Resilience

by Fletcher DeLancey

  Without hesitation, the first Resilere released one arm from its partner and matched the gesture, its skin flat against the clear tank material and sparkling with blue lights.

  “You’re welcome,” Rahel said.

  28

  Translation

  Feeding the Resilere was much easier when they were in the tank. Rahel simply dropped two mineral cubes in the water and sat down to watch them eat—which really meant watching them sparkle with bioluminescent patterns while consumption went on invisibly beneath their bodies.

  The most startling thing about getting them in water was the sudden appearance of eyes, which emerged on hand-high stalks from a central point atop their bodies. The flexible stalks twisted this way and that, offering what looked like perfect vision in all directions. The eyes had a violet reflective sheen and two vertical pupils. Rahel thought they were rather cute, though she chose not to put that on the record. Commander Jalta theorized that the Resilere protected their eyes inside their bodies while exposed to air but could still see, just with a more limited field of view. “It makes sense when you think about the radiation exposure above water,” she added. “And they probably don’t have the same need for wide visual range on dry land. There aren’t many land species on Enkara. That means less predation.”

  “Good reason to lay eggs above water, too,” Rahel said.

  They no longer had any way to tell the two Resilere apart physically, but one consistently swiveled an eye stalk to follow Rahel’s movements while keeping the other on its partner. The confirmation that this was their original acquaintance occurred when they dropped in two more mineral cubes. The Resilere watching her ignored the cubes. The other snatched one up.

  “Two cubes from starvation to satiation,” Lhyn observed. “You cook up an excellent meal, Dr. Wells.”

  “Believe me, I’m adding that to my Fleet record.”

  Shortly after the tank was occupied, Lhyn had requested a hydrophone and a waterproof speaker, which Rahel had carefully placed on opposite ends of the tank. While the Resilere were busy eating, Lhyn was busy correlating sound and bioluminescence patterns with words and concepts, both from current activities and the interactions she had recorded earlier.

  “I think they speak a richer language with light than with sound,” she concluded. “It would take a long time and a team of empaths to figure it out. But we’ve already got a few valuable words. If I’m right, we can say mother, friend, food, and help me—though it might be help us. And mother might actually be parent. We can also say not for me, but there was an element of exhaustion and hopelessness attached to that, so I can’t tease it out without more data.” She pulled up a separate screen. “We’ve got a lot more in terms of conceptual translations. They understand and can convey wariness, curiosity, embarrassment, surprise, loss, and gratitude. Then there are the combinations. When you splashed Rez—”

  “Rez?”

  “I’m not going to keep calling it ‘the first Resilere.’ Don’t worry, when I write up the article I’ll use proper terminology.”

  Rahel hid a smile. “I wasn’t worried. Rez is . . . nice.”

  Lhyn gave her a narrow-eyed look. “Nice. Right.” She glanced at the feeding Resilere, her expression softening, then went back to her notes. “So, you splashed Rez, and we got a combination of temptation and reluctance. When it went in the water, we had a whole bucket of concepts: joy, relief, elation, gratitude, and you said later there was a sense of salvation. And we had another bucket when you helped with Rez-Two.” She looked up, clearly waiting for the comment.

  Rahel held up her hands. “I’m not saying anything. Rez-Two is a good, strong name. I might name my own child that.”

  Lhyn chuckled. “Alsean culture will never be the same. Anyway, we have hope, determination, desperation . . . and the same things when Rez left the tank to get its partner. I can’t tease them apart yet. When Rez-Two recovered, we had amazement and surprise, and I’d guess there’s a concept of life and death in there, but that’s too far out of reach right now. And my stars, what Rez was saying when it was stroking Rez-Two! I see so many recognizable patterns, plus a whole lot more I can’t make heads or tails of. It was talking nonstop, along with that light show.”

  “The way I’d talk to a loved one I was trying to bring out of a coma?”

