Journey Beyond the Sea
by Geron Kees
Chapter 10
"Bzup. Come out."
Jem and Nico stood outside the tank and watched as the alien ascended the inside of the transparent front, and then made his way down the outside. Nita stood nearby, doing something on her pad, nodding, and looking slightly amused.
"I wonder if he slept any?" Nico asked, as the little alien stepped off onto the deck and stopped. "After the big day he had yesterday, I would think he would be tired."
"Deera's drones said he didn't move all night long," Nita said, putting away her pad and coming to join them. "Deera said he called to her when she came in this morning - just her name - but I sensed she got quite a stir from it." The girl smiled. "I think she's warming to our guest."
Jem smiled at that. Bzup had also called to him and Nico as they had arrived, and then to Nita a few moments later, when she came in. It was pleasing, in some indefinable way, to be recognized and welcomed by their strange visitor. The more that Jem got to know Bzup, the more he felt that, strange as the alien was, they shared something in common in their intelligence. Something that would allow them to bridge the vast distances between their two worlds.
Jem sighed happily. He felt rested, after an evening of winding down with Nico, and then a good night's sleep. They'd checked in on Bzup before turning in, linking to a camera in the catch room, and had seen him standing quietly in his tank. That had allowed Jem to relax, and to fall asleep without worrying that the little alien might be a problem. Jem and Nico had awakened refreshed, and both boys were smiling, and Jem was sure that his friend was just as pleased as he was to be back in the catch room with Bzup.
Jem moved closer to the alien as he stopped. "Good morning, Bzup."
"Goodmorning Jem."
Nico laughed, and patted Jem's shoulder. "I'll bet he doesn't have a clue what that means."
"He will, eventually." Jem nodded at Bzup. "He's smart, I'll say that. And he seems to remember everything."
"He has a four-lobed brain, which may account for some of that," Nita said leaning forward to look more closely at the alien. "It's not as large as our own brains, but the surface area is almost half again what we possess...hey."
"What's the matter?" Jem asked, also looking more closely. Nita had broken off in the middle of her sentence, and was staring at the alien with narrowed eyes. "Look there." She pointed, and Jem's eyes followed.
Bzup's outline was very regular, and though Jem had stopped thinking of the little alien as a 'blob', there was something to be said for the globular analogy. In reality, the alien was shaped more like a teardrop, with the narrow end at the bottom and the wider, rounded end up top. That roundness had been pretty much perfect to Jem's eyes before now, but as he looked to where Nita was pointing, he was startled to see a break in that otherwise clean and accurate curve.
He immediately stepped closer to the alien, coming alongside him, and leaned down to inspect the irregularity more closely.
It was a bump on Bzup's hide, as wide as the length of Jem's little finger. And while the alien's skin was mostly a soft, mottled green in color, the bump had a redness to it that seemed out of place. "Nita, come see this."
The biologist had not approached Bzup too closely up to that point; but now she moved to stand directly alongside Jem, so that she could inspect the irregularity. It was located on Bzup's side, slightly higher than the speech disk, which was centered in the front of Bzup's body.
Nita gave a little shake of her head, and stepped around to Bzup's other side. "There's one here, too."
Jem hurried to follow the girl, and saw that she was correct. A similar blemish marred the otherwise smooth surface of Bzup's body there, too.
"What is it?" Jem asked, feeling a new sense of concern. "Could he have fallen in the tank or something? Is he hurt?"
Nita slowly shook her head. "No. Don't you see, Jem? Remember the scan we did last night?" She gave a little whistle of amazement. "These two projections are located directly above those curled up knots we saw inside Bzup's sides."
For a moment Jem simply stared at the little alien. He thought back to the scan the night before, and realized that Nita was right. "So what is it? Or they?"
"I don't know. Something is growing there, inside. I suspect it is going to come to the surface soon, too."
Nico frowned. "Something dangerous?"
"Bzup wouldn't do that," Jem said, but then looked uncertainly at Nita. "Would he?"
She smiled. "I really can't say. But my...feeling...is that anything dangerous would be out of place with Bzup's genial attitude up until now." She bent forward and patted both boys on the shoulder. "I guess all we can do is wait."
Jem shook his head slowly, and leaned closer to the alien. "Bzup? Jem touch Bzup?"
"Jem touch Bzup."
Taking that as permission, Jem carefully extended a finger and gently laid the tip of it against the projection on the alien's side. It felt firm - even a little swollen. But it didn't seem painful to Bzup, or, at least, he didn't start or react in any way that Jem could see.
Jem pushed a little harder...and there was a popping sound. The projection split, and something large erupted forth from the skin. Jem jumped back in reaction, and then gaped as a long, serpentine shape unraveled down the side of the little alien. It immediately waved, and three slender digits at the end flexed spasmodically. The alien made what sounded like a contented buzzing sound, and turned slightly to face Jem. "Jem. Jem touch Bzup."
