Philippe de la Matraque
2012-06-19 06:01:52 UTC
Title: Alien Us
Author: Philippe de la Matraque
Part: 23/? (in progress)
Series: ENT
Rating: R (for violence and torture)
Pairing: R/S light
Archive: Yes to Trekiverse.org, otherwise, please ask.
Contact: ***@kc.rr.com
Web: http://gabrielle.sytes.net/Trek/pdelamatraque.html
YahooGroup: AlienUsCollaboration.YahooGroups.com
Summary: For Reed and Hoshi, this is their Roswell, and they are the aliens.
Alien Us
by Philippe de la Matraque
Chapter Twenty-Three
"We have the permission of the Council," Major Zhenah said, stepping
forward until he was only inches from Burha's face. "You were there."
"He's the only one we have," Burha argued. Baezhu was impressed by the
doctor's courage but he realized none of this boded well for Samwize. Burha
wasn't done. "What are you going to do when you kill him, as for Buftanis
to hand us one of the clones--if they ever manage to make one?"
Zhenah bared his teeth. "Your job is to make sure it doesn't die!"
Dr. Bishtae tried to get between them. "I read the orders from the
Council. Our job is to glean scientific information, which we can't do if
you kill him. So we'll just have to work together to get the strategic
information you want and the scientific information we need."
He'd let Baezhu read the orders, too. The Council approved more aggressive
investigations without anesthesia, such as his tolerance for water,
pressure, and any number of things that completely contradicted what Dr.
Bishtae had told him be3fore. They hadn't been cruel up until now.
Admittedly, things hadn't always been pleasant for Samwize, but they'd never
purposely caused him pain. Even the recent forcing of him to speak had been
painless.
Now that was going to change. And Baezhu couldn't think of any way to help
Samwize short of releasing him, and it wasn't like he could do that. Even
if he could, there was no where to release him to. He wasn't a wild animal
from the woods or the ocean. He was an alien from outer space. Samwize was
stuck and so was he.
Kenu stepped forward. "We're going to start with making him say these
words." He help up a stack of cards. "In one language."
"Hive them to him," Bishtae suggested. "Let's see if he'll tell us those
words without forcing him. He's probably intelligent enough to know we're
on to him. And what lows we'd stoop to."
Zhenah was still angry but he nodded. "He's gone one hour to decide. And
you've got one hour to decide which lows we'll stoop to if he doesn't do it
voluntarily."
Dr. Bishtae sighed but he, too, nodded. He took the stack from Kenu and
passed them to Baezhu. "Take these to him. You have a connection with him.
See if he'll tell you."
Baezhu didn't relish what he had to do. Neither was a good choice for
Samwize. He'd have to give up his one area of control or have it taken from
him. Baezhu didn't want any part of it, but he couldn't just refuse. That
wasn't how life was. He grabbed some blank pages and a pen. This wouldn't
be very easy to convey.
*It's Smeagol,** Malcolm thought to Hoshi. *He's alone. I might need your
insight here.**
"I'm here," she replied. "Let me see?"
Smeagol carried some large cards and a pen. He came all the way to the bed
and sat down on it. On top of the cards were some empty sheets of paper.
On it, he drew what appeared to be a clock. Malcolm had seen enough alien
computers to recognize a time-keeping device, even it wasn't Earth-style.
Then Smeagol drew another under it. The symbols on each had to be numbers
and only on changed from the top clock to the lower. A change of time. But
how much and why?
Smeagol wrote some other symbols below the clocks. He help up a fist with
one hand and pointed with the other to the first symbol under the clocks.
"Euk." He moved his pointing finger to the next symbol and raised one of
the fingers from his fist. "Ak" He pointed to the third symbol and raised
his second finger.
Malcolm had it figured out before Smeagol raised the thumb. *He's
counting.**
"Yes, and the clocks are showing one hour. The first clock's number for
the hour is zero. The second's is one."
Malcolm nodded slightly. It was enough for Smeagol to catch. He put the
paper aside and laid out the cards on the bed.
Smeagol spoke more openly then and Malcolm tried to block it out. Besides
he was distracted by the cards. Be3cause what he saw on them was a shock to
his system: ENTERPRISE, EARTH, UNITED, STARFLEET, RATION, REED, SATO, and
FIELD.
"He says you have one hour to decide to read them or they're going to hurt
you. He said 'they,' Malcolm. Not 'we.'"
*That's why I don't call him 'Gollum,'** Malcolm replied. *So they're on
to our little trick.** To give Smeagol a clue that he got the gist of the
conversation, Malcolm picked up the STARFLEET card and pretended to study
it. Smeagol took the hint and left. **One hour. What am I going to do?**
Hoshi took a minute before answering. "It's only 14 letters. They can't
learn a whole language from that, not when we use 26. But they can catch
inconsistencies. So we'll have to work out a pattern that fits our names.
REED has to be either 'Samwise' or 'Gamgee.' And SATO has to be 'Frodo.'
So what if we make those the sounds of the letters? S for 'fr', A and O are
'oh' and T is 'd.' All those letters are in the other words so we can put
the sounds in them, too."
Malcolm looked at the card with his own name. **But mine isn't so easy.
The two E's have to have consonants in them for either 'Gamgee' or
'Samwise.'**
"Two letters, especially two vowels, can change sounds in combination.
Still, I think it works best with 'Samwise.' The R is an 'es' and the D a
'z.' So the two E's would have to represent 'amwhy.'"
