..[ SYLVIA ]..
“Are they using the forked tongue intentionally, or is it a byproduct of them having a forked tongue?” Kacy asked as the recording finished playing.
“I think its intentional,” Sylvia said, scribbling a few notes on what she had understood from the recording. “Think about it, to them, having a forked tongue is the norm.”
Her and Kacy were in one of the linguistic rooms, having a go at one of the recordings of the homo-reptilian hybrids encountered a few months back. She knew that Kacy had linguist as one of her job titles, she just wasn’t sure if it was as the second or third title. But she was good enough that they could work together. Her being her closest friend on the ship was just a bonus.
They had been friends for Years now, having been introduced to each other by Jacy. Which made that their breakup a Year ago strained the relationship on all sides. She was close with lots of other people on the ship, most notably Jacy. But her weird relationship with Mativo always meant that anyone else was only ever going to be second best. And she didn’t want to get close to Mativo again; at least not that close.
“I’ve seen several people trying to reproduce some of those forked sounds,” Kacy said.
“Their tongues are just too different from ours. The forking is only the tip of the iceberg.”
“Yeah. I told them that too,” Kacy said. “The inside of the mouth affects how sound is made. To be fully authentic, they would need drastic tongular surgery.”
“I don’t think that is a word,” Sylvia said after hearing Kacy say it. It sounded right and wrong at the same time.
“What?”
“Tongular.”
“What do you call surgery of the tongue then?” Kacy asked.
“Tongue surgery?” Sylvia herself wasn’t sure either, but it felt more right than whatever Kacy had coined up.
“Let’s just get back to the alien language.”
They were half through the break Month. Every Year, the last two Weeks of the sixth Month and the first two Weeks of the seventh were considered the break Month. During that time, no exploration mission was expected to be carried out or be underway. The whole crew was allowed to do anything they wanted. Since she had reported the underuse of Deck 12, it now saw most activity during the break Month. Her and Kacy had spent a lot of time there, especially immediately after the breakup. The third Week was dedicated to the Tag Team and the shuttle race Championships. The best of the best in those two events were determined then. Jacy had won the shuttle race three times, the most for anyone on the ship. With Mũsango and Mativo tied for second at two. Though Mativo had only participated twice in the shuttle race. DJ PAM, Jacy’s Tag Team, held the Tag Team title five Years running now. They just got better and better each Year. There had been a proposal to turn Tag Teams into seven versus seven battles. The theory behind it had been that due to their lack of substitutes, it would disrupt DJ PAM’s coordination as they got used to their two new members. Rumors that Mativo would join DJ PAM as one of the two new members had shut down that proposal in its infancy. Sylvia hadn’t understood why, and no one would tell her. And she had asked. A lot.
Her and Kacy were not race worthy shuttle pilots, and their joke of a Tag Team was only for having fun and learning the basics of the ship’s most basic military troop; the Tag Team. They had decided to spend some of their break time studying the homo-reptilian’s language, before going to cheer for Jacy. Despite the state of their relationships, they wanted to be there supporting her bid for another double sweep.
..[ MATIVO ]..
I spent most of the break Month with the top echelons of the Operations Department trying to work out the issues with the ship’s schedule.
When the expedition started, there was little more than bare rocky planets and the water, ice and gas giants to visit. The schedule had worked out just fine then. Everyone could participate in a lot of events without the schedules overlapping. The exploration of other worlds usually took no more than a Week at most, leaving enough time for the scientists to do their research. Artists to create art. And all the other specialist jobs to do their side projects. And still leave the whole crew with enough time to keep up with the training regime expected of them. And for those who wanted, to participate in the sports activities offered on the ship.
But all that had changed. Planets had started offering things to have the crew wanting to spend more time on them. At first it had been breathable atmospheres, then serene beaches, tropical forests and even rugged mountains and rapid filled rivers and waterfalls for the daredevils. And then the animals had come into the picture. It was only a matter of time before we encountered intelligent life. Live talking communicating life completely different from us.
I had listened to the homo-reptilian’s language. I didn’t care how pretty everyone said they were, there was just too much hissing for me. Given my snake phobia, I wanted them as far away from me as I could possibly get. And none of my thousands of so called genius scientists had had the idea to test them for venom. A whole Month spend on that planet, and no one thought to even check. If they had been less hissy and tongue forked, I might have tried to pay them a visit. But no, the hybrids were potential venom users, and the other two were nothing more than uncouth barbarians wielding crude spears against a flying metal object. The idiocy was outstanding. People always wonder why I don’t like talking much about my childhood. The reason was simple, it was a time of plain idiocy and I’m ashamed of it.
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There were five of us in the conference room. Kalũki, Chief Operations Officer; Zheng, First Deputy; Santos, Second Deputy; and Jacy, because I liked to keep her around in these situations. She also had a title too. And of course, there was me.