And then he turned again, and presented the bump on the other side to Jem!
Nita's mouth was hanging open, and she suddenly closed it with a snap. "I...I think he wants you to do the other one."
Jem simply stared. The first appendage was swelling and firming, almost as if it was filling with blood. Even as he watched, the flesh covering it grew smooth, and the three slender digits at the end flexed like...like--
Like fingers.
Except that each 'finger' had a tiny suction cup at the end of it, delicate but perfect.
Jem shook his head in wonder. "Should I get the other one?"
Nita had her hand against her cheek, still looking amazed, and simply shrugged. "Well...I think it will come out on its own if you don't. But he seems to want help with it."
Jem nodded, and carefully reached out and pushed his finger against the second bump. It, too, seemed swollen. But it resisted his touch, and he had to push harder before it suddenly popped, and another of the appendages unrolled down Bzup's side. Again, the alien gave forth a contented sound, and again, the new appendage began to firm up, and the three 'fingers' at the end flex with new life.
Nita watched in silence, her eyes giving away little of what she was thinking.
Bzup continued to wave the two new appendages, and to flex the small fingers at the ends. Finally, he lifted both 'hands' before his sound disk, as if examining them.
"He has arms now," Jem breathed. "Hands. That means he can use tools." His eyes lifted to lock with Nita's.
The girl nodded.
"So...is he one of them?" Nico finally asked.
Nita gave a little sigh. "We can't know, not really. It's already apparent from the riders that our visitors are extremely adept at biological engineering. Bzup...could just be an extremely advanced tool."
But somehow, Jem didn't think so. Bzup had a distinct personality, one Jem was coming to recognize. "But he could be one of them, couldn't he?"
Nita watched the little alien a moment, and then gave a little shrug. "I can't say he's not one of them."
Jem smiled at that. "So that means he definitely has rights under the Compact. More than animal rights, I mean."
"Maybe. Jem, we just can't be certain."
Jem grinned. "But if there is even any doubt as to whether he is sentient and/or sapient, the law says we have to treat him as such until proven otherwise."
Nita gave a short laugh. "You know that law that well?"
"We looked it up last night," Nico offered, smiling too.
All eyes returned to Bzup.
After examining them, the alien continued to wave both of the arms - perhaps tentacles would be a better word, Jem decided - almost as if exercising them. The three slender fingers at the end of each tentacle spread and then touched together over and over, as if getting a feel for the action. They were wonderfully fluid in their movements, and suddenly Jem felt certain that they were up to the task of doing the same kind of delicate work humans could do with their four fingers and thumb.
Like building starships.
They couldn't know for certain that Bzup was one of the invaders. But that he now appeared to be both intelligent and capable of manipulating his environment certainly placed him in a different category than animal. Master Terpin would have to consider the issue carefully, and so would the government people when they arrived. It made Jem feel good to know that Bzup's safety would now be a matter of law, and not subject to the whims of some bureaucrat.
Hopefully.
Bzup waved both of his 'arms', and then slowly extended one towards Jem. "Bzup touch Jem."
Jem was stunned...but then he had to smile. Turnabout was fair play!
"Yes. Bzup touch Jem."
The three little fingers reached for him, and landed gently upon the soft material of his worksuit. Bzup gave a short buzz, and the fingers withdrew.
Nita laughed. "I think he was startled by your clothing."
Nico emitted a soft chuckle, and reached over and gave Jem a playful poke. "You may need to take them off, Jem!"
"I don't think so." Jem grinned at his friend, and then shook his head. He turned back to the alien, and extended his hand. "Bzup touch Jem."
Again the alien's arm extended, and the three fingers reached out. Jem met them with his own hand, and the two came together. The small fingers felt quite solid to Jem, and the way the little suction cups pulled at his skin made him smile. Bzup gave out another buzz, this one again sounding more contented, and the small fingers continued to inspect and grip at his own. Jem thrilled at the touch, not sure why it was so unusual, but just knowing that it was. He smiled, first at Bzup, then at Nita.
"You may have just made history, Jem," the girl said quietly. "The first handshake between a human being and a member of an alien, star-traveling civilization."
Nico moved to stand beside Jem, and put a hand on his shoulder. "I hope they spell our names right."
Jem rolled his eyes. "You would think of that."
But then he returned his gaze to Bzup, and grinned. "Pleased to meet you, Mister Ambassador."
Jem held the plate of fish before the alien, moving it gently side to side, almost as if it were under an imaginary nose. "Mmm. Bzup eat?"
Again, the line formed in the alien's flesh, and soon a mouth presented itself. Jem used a fork to carefully push the fish fillets towards the opening, but was startled when the alien's two new arms came up and the three-fingered hands closed on the rim of the plate. Bzup gave a little tug, and Jem released the plate.
