“The system has always worked correctly before,” said Ishihara. “Apparently it is still reliable.”
Wayne looked down the road. The peasants had stopped running. Now they were talking excitedly among themselves, while still watching Wayne and Ishihara suspiciously. “I don’t know what kind of explanation we can give them. Maybe we better start walking.”
“Set the belt unit for another time,” said Ishihara. “If we have to use it in hurry, it will be ready.”
“Yeah.” Wayne paused and set the unit for the same location three hours later, after dark. Most likely, no one would be out here then. He glanced back at the group of peasants and froze.
They were coming closer, slowly. The men who held long-handled farm implements advanced in the front, holding their tools forward as weapons. Other men and women, holding smaller tools, followed them. Some were shouting angrily.
“Be prepared to trigger the belt unit,” said Ishihara. “It is too late to run from them.”
“All right. But maybe we can communicate somehow. I don’t suppose you know any medieval Chinese, though, huh?”
“No, I do not.”
Wayne forced a smile and held up a hand in greeting. “Hello,” he called out. More softly, he added, “I’m hoping they can understand a friendly tone of voice.”
The peasants stopped, still speaking excitedly among themselves. They kept their tools high, however. None of them looked away.
“I strongly recommend you trigger the belt unit,” said Ishihara.
“They keep saying something like‘guei’ or‘kuai’- something like that,” said Wayne. “Any idea what it means?”
“No,” said Ishihara. “And I must remind you that the First Law will force me to take the belt unit away from you and trigger it myself if they come much closer to us.”
“Well, they stopped when I smiled at them just now and said hello. Maybe we can get through to them. Show them that both your hands are empty. And smile.” Wayne felt more frightened than he sounded.
Ishihara held both his hands out, open, and smiled. “I think this word they keep saying means something negative, from their tone of voice. They fear we are a couple ofgueis.”
“Whatever they are.”
“Yes.”
“The word must mean some kind of supernatural creature-you know, a demon or a fairy or something else that can appear magically.”
“It must mean an evil creature of some type,” said Ishihara. “They would not be as afraid or as hostile toward a good spirit. I surmise that our European appearance has also increased their fear to some degree. Certainly these ancient German tunics and cloak make us look barbaric.”
“Hey! Maybe we can use this. We’re good spirits. We have to tell them we’re good spirits.”
“This will be a difficult distinction to make without a language in common,” said Ishihara.
The peasants had begun approaching them slowly once again.
“Noguei, noguei.” Wayne forced himself to smile even more broadly than before, though he was too scared to feel very friendly. He held his hands up, palms forward.
The peasants stopped again, still talking among themselves. The word“guei, ” was repeated even more than before.
“They understandguei, at least,” said Wayne quietly, slipping one hand back to the belt unit, just in case. “I’m going to try something else.”
“Be extremely careful,” said Ishihara.
Wayne renewed his phony smile and stepped forward, holding one arm high above his head. He knew they would not understand his speech, but he hoped that they would respond to a friendly tone of voice and gestures of greeting. “Hello, whoever you are. Good evening. We are glad to see you.”
The peasants gazed at him. Their eyes were wide with surprise and puzzlement. One of the men in the front, who held a large hoe, shouted to Wayne suspiciously.
“Do what I did,” said Wayne. “I think it’s working.”
“Hello,” Ishihara called out. He also raised one arm in greeting. “Good evening.”
The peasants watched them without speaking. The man in front lowered his hoe slightly.
“We have to convince them we’re good spirits,” Wayne said quietly. “Then they’ll actually help us.”
“If we can prevent them from trying to kill us. I will be satisfied,” said Ishihara.
The peasants began talking to each other again.
“It’s working,” said Wayne. “At least, they aren’t as sure as they were a minute ago that we’re enemies.”
“We have made no aggressive moves,” said Ishihara. “That may have helped. However, I recommend again that we jump forward in time and start over,”
“Not yet,” said Wayne. “This is a populated area, so we might be seen again.”
“After dark, that is very unlikely.”
“We can use their help,” Wayne said eagerly, “We’ll need them. We won’t be able to speak to anyone else here, either. But we could really use some allies. If we can become friends with them, can you start learning their language?”
“Yes, if we have prolonged interaction with them,” said Ishihara. “But I cannot predict how quickly I will make progress.”
“I think I remember something from my elementary school days,” said Wayne. “Didn’t the Chinese used to bow to each other as a greeting?”
“I do not know.”
“Well, try it. Do what I do.” Wayne caught the eye of the man with the hoe and slowly bowed forward from the waist.
Next to him, Ishihara did the same.
The man carrying the hoe bowed in return. Belatedly, so did several of his companions. All of them fell silent again.
“It’s like offering a handshake in our own time,” said Wayne. “We finally did something they understood.”
An elderly man stepped forward from the group. The man with the hoe joined him, lowering the hoe to the ground. The older man spoke to Wayne, calmly this time.
“Any idea what he said?” Wayne asked.
“No.”
“I was afraid you’d say that. But he’s asking a question, don’t you think?”
“From his tone and facial expression, yes.”
“I’m going to guess he’s asked who we are or where we came from,” said Wayne. He smiled again and pointed to the sky. “Ihope that’s what he asked.”
The peasants began chattering excitedly among themselves again. The two men in the front bowed once more. Everyone in the group looked at Wayne and Ishihara in amazement.
“I have to keep this going somehow,” said Wayne. “Just follow me.” He walked forward, still smiling, and patted his stomach. “Can you help us, friends?” The only tools of communication he could think of were gestures, facial expressions, and tones of voice.
For the first time, some of the peasants smiled in surprise. Certainly, they recognized his gesture of hunger. The two men in the front conferred briefly. Then the older man spoke, waving for Wayne and Ishihara to come with them.
Wayne glanced at Ishihara, relieved. “Well, I got through to them a little. Let’s go.”
“I would expect the villagers to believe that good spirits who come to visit humans would speak the local human language,” said Ishihara. “The villagers may question this.”
“Well…if they do, we can’t understand them. And if we did, we still couldn’t explain.” With a helpless shrug, Wayne smiled again at their plight. “Since they don’t seem to want to hurt us, maybe we can get along.”