by Laer Carroll
Elizabeth ignored the comment.
"Boredom. That is the great killer. Advanced civilizations protect us from injury and illness very effectively and we have no war. Can you imagine living thousands of years, nearly forever, and staying happy? Or even sane?
"So we look for novelty in all sorts of places and activities. Primitive societies offer so much of that. This is why when we received news that Earth had progressed to the point that our presence would be acceptable to you a number of us organized and commissioned me to transport them here."
Jane smiled. "We of course don't consider ourselves primitive. You might want to avoid such a label in public."
She sobered.
"I don't judge you a threat to Earth and Earth's interests. So I'll escort you to the three locations you desire, more for politeness sake than for any other reason. But there will be many interests which find your presence distressing. You will have to engage in considerable diplomacy."
"Which is why we engaged a professional diplomat," said the motley-wearing Cat. "May I introduce you to Condi?"
A Cat sitting beside the speaker nodded to Jane. She (or he?) wore a grey coverall and showed some traces of grey in her fur. That was the only hints of age, however. Her face seemed as young as everyone else's. Perhaps the grey was decoration or diplomatic symbology.
For the first time the emotional impact of what she had already known intellectually hit her. Every one of these creatures was hundreds or even thousands of years old.
What wisdom they must have acquired! How like a newborn she herself must seem to them.
For a moment Jane called Robot into HERself. SHE looked about HER and SAW the glow of intelligence and age emanating from these beings.
But beside HER they were the infants. The cyborg was chronologically at least half a million years old and maybe several million years old. They were babes beside HER.
Comforted, JANE abandoned HER godhood. Only a few hundred milliseconds had elapsed but that had been enough to calm HER.
Every Cat in the room seemed to have shrunk flat on their benches.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I needed some information and called upon my internal data storage unit. I didn't realize that this might seem like a threat!"
Elizabeth had recovered as Jane spoke. Now she replied.
"Quite all right, Jane. Perhaps we should have warned you that such an action would be obvious to everyone and be a cause for concern."
The ambassador Condi had not cringed as had everyone else when Jane merged with Robot. Now he said, "Perhaps you can give us some idea how our presence in your stellar system will be received."
Jane was glad that the conversation had passed beyond her action. She said, "Of course there will be varied responses, some very happy, some just the opposite. But on the whole the fact that a unit of Earth's Space Force is escorting you everywhere should reassure many."
"Especially since it is you who is the captain of the escorting ship. The briefing we received from the Confederation mentioned the considerable role you have played in opening up the entire stellar system to your planet."
Jane wasn't sure if this was flattery or what the Cat thought was a simple statement of fact.
"That may be true. But Quidditch? You came an interstellar distance to play a game?"
"I must second the Captain's comment on the importance of novelty to the morale of the long-lived. One of the sources of such novelty is works of art. You might be surprised how far such works as the Potter books have traveled. And how many the people, places, and actions of the books have influenced individuals of more than one race. They have even impressed some in the Slisthian Federation. That such a dour species could be influenced was a surprise to me."
Jane had read about the aliens Condi mentioned. They vaguely resembled lizards, an effect heightened by their skin color: a pale green. They lived on hot worlds a little heavier than Earth and after the Cats were the aliens closest to humans in thought and emotions.
Jane smiled. "I wonder how the author of the Potter books is going to take this news. And whether she will want to be paid royalties."
"You take it as a joke but I assure you that such concerns will occupy much of my attention when I discuss Centauroid presence in Earth space with the United Nations. I will have to acquire a staff on Earth when I get there. May I presume that you will take me there? I could of course borrow a spacecraft from the Captain but the entry of one alien craft into your local space will cause enough concern as it is."
Jane could foresee interesting times ahead!
A matter occurred to her. "What will you use for money to hire such a staff?"
Condi said, "There are several standard way to do that. One is to borrow money on the promise to share scientific and technical knowledge. I'm sure there will be many takers, probably so many that I will need a second staff just to handle financial matters."
A Cat larger than the others lifted a hand and said, "May I introduce myself, Colonel? I am called Plato. I too want to be taken to Earth. I wish to meet with philosophical and religious specialists."
"I'll be happy to. And anyone else. But I can't guarantee that the UN and the various national authorities will allow any aliens to land on Earth. Besides, wouldn't your presence on Earth be uncomfortable? I understand that your planet of origin was quite cold compared to Earth. And had half the atmospheric pressure."
Plato made a dismissive gesture. "Those of us who routinely meet aliens--aliens to us--have had ourselves genetically modified to be comfortable in a wide variety of environments. And of course we can always wear clothing and helmets to make us comfortable in the more extreme environments."
Condi added, "Besides, much or even most of our business can be done remotely, by your virtual reality headsets."
Elizabeth said, "I think we've taken up enough of the Captain's time getting acquainted. We don't want to stress her suit's limits. I suggest, Jane, that I take you on a brief tour of my ship, then let you get back to the comfort of your own."
