“What are they like, the people from the worlds nearer your sun? Why don’t they ever leave? How did they join Civilization without star travel?”
“They have it,” Longestlooker said, “in a manner of speaking.”
“All living worlds are unique,” Quickercatcher said. “The nearer worlds... are more unusual than most.”
“You’ll see,” Longestlooker said. “There’s time. Come with us into the ship.”
“We just got here,” Late’s voice said inside J.D.’s mind.
“You just got here,” Longestlooker replied.
“We came all the way out here just to turn around and go back? I need to rest. Let’s stay here and talk for a while.”
“What you need is a promotion,” Longestlooker said.
“Don’t tease,” Sharphearer said. “Come along, Late, I’ll help you.”
“Be careful!” Longestlooker said, sharply, aloud.
“I’ll not hurt you.” The tall thin emerald spines folded close along his back. He let himself loose with quick snapping pops of his sucker-feet.
“Are Late’s spines poisonous?” J.D. asked, glad she had restrained herself from touching the Smallerfarther inhabitant.
“Not to you,” Quickercatcher said.
Sharphearer edged close to the tunnel wall. Late undulated sideways and curled the front edge of his body over Sharphearer’s second shoulders. His body floated above her back like a thick, heavy cape.
“Late’s poison is like any chemical from a separate evolution,” Quickercatcher said. “You’re either immune to it, or it kills you.”
“Unless you’re allergic,” Fasterdigger said. “Another question entirely. Unusual but possible.”
“The spines are poisonous to us,” Longestlooker said.
Never mind the poison spines; J.D. wondered if she would have the nerve to let Late come quite that close to her skin with those wicked teeth.
J.D. glided through the tunnel, now and then pushing off, traveling in a series of long zigzags from one side to the other, now and then turning like a diver to see behind her.
The quartet followed, three grouped together, moving around and between each other in a dancing pattern. Heedless of the sharp spines and the poison, Sharphearer floated near them with Late flowing along afterward, covering all of Sharphearer’s long lithe body except the chartreuse tip of her tail.
The band of illumination traveled with them, following them to the Four Worlds ship.
o0o
In the center of the Chi’s observers’ circle, the holographic image of J.D.’s LTM transmission displayed her progress toward the Four Worlds’ spaceship.
Outside the transparent walls of the observers’ circle, the huge Four Worlds’ spaceship loomed close. The great alien spaceship filled Victoria Fraser MacKenzie’s view with a bright confusion of detail. The connecting tunnel stretched between the spaceship’s flank and the Chi’s hatch. Victoria had watched it grow, seeking its bearings by feel like the trunk of an elephant, until it reached the Chi.
Useful technology, Victoria thought. A sensible way to join different types of spacecraft. Europa’s boat fitted itself to Starfarer like this, and even Nemo’s web grew a tunnel. We’ll have to work on building something similar.
Glimmers of light reflected into the observer’s circle, flickering like sunshine through water.
The asymmetrical Four Worlds ship dwarfed Starfarer’s explorer craft. The Chi was designed for short trips, for landing on new planets, while the alien ship would never touch any world. It bristled with a concatenation of organic and mechanical elements.
“It looks like it’s been repaired and refitted and retrofitted,” Victoria said. “It looks old.”
“It is,” Europa said. “It isn’t as old as my starship, of course.”
Europa’s starship, like J.D.’s Nautilus, was a remnant of the unknown, extinct alien species known only as the other ones. Interstellar civilization could build starships. Ordinary starship, like Starfarer. But no one in Civilization could reproduce the starships of the other ones. No one knew how to build a starship around a singularity, a quantum black hole. The squidmoths had taken over the starships of the other ones long before Civilization existed. Civilization salvaged the rare ship abandoned by the squidmoths, and constantly sought the origin of the other ones.
Right now, Nautilus formed the gravitational center of a small and complicated constellation of spacecraft. Starfarer orbited Nautilus; the Chi had travelled from Starfarer to the approaching Four Worlds ship. Europa’s terraformed starship, a living planetoid with islands and oceans, paced Nautilus and Starfarer. Europa had left it at a distance so its mass would not perturb Starfarer’s orbit too severely.
