The Wreck of the *Untranslatable* - Chapter 4

            Aboard the Scape Grace, the captain, Evgeny Lerner, walked alongside his second-in-command, Soloth bash’Soloth.  Their transit from the ship’s bridge to the shuttle deck was completed in uneasy silence.  Rather than the confrontation Evgeny had feared, he suspected he was being given a cold shoulder.

            Evgeny wondered if he should have remained on the shuttle deck.  The climb back up to the bridge and then down again had served little purpose.  His presence on the bridge had been largely supervisory, a role he could have managed by remote monitoring and ‘comm.  He could have then remained to await the Ningyo shuttle’s arrival.  Soloth could have managed the rest above-decks, and Evgeny could have avoided his first mate a little longer. 

            That thought was nonsense on several levels.  First, part of the reason he was still captain was personal presence.  Nothing important could happen on the Scape Grace without Evgeny’s oversight.  The reasons were both practical and psychological.  Practical, because he limited crew access to just the ship systems needed for their duties.  Psychological, because he wanted to make sure everyone knew whose ship this was and who gave the orders.  The moment he started delegating command decisions was the moment he forfeited being captain. 

            Second, the Ningyo were coming in force: at least three of them, armed.  If they – for whatever unpredictable reason – decided to try and overpower the ship or take its captain hostage, Soloth’s presence would significantly improve Evgeny's survival.  No matter how much Evgeny might have offended Soloth by his attempt to abandon ship, his Mauraug associate would side with its captain over Ningyo boarders.  Soloth’s augmented strength and combat experience might not be the best counter to Ningyo ranged weaponry, but those assets couldn’t hurt.  If Evgeny really expected violence, he would have added the Vislin, Tklth, to their complement… but bringing Ticklish, armed, was virtually a guarantee of a violent outcome. 

            Soloth, at least, had self-control.  A damned lot of self-control, today.  The imposing simian bulk of it occupied more than half of the corridor next to Evgeny and fit the ladder tubes between decks with little room to spare.  If Soloth ever really wanted to thrash its captain, Evgeny would be at serious disadvantage, particularly in these tight quarters.  The kind of weaponry he would need to even out that fight would potentially wreck his own ship when fired. 

            Maybe he was being stupid.  It could be that Soloth suspected nothing… now, that was stupid.  They knew each other too well not to read those kinds of cues.  Maybe Soloth wasn’t even offended.  Why not, though?  It would certainly sting him if Soloth bailed out on him, personally, let alone abandoning the ship.  Hypocritical, no doubt, but still a fair analysis.  If Soloth just didn’t care if he ran, then maybe their partnership was wearing thin on one side.  Hell, maybe Soloth had decided that its easiest path to dominance over the Scape Grace was if Evgeny left voluntarily.  That way, none of the crew would begrudge the Mauraug a bloody coup.  It would just be stepping into the abdicated captain’s chair. 

            Fortunately, this was all the stewing Evgeny had time for before they were at the shuttle door and he was keying in the entry code.  Soloth stood aside and back, tactically positioned near the emergency controls.  Should the Ningyo come in firing, it could open the outer airlock and vent them to space, trigger the fire suppression systems, or even better, trigger the vacuum suppression systems and seal the whole bay in plastic foam.  It could do all of that now, in fact.   The shuttle deck was intentionally a dangerous position to hold.  The Ningyo were trusting that the threat of their nearby flagship was sufficient to keep their own captain and crew members safe. 

            Not that total vacuum would necessarily kill the Ningyo inside their suits.  Evgeny wouldn’t put it past them to build in safeguards.  They already lived in spacesuits to endure any environment favored by ‘low-gravity’, ‘low-pressure’ organisms.  A little extra reinforcement for even lower pressure, a little internal atmosphere recycling and pressurized gas for breathing, plus a built-in heating element, and the tinned jellyfish could probably go extra-vehicular for several minutes.  For that matter, they might be carrying portable space-fold generators and just teleport off the Scape Grace, maybe back to their own ship, at the first sign of trouble.  That seemed unlikely, given the cost of such tech and the hazard involved with using it… but wouldn’t it just be like the Ningyo to take risks for something they considered valuable? 

            Evgeny could see them now.  There were three, stepping down a vaguely scoop shaped ramp extended from the side of their white, bulbous shuttle.  The effect was something like a fruit with the peel pulled down from one segment, disgorging insects from its blackened insides.  For all Evgeny knew, the design might be practical, artistic, or intentionally perverse in order to offend other sapient sensibilities. 

He already felt that the latter was true for the Ningyo suits themselves.  Rumor held that there were Ningyo suits built to mimic other sapient species: thick ones with tails and crests for Taratumm, short ones with animatronic ears for Hrotata, even bizarre serpentine and arachnoid ones to pass among species not yet accepted into the Collective.  The mid-sized humanoid suits just worked well as an average, equally similar (and thus equally disturbing) to several Collective cultures and many other species of similar dimensions. 

These three suits were generally shining white with black joints.  Each was of similar height and build.  There were individual exceptions.  Jolly was familiar, with its deep-set eyes, shallow nose ridge, and missing mouth.  Its limbs were carefully sculpted to look thin but not quite thin enough to be absurd.  

The second Ningyo had an odd textured effect on its mask’s chin and crown.  As it got closer, Evgeny realized what he was seeing: a sculptor’s impression of hair, including a small pointed beard.  The shape of the beard suggested lips beneath, curled in a wicked smile, but the eyes were blankly innocent.  The overall effect was like looking at a caricature of drunken confusion. 

The third Ningyo was a surprise of a different type.  A quarter of its mask, the upper front, was black.  The color was seamlessly worked into the gleaming material.  Blank white eyes stared out from beneath the black faceplate.  It had a sharp, beak-like nose.  Beneath that nose was a flat, wide mouth with a suggestion of parted lips.  Its grin stretched almost to the sides of its head.  The last aberration was this Ningyo’s shape: the abdomen of its suit distended slightly, seeming to have inflated and drooped at the front.  Evgeny found himself wondering if it were trying to mimic pregnancy or if the bulge had a practical purpose, such as concealing equipment.