"I guess he's saying he can do it himself," Pora said, watching from across the table. The man was all smiles, and he was not alone. Kel MacAfee and Mila Stern also watched raptly, as well as did Nico and Nita. Jem could see that everyone was fascinated by this new turn of the page in the tale of their alien visitor.
"Quite a show," Til Majors said, from the display on the wall above them. "He just grew these new arms overnight?"
"I think it was longer than that," Nita said, but then smiled up at the man. "Two days is more like it."
Jem and Nico laughed. "He's quick," Nico said. "He decided he needed them, and there they are!"
Til shook his head. "He seems amazingly...capable."
"I'm starting to wonder myself," the biologist admitted. "It's hard to imagine what sort of world our visitor is used to, that evolution has provided such an extreme adaptability."
"Yes. But...he doesn't seem to have a nose, unless you count that little horn atop his head. The snorkel? If he breathes through it, does he also have a sense of smell?"
Nita gave an exasperated sigh. "I don't know. Like I said before, I don't have the equipment, nor the access to Bzup's biology, to really know what is going on inside him."
Til answered with a short grunt. "You can't guess?"
"Guessing is not the end result of the scientific method, as I'm sure you know. I can view our guest as intuitively as possible, I can surmise from what I observe, but without the testing of those observations, it simply remains supposition."
"If he returns with us to Nocksic Bay, you might have an opportunity to examine him more closely," Jem said. "I'm sure if you ask him, he will help in any way he can."
Nita tugged at one earlobe, and nodded. "That's the only way I'm going to really learn anything. I've done the DNA tests I can do here, the blood and tissue tests, the scans, and I have observed Bzup in our own environment. I've seen enough to decide that Bzup comes from a world enough like what we are used to in climate that we could comfortably visit the place. But he can eat things that would make us ill or even kill us, he can draw oxygen from air or water, and he can adapt his body to new needs very quickly. Those observations suggest a world somewhat more, um, tumultuous, than the one humans arose upon, I think. Nature does not waste time selecting useless traits."
She turned to Jem. "Have you noticed that Bzup is significantly taller than when he came aboard?"
Jem was startled by the question, and looked at the alien, even as Bzup tilted the plate up and the fish fillets slid down into the open mouth. "He's taller?'
"Almost nine centimeters." Nita smiled. "It's only really observable when he moves. The pseudopods with which he motivates himself have grown by that much, lengthening his stride. He's faster now than when he was first brought aboard."
"I hadn't really noticed that," Jem admitted. "But I do remember you saying something about it yesterday."
"Right. When he first came aboard, it would have been a struggle for him to keep up with a human walking pace. Now, he keeps up with us easily."
"More adaptation," Til said from the display. "And very fast adaptation, too." He looked thoughtful. "If he needs it, it seems he gets it."
"Probably was a required trait where he came from," Nita offered. "But while his changes are fast by human standards, they are not fast enough to deal with moments of imminent danger. There is a limit to the speed of change in any biological system, governed by the rules of cell replication. So I would say that Bzup's changes are a learn-by-experience ability that allowed his kind to adapt to new situations quickly, if they survived them in the first place."
"That's amazing," Jem said. "But the whole race can't experience the same thing at the same time. Would that mean that Bzup's people are all different, with different capabilities?" He turned to stare at the alien again. "Some of them might have arms, and some might not...or even have abilities we can't imagine."
"The arms and hands I would guess are more common," Nita returned. "The entire species would have needed a way to manipulate the environment in order to produce a technical civilization." She frowned then. "I guess."
"If he can have arms, why not have them all the time?" Til argued. "He didn't have them when we captured him, and now he does."
"I don't know. Maybe they were in the way for what he was doing on the ship in the first place. Arms would have produced drag and made it harder for him to stay attached to the hull. Not to mention waving about and looking silly in the flow of water as Vespris moved."
Everyone but Til smiled at that. "So we really don't know any more now than we did when we first captured this...Bzup," he said.
Nita shook her head at that. "We know a great deal more now than we did then. But we have to guess as to how or why some of it happens. For now, anyway."
Pora looked up at the shotsman, frowning. "You should relax, Til. Our guest has not shown himself to be harmful."
"I know." Til sighed. "I'm just...I'm still remembering that attack by the orx. Bzup may not be a rider, but he's related to them in some way. Related to this whole situation, in some way. It tells me to be cautious, at the least. I mean...we still don't even know how Bzup came to be attached to the ship, or why."
That was true, and Jem had to admit that that angle was still a puzzle. The riders moved by elongating themselves and using a water jet to move through the sea. Bzup showed no such capability now, and while he may have had a water jet at the moment the drones seized him off the hull of the ship, his current internal scans had shown nothing to indicate he had anything like the biological mechanisms in place to provide for self-propulsion now.
So, what had happened to the water jet? Perhaps, just as Bzup seemed able to add new features as he needed them, he was able to dispense with those he no longer required? And that he had dispensed with the water jet after he had been brought aboard Vespris? That almost sounded like the little alien had planned to stay aboard the ship, once he'd been captured!
