Méridien (The Silver Ships Book 3) (20 page)

“Yes, Z, send me the vid immediately and continue to send the others to me as you receive them.”

After the vid downloaded to her reader, Maria watched it, laughing and shaking her head at what she saw, even as pride threatened to burst her heart. She called two techs into her office and told them to play the vid over the screens in Government House and be ready to broadcast a download from Z in 2.35 hours.

In the meantime, Maria recorded a message for the planet’s media stations. Her short vid featured her sitting at her desk as she said, “Greetings from Government House. Attached to this message is a vid from the Admiral’s flotilla in the Arnos system. We will be receiving a second vid at 13.50 hours, and we will immediately forward it to you. Your viewers should be interested in watching Admiral Racine conversing with the aliens.”

Maria sent the message to her administrator and sat back in her carved guriel chair with a satisfied look on her face. She hadn’t felt this good since they had launched the
Rêveur
on its return trip to Méridien after its seventy-one-year absence.

Mickey, Stan, and the techs exited the port bay where they had set up a powerful laser projector and connected its input to the bay’s comm station. Back in the suite, the engineering team completed their equipment setup that would control the laser’s input and were about to announce to Alex their readiness when the suite’s doors hissed open and a group of Méridiens, led by Renée, walked in with food trays and drink pitchers. Alex opened his mouth to postpone the interruption but closed it quickly when he saw the expression on Renée’s face.

Terese quipped, sharing the message with Renée, Pia, Geneviève, and especially Alex.

Witnessing the blush creep up Alex’s neck in response to Terese’s remark, Pia replied privately to her, sending, Pia placed her two trays on a table in front of Mickey and kissed him warmly.

Alex was anxious to establish deeper communications with the aliens as soon as he could. But he also knew he had a bad habit of driving himself too hard and suspected he was doing the same to his engineering team. They required a break, he required a break, and they all required food. Otherwise the quality of their efforts would suffer.

Renée placed her tray in front of Alex and took his face firmly in her hands. She kissed him and felt him relax into her embrace. The crew, had they been asked, were extremely grateful for the Admiral’s distraction, even if briefly. They were all starving.

Renée said privately to Alex.

Alex sat down and plowed into his food, happy to see a plethora of trays and drink carafes spread around the tables. The engineering team had missed more than one meal.

Renée and her volunteers watched the food disappear. Several Méridiens quickly exited the suite and hurried back to the meal room. Geneviève marveled to her companions, shocked to see even their Méridien tech specialist, Claude, consuming two trays’ worth of food.

Once the engineering crew were finished eating, everyone noticed the shift in Alex’s demeanor, and the servers hurried to collect the trays and clear the room. Only Renée lingered for a moment.

Renée sent privately.

When the suite’s door hissed closed behind Renée, Alex linked all the players and sent,

Mickey replied.

Alex sent.

Julien responded.

Alex sent.

Cordelia tested her control of the laser projector and the audio transmitter on the hull. She followed Alex’s lead, using math as the common language and projecting a horizontal row of icons—a vertical line, a plus sign, a vertical line, an equal sign, and two parallel standing lines. At the same time, Cordelia sent a series of the alien’s audible signals—one, a pause, one, a pause, and two—then waited.

In the suite, the speakers uttered a great deal of whistling, tweets, and shrill notes. The aliens’ level of excitement was obvious and so was the degree of conversation. Suddenly a single note blasted through the suite’s speakers, causing most of the engineering personnel to jump. Then they heard a series of succinct tones. The first, third, and fifth notes matched the aliens’ tones for “one”, “one”, and “two” that had been previously translated.

Cordelia sent, pleased with herself.

Alex replied, overjoyed at their success.

Julien stated firmly.

Alex smiled to himself at Julien’s declaration.

Now I can truly appreciate Z’s desire to be mobile
, Cordelia thought, intrigued by the Admiral’s and Julien’s comments.
One could wish to experience this in the human world
.

Alex sent.

Cordelia replied, surprised by her momentary lack of focus. She began projecting a series of images. The occupants of the silver ship had excellent hull sensitivity and her icons proceeded from simple to complex in relatively short order. At one point, Cordelia borrowed an image from the resonance imager. It was an outline of one of the inhabitants. Her subsequent icon generated a sound similar to a human whistling the words “swei swee,” although with slightly different tonal endings for each of the two notes. The SADEs categorized the response as the occupants’ name for their species.

Over the next hours, the SADEs learned the sounds for “affirmative” and “negative,” “adult” and “young,” “land” and “sea,” “world” and “star,” and many more. Cordelia continually generated new icons as the now-dubbed “Swei Swee” responded to her previous ones.

The icon of several Swei Swee surrounded by the outline of a silver ship generated a complex term that didn’t match any previously defined sound. Cordelia was about to call it “family,” but that didn’t match the adult pairing with young defined earlier. Julien coined the term “hive” for a group of the aliens within a single silver ship, and the word reminded Alex of his previous concepts of the inhabitants of the silver ships.

Over time, the SADEs learned the Swei Swee originally resided by the seaside, calling the ocean “endless waters.” “Death,” generated by an icon of an upside down Swei Swee with legs splayed, was to “travel the endless waters.” A silver ship was a “dark traveler.” The prison ship was the “world traveler.” The aliens’ comm was “singing to the stars.” “To search” was to hunt for fish, their ancient food source. That they were “denied the search” meant they were captive. “Seek shelter” was to seek safety onshore. “Hunters” were dangerous animals that fed on the Swei Swee. “Singers” were intelligent species.

When Cordelia attempted to define the inhabitants of the world traveler, it produced the only non-Swei Swee-like sound they had heard. As far as she could determine, it sounded like “Nua’ll.” The icon of the
Rêveur
produced a complex set of notes, which the SADEs determined meant “Star Hunters.”

The push and pull of images and sounds went on through the next day and into the second night. The engineering team slept with their heads down on tables or stretched out on the deck while the SADEs continued to work to identify the vocabulary and syntax the Admiral would need to converse with the Swei Swee.

In the morning, food was delivered again to the engineering team, and Alex, for one, never felt so grateful for a hot cup of thé. He sipped it slowly, savoring the heat and flavor, noticing most of his team was doing the same, attempting to wake overtaxed brain cells and boost energy levels. As they revived, food began disappearing. Trays were just being cleared when Alex and the engineering team received a message from Julien.

Alex asked.