Starbridge

by A. C. Crispin

  Raoul said.

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  "Receiving you loud and clear," Joan responded in clipped tones that betrayed her excitement.

  "Me, too," Rob said. He glanced over at the weapon the First Mate was sliding into the tool sheath located on the hip of her spacesuit. "Do you really think that's necessary?"

  She glanced at him, and he watched her mouth tighten. "Just following orders," she said shortly.

  "I thought over what we talked about, Doc," Raoul explained. "But one of us should be armed. I can count on Joan to keep her head in an emergency. I wish I felt comfortable enough to walk out there completely unarmed, but I don't."

  "It's set on 'shock,' Rob, not 'disrupt,' " Joan said. "And believe me, I wouldn't use it unless I had a damned good reason."

  "All right," Rob said. "Just promise me one thing, Raoul."

  "What?"

  "If there's ever a time when we meet them en masse, don't issue one of those to Simon. We've made progress, but he's still xenophobic. I encouraged him to join Evelyn Maitland in hibernation, but he refused."

  "Do you mean that he's dangerous?" Raoul demanded sharply. "I can order him to be frozen, if you have evidence that he's mentally unstable."

  "No ... I don't think that's necessary. He's definitely making progress."

  Joan nodded. "Simon will be all right, Raoul," she said. "Rob, don't forget your suit camera." She reached up to activate her own helmet's vid-cam.

  Then she switched on the ship's recording units, and verified that they were working properly.

  "Cycle the airlock, Joan," Raoul directed when she finished. "Leave the gravity on. Everyone remember that their gravity's higher than Earth-normal."

  Rob picked up his testing equipment, clutching it like a security blanket. He was sweating so profusely that the suit's extra cooling unit cut in; he tried consciously to relax.

  "Vacuum" flashed on the control panel. Raoul checked another indicator.

  "Okay, we've got vacuum outside," he said. "You two ready?"

  "Ready, Raoul," Joan said. Rob gave a thumbs-up signal.

  The Captain pressed the "airlock open" switch.

  The doors split apart to reveal a glare of white light. A spacesuited figure stood there on all fours.

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  It looked up at them, and Rob saw that the being's shoulders nearly reached his waist. If it stood up on its hind legs, he thought, we'd be about the same height. It wore a suit that was iridescent blue, with a dark blue helmet. The faceplate must have been polarized, for Rob could barely make out the alien's furred face and violet eyes through the transparency.

  It seemed rude to tower over the creature, so Rob clumsily knelt and, after a second, Raoul and Joan did the same. The alien rose until it was squatting on its heels, bringing it to eye level with the humans. Very slowly, the being made the ceremonial gesture they had seen in the film sequence.

  "Think we ought to imitate it, Doc?" Raoul asked.

  "Yes," Rob said.

  Carefully, the three humans did their best to reproduce the flowing motions.

  The alien's eyes widened behind its faceplate, and they could see its mouth moving.

  "I'll bet it's reporting back to its people," Joan remarked.

  Shit! Rob thought, remembering his promise. Hastily he activated the security channel. "Mahree? You there?"

  "I'm here, Rob," her voice reached him, breathless with excitement.

  "Can you people see and hear everything?"

  "Yes. I'm still up on the bridge with Jerry, but everyone else TM is watching and listening down in the galley. We can hear you, but only Jerry's allowed to respond. Which I can understand . . . it'd be too confusing if everyone tried to talk."

  "Okay, if I need to speak privately, I'll use this channel."

  The alien took a cautious step forward, then held up the orange bag it had brought. It moved its head to the right, its right hand turning palm upward.

  The doctor watched its lips move again. "I think our friend is asking whether it can come in and do the atmosphere testing," he told his companions.

  "How do we say 'okay, go ahead'?" Raoul asked.

  Rob thought for a moment, then he rose and backed up, motioning Joan and Raoul to do likewise. He began beckoning exaggeratedly with one hand, while pointing to the clear space in the middle of the airlock with the other.

