Chapter 2: Vostch!

The repair and activation of the sensors was successful and Alain looked proudly at the output and directional chart of the last couple of days. Only a few minor objects and they weren’t coming anywhere near the ships. He folded the printout and slid it into his suit’s external pocket and prepared for another easy day of work.

He guessed the Silth used a similar pattern for removing sensitive equipment, headed to the last location he’d seen them, and went around the area to see if he could pick up any sign of them on his pocket detector.

It displayed a target soon and a detour through a corridor that wasn’t squeezed tight later, he saw lights from behind a couple of narrow breaches in another compartment. He waved his light and noticed the Silth turning towards him, then pulled out the printout and held it out through one gash in the twisted wall.

‘What’s this?’ said Asitha when the human stuck his hand through the gap.

‘What’s what?’ asked Tiness over the radio.

‘The human wants to give me something.’

‘Really?’

Asitha pushed herself gently towards the gap and looked at the folded paper in the human’s glove. Carefully, because she still didn’t trust him, she took the paper and he pulled back his hand. With a little effort she separated two sides and unfolded the paper. ‘It’s a map.’

Tiness’s curiosity rose. ‘A map of what?’

Asitha examined the ellipses on one side and the lines with circles and arrows on the other side. ‘This solar system. Our position is marked by a tilted rectangle and,’ She examined the objects marked with crosses, an obvious symbol shaped like a feline head, and one shaped like a human head, all with directional arrows and human numbers. ‘I think the objects crossing this system and the cargo probes sent by both our sides.’ She estimated the distance and time and nodded. ‘Yes, I’m pretty sure these are the probes arriving soon.’

Tiness smiled at the extra sense of security. ‘Then he succeeded in activating an early warning system for our protection.’

‘He did, yes.’ Asitha said. ‘From now on we’re not to underestimate his abilities.’

‘You think we can trust him now? Even just a little bit?’

Asitha considered it for a moment. ‘I still can’t let go of my suspicions, but maybe we can trust him to protect himself and us being lucky if we happen to reap any benefit from it.’

The Silth folded the printout again and held it out to Alain. He took it and this time it was the Silth that lit its helmet light and bowed it’s rusty red-brown head. He thought its eyes were green and they were a good match to its fur colour. The Silth turned off its helmet light and Alain lit his to return a friendly smile.

He put up his hand and left the compartment to get on with work, satisfied he’d achieved a friendly exchange with both Silth. On his way he decided to call them Snowhite and Red Riding Hood until he could learn their names. He just hoped he wasn’t wrong in guessing they were both female, judging from the generic differences in Silth appearances between the males and females as stated in the information the humans had collected on them. If they were male they’d most likely have a thicker muzzle inherited from their animal ancestors, and longer fur around their chin, like a beard with human males. It did make him wonder why the Silth had sent two females for this project, and speculated they might handle being out here better than the more aggressive males. He’d just have to wait until he got a chance to find that out along with the other things he was curious about.

Alain watched the squarish supply probe land on its spindly legs and clamp to the hull with its magnetic feet from inside the crew pod, and headed out to unload the supplies it brought and load it with the containers full of the components he had recovered during the first period. He was glad to be in space for once so he wouldn’t have to haul the heavy containers bogged down by gravity.

While he was busy the Silth probe arrived as expected from the early warning status and according to the schedule the Silth and Earth had agreed on for the probe visits. He watched the similar bulky design with retractable feet touch down near their pod and Snowhite and Red getting to work. They even greeted him first when they noticed him and he greeted back while an idea popped up in the back of his head.

They were nearly done loading the probe when Tiness tapped Asitha on her shoulder. ‘Asitha! The human!’

She turned to face her friend and saw her pointing towards the front of the Amaroth. ‘What the... ‘ she said when she saw the human crossing the wrecked fronts of the ship towards them. ‘Does he want to cause an incident!?’

He came down and planted his feet on the Amaroth, and stood there with something in his hand. ‘Is he armed?’ asked Tiness and tried to remember where the weapons were stored in the pod.

Asitha squinted at the shiny object while he unfolded a piece of paper. ‘I don’t think so. Seems he has something else to show us.’

‘Should we have a look?’

‘I have a screwdriver in my belt, so if he does try something I can pierce his suit and maybe wound him.’ she said. ‘We’ll have a closer look first.’

Alain hoped the risk of entering their territory was worth it while he watched the two Silth moving closer along the hull. They could launch a complaint or even kill him without much consequence, with him breaking the agreement, although he hadn’t technically. He’d read the agreement and it stated boarding the vessel, and he hadn’t boarded it. He didn’t worry about the systems detecting him because they didn’t register anything outside the ship, and he was quite sure they hadn’t replaced the sensors to detect trespassers in the the wrecked sections of the ship. He hadn’t anyway on the Walkurea.

