Exigency Page 16

  “Please do call me Tom. My companions speak only in my language. The north winds come from our land. We do cooperate with each other, if that is your meaning. We are friends and team. We would like to be friends with Threck. How do I respectfully address you?”

  Tom rushed out an M to Pablo and Angela.

  TOM: Hey guys. Sticking to M’s while talking to these folks. If you don’t already have Livetrans up, you can listen in on this conversation and learn something. Tell Zisa, too. No DC with her.

  ANGELA: Already up. You’re doing great! I can’t believe this is happening!

  PABLO: Will do.

  ANGELA: FYI no pressure, but unless something happened elsewhere in the past few years that we don’t know about yet, YOU are the first human being to communicate with an alien lifeform.

  Angela added an ecstatic emoji to the M.

  TOM: It’s because I’m suuuper qualified.

  Tom inserted a terrified emoji.

  Amoss’s response began appearing and self-correcting in Tom’s fone.

  LIVETRANS: To know and speak with Tom is like bathing in warm mud. [You may] address me as Amoss. Dowfwoss … this is [unknown] for achievement, like winner. Does this have meaning for you? [We have] language Tom speaks with talent, but [we have] no such expertise to speak Tom’s language. Tom’s people [are more] smart than Threck. Such pleasure surges through ourselves at this significant event. The day is dry and hot. May both peoples retreat into [unknown] and continue pleasuring each other with words.

  ANGELA: He wants us to pleasure each other.

  TOM: You caught that, eh? So should we go with them?

  ANGELA: I don’t think we’ve much choice. But my LT couldn’t figure out where he’s saying he wants us to go, and I’m not bathing in any warm mud, just so you know.

  TOM: Mine either. And they’re technically all she. Ask Pablo and Zisa what they think we should do and see if you can reach Aether while I stall.

  “My people would very much enjoy pleasure of more words with Threck people,” the synth voice played as Tom swung his arms around and mimed inhales and exhales. Talking to Threck, he determined, was more like performance art than conversation. “We would first like to move our belongings from the farmer field, and setup respectful temporary campsite on Threck land, if acceptable to Threck people.”

  Amoss emitted an operatic sound Tom recognized. “It’s their laughter!” Minnie had gushed when playing the recording during an early mission meeting.

  LIVETRANS: [laughter] [You and your] people are merrily considerate … What are Tom people called? And [you need] never worry about farmer wants. [They are not] Threck. Leave your belongings where you wish, and take what you desire from farmers. [We will] use their [unknown] for respite from dry and hot. Let us go now as there can be no pleasure in this [unknown]. Come along, if you would. [Our] enjoyment of you cannot cease at this time.

  ANGELA: Zisa doesn’t think it’s a good idea that we all go with them, and I agree with her. Pablo tried contacting Aether but hasn’t received a response.

  TOM: So what the hell do we do?

  ANGELA: You and I go with them while Zisa and Pablo transport the EV out of here to the rally point. Zisa says she’s flown a cluster before.

  TOM: K. Let them know. I’ll try to explain to Amoss.

  ANGELA: I’ll grab our packs.

  Amoss was already holding out an insistent, beckoning arm as she took a few steps toward the Country Threck domicile. What had she meant saying farmers weren’t Threck? Clearly she considered them lessor beings—perhaps some sort of class system Minnie mentioned and Tom hadn’t bothered to remember.

  Tom took a few conciliatory steps forward as he composed his response.

  “My people are called scientists. We live for learning. For science. I will enjoy joining you along with my friend, Angela, while my other friends continue their important work.”

  Amoss stopped, her eyes sucked into her head, popped back out, and then peered past Tom to the EV, skimmers, and Zisa and Pablo.

  LIVETRANS: Syons People. Some Syons People must work now? No. Let them work later. Come now.

  Uh-oh, Tom thought. Is that annoyance seeping out?

  Tom made a quick decision he wasn’t sure was wise. “These two are like farmers. They do not need or deserve pleasure of words with Threck.”