  "Come on," he said, nodding hard so their visitor could see his helmet move.

  The alien took another step forward, then glanced at Rob. The doctor repeated his motions. Then, with a sudden air of decision,

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  the being strode over to the spot the human had vacated. It squatted there, gazing around curiously.

  "I'm going to have to close the airlock doors," Raoul said. "I hope that won't alarm it."

  "I don't think so," Rob said. "After all, it knows why it came here."

  "Here goes. Joan, don't take your eyes off it." Raoul carefully made the widest possible detour around the squatting alien. He triggered the airlock to pressurize.

  The doors began sliding together, but the alien did not move, only watched everything that went on with a bright, nearly unblinking gaze.

  Finally the airlock was again fil ed with air. Rob cautiously went over to the green light that was flashing. He tapped it with his gloved forefinger, nodded vigorously at the being, then returned to pick up his own duffel bag. He took out the first of his instruments and peered intently at the calibrations. "Earth-normal," he said, then nodded again.

  The creature obviously figured out his intended message, for it immediately took out its testing equipment.

  Rob saw that the alien's six-fingered hands moved with greater speed and dexterity than a human's, despite the heavy spacesuit gloves. In just a few minutes, the being was done with its tests and had stowed its equipment away.

  "I wonder if they'll let me do the same thing?" Rob asked his companions, as Raoul triggered the depressurization sequence.

  When the doors opened, the doctor held up his bag and pointed toward the aliens' airlock. Their visitor watched him intently, then, with great deliberation, nodded its head. "We're making progress!" Rob cried, jubilant.

  The being turned to lead them out into the tube. Rob saw that the corridor was at least fifteen meters long. As he stepped over the threshold, he suddenly felt as though his boots had acquired lead soles.

  "Watch it," he warned. "That higher gravity." He glanced at his sensing equipment. "One-point-five Earth gee."

  Raoul grunted; he and Joan were carrying the vid-cam and computer link.

  "How are we going to get the idea across of what this stuff does?" the Captain wondered.

  "One thing at a time," Rob said. "Let me get these atmosphere readings first.

  Where's Mahree's picture book?"

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  "I have it," Joan said.

  Rob activated the security channel. "Mahree, will that equipment you and Jerry cobbled together play back an image of what's standing in front of the camera? Simultaneously, I mean?"

  "Sure," she replied. "Just set it on 'record' with the red switch, and 'play' with the blue one. Then whatever's in front of the camera will show on the holotank."

  The humans followed their host to the aliens' airlock, then halted as the creature manipulated the controls. The portal before them was the same flat-topped pyramid shape as the buildings they'd seen.

  The doors opened, and the humans followed the creature into the airlock, standing shoulder to shoulder in the center of the cubicle, because the walls sloped inward, like the interior of a pyramid.

  "Cramped," Raoul muttered. His head nearly brushed the ceiling.

  "But the design makes sense," Rob pointed out, kneeling again. "They don't need space vertically, they need it horizontally." When the alien closed the doors and nodded, the doctor busied himself with his equipment. Finally, he stowed the last of his gear away. "That's it."

  "Can we breathe it?" Joan asked.<
br />
  "Yes, the mix itself is eminently breathable. Oxygen a little higher than we're used to, nitrogen a little lower, carbon dioxide still lower . . . some of the trace elements are different, but nothing that's harmful to us. I'll need to complete an in-depth microbial analysis, of course."

  Their host opened the airlock doors, then preceded the humans back into the tube.

  "Let's set up the computer link and vid-cam here," Rob said, stopping near the middle of the connecting tunnel.

  Raoul began setting up the equipment.

  The alien squatted down to watch, violet eyes intent. Rob knelt down beside it, and carefully spread Mahree's book out on the floor in front of the being.

  He demonstrated turning the pages. "See this? This'll help you learn things about us. I'm sorry we don't have a film like you did, but we weren't expecting to meet anybody out here." Though he knew the alien could not hear him, he spoke aloud so the listeners aboard Desiree could follow everything that was going on.

