Queen Tewsee and her second settled down onto their couches in their separate chambers to watch the recording the aliens had provided. They shared a linked com, which allowed them to watch and comment in concert.
The two females were genuinely devoted to one another, friends as well as mother and daughter. But the biology of their species would not allow two mature females to peacefully occupy the same space. They had not truly been together since Sisree reached her adult phase, twenty years ago.
It could be done, of course. For the space of a ceremony, for example, in a time and place large enough, populated by enough males to dilute their powerful pheromones, under circumstances so rigorously plotted out that no individual quirk could cause offense. Then two or even more mature Fibian females could come together. But such occasions were rare, occurring once a century, if that.
In a sense Fibian females were also rare. Once this hadn't been sowhen the species was young and the world was wide there were many. Each female was a queen in her own territory, a law unto herself. Now, in Clan Nrgun there were two hundred females for every hundred million males, but only one queen.
Each of these would lay approximately five hundred thousand eggs, only one of which would be a daughter. Males were raised in groups of one hundred by a cluster of ten adult males. But adult females would be responsible for raising their daughters to maturity. Then the youngster would be given her own quarters removed from her mother; they would thereafter communicate only through vid while she was instructed in her duties.
It was fortunate that Fibians could choose the gender of their offspring, so that the birth of every female could be planned as needed. It made for a very simple method of birth control; fewer queens, fewer Fibians. But it was galling, it went against instinct.
Then, as they gained spaceflight, the Fibian people rejoiced that they could send their daughters exploring again, seeking out new territories to claim as their own.
It had taken centuries to accomplish, but Clan Nrgun had filled every available niche in its own system and they'd had to curb their birthrate again.
Then with the discovery of jump Nrgun sent colonists to other systems where they became autonomous clans. This was the occasion of one of those rare meetings between queens. A time of ceremony, of passing power from the original clan home to the new. There were six clans now, each becoming distinct, each developing its own ceremonies, traditions, outlook.
They still sent out explorers, but it had been less than thirty years since a new colony, that of Clan Snargx, had been turned over to its young queen. So the urgency, and therefore the interest, was less among the older clans.
There was also a loose association of clan queens who arbitrated issues of trade and exploration. But it would take a unanimous vote to actively, that is militarily, interfere with the running of another queen's clan. In all their history such a vote had never been needed.
Tewsee, despite her excitement about them, feared that the appearance of these mysterious, and very well armed, aliens might give rise to such an occasion. Their appearance from the territory of Clan Snargx, the aggressive behavior of Snargx's huntmasters in pursuit and the lack of communication from Snargx's queen disturbed her. At the very least an apology for an armed intrusion into Nrgun space was in order.
Though they had yet to broach the subject to one another, her daughter, Sisree, concurred. They'd worked together long enough for each to have a feeling for the other's reaction to any given event. By no means did this mean that they agreed on every issue, it merely meant that they could anticipate one another's reactions and concerns with uncanny accuracy.
As the alien's presentation unfolded such concerns temporarily faded into the background.
"Unlike Fibians," it began, and it displayed a still picture of a warrior with blue chitin, the figure rotating to show all sides, "humans do not have a natural hard protective covering."
Next were displayed a pair of objects that appeared to be shed skins, though far neater than the product of molting.
"What you see here is called clothing," the narrator intoned. "Specifically the clothing, or uniform, of Commonwealth Space Command personnel."
"Are they trying to be confusing?" Sisree grumbled, halting the recording.
"Mmm," her mother answered absently. "Coverings for special purposes are uniforms," she suggested. "Commonwealth is where they come from. I'd like to know what the purpose is of this Space Command, though. They seem awfully well armed for a scientific expedition."
"Or even for prospective colonists," Sisree agreed.
"You'll notice there is only room for four limbs in that uniform," Tewsee pointed out.
"I did," the lady said flatly. Her chelicerae spread in an expression of extreme revulsion. "What can they mean by `do not have a natural protective covering'?"
"Yes, that gave me pause as well. Surely they can't mean that their organs are exposed. Can they?" Sisree felt an unpleasant stirring in her digestive sac. "Let us continue and find out," she suggested.
"This is a human skeleton," the voice continued.