*Isn't that a bit of a stretch?**
Hoshi's voice sounded almost playful. "Why? We're making up a language
here. We don't need English rules."
*Okay, so there are two E's in 'Starfleet.' That would have to end in
'amwide?'**
"And begin with 'frdos.' We just have to decide what the FL will be. And
both of those are in 'field' so we have to repeat them there. What about
'frdoskgamwide?'"
*Easy for you to say.** He felt her smile at that. *Would it be better
just to keep frustrating them?**
"And have them hurt you, Malcolm?" The smile was gone. "Things are
changing. The army guy came to your room. There's something going on here,
too. The female's are acting strange. Some of them were moved to a
different holding area. We have to live or die, Malcolm. If we can't do
the latter, we have to do the former, and there's no reason to invite
torture."
*There is a reason,** he argued. *Maybe two.**
"I think I know the second. But they've shown themselves quite capable of
keeping you alive. The first isn't such a big deal. We can still tell them
lies in one language. So practice: 'Frdoskgamwide'."
She was right. Malcolm sighed and then said it, silently, of course. He
tried it out a few more times.
"Now the others. We only need to decide the H in 'Earth.' But who's to
say it has to be a consonant. Let's make it a vowel. 'Aosdeh.'"
*How do you figure? Never mind. I'll take your word for it.**
"Say it a few times: 'Aosdeh.' It's like the 'ao' in 'tao.'"
Malcolm tried that one out a few times and went back to 'Frdoskgamwide' to
keep it fresh in his memory.
"Good." She was smiling again.
They spent the rest of the hour working out the other for words. "United"
was the last one and it came out as "pludaz."
*At least that one's easy to say. I have to sell these if they're to
believe me. They're mostly the words on our uniforms.**
"I'll help you."
When the hour had passed, Hoshi had just moved to another sidewalk. It was
a large complex and so, depending on how much snow had fallen, she had a lot
of work to do. It made her wonder what they did for this before they got an
alien to do the work. It was cold, even with the fur, ill-fitting coat and
moccasins. But at least shoveling snow didn't take much of her cognitive
abilities. She could focus more on Malcolm. Things were becoming more
desperate there. They were threatening to torture him.
He opened video to her as before, so she saw the first two in were Kenoo
and Zhenah. The former picked up the cards and turned the
first--STARFLEET--toward Malcolm.
"'Frdoskgamwide,'" Malcolm spat out. A clue to them that he was not doing
this willingly.
It wasn't good enough for the linguist. He pointed to the first letter.
Malcolm huffed and then said, "'fr.'" They went on letter for letter until
the double-E. At that Malcolm raised two fingers and pointed at both
together before saying "'amwhy'" then finished by pointing one finger at the
T and labeling it "'d.'"
'Aosdeh' was sounded out next as 'ah-oh-s-d-eh.' She was proud of him. He
was handling their made-up language well.
Then he hesitated at ENTERPRISE. It was quite long. "'*Aldastsufra**,'"
she reminded him.
"'Aldastsufra,'" he repeated, trying to add a bit of anger into his voice.
He sounded out each letter in staccato. He was a good actor, overall.
A little prompt then at the start of each other word got them through
'kuagz,' 'sodowl,' and 'pludaz.' She helped him sound out the latter.
Kenoo scribbled on each card after it was finished. Pronunciation notes,
presumably. Then he promptly left the room. They'd given him something to
work with.
*For all the good it will do him,** Hoshi commented.
"It's not him I'm worried about," Malcolm thought back to her. He looked
straight at Zhenah. The T-Rex stood still, not too feet away, teeth bared.
Finally, he turned and stomped out. "I think I robbed him of an
opportunity."
"It's close!" Kahrae exclaimed. Baezhu could feel an increase in the
excitement of the crowd in the cafeteria. A part of him wished he could
feel it. Back before Samwize and Frodoh had come. Back then, the universe,
and his place in it, had made sense. Now, he was involved in an internal
secret of global implications and a personal secret worry and concern for
the cause of the other secret. An alien. He had already bordered on
treason. It was so much simpler before. His first Turn as an adult. His
first mating. He would have been very excited.
Still, personal concerns aside, he could feel a change. Hormones. How
frustrating that must have been for those who didn't make the quota. He
used those feelings to try and fake the excitement level Kahrae couldn't
hide. "Just a matter of days!"
"Ten, Ten days!" Kahrae corrected. "So why aren't you happy? You made the
quota."
Kahrae knew him too well. They sad down. "I don't know how many slots,"
he tried. But Kahrae looked down his nose at him. He wasn't buying it.
"Samwize," Baezhu finally admitted. "I'm worried what will happen to him
when the military is in charge."
Kahrae sighed. "I can see that. I have a disadvantage compared to other
Raptors: I have a Winged friend. His friendship makes me look at things
from a different point of view sometimes."
Baezhu looked up from his plate. "Like now?"
Kahrae's head bobbed. "Very much like now. I'm military. So knowing what
I'm not supposed to know, I can see the tactical, intelligence side of this.
Samwize must have incredible information, and we ought to get it from him if
he won't offer it freely. But you're my friend and a scientist, and I can
see what an opportunity he is to learn from, even when he doesn't give
information freely. Even if that information isn't tactical. The
scientific side showed us that we're not alone in the universe, that mammals
from other worlds can be sentient. That's pretty big stuff."
"What tactical information would be useful," Baezhu asked, "if he'd give
it? His skyship was destroyed, and we have the only piece of technology
that remains."