"Well figure it out, eventually," Nita said breezily, and turned to smile at the little alien. "I think he's still hungry, Jem."Jem had been about to voice his ideas; but now he turned back to see what Bzup was doing, and had to smile. Bzup's mouth was still open, and he was holding the empty plate before him. That certainly seemed plain. Jem laughed, but retrieved the plate and went back to the counter and got three more fillets from the cooler.
This time when he brought it back, Bzup extended his arms, and Jem handed the plate directly to him. One set of fingers held the plate by the rim, and the other daintily explored the contents. Bzup selected one fillet, moved it to his mouth, and dropped it inside. The mouth suddenly closed, the line of it faded, and then was gone. Bzup held out the plate to Jem.
Jem grinned, and accepted it, glancing down at the remaining two fillets. "I guess that's it." He turned, and held out the plate towards the others. "Anyone?"
Nico laughed. "He touched all of them."
Mila and Kel both held up their hands. "I'm full," Kel said, grinning. "Man, am I ever full!"
Pora laughed, but shook his head. "I do not care to be the test subject, thank you."
Jem nodded, and took the plate back and stuck it into one of the combo ovens and set the timer. "I'm not so bashful. Nita already said there couldn't be cross infection. Besides, cooking the fish will kill any sort of contamination."
Nico came over and patted Jem on the back. "It's always the one brave soul that sacrifices for the good of the others."
Everyone laughed, and Pora got up. "On that note, I should be getting back to my work."
Kel also stood, and carried his tray back to the counter. "Yeah, me, too." He swung around then, and patted Jem's shoulder. "I've come to like you, Jem, and I don't want to be here when you keel over."
Mila hooted at that, and also stood to go. "I'll second that one."
Presently, only Jem and Nico and Nita remained in the mess with Bzup.
"You sure know how to clear a room," Nico said, bumping playfully against Jem.
The timer on the oven pinged, and Jem removed the plate. Gruff was tough to eat by itself, and he made certain to spice it up with other items from the counter. Then he took a fork, cut off a piece of one fillet, and put it in his mouth. "Tastes fine to me."
Nico sighed, and reached for Jem's fork. "Here. Let me have some. We might as well perish together."
Jem grinned as his friend took the rest of the first fillet and placed it into his mouth, closed his eyes, and chewed slowly. "Hmm. Has an otherworldly, exotic flavor, I must admit."
"It always tastes that way," Nita said drily. "Benteen is another world, in case you forgot."
Nico snapped his fingers and laughed. "I knew it!"
Jem sighed at his friend's playfulness, wanting now to kiss the other boy, but not in a rush to do it in front of the others. Nita was grinning at them, and Til was still watching from the display. Even Bzup had his sound disk turned towards them.
So he leaned closer to Nico, and whispered into his ear, "Later."
Nico's eyes danced with anticipatory sparkles, and he nodded. "I'll be there."
Back in the catch room, they resumed showing things to Bzup and miming how they were used. Even though Nita had said that Bzup's sound-vision was not acute enough to differentiate between things of similar shape, he did seem especially interested in those particular instances, and the constant flow of words the humans used seem to be making an impression on him.
"He's very bright," Nita said, after several hours. "But he still seems a little confused by some of what we are showing him. Any two items that are very close in shape he seems to see as the same thing."
"I think he knows that, too," Jem agreed. "I noticed him paying particular attention when we showed him something that was similar to something we'd shown him before."
"Maybe if we let him handle stuff?" Nico suggested. "If I was in a dark room, and I touched a dinner plate and then the cap from one of those storage cylinders, I'd be able to tell them apart by touch."
"There's a great idea," Nita returned, nodding. "Jem, give Bzup that plate."
Jem leaned down into the crate where they'd been storing things, and fished out the dinner plate. He held it up to the alien. "Bzup. What?"
The alien turned his sound disk towards Jem, and made a small buzz of what Jem wondered might be annoyance. "Jem. Cap."
"No." Jem stepped forward, and offered the plate to the alien. "Dinner plate."
Bzup took the plate carefully, examining it with his fingers. "Jem. Dinnerplate."
"Yes." Jem retrieved the plate, exchanged it for the round cap off a storage cylinder, and held it up. "Bzup. What?"
This time, the alien extended his hands, and Jem set the cap into the small fingers. They gently worked the cap over, and then Bzup buzzed. "Not dinnerplate."
Jem grinned, and Nita barked out an excited laugh.
"Bzup. That's a cylinder cap," Jem offered.
"Jem. Cylindercap."
Jem nodded, and extended his hand. "Give."
Bzup extended the cylinder cap to Jem, and Jem took it in his other hand. Then he traded the cap and the dinner plate back and forth between his hands a few times, and again held up the cylinder cap.
"Bzup. What?"