They were most definitely armed.  The ‘bearded’ Ningyo carried a distortion projector, a nasty application of their culture's technology which could create a short-lived space fold at a controlled distance from its focusing pointer.  Pretty much anything that needed its parts all in one place would be rendered inoperable if tagged by the projector’s field… living organisms particularly included.  Jolly had another of the devices strapped to its back.  The bloated third Ningyo had some sort of melee weapon strapped to one hip, a simple long black cylinder with a handle.  No doubt it ignited plasma-hot, or conducted fatal current, or created sonic concussions, or something else destructive to matter and agonizing to a sensory system.  A more traditional pneumatic handgun rested in a holster on the same Ningyo’s other hip.  Having something non-electronic was a good backup idea.  These visitors were not taking any chances.  It was nice to be taken seriously as a threat. 

With a few remaining reservations and a couple of new ones added, Evgeny nevertheless finished entering the door code and allowed the Ningyo to enter the inner shuttle deck.  The three figures strode forward and stopped within a meter of the unarmed Human.  Their manner seemed non-threatening; the one with a weapon in hand kept it pointed toward the floor. 

Jolly stepped forward, its right hand extended.  Evgeny glanced at it, then stared at the blank face of the Ningyo for several seconds more.  Eventually, Jolly got the idea and let its hand fall.  It shrugged, comically, and gestured to either side as it spoke.

“Captain Lerner, I presume?  These are my colleagues: Comus,” here Jolly indicated the bearded, grinning figure, “and Punch.”  Its waving hand moved toward the rotund, black-masked Ningyo.  “Comus is our cultural relations officer, handling translation, diplomacy, and general communications.  Punch is my security officer, handling non-verbal communications.”  Jolly craned its neck to the side to ‘look’ around Evgeny.  “Your friend there looks like it would get along famously with Punch.”

Evgeny steeled himself to remain neutral while dealing with the deliberately absurd Ningyo.  He would neither dignify their jests by playing along, as some Humans did, nor by showing his irritation.  Ignoring all provocation seemed the best means of disparaging it. 

“I am captain Evgeny Lerner, yes.  This is my second in command, Soloth bash’ Soloth.  Welcome to the Scape Grace.  If you will follow us, I will show you to your quarters.”

“Quarters, captain?  We carry our homes in our shells.  There is no need to set aside space for our occupation nor to set aside time for our preoccupation.  Let us go to your sterncastle and lay in course for our voyage together."

Evgeny was taken aback.  He had not even considered that the Ningyo might not want private quarters.  Of course they were going to be underfoot and in his face every moment of this trip.  Why had he thought they might want a refuge from ship’s operations or a private area to see to their personal needs?  It wasn’t as if they required water for washing, or any rations ship’s stores could provide, or perhaps even a bed to stretch out on.  As much as the Ningyo had studied and learned to mimic Humans, the relationship did not extend the other way, and Evgeny had little idea what facilities a Ningyo might need for comfort.

“Well, then.  We might as well move on to the bridge.  All the navigation controls are up there anyway,” Evgeny allowed.  He tried to sound noncommittal, as if he had no concerns where the visitors went.  He turned on his heel and started for the exit, passing Soloth after a couple of steps. 

The Mauraug fell into step beside Evgeny once more, the pair preceding the three Ningyo.  The trio walked single-file: Punch first, followed by Jolly, with Comus trailing behind.  As they approached the exit door, Evgeny heard steady footsteps approaching, plastic soles slapping against the metal floor.

Turning the corner of an adjoining corridor, the third remaining original crew member of the Scape Grace stepped into view.  Luuboh bash’Gaulig was slower than a fully-formed Mauraug might be, but still equaled the rushed walking speed of any Human its own height.  If Human, it would have been considered a dwarf.  For a Mauraug, its arms and legs were stunted.  The differences were obvious when both it and Soloth were in view together, as right then.  In comparison to a normally built Mauraug, Luuboh looked thin in the legs and thick in the arms and shorter in both, yet with a normal head and torso. 

Next to a Human, Luuboh looked only a bit barrel-chested and big-headed, perhaps with a weightlifter’s build under a heavy fur coat.  Otherwise, its appearance and coloration were not bad by Mauraug standards, with an even division of white and black sections and a well-proportioned face.  Yet its ‘diminutive’ stature and relative weakness made it a laughingstock even among the genetically unstable Mauraug.  A bad eye, a bad leg, even fragile bones could be repaired with sufficient cybernetics.  Thanks to technology, most deformities posed no obstacle to physical Domination.  Even Soloth, born with a cleft palate and open spinal column, had been repaired to meet and even surpass the physical standards of its race.  Luuboh, unfortunately, would have needed all four limbs replaced… not to mention a major psychiatric overhaul.

  Its parents, colonists of limited means, had not been able to afford such extensive surgeries and allowed Luuboh to grow up ‘crippled’.  Other Mauraug might have been able to overlook such regrettable disadvantages had Luuboh's dominant parent, Gaulig, not also failed the child another way: it let Luuboh grow up believing it would be forever inferior.  Worse, its other, subordinate parent encouraged the child to complacently accept this fate.  Luuboh never strove to find its own path to Dominion, not even to labor and save up enough to replace its shrunken limbs with more powerful, normal-length prostheses.  Unable to counter the abuse from its peers, it had begun to spend more and more time away from Locust Colony.  Thus it was that Luuboh, weakest of the weak, survived the slaughter of its parents and those peers, all save Soloth bash’Soloth. 

Evgeny and Soloth had accepted Luuboh into their survivors' rebellion partly out of sentiment – it was one of them in spirit – and partly out of practicality.  Luuboh knew best how to survive in the wilds of Locust 4, having spent more time than any of them outside of the colony’s enclosure.  It was also willing to carry more weight, cook better meals, and build more campsites than anyone else.  Unlike any of the other survivors, Luuboh never balked at taking on its duty and someone else’s, too.  It even fought hard to steal the ‘Grace, surprising Soloth and the other Mauraug survivors.  Once they had departed Locust 4 forever, Luuboh continued in the role of quartermaster and cook.  It resided within the intestines of the ship, cleaning and organizing and keeping the rest of the crew fed and equipped. 

Now, it walked toward the odd procession crossing its ‘territory’ with something looking strangely like challenge.  Luuboh halted in the center of the hallway and waited for Evgeny and Soloth to draw near.  Evgeny was expecting a few whispered words, perhaps a question about operations that Luuboh felt necessary to ask immediately. 

