Alien Alliance (13 page)

“Please ask others to show us also.”

Sarah passed this request on. With squeals
of joy all of the children jumped, dived, or ran in, closely
followed by adults. A few adults remained on land. Simone and baby
Dieter were quickly surrounded by interested Priskya. Simone
demonstrated that Dieter was quite happy in the water but he
couldn’t really swim yet. Sarah couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
Some much smaller Priskya had come up and headed for the children.
Sarah assumed they were Priskya children as they and the Terran
children were playing. Sarah started to be concerned.

“Could you please tell your children that
ours can only breathe air and that they can drown and die. Our
children tend to be over-confident. They love being in water but
they can get into trouble. When they can’t breathe they panic.”

Predictably, some did get into trouble and
were hauled up spluttering by both Races. All stayed in the water.
Some of the Priskya children also got into trouble accidentally
beaching themselves and screaming in panic. By this stage, Sarah
had noticed that they could make noises both in and out of water
though she wasn’t certain how they did it. The screams were obvious
in any language and the Terrans immediately rescued them. The
playing lasted for an hour or so before things calmed down and some
of the adults and children alternately sat in the shallows then
went out to play again. The Priskya loved towing the children out
to sea but Sarah noted they were followed by adults. Sarah thought
there must now be hundreds of Priskya.

“I wish to talk to you. I am Siwijal.”

Sarah turned; this Priskya looked old and
had an entourage, and had something different around its neck. It
(she?), had a device that looked like a ipad. An underwater
computer? Watching the Priskya, she realised it would have to be
voice activated. Well that was logical since they didn’t have
hands!

“Do you give birth on land or in water?”

“What the heck?” Thought Sarah. “We can do
either.”

“Do your children swim first or walk
first.”

“They can swim long before they can walk if
they have the opportunity to learn. They have to be taught to walk
properly. It is not instinctive.”

“Do they have to be taught swimming or do
they do it instinctively?”

“Swimming is instinctive but only if they
get enough chance to practice. Most don’t, so they are taught to
walk first then taught to swim.”

“Why can the baby not swim then?”

“I guess because he has not been in water
much. Almost all our children are brought up on land, not sea.
Because of that, they have to be taught to swim.” At this point
Alan, Dan and some of the others came over to listen and to
help.

“How far can you swim?”

“Miles with training, some of us, around 20
miles or more.”

“How far down can you go in water?”

“Ten meters or so, thirty or more with
training.”

“The pearl divers can go further than that,
and they keep diving all day,” added Dan. “I remember the free
diving record recently reached 120 meters. I can’t remember the
guy’s name. There’s a big prize for the first one to reach 125
meters.

“How long can you hold your breath under
water?”

“Three minutes or so, more with training. Up
to about five minutes I think,” the others nodded.

“What water temperature can you tolerate?
What is your range?”

They conferred. “We get uncomfortable over
about 40 degrees centigrade and under 20.” Alan contributed. “We
can tolerate colder for short periods.”

“We can only last four minutes in water that
is about four degrees,” said Sarah, “I’m sure of that.”

“Where do you mostly live, on land or
water?”

“Mostly on land. Some live permanently on
water in boats or on platforms over water. At one time in our
distant past, as we evolved, we lived only in the oceans. Then we
moved onto the land, then back into the water because the land was
mostly covered in water or unsafe. We’re not sure. That was before
we had recorded history.”

Sarah had read Elaine Morgan’s books. Many
disputed her theory of ‘The Aquatic Ape,’ but it read true to
Sarah. It made logical sense. It was also not dominated, like other
theories, by male attitudes that everything revolved around sex and
men. It made a lot more sense than other theories and answered more
questions and in Sarah’s opinion, with much more likely answers. In
pre-history, Sarah considered children and their welfare would have
mattered a lot more to women, and survival of the species, than sex
and men. She suspected one reason history was skewed by men was
that men had had the leisure to make rock drawings and talk while
the women had done the work and looked after the children. That did
not automatically make women less intelligent and men more. It
meant one sex had done less work! Still true today thought Sarah
reminded of her lazy ex husband who had got out of so much work by
claiming to be in a lot of pain.

