Journey Beyond the Sea
by Geron Kees
Chapter 14
Just before dawn, they were awakened by another contact alarm. Jem and Nico rushed to their stations, and a chase ensued, resulting in another capture by the boy's team. This orx had seemed determined to stay on their side of the vessel, and once again Jem had spotted a pattern in the creature's movements, that had allowed him and Nico to work together to gain Vespris another catch. Mya was delighted at their performance, and called her congratulations over the com.
The work lights were brought up even as the sky was lightening with dawn, and Deera and her drones brought the orx in. It was fifteen tons, and clean of any trace of a rider. Bringing the orx carcass aboard was an almost boring affair. The lack of any new threats seemed to reinforce the opinions of the crew that Bzup's people had created a limited force of controlled orx, much more in line with securing food than in waging war.
The boys watched their catch hauled aboard, and waited for it to descend into the depths of the catch room before heading back to idle down their station.
Nico gave Jem a nudge with his arm. "Look who's there."
Jem brought his gaze up to fasten on the port station, and was surprised to see Til Majors there, leaning on his cane.
And, Varin Mikulsa, beside him.
Til was moving a hand as he explained the workings of the console, but Jem did not miss how the older man's eyes shifted their way as they approached. Mikulsa had his back to them, but seemed to sense their presence, and turned to gaze at them as they came up to the catch station.
"That was exciting," the bearded man said, offering them a quick smile. "I had no idea how involved it was, chasing down one of these beasts."
"I would say most people back home have no idea what goes into securing the food they eat," Til replied. "It takes a bit of skill, actually."
"These two seem to have the knack," Mikulsa noted. "That was a fine performance, lads."
Jem felt his face warm, and Nico bumped him with a shoulder. "We had a really good instructor," Jem managed, pointing at Til.
Til smiled at that. "Don't let them fool you! We got lucky with these two. Either one of them will make an excellent shotsman."
Mikulsa looked them over with an appraising eye. "I understand you two are assisting Nita Frees with learning about our visitor, as well as attending to your duties." That didn't seem to be a question, but rather a statement of fact. Mikulsa's eyes watched them with interest. "In fact, you would seem to be key to the study. You've formed a bond with Bzup, and he with you."
"We've become friends," Jem clarified. He smiled at Mukulsa. "I like Bzup."
The older man grunted at that. "That actually means something to me, Jem. My experience with people is that true friendships are hard to make, and harder to keep. Once you get one, it needs to be looked after carefully."
Jem felt surprise. This was a notion so in line with his own thinking that it was startling to hear it from a man he had worried was a threat to Bzup. "I happen to agree."
"I would be interested in joining some of your sessions with Bzup," Mikulsa went on. "I need to know him better than I do now, in order to decide how to proceed."
"We told him we'd be down this morning to take him to breakfast. You're welcome to come along."
Mikulsa cocked his head at them. "He eats in the mess with the rest of you?"
"Yes. He's fond of seafood."
The older man smiled. "Aren't we all?"
Til chuckled. "Bzup can be a hearty eater."
"He eats more when he's making something," Nico said. "Like when he made his new eye."
Mikulsa stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Amazing." He glanced over at Til, his eyes bright with interest. "This was why my people got into the colonial exploration program in the first place, long ago. To see the stars. To experience what they have to offer."
"Well, you've come to the right place, because they've landed right here." Til grunted, and rubbed his back gently. "Right on top of me, it feels like, too." He sighed, and turned to Jem. "Help an old man back to his bed before you go to eat?"
Jem laughed. "Oh, come on."
Til groaned dramatically, and Jem and Nico eyed each other knowingly before moving to each take one of the older man's arms. Jem glanced back at Mikulsa. "Let us take Til back to the dispensary, and go get Bzup, and we'll meet you in the mess hall."
"That works," he agreed. "See you there shortly."
They walked to the weather door together, and split up there, Mikulsa heading for the mess, while Jem and Nico guided Til back to the dispensary.
"You can let go of me now, lads," the man whispered, as they reached the dispensary door. "I just wanted a chance to speak with you before you sat down with Mikulsa."
Jem released Til's arm, and Nico followed suit.
"I thought you were hamming it up a little bit," Nico said, smiling.
Til laughed, and opened the dispensary door. They moved into the room, and the door swung shut behind them.
"It will be nice to sit down for a bit before I have my physical therapy session," Til continued. "Moira set up a killer routine for me. I survived the orx attack, but Moira's workouts will have me lame for life!" He leaned closer. "I think she wants me out of her nice, clean dispensary."
The boys chuckled over that. "She wants you operational again," Jem corrected. "That's the aim of most doctors, to get their patients back to living life."
Nico nodded. "And you've been shredding the sheets in here, too. Those things cost money!"
They laughed again. But then Jem leaned closer to Til, and lowered his voice. "What did you want to tell us?"
Til glanced towards the dispensary door, almost as if he could see through it, and down the corridor to the mess, where Mikulsa awaited them. "I just want you to be careful with what you say to Mister Mikulsa."
