Méridien (The Silver Ships Book 3) (43 page)

Alex’s comment produced a round of laughter, and the tension among the humans visibly eased.

At the barrel, Alex squatted down and motioned the flotilla’s Hive First closer. Alex had to step to the side to allow the leader to get close to a tap near the bottom of the container, which he opened. The leader pushed his true hands into the stream and sipped from them. Alex turned off the tap as the leader backed up and issued a string of whistles, which were echoed by the assembly.

“Is that an approval, I detect?” asked Renée.

Their Hive First scuttled aside to make room for the other two leaders to test the waters. The result was the same for each one, and the assembly whistled louder with each approval.

Alex sent via implant, deciding he wouldn’t be heard over the deafening noise, Alex walked to the second barrel, pushed up his right forearm sleeve, and stood poised over the barrel. A slender, pale green-and-silver fish with a yellow tail swam near the surface, and Alex sent a mental apology to the fish before he snatched it out of the barrel. As he held the fish up, the males in the assembly snapped their sharp claws furiously. Alex tossed the fish toward their Hive First, who snatched the fish with a lightning strike of his left-hand claw.

Tatia sent to Alex, impressed by the speed and accuracy of the Swei Swee male’s strike.

The leader neatly clipped the head and tail from the fish with his claws, and his true hands rent the flesh from the fish’s skeleton and skin, then popped a piece into his mouth.

Some of the crew members turned green at the sight of the consumption of a living animal. Alex sent to all, Four crew slid out of the group and walked toward the second shuttle. Many of the other crew had their eyes on the horizon or sky, trying to ignore the smacking and munching of flesh.

Alex caught two more fish for the other leaders. One fish he tossed, but the other was speared from his hand by the third leader. A screeching whistle from their Hive First froze the overanxious leader in mid-motion. A further set of tweets and warbles had the hasty leader bobbing slowly up and down. He scuttled close to Alex and lowered his body to the ground with a soft whistle and extended to Alex the bloody, wriggling fish still pinioned on the sharp point of the upper half of a claw.

Alex pulled the fish free, feeling its slick blood coat his fingers. He held the fish back out to the submissive Swei Swee, whistling, “Eat.”

A claw slowly reached back up and gently took the fish from Alex’s hand. As the chastised Swei Swee backed away from Alex with his meal, he was thwacked on the carapace by several matronly females, their heavy claws scratching his nearly pristine shell.

Renée sent privately.

Alex scooped up a handful of water and held it out to their Hive First. “Water good?” he signaled via his harness. The Swei Swee’s response signaled an affirmative. Alex picked up the severed head of a fish from the grass and held it out, repeating his question, and received the same answer.

Sorting through his preplanned phrases, Alex selected the one he needed. Whistles and tweets emanated from his harness, inviting the Swei Swee to come to his world.

Their Hive First’s response was a question that Alex’s program translated as “Search for Star Hunters or search for Swei Swee?” Alex wrestled with a way to respond. He wanted both, but he also wanted it to be the Swei Swee’s choice. Alex patched phrases together for his response and whistled, “Swei Swee search on Star Hunter’s world. Swei Swee search the endless seas for Swei Swee.”

For the tricky portion of his plan, Alex required an expanse of sand on which to draw his icons. He walked toward the cliff trail, and the hives scuttled out of his way. The leaders closely followed Alex down the cliff face, while his people, surrounded by the hives, trailed behind.

On the beach, Alex smoothed a square meter of sand. As he started to smooth more sand, a matron blocked his way. Her blunt claws motioned Alex aside then she spun to face the long stretch of beach and dumped her blunt body on the sand, splaying her legs up and out. She tweeted and warbled, and in response, two matrons scurried forward and grasped her blunt claws to haul her down the beach.

Alex laughed and applauded by snapping his fingers. The Swei Swee joined in with snapping claws and bobbing bodies.

Are the Swei Swee recognizing the moment’s levity or are they just imitating the Star Hunter First ... and does it matter?
Renée wondered.

