Liu smiled, glanced over to Abumwe and then turned his attention back to Wilson. “Thank you, Lieutenant,” he said. “I was not made aware that you spoke anything other than English.”
Wilson waited for his BrainPal to translate and then thought up a response; his BrainPal translated it and gave him the pronunciation, which he then attempted. “I don’t,” he said. “The computer in my head is able to translate what you say and offers me a response in the same language. So you may talk to me in whatever language you like. However, I ask that you let me respond in English, because I am sure I am mangling your language right now.”
Liu laughed. “Indeed you are,” he said, in unaccented English. “Your pronunciation is terrible. But I appreciate the effort. Can you do the same trick for my colleagues?”
Wilson could and did, conversing briefly in Brazilian Portuguese, Arabic and German before bringing his attention to Lowen.
“I don’t believe I need to do the translation trick with you,” he said to her.
“Repete, s’il vous plait?” Lowen said.
“Uh,” Wilson said, and scrambled to respond in French.
“No, no, I’m just messing with you,” Lowen said, quickly. “I’m from Colorado.”
“We’ve known each other thirty seconds and already I can tell you’re difficult, Ms. Lowen,” Wilson said, testing.
“I prefer to think of it as challenging, Lieutenant Wilson,” Lowen said. “I assumed you’d be able to handle it.”
“I don’t mind,” Wilson assured her.
“You sound midwesterny to me,” Lowen said. “Maybe Ohio?”
“Indiana,” Wilson said.
“Did you hear about the Cubs?” Lowen said.
Wilson smiled. “I heard something about that, yes.”
“They finally won a World Series and the world did not end,” Lowen said. “All those prophecies, shot to hell.”
“Disappointing, really,” Wilson said.
“Not to me,” Lowen said. “The Earth is where I keep all my stuff.”
“You and Lieutenant Wilson seem to get along, Doctor Lowen,” Liu said, watching the exchange between the two.
“We seem to speak each other’s language, yes,” Lowen said.
“Perhaps you wouldn’t mind being our point person with the lieutenant,” Liu said. “It would be easier to route all our requests for him through a single person.”
“If you like, Ambassador Liu,” Lowen said, and turned back to Wilson. “That work for you, Lieutenant?”
“Will you submit all your requests in French?” Wilson asked.
“If you really have a hankering to experience my genuinely atrocious high school French any more than you already have, then, sure,” Lowen said.
“Then we have a deal,” Wilson said.
“Merveilleux,” Lowen said.
Wilson glanced over to Abumwe, whose expression was caught between amusement and annoyance. Well, you wanted me to make friends with the American, Wilson thought.
The negotiations with the Burfinor did not go well.
“We regret to inform you that our minister in charge of trade has said that the initial conditions for our negotiation are, in her mind, too unfavorable toward us,” said Blblllblblb Doodoodo, whose first name was most accurately pronounced by humans by rapidly moving their finger back and forth on their lips and then crooning the second half.
“That is indeed regrettable,” Abumwe said. Wilson, who was in the back of the conference room, ready to give a report that he now suspected he would not give, could see the set in Abumwe’s jaw that signaled her irritation at this unexpected speed bump, but he did not imagine it was noticeable to anyone who hadn’t been with her for some time. At the very least, none of the observers from Earth seemed to notice. They seemed far more engaged in Doodoodo. Wilson reminded himself that the Earthlings were still new to spending time in the company of alien species; the Burfinor might be the first intelligent non-humans that any of them had ever seen in person. “Could you give us some further context to explain this change in opinion?” Abumwe asked.
“There is no doubt that the Colonial Union will benefit from the biomedical scanners we have offered to you,” Doodoodo said.
“Wilson?” Abumwe said, not looking at him.
“I’ve run the preliminary diagnostics on the machine we were given for review,” Wilson said. “It performed as advertised, at least for the time I had to work with it, which means it has an order of magnitude higher diagnostic ability than our own bioscanners. I’d want to spend more time with it, and I haven’t gotten to the other items we’re negotiating for. But in a general sense, the scanners do what they say, say what they do.”
“Precisely,” said Doodoodo. “These are of immense value to your colonies.”
“And so are our spaceships to yours,” Abumwe pointed out. The Colonial Union was hoping to sell five recently-retired frigates to the Burfinor in exchange for several hundred of the scanners.
“But there is a fundamental mismatch in the technologies, is there not?” Doodoodo said. “The technology we are offering you is state of the biomedical art; what you are offering us is a generation or more behind your latest ships.”
“The technology is robust,” Abumwe insisted. “I would remind you that we arrived here in a ship that is several generations older than the ships we are offering you. It’s still spaceworthy and in fine repair.”
“Yes, of course,” Doodoodo said. “We’re well aware how the Clarke is intended to be an advertisement for selling us these discounted goods. Nevertheless, the minister feels that the imbalance is too great. We seek a renegotiation.”
“These are initial terms that your minister originally sought out,” Abumwe said. “To make these changes now is highly unusual.”
Doodoodo tugged at the base of his eyestalks, gently. “I believe the minister is of the opinion that circumstances have changed.” One of Doodoodo’s eyes, possibly unconsciously, swiveled to take in the Earthling observers.
Abumwe did not fail to catch the implication but could do nothing about it in the moment. Instead she pressed forward, hoping to have Doodoodo go back to his boss with a request to reconsider her change in the negotiations. Doodoodo was exceedingly pleasant and sympathetic to his human counterpart but promised nothing.
During all this, Liu and his Earth counterparts said nothing and gave no indication of whatever they might be thinking. Wilson tried to catch Lowen’s eye for an indication of her thoughts, but she kept her focus forward, at Doodoodo.
Negotiations for the day ended shortly thereafter, and the humans, frustrated, rode the shuttle back to the Clarke in silence, and dispersed from the shuttle bay equally quiet. Wilson watched Abumwe stalk off, followed by her assistant. The other members of Abumwe’s staff on the shuttle milled about uncertainly for a moment before heading out themselves. In a corner of the bay, the Earth contingent huddled together for a moment, talking; at one point, Lowen popped her head up and looked in Wilson’s direction. Wilson tried not to read anything into it.
Eventually, the Earth cluster broke up and Liu and Lowen walked directly toward Wilson.
“Greetings, Earthlings,” Wilson said.
Liu looked politely puzzled; Lowen smiled. “How long have you been waiting to use that?” she asked.
“For at least a dozen years,” Wilson said.
“Was it everything you wanted it to be?” Lowen asked.
“It really was,” Wilson said.
“It was an interesting trade session you had today,” Liu said, diplomatically.
“That’s one way of putting it, yes,” Wilson said.
“So what happened back there?” Lowen said.
“You mean, why did a routine trade agreement fly off the rails, embarrassing the Colonial Union in front of the observers whom it wanted to impress with its diplomatic acumen?” Wilson said. He noted Liu’s expression to his summation of the day’s events, discreet though it was.