by neetha Napew
“I zink he would prefer anozer explanation,’ Hrriss said. “He is not a man to appreciate gracious living. Ah, but I can!”
“And look at the range of colours in Gringgs,’ Todd added, nudging Hrriss. “Pied, patched, white, brown, black, tan, gold. See the black fellow there with a white shirt-front and chin and white boots? My sister Inessa had a cat who looked just like him.” Then he craned his head about, able to take in more details now that the first shock of the space-lake had passed.
The room was, indeed, remarkable. A full, curved ceiling of a soft blue arched benignly over the lakelet that had been made to appear natural. Hidden ventilators provided soothing breezes and the occasional surprise gust that made the water’s surface skip and quiver.
Except for the toroid shape and the fact there was an elevator shaft running through it, it was hard to believe that it was situated in the heart of a space-going craft. The elegant homes of the very rich on Earth had once had such amenities, or so his father had told Todd, before living space on the planet became so constricted that such luxuries had been prohibited. Man-made lakes on the few resort areas were out-of-doors and few would have been as large as this one. Todd wondered how close this approximated the living style of Gringg on their home world. He knelt to dip his fingers in the water and taste it.
“It’s fresh, with only a slightly chemical taste,’ he said to Hrriss. From his pouch, Hrriss took a little bottle and filled it for later analysis.
Having enjoyed their reaction, Grizz now took off her collar, shoulder piece and belt, placed them on a rack filled with other such accoutrements and slid into the water. Beckoning with a long, slow wave of her arm, she signalled them to join her. Todd started to strip and was distracted by the workmanship of Grizz’s adornments. He picked up the collar and felt the material. It was smooth and supple like leather, though thin as vinyl.
“Is this snakeskin?” he asked, showing the way a snake moved.
“Morra,’ said Grizz, and moulded her face around a gaping mouth.
She submerged, and Todd leaned close to the edge to see her. She opened and closed her mouth, using exaggerated motions of her lower jaw, and flapped her hands alongside her jowls for gills.
“Oh,’ Todd cried, enlightened, as she surfaced. “Fish.
They must be whoppers!” He sketched a fish of great size with his hands.
“Reh, reh,’ Grizz said, adding another length to Todd’s.
He whistled.
“Oh, the one that got away,’ he said.
Squealing, Weddeerogh bounced off the side and landed belly-first in the water, splashing everyone. One of the adults swam quickly towards him, only head and the line of a dark-brown-furred spine and rudder-like tail showing above the water. The cub paddled noisily towards his dam, but his pursuer caught up with him. As he made cries of mock distress, the larger bear picked him up, lifted him bodily out of the water, and tossed him. Weddeerogh laughed aloud all the way down.
The resultant splash caught Todd and Hrriss full in the chest.
“Agh!” Todd cried. “I’m soaked.”
“Zen come in alrreddy,’ Hrriss said, teasing his friend.
“You can get no wezzer zen you arrre.” He undid his belt and threw it across Grizz’s, and jumped in near Weddeerogh.
“Here I come,’ Todd said, hopping out of shoes and hastily pulling off his clothes. “Damned nuisance. If I’d known I was going swimming . . .” Stripped again, he poised on the side of the pool. Then, as the Gringg audience watched with interest, he leaped up and cut a beautiful arc, entering the water with scarcely a ri ple.
When he surfaced, halfway across the pool, the Gringg applauded him, batting the water noisily with their palms.
“Very prezzy, Hrriss said. “I didn’t know zat was possible in zis grravity. I zink zey have not seen diving of zis sorrt.”
“No,’ Todd said, surveying his companions. “They’re not really built for swan dives and jackknives, are they?” At Grizz’s encouragement, Todd demonstrated more Hayuman-style dives, using the highest of the pillar islands to do a half-gaynor. The Gringg were impressed, calling out their approval to him in loud, gruff voices.
When he was worn out, he pulled himself on to a nearby level and lay around listening to a youthful male with a stringed musical instrument gutturally rendering songs requested by the other Gringg.
Todd asked to see the instrument, which was not unlike a guitar.
