Proving True

It takes a few minutes to get the robots to the lab. The Talkbot wasn’t built for speed. At the corner of the corridor leading to the lab, we verify that the video and audio on the Talkbot work and we send the mechanism trundling towards the lab and the tank. The bodies of our troopers provide obstacles the Talkbot has to get around. As soon as the two robots move into the lab, the water in the tank begins roiling. The robot moves to the tank and places a transducer against it and begins playing the recorded messages. The WARBOT stops at the entrance to the lab. We wait anxiously as the Talkbot begins its mission. Each of us is hoping for an answer from the creature in the tank. Leka murmurs while we wait, “I wonder where it’s from.”

“You don’t think it’s from here?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “It doesn’t make any sense. Like I said at the briefing, the ship crashed here. We are led to that conclusion by the ice, and the crazy angle, etc. right?”

“I’m with you.”

“So, why would they be so interested in finding and capturing a local creature, that they wouldn’t get their ship free?” Leka asks. “It doesn’t make sense to me. But if it crashed with them, well, that fits the scenario better.”

I can’t argue her logic. We make small talk for another thirty minutes then Leka suddenly squeals with glee. “We have a solution. Who’s our group spokesperson?” All eyes are suddenly on me.

Athena breaks the silence by stating the obvious, “Chief MacTaggert is the mission commander.” Leka plugs a cable into my communication module. I am too stunned to resist.

“Any time you’re ready, Boss,” says Leka.

I have no idea what to say! I’ve never even considered first contact with another species. Maybe I should start with a few assurances? “Hello, we would rather not hurt you. How did you come to be here?” I hear the computer translate and play a series of high-pitched squeals, whistles, chirps and pops. I can only hope it is accurately relaying my words, hopefully the intent at the very least. It takes a few minutes, but I hear some tones similar to what we played come from the water.

Shortly after that I hear, “I not hurt.”

“It said…” I start but Leka interrupts me with a wave. She reaches over and disconnects the cable.

“We can hear what you say and the translation. You have the cable because only what you and the creature say is, as far as the translator computer goes, all that’s important.”

“If you say so. Someone advise the SDB that we’ve made contact, and are communicating.” I take the cable from her and insert it back into my comLink port. “Is this planet your home?” I think I know the answer but I want to hear it anyway.

It takes a while. The computer must be making some assumptions and experimenting with the languages it has access to. We see the translator’s activity indicators blink on and off. What happens next takes us all by surprise.

Leka snaps upright and throws her rifle against the wall. She then turns to me. “Your name is Sonia MacTaggert, you are an engineer and in command of this excursion. This individual’s name is Leka Ulfdottir. She is a scientist and companion of yours. I mean you no harm. What happened before was unfortunate and unintended. Do you seek revenge?” The translator continues to record what I and the creature say. I trigger my own comm recorder to capture what comes out of Leka’s mouth, as I’m certain this conversation will be of interest to many people for quite a while.

I gape at her for a second or two. It feels like much longer. “That is up to you,” I say. “The woman you are speaking through is one of our crew and we care about her and what happens to her. Is she in any danger?”

“No,” Leka’s voice says, “but this method is easier for me and faster for you. I can speak to her mind and she can translate more readily than your computer can. She values life, so I know she is not a threat to me. You value her opinion, so you will do what she says as much as possible.”

“Until you hurt her or use her to hurt us.”

“Neither of those will happen. With the others, when I touched their minds, they were thinking of killing me. Am I not allowed to defend myself?”

Every creature in the universe wants to live. Its request is not unreasonable. Although, that will be a tough idea to sell to some of the troopers. Especially to those who lost some friends. “They were soldiers. That is what they do. If they were thinking of killing you, it was only as a contingency. Had you attacked them.”

“The outcome is unfortunate, then. For what it is worth, I apologize.”

I don’t see any benefit to belaboring this so I change the subject. “We have questions,” I tell it.

