Guardsmen of Tomorrow (30 page)

Roz felt her shoulders relax, She really didn’t want to face that frozen waterfall.

Then she heard a loud splash and a strange whirring. A creature whirled out of the pool below them, and rose to their level. It landed, shaking water off as it did so.

It was small, mammalian in appearance, with forearms and webbed feet like a duck.

It also had a beak. Its eyes were dark and had no whites. It seemed to be breathing the air, but it also had gills along the sides of its neck.

We have never heard of a Galactic Alliance
. The little creature’s mouth-or what Roz took to be a mouth-did not move.

“We’ve been around for nearly a hundred years,” she said. “If you want, I could brief you on it.”

Perhaps later
. It folded its small forearms over its belly. It had what looked like six-fingered hands at the end of those forearms and it threaded the fingers together.

First we would like to hear of your universal translator
.

“Actually,” Roz said, “we heard you had invented one.”

We have no use for such a thing
, the creature said.

“Yet you’re speaking to us in our language.”

The creature made a chittering sound. /
am not speaking
.

Telepathy. She had heard that there were creatures all over the galaxy that had it in one form or another. “How do you understand our language, then?”

/
do not know. Only that we overheard your speech, then used what pieces of it we
could find to create our own responses
.

Roz glanced at Gina. Gina had pressed a small button on the side of her environmental suit. She was recording this. Although Roz figured it would do no good. If the creature was telepathic, the conversation would be distinctly one-sided.

How did you learn of us?

Roz told him of the Hicrum, the Crativ’n, and the Du-lacs, and then she spoke of her assignment.

What good would a universal translator be to your peo-cle
? the creature asked.

“We travel all over the galaxy,” she said. “Our mission is to map the sectors we haven’t seen before, and make diplomatic contact with peoples we haven’t encountered before. We usually contact only space-faring races.”

We were space-faring once.

“What happened?”

We chose not to be any longer
. The creature shook some more water off its fur, then leaned over and groomed its shoulder with its tongue. It made a spitting sound, and shook again.
However, it is beginning to seem as if we will not be left in peace
.

“Because the Hacrim and the others are telling everyone about you?”

And you are all coming to investigate.

“We’ve been raised to believe that a universal translator is an impossibility,” Tom said.

When you speak of this translator, you speak of a device, do you not
? the creature asked.

“Yes,” Roz said.

Then you have been raised correctly. So far as we know, anyway.

“But we’re understanding each other.”

The creature raised its dark eyes to hers then made that cluttering sound again. She wondered if it was a sound of derision or disgust.

My people have the skill to understand most sentient beings. It is not a pleasant
nor desirable trait, and it is the reason we have retreated here.

“The underground city?” Gina asked.

The river
, the creature said.
It protects us. We have trouble absorbing through
water
.

“What do your people call themselves?” Roz asked.

The creature made a sound that was something between a burp and a sneeze.

The creature studied them for a moment, then said,
If we had had the device you
were looking for, what would you have done with it
?

“I would have reported to my superiors.” Roz said, not sure that was what she would have done at all. “And they probably would have figured out a way to buy the technology from you.”

Would they be willing to barter or trade?

“Of course,” Roz said. “I’m sure a lot of races would.”

/
will speak to my people
, the creature said.
You will return here after the next
sunrise. You will then explain to us your hesitation at returning to your command
and why you are both elated and disappointed to learn of our talents
.

Roz was startled. She had realized it was telepathic, but she hadn’t realized its ability extended beyond the language skills. “All right,” she said.

The creature tilted its head, which seemed like some sort of ritual movement (like a wave), then it raised its arms and laid itself on the stone waterfall. It slid down the fall and landed, with a splash, in the pool below.

Roz peered after it, but couldn’t see anything in the murky depths. “Okay,” she said after a moment, “that was weird.”

“But promising,” Gina said.

The pool below still rippled. Roz thought she saw movement. But she pulled herself away. “Let’s head back to the shuttle before Ethan sends the next team down.”

So they made the long trek back, radioed Ethan, and settled in for their first night on Xanadu.

Sunrise, it turned out, was two standard days later. The wait was interminable. For the first time, Roz re-gretted leaving Ethan on board the ship. She wanted to hear his analysis. The others were reliable, but they weren’t as blunt as Ethan.

She needed blunt right now.

The breaks in the recordings of the interviews bothered her more than ever. She had a hunch that Galland knew his universal translator wasn’t a device, but a people. And she had an idea that he wanted her to bring just one member of that race back with her.

That was what she would have done if he hadn’t threatened her. if he hadn’t tried to manipulate her, and if he hadn’t ruined-her career.

She did speak to her team, and they all agreed that there was no way she would be able to convince the Xanadians- which was what they called the creatures, not being able to imitate that sneeze/burp sound-to continue to hide or even to move on. If three different alien races knew about them, it was only a matter of time before someone else did as well.

And their skills would be useful, whether on a voluntary or a coerced basis.

While she waited, she sent all the information she had back to the ship. Belle and her team examined it. Telepathy on a low level, Belle informed Roz, had been found in other races scattered among the galaxy, but nothing this sophisticated. Mostly telepaths were able to sense strong emotion among their own people. Belle had no records of any race that had telepathy with other races-and certainly not anything that included picking up a language in less than an hour.

“But,” Belle had said, “as much as I don’t want to admit that it’s possible, I have to remind myself there’s more to this universe than we can perceive. All I have to do is blow a dog whistle to know that.”

It was her standard line when she encountered something she didn’t understand, and it bothered Roz. “Can’t you at least make a guess at what they’re doing?” she had asked.