  “Possibly? We can’t make assumptions based on our own frame of reference. There may have been a real physiological connection going on there. It might be that the sounds and lights and empathic projections all tie together to create something else. Something bigger, that we have no way of understanding because our brains don’t work that way.”

  Rahel thought she understood. “You mean like empathic healing.”

  “Among other possibilities, yes.”

  They watched the tank, where Rez-Two had picked up the remaining mineral cube and was tucking it under its body.

  “Make that three cubes from starvation to satiation,” Rahel said. “I guess Rez was just very, very hungry. Rez-Two was beyond that.”

  “They certainly don’t function like us,” Dr. Wells said. “After starving like that, a Gaian would have to reintroduce food carefully. Too much would shock the system.”

  “That’s true of mammals in general,” Jalta interjected. “But not exothermic species. Dr. Rivers, I’ve located the video footage of the Resilere on Enkara guiding their hatchlings to water. Would that be useful to you?”

  “Yes, it would!”

  “It’s on your pad. Video only, no sound.”

  Lhyn flipped through a few screens and pulled up the footage. They waited until Rez-Two finished eating and had rejected a fourth cube, at which point both aliens were producing the same sound pattern. Rahel’s corresponding memory was a flash of lying on the couch, her head in Sharro’s lap. It carried little emotional weight, unlike many of their earlier interactions.

  “Comfort,” she told Lhyn, and described the memory.

  “Good, we can add that to the word list. And it’s an excellent starting point for making inquiries. I’m going to replay the sound pattern for curiosity.” Lhyn tapped her pad.

  Both Resilere ruffled up their skins, focusing all four eye stalks on Rahel.

  “That has resulted in the body language I previously associated with curiosity,” Lhyn said for the record. “Both Resilere are paying attention. Let’s see if we can answer our earlier question. I’m going to play the word for friend.”

  Rahel waited. A moment later both Resilere lit up with green bioluminescence, and she was taken through a flurry of memories: giving Mouse a double palm touch on her sixteenth birth anniversary, laughing with Salomen by the waterfall, watching her mother and Sharro at their bonding ceremony in Whitesun Temple.

  “Huh. That was . . . confusing.”

  “What did you see?”

  “Nothing consistent.”

  Lhyn listened to the descriptions with intense interest. “Not consistent for us,” she said. “We draw a distinction between friend and partner. They might not. But they’ve definitively agreed that they’re very important to each other.” She turned the virtual display on her pad and held it against the wall of the tank. “I’m going to play the word for curiosity, then mother or parent, and then show them the video.”

  As expected, the two Resilere rumpled up attentively. But when the video began to play, their skins went smooth and flat before erupting into a dizzying display of red bioluminescence. It looked different than the pattern Rez had played for Rez-Two, Rahel thought. More discordant, as if—

  She was standing in front of three burning pyres, on a field filled with two hundred and eight more. The air was wavy with heat and loud with the crackling of flames.

  “I stayed,” her mother said, staring at the pyres of her other two children. “I helped them, and I kept building that future . . . and look at it now. Gone.” The tears rolled down her face, and when Sharro pulled her into a warmron, she let out a sob that broke Rahel’s heart.

 
“Oh, Fahla,” she croaked. She could still smell the burning wood. “They’re parents. They’ve lost their children.”

  Lhyn stopped the playback immediately, her horror matching Rahel’s. She dropped the pad and rubbed her face, then lifted her head with a haunted expression. “How do we say we’re sorry?”

  “I can try.” Rahel projected her regret and sympathy, and received a faint answering memory of apologizing to Mouse after a fight. It was as if the Resilere were too emotionally taxed to respond with any strength. But they were calming, and their light patterns were slowing. “I think they understand.”

  “They probably already knew we felt terrible.” Lhyn glanced over at the frequency analyzer and shook her head. “There’s the pattern for loss. Do you think the other ten that we saw in the shuttle bay footage were their children?”

  “If that’s the case, they were adult children,” Dr. Wells said. “At least, judging by size.”