Asitha and Tiness stopped at a little distance from the human and took a stance on the hull. The human waited for a moment before holding up the paper and showing the shiny object more clearly. ‘Is that a bottle he’s holding?’ asked Tiness.

‘I think so. But why?’

‘Isn’t it a tradition to give them away in human culture? Just like we do sometimes?’

‘Let’s find out.’ Asitha said and stepped closer.

The human held out the paper and Asitha took it. Tiness giggled when she read the crude Silth handwriting. ‘Good festival for first time probe arrive.’

Asitha chuckled. ‘I really don’t understand this human. What is he thinking?’

Tiness looked at the bottle. ‘I get it now. They use any excuse to drink.’

‘If I were human I’d be drinking as much as I could too.’ said Asitha. ‘To be honest, I would fancy a good drink. If only we could get a supply out here.’

Tiness sighed. ‘I know what you mean.’ She looked at the human. ‘Shall we accept?’

Asitha looked at the patiently waiting human in front of them. There was something about him that made her understand why Tiness helped him with his tools that time. ‘We will.’ she said and stepped closer to a human than she’d ever imagined she’d do. He held out the bottle, she took it with both hands, and bowed in gratitude. ‘We don’t have anything in return though.’ she said and pondered how to convey it to him.

Alain watched the Silth gesture at the bottle, then the length of the ship, and put her hands together, leaving a little space between them. He knew what she meant because he had looked up any information on drinking in Silth culture he could find. Their military forbade alcohol and the Silth drank only on occasion in their society.

He turned on his helmet light and nodded, then turned it off and gestured at his head, pointed at the bottle, at the Silth in front of him, then repeated the gesture of putting his hands together. He put his hand against his chest, pointed at the bottle again, back at the Amaroth, and spread his hands.

‘Does he mean what I think he means?’ asked Tiness. ‘He knows we don’t have any and says he has a lot?’

‘I think so.’ said Asitha. ‘He must know about as much about us as we do about humans. Perhaps even more.’ She turned on her helmet light, bowed her head and smiled a little because she began to find this human interesting.

Alain smiled when Red looked thankful and Tennis showed him a smile as well. He gave them a slight bow and put up his hand as he stepped backwards. ‘I hope you’ll enjoy it.’ he said and turned to climb over the tangle of the warship hulls.

He turned around when he reached the Walkurea and saw Snowhite and Red still standing on the other side. They waved once at him and he returned it before they went back towards their crew pod. He returned to his pod, cleared the probe for launch, and poured himself a drink while watching the probe take off. He lifted his glass towards the Silth side. ‘Here’s to our first accomplishment.’

Tiness unscrewed the cap from the bottle and sniffed it. ‘Yipe!’ she said as she scrunched her nose. ‘This smells really strong.’

‘All the better.’ said Asitha as she put down two small cups. ‘If it’s a ploy to take us out I’d like to get knocked out good beforehand.’

Tiness looked at Asitha with big eyes. ‘You think it’s poisoned!?’

Asitha chuckled. ‘No, I’m beginning to think the human’s harmless enough and is just being friendly.’ She pushed her cup towards Tiness. ‘Fill them up. We’ve deserved a decent break from all the work they’re pushing onto us.’

Days continued and whenever they saw each other, Alain and the girls would exchange a greeting. Tiness removed her helmet in their crew pod after she and Asitha ended their shift. ‘We’re done for today, right?’

‘Mhmm.’ hummed Asitha while she stepped out of her suit.

‘Then I think I’m going to explore for a bit.’

Asitha gazed at her. ‘What for?’

‘I’ve been thinking, the captain and highest officers would have to entertain high members of the party once in a while, right?’

Asitha nodded. ‘So?’

Tiness chuckled. ‘I don’t believe they wouldn’t have a small amount of mushka on board.’

Asitha let out a laugh. ‘You want to go look for that?’

Tiness replaced the air supply of her suit. ‘Yes.’

Asitha sat down. ‘And I thought I needed a drink.’

Tiness giggled. ‘It’s not that. For the most part. I just thought if there was enough we could give the human a bottle to return the favour.’

‘Ahh... ‘ Asitha said. ‘Not a bad idea actually. It’s better to be on friendly terms in the end anyway. No need to continue with the same hostility between our species.’

Tiness smiled a little at Asitha. ‘You certainly have relaxed your view.’

Asitha sighed and leaned back. ‘Being out here on our own gets me thinking. I doubt they’ll call us back any time soon and if we want to stay sane and safe we’d better work together as much as we can.’