An ethereally delicate figure appeared on the screen. Tewsee stopped it in order to examine it more closely. Four limbs, she noted with satisfaction, not even vestigial evidence that there had ever been more. She rotated the figure slowly. Ah, there was evidence of a tail there. A stinger whip perhaps? The queen rotated her head in a negative gesture. Surely there would be no chance of something so useful degenerating into this silly little appendage.
"The head is interesting," Sisree observed.
Tewsee gave the head her attention. The face was narrow and curvy, with a strangely determined look about it.
"I only see space for two eyes," she said at last.
"Ugh," said Sisree. Then, "Oh, dear. I've always thought of myself as being so very sophisticated, so ready for new ideas. But . . . oh, Mother, they're just completely awful!"
Tewsee clicked her mandibles in wry amusement. "Can one ever truly be prepared for the unimaginable?" she asked. "I admit to having always dreamed of finding another intelligent species out there somewhere. But I've always seen them as being very much like us. This is going to be quite a challenge to adjust to. Shall we continue?"
"Yes, Mother."
Now there were two of the revolving skeletons side by side, one smaller than the other.
"The female of our species," the voice said, and a golden glow flashed around the smaller skeleton, "is generally smaller than the male."
The display layered on internal organs, without explaining their purpose, then musculature, and finally a soft outer layer. At last the human faces could be seen.
"The human species has several distinct subgroups called races."
The faces morphed from one race to another, changing color, changing features and hair while the voice described the environmental factors which might explain the differences.
They stopped the recording again and quietly studied the faces on their screens. They'd been stopped at Asian.
"I don't think that they realize that they do indeed have clan colors," Tewsee said thoughtfully.
"Well, they also said that they didn't have a protective outer layer either," Sisree muttered acerbically.
Tewsee clicked her mandibles and snapped her tailwhip in amusement.
"I believe they said it wasn't hard like ours, not that they had none at all." She looked at the faces before her. "This hair is interesting," she said. "What do you suppose it's for?"
"It's mostly black," the lady commented. "Perhaps it's for embellishment."
Tewsee waved her tailwhip. "As good a reason as any other. I wonder what happened to their tails?" she said as the motion reminded her. "I also find it strange that their females are smaller. But then, they're so completely different." She restarted the recording.
"This is a smile," the voice told them. "A smile is a display of friendliness or mild pleasure."
On the screen the two faces altered their configuration. Under the skin, muscles contracted and bunched, the mouthparts pulled back to reveal the chewing plates called teeth, slick with moisture, the eyes narrowed.
"This is laughter," the voice said.
Immediately the faces changed completely, their mouths convulsed, pulling further back from the teeth, the teeth openedrevealing the wet pink flesh within. The eyes disappeared almost completely behind folds of skin and the hairy markings above them lifted and arched. From their throats came a rather shrill barking sound repeated rapidly with strange howling changes of inflection.
"This denotes amusement or pleasure," the narrator continued. "Humans find many things to be an occasion for laughter. It might even be a natural reaction to a mild surprise."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Sisree said. "I think it looks repulsive."
"We can tell them that," her mother replied. "Though we'll probably get used to it in time."
The recording went through a variety of facial expressions, each one denoting some strong emotion.
"Please, Mother, stop it for a moment," Sisree begged. "I can't take anymore."
Tewsee stopped the recording and waited for a moment before she asked, "Are you all right?"
"Yes. It's just . . ." Her pedipalps quivered. " . . . seeing faces writhing like that and changing all the time . . . it's horrible! How are we supposed to deal with these creatures when we can barely stand to look at them?"
The queen was silent a moment. "I think they are sensitive to that," she said at last. "That's why they've taken such pains with this recording. This motility in their faces is disturbing, I can't deny it. But I like their sensitivity. So, you and I shall watch this recording until we are used to their features and their voices." She paused. "Or at least we'll finish it in one sitting. I think they deserve that much attention at least."
"You are right, mother," Sisree conceded. "They are trying to be sensitive; it's obvious from the way they worked their way so gradually up to showing us their appearance." She thought for a moment. "Mother, does it occur to you that they seem to know what we look like?"