Kahrae held up a hand. "Ah, but it's possible, depending on what his role
was on the skyship, that he could recreate other technology or give us ways
to defend ourselves if there was an invasion."
"Which still means he'd have to be alive, and we'll have to be able to
communicate with him," Baezhu argued. "That's going to take time. A lot of
time."
Kahrae bobbed his head again. "And the military isn't known for its
patience."
Enesh stared at the print-out in front of him. His beak opened and closed
as he tried to quietly pronounce the foreign words phonetically spelled on
the sheet. He could manage of a few of them. The ones noted as FIELD,
UNITED, RATION, and EARTH. But the longer ones were more difficult with
their consonant clusters and that same sound that started the female's name.
They managed it well enough that she responded to it, but he wasn't sure he
could really pronounce it right, given his rigid beak and their supple lips.
"They managed to get him to say more than his name," he told Besta as the
latter entered the lab. He handed him the sheet.
"Well, I'll bet that's easier for him to say than us. How's the linguist
doing with it?"
"Dr. Kenu has found patterns with the letters so he can at least work out
which sounds go with which symbols. But he doesn't know much about their
meaning."
Besta turned the sheet over. "Looks like he figured out one.
'*Aldastsufra**,'" he stumbled through that one, "was that a patch with an
image of what could be the mothership. It doesn't look anything like the
ship that flew overhead the day of the crash."
Enesh nodded. "It's a good inference. The one that flew over was rather
boxy. The one on the patch definitely wasn't."
"'*Kuagz Sodowl**' was on a food wrapper. It could name the food inside or
be more generic such as 'field portion.'"
Enesh snorted. "Could go either way on that phrase. It's narrowed the
possibilities only slightly. If it means the food, there could be thousands
of the names and we know none of them."
Besta put the sheet down. "The other three are together on a patch, but
the image doesn't give any real clue. It could be an organizational patch.
An organization to which the mothership belongs, or it could denote the
smaller vessel that crashed."
Enesh stood and moved to the display to pull up the uterine camera image.
"Well, at least he's got some ideas. It's further than they were. But I
don't see how Kenu can learn their language from that. How else will we
understand what they make him say?"
"Or what he's already said."
Enesh didn't really hear. He grabbed the display control and zoomed in on
the fetus.
"What's wrong?" Besta asked.
"Something's off. I can only compare with primate fetuses of the species
here on Sharu, but the proportions don't seem right. The head should be
bigger, the arms longer. Of course, it may be that this is normal for this
stage of development. We really know less about this than Kenu does those
words."
Kenu threw the cards down on Kaife's desk. "I've been over it and over
it," he complained. "They don't even sound like *any** of the other
languages he's used."
Kaife picked them up, noting the phonetic markings under each letter. "The
thirteenth? But is it his native language?"
Kenu sighed. "It holds together. Every one of these," he reached across
point to an 'A', "sounds like 'oh.' Every letter matches up."
Kaife set the cards down. "And I think that's a point for native. He only
had an hour to decide. Could he had worked out such a consistent ruse in a
time?" He still wondered if any of the words or symbols matched the signal
the communications device had transmitted in the desert.
"That would depend on how intelligent he is."
"I think it's time we forced the issue."
Both Wingeds turned around to see Major Zhenah enter. "If he can speak
twelve languages, he's intelligent," he continued. "One hour was too much
time. He was to relaxed. A little stress could confuse him, shake him up
so he can't be so clever,"
Kaife had an idea. "Sleep deprivation just might get past the Wingeds
reserves," he said. "Play him the signal." He Loudly on his desk: three
spaced-out taps, three quick ones, and three spaced out again. "Over and
over." He looked to Kenu, the closest of the cadre to the scientists.
"I think it's a valid avenue of study."
Kahrae found himself missing the stars. He had gotten used to them as he
stood guard outside. But now his rotation was inside. One thing he was
glad for though was that he was alone in the corridor he guarded. The only
sounds were the animals, and most of those were asleep anyway. He had no
one to talk to, but that was better than being with Obek all night. He
could be silence for weeks on end then say something disturbing about
politics, the Council, war, or Shirkatitsa. Nishet--the spy-- had been
better company. Alone was just fine with Kahrae.
There was one other sound. A muffled thudding sound coming from around the
corner of the far end of his corridor. There was a pattern to it which told
him it wasn't an animal. He decided to check it out. It got louder as he
neared the end of the corridor, and he realized it was coming from inside
one of the isolation cells. They were soundproofed. To still hear it out
here meant it had to be very loud inside. Why would they do that to an
animal? He stepped closer and put his face up to the glass in the door to
see what animal it was.
But it wasn't. He was a strange creature with pale skin and a mop of dark
hair on its head. His head. He looked up and Kahrae realized he was
looking at the alien. Samwize Gamgee. He looked away.
He wasn't even supposed to know about the alien. He was not supposed to
leave his corridor. He quickly returned to his post. At least he could
tell Baezhu he'd seen him in the morning. And he hoped no one else would
find out.
Hoshi collapsed onto the floor beside Pipa. Finally it was quiet. The
orcs were at Malcolm again. This time blaring Morse code at him
incessantly. At first, it had shocked her to hear the SOS. They had
somehow picked up on it when they had first crashed here so many months ago.
Was it a year yet? Longer? Still, she couldn't think how they might grasp
its meaning. It didn't even spell anything, and there was nothing to tie
the dots and dashes a specific letters in the alphabets--the real English
one or the one she had made up.
