Trade World Saga 1: Manual Interpretation (2 page)

As soon as Andrew came within clear view of the man, he stopped dead in his tracks. What the hell? The man was shorter than an average male with arms and legs almost as thick as Andrew's waist. The skin that was visible was gray and wrinkled like that of a rhinoceros. The man's face was what stopped his mission of mercy in its infancy. What a face! It had bulging eyes set almost on the sides of the head. Both eyes swiveled to look at Andrew and there was a long black scar over the right one. The ears were cup like and mobile too because they twitched and swiveled back and forth incessantly.

The being, Andrew noticed, had no protruding nose, just horny slits and a large mouth. Thank you for the fact I can't see your teeth, rhino face, Andrew thought. It had no hair. The being had a rounded chin and almost no neck. He was wearing (Andrew guessed it was a he) a one-piece grayish-brown jumpsuit, which blended well with the surrounding rock. The clothing did look remarkably like a jumpsuit, or flight suit with boots (more like slippers) sewn or molded to the rest. Its hands were exposed and showed four digits but they were thicker and stubbier than human with no fingernails. Two opposable sets of digits!

Andrew braced himself and finally worked up courage to walk toward the steadily gazing alien. Andrew walked with hands palm-outward in what he hoped was a symbol of peaceful intent.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you." Andrew said with his voice slightly quaking. I just hope you won't hurt
me
, Andrew thought.

It was a shock for Rett to have his death thoughts interrupted. It was also startling to see the native reaching very slowly with both of its hands to grab his head even though he
knew
it couldn't reach him.

Andrew reached forward to upright the
man
so his head would be above his feet. As his hands got within a hand spread of the man, Andrew encountered a physical resistance like reaching into a vat of syrup. Suddenly Andrew's fingers began to tingle as if they were asleep. Even as he jerked away from the
man
, his fingers began to show signs of bruising and began to throb.

Rett wondered what the uncivilized being would do now that it appeared to have injured it by shoving its hands into his stressed space field. Any child would know better, Rett mused. Now the native will probably attempt to kill me or go get others. Perhaps it will worship me like a god. No, it just stands there looking at its injured hands. It couldn't be very intelligent, Rett thought.

Andrew indeed looked stupidly at his hands but began to think in terms that were far from stupid. This man is not from this planet even though he appears humanoid. He appeared to be an oxygen breather since his rather flattened nostrils flare very rapidly. His chest rises and falls in tempo with that. Why was he here like this? Was he injured? His breathing is pretty rapid...maybe he, it, is in shock.

Andrew walked around the man but no tear or other obvious injury or reason for the man's dilemma was visible. Andrew extended one of his less damaged fingers, very slowly and cautiously toward the prostrate alien. As soon as any resistance or tingling was felt, Andrew would jerk his finger away. Andrew did this at various points over the alien's body as the gray skinned one swiveled its eyes up at him dispassionately.

It probably wants to find out how tender I am before trying to feed me to its young, Rett thought. At least, this native has learned a healthy respect for the field it cannot see and knows it surrounds my entire body. Well, maybe this being is somewhat intelligent because it seems to have noticed my stressed space field belt.

Andrew saw no symbols, artifacts, or pockets in the alien's clothing but then he noticed a thick, wide gray belt built into the jumpsuit. The belt appeared to be slick with a shiny texture with two slight oval projections near the front center. As he looked closer, he noticed a distortion of one of the wide oval projections. The oval had a vertical crack across its center. Andrew could see sections of fine metal strands, several of them were broken at the crack in the material which appeared to be like ceramic but the inside components were not embedded in the ceramic, just were inside a ceramic case.

This must be the problem, since everything appears symmetrical... except this situation, Andrew mused. That crack near a control might mean that the on-off switch or adjustment is broken. If I could short circuit that field, I'm sure that the alien would be released. Since it isn't wearing a head covering, our atmosphere must be tolerable so the cut-off of that field wouldn't kill it and it can breathe through the field. The alien must be paralyzed or something by that field; it probably is some type of defensive device that malfunctioned.

Andrew slowly pulled out his hunting knife that he had always carried on his weekly hikes. The alien saw what he was doing and began to thresh in front of him.

Rett saw the primitive bringing out a sharpened implement after it had squatted motionless for a long time next to him. Rett's one concern of a preemptive passing was that some native would get a hard, sharp object and force it slowly through his stressed space field into an exposed part of his body. Rett couldn't retreat. Maybe this native was intelligent and had malevolent intentions. As the native brought the implement closer, Rett flung his arms about and finally decided to cover his exposed face.