"Yes. Which leads me to believe that they do indeed have some sort of history with Clan Snargx, and not a happy one either."
"All the more remarkable, then, that they would be so conscious of our feelings." Sisree clicked her mandibles thoughtfully. "Let us see what else they have for us to look at."
Tewsee restarted the recording, well pleased with her daughter's common sense.
The faces on the screen morphed into the faces of two different individuals, though still male and female. Their clothing changed from the Commonwealth Star Command uniform to another type of uniform altogether. These were in one piece and very close to the body; they might as well not have been wearing anything at all.
"These humans are professional dancers," the voice said. "They will enact for you an art form known to our people as dancing."
The two individuals joined appendages and flowed toward one another. The male lifted the female, who positioned her lower appendages rigidly. Then, when he placed her back on the ground, they both began to move their upper and lower appendages together in time with a rhythmic and not unpleasing sound.
"How are they making those noises?" Sisree asked, fascinated.
"I'm not sure that they are," the queen answered. She watched the humans hop and join and separate with increasing delight. "This is pleasant!" she exclaimed.
"I like it too," Sisree said, rather surprised at herself.
They watched the dancing until the end and then they replayed it.
"I wonder if they have more?" Sisree asked her mother.
"Let's hope so," Tewsee said enthusiastically. "It's such a charming idea . . . Just imagine how it would look if Fibians were doing it!"
"Oh! Yes! That could be very exciting."
Sisree considered the notion, imagining lines of males moving together in the same way at the same time, guided by pleasing sounds. One of the types of dancing they'd been shown had the dancers banging their feet on the floor so that their tapping made an exciting counterpoint to what their bodies were doing. With more legs to use surely Fibians could excel at such an art.
"Yes," she said again. "But that's for another day. Right now we need to decide what to do about these visitors."
"We'll see them, of course," Queen Tewsee said.
"Then let me be the one to see them in person," Sisree requested. "That way if there is something unfortunate in their biology which causes a violent reaction you won't be directly involved."
"Prudent," the queen said. Something in her voice implied that prudence was very overrated. "I agree. I will be present by vid, of course."
"I actually think they'll understand," Sisree said, and there was a trace of wonder in her voice.
"It should be interesting to discover what they have to tell us," the queen mused.
Sarah ferried them down to the planet guided by Fibian ground control. There were significant lapses by Ticknor's little gadget, but with good will and patience she managed to get them all landed safely. Not to mention the aid of Ticknor himself, who was listening in and tapping Sna-Fe for advice on terms not yet covered in their conversations.
The linguist would be accompanying them by com and would see and hear everything that they did. This was for the obvious reason that Sirgay would have been catatonic in five minutes if directly confronted by a Fibian.
Doctor Goldberg and his team had determined from samples provided by the Fibians that nothing in the Fibian atmosphere, water or earth appeared to be damaging to humans. It was the usual thing; even biologies similar enough to be mutually compatible always lacked something, which made infection by alien microbes vanishingly unlikely. Bacteria died of some unicellular equivalent of scurvy if they tried to invade, and the Fibian version of DNA was nothing a Terran virus would find possible to hijack, or vice versa.
So it was without the encumbrance of suits that Raeder, Sarah, Ashly Lurhman, the ship's lawyer, Marion Trudeau, and the ship's historian, Mark Hu, disembarked to meet Sun-hes, their escort and instructor in protocol.
They stepped out of their shuttle directly onto the tarmac. They'd been told that they would immediately be taken to the palace and so would not enter the terminal. It was visible from where they'd landed, and looked like a gigantic tent, tinted a pale blue.
A Fibian awaited them, standing before a small craft that doubtless would take them where they were bound. The Fibian stepped forward to introduce himself and they recognized Sun-hes from their conversations on vid.
Raeder saw that Sun-hes held his pedipalps in the second degree of respect. This represented high regard towards one whom the Fibian considered his student and therefore automatically of lower status; the commander was suitably honored. He returned the greeting with the same degree of respect, which was proper for a student to a teacher. But he was very conscious of Sun-hes' courtesy in treating him as an equal.
"I know that I should leave this to our good queen," Sun-hes told them, "but I cannot resist welcoming you to our beautiful planet and the lovely city of Quesh."