“But far heavier,’ he told Hrriss. He bent his fingers around the long stem as well as he could. They didn’t reach the fretting, so he laid the instrument in his lap as if it was a dulcimer and tried to make chords. The resultant sounds were harmonious, but nearly inaudible.
“These strings are heavier than baling wire. It’s more like playing tent spikes.” The doors swung open. Panda, followed by the scribe, padded into the swimming room carrying a crescentshaped solid in one hand and, in the other, a device not unlike Todd’s recorder with a slot intended to take the moon-shaped piece. The two bears settled down beside Todd and showed him diagrams on the reader’s round screen.
“That was quick,’ Hrriss said.
“Let’s hope it works,’ Todd replied. With a little stretch of imagination, Todd began to recognize the complex molecular structure of proteins.
Panda pointed to one. “Ayoomnnn.”
“Yes, if you say so,’ Todd said with a grin. “And that’s Hrruban, right?” He put his finger on the other pattern.
“Reh,’ Panda said, and put a claw to a control on the viewer. The two patterns moved towards and then overlay one another. Atoms stuck out to either side of the chain, and Panda seemed puzzled.
“Hayuman and Hrruban,’ Todd explained, pointing to himself and Hrriss.
The two Gringg conferred, and finally it fell to the scribe to draw pictures. With care, he sketched Todd and Hrriss, then began to draw in lines around them.
“The quality of artwork is magnificent for such quick drawings,’ Todd said. “Jilamey could make millions for this fellow in the Artists’ Corridor on Earth.”
“And on Hrruba,’ Hrriss added.
The scribe’s sketch complete, he turned it towards them.
“It’s a family tree,’ Todd realized. The scribe dashed small symbols between the images of the two of them, pointing at one, then another, and asking for clarification.
“He’s not sure if we are siblings or . . . mated?” Hrriss turned with twinkling eyes to his friend, dropping his jaw in amusement.
“Uh, no,’ Todd said, shaking both hands and head vehemently at the misunderstanding. With the scribe’s permission he took the tablet and stylus. While Panda watched closely, Todd drew two different family trees and peopled them with figures not much more detailed than stick figures, but clearly male and female of each species: one with tails, one without.
“You are not as good an artist as he is,’ Hrriss said.
“Agreed but let’s hope they get the message, and see the difference.” He patted his work to show it was finished and pushed the drawing to the scribe. “We’re two separate species! See - tails, no tails!” The revised drawing prompted another spate of conversation.
The scribe depicted a planet with figures of Todd and Hrriss standing on top of it.
“Ah. I presume he now wonders how we came to be on one planet,’ Todd said. “How do I explain?” So he drew Earth, marking out the western hemisphere continents, then its moon and sun, added a creditable spaceship and a line leading it to Doona, depicting its distinctive continental masses. Then Hrriss took over the double-looped pen from Todd, and sketched Hrruba and its satellites, and a dotted line for the Hrruban ship’s journey to Doona. Todd jammed a forefinger on to Earth and held out his hand to Hrriss, who shook it, while with his free hand he pointed to his home world.
Then they looked to see if the Gringg had understood the pantomime.
The Gringg passed the drawing back and forth, mumbling in rapid bass notes with such intensity that Todd felt his ears itchi
ng and Hrriss could not keep his tail still. When the sketch had done a complete circuit, the Gringg smiled and nodded their acknowledgement to the two friends.
“Wish one of us could draw better, Todd said.
“Scrawl or not, zey seem to understand,’ Hrriss said, but his tailtip kept twitching.
“Two races sharing a world in peace,’ said Grzzeearoghh, with a blissful sigh. “How wonderful! These are species I want to cultivate assiduously. We must learn from them how they contrived to coexist so successfully. That harmony must explain why they are so willing to accept our peaceful intentions. Perhaps they cannot conceive that we might intend them harm. I hope this is so, for it will make our job much easier. This will be of great interest to all on the home world.
Now, let us show our guests the entire ship so that they know there is nothing hidden on it to harm them or their mutual world.” They led the Doonarralans on an exhaustive tour of the ship, from the living quarters to the galley to the cargo holds, and finally to the bridge.
Soon, the small beings began to tire.
