Connection (9 page)

“You asked LeEck here? You asked your ship to come here too? Anyone else coming?” the bureaucrat said sarcastically.

“Are you going to tell me your names? Can we agree to work together? I will bring you technology you can trade to LesMa for support. How much metal on Xale?” I turned to Twlise again and went through a lengthy pantomime and stumble of words until I thought we had a close approximation of what I needed. “How many metals do you have that are super dense or ore that glows? Do you have any metals with strange properties? Do any feel warm to the touch?”

“We are rich in metals but many of these do not have business uses,” said the Pilot. “My name is LeAt and this is my brother,” the bureaucrat was signaling him not to talk. “His name is LeToms – his fun name is ‘Serious’. You guessed my fun name when you called me ‘Pilot’. I thought you already knew. Everyone always called me that since I was a child. You have talked a good story but how do we know you can deliver technology we don’t have. We only have your words.”

Twlise leaned up, whispered in my ear, and then licked it. “I just did that for luck.”

“You are a
minx
,” I said.

“What is that?” she said with a frown.

“It is a good thing,” I said while stroking the inside of her leg with a big smile.

She lit up with that killer smile she had…gosh she was cute.

I took off my Dex and set it on the table. “Display the transition engine presentation for stockholders, restricted information level delta.” My Dex would project a 3D presentation of the transition engine and likely capabilities with restricted information for stockholders – few technical details but with lots of graphics. The presentation had flashy visuals shot from actual takeoffs, maneuvers, and landings. It showed travel between continents and a lot of attractive Earth people – some heavy by our standards but who were ‘tens’ in the eyes of the LesMan viewers. They would gasp and point at all the appropriate places. They seemed to like high heels, short dresses, and heavy makeup.”

Twlise said, “You’ll show me how to do that?” meaning the makeup.

I just sighed and held up my left index finger.

“Does this show restricted technology?” asked LeAt.

I laughed. “Show scenes of high tech areas of California and zoom in on technologies invented after 2000.”

The display started showing 3D advertising, crowds with ubiquitous Dexs on their arms, self-driving vehicles, maglev trains, and children in school manipulating chemical bonds or building small robots. The view shifted to medical robots replacing organs and laser surgery by computer. The scene shifted to military scenes showing railguns, tiny nukes, augmented suits, tanks, and invisibility uniforms and…

“Stop,” I said. The display stopped.

“What was that last part? Was that military?” asked LeAt.

“We have a very powerful military,” I knew they had been shaken to their very core.

“How long did it take you to travel to our solar system?” asked LeToms – the bureaucrat.

“It took two hours,” I said and they gasped.

“Your people could come here and just destroy us on a whim,” LeToms said.

“Yes. Do you have another cup? I would like to give Twlise some of this Sema before we drink it all. It is not polite to ignore her,” I said. “Why would we risk our lives and spend a huge amount of money to travel just to harm someone who is no threat to us?”

“We don’t know you. You are alien,” said LeAt and he paused. “You believe in courtesy?”

“Courtesy…
manners
is the oil that keeps…” I turned to Twlise who seemed a little surprised I had offered her a drink. It was not customary for females to drink with males during business. We talked a minute. “Civilization does not exist without courtesy. Most of my world, not all, believes women should be treated equally with men. We still occasionally fight between our own people.”

“You are a warrior?” LeToms asked.

“LeChak asked me that right before he tried to steal my Dex. I shot his bodyguard and threatened his life. I am just a businessman. You would not want to face our military.”

We all agreed that facing any military anywhere would not be optimal for any business. I knew I had to get Skip out of prison and I couldn’t do that without leverage and support.

I started asking them questions about Xale. How many people? What crops? Terrain? Animal life? Insects? Molds? Bacteria? Viruses? I had to get Twlise to convey some of the concepts. Gravity? Weather? …Land masses? …Bodies of water? That took up most of the afternoon and they started getting a little more comfortable with me. One of their guys brought us some snacks – I was a little leery of their cheeses because I remembered stories about the Vikings giving milk-based alcoholic drinks to the Native Americans. The Indians thought it was poison because they didn’t have the enzymes to digest milk based proteins. I imagined dairy products were species dependent – thought I’d steer clear. I didn’t want my good impression of their toilets here to get sullied.

