28 Febrary 2008
Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008 Robert J. Chassell
My thanks to Mohd-Hanafiah Abdullah for suggesting names.
My thanks to my sister, Karen Chassell Ringwald, for suggesting a guide to pronunciation.
‘D’ and ‘G’ are hard, as in `doll' and `gulf'. ‘J’ is soft, without a ‘D’ sound. It is a French `J', as in `Jean'. Hence, the combination ‘DJ’ in `Djem' causes the name to sound like `Gem' in English.
‘AE’ is a long `A', as in `name'. In English, the name `Djaeds' is spelled `Djades', where a vowel is made long by following it by a consonant and a silent `e'.
‘OE’ is a long `O', as in `lope'.
‘AI’ sounds like the `ie' in `pie', and ‘AU’ like the `ow' in `cow.' Thus, the word for dozen, ‘pau’, is pronounced `pow.'
The word for `firstly,' ‘pamai’, is pronounced `pammie' in English and the name ‘Pamaitcas’, or `First City' (a very unoriginal choice) is pronounced `pammie-tchas.'
Single vowels are pronounced: ‘A’ as the `a' in `father' or `lava'; ‘E’ as the `e' in `met' or `get'; ‘I’ as the `i' in `machine' or the English `pizza'; ‘O’ as the `o' in `lop' or `top'; ‘U’ as the `oo' in `boot' or `loop'.
Being at the end of a name, the ‘S’ in `Djaeds' is softened to a `Z' sound, but that does not matter. It can be pronounced with a hard `S' hissing sound. (The same may happen with an ‘S’ near the end of the word and preceding a vowel.)
The alien took more than six dozen years to reach the star.
The new stellar system looked good.
The alien did not navigate himself. His computer made the observations and calculations — even though Gell had been uploaded into the machine, he still thought of it as `his computer' and `his space ship'.
In slowing from his interstellar transit, the alien approached closely to the central star. As planned, the multiple sheets of thin metal, the vacuum, and the remains of cold, solid hydrogen all shielded him and his passengers from the heat. Although he was part of a short, thick rod buried in hydrogen, the overall space ship was spherical. The sheets of metal not only enclosed the hydrogen that provided the sphere of plasma with which the space ship had been pushed and protected, they enclosed the helium-three that fed the miniature fusion reactors that had powered the plasma generators and computers during the trip. Almost all the stores were gone. Like a humans' interstellar space ship, assemblers by the home star had built solar collectors and particle accelerators to push the huge artificial magnetospheric plasma that surrounded the vehicle. After its near encounter with the new star, the space ship moved outwards, much more slowly, towards the Jovian planet.
From home, telescopes had detected small objects in orbit from which the assemblers could build large machines. Even though the space ship was too small to carry high resolution sensors, it carried low resolution sensors and found the planetoids. Moreover, it extracted spectra from the Jovian planet that indicated it had the large magnetic field needed for movement in its vast gravity.
The new star was brighter but the Jovian planet orbited more than a third farther out than Gell's own original. Over all, it received a bit less light. In among the planet's high rising clouds, Gell saw lower down. His instruments determined, as expected from very distant observations, that as altitude went down, its atmosphere gained sufficient pressure and temperature to host him and his kind. And, also as expected, the planet was dead! No only did it fail to possess any of the large, living islands like those that floated in his own atmosphere, the atmosphere lacked life-suggesting out-of-balance characteristics. He could seed it happily and eventually be downloaded to an organic body in it.
Neither Gell nor his computer ever noticed the small, non-natural movements near a rocky, low gravity, low magnetic field planet much closer to the central star.
Djem Dorodden took five dozen years to reach the star.
As expected, Djem woke with a blink. That was fine. But something was wrong! He did not wake in an organic, biological human body; he woke in a humanoid robot body. He wondered how many years had passed. Had he reached Ulterius?
A human-level, artificial intelligence welcomed him. The AI wore a humanoid robot body that looked somewhat like a general purpose human body. The robot's skull was covered with dark threads to indicate dark hair, his eyes were dark. Like almost all humans, the robot was tall and well built.
The AI said, “You are near Ulterius. You have traveled from Melior. It has taken five dozen years. Everyone else is fine; none of them has been injured by a stray cosmic ray or whatnot.” He paused for a moment. Like the alien, Djem had traveled interstellar in a small cylinder a little more than a twelfth of a meter long, surrounded by solid hydrogen and liquid helium-three in a Dewar with multiple sheets. His new body was as big as the whole space ship. That is why he was reborn.
While waiting for the AI to speak again, Djem had time to look around. The room was similar to the one in which he woke the first time near Melior after an even longer interstellar voyage. The bed itself was in the alcove of an L-shaped room. It was next to a wall with wood paneling. Djem could see a desk and straight-backed chairs in the bigger space as well as an exit door with a full length mirror on it. The plain floor looked wooden, like the walls, but darker. As he promptly discovered from one or other data source, the room was built according to the same design as the one by Melior, except it had no display screen above his head and none on the table. After all, he was in a robot body; he was not organic. He knew how to connect internally. Otherwise, it was similar.
The AI continued, “I am waking you and the others early. There is an emergency. That is why you are in an inorganic rather than organic body. I have not yet had time to grow your organic body.” He stopped again. To Djem, the wait was long.
Djem stood. Although he was not wearing any clothing, he felt dressed. In the mirror, he saw his own dark brown eyes and on his head, somewhat like a rug, dark brown hair. Like his organic, biological self, this body was stocky and moderately tall.
Finally, the AI explained the emergency. “Sensors detected an alien space ship entering the planetary system. We would never have seen it except that von Neumann assemblers built hordes of sensors around the three Melian stars. That included Ulterius although it was unsettled at the time.”
Because of the fear of an Earthly attack, an attack that never came, assemblers had constructed numerous detectors. They had a function after all.
Djem suddenly was very glad he had decided to come.
First, however, Djem asked how Melior's telescopes had managed to miss any technological entities the aliens had produced? “Surely,” he asked, “the alien space ship has not come from more than a gross of light years away?”
“No,” the AI explained. “it headed towards the system's Jovian planet. It is not coming near any terrestrial planet. Indeed, the aliens it carries do not appear to have noticed us.”
The AI explained further, “Looking back on the aliens' course, Xi Bootis is the only nearby star. I should talk in the plural; Xi Bootis is a double. Its second component takes over a gross of terrestrial years to orbit the first and is much dimmer. The double star is a dozen plus seven light years away. I fear the aliens first went to other systems closer to Xi Bootis, but I don't know.”
The computer went on, “I presume there is a Jovian near Xi Bootis, perhaps by the brighter or A component.”
The aliens continued to ignore the humans.
The AI woke the other humans who had chosen that their minds be reborn in inorganic substrates. “It is distressing for people who chose to be reborn in an organic substrate to be reborn into an inorganic one,” he told Djem. “We have enough people anyhow.” Most people insisted on staying with brains as organic as the rest of themselves.
They came into a central, larger, rectangular room and sat around a small, circular table. With his robot eyes, Djem could see that the floor curved a little in one direction, but not the other. Organic eyes would not have been able to see. The wooden planks that made up the floor were no more than a third of a meter wide with their lengths in the flat direction. As expected and as he determined from his internal communications, they were on a large, rotating space station, a big wheel. It was built to the same specifications as the one by Melior. The wooden planks had been assembled atom by atom from a comet with the right elements. Metal served to contain pressure. The wood was for humans.
As Djem saw, none of their robot bodies could be confused with the bodies of organically grown humans. Early on Melior, he learned that as a matter of policy, the Melians made sure that small children could easily distinguish all robots, especially talking robots, from all organic humans. This was to confirm the children's notion that talking did not indicate sentience. Since few children on Melior met sentient entities who did not wear organic, biological human bodies, the visible forms of the bodies tracked the invisible forms of sentience. Instead, children almost always met sentient entities such as AIs in organic bodies that looked human.
This was different. The sentients wore inorganic bodies, robot bodies. Had there been any children, they would have been confused. Each robot enjoyed a flexible, outer metallic cover. It looked golden with black dots spaced like human hairs. Nonetheless, when he met them, Djem found he could recognize the others from his memories of their organic human look. They looked like robots, but were not hugely different from humans.
In her organic body, Leestel possessed dark eyes and light brown hair. To Djem, the robot that carried Leestel's mind had hair that looked like a light brown carpet on the top of her head. It must have been intended to symbolize her hair. As with her organic body, the robot itself was slightly thinner and a little shorter than Djem's.
The robot for Djaeds Summervil enjoyed, if that was the right phrase, the craggy good looks of an old-style politician — on Melior, he had been a second-rate political leader.
Unlike the hitherto organic humans, both Telren Dowwen and Tuppak Nassik came awake in babboid-looking robots. Neither looked human. They looked babbo, somewhat like centaurs. Even so, for the moment anyhow, they clearly existed in bodies that were manufactured out of metal, not grown as organics. The two had been first born into human shape like the others. Telren had elected to be reborn as a babbo on Tegmar, the second living planet in the Melian system. He persuaded Tuppak and both had decided to be reborn in organic babbo bodies in the Ulterius system albeit with their minds in inorganic substrates.
The original organic babbos on Tegmar had four legs and two arms. They possessed two forward looking eyes that provided binocular vision. Their front appendages were furry like the rest of their bodies, a deep brown. Unlike human arms, they were not (relatively speaking) hairless. Even though their front appendages served as hands, much of the time they walked on them. Natural babbos could not speak, but on Ulterius humans in their shape could, whether metal or organic. (On Ulterius, there were no natural babbos at all, only babbos with human minds. Tuppak Nassik had modified the organic design and the inorganic design copied the organic.) Babbos had more teeth than humans.
A babboid robot possessed a strip of brown tendrils down the center of its back – Djem thought of the strip as a narrow rug. Evidently, it was supposed to convey the memory that babbos' organic, biological bodies were covered all in brown fur. Like the humanoid robots, the rest of the babboid robots was covered in a golden, flexible metallic sheath covered with black dots. Just as the humanoid robots would not be confused with organically grown humans, the babboid robots could not be confused with organically grown babbos.
Djem spoke to the computer. “Because of the speed-of-light delay,” he said, “you will need to duplicate before going out to the alien.” He had never forgot that that delay meant he needed a smart robot when he first left his embassy on Melior and went to the next planet, Tegmar. That robot had dived onto a bomb tossed at Djem. “One of you will have to stay by this planet and the second make the visit.”
“That is true,” said the AI. “I am named Adkel Ivden. Let's name my duplicate `Aglar Ivden.' ” All artificial intelligences had `A.I.' as the initials for their names — somehow, that habit had started a very long time before and continued. Djem had not noticed.