She'd heard it because Malcolm couldn't block it out. He could barely hear
her over it, and she was in his head, not his ears. They'd tried working
the console to cancel out what his ears were receiving and leave only what
hers were hearing. He could only hold that, though, for a few minutes. The
founding SOS came loudly and did not stop.
It disturbed her work, too, though she tried not to show it. It kept her
on edge. But finally, as night fell and her chores were done, it stopped.
Malcolm said they'd turned it off for the night.
And she knew he was lying. She didn't call him on it. It had begun to
snow the last few days, which made her work harder and more physical. She
was exhausted. She needed sleep. But she sincerely hoped she was wrong,
and that he would get some, too.
"You saw him?" Baezhu was shocked and somewhat relieved. Even though he
wouldn't involve his friend, he felt less alone for some reason.
"Yes," Kahrae answered. "We'll see if I'm still alive tomorrow. If I'm
not at breakfast, you'll know why."
Baezhu wanted to reassure him. "You know, I don't think anyone monitors
that camera outside his door unless there's an incident. Besides, you can
say you were investigating a suspicious sound."
"And saw something I'm not supposed to know exists," Kahrae added. "I'm
sure that will go over well."
Baezhu couldn't really argue with that. "So what did you think?"
"He's ugly."
Baezhu nearly choked on his drink. He hadn't expected that. "What?!"
"He's skinny and hairless, except for his head. His face is nearly flat,
and his skin is pale and squishy-looking. I can't even imagine a female
like him."
Baezhu laughed. The description fit, mostly. "I guess I'm just accustomed
to him after all this time."
When he got to the lab, he tried to act casual. "Anything even for last
night?" he asked Dr. Burha who was getting ready to leave.
Dr. Burha put something in his hand. Not unless you count the finished
quota slots for Turn eventful. Congratulations. Try not to mention it
around Hinath. He's going to be very disappointed."
Baezhu looked at the two chips in his hand. Two slots, just like Kahrae.
His first Turn as an adult. He had let himself think too much about it. He
was going to be a father. He was going to mate.
Dr. Burha patted him on the shoulder. "I was speechless my first time,
too. See you tomorrow." He left to pass the other chips out.
Baezhu managed to get his thoughts together enough to get the chips into
his pocket. He flipped on the monitor with the feed from Samwize's room.
The blaring signal jerked him back to full awareness .Samwize couldn't have
had a comfortable night with that.
Enesh and Besta hurry through the tunnel to the Director's office. A call
from the President--even one you didn't vote for--was a big deal. The
winter was getting colder. It was even a chill in the tunnels, but the two
scientists pushed through the stiffness growing in their muscles to lessen
the President's wait.
"They are here, President Gudai," Director Goti said as soon as they
entered.
The President's voice came from a speaker on the Director's desk.
"Doctors, I'm glad you could come. What news is there of our female's
counterpart in Zheiren?"
"They are getting him to speak," Besta answered. "Though no one has worked
out much of what he's said."
"Dr. Enesh, is it through the Raptors are next in line for the head of the
Council after Turn?"
"Yes, sir," Enesh said, finally forced by politeness to speak. He would
rather have let Besta be their spokesman. "They are increasing their power
even now. The Wingeds are having to compromise their scientific standards."
"How so?" Gudai asked.
Besta answered, letting Enesh off the hook for now. "Sleep deprivation
now. Major Zhenah is involved and even their linguist is getting
frustrated. The male is outclassing him, speaking multiple languages.
There's no way to know which is his native tongue."
"So they're applying pressure." It wasn't a question. "Do you feel this
will lead to further compromises of scientific standards? Will they torture
him?"
"They might," Enesh replied. He remembered Zhenah's threats vividly and
knew of the rumors of torture applied to dissidents. "They probably will."
"As they would have enjoyed doing with either of you if they'd had the
chance, yes?"
So the new President knew that Besta had been born in Zheiren, too. "Yes,"
they answered together.
"And what progress have you had in cloning the male?"
Besta stood up straighter, though, of course, the President couldn't see
it. "She's carrying a fetus now. We have no real point of reference for
their fetal development, but we see no obvious reasons to abort at this
time."
"I see. I've been speaking to your director about a remodeling project.
He informs me that your facility has adequate space."
Enesh was confused but also quite curious. "For what, sir?"
"That's not to be said over these channels. That you two will be central
to it. Your director will fill you in. Good speaking to you."
"And you," Besta replied. The line clicked off.
"I received a secure letter this morning," the Director said. "What I'm
about to say here will not leave this room."
"Understood, Director," Besta answered. Enesh nodded his agreement.
"We're going to get the male." The Director did not sound pleased. "Our
President thinks we can have better luck with him and a different approach."
Enesh was quite pleased, though. "When? How?"
"War," Goti replied. "Zheiren's already making plans for Shirkatitsa.
We're going to force the issue. And while we are engaged there, a special
mission force will go to Kennesitai and get him. Given your knowledge of
the layout, Dr. Enesh, you'll likely be on that mission."
Enesh's excitement at the prospect of acquiring the male evaporated at the
prospect of certain war, and his own return to Zheiren. "And the new
approach?" He managed to ask, hiding his trepidation.
"We're going to let him live here," Goti said, "he'll set up house and
we'll make friends. We'll even let him have the female. The contrast in
his treatment might persuade him to be more forthcoming. He may even
provide us with advanced technology."
"The remodeling? Where will he live?" Besta asked.
"There is an empty apartment below yours." The Director stood. "We'll
have to outfit it with appropriate furniture and utilities. And hidden
cameras providing views from every angle of every room. We'll see and hear
everything he does."
