Doona Trilogy Omnibus

by neetha Napew

  The trouble was that Humans did not smell like plastic suiting.

  “You’re a real sweet little critter. What’s your name?” Ken asked the delighted cub. “Ken Reeve,’ he said.

  carefully enunciating the two syllables as he pointed to himself.

  “You?” he asked, pointing to the cub.

  “Weddeerogh,’ said the young alien in an unexpected baritone, then scooted shyly back behind the largest bear.

  “Aw,’ Jilamey said. “Acts just like a kid, too.

  “I guess,’ Frill said, finding his voice at last. “If you like kids that big.

  “Gringg,’ the biggest one said, suddenly, indicating itself and the two others. “Gringg.”

  “Gringg?” Ken asked. “Grr-ing?”

  “Reh.” The big alien tilted its head to one side and let out a short grunt. Ken fancied it gave him a look of approval.

  “Hayuman,’ he said, pointing to himself. “Hayuman.

  “Ayoomnnn.”

  “Good.” He walked over to stand beside Hrriss.

  “Hrruban.” The red eyes followed him carefully. “Rrrrrooobvvnnn,’ Grzzeearoghh said, growling the rs rather than rolling them as a Hayuman would.

  “Close,’ Ken said, approvingly. “Good for you, Grizzly.

  And we’re all Doonarralans.” He gave the leader a big nod and a smile, which it copied, as he indicated Todd, Hrriss, and himself.

  “Well, now we know what we all are.

  Let’s start on things.” He knelt down, and patted the floor.

  “What do you call this?” Ken asked the big bear. “We call it “rllama”.

  RIlama.”

  “What are you doing, teaching it Hrruban?” Frill demanded, indignant.

  “You should teach it Terran.”

  “One language at a time,’ Ken warned him. “We need a lingua franca, and both of OUR peoples speak Middle Hrruban. The Gringg can learn the niceties of Terran and High Hrruban once they’ve mastered this one. Now pipe down, unless you want to do this for me?”

  “No, I sure don’t,’ Frill said, quickly, backing off.

  “Urnlllah. Ma,’ the alien intoned.

  “We’e making progress. Rllama,’ Ken said, rolling the “r’, and keeping his mouth wide open so it could see the way he rolled his tongue. The little one watched him from the shelter of its parent’s body, trying to match his facial expressions and rolling its long tongue. Ken laughed.

  “Do you know, I think I’m the first sentient alien they’ve ever encountered?”

  “How can you make an assumption like that, Reeve?” Greene demanded. He looked slightly sick.

  “This all seems to be new to them,’ Ken said. “They’re not acting as if they’re anticipating what I’m going to do.

  And I think they’re enjoying it.”

  “Weddeerogh, you have no need to be shy, Grzzeearoghh said, turning her head over her shoulder to beam at her offspring. “This is becoming most interesting. Will you go and get writing materials for us? Now we are starting to work with vocabulary, I don’t want to miss anything. This is a very important moment in Gringg history.”

  “Yes, Mama,’ the cub said, with one more peek at Ken.

  “What funny hands she has with no claws. I do not like the smell of that stuff she wears. I would like to smell her. I hope her own skin smells better.”

  “She wears a protective covering, showing concern for our health and hers. I admire that,’ Grzzeearoghh said. “I did not know what to expect from another race, especially not such scrupulous consideration. And we know we must act with caution. Now, please go.” “Yes, Mama.” On all fours, he scurried towards the doors, which opened and closed behind him.

  “RIlama,’ the strange female said.

  “Rrrllahma,’ Grzzeearoghh intoned. Her pronunciation seemed to delight the visitor. “I do believe we are getting somewhere. Good! I wish the female’s friends were more calm. One of the females and the male seem quite at home, but I think those others may faint. And that female with its limb stuck out holding the little device seems most uncomfortable.

  “I must confess to a certain amount of nervousness, too, Captain,’ Eonneh admitted. “They are a feeble looking race, are they not? No fur to speak of. I am almost afraid to move for fear of hurting them.