Jem drew back. "You don't trust him? I was just starting to like him a little."
Til's eyes widened, and he gave a little laugh. "I was feeling the same way. And liking Mister Mikulsa is quite at odds with everything I have ever heard about the man. The notion makes me nervous, and worries me just a little. It's why I am suggesting caution now."
"So, we shouldn't be friendly with him?"
"No, it's not that." Til frowned. "I just don't want you to relax and let your guard down with the man just yet. I don't think that's a good idea."
Jem squinted at that. "What do you know?"
The older man winced. "Nothing definite. Just...call it a feeling. Jem, some people have a mission in life. I think Mister Mikulsa's is to solve the problems of the world. He's very conscientious and concerned about human welfare here on Benteen."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"Usually." Til closed his eyes a moment, thinking. "I've done some extensive reading on Mikulsa's history. He's a dedicated man. But...his dedication sometimes seems to be to an idea, rather than to the people he supposedly serves." He opened his eyes, and fixed his gaze on the boys. "He does seem very concerned with helping the people of New Australia stay safe. But, at the same time, he seldom lets those same people get in the way of him helping them. You see? How do you place the welfare of people first, but not consider their feelings and needs in the matter, even a little? It smacks of a one-sided approach to things that worries me still."
Jem sighed. "You think he could be dangerous to Bzup?" He had just been coming around to the idea that Mikulsa and Bzup could coexist peacefully.
Til briefly bit his lip. "I just...it's hard to know. What we're seeing now is how Mikulsa reacts in a period of relative calm, and in a situation that interests him. There is no apparent danger now. But should it come to a crunch where he feels the safety of humans on this world is threatened...I don't know. I don't want him to view relations with Bzup's kind with the same sort of flexibility he uses with his own. We can't afford any accidents when it comes to our possible future coexistence with Bzup's kind."
"Do you know something about Mikulsa's past that we don't?" Jem asked. "We looked him up, too. It seems very much like he runs the show his own way, but he has only accomplished good things, even if a lot of people get mad at him in the process."
"No. I've read what's on the web about him, too. He has an excellent record, even if it's also clear that he trods on people's toes nearly every day. But, see? It's that aspect of his personality, and all the complaints I've ever heard about him, that makes me cautious. There are ways to get things done without infuriating everyone around you. Mikulsa's apparent lack of respect for people's feelings is simply a sign to me to be cautious with him. If he doesn't care about his own people's feelings, can he be totally trusted to respect Bzup's?"
"He said this was a first contact situation, and needed to be handled very carefully," Nico reminded. "Doesn't that mean he won't do anything to hurt Bzup or his people?"
Til shrugged. "I don't know. Does it? That's precisely my point."
Jem turned to look at Nico, and could read what the other boy was thinking displayed in his eyes. It's best to be careful!
"So, what do we do?" Jem asked, turning his gaze back to Til.
The older man nodded. "Just go ahead and take Bzup to the mess. I do think it's a good idea that Mikulsa gets to know him better. And then...we just wait a bit."
Nico shook his head. "For what?"
"For us to get a better feel of how this thing might go." Til sighed. "I just want Bzup and his people to have the chance they deserve."
Jem grimaced, hating to contradict the more experienced man. "You've suggested caution on everything we've done since this all started, since the moment we first met Bzup. So far, your worries have proved, well, mostly unfounded."
"That's true." Til shrugged. "It's my nature to approach the unknown with a degree of caution, Jem. I deliberately look for the thorns on every bush." He eyed them pointedly. "Too many people just step right into a new situation, without a second thought. I just wanted the idea to be planted in your minds that care needs to be taken in the decisions we make here. A first contact is a momentous occasion. I happen to think it's going to require some finesse, and our Mister Mikulsa.hasn't come by his reputation lightly. I am not prepared to simply disregard it now that he's come here, been civil to us, and seems fascinated by Bzup." He leaned closer. "I'm just asking that you take some care in relating your impressions of Bzup to this man. Don't give him something to worry about."
Nico and Jem both laughed. "There hasn't been anything to worry about," Jem said, assuredly.
"Not recently," Til countered. "But I seem to recall you being quite unnerved by Bzup the first time he fixated upon you. Before you got to know him."
Jem considered that, and nodded. "That's true." He blew out a frustrated breath. "Okay. But I think you're not giving enough credit to Bzup. I'm not so sure he isn't up to handling Mister Mikulsa, or any one of us, if he needed to do it."
Til smiled. "You may be right. I just don't want it to come to that. Okay?" The man sighed again, and sat down on the edge of his bed. "I've got you thinking now, which is all I wanted to do. Now go ahead and get Bzup."
"You don't want to come along and observe?" Nico asked, suppressing a smile.
"No, I can't. I have a half-hour until my physical therapy session. Now go along like good lads, and leave me to my rest."
Jem glanced up at the chronometer on the wall. "Should you lay down, so close to your therapy?" He smiled. "It will make you feel lazy!"
Til smiled, and pointed at the door. "I intend to be as lazy as possible, until the very moment Moira's holo activates and starts my session. Now go get Bzup and take him to breakfast."
