Journey Beyond the Sea
by Geron Kees
Chapter 8
Jem paced nervously back and forth in the ship's meeting room, while Nico sat in a chair at the table and watched him. The master had called them shortly after waking, and asked them to appear for a ship's conference after breakfast. The boys had hurriedly showered and dressed, and eaten their meals, and then been the first to arrive at the meeting room. And now all Jem could do was pace, and wonder what sort of strange fate had left him in the position of being the one person that an alien blob of unknown demeanor wished to speak with.
"What do you think they'll do, Jem?" His friend looked concerned, but more for Jem's agitated state than for his possible fate.
"I don't know." Jem stopped his pacing and came to sit in the chair next to Nico. "This has all happened so fast. I'm sure the master will have to act for the best of the ship and the colony." He sighed. "I have a feeling they'll want me to work with Nita while she tries to figure out the blob." He smiled then, but it was all he could do to make it look happy. "I guess they'll put you on the port shotsman's station by yourself while I'm busy."
Nico frowned, and reached for one of Jem's hands, and pulled it to him. "I don't want to get the position this way."
Jem took in the forlorn expression on his friend's face, and his next smile was warmer. He leaned forward and gently kissed Nico, and then pulled back with a small sigh. "I think it will all work out. We'll both do what we have to do, right?"
Nico nodded. "Right." But he still looked less than happy.
They heard footfalls in the corridor then, and turned as Master Terpin came in with Mister Sharples. The two men greeted them, and then took seats at the table. There were more sounds from the corridor, and others began filing into the meeting room, talking quietly among themselves. Kel grinned at them, and Nita smiled and waved as she took her seat
Presently, everyone but Til Majors was seated at the table. That man again watched from the large display on the wall of the room, smiling at Jem every time their eyes met, but not doing anything more but nodding encouragingly. Jem took that as a positive sign, took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and tried to relax in his chair. Nico still held his hand underneath the table, and would squeeze it comfortingly every now and then, in a very relaxing fashion.
Things could actually be much worse, Jem decided, giving a small, silent sigh.
"Now that we're all arrived, let us begin," Master Terpin said, his own eyes smiling as he waited a moment for the conversations to die down. His gaze turned to Jem then, and Jem was startled to detect the distinct presence of fondness in the man's eyes. "Mister Hanlon, you seem to have become central to current events in a fashion I would have never dreamed of at our first meeting in the Orxhead. I am not one that believes in predestination, but I am a man that gets a smile out of the way the universe seems to taunt us at times. That you happen to be here, now, and that you have played a needed role in events aboard this ship, has been worth more than one of those smiles."
Nico turned to grin at him, and squeezed Jem's hand under the table. Jem felt his face warm, and swallowed hard. "Yes, sir."
The master gave a short laugh. "No 'yes sir' about it, Jem-lad. It was a fair day you happened upon me in the Orxhead." His eyes moved to Nico, and then to Nita Frees, and then circled the table slowly, and then smiled up at Til Majors on the display. "In fact, every person aboard Vespris has played a necessary part in the unfolding of what at first seemed a simple mystery - the disappearance of Chregar - under what, at best, could be termed suspicious circumstances. That mystery has yielded several others, all, it is apparent now, born of the same mysterious source: our alien friends, the presence of which there can no longer be any doubt."
"That's putting it mildly," Mister Sharples said, patting the tabletop.
The master nodded at that. "Just so. Vespris may have a pivotal role to play in what is to come. I have been in touch with the harbormaster at Nocksic Bay, who himself has been in contact with the colonial administration in Hennessy. I have given them a detailed report on events leading up to the present, which they have digested with their usual economy of comment. The net result of this mostly one-way conversation is that they are sending someone out to look over our situation. A man named Mikulsa."
For a moment the table was silent. Mister Sharples was the first to speak. "I take it he's not swimming out to meet us?"
There were a few smiles, and the master gave a faint shake of his head. "No. Apparently the situation with the flyers has not been quite so desperate as we have thought. The two cargo-carriers that had been detached from duty to look for Chregar have been returned to their routes. But another craft has been made ready. The labs at Hennessy have been working for more than a century to develop the needed facilities to manufacture grav manipulators so that some of the old aircraft of that type still in storage could be made operable again. The helicopter program is exclusively to provide extra cargo-carrying capability between towns at a minimum of expense and effort. But apparently, all this drama with our new alien arrivals has occurred at a point where the first new grav unit is coming into operation. It has been fitted to an old Raptor, which will be bringing our official visitor to us once it has completed its testing."
Jem frowned at the description of the vehicle. "What's a 'raptor'? Isn't that a large flying predator from Earth's history?"
"The term originates with Terrestrial birds of prey, but has been used loosely for naming other creatures, as well," Nita offered.
Mister Sharples looked interested. "In this case, a Raptor is one of the old exploratory vehicles, originally used to map the equatorial continents. It's a small craft, carries up to four passengers and cargo, has a top speed of eighteen hundred kilometers per hour, and is armed with a pair of very potent particle beam projectors." He frowned. "Neutral beam, incorporating mercury nuclei, as I remember. Not to be trifled with."
Jem was just among the many whose jaw dropped at that announcement.
"Energy weapons?" Nico asked, in disbelief. "Do they still work?"