"Thank you, teacher," Peter said. "I am certain her majesty would expect no less of you. We're looking forward to seeing your city and your world."
"With respect," Sun-hes said cautiously, "it is the custom to bow the head slightly when speaking of the queen." And their instructor demonstrated by bowing his head at the word queen.
"Thank you," Raeder said. "We will remember."
"You will not object to our scientists examining you briefly to determine whether you might present some danger to her majesty?" Sun-hes gestured with both pedipalps to a contained vehicle nearby.
"Uh . . ." Raeder looked at his cohorts for guidance.
"Reasonable," Trudeau said. "It certainly conforms with Earth's customs and immigration regulations."
"I have no objection," Sarah said, carefully holding her hands in the second degree of respect.
The others nodded agreeably.
"Of course," Raeder said cheerfully. "You will accompany us, teacher?"
"Yes," Sun-hes replied. Something in his manner implied that he was a fussy individual faced with people he knew would be a trial to his sensibilities. "We will need all the time together we can manage to prepare you for your interview."
As they entered the vehicle Raeder looked around in puzzlement. There was a row of rather tall, narrow, curved padded benches lined up against one wall. The others entered behind him and crowded up, wondering how the furniture worked.
Sun-hes tapped Raeder on the shoulder and the commander moved aside for him. The Fibian positioned his body over one of the benches and settled down, looking as comfortable as someone could with that many limbs to consider.
Peter moved forward and cautiously mounted the bench as though getting on a horse, then he leaned forward until his chest met the upper curving end. Sarah and the others followed suit, grinning at how awkward they looked and felt.
"There you are," Sun-hes, said. "Everyone comfortable?"
No, Raeder thought. "As comfortable as we can be," he said aloud.
Their instructor told the pilot that they were ready. The doors slid shut and they felt themselves moving.
Peter looked around and frowned at the absence of windows.
"We were hoping to get a look at your beautiful city," he complained.
"There will be much time for that later," Sun-hes assured him. "For now we must concentrate on protocol. You know absolutely nothing, and that will not do."
"Surely her majesty," Raeder said, carefully bowing his head at the mention of her, "will understand that and cut us some slack?"
"She will cut off your head if you offend her!" Sun-hes adjusted his position to communicate earnestness. "That is her right, the right of all our great ladies."
"Life and death?" Peter murmured.
"Absolutely!" Sun-hes leaned forward. "What does `cut us some slack' mean?" he asked.
"It means that given our complete, if understandable, ignorance of your culture and the forms of proper Fibian behavior, but also given our willingness to learn and our, hopefully obvious, desire not to give offense, her majesty might give us a little leeway . . ." Peter began to flounder, "Er, room to maneuver . . ."
"We're hoping her majesty will be tolerant of our mistakes," the lawyer interjected. "To cut someone some slack means to be tolerant or patient with them."
The Fibian cocked his head questioningly. "I understood that from context," he allowed. "But what precisely do these words mean? Slack means to loosen. But how does one cut looseness?"
The humans looked at one another in confusion. In Peter's ear Ticknor was nattering on in a long dissertation on the origin of the phrase.
"Uh, it's such an old saying," the commander said at last, "that its true meaning has been lost. Like you, teacher, we take its meaning from context."
"Ah," Sun-hes said, clicking his mandibles and snapping his tailwhip in amusement, "we have sayings like that ourselves."
He'd noticed the humans jump when he snapped his tailwhip, and also the winces and widened eyes.
"This," he said and snapped his tailwhip again, "denotes amusement. As when you bare the bony protuberances inside your mouths."
The humans nodded.
"Our apologies, teacher," Raeder said. "We know you would not intentionally harm us. But we are wary of those." He pointed at Sun-hes' tailwhip. "We're not well protected against inadvertent damage from them."
Sun-hes pulled it around and held the tip out to them.
"It is dry, as you can see. Only when threatened or driven by some strong anger does it exude acid. Our own carapaces are subject to damage from it, so we must be careful. It is considered the height of vulgarity to be out of control of this organ. And carelessly damaging another's carapace is a criminal offense."
Peter reached out cautiously but Sun-hes let it drop back behind him.