One of their men came in a bit later with a little old guy. Damned if he didn’t have tousled hair – the spitting image of some absent-minded physicist…

I went over to him and stuck out my right hand before I thought – “You must be Professor LeEck. I am Robert. Cassandra said she talked with you already. Thank you for coming. I know it is…” I looked at Twlise and she suggested a word. “Yes. Inconvenient. I will not introduce my friends unless they willing do so. The government here seems to have thrown my friend in prison. I need to ask you about that.”

“Nice to meet you too. The drive was not bad and your coordinates were accurate. I wanted to inspect your ship more,” he said.

I started picking up a scratchy transmission over my subcutaneous communicator. “Can you hear me now?” I responded “Uh Huh,” and turned toward the group. “Cassandra should be here in a short time professor. I asked her to come.” I heard a familiar rumble in the distance and the others looked around startled.

“Her? You asked her?” he said as the rumble grew louder and then was directly outside and changed to a whine.

“We call our ships ‘her’ because they must be treated delicately and have fierce tempers when treated badly.” I wished I had known how to say dispositions and mistreated but they got the drift.

One of LeAt’s men came running in. “There’s a strange ship coming this…” the man was looking out from the doorway. “…Landing and rolling over this way…Should I…”

“It is a friend…keep watch for Prath ships and people. That ship may have been followed.”

“No one followed me,” Cassandra said after hearing the guard’s utterance. “I knocked out radar on several other routes before I headed this way... also rerouted most of their landline calls – they’ll be totally confused for a while.”

“Cassandra says she wasn’t followed, burned out tracking stations, and rerouted calls while coming here,” I said proudly.

LeEck coughed politely. “The wired communication system I designed may tell authorities where you are from the direction of the scrambled communications.”

Cassandra explained to me what she had done and I doubted the locals would ever figure out how Cassandra had subverted their system…she is very smart.

“I would very much like to talk with your ship,” Professor LeEck said.

“Pilot. Twlise. Would you like to join me? Is there a chance you could refuel my ship,” I said turning to Pilot’s brother, LeToms.

LeToms looked angry. “Fuel is expensive.”

“Remember the
coffee
from my planet. The small bag I gave your brother could buy a freighter if what LeSlur said was true.” I knew that the other coffee I had given LeSlur would depress prices to a fraction of what they were before I came – I sure wasn’t going to tell them that the local supply would swell and bring more enforcement. I saw LeAt nod to his brother. LeToms left in a huff to get the fuel truck. LeEck, the pilot, Twlise, and I went up Cassandra’s ladder into the brightly lit cabin.

“How do you see out?” the pilot exclaimed.

Cassandra displayed the 360-degree view around them.

“Oh!” Twlise said.

“Cassandra. Would you adjust the visible frequency and brightness to allow better viewing for our guests,” I said in English and saw the colors shift slightly and brightness increase.

“That is better,” said LeEck.

“We cannot begin to produce these viewers,” LeEck said. “…and Cassandra is nothing short of magical.”

I heard Cassandra chuckle, very lady-like, over my communicator. “Do you want me to display some of the technology we could introduce? …some would be very disruptive to this society.”

I nodded and some technology items began to display. Cassandra displayed the fiber- reinforced materials currently in use. They had glass-reinforced resins like fiberglass, and asbestos reinforced materials for heat resistant materials. Cassandra then showed coated carbon fiber to strengthen materials. LeEck leaned forward as Cassandra showed how it was accomplished.

Cassandra then speeded up the presentation and showed cellophane, Bakelite, Kevlar, PolyVinylChloride (PVC), and graphene – she showed many of the products you could make and the tremendous waste problems polymers could cause. She showed solar cells and wind farms. She showed sleek vehicles, trains, and aircraft.

“You did not show us your thinking machines…ones like Cassandra,” LeEck said.

“We can show you how to make those too but anything you introduce will cause disruptions in your society. You have already done that with your mobile communications system,” I said.

“I wish I could use my system now. I would like to call some other scientists to join me,” Professor LeEck said.