  We have all been shown how important it is to give the appearance of being no threat to any new racewe encounter. And such amazing dimorphism between sexes. You’d think they were almost separate species. When the male speaks, his voice is so shrill it hurts my ears.

  “Here it is, Mama,’ Weddeerogh said, galloping in through the blast doors with a tablet and stylus in his paw.

  “Good, dear. Give it to Eonneh. Write this down, Eonneh. Their word for floor is rrrllama.

  The Gringg male put the pad of thin but solid tiles down between his feet and hooked the two loops of the stylus over the first and second claws on his right upper paw. He sounded out the word to himself carefully before beginning to inscribe it. In Gringg culture, writing anything down with a living hand made it official.

  Eonneh was a typical Gringg male for they made the best record-keepers, poets, librarians, even artists, to write the history of their species; they also mastered the theoretical sciences to forward development. The females, larger by ten to thirty per cent, organized, and exercised, the practical arts, such as all forms of engineering, and tended to take the lead in exploration. In Eonneh’s opinion, Grzzeearoghh was an excellent captain, and was handling the situation perfectly. The World Congress which chose her as their envoy to any possible sentients had made the best possible choice.

  As the alien female watched interestedly, he made the characters for a short growl, followed by a lingual extension, then a nasal hum.

  The accents which went above and below the characters indicated the subordinate vowel sounds.

  “I’m enjoying this,’ Ken said, coming close to the scribe for a good look at what Eonneh was doing. “Their written language is beautiful: a minor work of art if this is any sample. Nothing from even ancient Terran civilizations comes close to it.” Showing his camera first to the two adult Gringg, he walked around and pointed it down at the pad to record the scribe’s work. “I think he’s trying to get it down in a phonetic fashion. That’s what I’d do.

  Well,’ and he snapped another shot, “this is their attempt at “floor”’ “Can you tell how they phoneticize, Dad?” Todd asked.

  “Hardly,’ Ken said with a laugh, “not after just one word.

  It’s going to take a while to get anywhere useful.”

  “Don’t worry,’ Hrriss assured him. “Our hosts have settled in for the linguistic siege.” Eonneh scribed busily at the big pad with Jilamey behind him to watch how the handscript was made. The pen contained free-flowing ink that the scribe carefully controlled to make thick and thin strokes on the smooth surface of the tile. Landreau was clearly impressed by the skill required, for each pictograph was complex and beautiful.

  “What’s that?” Jilamey asked, pointing down at the character that Eonneh was patiently drawing. “Er, how do you say it? Aaah? Bbbb?”

  “And that little one?” Jilamey moved his finger to a mark like an accent that went over the top right corner of the squarish character.

  “Ooo,’ Eonneh said carefully, glancing up over his shoulder at the Ayoomnnn.

  “Really? This must be the way you spell “Hrruban”,’ Jilamey replied. “And that?” He indicated another mark, this time set below and to the side of one of the elaborate pictographs.

  “Hhhh.

  “That’s not a vowel,’ he protested.

  “That’s an aspirate,’ Ken said, coming over to look. “So the different notations are divided into hard consonant sounds and vowels?

  Good job, Landreau.”

  “Huh?” Jilamey frowned in query.

  “Is it all like this?” Ken said to Grzzeearoghh, pantomiming the handwritten panel on to the nearest round screen.

  “Be
careful, Reeve,’ Greene called. He felt down his hip for his sidearm, and remembered with regret that it had been left behind in the Hamilton. If these gigantic aliens got out of control, he had nothing but his skills at unarmed combat with which to protect the Hayumans of the party.

  The captain rose to her full height and padded over to the console. “The skinny Ayoomnnn female is both intelligent and curious,’ she told Eonneh. “See this, Ken Reeve,’ she said, pulling up a textfile on the screen.

  Ken, recognizing the slightly mangled pronunciation of his name, followed her to the console. As he watched, fascinated, the computer laid down lines of the complicated characters first, followed by the small marks above and below the lines. As Grzzeearoghh sounded it out slowly to him, he realized his guess was right.

  “They’re going to be a little confused by written Terran,’ Ken noted. “If they’re used to aspirates and vowels as separate notation, it’s going to take them a while to get used to seeing the characters all the same size and on the same line. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly they cope with such a difference.”

