by Robin Roseau
"Of course. It will be a few minutes. I'm sorry, I need to pay more attention to this now."
"I'll be quiet."
"No. We can talk, but it becomes somewhat more professional and less playful."
"All right."
Still, I had little to stay. My body was still entirely aroused -- and exceedingly well teased -- and I decided to bask for a while.
"Did you enjoy tucking me in?"
"Immensely. Energy supply full. Initial course laid in." Then she shifted languages, and I listened to her talk to the base. Then there was a pause and she shifted to English, warning human interests we were lifting off and our basic attentions. "Flight plan filed," she added.
And then my visor lightened, and I was looking into her face.
"Do you see me?" I asked.
"Yes."
"I want to watch you fly. Will you show me what you do?"
"There is almost nothing to do. I simply tell the craft to initiate flight sequence. It flies by itself. I leave an overlay with instruments, but the craft would warn me of any discrepancies. I like to watch the outside view to ensure things look right. I'm going to take the cameras away from your control for a minute, but then you can have most of them back."
"All right. Can you put on my visor everything that's on yours?"
"Yes." A moment later I could see my own image plus some gauges that meant absolutely nothing to me.
"Funny. I think you knew I didn't mean myself."
"Sorry. You said everything. I took that literally. Here." The view of my image was replaced with hers again.
She did a few things too rapidly to follow, and the words weren't in English anyway, so I wouldn't have understood.
"Shifting views." And then I was looking outside in four directions at once. It was a little disconcerting.
"Just give me one of those," I said. "Four is too hard for my brain."
It shifted, and I was looking straight ahead, the screen half full of lunar landscape, half full of a field of stars.
"Pretty."
"Liftoff in five, four..."
I didn't feel or hear a thing, but I could see when we lifted from the surface. We hovered for a moment, then we began moving. We traveled forward, then the craft turned, dipped, and we lifted further from the surface while also traveling forward, faster and faster.
"What are you doing?"
"Monitoring. Everything is automatic."
"What is our path?"
"We'll climb into orbit, doing a circle and a half, higher and higher in altitude the entire time. We'll do a constant one Earth gravity the entire time."
"What does that mean?"
"We accelerate at the same rate you would if you jumped off an exceedingly tall building."
"Oh."
"You're starting to get heavier, but we do this slowly. You've been one-seventh your weight for a day, so it is jarring if we go right to one gee. I like to increase acceleration over about a five minute period, so that's what I programmed."
Nestled in the chair, I didn't really notice.
We arrived in darkness while we were still on the front side of the moon, but it wasn't long before we were around the back side of the moon. The dark side of the moon is simply the portion in night, just like night on Earth. The back side is the side permanently facing away from Earth.
"Sapphire?"
We hadn't talked for several minutes, and she startled me out of thoughts of... I'm not sure what I was thinking about.
"Moirai?"
"I have something delicate to discuss, and I wish to complete this conversation in only a few minutes."
"All right."
"I believe if I allow you to look at Earth-"
"Allow?"
"Please, Sapphire. I only have a few minutes. Are we going to argue my semantics?"
"Fine, but you're taking off the buzz."
"If I allow you to look at Earth, I believe you will pine."
"I won't pine. I'll mope and probably cry. I might sob."
"I believe it is best for you if I don't allow this, Sapphire."
I thought about it. "I know," I said in a soft voice.
"I am not going to let you look out of any cameras pointed towards or near Earth. Please don't be angry."
"Is this permanent?"
"A few days."
"Will you let me watch it grow smaller?"
"A few minutes a day only."
I thought about it. "I think this is best," I agreed.
"Thank you for understanding, Sapphire."
"What will you do as we get closer? All of them will have at least part of Earth."
"Distract you."
"From the other chair?"
"I'm sure I can think of something. If you like, the sunrise is coming up, but after that, I'll have to be more selective."
"That would be good."
And so, true to her word, the sun appeared around the edge of the lunar landscape, now well below us. It didn't happen like it does on Earth. It didn't slowly begin to glow. Instead, the sun began to appear, and it took very little time before we were in full sunlight.
"They're prettier on Earth."
"I agree. They're prettier on most planets with an atmosphere. But let me show you something." The camera view disappeared, and instead I was looking at a shot of the moon in silhouette, the edge of the sun rimming about a third of the edge almost perfectly. "We weren't at the right altitude to see it this way," she explained. "And it doesn't last long at all."
"It's stunning."
"As you travel further from the moon, the amount of sun that is occluded is smaller until there is a point where the sun perfectly outlines the moon. That is much further than this."
"A solar eclipse from Earth."
"Yes. If you are closer, and at just the right point, then the sun is just an outline."
I began to laugh. "You know, professional photographers can go to such lengths to set up the perfect shot. But imagine how much work that one is."