Instead, as Evgeny neared the Mauraug, Luuboh gave a flat-footed, open-handed bow in the direction of the Ningyo delegation.

“Honored guests, welcome to the Scape Grace,” Luuboh intoned aloud, its bass voice all the more surprising coming from the relatively small Mauraug.  “I have prepared your quarters.  You will find nutrient dispensers, hopefully correctly calibrated.  Please, allow me to escort you.  I would ask that you tell me if the accommodations are unacceptable in any way.”

Evgeny was drawing breath to explain its error to Luuboh when Jolly spoke first.  “Thank you.  You are very kind.  We accept your generous offer and would happily accompany you to the provided quarters.  Captain, if you will excuse us?”

The first Ningyo, Comus, began to step forward.  Evgeny gave ground in confusion, falling to one side of the corridor as Soloth took a step back toward the opposite wall.  They exchanged a look between the passing Ningyo.  Soloth held a grimace of perplexity.  Evgeny was sure his own expression showed his bafflement.  Luuboh led the group further down the same hall, toward the stern sections holding engineering.  No doubt the necessary accommodations for Ningyo had been worked out by NuRikPo’s pair of Human tinkerers. 

As Punch went by, Evgeny turned toward the retreating Jolly.  He was only able to call out part of his question: “Why are you…”

Jolly anticipated the rest: “Because it would be rude not to, after being asked so nicely!”

 

***************************************************************************************

 

            The captain was left behind to steam as Luuboh and the Ningyo delegation departed for their quarters.  Soloth waited with him as well.  Evgeny’s temper was rapidly approaching a point of imbalance.  He decided that he could not manage multiple nuisances at once.  It was time to resolve at least one of his many problems.

            Facing Soloth, Evgeny sent the question broadside: “What’s going on with you?”

            The Mauraug waggled its eyebrows in an expression Humans might mistake for humorous effect, but Evgeny recognized as confusion and distress.  “What do you mean?”  Its rumbling voice also conveyed genuine uncertainty.

            “You haven’t said a thing to me, personally, since this whole mess started.  You’re angry.  I get that.  So let’s have it out.  Are you expecting an apology?  An explanation?”

            “Captain, I’m not sure what you think I’m angry about.  I’m unhappy about this situation, certainly.  But I don’t see what we could have done to avoid it.  It was an effective trap, if heavy-handed and wasteful.  If the Ningyo are true to their word, then we end up intact and possibly profit a little, if not in the way we had hoped.”

            “You’re really playing dumb?  You’re going to make me say it?”

            “I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            “When it looked like we were going to be attacked… when I started to walk off the bridge to ‘talk to NuRikPo’?  I saw you.  You looked crushed.”

            “Of course I was.  The ship was in danger.  Its leader had lost courage.”

            “Lost courage?  I was ready to take the lifeboat and dive for deep space.  If you ran like that on me, I’d be personally offended.”

            “You should not be.  Disappointed, yes.  But I am not Dominant here.  You are.  If you choose to abandon that role, that is your choice.  I would grieve for the loss of a leader and the necessity of taking Dominance myself, particularly in a situation with few options.  Why should I be offended if you decide that you can no longer serve as captain?  If you tried to stay behind after renouncing your authority, I would be offended.  If you try to step down to be second in command, I might kill you.  But abandoning all you have built would be fair punishment for renouncing your role as its master.  I am surprised you do not have more understanding of Dominion, after all this time.”

            “Soloth, I don’t think you Mauraug have a single understanding of Dominion, yourselves, after ‘all this time’."

            “You are correct.  My philosophy is from the Yurkot School, which holds that leaders exist only to serve themselves.  To place any constraints or demands upon Dominion, save those required to assert Dominance itself, is to weaken and even deny the truth of pure Dominion.  Saying that ‘a leader must do this or that’ is dictating to one’s betters.  If a leader cannot lead, they will be removed from Dominance soon enough.”

            “You realize that’s circular and contradictory, right?”

            “If limited by propositional logic, perhaps, yet the essential truth of the School is proven again and again, in both Mauraug and Human history.  Dominant leaders emerge in many ways and fall in many ways.  Trying to define the terms under which rule may occur generates false and poor leaders and also false and poor followers.  You assert your power in a different way than I do, true?”

            “Sure, but there’s arguments for and against us both.  Physical beatings only go so far.  I only manage as long as the crew is kept separated by their prejudices and specialties.  I’d be willing to say there’s a third, better option in there somewhere.”

            “I would say no.  We use the tools we have, in the circumstances we have, to their greatest effect.  What other options are there?  This is not a military ship, with the convenience of indoctrination to enforce a shared code of conduct upon those too weak to resist.  It is not a hive mind, with the comfort of shared purpose countering any personal desires.  This is an outlaw ship, crewed with wildly individual, culturally dissenting, and willingly violent sapients.  Our methods of leadership work here, where other methods would not, else we would be replaced and probably dead.”

            “I suppose I can see that, but…” Evgeny was interrupted, not rudely but firmly.

“Captain, if anything, you disappoint me in not already recognizing this.  You seem to have developed an unpleasant guilt.  We should speak more later, but this is not the time for extended discussion.”

Evgeny was still uncertain what he had lost or won in the exchange of words.  Soloth did not seem offended, and that was fortunate.  Evgeny still felt that he had lost the moral high ground.  He had certainly lost some respect in the eyes of his first mate.  Being lectured about his adherence to a religion he did not personally share would normally be absurd, but for some reason, he felt embarrassed. 

Soloth had that effect sometimes.  The Mauraug was more than a brute.  For one evidence, it delivered its punishments with selective care and used threats to their maximum advantage.  Apparently, underlying that physical aspect was a thoughtful consideration of force and its effects.  By comparison, Evgeny felt like the lumbering ape, fumbling his way through one crisis after another. 

Evgeny resolved to at least reclaim the semblance of self-respect.  He could work on clearing out his personal feelings later.  For now, there were interlopers on board his ship.  He needed to find out their plans and their capabilities.  That was the first step in making those plans change to his own benefit.  Overriding the Ningyo’s advantages and asserting his own was the next step.  Soloth was right.  If Evgeny Lerner could not assert Dominion on his own ship, it wasn’t his anymore.

