Star Trek: Bendross
The Talking Box
By
Jay P. Hailey
And
The Bendross Players
Find-Birds led Strong-Voice into their tent, perched on the solid crown of the biggest tree in the tribes campground.
"Let Finds-Things go and speak to the Demons." She said, quietly.
"I have made my opinion on this known." Strong Voice growled.
"Now, listen to mine. You know that Finds-Things and Stares-Into-Night are two of a kind. They think alike and are interested in the same things. Stares-into-Night wasn't injured by the Demons. In fact they rescued him." She said.
Strong-Voice bit back all the rationalization and spoke the truth to his mate. "He is our son. I couldn't bear it if he were hurt."
Finds-Birds nodded and became fuzzier, as her fur stood up, slightly. "We can't protect him from the world forever. He is ready to become a man and make a full contribution to the tribe. As scary as it is, we do him no favor by holding him back from who he is."
Strong-Voice squeezed his eyes shut. "It frightens me to my core. Their ripping death is beyond any nightmare."
Finds-Birds sighed "They didn't hurt Stares-into-Night. They seemed to be working with him to establish communication. I think the risk is low compared to the benefit. And his sense of accomplishment would be so high. He'd have the self-confidence to take over after we are gone."
Strong-Voice was very quiet. "But we don't know what's going to happen."
Finds-Birds was kind. "When did we ever?"
Strong-Voice Looked at her for a moment, the truth of what she said sinking in.
Then he nodded. "alright."
-*-
They had a work station set up. Writing seemed to be a new idea to the new contact being, but the language lessons were going well. The work station was a picnic table with an umbrella mounted on it to keep the heat of the sun away. Small stools and plastic chairs were placed around it.
The notes of more than a month of language and cultural lessons filled Michelle's computer, and she was picking up a basic vocabulary n the native language.
Martin approached.
Sandy-Coat said "Hello." Very passably.
"[Greetings.]" Martin said in the Lemurite tongue. It was about the limit of his knowledge on the subject but his pronunciation was good.
"The first tug from Bendross-I is due in a few minutes." Martin informed Michelle. "They' be landing two miles over that way, by the river." It would have been a vague point, but Martins arm pointed to a specific point and stayed there.
"How long?" Michelle asked.
"About half an hour." Martin said. "After that we hand off and return to the Bendross-III."
Michelle nodded and turned back to her new friend. He didn't bring his girl friend today, but that was the exception rather than the rule. Michelle thought she could see the emotion of teenaged true love there, and it charmed her. But she didn't put this impression in her notes.
"[A new Star-Hat comes.]" Michelle mangled.
Sandy-Coat blinked at her "[How many Star Hats are there? How many Demons will come here?]"
Michelle counted mentally and then did a difficult translation "[there are a dozen Star Hats of various species. We will be landing ten times a thousand people plus five times a thousand more.]"
Sandy-Coat boggled "[FIFTEEN THOUSAND DEMONS!?]"
Michelle nodded. "[More or less.]"
Sandy-Coat eyed her "[You're pulling my tail. The land could never support that many people, especially not people your size.]"
Michelle missed most of that. "[I am not pulling your tail. What was the rest?]"
Sandy-Coat started to laboriously lay out the sentence she had spoken, bite by bite.
As they were finishing, The sky cracked with the characteristic double crack of a sonic boom.
Sandy-Coat started badly leaping to his feet, with poofed fur and wide eyes.
"Take it easy, take it easy." Michelle spoke soothingly, "[there is no danger.]"
Sandy-Coat reluctantly smoothed down her fur and returned to a more relaxed pose.
Within a few minutes, a star appeared in the day time sky. The plasma exaust of the fusion drive of the Bendross-I's landing tug.
As it descended, Sandy-Coat was caught up in the show of powerful magic. It was truly wonderful. As the black speck of the hat itself became visible above the star, Finds-Things pelted up breathing heavily.
"[Are you alright!?]" He demanded of Sandy-Coat.
"[I'm Fine. More Demons are arriving.]" Sandy Coat Pointed.
"[I saw it. How many Demons are we going to wind up with?]" He said between heaving breaths.
"[Mich-ell said fifteen thousand.]" Sandy Coat replied casually.
Finds-Things boggled at her "[HOW MANY?]"
Sandy-Coat Shrugged "[All I know is what she tells me right now."]
As the tug settled, a rippling roar washed over the Expedition two landing site. It was obviously bigger than Expedition Two by a good margin.