Jem and Nico looked at each other, and a silent message seemed to flow between them. They understood now what Til was saying. Not that Mikulsa was dangerous to Bzup, but that, under the right conditions, he could be dangerous to him. And that their mission now was simply to proceed under that assumption.
It was a wise stance to take, actually. Jem had been expecting Mikulsa to be hostile towards Bzup. That he seemed to actually want to be careful with Bzup had been lulling. Perhaps it was wise to not totally shed his old feelings on the matter. Bzup's safety came first.
Jem reached out and patted his boyfriend's shoulder. "Let's go. I'll bet Bzup's hungry!"
Ana Barasesh was in the mess hall when they arrived, with Varin Mikulsa seated beside her. Nita Frees sat across from them, sipping a cup of coffee. The three stopped talking as the boys entered in the company of Bzup, and all eyes focused on the little alien. But Bzup beat them to the punch on greetings.
"Nita, goodmorning. Miztermikulza, goodmorning. Anabarzezh, goodmorning."
"Good morning, Bzup," Ana said first, smiling. "It's a pretty day."
"Prettyday," Bzup repeated, but whether or not he understood the meaning was debatable. Deera had been allowing Bzup to watch the display in the catch room, upon which a variety of programming had been generated. The alien seemed to be picking up the human language at a stunning rate now, so Jem didn't put anything past him.
"You hungry, Bzup?" Jem asked, as they arrived at the table. "Stonefish, or gruff?"
"Two ztonefish, one gruff, Jem."
"He has a good appetite," Nita commented to Ana. "Wait til you see!"
"I'm always hungry in the morning, too," Jem said pointedly. "It's normal!"
"I'll get our food," Nico said, grinning at Jem.
Jem returned the grin, and followed Nico as they made their way to the counter.
"Learn," Bzup said behind them. "What know?"
Jem glanced over his shoulder in time to see the two humans from Colonial Administration exchange curious glances.
"Are you asking us what we know?" Ana finally replied.
"I think he means, what do you do?" Nita supplied, smiling. "He's learned that we all seem to have some sort of specialty aboard ship. I think he's asking you what yours are."
"Oh." The woman chuckled. "I'm an exobiologist. It's actually a misnomer these days, as Benteen has been a native home to several generations of us since first planetfall." She leaned toward Bzup. "But...I study the things that live here on this world. I learn about life."
Jem used the tongs to remove two servings of stonefish from beneath the sterile field over the dispenser at the counter, and placed them on the plate with the gruff filet he'd already secured. He turned back to the table then, in time to see Bzup's eye turn on Varin Mikulsa. "What know?"
The man's eyes widened a bit, but he smiled. "A broad question, I think. I'm the director of perimeter security for the towns of New Australia." His smile turned to a frown then, as if he realized that the definition might not be clear. "Uh...my work entails keeping the human population of New Australia safe."
"Keep Jem-kind safe," Nita appended, smiling. "Protector."
Zzzzzz. Bzup's curiosity seemed to go up a notch at that definition. Jem arrived back at the table and sat down beside Bzup, placing the plate on the table before the alien, and a cup of water next to it. "There you go."
Bzup looked up at Jem a moment, and made a happy buzzing sound. He raised a hand and daintily picked up the gruff filet from the plate, and brought it towards his diaphragm. The line of his mouth appeared below, broadened and deepened, and opened to accept the filet.
"Amazing," Ana breathed, watching intently.
Mikulsa also seemed to find the process fascinating.
The filet disappeared, and Bzup went after the two servings of stonefish next. They disappeared in the same fashion, and just as quickly. The cup of water followed, and then the little alien's mouth closed again.
Mikulsa grunted, and then smiled. "My grandmother would have once been all over me for bolting my food like that!"
Nico arrived back at the table and set a plate and a cup before Jem, went back to the serving counter, and returned with his own. He sat down next to Jem, and smiled at Mukulsa. "Bzup doesn't waste time eating. We figure that on his world, if you dallied, you'd get eaten, yourself!"
Ana nodded. "His biology does seem adapted to deal more rapidly with changes than any we have encountered until now." She turned to Nita. "And your argument in your last paper that Bzup comes from a world that alternates between dry periods and wet ones seems reasonable to me."
Nita grinned. "You can thank Mister Sharples for that one. His scenario of an extended orbit that would allow for long periods of each condition is what swayed me." She smiled at Bzup. "His kind are true survivors, there's no question about that."
Mikulsa tilted his head back a moment, and then nodded. "It occurs to me that Benteen might seem less hostile to him than it does to us."
That idea intrigued Jem. Bzup's kind had easily mastered the orx. Could they do as well with the more dangerous lifeforms in the equatorial regions?
"If we could get them to work with us, it might make mastering this world easier for both our kinds."
"Possibly." Mikulsa nodded. "It's a thought worth considering."
Jem turned to Bzup. "Bzup? Bzup-kind and Jem-kind work together?"
The alien's eye fixed on him. "Bzup work with Jem, work with Jem-kind. Bzup-kind zay what Bzup-kind do."