“Fine.  Let’s get back to the bridge.  We’ll see if Katy and ‘Po have anything new we can use.  The Ning’ can come join us whenever they’re ready to shove off.”

“Very good, captain.”

The Wreck of the *Untranslatable* - Chapter 3

            “In the belly of the whale…” Katy Olu wondered aloud, looking across the readouts from their shuttle’s external sensors.  “Oh, right, a whale is a large mammal…”

            She was interrupted by the other occupant of the shuttle.  “I am familiar with the Terran genus Balaenoptera,” NuRikPo interjected with patronizing reproach, “As well as the myths about being consumed by them.”

            “Shows what you know,” Katy shot back, not looking up from her study, “Seeing as how the Zig killed off their large sea life, you couldn’t be expected to understand our stories.  There were documented cases of Humans swallowed by whales.”

            “But this is not a whale, so your analogy is irrelevant.”  The Zig’s refusal to banter properly was only one of his qualities that irritated Katy.  His toxic anatomy was another.  With Human patients, you only had to worry about pathogens crossing over from contact with tissues or fluids.  With Zig, you had to get chelation treatments after prolonged contact, to flush out the heavy metals. 

Katy had heard stories about humans in sexual contact with Zig.  She wished she could consider them myths.  Contracting a sexually transmitted disease might be preferable to risking hair loss and nerve damage.  What could be so fascinating about the aliens to stimulate attraction in the face of such obvious incompatibility?  They were practically insects, emotionally speaking. 

The inaccuracy of this comparison made it especially annoying to the Zig, so of course, Katy made use of it.  “So get to work, bug eyes, and tell me what it is.”

NuRikPo took the demand literally and turned to his own bank of monitors, examining the same data stream as Katy but with a different focus and perspective. 

“The surroundings appear to be a composite of various metals, ceramics, and plastics.  Initial soundings and spectrographs suggest complex layering of materials.  Magnetic imaging is uncertain… radiography blocked… ah, hull material impervious to electromagnetic influences, obviously, but why on the inner surfaces?  Actual structure will need to wait for closer inspection.  There are gaps internally: joins between differing strata which can be exploited.  Yes… definitely a metallic frame superstructure beneath.”

Though motivated more by a competitive urge to avoid being outdone, Katy still fell into a complementary rhythm with her nemesis.  “No visible artifacts… no storage, controls, or labels in this chamber.  Strictly utilitarian.  Atmosphere is being introduced now: eight parts nitrogen to two oxygen… and that’s all, totally clean.  That’s better filtration than we manage.  No organics in the mix, at all.  If there’s any carbon out there, it’s bound tightly.  Nothing toxic.  Pressure is reaching 100 kilopascals… already high and climbing.”

Her analysis was interrupted by a signal indicating motion nearby.  Both researchers switched to the forward camera and saw what had triggered the alert.

“Look, another sphincter,” Katy summarized.

“As you already stated, this environment is non-organic.  Applying biological analogies is counter-productive…”

“It’s a general descriptive term, like calling you a person.”

While they sniped, the orifice in question continued to expand from a half-meter across to a diameter of nearly two meters.  It appeared in the opposite wall from the ‘mouth’ they had originally entered, opening in the far side of the ‘shuttle deck’.  The entire chamber was about three times the volume of the shuttle itself, with a manageable if not comfortable amount of clearance.  Before that opening appeared, the only illumination in the space had been the shuttle’s own spotlights.  Now, a steady but dim red-orange glow poured into the room from the revealed passage beyond.  It gave the dull, dark metallic grey substance of the walls a disturbingly bloody cast. 

The opening stopped expanding, but the motion detector still continued to blip.  A separate object of approximately half Human volume was steadily approaching through the adjacent passage.  The two observers continued to watch the forward view screen in anticipation.

What appeared was not immediately recognizable.  It appeared to be a reflective lump of matter, the same dark grey as the walls but polished to a mirror sheen.  The motile matter crawled like an energetic slug, rolling itself forward in peristaltic waves.  When it had passed the opening and entered the shuttle deck, it stopped.  The thing lifted itself upward into a rounded conical shape and extruded two blunt pseudopods, which waved in seemingly random circles around its upper mass. 

This motion was accompanied by sound.  Even without the acoustic pickups, they could feel resonances bouncing through the material of the shuttle.  NuRikPo belatedly switched on the audio sensors soon as they realized the thing was vibrating the atmosphere.  Their visitor was loud.  It was also projecting on very low frequencies carrying considerable kinetic energy. 

The sound, when damped and filtered to comfortable audible parameters, was still unpleasant and indecipherable.  It sounded like the thump and rumble of poorly tuned machinery.  Portions might have been pleasantly musical or almost rhythmic, if not interrupted by pops and grinding segments.  Spectrum analysis showed that there were more sub-audible than audible components to the sound, so they were still missing much of the signal even after displacing its frequencies upward. 

Katy identified the creature first, “It’s a Ningyo!  Or rather, an artificial Ningyo… with no suit.  In this atmosphere and pressure, a real Ning’ would burst.  That must be what their actual language sounds like.  Ha!  It thinks we’re related to its friends from the Black Humor.  No… that makes no sense, otherwise it would use their atmosphere settings instead.  They must have advised it what environment to set for us.  The temperature is even nice and warm.”

“If I might be allowed to theorize as well, the Ningyo may not have given this ship’s AI much data at all.  Our atmospheric preferences could be obtained by analysis of this shuttle: its technology and expelled traces.  We are not as impermeable as this ship.  I suspect the AI is basing its behavior on whatever information it can glean on its own.”

“If that’s the case, it’s learning more about us than we are about it.  It even has artificial gravity set to point-nine gee, same as this shuttle.  Our host is being just about as hospitable as possible without offering refreshments.”  Katy’s assessment carried an undertone of concern, which NuRikPo picked up.

“While we are limited to the range of our instruments.  Unless we accept its welcome, we will learn little about the rest of this ship.  It seems necessary to trust this ‘host’ for the present.  I suppose we’re no worse off out there than in here, should there be a threat.  Really, the time for prudence would have been before entering at all.” 

