“Don’t forget your orders,” Kevin said. “We’ll check in, every hour on the hour; if you don’t hear from us for over four hours, assume the worst. And if you don’t hear from us in a day, take the ship back to Earth. No heroics, Commander.”
“None will be taken,” Jackson assured him.
Kevin smiled as he walked through the ship’s corridors and into the teleport chamber. The alien was already there, standing somewhat apart from the five humans who made up the rest of the away team. Kevin nodded to each of them in turn, hoping and praying that they would be capable of maintaining their calm on the planet’s surface. None of them had any real experience with aliens, apart from the Horde. And the Hordesmen were hardly typical Galactics.
“All present and correct,” Edward Romford said. “And we’re all armed to the teeth.”
“Just be careful not to start something unless absolutely necessary,” Kevin warned. There were no gun control laws on Ying, but the humans would be badly outnumbered. On the other hand, from what they had been told, if they shot their way out of trouble no one would bat an eyelid. “Onto the pads.”
He stepped onto the final pad and activated the interface. “Energise.”
The world faded away in silver light, then reformed as something different. The heat struck him at once, a wave of warm air as hot as anything he’d felt in the Middle East, but carrying with it a whole series of unfamiliar scents. He felt his body start to sweat as he stood upright,, fighting against the planet’s stronger gravity. Despite the augmentations he’d had inserted into his body, he had the uncomfortable feeling that they were going to have real problems until they managed to adapt to the planet’s environment. It was nothing like Earth.
He looked around. They were standing in a small stone chamber, bright light pouring through two open windows. An alien clicked impatiently, motioning with one long tentacle for them to step off the pads and out of the room. Kevin stared at the alien for one long moment, then remembered his manners and led the humans past the alien and through the door. Who would have thought that an octopus-like creature could develop the ability to walk on land?
Outside, the smell was stronger, much stronger. Hundreds of thousands of aliens teemed through the city, moving between dozens of buildings that seemed to be built from stone, but in countless different styles. All of them seemed larger than life… it took him a long moment to realise they were designed to accommodate all different races. A doorway sized for humans would have problems allowing a Hordesman to step through, he suspected. No wonder the Hordesmen had so disliked their starship. It hadn’t been designed for their race.
Down one long street, there was something rather like a market. Here, aliens seemed to gather together in small groups of their own races, rather than mingling with other races. It struck him as odd until he recalled just how hard it was to find something that could be eaten by more than a handful of races. One race’s food might be another race’s poison — or worse. Here, where there were no laws to prevent accidental poisonings, it was well to be careful. Further down the street, there were stalls that seemed to be getting attention from everyone, even a handful of aliens that looked like giant spiders. Kevin couldn’t see what they were selling.
“We’re going to need to get a hotel room,” Romford said. “Somewhere we can use as a base.”
“Yes, the alien chirped. “This way.”
Kevin had expected problems with getting a room suitable for human habitation. In hindsight, such fears had been completely groundless. The hotel managers wouldn’t have any problems configuring their rooms to suit people from just about any race, from the walking lobsters to the giant spiders. Kevin assumed, as a matter of course, that the rooms were bugged, even though his check had revealed nothing. He rather doubted that the Horde had had access to up-to-date galactic surveillance technology.
Once they’d set up the room and sorted out how to use the facilities — the bathtub had clearly been designed for a much larger creature — Kevin, Romford and Cn!lss set out again, looking for the nearest library. It hadn’t been too hard to find on the planet’s datanet — access, once again, cost a surprisingly high sum — but when they found it Kevin couldn’t help feeling disappointed. Instead of row upon row of books, there were a handful of alien computers and a librarian who looked like a giant monkey, complete with tail. It was silly to be disappointed, he knew, when countless races couldn’t use human books. But it still felt disappointing.
Once they’d paid — again — the librarian paid them no heed as they accessed the terminal and started to hunt for tech manuals. Kevin had practiced endlessly with the interface he’d taken from Shadow Warrior, but it was still difficult to search through the sheer mass of data someone had uploaded into the alien system. It was nearly an hour before they managed to download a whole bundle of tech manuals the aliens probably considered primitive, too primitive to bother to classify. But then, would the United States try to classify the secrets behind producing a World War One-era dreadnaught? Or the secret of producing gunpowder? Somehow, Kevin doubted that anyone would bother.
We can work our way through the more primitive technology the aliens built, then use it to understand the underlying principles, Kevin told himself. The grave danger was becoming completely dependent on alien technology. But once humanity understood how it actually worked, they could start producing it for themselves — and maybe even improving on it. It was alarmingly clear that humanity would need to do more than just match the alien technology. They’d have to make improvements of their own.
He hesitated, then started the next series of searches. One of the concepts noted in the Horde databanks had been of cultural uplift, of a primitive race being helped to spacefaring status by a more advanced race. The Horde databanks hadn’t actually gone into details — they’d certainly not been given any such assistance — but the library did have some files on the topic for anyone to see. Kevin copied them all, then sat back and waited while the information was transmitted to Captain Perry. If nothing else, they would have retrieved something the human race could use.
“We’ll have to come back,” he said, straightening up. The alien chair might have adapted to fit his posterior, but it still felt uncomfortable. “Carolyn and the others will have to go through it and see how the search can be adapted and improved.”
“Maybe we can establish a direct link from the ship to the library,” Romford suggested. “They could search the computer for themselves.”
“It would cost,” Cn!lss stated.
Kevin rolled his eyes.
He couldn’t help feeling nervous as he followed Cn!lss through the streets, into what the alien had described as the premier trading ground for good and items that were illegal in certain parts of the galaxy. There were more and more aliens around, most of them carrying weapons and looking grim, while the skies were rapidly darkening as another sandstorm moved over the city. He looked up as sand started to pelt the city’s protective forcefield, causing flashes of brilliant lightning to glitter out high overhead. There was definitely nothing like it on Earth.
But the building they approached was surprisingly familiar, even though it was completely alien. Two guards, both monkey-creatures, eyed them suspiciously, then listened as Cn!lss explained they wanted to meet with the merchant. There was a long pause — Kevin’s interface warned him that they were being scanned — and then the door opened, revealing a darkened room. The two humans exchanged glances, then followed Cn!lss into the warehouse.
Inside, the cold struck him at once. There had to be a forcefield keeping it inside, he thought grimly, as he struggled to pull his clothes around him. The floor was covered with ice, as if the inhabitant of the building wanted to sleep on it. Slowly, the darkness receded, just enough for him to see the outline of a colossal creature sitting in the centre of the room. For once, Kevin had some problems matching it to anything on Earth. From what little he could see, he had a feeling he should be very glad he couldn’t see the entire creature.