  The alien regarded the pictures for a long moment, then

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  cautiously reached out a gloved finger toward them. As it did so, it glanced up at Rob. "Yes," he said, nodding vigorously. "It's for you. Go ahead."

  After a quick touch and another sideways glance--Rob just kept nodding determinedly--the creature picked it up and began turning the pages.

  A few minutes later the alien looked up. The doctor saw that it had several digits inserted between pages, as if marking them. The being tapped one of the pictures, pointed at Rob and made the same interrogatory gesture he had noticed earlier. Rob leaned over to glance at the picture, which showed a color photo of an astronaut floating above Earth, wearing a spacesuit.

  The doctor was surprised to realize how little the basic design of spacesuits had changed in three centuries. The pictured suit was much less streamlined in design than the one he was wearing, but to alien eyes they must appear virtually identical. He nodded. "Yes, that's a picture of a man in a suit like I'm wearing. He's floating above our home planet, Earth."

  The alien then deliberately turned to another color photo, which showed a man seated on a stool, painting. Its gloved forefinger tapped the picture and again it made the questioning gesture. "Yes," Rob said, nodding. "That's right. I look very much like that without my suit.''

  Finally, the being turned to the last marked page, which bore a series of black-and-white anatomical drawings. It made the gesture again, pointing at Rob. "Yes," the doctor said, nodding, "that's how I'm made inside."

  He had no idea whether that was what the alien was actually asking, but that's what he thought the creature meant.

  Rob had caught a glimpse of another picture as the alien flipped through, and he quickly put a finger on it. He pointed at the silhouette of a man, then patted his own chest. "Man," he said. Then he pointed at a similar silhouette of a woman, except that an inset in the figure's midsection showed a fetus, and pointed to Joan. "Woman," he intoned, feeling rather like Tarzan of the Apes. He repeated the words and the motions.

  Solemnly and silently, the alien copied his pointing gestures from book to humans. "That's right!" Rob exclaimed. The doctor heard Joan chuckle.

  "When you give them the lecture on the birds and the bees, Doc, I want to be there."

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  Rob looked over at the First Mate and laughed. "Only if you promise to get pregnant, so you'll match this illustration."

  "Heaven forbid," Raoul muttered abstractedly. "That's all I need." After another moment, he announced, "I'm done."

  Rob climbed to his feet and went over to the computer link. "Set it to record and playback simultaneously. Does this thing have an audio hookup?"

  "Yeah, that was Mahree's idea," Raoul said proudly. "In addition to simply recording sounds, it vocalizes words and sounds as it displays them on the holo-tank. Assuming they pressurize this tube so sound will carry, it'll be a big help."

  "Great!" Rob exclaimed, knowing Mahree was listening.

  The Captain switched on the vid-cam and holo-tank. Rob walked over to the alien, who glanced up from the picture book inquiringly. The doctor beckoned, and the creature followed him.

  Raoul made an adjustment in the angle of the vid-cam, and in the holo-tank, the doctor's and the alien's images suddenly appeared. The alien peered closely at the image. Rob pointed to the vid-cam, then to the holo-tank, and moved his arms up and down so the alien could see that the optical device was indeed "seeing" what was before it.

  After a moment, the alien nodded, then peered into the vidcam. Its image loomed at them from the holo-tank, distorted by proximity. Raoul turned on the unit's prerecorded program, and Jerry's first image, that of the alien solar system, coalesced.

  The alien studied the picture, then began to nod.

  "Think we got our meaning across?" Raoul asked.

  "I hope so. It's reporting in again," Rob said.

  After the being finished its conversation, it pointed at Joan, at Raoul, at Rob, then at itself, then it patted one gloved hand on the floor of the tube, and, after settling back into a sitting position, picked up the book of pictures again.

  "Was he--it--asking us to stay here?" Raoul wondered.

  "Looked like it to me," Joan said. "I agree," Rob said.

