The green and whites were now both talking to the younger Iteeche. He opened his mouth, but before he could get a word out, the machine began rattling off Iteeche in a booming voice.
WHAT’s IT SYING, Nelly?
Nelly translated aloud for all the humans present. “ ‘ The Empire is happy to grant the smelly something or others’—I’d translate it as monkeys—‘the continued right to breathe air, drink water, and yadda yadda, yadda, exist in general.’ Kris, they’re talking down to us, emperor to mud-covered peasant. There’s more about us not having the right to so much as draw breath if it doesn’t please the emperor. How they smashed us into the mud and walked over our foul red-bleeding bodies in the war. This is nasty stuff.”
“Did Ron say anything like that to his machine?” Kris asked.
“Not that I heard,” Nelly answered.
“So, the odds are that this is some claptrap that his advisors loaded before they came over here,” Kris said, glancing at Jack and Colonel Cortez. Both men were showing red at their collars. The guys nodded agreement though they definitely looked called out for a gunfight.
The voice was still booming on, but Nelly wasn’t translating any more of it. Kris raised her hand. “At ease, all hands. Let’s keep our cool. We didn’t come here to start a war. Let’s not let them do it either.”
Kris could hear tense Marines relaxing back into their netting. What she quit hearing was the racket from the Iteeche translation machine. It shut up.
A moment later, it was softly talking to Ron. He snapped something at his two green and whites. Now one of the gray-and-gold Navy types turned and joined in. Everyone was talking. It didn’t look like anyone was listening.
If this was an embassy, it sure wasn’t going all that peaceful even among themselves. Beside Kris, Jack, the colonel, and Penny were frowning, more in puzzlement than anger.
“Gosh, those guys sure like to argue,” Cara observed from the innocence of her twelve years.
Ron raised his hands, all four of them, and silence fell with the speed of a falling executioner’s axe.
One of his hands pointed, all five fingers and thumb out flat, at Cara. He said something. “Who is she?” came from his translator and Nelly at the same time.
Kris unwound her foot from one web and took a step forward to the next. The flashes of skin colors on all of the Iteeche across from her spoke more of confusion than any ordered emotions. She half knelt beside Cara, bringing her six-foot frame down to about equal with the girl’s face.
“This is the child of my assistant’s sister,” Kris said. Beside her, Abby did a formal curtsy, not easy to do in zero gee. A moment later, Cara attempted one of her own. Hers was nothing like Abby’s, but what it lacked in propriety, it made up in cute that needed no translation even across species lines from the look on Ron’s face.
Kris said. “This is an exploration ship, seeking knowledge about the stars and planets, not violence among species. I brought her for her education.”
How’D The TRANSLATIONGo, Nelly?
PRETTY GOOD, I Think. AT LEAST I wasn’T INTERRUPTED.
Ron took his hand off his machine but spoke in Iteeche.
TRANSLATE HIM, Nelly.
“She is spawn of your choosing?”
Kris stood up to her full six feet, which still left her looking up at Ron. “I do not know the significance of choosing a spawn, but yes, she is young, and I have chosen her to travel with us, learn with us, and see the exciting things we see.”
Even before Nelly finished, Ron turned to his associates. Kris was about ready to call them advisors though that seemed too mild a word for their own view of their job. “Open your eyes.” Nelly softly translated his words for the other humans. “Even an immature swimmer can see that there is no harmony among us. How can there be any wisdom? Look around you at her advisors,” the rainbow Iteeche said, sweeping Kris’s side of the docking bay. “They show every color of intent and reflection. This is as much a pleasure boat and science ship and school as it is a warship.”
Pleasure boat, Kris thought, then remembered Teresa was decked out like a streetwalker. Maybe this Ron guy isn’t such a bad judge of character.
They’re GRUMBLING, Kris, BUT They are NOT ARGUING. Oh, AND The NAVY Guy SEEMS To Be More in Ron’s corner Than The Green AND WHITES. They’re COMPLAINING ABOUT Ron’s NOT RESPECTING Their years AND WISDOM. The NAVY Guy is SAYING SOMETHING ABOUT AGE MEANING NOTHING Because They’Ve NEVER FACED ANYTHING like This. Kris, THAT “ANYTHING” he SAID is MEANT To HIDE SOMETHING.SOMETHING THAT is NOT PLEASANT AT LEAST THAT’s WHAT The TRANSLATORS AT The ORANGE NEBULA THOUGHT The WORD MEANT.
This JUST keeps GETTING More INTERSTING, Kris agreed.
So far, Kris had just been reacting to this fuzzy ball of confusion. Now, as she took a deep breath, something that had been nagging at the back of her brain since they’d first been hailed by the Iteeche Death Ball took enough shape for Kris to take a bite out of it.
Nelly, can you FIND any references To CHAP’SUM’WE in The NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN GRAMPA AND The ITEECHE? IT SOUNDS KIND of FAMILIAR.
LOOKING—OH, I SHOULD HAVE Done This sooner, Kris. CHAP’SUM’WE was one of The ORIGINAL ITEECHE NEGOTIATors. GRAMPA Ray LIKED HIM.
YEAH, I THOUGHT so. Isn’T he The one Ray FIGURED The Two of THEM COULD SOLVE EVERYTHING WITH if They COULD JUST SIT Down OVERa couple of Beers?
Yes, I’Ve FOUND THAT reference.
Okay, Nelly, here we Go.
Kris let her eyes light up and put a smile on her face. “Did you say your full name is Ron’sum’Pin’sum’We qu Chap’sum’We?” Boy, that was a mouthful. “Was your grandfather Roth’sum’We’sum’Quin, the negotiator who labored with my grandfather to find peace and harmony between our two peoples?”
8
Ron folded his four arms across his chest and bowed his head, all four eyes on Kris. “It is my honor and pleasure to have been chosen by Roth’sum’We’sum’Quin, both to walk a path with him and to follow the path I now place my feet on.”
Kris, “The new PATH we place our FEET on” was The phrase ROTH USED for The peace TREATY. THAT Means a LOT More Than IT says.
I FIGURED THAT OUT Myself, Nelly.
Kris took a deep breath, froze the smile on her face, and dove into the Iteeche pond, so to speak.
“My heart is glad to share this new path, your feet and mine.” Nelly, TRANSLATE IT AT The SAME LEVEL he spoke.
GOOD, he was USING THAT FAMILIAR equal SYNTAX AGAIN, AND IT’s easy To Do.
Nelly started talking Iteeche even as Kris continued. “It has been a very long time since any of us have met and spoken words and listened to each other. I think it has been far too long. I know my great-grandfather, Raymond Longknife, would agree with me about that.” Kris finished and found she was holding her breath, waiting for the next words from the young Iteeche.
“My chooser, Respected Counselor Roth’sum’We’sum’-Quin, has told me very similar words. When he and Ray of the Long-Reaching Knife separated, there was so much blood in the water that he feared that only a feeding frenzy could follow if we continued to share the same water. But, as with all things, passing time and tides have cleared the water. He sent me forth to see if chance and the gods of the deep might smile upon us now unlike their angry choices that decreed we must fight when last we met.”
Ron glanced at his advisors. The green and whites stood still, red and dark green shading their gills. Ron and his Navy friend displayed a light green to match Abby’s and Cara’s dresses.