silent
culture would be to me. I was determined to find out how they
communicated,
"I had heard tales of journeyors allowing
primitive
tribes to believe they were gods, and I had sworn I would never do
something so unethical. I was prepared to put these people at ease and
show them I was not much different from them as soon as I arrived.
"When
my ship landed, however, I never even made it outside before they
attacked. A small army of the local residents surrounded the ship and
tried to beat it to death with sticks. The brief information I had
found regarding their evolutionary level seemed accurate. They were
short, with almost no necks, or foreheads, and had arms long enough to
rest on all fours. The men and women were both covered with hair, but
their faces and general forms were decidedly humanoid.
"For
the next
two days, they continued to bang on the outside of the ship.
Replacements came to relieve the original attackers, then the
replacements were relieved in turn. I felt like I was sitting inside a
metal drum. Even after I plugged my ears, the vibration from the noise
was driving me insane. I refused to give up on my first journey, but I
wasn't about to leave the ship and be instantly killed, either. I kept
thinking they'd get tired and back off long enough for me to show them
I had come in peace, but it didn't look like they were going to give me
that chance."
Shara took a plate of food from his hand, but
her attention was on him. "What did you do?"
He shrugged and
made a slight face. "I took off my jammer to find out just how dangerous they were.
At first,
because I didn't pick up any mental voices, I thought something had
happened to my ability. Then an image flashed in my mind and I realized
they thought in picture form. They all had a similar picture in mind.
"Apparently
they thought the ship was a sort of giant nut that had fallen from a
tall tree, and they were trying to crack it open to get to the food
inside."
Shara smiled along with him. "So they meant you no
harm after all."
"Not
unless they were cannibals . . . which they weren't." He took a bite of
his dinner and washed it down with a fruit drink. "Once I'd given in to
using my mental disability to solve the first problem, I threw out most
of my other resolutions as well. Using the ship's defense system, I
dazzled them with a fireworks display, while I broadcast a lively
symphony recording out to them.
"They may not have thought I
was a
god, since that concept was too complex for them, but they were
sufficiently awed to give me the break I needed to leave the ship
unharmed. I performed a few tricks, like making fire come out of a box,
and they accepted my presence in their village. That was the first time
I realized that I hadn't learned everything I needed to know in
Parson's Colony. Sometimes unethical methods are the only ones that
work."
"I understand what you mean. I've been telling myself
everything I've done recently will be worth it in the end."
'The
only problem with that line of thinking is you don't find out if you
made the right decisions until it's too
late."
Shara
grimaced. "Do you think that's what happened when the Noronian rebels
first infiltrated Outerworld Earth? They did what they thought they had
to do, but it turned out to be the wrong choices."
"I believe
so,"
he replied, nodding thoughtfully. "History reports that the rebels
abused the natives' trust and became power hungry. I'm hoping to
confirm or refute that information firsthand."
As soon as the
discussion veered into the explosive topic of their individual goals,
Shara drew him back to his story. "Did you ever figure out how those
people in the Telvar system communicated?"
"That and
everything else
about them. From what I could tell, they had no enemies other than
nature, so they had no reason to fear me or hide anything. I wrote my
first published monograph on their culture. The reason
culture would be to me. I was determined to find out how they
communicated,
"I had heard tales of journeyors allowing
primitive
tribes to believe they were gods, and I had sworn I would never do
something so unethical. I was prepared to put these people at ease and
show them I was not much different from them as soon as I arrived.
"When
my ship landed, however, I never even made it outside before they
attacked. A small army of the local residents surrounded the ship and
tried to beat it to death with sticks. The brief information I had
found regarding their evolutionary level seemed accurate. They were
short, with almost no necks, or foreheads, and had arms long enough to
rest on all fours. The men and women were both covered with hair, but
their faces and general forms were decidedly humanoid.
"For
the next
two days, they continued to bang on the outside of the ship.
Replacements came to relieve the original attackers, then the
replacements were relieved in turn. I felt like I was sitting inside a
metal drum. Even after I plugged my ears, the vibration from the noise
was driving me insane. I refused to give up on my first journey, but I
wasn't about to leave the ship and be instantly killed, either. I kept
thinking they'd get tired and back off long enough for me to show them
I had come in peace, but it didn't look like they were going to give me
that chance."
Shara took a plate of food from his hand, but
her attention was on him. "What did you do?"
He shrugged and
made a slight face. "I took off my jammer to find out just how dangerous they were.
At first,
because I didn't pick up any mental voices, I thought something had
happened to my ability. Then an image flashed in my mind and I realized
they thought in picture form. They all had a similar picture in mind.
"Apparently
they thought the ship was a sort of giant nut that had fallen from a
tall tree, and they were trying to crack it open to get to the food
inside."
Shara smiled along with him. "So they meant you no
harm after all."
"Not
unless they were cannibals . . . which they weren't." He took a bite of
his dinner and washed it down with a fruit drink. "Once I'd given in to
using my mental disability to solve the first problem, I threw out most
of my other resolutions as well. Using the ship's defense system, I
dazzled them with a fireworks display, while I broadcast a lively
symphony recording out to them.
"They may not have thought I
was a
god, since that concept was too complex for them, but they were
sufficiently awed to give me the break I needed to leave the ship
unharmed. I performed a few tricks, like making fire come out of a box,
and they accepted my presence in their village. That was the first time
I realized that I hadn't learned everything I needed to know in
Parson's Colony. Sometimes unethical methods are the only ones that
work."
"I understand what you mean. I've been telling myself
everything I've done recently will be worth it in the end."
'The
only problem with that line of thinking is you don't find out if you
made the right decisions until it's too
late."
Shara
grimaced. "Do you think that's what happened when the Noronian rebels
first infiltrated Outerworld Earth? They did what they thought they had
to do, but it turned out to be the wrong choices."
"I believe
so,"
he replied, nodding thoughtfully. "History reports that the rebels
abused the natives' trust and became power hungry. I'm hoping to
confirm or refute that information firsthand."
As soon as the
discussion veered into the explosive topic of their individual goals,
Shara drew him back to his story. "Did you ever figure out how those
people in the Telvar system communicated?"
"That and
everything else
about them. From what I could tell, they had no enemies other than
nature, so they had no reason to fear me or hide anything. I wrote my
first published monograph on their culture. The reason
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