"What are those?" Paola asked.
"Living machines that process and store chemicals made in the seas," Salamander said. "The seas are factories. There is much traditional industry on this world."
The red circle faded. "You may stop now," Salamander said.
This is it. They'll kill us now, then dissect the ship at leisure, torturing, misleading, learning what they can.
Walls lifted from the floor around them, bright blue like clear sunny skies on Earth, and a kind of music played, without melody but very pleasant.
"You will meet first with four representatives," Salamander announced. The simulacrum vanished and Salamander entered, full sized, through a door in a luminous wall.
"Is this your physical form?" Eye on Sky asked, head cords splayed wide, the eyes on each cord glittering.
"This is my form," Salamander said. "Individuals are not limited to single bodies. There are many versions of myself working. This is true of nearly all the type individuals you will meet."
Safety in numbers. No sense attacking— you can't kill us all, we have copies, backups stashed everywhere.
Martin pretended to be impressed, but in fact the children had been told about this early in their voyage, along with other facts about advanced technological species.
The surprise was that, given their abilities, the inhabitants of these worlds still had physical form at all.
Their hosts fit few norms.
"Are you prepared to meet with these representatives?"
"Yes," Martin said.
"Yes," Eye on Sky said.
Martin felt a sting of anticipation.
Through the door came a being with two elephantine legs, two three-jointed arms emerging from a barrel chest, and a small, eyeless head. Despite having seen it in still images before, Martin's throat tightened and his heart-rate increased. The creature stood at least three meters high, well adapted to this kind of gravity, moving with a curious waddle like the gait of a fat human combined with the ponderous grace of an elephant. It wore no clothing and carried no equipment.
Salamander walked beside the thick-legged elephantoid, striding on four limbs, bat-like, crest rising and falling.
The door widened and a tube of fluid pushed through, forming a cube beside the elephantoid. Within the cube floated two creatures, elongated, shark-shaped, with broad wing-like fins along their sides. Their heads were pointed, sensory organs arranged in rings back from the snout. Fins just behind the head ended in radiances of finger-like tentacles. Martin had assumed these creatures were related; their appearance in the same field seemed to support that opinion. The cube of water arranged its passengers beside the others.
Last to enter was a second bishop vulture. The door closed. To Martin, the assembly seemed hasty at best, not what he would have expected for a historic moment; not a first meeting with a newly arrived race of intelligent beings, more like a gathering of executives to iron out business matters.
Ariel rubbed the palms of her hands together, glanced at Martin with a wry expression, and dropped her hands to her sides. Paola seemed transfixed, eyes wide, looking from one being to the other. Eye on Sky, Silken Parts, and Strong Cord at least seemed calm and in no difficulty.
"I am Frog, who first spoke to you," the second bishop vulture said. "Are you well?"
Eye on Sky slid across the gray surface to raise himself beside Martin. "We we are mystified," the Brother said. "What is your purpose?"
"Your deceit is more than matched by our own," Frog said.
Martin's chest went hollow and he held his breath, waiting for extinction; he had knownit would come, that childsplay would not suffice.
"We exist at the sufferance of greater powers," Frog said. "Since we are neither of us anything more than surrogates, there is no need for ceremony."
Paola closed her eyes. Ariel's lips moved, her face ashen.
"It is no coincidence that your ship arrives in the train of destruction from an exploding star. You represent higher powers as well. Your artificial construction is convincing, but the coincidence is too great to be accepted."
Do they know about the other ships?
"We serve as extended eyes," Salamander said, lifting its crest. "Do you have access to your creators?"
Martin tried frantically to understand what they were saying. They seemed to believe that Brothers and humans were themselves created, artificial…
"We we do not understand," Eye on Sky said.
"You are representatives of higher intelligences, as are we. Are we communicating clearly?"
"We're still confused," Martin said. "Are you saying others control you, like puppets?"
"We are not puppets. We have a separate existence," Frog said.
The elephantoid stepped forward. "There are four hundred and twelve types of intelligent being in this planetary system." Its voice sang high and rough, but intelligible. "Those of us before you serve political and other roles. We speak with our creators and represent the other types. Do you have a direct connection with your creators?"
"We we are autonomous," Eye on Sky said.
"But you are created," Salamander continued. Martin's body ached as if with fever; they might be undergoing the interstellar equivalent of interrogation, the third degree.
"We understand now," Martin said, hoping Eye on Sky and the others would let him take the lead, catch on to the implications. "If the time has come to drop all pretense, we are ready." Ariel's face stiffened with apprehension. Paola closed her eyes languidly, as if ready for sleep.
"It is clear that precautions are necessary in high-level interstellar relations," the elephantoid said.
I’ll call him a babar, Martin thought, and held his jaws together tightly to keep from laughing. He couldn't believe they had traveled for centuries, across so many hundreds of trillions of kilometers, to stand in this place, in this situation, meeting layer upon layer of lies with more lies. It was comic in an acutely painful way.
William and Theresa and Theodore and so many others had died to bring them here; had been killed by these things, or by their higher authority.
Eye on Sky said nothing, deferring to Martin. Martin wondered what the Brothers were thinking, but he could not turn back now. "That seems to be the rule," he answered. "We appreciate your not harming us."
"It would not be courteous," Salamander said. "Do you understand the intentions of your creators?"
"If you're asking whether we can… discuss issues with you, make decisions, the answer is yes, to a limited degree."
"Are your superiors in this vicinity, within our planetary system?" Frog asked.
"No," Martin said.
"Are they listening through you?"
"Not directly," Martin said.
"Can you provide a more direct means of communication, to allow more rapid agreement?"
"No," Martin said.
"This much all seems true," the elephantoid babar said. "Are you tiring, or do you wish to make preliminary agreements now?"
"Let's get something agreed to now," Martin said.
"We feel it is best, if you are prepared, to meet directly with our creators, that you may carry more accurate knowledge to your own."