Samantha's Talent

by Darrell Bain

  "Yes, sir!" she said and meant it. She liked her job and she had never heard that tone of voice from him.

  At eight o'clock that evening a helicopter delivered a mussed and extremely aggravated acoustics engineer. Jane had told everyone the man held a doctorate in wave length interpretation of various bird species and a consultant to the military in research on using finely directed sound waves as a weapon. His first words to Anton, who met him as he finished running from beneath the still-turning blades were, "What in the hell is all this goddamned rush and no excuses bullshit?"

  "Just what I said it was, Dr. Olson. A national emergency. Get in the car and let's go."

  "Do you mind if I unload my equipment first?"

  An hour later he was ensconced with Juan, Jane and Samantha, as well as Shufus and Sheik. He was taking orders from everyone but Shufus. Perhaps the German Shepherd felt sorry for him. Occasionally he came over to the sweating engineer and nudged his head into range for a head pat or ear rub. The big friendly dog seemed to relax Dr. Olson and get him settled in to work as long as necessary. He heard the young woman who was his owner admonish him not to bark under any circumstances but was doubtful her order would stop any barking if the dog decided it wanted to. As he fiddled with sound equipment, ear phones and oscilloscopes in order to convert the sound from the animation put together by Juan and Samantha, he began to wonder why he was performing the task and what the dog was doing there. He was afraid it would bark unexpectedly at a crucial moment and ruin hours of work despite the warning not to.

  It was only when a wayward glance away from his instruments happened to catch both Samantha and Shufus together in a familiar pose, similar to one he had seen on the internet, that he recognized them for who they were. After the realization came over him, his grumbling stopped. He paused after that only to ask for more coffee or a snack or to take a ten minute nap, at the end of which he appeared remarkably refreshed. Samantha wanted to ask him how his cat naps worked so effective but dared not interrupt him for fear of a mistake occurring.

  Once he completed the sound conversion and synchronized it with the animation, David Marston was rushed into Olson's impromptu sound engineering and acoustical dynamics laboratory to begin a new job. He began working at the end of an assembly line consisting of Juan and Samantha devising rough astronomical data into CGI form, then David correcting and revising so that all their hurried animation and explanations were astronomically correct. Dr. Olson took over from there, converting their words into a range of MHz sound waves above and below those audible to human hearing and making certain they were again synchronized to the animation. The astronomical data was designed to let Reddy point out his home star system if he would.

  All this took time, of course. As dawn broke, Anton consulted with Juan and Samantha and gave everyone six hours to get some food and sleep. By noon they were toiling again. Everything they thought might possibly be useful had to be ready by the following morning.

  "That's it," Samantha said at ten o'clock that night. "I quit because we've got it all ready. If that blasted feather-looking, independent-eyed, rainbow-colored runt doesn't catch on to all this then it's too damned dumb to work with."

  "Too dumb!" Sheik reiterated. He was becoming bored at not having enough to do or enough attention paid to him. Shufus simply stretched out and slept when everyone was too busy to scratch behind his ears or ruffle his fur.

  ***

  Again, Samantha, Juan and Anton waited at the site where the alien craft had effectively vanished. Juan leaned forward until he felt the side of the craft and knocked in a "Shave and a haircut, two bits!" rhythm. The second time the alien craft and its inhabitant blinked into visual existence.

  "Ready, ready, ready!" Sheik screeched just in case the creature wasn't well awake yet. Shufus gave it a loud bark just to be sure.

  "That's enough, guys," Samantha said.

  "Yup. Let's get started," Juan said.

  The animation began to play. None of the humans could hear the sound but it was there. The alien being they were calling Reddy among themselves stood silently until the end then flapped its arms excitedly.

  "That must mean either yes or okay," Juan said.

  "It might mean for us to play it again, but never mind. Let's feed it the astronomical data now," Samantha said. She was almost as excited as Sheik. He had moved his wings in concert with the varicolored alien's flapping arms.

  Apparently it appreciated the astronomical animation. It waved its arms again and disappeared for ten minutes. When it came back into view it produced an animation of its own.

