Connection (36 page)

“I like that,” the captain said. “You may return to your duties. You did a good job,” the captain said.

The tech stood a little taller as he walked back to repair the consoles. The bridge crew quietly snorted their approval as he walked. He was very proud to work with these teams of Hllumff.

                                                                                  ****

What do you think? Do you trust them too? I did almost immediately. His English was incredibly good. Who taught him? Earth Regulatory Force…what…who are they? God. I have a million questions I want to ask them. What the hell are lamlee? Twlise? Kenny? Steven? You were getting this feed too weren’t you?

Yes Robert,
Twlise
said.
The first language was a simplified language…probably used as a standard between many species. There use of English by a lower ranking crewmember leads me to think that they have only had a little contact with Earth. His perfect use of the English language is strikingly odd – he would either have had to be a savant with languages or they have a way of quickly teaching languages. He even used contractions correctly and that doesn’t happen. They spoke another language full of snorts and exhalation when they were talking between themselves. Nemesis. What do you think?

[I concur. I understand your reasoning and it clears up some of my questions. Thank you Twlise. Dr. Nakamura? I am interested in hearing what you and Dr. Weathers thought about the conversation,] Nemesis stated.

Fifteen hundred lights…when they go that fast they can jump. They can only go 400 lights now? Beats the hell out of our Hall drive though our jump technology must be altogether different,
Kenny Nakamura said over their subcutaneous communicators.
Steven?

That wound me up… he said ‘these Allung used a jump weapon directly from our stern and we ended up here while your people were jumping into Bellatrix.’ That’s what he said. Bellatrix is about 244 light years from here and it was apparently instantaneous…no time dilation. I’ll say it’s a different way of traveling. I’m dying to find out how it works if we can fix it but I’m worried,
Steven Weathers said.

Go on
, said Robert.

There is no Earth Regulatory Force in our time or in our universe. We don’t have the tech this guy was talking about or it’s different. Did you catch where they hadn’t heard of sentient computers? If they were from the future there would be sentient computers…they didn’t seemed shocked by the ability to manipulate gravity…they were all standing around in a stationary ship. They said their paired quantum communicator quits working at 105 light years. I’ve wondered about that but no one has been that far from Earth in this universe,
Steven said.

No way,
Kenny said.
You think they might be from an alternate universe?

Multi-verse theory…It fits. Did you catch where they warned us there might be a bunch of ‘murdering slavers’ coming to attack Earth? It makes the slowly approaching Earth fleet seem a secondary distraction. We need their tech – they need ours and we need to find out how much of the parallel universe is the same as ours. Let’s see what we can get…scary but fun.

You males,
Twlise said.

The Exploration Service ship, Scar, was about the size of the Nemesis so it fitted in a destroyer-sized berth perfectly. The tech who spoke English came out in a bulky pressure suit to help make connections. A pressure seal extended and melded against the side of their ship. Atmosphere established allowing the disparate crews to remove helmets after it was determined the oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere was compatible. The scientists and Mars technicians warmly greeted the tech, Uhmbub. He showed them where they needed to attach resource lines and was amazed when the connectors adapted to his ship before his eyes.

“You Earth people always have amazing tech. Why do you not have anyone who speaks Hllumff? Your friends at Bellatrix spoke fluent Trade and many languages. We understood they had captured the planet that made training cylinders. That is how I learned English.”

Janos Vorgesi spoke up, surprising his companions since he rarely talked. “Would you show us this training machine? Do you have ‘training cylinders for Trade and Hllumff? Did you upgrade your training machine with
lamlee
? That may be an issue?”

Kenny, Steven, Robert, and Twlise were amazed at Janos. He had spoken longer than they ever heard him and it was right on point.

“Would you allow us to meet your captain?” We need to learn Hllumff and Trade, Robert subvocalized to the others.

Robert, Janos, and Kenny were escorted aboard and Twlise rushed after them, as they were about to enter carrying a sack.

Robert turned around and was a bit annoyed at being interrupted. “What?”

“Silly. Always welcome guests with gifts…chilled wine and cups,” she said proudly.

