Cameron had no response, her mouth just hanging slightly open in shock as she watched him exit. She couldn’t see the smile on his face as he exited, as it was the first time he could remember that she had been left speechless.
Nathan entered the briefing room a few minutes after Jessica and their guests. The room was a bit large for such a small gathering. But considering how its contents had been tossed about recently, it probably was just as well. For it had been easy for them to push the knocked over tables and chairs out of the way.
As he entered, he saw the four visitors sitting at the table that had been hastily setup. Two younger men, an older man, and a young women who had green eyes the likes of which Nathan had never seen. There was a strength and compassion behind them, and he found it difficult to look away.
The leader of the group rose as a sign of respect to Nathan, whom he considered to be the leader. The expression on the man’s face seemed a bit off to Nathan, hinting that Nathan was not what the visitor had expected.
Jessica’s reaction to the man’s attempt to stand was more defensive, immediately raising her weapon, with the other two guards following suit. She saw in the man’s eyes as he froze half standing, that he was aware of the threat, just as she noticed how the other two men’s bodies suddenly became taught, as if preparing to take action. This told her much of the experience and demeanor of these men, and she didn’t much like what she saw.
“It’s okay,” Nathan immediately intervened, not wanting things to turn ugly. He watched as Jessica and the guards slowly lowered their weapons, allowing the man to finish standing. The man nodded at Jessica, as if to pay respect to her alertness. But she couldn’t help but feel like he was silently conveying an open challenge to her. There was something in this man that she did not trust.
The leader of the group finished standing and began to speak in a strange language. Although Nathan did not understand him, it was obvious that he was trying to identify himself, by patting his chest and repeating the word ‘Marak’. Within moments they had managed to learn each other’s name, but that was all. But there was something about the language that he kept speaking to the woman sitting next to him. It sounded familiar to him. That’s when he realized that it sounded a lot like Russian.
“Engineering, Briefing Room!”
“Yes, Nathan.”
“Vlad, listen, I’m here with some visitors, from those ships you spotted approaching. They’re speaking a language that sounds like Russian to me. Can you try to speak with them?”
“So I am translator now?”
“Just give it a try, Vlad. Say something to them in Russian.” Nathan pointed at the comm, indicating to Marak that the voice on the other end would be speaking to him.
“Vui ponimayetye po Rooski?” Vladimir said through the comm. The leader of the group looked at the woman next to him, a puzzled look on his face.
“Vui po-ni-ma-ye-tye po Roos-ki?” Vladimir repeated a little more slowly, sounding a little impatient. The leader started speaking in his language again, this time into the comm-set as if he were expecting the man at the other end to understand him.
There was a moment of silence, broken only by Vladimir’s voice. “That is not Russian. May I go now?”
“Sure, thanks.” Nathan sat down, rubbing his face with his hands. It had been worth a try. After all, the humans living on the core worlds were descendants of people from Earth. And Fleet intelligence indicated that many of the primary languages spoken on Earth more than a thousand years ago when they first began to colonize other star systems were still being used out here, at least in some derived form. That was why all communications officers were usually fluent in at least half a dozen languages. But their only comm officer was dead. And even though they had translation software, with all the systems down he wasn’t able to utilize the programs. This is not going to be easy, he thought. What should I try first? After thinking for a moment, he looked at the man and started talking slowly and clearly to him. “Where-are-you-from?”
The man just looked at him. Nathan thought he saw a spark of understanding in his eyes, like he thought he understood what Nathan was trying to ask him, but was afraid to answer incorrectly. And the woman, she had the same look, but even more so than her leader. Nathan repeated himself, after which the two of them exchanged words in their own language. It sounded as if the woman was trying to explain something to her leader, maybe something she understood, or at least thought she understood.
“We-are-from-the-Sol-system,” he began. Nathan frantically searched his mind for the right words, which was usually not a problem for him. But these people were from another world, another planet. How do you communicate with someone from another planet? “Sol? Have you heard of it?” he asked in frustration. Again, he thought he saw a glimmer of recognition from the women. “Earth?” There were more unintelligible words exchanged between the woman and her leader, and Nathan got the feeling that the two of them were in disagreement about something. “Earth? Have-you-heard-of-Earth?”
The leader said something else to the woman in a stern voice, after which she spoke up. “I hear,” she said, thinking for a moment before continuing, “I-hear-Earth.”
“You have?” Nathan responded, shocked that he had actually made a connection, no matter how slight. “You’ve heard of Earth?”
“Yes,” she answered, her pronunciation of the simple word slightly off. He could see she was struggling to try and use a language that she might once have learned, but had long since forgotten. “I-have. I-heard-of-Earth.”
“Then you speak English?”
“An-glees?” she mispronounced.”
“Yes, Eng-glish.”
She thought again, then realized what he was saying. “Ah, Angla!” she exclaimed excitedly. Suddenly a flurry of communication erupted between her and her leader that seemed to last forever before she finally settled down to try and communicate with him.
“I-learn-Angla-much-young,” she stated slowly, thinking about each word before speaking them. “Please-slowly-I-to-understand-you-much.”
He could see that she was struggling to remember the language that she had learned when she was young. “I-will-speak-slowly. My-name-is-Nathan.” It was difficult for Nathan to control his excitement over his new found ability to communicate with her. And all manner of questions were popping into his mind, making it impossible to select which one to ask first.
“Me, Jalea.
“Jalea?” he grossly mispronounced.
“Jah-LEE-yah,” she corrected.
“Jalea?” he tried again, getting a nod of approval from her.
“Ask her who was shooting at us,” Jessica suggested. Nathan motioned with his hand for her to be patient.
“And he is Mah-rahk?” Nathan asked, pointing to her leader.
“Yes. Marak.”
“Marak-is-your-leader?”
She thought a moment before responding. “Yes.” Her tone of voice left Nathan less than convinced, and he wondered if he was their leader, or just the leader of this little group. But he figured he could unravel that mystery later.
“Where-are-you-from?” he asked next. “Your-world?”
“Bah-KAH-rah.”
Nathan repeated the name of her planet to verify the pronunciation.
“The-big-ship. Was-it-from-Bakara?”
“No,” she answered immediately. “Ship-from-Takara.”
“Takara? And they are bad? These Takarans?”
“Yes. Takar, very bad.”
“You fight them, yes?”
“Yes. Long time. Many years.”
Jessica was growing impatient. “Ask them why they’re here?”
Nathan knew she was right. He was letting himself get swept up in the situation and not thinking of the big picture. They were still without main power, and the sensors were down. And they didn’t have maneuvering or main propulsion back online yet, let alone any weapons. And to top it all off, he had no idea what the tactical situation was in the immediate area. Hell, he didn’t even know where the immediate area was.