Alex drew a series of images down the beach, adding whistles and tweets to explain the icons. The entire point of the exercise was to investigate a shell’s tendency to decompose without the Swei Swee’s continued maintenance. When Alex finished the parade of drawings, he held up a small piece of the silver ship’s dark hull, which had continued to crumble even as he carried it.

Their Hive First plucked the shard from Alex’s hand, and his eyestalks bent to examine it. A sharp whistle brought one of the matrons forward. She took the piece of hull and stuffed it in her mouth. After a few moments, she spat it out and trilled to her leader, whose eyestalks were trained on the expectorated shard.

As fast as the Hive First could move, which was unsettlingly quick for humans, he raced back to the start of Alex’s message. He crabbed sideways, his eyestalks trained on the icons as he walked the row of pictographs. At the end of Alex’s glyphs, the First stared at the shard in the sand, and his whistle pierced the air. He followed his whistle with a string of tweets and warbles, and the three hives erupted in a loud burst of noise, snapping claws and excitedly bobbing up and down.

Tatia sent over the noise.

Renée added.

Their First snatched up the dark shard with a true hand and raced up to Alex. He bobbed up and down, and then scurried toward the cliff face before turning around to face Alex and snapping his claws.

Alex hurried to catch up with the leader, who took a second path up the cliff face toward the Swei Swee’s homes. The organic shapes of their dwellings blended from one home to the next without any overall geometric pattern. He held up the dark shard and whistled, “Nua’ll positive.” Then he drew an outline of a silver ship in the sand. Pointing to the outlined ship and shaking the shard, he again whistled, “Nua’ll.”

Alex whistled an “Affirmative” to indicate he was following the discussion while at the same time wondering where this was headed.

Pointing to the outlined ship again, the First threw the shard down and spit on it. Then he tapped on the exquisite translucent blue-green surface of the first dwelling with a claw and whistled, “Star Hunters.”

Alex put the two ideas together and burst out in raucous laughter, twirling and snapping his fingers overhead. The First joined in the merriment, snapping and bobbing.

Down on the beach, the hives celebrated the sharing of their great secret with the Star Hunters, a secret maintained through eight generations of imprisonment. The males snapped their claws and danced around the humans. Matrons whistled and warbled, and the young ran along the beach and slid their bodies into the shallow waves.

Tatia sent jokingly to Renée.

Renée replied, bile threatening to climb up her esophagus at the thought.

Tatia sent,

Alex replied on open comm. He touched the hard crystalline wall of the Swei Swee dwelling, marveling at its smoothness and the play of light across its surface. Alex sent, Alex picked up the dark shard from the stone walkway and held it up to his people on the beach. Alex hefted the shard. He looked at the First, whose eyestalks were split between it and Alex’s face. Finally, Alex sent the dark shard flying far out to sea, and the Hive leader whistled his approval.

Alex and the First made their way back down to the beach, where Alex squatted on the sand. The First settled down across from him, and his eyestalks turned down to observe Alex drawing the shape of a traveler. Alex pointed to the shape and himself, whistling, “Star Hunters plus travelers positive.”

The First released a strange warble, which Mutter had equated in the language database to a Swei Swee interrogative or “I’m waiting to hear more.”

Alex cleared more space in the sand and drew a more complex drawing. He roughed out the interior of a silver ship and drew an exterior view directly under the first image and to the same scale. This time, Alex pointed to the interior, whistling, “Star Hunters” and pointing to the second drawing, whistling, “Swei Swee.”

The First’s eyestalks went from one drawing to the other and up to Alex. He sent a short tweet, and the two other leaders scurried close. Such a long conversation ensued between the Hive leaders that Alex grew weary of the wait. The warm sun and sea breeze were lulling him to sleep. Glances at his people revealed that they had settled on the sand alongside the Swei Swee.