  “It’s primitive,’ Greene said, dismissively. “Inscribing information by hand is slow and inefficient. Technology like this must be a fluke.

  “Oh, I don’t think so, Commander,’ Jilamey said, from his post behind Eonneh. “Even on Earth, the ancient art of calligraphy is still practised and held in esteem. It seems perfectly normal to me. I spend a lot of time in the Artists’ Corridor, where there’s a good deal of reverence for the old forms.” Greene snorted. “You can’t attribute Human characteristics to aliens who may turn out to be dangerously barbaric.

  “I wish this could go faster,’ Ken said, sighing, studying the round screen. “It could take us an age to put together a working vocabulary.” He went over a number of items in the bay, asking for the aliens’ words, and giving them the Middle Hrruban equivalents.

  “And what’s this?” he asked, pointing at the Spacedep shuttle.

  “Va’arrel,’ said Grizz.

  “Va’arrel?”

  “Reh.”

  “Good,’ Ken said. “Well, what do you call the big ship?” He gestured in a wide circle, indicating the vessel around them. Grizz followed his hand with its eyes.

  “Va’arrel,’ the Gringg repeated.

  “This is the same? Va’arrel?” Ken pointed at the shuttle.

  “Va’arrel?” He circled his arm.

  Grizz seemed to be listening carefully for something, and was mildly disappointed not to hear it. The alien shook its large head from side to side. “Va’arrel.”

  “But that’s what I said,’ Ken began.

  “What am I missing?

  Va’arrel,’ pointing to the shuttle. Grizz sat back with paws folded.

  “Va’arrel.”

  “Morra,’ the Gringg corrected him. “Va’arrel.”

  “There is no difference,’ Frill complained.

  “Wait a second,’ Ken said. “I thought I got a sense of something there. It’s possible I’m not capable of hearing the difference between two similar sounding words, and yet there is one, isn’t there, old fellow?” The dark-red eyes were sympathetic but encouraging.

  Ken grinned. “Your voices go so far down I wonder if you’re dropping past the registers that we Hayumans can hear. Or perhaps it’s a somatic element I’m missing. Of course, I could just plain be pronouncing it wrong. Only practice will help with that. Let’s collect some more examples of Gringg speech to take home with us.” To speed things up, Todd and Hrriss volunteered to work with the other Gringgs to teach one another vocabulary, leaving them with plenty of data when the Doona party finally left.

  Ken, with the loudest voice, found himself talking to Grizz, as he nicknamed the Gringg captain. The big alien approved the shorter form with a dropped jaw and a discernible twinkle in its eye. In its slightly nasal voice, his name came out as Genhh.

  Eonneh, Hrriss and Dodh, as the Gringg pronounced Todd’s name, were already working out the pronunciation of more words, and writing them down on the pad.

  Frill, who was beginning to become interested in spite of his initial apprehensions, hung over their shoulders, kibbitzing. The navy medic, still nervous but growing bolder, circled around. Greene maintained his distance, making the occasional comment into his recorder, still prepared to defend if necessary. Jilamey hunkered down on the floor in front of the cub with his knees akimbo.

  “Hi there, little guy. I’m Jilamey.

  “Chilmeh!” the cub echoed, happily, and reached out to push the Human’s knee companionably. Jilamey pushed back, and found himself rolling over the floor in the rowing Gringg’s powerful embrace. His helmet hit the ground with a clank.

  Greene ran after them and interposed himself, on guard, between the alien and the Hayuman. The largest of the Gringg tensed, watching carefully “Be careful, Landreau,’ Greene cautioned the younger man, who lay gasping and breathless with laughter on the deck. With one arm, he pulled Landreau to his feet.

  “You have no idea what your actions may mean to these aliens.”

  “Aw, he’s playing, Commander,’ Landreau said. The cub’s tail swished from side to side like that of a large dog, and Jilamey ruffled the fur between its ears.

  “It’ll think you’re a child, too.” Jilamey pouted. “Oh, don’t ascribe Hayuman assumptions to him, Commander. We’re learning a lot about each other, aren’t we?” he asked Weddeerogh, who blinked shyly at Greene.

