Lynette rolled her eyes. "So what does that word mean?"
"Grundhi means...uh...well, it doesn't exactly translate, but I guess the closest would be...uh...excrement."
Marlon snorted. He stifled the smile quickly, but it was there for a minute. Perhaps he wasn't completely unreachable.
Lynette bit back a smile. "Ah. I figured it was something like that."
"Sorry," I said with a small smile.
She took a bit and waved a hand. "No, I get it. I deserved it. I don't suppose I want you reading my entries. How many species are out there?"
"Tribes," I corrected. "Please. If you don't mind."
"Tribes."
"And as to how many..." I shrugged. "How should I know? I personally interacted with several. And they told us about more. And I bet those could lead us to even more and more and on and on."
"I knew it," Marlon butt in. "I always knew it."
Lynette shot Marlon a look. "Of course you knew it, moron. You work for StarTech. We all know it. You want a cookie or something?" She shook her head and turned back to me. "Jake, since I'm supposed to teach you about people...humans," she corrected quickly. I appreciated that correction. "The first thing you should know is that the average person has no idea other life forms exist. Some people, like us, think they might. We think that other...tribes might be out there. We've been taught it and we believe it, but we've still had no hard proof. So you sitting here, talking these other languages, talking about having these people as your friends, your family..." she shook her head.
"It's crap, that's what she means." Marlon pointed with his fork. "It's crap. A whole load of BS, as we say."
"But it's not crap. It's real. It's out there. They're out there and..."
Marlon snorted. "Good luck getting the average Joe to listen. I believe in it, but I'm a weirdo."
Lynette nodded. "He's right, he's a weirdo. Even by our standards."
"Thanks, sis."
"Anytime."
So they're siblings. That explains a lot.
"But they're real," I insisted again. "And we have proof."
"And it's all science and technical stuff. My job is to teach you how to talk about them to regular people. And let me tell you, regular people panic at the idea of other life forms."
I frowned. "Why?"
"Bad sci-fi," said Marlon.
Lynette nodded. "Stories. Fear. I think people worry that if there is another form of life it'll come take over Earth and eat people or something."
I had to laugh. "I can't imagine a Qitani take over. They don't even eat meat unless they're absolutely desperate, never mind humans. Besides, Laak'sa is superior to Earth in every way."
Lynette was smiling, Marlon was listening. "How so?"
"Two suns, for a start. More daylight, tropical climate, rainbows across the orange sky every morning when the primary sun rises and every night when it sets. Earth is blue, but Laak'sa is green, everywhere you look, everything you see. There are vast rivers that rush through dense forests that provide more food and resources than the Qitani could ever use, and everything has that rainbow effect to it. Their jewels, their wood, even their ores are washed in the colors Earth can only dream about."
"Tell me more," said Christophe. "Tell me of these Qitani."
"They are so close to humans that Mother believes a universal truth of the top of evolution might just be two legs, two hands, two thumbs, though we'll have to study far more than just one other culture for that to be true. They're taller than we are, but only slightly, and their rib cages are different. The oxygen level of Laak'sa is less because of a thinner atmosphere, so they've developed longer lungs. They only live about twenty years, and they spend those years moving their people further as a generation than we can in the hundred we have."
"What was your first meeting like?"
"Me? I was a kid. Ralph could probably answer better." Ralph made a motion to urge me on. "You have to remember I was only what? Twelve? And I'd just left my only friend back on v-2445, Little Blob."
"That's quite a name."
"That's the rough translation. I had just left him. He was my first friend off ship. But we were invited by Morhal, the primary leader of the Qitani. We set the coordinates she sent us into our small transport pod. Mother and Dad took me along, I think to show them our familial structure. At the time I thought it was just to have fun on a new world. Maybe it was both.
"We let the pod take us in. I heard Dad talking to our controller Daniel about it later, and they had a lock on us. We couldn't have veered off course if we wanted to. The pod got closer. Their major city surrounds their one large ocean, though it's smaller than the oceans on Earth. Mostly the water is in rivers on Laak'sa. The buildings are huge, and made of their metal that shines like rainbows. Dad calls it the City of Jewels, and that's what it looks like.
"The people were waiting around the square of their palace. Millions of them, just standing there, silent. I had never thought so many people could be in one place at a time. The pod landed in front of the crystal steps of the palace. At the top were Morhal and Ta'al, the primary and secondary leaders of the Qitani, and their children. They're tinted green because of their diets, and their hair and eyes tend to be shades of blue. They wear flowing gowns of woven metal that's so fine it looks like it's almost not even there, and all of the people of importance have jewels inset at birth that follow the lines of the collarbone and cheek bones."
Everyone was paying attention, even Marlon. "Go on," urged Christophe.
"We got out of the pod. I think they planned the perfect timing of our arrival, because as we were motioned up the crystal staircase, the second sun was directly behind the great palace archway and the evening rainbow shone overhead. Morhal and Ta'al stepped forward and began speaking. I had no idea what they were saying, none of us did. But Mother and Dad did their best. They were all motioning and trying to come up with some kind of instant sign language and I found it boring." I laughed. "Sorry. I said I was a kid. You should really ask Ralph if you want more details."
"What did you do while they tried to talk?"
"Looked around. Looked as Ashnahta, even though I didn't know that was her name at the time. She was glaring at me. She was a child, too, their primary in training. She had her arms crossed and I waved like an idiot." I had to smile at the memory. She looked so angry when I did that. "And then she looked away and I spent the rest of the time making silly faces at her brothers and sisters, and they back at me. We ate some food that Mother tested first, and gave them some of ours, that Morhal had someone test as well. And we took our masks off in short bursts, so that Morhal and Ta'al could study us.
"And after a few days of this, we started to really pick up words of their language. I was assigned to be by Ashnatha's side, and I can't tell you how resentful she was of that at first. But I decided to show her she was wrong. We spent the next year doing the same things day after day. We arrived there, and I was sent off with Ashnatha and her tutor to try and learn her language. There's just so much that doesn't translate, though. I struggled and struggled until I figured out how to inspeak."
Christophe raised an eyebrow. "Inspeak?"
"Ah, maybe that's enough for now," said Ralph quickly.
"Yes. It's how they communicate in that solar system. Really communicate, I mean."
"How does one inspeak?"
I shrugged. "I don't know how it's done. You just...do it. You open up and let someone send their thoughts and feelings to you."
"ESP?" He was asking Ralph.
"In a way. But really, he's the only one who's claimed to be able to do it and we've got no data..."
Christophe held up a hand, then turned back to me. "Tell me, is this something they did to you?"
"No." At his look, I repeated it. "I'm telling you, no. Mother always wondered that, too. Morhal believes it is because I was a child, that my mind was open. We use a different part of our brains than they do." He looked back to Ralph.