  “I doubt it.” Commander Jalta sounded thoughtful. “I think they might have solved a mystery I’ve been wondering about. Has anyone else questioned why they didn’t leave the teracite while it was being mined? They must have felt it happening.”

  Rahel and Lhyn stared at each other in dawning realization.

  “You think there are eggs in that teracite,” Commander Cox said. “Then why would they abandon them now?”

  “Maybe they already hatched, and the young died of desiccation,” Dr. Wells said.

  Rahel heard her mother’s words again, describing the devastation of her losses in terms of both family and future.

  “They had no future,” she said slowly.

  “What do you mean?” Lhyn asked.

  “Even if the eggs haven’t hatched, they had no future. The Resilere are intelligent. They’re communicating with us over an impossible language barrier. And they’re empathic. They would have known there was no life left on that ship. Not until our mission team arrived.”

  “Are you saying they took a chance attaching to our shuttle in the hopes of saving their own future?” Captain Serrado’s doubt was evident in her voice.

  “Is that any less believable than what we’ve already seen?”

  “It doesn’t seem unreasonable, Captain.” Zeppy spoke up. “Based on the damage we saw, and the captain’s logs, the Resilere were all over that ship. We thought they were looking for food, but what if they were really looking for water? It could be as simple as hoping they’d find water somewhere else.”

  “He’s right.” Jalta sounded excited. “I don’t know of any species where the parents will voluntarily die with their children. It’s a genetic imperative to survive, to try for another generation.”

  “We’ve had four floods on different decks from punctured water reclamation pipes. I thought it was random damage, but they’re looking for water here, too.”

  “But fresh water doesn’t help,” Jalta said. “They need Enkara seawater. Fresh water would be like putting us in a room full of carbon dioxide and expecting us to breathe.”

  There was a long silence on the com before Captain Serrado spoke.

  “Well, if there are unhatched eggs in that teracite, then we might have a way to bring our Resilere out of hiding.”

  29

  Logistics

  Ekatya didn’t often have a section chief meeting in the middle of a corridor, but she didn’t want to get too far from Lhyn and Rahel. Nor did she want to pull Dr. Wells out of range of an immediate response. Instead, she picked up Cox outside her chase and took him down one deck to meet Wells, Jalta, and Zeppy at their chase entrance.

  “I can’t recommend this, Captain.” Cox held up his hands when Dr. Wells shot him a poisonous look. “I understand the desire, I really do, but we’ve had a hard enough time with twelve of these. What if those eggs are viable and they hatch? We could have a few hundred little Resilere running around who don’t know we’re not food.”

  “They don’t feed on us by choice,” Jalta said patiently. “Sayana proved that. The Resilere had a good grip on her and let her go. It wanted the mineral block.”

  “But it’s not just us at risk, is it? It’s also the ship.”

  “Have to say I’m cringing at the idea of a hundred small versions of these chewing through power cables. And babies tend to be voracious.” Zeppy pursed his lips. “But we could minimize the risk by putting the teracite in acid-proof containers. If the eggs do hatch, the babies wouldn’t get out.”

  Wells crossed her arms over her chest and looked thunderous. “You’d trap them without food or water?”

  “No, of course not—”

  “I don’t want the Resilere to die,” Cox interrupted. “It’s obvious they’re very advanced. But we have to consider the safety of our people as well. If we save the adults, we’ve saved the next generation and minimized the danger to this ship.”

  “Isn’t it a matter of preferred environments?” Jalta asked. “If we provide food and a seawater tank for the hatchlings, why would they go anywhere else?”

  “That does make sense,” Ekatya said.

  “It’s still a risk—”

  Cox got no further before Wells turned on him.

  “These are parents,” she said furiously. “Parents whose emotional response to losing their children is so strong that Rahel couldn’t control her voice. Stop thinking like a self-important asshead and start thinking like someone with a damned heart.”

  “Dr. Wells,” Ekatya tried, but Wells mowed right over her.