  LIVETRANS: [laughter] Yes, I see now. Let us leave them to their work while we escape this dry and hot. Come now. Come now.

  Tom reached back and accepted his pack from Angela, took her hand, and gingerly stepped over the rows of crops as they followed Amoss and the others toward the domicile.

  2.3

  Aether decided it was finally safe to open her visor. The air in the EV was essentially the same as what her suit provided, but a hearty lungful of the pod air somehow tasted fresher.

  The EV bobbed subtly left as the giant towing animal below shifted its course to the right. The pod’s motion resumed its retchy natural rhythm (the creature propelled itself in bursts, much like a squid), a pool of sea water sloshing about at their feet. Gazing up through her porthole, Aether observed they weren’t so far from the ocean surface. Perhaps 20m. Where were the Sea Threck taking them?

  Sorry, Skinny, Aether thought. Sea “People?” When exactly did you stop being Threck? And where the hell are you taking us?

  Skinny had last said, “I show you. You will see,” before diving back in the water and trying to shut the EV hatch (Qin had kindly assisted).

  Show us what, exactly? How bad the real Threck are? Show us what happens to people that insult you?

  How could she have thought first contact would ever occur under the silly ideal conditions outlined in the mission guide?

  “Essentially same course,” Qin said. “Looks like it’s navigating around a little island just off the coast. Want to see?”

  “Sure,” Aether said, and Qin M’d her a map of their position.

  “I put a blue dot at the center of Threck City.”

  They’d apparently traveled several kilometers west—farther and farther from the others—surely out of comms range by now. There was probably a way to improve surface comms, maybe use the supply pod network somehow. Qin or Zisa could possibly figure it out, given the opportunity, but when would that kind of time and focus present itself? After their current communication needs concluded, no doubt.

  Aether noted EV4’s beacon on Qin’s map, but there was no indicator for Zisa and Pablo’s pod. “Where’s EV2?”

  “Just outside the upper right corner. Not too far from Tom and Angela. The map is active. You can pull back and see them.”

  Aether zoomed out one level and EV2 appeared. “And the rally point?”

  “Southeast. Actually not too far from EV4 … let me see … about two-K?”

  Aether slid the map over to see the blinking orange dot. An abrupt pain stabbed sideways through her guts and an audible wince escaped.

  Qin touched her arm. “You okay?”

  “Reinitation pain. I think I need another bar. When was your last?”

  “Yeah, I’ll eat. The idea is sickening, what with all this.” He flailed a hand around him as the pod once again lurched softly forward. “But it’s definitely been a while. Well before reentry.” They both tore into their calorie bar wrappers. “What happens when we run out? As in, we can’t eat their crops or meat or anything, right?”

  Aether’s first bite slid abrasively down her throat. She envisioned a pile of gravel poured into an empty sack. “Not exactly. The arsenic and chlorine levels are high in pretty much every living thing here, but there are exceptions and there’s a plan.”

  “Pablo and Angela.”

  “Yes.”

  “They just need time to make us some new meds. In the meantime, it won’t kill us to consume meat or most of their fruit crops. The effects would be longer term.”

  “Yeah, I think I remember that report. Rashes, lesions, diabetes, cancer. At least the water’s safe.” He shook his SSK�
�s included filter-top bottle. “I just don’t get it. Everyone read the reports, so how could she think this was a good idea?”

  Qin had spent a fair amount of time in orbit crabbing on Ish. He’d seen her hands on the supply pod’s controls in the seconds leading up to impact. Supposedly, her face displayed no alarm whatsoever, even once the pod reached final approach at double speed. Ish may have been responsible, but Qin’s harping was less than helpful.

  Aether’s gaze remained on her food. “We can’t say as fact that it was intentional.”

  “Oh, I can! Happy to! It was intentional. Crazy bitch. Sure, right, the walls are closing in on you, you’ve got to escape, games aren’t enough anymore! Well, it’s not an escape if everything down here kills you.” His tone stung.

  Aether scowled. “That’s enough.”

  Qin looked at her, confused. He didn’t get it.

