The Lost Fleet Beyond the Frontier Invincible

He had external views from the shuttle as well, and now the one focused on the smooth egg shape that was the spider-wolf spacecraft showed an oval tube extending toward the human shuttle.

“It feels right,” Desjani commented. “That oval shape. The proportions, I mean. It’s like these spider-wolves share the same fondness we have for that Golden Mean thing.”

The tube came to rest against the side of the shuttle, and warning lights flashed before the pilot’s seat. “We’ve got hull contact. I’m not sure what’s happening.” Her voice stayed steady.

“Are they all on drugs?” Geary asked. “Why aren’t any of them nervous?”

“I picked the pilot, Admiral,” Desjani replied. “She’s as sound as they come. You’ll have to ask the emissaries if they took anything.”

“Pressure outside the air lock,” the pilot announced. “About point nine five standard. Composition of gases is within acceptable standards for humans to breathe. I can’t confirm this, but that flexible tube that joined us to the alien ship seems to have become rigid now.”

How had the spider-wolf tube formed an airtight seal against the shuttle hull? And how had it then become a rigid tube rather than the flexing object that had reached out toward the shuttle?

Rione and Charban had both heard the pilot’s report, and now Charban moved to the air lock. He turned to salute the video feed, smiling crookedly. “Here we go.”

Rione came up beside him as the inner air lock hatch cycled open, then the outer hatch. Geary saw her inhale deeply as the alien atmosphere mixed with that inside the shuttle. “Spicy,” she announced to no one in particular. “Not too sharp or pungent. Almost pleasant.”

“Maybe they smell good,” Geary speculated.

“It sounds like they smell better than we do, anyway,” Desjani replied. “Present company excepted, of course.”

He wondered what he was supposed to feel as they waited for the spider-wolves to appear. Finally, humanity was making contact with another intelligence. The enigmas refused to really converse with humans, only making threats and demands, and the bear-cows had refused to communicate at all. But the spider-wolves were intelligent and willing to talk. For the first time, humans would learn how a different intelligence viewed the universe the two species shared. In time, the crude methods used to exchange information would be refined, the two peoples would learn each other’s language, and—

The spider-wolves would still be incredibly hard to look at, Geary concluded as two of them came into view inside the oval tube, which was wide enough for them to stand side by side.

He had seen spider-wolves in armor inside Balestra’s escape pod, but armor could exaggerate many things. For the first time, seeing these spider-wolves wearing nothing but their brilliant silklike garments, he could be sure of the size. Not short like the bear-cows, but not as tall as humans, either. Perhaps a meter and a half in height, the spider-wolves were wider than humans because of the way their arms protruded outward and the middle of their abdomens swelled to the sides.

Charban offered the case of duct tape to them. “For our friends,” he said. “One of humanity’s greatest secrets and discoveries, but we freely share it with your species in the spirit of friendship and understanding.”

Somehow, the case of duct tape didn’t seem quite worthy of the language surrounding its transfer to the spider-wolves. One of the aliens extended four arms, the claws closing on the case and holding it with what struck Geary as great care, as if an immensely valuable item was being grasped.

The other spider-wolf faced Rione, who stood with a certain tenseness that he found oddly familiar. Not in her . . . but . . . Perhaps it was Rione’s earlier use of the analogy of a date that triggered his memory of his own youthful dates, the unsuccessful ones where, during the good-bye, his date had stood so. It hadn’t taken too many such experiences before he realized that slightly tense posture foretold an offered cheek instead of lips for a good-night kiss and a loose-armed “hug” with no body contact.

Did the spider-wolf feel the same way? Its four claw-tipped arms rose, swinging around slowly, to barely touch Rione, then its hideous head dipped forward just enough to barely graze her forehead as she lowered her head to mimic his gesture.

The spider-wolf dropped its “embrace” quickly and Geary saw colors shift on its face and upper abdomen. A rose shade, then something bluish, and finally a purple that spread and stayed. He and others had joked that humans might be as repulsive to the spider-wolves as the spider-wolves were to humans. If he read the reactions of this spider-wolf properly, that guess might well be right.

Desjani laughed, the sound short and soft. “She’s got guts. I hate that woman, but she’s brave. How long are they going to have to stay in quarantine?”

“That’ll be up to medical after they get back and get examined.”