Leaving Blue 5.1 (8 page)

Within thirty minutes, Irea sent me notes. Joama and Mona were learning fast.

Despite the progress, I hoped one of the translators could learn English faster, to take some of the pressure off Irea and UE.

Within hours, I received a text email from UE. Rhea’s English was improving rapidly. She would assist Irea and UE.

Sometimes, the translators used the vtp to store Sila and Reen hieroglyphics. Although the hieroglyphics used a lot of any vtp random access memory, rendering it almost useless for such a task, Irea said that the vtp had translated a small percentage of the Reen hieroglyphics, a visual language, into English, a phonetic language, far better than she anticipated.

After I received an email from Alan, he entered my office, a sad expression on his face, and sat down. “Greg, I just finished speaking to Mary over my vtp.”

“How did your conversation with her go?”

He frowned. “She said she still loves me, but added that she wouldn’t return to Exp One.”

Near the bottom of my vtp screen, David’s name turned red. He had just sent me a message. That email would have to wait.

“Did she say anything about the crew?”

He shifted around in his seat. “She told me she would miss all of us.”

I paused, thinking about this ugly situation. “Anything else?”

He rubbed his chin. “She left a video message but told me to wait a month before I read it. I promised I would. I’ll tell you more about it later.”

I nodded. Alan walked out.

Although I wanted to say something that would comfort him, nothing came to mind. Hopefully, with the passage of time, we would get over this.

After reading over sixty pages of David’s notes discussing the holographic simulations he had received from me, I headed for the server room. It was time to check hardware, to see if any other equipment else needed to be repaired. Although the SAN detected many problems, it wasn’t completely foolproof. Halfway down a hall, not far away, Jen was hobbling on crutches.

An hour later, UE and Caldur joined me. One at a time, we crawled through a hatch. Soon all three of us floated into section 8758, inspecting the interferometric telescopes.

Not long after that was finished, we drifted into 8759. I stopped in front of a SAN housing while my shoulder-mounted light illuminated it. The housing opened. Inside it, on a monitor, lists scrolled.

I pointed at them. “Caldur, red text indicates broken cables and their location.”

UE aimed his face at Caldur, communicating with him.

Caldur raised his vtp until it was in front of his eyes.

UE turned toward me. “Greg, Caldur just told me that his vtp is recording what you said to me about the SAN. Most of our conversation, the one we just had, has been converted into Reen hieroglyphics. I don’t know which part of the conversation has been translated, but it’s a start.”

“That’s amazing. How can it record that much information? The vtp wasn’t designed to store and analyze that much data.”

UE said, with no sign of emotion in his voice, “I don’t know.”

I nodded. “The only thing I care about is that it’s helping him.”

UE paused. “Good point.”

As the housing closed, I aimed my finger at the laser cables, showing Caldur where fissures might appear. Then I tapped the actinometer. “This measures the intensity of radiation, especially ultraviolet.”

At the bottom of an altazimuth, ratios decreased. I pointed. “The altazimuth, a telescope mounting, surveys vertical and horizontal angles.”

After I discussed other equipment, we floated toward a hatch as our face masks closed. The hatch opened. We crawled outside, gripped handles, and passed section 8756. Then we attached our tethers to the base of a satellite dish.

“According to infrared scans, you’ll find more fractures here.

“Caldur, I want you to spray carbon nanotubes into the cracks with an insertion gun.”

UE faced Caldur.

At the same time, I hoped that our helmets weren’t interfering with the translations.

UE pointed, helping Caldur.

I noticed more fissures. We couldn’t save all the satellite dishes. All we could do was make some of them last longer.

Within several hours, after inspecting altimeters, all three of us entered Exp One through a hatch.

As we walked down a corridor, UE said, “Greg, Caldur wants to know how many corridors, halls and shafts this ship has.”

“Altogether, one hundred sixty-three.”

“He wants to know if all the corridors are as large as this one.”

“Tell him to say text. When it appears, say corridor length. The answer will pop up as a box with corridors, their lengths and location.”

UE said, “There may be a problem.”

“The language barrier?”