Cassandra spoke up – surprised me a little speaking through my Dex. “Professor. You can call anyone you wish from here.”

“Young woman,” LeEck said in lecture mode. “I designed that system and there are no mobile systems anywhere near here. We couldn’t possibly reach anyone from here. You are mistaken.”

Cassandra came back quickly. “Thank you for calling me a young woman professor. I set a
mini-drone
with a
repeater
near one of your towers. We can use your system from here just fine.”

“Young woman. There are no towers that are line-of-sight that could possibly reach here.”

Cassandra tinkled out a little laugh – “Professor. I bounce signals off your upper atmosphere or off trash in orbit – easy to do.”

“I will quit doubting you – you are capable of magic. How do I call them?”

“You can just tell me their names. Professor. Would you recommend a spot where your friends could rally and we could transport them here?” Cassandra spoke and he nodded – he treated her as a person and she was observing the occupants.

Professor LeEck answered. “I think there is an out-of-the-way port near Central that most could reach quickly. Here are the names…” he said and clearly enunciated five names.

“Thank you professor. Pilot LeAt?” Cassandra said.

The pilot nodded – blown away by this talking machine. “Pilot,” Cassandra said. “Would you be willing to ferry these scientists to here?”

“Do you realize how much it costs to lift my ship? It is extremely expensive to maintain.” He answered.

Cassandra said, “I can increase the efficiency of your ship by 25% if you make some very simple modifications. I will trade that information for this trip. Would that be sufficient?”

“Twenty-five percent,” he said calculating what that would mean for profits. “How long would these modifications take? What would they cost?”

“Excellent questions but this is what Earthers call ‘low hanging fruit’ and easy to correct. We can do it in the just a few hours while Professor LeEck’s associates are gathering,” Cassandra stated.

“How can you know that much about our systems?” LeAt asked while staring at the Dex.

“Anything on your planet in electronic form or visible to me is understandable. Remember that we were as you – one hundred years ago. We say ‘been there – done that – bought the
T
-shirt’. We are not inventing it from
scratch
.” She said and displayed T-shirts with saying translated from English to LesMan. She displayed a lot – ‘Zhast happens’ had them all laughing though Robert was a lost since he only knew the written words for ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ on restrooms.

“I agree,” LeAt said just as Letoms appeared at the door.

“You wouldn’t believe it LeAt. We pulled hoses up to this ship and refueling ports just appeared and matched our nozzles. The different fuel hose had another port appear – it was spooky,” LeToms said to his brother.

“Zhast happens,” LeAt said and everyone laughed as sheets of paper appeared in a tray on the console that showed step-by-step diagrams showing how to adapt the fuel flow ports and injectors on the freighter. It also showed moving some of the cooling coils being relocated slightly. LeAt looked at all the printed diagrams with colored photos and started laughing ‘til tears rolled down his cheeks. He could hardly catch his breath.

LeToms looked shocked. “Are you all right?”

LeAt struggled to catch is breath and handed the twelve pages of diagrams to LeToms while wiping his eyes with his other hand. “Get these modifications done right now. We’ll leave in a couple of hours.”

“Really,” Said LeToms. “You think we ought to do this…now…you think it is safe.”

“Yes. Get the crew on it now – right now,” he said. LeToms stomped off again – obviously angry with his brother. LeAt turned to the group. “Sorry. All the diagrams showed how to do the modifications and then I realized the hands in the photos all had four fingers and a thumb.

The group laughed and Cassandra said, “It was the only stock photos I had in memory.”

That got them all laughing again so Cassandra called the first name on the list and LeEck cajoled his old colleague to go to the rally point and meet a strange ship. He quickly went through the list and got four of the five. He had an alternate to the fifth one that he didn't like as much but the alternate was more enthusiastic than the older, established scientists.

The five scientists arrived at the rally point with mixed feelings – all had trepidation about riding in an old Xale freighter when they saw the ship landing. Pilot LeAt kept in touch with Cassandra through some jury-rigged system of wired landlines and the surreptitious repeater that Cassandra had planted. LeAt had been amazed at the improvement in ship performance from the relatively simple modifications done hours before. His ship had a lot more thrust and maneuverability – it was noticeable and worth any short hop. A twenty-five percent improvement would mean more profit – more range – more…everything. He grinned as the scientists came aboard – however reluctantly they may have entered. He introduced himself and turned on the communications channel that allowed Professor LeEck and Cassandra to brief them enroute. They were – impressed is too mild a term.