TBC
Author: Philippe de la Matraque
Part: 23/? (in progress)
Series: ENT
Rating: R (for violence and torture)
Pairing: R/S light
Archive: Yes to Trekiverse.org, otherwise, please ask.
Contact: ***@kc.rr.com
Web: http://gabrielle.sytes.net/Trek/pdelamatraque.html
YahooGroup: AlienUsCollaboration.YahooGroups.com
Summary: For Reed and Hoshi, this is their Roswell, and they are the aliens.
Alien Us
by Philippe de la Matraque
Chapter Twenty-Three
"We have the permission of the Council," Major Zhenah said, stepping
forward until he was only inches from Burha's face. "You were there."
"He's the only one we have," Burha argued. Baezhu was impressed by the
doctor's courage but he realized none of this boded well for Samwize. Burha
wasn't done. "What are you going to do when you kill him, as for Buftanis
to hand us one of the clones--if they ever manage to make one?"
Zhenah bared his teeth. "Your job is to make sure it doesn't die!"
Dr. Bishtae tried to get between them. "I read the orders from the
Council. Our job is to glean scientific information, which we can't do if
you kill him. So we'll just have to work together to get the strategic
information you want and the scientific information we need."
He'd let Baezhu read the orders, too. The Council approved more aggressive
investigations without anesthesia, such as his tolerance for water,
pressure, and any number of things that completely contradicted what Dr.
Bishtae had told him be3fore. They hadn't been cruel up until now.
Admittedly, things hadn't always been pleasant for Samwize, but they'd never
purposely caused him pain. Even the recent forcing of him to speak had been
painless.
Now that was going to change. And Baezhu couldn't think of any way to help
Samwize short of releasing him, and it wasn't like he could do that. Even
if he could, there was no where to release him to. He wasn't a wild animal
from the woods or the ocean. He was an alien from outer space. Samwize was
stuck and so was he.
Kenu stepped forward. "We're going to start with making him say these
words." He help up a stack of cards. "In one language."
"Hive them to him," Bishtae suggested. "Let's see if he'll tell us those
words without forcing him. He's probably intelligent enough to know we're
on to him. And what lows we'd stoop to."
Zhenah was still angry but he nodded. "He's gone one hour to decide. And
you've got one hour to decide which lows we'll stoop to if he doesn't do it
voluntarily."
Dr. Bishtae sighed but he, too, nodded. He took the stack from Kenu and
passed them to Baezhu. "Take these to him. You have a connection with him.
See if he'll tell you."
Baezhu didn't relish what he had to do. Neither was a good choice for
Samwize. He'd have to give up his one area of control or have it taken from
him. Baezhu didn't want any part of it, but he couldn't just refuse. That
wasn't how life was. He grabbed some blank pages and a pen. This wouldn't
be very easy to convey.
*It's Smeagol,** Malcolm thought to Hoshi. *He's alone. I might need your
insight here.**
"I'm here," she replied. "Let me see?"
Smeagol carried some large cards and a pen. He came all the way to the bed
and sat down on it. On top of the cards were some empty sheets of paper.
On it, he drew what appeared to be a clock. Malcolm had seen enough alien
computers to recognize a time-keeping device, even it wasn't Earth-style.
Then Smeagol drew another under it. The symbols on each had to be numbers
and only on changed from the top clock to the lower. A change of time. But
how much and why?
Smeagol wrote some other symbols below the clocks. He help up a fist with
one hand and pointed with the other to the first symbol under the clocks.
"Euk." He moved his pointing finger to the next symbol and raised one of
the fingers from his fist. "Ak" He pointed to the third symbol and raised
his second finger.
Malcolm had it figured out before Smeagol raised the thumb. *He's
counting.**
"Yes, and the clocks are showing one hour. The first clock's number for
the hour is zero. The second's is one."
Malcolm nodded slightly. It was enough for Smeagol to catch. He put the
paper aside and laid out the cards on the bed.
Smeagol spoke more openly then and Malcolm tried to block it out. Besides
he was distracted by the cards. Be3cause what he saw on them was a shock to
his system: ENTERPRISE, EARTH, UNITED, STARFLEET, RATION, REED, SATO, and
FIELD.
"He says you have one hour to decide to read them or they're going to hurt
you. He said 'they,' Malcolm. Not 'we.'"
*That's why I don't call him 'Gollum,'** Malcolm replied. *So they're on
to our little trick.** To give Smeagol a clue that he got the gist of the
conversation, Malcolm picked up the STARFLEET card and pretended to study
it. Smeagol took the hint and left. **One hour. What am I going to do?**
Hoshi took a minute before answering. "It's only 14 letters. They can't
learn a whole language from that, not when we use 26. But they can catch
inconsistencies. So we'll have to work out a pattern that fits our names.
REED has to be either 'Samwise' or 'Gamgee.' And SATO has to be 'Frodo.'
So what if we make those the sounds of the letters? S for 'fr', A and O are
'oh' and T is 'd.' All those letters are in the other words so we can put
the sounds in them, too."
Malcolm looked at the card with his own name. **But mine isn't so easy.
The two E's have to have consonants in them for either 'Gamgee' or
'Samwise.'**
"Two letters, especially two vowels, can change sounds in combination.
Still, I think it works best with 'Samwise.' The R is an 'es' and the D a
'z.' So the two E's would have to represent 'amwhy.'"
*Isn't that a bit of a stretch?**
Hoshi's voice sounded almost playful. "Why? We're making up a language
here. We don't need English rules."
