Family Law 3: Secrets in the Stars (23 page)

"But we didn't fill the grid," Lee complained. "What do we do? Just leave blanks?"

"Why not? Doesn't that fit the fact we don't know a great deal?" Talker said.

"Yeah, but filling it up nice and square has a certain elegance," Lee said.

"We're not even sure this is how they talk and you want to do poetry already!" Talker complained.

Lee laughed. "Yeah, well maybe I'm getting ahead of myself," Lee admitted. "I'm thinking you could compose more extreme statements by shape. Instead of three squares by three squares you might space it two by six. And horizontal or vertical alignment might mean different things to them too."

"Or one line of images for something really simple like, They see us, run!" Speaker suggested.

"Wow, yeah, and I can see a blank square being uncertainty or lack of information," Lee said.

"Are you confident enough to send it now?” Talker asked.

"No, but go ahead and do it. I'm never going to be confident until we trade matrices back and forth and it makes sense to both of us," Lee admitted.

Talker activated the set and displayed the matrix to it.

A Caterpillar looked out of the alien set at them. They still could not tell which one or read any emotion. But the hooting he spewed forth seemed to indicate he was moved by their composite. Whether it was moved with anger and loathing, or sudden warm camaraderie was impossible to tell.

"It may take them a bit to argue what we meant and generate a reply," Talker warned.

"Or they may be laughing their, uh, rearmost segments off and calling everybody to look at what the silly mammals sent," Lee worried.

"Mammals?" Talker asked.

"Well, mammal analogues," Lee allowed. "Are you really going to make me say fish analogue and bird analogue for every non-Terran sort of critter when they are functionally the same?"

"No, not unless you are writing a formal paper," Talker decided. "What are you thinking," he demanded suspiciously. “I can see you are considering something intensely."

"Talker, you can't possibly read me that well already," Lee complained. "That's Gordon's hobby."

"And Thor's too, if the chatter on the command circuit is any indication."

"I'm just thinking about the hooting," Lee admitted. "If it has to be understood as a matrix instead of linear then it may be
really
complex. You might have to read an instruction on how many rows and columns to assign the rest of the statement. Probably a number upfront too. What if they read them on the diagonal, too? And what if they do different geometries? What if they arrange statements radially around a center one? At different radii to show probability or strength of emotion? "

"Is there some coffee available?" Talker asked, overwhelmed.

* * *

Hoót-hoöt-hôôt – stared at the screen in shock and amazement. These insane scary beings had actually
tried
to say something coherent. It was as crude as a six segment grub might do, but it clearly was an attempt at structure. But what was the statement? He could read it three ways easily. And a couple meaning held subtle inferences...

But no. Subtle wasn't something to look for here. The ugly thing was off center, weighed to the side and crooked. It was... curt, without any moving images. Just like the aliens had barked at them before. They weren't trying to be rude, Hoót-hoöt-hôôt realized. They were horribly handicapped in language.

Several eyes needed to see this before he replied. Wisdom is multiplied by the abundance of a word, he remembered the school phrase so often repeated. The matrix was one word to him, and his language an infinity in which a word was composed at need and might never be repeated. Linear sentences were for simple limited minds or something like 'I see you' – baby talk. Hoót-hoöt-hôôt called six of his peers to solicit their consensus.

* * *

"As soon as the
Sharp Claws
gets done scooping fuel we'll all go back to the damaged world," Gordon informed them. "Do you have any idea if the Caterpillars are going to accompany us again?"

"No more idea than before. They haven't replied to us and I'd rather not send more until they make
some
kind of reply," Lee said. "We
tried
to say to come along, and why."

"Unless we messed up and said don't come along, it's none of your business," Talker worried.

"Then we'll just go, and they can do as they please," Gordon said.

"You know, the last time we had the caterpillar on their projector there, I thought I saw some pattern to the way he held all his fine tentacles," Lee said.

"Can you describe it?" Talker asked her.

"Not in detail, but there was kind of a wave from the center out when he saw our message. Just about the time he made his first hoot."

