Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4) (30 page)

Mercy chimed in again. “We’re
making progress slowly because of limited input, but what we’re learning tells
us enormous amounts about the L pandas’ value system. Remember that old story
about the Eskimos having so many words for snow? It’s sort of like that. Lou,
stop with the numbers and tell them about the natives.”

Lou scratched his head. “Well,
obviously, pick and harvest are much more common words in Pandanese because
it’s what they do all day. Also, because of agriculture, so are water, dirt,
and seed. The word for crap is an onomatopoeia: thplut or ungsplut.” Several
men in the crowd smiled.

Clearing her throat, Mercy urged
him, “Word frequencies.”

“The word ‘make’ has a higher
instance and ‘have’ lower than our languages. Part of this is lack of fancy
tenses and helping verbs, but some is due to a general lack of possessions or
ownership other than what they can carry. Most other words can be guessed by
rate of occurrence and confirmed by context. ‘Bagdut’ we think is a unit of
trade. The biggest kink for most of us translators is that pandas don’t use the
word ‘is’ as often as Romance languages.”

“How is that possible?” asked
Johnny.

“I think the language is ergative,
which means there isn’t always a cause or object. Things just are. No
accusative such as ‘he pushed her,’ just ‘she victim.’ These people are passive
with no blame. The tool broke itself. Other than Tibetan, most Earth ergative
forms are aboriginal or extinct.”

The camera panned the room as Yuki
spoke up. “What about the astronomical influences you told me about?”

In the background, Mercy was
playing with her hair, watching Lou with pride as he lectured.

Yvette leaned over to tell
Oleander, “She really likes him researching language and teaching. It’s been a
dream of hers for a while.”

“He’s growing up,” Oleander
commented. “She’s been good for him.”

Lou lectured on, unaware of the
commentary. “Because of the odd light cycles, there are a few new words,
instead of just night. Day is the same, but when the giant starts to occlude
the sun, we call that
penumbra
. During the eclipse, that’s
umbra
.
Even when our camp is facing away from the sun, which is roughly half the time,
reflected light from Daedalus will light our skies enough to read by. This period
is called
reflection
. Some plants grow by this light as well. In
Pandanese, they refer to the time we face empty space as
true night
.”

Standing behind Yvette’s chair,
Toby spoke for the first time, startling the women by his presence. Softly, so
only the two could hear him, he said, “When a good woman leads a man through
true night, it changes him.”

“What brings you down here? I
thought Lou bored you,” Yvette asked casually.

“I e-mailed Risa, and she replied
during the meeting. She said that putting dune-buggy tires on the rover to make
it strong enough to carry a human would be too much. It’s like the old joke
about a bum who asked the housewife to sew a coat onto his button. The rover
would be little more than the brain and steering control. We’d also need too
much nanocircuitry from
Sanctuary
. However, I made a convincing case for
a fast, remote-controlled buggy or submarine large enough to carry food, water,
spare batteries, or even a spacesuit to scouts in the field. She’s making it a
priority. I wanted to tell you as soon as I heard.”

His hopeful, puppy-dog eyes were
desperate for approval. “A mini-submarine that could tow people—that might be
extremely useful.” In payment, she let him hold her hand in public, even though
several crew members stared.

Yvette’s scout runs were growing longer and more dangerous
each week. The next big debate in the direction of scouting took place between
Toby and Lou. The two finally had to schedule a meeting to let Zeiss arbitrate.
The women played games on computer pads while the men postured. Toby wanted to
bug the birthing village. “They have domesticated animals there. That camp will
give us technology items to check off and more vocabulary. We’ll be able to
track births and deaths, giving us a feel for how the Greens are thriving and
growing. Lastly, our scouts will be safer with a static location.” What he didn’t
add was that this would give them a perfect chance to sneak toward the deep end
of the lake to investigate.

“I disagree. A fixed location with
higher population means a greater chance of discovery,” Lou insisted. “We in
linguistics will subsidize his supply boats, but we need concrete data on the
panda counting systems and craftsmen. That information can only come from
traders. Following one trader with satellite support will be easier than
outfoxing a whole village with superior smell. Plus, if there’s a tremor, the
scout would have to run from the cave or risk being buried.”

Zeiss listened to both men for
another few minutes and then ruled, “We can plant a listening device in the
small village later. Toby, I agree that we can screen a cave effectively.
However, Oleander’s Out-of-body projections and our scans can’t penetrate the
caves in that area. I can’t go in blind. Once Lou reaches the 5000 word mark,
we can shift priorities.”

“But—” Toby objected.

The commander on the screen held up
a hand. “This mission is a constant battle to balance doing the research right
versus making our window for returning to Earth. I’ll be down for the
conference in a couple months. We’ll reexamine the decision then. We’ll be
exchanging water for acrylics and nanofabricated equipment.”

Lou asked, “Boss, how are we going
to load and balance that much water in the passenger space?”

Without thinking, Toby said, “Ice.
You can make it using the ammonia in the fuel we’re producing. We have tons of
it now.”

Yvette pulled her head back in
surprise. “Your genius continues to amaze me.”