*Okay, so there are two E's in 'Starfleet.' That would have to end in
'amwide?'**
"And begin with 'frdos.' We just have to decide what the FL will be. And
both of those are in 'field' so we have to repeat them there. What about
'frdoskgamwide?'"
*Easy for you to say.** He felt her smile at that. *Would it be better
just to keep frustrating them?**
"And have them hurt you, Malcolm?" The smile was gone. "Things are
changing. The army guy came to your room. There's something going on here,
too. The female's are acting strange. Some of them were moved to a
different holding area. We have to live or die, Malcolm. If we can't do
the latter, we have to do the former, and there's no reason to invite
torture."
*There is a reason,** he argued. *Maybe two.**
"I think I know the second. But they've shown themselves quite capable of
keeping you alive. The first isn't such a big deal. We can still tell them
lies in one language. So practice: 'Frdoskgamwide'."
She was right. Malcolm sighed and then said it, silently, of course. He
tried it out a few more times.
"Now the others. We only need to decide the H in 'Earth.' But who's to
say it has to be a consonant. Let's make it a vowel. 'Aosdeh.'"
*How do you figure? Never mind. I'll take your word for it.**
"Say it a few times: 'Aosdeh.' It's like the 'ao' in 'tao.'"
Malcolm tried that one out a few times and went back to 'Frdoskgamwide' to
keep it fresh in his memory.
"Good." She was smiling again.
They spent the rest of the hour working out the other for words. "United"
was the last one and it came out as "pludaz."
*At least that one's easy to say. I have to sell these if they're to
believe me. They're mostly the words on our uniforms.**
"I'll help you."
When the hour had passed, Hoshi had just moved to another sidewalk. It was
a large complex and so, depending on how much snow had fallen, she had a lot
of work to do. It made her wonder what they did for this before they got an
alien to do the work. It was cold, even with the fur, ill-fitting coat and
moccasins. But at least shoveling snow didn't take much of her cognitive
abilities. She could focus more on Malcolm. Things were becoming more
desperate there. They were threatening to torture him.
He opened video to her as before, so she saw the first two in were Kenoo
and Zhenah. The former picked up the cards and turned the
first--STARFLEET--toward Malcolm.
"'Frdoskgamwide,'" Malcolm spat out. A clue to them that he was not doing
this willingly.
It wasn't good enough for the linguist. He pointed to the first letter.
Malcolm huffed and then said, "'fr.'" They went on letter for letter until
the double-E. At that Malcolm raised two fingers and pointed at both
together before saying "'amwhy'" then finished by pointing one finger at the
T and labeling it "'d.'"
'Aosdeh' was sounded out next as 'ah-oh-s-d-eh.' She was proud of him. He
was handling their made-up language well.
Then he hesitated at ENTERPRISE. It was quite long. "'*Aldastsufra**,'"
she reminded him.
"'Aldastsufra,'" he repeated, trying to add a bit of anger into his voice.
He sounded out each letter in staccato. He was a good actor, overall.
A little prompt then at the start of each other word got them through
'kuagz,' 'sodowl,' and 'pludaz.' She helped him sound out the latter.
Kenoo scribbled on each card after it was finished. Pronunciation notes,
presumably. Then he promptly left the room. They'd given him something to
work with.
*For all the good it will do him,** Hoshi commented.
"It's not him I'm worried about," Malcolm thought back to her. He looked
straight at Zhenah. The T-Rex stood still, not too feet away, teeth bared.
Finally, he turned and stomped out. "I think I robbed him of an
opportunity."
"It's close!" Kahrae exclaimed. Baezhu could feel an increase in the
excitement of the crowd in the cafeteria. A part of him wished he could
feel it. Back before Samwize and Frodoh had come. Back then, the universe,
and his place in it, had made sense. Now, he was involved in an internal
secret of global implications and a personal secret worry and concern for
the cause of the other secret. An alien. He had already bordered on
treason. It was so much simpler before. His first Turn as an adult. His
first mating. He would have been very excited.
Still, personal concerns aside, he could feel a change. Hormones. How
frustrating that must have been for those who didn't make the quota. He
used those feelings to try and fake the excitement level Kahrae couldn't
hide. "Just a matter of days!"
"Ten, Ten days!" Kahrae corrected. "So why aren't you happy? You made the
quota."
Kahrae knew him too well. They sad down. "I don't know how many slots,"
he tried. But Kahrae looked down his nose at him. He wasn't buying it.
"Samwize," Baezhu finally admitted. "I'm worried what will happen to him
when the military is in charge."
Kahrae sighed. "I can see that. I have a disadvantage compared to other
Raptors: I have a Winged friend. His friendship makes me look at things
from a different point of view sometimes."
Baezhu looked up from his plate. "Like now?"
Kahrae's head bobbed. "Very much like now. I'm military. So knowing what
I'm not supposed to know, I can see the tactical, intelligence side of this.
Samwize must have incredible information, and we ought to get it from him if
he won't offer it freely. But you're my friend and a scientist, and I can
see what an opportunity he is to learn from, even when he doesn't give
information freely. Even if that information isn't tactical. The
scientific side showed us that we're not alone in the universe, that mammals
from other worlds can be sentient. That's pretty big stuff."
"What tactical information would be useful," Baezhu asked, "if he'd give
it? His skyship was destroyed, and we have the only piece of technology
that remains."
Kahrae held up a hand. "Ah, but it's possible, depending on what his role
was on the skyship, that he could recreate other technology or give us ways
to defend ourselves if there was an invasion."
