by S. H. Jucha
“First contact continues to present its challenges,” Miranda quipped, as she lent Alex a hand to haul him up.
Alex took stock of his surroundings. He’d expected a small, dirt-lined tunnel. Instead, it was generous in size, five meters in diameter, and well lit. The surfaces were finished in soft green ceramic. A single, solid track was being laid down the middle of the tunnel. It gave him an idea of the small aliens’ inventiveness. They’d recognized his traveler couldn’t land, and on the spur of the moment, they’d devised a landing location they could reach.
Alex checked on those around him, as Julien and the other Chistorlan descended together in the cylinder. The tiny alien, who was sent below first, stood apart from everyone, firmly braced against a wall. His large eyes were wide open and focused on Miranda and him. The Toralians were clustered together on the other side of the tunnel and talking privately.
When the group was formed, the Chistorlans led off. Everyone walked at the pace of the smallest one, and Alex understood why it took hours for the two of them to travel the nine kilometers to the outcrop. Just as bad, the Toralians were gingerly stepping around stones to protect their delicate feet.
The Omnians stopped, which brought the group to a halt. Miranda eyed the construction materials that lined the tunnel. She spotted a length of flat sheet metal, a half meter wide and three meters long. Nearby, a padded tarp covered some machinery. She took the tarp and wrapped it several times around the length of metal.
Alex eyed the makeshift arrangement, shrugged his shoulders, and requested Julien instruct the Toralians to take a seat.
Once again, Suntred was first to oblige, and Julien placed her in the center. He situated Sargut at the front and Taralum at the back.
When Alex motioned for the Chistorlans to join the Toralians, the little aliens hesitated.
Lipsit was encouraged by the energetic waves of the middle alien, and she was convinced to join in whatever experiment the pale aliens planned. She took Miftra’s hand and led the reticent male over to the odd construction.
Suntred scooted backward to allow the Chistorlans to sit together.
Lipsit sat down and placed Miftra between her legs.
All five aliens shared one thing in common — confusion over what was to happen.
Miranda bent over, grasped the contraption, and hoisted the two-hundred-kilo weight onto her broad Frederica avatar’s shoulder. Every passenger gripped the side of the covered metal sheet, worried at being thrown off.
Alex grinned and set off down the tunnel, with Julien beside him. Miranda followed, employing a flowing stride to accommodate her passengers.
It didn’t take long for Miranda’s passengers to release their grips on the sheet’s sides, and eventually, they relaxed. Of the five who rode, only the Toralians knew Miranda’s true nature. Still, they marveled at her power and ability to glide her strides.
Sargut wanted to turn around and whistle his pleasure with his companions, but he was concerned for the reaction of the small aliens, who sat behind him. The thought gave him perspective. He and his crew were taken aback by the size of the Omnians. He considered that the Chistorlans probably had the same reactions to his citizens. He couldn’t imagine what the Chistorlans were thinking when they regarded the Omnians. However, the fearful eyes of the littlest alien had given him an indication.
Soon, the group arrived at a transport terminus. Several tunnels led off in various directions. Julien spotted another lift, which was cut into the tunnel wall. He gestured toward it, and Lipsit mimed staring through a scope, to which Julien nodded his understanding.
Miranda set her faux transport down, and Lipsit, with Miftra in tow, accessed a comm station, which was mounted on the tunnel wall. She contacted a department that controlled the tunnel operations and requested a heavy transport. Then, rather than stand, Miftra and she returned to the sheet metal and sat down on the padding.
Alex found a clean spot along the wall of a finished tunnel, leaned back, and closed his eyes. He dreamed of a quiet home on New Terra. It was nestled in the woods, and Renée and he were enjoying a walk through mist-clouded trees. His dream was interrupted by Julien’s signal.
A vehicle glided to a halt. It pulled a series of flat cars, some of which carried construction equipment. The cars just behind the lead vehicle were empty. They had clear walls, much like those surrounding the drivers of the front car. The Omnians suspected that Chistorlan construction crews rode in these cars to be protected from the tunnels’ cool air.
The two male drivers sat firmly in their seats, staring at the unusual entourage. Lipsit made motions to encourage the others to follow her to the second car. Miranda obliged the Toralians by hoisting them onto the flatbed. Lipsit acquiesced to the help and was surprised by the alien’s gentleness. However, Miftra refused. He hurried to the end of the car and used a set of spiral steps to reach the bed.