“Yes. Caldur’s English is terrible. He doesn’t understand all of the interferometric telescope or any other equipment’s instructions. I’ve upgraded your SAN. Now, it translates portions of Reen and Sila. However, since I don’t understand all the Reen hieroglyphics, I will need Irea’s help.”

I exhaled, frustrated. “I hope Caldur, Irea, Rhea and the other translators can adapt quickly, then figure out which language software will benefit him.”

UE said calmly, “They won’t give up. All of them will study around the clock because they want us to reach D Thirty-Six. “

“Excellent. However, the diagnostic software has at least sixty viruses and there are thousands of unchecked conduits. The cameras can’t inspect all of the conduits. I hope Caldur understands that.”

UE faced Caldur.

“Can you explain what Caldur is saying?”

“Not yet. It’s hard to translate what he said into English. The two languages are extremely different. Although English and your mathematics deal with randomness in proteins, subatomic particles and quantum mechanics, Reen hieroglyphics are far more obsessed with quantum movement inside proteins.

“Tomorrow, after I organize my notes, I’ll email the results to you. This is going to be one of many steps. Understanding the translators and their language thoroughly will take years.”

I nodded. Then I looked at Caldur, trying to find out what he was doing.

At the bottom of his eyes, a
V
with two stacked dashes inside it, one of three side-by-side hieroglyphics, changed into a circle.

“UE, are the hieroglyphics in Caldur’s eyes static?”

“Some are static, others change.”

I blinked, amazed. “They
change
?”

“Yes. Another point is that when a hieroglyphic transforms faster, that means he understands my Reen hieroglyphics, the ones he has just seen in my eyes. The more Caldur grasps, the faster his hieroglyphics
change
.

“If two or three hieroglyphics vanish and are replaced by new ones, that means he is picking up the information even more quickly.”

At the bottom of UE’s eyes, four hieroglyphics morphed.

“How many hieroglyphics are in each of his eyes?”

“There is always one row, not two or three. In that row, there are anywhere from one to five hieroglyphics, depending on how much he understands about what I just said.

“There is something else I just learned. It will be difficult for the humans to understand the translators because the translators never laugh, cry, shout or frown.

“Fortunately, Darwin and the rest of them will labor incessantly because they don’t want to die in space. They’re beyond tears. Disappointment is not an option.”

“Understood.”

UE drew an oval in the air, responding to symbols in Caldur’s eyes. “Greg, in the meantime, if Darwin or the other translators learn more about a dosimeter or any other piece of equipment, they can instruct me.”

I nodded. “Just a minute. I have to check my new messages.”

Jen’s email indicated that Rhea was helping her. Now, Jen knew more about the Reen ship’s navigation software.

“UE, can you learn as fast as the translators?”

“No. Irea grasped English in several days. Now, she can read, write and speak it. Her ability to adapt is astounding. None of the Dcou can learn that quickly. I’m watching the other translators to see if they can pick it up as fast as she has.”

“Keep me posted.” I looked down. On my vtp, Joel’s recent email enlarged. The main engine was running smoothly.

UE blinked. “Greg, operating the Reen ships may be a problem for everyone aboard. Remember, the translators have never traveled in deep space. You must continue to instruct them.”

“Understood. By the way, when Thomas and Jen are showing galactic maps to Darwin and other translators, Irea or you need to interpret for them because the translators don’t know much about how each moon and planet’s magnetosphere affects a star map.

“Also, I need a co-pilot, someone who understands galactic maps and navigation. Are there any translators who have a lot of experience in that area?”

“Darwin has some
experience
. However, his poor English is a problem.”

“Send him an email. Tell him he needs to start training within the hour.

“I’ll send a holographic message to Irea. She will help him.”

My vtp chimed. I looked at the device. There was one new audio message. I opened it.

Joel’s voice recording came out my vtp.
Greg, I’m assembling an RM robot. It will repair satellite dishes.

“UE, Darwin needs to learn navigation quickly. If Thomas or Jen gets hurt or sick, He will replace them.”

UE nodded.

Caldur waved two fingers over columns of text. I assumed he was assembling notes, but I wasn’t sure.

“We need to check more spectrometers. Then it will be time to eat. If you wish, both of you can join me for dinner.”

