Leaving Blue 5.1 (6 page)

“Why can’t
you
tell me now?”

The vtp went silent. She wouldn’t answer my question. I told Jen about the recent call.

She frowned. “The Reen need to tell us more about their plans.”

I nodded.

Irea’s car landed. She climbed out. “I will join your crew in its efforts to reach the ship’s final destination.”

I flinched, shocked. “This is abrupt. There are so many problems. We barely understand each other and you aren’t a trained astronaut.”

Irea paused. “Later today, other translators will board Exp One. Their goals are the same as mine.”

“This is madness. We’re setting ourselves up to fail.”

Irea continued, “Two bombs will be delivered to your ship. The targets will be announced soon.”

Jen scowled, but didn’t say a word.

Irea raised two out of her three fingers. “Tomorrow morning, the start of several asteroid showers, ones that will hit E Four, will begin. Every translator and human must board Exp One before then or they will die, killed by the showers.”

I flinched. “Understood.”

Irea took a step toward me. “Pack your belongings. We, you and I, must leave soon. “

I sent an email to everyone aboard Exp One, telling them about Irea’s recent announcement.

Both of us paused near the shuttle’s nose. At the top of the ramp, UE stared at me.

I turned toward him. “It’s time to leave E Four.”

He nodded and turned, bound for the center cockpit, the pilot’s compartment.

I walked toward the starboard cockpit. Moments later, I sat inside and glanced at the port cockpit, curious about Irea.

She entered, sat down, never glancing in my direction.

I called out, “Irea, will you ever return to E Four?”

She remained stony faced, ignoring me. As the engine roared louder, starting, the canopy rose above her head.

I paused, thinking. “UE, is all the Reen food loaded?”

“Yes.”

“UE, please help us communicate with the translators.”

He raised two fingers and drew a circle in the air.

I frowned. “UE, what does that mean?”

“I just signaled Irea. It means I’ll help her communicate with you and your crew.”

Beyond the vehicle, hawk-like birds flew over a tree. For reasons I couldn’t explain, I would miss the Stra Valley and E 4.

Miles beyond the wing, all the trees vanished as we entered a wispy cloud. Close to my knees, the laptop opened. On screen, video and text emails, new information from David, enlarged.

The second message indicated that several RM robots had finished welding thirty fractures.

This information was replaced by pages of Navier Stokes-like equations. His new simulation, showing me how fast the cracks would spread, was slightly more detailed than mine. If it was correct, we would have to abandon Exp One in three to four months.

This data was replaced by a real time video, a shot of D36. Near the edge of the screen, two hundred yards above the shuttle, a flaming meteorite was headed toward us. I shouted, “Look out!” The orange projectile barely missed the starboard wing.

UE said calmly, “I saw it.”

“That was a close call.” I exhaled, relieved.

“Yes.”

It was time to think about the Reen spacecraft. However, because my laptop didn’t have enough random access memory, I would have to use Exp One’s SAN to find out which Reen ship hull shapes were the most durable.

There was another concern. David and Thomas hadn’t discussed which software maximized Exp One’s fuel use because David was overworked. Since there wasn’t enough staff, we couldn’t deal with this problem until the translators were trained.

The shuttle whizzed by a smoky gray crescent, a partially destroyed spacecraft, about the same size as Exp One. Between the craft’s jagged walls, thousands of dangling cables shook. The space vessel looked as it if had been blasted apart by shelling.

“UE, is that a Reen vessel?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t talk to any of the Reen about any of their vessels because I was too busy.”

We flew inside Exp One and touched down in the middle of a cube-shaped three-D holographic grid, a device that made landing the ship easier. My canopy opened. I breathed stale air.

Lesley walked toward the front of the shuttle, smiling. “Greg, welcome back.”

“Thanks.”

Irea got out of her cockpit. “Lesley, your skin is brown.”

“Yes. I am not a Caucasian. My family comes from a different race.”

I introduced them to each other. “Irea, Lesley maintains the SAN, updates photonic archives, checks dental records, databases and prepares meals.”

Lesley smiled. “Irea, what do you think of Exp One?”