After a pause and some consulting among the
Priskya, the questions continued.

“Can you eat and drink in water.”

“Yes, but usually we wouldn’t.”

“Can you sleep in the water, without a boat
or platform or floating device?”

“We have the ability but it is almost
unheard of now. Most of us can’t.”

“Can you mate in water?”

Good heavens, thought Sarah blushing, “I’m
not sure. We generally wouldn’t.”

“Do most of your people who live on land,
live near water?”

“Yes.”

“Why.”

Sarah thought hard. “Most of our big cities
are beside water because we need water to drink, wash with and we
use water as a transport, and for food and fun. We like being near
water. We find it relaxing.”

“You drink water and use it for washing? Do
you not have sonic cleaners?”

“No.”

“What do you mean when you say you use water
for fun?”

“Well, a bit like what we’re doing now. We
swim, use boats, have holidays, play sports, have fun, fish (oops,
she thought).” She wondered how this was being translated and how
accurate it was. What on earth (oops again) was all this about?
Where were they going with this? Why was it so important?

“What quantity of your sports involves
water?”

Sarah considered. She thought of the Olympic
Games. Heck, if you counted the Winter Olympics that was all on
water albeit frozen. “I don’t know. A lot.” Dan reminded her of all
the types of motor racing, “maybe more on land.”

“What do you mean when you say water is
relaxing?”

“I don’t know. We choose to be near it.”

“Do you have images of water in your
homes?”

Sarah was astonished, “Well yes we do.” She
said, thinking of the seascapes in her house and wondering why that
mattered.

“Do you keep pets?”

“Yes.”

“Pets that live in water?”

“Yes, but also land pets.”

“Do all your people have an affinity for
water? Would you say it is instinctual?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know why I am asking all these
questions?”

“No!”

“You have been wrongly classified. You are
not land animals, you are amphibians. Who classified you?”

“I don’t know. Does it matter? If we were
classified, Mathew was in charge while all that went on. I don’t
know what went on. He told us nothing,” Sarah said remembering
Mathew coming back saying he had been ‘In Diplomatic Talks’ but not
telling her what about or with whom. It had been some members of
his Team that had kept telling Sarah that they still didn’t know
who had invited them and often Mathew had no idea who he was
talking to or misidentified People as officials when his Team
suspected they weren’t.

“It puts your ranking down.”

“Oh he means the pecking order or status, of
these poncy Aliens,” Alan said. “Mathew will be furious. Does this
make our situation worse?”

“No, as it immediately solves a couple of
your problems. We have a little influence with some things. One is
that we insisted that the builders of the cities add accommodation
for amphibians and that it must be free. There is also free water,
of course, that goes into the accommodation and the universal food
which is also free. If you are not proud, you can eat that. So now
you can live free. Also the accommodation for Tree Dwellers, Avians
and the Troglodytes is free. Only the Terrestrials pay, but then
they are by far the most populous races. And they demand many times
more expensive facilities.”

“Oh dear. Brace yourself for a shock. We can
live in all those places. Some of our children are visiting the
Avians and the Troglodytes. You mean we can live free in any of
those places?”

“Yes, but what do you mean? You can’t
possibly live up a tree or down a cave! You can’t occupy all of
those niches. No race ever has!”

“Now we have your permission just watch us!
We’ll move out of the city today! This is wonderful! We can stop
our debt rising and start paying it off. Thank you so much!”

“I don’t understand,” she almost wailed.
“Please explain.”