Michelle started gathering her extensive notes. "[I must go. Shall we begin again tomorrow morning?]"
Sandy-Coat nodded "[Yes. I will be here. Do you mind if I watch what happens?]
Michelle didn't quite get that. "[You want to stay?]"
"[Yes.]"
"[you are allowed, but don't go close to anything without one of us near you.]" Michelle replied.
"[Yes.]"
-*-
The next day Michelle and three new people sat at the Work Station when Sandy-Coat and Finds-Things Approached.
"Hello." Finds-Things said to them.
Two of the people made the teeth baring grimace that Sandy-Coat learned was an expression of joy among the demons. One turned and barked at Michelle, but the language was not intelligible to Sandy-Coat and Finds-Things.
However, a black box on the table yelled "[Expression of Anger! You have put bad things in the things!]
Sandy-Coat blinked at it.
"Hello." One of the new Demon Females said. "[Greetings.]" the box said.
Michelle leaned over to the angry one "These people are not lab samples, this is *their* anthropology team. They have as much right to learn about us as we have to learn about them. Don't hand me any of that Contaminated Sample bullshit."
Doctor Evers the official Anthropological scientist of Bendross-I reared back as if struck.
"[You have speaking magic?]" Sandy-Coat said wonderingly.
The Box Spoke in the Demon tongue.
One of the two Smiling women said something to the box and then the box said "[yes, this is speaking magic. It will help us learn. But do not trust it. The brains of people work better than made-things.]"
"I will not stand here and let you throw away any notion of scientific procedure or recognized standards, *Doctor*," Evers hissed. The emphasis on her title meant to remind Michelle that she was primarily a botanist and a biologist.
Michelle found herself much less tolerant of Academia than she'd been two years ago, joining the Bendross project. "Why don't you shut up and see if you can learn something."
She turned back to Sandy-Coat and Finds-Things. "[Sorry. Dominance struggle.]"
The box repeated this back in Demon tongue.
"[A tribe can only have one chief.]" Sandy-Coat said.
"[The question is who is top Shaman.]" Michelle replied.
One of the other two spoke to Michelle. "[You own many words of the people's tongue. This is unusual.]" the Speaking box said.
"Mich-ell is smart." Sandy-Coat managed. The speaking box repeated it back in the tongue of the people.
"[Thank you.]" Michelle replied, echoed in Demon tongue by the speaking box.
"[Will you and your rival make ripping death at each other?]" Finds things asked.
The Speaking box repeated the comment with a plaintive beep in the middle.
Michelle said "[Rival?]"
"[Your opponent in the Dominance fight?]"
Michelle spoke to the speaking box "[Rival, opponent.]" it said.
"Got it." Finds-Things said, with the big thumbs up he'd learned from Hamilton. This caused Dr Evers to groan and roll her eyes.
Michelle commented back and the Speaking box supplied "[I will not make the ripping death at Dr Evers unless she wants me to very much.]"
Sandy-Coat and Finds-Things tilted their head at Dr Evers unconsciously in unison and in the same direction. What moron would ask for the ripping death? Sandy-Coat Noticed to faces of the two other women turned more pink and wriggled, for a hideous effect. Finds-Things noticed that Dr Evers looked very unhappy at Michelle.
There was still a lot to learn.
-*-
Expedition Two Achieved orbit. Hamilton was glad to be flying again, but he felt a little melancholy at leaving Sandy-Coat, Finds-Things and Stares-Into-Night in the hands of strangers. Hamilton soothed himself with the knowledge that they all soon be back, setting up the colony.
"Expedition Two, this is Bendross-I come in." The radio said.
Rudy got it. "Expedition Two here, go ahead."
"We lost radio contact with Bendross-III one hour ago. Their system seems to have gone dead. We're still tracking them on radar and lidar. We're putting the information on the Datachannel." The radio officer informed them.
"Uh, Roger, Bendross-I we'll try them ourselves and advise." Rudy said.
"Did you get that, Martin?" hamilton asked.
"Yes. Take us to the Bendross-III we'll investigate and advise." Martin said very calmly.
Hamilton grimaced but his voice was professional "Yes, Sir. Rendesvousing with the Bendross-III."
Rudy spoke into the Radio. "Bendross-I, this is Expedition Two. We will investigate and Advise, over."
"Bendross-I acknowledges. Good luck, Expedition Two. Over."
"Thank you." Rudy said "Expedition Two, over and out."
-end-