The AI did not leave Djem with the time to consider the implications of duplication. Instead, he said, “Our committee members, those of us awake, encompass a good variety of entities: you Djem, a former Earth person; Leestel Kemmel, a civil servant; Djaeds Summervil, a politician whose previous policies have been different; Telren Dowwen, an adventurer who went to Tegmar and settled in a babbo body; and Tuppak Nassik, an ecological engineer.”
Djem thought for a moment then asked, “Aren't Telren and Tuppak both in babbo bodies?” “That is not much of a problem,” said the computer. “They were both reborn as inorganic substrates. Robot bodies are easy to construct. And both Telren and Tuppak learned basics in human bodies; that is what they grew up with. Their language, their embodied metaphors, comes from bodies with two arms and two legs.”
Leestel had never been reborn before. She experimented with her new internal radio; except that the others were indulgent, she would have bothered them by contacting them too often. Then she found that her internal memory contained new items and she could readily gather information from an external memory through her radio. Everything new felt as if she learned without effort.
Djaeds has been reborn before into completely organic substrates. He was glad that this time he was inorganic. He no longer had to reconnect his nerves. Instead, he came awake instantly. He enjoyed the ease. Even though he trusted that the computer had installed extra processors, but not so many that time slowed, he could not tell whether he thought faster than before. He did not feel different.
As the alien expected before he moved out from the central star, planetoids orbited closer in than the Jovian. Gell had no trouble matching the orbit of one very small rock. There, his assemblers made more of themselves as well as more vehicles and mechanical bodies.
The construction succeeded. His small assemblers made more and bigger ones; altogether, they constructed computers, sensors, manipulators, the solar panels that went to the new interplanetary vehicles, and the vehicles themselves. The rock vanished. Gell made the equivalent of a sigh — he discovered that he had worried lest he be unable to deploy the assemblers successfully, but he had suppressed the feeling.
Gell moved sleeping pilots into the new vehicles and embedded them into larger minds. Each possessed solar power, individual senses, and manipulators, the equivalents of hands.
Then Gell woke them. From the pilots' point of view, each had fallen asleep in orbit around Xi Bootis and came alert here. He noticed that all were relieved to find themselves alive. None had said so, but none were confident this interstellar migration would succeed. It was, after all, the first.
The pilots' vehicles created artificial magnetospheric plasmas to propel them with the help of the interplanetary wind.
Like Gell's, each pilot's name began with a consonant and ended with an l sound. Each included a single vowel sound in between. All originally possessed much longer names, but these interstellar pilots all gained short names — well, only Gell was awake between stars, albeit much slowed down; he was the only pilot who was truly interstellar. Nonetheless, all the first half double-dozen were given short names. Short names were an honor. They also helped bind critical people more closely to home.
Traveling in the new vehicles, the pilots took their new assemblers to larger planetoids. That movement also served as a test. Everything worked. On the larger planetoids, they begin constructing the parts of a transmitter to signal Xi Bootis.
Rill was his second in command. The pilot was very skilled, but had too much self control for Gell's taste. He made a superb second. Another pilot was Moel. As a pilot, she was merely competent but she was an expert with bioforming, with living assemblers. She would manage that part of the project. Voel and Kael were other spacemen. They were highly competent as pilots and inorganic assembler managers, but they were not as good organic biologists as Moel.
Gell knew that starting in a very short time, which is to say on Xi Bootis starting in about three of his original planet's years from Gell's present time, a measure of how long information took to crawl from stellar system to stellar system, those at home would listen for one-sixth of an orbital period. Until they heard, they would not know whether his trip was a success. If they heard nothing, they would presume it a failure.
The humans had an easy time deciding to contact the alien. They all wanted to learn more. That included the artificial intelligence, the AI, who thought of himself as `human but improved'.
The AI, Adkel Ivden, duplicated himself. The duplicate, Aglar, traveled with the other humans from Ulterius orbit.
They traveled in an interplanetary space ship that looked just like those in the Melior system: its body included several stories for passengers, a large solar collector, and four small cylinders arranged around the larger passenger cylinder. The small cylinders generated a huge magnetospheric plasma against which the solar particles of the interplanetary wind pushed. Because the space ship was always in an orbit of some sort, it could readily use the reaction to speed up or slow down. The thrust was not necessarily radial. By slowing its orbital speed, which it did by thrusting against its course, the space ship could move itself closer towards the central star and speed up, exactly as in all the Newtonian texts. In this instance, it did the reverse and moved itself outwards. By pushing forward, the thrusters added energy to the orbit and the space ship in it. The space ship slowed.
Although humans in robotic form could comfortably handle much higher accelerations than humans in organic bodies, high acceleration would not save much time. Only very high acceleration would be quicker. That was, as yet, impossible. Very high acceleration meant sending people by star wisp as dead data packets. But until an assembler had been brought out to the destination and built particle beam projectors to stop it, only the next star could slow a wisp. Unlike an interplanetary vessel, a star wisp could not halt on its own by the alien ship.
So the trip from Ulterius took just under three weeks — counting days in Melian terms. Those days were about the same length as Earth days or Ulterius days.
The alien also traveled outbound. Because Adkel acted so quickly, and because the speeds were comparable, the humans traveled only about two weeks behind the alien. They intercepted him — and his newly woken colleagues — in the outer planetoid belt. The alien ship had not yet gone into orbit around Nebber, the Jovian planet.
When telescopes around Ulterius saw that the aliens were building antennas to signal home, Adkel, the AI who stayed by the human planet, presumed that assemblers built them. He also presumed, although he could not see, that the aliens were building transmitters to power the antenna. Adkel informed those on the human space ship and they were surprised. For whatever reason, even though its existence was rather obvious, neither of the AIs nor any of the other humans expected the alien to possess assemblers.
None of the humans, neither the AIs nor the rest, cared what happened on the system's Jovian. They did not plan to use it. The humans could descend to it, but they could not figure out how to leave it except by radio. They did not know how to push anything material into orbit. From their point of view, an alien on it would be interesting. Besides, this alien or his predecessors had obviously left the original planet, so he knew how to leave.
But to use non-Jovian resources in space: that was a different matter, at least for some. Leestel did not see a problem at all; as far as she was concerned, there was plenty for all.
At first the images provided only faint evidence. Construction had just begun. If the aliens used the same technology as the humans, they would finish the antennas. Later the evidence became more suggestive as the aliens did more work. Once the antennas were built and pointing towards Xi Bootis, evidence became certain. They presented the humans with their first decision.
There was no evidence whether the aliens were good or evil, destructive, or trustworthy. Each had to decide and argue based on his own imagining.
Djaeds Summervil was against permitting the aliens to signal. He argued that their action was dangerous. He wanted to protect humans. As he said, “I know now that the Earth was always safe” — on Melior, he had argued that Earth was dangerous — “but the possibility was there. It is the same with these aliens. Their communicating may be safe, but we don't know.”
Tuppak Nassik was for the aliens. He argued generously that “others should be encouraged to do what they wish.” He wanted to provide for them. Unfortunately, his moral argument failed to touch the issue. It had been cast as a `humans win' or `aliens win', as a zero-sum issue, not as a `we can all win', a positive-sum issue. In zero-sum thinking, to encourage another species to win meant to encourage humans to lose, something that neither regular humans nor their constructs were willing to do.
Fortunately, Leestel was able to settle the matter. At first everyone else thought she saw only positive results. That was not true.
She pointed out that the aliens would impact humans and Earth people, willy-nilly, and then said, “It is better for us that they enjoy good rather than bad first memories. In the short run, we can prevent communications home. It will not be long before we are unable to. But for now, we can. However, eventually we will have to permit them to communicate. For one, they could have assemblers construct a space ship that radioed back continuously. It would be bigger than the present space ship; its ancillary equipment would require more material and more construction time than now, but they could build it. As a practical matter, we gain by permitting aliens from the beginning. We need to prepare for the future.”
Djem noted another, more horrifying solution: kill them all now. “We still have the power. But,” he said, “that only puts off the aliens' discovery of us for a few gross of years at most. At some time, even if we kill this group” — somehow, he had shifted from thinking of one alien on one space ship to numerous aliens — “the aliens at home will discover what happened. So Leestel is right. We should permit communications now and encourage good relations.”
Djaeds agreed with that reasoning. Consequently, at the only time when the humans had superior force in the Ulterian system, they permitted the aliens to carry on.
The first contact was traditional and anti-climatic: the human interplanetary craft stopped relative to and in front of the much smaller interstellar craft. Its appearance surprised Gell, but there was no way he could communicate that.
The human space ship signaled by blinking a prime number sequence in visible and infrared light and in radio at a frequency indicated by the size of the antennas for the aliens' transmission home. Three consisted of three blinks, five consisted of five blinks, and so on.
Since the space ships were vacuum and nothing material passed between them, four out of the five traditional human senses had to fail: touch, taste, smell, and sound. Only sight passed between (and sight's extension into radio, which is at lower electromagnetic frequencies).
The alien also signalled by blinking in visible, infrared, and radio. It added a few numbers. Then it transmitted another sequence, with even more numbers, on a radio frequency near to, but different from that used for signalling home. It doubled and doubled again the speed of its transmission, and kept doubling.
Aglar Ivden, the human AI who had come away from Ulterius, figured the alien preferred this new frequency. Moreover, the increase in speed indicated he could handle high speed communications on it. The AI promptly transmitted back yet more numbers at the maximum rate for the frequency. The alien responded at the same frequency and speed.
That way the two entities agreed on an electromagnetic frequency and speed.
Then, outside the human space ship, non-humanoid robots controlled by the human AI displayed a two by three meter image on a gold plate. The image was made up of visible dots in a nearly golden ratio. The longer side was horizontal — in base two, it possessed 10110011001 dots, which carried enough detail for the humans — and the shorter was vertical.
The image came from a single eye or camera and showed the aliens' space ship, but was drawn with lines for edges. Dashed lines indicated parts in shadow. The image tested for several conventions all at once: whether aliens perceived more or less than humans, whether they understood a view from a single eye, whether they perceived edges as more important than their contents, and whether they accepted the known but shadowed. Were they willing for the directly invisible to be marked? An obviously mechanical arm moved left to right to show one line, then moved downwards for the next.
If the alien responded similarly, there was very strongly suggestive evidence that the aliens both recognized and understood the conventions. Further communications would be much faster. If the alien did not respond, either it or they did not recognize the conventions or did not understand them.
If he failed, the human AI would try something else. It seemed evident to him that both sides expected confusion, so both the aliens and the humans would tolerate failure.
