Barlennan was able with fifty years experience to translate without effort the thought behind a human being’s use of the word day.
“Of course,” the boy went on, knowing your language helps. My mother’s a language nut, and I picked it up form her. She started on yours ten years ago when Dad was first connected with the Dhrawn project. I’ll probably be doing comm work semiofficially a good deal of the time form now on. Here comes Mr. Cavanaugh with one of the astronomers whose name I think is Tebbets. They’ll answer your question about seeing lights, and I’ll try to find out about the other business.”
Benj’s face was replaced on the screen by that of the astronomer — a set of broad, dark features which rather surprised Barlennan. He had never, as it happened, seen a bearded human being, though he was used to wider variations in cranial hair. Tebbetts’ was a small Vandyke adornment quite compatible with a space helmet, but it made a drastic difference to the Mesklinite’s eye. Barlennan decided that asking the astronomer about it would be tactless; it might be better to get the information from Benj later. There was nothing to be gained by embarrassing anyone.
The facial extension, to the commander’s relief, did not interfere with its owner’s diction, and Tebbetts had evidently been given the question already. He started to talk at once, using the human speech.
“We can detect from here any of the artificial lights you have, including the portables, though we might have trouble with beamed ones not pointed our way. We’d used regular equipment — photomultiplier mosaics behind appropriate objective; anything you’re likely to need could be set up in a few minutes. What do you want us to do?”
This question caught Barlennan by surprise. He had, in the few minutes since discussing the matter with this scientists, been going more and more certain that the men would deny being about to detect such lights. Certainly if the commander had been a little more foresighted he would not have answered as he did — in fact, he was regretting what he said well before the words reached the station.
“You should have no trouble spotting our land-cruiser Kwembly; you already know its location better than I do, and its bridge lights would be on. Its two helicopters have disappeared, and they normally carry lights. I’d like to have you scan the area, within, say, two hundred miles of the Kwembly as carefully as you can for other lights, and tell bother me and Dondragmer the positions of any you find. Would that take long?”
The message lag was quite long enough to let Barlennan realize how he had slipped. There was nothing to be done about it now, of course, but to hope, thought that word is a bad translation of the nearest possible Mesklinite attitude. The answer did cause him to brighten up a little; maybe the slip wasn’t too serious — as long as the human beings didn’t find more than two other lights near the Kwembly!
“I’m afraid I was thinking of merely detecting lights,” said Tebbetts. “Pinpointing the sources will be harder, especially from here. I’m pretty sure we can solve your problem, though… that is, if your missing helis are shining their lights. If you think they may have crashed, I shouldn’t think there’d be much chance of light, but I’ll get right to it.”
“How about their power plants?” asked Barlennan, demanded to learn the worst now that he had started. “Aren’t there other radiations than light given off in nuclear reactions?”
By the time this question reached the station Tebbets had left according to his promise, but fortunately Benj was able to supply the answer — the information happened to be basic to the Project, which had been carefully explained to him right after his arrival.
“The fusion converters give off neutrinos which we can detect, but we can’t spot their source exactly,” he told the commander. “That’s what the shadow satellites are for. They detect neutrinos, which are practically all coming from the sun. The power plants on Dhrawn and up here don’t count for much against that, even if it isn’t much of a sun. The computers keep track of where the satellites are, and especially wheter the planet is between a given one and the sun, so there’s a measure of the neutrino absorption through different parts of the planet. In a few years we hope to have a statistical X ray of Dhrawn — maybe that isn’t a good analogy for you. I mean a good idea of the density and composition of the planet’s insides. They’re still arguing, you know, wheter Dhrawn should be called a planet or a star, and wheter the extra heat is from hydrogen fusion in the middle or radioactivity near the surface.
“But I’m sure as can be that they couldn’t find your missing fliers from their neutrino emission, even if all their converters are still on.”
Barlennan managed to conceal his glee at this news, and merely answered, “Thanks. We can’t have everything. I take it you’ll tell me when your astronomer finds anyth9ng, or when he is sure he’ll find nothing; I’d like to know if I have to stop counting on that. I’m through talking for now, Benj, but call here if anything comes up on either the fliers or those friends of yours — after all, I’m concerned about them, though perhaps not the way you are about Beetchermarlf. Takoorch is the one I remember.”
Barlennan, with more direct contact with human beings and, to be honest, more selfish reasons to develop such skills, had been able to read more accurately between the lines of Benj’s talk and obtain a more nearly correct picture of the boy’s feelings than Dondragmer had. It would, he was sure, be useful; but he put it from his mind as he turned away from the communicator.
“That could be bother better and worse,” he remarked to the two scientists. “It’s certainly just as well we didn’t set up that blinker system for night communication; they’d have seen us certainly.”
“Not certainly,” objected Deeslenver. “The human said they could spot such slights, but there was no suggestion that they made a habit of looking for them If it takes instruments, I’d bet the instruments are busy on more important things.”
“So would I, if the stakes weren’t so high,” returned Barlennan. “Anyway, we wouldn’t dare use it now, because we know they’ll be looking this way with the best machines they have. We just asked them to.”
“But they won’t be looking here. They’ll be searching the neighborhood of the Kwembly, millions of cables from here.”
“Think of yourself back home looking up at Toorey. If you were supposed to examine one part of it closely with a telescope, how much of a slip would it take to make you glance at another?”
Deeslenver conceded the point with a gesture.
“Then we either wait for sunrise, or fly a special if we want to use the Esket as you suggested. I admit I haven’t thought of anything else. I haven’t even thought of what we might do there which would make a good test.”
“It shouldn’t matter too much. The real question would be how soon, and how accurately and completely, the human beings do report whatever we set up for them to see. I’ll think of something in the next couple of hours. Aren’t you researchers setting up for a flight to leave soon, anyway?”
“Not that soon,” said Bendivence. “Also, I don’t agree with you that details don’t matter. You don’t want hem to get the idea that we could possibly have anything to do with that they see happen at the Esket, and they certainly aren’t stupid.”
“Of course. I didn’t mean that they should. It will be something natural, making full allowance for the fact that the human beings know even less than we do about what’s natural on this world. You get back to the labs and tell everyone who has equipment to get onto the Deedee that departure time has been moved ahead. I’ll have a written message for Destigmet in two hours.”