The Kalash-Quovo dropped below the speed of light in the inhabited system. The second planet gave off a lot of signals, and the third and fourth planets had small colonies, as did two moons of the gas giant which was the fifth planet from the star. They started moving towards the inner system.

They had to lean heavily on Petra here, because none of the Goldaskian crew aboard knew the usual procedures for how to sift and organize the flood of information. Petra basically rummaged in the ship's memory and mimicked what the crew had done in the past. None of the signals were calibrated or formatted to the usual standards, because this civilization had not yet made contact with the wider galaxy.

That was going to change in the next few kozegs.

"We will go to the moons of Planet Five first," Captain Geh!aoa decided. "Move us closer."

Pilot Yulliksu worked his controls, and reported, "Moving closer to planet five. Time will be 1.8 kozegs or more. Do I go normal fast, Captain?"

Geh!aoa considered briefly. "Yes."

"Time will be 2.6 kozegs."

They don't normally rush around at top speed, she realized. Maybe they save that for battle, to keep from burning out the engines or something like that. I'll have to remember to say "normal speed" when giving orders for moving the ship.

"We will go to the moon farther from the planet."

"Yes, Captain."

"Space is clear...I think," the Goldaskian seated in front of her on the left said. Her name was Vou Massik, and she was not normally on the bridge before coming to Ooafa, but she was the most qualified person they had to search the space around the ship for things.

"I am choosing radio calls," the golem announced, which probably made more sense in its translation gears than the result did to her. Nik!eh had told Petra that Geh!aoa had authority for all questions and commands involving the ship directly, and she had given instructions as carefully as she could. Petra's Kthufu was continuing to improve, but there were still snags at times. For all that the fuak!a aboard were eagerly trying to learn Galactic, Petra would always be much faster at learning other languages and translating.

"Petra, do you have sounds and pictures from the radio signals?"

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Yes."

"Show me an example."

The image that appeared on the wall in front of them was hexagonal. It showed an alien that looked different from Nik!eh and the Goldaskians, and even more at odds with a fuak!a's appearance. Geh!aoa stared.

She had been surprised to see the face bumps on the two alien species she had met up to now, but in this species, apparently the face bump had taken over the whole face! It jutted out so far that she thought its head might be double the expected length front-to-back. The effect was a huge mouth with a large hinge, long on the sides and narrow in front. Its ears were like small, forward-facing cups high on the head. It was covered in dark brown fur except for the face, which had short, yellow fur. It wore a blue uniform with little in the way of decoration.

The creature was speaking. It was clearly a language, but it was full of sounds that Geh!aoa knew that she wouldn't be able to reproduce: barks, growls, grunts, and more. It almost hurt her ears to listen to it. Petra's going to have to do all the translating, looks like. I'm not learning that language any time soon.

The being was talking with someone; they paused, and gave one-syllable answers to unheard questions. "Show me another transmission," Geh!aoa ordered. A second hexagon appeared; this one showed half a dozen of the creatures in an open space surrounded by some kind of trees. They were howling and barking in some kind of pattern; it almost reminded her of watching a play being performed, though she could not say exactly why she thought that.

Nik!eh muttered, "they look like dog people or wolf people." Petra didn't translate those two words.

"What?"

"Never mind."

Nik!eh asked Petra several questions that did not translate well at all into Kthufu. "Can you read the ropes of tying golems together?" was one, and "can you get books of lightning into yourself," was another. "Show transmissions with large and small aliens talking," made a bit more sense. The hoonan told the golem to learn the language of the aliens. Geh!aoa wondered how Petra was going to do that without talking with the natives.

A few zegs later, she was fascinated to see one large alien with six small ones, having some sort of discussion. The conversation sounded extremely simple, as if the large alien was an adult teaching something to small children in...small words.

Geh!aoa's eyes widened as she struggled with the alien concept. To perform a play solely to teach a few words to children? But they could see it. Did that mean anyone with an alien radio could see it? Her ears spread wide. Everyone with a radio could see it? Then...one skilled teacher could teach hundreds of students at once. Thousands!

Nik!eh gave a small expression of triumph and said 'Sesame Street' in his language, whatever that was. Geh!aoa turned and stared at him. He knew about this. They have this on his planet. In a century or less, we would have had this on Ooafa. Wonder of wonders, of course they would be more advanced than us once they had the means to do this! You could teach everyone!

Geh!aoa's mind spun with possibilities. Nik!eh had not only realized that such radio plays existed, but that they could use them to learn the native language here. I have so much to learn, she realized yet again. Her ears folded all the way back.

I can't wait to start!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.