James White - Federation World

But he was wrong.

As Martin finished speaking the control deck lights and heating came on; the cold, stale fog they had been breathing was being replaced by air that was warm and fresh. With the return of artificial gravity their makeshift sleeping bag settled gently to the deck, and the communicator screen lit with a message.

EXERCISE TERMINATED. TEST RESULTS EXCELLENT BOTH SUBJECTS. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT RESTORED TO EARTH-HUMAN OPTIMUM. YOU MAY RETURN TO TRAINEE QUARTERS.

They did not return to quarters, or leave the lander or the sleeping bag, for a very long time. It was during this period that what they came to think of as their First Contact took place. It was a contact which deepened and broadened and made the remaining long years of their training seem short, and it would, they believed, be maintained and strengthened during the rest of their lives.

THEY were settling themselves for the first study session of what promised to be another not very exciting day, when it happened.

GOOD MORNING, read their desk displays. ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS FOLLOW. PLEASE RECORD FOR LATER STUDY.

With the appearance of the words, the wall facing them became a screen depicting in unpleasantly fine detail their supervisor and the large, low-ceilinged, and dimly lit compartment in which it lived-or perhaps only taught. It was surrounded by two-small consoles and eight untidy heaps of garishly colored material which Martin had thought at first were art objects or furniture but had later decided, after seeing the creature holding one of them close to a body orifice, were more likely to be food or collections of aromatic vegetation.

SUMMARY OF ASSIGNMENT. PROCEED TO THE SYSTEM LISTED AS TRD/5/23768/G3 AND TAKE UP ORBIT ABOUT FOURTH PLANET. STUDY IT, INTERVIEW A MEMBER OR MEMBERS OF ITS DOMINANT LIFEFORM, AND CARRY OUT PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THIS SPECIES’ SUITABILITY OR OTHERWISE FOR CITIZENSHIP.

QUESTIONS?

Martin swallowed. He knew that the feeling was purely psychosomatic, but it felt as if his stomach were experiencing zero-gee independently of the rest of his body. At the adjoining desk, Beth was putting on her spectacles. She did not need them, or any other sensory aid for that matter, because all of the Earth trainees had received the benefits of the Federation’s advanced medical and regenerative procedures so that they were as perfect physiologically as it was possible for a member of their species to be. But in times of stress, Beth wore her glasses because, she insisted, they made her feel more intelligent.

“No questions,” she said quietly, glancing at Martin for corroboration. “Until more assignment data is available, questions would consist of requests for more information.”

VERY WELL, THE PLANET IS CALLED TELDI IN THE LANGUAGE MOST WIDELY USED ON THAT WORLD. IT IS A DANGEROUS PLANET AND IS CONSIDERED SO EVEN BY ITS INHABITANTS, WHO LIVE ON A LARGE EQUATORIAL CONTINENT AND A CHAIN OF ISLANDS LINKING IT TO THE NORTH POLAR LAND MASS. TECHNOLOGICALLY THE CULTURE IS NOT ADVANCED. TELDI WAS DISCOVERED BY A FEDERATION SEARCHSHIP TWENTY-SEVEN OF YOUR YEARS AGO. BECAUSE OF GROSS PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TELDINS AND THE SPECIES MANNING THE VESSEL, NO OVERT CONTACT WAS MADE.

QUESTIONS?

There was a very obvious question, and Martin asked it. “If direct contact could not be made because the searchship personnel were too visually horrendous so far as the Teldins were concerned, why wasn’t indirect contact tried by translated visual word displays only, as was done on Earth?”

TELDINS WILL NOT DISCUSS MATTERS OF IMPORTANCE OR MAKE MAJOR DECISIONS THROUGH INTERMEDIARIES LIVING OR MECHANICAL. DISCOVERING THE REASON FOR THIS BEHAVIOR IS PART OF YOUR ASSIGNMENT

“Then we shall be meeting them face to face,” Martin said, wondering where all his saliva had gone. “May we see one of the faces concerned?”

OBSERVE.

“No doubt,” Beth commented in a shaky voice, following a three-second glimpse of the lifeform, “they have beautiful minds.”

THE MATTER TRANSMITTER NETWORK WILL NOT INCLUDE TELDI UNTIL A FAVORABLE ASSESSMENT HAS BEEN MADE. YOUR TRANSPORTATION WILL BE BY HYPERSHIP DURING SURFACE INVESTIGATIONS BY THE ENTITY MARTIN, THE ENTITY BETH WILL REMAIN WITH THE SHIP IN A SURVEILLANCE AND SUPPORT ROLE.

