by S. H. Jucha
Nikki sent.
Nikki thought about the opportunity. She knew she couldn’t walk around and watch the stream. She hadn’t achieved that level of mastery with her implant. However, she could save herself time if she watched the initial landing and introduction.
Instantly, Nikki had a view from one of the travelers, as it descended through the atmosphere. The continent was laid out below. The cloud cover was light, and the sun crept over the horizon to shine across the Pacific Ocean.
* * * * *
Over a link to the pilots, Alex instructed them to circle slowly when they were within a kilometer of the target, a beach on the southern edge of a bay with the marine preserve.
As expected, the Omnian shuttles, flying in formation, were spotted by people who were surfing, fishing, jogging, and walking. Many stopped to point at the ships.
Per Alex’s instructions, the pilots hovered their travelers a couple of meters above the water’s edge with their rear ramps facing the growing crowd.
Turning to Wave Skimmer, whose powerful legs tapped repeatedly on the deck, which indicated his anxiousness, Alex whistled, “This is important, Wave Skimmer. There is great risk in doing this wrong. We might upset critical plans for peace in the galaxy.”
Wave Skimmer’s legs stopped their activity. “You lead, Alex. We will follow,” the Swei Swee whistled.
Alex nodded, and he signaled for the ramp to lower. As he leapt off the traveler onto the sand, the audience oohed and aahed. He was an instantly recognizable figure.
Grinning at the crowd, Alex waved, and the crowd cheered and waved back.
Alex maintained his link to the pilots and his ship’s controller. That enabled his voice to be added to the vid streams.
“Sorry to impose on your morning rituals,” Alex said, projecting his voice to the crowd, who stood on the rocks above the beach and lined the roadway. “I’ve a few friends who have been cooped up in a city-ship for too long. It’s a far journey from Omnia. I hope you don’t mind if they take a dip in your waters.”
Nearly half the crowd was silent, but the other half yelled encouragement for Alex to proceed.
“Good start, Alex,” Nikki mumbled.
Nikki and Portia intently watched the stream relayed by Hector, while sitting in Nikki’s presidential salon. Portia was dressed, but Nikki sat huddled in a warm robe, comfortable against the morning chill.
“Now, you might think that these are fearsome-looking creatures,” Alex continued, “but nothing could be further from the truth. These are peaceful, sentient individuals. Think of them like ...”
“Seals,” Alex repeated. “Or ...>”
“Otters,” Alex called out. “Only they’re much bigger.”
“How big?” a youth asked, yelling his question.
Alex stretched an arm over his head. “Forgive me, I’m a little short of the mark,” he said.
There were nervous laughs, but most of the audience remained quiet.
“If you’re frightened of aliens, we can always leave. All of us,” Alex said.
“Well said,” Nikki commented to Portia. “Alex’s words challenge our people. This is their test. It might work to our advantage or blow up in our collective faces.”
“Show us your friends,” a man yelled, and the crowd picked up his statement, shouting, “Show us.”
Alex turned toward his traveler. He’d signaled the interior’s light off to keep Wave Skimmer in the dark. Now, he whistled to the gigantic Swei Swee.
“This is my friend, Wave Skimmer,” Alex announced loudly.
Intent on heeding Alex’s warning, Wave Skimmer stepped slowly down the ramp, despite the anxiousness to greet the ocean waters that he could hear and smell.
The audience was stunned, and several individuals panicked, shrieked, and ran for their lives.
“We’ve not heard that sound from humans,” Wave Skimmer whistled, perturbed that he might have done something wrong.
Alex sought to come up with an answer, and he chose, “Some humans were emotionally overcome by your extraordinary size.”
On the couch in the presidential suite, Nikki and Portia laughed heartily.
“I must remember responses like that,” Nikki said, coughing from having laughed so hard.
“Alex, are you communicating with Wave Skimmer by those whistles?” a woman yelled.
“Yes,” Alex replied. “Their language sounds like whistles, tweets, and warbles.”
“Can I ask a question?” the woman requested.
“Please,” Alex said, indicating Wave Skimmer, who towered above him.
“Wave Skimmer, what do you think of Earth?” the woman asked.
Alex relayed the question, and the audience listened to the Swei Swee whistle and tweet.
“Wave Skimmer says that the ocean smells inviting, and he’s anxious to tread your waters,” Alex repeated.
“Are there others?” a young boy asked, pointing to the closed ships.
“Yes,” Alex replied, and he signaled the pilots to drop their ramps. Then he told the pilots to direct the Swei Swee off their travelers.
Unfortunately, Deep Diver and Swift Eyes hadn’t gotten the same warning as Wave Skimmer. They rushed from the ships, slinging sand, and the sight of the enormous sentients scuttling up the beach had the crowd stepping backward.
A sharp whistle from Wave Skimmer halted his companions. Then, following Wave Skimmer’s instruction, Deep Diver and Swift Eyes fell in line beside and slightly behind him.
Alex felt that he’d lost a step with the audience, and he sought to regain some emotional momentum.
“I’ve told you that the Swei Swee are a gentle race, but there are some ceremonies that you must be careful when engaging with them,” Alex said. “For instance, when greeting the Hive Leader, who is Wave Skimmer, it’s done like this. Watch carefully what I do.”
Alex turned around, stepped to the side, and whistled to Wave Skimmer, who swung to face Alex.