After a half-hour, Alex felt his eyes closing. Unexpectedly his back was bolstered by an older matron, who had slid up behind Alex and used her broad-shelled back to brace him. Alex looked behind him, and eyestalks swiveled to stare back. He tapped his fist against her blunt digging claw. In response, she blew a soft tweet and settled into the sand, Alex leaning against her.

Alex received from Étienne via implant, the comm waking him up.

Alex’s eyes popped open. Another hour had passed. Unfortunately Étienne had been optimistic. Instead of addressing Alex, their First scurried over to a small rock outcropping, the other two leaders flanking him, and he began a speech to the assembly. Alex turned to see if the matron he leaned against had been disturbed, but her eyestalks were withdrawn, her legs tucked under her carapace, and her short tail wrapped around her body. So Alex rejoined her in a nap.

A loud collection of whistles woke the humans. Everyone had fallen asleep except the twins. Alex stood up and took in the scene. Claws were being held up to the three leaders and whistling filled the beach.

<Étienne,> Alex sent.

Étienne replied,

Alex walked over to the rock outcropping to regard their First, who quickly scuttled to the ground, ensuring he was below Alex in height.

The leader emanated a long series of whistles that Alex’s application couldn’t manage. The syntax was too complex. It took a half-hour of whistles and warbles, questions asked in multiple ways, and tens of drawings for communications to be finalized. The summary of their discussion was that the three hives, who had met them today, were the only ones who would welcome the Star Hunters. The other hives, led by the Swei Swee leader, wanted nothing to do with any other “singers.”

Their First had communicated that the Star Hunters must take all the People who had assembled on the beach, including their young and the un-hatched younglings, the latter two points requiring several drawings unto themselves. The key item stressed repeatedly by their First was that the hives would be free to search the endless waters of the Star Hunters’ world. In return, the Swei Swee would build the Star Hunters’ travelers.

With the negotiations finished, Alex made a final point. He drew an outline of the cliff tops and beach west of Espero. Pointing to the cliff top, he whistled, “Star Hunter First plus mate,” and held out his hand to Renée, who joined him. Then Alex pointed to the beaches and the cliff face in his drawing, whistling, “Swei Swee seek shelter.”

The other two leaders crowded around the drawing while their First warbled and tweeted to them. When he finished, the other leaders began bobbing up and down in excitement, claws snapping.

The shrillest whistle Alex and company had ever heard emanated from their First, who stood on the full extension of his walking legs. In response, all Swei Swee, including the other two leaders, lowered themselves to the ground. Their Hive leader whirled to face Alex and whistled loudly, “Swei Swee First greets Star Hunter First.”

“Ah,” Alex called out to his people. “Our Hive Leader has been promoted. He is now the Swei Swee First of Haraken, and we have just procured three hives as new inhabitants.”
This should give our Assembly something to think about
, Alex thought.

The new Swei Swee First warbled, and two males ran into the waves and disappeared in a flash. Moments later, one of them emerged, scuttling up the beach to the new leader to deliver a fish wriggling on the end of his claw point. In front of his leader, the male lowered himself to the sand and offered up his prize. The Swei Swee First whistled his approval, and the male bobbed in return.

The First clipped the head and tail of the fish and stripped its skin in an efficient and coordinated movement of claws and true hands. The final preparation was the ripping of two fillets from the backbone. The First scuttled up to Alex, spreading his claws wide. In his true hands hung the two raw fish fillets, which he held up to Alex.

“I believe you are about to consummate the deal, Mr. President,” Tatia announced.

“What are you supposed to do, Alex?” Renée asked, fearing the answer.

“I would presume I need to eat one,” Alex replied, eyeing the pieces of flesh.
If this is the worst I have to do to secure a future for our people, it’s an easy price to pay
, Alex thought. Before he could think any more about it, Alex took one of the small fillets and popped the piece of cool flesh into his mouth. He was surprised by the delicious taste and tried not to think about what he was eating … just focused on the pleasant flavor. Alex signaled his enjoyment to the leader, who quickly stuffed the other fillet into his mouth parts.