"Jem. Cap."
Jem traded the cap to his other hand, and held it up again. "What?"
"Jem. Cap."
Again, Jem traded the objects from one hand to the other and held up the dinner plate. "What?"
"Jem. Dinnerplate."
"He's learned the difference," Nita breathed, shaking her head slowly. "Somehow, he has stored the differences he felt with his fingers, and can now differentiate between these objects just by, um, sight."
It was also apparent now that Bzup paid attention to what the humans said between themselves. He had tested the use of several words that no one had used directly in conversation with him, and Jem had been amazed at how easily the alien seemed to retain everything for future use. His memory was extraordinary, to say the least!
Bzup raised a hand now and waved it at Jem. "Bzup touch Jem."
Jem nodded, and moved closer. The fingers landed on his clothing again, and seemed to test the texture of it. "Not Jem."
Jem gave a small laugh. "No. It's a covering. Um...protection."
"He understands hot and cold," Nico reminded. "Protection from cold."
The hand moved up Jem's sleeve to his shoulder, and then the fingertips touched the skin of Jem's neck. "Jem."
"That's me," Jem agreed.
The fingers continued to move slowly upwards, touched Jem's cheek and nose, and Jem squeezed his eyes closed as the little suction cups threatened to poke him there.
"What," Bzup said.
"That's my eye," Jem returned. "I see with that."
They had already covered the term 'see', and Bzup knew that that was what the humans called the process by which the alien painted the world around him with sound.
"See."
"Yes, Bzup." Jem reached up and grasped the small hand and moved it to the other eye, and then back to the first one. "See. Two eyes, see."
"See."
The suction cups of the alien hand suddenly attached firmly to Jem's eyelid, and little lights danced inside the darkness behind it. He started, and tried to draw back; but the suctions cups were firmly attached. "Hey!"
"Are you okay?" the note of alarm was clear in Nico's voice, and the boy was suddenly beside Jem, grasping his shoulder. "What's happening?"
Jem swallowed hard, but quickly held up a hand. "Wait. Don't do anything yet. He's not hurting me. I think he's just curious."
Nita's voice suddenly sounded from right next to Jem's other side. "He seems to have attached to your eyelid. Is he pressing against it?"
"A little." Jem swallowed again, his mouth suddenly feeling dry. What an odd sensation! "I feel...vibration. And I'm seeing little flashes of light, and gray speckles, in that eye."
"Really?" That seemed to momentarily confuse the girl. But then: "It may be sound, Jem. Bzup uses sound to see the world. I guess it's possible those little cups on his fingers serve more than one purpose. They may 'see' things in finer detail than the large transducer is able to provide. That would make sense, if his species were to be able to do any finely detailed work. That large transducer wouldn't cut it for the kinds of things we do with our eyes."
The little lights continued to flash inside Jem's eye a moment longer, and then suddenly cut off as Bzup released his eyelid and pulled back his hand. The alien made a peculiar buzzing sound, one that Jem would have said sounded excited in a human.
"See," the alien repeated. "See."
Jem blinked his eyes, and the little lights in the one faded, and his vision cleared. Nico was standing next to him on one side, still looking alarmed, and Nita was just as close on the other side, her eyes filled with concern. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yes. It was strange, but it's gone now."
Nico frowned at him, and gently squeezed his arm. "That scared me, Jem. I wasn't sure what he was doing to you."
Jem turned to look at Bzup, who was still making the little buzzing sounds. "I think he was just curious about how we 'see'."
"I think you're right," Nita agreed. "He has been acting a little baffled about how we discern one object from another that is very similar." She suddenly nodded. "If his kind have some sort of finely-tuned sound-sight in their fingertips - one that allows them a more detailed view of the world than the larger sound disk they use to move about - then he would be curious about how we do the same thing." She smiled. "He examined your hands very closely, several times before. He may not have found what he was expecting to be there, and that was why he decided to 'look' closer at your head." She glanced over at the alien, and nodded again. "I think he was surprised by what he found, judging from his reaction."
"I was sure surprised," Jem said. "It was very strange, the way my eye seemed to vibrate, and all these funny little lights danced about."
"I wonder," Nita said then, staring at Bzup. "I wonder what he made of what he found?"
Nico finally allowed himself to smile again. "He seems kind of excited, doesn't he?"
"That would be my guess, too," Nita agreed.
Bzup suddenly waved his hands at them. "Jem. Bzup rest."
And with that, the little alien turned and started back for his tank. The three humans watched in plain amazement as the alien ascended the side of the tank, went over the top, and descended to the water-covered floor inside. He turned to face them, and his sound disk gave out another contented buzz. "Jem. Nico. Nita. Bzup rest."
Nita looked at her pad. "It's still early. But I'd say our friend wants a nap."