“Or before getting on board the Scape Grace,” Katy muttered, not sure if she meant the comment seriously or not.  She had voluntarily stepped into more dangerous situations, some with even less forewarning about the dangers she might expect.  But in those cases, she had generally been in comprehensible environments, working against sapients with familiar anatomy and psychology.  Even if a problem caught her off-guard, she could have confidence that her skill and instincts would find a way out. 

Here, dealing with a completely foreign culture in a ship built using unfamiliar technology, she faced a challenge of unknown dimensions.  When captain Lerner mentioned an alien ship, she had imagined a more familiar design, albeit with differing scale, aesthetics, and control schemes, probably labeled with strange writing.  From the outside, this ship might have been mistaken for any of a half-dozen freighter ship models used by the Collective. 

That was before they docked.  Since then, the foreign ship had been revealed as something quite different.  It was round where it should be squared, dark and cramped where there should be light and room.  The texture of the walls was, as NuRikPo had described it, “complex”, regularly patterned at any one location but shifting in pattern from surface to surface.  The mock Ningyo did nothing to relieve this sense of oddity.  Katy was disturbed, her senses just as offended as they had been at the unpleasant color of NuRikPo’s bowels or the fungus that dulled their Vislin gunner Tklth’s scales.   It was wrong.  This wasn’t even a proper spaceship. 

Just then, Katy realized why the “ghost ship” bothered her the same way alien anatomy did.  They were within the anatomy of an organism.  It might not have any organic compounds, but the curve of the ‘shuttle bay’ and the texture of its walls very much suggested a cellular structure.  The appearance of the outer and inner orifices was not some artifact of alien design but the necessary movement pattern of a biological structure. 

“’Po… my first thought wasn’t far off.  We are inside an organism.”

“No, there are no organics.  So far, I’m not even seeing silicate analogs.  I’m familiar with the Corromi, if you’re thinking in that direction.”  NuRikPo’s response was dismissive, his voice conveying Zig irritation by treating Katy’s hypothesis as already falsified.  His reference to the Corromi, the first silicon-based sapient life form known to the Collective, was a deliberate insult.  Any first-year xenobiology student would be familiar with such a unique exception to the carbon-based norm.

“Not organic, organism.  As in, a self-contained living system.  A system with cells… and probably organs.”

Now NuRikPo replied with interest, meaning challenge: “On what do you base this assertion?”

“The texture you’re picking up, the layering, the shape of this room, the shape and movement of those openings… I’d know more, immediately, if we could get a sample of that floor material.”

“Unfortunately, with this gravity, the shuttle isn’t oriented properly to employ a cutting tool strong enough to damage this material.  We’ll have to step outside to get your… biopsy.”

“Okay, then, let’s go meet the welcome slug.  I’ll just keep hoping my analogy isn’t perfect.  If this thing starts to chew or swallow, we’re in trouble.”

The Wreck of the *Untranslatable* - Chapter 2

          I really hate Ningyo, captain Evgeny Lerner thought to himself as the current focus of his hatred blinked out of view.  His counterpart on the Ningyo ship Black Humor, the ‘amusingly’ named captain Jolly, had given them a truce of half a Solar hour.  During that time, Evgeny had to select one or more crew members to send over to the “ghost ship”, a craft of supposedly unknown origins with a currently untranslatable name.  Jolly had claimed that the foreign ship was controlled by an artificial intelligence devised by no culture known to the Collective.   At the same time that Evgeny sent his hostages away, Jolly and several other Ningyo were to come aboard Evgeny’s own ship, the Scape Grace.  From there, presumably, they would oversee the escort of the foreign ship to safer space. 

            Why the Ningyo couldn’t just bluff or bully their way to wherever they wanted to take the ship was a mystery.  For some reason, the creepy dolls didn’t want to be associated publicly with this visitor.  For that matter, couldn’t they just bend space with their drives and drop the little lost ship at home?   Evgeny spent more of the allotted time trying to unravel these puzzles than he spent deciding who to exile to the foreign ship. 

The situation actually made that decision easy for him.  Given the AI angle, he might have considered sending Gleamer, who had some cognitive programming experience.  Unfortunately, given the split between ships, he needed Gleamer on board the ‘Grace to ensure the possibility of secure communications between himself and the separated crew.  With his familiar tools at hand, Gleamer should have little trouble keeping the Ningyo from spying on any private plotting.  Instead, the captain would have to go with second best, ship’s engineer NuRikPo.  The Zig should be able to spot and analyze any novel technology found on board the foreign ship.  In fact, the Ningyo had all but invited him to send an analyst capable of appreciating and exploiting their discovery. 

That might be one reason for this whole production.  The Ningyo could be placating the unnamed ship – that is to say, its AI – by making up a story about giving it safe escort.  They could claim to be unable to transport it directly. That would buy them time to examine the foreigner at length.  It was just like the Ningyo to play out a con to its full extent.  They probably were enjoying the process.  Plus, by involving a criminal third party, they kept their own government from being directly associated.  That would be handy if any patentable discoveries emerged as a result of their proxy’s probing.

Evgeny’s second choice for the mission also came down to practical considerations.  There was risk involved with entry into any alien environment.  He wanted their xenobiologist on hand to watch for any potential hazards.  That meant their ship’s medic, Katy Olu, would be accompanying NuRikPo.  She would also be able to handle a little sociological and biological factors research, trying to decipher what the alien technology could tell them about its creators.  As much as Katy claimed to loathe non-Humans, her distaste was well-informed by years of study in comparative disciplines. 

The best thing about this pairing was just that, their mutual dislike for one another.  With another pair, Evgeny might have to worry about collusion to hide discoveries or just steal the other ship and set off on their own.  If not directly cooperating, another dyad might have a dominant member who could cow their counterpart into going along with a mutiny.  Given their currently strained relationship, Evgeny certainly could not let his first mate, Soloth bash’ Soloth, out of his sight within a possible escape ship.  Ticklish might be tempted to run amok in several different ways, given too much freedom.  Anyone else, from the various dozen grunts in the passenger hold to their ship’s “omega”, Luuboh, would be dead weight if sent aboard the other ship. 

But Katy and ‘Po… they would neither help nor hinder one another.  They might not produce any synergy, but at least he wouldn’t have to worry about them scheming together.  With that cheery thought in mind, Evgeny notified the others on the bridge – Soloth, Ticklish, and Gleamer – that they were off the hook.  He then excused himself to travel below decks.  This time, his excuse was legitimate. 

