Coeus?

“

Shamanistic-Magic allows for a whole group of healing and clairvoyance spells. Many people who are gifted in this area choose the path of a doctor.

”

-Magical Affinities

***Kaus Borealis, Coeus***

***Gideon***

We are sitting together in the canteen of living-module two and drinking coffee. For some reason Cyla organized regular meetings with Ed. She likes the idea of us getting familiar with each other.

“I heard you called one of the linguists a Lazy Sod?” Ed asks me in an inquisitive manner. “There were several complaints about you insulting people in public.”

I shrug my shoulders. “If I said something offensive, then I did so because it's the truth.”

“What did he do?” Ed asks.

“He wanted me to reconfigure one of the ship's military class lasers to a communication laser. Apparently there isn't enough bandwidth for all the linguist's communication attempts. I told him in a friendly manner to fuck off, but he didn't give up.”

I take sip from my coffee. “So I took a look at his attempt to create an alphabet based on the periodic table of the elements. Apparently the periodic table didn't have enough elements for his purposes, so he simply invented new ones and added them where he saw fit.”

“Aaand you didn't like the idea of inventing new elements?” Cyla shortens my story to the essential point.

I put down my cup. “Hell, no! The periodic table is there for a reason. There is no such thing as new or unnamed elements. Someone who doesn't understand that has no reason to be out here in space where a small mistake costs lives.”

Raising a finger I start making my point. “I've read countless stupid stories where the author simply uses a new element to solve everything. Bullshit! Once a book starts like this you can as well throw it into the campfire.”

Then I return to the actual story at hand. “Regarding the idiot who intended to use the table of the elements. Let's suppose that the aliens realize that he sent them a table of the elements. How the hell are the aliens supposed to understand the random addition of imaginary elements? They'll think we are nuts when we add VocaloidNumberNine between Hydrogen and Helium! Who let this guy onto my ship?”

“Maybe that's the reason why he didn't get the bandwidth to try it.” Ed mumbles to himself.

“How are the communication attempts going?” Cyla asks. “We were too busy to set up the asteroid habitat for the contact team. Do they really intend to invite the Forlorn over? Is it even safe to have them in the same environment as us?”

“Apparently there should be no problem. They are breathing the same gases as us.” I answer. “Of course our doctors will check them for bugs which could harm us. They already got a few samples from them. But so far it looks like we can't infect each other. The Forlorn chemistry is based on copper and the Zeen seems to be something that doesn't even classify as alive according to our doctors.”

“You've informed yourself well.” Cyla raises an eyebrow and studies me.

“I've no interest in dying to something that I can't even see.” I answer.

Ed spreads his hands. “The eggheads are trying their best, but there are some translation problems with the alien language. Apparently some of their concepts don't really translate to ours and vice versa. We are stuck at the level of simple concepts and pictures. We can show them what we want and hope that they are interpreting it right.”

I snort. “So it's the cup-problem.”

“Cup-problem?” Cyla asks.

I raise my cup of coffee. “Hier, nimm das.” Then I place it back on the table. “What did I say?”

“This is coffee?” She asks.

“Why not liquid? White? Black? Milk? Hot? Good? Inedible? I could have simply offered it to you or given you an order.” I ask.

“I get the problem. So what did you really say?” She asks.

“That you should take it.” I answer.

Ed nods slowly. “Maybe meeting the Forlorn in the habitat will get things going.”

***Kaus Borealis, Asteroid Habitat***

***Ilin Kleio***

“They built all this in just a few days.” I wander through the foreign habitat. It's nothing fancy, but there are a few buildings to live in and something like a small sun is shining above us.

Ayo seems less impressed than me though. “They did nothing more than pulling an asteroid to this location. Then they hollowed it out and sealed it air tight. That's something my people have been doing for aeons. What's far more impressive is the artificial gravity! I don't understand how they are doing it, but it has something to do with those runes.”

The Zeen are far more advanced than us, so Ayo has less reason to marvel at the achievements of these outsiders. I let my eyes wander to the strange bipedal aliens. Our linguists and theirs are trying to work out each other's languages for days, but it doesn't look like we'll ever be able to understand these people.