At the same time the mechanical arm moved left to right, the radio slowly transmitted a corresponding signal, a tone twice the amplitude of the background to indicate an empty space and a tone seven times the amplitude for a full space.
The boundaries of the image were marked, so the first line consisted of nine-gross eleven-dozen five high amplitude radio signals. The next line only had marks at its beginning and end; the rest was `empty space,' indicated by low amplitude radio signals.
When he first dealt with the alien, Djem translated the base twelve number, nine-gross eleven-dozen five, into base ten. He added together five, eleven dozens, and nine one-hundred-forty-fours. The base ten number resulting was one thousand four hundred thirty-three. He had not realized until that happened that for him base ten was deeply embedded. Perhaps, he thought, that was because he had ten fingers.
Then Djem looked at his left hand. His palm faced him and he had bent his fingers so he saw four finger tips and eight knuckles, twelve in all. He shifted back to counting in base twelve. It never occurred to him to question his looking at his hand, even though he was a grown man. A computer had modified his data before rebirthing him.
Shortly after Aglar had displayed the image, the alien showed he understood by transmitting another image by radio at full speed. The first was simple: a cross in a larger rectangle. The rectangle had the same prime number ratio, indeed, the same numbers, as the humans'. Then the alien sent a line drawing of the humans' space ship.
The human AI recognized the line drawing immediately. The image indicated that the alien understood humans and their conventions and was willing to employ them, too. With dashes, the alien image showed those parts of the humans' space ship that were in shadow. Either it shown in star light or in radar. In addition, the aliens' image showed the farther part of the humans' space ship measurably smaller, as it was farther from the alien. This was a normal consequence of an image from a single, small camera eye. There was not enough information to tell the humans whether the practice started as a convention before the development of cameras.
After the humans received the signal, they felt comfortable transmitting images of what both could know or see. They sent a picture of the aliens' antenna array for transmitting back home and then another of the Jovian planet with its waves and spots as seen from the two space ships.
The humans displayed the two space ship in proper relative size albeit closer to each other than in reality. The humans' space ship was a dozen times longer than the aliens' interstellar craft. Then the humans' AI added a meter length marking to his picture. It was an I-shape.
The alien caught on quickly and promptly sent images of his radio antennas with a meter marker. Aglar Ivden, the human AI, would have sighed with relief had he been able to; his robot did, but strictly for non-verbal communication. In case anyone missed it, he told the other humans he was relieved.
Next, the alien showed another similar marking beside the meter. It looked the same except it was a bit longer. Then the humans saw that the longer marker was closer to the aliens' space ship and the shorter marker closer to the human' space ship. They concluded that the shorter marker was the measure used by humans and the longer was the measure used by aliens.
With dots on an image, one dot for one, two dots for two, and so on, and with longer symbols beside them made up of many dots, the humans were able to show their base twelve numerical system.
The alien promptly replied. He made up an image with three dozen rather than two dozen groups. First, he showed sets of dots, one, two, three, and so on. Second, below the dots, he showed the humans' base twelve numbers, one for each set of dots. Below the humans' numbers, he showed strange symbols which the humans decided were his numbers. Unmarked space separated each group from another.
The aliens' numerical system looked designed around a base twice as large as the humans. The symbols looked to be variations on six fundamental glyphs, each symbol possessing one, two, three, or four vertical lines.
The aliens' number two, shown equivalently both with two dots and with the Melian symbol for two, consisted of a horizontal line with an upward-facing twirl on the left and two short vertical lines to the twirl's right, both on the top side of the line. The number five consisted of a horizontal line with a very short downward line to its left, no twirl, and a single short vertical line to its right, below the horizontal line. Eleven consisted of a horizontal line with a downward-facing twirl at its left end and three short vertical lines to the twirl's right on the bottom side of the line.
In the alien script, one dozen three looked the same as ten, except the twirl was on the right and the three short lines on the left. One-dozen plus five was the mirror image of eight, and one-dozen plus eleven was the mirror image of two.
Leestel said, “I would have expected the symbols to move in sequence from lowest to highest.” “No,” said Tuppak, “a dozen plus one mirrors a dozen, a dozen plus two mirrors eleven; the numbers four up from twelve mirror those four down from twelve. A dozen plus three, a dozen plus four, mirror ten and nine. The numbers two and three mirror the numbers for two dozen less one and two dozen less two. They all mirror each other in a way we don't expect.”
Then the alien added to the image.
“Look at the way the alien arranged the symbols,” said Tuppak. “The image is the same as before, expect that before the one we see a sequence of our and his numbers with no dot. That sequence has a zero like the symbol we have beside our number for a dozen and another symbol in what would be, but is not the third row. He is showing us the alien symbol for zero.
“A similar symbol is in his top place for two dozen. The symbol for two dozen and one has a one in that place. The alien must be using a place system just like us, except he has twice our base, a double-dozen for his base. His equivalent of our gross is four gross.
“Moreover, the alien has the zero and the one on the top, so my judgement is that for him, the smallest value is on top, the biggest on the bottom. For us humans, the smallest value is on the right and the largest on the left.”
“That is the opposite of what we would do if we were to write the numbers vertically,” said Leestel. “Yes,” said Tuppak. “The numbers are alien.”
The symbol for zero was a twirl or circle that stretched below a horizontal line.
Aglar promptly extended the image beyond three dozen to show yet more dots and their corresponding base twelve and base double-dozen symbols. The humans felt certain they understood this part of the aliens' number system.
Then he showed a meter measure beside the aliens' space ship with a one for the first meter followed by a dot and three more numbers for the fractional part. Including its multiple sheets of thin metal, the aliens' space ship was less than two meters long. It was much shorter than the humans' interplanetary space ship.
The alien transmitted the same picture along with the same base twelve number, a one plus a fraction. In addition, he added his own base double-dozen number, a one plus a fraction. Instead of a point he employed a vertical line with no circle beside it. The symbol did not have a horizontal line above or below it either.
Then he transmitted a picture of the human space ship with a meter measure beside it, and provided the correct length both in base twelve and in his double-dozen base. It was definite: the aliens used a plain vertical line to separate integers from fractions that were double-twelfths. In the same place, humans used a dot to separate integers from fractions that were twelfths. The alien numbers extended vertically; human, horizontally.
In another image, the humans showed the two space ships, then showed them smaller and smaller, and finally were able to connect the two with a line and mark the line with a number that indicated the distance between the two in meters.
The alien responded by showing the distance in his measuring unit. Then he made a picture of his space ship and of his radio antennas and made them smaller and smaller. Eventually each became a dot. Then, he drew a line between the two dots and labeled the line with the proper distance both in meters, as indicated by his use of human symbols, and in his unit as indicated by his use of his own symbols.
The humans and the aliens exchanged images showing the distances to the system's Jovian planet, to the other major planets, and to the central star. They connected parts of the images with lines, which meant everyone had to understand lines as well as the conventions for shrinking.
It all worked out easily. Djem asked himself whether every intelligent species that used images would consider edges, marked by sharp contrast, as more important than anything else. `Perhaps they would,' he thought. `Would they also interpolate what they could not see directly?' he asked himself. `Maybe.' He did not have enough evidence to speak of aliens in general, but was thankful that these aliens were not too strange.
Then the humans transmitted a picture of the aliens' interstellar space ship with the two measuring sticks. Gell understood that easily, but did not understand why the humans did this. There was no way to express his confusion, so he simply waited.
Next, the humans transmitted images of the Jovian, the other major planets of the Ulterius system, and the antenna array pointing towards Xi Bootis. Again, Gell understood the images, but not why they were transmitted.
Then the humans transmitted an image of the bright stars that came as part of a view of Xi Bootis. Xi Bootis was at the center.
It took a moment for the aliens to understand the image; they saw many more stars. The limited human view looked very strange.
Another pilot besides Gell finally thought to show himself an image of the few brightest stars, an image of the brightest plus the next brightest, and so on. Rill's third image duplicated the humans.
Rill told Gell, who promptly sent back the humans' image. Then he sent another image showing more stars and another showing even more. He continued increasing the number of stars and sending images until he reached the limit of his visual magnitude.
The AI told the other humans that the alien was more sensitive to dim light than the humans, but not by much: “It is as if our eyes were four times their maximum diameter, about 3 magnitudes more sensitive. We now know they are more sensitive than we, but we don't know whether they can see colors at that or any other magnitude. Unmodified humans cannot see dim colors. We do not know in what frequencies they see.”
He sent more images, each showing more stars, and stopped at what a human would see from Ulterius. That meant he did not show too many stars. These images showed the stars as a two dimensional projection from one side of the galaxy, from what humans called `Galactic North'. The brightnesses did not fit the projection.
The images showed a volume that extended beyond the Ulterius and Xi Bootis systems by a half the distance between them, and the same distance to either side to the line between them. The images included the stars above and below to the same distance as those on the side.
Then he showed a line between one dot, which to the AI and the other humans stood for Ulterius's sun and another, which stood for Xi Bootis. It was labelled with two sets of numbers, one in human symbols that gave the distance in meters, a big number, a dozen plus four digits, and another number in the alien symbols that gave the distance in their unit of measure.
Fortunately for the humans, Gell understood immediately what was going on. The humans had figured out that he came from Xi Bootis. The distances were right. He was interested to see many zeros in the numbers. Obviously, their measurements of interstellar distances were no better than his and they indicated that by rounding off.
Then the humans transmitted a picture of a second interstellar space ship. The second space ship was little different from the aliens' interstellar space ship.
The humans sent another image. This one was smaller, but showed the volume to Xi Bootis at the same time it showed another volume in the other direction. Yet another image showed a line to a particular star but without the measurement numbers beside the line.
That image had an image of the alien interstellar space ship beside the line coming from Xi Bootis and an image of the second space ship by the other line.
Gell figured out that the humans were telling him they came from the other star, similar to the way he had come from Xi Bootis. He quickly transmitted a copy of the picture back with the measurements added. He hoped that would tell the humans he understood. He gave numbers for the measurements to the Melian star with the same precision as those shown on the measurements to Xi Bootis.
The new star was only about three-quarters as far away as Xi Bootis.
He did not know that the humans' AI had said, “While we have given away the location of Melior, we have not mentioned Farhaven or Earth. Although I don't think that locations much matter, I am cautious.” Gell thought Melior was the humans' home planet.
Next, the humans transmitted an image of the current stellar system with all the major planets, including the Jovian planet, Nebber, in their current places.
