Michael Siemsen - Exigency

Aether chided herself for never once attempting Threck language on the station. Her response pre-played in her ear (as if she’d be able to verify its accuracy) and she observed this new synth voice was a variation on the generic Sindy synth, though its pitch range had been extended several octaves higher and lower. As Sindy spoke, Howard the Threck’s body moved, demonstrating the associated gestures.

Ah, she thought. That’s why it pre-plays… so I can see where the gestures fit with the words.

Aether sucked in a deep breath, as if about to speak the sounds herself, and activated playback through her PA. She mimicked the body language in time with the appropriate syllables. “Ehh-skwaw fwips-scay peeesss-CK…” One fist, two fists, exaggerated blink hopefully understood as an eye hide, hip pop, overlapped hands to chest… “ Packesheh Aether .” She pointed her stacked palms past the Threck toward Qin. “ Packesheh Chin. ”

The Threck seemed to struggle with most of what she and Livetrans had said. “ Peess-CK ,” it repeated. “ Peess-CK .” A head cock.

Aether looked over the translation. She’d supposedly told the Threck she was grateful for the welcome, grateful for safety, that she was from a very far away mountain, had gotten lost, and sought to return there. And, of course, their names. The City Threck were known to use names and titles, and the language this one had spoken was 100% City, so it stood to reason that it would contextually receive “Aether” and “Qin” as names, however unfamiliar.

While confident in Minnie’s DB and Livetrans, she knew her gestures (or lack thereof) could have ruined the entire message. Especially given the number of physical modifiers in the language that neither Livetrans nor Aether could incorporate. Speaking during inhale or exhale, siphons open or closed, eye hides—and there were a dizzying number of variables. “Fortunately,” Minnie had said in one briefing, “this is one of those exigency preps none of us need worry too much about. Unless the Threck throw together some kind of superduper slingshot and shoot themselves up here, we’ll never be face to face with one of these people.”

The Threck was still asking about Peess-CK . Aether highlighted the sound. It meant “lost.” She checked for modifiers. The app indicated it was an inhaled word. She played it again while exaggerating an inhale.

The Threck signaled understanding and looked purposefully to Aether then Qin, pointing. “ Packe Eeser… Tchin. ” It crossed its clubs over its upper legs and said, “ Packesheh EH-skinee .” It repeated, slower, “ EH-skinnneee .”

LIVETRANS: [I am] [unknown]. [unknown].

Aether input a response and the translation played through her speaker. “Peaceful greetings, Eh-skinee.” She added the Threck’s name to the catalogue as Skinny.

“Peaceful greetings, Eeser,” Skinny replied with much exuberant head cocking.

Aether smiled and then hoped it wasn’t an offensive or threatening gesture to show one’s teeth.

“Okay so this all looks great and everything,” Qin’s voice said in her helmet. But you think you can tell him to take us back up to the surface? Maybe something like we’ll only keep talking if you let us go up?”

She ignored Qin and composed her next message to Skinny. What an insane thrill to be conversing, she thought, even through a synth. Skinny, too, appeared more energized. And, apparently, Aether’s body language and expressions were sufficient for Skinny to grasp her meaning. Who knew if Minnie would be proud, ashamed, or die laughing at the sight?

“Aether and Qin breathe only air so cannot stay long in Skinny’s safe water. Can we talk more on land beach?”

Skinny’s eyes hid before peering down at the pool of water. Another pair of eyes and head top had been poking up for an unknown length of time. Aether watched Livetrans.

“Orange People want land,” Skinny said to the observer. Apparently, the suits’ bright color had become the defining characteristic of humans.

The other Threck rose up so its siphons were above water.

“… danger… die in water,” the Threck at the hatch replied.

Aether had disabled [unknown] words and gesture bracketing from displaying, but she wasn’t fond of what remained without them.

Skinny turned back to her. “How much time Aether and Qin live in water?”

“No amount of time,” Aether had the synth reply. She needed to make it very clear. “We only live on land. We die in water.”

Skinny said, “Threck are on land. Not safe for Aether and Qin.”

Threck are on land?

Aether was confused. “Is Skinny not Threck?”

Skinny’s eyes hid and body contorted. [Shameful disgust]. The other Threck below disappeared under the water with a little splash.

Aether watched the Livetrans unfold before her as Skinny went into an apparent tirade, voice blaring through wide siphon holes as tentacles slapped consoles.

“This is not kind to speak! You are mountain people from far away! We do not angry for these words not to repeat. Threck are evil! Threck are tricking! Threck take people away to make more Threck! Threck will take Aether and Qin! Skinny protects Aether and Qin from Threck in my water!”

Was it wrong to be a little grateful for a station catastrophe? Offensive to internally celebrate a near-death experience—a disaster that may have taken the lives of crewmates and friends? Tom knew that Aether and Qin had made it to the surface (albeit an unstable, liquidy surface commonly known as an ocean ), however the fates of Minnie, Ish, and John had yet to be determined. Of course he hoped for the best—nay, was near- certain of the best!—but zipping through the hot fresh air atop an expedition skimmer, pseudo-racing Angela, his girlfriend and bunkbud of the past several months, lush landscape flashing by below them, with open space stretching off in every direction, well… it’d been difficult to remain exclusively glum.

Tom glanced down at the nav panel. 39 seconds from EV2’s position. In the distance, the terrain appeared to clear. Threck farms in this region typically grew beans or pulp fruits, and, removed from the surrounding backdrop of unearthly blue, pink, and teal vegetation, they could easily be mistaken for farms back home. The Threck’s favorite beans even boasted green foliage, an abnormal hue on Epsy where teal had evolved dominance beneath the violet sky.

The wild, vibrant forest gave way to the managed farmland and sporadic, low-profile domed structures characteristic of Country Threck. The crew had yet to determine these simple domiciles’ building materials, as opposed to the wood-crafted structures found on farms closer to the city, and managed by City Threck. Not really wood. It was more like dense, petrified mushroom. For simplicity’s sake, whenever possible, the crew had agreed to refer to certain things by their closest Earth counterparts. Fungus, lichen, plant, rodentia, worm, mollusk—few were all that accurate. Epsy’s rodent population were more closely related to early Earth birds. They were even coldblooded. The crew used the term “fungus” to describe the planet’s dominant flora, but epsequoia, toothpicks, pillars, palms, and the rest had no real genetic equivalents on Earth. In reality, nothing living on Epsy had a true Earth equivalent. Epsy life’s foundations began similarly to Earth, but a billion years of initial evolution produced different “winners” than on Earth, and so everything thereafter had been built upon common building blocks. In fact, without counteractive supplements, there was little on Epsy that humans could safely consume on a regular basis due to extremely high arsenic and chlorine content. The beans and fruits in the fields before them were literally poison.