"Play it and see if any of us see it," Gordon demanded.

The video was short and looked straight at the display. Of course it lacked the 3D aspect and it wasn't as sharp, but only in comparison to the alien's system. It was plenty sharp to see each fine tentacle. It only when you looked at the two video systems running side by side it was apparent how much better the alien system was. You felt like you could reach out and touch them.

"Yeah, I saw it," Thor said first. "Of course what it means beyond maybe surprise is hard to say. But it does seem spontaneous, not an affectation."

"Why do you say that?" Talker asked.

"There was no delay. It rippled out as soon as the hoot started. Now Gordon here is the master of the raised eyebrow, but that's a learned Human gesture and he does it consciously for added emphasis. It's a learned language of gesture and he hesitates. Almost imperceptibly, but it's there."

Gordon replied, but only with an eyebrow raised high and cocked at a sharp angle.

"See?" Thor said.

Chapter 16

"
Sharp Claws
reports fueled and ready to maneuver," Brownie reported.

"Tell them when to move and which direction," Gordon said, not interested in the details.

"Giving them a minute window and a general arrival time. Seven tenths G transit so they can all figure their own path and it'll be much the same. It's not like we're running to jump and it's fussy."

"Yes?" Captain Fussy of the
Dart
asked. It was the first time he'd tried a joke in English.

"If I even knew what time units the Caterpillars use I could tell them we are leaving," Brownie said frustrated. "Think on how to ask that," he directed at Lee and Talker.

When the
High Hopes
started to move the alien video display came alive. Fortunately it was recorded by the camera looking over Gordon's shoulder. A square of three windows on a side was as simple a statement on which the group of Caterpillars could agree. But they all nine ran very fast video simultaneously. The bridge crew all discussed it after slowing the video down and comparing the relationships at length. It was humbling.

"They're
smarter
than us," Lee decided, and boldly declared it before anybody else was brave enough to say it aloud.

"At the very
least
they are quicker," Talker agreed.

"I have to dissent," Thor said.

"Of
course
you do," Gordon said.

"Seriously, I can see the advantages of that sort of a mind," Thor allowed, "but our plodding linear way is not without benefit. Can they ever say anything but the simplest statement without ambiguity? It may be an elegant language but sometimes, like fighting a ship, you want short plain orders that can't be misinterpreted."

"It must be fun if they have a legal system and have to argue cases in a court," Talker said.

"Just tell me plainly if they are coming along," Gordon asked.

Talker looked worried. Lee grimaced and admitted, "I'm still not sure."

"Yes, because they are already moving with us," Brownie said.

* * *

For as little atmosphere as the planet had, the sky was remarkably bright. Pink tinted toward violet, and much stronger near the horizon, which gave it a tunnel effect. Straight overhead a few bright stars showed through in full light. It was cool, but nothing the suit heaters couldn't handle.

The field they landed on was so flat you'd think it was graded. The soil was blinding white to where you needed to turn you faceplate very dark. There were flakes and grains of something in the ground that returned tiny specular reflections, but it was hard packed almost like paving. Their exhaust hardly raised any dust.

The Caterpillars let them land first but showed up before everybody was out of the shuttles.

"Show-offs!" Thor accused as they floated down with no exhaust.

"If they can get lift with no jet why don't they do that with the big ships?" Lee asked.

"One more thing to ask," Gordon said. "Maybe it only works well in a high gravitational gradient?"

The superior technology was somewhat wasted on the chassis. Their landers looked more like a double cab pickup with no wheels than any sleek futuristic vehicle. The plain box rears with rails and tie-down cleats were probably very practical. But utilitarian. To make them feel even more primitive the Caterpillar vehicles didn't really
land
. They remained hovering a hand's breadth above the ground.

"We know they have a fast courier not much bigger than our shuttles," Thor reminded them, "but I'd love to have the franchise to sell these babies. Put a little style on them and a Lemon metal flake paint job with purple flames on the front and I can ask anything I want for them."

"You are already so rich you won't have any idea how to spend it," Lee accused him.