  If Ish was the cause, didn’t that mean Aether was equally responsible? And blame aside, she loved Ish like a daughter. She loved each of them, faults and all. Ish, Zisa, Angela, Pablo, Tom, Qin … John …

  Minnie.

  Aether had been selected for her maternal nature. Father figures hadn’t been in short supply (not exclusively due to the inherent abundance of male egos in the program), but every mission required a mom. The role carried as much priority as any scientific discipline and, like every other station position, mandated a back-up. In the case of the Epsilon C mission, Zisa had been designated maternal secondary. As laughable as this notion was to the rest of the crew now, Aether knew that Zisa certainly had the emotional depth, if not maturity.

  Ironically, if asked one week ago who she thought would best serve as mission mom in her stead, Aether would have said Ish. This only highlighted how out of touch she’d been with her troubled Hynka lead. Months ago, during a regular private session, Aether had brought up Ish’s lack of recreational gaming (a strictly quota’d activity for all crew members), and Ish responded calmly, and even with good humor.

  “I’ve developed my own game in the Epsy surface sim. It serves all of the same spatial relief requirements, and …” Ish smiled and tilted her head in that girlish manner that widened her eyes and instantly wiped 20 years from her face. “… it was the cleverest way I could find to overlap work and downtime.”

  Aether had melted and let it go, hugging Ish tight and kissing her forehead. “I love you, beti.”

  Ish patted Aether’s back. “You too.” She’d always been a little timid about physical affection, but especially so after Aether left John for Minnie.

  Aether had well understood the awkwardness and scaled back accordingly. It’d take time for everyone to adjust. People would have their thoughts. Mom leaving Dad was one thing, but Mom leaving Dad for the hot young neighbor girl? It was why Aether held off disclosing for so long. Looking back, perhaps it was the reason she missed Ish’s warning signs—months spent preoccupied with her own situation and how best to handle the crew. Taking her guilt a painful step further, what if Aether’s relationship decision alone had set Ish on her fateful course?

  Qin’s voice broke into Aether’s head. “We’re surfacing … approaching shore.”

  Indeed, a second later, the EV popped atop the ocean surface and rode a series of large swells. Gone was the smooth motion of the deep, replaced now by momentary peaks and sudden drops. Aether and Qin watched below as the sea people disconnected the EV from their towing animal. A moment later, three of them could be seen swimming toward the beach, dragging the slack vines behind them.

  “They’re about to go taut,” Qin said.

  “I see.”

  “You think they’re going to be able to pull us up onto the shore?”

  Aether looked up toward the island and spotted a new horde of Threck-like people, all converging and walking toward the bobbing EV. “They won’t be alone in that effort.”

  “Whoa, yes, I see! And we’re about to hit the waves.”

  The EV lurched and thrashed for several minutes as the people on shore dragged the pod, little by little, through a series of cresting and crashing waves. Finally, the EV touched land and the people swarmed, pushing it up the sloped sand as one of them—Aether guessed Skinny—directed them. Aether and Qin remained strapped tight to their seats, waiting out the slow, careful rolling and spinning. And then everything stopped just a few degrees from proper orientation.

  The slightly-angled hatch clacked and squeaked.

  “Visors?” Qin whispered.

  “I say closed.” They both reached up and secured their visors. Aether activated audio. “Hear me?”

  “Yes.”

  Beeping and a final tell-tale click, and the hatch popped open once more. As it slid up and away, one of the sea people ducked under and entered. Outside, curious eyes competed for a view into the EV.

  Aether reactivated Livetrans. Though her audio feed contained only a garbled mess of murmurs and shouts, she had her Livetrans fixed on the one in front of her.

  “Welcome to … Aether and Qin. It is safe to depart white egg. Here is for food, for learning, for resist Threck. Skinny will teach Orange People of Threck and … . Come. Come out. Can Orange People walk?” On the right side of Aether’s fone, the two unknown words floated in a pink box, awaiting cataloguing or deletion: Eekareth, which context implied was the name of this place, and Seekapock, evidently something they were to learn about along with their unrequested Threck lesson.