Mikulsa frowned at that response. "That seems clear enough, even to me. He's saying he will work with us, but that he cannot speak for his people."
"I agree." Jem shrugged. "We've had that impression all along that Bzup came to us in order to find some way that both species could live together. And that it was not a unanimous decision. It certainly seemed to us that his people tried to prevent him from contacting us."
Mikulsa put an elbow on the table and propped his chin on his hand, watching Bzup. The little alien watched him back, and Jem smiled at the looks of concentration in each. "What are you thinking?"
The older man's eyes came up to meet Jem's, and he smiled. "That this is the most interesting event to come along in my life. And that, for once, I am trying to work with it, instead of making it work for me."
Jem and Nico smiled at each over that. It did sound as if Mikulsa was intent on addressing this new situation with Bzup in more even terms than his usual overtly direct practice. Even so, Jem was mindful of Til's warning to proceed with caution.
"I think it will go more smoothly if you try to get along with Bzup," Jem said cautiously.
Mikulsa looked surprised at that, and then nodded. "I'm aware of the importance of the moment, Jem. What we do here now may make all the difference in the future of our life on this world."
"I'm glad you feel that way," said a new voice. Jem looked up to see Master Terpin entering the mess. The tall man's eyes moved among them, and he smiled. "It's convenient that you're all here just now. I was thinking I'd call a crew meeting this afternoon, but then I decided to just walk around and talk to everyone wherever they happened to be." He came to the table and sat down at one end. "It just seemed simpler."
"Your AI is watching the con?" Mikulsa asked curiously.
"Yes." Master Terpin's eyes looked faintly amused. "He's quite trustworthy. The matter of having a human being in the con at all times is more a matter of custom than actual legal requirement."
Nita smiled at him. "Can I get you something?"
"No, thank you. I had breakfast earlier with Frin. Uh, Mister Sharples."
"So he already knows?" Nico said then, leaning forward intently.
The master did smile then. "Knows what?"
Nico blinked, and reddened, and Jem suppressed a smile of his own and dropped a supportive hand on his friend's shoulder.
Nico sat back then, looking embarrassed. "Um...whatever it is you want to tell us."
But Master Terpin simply nodded. "Of course. He was the first person that I told." He winked then. "But I would not be at all surprised if some people haven't already guessed."
Nico sighed then, evidently feeling relieved. "We're going to look for Chregar?"
"Yes. More or less. The Colonial Administration people feel this is the first step to establishing contact with Bzup's kind. We do need to get Chregar and her crew back. The feeling is that if we find the missing ship, we will also find Bzup's people."
"We don't even know where to look," Nita pointed out. "I mean, it being a given that Bzup's people have moved from the place where we encountered the orx."
"It's a place to start," the master replied. "And, we do have to start somewhere."
"Jem-kind find Chregar?" Bzup asked then.
All eyes turned to the little alien in surprise.
"We'd very much like to find the missing ship, yes," Master Terpin said quietly. "And to talk to your people. Talk to Bzup-kind."
Bzup's eye turned to Jem. "Jem want find Chregar?"
Jem looked over at the master, saw only encouragement there. "Yes."
Bzup's eye traveled around the table, surveying faces, and then returned to Jem. "Bzup help Jem find Chregar."
"Can he do that?" Mikulsa asked softly.
Master Terpin cocked his head at the alien, watched him a moment, and then nodded. "If he says he can, I believe him." He tapped his chin with a finger in thought, and then nodded again. "We'll need to take him to the con, and show him some maps and log images of the area where we encountered the orx. I don't know if that will help, but it's somewhere to begin, at least."
Jem and Nico exchanged excited glances.
They were off to find Chregar!
The master smiled at the boy's expressions. "Finish your breakfast, lads. And then we'll get started."
Jem could tell that Bzup found the bridge of Vespris a fascinating place. The little alien examined everything with a curious eye that could not be missed, taking in the technology around him as if he were no stranger to such things at all. For Bzup to be a member of the crew of a starship of his kind, he would have to be at home with science, even science as grasped by alien minds. His attitude now that he was in familiar territory seemed to impress Master Terpin, and even please him.
"He certainly seems at home here. Let me show him how it works, and we'll see what happens."
The room could be made into a virtual arena for anyone skippering the vessel, appearing to the senses as if one was standing at the very bow of the ship and able to see in every direction. That sense of perspective was mobile, and could draw back to take in what was happening on the working deck, or retreat to the stern and look back along their traveled path, or even soar to the tops of the masts to see from far above. The regular human senses were augmented by the ship's own sensory arrays, giving the skipper an amazing appraisal of what was going on in every direction around the vessel, as well as in the sea below her and the sky above. It allowed the person in control of the vessel to use her every ability instantaneously, almost as if the vessel were a living thing swimming upon the sea. It was this fine level of control that allowed Vespris to move with the almost living deftness needed to pursue orx, for in order to catch such nimble creatures, one had to be similarly endowed with agility. For a basically utilitarian ship of the sea, Vespris was an impressive performer.