"Which still means he'd have to be alive, and we'll have to be able to
communicate with him," Baezhu argued. "That's going to take time. A lot of
time."
Kahrae bobbed his head again. "And the military isn't known for its
patience."
Enesh stared at the print-out in front of him. His beak opened and closed
as he tried to quietly pronounce the foreign words phonetically spelled on
the sheet. He could manage of a few of them. The ones noted as FIELD,
UNITED, RATION, and EARTH. But the longer ones were more difficult with
their consonant clusters and that same sound that started the female's name.
They managed it well enough that she responded to it, but he wasn't sure he
could really pronounce it right, given his rigid beak and their supple lips.
"They managed to get him to say more than his name," he told Besta as the
latter entered the lab. He handed him the sheet.
"Well, I'll bet that's easier for him to say than us. How's the linguist
doing with it?"
"Dr. Kenu has found patterns with the letters so he can at least work out
which sounds go with which symbols. But he doesn't know much about their
meaning."
Besta turned the sheet over. "Looks like he figured out one.
'*Aldastsufra**,'" he stumbled through that one, "was that a patch with an
image of what could be the mothership. It doesn't look anything like the
ship that flew overhead the day of the crash."
Enesh nodded. "It's a good inference. The one that flew over was rather
boxy. The one on the patch definitely wasn't."
"'*Kuagz Sodowl**' was on a food wrapper. It could name the food inside or
be more generic such as 'field portion.'"
Enesh snorted. "Could go either way on that phrase. It's narrowed the
possibilities only slightly. If it means the food, there could be thousands
of the names and we know none of them."
Besta put the sheet down. "The other three are together on a patch, but
the image doesn't give any real clue. It could be an organizational patch.
An organization to which the mothership belongs, or it could denote the
smaller vessel that crashed."
Enesh stood and moved to the display to pull up the uterine camera image.
"Well, at least he's got some ideas. It's further than they were. But I
don't see how Kenu can learn their language from that. How else will we
understand what they make him say?"
"Or what he's already said."
Enesh didn't really hear. He grabbed the display control and zoomed in on
the fetus.
"What's wrong?" Besta asked.
"Something's off. I can only compare with primate fetuses of the species
here on Sharu, but the proportions don't seem right. The head should be
bigger, the arms longer. Of course, it may be that this is normal for this
stage of development. We really know less about this than Kenu does those
words."
Kenu threw the cards down on Kaife's desk. "I've been over it and over
it," he complained. "They don't even sound like *any** of the other
languages he's used."
Kaife picked them up, noting the phonetic markings under each letter. "The
thirteenth? But is it his native language?"
Kenu sighed. "It holds together. Every one of these," he reached across
point to an 'A', "sounds like 'oh.' Every letter matches up."
Kaife set the cards down. "And I think that's a point for native. He only
had an hour to decide. Could he had worked out such a consistent ruse in a
time?" He still wondered if any of the words or symbols matched the signal
the communications device had transmitted in the desert.
"That would depend on how intelligent he is."
"I think it's time we forced the issue."
Both Wingeds turned around to see Major Zhenah enter. "If he can speak
twelve languages, he's intelligent," he continued. "One hour was too much
time. He was to relaxed. A little stress could confuse him, shake him up
so he can't be so clever,"
Kaife had an idea. "Sleep deprivation just might get past the Wingeds
reserves," he said. "Play him the signal." He Loudly on his desk: three
spaced-out taps, three quick ones, and three spaced out again. "Over and
over." He looked to Kenu, the closest of the cadre to the scientists.
"I think it's a valid avenue of study."
Kahrae found himself missing the stars. He had gotten used to them as he
stood guard outside. But now his rotation was inside. One thing he was
glad for though was that he was alone in the corridor he guarded. The only
sounds were the animals, and most of those were asleep anyway. He had no
one to talk to, but that was better than being with Obek all night. He
could be silence for weeks on end then say something disturbing about
politics, the Council, war, or Shirkatitsa. Nishet--the spy-- had been
better company. Alone was just fine with Kahrae.
There was one other sound. A muffled thudding sound coming from around the
corner of the far end of his corridor. There was a pattern to it which told
him it wasn't an animal. He decided to check it out. It got louder as he
neared the end of the corridor, and he realized it was coming from inside
one of the isolation cells. They were soundproofed. To still hear it out
here meant it had to be very loud inside. Why would they do that to an
animal? He stepped closer and put his face up to the glass in the door to
see what animal it was.
But it wasn't. He was a strange creature with pale skin and a mop of dark
hair on its head. His head. He looked up and Kahrae realized he was
looking at the alien. Samwize Gamgee. He looked away.
He wasn't even supposed to know about the alien. He was not supposed to
leave his corridor. He quickly returned to his post. At least he could
tell Baezhu he'd seen him in the morning. And he hoped no one else would
find out.
Hoshi collapsed onto the floor beside Pipa. Finally it was quiet. The
orcs were at Malcolm again. This time blaring Morse code at him
incessantly. At first, it had shocked her to hear the SOS. They had
somehow picked up on it when they had first crashed here so many months ago.
Was it a year yet? Longer? Still, she couldn't think how they might grasp
its meaning. It didn't even spell anything, and there was nothing to tie
the dots and dashes a specific letters in the alphabets--the real English
one or the one she had made up.