She stared at Lesley’s eyes, not responding.

Lesley looked at me, her eyebrows raised, surprised by Irea’s silence. “Greg, Sam will arrive soon—help me unload Reen food and liquids.”

“Good.”

I got out of the cockpit, belongings in hand. UE told me he would pick up Jen and Joel within the hour.

Lesley scowled. “Greg, is Mary coming back?”

I glowered. “No.”

Lesley bit her lip. “I love Mary. I’m going to miss her.”

I nodded. “So am I.”

Sam entered. “Greg, you’re back, wonderful.”

“Thank you. By the way, this is Irea.”

Sam grinned. “How are you?”

Irea stooped over her bag, searching through it, ignoring Sam’s greeting.

Sam glanced at me while the puzzled expression on her face deepened. She didn’t understand why Irea hadn’t answered. “I’ll help Lesley.”

Lesley nodded. “Excellent.”

I took a step toward Irea. “I’ll take you to your quarters.”

“Yes,” she replied in a robotic tone.

Lesley came out from behind the shuttle. “Irea, how many languages do you speak?”

“Three, but yours uses sound.”

Lesley’s eyes shifted back and forth as she thought about Irea’s comment.

Irea and I left the shuttle bay and went down a narrow hall. I murmured, “Room,” asking the SAN to locate a bedroom that Irea could stay in,

Irea, her speech less accented when we first met, glanced at me. “All of you speak and use text to convey information. We use hieroglyphics and icons to communicate.”

“I don’t understand what you mean by
icons and hieroglyphics
.”

She blinked, not answering my comment.

I stopped next to a door. “There’s a wall-mounted-retina-screen, an ID device, next to your room’s entrance. Stand in front of the screen and the door to your room will open. First, I’ll scan your eye with my vtp.” I aimed it at her face. “Unfortunately, the software didn’t recognize your cornea. I’ll scan your finger instead. Your fingerprint will open the door.” I aimed my vtp at her hand.

She moved closer until her eyes were inches from mine and stared directly into them. Much to my surprise, they moved back and forth for several moments. She never spoke.

At the bottom of her eyes, the letter
A,
one of four icons in a row, changed into three stacked dashes. Then the next icon, a tiny square, morphed until it resembled a
V
.

Were these letters? I asked.

She didn’t answer.

After several moments, she stepped back, her eyes aimed directly at mine.

What had she seen in my eyes? I inquired.

She ignored the question.

I bit my lip, annoyed. “Your room is this way.” We walked. I pointed at a wall-mounted screen. “Place your hand on that.”

She rested the palm in the center. A door opened. Both of us went inside.

“This was Marie’s room.” I remembered her, a smiling woman with red hair. It seemed like yesterday that she had entered a hall, waving at me. In fact, it had occurred over a year ago. I flinched, shocked that it was so long ago.

As Irea remained silent, a deadpan expression on her face, I left, wondering if Marie was still alive.

As I entered my office, a question came to mind. What had Irea seen in my eyes?

The dash shapes inside her pupils intrigued me. However, if the shapes were hieroglyphics, an alphabet, understanding her would be difficult.

Again, I thought about Marie, a friendly woman, someone who always greeted me with a smile. Despite my doubts, I wanted to believe that she was still alive.

The memory of Marie faded. It was time to talk to everyone else about the arrival of the translators, the bombs and the Reen ships. Although everyone had received text emails, I wanted to talk to them about it face to face. I sent a text email to everyone aboard Exp One.

At the top of a blank receiver screen, empty envelope icons flashed. There weren’t any new messages from E4, the translators or UE.

Just over forty minutes later, UE’s voice came out of my vtp, “Greg, a Reen ship had just landed in shuttle bay two.”

“Thank you.” I headed for that room.

As I entered bay two, I glanced up. At the opposite end of it, there was a one hundred ten foot long, thirty-foot diameter egg-shaped Reen interstellar craft with delta-shaped wings. The ship, which took up most of the bay, was supported by three pole-shaped landing legs, one fore, two aft.

Fore, a blond male humanoid with an orange face emerged from the craft’s port side as if he was rising out of water. Beneath the hull, a ramp hit the deck. He walked down it.