"I don't know how well the interface will work with him," Nita said speculatively. "It's designed for our binocular vision. But I guess we won't know unless we try."
Jem had been on the bridge before while the vessel was underway, and been stunned at the level of the imagery. It was so real that it was like flying across the waves, and had given him a thrill of freedom of movement not quite like any other he had experienced.
"Will you come stand before me?" Master Terpin asked, raising a hand towards Bzup and indicating the deck before his command chair. While the view could be shared by anyone on the bridge, it was optimized to be viewed from the point of command, the captain's chair.
Jem opened his mouth to simplify what the master had said, but Bzup seemed to discern the master's meaning, himself, and moved to stand in the indicated place.
Master Terpin nodded, and the room dissolved into a view one might see while flying above the dark waves of the northern sea. Bzup let out an excited bzzzz, and leaned forward, as if he could embrace the view somehow, and make it his own.
"You see where we are now," the master said quietly. "But perhaps you need to see where we have been?"
The view in the room changed, and Jem gasped as he recognized the pack ice where the orx had first attacked Vespris. It was a log image of the past event, and the ship was even then far into her turn to run from the approaching menace.
"Chregar there," Bzup said immediately. "Cloze."
"Close," Master Terpin repeated. He nodded. "We think so, too. But now we think Bzup-kind move Chregar."
"Move Chregar," Bzup agreed. He turned to point to starboard, his small hand seeming to follow the edge of the ice pack. "Go there."
"East," Master Terpin said, narrowing his eyes. He turned to look down at Bzup. "So, if we return to where we encountered the orx, and then travel east along the edge of the ice pack, we will find Chregar?"
Bzup swung about and gazed up at the man. "Yez."
"Is it that simple?" Mikulsa asked.
"It appears to be to Bzup," the master returned. "Chregar isn't some skiff they could hoist up onto the ice and move away from the water. Orx hunter's are fairly massive vessels. They would have had to keep her at sea to move her." He nodded. "That ice pack runs east to west. We came west, so it seems perfectly reasonable to me that Bzup's people chose to move the ship in the opposite direction."
Mikulsa seemed entranced by the view of the ice pack. "How long to return to the scene of that encounter?"
Master Terpin shrugged. "Day and a half, two days. Depends on the currents and the winds."
Jem turned to Bzup. "Vespris return to where meet orx at ice. Bzup show way to Chregar from there?"
Buzp's eye fastened on his, and Jem could see the resolution within. "Yez, Jem. Bzup zhow way."
Jem placed a hand on Bzup's warm hide just above where one arm emerged, and gave the little alien a fond rub. "Bzup learn Jem-talk fast!"
They were in the catch room again, before the large display above Deera's desk. An image taken from one of the ship's forward cameras was on view, showing the whitecaps that danced before the vessel. The wind had come up, the tail end of a storm that had already passed through the area, and there was a slow rising and falling motion to their progress that could not be missed. Jem was amused at times to realize he didn't really even notice such motions anymore - they had become a part of each day and night. And to think that Kel had once wondered if Jem would get seasick!
The northern sea could be rough, but it couldn't quite muster the occasionally evil nature that the northern seas back on Old Earth had known, due to a different distribution of landmasses and currents. Only in the equatorial regions of Benteen could the seas know the hurricane-force storms that had plagued the mother planet. New Australia's shores seldom saw anything stronger than a gale, and the very occasional seasonal storm.
"Jem-talk eazy to learn," Bzup replied, his eye shining with humor as he let his gaze move to Jem.
It was amazing now that Jem could see so much in the little alien's gaze that seemed familiar to him. They had come from worlds separated by incredible distances, and by histories as dissimilar as could be imagined; and yet there was still a kinship of life between them that allowed them to communicate well enough to share thoughts and ideas. It was perhaps a lesson in the notion that knowing the universe required fairly uniform standards in thinking in order to grasp the realities of what nature had to offer. To leave the world of one's birth and explore the worlds beyond must entail a progression of learning and experience that bore similar elements the universe over.
Nico gave a sigh, and smiled down at Bzup. "I'll bet your language is a lot harder to learn."
"Not zame as Jem-talk," Bzup agreed.
"I'm sure we couldn't even reproduce the frequencies needed," Nita offered. "If that burst of sound that Bzup pumped into the sea last week was any indicator, his language must require a range of frequencies we would need electronic equipment to emulate."
"Maybe it could still be learned, with the use of technology," Nico suggested. "A translator of some sort? We've used similar technologies to talk to some of the other species we've encountered in space."
Jem nodded. "It seems unfair that Bzup has to make all the effort to talk to us."
Deera, seated at her desk, smiled at them. "He seems best equipped to do the job, Jem."
"Yes." Jem smiled at the alien. "We have a lot to learn about each other."
"Learn," Bzup agreed. "Learn all."
Varin Mikulsa, until now just listening, gave a nod of agreement at that. "It's going to take time for our two peoples to better understand each other. I just hope we get that time."
