Inside the largest of the bulbous buildings Dr. Zanna was relieved to discover the ornamentation and personalization she hadn’t found outside. The floor was covered in woven rugs with warm rounded patterns. Lots of browns, coppers, and greens. Decorative sculptures that looked like shapes made from some kind of thin, almost to the point of invisibility, twisted wire hung from the ceiling on threads, turning and winking in the light as slight drafts hit them. The rugs ringed the outer edges of the home leaving the center bare. In the center was a column of bricks that extended about halfway to the roof. It exuded a good deal of heat and looked like it had an oven built into it. The place was lit by something in baskets that hung from the ceiling. She’d seen insects crawling over some kind of amber colored substance that produced a decent amount of light.
There were three elders in the room and one younger adult ushering out a pair of small children. It was strange to Dr. Zanna, seeing children in the same dark colored wrappings of the adults. The only light colors were in their streamers and those were a tan shade, still not the first color she would associate with children. They finished wrapping their tiny faces and then scurried out a rounded doorway in the back.
When it was just the adults the elders dismissed the greeting party with a nod and the greeting trio exited through the front. From the inside the entire structure looked as though it had been woven together from dried vines perhaps and then a kind of mortar or concrete used to fill in the gaps. Dr. Zanna guessed the outside was then covered in treated hides to keep the building from eroding. She was so busy taking mental notes that it took her a moment to realize the silence had stretched to what would generally be considered an awkward length. She turned her focus back to the elders who were considering the team. Their faces were unwrapped, their expressions stoic. Of the three she would guess two were women and the third was male, but that was judging by weathered facial features alone, they were covered from throat to toe and she had difficulty making out secondary sex characteristics between the cloth and their stooped posture. Also, she didn’t want to stare. Plus, she was still only mostly confident, 85% say, that they were even human.
Finally, one of the people she guessed to be female gestured towards a set of low chairs. They were rounded and woven from similar vines that made up the walls, though paler and thinner. They most resembled the wicker egg chairs her mother liked for the patio. The elders sat across from them in seats built of similar materials, but a notch grander in design. The backs spread out like medieval neck ruffs and the seats were higher. The presentation was clearly intended to show who had authority in the situation and Dr. Zanna noted that the elders’ chairs were of an exact equal height, so these three probably resided over their village with equal authority. Also, between the dark streaming fabric and the pale fan of the chairs’ shape they did cut surprisingly impressive figures.
The woman who had gestured them to sit was the last one to do so herself. Once she had taken the leftmost seat and Makari had settled lower on its limbs between the two groups ready to translate the woman asked, “Who are you?”
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Dr. Zanna gave the names and ranks of the team, starting with Major Sykes and ending with herself. They looked nonplussed, not terribly surprising given that their military ranks and other titles might mean nothing to these people. Hoping to encourage conversation Dr. Zanna offered a little more information. “We are from another world, we came through the device,” she pointed to indicate direction “a few hours walk down the road.”
The same woman spoke flatly while the other two remained silent. “You came through the Chhed.” She accompanied the words with a hand gesture and a small downward facing head roll, like when you want to stretch your neck only faster and shallower. If pressed Dr. Zanna would guess the hand sign was for ‘Chhed’ and the head roll was for ‘duh’. If she was correct that meant three things. Firstly, these were not a space faring people and didn’t expect outsiders from space either, which was interesting. Second, it supported the theory that the Corridor, or Chhed, was used regularly. And third, it meant these villagers were neither particularly surprised nor impressed with the people of Earth thus far, which was also interesting.
Dr Zanna kept these conclusions to herself and said in a flatter tone than her usual, but still warmer than the village woman’s, “Yes, we are here to explore, to say hello.” She smiled a little, in what she hoped was a friendly fashion and cupped her hands in what she also hoped was a friendly fashion.
The woman’s expression flickered in something too fast for Dr. Zanna to see properly and the other two shifted in their seats. Dr. Zanna thought she’d made some kind of misstep, but she didn’t know where. The villager in the middle, also a woman by the sound of her voice said, “… hello.” Her eyes and the tips of her fingers flicked across the team, towards Makari, and then back towards the team, but she gave nothing away.
Dr. Zanna looked to Sykes for support, who shrugged so she tried again, this time without gestures. “Please, what do you call yourselves?” The please had come out involuntarily, and Dr. Zanna hoped this wasn’t one of those cultures where you absolutely couldn’t show weakness, because verbally, she just had.
Without any sign passed between them that Dr. Zanna could determine they introduced themselves from right to left, Mor, Hira, and Koh, each name accompanied by a hand sign. Then they went still and silent, staring at the team.
Dr. Zanna was beginning to sweat. Normally she would expect some kind of something by now. Some kind of response to indicate what sort of interaction they wanted, some level of interest in what she had at least thought were the team’s exotic personages. But, she reminded herself, this was not normal and she had no context for how these people lived their lives. Maybe this was as friendly as they got. Bearing that in mind she tried once more, “We saw your people harvesting the tall plants outside.”
At that the villagers drew themselves out with pride, the corners of their lips turned upward, their eyes sparkled slightly and they drew their shoulders back and out. It was nice to see a positive reaction, but a little unnerving how synchronized they were. The man, Koh, said, tone still flat, “Yes, the kefti harvest has been good for our clan this year.”
Major Sykes leaned forward slightly, “Really? The, uh, nice young people we talked to out there said there wasn’t any extra. And what is kefti anyway?”
This got the biggest reaction by far. Their feet shuffled and their shoulders moved back and forth as though doing a horizontal shrug. They even looked at each other, something Dr. Zanna hadn’t seen the whole time they were in the building. Once some unspoken agreement was reached the middle woman, Hira, slowly asked, “You do not know what kefti is?” Her eyes narrowed, then widened as though she was willing herself to draw in more data.
“We don’t have any on our world.” Sykes said, shrugging.