“I’ve been reading
Mosquito Coast
as part of my attempt to find ways to improve aboriginal quality of
life. It wasn’t a big leap. We can put a tracker and microphone on the backpack
full of leaves that the other trader had,” Toby suggested.

“That might work. What guarantees
another trader will pick it up?” Zeiss asked.

Toby shrugged. “I’ll throw in a few
obsidian spearheads and waterproof the pack better. Mainly, he’ll want it
because the leaf is a mild narcotic that a lot of the workers chew. It
functions similar to cocaine and enables them to work longer and care less.”

“Well,” Lou said with a snort, “I
think we know now why
bagdut
is a popular trade commodity. Thanks for
sharing.”

****

In the end, they went with the
usual bugged spear plus a camera in the backpack. Yvette placed the
surveillance bait in the path of a trader who they spotted from the air. The
young merchant who scooped up the bait had black hair and swore frequently. Toby
placed him at nine years old. When the others seemed surprised, he explained,
“Pandas on Earth are sexually active at four and fully formed at less than
eight. To convert to human equivalents, multiply by three. At four, they’re
teenagers living on their own. They learn to fight and forage as cubs.”

To show she’d been paying
attention, Yvette added, “With a life expectancy of twenty-five, he’ll be
middle-aged in three Earth years.”

Lou dubbed the panda ‘L Pacino’ due
to his charisma and potty mouth. He had thick hands and white elbow ruff, which
was rare. The male aborigine led the scouts on a merry chase from one end of
the canyon to the other. As predicted, Pacino was a fountain of societal
information and led them to several tribes. Almost every interaction increased
Lou’s word count.

The cliff dwellers he traded with
next seemed more advanced than the Greens, almost to the Incan or Anasazi
level: ropes, ladders, sun-dried pots, cooking fires, flour, vegetable oil,
terraced farming, and primitive irrigation. The Gray tribe seemed particularly
skilled at stonework, though they employed flint instead of the obsidian found
in the mass grave. They added the site to the list of places to bug.

Herk was able to make a small-scale
ice machine in the utility room in just a few weeks. They chose the distillery
dome because of the toxic materials involved and due to Toby’s experience
managing fussy fabricators. The availability of artificial, large-scale
refrigeration created a social sensation. Although everyone made excuses to ‘check
on Toby’s progress’ in the cool room, only Oleander teased Yvette about wanting
to go up for a ‘piece of ice.’

The dingy, little room with the
add-on freezer became the social water cooler of the base. Toby learned to
filter out the noise because of the popularity of his office. He tracked time
only as a series of missions where Yvette was out of the base and at risk.
After the first multi-day mission, he met her in the shower room with a small
box. “To help you survive.”

“You already packed the scouting
kit with everything you could think of.”

“Please. This is more personal.”

She
opened the gift, unsure what to expect. Inside, he had placed his field wrist
computer and a bracelet strung with six polished, obsidian spearheads. Two
points of each triangular spearhead had been rounded so they had the aspect of
a Valentine. “Jewelry. What’s the occasion?”

“One
for our wedding and the other for our first anniversary. This is the first time
I thought you’d accept them. The wrist computer can identify any native life
I’ve catalogued by comparing photographs. Obsidian is the closest thing I could
get to diamond on this world. If I ever frighten you again, you can make those
into weapons.”

“
Très
chic
. What can I give you
in return?”

“Come
back,” Toby requested.

“Good
answer,” she said, putting one gift on each wrist and kissing him.

He lived for those rare moments of
hope.

****

With the advent of pi
ñ
a coladas, Yvette invited Herk and Risa to the
office to celebrate the planting of Toby’s first crop of defensive weeds. Toby
couldn’t have any alcohol, but Yvette accepted a small, blue-tinted glass from
Risa. The former nurse missed socializing with colleagues. “I spend a lot of
time alone, and I only get one day off an L week. I have to take R and R when I
can. These are nice glasses.” Condensation formed on the outside of the tumbler
as soon as the drink was poured. Humidity collected and dripped off. Even so,
this was a little piece of home.

Risa smiled. “Thanks, I made them
myself. They’re a little lopsided, but the color is pretty. I’ve been
experimenting with the local sand, adding different elements. I think
glassblowing would be a good gift.”

“That’s right,” Toby said. “The
conference is coming up soon. I haven’t prepared yet.”

Herk nodded. “Z moved the date up a
little to deliver our goods before the flare. That way, the commander can spend
an L day here and return safely before they have to batten down the hatches.”

“Flare?” Yvette asked.

“It’s not likely to happen for a
couple weeks. The boss likes a big safety margin. Next week, we’ll cover up all
the mesa skylights and shutter the windows on the sun porch.” A tunneling
mishap had turned into an observation port on the south side. Natural light was
rare enough in the base that the team made it into a solarium.

“But there won’t be any danger to
those in the canyons, right?” Yvette asked with concern.

“No. Shadows, cloud cover, plus
layers of fur and fat will keep them safe,” Toby assured her. “We’d probably be
fine up here if it weren’t for skin cancer.”