"I imagine they do," the engineer returned, nodding. "Some of the Old Earth tech the colony has in storage requires replacement parts we are not yet able to manufacture. Others would still work if the proper power could be applied. Particle beam emitters fall into that second category. They are amazing energy hogs. The fusion sources we have - both the original Earth-built units, and the ones we've manufactured ourselves - are wonderful heat sources for generating electrical power through other processes, like steam turbine-to-generator. But the generators we can fabricate that are small enough to be portable are simply not powerful enough to operate some of the Old Earth technology. The generators we can build that are powerful enough to do the job are of a size that are only portable when used on something like Vespris. Only grav technology produces the kind of portable power small enough to be used in a flyer."
"So we could have had these beam weapons all along?" Pora Unguda asked, frowning. "Our remaining operational flyers would have been able to power them, then?"
Mister Sharples nodded. "Yes. But...we've had no need of such weapons. They're amazingly destructive, and better left in storage, where they belong, as far as I'm concerned."
"Agreed." Master Terpin nodded. "The Compact restricts their use except in the colonization phase of populating a new planet."
Deera leaned on the tabletop, her gaze insistent. "Then why do we still have them?"
"They're tools," Mister Sharples responded. "Everything that came from Old Earth that we no longer need or no longer can use has been stored, waiting for the time that we do need them again, or can use them again. I'm sure this is the reason they've dug out this old Raptor."
"Because it's armed," Jem suggested.
"That would be one reason they selected this model, I would guess. It's also faster than the cargo-carrying models, smaller, very agile, and less of a target."
"You seem to know a lot about this Raptor, Mister Sharples," Moira said.
The engineer grunted. "It's a machine, and I do know about machines. This was - is - a very capable machine, of its type. But it's always been of historical interest, until now."
"I hope they know what they're doing," Moira continued, sounding less than pleased. "You don't want to fire a weapon like that at someone who may be able to fire the same thing back at you."
"We don't want a shooting war," Kel protested, shaking his head. "The Compact prohibits that."
"The Compact allows us to defend ourselves," Master Terpin inserted. "May I remind everyone that these aliens have taken the first offensive steps? The colonial administration is viewing this as a deliberate attack. They are not going to allow such actions against us to continue unchallenged."
"I would think they would want to talk with these aliens, if they could," Moira persisted. "No one has tried that yet."
"I'm sure they will," the master returned. "Perhaps it's one reason they are sending people out to join us."
"Who is this man coming out to us?" Mya asked. "This Mister Mikulsa?"
"I know who he is," Kel volunteered. "Varin Mikulsa. He's in charge of the defensive walls and personnel protecting all the southern settlements from the inland predators."
Master Terpin's eyebrows slowly raised. "Ah. I knew I'd heard the name, but I didn't make the connection." He nodded. "As close as we have to a warrior-type left among us. He's quite abrupt in his mannerisms, I have heard."
"He's rude," Kel corrected. He grinned then. "My mother calls him strong-willed. Our Mister Mikulsa has a way of getting things done, but he often trods upon a few feet while doing that."
Master Terpin cocked his head to one side. "It sounds as if you know him."
"Oh, I do. He's my mother's uncle."
The master actually smiled. "This just keeps getting better." But the smile vanished just as quickly. "I hope Mister Mikulsa understands that on Vespris, I am the ranking officer. I have not needed to be rude to anyone in quite some time. But I remember how to do it quite well."
That produced some smiles, and Jem could feel the tension in the room subside a notch.
The master turned back to Jem. "So, it is likely to be four or five days before the Raptor can be ready to travel here, I was told. For that period, we are to continue to make our way west, which will actually reduce the distance between us and Hennessy. And for that time we will continue to hunt. Which brings us to the matter of what to do about you, Jem."
Jem nodded. "What would you like me to do, sir?"
"I would like you to assist Miss Frees in her studies of our guest. But I would much prefer a volunteer to a conscript."
Jem smiled. "I kind of knew this might come, sir. I am ready to help Nita in any way I can."
The master's eyes moved to inspect Nico. "You, as well, Mister Cyrus, if you will."
Nico looked surprised, and his eyes flicked to Jem before returning to the older man. "Um...I will be happy to assist Nita, sir. I just thought...someone will need to cover the port hunt station."
"You and Jem will both continue to do that. But there is no need for you two to remain at that post throughout the day. Just as at night, should we encounter orx, you will be summoned to your station."
Nita cleared her throat. "Are both of them needed for the hunt? Perhaps Jem could stay with Deera and me, and only Nico respond to any contacts we may get?"
Master Terpin gave out a soft sigh. "There is a synergy occurring with these two, Miss Frees. Something that makes them, together, greater than the sum of their parts. I have seen it in action, and I have decided it is a part of whatever is going on just now. As I said before, I do respect the occasional taunts the universe throws my way. This would seem to be one of them."
Jem looked at Nico, and both of them grinned.
Nita laughed, and nodded. "I think I see what you mean. I'll be happy to take what help I can get, sir."
The master nodded. "There is one more thing. A second visitor, arriving with Mister Mikulsa. A Miss Ana Barasesh. You know of her?"
Nita sucked in her breath, and for a moment her eyes narrowed. "Yes. She's the senior biologist at the Department of Exobiology. Or, one of them, I should say. Quite a long list of accomplishments, she has."
"You don't look too pleased about it," Master Terpin suggested.