"You think he'll really sleep?" Jem asked. They had managed to convey the concept of 'rest' to the alien, but there had been no sign that the alien needed to sleep like humans did. But they still didn't know what was going on for the long hours of the night that Bzup stood motionlessly inside his tank.
Nita shrugged. "I don't think it matters. He is clearly signaling an end to our visit, for now."
Nico was still gently squeezing Jem's arm, and Jem paid more attention to that now. That his friend had been worried about him was touching, and Jem smiled at him now, and patted his hand. "You can stop that now. I'm okay."
Nico looked surprised, and glanced down at his hand. But then he grinned, and gave Jem yet another squeeze. "Do I have to?"
Jem sighed. "No. But there's a little time before the evening meal. We can 'rest', too, if you like."
Nico nodded. "I like."
Jem turned, and found Nita smiling at them. He grinned back at her. "I guess if Bzup is taking a nap, we may as well, too. I have to admit that all this scientific inquiry stuff is wearying."
Nita laughed at that. "If you say so. I have notes to make, anyway." She glanced back at Bzup, who was standing quietly in his tank. "I think our friend is making some kind of notes, too."
Jem pulled out his pad and checked the time. "We'll come back in a couple of hours and ask him if he'd like to go to the evening meal with us. If so, we'll bring him along."
"I'll be there. I suspect a lot of people will be there, for this meal."
Jem had to agree. Bzup was becoming more than just a casual interest for those who crewed Vespris. Now that the alien was attending meals with Jem and Nico, they almost never had the mess to themselves. Jem smiled at that, and turned to look again at the alien. There was something very winning about Bzup. It was obvious that the crew was curious about him, and that some of them had warmed to him considerably.
They still had two days until the government people arrived from Hennessy. At the rate Bzup was learning, there was every possibility that he would be able to greet them and make a good impression upon them. Somehow, Jem felt that was important. Kel had said a few things that had led Jem to believe that his great uncle, Varin Mikulsa, was not someone you wanted to cross. The better Bzup presented to these people, the better his chances were that they would accept him as a friend.
Nico squeezed his arm again, and then pulled at it. "Come on, Jem."
"Are you in hurry?" Jem whispered.
Nico simply nodded. "Yes."
Jem laughed, and allowed himself to be taken away.
"How many, Bzup?" Jem asked, holding up the plate.
"Jem, three."
Jem grinned. Now that Bzup had fingers, it had made it easier to teach him the names of numbers, and concepts like 'many' and few'. A brief conversation between Bzup and Mila Stern on the subject of numbers had convinced the woman that Bzup understood a senary, base-six system of mathematics. Not surprising, considering that he had six fingers.
"Three it is." This time, after Jem had placed three of the gruff filets on the plate, he added a little stonefish meat on the side, just for variety. After all, who wanted to eat the same meal every time?
The mess was full of people this evening. Even Til was watching from his bed, via the display above the end table. Only Moira, who had the night shift at the helm, was not present.
Jem returned to the table and handed the plate to Bzup, while all eyes watched. The alien held the plate in one hand, and daintily sampled the contents with the sensitive fingers of the other. He paused when he got to the stonefish, and the fingers seemed to inspect the meat more closely than they had the gruff.
"Jem. What?"
"It's stonefish. I thought you'd like something different."
"Stonefish." Bzup lifted a chunk of the meat and dropped it into his waiting mouth. He immediately buzzed, in what Jem was coming to understand was an expression of pleasure.
"Good?"
"Jem. Good."
Bzup pulled the plate to his mouth and scooped the entire mass of fish into it, and then held the plate back out to Jem.
"He's hungry tonight," Nico said, from by the counter, where he was fixing siffle burgers for himself and Jem.
"Give him his fill," Master Terpin commanded, waving a hand at Jem. "It's not like we can't get more from the very sea around us, should the need arise."
Jem nodded. "Bzup? How many?"
"Jem. Three gruff. Two stonefish."
Stonefish meat was scooped out of the hard shell after it had been cracked open, so saying 'two' of the fish was kind of an arbitrary amount. Jem went back to the counter and used the tongs to deposit two more of the same-sized scoops of stonefish meat on the plate, and followed it with three more of the gruff fillets. Two plates this size would be a sizable meal for a human, but once again the little alien downed the entire mass of meat and held out the plate once again.
Mister Sharples laughed, and rapped a knuckle on the tabletop. "I admire a healthy appetite in a man."
"I find it interesting," Nita returned. "The changes that Bzup makes to his body would require energy to come from some source. I was worried when he first came aboard that he didn't seem to eat. I guess he's making up for it now."
Nico brought trays over for himself and Jem, and sat down next to where Jem had been seated at the end of the table. Bzup stood to the side there, close enough to be included at the table where he obviously could not take a real seat.
Jem returned to the counter and picked up the tongs. "How many, Bzup?"
"Jem. Two stonefish."
Jem smiled, feeling certain he had found a new fan of the tough little shellfish.