“Mama, perhaps they want to take a nap,’ Weddeerogh suggested when Rrss yawned and attempted to conceal the gesture.
Just then she received a signal from Grrala and answered.
“First we will return to the infirmary for Grrala has something she wants them to see.”
“I’d say they deliberately trotted us up and down this ship to prove that they’re not hiding anything. I feel as if we haven’t missed a corridor or a single level,’ Todd said wearily.
“Certainly nothing resembled a weapon system anywhere. They didn’t even stop you when you opened that triangular hatch.” Hrriss wrinkled his nose. “No one is in danger from a compost heap. Zey seemed to let us go where we wanted to go. But it is so big a ship: to really explore would take weeks. Now, zat bridge was interesting, was it not?
So vrrry casual.” Todd gave a soft snort. “Did you notice the configuration of the switches, toggles and buttons? No way either of us could manage that sort of control board . not unless we could grow foot-long fingers and treble our hand-spans.”
“Zat does not worrrry me as much as ze absence of couches,’ Hrriss said thoughtfully. “How do zey absorb ze g-force in take-off and landing without padded couches of some zort?”
“There’s cushioning fat under their fur?” Todd suggested and bent over to rub his thighs. “Their normal g-force is enough to make my muscles ache.” Hrriss gave a snort. “It wasn’t ze diving you did?” “Come to think of it, I haven’t done much diving lately. But I know the difference between gravity ache and muscle strain.” When Grizz guided them back to Panda’s office, Koala and Ursa had several small devices to show them. She strapped one about her massive throat and offered Todd he another one.
“How do I operate it?” Todd asked. Out of the device resting against his larynx, his words came out in a basso profunda that made him jump. “Was that me?” he asked, and the device repeated it.
“Dodh?” Ursa began. Her voice, instead of being a deep, chocolate baritone, had been raised to a pleasant tenor range.
“Zat is much better,’ Hrriss said.
“Promising,’ Todd agreed. He turned to Ursa. “Say va’arrel.” He encouraged her comprehension of what he wanted by zooming his hand around like the shuttle. Ursa glanced at Grizz for permission.
“Vamarrel,’ the Gringg said, sounding faintly ridiculous in soprano.
“Aha!” Todd said. “See, we were missing something.
Now say the word for the big ship.” He gestured all around him.
Va’arrel?”
“Vasharrel,’ Ursa piped.
“Wonderful! We’re on our way Ursa signed to Todd to take off the device collar and pass it to Hrriss. The Hrruban fastened the band, and tried a couple of words. “Spaceship, food, wazzer, rilama The Gringg voder repeated much of what he was saying in a deep bass, but skipped parts of the higher tones.
Wielding a tool that was a cross between a laser and a screwdriver, Ursa attempted unsuccessfully to adjust the tympanum to encompass all of Hrriss’s vocal tones.
She grunted and raised her paws palm up to show helplessness.
“Not perfect yet, Todd said sympathetically. “The waveband it uses is too narrow. We’ll just have to wait until we get back down to Doonarrala. Better still, we could make use of Spacedep’s engineers.
The Hamilton’s still floating along behind us. The Admiral was hinting none too subtly that they wanted to be involved. Let’s get one of their technicians over here.” With a little tinkering and a lot of luck, Todd was able to adjust the Gringg communication system to the frequencies monitored by Spacedep. The communications officer, Rrawrum, manoeuvred up and down the band until Todd heard static, and gestured for him to fine tune on to that narrow wavelength.
“Hello? The Hamilton? This is Todd Reeve. Repeat, this is Todd Reeve.”
“Where are you transmitting from?” demanded the voice of the communications tech. “You’re interrupting a secured signal.
“Sorry,’ Todd apologized. “I wasn’t intending to break in on anything. I don’t know the field strength of this transmitter. I’m aboard the Gringg ship. I need to speak with Captain Castleton.”
“The captain’s not available at present, sir.
“Then, Admiral Barnstable? The matter I have to bring up with him is pretty important.”
“Not available either, sir.”
“Strange,’ Todd said, frowning at Hrriss. “I wonder where they went?”
