She went on to explain that the attacks seemed random, and had mostly been against the Sumerians so far. The Mersa had been briefed by Fedic on the Rothii legacy to the Sumerians. Fallostrina did a little double nod, left and then right. It was the general sign of agreement among the Mersa.
“Not far from here, in star drive terms,” continued Celia, “is an inhabited planet we call Aqua Regis, but the inhabitants call Hud. The people of Hud, the Hudnee, are a less advanced people than yourselves, still at a pre-industrial level.
“Their planet is now dying because the Reaper ships of these invaders drove a moon into their sun. One of our greatest wishes is to find a way to save them. It is our hope the people of Alamos will help us save the people of Hud, and also find a way to understand what the Reaper ships want, or, in a worst case, how to stop them.”
Fallostrina and Mordiselli conversed rapidly, in part-sentences and short phrases. Even with the earpieces Celia could only follow bits of it. Fedic turned to Celia and Roberto.
“The biggest problem,” he said, “is that the Mersa have no central government like the confederation we call EarthGov. Each extended family, or village, or city, or trading or political organisation, is free to decide for itself. There are no constraints on what any one group does, as long as it is not detrimental to anyone else.
“Perhaps if we can be more specific about what we want from the Mersa, at least to start with, something can be decided more quickly. After that, decisions can be made on a case by case basis, which seems to be the Mersa way. The concept of a long-standing, planet-embracing ‘alliance’ is new to the Mersa way of thinking.”
Celia could see the sense in starting with something small and practical. Some objective both sides could agree to. Regent Cordez had emphasised the advantages of bringing the best scientific minds of Earth and Alamos together, so Celia put forward this idea. The Mersa seemed non-committal, though it was hard to tell.
“We have excellent scientific facilities in place on an outer moon of our sun system,” she said hurriedly. “It is well away from both Earth and Alamos, and we could use those facilities while our government and your people consider the best way to form an alliance between us.
“Our best minds would be working together, and we could try to find solutions for Aqua Regis, and for the defence of both our worlds,” she finished.
Fallostrina and Mordiselli spent some time discussing this. It was hard not to overhear what they were saying through the earpieces, but the Mersa spoke in part-ideas and snatches of phrases, and were hard to follow. It was one indication that their minds worked differently to a Human mind.
Cordez had said this was his hope, that the two races would complement each other. If all went well they would be much more creative together than working alone.
“We cannot speak for our people,” said Fallostrina finally, when she had finished talking to her mate, “but we can explain the situation to other village leaders like ourselves. I know the idea will spread from there.
“I understand you want to return to Earth in a few days, with some of our scientists who agree to your proposal. That doesn’t give us much time. However, if we bypass the larger centres, who would take too long to make a decision, . . .”
She looked at Mordiselli and his face lit up, as if he had understood exactly what she meant by that cryptic remark.
“Then I think you might have some of our best and brightest to take with you,” he said. “The decision will ultimately be up to them, but we will have some Mersa scientists who might be interested ready for you in a few days.”
CHAPTER 3
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The two Mersa left the room, talking animatedly, and then at a given moment the others could no longer hear them. Celia figured they must have removed the earpieces.
Fedic laughed at the look on Roberto’s face. “This is typical Mersa behaviour,” he said, “from what I’ve seen so far. They don’t have the social customs that we do. If you want to do something, you just plough on in and do it.
“If someone wants to know what’s going on, they ask you. I guess in many ways it saves a lot of time and bother.”
The first of the Mersa volunteers arrived a day later. The last arrived within three days. Celia and Fallostrina planned a selection process for the evening of the third day.
“The volunteers don’t know what they’ve volunteered for yet,” explained Fallostrina, as the others prepared to meet the volunteers, “and neither do the leaders or research managers who let them apply for this.”
“We advertised this as a top level research opportunity,” said Mordiselli, “only suitable for someone who can be flexible about their work conditions, and with proven skills. Oh, and without close ties or responsibilities.
“We have ‘bonded’ them to the industries of our town. Any who do not go with you will work here for somewhat less than one of your Earth years. During that time they will be bound to not disclose any information about our industries, including of course what they learn during the selection process. I can guarantee they will stick to the agreement.”
“It’s one way of making sure there’s no industrial espionage when you bring in outside workers,” said Roberto, and looked at Celia. She nodded. It made sense.
“We’ve gone through the applications and picked the likeliest candidates for you,” said Fallostrina, “but we cannot say how many will go with you to this Prometheus of yours.”
She stood up, but before the group moved through to meet the candidates, Fedic raised his hand for a moment’s pause. He looked at Celia and Roberto.
“The ‘volunteers’ haven’t been told you’re coming,” he said, “and you will be very alien to them. They’ll react when they see you. Working with Fallostrina and Mordiselli seems easy now, but the first meeting with them was quite difficult.”