"No. She seems to prefer politics to science, these days. She has been instrumental in obstructing many key marine studies, as her own interests lie in the area of land-based life. There is an unevenness to the funding process of many important studies, due largely to her efforts as a lobbyist. Not one of my favorite people, definitely."
Master Terpin's eyes crinkled. "If I promise to try to be civil to Mister Mikulsa, will you promise to try to be civil to Miss Barasesh?"
Nita laughed. "I'll be on my best behavior."
"Then so will I." The master nodded. "Until I cannot be, that is."
He stood then, and turned to look at the wall display. "You've been unusually silent, Mister Majors. How are you feeling today?"
"Oh, I'm okay, sir. A little sore, a little bored. Moira said I can get up and move about a little next week. I'm trying to decide how to do that."
The master looked over at Moira, who shrugged. "Beats me what he means. He's not the easiest patient I've ever had."
"I heard that." But Til smiled. "Laying in bed is a great thing - for a single night. After a whole day, it becomes tedious, and after two days, it becomes tiresome. After the third day, it becomes troublesome. I have too much time to think, and one of the things I've been thinking about is how I want to get up when I am free to move about again."
Mister Sharples laughed. "What's to consider? You swing your legs over the side of the bunk and stand up."
Til's eyes twinkled. "Ah, but it is not that simple at all. I have thought about it in great detail. I can either sit up and get out of the right side of the bunk, or sit up and get out of the left side. I have two options, you see?"
"Does it matter?" Mister Sharples asked, pointedly.
"Of course it does. I hurt in various areas on both sides of my body. I am trying to figure out the best way to stand without having to curse about it."
The master and his engineer looked at each other a moment, before the master turned his eyes to Jem and Nico. "Would the two of you go and visit with Mister Majors? After thirty minutes, despite his protests, please report to the catch room to assist Miss Frees and Miss Stanper." He let his eyes go back to the display. "Best I can do just now, Til."
"Thank you, sir. I'll be easy on them."
"No doubt." The master winked at Jem, and then nodded at the table. "I'll keep you all updated. Please return now to what you were doing. Frin? A word?"
The engineer grunted, but rose quickly to his feet, and the two older men moved off together.
Jem turned to Nico. "Sorry to get you roped in on this."
Nico gave a little sigh, and shook his head. "Jem, if I'm going to be with you, I'm going to be happy. Okay?"
Jem swallowed, feeling a bit of emotion trying to overcome him. "Yes. Shall we go see Mister Majors?"
"Yes. Let's."
* * * * * * *
"It's an incredible situation we're in, lads," Til told them, after they had taken seats by his bedside. "Aliens to one side of us, bureaucrats to the other. Which will do us in first?"
Jem and Nico both laughed at that. "They can't be that bad, Til."
The man smiled. "You mean the aliens, or the bureaucrats?"
"I mean Mister Mikulsa and Miss Barasesh," Jem clarified. He rolled his eyes. "They're people, after all."
Til sighed. "How sweet the voices of babes, within the virgin wood." He shook his head. "Nocksic Bay is one of two towns that are in the safest place on the planet. The Northeastern corner of New Australia lies behind the Barrier Range, the most effective wall there has ever been. The other eight colony towns have to have their own walls, made of ironwood, manned and maintained by people, in order to keep those towns safe. Life is a little bit less laid back there than we are used to up north. More tensions, more insecurities, more demands on the populace. More friction."
"It can't be that different," Nico pointed out. "People are people, everywhere."
"Mostly," Til agreed. "But the way they live differs depending on their circumstances. Despite the fact that we live in enlightened times for the human race, there is a basic nature among some of us that has not changed since the days of old. Humans that are comfortable holding positions of responsibility over others are sometimes...shall we say, not good listeners? Some have a way of doing what they want, even in the face of facts that show they should be doing something more reasonable, entirely."
"Master Terpin is in such a position, and he is an excellent listener," Jem pointed out.
"Jem, you always seem to find the exception to every rule I hang out there," Til returned. But the man smiled at him, and nodded. "Not all people in authority are wrong for the part. Master Terpin - and a great many others - understand that a position of authority is also a position of leadership. Making decisions that affect others is one thing, when you have the welfare of those others front and center in mind. But there are some people that pursue positions of authority because it fills some need within themselves - a need for power, or a need to heighten their status, or even to make money. The Colonial Authority back on Old Earth had a lot of tests in place to weed out this sort of person - but no test is one hundred percent effective. People like that get through, and once the personality type is here, the genes seems to carry the ball after that." He patted the bed covers in front of Jem. "We have some of those kind in the Colonial Administration. I just want you lads to be aware of that."
Nico shook his head. "People in power cannot just do whatever they want. There are laws."
"And Kel said the man, Mister Mikulsa, is his great uncle." Jem added.
"Yes, he did. And he also said he was rude. I've heard of Mikulsa, myself, and he's the kind of guy that gets what he wants, and isn't always nice about getting it."
Jem stared at the man. Til was always a fountain of interesting information, but what he was saying just now didn't quite make sense. "There's the Compact. Everyone abides by that."
"Yes. They do. But...Jem, everything in the world is subject to interpretation. Even the Compact."
Nico looked unconvinced. "Are you speaking from experience?"
"Not personal experience, no. But human experience - yes. Ever hear of the teddy bears?"
Jem and Nico looked at each other. "Teddy bears?" Nico repeated, frowning. "I don't know the term."