“Disarm the explosives on your robots, reorient your weapons and I will tell you whatever you wish to know to the best of my ability.” What we eventually find out is that the creature was captured. Some form of flying object and bipeds in metallic suits destroyed its home planet. As it happens, the creature is a female. Her tale of woe is compounded by the fate of her family: The invading force ate them. Her opinion is that she was only spared to be either a zoo exhibit or a scientific carving dummy.

Gallagher picked her up in an automated life pod. She doesn’t know exactly what happened, but the slaver ship was destroyed and her tank was jettisoned. The pod was too small for her, the crew of Gallagher built this field expedient tank for her. She begs to be taken to as clean ocean and freed. She promises that if she is left in peace, she will harm no life form aside from food. She realizes that bipeds are not food, so they are all safe. After the interview, Leka’s body relaxes. Her knees buckle and her eyes flutter. We catch her before she can fall.

I hear Leka call the SDB. “Sergeant Major, this is an intelligent creature. It is a refugee. Please, we need to take it with us. It won’t hurt us or anyone else. Two forkbots can move her tank. Please, Freddie. She’s probably the last of her kind. It’s just wrong not to let her live out her days in peace.”

Freddie’s response is not very encouraging. “That’s a decision way above my pay grade. The best I can offer is to let her stay where she is until such time as we find an ocean fitting to her needs. But I’ll relay the request up the chain. That’s the best I can do right now.”

The translating computer was operational throughout our conversation. I open a channel into the tank. “I can’t transfer you to our ship without my Captain’s permission. What I would like to do is seal your tank for a short period, get the ship out of the ice and into space. Once the ship is proven sound, your tank will be unsealed. Or perhaps the Captain will allow you aboard our ship. It is a research vessel after all. But my first order of business is to get this ship into orbit. Is that acceptable to you?”

Leka answers first, “That won’t work. According to your plan, this ship will be depressurized and there’s not a way to seal this tank. Her water will boil off and she will die. If her lungs aren’t crushed by her weight, the vacuum will kill her. We have to move her to the SDB.”

“Impossible,” Athena says over the link. “Even if we built a tank on the pinnace and transferred just her, we would require days we do not have. The only option is to transport her in place.”

I look at the tank and consider sealing it. We could cover it with something. Weld that to the frame and…the oxygenation system. Water filtration. My eyes slide down the length of the tank. Easily half a dozen holes where one thing or another feeds into it. They would all have to be patched. A nightmare at best.

My next thought is to build a pressurized environment around the tank enclosing all of the support plumbing. That might work except where am I going to get that much material? Strip it from the airtight non-critical walls elsewhere on the ship? Wait a minute! “Athena, can you access the design specifications for this ship?”

“I have, what do you wish to know?”

“Can this compartment be pressurized independently?”

“Accessing. It can. There are quarantine protocols to over-pressurize that compartment.” The crew of Gallagher must have thought of that first. I wish I had met their engineer, probably could have taught me a thing or two.

“Excellent! Now, how do we keep the water and the creature in the tank in microgravity?”

One of the troopers speaks up, “Why not a tarp?” He points to a pile of them in the corner of the room. I hadn’t noticed them, but he’s right. Just because a solution doesn’t involve welding doesn’t make it the wrong one. There are also some rolls of plastic sheeting. All we need is the epoxy from the tool kit and we’re in business. We can fabricate a cover to keep the water in place while the ship stumbles its way to orbit. It may not be a one hundred percent solution, but it’s near enough. Of course, once I have the plan moving, I’m needed in the reactor room. I can have Leka and a pair of troopers finish assembling the tank cover and getting it in place. They don’t need me for that.

“Freddie, we’ll be able to transport the creature—I guess it’s some form of whale—in place. I’m heading to the engine room to get the power plant warm. I could use some help.”

“What you have is what you got. We don’t have another pinnace on the SDB, so I couldn’t send any hands if I wanted to. Handle it in your typical efficient manner,” he replies.