He first stopped by Katy’s quarters.  He did the medic the courtesy of thumbing her pad-lock, announcing his presence as the system scanned his thumbprint.  The door scrolled open on an archaic track of ball bearings.  Inside, Katy stood rigid, her fists pressed against her hips.  She was definitely not any prettier when angry.  Her carefully shaped eyebrows were folded into a tense vee and her purple lips were tightened flat.  A sheen of familiar Human perspiration reflected off her loam-dark skin.  Like Evgeny, she had chosen to crop her hair short for practical reasons, but instead of his military ruff, she managed to make the buzz cut look like a model’s stylistic minimalism.  She was dressed similarly to Evgeny as well, but her utilitarian trousers clung where his hung flat, and her button-down work shirt was buttoned slightly lower to accommodate other curves.

Evgeny had managed to get the issue of attraction to a crewmate of compatible species and gender out of his system during Katy’s first year aboard.  That didn’t mean that he didn’t still consider her temptingly attractive.  Most Human males did, which was part of her benefit to the Scape Grace.  Granted, as a medic, Katy would still be immensely valuable, but her willingness to open up her own body had opened up several opportunities for the pirate crew.  For those who didn’t find a woman’s attentions sufficient trade for their cooperation, Katy had also made use of her command of intoxicants, slow-acting toxins, psychoactives, and sometimes, just brute psychology.  There were other reasons Evgeny had found her charms waning… something like the same reasons he didn’t want to sleep with Ticklish.

Still, the Collective had lost a potentially brilliant covert operative when Katy was dismissed from medical school for unethical conduct.  She had taken the reprimand as a challenge to show them what ‘unethical’ really meant.  Right now, Evgeny suspected he was about to be challenged.

“There had better be someone bleeding,” Katy began, her apparent joke carrying a promise that she herself could provide a victim if one was not already available. 

“No, we’re involved in a different type of battle now,” Evgeny approached the subject while trying not to sound placating.  “We’re pinned between two Ningyo ships, one of them a command vessel, and a third that seems to be their ally.  It’s apparently from no known culture and abandoned except for some pilot AI.  They’re giving us… actually, demanding that we send over someone to take a look.  Supposedly, that’s our trade for getting the ship out of Collective space without anyone noticing, or at least without noticing any Ningyo involvement.”

“So?” Katy was probably deliberately avoiding his point.

“So I’m sending you and ‘Po over to meet their demands.”

“Oh, no.  First, I agreed to fix up crew.  I take on other projects only by my choice.  Second, I don’t like that copper ass.  Third, why don’t you send Gleamer for AI work?  That’s none of my interest.”

“Because I’ll need someone over here to talk to you over there without the Ningyo catching on.  Also because it’s not just an AI in a ship, if we believe the jellyfish.  Their speaker was implying that the ship itself is the body for a unique sort of AI.  You can check it out from the perspective of its builders.  You already know the other reason… ‘Po won’t mind his own vitals without help.”

“Don’t try to appeal to me by putting down an obvious cripple.  You have your plans.  That’s great.  What do I get out of risking myself here?”

“The usual cut of…”

“Don’t say profits, Lerner.  I don’t buy that.”

Now Evgeny had built up enough genuine anger that he could let the excess leak into his persuasive banter, “You’ve seen me work, Olu.  We will profit from this mess, one way or another.  I don’t plan to give the Ningyo what they want, not without more reward than they’re currently offering.  I’m putting you on board that ship to see what’s worth taking and to find the best way to take it.  You won’t be pulling your weight over here.  So rather than letting you take a vacation while we play cruise ship for our commandeering guests, I want you where you’ll be useful.  Do I make myself clear?”

“Wow, you didn’t even threaten me with the gorilla.  How polite!”  Katy had a point.  Several months ago, she had nursed a broken rib and a black eye earned by defying Evgeny in front of first mate Soloth.  When the captain’s temper had reached its limit, Soloth had backhanded Katy down a hall into a storage room. 

“I don’t recall threatening you at all, now or then.  Unlike so many here, I’m a reasonable man… follow my example.”

“Fine, but I expect a double share of any ‘profits’.”

“Earn it.  I have no problem with that if it looks fair.”

“How long do I have?”

“Twenty minutes.”

"The hell!”

“Hey, enjoy it.  I stopped by to tell you first.  ‘Po only gets fifteen.”

“Oh, what’s he got to pack?  He only has one change of clothes.”

“Bye, Katy, see you at the shuttle in nineteen.”

Katy’s parting vulgarity was cut off as Evgeny keyed her door closed, demonstrating that he could just as easily override her security as submit to it.  Hovering between a smile and a grimace, he followed the corridor to the end of the deck and then laddered down to the engine levels of the ‘Grace. 

Crossing the engine level to the aft chambers where NuRikPo held court, Evgeny passed two of the regular crew, a male and female Human named Burnett and Zenaida, respectively.  They shared the same surname, Georges, and the same colonial accent, but claimed to be cousins rather than mates or siblings.  Evgeny did not particularly care what they were, provided they obeyed orders and performed their jobs well.  The two, olive-skinned and sharp-nosed, were perfect compliments to their Zig overseer, even dressing in the same utility jumpsuits.  They handled the routine maintenance and repairs for the ‘Grace under NuRikPo’s direction.  As their captain passed, Zenaida raised a hand in greeting, while her counterpart kept his hands on the gauge he was gluing into place.  Both watched Evgeny warily, aware that any displeasure by their leader could have financial or physical consequences.  Evgeny gave them a slight nod to reassure them that he was watching them, even if he had no reason for inspection just now

The visit to NuRikPo was much less trouble than the argument with Katy, in keeping with the self-proclaimed Zig reputation for efficiency.  Evgeny delivered much the same synopsis he had given Katy.  NuRikPo’s response was to delve directly into the known facts.  They put Gleamer on the comm and the three of them reviewed the data collected up to that point on the “ghost ship”.  During the exchange, the Zig began arming himself with an arsenal of tools which he loaded into a rucksack: probes, recorders, cutters, stasis cylinders for storage, and even his prized transmutation chamber, a bit of proprietary Zig technology.  The engineer was so opposed to sharing the device that he would not even operate it within view of another sapient. 