There had been numerous meeting with each of the ship’s department directly affecting the crew’s schedule. Lots of important points had been raised in those meetings. It was our job to sieve through them and come up with a plan to get out of the problem we found ourselves with. That plan was then to be discussed with all chiefs. Managing people was hard work. I had given up on using books to help me given the time frame of the current expedition. And they had been very useless during the first expedition. I pitied my family back on Ũsumbĩ IV on their duties of bringing all the planets I discovered under our name. But I knew that a lot of them were enjoying the challenge. I sometimes wondered what they would call it all.
“The League officials complained a lot about the Tag Team Battles. The constant postponement of matches was affecting League standings and spectator attendance,” Santos said. He was sitting two chairs to my left.
With so few of us, the conference room was a bit too big for us. We had ended up clustering around one side of the circular table. Some of us left chairs between us, others didn’t. Jacy was sitting immediately to my right. With Zheng two chairs away from her. Kalũki was sitting next to her.
“We already told them that Tag Team training was the more important part of the Tag Teams,” Zheng said.
“They have a point there, though a wrong one,” I said. “The Battles help teach the application of that training. I would say that was more important.”
“Asmo also said something along those lines.”
“Not Xhalo?” Jacy asked.
“I haven’t talked to him yet,” Zheng said.
“We could reduce the number of teams,” Santos offered. “The fewer the matches, the lesser the chances of postponement.”
“That would be counterintuitive. We need the Battles,” Jacy spoke up. “The aliens we have been meeting are aggressive more often than not. What happens when we meet a civilization on par with us.”
“In terms of what? Space technology?”
“Military capabilities. And maybe space too. That would be the worst.”
“Have we even trained for space battles?” Santos asked while looking at everyone.
“We are already having issues with our current schedule, and you want to add other things to it?” Kalũki sounded like she thought that was the last thing we needed. Space battle training. It could come in handy if we met another space faring species. But like she said, we already had issues with our current schedule. The basic training offered back on Earth would have to suffice if such a situation arose.
“Just asking. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared.”
“We can’t prepare for every eventuality. Somethings, if not everything, would suffer.” I told him, as much as it hurt me to say those words. I liked being prepared for anything and everything, but I also knew that it was near impossible to do that. I still gave it my best effort.
“We would end up jacks of all trades—”
“And masters of none.” Kalũki finished the expression for him, stressing the last part while glaring at him across the table. He sat up straighter.
“We could shorten the exploration circle.” Zheng offered another solution.
“That would just increase the overall time for the expedition,” Jacy said.
“We cannot keep on exploring with just the one ship.”
“I’m already working on it.” And I was. I, for one, didn’t like how long the expedition was taking. And the financial reports I had been receiving from Ũsumbĩ IV had allowed me to start dreaming bigger.
“Sweet! Who are getting command of their own ships?”
“Stay on topic here, Santos.” Kalũki was back at him again. “More ships are for the next journey. We still have around six Years left on this journey. And the schedule is beginning to crumble.”
“Reducing the size of the exploration teams and time spent on a single world is the more logical choice.” Statements like that were why I always brought Jacy on the more important of important meetings.
“You want to sacrifice the amount of data we can gather on each exploration in favor of speed?” Zheng on the other hand was appalled by her suggestion.
“We are an exploration crew. We are supposed to gather the bare minimum needed by the colonials. We have been indulging ourselves; treating this more like a luxury trip than the exploration mission it is supposed to be.”
“I have to agree with her,” I offered my opinion in the hopes it would calm a fuming Zheng. And Santos, apparently. “On one of my explorations, we spent three Weeks on the planet even though we didn’t gather anything new of import after the first several Days. Even the homo-reptilian planet, they needed only to spend a Week at most there.”
“You can’t be serious. There was a lot learnt during the Weeks we spent there.” It hadn’t worked at all.
“All that was supposed to be left for the colonials.”
“Colonists,” Kalũki said.
“What?” She had me confused there.
“Colonials are the people being colonized. Colonists are the ones who do the colonizing.”
“Oh, thanks. Wait, why didn’t you correct her?”
“I must have missed it.” Not with that look, you didn’t.
“Anyway. My point is, the only time we are supposed to stay for an extended period of time is when there is a risk factor involved.”
“What kind of risk factor?” Santos asked, appearing collected again.
“I’m still working on that.”
“Just how many things are you working on?”
“We should also consider actively recruiting the Grade Two crew.” Zheng completely ignored him again by offering another solution.
“The young ones have matured enough they can be relied upon on exploration missions.” Jacy agreed with her on that.
“I thought some of the Grade Twos had been upgrading to Grade Three?” I asked the table.
“A few. Those interested in the exploration and research we do. We would be offering incentives for the others.” Kalũki explained.
“We need worker-slaves on the exploration ships.” I concluded after seeing my fat financial reports get a little bit slimmer with the mention of incentives.
“That would be best. They are cheaper, way cheaper.” And like always, Jacy and I were on the same page. It was mostly, but it sounded better that way.
The discussion continued, with different other possible solutions offered, debated, discarded or fielded for later evaluation. We most definitely took breaks to prepare, participate and watch the championships. Those of us interested anyway.