"We need to make sure we do," Mister Sharples said. He had come into the catch room earlier and had been checking the connections to Bzup's hut. Now he came around the little building and eyed Mikulsa pointedly. "A lot of that will be up to you."
Mikulsa looked as if that bothered him somehow. "I plan to do everything I can to make this work. But I have no say at all in how Bzup's kind react to us. We are going to have to get Chregar and her people back without fighting to do it, in order for this situation to progress. That is a requirement for further talks to go on."
"Bzup help find Chregar," Bzup repeated.
"I know." Mikulsa held out a hand then, as if expressing his doubt. "But what will your people do when we arrive?"
A shade of uncertainty crept into Bzup's gaze. "Bzup-kind zay what Bzup-kind do."
"And, we're back to that again," Mikulsa said wearily.
Jem nodded. "I think it's wise that Bzup admits he doesn't speak for all his people. But that doesn't mean they don't care about him, or what he thinks, or what he says. It seems to me that they went to some trouble to try to get him back, and to keep him from coming to us."
"There's something to that," Mister Sharples said then. "They certainly tried to keep us from taking him off the hull, anyway."
"Maybe they didn't know he was here until we found him, ourselves," Nico suggested. "Or very close to that time. There was a storm just before we found him on the hull, remember."
Mikulsa gave a brief shake of his head at that. "What we don't know may come back to haunt us at some point." He smiled then. "But it says something for Bzup's people that they didn't just shoot him off your hull as some traitor for trying to contact you. They did seem to want him back, right?"
"They were not trying to injure him," Mister Sharples agreed. "Just trying to keep us from taking him. That was my impression, anyway."
"And the black disc I saw in your log record - it didn't fire on your ship, or in any way act aggressive once it left the water."
"It just buzzed us a few times, trying to blow the drones off the hull," Jem admitted. "So that they couldn't reach Bzup."
Nico nodded. "After we filled the water with prods and they came up to the surface, all they seemed concerned about was getting away after that."
Nita frowned at that. "I don't blame them, after we shot explosives at them. They saw how dangerous we were then."
"We don't know that," Mister Sharples interrupted. "I would have seen it as a warning, not an attempt to destroy my ship. Those prods are not really destructive devices. They're large enough to generate a pressure wave that's quite unpleasant to sea life, but that's it. Against a steel hull they would be fairly harmless."
"They sure brought that disc up fast!" Nico countered. "It acted like it was barely under control when we saw it."
"Probably stunned the...the pilot," Mikulsa said uncertainly. "Especially if they use a virtual interface like we do to operate their vessels. That would have been a lot of input, very suddenly."
Nita favored the men with a somewhat sour look. "Whatever they thought, they seemed to react with surprise."
Mikulsa shook his head. "I hope that's not how they react to everything. I would think an intelligent species capable of traveling the stars would be more prepared for the unexpected."
"But we don't know anything about them," Jem countered. "If they were stranded here when the Righoff lines shifted, that was three hundred years ago. Is this the same group of Bzup's people that were stranded here then? Or are these their children? If these are descendants of the original travelers, then all they know is life here on Benteen. And that has been a period of time when humans did not know about them, and they felt safe."
Mikulsa looked surprised. "You haven't asked him before if he came here with the original vessel?"
Nita grunted. "There has been so much we've tried to learn from each other, that particular question never came up."
Mikulsa narrowed his eyes at that. He turned to Bzup, who was already watching him. "Um, Bzup?"
"Miztermikulza?"
The man seemed unable not to smile. "Uh - Bzup-kind stranded on Benteen, right?"
Zzzzz. The little alien looked uncertain. "Ztranded?"
"I don't think he knows that word yet," Jem supplied. He turned to Bzup. "Bzup kind come to Benteen from stars?"
"Yez. Bzup-kind come from ztarz. Like Jem-kind come from ztarz."
"He knows we're not native to this world, then," Ana said, as if confirming an idea she'd been uncertain about. "That's an important bit of knowledge."
"Yes," Jem agreed. "We already knew they understood we were star travelers like themselves. Colonists. Nico and I have spoken to Bzup about this before." He turned back to the alien. "Bzup kind come Benteen, find Jem-kind here already?"
"Yez." Bzup turned to Mikulsa. "Bzup-kind not ztay when find Jem-kind on Benteen. But Bzup-kind no go home."
"We showed him diagrams of Righoff lines, and we think he understands them," Nico said. "Bzup-kind no go home because Righoff lines move?"
"Yez. Leave Benteen, go look for way home. But no go home. No go Mrzzz, no go Alizzz, no go Jurzzz. Come back, ztay Benteen."
Ana shook her head. "I didn't get that."
Jem nodded. "I think he means they couldn't go home, nor could they go to three other worlds with the names he mentioned. As you know from human travels, Righoff lines branch, and can lead to many solar systems. Sometimes, when they shift, they cut off more than one system from others. It depends where along the gravitational lines the shift occurs. The shift that affected us apparently occurred along lines that connect Benteen to the worlds of both races."
"Does that mean their homeworld is located in the same part of the sky as ours?" Ana asked.