"From an Old Earth toy for children," Til explained. "A stuffed representation of a real Earth animal. But I'm speaking in reference to living things in this case. Ever hear of them?"
Jem shook his head. "I don't think so."
Til nodded. "From a world called Sadler's Pleasure, number five to be settled by humans."
"I've heard of that," Jem said. "Supposed to be a very nice planet."
"It is," Til agreed. "One of the nicest planets that humans have settled thus far. Heavily wooded, more than half ocean, lots of fresh water, compatible nutritional components, range of temperatures compatible with human comfort."
"What's it got to do with us?"
"It's in the histories, but you have to dig fairly deep for it. It's not something they teach, even today. They're not proud of it, I'm sure." Til sighed, made himself comfortable in the bed, and closed his eyes. "The scouts found Sadler's Pleasure, and the extensive appraisal of that world that followed listed a huge variety of species inhabiting the place, great mineral wealth, and no intelligent life. The world was opened for colonization, and people moved in by the thousands, and then the millions."
Jem nodded. "If the Righoff lines between Earth and Benteen hadn't shifted, we'd probably have millions of people here by now."
"Right," Til opened one eye and smiled at him. "But we don't. Good thing, too. I hate clutter."
The boys smiled. "You were saying?" Nico prodded.
"Um...yeah. Even with millions of people living there, a whole planet is a lot of room for them to get lost in. Sadler's Pleasure remained largely unexplored, at least on the ground, for centuries after it was colonized. Taming a world is a very slow process, as we have learned ourselves on Benteen."
Til opened both eyes, and looked over at them. "Two and a half centuries after Sadler's Pleasure was colonized, a prospecting team for one of the planet's metals companies stumbled across a group of creatures living in an as yet unexplored region deep in the heart of one of the unsettled continents. At first they were enthralled by the creatures, which were bipedal, bilaterally symmetric beings, just like humans. Two eyes, two ears, two legs, two hands - albeit hands with just three fingers and an opposable thumb - but hands they were, and, the creatures knew how to use them. Their bodies were covered in fur, hence the name they were given, as the tallest of them was scarcely a meter in height. Teddy bears."
Jem shook his head. "I've never heard of them."
Til nodded. "I know. Like I told you before, I'm a bit of a history reader. But they exist."
"What's the point?" Nico asked, sounding a little impatient now.
Til laughed. "Well, this exploration team found these creatures living in the forest. At first, the teddy bears were wary of them, but after a period of time they came closer, and soon seemed as enthralled with the humans as the humans were with them. It was then that the explorers noted that some of the teddy bears carried spears, and some wore pouches slung from their necks by leather bands. The teddy bears seemed to want the explorers to follow them, and when they did, they were led back to a village among the trees, complete with houses, and pens with smaller creatures inside, obviously food animals, and --"
"But that's --" Jem interrupted in shock, but then couldn't finish the thought. No!
Til nodded. "Yes. They were A-Prime lifeforms. Sentient and Sapient. Sadler's Pleasure had a native species, primitive, but certainly intelligent."
Nico gasped. "But the Compact prohibits us from taking worlds that belong to intelligent life!"
"Yes, it does. And if these teddy bears had been discovered in the initial survey of Sadler's Pleasure, there is no doubt in my mind that that world would have been passed over in the colonial expansion program." Til shook his head. "But by the time they were discovered, millions of humans had migrated to that world. Trillions of credits had been spent, and more than two centuries invested in making the place a new home for humanity. The magnitude of the project, the incredible expense, of relocating all those people to another world, abandoning the cities, even removing them - the people that ran Sadler's Pleasure could not even imagine it."
"What'd they do?" Nico asked.
Til shrugged. "They kept the discovery from their own people. They got together with their own ilk back on Earth, and they commissioned a study of the teddy bears. That study decided that the teddy bears might someday be intelligent, but they were not intelligent yet."
"But they were tool users," Jem pointed out, grimly. "They made things."
"Chimpanzees back on Earth use primitive tools," Til pointed out. "No one is calling them an A-Prime species yet."
"I'll bet they don't build homes," Nico countered. "Or domesticate animals. They don't know how to work leather, do they?"
"No. Believe me, lads, I know how you feel. But all these bureaucrats got together and said that the teddy bears were not an intelligent species, but that, yes, they did need to be protected. They cordoned off the entire continent, built a sensor net around it, posted it as 'dangerous', and made it a preserve, illegal for humans to enter. And then they just went on about their business on their own continent as if nothing had happened."
Jem and Nico were silent. Neither boy could believe that humans had done such a thing to another intelligent species.
Til watched them, and smiled in sympathy. "I know how you feel. I only told you this to show you that even the Compact can be subject to interpretation by those in power. There are no rules that are set in stone, lads. Not even with the Compact."
"It was criminal, what they did," Nico grated. "I can see why they don't want it in the histories."
"It was unethical," Jem added, shaking his head. "It was pure theft, and it was wrong."
"It was a matter of practicality, and expense," Till corrected. "Lads, humans beings have never been nice creatures. You don't get to be the top dog on your world by being nice to all the other animals. Most humans are decent, and most humans would be just as outraged as you are now if they knew these facts. But had the population of Sadler's Pleasure been told what had been discovered there, it is doubtful they would have voted to give up the world they had remade, and start all over somewhere else. Not even the most decent of them. Even with the Compact, we are still what we are: the apex predators of Planet Earth."