            After ten minutes, NuRikPo called halt to the recitation and took the rest of the information on a storage bead.  Katy’s jest was proven true, as the engineer topped off his baggage with a single spare jumpsuit.  Like the one he was already wearing, it was a rough khaki fabric intended for resistance to a wide spectrum of corrosive fluids, radiating particles and energies.  Its color was not far from his own skin tone, a pale reddish brown with an opalescence of silver.  Only his wide eyes offset this relatively drab palette, with gleaming star sapphires for irises.  Evgeny often mentally compared his engineer to the lizards of his childhood home, with their own jeweled eyes belying dusty camouflage.  He had the right build, too: spindly limbs and a thick torso.

The two, captain and engineer, walked together to the shuttle dock at the opposite side of the upper engine level.  En route, they discussed strategy.

“As I told Katy, I expect that you’ll be looking for ways to take control of that ship.  Don’t be passive visitors; find anything we can exploit.  We’ll run a dual comm stream: make basic reports over the standard line and run anything subversive underneath on Gleamer’s doubletalk encryption.”

“Noted, captain,” NuRikPo nodded in a courteous bow.  In contrast to Katy’s overt defiance, the Zig was deferential out of cultural habit and expressed his independence through action.  If the engineer felt that an order was ill-informed, he would simply ignore it and act as he thought best.  Since that insubordination had once saved the lives of everyone on the Scape Grace (when it turned out that firing the damaged main cannon would in fact fatally irradiate them all), Evgeny tended to turn a blind eye to all but the most egregious disobedience.  In return, ‘Po did him the courtesy of not making his exemptions public knowledge.

“Listen to her if she gives a warning.  Despite appearances, she’s interested in keeping you alive.  She’s also going along to interpret.  Consider her your Gold Caste counterpart, if you have to, and trust her to read any cultural cues and handle any social interaction.”

“She certainly is specialized properly for Gold Caste, with those…,” NuRikPo gestured around his chest, his long fingers shaping globes in front of his pectoral area.

Evgeny grinned.  “Fair enough.  Okay, let her mammaries be your guide.  Just do like you would for me and don’t take any stupid orders.  You’re the primary as far as physical research.  Find whatever is valuable and go shopping.  She’s already getting double share, so I’ll give you the same incentive… just make sure to share whatever you bring back.  I find out that you’re holding out, I’ll share that news on general comm.”

Yes, he was threatening with the gorilla.  Evgeny briefly wondered how many kilos Soloth massed.  Was it 180?  That would be hilarious.  That is, if anyone even knew the old Terran joke about the 800 pound gorilla.  The Ningyo might.  The hell if he would entertain them, though.

  NuRikPo only nodded again.  By then, they were at the shuttle dock.  An airlock door would cycle them into the simple teardrop shaped lander.  They kept the shuttle for a wide variety of reasons: an extra escape route, a surface transport when it wasn’t safe to land the ‘Grace, and a runabout for towing debris or managing larger external repairs.  As such, it was a multitool of various added devices.  The engineer was reaching a point of diminishing returns on the small craft, as each new system tended to displace or interfere with existing functions.  As such, its weaponry had been steadily decreased in favor of more constructive appendages. 

Katy pushed the deadline and arrived thirty seconds late.  Evgeny could be certain, because ‘Po insisted on counting them out and announced the final count when the medic arrived. 

“Thirty?  That how many centimeters of ileum analogue you want removed next time you come in with shrapnel?”  Katy scored a point by referencing a mishap where an over-pressurized autoclave had exploded and sent shards of steel into the Zig’s abdomen.  A human most likely would have died from the trauma, but genetic hardiness worked in the engineer’s favor and he was back to work a week later. 

NuRikPo still maintained that the equipment was at fault, not the operator.  He did not deign to reply to Katy’s threat, a twitch of his fingers the only indication of his aggravation. 

Instead, he turned to Evgeny.  “Captain, ready to depart.”

Evgeny turned, himself, and keyed the unlock code for the shuttle into the airlock door. Along with other security codes for the Scape Grace, he kept the shuttle under tight control.  It was too tempting a lifeboat for anyone wanting to jump ship, whether to run off with stolen goods (doubly stolen, to be fair) or sensitive data to sell.  The last thing he needed in a tight situation – like the present – was to leave anyone a way out.  Anyone except himself, of course. 

The door cycled open and admitted the two passengers to the shuttle dock.  Katy carried two hard-shell cases slung over both shoulders and resting on her hips like saddlebags.  She had also strapped on a gun belt.  Her favored sidearm, a compressed-gas minidart gun, rested in its holster.  The belt’s pouches held ‘bullets’ composed of a gas charge and hardened glass ampoules designed to inject any of a variety of nasty substances into their target.  If Evgeny knew his medic right, several of those loads were specific to Ningyo biochemistry.  Maybe one was Zig-specific.  The charges were powerful enough to punch through many plastics and some thinner metal plates.  In a pinch, they could even be fired point blank to provide a simple kinetic ‘punch’, although that was a fairly crude use of an elegant assassination tool.  Honestly, it was a testament to their success as a team that half of the crew wasn’t dead from neurotoxins.  It was still more useful for Katy to leave them alive – even suffer Soloth’s tender ministrations – than kill them one by one.

The same was true for each of them, he supposed.  The threats from Soloth and the Vislin, Tklth, were obviously physical, but even NuRikPo could gas them through the vents or just strip the oxygen from the air.  Evgeny or Gleamer could selectively shut down life support throughout the ship.  Hell, even Luuboh could probably tear most of them in half if it had a mind to… maybe in that berserk meltdown Soloth was always expecting from the seemingly passive Mauraug runt. 

The simple fact was that they managed through mutual threat.  Anyone starting a final showdown had better be ready to finish off every single other crewmate, or they would become the target of a unified strike by every other sapient still interested in working together.  It was much more likely that a dissident would try to sneak out than shoot it out.  As long as they each had something to gain from staying and too much to lose from leaving, the détente would hold.  The only violence would remain nonlethal and usually verbal. 

