William Wu - Emperor

Ishihara held both his hands out, open, and smiled. “I think this word they keep saying means something negative, from their tone of voice. They fear we are a couple of gueis.”

“Whatever they are.”

“Yes.”

“The word must mean some kind of supernatural creature-you know, a demon or a fairy or something else that can appear magically.”

“It must mean an evil creature of some type,” said Ishihara. “They would not be as afraid or as hostile toward a good spirit. I surmise that our European appearance has also increased their fear to some degree. Certainly these ancient German tunics and cloak make us look barbaric.”

“Hey! Maybe we can use this. We’re good spirits. We have to tell them we’re good spirits.”

“This will be a difficult distinction to make without a language in common,” said Ishihara.

The peasants had begun approaching them slowly once again.

“No guei, no guei.” Wayne forced himself to smile even more broadly than before, though he was too scared to feel very friendly. He held his hands up, palms forward.

The peasants stopped again, still talking among themselves. The word “guei, ” was repeated even more than before.

“They understand guei, at least,” said Wayne quietly, slipping one hand back to the belt unit, just in case. “I’m going to try something else.”

“Be extremely careful,” said Ishihara.

Wayne renewed his phony smile and stepped forward, holding one arm high above his head. He knew they would not understand his speech, but he hoped that they would respond to a friendly tone of voice and gestures of greeting. “Hello, whoever you are. Good evening. We are glad to see you.”

The peasants gazed at him. Their eyes were wide with surprise and puzzlement. One of the men in the front, who held a large hoe, shouted to Wayne suspiciously.

“Do what I did,” said Wayne. “I think it’s working.”

“Hello,” Ishihara called out. He also raised one arm in greeting. “Good evening.”

The peasants watched them without speaking. The man in front lowered his hoe slightly.

“We have to convince them we’re good spirits,” Wayne said quietly. “Then they’ll actually help us.”

“If we can prevent them from trying to kill us. I will be satisfied,” said Ishihara.

The peasants began talking to each other again.

“It’s working,” said Wayne. “At least, they aren’t as sure as they were a minute ago that we’re enemies.”

“We have made no aggressive moves,” said Ishihara. “That may have helped. However, I recommend again that we jump forward in time and start over,”

“Not yet,” said Wayne. “This is a populated area, so we might be seen again.”

“After dark, that is very unlikely.”

“We can use their help,” Wayne said eagerly, “We’ll need them. We won’t be able to speak to anyone else here, either. But we could really use some allies. If we can become friends with them, can you start learning their language?”

“Yes, if we have prolonged interaction with them,” said Ishihara. “But I cannot predict how quickly I will make progress.”

“I think I remember something from my elementary school days,” said Wayne. “Didn’t the Chinese used to bow to each other as a greeting?”

“I do not know.”

“Well, try it. Do what I do.” Wayne caught the eye of the man with the hoe and slowly bowed forward from the waist.

Next to him, Ishihara did the same.

The man carrying the hoe bowed in return. Belatedly, so did several of his companions. All of them fell silent again.

“It’s like offering a handshake in our own time,” said Wayne. “We finally did something they understood.”

An elderly man stepped forward from the group. The man with the hoe joined him, lowering the hoe to the ground. The older man spoke to Wayne, calmly this time.

“Any idea what he said?” Wayne asked.

“No.”

“I was afraid you’d say that. But he’s asking a question, don’t you think?”

“From his tone and facial expression, yes.”

“I’m going to guess he’s asked who we are or where we came from,” said Wayne. He smiled again and pointed to the sky. “I hope that’s what he asked.”

The peasants began chattering excitedly among themselves again. The two men in the front bowed once more. Everyone in the group looked at Wayne and Ishihara in amazement.

“I have to keep this going somehow,” said Wayne. “Just follow me.” He walked forward, still smiling, and patted his stomach. “Can you help us, friends?” The only tools of communication he could think of were gestures, facial expressions, and tones of voice.

For the first time, some of the peasants smiled in surprise. Certainly, they recognized his gesture of hunger. The two men in the front conferred briefly. Then the older man spoke, waving for Wayne and Ishihara to come with them.

Wayne glanced at Ishihara, relieved. “Well, I got through to them a little. Let’s go.”

“I would expect the villagers to believe that good spirits who come to visit humans would speak the local human language,” said Ishihara. “The villagers may question this.”

“Well…if they do, we can’t understand them. And if we did, we still couldn’t explain.” With a helpless shrug, Wayne smiled again at their plight. “Since they don’t seem to want to hurt us, maybe we can get along.”

“I recommend that you keep your hand on your belt unit,” said Ishihara, as he joined Wayne in walking forward.

The peasants kept a slight distance from them as they took the road, walking away from the city. They still muttered among themselves and glanced at their new guests with a mixture of awe and fascination. Wayne smiled and nodded at anyone he caught looking at him.

“So how do you feel about this so far?” Wayne asked Ishihara. “Joining them, I mean. They still seem to like us.”

“I am most concerned about your safety under the First Law. The danger has only decreased slightly. Our inability to communicate effectively means that a misunderstanding could occur very easily.”

“I understand what you mean,” said Wayne. “I have every intention of being careful. But I reiterate my ongoing instructions to you: you must help me under the First Law to complete my mission of apprehending at least one component robot. My career and my life in general will be harmed if I can’t conduct my own investigation into how MC Governor malfunctioned.”

“ Acknowledged.”

Wayne grinned. “I bet they think we’re speaking some sort of fairy language.”

“I assume so.”

Before long, the peasants left the main road for a narrow dirt path. Ahead, Wayne saw a cluster of tightly bunched, single-story buildings barely outlined by hanging lanterns over the doors. Small children were playing nearby.

The grounds around the village were raked clean, but the surrounding crops had been planted almost right up against the small wooden houses clustered in the center. Only the width of a footpath separated the village from the crops, and the buildings from each other.

The man carrying the hoe called out. The children looked up, and elderly women came out of the houses. All of them stared in wonder at the strangers.

Hunter spent an uneventful night in the front room of the bungalow, motionless but not shut down. At the earliest light of dawn, he heard sounds of activity in the city around the bungalow-people talking, carts and wagons creaking, horses and donkeys clopping, and babies crying. A few moments later, Steve came out of his room.

“I guess nobody sleeps late around here,” Steve muttered. “What a racket.”

“Marcia and Jane have not stirred yet,” said Hunter. “I expect they will soon.”