"As always, you sorely under estimate me," Thor said.

The buildings were about a half kilometer away. Gordon was worried about blowing dust on them and shaking them if they were in delicate condition. The Caterpillars obviously didn't have to worry about that but sat down beside them. It was a nice indication they had some social graces since they just copied what the others were doing.

Lee was hoping to see what sort of a gait they used in those suits with the bunched legs, but she saw very little as they unloaded what looked like surfboards from the back of one lander and rode them along floating instead of walking like the others. The ground was so hard they didn't leave a footprint.

"We are just
so
outclassed," Thor groused.

"It looks like they poke two of those mechanical tentacles down into a slot on the board for controls," Lee said. "Are they short rounded sections or is that a spiral in the metal?"

"I don't see an angle to the crease," Talker said. “I think they each have a little ball joint of sorts."

"At least they don't just
think
where they want to go," Thor said.

"They undoubtedly could control them from within the suit by radio, but it's worth noting they still go with hard wired controls and some sort of manual input rather than trust a radio link in the various hazardous environments they'd encounter," Ernie Goddard said. It was the engineer talking.

Shuttle crew remained in the two vehicles, and their ground party was organized. The Caterpillars had only two representatives and Gordon wondered why two landers? The vehicles looked like they could carry two. Maybe they wanted the extra lift capacity for artifacts?

The first building they came to looked pretty much whole. That wasn't to say it looked good. The outer walls were leaning off vertical on an east-west line. It was one of the smaller ones on the edge of the complex. Only about four meters high, it was a hex about fifty meters along each flat. It was so low and small it hadn't even shown clearly on the original image Ernie had examined. Those building were higher to cast a much bigger shadow and a couple hundred meters on a side. They started a slow circuit of the building.

"Are you still doing OK?" Lee asked Ernie.

"OK for what?" he seemed confused.

"It seems like you were hurt so recently. Are you still sore or stiff?" Lee wondered.

"No, they wouldn't have released me to duty if I wasn't 100%. This isn't exactly a grueling hike, and it's a really light suit. I've worn heavier winter clothing before. But thanks for your concern," Ernie said.

"When my foot was hurt on Earth it took me a couple months to heal," Lee remembered.

"I got all kinds of healing accelerants and my bad break was put in an electric field that shifts frequency and moves things right along. Is the medical care that bad on Earth now?" Ernie asked.

"They didn't treat it. When I was arrested I kept asking, but they never let me see a nurse. I finally stopped asking," Lee explained. "By the time I was released to my cousin it was pretty well healed. The swelling was all gone and it just kind of ached late in the day for a while. When I got to Fargone I saw a doc and he scanned it and said – 'Yes, it had a couple small fractures'. Nothing mended crooked so there was really nothing to fix."

Ernie surprised her with the anger on his face. "Refusing to treat a wounded prisoner is torture. It's a war crime."

"We weren't at war, yet. It was just a criminal matter," Lee said. "But Gordon gave them their war."

"I know. And now I'm understanding why," Ernie said. He was still frowning.

"Look at this," Gordon said ahead of them. Lee realized she was lost in conversation with Ernie and hadn't been examining the building or their surroundings.

Gordon was peering in a crack where the flat sides of the building met in an apex. The panel to their left they'd just marched past was still pretty straight, but the next one was leaning out a good twenty degrees. Gordon played a powerful light through the crack, but declared nothing was visible.

"Since we have a crack here how about getting a sample of the material?" Thor asked.

"As long as you don't make sparks. For all we know this is a storage magazine where they kept explosives," Gordon warned.

"I've got it," Ernie said. He pulled a handsaw out of a leg holster. It was about a half meter long with a coarse diamond grit edge. It cut the material fairly easily, and he made two angle cuts from a little over waist high. That gave him a triangular piece of the wall for a sample about two hundred millimeter on a side. Ernie flipped it looking at both sides, tried it over his knee, and handed it to Gordon. The Caterpillars came up close and looked interested, so Gordon passed it to them and asked Ernie to get another piece.