  "Damn showoff," Anton muttered at the speed with which it had composed its own CGI animation and then somehow caused it appear on their own computer screen without inserting a memory chip. How it did the trick wasn't nearly as important presently as the sheer beauty of its three dimensional depiction.

  Strange symbols began appearing with corresponding pictures. Juan understood what was being represented immediately. Samantha got it only a moment later. Specialists in problematical first contact with alien cultures had always claimed that math would be a universal language. Evidently they were right, up to a point. The problem was that its symbols, already strange, were arranged in three dimensional arrays. Again, Jane was called forth. She appeared in less than fifteen minutes, sleepy-eyed but eager. Her face was still pretty despite its lack of makeup. Her taffy-blond hair was essentially uncombed but gathered in a bundle behind her neck with a ribbon. She saw the problem immediately.

  "We need to get Liadra here, but in the meantime record Reddy's presentation."

  "We have, right from the start. Why Liadra, though?"

  "She can convert the recording from three dimensional to how we normally look at a screen, in the regular two dimensions. After that I can make better sense of those symbols--up to a point. She'll have to take over soon, though. Possibly she can even see the relationships in 3D where I either can't or have a really hard time of it. Then there's the fact that she's a much better and more advanced mathematician than me. I'll be lost pretty soon regardless of how Reddy is presenting its data. In fact, I may already have misinterpreted some of the first parts of it.

  Liadra Asha, their advanced theoretical mathematician and computer genius, didn't appear looking quite so sleepy as Jane had, but neither was she completely fresh, either. Samantha knew she was a late sleeper and a late worker. Here she was though, compelled to the scene by the chance to help communicate with a being from another world, just like everyone else. Even she had problems but by the next day, after viewing it numerous times, she began to decipher bits of the creature's presentation.

  "Doesn't that sumbitch ever sleep?" Juan asked grumpily somewhere around seven o'clock the next morning. No one had been to bed that night.

  "If it doesn't, I do," Samantha said. "How can we tell it we want to quit for a while?"

  "Beats the hell out of me," Juan admitted. "I guess I could try another one of those red circle timing sequences if I can stay awake long enough."

  A few minutes later while he was still composing the graphic, the alien took the initiative and closed down. Anton left Gene as a watchdog and everyone left to get some sleep.

  ***

  The next morning, Samantha followed an animation created by Reddy with renewed interest. It featured a number of circles with red shadings of various amounts. When it was finished, she blinked herself back into the normal world.

  "Either it's telling us it will stay here and talk with us for six months or it's saying it will be back in six months. It's one or the other but I'm not sure which."

  "For a decent night's sleep I'd almost be willing to wait six months," Juan commented with a yawn.

  "I'd rather do something in bed other than sleep to get my head back on straight," Samantha said, then blushed as she realized she had spoken aloud.

  "Sammie in bed, Sammie in bed," Sheik cooed sultrily in Samantha's voice, causing her to blush even more furiously.


  "Well, we have been engaged less than a month and this creature did interrupt what little time we have together," she said in a feeble attempt to dissuade anyone from what they must naturally be thinking. "Hmm. I wonder if I could make it understand that."

  Fortunately, the being intended to stay and talk for at least six months, or even longer if the indication of a new graphic was a guide. Samantha thought it was a good thing, since after the initial breakthroughs, progress had slowed to a crawl. She realized it was probably going to be months before they could work out even the basics of a mutual language. Two days later, and late in the afternoon, Samantha managed to convey the message that she and Juan were taking a three day break in order to refresh themselves, come hell, high water or the Andromeda galaxy exploding.

  The being flapped its arms and wiggled its four fingers and two thumbs on each hand.

  "I bet that's its version of laughter," Jane said.

  "Either that or it's saying it wishes it had a partner here," Anton teased in a rare display of humor.

  "Maybe Reddy wants some sleep, too, and that's what he's saying. Juan retorted. "Whatever, we'll see you in three days. Come on, Sweetheart. Let's go get some rest."

  Chapter Forty Four

  "Where to?" Juan asked.