Then it transmitted an image showing the Jovian one-half a twelfth of the way further around its orbit, an second image showing it a twelfth of the way further around, and yet another. Gell understood by the fourth image; the humans were trying to convey the notion of time. He rapidly produced more images, each with all the planets in their projected places — the inner planets moved quickly and the two bright outer planets moved slowly. After one revolution of the Jovian around the central star, the alien placed a number one beside it. After a second revolution, he placed a number two.
The humans immediately understood. The symbols for a fraction of time had not yet been communicated. They sent an image of the present with a zero beside the Jovian, then another one-half a twelfth later, with a fractional symbol in the alien symbols.
Then they sent a third image of the planets' locations a twelfth of a Jovian orbital period after the present with time marked in both symbol sets.
Gell figured this out. He sent an image of the projected places of planets for the next time unit, three one-double-twelfth of a Jovian orbital period.
The humans then showed two more images, each one-double-twelfth more time in the future and each labelled. Gell then showed two more.
Then the humans transmitted an image one-double-twelfth before the present, showing human symbols with an curious horizontal mark before them. The image did not show any alien symbols.
Gell and Rill said simultaneously, “That is their past time sign.” “It may be their negative sign, too,” said Gell. They sent three images to the humans.
The first was a copy of the humans' image, but with alien numbers, including a negative sign which the aliens also used for past times. The negative sign looked to the humans like a zig-zagging, backward `S,' a `Z.' Then Gell sent two more images of progressively older times with both human numbers and his numbers.
The humans replied by transmitting an image of the planets a Jovian orbital period before, with the base twelve and the base double-dozen negative numbers for one beside it, then another for two orbital periods before.
Then they transmitted an image of the planetary alignments fewer than half a double-dozen Jovian orbital periods before — the time label matched the planetary positions — and showed an image with the human interstellar space ship (very large in the image, of course) a little beyond the system in the direction of the humans' star.
Gell figured this out. “That is when they arrived,” he said. He thought all the immigrant humans had arrived at that time, but none had; only Aglar's twin had come with the first terraforming robots.
Gell sent an image of the planets locations and the time that his space ship entered the system. It was only a short time before.
Then he sent the image of Xi Bootis and this system with the line between them, but with a picture of his space ship by Xi Bootis with numbers indicating the date he left.
The humans showed they understood by sending three more images with the alien space ship closer and closer to the Ulterius star and with appropriate times. Then they answered Gell's implicit question and indicated when the human space ship first left its home system. The speeds of the two different space ships were very similar, both about one-quarter light speed. Gell guessed that the two technologies, which looked the same, were the same.
The humans then sent an image continuing the line from the position of their space ship outside the system to the central star, showing the positions of the planets when it got near the central star, and telling the time in numbers. The times suggested an appropriate deceleration. Then another image showed a line from the central star to an inner planet, with locations and times that also made sense.
Gell decided that the humans came to an inner planet. That was why this system's Jovian planet was still dead. But he had a hard time believing the humans could live on a planet with such a low gravity and a near vacuum on its the surface. Worse, it did not have a strong magnetic field. He could not figure how they got off the planet.
Gell said that and Rill agreed. “But,” said Rill, “aliens are alien. They are supposed to be strange. Maybe they really did come from a tiny, close-in planet with its non-living solids, its weak magnetic field, and its low pressure surface gas. They are creatures of the vacuum. That is what the images suggest. That is what the continuing deadness of the Jovian suggests. The circumstances are very weird.”
At the same time, but in a different place, the humans' AI spoke. “We still don't know what the alien looks like, what his normal height is — I presume he was been downloaded into that small interstellar vehicle, just like us. I bet he is still embedded although now that he is here, he is awake; or else we are communicating with their equivalent of a human-made AI. We don't know the environment of the aliens' home. What is natural? The environment must be strange. The alien space ship is headed towards a Jovian planet and I presume is from one.”
The computer went on, “I think it is time for one of us — one in human shape — to go outside. That person should wear a space suit; there is no reason to confuse the alien with the notion that we are robots or in robot bodies. Not yet.” He paused. Djem figured the halt was more for the audience than himself. Djem could not imagine that the AI had not yet thought through the notion or forgot what he had thought.
The AI started again. “We can transmit a sequence of pictures to indicate what we plan to do. That sequence should include a meter measure and his measure. The alien won't be able to show in reality — at least I don't expect him to be able to show a corresponding alien life form, but he can show a picture, along with measures.”
Aglar Ivden stopped for a moment. Only three organically born humans were in humanoid bodies, Djem, Leestel, and Djaeds. He said, “Leestel, you should do it.”
Gell understood the images; they were intended to show what humans were like. Still, he thought the humans intended to send a robot outside their space ship. He could not imagine that they lived in such a near vacuum that protected organics could survive without requiring a hugely massive pressure container. He was right to think that the bodies in spacesuits were not organic, and that no organic humans yet lived on Ulterius, but he was right for the wrong reasons.
Not that it mattered. As Gell saw, the organic humans were a little shorter than his people, but not by much.
What was different was the way the humans split their tail. They were not fins. The humans could not swim, at least not well. Indeed, based on the images, the humans looked as if they attached themselves to solid objects and moved on them.
Rill spoke, “The humans appear to live in the interface between solids and a near-vacuum gas. They are always stuck to a gravitating solid. Suppose that appearance is accurate? The humans do not live in a regular planet like ours. They live on a small, inner planet. If they live at the interface between solids and a near-vacuum gas, they and everthing else will always feel gravity. They do not swim because they cannot. They move around in some other way. They are very, very strange.” `He is right,' thought Gell, `they are alien.'
Gell could not make an entity similar to the humans', since he did not yet have the mass; but he could send images with measures.
At the same time, Djem became decidedly undiplomatic. He feared they would never understand the aliens. “Suppose the aliens are as Tuppak suggests, floating and swimming in a very high pressure atmosphere. That is what you would expect on a Jovian at liquid water depths. How could they understand us and we understand them?”
Leestel wanted to continue. She wanted to go outside. Telren said, “They are here. As Leestel said they are going to impact us regardless. We had better learn as much as we can.”
Djem subsided. Telren's point did not mean they would necessarily learn much, but he was right, any learning helped.
Leestel came out of the humans' space ship. She carried a meter stick and another stick the length of an alien unit as well as a large rectangle, which she put aside. The meter stick had marks and numbers beside them with fractions in twelfths. The alien measuring stick also had marks. Its numbers and fractions were in base double-dozen. They were vertical and just below their related marks.
As a greeting, and to show she was harmless, she raised one arm, palm facing out. The aliens had no idea what she intended. They did not know that some human cultures humans employed the action to ward off a magical evil and others to indicate the person was not carrying a dagger.
Then Leestel illustrated walking, turning around slowly, and carrying the measuring sticks. The aliens understood. Leestel did not require prompting: even though a long time in her life had passed, she remembered her first contact protocols vividly.
The aliens saw that the human had five appendages, two long ones, two medium length ones, and a short one on top. The last did not bend in multiple places. That number suggested a base five system rather than a base twelve system. Two appendages, those used for carrying the measuring sticks, each subdivided into five more smaller appendages. Their existence pushed the creature even more towards base five or to its double.
But only one of the smaller appendages opposed the others so the creature could grip the sticks. That was awkward. However, on each side it left four other appendages. Four is one-third of twelve. Five would have made a very poor base, even double that would have made a poor base. So would four. But three fours would provide a good base.
Two fours or four fours would not be so good. As far as Gell could conceive, twelve was the smallest number that would succeed. The next smallest number made for his base. Twelve had two, three, four, and six as divisors. Five did not have any. Double five only had two divisors. Double four only had two and quadruple four only had three divisors. None of them were a third or a sixth. Of the small numbers, twelve was best.
Gell transmitted an image showing line drawings of one of his people from the front, the back, the two sides, and the bottom, along with measuring sticks.
The alien looked like a streamlined fish with fins and stalks. When looked at from one side, all the appendages, the fins and one of the two stalks, sat on a line in the middle. So did two markings between the visible stalk and middle fin. At first, the humans were not sure which end was the front and which was the rear. They figured the stalks, which were closer to one end than the other, held sensors of some sort and then they saw what was clearly a mouth. The alien had two moderately long fins on either side of the mouth. Each fin narrowed where it attached and became wider farther from the body.
Each front fin divided deeply into two and the tips of each part divided again, although less deeply. Next came the stalks. Between them and the middle fins were circular marks. They were not too big. Then came the wide and stubby middle fins. Two more fins marked the rear. There was not much room between them, although there was some, along with another fairly faint mark. The humans decided that end had to be the tail. Its fins were longer than those in front, but not so deeply divided.
The creature in front of the human space ship moved the large rectangle so it was visible both from Gell's space ship and the front of the creature and then it showed images of what Gell sent! Gell understood. It was another display screen, this one controlled by the human, unlike the other, which was controlled by non-human robots.
Then, before Gell could do anything, the screen switched. The human space ship transmitted a series of images, each almost like the previous, but not exactly the same. At the same time, the images appeared on the human's screen. They were clearly images of the human walking, turning, and picking up the measuring sticks. They repeated and the creature copied them by similarly walking, turning and picking up the measuring sticks. Gell understood. The aliens were introducing moving pictures.
He quickly sent a speeded up, moving image of the Jovian planet, along with the positions of the planets and the time from the planets' present positions. He wanted the humans to understand that his moving image was speeded up.
He could and did have his computer immediately make line drawings which showed the wavy lines and spots on it. As part of the larger picture, he included, in a marked off segment, a still picture of one of his people from the side. The little image was intended to convey `wait'. He hoped the humans would understand.
Gell had moving images of a swimming person, but his computer needed to remove the background and convert the images to a single color and to lines. The conversion did not take long, but it took a moment. When it was done, Gell transmitted the images. He did not send anything telling time. First, he sent only a double dozen frames.
That was enough. Again, the human showed his images on her display. Then she showed the human kneeling down and rising up from what Gell decided had to be a solid surface, just as she had done before.
Next the human showed images of the human picking up and grasping the measuring sticks. Gell had anticipated this. He transmitted a moving image of one of his people grasping a measuring stick. First an alien grasped the stick with both forefins, then with one of them.
Gell made his image bigger and bigger until only the front part of the alien showed in the image. It clearly showed one forefin folding out of the way and the other grasping the measuring stick. The second fin folded itself lengthwise so two lobes could bend around it from one side and two other lobes could bend around it from the other side.
Almost immediately, the humans indicated that they understood. They transmitted a moving picture of a human hand grasping a stick. The image did not go to the edge of the display, as the aliens' had. Instead, the lines marking the arm stopped before it got to a bend. “Obviously,” Gell said to the others, “we are seeing yet another convention. Fortunately, it is similar to ours.”