“Shouldn't you be over there, Ayo? You are here to learn their language, aren't you?” I ask.

“I am learning. I am listening to every word they are saying over there.” Ayo answers. “Actually I've almost worked out their syntax. Though I am not sure about many of their words. I am missing a vital point.”

Ayo can hear them from here? “Your race has keen ears and you people seem to like doing things the hard way. What's the point in learning the grammar before you know what the words mean?”

“I could also ask why you aren't doing your job, Ilin.” Ayo replies.

“I am a psychoanalyst. I can't do any more than I've already done without being able to speak to them, or visiting one of their cities.” I answer.

“Then what have you gathered so far?” The Zeen asks and starts digging inside his tool sack.

“Nothing much. They seem to fulfil different roles in their society, much like us. I am not sure if they have jobs or a caste system. There seem to be the linguists and scientists who are trying to communicate with us. Then there are those with the masks. They are passive and doing nothing besides stopping us from entering their ship. I suppose they are guards or warriors.”

“Have you noticed the ones in black clothing?” Ayo asks and unearths a strange tool.

I scratch myself with my second hand. “Yes, but they are rarely here. I thought they are some kind of leaders, but it doesn't seem so. Otherwise they would be here more often.”

“I've placed a great amount of attention on them. Do you know that there seem to be only two of them?” Ayo asks while manipulating the tool.

“No? I can't tell their faces from each other. I've only noticed that they seem to have two genders and some of them made very eccentric changes to their bodies.” The linguist with three eyes and two mouths is especially disturbing to me. Aren't they screening their children for abnormalities?

Ayo kneels down and starts chipping away one of the runes on the street's sidewalk. “I think they are technicians. And I've built a special relationship to one of them.”

“What are you doing? They'll get angry if you destroy their habitat!” I try to stop Ayo, but the Zeen ignores me.

“I've damaged this rune several times in the recent days and the male technician always appears to fix it. He is also very angry at me and chatters a lot of words which I never heard from the other linguists.” Ayo explains.

“Ah, so you are doing it to complete your dictionary.” I mumble.

“Like I said. Sometimes you are missing just one piece of information and once you get it everything else falls into place. I am also interested in those two because they communicated with each other without talking. Though that's just an assumption of mine.” Ayo finishes destroying the rune and starts floating. He stretches one of his long arms towards me. “Give me your hand. The effect is restricted to a three metre radius.”

I take Ayo's hand and pull him to me. “You took a great risk in destroying that rune without knowing what could happen.” Are all Zeen insane?

“It wasn't a risk. I saw the technician fixing it before I destroyed it to call him back.” Ayo answers and points at someone behind me. “There he is. I am still amazed at how fast he is. One might think that he is always waiting close by.”

I turn around and find myself being glared at by one of the aliens. Then it starts talking to Ayo, which sounds definitely less friendly than the conversational tone of the other aliens.

Ayo turns to me. “He is a very creative one. Do you know that he never repeated himself while calling me names?”

The alien walks past us, apparently unaffected by the zero gravity zone. Then he starts repairing the chipped rune with a melting tool.

I try to walk closer to see what he is doing, but Ayo holds me back. “You'll float away if you approach before he's repaired it. He has his own gravity field and is cold-hearted enough to let you float until he's repaired the rune. Then you simply drop to the ground.”

“How can they have a mobile gravity field small enough to be carried by a person?” I gasp, then I return my attention to the alien's work. “It doesn't do more than melt the metal. There is nothing inside or behind the rune. No electronics!”

When the alien is done it returns to stand in front of us, like daring us to destroy the rune once more.

I whisper to Ayo. “I think it's really angry this time.” Suddenly the alien reaches out and touches both of us.

~Interrupt me once more during my free time and I'll space you fuckers!~ Then the alien lets go and walks away.

“Did it just talk in my mind!?” My head snaps to Ayo.

The Zeen nods. “Yes, cool, right? And I think he just gave me the final hint at solving the language mystery. I'll provoke it a little more to get more information. I've got to get it to tell me a sentence in voice and mind language at the same time.” Then Ayo hurries to follow the alien.

“I wouldn't anger someone who just threatened to space me, Ayo!?” But the Zeen doesn't listen. Damn!

.