“Couldn’t we take a little time and prepare them?” said Celia.
“That’s not the Mersa way,” said Fedic. “They believe the first reaction is the truest one.”
The group left the house and walked out into the quiet of the night. A vehicle much like a large van, without windows, was waiting for them. It drove them a short distance to the enclosed courtyard of a large building in the centre of the village. The van appeared to be electric, at least it operated silently.
“Try not to look too frightening,” said Roberto to Celia with a grin. “We don’t want to be seen as grumpy bastards.”
Mordiselli looked a little startled, and Fedic tried to explain what the words actually meant. Celia caught Roberto a piercing jab in the ribs with her elbow.
The three Humans and their two hosts walked into a room full of Mersa. In an instant every one of the candidates was on the other side of the room.
There was a shocked silence, and then a babble of voices that sounded to Roberto like a bunch of wind instruments hooting and scampering up and down a very high-pitched scale.
The three ‘aliens’ stood quietly, with Fallostrina and Mordiselli flanking them. Celia heard a few references to ‘wild beasts’ and ‘hairy savages’ through her earpiece.
That’s probably how we look to them, she thought. They wouldn’t have any concept of such a large amount of head hair. She realised she was probably the worst offender with her shoulder-length style, while the men had short, serviceable haircuts.
Suddenly a very short female figure, even for a Mersa, stepped forward from the group and pointed at them in wonder.
“Of course,” she said. “You had to come. But to think you would come in my lifetime. The odds are so much against it . . .” and her voice trailed off.
Fallostrina smiled a little, pursed-mouth Mersa smile, and went over to the lone figure. She took her by the hand and urged her gently toward the much taller Human figures. The small Mersa looked very nervous.
The down on her body was more a red than a brown, quite different to the other Mersa colouring Celia had seen. She seemed less agile as well, and more stock
y, but there was no hiding the penetrating eyes under the high forehead.
“Celia, I believe you have found the leader for the group. Her name is Gaiallano, and she is a specialist in atmospheric gases.”
Now that was clever, thought Celia.
Fallostrina had put the group in an astonishing new situation, and waited to see who would make sense of it first. Gaiallano had been perfectly correct in what she said. The universe was very likely to support other life – the Mersa study of the night sky had to have convinced them of that.
But the chance of ships from other planets landing on Alamos in her lifetime, out of all the generations of Mersa that had ever been, was extremely slim.
Fallostrina handed the stunned Mersa one of the linguist earpieces, and showed her how to fit it. Celia waited until she had finished placing it, and spoke.
“Hello, Gaiallano,” she said, “I hope we will be friends.”
Gaiallano hissed and jumped back. She touched the earpiece, and then nodded in understanding.
“Can you . . . also understand me?” she asked hesitantly.
Celia nodded, then thought perhaps she should say something, but Gaiallano had understood the gesture.
“Where are you from?” said the little Mersa. “How did you get here? Have you got a ship? Oh, you must have a ship. Can I see it? Can we all see it? How does it work?”
Fallostrina held up her hand in the same admonishing raised finger and circled thumb and middle finger gesture that Celia had seen Mordiselli use. Gaiallano collapsed like a burst balloon.
“There will be enough time for all of that later,” she laughed. “I don’t know the answers to those questions myself yet. However, we have other things to talk about tonight.”
In the end, all but two of the Mersa volunteers decided to accompany Celia back to Earth’s Solar System. There was a great deal of haggling about the length of time they would be away, and in the end it was decided the Mersa would work in three month shifts. A flexibility clause was added later, that they could extend the time if they wanted to, or if they were needed on a special project.
The Mersa didn’t seem too concerned about what they would eat, or the temperature and humidity levels they might be working in. Celia couldn’t see there would be a problem. Fedic’s early work had shown the climate on Alamos was fairly close to Earth standard, and Mersa food could be freighted in if necessary.
The greatest incentive for the Mersa was the chance to work with Earth scientists. Celia thought she noticed something of a small-town mentality here – would their knowledge and scientific methods stand up in a broader scientific context. She decided that a little healthy rivalry was probably going to be an asset.
In the end it was a matter of limiting what the Mersa could take off Alamos with them. Each one wanted to bring numerous pieces of equipment they claimed were essential to their work. There was also the problem of the eighteen jumps into orbit the shuttle would have to make to lift everything up to the freighter.
It had always been a question of whether they would have no Mersa at all to bring back, or too many, but that problem seemed to have worked itself out. Celia made a mental note to bring a much larger freighter next time.
She looked at the tight schedule that lay ahead of her. It would mean a punishing organisational load for most of the next two days, and then it would all be over. As soon as she’d delivered her charges to Prometheus, she promised herself a long, lazy vacation.
Why did she have the suspicion that Regent Cordez wasn’t going to allow her to do that?
END OF PREVIEW
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