“I’m not at liberty to divulge that, sir,’ the Spacedep commtech said.
“Uh-huh. How about Commander Greene?” After a short pause, Greene came on the line. Todd described the situation and told him what they needed.
“Wouldn’t construction of a translation device be their problem?
Surely they’ve had to deal with the other species they’ve encountered,’ Greene said, slyly.
Todd sighed. Greene had been his last option for help.
“I doubt it, Commander.”
“Really? A virgin species. Ripe for the plucking?” Greene asked acidly.
“Certainly ready to, and helpful in, forming a meaningful relationship,’ Todd said, trying not to let the sour tones annoy him.
“A frame of mind I doubt you’ve ever experienced. At that, Greene, I’d expected that a man of your calibre and ambition would be able to catch the moment and run with it.
“What do you mean by that, Reeve?”
“Spacedep wants answers about the Gringg, don’t they?
They don’t want them second-hand, do they?”
“No,’ and the reply was grudging.
Todd grinned. “So send us a communications technician who can help us refine a translator. They’ve whipped up a voder but it doesn’t compensate for under and over tones - - - and they’re necessary to establish communications.
Get a two-way exchange going and we’ll find out what the Gringg are really saying.”
“Will we?”
“As an Alreldep representative, I’m asking you, as a Spacedep officer, to provide assistance. You know, the sort of addition that looks so good on a code sheet. Or are you unable to function without direct orders from Barnstable ?”
“I can’t order Castleton’s officers to suit you, or Alreldep,’ Greene said in a sort of a snarl. Then he paused. “If someone volunteers . .
-“
“Yes, a volunteer is the answer,’ Todd said, trying to keep the irony out of his voice.
“Not that I think anyone in their right mind. . . Greene began and then briefly shut off the channel. “You’re in luck, Reeve.
There’s a sucker in every ship.”
“I knew I could count on you, Greene,’ Todd said cheerfully. “Send him across. And don’t worry.
We’ll vouch for your reluctance to send a man into danger.
Reeve out!”
“This thing’s pretty good,’ Lieutenant Cardiff, junior grade, said as he ex
amined the Gringg prototype voder, running a sonic probe over the exposed interior of the device. He’d brought two heavy toolkits with him. And Commander Jon Greene.
Neither Todd nor Hrriss were surprised that Greene had accompanied the signals officer. The Gringg had courteously retired from the bay once the little ship was safely docked in their massive vessel.
“Sound reproducer of some sort, huh? First, what’s it supposed to do when it’s alive and well and working right?” Todd explained the difference between Gringg voices and theirs. He had acknowledged Greene’s presence but had to ignore the suspicious and cynical expression on his face, determined not to be provoked by Greene’s open antagonism.
“Yeah, well, they were nearly there, I think. This resonator, here, is really brilliant. Should handle any decibel range. It looks like something they mass produce, by the way. This plastic core looks prefabbed and the chips are probably standard for all their audio equipment.
But I think these relays are too cumbersome; that’s why you can’t fine tune. Think I can alter that to suit the purpose. He grimaced, and settled his probe on one of the baffles. “This one’ll poop out on you after a few too many high notes.”
“Can you remedy the problems?” Todd asked.
“Oh, I’m a master fixit,’ Cardiff said easily and grinned at Todd and Hrriss. He showed very white teeth in a face as dark as Grizz’s fur. He had a mat of silky, silver hair which he continually raked upward with the fingers of both hands. He seemed to be one of those enthusiastic people whose vocation was also his av6cation, and was more interested in a challenging job than the wherefores of it. “Got some tricks of my own, I have. I’ll just tinker with these relays - here and here - strengthen this baffle, and put in a more sophisticated tuner. Odd how there’re only a few ways of doing some jobs? Sound’s one of “em.
These guys have some mighty slick gadgetry.” Cardiff frowned slightly, turning the voder from side to side, re-examining its c(ftiponents. “But why leave it as just a frequency modulator, sir? I can add a memory chip so it uses terms in the languages as soon as we have equivalents, build up the usable vocabulary. I got some multi-programmable blank chips here that’d do the job stellar! That way, all three races get used to hearing one another’s tongues.”