"Not necessarily," Mister Sharples answered. "It just means the the Righoff lines both races needed to travel to get here meet at some point before arriving at Benteen."
Nico looked excited at that idea. "So they did leave when they found us here, and tried to go home, or to another of their worlds, but they were unable to reach any of those places, and had to come back here."
"Only port in the storm," Mister Sharples said quietly. "They had no place else to go."
"So, are they the children of these original explorers?" Mikulsa asked.
Jem smiled, knowing it wasn't that easy. "Well, Nita showed him some video of the human reproductive process, and he seemed to find it intensely interesting. We did ask him some questions about how his race propagates, but the answers were less than illuminating."
Mikulsa looked to Nita, and then back to Jem. "So, how do we learn the answer?"
"Maybe we'd better ask Bzup again," Nico suggested. "We can communicate better now than we could then."
Jem nodded. "I'll try. Bzup? Star ship, Bzup kind, come to Benteen, one-ship?"
"Yez. One-ship."
"Okay. Bzup come Benteen with one-ship?"
"Yez. Bzup come with one-ship."
"According to how we've learned to talk between us, we can take the term one-ship to mean original ship in this case, I'm pretty sure," Nita supplied.
"So he is at least 300 years old," Ana mused. "Their lifespans are long ones!"
Jem grunted. "Bzup? Bzup-kind children now on one-ship?"
The little alien's eye looked puzzled, as if he knew he had already answered this question before. "Bzup come, Bzup ztay. All Bzup ztay."
Mikulsa frowned at that. "That doesn't make sense to me."
Jem sighed. "No. I don't understand what he means, either."
"Does he mean all of his people stayed?" Ana asked.
Nita shook her head. "Bzup understands that when we say Bzup-kind, we mean his people. His race. He isn't referring to his people in this statement."
"Then what?" Ana asked.
The younger biologist frowned. "Bzup's very literal in his answers. The inability to get what he means is on our side. But...my interpretation of what he is saying now is that he is referring to all of his kind that are Bzup."
"Bzup!" Bzup agreed.
"But what does that mean?" Mikulsa asked.
Nita sighed. "There is nothing in his internal scans that even remotely looks like the human reproductive system."
Ana held out a hand. "Maybe he just makes the organs when he needs them?"
"I haven't ruled that out. But I have also had to entertain the idea that his kind reproduce by some other method than we know."
Jem squinted at the little alien, a new idea forming in his mind. "Bzup? More than one Bzup?"
The eye that turned up to him seemed amused. Bzup held up both hands, and waggled his fingers. "More one Bzup."
Jem held up his own fingers. "More Bzup than this?"
Bzup waggled his fingers again, which Jem now took to mean more than the number of digits there. "More."
Jem leaned closer to the alien. "One of you had to be first." He patted Bzup's hide. "Bzup one? Bzup two? Bzup three?"
"Bzup...many." The alien's gaze was fixed on Jem. Bzup took a hand and placed it against his front. "Bzup one, one-zhip. Many Bzup yezterday, many Bzup tomorrow."
No one said anything for a moment.
Mikulsa stared around at faces. "Is he saying what I think he's saying?"
Nita held up her hands. "I have no idea. What do you think he's saying?"
The bearded man licked his lips carefully. "It sounds like...it sounds to me like he's saying that there were many Bzup's that came before him, but that he was the first one on the vessel that arrived here. But...that other Bzups have come since then."
Nita smiled. "That's sort of what I was thinking, too."
"So, what are we talking here?" Mister Sharples asked. "Parthenogenesis, or some other form of self-reproduction?"
Ana blew out an amazed breath. "I would be cautious in speculating at this point. We mustn't narrow this to any one idea of reproduction. Parthenogenesis is a complex process, with many variations on Old Earth, and appears here on Benteen as well. But it is mostly confined to plants, algae, and lower forms of invertebrate and vertebrate species. In all our travels, we have yet to encounter higher-order, intelligent life that reproduces this way."
"First time for everything," Mister Sharples said, grinning.
Nita laughed. "I agree that we shouldn't even assume something without more to go on. Parthenogenesis still requires some visible mechanisms for reproduction, and Bzup's internal scans show no organs that appear to be of that nature."
"Maybe he does just makes them when he needs them," Mikulsa dared. He frowned. "In fact...are we even certain Bzup is a he at all?"
Jem blinked in surprise at the little alien. For all the time he had known Bzup, he had just thought of the alien as being male. Could that assumption be wrong?
"I never really thought about that," he confessed.
"I have," Nita offered. "I asked him about his gender when we teaching him about human reproduction. I couldn't make heads nor tails of his answer."
Jem frowned at that. "I don't remember you asking him that. Where was I?"
"You and Nico were chasing after an orx." The woman smiled. "Life does go on when you're not here, you know."
"Yeah," NIco said, giving Jem a playful jab with his elbow. "You're not the center of everyone's universe!"
Jem grinned at the implication in his friend's gaze, that Jem was the center of Nico's universe.
But what about the question of gender? And...did it really matter?
