Christopher Nuttall - The Trafalgar Gambit

The alien shivered, spraying water droplets everywhere, then turned to face him. Great yellow eyes met his, almost glowing in the dim light. Henry resisted the urge to take a step backwards as the alien squelched its way around the entrance and up towards the bed. Jill sat upright, her eyes flaring with alarm, just before the alien stopped and lowered itself to the floor. Henry hesitated, then walked back to the bed and sat next to Jill. She looked calm, calmer than he would have expected. But then, she’d been an alien captive for years.

“We must talk,” the alien said. As always, it used an electronic speaker. “We must understand you.”

It sounded more comprehensible, Henry noted. He’d always assumed the aliens had been studying human technology, including the teaching machines that could be found on almost any asteroid colony or small colonial homestead. Given time, they could have used the teachers to learn English and a great deal else about humanity, even though the machines contained nothing of tactical value. But the machines had also been designed for humans. It seemed equally possible that the aliens might have been unable to use them properly.

“We must talk too,” Henry said. He took a long breath. “This war started by accident.”

The alien seemed to recoil, slightly. It took Henry a moment to realise that it was connected — somehow — to its fellow aliens. Telepathy? There had been no sign the aliens were able to read minds. Or perhaps he was just over-thinking the issue and the alien was using communications implants. It made sense, Henry knew. The aliens might know the humans were trapped, unable to leave without drowning, but they’d want to supervise anyone who went into the cell. Henry might try to take the alien hostage.

“The War Faction states otherwise,” the alien informed him. “State your case.”

Jill crossed her arms under her breasts. Henry wanted to tell her to remain still. It was unlikely the aliens could read human body language, although they had definitely had a chance to download medical or psych textbooks from the colonies they’d overrun, but there was no point in taking chances. One of the most common human tactics in sensitive negotiations was to have one of the ambassadors an expert in reading people. A good one could tell a practiced liar from a honest man.

“We settled the same world as your people,” Jill said, carefully. “It never crossed our minds that someone else might be living under the waters.”

That was true, Henry knew. The Survey Protocols the various interstellar powers had formulated had never been intended to look for a race that lived underwater. No one had seriously believed that intelligent life could develop underwater, let alone develop technology and everything else that a spacefaring race would need. Survey ships looked for radio signals, glowing lights at night time and all the other signs that matched humanity’s own pattern. They’d never thought to look under the waves.

And that raises another question , Henry told himself, sourly. What if there are other colonies shared with the aliens — and we don’t know about them ?

It seemed unlikely, he knew. Very few human colonies had one ship dropping off the colonists and no further contact with the rest of humanity. Most colonies were founded by nation-states, after all. But the aliens… who knew how they thought? Once they had ensured enough food in the oceans, they could settle a world and develop a colony without further contact from the homeworld. Maybe they believed in allowing a colony world to build up its population before they started to turn it into an industrial powerhouse.

“We believe that all races start in the waters,” the alien said. It definitely seemed to have mastered English. “Did yours not?”

“No,” Henry said. Technically speaking, humanity’s very distant ancestors had crawled out of the waters, but he had a feeling it would only confuse the aliens if he brought that up. “We started on the land.”

“But you killed one of our people,” the alien said. It was impossible to tell if it was speaking of Jill personally or humanity in general. “That is not the sign of a peaceful race.”

Henry shuddered. The alien had died… and its compatriots had mounted an immediate counterattack against what they’d assumed to be a hostile raiding party. A tragic mistake had rapidly turned into a nightmare, with tempers running high on both sides. And yet…

“You didn’t attack us at once,” he said. It was impossible to be sure, but he suspected that Jill had been a prisoner for over a year. But no one was quite sure when Heinlein had been destroyed. “Why not?”

There was a long pause, as if the alien was mentally debating what it should say. “War Faction stated that war was inevitable,” the alien said, slowly. “Peace Faction outvoted.”

Henry’s eyes narrowed. There had been no shortage of human political factions that had turned a minor incident into a major crisis just to secure their own power, but he had the odd feeling he was missing something. The aliens couldn’t be that close to humanity, could they?

Jill uncrossed her arms. “Which faction are you?”

“Peace Faction,” the alien said. “Further attacks did not come. Suggested shortage of hostile intent. War Faction unimpressed. Found your worlds. Attacked them.”

Henry considered it, slowly. “The War Faction believed we were hostile,” he said. “And so they planned a war against us?”

“Yes,” the alien said.

“And the Peace Faction did… what?” Henry asked. “Why didn’t you try to talk to us?”

“Consensus for war,” the alien said. “No talks until threat removed. Threat proved harder to defeat than War Faction believed. Attempted to convince War Faction to talk. War Faction refused. Attempted to talk to you directly. War Faction intervened.”

Henry remembered the alien cruiser, killed by another alien ship, and shivered.

“War Faction is locked on war,” the alien stated. “We must talk.”

Henry looked down at his hands. He might have been intended to serve as nothing more than a figurehead, but he did have a working knowledge of politics and diplomacy. It was impossible to be sure, once again, yet he thought he understood. The War Faction had believed humanity to be a threat and convinced the rest of its race to support preparations for a short victorious war. And the other alien factions, assuming there were more than two, had gone along with it. They might not have viewed humanity as a lethal threat, but they might have wanted to negotiate from a position of strength or even support the war in exchange for other compromises. Henry had seen enough backroom dealing in Buckingham Palace to know that votes could be bought, often for the most surprising prices.

And then the war had gone badly and some of the aliens had started having second thoughts.

Jill frowned. “How was the decision made?” She asked. “Who voted?”

Henry looked at the alien, interested.

“All voted,” the alien said. “But voting blocs split.”

Henry puzzled over the statement, then pushed it to one side until he had more data. The alien clearly thought he understood the underlying assumptions, that he possessed knowledge of a culture he lacked. Perhaps he, too, would have the same problems explaining human culture and society to the aliens. They’d put a naked man in the same cell as a naked woman without ever understanding why that might be a problem.

We need more data , he thought, recalling all the briefings they’d been given. The researchers had come up with hundreds of theories, but none of them had actually been proven. He was looking right at a source of data and he couldn’t even think what to ask. How do these bastards think ?