by S. H. Jucha
Over the next hours, the SADEs learned the sounds for “affirmative” and “negative,” “adult” and “young,” “land” and “sea,” “world” and “star,” and many more. Cordelia continually generated new icons as the now-dubbed “Swei Swee” responded to her previous ones.
The icon of several Swei Swee surrounded by the outline of a silver ship generated a complex term that didn’t match any previously defined sound. Cordelia was about to call it “family,” but that didn’t match the adult pairing with young defined earlier. Julien coined the term “hive” for a group of the aliens within a single silver ship, and the word reminded Alex of his previous concepts of the inhabitants of the silver ships.
Over time, the SADEs learned the Swei Swee originally resided by the seaside, calling the ocean “endless waters.” “Death,” generated by an icon of an upside down Swei Swee with legs splayed, was to “travel the endless waters.” A silver ship was a “dark traveler.” The prison ship was the “world traveler.” The aliens’ comm was “singing to the stars.” “To search” was to hunt for fish, their ancient food source. That they were “denied the search” meant they were captive. “Seek shelter” was to seek safety onshore. “Hunters” were dangerous animals that fed on the Swei Swee. “Singers” were intelligent species.
When Cordelia attempted to define the inhabitants of the world traveler, it produced the only non-Swei Swee-like sound they had heard. As far as she could determine, it sounded like “Nua’ll.” The icon of the Rêveur produced a complex set of notes, which the SADEs determined meant “Star Hunters.”
The push and pull of images and sounds went on through the next day and into the second night. The engineering team slept with their heads down on tables or stretched out on the deck while the SADEs continued to work to identify the vocabulary and syntax the Admiral would need to converse with the Swei Swee.
* * *
In the morning, food was delivered again to the engineering team, and Alex, for one, never felt so grateful for a hot cup of thé. He sipped it slowly, savoring the heat and flavor, noticing most of his team was doing the same, attempting to wake overtaxed brain cells and boost energy levels. As they revived, food began disappearing. Trays were just being cleared when Alex and the engineering team received a message from Julien.
-20-
The SADEs determined that they had a sufficient vocabulary and syntax for Alex to convey basic questions to the Swei Swee. Cordelia informed Alex it would take many more days to elevate their understanding of the Swei Swee language to a more sophisticated level. It was time Alex didn’t think they had—or so said the hairs on the back of his neck.
Alex mulled over the meaning of the Swei Swee’s choral song. When it finally came time to begin his line of questioning, he chose the most direct path for his inquiry, one designed to help him understand whose side the Swei Swee would choose to be on, if they had a choice. First, he needed to get the occupants’ attention.
In response to Alex’s message came a powerful bridge of voices, singing for all they were worth.
On the Freedom’s bridge, Amelia and Eloise had the more demonstrative reactions of those listening throughout the flotilla to the Swei Swee’s song of jubilation. They jumped up and down, hugging one another and then everyone in sight. Their antics had Tomas, Lina, and the bridge personnel smiling. Like Julien, Amelia and Eloise had been ardent supporters of the Admiral’s plan, and now were being proven right.
They received a set of sad warbling tones. The translation appeared to be “Swei Swee world equals negative.” While Alex considered the ramification of a “negative world,” the rear of the silver ship produced an image of a small Swei Swee, the same icon that Cordelia had used. As everyone watched, the image grew in size and a small Swei Swee emerged from the large entity and grew in size again.
“Two generations,” Alex murmured, and Julien relayed Alex’s words over the vid he was broadcasting. The generation cycle was repeated over and over. When it stopped, Alex exploded. “Black space, eight generations! They’ve been captive for eight generations.” Julien relayed only Alex’s latter statement to the flotilla. Unfortunately some Librans and New Terrans could read lips.
Cordelia and Julien cycled through the vids and audio signals three times. A small cacophony of conversation broke out inside the silver ship, and it went on for nearly a quarter-hour.
“It appears, Admiral, we may have stumped them on this one,” Mickey said.
He had barely finished speaking when the display of young to adult appeared on the silver ship’s hull and the audio picked up a double-tone whistle.
“Admiral,” Mickey said sadly, “their race has been imprisoned for somewhere around 480 years.”
“Yes, Mickey, and I think it’s high time they were freed!” Alex said.
Now the escape plan begins, Alex thought.
After the Swei Swee watched the vid, the response was the now familiar odd sound followed by a single warbling tone, which translated as “Nua’ll negative.”
“So the Swei Swee can communicate between fighters without the Nua’ll hearing them. How foolish of the jailers,” Alex murmured.