QUESTIONS?

Martin lifted his eyes to stare at the monstrosity beyond the desk screen, feeling himself beginning to sweat. He said, “This… this is a very important assignment.”

THAT IS A SELF-EVIDENTLY TRUE STATEMENT. IT IS NOT A QUESTION.

Beside him Beth laughed nervously. “What he is trying to say, Tutor, is why us?”

THREE REASONS. ONE: YOU HAVE BOTH SHOWN ABILITY ABOVE THE AVERAGE BOTH AS INDIVIDUALS AND AS A TEAM. TWO: AS MEMBERS OF THE SPECIES MOST RECENTLY OFFERED FEDERATION MEMBERSHIP, YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IS INVOLVED IN MAKING THIS ASSESSMENT WILL BE GREATER THAN THAT OF LONG-TERM MEMBERS. THREE: THERE ARE MANY SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE TELDINS AND THE EARTH-HUMAN SPECIES WHICH SHOULD EASE YOUR COMMUNICATIONS PROBLEMS.

“Apart from breathing a similar atmosphere,” Beth protested, “there is no resemblance at all. They are ungainly, completely lacking in aesthetic appeal, visually repellant, and…”

YOUR PARDON. I HAD THOUGHT THAT THE DIFFERENCES WERE SUPERFICIAL.

To you, Martin thought, they probably are.

YOU WILL ALREADY HAVE REALIZED THAT YOU ARE BOTH TO UNDERGO IMPORTANT FITNESS TESTS. THE VALUE OF THESE TESTS WOULD BE DIMINISHED IF I ASSISTED YOU OTHER THAN BY PROVIDING THE BASIC INFORMATION.

QUESTIONS?

“Can you give us advice?” he asked.

OBVIOUSLY. YOU HAVE BEEN RECEIVING ADVICE, GUIDANCE. AND INSTRUCTION SINCE YOU CAME HERE. MY ADVICE IS TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT AND PUT IT INTO PRACTICE. THE ASSIGNMENT NEED NOT BE A LENGTHY ONE PROVIDED THE ENTITY BETH USES ITS BRAIN AND THE SHIP’S SENSOR AND COMPUTER FACILITIES EFFECTIVELY, AND THE ENTITY MARTIN IS CAREFUL IN ITS CHOICE AND SUBSEQUENT INTERROGATION OF THE FIRST CONTACTEE.

IT IS POSSIBLE TO ARRIVE AT A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF A CULTURE FROM THE INTERROGATION OF ONE OF ITS MEMBERS. ALL THE NECESSARY EQUIPMENT IS AVAILABLE TO YOU, AND YOU HAVE BEEN FULLY TRAINED IN ITS USE. WHILE YOU ARE DECIDING ON THE SUITABILITY OR OTHERWISE OF TELDI FOR FEDERATION MEMBERSHIP, WE SHALL BE DECIDING ON YOUR SUITABILITY AS A HYPERSHIP CAPTAIN AND AN OTHER-SPECIES CONTACT SPECIALIST.

THE RESPONSIBILITY IS ENTIRELY YOURS.

The system had seven planets, and its only inhabited world, Teldi, was encircled by the broken remnants of a satellite which apparently had approached within the Roche limit and been pulled apart by the gravity of its primary. The planet had no axial tilt, and the orbit of the moon had coincided with the equator. The constantly colliding orbital debris had not yet formed into a stable ring system, so that the equatorial land mass of Teldi was regularly swept by a light, meteorite drizzle which was-seeded with enough heavier pieces to make life very uncertain for anyone who remained for long periods in the open.

“It wasn’t always like this,” Martin said, pointing at one of the sensor displays they had been studying. “That gray strip with the old impact craters all over it was an airport runway, those heaps of masonry and corroded metal could only be industrial complexes, and the rubble of what’s left of their residential area stretches for miles around. This culture must have been as advanced at least as that of pre-Exodus Earth before their moon broke up.”

“It may have been more than one moon,” Beth said thoughtfully. “The orbit and unusual clumping of the debris indicates a…”

“The difference is academic,” Martin broke in. “What we have here is a once advanced culture which has been hammered flat by meteorite bombardment to the extent that they have regressed to a primitive fanning and fishing society. Except for that polar settlement, which is virtually free of meteorites, their past technology seems to have been destroyed. The question is, where do I land?”