The hand did not appear to be in a space suit. In the grasp, four smaller appendages that bent around the stick were attached to a solid body. The smaller appendages looked as if each was composed of three elements beyond the main body. The four smaller appendages were composed of twelve elements in total. The other appendage, which looked to be divided into only two elements, curled around the front of the stick.
Meanwhile, Tuppak Nassik told the other humans that the alien image not only explained their base double-dozen numerical system, but explained the strange mirroring of their numbers, too.
He pointed at the image from below the alien, although he did not know whether the image was from below or above. “As you can see, each alien has six fins, two in front, two in the middle, and two in the back. The front and back fins are longer than those in the middle. Each front fin is split dramatically into two pairs, and each pair is divided, although less dramatically. Each back fin is divided. When you look closely, you can see that each middle fin is divided into four lobes,too.”
Several people indicated they agreed. They had noticed the indentations in the images.
Tuppak went on, “Combining that knowledge with the number system, we can see that the twirls or circles are used for numbers that correspond to the front or back fins. A circle must indicate the body. Its direction from the center of the symbol tells us which side the fin is on. A fin on the right has the body to its left; low numbers have a circle on the left side of the symbol. Presumably, an alien counts from the front. It starts with the lobe closest to the center line of the body, the left most lobe, of the front right fin. Symbolically, a twirl or circle above the line indicates the front and one below the line indicates the back. I think that distinction is arbitrary.”
Telren said, “Yes”. No one could determine whether he was saying yes to the distinction or yes to everything. Tuppak said, “As for the middle fins, the body is indicated by a short vertical line. I would have expected it to be a horizontal line, except I think the horizontals show fins with vertical lobes.”
Tuppak went on. “So the symbol for one consists of a circle on a horizontal line with a short vertical to the right. The symbol for eleven consists of three short verticals to the right of a circle that is below a horizontal line.
“We should expect symbols for numbers between twelve and twice-twelve to have their circles on the right; and they do! That makes enormous sense. Further, I suspect that originally the aliens counted down from a double-dozen — that is the source of the mirroring — but finally figured out that a dozen plus one really does come after a twelve.
“As for the symbol for zero,” said Tuppak, “that consists of a body seen centrally from the back with no lobes marked. I presume it shows from the back; the circle is below the line. The aliens numerical symbols are very concrete.” He thought for a moment and then said, “Maybe they are too concrete. Since twelve is on the right and the next number is on the left, it looks like the half way point between zero and a number that symbolizes a double dozen is twelve and a half, not simply twelve. And twelve and a half is equivalent to zero.” He stopped again. “I wonder if any alien child is confused by that?” He asked without expecting an answer.
“Let me go beyond what we understand to produce a hypothesis we will be able to test. We already know that the number for two dozen has two symbols, a one and a zero. That is as it should when the base is a double dozen. But I wonder whether an alternative symbol for two dozen consists of a horizontal line with a vertical stroke on the left and a circle on the right. That would parallel the symbol for one. At some point we can ask the aliens. I wonder whether initially, the number for two dozen marked the end of what could be counted. The aliens might know of an alternative number for two dozen but not know the latter idea. We can ask them about that, too.”
Tuppak changed subject, but went on. “Since the aliens swim, they cannot be all that different in density from the substance around them. A little difference does not matter, but a big difference means they float or sink.”
Leestel nodded. She knew about swimming under water after exhaling all her air. She sank. Tuppak said more. “We don't know their density, but it cannot be much more than two or much less than a half that of water. Maybe with bladders that fill with lighter stuff you can bring it down to a quarter, but that is about the limit. That tells us the range of pressures.”
Everyone looked at him. “Suppose the aliens' air density is the same as water and the gases are compressed to that density, so he can swim in them.”
“Why should we presume water?” asked Djaeds. “Water is a good solute,” said Tuppak. “It makes a better basis than the other possibilities.”
“What about ammonia?” asked Djaeds.
“That is a possibility,” said Tuppak, “but I think evolution would have occurred faster in liquid water because of its higher temperature. Also, hydrogen and nitrogen do not combine readily to produce ammonia, so they do not burn well. That means molecules that have hydrogen in them, the equivalent of carbohydrates in Earthly life, cannot be eaten to produce energy. You may be right; we don't know. But water is a good presumption.
“Nebber, this Jovian, tells the range of temperatures that correspond to liquid water pressures. These temperatures are warmer than the human range. We would think them as boiling. Because of the pressure, the water is still liquid. It is not too hot. On Earth a very long time ago we learned of bacteria that thrive at those temperatures and pressures. Under these conditions, organic life can live and evolve.”
He paused for a moment. “How they got off their home planet in the first place — I don't know. Neither Aglar nor Adkel can figure that out either. The escape velocity is too high. Chemical fuels simply lack the energy. As far as I can see, the aliens need a nuclear rocket that not only provides a high exhaust velocity, but high thrust as well. We don't have anything like that.”
In the convoluted but normal way of humans, going from what they don't have to what they do have, the question about how the aliens got off their home planet led to the humans second major decision.
Aglar Ivden loved humans. Even though he was an AI, he thought of himself as an improved version of humans, not as different. He feared that the aliens would learn too much human knowledge, that they would gain an advantage.
He feared that the aliens would learn about Earth. They had assemblers; they could attack or merely threaten to hurt. “Suppose,” he said, “the aliens do not come from Xi Bootis? Then our counter-threat fails; we will not know what planet to deter.”
Telren Dowwen opposed him. The human in a babbo body enjoyed enormous zeal. He wanted to continue learning from the aliens. He figured that only with trade — trade of ideas, mostly — could the two sides progress. As he said, “Humans can learn from aliens and the aliens will learn from humans. This is a way for us to provide knowledge and interest during our future.”
Djaeds Summervil settled the issue of threats and counter-threats. He pointed out, “Over the next few years, the aliens will learn important matters. `Willy-nilly' is the term Leestel used. She is right.”
Leestel nodded; she had come back in from outside and removed her suit even though she was in a mechanical body and had no organic needs.
Djaeds continued, “Whether we want them to or not, they will learn. Interstellar space ships are coming from Farhaven and Earth; the aliens will learn from them.” This was the same argument that Leestel had made against him earlier. Djaeds had been impressed with the argument and decided there was nothing humans could do. So rather than protect humanity, his goal was to preserve it.
Aglar was not sure whether the aliens would bother to build enough sensors to detect humans' interstellar space ships. “After all,” as he said, “we would not have detected the aliens' space ship except that we had built a very thick sensor net because of a fear of Earth.” Aglar did not have to remind Djaeds that, in part, that fear was a result of his actions, erroneous in one way, but useful in another.
Djaeds was not sure whether the aliens would build enough sensors either, but said, “Even if the aliens fail to detect incoming space ships, they will learn people's histories. Right? Humans will talk.”
Aglar agreed, the strangers would tell their histories not only to the other humans, but to the aliens. Djaeds immediately responded by asking whether Aglar planned to censor and modify every interchange forever. “After all, the goal would be to avoid disclosing the existence of Farhaven and Earth.”
He went on. “We need to think like soldiers in a modern, asymmetrical war: do not tell an enemy how to make toxic chemicals or bio-weapons or how to damage an inorganic mind. Do not mention any feature lacking resiliency. Without resiliency, constructs are weak. We need to preserve humanity.”
He stopped for a moment and then spoke with emphasis, “The rest does not matter. Indeed, whatever you say may have an unexpected but beneficial influence.”
It became clear that the aliens were going to use more of the system's interplanetary resources, those that floated in space and were easy to access. They might actually change Nebber, the Jovian planet, more; they might change it in deep and irreversible ways, but to the humans that was irrelevant.
The interplanetary issue had come up before, but not been talked through. From Ulterius orbit, and in a reversal of his normal stance, Adkel Ivden made the long term argument. “How can we provide for the future,” he asked, “when we give up resources?”
Leestel simply did not see how anyone could run out of resources. “There are vast masses of rock floating around this system. Even in a huge number of years, we humans will not have used them all. And I doubt the aliens will have either. There simply is not that much to build. Besides, we can and doubtless will travel to other stellar systems that don't have aliens and are not interesting to them. We can do anything we want in those systems.”
None expected that Tuppak Nassik would be the person who settled the matter; yet he did. He pointed out that if neither species sought too much material, they could compromise. “It means,” he said, “the aliens must show self control; as must we.” When he heard that, Djaeds nodded.
Tuppak continued without pause, “I hope the aliens are temperate and do accept restrictions. Potential inter-species disagreements are no different than quarrels between two groups of human. With assemblers, a military does not need more people. So both sides can restrict populations. With smaller populations, less material is needed.”
He stopped for a second and then started again. “As far as I can see, fighting is the only alternative. Whatever the reason, I don't see how we could fight them successfully. We could not preserve all of us.”
Partly because of hope, partly because neither Leestel nor Adkel (although the AI said nothing) could stomach fighting, and partly because none of the rest could see how to implement a victorious war, the humans accepted Tuppak's notion.
At that point, the humans could not talk with the aliens, not enough for a compromise; but the decision did prevent them starting a fight. The humans figured that eventually they would be able to converse with the aliens.
Adkel transmitted his idea of a dictionary to Aglar who did not suffer a speed of light delay. Aglar spoke, giving credit to Adkel, “We have numbers, moving pictures, a distance measure, and a time measure. We can speed the development of communications by transmitting to the aliens a dictionary with pointed to and pantomimed definitions.”
“What do you mean, a dictionary?” asked Telren.
“I mean items that can be pictured, a simple dictionary. We can, as it were, point to each item and then say or spell the word that stands for the picture. The dictionary should include entries we can pantomime, like running.”
“Well, maybe,” said Telren.
“We just have to ensure the aliens understand the concept of dictionary; after that, with its moving pictures and what not, the document can stand on its own. At this stage it cannot be a human-to-human dictionary, that won't work. But later we can transmit regular dictionaries and encyclopedias. Then we can transmit books, music, and graphic art.”
“What about the reverse?” asked Djaeds. “That would be good, too,” said Aglar. “But they may not want to or they may not think of it. I don't think they have thought about First Contact as much as we.”
Aglar continued. “They probably do not look as far into the future as we. Leestel made a strong argument, that `it is better they enjoy good first memories than bad.' I am convinced by it. That applies equally to us. We should enjoy good first memories, too.”
“Yes,” said Djem, “So they should tell us. But maybe none of them have thought of it.”
“That could pose problems for us,” said Djaeds. “Yes, it could,” said Djem. “But in the meantime, we should produce a dictionary. When we give them one, we may inspire the reverse.”