"Don't worry about time limits. This suit is much more capable than most. I could stay here longer than most. But thank you for the offer. I'd love to see your ship."
Elizabeth and Thelonius rose from their seats and Jane followed suit. The three left the room followed by Thank yous and Good-to-have-met-yous.
In the hallway Elizabeth walked to Jane's right and Thelonius to his captain's right. She said to Jane, "I'm sure that most everyone took your statement about consulting your internal data storage unit at face value. But I noticed that the mechanism you used is inside you, instead of outside as ours are."
She reached up one of her hands and tapped a coin-like silver device which seemed glued to her temple. It seemed so flat that it might have simply been painted on.
Thelonius added, "I noticed that too. And that you are also modified in other very sophisticated ways. The only Confederation citizens that I have ever seen so heavily modified were Star Guardians."
Jane knew about the Guardians in the Confederation sense. They were combined interstellar police and soldiers rather like the old-time Texas Rangers. Superbly trained and equipped, those policemen had ranged all over Texas providing protection and law to people on the frontier.
Supposedly there was a Guardian which oversaw the volume of space in which the Earth existed. She or he traveled in a ship the size of a small moon which carried hundreds or thousands of smaller spacecraft, all of them carrying weapons. Alone she could handle an armada of spacecraft carrying aliens of any of the hundred or so species less advanced than the thirteen peaceful very advanced species that included humans, Cats, and Lizards.
Elizabeth said, "I hope I'm not out of line to ask: Are you a Guardian, Captain?"
There was no hiding from the Cats that she was from a civilization like the Human Interstellar Confederation and highly augmented. But she need not tell them much beyond that.
"I am from the Confederation, though a branch far away." In time as well as spa
ce, she did not say.
"I am not a Guardian, at least in the Confederation sense. I HAVE taken a similar role in this stellar system. As part of that job I've taken the identity of a native-born human. I would prefer that you not confide my origin to anyone beyond you two."
Jane glanced at the two Cats. Thelonius, further away and a step ahead of his captain, had eyes not for Jane but for his boss. Elizabeth looked straight ahead.
"I will certainly keep your confidence, Captain. I understand the strictures placed on you by your responsibilities."
Thelonius nodded and agreed.
They had been walking down a short hall and now exited through doors which slid apart. The room beyond had a familiar layout: it was a ship's control room. It had a wall full of view screens, a crescent set of seats in front of the wall peopled by a half-dozen Cats, and a slightly raised dais with three seats mounted upon the dais.
"Amazing," Jane said. "This could almost be my control room."
Elizabeth said, "You'd find that Slisthian ship control rooms have a similar layout. Similar functionality dictates similar structures."
"'Form follows function' is how we express the principle."
"Excellent. Very succinct. No, stay on your station."
That last was addressed to a Cat seated on its bench seat on the dais, the middle of three seats. She had swiveled her upper body and head toward the doors through which Jane and her companions had come.
"As you will, Captain." The alien had answered in English. Jane was impressed at the ease of the aliens in what, to them, was a language of an entirely different species. And by their courtesy in using the language of their guest.
Elizabeth mentioned a few of the functions of the work stations, then led Jane out of the room through a different hallway, saying "I must show you our ascensor/descensor system."
The long hallway exited into a circular walkway about a hundred feet across. It surrounded a deep hole. There was a guardrail keeping them from walking into the hole. The top of the chasm was roofed with a luminous dome. The bottom about 200 feet down was a round floor with dozens of people walking across it.
Most remarkable were the Cats floating up and down in the void.
"This is one of four shafts which we use for short trips. To use it we step into an Up or Down channel. You can see the edges of the channels." She pointed. Jane saw that faint pink lines marked out invisible elevator shafts.
"Notice how people halt their progress. They just put a hand or foot into the side of the channel."
Jane observed the process. As soon as a traveler halted they were pulled by an invisible force into the neighboring channel or, if the channel was next to one of the walkways like the one on which she leaned, onto that walkway. The guardrail swung out of each channel, not into it.
It took a bit of acrobatic skill to travel the levels. To an onlooker the many travelers she was seeing looked a bit like trapeze artists. The system did not surprise her; Cats had evolved in the treetops of forests and bore more than a passing resemblance to squirrels.
"Looks like fun," Jane said. "Can we try it?"
The two Cats grinned. Elizabeth said, "Don't be surprised if you have trouble. It does take some practice."
Jane grinned back. "I don't mind making a fool of myself in front of strangers. Shall we?"
"I'll go first," said Elizabeth. "Watch how I do it. Thelonius will follow and help you if you get into trouble."
Jane went into cyborg mode. To HER in the thousand-to-one slowed world SHE could minutely study Elizabeth's progress. It took HER only a few hundred milliseconds to understand it in detail. SHE dropped out of the cyborg state, opened the nearest gate in the guardrail, and stepped into the six-foot wide channel before her.
She kept her feet pointed down as the weak down-gravity field caught her. She teetered back and forth in an upright position as she shifted her arms to stay balanced.