"However, it is probably best to avoid contact. Your outer covering does look delicate.
"Now, as I said," he continued briskly, "this," he snapped his tailwhip, "denotes amusement. It would appear that your species changes the shape of your face to do the same. I hope you will not take offense when I tell you that the bunching and stretching of your faces is . . ." He made a gesture that denoted suffering. " . . . difficult to watch," he finished. "I suspect that her gracious majesty, who is exquisite in all ways, would be much too polite to mention this. And so, I take upon myself the necessity of asking you this. Please do not move your faces any more than you absolutely have to. As you see, ours do not move at all."
Raeder and his people nodded.
"That means agreement to our people," he said. "Though it can also indicate reverence." He shook his head. "This is a negative."
"Ah!" Sun-hes said, pleased. "Then you also augment your speech by body movements. I am pleased. This means that you are much further ahead than I'd dared to hope."
Their instructor then began teaching them in earnest, continuing until they landed and the scientists came to escort the humans away to be examined.
The pilot interrupted Sun-hes' lecture to announce that their escorts were waiting without.
"Please stay with us," Peter asked him. "Correct our behavior where necessary to avoid misunderstandings. And continue your instruction as we go along."
"As you wish," the teacher said with a little inclination of his head. "That means yes?" he asked.
Raeder nodded and the Fibian snapped his tailwhip.
They were met at the door by a small welcoming committee of five Fibians, each holding his pedipalps in the second degree of provisional respect.
"They are all senior scientists," Sun-hes told them. "You should offer them the second degree of respect in return."
Peter and his companions did so, then debarked from their craft.
"To whom is it appropriate to offer the third degree?" Raeder asked.
"One's students, the pouchlings of persons of the same status as yourself, or generally anyone you don't know and are dealing with in a trading capacity."
They exchanged greetings with the scientists, whose behavior expressed a particular reverence for the females in the party, then each of them took one of the humans in tow and led them towards the laboratory building.
The lab building was, no doubt, utilitarian, but it was unlike anything the humans had ever seen. Several stories high, it seemed to consist of a framework that resembled a hive, the whole wrapped in heavy white webbing, like a haunted house with the cobwebs on the outside.
As soon as the humans entered the building there was a minor kerfuffle as the visitors' blunt feet instantly damaged the webbing.
"You must be heavier than you appear," one of the scientists commented.
"Well, all of our weight is on our two feet," Sarah said. "Where yours is more evenly distributed."
"This could be a problem at the palace," Raeder observed. "We wouldn't want to damage her majesty's home. Perhaps you could call ahead, teacher, and ask them to put down some sort of shielding?"
Sun-hes was clearly torn; the humans recognized this because he froze for almost a full minute as he made up his mind what to do. At last he moved his pedipalps.
"That" he rolled his pedipalps one over the other again, "is a gesture of acquiescence. Could one of you," Sun-hes said to the scientists, "direct me to a com?"
Raeder watched him move off, then turned to his crew.
"I think it would be a good idea to take a page from the Fibian's book and freeze to immobility whenever we're uncertain about something."
"Good idea," Lurhman said, deadpan. "I'd hate to rub my nose and discover I'd declared war."
They told the scientists that they were willing to answer questions as well as they were able, and they would allow an examination that did not require them to contribute bodily fluids. They breathed into containers after being cautioned by their lawyer that some of their DNA would be trapped, along with a fair sampling of the germs of at least four worlds. They refused to give samples of the hair that fascinated the scientists, at least until some sort of treaty was worked out.
They managed to prove to the scientists that their mere presence would not be poisonous to her majesty, and left them eagerly anticipating future donations of blood and tissue.
At last they were free to go and they were piloted to their interview in the palace.
Even to human eyes the palace was a world away from the plainness of the laboratories. The roof resembled the draped, tentlike effect of the terminal they'd seen at the spaceport, but it glowed pure white in the sunshine. It was almost the same height as the lab, but very clearly had fewer stories. There were windows all along the front, framed in webbing that pleased the eye with its precise geometric arrangement. The main doorway was very tall, at least five meters and wide enough for ten Fibians to walk abreast.
"Aren't there any doors?" Hu, the historian, asked.