“The Four Worlds ship is several generations old,” Europa said. “No need to build a new ship for an advance in design or an improved function.”
“Some worlds change their ships with the fashion — but that requires great wealth,” Androgeos said.
The rounded surfaces of the Four World’s ship bristled with transceivers, antennas, sensors. Unlike the Chi, it had no windows and no ports.
“I wish you’d gone with J.D.,” Victoria said to Europa. “To introduce her.”
“That would be bad manners,” Europa said. “It would be insulting to my friends.”
“What if something goes wrong?” Satoshi said.
“Four Worlds people are sophisticated. J.D. cannot offend them.”
Europa’s voice was aristocratic, her tone cool. The elegant Minoan had no reason to be nervous; she had been living among alien people for nearly four thousand years.
“Your job is to help us,” Victoria said. “Or so you told us.”
“I am helping you,” Europa replied. “I know how things are done, and the job of alien contact specialist belongs to J.D.”
“She isn’t going to act like a bumpkin!” Zev said, springing to his friend’s defense.
“Good,” Europa replied drily.
“She was the first ordinary human to live with my family,” Zev said. “She was wonderful. Even my cousins like her, and they’re hard to please.”
The cousins of divers were orcas. Killer whales.
“She’d be safer in a spacesuit,” Stephen Thomas Gregory said.
“Then she would look a bumpkin,” Europa said. “She would insult the representatives, and embarrass me. Humans and the Four Worlds cannot exchange pathogens —”
“We know that,” Victoria said mildly.
“— and the representatives would think you feared they might wage deliberate biological warfare.”
“We might fear that they’d brought us another bacterial gift,” Stephen Thomas said with asperity. “The way you did.”
Europa remained composed as she replied to the geneticist’s accusation.
“You must get over being angry at me for — what was the word you used? Supercharging, I do like that — for supercharging Starfarer’s bacteria. After all, you aren’t mad at Zev for turning you into a diver.”
“That was an accident,” Zev said.
“I know it, Zev, young ichthyocentaur,” Europa said.
“Just understand,” Satoshi Lono said. “It’s hard for us to trust you now.”
“I did what I did deliberately —” Europa said.
“Without asking us,” Stephen Thomas said. “Without telling us.”
“— so you’re angry. You shouldn’t be. You’re too clever. You shouldn’t have figured out what I did so quickly.”
“J.D.’s almost at the end of the tunnel,” Zev said, his attention on the LTM transmission.
“Everything would have been all right,” Androgeos said impatiently, “if you’d all gone back to Earth without knowing about the changed bacteria.”
“If we get back to Earth,” Satoshi said, “they probably won’t let us land!”
“They must,” Europa said. “You cannot join Civilization without the protection I gave you. If I hadn’t immunized you
r ecosystem, the Four Worlds wouldn’t be meeting you now. They wouldn’t take the risk of their free-living bacteria taking up residence in Starfarer’s —”
“She’s there!” Zev said.
o0o
As the tunnel’s end approached, J.D. quickly touched the Chi’s computer through her link.
Victoria waited, her link wide open.
“Are the LTMs coming through okay?” J.D. asked.
“Sound and pictures, all there.”
“Great. Thanks, Victoria.” Like most people, Victoria did not often use her link for direct communication. J.D. was getting used to the sensation of having voices in her mind, but she understood why other people preferred to avoid the experience.
I think I’d better learn to like it, she said to herself.
Zev sent a wordless message of support and love. J.D. reciprocated. Smiling, she thought, I do like that.
While her link was wide open, the alien knowledge surface of Nautilus beckoned her toward the starship’s heart. It tempted her, as it always did. But she could not give it time or attention now. She touched it just long enough to be sure it was as she left it, to be sure Esther Klein and Nikolai Cherenkov were safe there.
Kolya replied through Arachne, Starfarer’s control computer, but Esther opened her own link and spoke directly to J.D.
“We’re fine,” she said. “Let us housesit, don’t worry.”