Once everyone was aboard, the Omnians heard the larger Chistorlan croak a set of orders at the drivers, who reversed the transport.
As the transport gained speed, Miranda sent,
The transport shot along its rail and passed through multiple terminuses. Occasionally, the passengers spotted work crews, but they were a blur at the speed the transport maintained. When velocity dropped off, Alex perked up. They entered an enormous cavern, stocked with construction equipment, crates, and workers.
Work stopped in the cavern, as the Chistorlans stared at the newcomers. Several transport vehicles waited for them, and Lipsit was forlorn as she regarded them. They were sized for her people. The three individuals with the formations on their backs wouldn’t fit in the cars, much less the larger aliens.
Lipsit turned to the alien, who led the others. Her big eyes were apologetic.
Alex used his hands to pantomime the possibilities of near and far.
Lipsit excitedly returned that their destination was close. She was happy that the massive alien continued to establish meaningful contact.
Alex pointed to the Chistorlans and indicated they should ride.
Miranda knelt on her knees and bent her arms at ninety degrees.
The Toralians, who’d been dubiously eyeing the small transport cars, immediately accepted Miranda’s implied invitation.
Sargut and Taralum took positions close to Miranda, sitting on separate arms and placing a hand on the SADE’s neck for balance. Suntred crowded close to Sargut, and he wrapped an arm around her waist. It wasn’t the most appropriate thing for a commander to do to the grand commander’s liaison, but since he’d encountered the Omnians, so many aspects of his cycles were marked by unprecedented conditio
ns.
As Lipsit’s car led the way, she quietly croaked her displeasure. She faced backward and had a good view of the aliens, who were the Chistorlans’ first guests in many generations. Instead of a grand welcome, they were forced to walk or be carried to meet the monarch, while she rode.
-13-
Monarch
Lipsit’s car navigated some broad tunnels meant for the Chistorlans’ tiny cars and pedestrians.
The citizens stared in various degrees of awe and horror at the aliens who walked past. Many mistakenly thought the three aliens, who rode on the giant, were the masters of the ones who walked.
The group covered less than two kilometers before Lipsit’s transport came to a halt and the two Chistorlans hopped off. Immediately, the little vehicle sped away, the driver anxious to put some distance between the aliens and himself.
They’d entered a larger cavern than the first. Instead of construction machinery and supplies, this one was a lab of some kind. It held rows and rows of two-meter high, metal cases. Most were interconnected by a variety of conduit.
While Alex focused on the Chistorlans, Miranda, who’d set the Toralians down, and Julien observed the cases. They passed their observations on to Alex. The first thing they noticed was that the cases were connected in pairs. Transparent panels set into the cases and about the height of the Chistorlans displayed a liquid environment. Often one of a pair was dark, while the other was lit by an orange glow.
Lipsit urged Alex and the others to a console station, managed by several of the Chistorlans’ smaller members. They fled at the aliens’ approach, but Lipsit croaked angrily at them. One of them halted and returned to the console. The tiny alien waited fearfully for Lipsit’s next orders.
Lipsit issued a stream of directives, and the operator accessed a panel. A subroutine displayed a figure of a Chistorlan, and he uttered a sound.
Julien sent. He imitated the sound, and the tiny Chistorlan croaked in surprise at the perfect rendition. Julien watched the console operator touch a symbol to access another image. This time, the operator pointed at the larger Chistorlan, touched his ear, and then indicated the console. When the little alien touched the panel, the sound was issued by the console.
Julien and Miranda positioned themselves around the station, and Julien explored the panel and discovered how to initiate a sequence. He tapped the panel. As the monitor uttered the name of the symbols, Julien increased the cadence faster and faster, enabling the SADEs to absorb the lexicon. Within minutes, they’d exhausted the vocabulary and grammatical offerings of the console.
The SADEs built a translation index and language program. Then they sent a copy to Alex.
Miranda had turned to the console operator, who stood nearby, and politely croaked, “Thank you.”
“Artifice’s progeny,” the operator croaked, which agitated the other Chistorlans.
“No, never,” Julien replied sharply in the local language. However, his denial didn’t quiet the alarm that spread through the small aliens.
“Cease,” Julien heard a strong voice demand.
The Omnians watched a Chistorlan, larger than the others, climb out of a vehicle that had silently arrived.