"No," Sun-hes said. "We use force fields. After all, the only things we need to keep out are vermin and bad weather."
"What sort of vermin trouble you?" Sarah asked.
"Oh, little omnivorous animals, small insects, that sort of thing. You don't have problems with these?"
"Well, yes, we do," Raeder said. "But we prefer to use impenetrable materials to keep them out and conserve power."
"But these `impenetrable materials' would be useless when you push them aside to leave the building yourselves. Isn't it so?"
"That is a defect," Peter admitted.
"As for conserving power, we don't find power to be a problem. Is your power source so weak?" Sun-hes' head was tilted forward, with the chin tucked in. "This head position indicates skepticism," he said.
"We have excellent power sources," Raeder said carefully. "But many of our citizens feel that they are dangerous and should be kept away from population centers and that limits us."
"We haven't had an accident with a power source since shortly after we discovered jump," the instructor said. "Perhaps that is something you will want to discuss when our people talk about trade."
Peter nodded, and Sun-hes echoed the motion with his own head.
"We have a few moments before the lady can see us," Sun-hes said. "Let us go to the balcony and look out over the city. If you have any questions I will be delighted to answer them."
Without waiting for an answer he turned and led them along the front of the building to its even longer side. The palace was built on the edge of a precipice and the land dropped away in a sheer thousand-foot cliff. Below lay the city of Quesh, a series of interconnected tunnels and buildings made of an often opaque drapery of webbing that lay in humps and spikes, mostly tinted blue. There were gardens between the buildings, dressed with a brilliant array of flowers and rather spiky-looking trees, like saguaro cactus with leaves.
In short, thoroughly . . . alien, Raeder thought. Well, it would be surprising if it was all done in Neo-Victorian, wouldn't it?
Fibians moved about below in their thousands, creeping along the bridges, sometimes upside down, moving across roofs and down streets. Raeder heard Ticknor's voice choke, and he hoped the linguist wouldn't lose it completely.
Just then a young Fibian appeared from somewhere above them, leaping into space with a hissing yodel and missing them by centimeters. Even Sun-hes started. Ticknor actually screamed.
Raeder turned his head aside and muttered, "Listen, Mr. Ticknor, you've got to get hold of yourself. We need you right now, and deafening us is not helping!"
He turned back to find Sun-hes watching him with an inquisitive tilt to his head.
"Our linguist," the commander explained, "with whom you've spoken, was startled by the appearance of . . ." Raeder waved below where the Fibian had disappeared.
"I was startled myself," the teacher admitted. "But I would not begrudge the young their exuberance. I once made that leap myself." He snapped his tailwhip.
Raeder nodded and restrained his smile.
"I was hoping," Sun-hes continued, "to meet Sirgay Ticknor. Why did he not come down?"
Talk about a loaded question, Peter thought. How do I answer that one honestly without causing offense?
"Mr. Ticknor felt that he could be of more aid to us on the ship, where he has access to all of his notes on your language," Sarah said. "He would automatically know what might be confusing to us and can speak directly into our ears. He also wanted to be there to supervise the collection of data on Fibian customs and body language that you are providing, teacher."
"Well, perhaps I will be privileged to meet him later," Sun-hes said amiably. "I was wondering," he continued, "why does Sirgay Ticknor have such a long name? Is one of these an honorific of some kind?"
" `Mr.' is an honorific for a civilian male," Raeder said, " `Ms.' for a female. Actually we all have two or more names. One portion is a family name, the others are personal names."
"How interesting!" Sun-hes said. "I look forward to learning more about your culture."
"Your pardon, gentle people."
They turned to find a rather tall male standing behind them.
"My name is Has-sre. I am first assistant to Lady Sisree, who wishes to see you now."
"I was told that we were being introduced to her majesty," the commander said with a little bob of his head.
"The lady Sisree is her majesty's daughter," Has-sre explained. "Her majesty will attend by vid for this first meeting."
"Of course," Peter said. Probably a good idea. I bet we'd do the same thing. "We understand completely. Please, lead and we will follow."
Has-sre moved his pedipalps from a neutral position into that of the second degree of respect.
"This way," he said and moved off.