“I can guess,” Belle had said. “Not on the telepathy but on the language.”

That got Roz’s attention. She thought that was the impossible part, and she said so.

“Babies of all species which have language have a great ability to absorb and learn that language without formal training,” Belle had said. “It’s an ability most of us lose as humans by the time we’re four. A handful retain it, like a talent. I’m guessing that this entire species had to learn language and telepathy as survival skills. I don’t know enough about the ecosystem of the planet, but if we delve into it, maybe into the planet’s history, we’ll learn why these skills are so necessary.”

Then Belle had grinned. “Or maybe they’re just conning us like everyone else has managed to lately.”

It was possible, Roz supposed, but she didn’t know why there would be such an elaborate con. There were easier ways of trapping Galland, and the Galactic Patrol didn’t even work this sector. So she was inclined to believe the Xanadians were real.

Her staff agreed. They thought the Xanadians were the real thing.

Now she just had to find out what the little gold mines wanted.

Instead of meeting her down by the city, the creature met her inside the door to the catacombs. Near the surface, it looked more molelike than she had expected, its dark eyes squinting at the light filtering in the open door.

Her own team waited just outside as the creature had asked them to do. It had pulled Roz far enough away that her voice couldn’t be heard by her own people-and she wondered how it knew that or if it was just comfortable a distance away from the others-and then it said,

We are tiny race. We live in the
-and again it made a sneezy burpy sound, which somehow she understood to mean the continent she was on-
and nowhere else. The
other races on this planet leave us alone. They’re frightened of our abilities. But
now, creatures from space have come
-
several in the past year
-and by that she knew it meant its year, not her year-
and all of them seemed intrigued by our abilities to
understand them. We get a sense of threat and we do not know why. You are the
first to speak of trade, barter, buying, and we begin to understand. Our ability to
communicate does not frighten you. You desire it, see it as a commodity, see it as
something that will improve your lives
.

She nodded, then said, “Yes,” just in case it didn’t understand.

We sent the others away, telling them that we want to be left alone. And it seems,
they all told your people. Why is that?

“Knowledge.” she said. “It’s a commodity, too, among my people.”

The creature rubbed its handlike paws together, as if she had confirmed its thinking.

We had heard of your union. We were going to apply to it for its protection until
you arrived. You have hesitations. It is as if you do not believe in the organization
you represent
.

If she needed confirmation of the creatures’ telepathic ability, then this was it. The creature had put into words the very thing that had been bothering her.

If she were to report back to Galland, he would come out here. Or he would send a force out here. He’d been far enough away to tamper with her records, hide the loss of a ship, and make himself rich enough to have expensive goods all over his office.

If he made some kind of deal with these creatures outside Alliance guidelines-and any deal he made with them for his own gain would be-there would be no one to stop him.

At least not until it was too late.

She could, she supposed, let Headquarters know what was happening, but that would be difficult, especially considering how Galland had discredited her and her crew.

And, really, when she looked at it, what was the Alliance, anyway? A federation of planets with nothing more in common than their military unity. They claimed they were diplomats exploring the galaxy, but the races they found either joined the Alliance or became the Alliance’s enemies.

She had no idea why the Ba-am-as hated the Patrol, but she had a hunch the reasons she had been told weren’t the ones the Ba-am-as had.

She sighed. “I’m not the best representative for my people. I’ve been discredited and I allowed myself to be conned.”

The creature turned toward her. Its dark eyes seemed to have grown even darker.

We know this
.

“Then you know that I no longer believe in the Alliance I represent.”

It is why we talk with you
. One of the creature’s forearms fluttered like the wing of a grounded bird.
We believe you are the first alien we have encountered that might
be able to help us
.

“Help you?” she asked. “How?”

It would require you to break several of your laws
. The creature studied her as if it could see through her.

“It seems I’ve done that already.”

And you would have to find new allegiances.

“I’m listening,” she said.

So, with a wave of its little pawlike hands, the creature outlined its proposition.

She had to take the proposition back to her crew. The creatures were willing to wait while she returned to her ship. She held the meeting shortly after she arrived.

“We know nothing about these creatures,” Ivy said. “If they want us to train them so that they can go back into space, how do we know they won’t go out and conquer the galaxy?”

“All five hundred of them?” Belle asked.

The entire staff looked at her.

“I checked. We can scan below the surface, even if our communicators don’t work there.”

“Any way they could have fudged that?” Gina asked Tom.

“I suppose,” he said. “If they have a great understanding of our technology and lots of time to prepare.”

“I take that as a no,” Roz said.

“Unless you’re really paranoid,” Tom said.

“Besides,” Belle said, “they reproduce slowly. Even if all five hundred decide to conquer the galaxy, it’ll be a while before they have the ability to do so.”

“They say they reproduce slowly,” Tom said.

“No,” Belle said. “This one I could check. Gestation period of one of our years, two years in a pouch-they’re more marsupials than mammals in some ways-and then nearly two decades to grow up.”

“Okay,” Ivy said. “So they can’t conquer the known universe.”

“Not in our lifetime,” Belle said. “Besides, Roz said they’re going to let us interview the other races on this planet about them.”

“And how do you propose we do that?” Ethan asked.

“We don’t speak any of the languages. And I don’t exactly trust the only available translators.”

“It boils down to trust,” Roz said. “And I don’t have any left, for anyone at least, except this crew.”

No one spoke.

“Which brings up another problem,” Roz said into the silence. “I mean, we’re not going to limp back to Alliance space, not if we do this.”

Everyone looked at her.