So Long Been Dreaming (39 page)

“It is good,” she smiled. “As you would have it.” As she spoke, she let the hood fall from her head. Golden strands stood on end and reached out. They seemed to be travelling towards him. He held his hands overhead and she retreated to the far wall. Only two of the strands landed. But they were like the touch of a smile, and suddenly he felt foolish.

“Excuse me,” Jonah tried to apologize. Nothing more was said that day. It was two weeks before they met again.

3.

Jonah was preparing for the third meeting. The science officer and galactic corporate trade commissioner barked orders at him from behind a protective glass barrier. His superiors were angry at him for touching an alien, angry and afraid. He had spent the past weeks in the space station docking lounge, isolated, communicating only through television screens. All the tests that had been run showed no untoward microbes, nothing to be afraid of, but everyone worried anyway. Jonah knew he would have to make a very good arrangement in order to get back into the main part of the station. He knew that the isolation was not only because of conservative attitudes about extraterrestrials, but also because of his ongoing habit of defying small orders.

“You are correct, we have not found any biological dangers, but there is an incubation time. I told you: no skin-to-whatever-they-are-covered-with contact.”

“They call it skin. Their skin is green, mine is brown, yours is – well, it was creamy, but now it is kind of red.” Jonah held back a chuckle.

“That kind of insolence is getting us nowhere,” the commissioner cut in. “The next meeting you must ask questions about minerals and fresh water.”

Jonah knew that a wrong step in the trade negotiations could cost him his career. He would be back in an Earth-side college, teaching and lecturing, not out here, not meeting beings like Enrishi.

Jonah had some power, though. The Voyagers would not allow anyone else besides him to meet with Enrishi. “I have gone over all of your notes and memorized your questions and the suggested terms of trade,” Jonah replied flatly. He had memorized the basics and knew that the earphone would feed him the finer points during negotiation. After training for decades for this job as head translator, he hoped he would get it right. He knew twelve root languages and fifty-seven dialects of the planet Earth. He had decoded four radio transmissions of extra-terrestrials and gone on one space journey that involved a orbiting around a ship filled with a biped species that had no eyes but bodies covered in sensors. They spoke with notes and gestures and did not read or write text. It was quite amazing, the team had thought, that they were able to travel at all. How did they learn the mathematical configurations that kept their ship going? They had hologram maps that sang out when they placed their hands over them. They sang and their walls lit up with familiar star charts. They had a live video feed that led him around what seemed to be the bridge. They would sing the names of the stars and point him towards their home. It was a week before Jonah could sing the correct tones for “Good morning,” “I would eat,” and “Thank you.” Another three before he understood their measurements for time and distance.

Once, while inadvertently insulting an offer of octave partnering, which he later discovered was a ritual of welcoming, he found out why the Earth sensors could find no sign of weaponry. Their only weapons were their voices. The eight members unfolded their limbs from each other and from him and begun to stroke as they sang, creating a high-pitched whine that left him shriveled and crying on the floor. One member who had been his guide was soon apologizing. They had not known how sensitive Earth ears were, that he had no internal modulators.

Jonah insisted they continue, but wore earplugs to muffle the sounds, but they still pierced through and he found himself again screaming out in pain. His harsh protestations had caused their skin to burn as well. He was shown the welts. In time, everyone recovered. The beings decided they would not leave the station and land on the planet itself. They simply used their own recording devices to absorb the music of earth. They called it eating. For four years, he spent hours with them as they laughed and cried while listening to Indian ragas, jazz symphonies, Chinese operas, Moroccan love songs, European concertos. They requested many singers and musicians be brought to them so they could converse. Only a half-dozen agreed.

There had been only one item traded that session. The Auralites had offered a tonal instrument that seemed to have the ability to numb the senses. It was an effective analgesic and showed promise in the medical field. In time it would yield great profit, or so it was thought. However, in the seventeen years since the trade, only one musician had yet been able to master it and she could only keep the tones playing for periods of thirty minutes to an hour. It was enough for minor surgeries, but no more. No one was angry, since the Auralities left with only a compendium of recorded Earth music. They seemed quite pleased with the value of the trade. Indeed, one of the envoys apologized repeatedly, feeling that the Auralites were cheating the Earth people. Jonah’s superiors, on the other hand, were quite sure that they had gotten the better of the deal.

Jonah hoped this session would go as well. He thought it would. Enrishi was convinced that they shared the same root spirit, the same direction. Jonah was sure he could make a good trade deal.

4.

“We can share life’s breath,” Enrishi said, offering a small flask to him.

They sat on the mat on the floor. He was cross-legged. She sat with her feet curled around her hips. This time she did not reveal her head. Jonah would have preferred a chair. Enrishi would have preferred her own ship. They both tried to look at ease.

“I cannot.” Jonah was almost rude in his response, but quickly recovered. “Forgive me. I may not take before I have given.” The water had to be tested. They had drank asteroid water before, indeed miners had drained the ice from a passing asteroid six years ago. It was fine. But still the science officer insisted that the water be analyzed in case the Voyagers had enhanced the liquid.