  The two men stood beside the computer link, arms dangling, feeling awkward, while Joan stayed where she was, against the wall opposite the alien. Several minutes passed, then their host glanced over at its airlock.

  When Rob turned, the portal was opening. Two more aliens emerged. One was carrying equipment, and the other was empty

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  handed. The third alien was much smaller, making Rob wonder again whether the smaller ones were females.

  Working swiftly, the two larger aliens began setting up the instruments the second creature carried. Though very different in design, materials, and workmanship, the resulting artifact possessed a recognizable monitor. The alien pressed a colored spot on the casing, and it filled with images. "Bingo!"

  cried Rob happily. He chimed the security channel. "Mahree, it looks like we've hit the jackpot!"

  "Great! Now we're getting somewhere!"

  The two aliens adjusted their unit so it faced the humans' computer link.

  Then all three of the beings made the greeting gesture. The humans echoed it, more confidently this time. The aliens watched the two machines interact for a moment, then they abruptly turned away and headed for their own airlock.

  "What now?" Raoul wondered. "Do we just walk away?"

  Rob shrugged. "Apparently greetings are ceremonial and formal, but not farewells."

  The humans began trudging back to Desiree's airlock, and decontamination.

  Rob suddenly realized that he was hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. His leg muscles were in knots from all the walking and standing in the higher gravity.

  He also realized that none of the discomforts mattered; he'd never felt better.

  He grinned to himself. You wanted something special? I'd say this past hour definitely qualifies . . .

  During the next two days the human and alien computer tie-ins flashed images, symbols, and words at each other. Midway through the first day, the aliens pressurized the connecting tunnel, so Jerry also triggered the audio portion of the presentation. At the same time he put out a call to the crew of the Desiree for assistance in collecting and organizing more data for the linkup.

  As the Communications Chief had hoped, the alien computers also functioned on an "on-off" basis, one that could be translated into binary.

  Steadily, as the two computers built up a backlog of mutually

  comprehensible concepts and terms, the systems began developing a mapping algorithm. This interface would be the first step toward a translation program.

  Morale aboard Desiree ran high; the petty bickering and tensions evaporated. The stress level was still considerable, but it

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  STARBRIDGE was a healthier stress. Curiosity about their hosts gr
ew as their knowledge about them increased.

  Ray Drummond dubbed the aliens "the Simiu," and, despite Rob's protests that the name might encourage the crew to think of them as animals, the designation stuck. As Raoul pointed out, they had to call them something.

  The smal er Simiu were indeed females. The aliens' internal makeup proved amazingly similar to that of Earth primates, including humans, though there were, of course, differences-- the heart, for example, was pear-shaped and located in the center of the chest. The beings also possessed two fully opposable thumbs--one where human thumbs were located, and one on the opposite side of their hands.

  The aliens' own data, confirmed by Desiree's orbital scans, indicated that their world did not suffer the population crunch that continued to plague Earth. All of the Simiu dwellings were located in small cities like the one they had been shown, with sizable tracts of land surrounding each. There were no networks of roads--all shipping seemed to be done by air or river transport. All traffic within the cities was pedestrian, with Simiu strolling leisurely from place to place, or loping on all fours as fast as a terrestrial horse could trot.

  "They're big and muscular enough to have considerable strength," Raoul said. "Not to mention that their species evolved under higher gravity The aliens used the latticed overlays on their buildings to swarm effortlessly up and down the pyramids, using both hands and feet to grasp.

  "Handy in case of fire," Paul observed. "It'd be hard to trap people who don't need stairs or elevators to go up or down."

  The humans as yet had little grasp of their hosts' social, governmental, or familial organization--except that none of these seemed to resemble those on Earth. Their society appeared remarkably homogenous--there were no discernible racial differences between the people, and they all spoke the same language.

  One thing seemed reassuringly clear--Simiu were not a warlike people.

  None of Disiree's scans revealed anything that looked like military bases; nothing even resembled a weapon in any of their pictures.