It took her only a couple of floors of descent to master balance in a low-gravity field. It helped that her fall rate was constant rather than increasing as it would in a natural gravity field.
Elizabeth had dived into the channel and was watching Jane from an upside-down position.
Jane jackknifed and kicked a foot into then out of the edge of the channel as if kicking a wall. This gave her added control of her upending maneuver. This upside-down position let her better look back up at Thelonius as he dove into the channel.
Jane put out a hand and let herself be pulled into an adjacent Up channel, flipped back into an upright position, and watched grinning as Thelonius passed by her going down. Then she put out a hand to be pulled into the Down channel and followed Thelonius and Elizabeth to the bottom of the channel.
Nearing the floor she flipped to put her feet down again and flexed her legs to land gently. Once down gravity reasserted itself and she followed Elizabeth and Thelonius into the circular walkway outside the bottom floor of shaft.
"Well," said Elizabeth, "it's plain to see you've had a lot of zero-g or acrobatic experience. Congratulations, Captain. If there was a degree in ascensor/descensor maneuvering we'd have to present you with one."
"I'll bet," said a smiling Thelonius, "that you could give kids playing Gravity Tag a good game."
"Are there games for the--ascensor/descensor channels--which adults play?"
"Yes. There are several, some using balls."
Jane filed that information away to relay to Phil when she saw him next.
Elizabeth said, "This level is devoted to control of ship travel and administration. This next one down is the education and research level."
She turned and walked around the circular walkway to a set of wide shallow stairs which led down to a lower circular walkway. They entered it. The shaft was like the previous one. Elizabeth stepped into it. Jane and Thelonius followed her.
Near the bottom of the shaft she stepped out onto the walkway and then through a tall wide open doorway. Again she stopped and let her companions catch up with her.
"This level is the equivalent of your middle secondary schools. Would you like to visit a class?"
"Yes I would!"
Elizabeth touched the silver circle on one side of her head and apparently silently communicated with someone or something.
"There is a class with the equivalent of one of your fifth-grade schoolrooms that is available for a visit by a human."
She turned and walked down a long hall. Near the end she turned into another such. Partway down it she stopped.
"They are expecting us."
She entered the classroom through a doorway which opened before her.
Jane's first impression was of a large meadow under a blue sky lit by a bright overhead sun. She and her companions were on the edge of the meadow where it merged with an open forest of tall trees with white trunks and leaves like green streamers.
She had little time to find the seams (if any) of the illusion. For strung between two of the nearer trees was a banner. It read WELCOME JANE KUZNETSOV.
Beside her Elizabeth spoke in a low voice.
"Their Companion, whom you can think of as a teacher, suggested the event and the children implemented it. This is him."
The centaur who approached them seemed very young, barely out of childhood himself. His coverall had zebra stripes of lime green and gold.
"Welcome to the Sea Otters, Colonel. I'm Athena."
"A pleasure to meet you, Athena. Please call me Jane. I see you have a very enterprising group of students."
He turned to survey the dozen or so slender Cats who waited several feet away.
"Yes. They've come far along the way in the educational-development track toward being independent adults. Come meet them."
Jane walked forward to the line of students. It curved into a semicircle as those furthest from the end of the line stepped forward to come closer.
In the middle of the line the smallest of the Cats took one step forward and held out a hand to shake. Jane reached her na
ked hand to grasp the student's hand.
They shook. The student seemed delighted but trying to remain solemn.
"Hello, Colonel. I call myself Morbius."
"Call me Jane. Morbius. An unusual name."
"I took it when we knew we'd meet humans and studied you and your culture. It's the name of a character in a movie I liked."
"I know the very one. I liked it too. Who is this next to you?"
The young Cat introduced her to the Cat beside her then to the rest of the group. She seemed to be the leader despite being the smallest of them and perhaps the youngest.
Introductions made, the teacher suggested they sit. Morbius led the way to a circle of seats. All but one were the bench-like Cat seats Jane had seen earlier. That one was a human ergonomic seat.
Jane sat and said, as the rest settled onto seats, "This is very comfortable."
"Yes," said another of the young Cats. "We studied human anatomy and needs. We're very happy to meet one of you. Though surprised it is so soon. Everyone thought it wouldn't be until we had settled into our new homes."
Jane was impressed that the immature Cat used the "wouldn't" contraction so naturally. It reminded her once again how good the linguistic part of the Confederation's briefing package must be, and how complete the cultural part of it must be. She could almost believe she was talking with other humans, not aliens.
Jane questioned the students about their courses of study. It turned out that each student had already picked a "trial professional specialization."
"For a first career I think I might like forestry creation and care," said Sylvan, a large female.
The boy Cat beside her wanted to be an artificial gravitation researcher. "We have such complete control of gravity that it sometimes seems we know all about the phenomenon. That's not true."
Most of the kids wanted to work at--or at least try--scientific or engineering professions. However, one of them was an audiovisual artist who played several instruments and performed.
An hour passed pleasantly with Jane occasionally answering questions but usually bringing the conversation back to the lives of the young Cat centaurs.