Then Wave Skimmer extended his powerful and deadly claws. Alex’s fist thumped the claws, and the audience heard and felt the impact. Next, Wave Skimmer returned the greeting.
Alex let his hands and arms swing away from the smack of Wave Skimmer’s huge blue claws. When his grin swung toward the audience, the crowd laughed at his maneuver. “Safety first,” he called out, and the Earthers laughed louder.
“You’ll see the Swei Swee in these waters, if you care to watch,” Alex said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve some dos and don’ts to communicate to them.”
As Alex expected, the crowd wasn’t going anywhere. It was growing by the minute, and the original bystanders were educating the new arrivals.
“You hunt for fish and crustaceans only,” Alex whistled to the Swei Swee. “Nothing bigger than a claw. Look there.” Then Alex identified seals. “Don’t disturb them.” He pointed out other species and made the same remark.
“Defend yourselves, but don’t attack and rend,” Alex warned. He waited until he got the assent of each Swei Swee before he continued.
Adding the pilots to twin implant-vocal communications, Alex said and sent, “If in danger, skim the waves. The tra
velers will descend, drop their ramps, and you can shoot aboard. Finally, you return to the ships at dusk, and you don’t exit them until dawn. Now, enjoy the waters, my friends.”
The pilots lifted to clear the view, but their ships remained within a hundred meters of the wavetops.
“Humans on boards, riding the waves,” Swift Eyes tweeted excitedly. One pair of stalks focused on the humans, and the other pair peered intently at Alex.
The audience chuckled and laughed at the independently swiveling eyestalks.
Alex relayed the information to the Swei Swee, which galvanized them.
Then Wave Skimmer, Deep Diver, and Swift Eyes shot across the beach, great gouts of sand spraying behind them, and dove into the surf.
Alex brushed at the sand that had sprayed him. “Did I mention don’t stand behind a Swei Swee and his opportunity to swim?” Alex said to the crowd. When he grinned, the audience cheered and laughed.
Alex stood on the beach. He watched the Swei Swee cavort across the waves, and the travelers kept watch overhead.
A young surfer caught a good wave, but he lost his balance soon after the wave peaked. He hit the water on his back and was buried by the force of the crashing wave.
Alex was about to dive into the surf to rescue the young boy, when he surfaced, coughing and wiping seawater from his eyes.
The crowd stared at the sight of the boy astride the back of Wave Skimmer, who slowly approached the shore, where his surfboard had arrived.
The boy laughed, coughed again, and patted the back of the Swei Swee, and the audience breathed a collective sigh.
At the shore, Wave Skimmer extended a claw to delicately grasp the surfboard, which he extended over his head to the boy, who snatched it. Then the Swei Swee strode into the waves and swam out to the boy’s starting point.
The crowd cheered until they were hoarse, and it was Alex’s turn to breathe a sigh of relief.
In the presidential salon, Nikki was silently applauding. “Masterful,” she remarked.
Aboard the city-ships, the delegates had been treated to the vid streams from Monterey by the SADEs. Many had never seen the Swei Swee. However, it was Alex’s handling of the first encounter of Earthers and Swei Swee that had them talking. For those who looked nothing like humans, it was a sign that they might be accepted by Earthers too.
32: Media Frenzy
Alex waved to the Monterey crowd as he boarded a fourth traveler to return to the Freedom, but few Earthers returned the gesture. They were too intent on watching the giant Swei Swee frolic with the surfers.
Alex checked the ship’s controller and located the SADE’s squadron inbound to Sol, as expected. It was Descartes’s message of his squadron’s expected arrival at Sol that had set the conclave’s date. With the news that Sargut had sent delegates, Alex couldn’t have felt better about his chances of stabilizing a broad swath of space.
Alex mused.
Alex sent.
<Étienne and I were connected, while we watched the Monterey stream,> Ellie replied.
Alex was again struck by the growing qualities of his close associates. He believed the maturation of galactic stability would be left in deft hands, when he passed.
Then it was Ellie’s turn to hear a laugh, except Alex’s was deep and heartfelt.
Ellie shot back.
Then the two good friends shared a moment of relief and chuckles that possibly their life-and-death struggles might be coming to an end.
After a second pause, Ellie sent,
Ellie realized that Alex was expecting something from her. She wondered why he hadn’t asked her outright. Then the thought struck her that the conclave was the summit of Alex’s efforts. Unknowingly, for Alex, he started on that journey when he rescued the Rêveur, and they’d progressed to this day. Now, the culmination of his energies rested on the success of this single critical event.
Alex sent.
Ellie suggested.
Alex replied.
* * * * *
“Well, I’d better get dressed,” Nikki said to Portia. “Arrange for a media interview at ...”
Portia calculated quickly, allowing time for the media frenzy to build and the requests for interviews to arrive. “I recommend nine hours, Madam President.”
“Make it for that time,” Nikki replied, disappearing into her bedroom.
Several individuals in the Monterey crowd had been flying drones. An enterprising young woman, by the name of Petula, had hi-res vid pinned to the bottom of her drone. She was able to capture the entire event.
Rather than posting the imagery online, Petula’s enterprising nature led her to contact a major media outlet and sell exclusive rights to her recording.
After the media outlet aired and posted Petula’s efforts, the systemwide demand for copies of the recording was enormous. Earthers wanted to watch Alex and the Swei Swee.
Nikki sat in a comfortable chair. She reviewed tomorrow’s conclave schedule, which appeared daunting.
Nikki laughed.
Alex sent.