  “That cargo crew destroyed an entire population. This is the equivalent of us finding out that the Voloth landed on a settled planet, shot up a village, and flew off with prisoners, including children. We have an obligation to save them, but you think saving babies is too great a risk!”

  Cox turned red. “You are drawing insulting and irrational—”

  “That’s enough!” Ekatya shouted.

  They went silent.

  “Commander Cox, I agree with you about the risks.” She held up a hand, stopping Wells before she could speak. “That said, I believe they can be minimized. Zeppy, print up the appropriate containers, something we can slide those packing crates into. Then we need a place where we can set up an environment for the eggs and their parents.”

  Zeppy snapped his fingers. “Water is the key, right? And space. We could use hydroponics. That’s the best place on the ship for handling water flow, and there’s plenty of room. We could move the plants and reprogram the rain cycle for one zone so it rains Enkara seawater.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Jalta said enthusiastically. “It might even attract the adult Resilere without us trying to round them up. If they’ve been looking for their seawater, why not provide it?”

  “Call Shigeo and tell him what we need,” Ekatya told Zeppy. “He can get started moving plants while you print up the transport containers and get them to the shuttle bay. Then take a team down and set up the environment. Make it so we can seal it off remotely if we end up with hatchlings trying to climb out. Commander Cox, get us that teracite and take it to hydroponics. We’ll move these two Resilere there and start calling for the others. I trust Lhyn and Rahel to figure out a message.”

  “What if I get to the Tutnuken and find a pile of dead hatchlings?” Cox asked.

  “Then leave the teracite and come back. I don’t think we’d have anything to gain by showing the Resilere their dead hatchlings.”

  “You need me,” Jalta said. “I can determine the viability of the eggs. No point in bringing them if the embryos didn’t survive.”

  Ekatya nodded. “Agreed. Any other comments or questions?”

  They stood silent.

  “Good, dismissed. Dr. Wells, a moment?”

  As the others moved off, she stepped inside the chase and waited for the door to close behind Wells. “What the Hades was that? It’s one thing to have an opinion, but that was a personal attack.”

  “He’s running risk assessment calculations on parents and children! That is—”r />
  “His job,” Ekatya interrupted. “If he weren’t thinking in terms of minimizing risk, I’d be looking for a new chief of security. I expect him to stay above the emotional level, just like I expect you to operate from a position of compassion. Your duties put you at opposition sometimes, but that’s no reason to insult him.”

  Dr. Wells started to respond, then closed her mouth and slumped against the door. “Don’t tell me I have to apologize to him. I really don’t think I can.”

  Ekatya studied her. “Are you all right?”

  Wells dropped her head back. “I don’t know. This situation . . .” She lightly thunked her head against the door, then raised it and met Ekatya’s concerned gaze. “Can I just say that I’ve had some old issues unburied over the last few weeks?”

  “Does it affect your decision-making capacity?”

  “Other than wanting to take Cox’s head off? No.” She paused. “It has to do with that story I said I’d tell you.”

  “I take it now isn’t a good time for it.”

  She shook her head.

  “All right. But when this is over, I’m coming to your quarters and we’re going to share a bottle of iceflame. You can get roaring drunk and tell me your story.”

  Wells offered a weak smile. “I’ll bring an injector of kastrophenol.”

  “Make it enough for two doses. After the week I’ve had, I’m ready to drown in that bottle with you.”

  “It’s a deal.” She gave a sharp nod, then sidled past and set off down the narrow chase.

  Ekatya watched her with a frown. “Right,” she said under her breath. “Now for Cox.”

  30

  Pool party

  Captain Serrado put everything in motion.

  Rahel sat with Lhyn and two Resilere in their throbbing, humming brace shaft and imagined the scurrying. Commanders Cox and Jalta were winging through space to board the cargo ship and look for viable eggs, Commander Shigeo and his botanists were rearranging part of the hydroponics bay to create a small slice of Enkara, and Commander Zeppy was working with his staff to put together the infrastructure.