  "You'd better just take me on home. I need to have something to eat and get some sleep. So do you. Besides, I think we need to back off just a bit. Do you realize we almost turned you into a criminal? If it hadn't been for Reddy reappearing, we probably would have."

  "I know. My fault."

  "It's neither of our faults, sweetheart. We both need to think about it, though, and come up with some kind of solution." She looked at him imploringly for a moment then leaned forward and kissed him. She felt her body aching with the need for him, but with the desire for food and sleep coming in a close second.

  "Yeah. Get some sleep and let's meet tomorrow afternoon sometime. Maybe we'll have our thoughts in order by then." He chuckled sleepily. "Anyway, if we tried anything right now I'd probably go to sleep on you."

  Samantha smiled crookedly. "Really?"

  "Scratch that. I'd just go to sleep period."

  "Me, too."

  A few minutes later she was inside the Douglas home. "Hi Mom. I don't see Dad's car. Did he get involved in something?"

  "That new scientist, Joanne Morgan wanted him to build an instrument for her. He's been at it all day and said he wanted to go back and finish it and get her out of his hair."

  Samantha's face showed what she thought of the woman but she didn't express her dislike. "I need something to eat before anything else. Then a shower and some sleep. We've been going like crazy but Reddy finally called it quits for a few days."

  Elaine led her to the kitchen table and told her to sit. She began preparing a BLT, a quick and easy meal that would carry Samantha until morning when she planned a big breakfast. "Did you make any progress?"

  "Oh, yeah. It's looking good now but I can see a long future working with Reddy and the new ships he wants."

  "That's good." She placed a glass of milk on the table in front of Samantha. She took a sip before answering. "Uh huh, but it's going to cut into the time Juan and I can spend together. I don't care for that part of it."

  "You'll be working together and you've been spending a good deal of your free time with him anyway." She slid the sandwich onto the table.

  Samantha thanked her then took a big bite and washed it down with more milk. She was so hungry it tasted ambrosial. But her mother had hit on a sore point.

  "I know, Mom. We've been together a lot. Mostly it's business but you know it's not all study and research."

  Samantha looked away for a moment as Elaine scrutinized her expression then turned her head back. It wasn't in her to avoid the subject she knew her mother was thinking of. "Mom, it's so hard to wait. But... I don't want it to be anything hurried or hidden from you and Dad. I'd feel sordid about it and so would Juan. Besides, it wouldn't even be legal." She sighed, knowing how frustrated and resentful she sounded.

  "Is that what's held you back?"

  "Not really. Mostly it's because I know that's what you and Dad want me to do. That's how Juan feels, too. And he's as frustrated as me."

  "You're not worried about that Joanne woman are you?"

  She laughed. "Oh, gosh no, Mom. If Juan was the type who'd let her come between us I wouldn't have fallen in love with him to begin with. I don't like her, though, and I don't trust her."

  "What is it about her you don't like?"

  "She's self-centered. She thinks she should be aware of everything we're doing and she resents it that she's not. Personally, I think Anton is keeping her out of the inner circle because he feels the same way."

  Elaine nodded. "That seems to be the consensus among everyone. But back to your problem. I can imagine how you feel but what I really want to know is whether or not I can help. Can I?"

  Samantha finished off another big bite of the sandwich before answering. "Mom, if we had a definite date, it would make it much easier but we have no way of knowing how tied up we're going to be nor when we'll have any free time. No one likes uncertainty, even if it is a part of life."

  "Tell you what, Sammie. Finish your sandwich and get your shower and some sleep. As soon as your father gets home, he and I will see if we can come up with a solution. How's that?"

  Samantha immediately felt better. If there was a way to work it out without anyone getting hurt, she trusted her Mom and Dad to find it. "Thanks, Mom. I always feel better after talking to you or Dad. I may be mature according to the testing Lynn did, but I know I don't have nearly the experience of either of you." She finished the last bite of her abbreviated meal, gave her mother a brief hug and headed for her room, hoping she could stay awake long enough to brush her teeth and catch a quick shower. She managed it, but only barely. The next morning she remembered getting into bed but she thought she had fallen asleep before her head hit the pillow.