“On our planet we do occupy all of those
niches, we have to. Our planet is mostly water, nearly eighty
percent and there are mountains, ice, lakes and rivers in
abundance. I think we only occupy ten percent of the planet. We can
live in caves, some of us do. We also have whole villages in the
trees. One village I know of is thirty feet above the ground. In
that particular area, they have to live that far up to avoid a pest
called a mosquito which comes out at night and bites people in
their sleep. It causes diseases and injury.”

“But don’t the children fall?”

“No, that also is instinctive. The fear of
falling is instinctive and children know to be careful. Of course
there are accidents but people have accidents on the ground as
well. We think that at one stage of our evolution we lived in trees
because the animals on the ground were too dangerous. And we lived
in caves before we evolved enough to build.”

“And I suppose then you are omnivores.”

“Yes.”

“You realize that also is rare.”

“Yes we were told that. We have been eating
both our own food and that universal food since we left our planet
because it was on the ship. It tastes the same and looks the same
so I assume it is the same. We have not eaten the food for sale
here. Not only did we have no money to pay for it but we were not
sure if it would be compatable with our physiology. Under the
circumstances, our caution has prevented our debt increasing. But
we are running low on the food we brought from our own planet and
unfortunately we left most of it on board the ship that brought us
here.”

Sarah quickly got everyone together and
explained. The relief was palpable. The children picked up the
atmosphere of hope as well. After a search, Sarah found the child
who had fallen in and his mate the pusher-in. She picked them up
and hugged them both, thanking them profusely. They all headed up
to pack up and move. They were in with a chance after all!
Something was finally going their way.

Within something over an hour, everyone
except Mathew and his Toadies, was packing up and moving. They
declined the porter machines that followed them, and carried their
baggage themselves. Sarah explained the situation to the hotel
owners, and their individual debts were accepted. The hoteliers
were reasonably OK with this. Interest was accumulating on the debt
from today and they knew they would be paid one way or another…

By midday, they were all out of the city.
Then the fun started. There were a range of apartments by the sea
and going out into it. They were all rounded in shape, like giant
tawny boulders. No guttering here. Walking in, Sarah noticed some
were sort of like standard beach apartments back home; so long as
you thought very laterally. All had large doors and some had
windows with glass. They varied in size both in height and room
size. The ceiling height rose up to six feet in the smallest ones
and about twelve feet in the biggest, while the rooms varied from
about twenty feet square to about thirty by twenty-five.
Interestingly, she saw there were storage areas which did look to
be designed for clothes. Almost all the Terrestrials wore clothes.
Did amphibians also, she wondered; apart from us of course. Sarah
and Dan were allocating. These apartments went to the likes of the
protesting Alan, embarrassed that his physical condition precluded
him from a lot of the other apartments.

There were twelve apartments like these
free, the other four already occupied by another Race. That took
care of 62 of the more physically frail, those with small children,
and the two adults who were afraid of water. Pure luxury, (if not
so crowded), they had sort of bathrooms and goop and water
dispensers. No cooking facilities though. It was eat goop or
starve. A lot of people were going to lose a lot of weight! And it
was going to be very crowded. Most apartments had a living room and
one or several other rooms. Some had just one big room. There were
sleeping platforms, of varying sizes, raised up off the floor, but
a lot of people would have to sleep on the floor. There were no
mattresses, nor the things that seemed to pass for beds here which
were like giant bean bags. They weren’t cold because the floor was
heated. There were no bean bags, linen or blankets here. It would
not be comfortable but it would be dry, weatherproof, warm and
affordable! Sarah and Dan went to the next ones.

They saw apartments similar but with a jetty
inside the living room or they had a raised pool which went into
the ocean down a series of weirs. Obviously these were for
creatures that had to sleep out of water and maybe rest out of
water but spent much time in the water. Like seals back home. These
also had the goop and water dispensers but no bathroom. Sarah
allocated these to fit adults and those with older children who
could swim. There were 19 of these, so that took care of another
91. But these apartments were larger again. Meant to house
communities? Sarah wasn’t sure. They could hold a lot of seals.