Starplex

Rissa ran the sequence again, and this time PHANTOM substituted the English words "three, two, one," in a synthesized male voice with an old-fashioned French accent — apparently that was to be the standard for darmats.

The bridge staff was rapt as Rissa pressed on, learning the Darmat words for the numerals four through one hundred.

Neither she nor PHANTOM could detect any kind of repeating pattern in the word construction that would allow one to deduce the base the darmats used for counting; it seemed that each numeral was represented by a word unrelated to all the others. She stopped at one hundred, afraid the darmat would get bored by the game and cease communicating with her at all.

Next came exercises in simple math: two blinks, a six-second pause — double the normal length — two more blinks, another six-second pause, and then four blinks.

Cat's Eye dutifully provided the words two, two, and four each of the first five times Rissa repeated the sequence, but on the sixth, it finally caught the intended meaning of the prolonged gaps: a six-second gap meant a word was missing in the middle. PHANTOM didn't wait for Rissa's confirmation; when Cat's Eye next spoke, it translated the darmat sentence as "two plus two equals four" — adding the terms for the two operators to the translation database. In short order, Rissa also elicited the darmat words for "minus,"

"multiplied by,"

"divided by," "greater than," and "less

"I think," said Rissa, grinning from ear to ear, "that there's no doubt that we're dealing with highly intelligent beings."

Keith shook his head in wonder as Rissa continued to use mathematics to work out more vocabulary. She soon had the darmat terms for "correct" and "incorrect" (or "yes" and "no") — which she hoped would also be their terms for "right" and "wrong" in other areas. She then had Rhombus move the probe in specific ways (carefully avoiding splashing the darmat with hot ACS exhaust), and that led to the darmat words for "up," "down," "left," "right,"

"in front," "behind,"

"receding," "approaching," "turning," "tumbling," "circling," "fast,"

"slow," and more.

By moving the probe in a path right around Cat's Eye, Rissa was able to get the darmat word for "orbit," and soon had picked up the words for "star,"

"planet," and "moon," as well.

By using colored filters on the probe's fusion lamps, Rissa then elicited the darmat words for various hues. She next broadcast her first simple original sentence, beginning with the arbitrary sign they'd originally assigned to the probe that was Starplex's mouthpiece: "Starplex moves toward green star." Rissa then had Rhombus make the probe do precisely that.

Cat's Eye understood at once, responding with the word for "correct."

He then sent his own sentence: "Cat's Eye moves away from Starplex," then turned word into deed.

Rissa replied with "correct."

When alpha shift was over, Keith went back to his apartment to shower and eat, but Rissa kept on long into ship's night, building up a bigger and bigger vocabulary.

Never once did Cat's Eye show the slightest sign of impatience or fatigue. By the time gamma shift was coming on duty, Rissa herself was exhausted, and she turned the translation duties over to Hek. They worked for four days — sixteen shifts — slowly building up a darmat vocabulary.

Cat's Eye never let his attention falter. Finally, Rissa said, they could engage in a simple conversation. Keith, as director, would vet the questions, but Rissa would actually pose them.

"Ask him how long he's been here," said Keith.

Rissa leaned into the microphone stalk emerging from her console.

"How long have you been here?"

The answer came quickly: "Since the time we started talking, times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred."

PHANTOM's voice came on, interpolating: "That is approximately four trillion days, or roughly ten billion years." "Of course," said Rissa, "he could be speaking figuratively — just meaning to convey a very long time."

"Ten billion years," said Jag, "is, however, a rough approximation of the age of the universe."

"Well, if you were ten billion years old, I suppose you'd have a lot of patience, too," said Thor, chuckling.

"Maybe ask him a different way," suggested Lianne.

"Is that how long all of you have been here?" said Rissa into the mike.

"This group that duration," said the translated voice.

"This one, duration since the time we started talking, times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times fifty."

"That translates to approximately five hundred thousand years," said PHANTOM.

"Perhaps he's saying this group of darmats is ten billion years old," said Rissa, "but he's only half a million himself."

"'Only,'" said Lianne.

"Now tell him how old we are," said Keith.

"You mean Starplex's age?" asked Rissa. "Or the age of the Commonwealth? Or the age of our species?"

"We're comparing civilizations, I guess," said Keith. "So the comparisons would be the oldest Commonwealth race."