Tiness picked up her helmet. ‘Coming then?’

Asitha looked at her suit’s small status screen. ‘Why not?’

The captain’s quarters were quickly located and the girls shone their lights through the dark room, illuminating a variety of items that had began floating around over time. Only the furniture attached to the floor had stayed put while a couple of chairs floated just above the floor at a tilt. ‘I’ll take this side.’ said Asitha and pushed herself towards a long and low cabinet.

‘Found it.’ said Tiness after forcing the lock on a built-in cabinet in the corner behind the desk. She shone her light on the floating mess of bottles and glasses. ‘We can definitely spare one or two bottles for the human. This captain must have liked his shot of the good stuff.’

Asitha hissed in a high tone through her teeth at the sight. ‘Our luck.’

Tiness shone her light around the room again. ‘See if you can find some bags or something. Now that we found this I don’t want to leave a single bottle behind.’

Alain hauled himself along the rungs and rails towards the front of the warship even though his next target for retrieval wasn’t that far forward, but he hoped to see the Silth and suggest opening a communication channel between them. He was glad they appeared from behind their pod before he reached the hatch he’d had to use. He stuck up his hand and received a reaction from them.

While they were on their way towards him, he kept going over the arguments to convince them of the advantages of his idea and what he’d try as an alternative if they rejected it. If they did, he supposed he’d have to think of ways to gain enough of their trust.

One of them put up its hand again when they drew near and he responded with a quick wave of his own. He moved towards the crushed hull but stopped when the Silth climbed across it from their side, and waited patiently for them to set foot on the Walkurea.

‘Hey there.’ he said and stepped closer to them. One of them presented a bottle and he chuckled. ‘I guess we made a promising first contact.’

Tiness held out the bottle of mushka and the human bowed when he took it. He lit his helmet light for a moment to show his gratefulness. She giggled when he examined the bottle and gave them a thumbs up and bowed back. ‘I think he likes it.’

‘Seeing what his present tastes like, I doubt he wouldn’t like one of our favourite bad habits.’ Asitha said.

The Silth stepped back but Alain quickly put up his hand. It came to him in the spur of the moment but he couldn’t pass up the chance. He gestured with a sweep of his hand towards his pod behind and pointed at the bottle, then at the Silth and himself. His heart beat faster while he watched and waited for a reaction.

‘Did he just invite us to drink with him?’ said Asitha.

‘Looks like it to me.’ said Tiness. ‘You think we can?’

‘Not while there are sensors to keep either of us from each other’s warship.’ Asitha said and pointed at the ship, and at herself and Tiness.

Alain did a mental facepalm. ‘Of course.’ he said and typed a few commands on the small touchscreen attached to his forearm. When the sensor’s status returned as offline he gave the Silth another thumbs up and gestured at his crew pod again.

‘He turned off their detection system!?’ said Tiness. ‘Does he trust us not to take advantage of the situation?’

‘I have no idea what he’s thinking apart from maybe hoping we’ll follow him to drink with him.’

Tiness bit her lower lip. ‘Can we trust him not to lure us into a trap?’

Asitha pondered for a moment. ‘Although we can’t be certain just yet that he’s really alone, he’d have to have some confidence to invite the two of us into his pod while he’s alone.’ She chuckled at the thought of seeing a human face to face for real. ‘I think it’s a good opportunity to find out more about the humans. Drinking while observing them doesn’t hurt either.’

Tiness giggled. ‘All right, so we go?’

Alain smiled when the Silth stepped forward and he felt his curiosity growing while he led them along the Walkurea’s hull to his pod.

All three were affected by nervousness while Alain opened the airlock and entered it. A sweat drop crawled down his forehead and he cursed silently, hoping he wouldn’t leave a disgusting impression of himself. Then he realised the whole pod would still smell of him and he regretted he hadn’t yet hooked up the Walkurea’s filtration system to the pod. He sighed and resigned himself to the situation. Nothing he could do about it any longer.

Tiness hesitated when she took hold of the handrail next to the open airlock. ‘Is this really going to be all right?’ she asked while thinking the human might think them weird or inferior because Silth resemble one of their favourite animals they keep as pets.

Asitha took a deep breath. ‘We’re here now, might as well go all the way.’ she said. ‘We can’t worsen relations between our species any more than they already are.’

Tiness put one foot on the airlock. ‘Yeah.’ she said and pulled herself inside before she lost her nerve.

The lock was a little cramped with the three of them inside but cycling the environment was quick and Alain was glad to step into the pod’s roomier entrance and take off his helmet. He hung it in the suit’s locker and turned towards the Silth. ‘You can hang your suits there if you want to.’ he said as he gestured at two empty lockers on the side.