The Trilisk Ruins
Page 18
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Kirizzo considered the situation. He had managed to round up three of the aliens. In each case, it seemed that violence had been narrowly avoided.
At first he thought they were going to fight amongst themselves. He wasn’t sure what the contested resource was, but they were clearly preparing their primitive weapons for some kind of exchange of force. Just as quickly as the competition escalated, they then backed down from it. The species seemed to have mastered the ability to select the optimal path when faced with decisions between eliminating competition and cooperative alliance. For the time being, it seemed they had decided upon alliance. This suited Kirizzo just fine since he had also decided to pursue an alliance, at least until he managed to escape.
Communication was proving to be problematic. The poor creatures only had four limbs, and their range of expression was sadly limited. So much so, in fact, that it seemed they were forced to use their mandibles as additional encoding sources for informative exchange. Kirizzo had to watch very carefully to even detect the waving mandibles as they were so much shorter and stubbier than his own race’s limbs.
Kirizzo considered launching an all-out effort to form some basis for sophisticated information exchange between himself and the aliens. It would be a time-consuming process. He had no doubt that this would eventually result in improved communications, but this layout of time and resources might not prove necessary. He needed only the most basic cooperation from them in order to have another chance at escape. He might be able to show them what was required by simple demonstration. If he could further secure the cooperation of the aliens, then he could stabilize a larger portion of the base than ever before.
Kirizzo contemplated the aliens and their mysterious motives. He wanted to ensure that they had reason to continue to cooperate with him. Perhaps he should somehow make it clear that he was willing to recompense them for their assistance.
On the other hand, if he showed that he was capable of providing things of value to them, he might become more valuable in their eyes, which might re-spark a violent competition amongst them for a monopoly on his offerings. Kirizzo considered this a very valid possibility.
At last he decided that it was worth the risk. He needed their assistance, so he would demonstrate the value of working with him. Then he would communicate what he wanted by conducting a simple spatial demonstration of what was required.
Kirizzo flew into motion, setting things up to create gifts for the aliens.