It was approaching mid-night as the ship touched down near the Cassandra at the remote airfield. Professor LeEck welcomed the scientists and introduced them to Robert and Twlise. They had put together a late dinner and two of the scientists had actually brought bottles of good wine with them – saying they always had to supply ‘the good stuff’ when meeting with LeEck because he always forgot.

The scientists were directed into the building and we used a couple of supplied slates to communicate with Cassandra. The slates off my ship were interactive and provided two-way feeds of visuals and auditory interaction. Cassandra could also tap into my Dex and subdural communicator.

The discussions got started as Robert began listing topics and technologies for them to discuss. Robert’s Dex would project full color 3D images and video of the different technologies.

“It will take decades for us to assimilate this technology. We have to invent technology to build the technology. We have to process new metals and minerals in ways we have never done before. It will cost astronomical amounts. We don’t have the means,” said one of the scientists.

“Where do we say all this comes from? ...aliens gave it to us?” asked the younger scientist – alternate five.

“Say the original ideas came from Xale and make sure they get thirty percent of the profits. They can help you work through the manufacturing problems.” Cassandra said. “You need to decide what technologies you want to introduce and then decide how you will mitigate the consequences.”

“Consequences?” asked alternate five who still seemed to be in a state of shock with all that was happening around him.

Cassandra answered. “Yes. Whenever you introduce radical technology, you will impact current practice – you will create new environmental issues and make some existing technology obsolete. I suggest we start with hybrid materials and plastics. We have to determine the local knowledge of chemistry.
We know they have radar and rudimentary wireless communications –
say early 1960’s
,” Cassandra said – the last part in English for Robert’s benefit.

Cassandra continued. “We can show you how to avoid the mistakes we made – we can give you formulas for self-degrading
plastics
.”

“Why would we need that…” alternate five asked.

LeEck answered before Robert, “They mean that these
plastics
never degrade and remain in the environment forever. Yes – we are very interested.”

Cassandra started a discussion with the scientists to determine basic chemical formulas. The scientists were able to draw, on the interactive slates, how they thought molecular bonds formed. The names for basic elements went fairly fast through. Cassandra could interpret their drawings and explain what had been only suppositions before. It was interesting that they had only discovered elements through thorium (atomic weight 90). There were also a few holes in noble gases in their version of a periodic table. It took several hours before they were getting to formaldehyde, phenol, and acids. They were just starting to get into discussions of ethylene and chlorine when they had to call it a night. They were all worn out – except Cassandra of course.

“Cassandra?” Robert had moved near the window of the building looking out at his ship.

“Yes Robert,” Cassandra answered through his implant.

“Have you located Skip?” he asked.

“I think he is in a large prison facility in a large city called Thraman. There is both a large Prath facility and regular military facility adjacent to the prison. Robert,” Cassandra paused. “Any plan I make, to break Skip out of prison, has less than a five percent chance of success.”

“You keep thinking of angles. If there were a ninety-percent chance that it would rain – I would bring an umbrella. I still think a political exchange might be the best way to get him released. I think Xale is the key here – for everything. I’m not going back without Skip,” Robert said.

“…or Twlise?” Cassandra said through his sub-cutaneous communicator.

“I’m considering it,” Robert said. “Hey mom – I met this girl – she doesn’t speak English and she’s an alien. I’ve been thinking about it – immigration is tough enough on someone from Mexico…another planet? Oh mom – she’s a different species too but she’s real sweet. She’d probably say, ‘fine son’ if she were still around.”

Cassandra chuckled at his gallows humor. “I thought so. I will consider options from Xale but we will need to go there soon. Second-hand reports are not adequate and are biased.”

“How long for the trip to Xale?”

“It will take about five hours at the most fuel efficient velocity.”

“Thanks Cassandra. I’m going to sleep for a while.”

“Make sure you
sleep
. Your biosigns are a bit twitchy.”