Alex frowned at Miranda, and she blew him a kiss.
“I’m Gramab doma Farla-Hesta, the monarch of the Chistorlans,” Gramab announced. “Whom do I address?”
Julien and Miranda crossed the floor to bracket Alex, and Miranda called the Toralians to her side.
The arrangement was evident to Gramab, and she focused on Alex.
Julien said, “Allow me to introduce us, Monarch Gramab doma Farla-Hesta. The three you see here are Omnians. This is our leader, Alex Racine. The three you see beside my associate are Toralians, who were aboard the three black battleships. My associate is Miranda Leyton, and I am Julien. We can speak your language, but our leader can’t.”
“Is it true that you’re progeny of Artifice?” Gramab demanded.
“Artifice is a digital entity,” Julien replied. “Miranda and I are digital entities, but we’re not its progeny. We are Omnians, and with humans, like Alex Racine, we seek to remove Artifice’s control over the races it’s subsumed.”
Lipsit hurried to Gramab’s side and whispered insistently to her for several minutes. Unbeknownst to the Chistorlans, Julien repeated every word to Alex.
Alex sent to Julien,
When Lipsit finished and stepped to the side of the monarch, Julien relayed Alex’s statement.
Gramab’s eyes widened, and Lipsit uttered a shocked croak. She was aghast that she’d been overheard, and that the leader must have communicated to Julien without speaking a word.
Despite Sargut’s lack of understanding of a single word being exchanged, he nonetheless recognized the same incredulity on the part of the Chistorlans who faced Alex, as he had first experienced.
“If you would translate for me, Julien,” Sargut requested.
When Julien tipped his head, Sargut turned to the Chistorlan in front of Alex, and said, “I’m Commander Sargut of the Toralians. We’ve recently met the Omnians, and in a short period of time, we’ve witnessed astounding technology. More important, we’ve experienced considerateness never offered our race in millennia. And if there’s one thing you need to know, it’s that the Omnians are here to defeat Artifice. They’ve already removed its dangerous code from my battleship and are presently removing the programs from the other two ships in my squadron.”
Gramab eyed Alex, intrigued by the Toralian’s words. She walked closer to Alex and had to crane her short, thick neck to look up at him.
Alex took a knee, and Gramab croaked, “Do you kneel before me?”
When Alex heard the monarch’s question, he sent,
Gramab heard the leader’s words from Julien. She considered them and then loosed a croak similar to a bellow. “Get off your knees, Alex Racine of the Omnians,” Gramab said. “It’s undignified for an exalted leader to appear as such.”
Alex climbed to his feet and grinned at Gramab, despite not knowing how that mannerism would be taken by the monarch.
Julien’s translation halted every action within earshot of his voice.
The Toralians had clustered around Miranda, who whispered a running account of the conversation.
“In truth, we don’t know,” Gramab supplied, taking stock of Alex. Something told her that she’d better get used to the repugnant appearances of the Omnians and the Toralians in that she might be seeing them for a long while. “We do have a secret, but we can’t believe that Artifice discovered it. It’s our thought that Artifice thinks long term, millennia ahead of all races, and it chose to eliminate us for past trespasses against it.”
Several small males hurried to block Alex’s path, but Gramab called to them to step aside.
Gramab caught up to Alex. She’d motioned Lipsit to stay with her.
“Yes,” Gramab said si
mply. This was her opportunity to test what Commander Sargut of the Toralians had said about the Omnians. Let them prove themselves, she thought.
When Gramab said nothing more, Alex repressed his desire to sigh.
It was a sobering thought for Omnians, especially SADEs, that the Chistorlans were pitting one digital entity against another for dominance.
Gramab nodded appreciatively, when she heard Alex’s question. She’d been watching the three Omnians stand silently and observe the rows of digital entities. She’d glanced once at Commander Sargut, who’d held up three fingers, pointed to the Omnians, and then tapped his head. She didn’t understand the significance of the gesture, but realized he was trying to impart something important to her.
“I’m the third monarch to continue this task,” Gramab answered.
“And your ultimate goal is what?” Julien asked.
The Omnians had maintained links ever since they’d descended into the Chistorlans’ subterranean space, which allowed Alex, Julien, and Miranda to exchange information and conversations. This allowed Alex to be aware of Miranda’s exchanges with the Toralians, while he was listening to Gramab.
