Page 30 of Whoops-A-Mate From Outer Space
I laughed. “That would be an understatement.”
“Come,” he urged. “They are almost finished loading. We should be seated.”
“Ok.”
I followed him to the open hatch and ducked slightly when he patted a low edge. The inside opened up to a small cargo area, four rows of four seats each, two on each side of a center aisle, then pilot and copilot seating.
A man whose color I could only describe as seafoam green sat at the controls. He turned as we sat and spoke to Eashai in their lilting language.
“We have two stops before we depart Earth,” Eashai explained. “From here, we will proceed to the country you call Chile, where additional samples are waiting. Then we are to stop in Russia, where one of my colleagues will join us.”
The pilot turned to face us. “Apologies. I was not sure how much to disclose. I will speak in your language.”
“No, it’s ok. I don’t want to make things difficult for you if you haven’t learned English.”
Eashai laughed. “It is not something we notice. Our translators handle it. Despite us conversing in a way you recognize, I do not speak any English.”
I turned to him and blinked. “Really? But you seem to speak it just fine, read it too.”
He smiled, then reached for my hand. “May I?”
I nodded mutely.
Eashai picked up my hand and curled everything but my index finger into my palm, then he leaned in and guided my hand behind his ear. Finally, my index finger landed on a tiny bump.
“Do you feel that?” he asked.
“The bump?”
“Yes.”
“I feel it.”
“That is where my translator is implanted.”
I thought back to our first meeting, when he’d mentioned a translator. But I’d never imagined it would be something smaller than a grain of rice.
“And that lets you understand English?”
He laughed as he released me and sat straight. “Understand, speak, read, and write. Along with many other languages. It interprets what I see and hear and translates it to my language, and when I wish to speak or write, it influences motor control to generate the correct output. It has difficulty with unknown pictorial writing systems, but in most cases, a simple update with enough words and phrases will suffice to generate proper translations.”
“Am I going to be ok on Lyll without one?”
He nodded. “Most will be able to converse with you without issue, as translators are common. They are one of several devices implanted in youth. I should be able to handle anything else. If necessary, we can get you an external translator, but they are not as efficient.”
“I would not concern yourself with it,” the pilot agreed. “Lyll does not have as many visitors as some planets, but we are prepared to welcome them.”
“Ok,” I replied.
A sound from behind me. I turned to see the back hatch closing. Then brightness flooded the vessel as doors in front of it opened.
There was a second where I felt us lifting off the ground, then some system must have kicked in as I felt normal again. We moved forward, out of the building, then rose above the treeline.
“Are people going to see us?” I asked.
The pilot shook his head. “We have visual shielding. Combined with speed, anybody who might see us will only notice a shimmer.”
“What about radar?”