  Aether quickly composed her response as she unfastened her restraints. Peripherally, she observed Qin following her lead.

  “We’re grateful for your welcome and will enjoy walking with Skinny and learning of Threck and ‘Seekapock.’” She’d considered including before we leave you but decided it was too early to gauge their response to such a statement. Instead, she inserted synths of Skinny’s uncatalogued words into her response. “Please, what is meaning of this word, Seekapock? And this place name, Eekareth, does it have meaning?”

  Skinny took a step out of the pod as Aether stood up and leaned forward. “Yes, meaning! Eekareth is the base. The home of resist. Home that is not home, but visit place. And Seekapock, these are Skinny. These are all who are not Threck.” Skinny pointed at those around him as they spread backward. “These are Seekapock … these … these ones … these … you. Aether and Qin are Seekapock of Orange People of the white egg. Understand?”

  “I think I do.” Aether’s arms waved out, curling in to point at herself—the only way to denote “I” in Threck.

  Skinny and several others began singing a single, climbing note, like an opera singer reaching a crescendo.

  Qin asked in a spooked voice, “What the hell is that? What’s happening?”

  Livetrans answered for both of them:

  LIVETRANS: [laughter]

  Aether felt Qin’s hand on her back as she stepped out of the pod and onto solid ground for the first time in nearly 30 years.

  “Thing that is alive?” Aether replied after the merriment subsided.

  Skinny laughed again. “Smart thing that is alive … that is not Threck.”

  Aether peered around at dozens of curious eyes.

  Qin again: “Some have weapons.”

  “She says we’re here to learn,” Aether replied from the corner of her mouth. “She wants to teach us. We’re safe, at least for now. Stay calm.”

  Aether felt her boots slowly sinking into the muddy soil as one of the Seekapock approached and handed the still-nude Skinny a cloak—initiating a rapid dressing process that lasted all of five seconds. Aether watched with fascination as Skinny’s leg tentacles suddenly curved inward, spreading into a split until she lay flat in the mud, stretched out between the legs of the crowd. She wiggled for a moment, covering her skin in mud, then rose up partially, arms dipping the cloak into a particularly wet patch of mud, as if cleaning it of its dryness. Finally, Skinny opened the square of cloth, slid it over herself, and popped her head up through a wide slit in the middle. Standing fully upright, Skinny now appeared
as all Threck did when venturing outside the city walls: skin and cloak coated in mud. She even appeared taller upon dressing (though Aether’s leggy frame had several centimeters on all of them).

  “That doesn’t look good,” Qin said an instant before the crowd of heads all twisted in the same direction.

  Aether turned to see another Seekapock stomping their way, thick legs rising and curling and landing with dance-like rhythm. It reminded her of Tom and a loopvid he’d made of precisely this style of walking, captured by an observation unit and synced with risco music. And it reminded her of Minnie, cry-laughing as it repeated endlessly on her fone. “I can’t stop watching!”

  The approaching stomper had many questions. “What is this? What are these? Why brought here?”

  Skinny turned to face the new arrival and stood even taller. “These are new Seekapock—Orange People of the water. They … white egg … and travel the ocean. They speak Threck words.”

  Aether noticed layers of raised, overlapping scars covering every visible swatch of the newcomer’s flesh. Even the rubbery folds of eyelid bore the marks of a hundred battles.

  Blotchy eyes studied Aether and Qin. “These understand what say I now?”

  Aether wasn’t sure if she should answer, and so instead let Skinny continue speaking for her.

  “Yes! They understand! This is called Aether and this other is Qin.” Skinny turned to face Aether. “Orange People, it is your pleasure to meet … leader of resist. Aether—” Skinny paused. “Is Aether Orange People leader?” Skinny’s eyes flipped from Aether to Qin and back.

  “Yes, I am leader,” Aether replied and queued up Skinny’s mention of the leader’s name. “It is our pleasure to meet Eeahso and to be welcome in this place. Where shall we go to rest and speak more words of each other’s history?”