"Bzup boy?" Jem asked automatically, and then laughed at the look of incomprehension that arrived in the alien's eye.
Nita rolled her eyes. "You'll need to do better than that! But I'll bet you don't get more of an answer than I did!"
Jem nodded. "Jem-kind sex," he said to the alien, referring back to the videos they had shown to Bzup. Jem patted his chest. "Male." He turned to Nita then, and pointed at her. "Female. What Bzup?"
Zzzz. "Jem. Bzup no male, no female. Jem-kind zex, no Bzup-kind."
Mister Sharples made a small pop of air as he released his breath in surprise. "What's not to understand? That seems pretty clear."
Mikulsa sighed. "You mean we're back to the we don't know part again!"
Several people laughed.
"You don't pull all the mysteries out of the universe in a single day," Ana admonished gently. She smiled. "Sometimes, it takes several."
"I don't think it matters that much," Jem decided, smiling at Bzup. "We have time to learn all that stuff later. For now, Bzup's a him to me."
Mikulsa gave a quick shake of his head. "I'm surprised the matter of how they reproduce hasn't been pursued more diligently."
"We toured human sexuality while we were teaching him about ourselves," Nita explained. "I showed him a few videos. He seemed curious, but I also had the impression it was all very alien to him."
Jem nodded. "There was much more of a language barrier then, too. We're only just getting to the point where we really understand each other pretty well."
"And even that requires a lot of imagination!" Nico added, his eyes twinkling.
Jem patted Bzup on his side. "It doesn't matter, Bzup. Jem-kind learn, Bzup-kind learn."
The alien seemed to find that acceptable. "Learn all."
Mikulsa watched Bzup a moment longer, and then sighed. "There aren't going to be any instant answers here, that seems obvious." But then he smiled. "I actually think I would be disappointed if there were. We really know a lot more than we have any right to know, after such a short period of time. I'll try to be more patient with this process."
Mister Sharples grunted, but his eyes looked to contain surprise. "That seems a very smart approach, if I do say so, myself!"
The bearded man, smiled, but then turned back to Bzup. "One thing we do need to learn more about, is how they got here."
Nico glanced quickly over at Jem, but then plunged ahead. "What do you mean? They came in a ship, certainly."
"Oh, I know that. But where is it? What does it look like?"
"We saw the black disc," Nico said, doubtfully. "It at least might suggest a design."
Mikulsa rubbed his beard in thought. "The consensus back home is that the disc you saw is on the same order as the Raptor that brought Ana and myself here. Designed for local travel, I mean. Bzup's kind certainly did not arrive here in something as small as that black disc. An exploratory ship would be rather large, if our own designs are anything to go by. A ship designed to trace Righoff lines has to be totally self-contained, and ready for any situation. That we have not detected any sort of large craft in the atmosphere isn't surprising, because we really aren't set up anymore to do that. But there are more than enough ships like Vespris out here at sea to see something large if it was moving around. So, where is it?"
"I see what you mean," Mister Sharples said. "The Raptor doesn't look anything like an interstellar exploratory vessel of our own kind."
"That's what I mean. We could be faced with a situation, literally, of not recognizing an alien spacecraft even if we saw it."
Nico laughed. "Disguised as an iceberg, maybe?"
The engineer grinned at that. "You never know. If we find their ship, and it looks like a big berg, remember you said that."
Mikulsa held up a hand. "I don't want to seem like I am interrogating our friend here. So maybe I should refrain from asking questions about their technology just yet. But...once we arrive close to where his people might be based, we are going to need to know a few more things."
"We'll ask him then," Jem agreed. "I think he'll tell us anything important. He wants this meeting to succeed."
Mikulsa nodded. "I think I'm done here for now. I need to check in with my superiors at Colonial Authority. But we have another day or more before we arrive at the pack ice. I would like to spend that time with you boys and Bzup, if at all possible."
"Bzup!" Bzup said then, his eye on Jem.
"I think it's okay with Bzup," Jem said, smiling. "Sure, we can do that. Right, Nico?"
"That's fine with me."
Mikulsa nodded. "Great. I'll see you people later this evening."
They watched him go, and there was silence a moment until after the door to the stairway had closed.
"Interesting man," Nita finally said, smiling.
Ana laughed. "He's been playing nice since he got here. He's even surprised me!"
"I think he's doing pretty well, so far," Mister Sharples said. "I'm willing to wait and see."
Jem glanced over at the chronometer above Deera's desk, and blinked in surprise. "Hey...it's almost time for dinner. This day sure went fast!"
"I hope the attendance will be good this evening," Mister Sharples said. "By now, Master Terpin has spoken with everyone aboard ship. We have a lot to talk about, and the dinner table seems a logical place."
Nico came closer and leaned against Jem's shoulder. "I know I'm hungry. All this talk burns up the calories!"
There was a general round of laughter at that.
"I'd like to walk around and talk to a few people, myself," Jem said. "Invite them to dinner, so to speak." He smiled. "Just to make certain."
The engineer turned towards the doorway to the staircase. "Let's all do that. But I think we'll find that everyone already plans to be there!"
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