“Good idea,” he said. “…if it doesn’t poison them.”

Captain Ummand rose from the odd prop chair in the bridge as they entered. He walked over to the little entourage and looked at UhmBub. “Admiral. I greet you with good smells.”

Robert was a bit taken aback but what-the-hell. Here he was greeting an alien that looked like a rhino with eyes that bulged out of its head. Its skin was a mottled gray and looked tough. He came almost eye-to-eye with Robert and looked like he massed about 140 kilos. “I greet you with good smells also. We will help you get whatever repairs or technology you require.”

The captain expelled some gas. “We have no means to pay you for your help,” the tech translated after a short discussion with Captain Ummand.

Robert looked around and raised his hand to indicate all the beings in the room. “Brothers do not require payment from brothers when they are in need.”

The tech released some gas too and evidently translated what Robert had said. An acrid reek began to fill the bridge. Whew, Robert thought. Now I know what he meant about sweet smells. Twlise handed Robert the sack.

“Here is a welcoming gift. It is called white wine. It is an alcoholic drink made from small fruit and fermented. I think it will be compatible to your bodies,” Robert said and twisted off the top and poured a small cup for himself and the Captain. Twlise started pouring other cups and passing them out. Robert raised his cup, “To new friends,” he said.

The alien captain said, “Cheer,” and the tech listened as the captain said more. Kobe’s people raised their eyebrows in surprise at the Captain’s toast.

“The captain apologizes that he only knows that one word in English. We didn’t much chance to socialize with your Earth Regulatory Force but their wine was always good. I even had an apple,” the tech said baring teeth in an imitation of a smile.

Robert just nodded and thought – question after question…best just party a while first. They’ll find out they are in a different place soon enough. The participants from Earth took sips and the alien captain and tech smelled the liquid and then took sips before drinking it down and holding out their cups for more. The alien tech took a stack of cups from Twlise and she took the sack and started opening the remaining three bottles of german Kabinett. All the bottles were emptied quickly and the room was filled with much gas – evidently the crew was pleased or needed to go to the bathroom.

“We will prepare rooms ashore as soon as we can. Janos here,” Robert indicated Vorgesi. “…will help your tech Uhmbub get the teaching machines working if we can. We need to be able to talk more.”

Uhmbub turned to Robert. “The captain agrees. I am to work with your people on the teaching machine first and then the other areas.”

Robert left Vorgesi, the engineer, Nakamura the physicist, and Steven the fields specialist, aboard while everyone else left with the crew. Robert intended to set up quarters for the aliens as best he could.

****

“This is one of our teaching machines. I have training cylinders for many languages and subjects, but the machine does not work right now,” the tech Uhmbub said.

“Does this device use
lamlee
too?” Janos asked.

“Yes. It does. How did you know?”

“Everything you showed us that doesn’t work after your jump from Bellatrix –
Gralon
you called it. I think we guessed why but tell me how these
lamlee
work,” Janos asked.

“We aren’t sure where they come from but they are thought to be made in alien enclosures. The enclosures you showedus how to make let us accelerate time thirty times faster than normal. Your enclosures let us work inside them and we repair things very quickly compared to normal time outside – that’s according to the computer files you left us. I am now just translating them all. My captain says that to make
lamlee
work – you must place them into a circuit and touch them physically while thinking about how you want them to improve the device. That’s all it takes – they work using
telegraphy
.”

“Do you mean by telepathy? By thought?” Janos asked.

“Yes. That’s the word. I only heard it mentioned once and haven’t gotten that far in the computer files your people gave us,” he said.

“Would you mind us accessing those files? We have wired access in here,” said Uhmbub.

Cassandra? Can you access their files in here?
Kenny Nakamura asked over his communicator link.

[Give him your Dex. That way I can continue analyzing their language and we would have access to their files, and they could access ours,] Cassandra said.

“Here is a Dex Uhmbub. We can access those files with this and you can access most of our files with it…it is yours. We will give one to all your crew members as soon as we can get more of them able to speak English or we can learn Ullumff,” Nakamura said and handed over the Dex.

“How do I use this?” he asked.