She'd heard it because Malcolm couldn't block it out. He could barely hear
her over it, and she was in his head, not his ears. They'd tried working
the console to cancel out what his ears were receiving and leave only what
hers were hearing. He could only hold that, though, for a few minutes. The
founding SOS came loudly and did not stop.
It disturbed her work, too, though she tried not to show it. It kept her
on edge. But finally, as night fell and her chores were done, it stopped.
Malcolm said they'd turned it off for the night.
And she knew he was lying. She didn't call him on it. It had begun to
snow the last few days, which made her work harder and more physical. She
was exhausted. She needed sleep. But she sincerely hoped she was wrong,
and that he would get some, too.
"You saw him?" Baezhu was shocked and somewhat relieved. Even though he
wouldn't involve his friend, he felt less alone for some reason.
"Yes," Kahrae answered. "We'll see if I'm still alive tomorrow. If I'm
not at breakfast, you'll know why."
Baezhu wanted to reassure him. "You know, I don't think anyone monitors
that camera outside his door unless there's an incident. Besides, you can
say you were investigating a suspicious sound."
"And saw something I'm not supposed to know exists," Kahrae added. "I'm
sure that will go over well."
Baezhu couldn't really argue with that. "So what did you think?"
"He's ugly."
Baezhu nearly choked on his drink. He hadn't expected that. "What?!"
"He's skinny and hairless, except for his head. His face is nearly flat,
and his skin is pale and squishy-looking. I can't even imagine a female
like him."
Baezhu laughed. The description fit, mostly. "I guess I'm just accustomed
to him after all this time."
When he got to the lab, he tried to act casual. "Anything even for last
night?" he asked Dr. Burha who was getting ready to leave.
Dr. Burha put something in his hand. Not unless you count the finished
quota slots for Turn eventful. Congratulations. Try not to mention it
around Hinath. He's going to be very disappointed."
Baezhu looked at the two chips in his hand. Two slots, just like Kahrae.
His first Turn as an adult. He had let himself think too much about it. He
was going to be a father. He was going to mate.
Dr. Burha patted him on the shoulder. "I was speechless my first time,
too. See you tomorrow." He left to pass the other chips out.
Baezhu managed to get his thoughts together enough to get the chips into
his pocket. He flipped on the monitor with the feed from Samwize's room.
The blaring signal jerked him back to full awareness .Samwize couldn't have
had a comfortable night with that.
Enesh and Besta hurry through the tunnel to the Director's office. A call
from the President--even one you didn't vote for--was a big deal. The
winter was getting colder. It was even a chill in the tunnels, but the two
scientists pushed through the stiffness growing in their muscles to lessen
the President's wait.
"They are here, President Gudai," Director Goti said as soon as they
entered.
The President's voice came from a speaker on the Director's desk.
"Doctors, I'm glad you could come. What news is there of our female's
counterpart in Zheiren?"
"They are getting him to speak," Besta answered. "Though no one has worked
out much of what he's said."
"Dr. Enesh, is it through the Raptors are next in line for the head of the
Council after Turn?"
"Yes, sir," Enesh said, finally forced by politeness to speak. He would
rather have let Besta be their spokesman. "They are increasing their power
even now. The Wingeds are having to compromise their scientific standards."
"How so?" Gudai asked.
Besta answered, letting Enesh off the hook for now. "Sleep deprivation
now. Major Zhenah is involved and even their linguist is getting
frustrated. The male is outclassing him, speaking multiple languages.
There's no way to know which is his native tongue."
"So they're applying pressure." It wasn't a question. "Do you feel this
will lead to further compromises of scientific standards? Will they torture
him?"
"They might," Enesh replied. He remembered Zhenah's threats vividly and
knew of the rumors of torture applied to dissidents. "They probably will."
"As they would have enjoyed doing with either of you if they'd had the
chance, yes?"
So the new President knew that Besta had been born in Zheiren, too. "Yes,"
they answered together.
"And what progress have you had in cloning the male?"
Besta stood up straighter, though, of course, the President couldn't see
it. "She's carrying a fetus now. We have no real point of reference for
their fetal development, but we see no obvious reasons to abort at this
time."
"I see. I've been speaking to your director about a remodeling project.
He informs me that your facility has adequate space."
Enesh was confused but also quite curious. "For what, sir?"
"That's not to be said over these channels. That you two will be central
to it. Your director will fill you in. Good speaking to you."
"And you," Besta replied. The line clicked off.
"I received a secure letter this morning," the Director said. "What I'm
about to say here will not leave this room."
"Understood, Director," Besta answered. Enesh nodded his agreement.
"We're going to get the male." The Director did not sound pleased. "Our
President thinks we can have better luck with him and a different approach."
Enesh was quite pleased, though. "When? How?"
"War," Goti replied. "Zheiren's already making plans for Shirkatitsa.
We're going to force the issue. And while we are engaged there, a special
mission force will go to Kennesitai and get him. Given your knowledge of
the layout, Dr. Enesh, you'll likely be on that mission."
Enesh's excitement at the prospect of acquiring the male evaporated at the
prospect of certain war, and his own return to Zheiren. "And the new
approach?" He managed to ask, hiding his trepidation.
"We're going to let him live here," Goti said, "he'll set up house and
we'll make friends. We'll even let him have the female. The contrast in
his treatment might persuade him to be more forthcoming. He may even
provide us with advanced technology."
"The remodeling? Where will he live?" Besta asked.
"There is an empty apartment below yours." The Director stood. "We'll
have to outfit it with appropriate furniture and utilities. And hidden
cameras providing views from every angle of every room. We'll see and hear
everything he does."
TBC