The response was a series of whistles and tweets, one of which was unfamiliar to Alex. Before Alex could question the SADEs, a new, heretofore unseen icon appeared on the rear of the silver ship, and the unfamiliar tone was repeated.
Alex translated.
Mutter sent.
While the team considered Alex’s words, a second image appeared on the fighter’s hull. An odd, tube-shaped ship, similar to an ancient projectile, with concentric rings down its length appeared. It was positioned for a side view. Four silver ships, placed bow to stern, stretched underneath the ringed-ship to indicate its length.
The response was “Ringed dark traveler positive.” It was followed by an icon of the prison ship with four ringed-ship icons overlaying its image. Mutter translated the long series of audio tones that accompanied the image.
Let’s see what type of allies you would make, Alex thought.
The response was loud and strong, almost vehement. The SADEs and Alex could translate these simple sounds by now. It was “Negative, hunter world.”
Despite the alien nature of the communications, there was no mistaking anguish in the desperate response of “Negative, Nua’ll hunter world.”
This time there was no immediate response, only silence. Then first one individual and then another emitted odd, warbling tones until all joined into what could only be called wailing. The blended notes had a way of mesmerizing yet, at the same time, subtly fraying the nerves of the humans listening. A loud whistle cut across the hive’s lament, and the chorus ceased.
The engineering team heard the now recognizable whistles and tones of the First, but the message was too complex for easy translation. When the message ended, absolute silence fell—no background conversation, no chorus, no sound whatsoever.
Several moments of silence came from Mutter. Alex considered the ramifications of asking an AI as old as Mutter to guess. Probably an unfair request, Alex thought.
On the fighter’s rear, the outline of the Nua’ll ship appeared and a bright yellow-green dot began blinking on and off in the center of the dot.
Julien began enlarging the image on the engineering vid screen while the team watched. Soon the bright blinking dot filled the screen. It wasn’t a single dot. It was composed of a mass of individual dots. Julien kept enlarging the image until a single dot revealed a circle encompassing the dim outline of a Swei Swee.
Alex took a moment to consider his next line of communication then ordered,
When the team received no response, Julien sent the message again. Everyone waited in silence for a reply. Of interest to every human of the flotilla was that no discussion took place among the Swei Swee. The decision appeared to remain with the First.
Finally, the First’s whistled response came through clearly. Mutter translated it as “Swei Swee search the endless waters; Nua’ll travel the endless waters.”
The team heard the hive chorus a single tone, repeated over and over, but with endless twists and turns on the basic note. In their implants, they heard Mutter repeat, <“Affirmative, affirmative, affirmative.”>
The First’s whistle ended the chant and his following notes were translated as “Star Hunter First.”
Cordelia took the initiative to project an image of Alex in
his Admiral’s uniform on the rear of the fighter. It effectively ended the celebratory chorus.
“Admiral,” Claude said, “if you will, please regard the resonance imager.”
Alex walked over to the imager’s output screen, which showed the Swei Swee hive bobbing up and down in unison. The scene gave Alex an eerie feeling.
-21-
Since Alex and the SADEs couldn’t think of a way to communicate to the Swei Swee that they needed time to think, it fell to Cordelia and Mutter to keep them entertained while Alex met with his officers. Cordelia had already designed the next 1,571 icons and vids she would employ, so she made use of the time to add to the Swei Swee language base.
Julien sought to divest himself of overwhelming duties. He relayed the Engineering Suite’s output to Cordelia, passing her the responsibility to filter the final output to the flotilla, but he kept for himself the creation of the vid destined for New Terra every three hours. It freed his processing power to manage the demands of the Admiral’s meeting with the flotilla’s officers, which entailed mirroring the Rêveur’s holo-vid to the Money Maker and the Freedom.
As one of the earliest SADEs, Mutter was hard pressed to juggle her responsibilities which were managing the holo-vid display for the Captain and crew, driving the analysis of the Swei Swee’s responses, and maintaining the Money Maker’s operations. That she was accomplishing her tasks, even if barely, pleased her to no end.
Alex, Andrea, and Edouard gathered around the Rêveur’s bridge holo-vid. Lazlo, Ahmed, Tatia and Sheila were gazing at the mirrored-image on the Money Maker’s bridge. Captain Cordova and Tomas were spectators on the bridge of the Freedom. They didn’t expect to participate, but Alex wanted them to know his plans and under what conditions they should employ their emergency orders. Julien linked all of their implants in a conference comm.