Jem squinted at the man. "There was a reason you told us this?"
"Uh huh. I just wanted you to understand what we may be facing when these two government people arrive. They will be looking at this situation from the viewpoint of safeguarding the human population of Benteen. Legally, the Compact does give them a perfect right to defend the colony. As in shooting, if shot at. I just want you to be prepared for the possibility that things may not go the way you think they will - or should."
Jem licked his lips, and nodded. "Thanks."
Til shook his head. "I didn't do you a favor, Jem. Ignorance truly is bliss. But...an education, no matter how harsh it may be, beats out ignorance every time in the survival game."
Nico looked over at Jem. "I wondered what Master Terpin meant when he said he could be rude, too. I think I get it now."
Jem nodded. The master obviously was not ignorant of the way the world really worked. He sighed. He'd wanted to learn more about the world on this voyage, and he was definitely doing that.
Til rubbed at his eyes. "I really appreciate you two coming by to see me. It really breaks the monotony."
"Do you really just lay there and consider how you're going to get up out of the bed?" Nico asked, seeming happy to change the subject.
The shotsman laughed. "Oh, no. Not much, anyway. I watch a lot of stuff on the display view over there." He grinned. "History, mostly. There's an awful lot of it, these days."
"I think I may take more of an interest in it myself," Jem returned. "There's obviously a lot I don't know."
"I'll send some links to your cabin. Some of the channels that dig a little deeper than most. You'll enjoy it...well, most of it." Til rubbed at his eyes again. "I think I need a nap, lads. Come back any time you're free, will you? The worst that can happen is that I'll be asleep."
Jem and Nico stood to go. "I'll bet Nita is pacing the floor, waiting on us," Nico said.
Jem smiled at that. "I like her. I think it will be fun working with her."
"She's okay," Til agreed. "I think she can be counted on to do the right thing. But I guess we'll see."
The boys left, after promising to return again when time permitted. That the shotsman was having a difficult time being bedridden was clear. Anything they could do to ease the man's stay in the dispensary, Jem would gladly offer.
He pulled out his pad, called Nita, and told her they were on their way.
* * * * * * *
They opened the door to the catch room, and immediately heard the alien blob. "Bzup!"
"Bzup to you, too," they heard Nita say. "I just wish I knew what you meant by that."
"Bzup," the alien explained.
"Yeah, yeah. You said that. Fifty times, just since I got here."
"Bzup," the alien agreed.
"At least he's consistent," they heard Deera say.
Jem smiled at Nico, and the two boys closed the door and headed towards the desk. Deera sat in the chair in front of it, while Nita was parked on one corner of the top.
"Hi," Jem said, as they came up.
"Jem!" the alien immediately called.
Nita came up like a shot off the desk. "He recognized you, Jem!"
"Jem," the blob said again.
"Hi, blob," Jem said, waving. He smiled at Nita. "You've determined this thing is male?"
Deera sighed. "No. We're just calling it a him, because it's as stubborn as any man that either of us has ever met."
Nita laughed, and smiled at the older woman. "Now, temper." She turned the smile back at Jem. "It appears to be asexual. So 'he' is just as good as anything."
Nico scratched his cheek, and then smiled at Jem. "I'm not sure, but I think we've just been insulted."
"I'm sure," Jem returned, grinning at Nita.
"Imsure," the blob agreed.
Jem laughed. "See? Us guys stick together."
Jem looked at the blob, but it did not repeat what he had just said. "I think you missed your cue."
"Bzup. Jem. Bzup."
Jem felt a shock, and leaned closer. "Was that a comparison? I'm called 'Jem', and he's telling us he's called 'Bzup'?"
Nita sighed. "Who knows? There doesn't seem to be a pattern that I can see."
Jem moved closer to the front of the tank and waved his hand. The dark spot of the alien's sound mechanism turned with his motion. Jem slowly brought his hand to his own chest.
"Jem," the blob said.
"Jem," Jem agreed. He licked his lips, and then slowly moved his hand forward and placed it on the front of the tank before the alien. "Bzup," the creature said.
"Bzup," Jem repeated.
Instantly, there was a blast of sound from the alien, that quickly climbed the scale and then cut off.
Nita came forward to stand next to Jem. "That seemed like a positive response," she said quietly. "If I didn't know better, I'd say he just got excited at what you did."
"Do you know better?" Nico asked quietly.
Nita frowned, thought about it, and shook her head. "No."
Jem stared at the alien within the tank. "Well, he's been out of the water, mostly, for a full day now. It doesn't seem to bother him."
"No, it doesn't," Nita agreed."I still have no idea how this creature sustains itself. If it's using the water in some way, there is no evidence of it."
"Are you sure it needs to eat at all?" Nico asked.
Nita turned to look at him. "Granted, it is possibly an artificial life form. But it is made of the same basic elements as we are, it's cell structures are similar to ours, it has an oxygen-exchange system of respiration to nourish those cells, and a circulatory system to supply them. It's alive." She frowned. "On all the worlds that humans have visited, everything we've found that lives needs to nourish itself in some fashion."
"Maybe it just doesn't eat often?" Jem wondered. "Just because we eat several times a day doesn't mean Bzup needs to do that."
"Bzup," the blob agreed.
Nita frowned. "There are many instances of life that feeds irregularly, or at considerable intervals. Most are not creatures of this sort of bulk or complexity. But at this point I have to consider that you may be right, and our friend here may just not be hungry yet."