J.D. could feel the smile behind the young pilot’s words.
“Thanks,” she said. She let the connection fade. It had existed for all of three or four seconds.
The passageway opened out into the Four Worlds’ ship, into soft light and bright color. J.D. took up her momentum against the wall by using her arms and legs as springs. She hovered in a floating stop, uncertain.
The quartet gathered behind her. Late slipped free of Sharphearer’s back and glided along with them, undulating slowly, looking in profile like a giant furry inchworm.
J.D. entered a wide, circular chamber. Four Worlds people filled it, waiting for her, dozens of them, an anarchy of colors, their speech a shower of trills and hums. The quartet pushed forward around J.D. The room was full of Largerfarthings like the quartet; Smallerfarthings, people like Late, carpeted its inner surface. Small bright creatures flitted through the chambers, like sparrows. Each had two sets of wings, one set of central feet.
Among the Largerfarthings, a larger, darker shape moved and flowed.
Like the exterior of the ship, the interior was a mix of organic and mechanical elements, the surface soft and rumpled, light shining from round, precise fixtures. Where Smallerfarthings did not cover the wall, the surface held clusters and patterns of small objects tucked into its folds.
The room smelled of damp earth, and electricity, and perfume. The tantalizing sweet sharp fragrance of the quartet concentrated in the meeting room.
Bright-furred Largerfarthings floated in small groups. Now and then groups exchanged members, or an individual switched from one group to another. They watched J.D. with their great shining eyes, their hands folded atop their backs or their arms stretched forward and crossed just above the forelimbs. Some held hands with each other; some stroked each other with their chins and throats. They gave the impression of serenity and joy, amusement and anticipation.
Longestlooker trilled to the waiting group.
“This is J.D. Sauvage, from Earth,” Quickercatcher said in English.
Quickercatcher’s people responded with a quavering murmur, a few attempts at English that were at least as far from the mark as J.D.’s attempts at their language, and several exclamations of “Welcome!” The people from Smallerfarther raised their front edges from the inner surface of the room, each exposing a glistening radula of rows of sharp teeth. Late crept along the wall and joined the soft patchwork of the other Smallerfarthings. When J.D. glanced back a moment later she could not tell which of the beings was their representative. The Smallerfarthings’ dappled patterns all differed, but much more subtly than the fur of Quickercatcher’s kind. Silver threads glimmered among the dapples and the spines.
A fashion? J.D. wondered.
“We all welcome you,” Quickercatcher said.
“Thank you,” J.D. said. Her voice shook slightly with excitement and eager apprehension. She drew a deep breath and steadied herself. “I’m glad to meet you all. I’m glad to meet Earth’s neighbors.”
A massive Largerfarthing floated forward. If the Largerfarthings had been horses, this one would be a Percheron — a Percheron with long bright yellow fur.
“This is Carefulspeaker,” Quickercatcher said. “We all chose him to represent our community, and he accepted.”
Carefulspeaker balanced a stoppered amphora between his hands. He kept up a deliberate motion by swimming with his front and rear limbs, and stopped by back-paddling.
“The inhabitants of Largerfarther and Smallerfarther offer you a gift.” Carefulspeaker gazed steadily at her. His eyes were brilliant gold, like molten precious metal. He drew his hands away from the gift.
The amphora drifted between them. Graceful, delicate handles arched out from its shoulders, like fan-shaped wings.
J.D. hesitated. You may accept one gift, Europa had said. I do not know what it will be, but my friends will not harm you. You may show good manners by sharing the gift with them.
Europa and Androgeos had objectives that did not entirely coincide with the goals of the deep space expedition. But Europa had every reason to hope J.D. would make a good impression with the Four Worlds.
J.D. put her hands around the amphora, accepting the gift. The cool, damp earthenware fit her hands strangely. It was wide in one dimension and narrow in the other. It curved abruptly in at the bottom to form a cutback ridge. J.D. imagined herself with two central fingers and a thumb on each side of her palm. The top thumb and the fingers would pinch rather than grab; the lower thumb would support. She slid her little finger around the bulge and pressed it against the ridge. It still felt strange, but steadier.