“Just ask any questions like you would a person. Her name is Cassandra. She is trying to learn Hllumff,” Nakamura said.

[I am accessing their computer. The human files are very similar to our encoding and I should be able to read them relatively soon,] Cassandra said to the team through their communicators.

How are they different?
Steven asked through his sub-cutaneous transceiver.

[We must be correct in our alternate universe theory. I can discern similar computer languages but they are a bit different from our versions in subtle syntax. The parallel universe theory seems more probable but we need to know how they traversed the divide. There is enough similarity to worry that the Allung threat may be real and we are totally unprepared. See what you can do with these
lamlee
. They appear to be malleable molecular constructs that optimize any device if programmed telepathically – that is far in advance of any parallel development so we do not know the history of that implementation. It certainly didn’t happen in our universe. These time dilation enclosures though – seem to be a product of Earth without
lamlee
. I will try to discover how they function,] Cassandra said.

Uhmbub opened the teaching machine and showed Janos how it functioned. He even showed how he had been taught to upgrade the machine with
lamlee
. The machine did nothing. Janos was puzzled so he went through the same steps as Uhmbub.

Janos touched where the
lamlee
had been added and ‘thought’ about the ability of the machine to train a person according to the inserted cylinder. Uhmbub showed him how to put on the training headpiece, insert a cylinder, and turn it on. Janos’s eyes grew wide and he held a thumb up – Uhmbub didn’t know what that meant but didn’t want to interrupt anything if the teaching machine was actually functioning again. The machine cutoff, three hours and 22 minutes later.

“Are you okay?” Uhmbub asked Janos.

“I am fine,” Janos answered – in Trade. “I don’t think it did anything.”

Uhmbub started snorting and expelling gas. “You make a joke,” Uhmbub said.

“What are you saying?” Janos answered…again in Trade.

“You are speaking Trade,” Uhmbub said in English. “The
lamlee
must work when you touched them. We must have you retouch all our non-working equipment. Start with all the teaching machines.”

“Good idea. Do you have more of these
lamlee
?” Janos asked.

Uhmbub hesitated and appeared the most guarded they had ever seen him. “We have some that your people gave us. I am beginning to suspect that we may not every get more in this universe. We too have a multiple-universe theory but have never been able to support the theory until now. Cassandra. Your ship has been listening and watches what we are doing. What do you think?” Uhmbub said looking around.

There was a pause and then Cassandra’s voice came through the Dex, “I think you are smart. I think you came from a nearly identical universe and it shut down all your
lamlee
. We just need to reboot them. Do you reboot or restart your computers where you come from?”

Uhmbub started snorting and expelling gas – his form of laughter… “Constantly,” he said. “It looks like this is one area we can get upgrades without
lamlee
. I would like one of your
clones
if that is possible. She would need to learn Hllumff and Trade first.”

“Good plan. I will take care of it. May we have a teaching machine with Hllumff and Trade cylinders? I have just deciphered the data you were given and we will construct a large time enclosure over the dockyard. The stepped entrance ports and ways to vent gasses and wastes are extremely clever. I would have never thought of it. It says that the entranceway was designed by a Tros, named Rett. There is a lot of species specific information here we can use too.”

                                                                                   ****

Janos explained it to Robert. “We can access all the files the Hllumff were given by the Earth Regulatory Force. There is incredible stuff here. The tech, Uhmbub, figured out he was in an alternate universe after about five minutes. These guys are way smart. Uhmbub is funny as hell – I mean he has a great sense of humor. He’d just be a cooltechie if he didn’t look so alien. I figure we need to retouch all their lamlee and get that stuff working again – I have a theory why it doesn’t work.”

Robert just stood there and marveled at this long diatribe from normally taciturn Janos. “Uh huh” he said.

“We need to get as many trained with those language cylinders first while building a time enclosure,” Janos wound down as Robert recovered.

“Did you say – time enclosure? How many lamlee does that use? Can we build it?” he asked.

“It’s Earth tech boss. No lamlee are needed. Evdently we discovered these lamlee around deserted planets in our first explorations.”

“First explorations? Oh – you mean in the other universe,” Robert said.