"What would it eat, if it did eat?" Nico asked.
Nita shrugged. "It would actually be more at home eating the local food than we are. There are a few chemical mismatches, but they are not the critical ones that bothered humans in making the switch to native food. But I think this particular creature, based on what I've seen of its biology, could even survive on food from Old Earth. It's an extremely adaptive and robust biology. This creature could eat things that would kill us."
Jem stared at the blob in fascination. "Amazing."
"It is that," the biologist agreed.
"Amazing," Bzup concurred.
Jem and Nico both laughed.
"It really does mimic our words well," Nico said. "Just a little bit of a buzz to them, but perfectly understandable."
Jem stared at the creature, and couldn't help smiling. If this was an alien attacker, these people had better find something better to do than make war. The blob - he was starting to think of the creature as Bzup now - seemed far from aggressive. The utter strangeness of the alien had worn off somewhat now, and Jem found he was feeling almost fond of the ugly thing. It was fascinating, it seemed eager to be friendly, and it had displayed nothing but patience in dealing with its human captors thus far.
And...it seemed to have formed a special attachment to Jem.
"It does speak pretty clearly," Jem agreed.
Nita shrugged, looking contemplatively at the blob. "These creatures use sound in much more complex ways than we do. It's ability to mimic our fairly simple language sounds is not unexpected. I just wish I knew if it understands that it is a language."
"He knows my name, don't you, Bzup?" Jem said.
"Bzup," the blob repeated.
Jem grinned, an idea suddenly taking hold. He moved closer to the tank again, and laid his hand against his chest. "Jem."
"Jem," the creature agreed.
Jem laid his hand on the tank. "Bzup."
"Bzup."
Jem turned and waved a hand at Nico. "Come here, will you?"
Nico came to stand beside Jem, and Jem slowly extended a hand and laid it on Nico's shoulder. "Nico."
There was the faintest of twisting motions in the lower portion of the alien, and the sound disc in the front briefly contemplated the second boy. "Nico."
Excited now, Jem pointed at the biologist. "Nita."
Again, the body of the alien gave a small twist, and the sound disc appraised the biologist. "Nita."
Deera got up from the desk and came to stand by Nico. "You might as well try all of us."
Jem nodded, and reached over and patted Deera's arm. "Deera."
"Deera."
Jem nodded. "Okay, let's see if he actually learned that. Everyone line up."
Jem stepped back, and Nico, Nita, and Deera formed a line. Jem took a deep breath, excitement washing through his middle, and laid his hand on the front of the tank between himself and the alien.
"Bzup," the creature said.
Jem moved the hand to his own chest.
The alien's sound disc followed the move. "Jem."
Slowly, Jem extended his hand, and laid it on the catch supervisor's shoulder.
"Deera," the blob said.
Nita gasped, and Jem grinned, and moved his hand to the biologist's shoulder.
"Nita," the alien decided.
Jem nodded, and moved his hand to his friend.
"Nico."
Nita stepped back out of the line, and turned and quickly paced back and forth. "The alien's sound disc is continually emitting at frequencies far beyond the range of our hearing. It must paint a picture for this creature that is amazingly detailed, for it to distinguish between us. That, and maybe some small difference in the way our bodies absorb those frequencies...overall, it must present us as unique to this being's senses. Otherwise, it couldn't tell us apart."
She turned back to stare at the creature within the tank. "But it seems it can tell us apart. It seems to understand that these are our names, or titles, because it's obvious we're all the same species. Or, it should be obvious. I just..." she turned to look at Jem. "This is just incredible."
"So it's smart, huh?" Nico asked. "I mean, it's intelligent?"
The girl looked at him. "Wait...let's not say that just yet. There are animals on Old Earth that could mimic human speech quite well, and differentiate between people. Parrots, some of the other primates, elephants, seals - even beluga whales, have been known to mimic human speech." She turned back to consider the alien inside the tank again, and then shook her head. "Let's not jump the gun here. I agree that our friend seems to have more going on than I originally suspected. But..." she gave out a frustrated sigh. "I'm no language expert. Making contact with an alien race needs an expert in such things."
"We're doing okay so far," Nico pointed out, grinning at Jem.
Nita shook her head. "Putting names to things is easy. We can bring all sorts of items in here and tell this creature what they're called, and it may learn them. It may not. We are visual beings - we operate by sight, by processing emitted and reflected light. This creature operates by sound, at a huge range of frequencies. But surely what it 'sees' by sound is not the same as we 'see' things by light. So for it to divine the uses of the things we show it would be incredibly difficult. To this creature, a chair has no meaning. It doesn't sit. The display over there will register to its sound-sight as a slightly curved, but otherwise flat surface. It will not be able to 'see' the images displayed on it at all." Nita gasped, and squeezed her eyes shut.
For the first time, the girl seemed to have a complete lack of confidence in her abilities. When she opened her eyes again, she simply looked scared. "Even if we can name things for him, how do we explain actions? Ideas? How do we link it together so that we actually communicate?"
"Is it that hard?" Nico asked. "I mean, even humans speak a lot of different languages. They learn to speak other languages."
