a good tour guide.

Nathan was a little perplexed at Lars' preoccupation with the storage compartments. He had wanted to see inside each one.

The last storage bin was large, and contained what appeared to be heavy coats. Gerd had simply said "storm gear" and closed the bin.

It occurred to Nathan that this was the only clothing he had seen aboard. He had also seen no blankets - the hammocks had all been bare.

Lars seemed to have no questions for the moment, so Nathan asked "How do you stay warm in cool weather?"

"What cool weather? We haven't had any of that since we came to this world," Gerd answered, surprised.

Lars looked at Gerd. "You are planning to sail further South aren't you?"

"Our mission is to scope out the extent of the landmass we're on. We're going to circumnavigate it if possible."

"Do you have astronomers among you?"

"No, I'm about the closest to it. I can tell you that this planet revolves so fast around Grossa that it's difficult to keep a fix on a star for navigating."

"Yes, well you need to know that this world is small. We're sitting on the Antarctic Circle, which is also the Southern Tropic Circle. It gets very cold and very hot here and farther south."

"Are you joking? Arctic and tropic circles are one and the same?"

"It's odd, but no joke," Lars answered.

"That would explain why it's always so warm at home. If we're sitting between the tropics, it makes sense. Just how small is Neuerde," Gerd asked, smiling at Nathan.

"About the size of Earth's moon," Lars answered.

"But if I remember my history correctly, Luna's gravity was only about 1/6 g. It's about 3/4 g here."

"Yes, well I'm told," he paused, glowering at Nathan, "Neuerde is much denser than either Earth or Luna. The point I was trying to make is that you're going to need blankets and winter clothing if you're going to explore out of the tropics, and we're the edge of the tropics.

"We've had to produce winter clothing and blankets here. We've also developed a clean burning fuel and a number of plastics." At this point he took off his spectacles and handed them to Gerd. "I'm guessing yours are glass and metal, which suggests that you've gotten good with those materials."

"Not as good as we'd like," Gerd interrupted. "We don't have glasses for all our people yet like you do - just key persons."

"It sounds like we have a good potential trade arrangement," Lars smiled.

The discussion of eyeglasses reminded Nathan of something that had happened soon after he had gotten his own. He had been wandering in the foothills between their settlement and the mountains. He had been alone, which of course wasn't allowed. He was enjoying the novelty of seeing clearly in the distance once again, when he had seen a human-like form. When it looked his way, it had swiftly disappeared. Not run off, or hidden, just wasn't there anymore. But it had left footprints. It had looked like a human footprint, but without separate distinct toes. There was no doubt there had been someone there.

"Have you met anyone besides humans yet?" Nathan asked.

Gerd looked puzzled by the question. "You mean animals?"

Nathan suddenly felt foolish, but he knew what he'd seen. "No. Something intelligent. I saw something walk like a man. It disappeared when it saw me, but it left footprints."

"Walking upright and disappearing when seen doesn't mean it's intelligent," Lars pointed out. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Would you have believed me?" Nathan asked.

Lars thought a second. "You talk too much, and you tend to jump to conclusions, but I've never known you to lie. Something that significant we would've probably checked out."

"I went back to make a cast of the footprints, but they had been wiped away," Nathan said. "I was going to wait till I had the cast before I told anyone."

"Erasing its tracks would imply intelligence," Gerd said to Lars. "Unless someone from your village wiped them out?"

"I don't think anyone followed me up there," Nathan said. "And why would anyone want to cover up strange tracks anyway? I would think they would want everyone to know about them."

"He's a pretty clear thinker, Lars. I know you said he's older than he looks, but how old is he?"

"Thirteen?" Lars answered, looking to Nathan for confirmation.

"Really?" Gerd asked surprised. "In this warm climate, most of our kids grow a lot faster than that. Sorry Nathan, no offense intended."

"Ours do too," said Nathan "Just not me. But I'm getting used to it," He grinned wryly. "I have a virus living in my white blood cells that secretes a toxin into my blood. We know it supresses adrenaline, and I guess it supresses growth hormones, too."

Gerd looked at Lars. "When did this happen?"

"He came here with it," Dan answered. It cured his cancer, but without the lab, we have no way to get it out of his system."

"I'm only contagious with close physical contact," Nathan offered.

"That's reassuring," Gerd said. He turned to Dan "Will he…" he stopped himself, realizing this was not the time to ask.

"Survive?" Nathan asked. "We're not sure, but Vatti thinks so."

"I'm sorry I brought it up," Gerd apologized.

"Do you know if you are going to be alive next year?" Nathan asked Gerd.

"Well no," Gerd replied.

"Me neither. After the first few weeks of the virus, I've been in almost perfect health. I didn't get any of the colds and diarrhea everyone else had after we got here. So it's not all bad.

"So you guys want to discuss trade then," Nathan said, changing the subject.

"I'm still interested these man-like creatures," Gerd said.

"You know what we know. This is the first we've heard of it. Nathan, do you have more information?" Lars asked.

Despite his outspokenness, Nathan had hated being in the spotlight. He'd felt foolish, which he knew he wasn't, and even felt regret for bringing it up, though he knew it was important. He almost clammed up at this point, but had one more point to make. He had read about the American Indians, and he realized that if they weren't careful, that history could repeat itself here.

"Do you know what happened to the Amerikanische Indianer?" Nathan asked the group at large.

Most looked at him blankly, but Lars ventured "Indianer? Painted faces, leather clothing, feathers?"

At Nathan's nod, Lars asked "What about them?"

"Do you remembered what happened to them?" Nathan pressed.

"They were absorbed into general population, weren't they?"

"If I recall correctly," Gerd interjected "They were destroyed, except for a small remnant. Killed outright, or herded into worthless land that could not sustain them. Am I right?" he asked Nathan.

"They were sometimes not even allowed to practice their culture, or speak their own language."

Lars seemed annoyed. "Nathan, we would never do that. How would we profit from it? We have more important concerns of our own than to oppress some unknown people."

Again, Nathan felt foolish for having spoken. He hated all this attention. "That's all I have to say," he said.

"If you do see any nonhumans, tell someone immediately. Don't just sit on the information. It could affect the colony's safety."

Several eyebrows were raised at the word colony. It was the first time anyone had officially addressed their settlement as a colony.

Nathan listened to the rest of the meeting with a vague sense of unease. He wrote it off to his earlier embarassment.