This time, when he returned, Bzup scooped the meat into his mouth and held out the plate, while his mouth closed and turned into a line, and then vanished. It was uncanny the way that worked, almost as if nature had a reason for Bzup's kind not to have any normally open orifice's of any kind. What a strange world Bzup must hail from!
Jem returned to his seat and sat between Nico and Bzup, and picked up his siffle burger. It was fixed just the way he liked it, and Jem paused long enough before biting into it to smile at Nico and thank him. Nico's eyes sparkled with good humor, and Jem was pleased that they were now trading so much by mere eye contact.
"Jem."
Jem looked over at Bzup, who raised a hand and placed the three slender fingers to the middle of his front, just above the sound disk. "Jem. Bzup see." Again, the little alien gently patted himself. "Bzup see."
Jem frowned, and Nico turned to look at him. "What do you think he means by that?"
"I don't know."
Pora leaned forward across his plate to stare at Bzup. "Could he be saying he has some other sense that is not readily apparent to us?"
Nita scratched her chin at that. "He's got several organs behind the spot he's touching, that I don't know the function of yet. His brain is centered behind that spot, too." She shook her head. "But...if he had some other way to perceive the world than sound, I think he would have done better at being able to tell the difference between the objects we showed him."
"He did better after he could handle them, remember?" Jem asked.
"Just what I mean," Nita returned. "He had to use the senses in his fingertips to augment the sound-sight provided by his transducer. So he does have a more detailed method of seeing, providing he handles whatever it is he is observing."
"That seems not to be what he is referring to," Master Terpin offered. "My sense is that he is referring to the exact spot he is touching. And there is nothing visible there."
Jem suddenly gasped. "Not visible yet." He turned to Nita, a new excitement taking hold of him. "Could he be saying he's going to have a new way to see, at that spot? I mean, if he can grow arms and all--"
Nita stared at the alien, frowning, and then turned to face Jem. "I...at this point, not much would surprise me, Jem." But then she smiled. "When we go back to the catch room, we'll put him in front of the scanner again and have a peek."
Mister Sharples turned to the master and gave out a determined grunt. "I would say there is little doubt now that Bzup is covered by the same parts of the Compact that assures humans their rights. Would you not say?"
The master was silent a moment, watching Bzup. But then he nodded. "I have already so logged it." He turned, and smiled at Jem. "As master of Vespris, it is my right and my duty to ascertain the status of all those that travel in my vessel. I have logged Bzup as a visiting alien intelligence, A-Prime, final determination of his status to be made later."
Jem and Nico turned to stare at each other, grins breaking out on both of their faces. Kel MacAffee gave out a little whoop, and Pora settled back in his chair and smiled. "Well done."
Nita chewed her lip a moment, and then nodded. "I'll endorse that decision, if you'd like me to do so. Bzup's sentience was clear early, but I feel now that his sapience is equally obvious."
"I cannot see that it will hurt," the master offered, looking pleased. "I do think it our duty to safeguard the rights of our visitor, until such time as a definitive study is made."
"Do you think it will be enough, if our government visitors disagree?" Jem asked.
The master looked unconcerned. "The notation in my log carries the weight of law here on Benteen, but especially here on Vespris. Under the structure of colonial administration, Vespris is a sovereign entity while at sea. Our Mister Mikulsa will have to abide by that decision while aboard my ship. And it will mean that Bzup's status as an intelligent being must be proven otherwise, and in proper legal fashion, should they not wish to be civil to him. So even if our future guests have that end in their minds, and do not wish to accord Bzup an equal status, the burden of proving that decision will then be upon them, and in a public court of law."
It felt good to hear that, though Jem was also mindful of Til's story of what had happened to the teddy bears on Sadler's Pleasure. "I hope that's enough."
Mister Sharples, who had been watching Bzup as the alien stood quietly beside Jem, suddenly smiled. "Um...Master Terpin, will you have a moment when you're through eating?"
"Yes. Have you something in mind?"
The engineer winked at Jem, and then nodded. "Best discussed in private, until we can be sure the idea will float."
The master's eyes crinkled, and he nodded. "The best kind of strategy, I think." He quickly finished the last of his food, and nodded. "Shall we?"
The two older men picked up their trays, and took them to the dishwasher. And in a further moment, they were gone.
"What do you think that's about?" Nico asked, turning to Jem.
Jem had just taken the last bite of his siffle burger, and chewed it slowly, thinking. That the chief engineer had in mind something he thought might add to the master's declaration protecting Bzup seemed plain. And if anyone aboard Vespris knew the laws of the sea, it was the two who had just left them.
"Don't know."
"I think Bzup is safe," Nita insisted. "The master's log entry recording him as a visiting alien intelligence has more power than you think."
Jem turned back to the alien, and reached out and patted him fondly on the side. "Hear that, Bzup? You're a person!"