She growl-laughed back. "NASA has photos like this."
"I bet you do, too."
"Actually, no. Every species has strengths and weaknesses. Humans are particularly good at art and music. There are species who are able to produce more beautiful music than humans, but they produce only a single style. Humans produce a wider variety of music than any other species, and while I can't say I enjoy it all, I rejoice in the variety."
That was perhaps the first time she had spoken respectfully of us as a species. I basked in the praise.
"Humans also produce a wide variety of art. They are not the only species to do so. Most, but not all, produce art. But even the least of you is more capable of producing art than all but very few Temier. I can appreciate the art produced by others, but I cannot produce it. I can click a camera, but that doesn't make what I produce art."
"I'm glad we're good at something."
"You're good at a lot of things. I already told you that humans are incredible engineers. We have adopted some of your technology."
"Wait. You're stealing our tech but not trading some of yours?"
"The Federation does not recognize patent systems the way humans do. However, we do pay for the technology we use. We set the terms, and the inventors may have wished for another arrangement. They would especially prefer to exchange patent rights. Instead, we pay them a one-time fee. We do not steal from them. But much of your technology has no patent holder. There is no one to pay."
"Oh. All right."
The view changed for me, and I was looking backwards now. She hadn't warned me, but I knew what that meant. I didn't complain.
"Tell me about Temier music."
"Temier are not great music makers. We are not capable of singing, and until we met other races, it never occurred to us this was a form of music."
"Doesn't your planet have animals that sing, like our birds?"
"We do, but we don't think of it as music. To us, music is percussion, and only percuss
ion. We have a variety of percussion instruments. Some you would recognize. Some you would not. The closest human equivalent to what we produce is tyco music from Japan."
"Oh, I went to a performance once. A girlfriend took me. I didn't understand why she wanted to go, but she talked me into it during a moment of weakness."
"Do I want to know?"
"She was twirling my cosmetic brushes in my ears and refused to stop until I agreed."
Bronze growl-laughed.
"Don't try it. It will piss me off."
"I wouldn't think of it."
"Uh huh. Anyway, I loved it. But it would get boring if that's all I listened to."
"We produce a wider range than that, but you're right. You would get bored. Our most common instruments are drums, and we produce a variety. Many are made like yours, originally the skin of an animal over a hollowed out tree. But we make drums in other ways now. We also have things we shake, and we can produce a variety of sounds that way. And we have other things we thump. We also will use our own bodies as percussion instruments or just beat our paws on the ground. We'll also slide our tails across something, which is far subtler, but if you get a hundred of us together, it can be quite an eerie sound."
"Do you have recordings?"
"I'll show you sometime. But we have nothing like the instruments you have. Humans produce instruments that aren't seen anywhere else, and they produce such a variety besides. Three other races have something resembling your pianos. Perhaps six or eight have other stringed instruments. Four produce woodwind instruments. None produce anything at all like a French horn. There are harps, but no one else has a harpsichord."
"Violins?"
"Many species produce stringed instruments in a wide variety. None are identical to a violin, but some are similar. A few, but not many, produce the subtle differences from violin to viola to cello. They might have a violin-like instrument and a cello-like instrument, but few have something in between."
"You did well to learn the dulcimer as quickly as you did."
"I was motivated, although as soon as I realized you had steered us to traditional Earth instruments, I knew I was going to lose, unless you were a terrible musician. I didn't think you'd steer us that way if you couldn't play something. I was expecting guitar. That seems ubiquitous amongst humans."
"I can play guitar, but I've made money with violin."
"You're kidding."
I laughed. "Not a lot. But some. I did some busking on a lark, and I worked at the Renaissance Festival a few years. People gave me money." I had to explain that to her, but she was amused.
"I would like that," she said. "Jasmine gave me the dulcimer. It is in storage with us."
"She gave me the violin."
"I know. I saw it. I'm glad."
We talked for a while, warmly, easily. She was brilliant, and I found my mind engaged.
But then I said, "I'm bored with this view."
"I do not keep you entertained?"
"You keep my mind very well entertained, but my eyes are bored."
"You would like another view."
"I've been looking around the sky, but all I see are stars. If you've seen one star, you've seen them all. Could you point one of these cameras at another planet? How much would I see?"
"Hmm. Yes. This ship is not a space exploration ship. The cameras are not that good. I think you would see about as well as you might from a very good backyard telescope."
"How do you know about those?"
"Just about any human who wants to come out to our space station is a space enthusiast, and many are quite proud of their home telescopes."
"Ah."
"I can point one for you, or I can instead let you learn how to do it yourself."
"I know how to point the cameras."
"But do you know how to find the planets?"
"You would teach me?"
"I would let the ship's computer teach you. If you want to learn."
"You're tired of talking to me."
"I am offering you distraction. If there is another kind you prefer, I am happy to deliver."