"But human languages are related. There have been no orphan human tongues in well over a thousand years. And even orphan human languages share patterns with other human languages, because they are human languages. And human senses are all the same. We can demonstrate actions by sight, and attribute words to those actions. Linking words to objects and actions is not that hard among humans. And the sounds of other human languages are not impenetrable to decipher, because they're sounds made with human vocal cords and heard with human ears." Nita waved at the blob. "There's no way we can even pick apart the individual sounds this creature might make, because so many of them our beyond our range of hearing. Certainly, there is no way we can reproduce these sounds with our own vocal equipment."
"But he seems to be trying to learn our language," Jem pointed out.
"Yes. But that's a terrifying task, Jem. Languages are not just words that describe objects and actions. Languages reflect social and cultural patterns, and even refer to our physical bodies, which an alien species cannot relate to at all. There are differences in our brains, in our senses, in our experiences, and in our very life functions. I wouldn't even know where to begin with this creature."
Jem gave out a frustrated sigh. "There must be something we can do."
The biologist compressed her mouth, and turned to look at the alien. "I don't know what it is, then." She frowned, and turned back at Jem. "It seems to have focused on you, Jem. All I can suggest is that you continue to talk to it, and see what happens. It may be able to do things we simply cannot imagine. It's already surprised me more than once on the biological level. Maybe there are some more surprises in there."
Nico came up and bumped his shoulder against Jem's. "We'll keep trying, right?"
Jem gave a small push back. "I don't see that it can hurt anything." He smiled at Nita. "We'll just play around with Bzup, and see what happens."
"Bzup," the alien agreed.
Jem laughed. "See? He thinks it's a good idea, too."
Nita nodded, and offered a small smile. "Okay. Just do what you've been doing, is all I can suggest."
Jem nodded. Nita gave a last look at the alien, and turned to head back to the desk. Deera, who had been listening in silence, shrugged at Jem, and followed her.
"She's upset," Nico whispered, pushing against Jem again.
"I don't blame her," Jem answered, quietly. "I think she's used to being on top of things. Not knowing what to do about something can be unsettling."
Nico nodded, and stared at the alien in its tank. "Well, to start, let's stop calling this thing 'alien' and 'blob', and call it by its name. Bzup."
"Bzup", their new friend responded.
Jem grinned. "He seems to be responding to you, too, now."
His friend laughed. "He responds to his name, I think, no matter who says it. But his heart is just for you, Jem."
Jem made a face at that, but Nico only smiled.
* * * * * * *
"I don't think he gets it," Nico said, a few hours later. He was standing before a table - a large crate, actually, with a lid on hinges - that they had brought into the room before the tank and set a variety of items upon. They had tried holding the objects up, one at a time, and naming them, to see what Bzup would do. The alien had named each item after Jem had held it up and named it, giving Jem some hope that they might be making progress. But after a while, when he had held up each item again, Bzup had been able to correctly name less than half of them again.
"It's the problem with how he sees, like I said," Nita said then. "A pen and a pencil look like the same things to him. So do a dinner plate and the cap off a parts cylinder. He can't differentiate between them because their sound signatures are basically the same."
Jem nodded, feeling the first hints of frustration. It seemed a daunting task they had chosen, and already he was seeing the limitations to what they were trying. They could hold up one of every item they could find aboard ship, and at the end of it, even the ones that Bzup could name by their sound signature, he would still have no idea as to their function. The alien was in a strange land, where the sights were like nothing he had ever 'seen' before. A human in the same position would probably be just as lost, if not even worse off. A human finding himself in a world based on sound instead of sight would have an equal problem trying to understand what his teachers were telling him.
"I guess it doesn't hurt to keep trying," Nita said, smiling. "I have a report to write. Deera is running down to supply to get something, but I'll be at her desk. Call me if anything fun happens."
Jem laughed. "You don't think this is fun?"
The girl shook her head, her eyes bright. "Not really. Now...if Bzup orders something from the bar...now, that would be fun!"
The boys went back to holding up objects, and even tried to demonstrate the use of some of them. But the results were mixed, and at the end of the demonstration, Jem felt that neither party had learned much. Finally, they cleared off the crate and put the items away. Nico opened the top of the box and looked inside, to where a large form made from rigid foam still sat in the bottom. "What came in this, I wonder?"
Nita, seated at the desk, heard the question, and glanced over, eyeballing the crate. "I think Deera said it was a motor for one of the large slicers. They replaced it a month or so back."
Jem looked into the open crate, and then looked back at Bzup. "Hey, there's something we might be able to communicate." He waved at the alien, then indicated the big crate. He swung the lid back over until it seated. "Bzup. Closed." Then he raised the lid again. "Bzup. Open."
He did this three times, and then closed the lid again. "Bzup?"
"Closed," the creature said.
Jem and Nico grinned at each other, and Jem pulled the lid up. "Bzup?"
"Open."
They performed the operation several more times, and the alien called it right each time. That gave Jem an idea, and the next time he opened the lid, he let it down easily against the back of the crate and swung himself over the side and stepped inside. Then he squatted down, so that only his head was above the side of the crate. "Bzup. Jem in."
He then stood, and swung himself over the side again and stood on the deck. "Bzup. Jem out."
Again he performed the switch three times, and the alien called Jem's position correctly on each change.
"He's able to understand the difference," Jem said. He raised the lid from its position against the back of the crate, and closed it again. "That means he can --"
A sudden sound came to him then, and Jem caught motion out of the side of his eye. Nico looked startled at the same moment, and took a step backwards.
