"Please," I begged, just like a kid again. "I'm working on a top level project and...well...I'm stuck."
He sighed. "So it's Marlon you want. You know he's on black out for a week, don't you?"
"Yeah." I shuffled my feet. "I kind of...well, it wasn't all his fault. And if he can help me, maybe I can get him cleared."
Al laughed. "Oh now don't go doing that! He's punished for a reason." He started to warm up to me. "What's the project?" I didn't answer. "Ah. That alien thing, eh?" I looked up quickly and he laughed again. "Kid, I told you. I've been at this job a very long time. The one thing I can do better than anyone else is sniff out the truth. Down the hall to the left. It's the library. I'll send Marlon in. You can work in there. No need to wake up all the others, even if you are a Cosworth." He said my last name with a little less contempt that time. He pointed down the hall. "And you make sure he doesn't lay a finger on that terminal, you got that?"
I gave a nod and tried to walk regally down the hall. It was no use. All my bravado was gone. I didn't know how Ashnahta always managed to pull it off, to project absolute authority. Maybe it's just inborn in the Qitani. I found the library and noticed the back of the room was lit. I went to sit at a terminal and wait for Marlon.
He came in wearing a robe and a frown. "The only thing I like better than gaming is my sleep. This better be good, space ape." He pulled a chair out from beside me and slumped. "Now what was so friggin' important that you got me out of bed at...hell...what time is it?"
"About three." He scoffed, but I ignored it. "I need to know how to get into the fah'ti code."
He blinked his sleepy eyes at me for a minute. "That's what you got me up for? That? The same thing that got me blacked out?" He made a little squeak. "Forget this." Marlon went to stand and I grabbed his arm.
"I think I know part of the problem," I said quickly. So it was a little lie. So what? It got him to stay.
About an hour later, I was still trying to find the part of the problem I promised. He guided me to the original code. I uploaded it to my holo, something he found highly amusing.
"They'll get you for that one. Level G or not, you'll be blacked out."
I wasn't worried about it. Then I got down to business. I looked at the original code, with Marlon asking questions over my shoulder the whole time.
"You can actually read that?"
"You sure that's actually writing at all? Looks like chicken scratches to me."
"You really did meet them, didn't you?"
"Are you sure you're actually reading that? I'm starting to think you're making this whole thing up."
...and on and on. It was easier to tune him out than you might think. Stefan used to hover over me when I was doing his work, too. He wanted it done right...he just didn't want to take the time to do it himself. Eventually Marlon wandered away. He came back with two cups of coffee.
"Here. Looks like we're up to see the sunrise."
I never had coffee before, but drank a sip to be polite. It was terrible and the only thing that kept me from spitting it out was knowing that Marlon would never let it go if I did.
And then I finally found it. "There," I said triumphantly, tapping the screen with my finger.
Marlon leaned forward and looked at the screen. "Ah yes, the funky chicken scratch instead of the squiggly chicken scratch."
I sighed. "Can you think of why that might be?" He just looked at me blankly and I sighed. "It's not Qitani."
"What?"
"I mean, it is, but not really. That must be Mother's code."
Marlon squinted at the screen. "I don't see..."
"The languages, they don't translate. Not really. They're based on such a different structure and, well, frame of reference. They're in a completely different galaxy. Our languages have a lot of constants, but they're all in reference to what we know, what we can see. The sun, the moon, tides...everything around us."
"So?"
"So, those aren't universal. They're galactic. Think about it. If I say 'sky blue' to you, you know what shade that is because you're on Earth. If I say 'twinkles like the stars', you get a picture in your head. It doesn't matter what language I use, because the sky is the same color on the Asia continent as it is on the Americas continent."
Marlon nodded. "Okay, I see where you're coming from."
"And what you don't get is just how important that is to language. Those common cues are woven through all the languages on Earth. Colors, smells, sounds, sights, tastes..."
"And they're different for..."
"Laak'sa. Right. So their language, it really can't be directly translated."
"Math is. Code should be."
"That's what you think. But that's what Mother discovered. It's not. Let's take math and physics. They're based on our measurable world too, even if we want to pretend they work like that everywhere. Some does. Some does not. The Qitani are not on a base ten math system."
"So? One plus one will still equal two."
"Yes. But it's the getting there part that's so different we need a work around. It's where humans have their heads up their..." I shook my head and decided it was useless to explain to one of the biggest sufferers. I changed tactics. "You take any formula we've got. They have an equivalent, but the structure is completely different. So even in the maths, there's a basic communication block."
He was finally understanding. "So all the code had a completely foreign base."
"Yes, and it's a mix of math and language, and with rough translation here and there..."
"It's a wonder anyone got anything to work together."
"Exactly."
"Well if your mother knew this, why didn't she just give a code we could understand? Or instructions or something?"
I turned back to the screen. "Mother's got one path. That probably would have been Stefan's job. Or Marty's. Neither of them like work. At all."
Marlon grinned. "Ah, squeaks after my own heart."
I snorted and highlighted Mother's code. "This is Mother's. It doesn't fit, not quite."
"But it works with the alien speak."
"They aren't aliens." Marlon made a noise but I wouldn't let him bully me on this point. "We're the aliens here. This is their tech. We're the ones hacking it."
Marlon gave a little shrug. "Whatever. Isolate all hers."
I started to highlight the segments I found. After a large block, Marlon told me to pull just that up. "Why?"
"Is it math or language?"
I scanned over it. "Language."
"What's it say?"
"Uh...something about propulsion pulses matching the...um...haak'sshi. I don't know a corresponding word." It was a feeling. A connection. A personal exchange deep inside. Without it, there was no connection, no inspeaking, no universal thread. It's a concept humans don't have. Or if they do, I don't know what it would be called. I didn't know Mother understood anything about it. Yet it was her own code.
"You do know the idea of translating is to actually translate, right?" He was being snarky.
I shrugged. "And I said some things just don't translate. That's one of them."
"What is it?"
"An abstract concept."
"Can't be abstract if it's in the code."
What are you doing, Mother? What does it mean, I asked silently. I stared at the screen. Haak'sshi. It was there. It was in the block of code three times, in fact. Or no, not code. It was nothing like what I looked at the other day with Marlon. That must have been a different part, or someone's attempt at translations.
Marlon sighed with frustration at my silence. "Okay. Well what's around it?"
"Huh?"
"Around it, around it," he said quickly, jabbing the screen. "Here and here and here. Let's see if we can get the context."
"Oh. Yeah. Okay, well the first few lines are calculations of..." I frowned. "Population? Why would population matter?"
"What's next?"
"Um..." I scanned the words over and over. "I don't think is a code. It doesn't read like code. Not this part, anyway."