symmetry, and sporting a set of black coveralls that looked like they belonged on any mechanic. Mechanic… shit, the engineering service. The being eyed Jason’s rifle nervously and repeated the noise it had made before. When the human shook his head helplessly it tapped at its own ear and then pointed to Jason’s ear. Not understanding the meaning, Jason dumbly shook his head again, wondering if the universal head shake for “negative” was really all that universal. The alien approached and peeked around both sides of his head before emitting another bizarre sound and walking back down the ramp and out of the ship.
Following it outside, Jason saw it had arrived in what looked to be a work vehicle. It pressed a couple buttons and the side began to fold up and over revealing a work bench and rows of tools. After fishing around in one of the open top bins for a second it walked back towards Jason with something in its hand, the whole time still jabbering away in its own language, punctuating certain words with a flutter of its ears. He handed the device to Jason and then pointed at his ear again. Understanding what he wanted, Jason held the device up to his ear. As soon as it made contact he could feel it begin to meld around his ear shape until it was securely in place. After this, the alien waved for Jason to follow him back into the ship.
Marching up to the terminal by the door, it pressed a spot on the screen and talked up into the air. Almost immediately the computer responded, but to Jason. “Commander Burke, stand by while the interpreter unit is uploaded with the human-English language translation matrix.” The device in his ear beeped softly.
“Better?” The voice in the earpiece was imposed over the alien’s actual vocalizations, the effect was a bit disconcerting.
“I can understand you, if that’s what you mean,” Jason answered, realizing for the first time how completely unprepared he was for this moment. Deetz had given him no instructions regarding etiquette or what could be considered as an insult.
“Ah! That’s better! My name is Twingo, I’m the engineer that’s been dispatched to take a look at your grav emitters and slip reactor.” Now that the translation was coming through, Jason sensed a prominent gregariousness to Twingo’s personality. He was still talking a mile a minute as he looked around the cargo bay. “Haven’t seen anything like this around here in a while, not too much call for gunships anymore this far out in the spiral arm. Looks like she’s taken a bit of a beating. Ha! So what’s the other guy look like?” Jason noticed that the ear flutters seemed to emphasize certain points he was trying to make. Still seems like a he anyway. Twingo walked up to the terminal without waiting for an answer to his questions and began plugging away at it. Unlike when Jason first touched it that night and it locked him out, it responded immediately and began displaying menus that the engineer could navigate through. He consulted with the terminal in the cargo bay as well as a tablet computer he held in his right hand, harrumphing to himself occasionally as he poured through the scrolling displays.
It was a good five minutes later when Twingo switched off his own tablet and looked at Jason. “No problem! Need to realign the emitters and then calibrate the fuel flow to the reactor. Your output was so low because the matter-antimatter ratio is off, that will kick the reactor into an emergency safe mode that can’t be overridden until a full calibration is performed.” Jason wasn’t aware the reactor output was low. Or how it worked. Or where it was. So, he just nodded and smiled knowingly.
“So it’s something you see a lot?” He asked the question more to feel a part of the process than any real curiosity about Twingo’s workload. The engineer, however, took the question very seriously and
Following it outside, Jason saw it had arrived in what looked to be a work vehicle. It pressed a couple buttons and the side began to fold up and over revealing a work bench and rows of tools. After fishing around in one of the open top bins for a second it walked back towards Jason with something in its hand, the whole time still jabbering away in its own language, punctuating certain words with a flutter of its ears. He handed the device to Jason and then pointed at his ear again. Understanding what he wanted, Jason held the device up to his ear. As soon as it made contact he could feel it begin to meld around his ear shape until it was securely in place. After this, the alien waved for Jason to follow him back into the ship.
Marching up to the terminal by the door, it pressed a spot on the screen and talked up into the air. Almost immediately the computer responded, but to Jason. “Commander Burke, stand by while the interpreter unit is uploaded with the human-English language translation matrix.” The device in his ear beeped softly.
“Better?” The voice in the earpiece was imposed over the alien’s actual vocalizations, the effect was a bit disconcerting.
“I can understand you, if that’s what you mean,” Jason answered, realizing for the first time how completely unprepared he was for this moment. Deetz had given him no instructions regarding etiquette or what could be considered as an insult.
“Ah! That’s better! My name is Twingo, I’m the engineer that’s been dispatched to take a look at your grav emitters and slip reactor.” Now that the translation was coming through, Jason sensed a prominent gregariousness to Twingo’s personality. He was still talking a mile a minute as he looked around the cargo bay. “Haven’t seen anything like this around here in a while, not too much call for gunships anymore this far out in the spiral arm. Looks like she’s taken a bit of a beating. Ha! So what’s the other guy look like?” Jason noticed that the ear flutters seemed to emphasize certain points he was trying to make. Still seems like a he anyway. Twingo walked up to the terminal without waiting for an answer to his questions and began plugging away at it. Unlike when Jason first touched it that night and it locked him out, it responded immediately and began displaying menus that the engineer could navigate through. He consulted with the terminal in the cargo bay as well as a tablet computer he held in his right hand, harrumphing to himself occasionally as he poured through the scrolling displays.
It was a good five minutes later when Twingo switched off his own tablet and looked at Jason. “No problem! Need to realign the emitters and then calibrate the fuel flow to the reactor. Your output was so low because the matter-antimatter ratio is off, that will kick the reactor into an emergency safe mode that can’t be overridden until a full calibration is performed.” Jason wasn’t aware the reactor output was low. Or how it worked. Or where it was. So, he just nodded and smiled knowingly.
“So it’s something you see a lot?” He asked the question more to feel a part of the process than any real curiosity about Twingo’s workload. The engineer, however, took the question very seriously and
Similar Books