To select the first items, they all, especially the AIs, looked at children's books and dictionaries.
Then they transmitted the dictionary to the aliens. At the speed of the connection, inefficient as it was, the transmission did not take long. To make sure the aliens understood the general concept, Leestel pointed to static images in the dictionary and then to the objects themselves. The objects were bigger than the images, had different looks, but the edges were similar and they possessed the same shape.
For motion, Leestel went out of the spaceship again and pantomined. She needed to show only a few things, like grasping and walking.
The aliens caught on quickly. They sent a moving image showing the edges of a human walking on a grid of triangles — “triangles fill an area, mark the ground, and have one less side than squares,” said Tuppak — and then beside it, an alien that looked as if it were swimming above a grid of triangles.
“That is the parallel,” said several people at once. Aglar almost immediately generated a running human. The human moved over triangles faster than before and ran with a slightly different gait than when he walked. In a image to the side of the first, he showed an alien swimming faster. Otherwise, however, it looked the same as before. Besides showing it on the external view screen, where both Leestel and the alien could see it, he transmitted it.
The aliens sent back similar images, but with the alien moving in the picture slightly differently. Djaeds Summervil commented. “Like running is for humans, the alien's high speed swimming gait is different from their slow speed gait. It is not much different, though. It looks less than the difference between walking and running.” The others nodded.
Aglar, the human artificial intelligence, morphed the display by changing the triangles in the grid to squares, but left everything else the same. The alien promptly sent back the same image and then converted the squares to hexagons.
Next Aglar made the hexagons mark a rougher surface. He had the lines that made them move up and down about half the diameter of a hexagon. Every so often, the human's feet touched the lines, but most often, they touched an extrapolation of the location of the surface.
Then, as new hexagons kept appearing at the left of the screen, towards which the image was running, but never reaching, the `ground' as it were, appeared to rise. The image ran up the hill but slowed.
The aliens sent an image of a different hill; it had a longer ridge. The swimmer moved serenely over it.
The human images told Gell, Rill, and the rest how dependent the humans were on stickiness. They lived in a gravitational field and were not immersed in a buoyant fluid. As Gell said, “At home, we live both in a gravitational field and in a buoyant fluid. Buoyancy is the difference.” The humans, they thought, were very strange.
Meanwhile, Aglar said, “After we are sure the aliens understand the dictionary, we can send an encyclopedia. They are very like humans.”
When the humans showed the moving images of a bending hinge, the parts rigid, the aliens showed bending in a single object, none of which was rigid. It looked as if the dictionary succeeded.
Moreover, the humans had included the glyphs for spelling each word shown. The aliens translated sentences such as `the human runs towards the hill' into images of a human running towards a rise. Then they showed an image of an alien swimming over a hill that looked exactly the same and wrote, in the human script, left to right, `the alien swims over the hill.' Clearly, the aliens understood writing.
Moreover, the aliens had captured the notions of `towards' and `over,' both of which were independent words in some human languages and connected to words or part of them in other languages. The humans did not yet know whether the aliens understood the difference among specific and general instances, or the names of some of them, or simply repeated words.
The aliens understood the notion of a road — a smooth surface on which people could walk or run faster than on a rough surface — but baulked at the sentence, `the road runs to the hill'. Instead, they showed two images, one of a running human and the other of a non-moving road.
“Literally speaking, roads cannot run,” said Tuppak. “That is an anthropomorphism.”
“It is not an anthropomorphism, which is only a human metaphor, but applies to any runner,” said Leestel.
“That's true,” said Tuppak, “but the notion applies only to runners.”
Beside the sentence, `the road runs to the hill,' the alien put a mark. “That either indicates `no' or it indicates confusion.” said Djaeds. “I think it indicates confusion,” said Tuppak. “but I am not sure; maybe it indicates `no.' ”
He wrinkled his nose. “He put the indicator to the right of the human sentence, not above or below it. Either the alien has the same conventions we do for putting parallels and comments at the same level or he has figured us out. That does not matter.”
Tuppak looked at Aglar and said, “Let's see, please make part of an image show a non-moving alien below the surface of the ground. That alien cannot swim to the hill. Put an empty space beside it for an indicator. Put that empty space at the same level and to the right, so it looks like the symbol-holding of the alien, but with nothing in it.”
Aglar said, “All the space below ground is unmarked.”
“My mistake,” said Tuppak. “Please put a non-moving alien in that spot with enough room to the right for a mark. It is going to be harder for the alien to understand, but that is a risk we take.”
“I could put a moving, swimming alien in the picture above the ground,” Aglar said.
“That is a good idea. It should help. Please do so” said Tuppak.
“In another part of that same image, best below the first picture — you can put a line between the two pictures — show the sentence about the road with the alien's indicator beside it. If the alien responds with the same indicator in the first box, it must mean `not'. If he responds with a different indicator, the second means `not' and the first indicates confusion. If he does neither, he is confused.”
“Yes,” said Aglar. “We will see. I will display those images.”
He did. At first, there was no response from the aliens. Djem had time to realize that he thought there were a number of them and Tuppak spoke as if there was only one.
Then the alien sent a still picture of one of his people from the side. Aglar said immediately, “That image came while we waited for a more complex image. I think it means `wait.' I bet the aliens are trying to figure out what we mean. I would not put too much confidence in the result, what ever it might be.”
Then an image came with a different symbol beside the underground swimmer than beside the confusing sentence.
Aglar sent an image with two pictures separated by one horizontal line. The top picture consisted of a moving human on and over the ground, marked by hexagons, so the view point was a little above. It included an empty space to its right. The second picture consisted of a frozen human under the hexagons, which again were seen from a view point above them at about a human's eye level. Space beside and to the right of the unmoving human showed what the humans imagined was the aliens' `not' symbol,
The aliens promptly returned another signal. The empty space beside the image of the human on and over the ground contained another symbol. The humans decided that symbol must indicate `yes'.
The humans, or rather Aglar, quickly produced another moving image with four parts, the two on the right empty. The top left hand part contained an image of a human walking to the hill. The bottom left hand part contained a moving image of a tree going to the hill.
The aliens sent back the same image as the humans, but with the right parts filled. The top contained the symbol for `yes,' the bottom for `no.'
“Hah,” said Tuppak. “We now know that the alien understands plants. He understands that they do not move, or at least he understands that trees do not walk, but humans do. Also, he recognized that our tree is a plant. He saw that in the dictionary, since we did not tell him of them directly.”
The humans decided that the aliens understood the purpose of the dictionary, the encyclopedias, and the literature. They matched images and symbols. The aliens understood sentences, which meant they understood grammar.
Not only could they understand simple sentences, like `The dog runs to the rock,' and `The hinge squeaks in the wind,' but they could create relatively complex ones using what humans thought of as metaphors. They wrote, `The atmosphere runs into holes,' using the word `run'.
They also wrote, `The atmosphere fills holes,' and put two `yes' symbols beside it. “The double is for emphasis,” said Tuppak; “it means the sentence is better, but the use of the word `run' is acceptable.”
However, the aliens kept putting their symbol for confusion beside the sentence, `The road runs into the woods.'
Then they showed an image. First, it was a still picture of a road going into a woods. Then, a part of the road moved and transformed itself into a human who ran into the woods, along the rest of the road.
“I bet the alien is saying,” said Tuppak, “that he can understand the sentence that `The road runs into the woods,' but understanding takes time.”
He directed Aglar to put a `yes' indicator beside a moving image of the road transforming itself into a human. “That is the key part of this metaphor, that we have anthropomorphized a part of the road.”
Then the aliens showed an image of a swimmer transforming itself into a human, but not a human they had shown. This human had straight tubes for legs, no genitals, a simplified head. “What on Earth?” asked Tuppak. “No, it is not on Earth,” said Djem. “It looks more like the space suit that Leestel wares outside the spaceship. I bet it is a robot!” He looked at Aglar. “Can you create an image of the aliens' space ship moving ... no, we cannot indicate a moving alien space ship. Can you create an image of a moving alien and an alien robot that is unmoving, and then the alien stopping its motion and the robot moving?”
“Yes, I can do that,” said Aglar. “Shall I? Also, were you asking a question, giving me a polite command, or both?”
“Please make the image. I was both asking a question and asking you to carry it out. I understand your point. We cannot presume the same contexts for humans as for aliens as we are different. But as you say, they are more or less like us. I think what the aliens are trying to say is that one of them wants to shift from that space ship of theirs to a robot of ours, presumably, to get a better body sense.”
“Yes, that is what I think,” said Aglar. At the same time, he started to produce the images.
The alien received it, and transmitted it back with a `yes' symbol beside it. Then the alien showed the robot entering the human space ship, the space ship becoming smaller and smaller and smaller. Next, it showed an image of the stellar system, like those that had been exchanged before. The image showed a dot at their location. Then the dot moved, with a line behind. Everything else moved, too, all the planets. The dot was the human space ship. It took an appropriate amount of time to go to the human planet. Then it showed the robot and humans walking around.
“It is a request to visit!” said Leestel, speaking of the robot and humans on the human planet. “Yes,” said various others. “I think we should help,” said Tuppak. “Obviously, the alien wants to learn more about us; that is fine. We should give him opportunities. He will learn more of our context. Roads do not exist on any Jovian; maybe he will grasp the idea of a `road running into the woods' better.”
“We should visit the Jovian, too, in robot swimmers,” said Djem, “but not immediately, since the planet currently has no life. We can always go down. And we can radio up differences, so getting back up physically is not important. After radioing, we can stop the minds of the robots down there.”
“I can make an image of a swimmer,” Aglar said, “that looks like a stiff alien, an alien robot. It will not look like a real robot, which has much more flexible skin. Interestingly, we all saw that the alien was putting himself into a humanoid robot, not an organic human body. I am not sure what to make of that, except that it means no human need concern himself; and it any case, we have not grown them yet.”
Djem answered. “Do that. Also, please make images of us visiting them. Those images should include a human transforming into a robot swimmer and a swimmer flying above a landscape from the alien's dictionary. Leave the timing aside; don't produce any images of this solar system. Don't say how we get down or how we leave. Let's see how they respond.”
The aliens transmitted the pictures back with `yes' symbols to the right. Then they showed an image of a swimmer flying above a landscape and another of the stellar system with the Jovian planet going around, the inner planets zipping around. The point of view pulled back. The inner planets' orbits got too small to show, the Jovian planet moved rapidly, and even the outer planets moved. Finally, all stopped.
“That is a gross of terrestrial years in the future,” Aglar said. “I am not surprised,” said Tuppak. “Patience is a virtue. We have been terraforming here nearly a gross of years already. Our changes are fast compared to natural processes, but slow in human terms.”