Jem swung about. Bzup had changed position for the first time since he had dropped down to the bottom of the tank. The alien now stood just on the other side of the transparent facing. The sound Jem had heard had been the alien impacting against the wall of the tank.
"He moved!" Nico said, belatedly.
Nita came running over then. "I saw that! What happened?"
"He moved," Jem repeated dumbly, shaking his head in disbelief. What had caused that?
"He must have reacted to something you did," Nita returned. "I wasn't paying attention. What were you doing?"
Jem explained about opening and closing the lid of the crate, and then Jem climbing inside.
"He seemed to get that," Nico supplied. "But what made him jump like that?"
"Bzzzzzzzzzzzup!" The alien said then.
"Bzup," Jem returned, automatically.
The alien drew back slightly, and then came forward again, bumping its body gently against the front of the tank. "Jem, open. Bzup, out."
The three humans stared at the alien in shock.
"Well, that seemed pretty plain," Nita finally managed.
"He wants out," Nico added, unnecessarily. That caused Jem to smile, despite the odd things he was feeling. He was caught between fascination and fear, and with just a touch of wonder thrown in. Bzup had actually spoken with meaning, and that meaning was clear: the alien wanted to be released from its cage.
That Nico was just as stunned as Jem was seemed apparent.
"What do we do?" he heard himself say.
Nita took a step back, and then another, still staring at the alien. "I'll call Master Terpin. He'll need to see...and hear...this." She turned and trotted back to the desk.
Nico came to stand beside Jem. "He talked, Jem. Real talk." His friend's voice was subdued.
Jem nodded, unable to take his eyes off the alien. Communication had been established.
Just then they heard footsteps, and Deera returned, a small box under one arm. She saw Nita talking to the master on the display, and Jem and Nico standing silently before the tank, and paused uncertainly. Then she walked over to them, and set her box atop the crate.
"Hi, guys. Something happen? What'd I miss?"
Jem smiled then, and so did Nico.
"Jem, open," Bzup repeated then, and again gently bumped against the front of the tank. "Bzup, out."
Deera's jaw dropped, and she backed heavily into the side of the crate. "He talked!" At the boys grins, the older woman shook her head in disbelief. "I mean...he actually said something!"
Nita returned then, looking slightly breathless.
"What'd he say?" Jem had to ask.
"He's on his way. And he said not to let...um, Bzup out of the tank before he arrived."
Jem laughed. "I wasn't going to do that. Were you?"
Nita made a face. "Of course not." But then, she must have finally seen some of the humor of the moment, and she smiled. "Not unless he asks me really nicely, anyway."
Master Terpin arrived, and then Mister Sharples; and soon everyone aboard Vespris except Moira and Til Majors was present, listening to the alien's request to be set free. Jem thought it only fair to get the injured shotsman on the display view, so that he could also be involved.
Til listened to the alien repeat its request one time, and then shook his head. "Don't do it."
Jem nodded. "I know how you feel. But if Bzup is proved an intelligent being, his rights under the Compact become the same as ours. You cannot incarcerate someone without due process."
Til stared at Jem, and then laughed. "Maybe I taught you a little too good, son."
Jem smiled. "Not just you, Til. My own parents, and my godfather, and many others. Despite what you told me about the Compact and bureaucrats, the rights of people are not subject to games. Not with me, anyway."
Master Terpin was watching Bzup gently bump against the tank, and repeat his request. "He seems insistent, but I don't see any anger in it. He's asking, not demanding."
"Let's be sensible about this," Til called. "We may be at war with these creatures."
"And we may not be," Mister Sharples returned, sharply. "And this fellow was captured off the hull without a fight of any kind. He has not shown us any violent tendencies. It seems plain, even to me, that this is a request, not a threat of some kind."
Deera looked about at the faces present, and shook her head. "This is really hard to believe. We have no idea what this creature can do."
Master Terpin rubbed his jaw, and nodded. "I agree with that. But at the same time, I have to consider this being's rights aboard my vessel."
Nita shook her head. "We still have not determined this creature's intelligence. We don't know what rights it has, yet."
Master Terpin turned to Jem. "Can you get his attention, Jem?"
Jem looked at Bzup. The alien was still doing the same thing, bumping gently against the tank, and making its request to be freed, every minute or so. "I can try. What am I supposed to do?"
"Just see if you can somehow convey to him that we will consider his request, and that he should be patient."
Everyone stopped talking and turned to look.
"That's a tall request!" Til called from the display. "That's surely going to be too many complex ideas, isn't it?"
"Nonetheless." The master indicated the tank with a hand. "Please try, Jem-lad."
Jem nodded, and moved to the tank, and reached out a hand and laid it flat against the transparent surface. "Bzup."
"Bzup," the alien returned.
"Can you wait? Can you be patient?"
The alien did not move again, but nor did it repeat its request to be set free.
"We need to figure out what to do," Jem added. "I know you have no idea what I'm saying, but I am asking you to wait and be patient. Bzup out...maybe."
For a moment the room was totally silent as everyone watched.
And then the alien's body wiggled, and the suckers beneath it released. The pseudopods they were attached to flexed, and the alien moved back away from the front of the tank, and stopped in its former position.
"Jem," the alien said, and then went silent.
They stood in silence and watched, but Bzup made no more moves, and made no more requests.
"By the great denizens of the deep," Mister Sharples said, quietly. "I believe we have a winner here, my friends."
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