“We are home,” she answered. “This is,” she paused looking for the word, “asteroid water. Our supply was replenished on the asteroid we call Deep-with-ocean. I believe on your star charts it is Artemis. The water there is sweet without the fire of star or the dust of comet.”

“Perhaps another time.” Jonah felt his cheeks become hot. Enrishi loosened the scarf around her head, and a soft breeze flowed. Jonah caught his breath and tried to keep his voice even. “Perhaps you would have some of our water. We could trade. It’s been purified by River’s Return.”

“River’s Return? It comes from a water road, then?”

“Well, maybe once. I mean maybe, because maybe it is desalted ocean too. You never really know, but the company that markets it ensures it’s purity. They are named River’s Return.”

“Where did you find this River’s Return water?” She was genuinely confused.

“We didn’t find it. We bought it from a passing supply freighter. They tour the satellite stations and give us food, water, entertainment, supplies.”

“You make a value exchange for water?”

Now the man paused. “You mean do we buy it? Yes.”

“If water is given, what is returned?”

“Credits.”

“Credits?”

“Money.”

“Ah.” She nodded that she understood. “A contract of promise.”

“No, not a contract, just credits, and then whoever gets the credits can use them to buy something else, say clothes or fuel or to pay a worker’s salary.”

“What is a salary?”

“We all work and we are given credits for our work, for our time. My time now is paid by the Xavier Mineral Retrieval Incorporated.”

“Your time is not your own.”

“Not during work hours.”

“So right now you are a slave.”

Jonah chuckled. “Some would say so.”

For the first time, Enrishi was afraid. The coven had deduced that they were slavers, but Enrishi refused to believe. They were so advanced, she told them. Listen to their music, look at their communication modes. They had spaceships and stations. But the coven focused on the weapons. Only slavers need so many munitions, they warned.

Jonah stared. Her skin was changing from green to grey. He knew that this was not good, but he did not understand the problem.

“No, no, I was only joking. Some people joke that we slave for our wages, our credits, but it is not real slavery. I work for credits and then buy whatever I need.”

“Are there those who do not have life’s breath, I mean, water?”

“Some have more, some have less. Some water is better, some is not as good. But all humans must have water to live. It is as you say, life’s breath.”

“Then how do you make value exchange?”

“Everything has its cost, its price, its worth.”

“We only know the giving.”

“But when you give, you expect a return. That is all we do. We buy water, the company gets credits. They give the credits to a worker who takes them and buys whatever he or she needs.”

“Water?”

“Sometimes.”

“So you sell water so you can buy water? Why do you not simply have the giving?”

Jonah paused. How could he answer the question? His earphone buzzed and then the commissioner’s impatient voice hissed out, “That is not the way of capital.”

“That is not the way of capital,” Jonah said, echoing the voice that spoke into his ear.

For the past two weeks, the Voyagers had debated moving closer to Earth and possibly landing. The history of the planet was one of discord and a distrust of differences. Although it looked beautiful, most of the old ones felt it was far too dangerous. It had been generations since the ship had neared a hospitable planet. Some Voyagers wanted to land, to see. Others felt nothing but destruction could come of it. It would be three Earth years of travel before they reached the Earth’s atmosphere. Finally they had come up with a compromise. Enrishi hoped Jonah would welcome the trade.

She spread her arms and he heard the familiar rustle that her clothes always seemed to make. “Water is a small part of our home. But you are home in water, home of water.”

She put her hands on his which were spread softly across his thighs. She turned them over and flattened her star palms close to his. They were dry but soft, almost like a piece of raw silk. She lifted her hands up and the rustling sound came again. Jonah realized it was her, like autumn leaves of the oak tree in the park where he played as a child. When she lifted her hands from his, a drop of his sweat hung from the glistening tip of one finger. He realized his palms were bone dry. In only a moment, she had absorbed all of the sweat from his palms. His mouth dropped open.

The earphone hissed. It was the doctor. “Damn you. She could be safe one day and dangerous another.
No
contact.” Jonah rubbed his ear and the plug popped out.

“You are home of water,” Enrishi said, seeming not to notice the small device that had fallen to the floor. She touched him again. He tried to pull his hand back but she had already wrapped her palm around his, enclosing it like a banana leaf wrapping sweet rice and mango. He felt moisture like a smooth lotion move into his palm. She lifted her hand and let it blow in the breeze.

“Water is life, and we can use some more life around here,” Jonah answered. Suddenly he heard a voice yelling from the floor, but could not discern the words. He knew the essence of the comment thought. The need for water was the one thing he wasn’t supposed to mention. He could express desire, but not need. How could they bargain now? How could they not lose too much? Jonah hoped he could repair his mistake.

“We would share life with you.” Enrishi poured a thimble full of water into a translucent cup. She quietly passed it to Jonah.

“Don’t drink, you fool!” The voice came out of a wall speaker.

Enrishi jumped. Jonah drank.

“It is so sweet. Our water is recycled many times and tastes stale. I mean on the station, at home it is another thing.”

Jonah smiled weakly. Enrishi seemed not to care about the monitoring. She had regained her composure and was smiling.