  After she left, Elaine thought, how did we manage to raise such a loving and perceptive daughter? That much trust from a sixteen year old is like hitting the lottery. We're going to have to do something.

  ***

  Breakfast smells brought Samantha from her bed the next morning. She dressed quickly in old clothes, knowing she would change later and headed for the dining room.

  "Good morning, Mom, Dad. Am I late?"

  "Just in time. Sit down, we're just putting it on the table," Elaine said.

  "Okay. I'll clean up, then."

  "We'll let you."

  She consumed a huge meal of eggs, ham, biscuits and fried potatoes (hash browns?). It was the most she had eaten at one time in a week.

  "Come on in the den and let's have our coffee. You can clean up afterward," Ronald said.

  Samantha had already noticed the peculiar expression on both parent's face, as if they were keeping a secret but ready to divulge it. She carried her mug of coffee to the den not knowing what to expect. Surprising to her after the talk with her mother the night before, it was her father who spoke first.

  "Sammie, are you free today?"

  "Yes, sir. Is there something special you want me to do?"

  He grinned. "Yes, but I doubt you'll object very strenuously. Why don't you call Juan and let's all plan on a trip to the city?"

  "Well, sure, but what for?"

  "That's where the city hall is. And by a strange coincidence, also the place where marriage licenses are issued."

  "What... I mean, why now? Before, you wanted us to wait. Besides, we only have today and tomorrow free and we haven't made any plans and--"

  He held up a hand to stop the flow of words from her. "It's like this, Sammie. We've both talked some more to Lynn (who's this?) and then we talked the situation over last night when I got home. We think the best thing for you and Juan to do is go ahead and get the license, then when you see your way clear for a break of at least a week, you can go ahead and get married. We'd like a little warning,
if possible, of course. You're our only child and we'd like to do it right."

  "Really? No fooling?"

  "Really and truly," Elaine said and laughed at the look of astonishment on her daughter's face.

  Samantha knew how astounded she must appear to them but she couldn't help it. Just knowing they could go ahead with the ceremony and begin living together as soon as they had the time off was like a godsend as far as her feelings of anxiety went. Now she wouldn't mind going back to work. She couldn't help it. She began crying from happiness.

  Presently she found herself in the clutch of an embrace by both parents. When she managed to stop the flow of tears, she said, "Thank you. You don't know how much better that makes me feel."

  "Oh, I think we can figure that out."

  She smiled as she brushed at her eyes. "I know Juan will be excited, too."

  "He can't be until you call him, so why don't you do that then go back and change into something a little more, um, appropriate."

  She practically skipped back to her room. After talking to Juan, she couldn't stop herself from looking up how long a marriage license was good for in California. It turned out to be ninety days. So much better than almost a year, she thought, then grinned openly at her reflection in the mirror as she began shedding the clothes she had put on only an hour earlier. And maybe even sooner. In fact, it would almost certainly be sooner. Even if they didn't get a long enough break in the next three months, they could always get another license. Just knowing they could when they had time was incredibly satisfying. Maybe we'll invite Reddy to the ceremony, she thought. Wouldn't that be something? It would certainly be a first!

  ***

  Over the next few months, by dint of extremely hard work over long hours, and patience enough to have tried the souls of archeologists reconstructing thousands of pieces of an ancient ceramic vessel back to its original shape, Juan and Samantha began to understand the basics of the alien language. It was neither quick nor easy, simply because Reddy was an alien species. As had so often been stated by both scientists and science fiction authors, the definition of an alien was alien. Deciphering even a small part of its language required a huge amount of study, trial and error, research and more study. Most importantly, their ability to sort the slow understanding of pieces of the alien's personal history into a comprehensive whole helped them along. One of the biggest of the handicaps that was overcome was Juan's discovery of just how much of Reddy's language depended upon gestures and body movements. Sheik proved able to help them with that part, or Juan's sudden epiphany would have come later. The parrot also managed to convey the alien's sexual status. It was a he by its own description, although Samantha thought there was room for dissent in that interpretation. She didn't argue the point though, thinking correctly that if the nomenclature was wrong it could be settled later when they had more time for finer refinement of his language.