I headed toward him.

Much to my surprise, Irea came out of the hall and paused next to the blond humanoid, facing him. After staring at this man for a moment, she turned toward me. “Greg, this translator’s name is Darwin. While we were on E Four, he showed me some of the Reen ship’s computer network, engine and navigation software.”

Although I was surprised that Irea sounded more human than ever before, with a less obvious accent, I didn’t say anything about it. Then I nodded, acknowledging her comment.

Curious about Darwin, I looked at him. He resembled Irea, but his onyx eyes were larger than hers, his nose much smaller. It was difficult to tell what Darwin was thinking or feeling because he kept still, like a statue, a blank expression on his face.

I paused. “Darwin, do you speak English?”

He didn’t reply.

I said, “Irea, I would like to go inside the vessel.”

“Follow me.” Both of us entered.

On the wall, near the middle of an LED-like display, prime numbers, two, three, and seven, useless information, faded. We headed down a narrow corridor. Moments later, we veered left and went inside a dim room, a small one that was illuminated by a ten-foot high gray screen. Irea sat down, facing the screen.

To my left and right, on many different colored screens, Reen hieroglyphics changed into thousands of different shapes.

“This is the bridge.” Irea leaned forward.

Behind me, the sound of footsteps came closer. I looked over my shoulder.

To my right, Darwin entered the room, peering at the screen.

In front of Irea, near the bottom of a screen, thirty-five rows of Reen hieroglyphics changed faster. She said, “Greg, please bring your laptop inside.”

“I’ll get it.”

After returning from my office, I handed the laptop to her. Beneath the huge screen, near the edge of a countertop, a shallow indentation widened. Irea placed the laptop near the center of the indentation. “Greg, any moment, cables will grow into your laptop’s ports, allowing this ship to adapt to your software.”

“How long will that take?”

She didn’t answer.

The indentation walls moved and stopped, flush with the laptop. Now, there wasn’t a gap or a seam between my computer and the indentation’s walls. Only the front of the laptop was visible.

Irea got up and walked toward Darwin. Both of them stopped, their noses an inch apart.

My guess was that they were talking to each other. I spoke into my vtp, trying to find out if they were having a discussion, “UE, please send me text email regarding Sila and the Reen alphabet. Do the Reen speak in an ultrasonic frequency, use hand gestures or only communicate with their eyes?”

UE didn’t respond.

I listened, waiting for his message. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that something was moving. I looked down, wondering what was it was. On the countertop, several cables emerged, like weeds, and entered the back and sides of the laptop. Perhaps the cables were a combination, one-half silicon, the other part a living organism.

Irea returned to her seat. “Greg, according to Darwin, it will take fifteen to twenty hours for this ship to adapt to your laptop.”

I blinked. “Irea, how do I operate my laptop after it integrates with this spacecraft? Will its navigation and steering software work the same way they did on Exp One?”

She looked at Darwin, then she faced me. “I don’t know yet.”

I crossed both arms over my chest. “Are you sure that my laptop will function properly?”

Irea stuck her hand into the bottom of the holographic screen. The screen, a fluid, covered the upper half of her fingers, making it impossible to see them. Around the bottom of her fingers, spinning hieroglyphics enlarged. “Please be patient. You will find out.”

I flinched, amazed by the fact that the screens were made of fluid, not plastic or other hard substances. “Can I see the engine room?”

Irea replied, “When Darwin is finished, he’ll show it to you.”

“I’ll bring Joel. David is busy. At some point, Thomas and Alan need to be briefed.”

Irea glanced over her shoulder at me. “Very well.”

“Is there anything else I should know about this ship?”

“Although Exp One is designed for long journeys, its hull shape is fixed. Unlike this ship, it cannot morph. As a result, your vessel burns more tritium than this one does.

“While this craft is not as large as yours, there is enough room on it for half of Exp One’s crew.

“Despite extreme heat, freezing temperatures and gravitational changes, this ship will endure.

“As we understand more English and learn more about your vessel’s computer network, we can tell you more about this craft,” Irea said.