“We do not have organic bodies, yet,” Aglar reminded them. “That is why you are all in robot bodies.”
“I don't think that will matter,” said Tuppak. “If we appear in robot bodies, the alien will figure we are being both polite and safe. We can show pictures of what Ulterius was like before terraforming — the alien might appreciate that it too was a dead planet, like the Jovian planet, Nebber. We can show the time we started, too. That is about as far back in the past as the alien is showing for the future; so the alien should understand, we are nearly ready for people, but not yet.”
“What about us?” asked Telren. “The alien, or very likely, there is more than one awake, if you look at the other space ships — he or they will probably figure we are like them, early birds, living in robot bodies.”
“We do not have to tell him that terraforming takes only one AI,” said Aglar, “who slows down much of the time.”
“Yes,” said Tuppak, “most of terraforming is boring. I remember Eltis once saying, `it is not like watching the grass grow, it is watching the grass grow.' I am sure that transforming the Jovian will be just as boring. Once the planet is seeded, which could be done by ships controlled by reasonably intelligent computers, everyone should slow down again. Maybe there is only one alien or one alien AI talking to us. He may be carrying the data packs for a million more, but none have been woken yet.
“Indeed, to wake any out here would require thick hulls.” Tuppak went on, “That is if they are going into organic bodies. The pressure is five gross more than we are accustomed to. Robots are better.” He nodded. Then he said, “I still have not figured out how they got off their Jovian, Muzhda, in the first place. Orbital velocity is really high.” The others shook their heads. Aglar said, “No one has figured that out. That is a mystery.”
The aliens started transmitting again. The humans saw words, `alien visit planet' and an empty box to its right.
Leestel said, “It is checking that its sentence is right.”
“Perhaps it is checking that the underlying notion is acceptable,” said Djem.
“This message is a poor discriminator; the alien did badly this time. But we can give an answer anyhow. Aglar, please respond, filling in the blank panel with a `yes' symbol.”
“Done,” said Aglar.
Like all the interstellar spacemen, in case someone tried to steal or kidnap him, Gell had explosive in his inorganic mind. If he were kidnapped, he could be put into a mind without senses. After a short time of that, he knew, he would go mad. When the explosive was installed, no one thought it significant. No one expected to find another intelligent species. The police were simply being exceptionally careful. Now he hoped the humans were friendly.
Gell was being courageous, but it made sense. These aliens who lived in a solid/near-vacuum interface, who were not supported by a buoyant liquid and felt gravity themselves, they were really strange. He formally handed over his responsibilities to Rill, who understood that to mean that Gell was not at all sure he would come back.
“I am going to radio as much knowledge as I can,” he said. “These crazy aliens have got here first. They have gone a long ways towards changing their planet and we have yet to begin.”
Gell's transmission to Rill conveyed great seriousness. “I hope we do not have to fight them,” Gell said. “They know where we came from. They could hurt us. We think we know where they came from, but maybe not. They have to wonder the same about us, so that is a deterrent, but still ... We are better off understanding as much as we can. As we expand, we will meet more aliens, although probabilistically speaking, they will be much more advanced or much more retarded than us or these aliens. I hope we can coexist peacefully.”
This started a discussion among the alien pilots. Gell wanted to stop it, but he was too smart. Besides he had just transferred his formal position to Rill, and in theory could not impose anything on anyone. Rill spoke first, as was his right. “Both we and the humans need to follow limits.” It never occurred to Rill that by speaking first, he was telling the others what more senior people had decided.
An alien named Voel felt more concern for his own people. He was not sure they should accept limits that permited humans to exist. But he did not repond directly; instead, he said, “Whatever we do later, right now, we should learn as much as we can.” He did not know it, but that statement was very like the expression of the human, Telren.
Kael settled the matter. After expressing what was important to him but irrelevant to the decision, he repeated Leestel's argument to the humans, although he did not know that. He started out by saying, “Not merely do they exist in the same universe, they exist close by. It felt like one night's travel.”
“It takes more than three double-dozen years to get here,” said Gell, grumbling.
“I know that,” said Kael. “However, from the point of view of the universe, we are close. The feeling is that it takes one night to travel here.” He emphasized that it was an emotion. “That feeling is more accurate than the sense that we must go huge distances. I know we have to go a huge distance, but the universe is much, much bigger.”
Then he restated Leestel's argument. “We cannot kill them all; we cannot be sure how many systems they have settled. Our species is going to meet other tool-using aliens sooner or later. We need to prepare. Our best solution is to be kind and generous. That will most likely evoke an acceptable response on their part. We can and should be careful — they probably have factions just as we do. But it is worthwhile to them to respond comfortably to us if we act comfortably to them. That is straightforward mathematics. It is foolish to think otherwise.”
At first the humans thought Gell would transfer a duplicate of himself to the human's robot by radio. That could be done, although there was a huge amount of data and it took time. You could not radio the data between stars in a reasonable time. That is why interstellar space ships existed. It was better to move the information in a solid.
The initial action and image were not confusing. Assemblers constructed a humanoid robot for the alien and put it outside. At the same time, a picture of the humanoid robot was put on the display and was transmitted. The aliens transmitted the picture back with a `yes' glyph to its right to indicate, the humans hoped, that they understood.
The second part was not confusing, either. The humans created and broadcast a picture of the aliens' space ship and, a little distance away, a picture of their humanoid robot and their bigger space ship. The humans received that image and a `yes' back from the aliens. Then the humans transmitted a picture of the aliens' space ship with a moving swimmer inside.
To indicate the swimmer wwas miniature — the alien interstellar space ship was small — the moving images started at the swimmer's normal size. Then the image of it became smaller so the swimmer fitted into the alien space ship. The swimmer shifted back and forth between being an original, presumably organic, and another that had straighter lines than the other and displayed less detail. This was the image of the robot.
The alien transmitted back a picture of a robot swimmer and a `yes'.
The humans transmitted that image and send the words, `robot swimmer'. The alien transmitted back `yes'.
Next, the humans transmitted the image of their robot for the alien and the words `humanoid robot for swimmer'. The alien transmitted back `yes'.
The last part was confusing. The humans knew what they meant, but not the aliens. The humans transmitted a group of images: first, the humans showed a picture of the aliens' radio antennas that sent the signal home. Second, they showed an image of the source and destination, with the systems just as dots, a stellar map. Third, they showed a moving image of the Ulterius stellar system, but speeded up. First, the positions showed the past. When the positions corresponded to the present, the humans started a wavy signal from it that shortly appeared in the stellar map. They continued moving the Ulterius stellar system into the future. After one Jovian year, one Nebber year, the radio wave had almost but not quite reached half way. Then the humans stopped.
The aliens responded by retransmitting the images with `yes' glyphs beside each. Then they transmitted a continuation; they showed the Ulterius stellar system into the future and moved the radio wave, too. After just over another Jovian year, they stopped. They showed the radio wave as reaching Xi Bootis.
The humans retransmitted the final two images, the Ulterius stellar system in the future and the radio wave reaching Xi Bootis, with `yes' glyphs. The aliens could not figure out why the humans presented any of this, but they went along with it. There had to be a purpose.
The humans then shifted. They transmitted images of the alien's robot, their humanoid robot, and the symbols for radio waves between the two. The humans did not show time at all.
The aliens retransmitted those images with a `yes' glyph, and then retransmitted the images with a diagonal line drawn through them. None of the humans understood.
Then the humans saw the next pictures the aliens sent. Those pictures showed a little rectangle come out of a robot alien, who was outside the alien space ship. That robot stopped moving. The rectangle crossed the space between the alien robot and the humanoid robot and entered it. The humanoid robot started moving.
“The alien” said Tuppak, “wants to send a material object to us. It will then connect. That is harder than transmitting radio. Our space ship and their's are close enough for either. If we accept a material object, we will have to construct a new robot. Fortunately, that is easy.”
“With a solid object, they will discover more of our capabilities,” said Aglar. “We will learn from them, too,” said Leestel.
Tuppak nodded and then said, “Both are true. In any case, we have already learned that the diagonal line means `no' or `I don't want to.' The alien `not' symbol goes part of the way; it does not go all the way.”
“The alien requires a sense of control just like we do,” said Aglar. “The sense need not be terribly rational, just the belief that he can try something.”
“He may be able to radio differences,” said Tuppak. “We do that to make back ups. But he cannot transmit differences until he is first there. He can get to us in a computer from which he can gather differences. The material object will enable him to find more about us. He may figure he is being very rational.”
“I had not thought of him as thinking his is rational, but that might be,” said Aglar. “In any case, we do not want to frighten him.”
“No, we don't,” said Tuppak, “Leave him an ability to escape in his own machine. He won't trust any of the equipment we provide. After all, from his point of view, we are the aliens and we are really weird. We don't even float in the atmosphere we breath ...” He grinned.
“More immediately, we should make a picture that asks for a dead object. Then we should show it being investigated.”
Aglar asked, “How about indicating that the computer or robot is dead by starting from a dead swimmer robot? We can show a dead swimmer robot by showing one that is not moving. The dead computer should move out of it, towards us, and enter a large image of a square. In that square, we can show it being cut apart. Well, I can produce an image of a line coming out the side of the large image, touching the little robot and making it even smaller. We do not have to show how good we are, but if the little robot or computer vanishes, that is a pretty good suggestion that it is destroyed. Do you think that will work?”
“I think so,” said Tuppak. “Try the transmission. If the alien sends us a living robot, we can always duplicate it.”
Aglar already had a rectangular box with a recorder in it. It was fairly straight forward to move it out into the open. He wrote `wait' on the display and transmitted the word. The aliens responded by transmitting `I wait' rather than a `yes'. While setting up the recorder, Aglar changed the display to show the original symbols for `wait' that the humans sent, a picture of the aliens' space ship saying `I wait,' and a picture of the humans' space ship saying `You wait.'
“If the alien says `yes,' that does not tell us whether the alien knows `I' and `you'; he may think those are names. It is a step in the right direction, but that is all.”
The aliens transmitted `yes'.
After setting up the recorder in its box, Aglar erased the `wait' messages from the display and then showed the two spacecraft with a new rectangle on the human spacecraft. It had the right proportional size to be an image of the box with the recorder in it. The alien immediately signalled `yes'.
Then Aglar showed a moving, swimming robot in the aliens' space ship along with a non-moving robot. A small rectangular object popped out of the non-moving robot, came across the space separating them in a straight line, and entered the larger image of the new rectangle.
At the same time the little rectangle in the display entered the box in the larger image, Aglar opened a door facing the aliens on the box containing the recorder.
