The teacher lined up the students and collected their permissions slips, confirming that a guardian had signed in the affirmative. One student was pulled from the line and sent to a lounge where they would watch the field trip online. Jana twisted to see that her best friend was still behind her, and they smiled at each other and signed their excitement with their appendages.
“Okay children,” their teacher said, “please follow the attendant single file into the transport ship, and strap yourselves in just as we practiced during last week's preparations.”
Each child moved in through the hatch and found a station. Jana and Jala squeezed out a boy so that they could be together, and he scowled at them because he had to go farther into the ship to find an empty spot. The friends shifted into the suits that hung from the ceiling, pushed their appendages into the gloves and then closed the suits up.
Jala turned to her best friend. “Check my straps?” She felt Jana tugging at the belts that crisscrossed her chest.
“All secure! And mine?”
Jala did as Jana requested and signaled all was good. They both squealed with delight as they put on their breathing helmets, and helped each other again with the tight clasp that secured their helmets to their suits.
The flight was quick and uneventful, and the children oohed and awed as they passed into the atmosphere of the planet below, which became very large very quickly and was very unlike their own planet.
“Is that an oh ... oh shan?”
“There’s mountains! And is that snow?”
“And those are trees! They're so green!”
All the children leaned forward to stare at the things they pointed to and had just recently learned about. Things that were quite rare on the planet they called home.
The ship landed with a soft thump, and the teacher’s instructions echoed inside each child’s helmet. “Wait for your station light to turn green and the restraints to automatically open. If the light stays red an attendant will check your suit and help release the straps. When you disembark, follow the lighted path and do not stray from it.”
Jana and Jala smiled at each other when their lights turned green, grabbed each other’s appendages as they readied themselves, and eagerly followed the lights to the crowd of students at the hatch.
“One at a time, children!” The attendant said, pulling Jana and Jala apart so that they would pass through the hatch without incident. “Follow the lighted path. Do not stray!”
The children moved where they were told, eventually gathering upon a lighted platform where the Anthropologist was waiting. When all had settled down, she began the lesson.
“Terra firma Three, or Tf3, is the third planet from a sun that is at the center of this particular solar system. It was once populated by a people who lived in separate boxes, very unlike the communal structures of our planet, Jm42b. The boxes were made of the raw forms available to them. The trees, the rocks, the soil, as well as some manufactured materials.”
As she spoke, the lighted platform rose and floated towards several boxes.
“The boxes made from the organic raw forms have long since decomposed, however a few boxes made with manufactured materials have survived the passing millenia. Children, when we arrive move carefully from the platform and follow me. Always stay on the lighted path. And remember, you are safe. There is no cause for alarm by what you are about to discover.”
The platform landed, and the Anthropologist shifted onto a path that led to the nearest box. She waited for the teacher to join the group, who had to nudge the last stragglers away from the odd flora growing alongside the path.
“Here we have a main box that is called a house, and within the house are more boxes called rooms. We believe that, on average, two or three people lived within each house.” The Anthropologist led the group through an enormous doorway and into a room so large that everyone gasped.
“We think this room was used as a central gathering place for the occupants of the house. You will note that it has no remnants of any furnitures, which we believe were made of raw organics that have decayed. Other rooms in this house are similar to this one, with the exception of two rooms that we shall next see.”
Jala tipped her head to Jana, “such a waste of space for so few people,” she whispered as they followed the Anthropologist to another room.
“Here is what we think was the kitchen. Our analysis of various genetic remnants indicates this is where food was stored, prepared, and possibly consumed. As you can see, given the height of the counters, the people of this planet were quite tall.”
The Anthropologist reached up and was barely able to touch her appendage to the edge of the counter. “We believe that their bodies were also configured in such a manner that regardless of their height, they could bend down to reach for things they may have stored below the counter.”
Jana tipped her head to Jala, “So tall! No wonder they needed such large rooms.”
Jala shrugged her shoulders, not yet agreeing that all the space of this box of boxes was necessary even for a giant.
"There is an item on this counter that cannot be seen from our current vantage point, but I shall explain more about that in the next room."
The students followed the Anthropologist into a smaller box than the previous, but was still far larger than any of the rooms either of the girls occupied in their own home. One of the girls leaned too far out towards a large white object that was most astonishing, and would have lost her balance had the Anthropologist not pulled her back.
“For your safety, please do not attempt to touch anything. Even though this particular device remains in tact and does not suffer any decay since its creation, we have spent many long hours removing most of the rotted material and strengthening the foundations upon which it sits.”
“What is it?”
The Anthropologist tilted down towards Jana. “In the language of the people of Tf3 it is called porcelain, and is a manufactured material that was used to create the basin up there, and that much larger container over there.” She pointed to a large white block that hung high up on the opposite wall, and then to a block that stood several feet away and was so huge as to take up the entire width of the room.
“Oh my gosh,” Jala whispered to Jana, “that one is gigantic, we could almost all fit inside!”
The Anthropologist pointed to the device hanging on the wall, "like this one here, there are two similar but slightly larger porcelain basins in the kitchen.”
“What did they use it for?” Jana looked expectantly at the Anthropologist.
“We believe these items were used to hold liquids. It is non-porous and, unfortunately, our testing thus far indicates we will not be able to replicate this material from any of the raw forms available on Jm42b. Therefore, special extraction teams are working carefully to take as many of these devices and transport them back to research facilities on our home planet.”
“Oh, that would require such a very large space ship!”
The Anthropologist nodded to the boy who spoke. "Indeed," she said. She checked her watch and air supply. “As exciting as this room is, we have more to see before you must return to the transport ship. Let's move on to the next room, please.”
“But,” Jana persisted, even though Jala tugged on her appendage, "they must have had multiple appendages to be able to use this other device.” Keeping her own appendage within the lighted path, she pointed to a contraption that the Anthropologist had not yet discussed. "This one has a configuration unlike the others. It has two lids on the shorter yet wider basin, and is connected to yet another longer basin above which has its own lid.”
“You are very observant,” the Anthropologist said. “Yes, this configuration suggests a physiology quite unique from our own. I would be pleased if you would further your anthropology studies at school so that you can intern with us, and help answer these and many other questions. Now, let's move along.”
Jana beamed at the Anthropologist's praise, and followed her out of the room to tour the rest of the house, which she thought was quite boring compared to the room where her curiosity remained. She began composing a letter to her mother asking to approve her enrollment in all anthropology courses available throughout her study seasons.
When the tour ended, Jala grabbed Jana and they rushed together with the other students back to the lighted platform. Neither of the girls overheard the Anthropologist softly note Jana's inquisitiveness to the teacher, and that perhaps the teacher would enroll Jana in DNA studies as well. A smart young anthropologist with such a combined knowledge base would prove quite useful for the continuation of research on this planet, and elsewhere.
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