Exp One veered starboard, headed toward Aom. I returned to my office and began studying Reen ship configurations.

My vtp chimed. On the device, Darwin’s recent text email enlarged.
Greg, it’s time to launch the bombs.

Within minutes, I entered the control room and sat behind Alan.

In front of him, near the top of an amber screen, shuttle bay three’s hatch opened. Each bomb flew out. Soon both dropped. One moved toward the indigo ship while the other veered port, destined for Aom.

On a pink screen, at the bottom of the indigo craft, a hatch opened—a twenty-foot-long oblong shuttle flew outside, coming this way!

Along the edge of a gray screen, near the center of the shuttle’s bridge, a Uduss, a humanoid that was seated, hissed. “My name is Evone. It’s time for everyone aboard Exp One to die.”

Alan shouted, “This is a nightmare!”

In the corner of a beige screen, eighty miles above Aom, eight scorpion-like space-craft emerged from darkness.

Irea’s voice came out of my vtp, “Greg, those ships are Uduss fighters. In twenty minutes, they will reach Exp One.”

I blinked. “Understood.”

Near the top of a tan screen, on a fighter’s bridge, a six-foot-tall humanoid Uduss male plopped down. “I am Mruma. We will board your vessel soon.” As saliva dripped off his teeth, he lifted a translator’s cadaver, bit off her arm and began chewing.

On the opposite side of this room, Irea, Mona, David, Adam, Jen and Sam entered and sat down.

Irea glanced at me. “Greg, thirty years ago, Osin, Inyt, two Council members, insisted that all of the Uduss on Aom had died. Eight months later, the Council ordered forty translators to fly a small reconnaissance ship called Hoip to Aom because Osin and Inyt wanted to find out if Aom was worth colonizing.

“Unfortunately, when Hoip reached Aom’s outer orbit, the engines broke down and that spacecraft was stuck in orbit. Within days, a Uduss fighter from Aom, boarded Hoip, took every member of the crew back to Aom, and started breeding them because they wanted to eat them.”

“Irea, why didn’t you tell me this before?”$

“I was following orders. Two Council members told me that I shouldn’t talk about the Hoip. Although I feel it’s important that you know, I have betrayed the Council. I refuse to tell you anything else about their decisions.”

I frowned, unsure of what to say.

On a tan screen, a bomb exploded. A mushroom cloud engulfed the indigo ship and shuttle.

Near the bottom of a yellow monitor, the other atomic weapon split in half. Without warning, one blew up. A mushroom cloud vaporized all of the Uduss fighters. This was a hydrogen bomb. Caldur had given us the wrong information. I was irritated because someone had either lied to us or they were so careless that they had given us the wrong facts.

As everyone in the room gasped in horror, David shouted, “Although the indigo ship was far enough away, the electromagnetic pulse won’t reach us. However, the pulse from Aom will hit Exp One in twenty minutes. Brace yourselves!”

Exp One lurched, hit by the shock wave.

Jen screamed, “Owwwww!”

Irea, Mona and Adam jerked sideways. But they didn’t utter a sound.

I winced. “Alan, has the ship been damaged?”

“I’m not sure yet. Database is collecting arrays and primitives.”

In the center of an azure screen, near Aom’s equator, the bomb went off. A mushroom cloud rose. All around it, a firestorm spread like tree branches as webs on thousands of ruins burned.

Sam flinched.

Lesley screamed.

On a magenta screen, miles north of Aom’s equator, a large group of Uduss, their claws burnt off, stumbled down a street. Close by, flames raced over Uduss corpses.

Sam turned away, a terrified expression on her face.

Near the top of a cyan screen, in Aom’s northern hemisphere, a burning ruin collapsed, crushing hundreds of Uduss.

David’s jaw dropped. “Gruesome!”

Thomas, his back toward me, didn’t move. “Horrible.”

Sam blurted, “I don’t know how much more of this I can take!”

Close to the bottom of an ivory screen, in Aom’s southern hemisphere, smoke rose on every building in a small town.

In the corner of a white screen, text indicated that within the next two days, every building, forest and meadow would be destroyed. Only insects, bacteria, viroid and viruses would survive.

Jen winced.