  “I’d like to bring some of these fellows home with us, Ken said, “but I’m afraid they might not survive on Doona.

  We don’t know anything about their physiognomy, nor they ours.

  What are your impressions?”

  “I wish I could get some samples of skin, blood, and hair,’ Lauder said.

  “I could tell you a lot more if I could do microscopic analyses.

  “When we can speak a little more of their language, we’ll ask,’ Ken said. “It’s presumptuous to try before they can understand just exactly what we want. And why. How about you? Any ideas?” He addressed Frill, whose attention seemed to be wandering.

  “Sorry, sir,’ Frill said, reddening slightly. “My stomach’s rumbling.

  Hope they don’t misconstrue that.” Ken smacked him on the back. “Good

  idea. Food! We’ll offer them some of our rations, let them analyse

  them, see if our food’s safe for their insides. There’s got to be

  emergency packs in the shuttle -“

  “There should be, Dad,’ Todd said, “if it was stocked according to regulations.”

  “Naturally the shuttle was prepared according to regulations,’ Frill said, regarding father and son with horror.

  “You’re not proposing to give them our food, are you?”

  “Why not?” Ken asked, reasonably. “It will give them an idea if our bio-sphere is compatible to theirs. They appear to be carnivorous, with those teeth, maybe even omnivorous. Be interesting to see if their comestibles are at all similar to ours.” During this discussion the Gringg withdrew to have a conference of their own.

  “Our visitors seem willing both to teach and learn,’ Grizz said, thoughtfully. “I feel it is safe to risk the second step. Move slowly and give them no cause for suspicion.”

  “As you wish, Captain,’ Eonneh replied, watching Genhh Rrrreev expostulating with the rest of her party.

  “I’ll go get what is required.” Grizz shouldered him companionably as he left the room.

  “Go quickly, my mate. If this works out as we hope, you’ll have plenty of material for an epic poem, with yourself as the hero!” Todd, Hrriss, and Commander Frill went back to the shuttle. According to Spacedep regs, emergency gear, including “rations ready to eat’, or RREs, were always kept in a locker beneath the co-pilot’s couch. The ring latches securing the cubby door were frequently stiff, but a quick twist and tug by the powerful Frill opened it without trouble.

  “Don’t give it all to them,’ Frill asked, eyeing
the RREs as Todd stacked them into a heap. “Leave me one, won’t you?”

  “You won’t faint dead away on us, will you, Frail?” Todd grinned, and got an answering smile from the Spacedep officer.

  “Not now,’ Frill answered, a little sheepishly. “Not as long as I get something to eat.”

  “Don’t worry,’ Todd said, with complete understanding.

  “I’m a big feeder myself. You can be the one to taste it in front of them so they can see that we warrant this food as safe.” Willingly, Frill picked out his favorite from the sealed packs, and split up the rest to carry between himself and Hrriss.

  “Todd,’ Ken called as they emerged from the shuttle.

  “Our friends here had the same idea.” Todd grinned. Piled high between Ken and Grizz was a quantity of wrapped and unwrapped goods.

  Eonneh and another medium-sized bear whose coat was coloured a dark, dusty cocoa, had Ensign Lauder by the console, showing him a program that displayed changing views of complex designs that Todd couldn’t distinguish from where he stood. As he closed the distance, he imagined that he recognized the designs.

  “You know, if those were on our computers,’ he suggested, “I’d think they were molecular diagrams. But of what?”

  “The proteins, or whatever’s in these goods?” Ken asked.

  He pantomimed to Grizz, pointing to the substances on the floor and back again at the screen. “Is that the substance of this?” The big ursine roared softly, a triumphant sound. “I guess that’s what he said.

  “Reh!” Grizz said, crossing his huge paws on his chest once more.

  “How about it?” Todd asked Lauder. “Would a molecule like that be safe for Hayumans and Hrrubans to eat?”

  “No doubt about it,’ Lauder replied, showing him his pad screen. “It’s a common protein chain.

  The others are complex carbohydrates, pretty similar to stuff we eat.