With those further happy thoughts, Evgeny watched the inner door cycle back closed, sealing Katy and NuRikPo inside.  They opened the shuttle door (now unlocked as a consequence of Evgeny’s permissions) and stepped inside.  Most likely, without an audience, the two would slip into silent synergy, working together to ready the shuttle for departure. 

Evgeny did not remain to see them off.  Instead, he took the fore ladder and returned to the command level, emerging not far from the bridge.  Crossing the hall, he returned to the nerve center of the Scape Grace, finding Gleamer, Tklth, and Soloth still at stations, right where he had left them.

“Katy and ‘Po are aboard the shuttle.  Hail the Black Humor and let them know we’re ready for the transfer.”  Evgeny spoke to the entire room, not bothering to direct his commands to anyone in particular.  These three knew their individual duties well enough.

Gleamer cycled to the new frequency the Ningyo had selected for their ship-to-ship communications, avoiding the standard Collective spectrum.  “Black Humor acknowledging.  Want to say anything, captain?”

“Nothing polite, no.  Tell them we’ll leave our shuttle dock open after our runabout leaves, but they’ll stay in the ‘lock until I’m sure our people are safely on board the other ship."

“Got it.”

Tklth craned her crested head around on her flexible neck, looking directly at Evgeny without turning her chair, “Should we keep them outside until we are sure they do not plan to attack?”

“Keep your enemies close… so that their allies might shoot them by accident.  I’d rather have them as our own hostages if something goes wrong.  Until that command ship leaves, having them aboard keeps us a little safer.  That’s presuming Ningyo value one another’s lives.”

Soloth replied to both the Vislin and its Human captain, “They do, at least enough to trust that they won’t waste a commander’s life unnecessarily.  Still, the stories I’ve heard do indicate that they will sacrifice themselves in favor of the survival of one another.  If we threaten to execute their boarding crew, ourselves, they might decide to designate a few martyrs.”

“We’re not in a strong position here,” Evgeny admitted, “But they have to concede to a few common-sense measures.  I’m going to toe the line between bowing to their terms and forcing them to prove their strength.  Taking what we can.”

“And what we can’t, we can,” chimed in Gleamer, not looking away from his display screens.  The doggerel seemed to come out as a reflex, an automated response triggered by the right cue phrase.  Soloth grimaced and flared its nostrils in disgust, while Tklth ignored the Mauraug and younger Human and remained focused on Evgeny. 

“So, no, don’t even bother keeping targeting on their shuttle,” Evgeny answered the Vislin’s unspoken question.  “We look friendly but cautious, like we’re really interested in finding out what they have planned.  Technically, I am interested, for our own private reasons.  They’re not stupid, though.  They’ll have failsafes.  Look sharp and watch for tricks.  The bigger threat isn’t the guns they’ll be waving around.  I’m pretty sure they have a private reason for dragging us into this escapade.  They might be trying to learn something that they couldn’t get by blasting us into fragments.  Let’s not give anything away.”

Soloth turned in response to an alarm from its console.  “Ningyo shuttle is away.  Our shuttle is signaling ready to depart.”

“Send them out.  Gleamer, let the Ningyo know to come on in.”

“The vacuum’s fine,” Gleamer mumbled, still keying commands in rapid succession.  “Done, done, and done.”

Then there was a quiet wait, while on view screens, two moving dots transited between three larger, stationary shapes.  The silvery shuttle from the ‘Grace moved to intersect the unnamed foreign ship.  The spherical, matte white shuttle from the Black Humor approached the ‘Grace.  In the meantime, the remaining ship with the Maraug name and apparently Ningyo crew, the salvager Harauch, stayed put.  It stood silent and still, a mute observer to the interchange. 

The Ningyo shuttle arrived first, as the Black Humor had emerged absurdly close to the ‘Grace when it appeared from folded space.  Soloth confirmed the shuttle docked and closed the outer doors without prompting from Evgeny. 

Ten minutes later, their own shuttle signaled that it had come within unaided visual range of the “ghost ship”.  This was followed by a curious transmission along the secondary, coded subchannel.  NuRikPo declared that the ship had “opened its mouth” and they were reluctant to walk inside.  This was accompanied by a visual showing what looked like an elliptical shuttle bay opening in the otherwise smooth hull of the other ship.  Other than its stark simplicity and perfectly engineered dimensions, nothing appeared odd enough to explain the Zig’s hesitation. 

“Tell him to take the invite.  If he sees teeth, he has my permission to run.” Evgeny kept his tone deadpan, refusing the temptation to sarcasm.

Gleamer did grin as he sent the response.  Tklth only nodded in agreement.  The gunner had little to do while they were playing friendly.  Evgeny could not fault her for being twitchy. 

“Okay, they’re inside.  Ew… he might have a point.  Take a look.”  Gleamer threw the visual transmission from the shuttle onto the main display, where it displaced the tactical view showing the relative position of their neighboring ships.  It showed the ‘shuttle bay’ from the shuttle’s rear camera.  The oval opening went from a carefully engineered portal to a shrinking orifice as it closed unevenly from all sides at once.  The effect was unpleasantly organic.  From the inside, the shuttle’s lights showed an unbroken dark grey surface where an exit had once been.

Evgeny ran a hand across his darkly stubbled scalp, “Keep monitoring them.  Let’s hope it’ll open up again when they’re ready to leave.  Fortunately, we sent a surgeon, in case they need to cut it open from the inside.”

Gleamer sent the message, head bobbing in response to some inaudible signal.  For all Evgeny knew, the comm officer might be ‘hearing’ telemetry data or the compositions of his musical sub-AI, maybe both at once.  As long as he didn’t miss anything important, the captain allowed the programmer his hobbies. 

“Soloth, let’s go greet our ‘guests’.  Ticklish, I know you want to say hello… which is why you’re staying here.  I want us ready to react if they do try something.  Your job is to watch for any sign of attack from either ship.  If they do threaten, we have to respond fast.”

The Vislin had indeed turned around in her seat to rise, halting as she was addressed.  She clicked her beak in frustration but did not argue the point.  Soloth simply stepped forward to join Evgeny as he walked to the bridge’s exit hatch.

The two old allies, Human and Mauraug, left the bridge together.  This should be fun, Evgeny thought to himself, going along with a friend I just nearly betrayed to meet with enemies I have to pretend are friends while I plan how to screw them over.  Just another day in the life of a pirate captain.