"That's good, just stand still a moment," Nita said, touching the screen of her pad. Overhead, the portable scanner lowered on its arm to position itself before Bzup. "Great. Now, let's see what we can see."
She put the view up on the large wall screen, in a side-by-side with their last scan of the alien. Then she zoomed in on the area above Bzup's sound disk.
"Something is happening there!" Nico blurted excitedly, grabbing Jem's arm and squeezing it. "See that?"
Jem stared at the screen, nodding. It was plain, when the two scans were compared, that a new mass was growing in the area behind the alien's 'forehead' - the spot just above his sound disk. This new mass trailed off several dark, ropey structures, that connected to several of the larger organs in Bzup's middle.
"That big organ is his brain, you said?" he asked, turning to Nita.
"Yes." She squinted at the screen, and then nodded. "The connection of that one neural cord is being made to the same area that his sound disk is connected to. I've taken that to be one of the sensory areas, equivalent to the human auditory cortex. Bzup's is much larger than ours, of course, to deal with the complexity of the sound he uses, and because he also needs to create sounds."
Jem frowned. "The auditory cortex? That would be the wrong place, I would think."
Nita watched him curiously. "The wrong place for what?"
Jem hesitated, the conclusion he was drawing still a stunning one. "Could he be making eyes?"
The girl looked surprised. "Why do you think that?"
"Well, he touched my eye, and I saw the weird flashes, and you said he was using sound--"
"Like he was imaging you!" Nico suddenly inserted, swinging about to face Nita. "Could that have happened? Could he have figured out how Jem's eye worked, that quickly?"
Nita looked stunned, and then amazed. "I...actually didn't think of that. I have to admit I was considering something even more amazing than an eye - something more alien." She turned to stare at Bzup. "I find it hard to believe that he could have divined the workings of the human eye from a one minute sound scan." But then she frowned. "On the other hand...I don't know that was all he did....I just don't know."
Jem turned to look at the screen again. "It doesn't look like two eyes. And it's pretty big for one."
Nita gave forth a short laugh. "Well, Bzup doesn't do things halfway, it seems." She looked thoughtful, and then brightened. "Actually, one eye would be all he needs. Humans have two eyes to give us a sense of depth and to allow us to judge angles, both necessary for competent movement. Our ears are passive senses, though they also can assist with direction, but they are not enough on their own. Bzup has his sound disk, which is like active sonar, which already gives him detailed information on the range to everything around him. His sound imaging would augment a single eye quite well."
Jem was still confused. "But in humans, the visual cortex is separate from the auditory." He patted the back of his head. "I would think Bzup would have his senses spread out within the brain, just like we do."
Nita laughed again. "Maybe, but maybe not. Jem, in humans, the visual cortex evolved with the eyes. It's one system." She waved a hand at the alien. "If he actually is creating an eye, there must be some system within his brain that can handle it." She shrugged. "For all we know, Bzup has had eyes before, just like he has apparently had arms before. The things he creates are not knew to his species, surely. Not that quickly." She looked startled then, and then excited. "In fact, that's quite plausible. There are some complex structures in his DNA that were confusing me, as they appeared to have no relation to functions of his body that I could see. But...if his kind carry a sort of genetic library of things their bodies can make - like extensions of a sort - then things like arms and eyes may be in there already, just waiting to be drawn upon. The way Bzup looked excited after he touched your eye - as if he had suddenly recognized something --"
"He might have suddenly understood how we see!" Nico injected, looking excited himself.
Jem nodded, suddenly feeling they were on the right path of thought. "And afterwards, he wanted to go and rest. Maybe his body needs some quiet time to make these new things."
The three humans stood and stared in wonder at the alien, each one of them marveling at the idea of being able to create new body parts as needed.
Nita was the first to break the silence. "I'm going to write a paper on Bzup that will open a lot of human eyes, I think," she said, winking at Jem.
Jem grinned. "We'll see about that tomorrow. Anyone want to bet against me that Bzup has a new eye in the morning?"
Nico grinned, and Nita shook her head. "You're not getting me that easy."
Jem turned and looked at the scan display a final time, and then went to Bzup. "Turn that thing off, Nita. I want to ask Bzup a couple of things."
Nita fingered her pad, and the scanner retracted upwards on its arm. The three humans closed in around the alien, and Jem leaned forward. "Bzup. Jem touch Bzup?"
"Jem touch Bzup."
Jem leaned down and grasped one of the aliens hands, and brought it up to his face. He closed his left eye, and brought the small, alien fingertips to his eyelid. "Bzup. Jem eye."
"Jem eye," the alien agreed.
Jem released Bzup's hand, and then laid his own finger tips against the smooth flesh above the alien's sound disk. "Bzup. Bzup eye here?"
"Yez. Bzup eye here."
Jem turned and grinned at Nita. "What do you think?"
The girl took a deep breath, and let it sigh out slowly. "I think I can't wait until tomorrow!"
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