"Distraction is good."
"The material I have for you is actually a modification of a course taught in human universities. The human classes all assume Earth as a base of operations, and so the course is modified for our circumstances."
"The entire sky is visible. We're not limited to what's available at night."
"Yes, although we discount what is behind the sun. And you're also not limited to sites visible only from northern or southern locations."
"But that wouldn't be any of the planets."
"No, but it would be other features. Also, the human courses teach how to set up and use ground based telescopes, but we're in a ship floating through space. Everything is different. So the course begins with learning how to use the controls, some of which you know. And then it goes on from there."
"All right."
"If you do the full course I have, along with all the exercises, then it will take you eight to twelve hours. You don't have to do it all, and you don't have to do it all at once."
I thought about what she said. "And if I get bored, I bet you have another course for me, one that takes a similar time, and between the two, we'll be past Earth before I realize it."
"You caught me."
"Do any of your courses include biology?"
"I have those."
"Temier biology?"
"Yes."
"Your biology?"
She growl-laughed. "No."
I sighed dramatically. "So you don't have a course that teaches me where your ticklish places are."
"That is delivered only as a hands on course."
I laughed. "I look forward to it."
"You understand there is a corresponding course of study for me."
"Of course."
There was a pause. "All right. You already had access to the courses I'm recommending, but I highlighted them for you. Do you need help finding them?"
"I'm looking at the list now. I want a special exercise though."
"Oh?"
"How to find Temier."
"Oh. I'm sorry. It's too far and dim. It's not visible." She paused. "And Sapphire?"
"Yes?"
"We don't tell humans how to find our planets."
"Now who is the xenophobe?"
"I know. That seems hypocritical, doesn't it?"
"Not that we could use it."
"You'll achieve the stars eventually. Probably not that long from now. We're not sure your planet is politically stable. We've quietly told the leaders of your most powerful countries what we'll do if you go to war."
"You'll stop us?"
"Oh yeah. And we'll destroy all military capabilities of the aggressor while we're at it."
"Good. Do it. Why wait?"
She laughed. "We need an excuse. Some of us are not thirsty for this, but others want to preemptively destroy every machine of war any of you own."
"I hope you would start with the nukes."
"Actually, it's the biological weapons that scare us the most. They're a lot harder for us to track. We know where all your nuclear weapons are, and if they move without telling us where they're going and why, we'll deal with them."
"Oh, I bet the generals hate you."
"They were spitting mad, I believe was the term you used. I have never been more willing to have someone that angry at me."
I stilled. "I think you just told me something about yourself."
"I roared back. Scared the crap out them."
I laughed. "Good. If the military already hates you, why do you stay so far away?"
"No one wants panic. And we don't want to destroy your culture. That is far too easy to do. We want you to evolve on your own, but you needed a little help. Your engineers are just too good, and you produce new ways to destroy your planet at a rate that outstrips your maturity to handle the responsibility."
"That's always been the case. Do
you know about the deforestation of Europe?"
"Yes. We've been watching for a long time."
"Oh shit. You watched that?"
"Not me personally. I am not that old. But The Federation has been around for a long time. Your wars trouble us, and your cold war was terrifying. We were sure you would destroy yourselves then. But it was Fukushima that decided things for us. We couldn't stand by any longer."
"I'm glad you didn't wait."
"Even if you are paying the price?"
"We aren't talking about that." I paused. "Yes. Even if I am paying this price."
"Then that is progress between us."
"Yes, but we're not talking about that. You were saying? I think you were going somewhere."
"Humans are associate members of The Federation. That basically means if one of the senior races tells you something, you're going to do it. Or else."
"No wars."
"There are always skirmishes. We don't want to try to get involved, or we'd basically have to occupy your planet. But yes. No wars. We've outlawed biological weapons research, and we've destroyed a few laboratories that didn't take us seriously."
"More roaring at generals?"
"And a few CEOs. You know, the majority of your business leaders are just trying to run good businesses, but some of them are amongst the biggest sociopaths I've ever met."
I didn't respond to that. I thought she was probably right.
"We let your generals have most of their toys. After all, there is a war out in space, and someday we might need humans to help fight it."
I had managed to forget all about that.
"I wouldn't mind not knowing anything more about that space war than I do."
"I don't personally deal with it. I deal with Earth. It might come up from time to time, though."
"I understand. You know, we were talking about the stars."
"Oh. I got distracted."
"It was interesting though. Most humans don't know anything you just told me."
"Your leaders do. They aren't secrets, not really. I'll ask you to be circumspect, however."
"I was preparing a little message in a bottle. I was going to drop it out the airlock as we passed over Earth."
She paused a moment, and I wondered if she was looking up my reference. Then she growl-laughed.
"The bottle is heat-shielded. Now, where are the controls for this chair?"