The Largerfarther inhabitants watched her expectantly.
J.D. moved the jar. Liquid shifted inside it, not splashing as it would in a gravity field, but rolling from side to side. She held the jar still with her left hand and removed the stopper with her right. Like the amphora, the stopper and the opening were wider in one direction than the other. The opening came to an edge rather than a lip. Inside, the liquid continued to move.
A transparent, colorless globule protruded from the neck of the amphora, then burst free and hung quivering in the air. J.D. stoppered the bottle. Beside her, Quickercatcher made the figure-eight head motion of agreement and approval.
The liquid globule might be perfume. It might be an alien artform. For all J.D. knew for certain, it might be rocket fuel.
J.D. bent toward the globule. It had no smell, no color.
She touched it with her lips, kissed it, drank it.
Cool, pure water flowed into her mouth. She swallowed it.
A few drops floated free. One of the four-winged creatures flitted past, scooping water into its mouth.
Carefulspeaker motioned his approval, and so did the rest of the Largerfarthings. The Smallerfarthings did not perceptibly change the way they moved. If they had expressions, J.D. could not yet distinguish them.
J.D.’s link made her aware of the apprehension of her colleagues back on board the Chi, but they were less frightened than when Nemo offered her decorative food.
They must be getting used to my taking risks, she thought. Getting used to seeing me do my job.
With Nemo, she had known the offering was food. Here, she had been guessing. Thanks to Nemo, it was an educated guess.
“Thank you,” she said to the representatives. “Will you share the gift with me?”
“Yes,” Quickercatcher said. “Welcome to the Four Worlds.”
She opened the amphora and drew it toward her. The water flowed out of the amphora’s mouth, kept behind by its inertia. A swirling
stream of water broke into vibrating, rotating bubbles.
Several of the Smallerfarthings loosed their hold on the wall and undulated into the group, swimming like rectangular manta rays. J.D. thought the one who came nearest to her was Late. To drink, he approached a globule, curled back the front edge of his body, revealed open mouth, radula, and sharp teeth, then reversed the curve and bent around the water.
A few droplets splashed free when his sharp teeth burst the bubble into his mouth. Another of the bat-birds swooped by for its share.
In a moment, the water was gone and the representatives clustered around J.D. Again, she glimpsed the unfamiliar, elusive shape. It appeared and disappeared between the other people. J.D. could not get a clear idea what it looked like.
It can’t be a representative of the Nearer worlds, J.D. thought, because Quickercatcher said no one from the Nearers ever left the surface. Is it another sentient being? Does one of the Four World have several sentient species? Is this another form of the kind of people I’ve already met?
Or maybe it’s a pet, J.D. thought, and smiled to herself.
“I brought you a guest gift, too,” she said. “It’s a copy of a performance by a talented artist. It’s called ‘Discovering the Fossils.”
The LTM on J.D.’s shoulder projected a hologram in response to her request. It appeared and expanded. The Four Worlds people moved aside to make a space for it.
In the image, a river ran through a canyon on the inner surface of Starfarer’s, on the living surface. Crimson Ng, the sculptor and performance artist, walked along the river’s edge. She strode along the beach, her gaze intent on the canyon wall.
An anomalous line of stone appeared, pale against the dark volcanic gray. It thickened, widening to one handsbreadth, two. The paleness took on a definite color, a rosy, sandy pink.
Crimson looked across the river. The rosy streak cut across the far side of the black volcanic riverbank. The river’s creation had carved away volcanic moon rock, and part of the unexpected sedimentary layer within it.
Crimson touched the pale streak of rock on her side of the river. Her fingers with their dirty broken nails were as gentle as a caress. An analysis appeared at the edge of the hologram. Ancient moonrock, a lava flow a billion years old, lay below the strange pink layer. Another lava flow lay above it, the second flow older than the first. More confusion of the provenance: the rock lay upside-down compared to its orientation on the moon.
The Starfarers Quartet Omnibus Page 100