Again, the alien transmitted the glyph for `yes' and then signalled `you wait'. The human's signaled `yes' and then transmitted a picture of their space ship with text saying `I wait.' “If the aliens transmit a `yes' that means they have sorted out `I' and `you,” Aglar said. “I agree,” said Tuppak.
The aliens transmitted `yes'.
A little while later, not very long later although Leestel had gone back into the human spaceship, manipulators on the aliens' space ship pulled an object from a dark hole. It was about the size of a human fist. It looked as if it carried as much mass as the original interstellar space ship. It had been constructed from one of the system's planetoids.
“That is larger than I expected,” said Djem. “We can see it readily,” said Tuppak, “and it may contain more than we expect. Also, the alien may not be showing us his full capabilities.”
The object looked squared off. The space ship's manipulators turned it all around. They pulled and flapped what looked like little manipulators attached to the object, then put them back. The big manipulators then took a line with two prongs from the hull of the space ship and plugged the end into the little object. Immediately, several red lights on it went on.
“I am also picking up infrared lights,” said Aglar. The others nodded. They were all in robot bodies without human limitations; they saw the infrared, too.
When the big manipulators pulled the two prongs from the little object, the lights went out.
“He is showing us the power source and telling us that the little robot is truly dead,” said Tuppak. “That is what I think, too,” said Aglar. Everyone else nodded.
Finally, the big manipulators on the alien space ship tossed the little object slowly towards the human space ship. Its path would take it through the door of the recorder.
“Well,” said Djaeds, “it could disassemble us, but I don't think that is likely. I bet it is a dead robot.”
The drifting object entered the door of the recorder, which closed. Shortly thereafter, the computer that read the outputs of the recorder said it was a dead robot, its general architecture was the same as humans robots, but its detailed architecture was different. It had sensors front and back; they could be drawn into the body or not. In addition it had manipulators, a built-in and fairly powerful radio transmitter and a sensitive receiver. It had simple power connections and a small helium three reactor. In addition, it had connectors for sensors and manipulators.
“Hah,” said the investigating computer. “The sensor and manipulator connections are insulated from the rest of the device, so an electric surge, at least a moderate surge, will not fry the rest. And if I apply power,” it was working on a duplicate accurate to atoms, “those connections become live and transmit a repetitive signal that I bet tells us the protocols.
“Hmm ...” the computer said `hah' and `hmm' like a human, even though its voice would not be confused with a human, whether organic or inorganic. The computer continued, “The object also has what looks to me like a small helium three reactor, just like ours, but turned off.”
Tuppak raised an eyebrow, but did not say anything. “The physics is the same; the physics cannot be anything else. And the engineering embodiment must be similar,” said Aglar. “That's true,” said Tuppak.
“Also,” the investigating computer continued, “we have a batch of connections separated from the others. Each batch has two dozen wires in it. There are two dozen sets.” Everyone understood where those numbers came from. None spoke.
“The sets are in two groups, one group is closer to the sensors, the other is closer to the manipulators.
“Each wire shows a repetitive signal; the frequency varies a bit. Also, in each batch, each wire has a frequency band that is separate from the others. The wires closer to the front have a lower frequency band, those farther. An interface will not be hard.”
Tuppak nodded. “The alien thought about this. I bet we can connect the connectors any way, and they will work. That is what I would do if I were putting a machine in the hands or other manipulators” — he smiled — “of someone very strange.”
Aglar started putting up images of the insides of the object on the display and transmitting them to the alien. He showed each image in two dimensions, initially the part that first entered the recorder. No one thought it luck that that part contained the forward looking sensors.
The investigating computer went on, “The object has a second set of sensors by its rear; they are not extended like the front are, but they can be. Also, it has additional connectors on the other side of the body to the first. They parallel the first set. The object is symmetrical.”
The visual sensors were like insect eyes; multitudes of little columns. They did not have lenses at all. Their sizes suggested the being could see from the green into the far infrared.
“Xi Bootis A component is a latter G type,” said Tuppak, “whereas we are an early G. Its light is redder than ours. So their eyes' central sensitivity should be at a lower frequency. Nonetheless, I would not expect the creatures' eyes to be so shifted. Maybe something in their home atmosphere cuts out the blue.” “We will find out,” said Telren. “Eventually,” said Tuppak.
“This robot has a multitude of sensor types,” said the investigating computer. “However, at any given frequency, as indicated by the size of a column, no more than three types of sensor overlap. In other words, when we have the alien look through human-like eyes, he will have tri-chromatic vision like most humans.”
On the screen and in his transmissions, Aglar displayed wires. He did not show the conductor and insulation as separate. Moreover, he did not differentiate the parts of the processor or memory although he showed where each was in the machine as a whole.
After showing all the slices of the object, he changed so as to show all the connectors. They were all on a single two-dimensional plane, another plane, a different slice, convenient for display. One double group was closer to the left and right sensors in front; two more groups were closer to the manipulators on each side. The power holes were on the same plane, too.
In the image, Aglar showed prongs entering the power holes. Then, in an obviously slowed down animation, he showed signals coming from each of the other wires as wavy lines.
Then he showed a new wire from a connector close to manipulators on the right side going to a right hand arm of an obviously false-sized image of a humanoid robot. When the object's wire made a signal, the robot's arm moved.
The aliens transmitted `yes'.
Next, Aglar showed a wire from a port near the sensors on the object to a sensor, an eye, on the image of the humanoid robot.
He stopped the signal sent through that particular wire, although he kept the power on and had such signals come out of the other wires. Then he started a signal at the robot's eye and had it travel slowly along the wire to the object. The signal was a different frequency than the wire had shown before, but within its band.
The aliens transmitted `yes'.
Then the aliens transmitted images of their object moving from their space ship, going into the humanoid robot. The image always contained a wave between the object and the front of the aliens' space ship. That wave had become the convention for symbolizing a radio signal,
“Please transmit a `yes,' ” said Tuppak. “The alien wants to remain in radio contact all the time, perhaps to report on us. He does not trust us. I think he is really scared.”
“He doesn't know about our abilities,” said Leestel. “No, he doesn't,” said Tuppak, “or he does and fears we will use them badly.” Leestel looked disconcerted. “Remember,” said Tuppak, “the alien does not know yet whether to trust us. He may come from a culture that focuses on winning and losing, on zero and negative sum situations, just as we come from one that focuses on win-win, on the benefits of cooperation, on positive sum situations. We don't know.”
“He is being cooperative,” said Leestel. “That is true,” said Tuppak, “but at the moment, the alien does not have much choice. From his point of view, we are an `out of context problem.' He does not know what we can do. If he or his people plan to betray us later, he needs to gather information now. And if he plans to cooperate later, he still needs to gather information now. We don't know what he plans, any more than he knows what we plan.”
“We are going to be cooperative,” said Leestel. “That is the probability,” said Tuppak, “but we don't know for sure. We cannot predict the future.”
Djaeds interrupted and asked a more pressing question, “What about radio shielding when he is inside our space ship?”
“Doubtless, the alien's receiver is sensitive enough to pick up the weak signal that will get through, at least when it is close by.” Tuppak stopped to think. “You have a good point,” he said. Djaeds looked pleased. Tuppak went on, “Perhaps the alien's signal will become too weak. We can have its radio transmission picked up by our ship and retransmitted strongly.
“Aglar,” Tuppak directed his attention towards the AI robot, “can you make a display showing a radio transmission from him becoming weak as it passes through our walls, but goes on to the aliens' space ship?”
He creased his forehead, which Djem had not realized could be done by a babbo-looking robot, “At the same time, can you show our ship picking up that transmission and rebroadcasting it?”
He thought for a moment longer. “I guess you need two waves coming from the object, one going straight to the aliens' space ship and one going directly to the receiver inside our ship. I guess you can show the effect of our ship's hull by showing the radio wave with one third its height outside as inside. Make our retransmission have twice the amplitude of the wave inside. The actual values don't matter. The actual differences will be much more than that. And make sure the waves from our ship and from his object are in synchrony, in phase, when they reach his space ship.”
“I can do all that.” said Aglar. “It will look like this.” He showed a picture. Tuppak nodded. “That looks clear. We are fortunate they understand us so well.”
“... or give a simulacrum of understanding,” said Djaeds. “That is possible,” said Tuppak, “but we have to presume understanding, given that they must see us as strange beings who live on the surface of a rocky planet in what to them is a near vacuum.” Djaeds murmured a few words which everyone took to mean agreement. Tuppak looked at Aglar, “Please send that image,” he said.
“Will do,” said Aglar.
Almost immediately, the aliens signaled `yes.'
Gell felt the moment of action was upon him. He did not like it. He transferred himself to the small robot from his space ship — he definitely thought of it as `his'. Rill, who had been in a different body, transferred and took over.
The big manipulators took the small robot, the `small rectangular object' as it had been pictured, and turned it over to show all parts. Gell waved his manipulators and blinked his lights to show he was live.
On the humans' space ship, manipulators turned the new humanoid robot so a hole in its back became visible. It was lit up on the inside. The hole was just the size of the alien object. Another brain could have controlled the humanoid robot so it could move itself, but the human AI, who was controlling all this, decided that it would be more diplomatic to have the humanoid robot stay unmoving until the alien made his connections and moved it himself. Besides, by showing the manipulators could reposition the humanoid robot, Aglar also showed he could catch the alien if he were not aimed precisely.
The alien manipulators threw Gell right. He came slowly towards the hole. Aglar noted that the speed was the same as that of the first object. Gell had time to look around. The view was no different than being in his own space ship, except he could see it. His space ship looked small and became smaller. When Gell got closer to the humanoid robot he folded his manipulators to his sides and pulled in his front sensors. He could still see. Indeed, he could see out of front and back sensors, just like on his space ship. But by pulling in his sensors, he reduced redundancy.
Just before he entered the hole, Gell saw that not only was it was lit up, it contained connectors that matched his, and that each group had an image of a part of a human body beside it. Some groups went with obvious images, like arms and hands; others were less obvious. But when Gell looked in the humans' dictionary, images corresponded. One was labeled `stomach' and had to do with organic energy inputs. Gell could not figure out why this inorganic, robot body contained such a picture, but he put that aside.
Gell entered the hole. His vehicle was captured and slowed down to a stop with what felt like elastic pads. Wires touched his connectors. Signals came from the humanoid robot's front. The humanoid robot did not have any sensors on its back, or no visual sensors. There was a lot more coming in than Gell could analyse immediately. He radioed everything to his ship.
Gell looked at the human space ship. He did not move anything yet; he deco