“I know Yuki is sending down a chip
upgrade for the translation headgear,” Yvette said. “What else are the folks
from
Sanctuary
delivering?”

“Parts for your aqua sled,” Risa
explained. “We were able to modify specs from an existing vehicle we used for
underwater training at the academy. It can travel for hours with an electric
trolling motor. We’ve adapted it to have a clear frame and accept the same
solar-rechargeable batteries as your sneak suit. Nadia also had them fabricate
four more battery packs. These only take four hours of sunlight to recharge.”

“Will the sled be strong enough to
climb upstream?”

“For shorter periods. Downstream to
where the help is needed will be fast, though.”

“The natives won’t see it?”

“Clear plastic is practically
invisible in the water. Sojiro painted native fish pictures over the engine.
When the sled isn’t in use, drop anchor and hide it under some branches. You
can stay out in the field indefinitely.”

Taking a sip when the idea struck
her, Yvette almost spilled her drink. She would have a week to practice with
the sled and pack. While the others were scrambling to prepare for the
radiation surge, she could leave for Meteoropolis. She’d have almost an L week
to search until the flare. Zeiss would shutter three days prior to the predicted
event for maximum safety.

“That automatic translation system
is phenomenal,” Herk said, returning the conversation to familiar territory.
“Lou’s told me a lot about it. Most of the local animals and plants don’t have
a straight, one-word conversion. Fortunately, the names are descriptive enough
that we can tell exactly what they mean. That tree with big leaves is good for
wiping, so it becomes wipe-leaf.” Risa bumped him for the potty talk. “What?
This is a breakthrough. Lou has all these charts for building complex nouns
from smaller ones, like they do in German. Sojiro captured that intelligence in
the chip so it can adapt on the fly. With this addition, his dictionary in
memory has reached 4500 words, almost to our first goal.”

“It still sounds like islander
pidgin to me,” Risa countered.

Toby shrugged. “I’m not a
xenosociologist. However, the translation for the word ‘guard’ seems to have
changed to have a negative connotation.”

Herk mumbled, “Yeah, we didn’t
advertise that because we’re not sure yet.”

“What do you mean?” asked Yvette.

“I mention it only because you’re
in harm’s way in the field,” Toby explained. “The guards are really overseers,
and the names aren’t flattering: fat one who hates talk, scratch ass squints,
killed seven with club.”

Risa raised questioning eyebrows,
so Herk added, “There’s a chance they could be keeping slaves. My theory is
that some of the workers were captured from other tribes that came to raid the
Greens’ food stores and bamboo.”

Yvette made a small noise in the
back of her throat and dropped the slippery glass onto the concrete floor.

Toby rushed to collect the pieces.
“Don’t move. You’re barefoot.”

She needed to talk to him alone.
While the men were cleaning up the mess and hauling it outside, Yvette grabbed
Risa’s hand. “I’m so sorry about your beautiful glassware.”

“It recycles.”

In a whisper, the
nurse-turned-scout said, “I leave tomorrow for another four L-day tour. Could
you fake being tired so I could spend a little time alone with Toby?”

“You’ve forgiven him?”

“Not as such, but I . . . admire
him. He’s trying to change. I know he cares for me, and I seem to be the only
woman around who gets him.”

“Do you love him?”

“I wouldn’t have made those offers
or tried to save him if I didn’t.”

“Can you trust him yet?”

Yvette shrugged. “More than most,”
she said, thinking of all the people who might betray her to the Magi. “About
my personal safety, absolutely. His medication and Ethics training have held
through several tests.”

“Here’s to romance,” Risa said,
tipping back the remains of her glass.

When the others were gone, Yvette
turned to ask Toby, “What weren’t you saying in front of the Herkemers?”

“I need you to be careful. I have a
suspicion that we weren’t the first team to take a test here. The walls around
the bamboo plantations and the spacing between plants are too regular for
aborigines.”

“Sensei hinted as much. And?”

“What if the other uplifters taught
them slavery?”

“That’s despicable.”

He raised his voice. “Pandas are
naturally solitary creatures. Slavery may have
forced
them into this
form of civilization.”

“That would prove the Magi are
evil,” she said.

“That’s why I’m trying so hard to
protect you. Maybe Sensei is leading Earth to do their dirty work. We have to
stop them.”

How the tables had turned. Her former
attacker was her new chief defender. He might not be perfect, but he was human.
Compared to this new side of the Magi, he was practically a saint. Toby would
be the perfect coconspirator, handling all the details so she wouldn’t get
caught like last time. The icy alcohol had dulled her talents a little, making
her feel carefree. He really did look good with muscles sculpted by hard labor
on a high-g world. She found a suitable music selection on her pad and hit
play. “Dance with me,” she told him.

“But you said—”

“Do you want to be right, or do you
want me to melt in your arms?”

****

While Zeiss was getting the hour
tour of the mesa, Red showed everyone Stu’s baby pictures and shared news from
Sanctuary
with a crowd in the main cave.

Yvette cooed. “Look at those
cheeks. My God, he’s grown so much! He can’t be walking yet.”