Andrew held the knife out by the blade for the alien to see but by this time, the alien had put both arms across its face. Andrew shrugged and carefully grasped the knife so its blade could be used to short the exposed wires in the alien's belt. Holding the knife by the back of the non-metallic hilt so his hand would not enter the field, he edged the tip toward the exposed crack. As the blade got near the belt, it entered the field and had to be forcefully pushed forward. Andrew let out a yelp and dropped the knife off to the side.

This really isn't my day. Damn. Now I've burned my fingers too, Andrew thought.

Andrew caressed his throbbing hands and the alien appeared to calm down somewhat, and dropped his arms. Andrew thought, Boy that knife got hot fast. The metal must have set up eddy currents that heated the blade. That field must have affected circulation in my fingers when my hand got too close. Now, how am I going to short out that belt device and eliminate that field? Hell. What produces that much energy?

As Andrew sat down near the alien, Rett decided he would attempt to get up once more.

Andrew had no sooner sat down than the alien began thrashing around in an obvious attempt to get upright. It appeared to Andrew as if the being was intoxicated because of the seemingly uncoordinated movements. Then as the alien began hitting and straining to remove his belt, Andrew fully realized that not only was the belt control the problem, the belt device was causing a complete lack of friction.

Andrew took a drink of water from his canteen absentmindedly, looked at his canteen as if it were alien too, and jumped to his feet. Andrew's body had given him the
solution
to the problem. Taking the plastic liter-sized canteen in his hands, Andrew gulped down the last of the water – about third of the contents. Facing away from the alien, Andrew urinated into the canteen. Then holding the canteen, Andrew knelt next to the alien. Pouring the slightly salty solution carefully, Andrew attempted to pour into the broken control on the alien's belt.

Rett realized what Andrew had done when he turned away only when Andrew began pouring. Rett was shocked. Why should this native defile my body with his fluid wastes? To make matters worse, the fluid was just now getting to Rett's body but did not flow linearly through the field but tended to flatten from the first point of contact with the field and spread equally to cover the surface of the field. Hum…it extends a good 6cm away from his body…and it was running all over Rett's clothing rather than the belt. Oops.

Probably the native is performing some powerful tribal rite, Rett thought as he resigned himself to death far from his colleagues and his home soil. How horrible to die while some primitive chants religious rites over me, Rett thought with disgust.

With alarm, Andrew watched the fluid spread and wondered what this glaring alien thought of him now. Probably not thinking any kind thoughts, Andrew wagered. I doubt I’d be thrilled if someone poured piss all over me.

Rett lay still and gazed up at the tall pink creature above him. It may be attempting to help me in its own primitive manner, Rett thought, but it can only conjure up native rituals. A Tros would have already released the field, killed the interloper and added booty to his collection.

Andrew grasped the canteen by the base with his least injured hand and placed a wadded piece of paper he had found in his pocket into the canteen mouth. He then inverted the canteen carefully and noticed the slow dripping. Andrew then slowly pushed the canteen down through the field so the canteen neck was directly over the crack in the belt control on the alien's waist. No sooner had several drops of fluid dripped or spread into the crack in the belt control then the field surged. The shock made Andrew rigid and he was unconscious before his body realized it had slammed into the ground.

ANDREW LEARNS
TRADE

Between moments of blackness, Andrew realized the alien was carrying him like a child might carry a rag doll under one of its arms.

This native may actually be quite intelligent yet somewhat backward technologically, thought Rett. My associates would be fascinated by how the native used its body's saline solution to make the water conductive. My examination should prove interesting.

Rett proceeded to critically examine Andrew's still unconscious form as he laid him on a long table in Rett's ship. Rett noted:

1) The native, though not familiar with a stressed space field, quickly deduced the cause of the problem and then tried to deal with it.

2) The native showed little fear of my body structure though it was radically different from its own.

3) The native correctly reasoned that ferrous materials get hot when placed in a stressed space field, though it should have realized it immediately…inferior, like other races were typically.

4) The native's liquid in the artificial container was too pure to be a good conductor to flow-magnetism. The native knew this and also knew how to make the container's fluid more conductive by adding its own body's saline waste fluid.

Rett began to painstakingly examine Andrew's clothing. Rett started at the shoes on Andrew's feet.

Soft, synthetic bottoms with simulated animal skin upper parts. Woven fibrous sheaths over the feet under the coverings... Curious... Must be to protect the native's unusually soft skin... Then using synthetic, long fasteners to hold the coverings to the feet...

This native seems to have vestigial manipulative digits under the coverings. It's amazing that such a puny creature could have any knowledge of flow-magnetism. Hair on its head and underarms...ahh...friction reduction and cooling by evaporation or scent distribution...

I chose this planet because it was remote and was not listed on any survey charts. There was neither, likelihood, I would come in contact with an intelligent race nor any Exploration Service ship that could claim the discovery. No rules when no one knows. Knowledge is for the ablest species, he thought in the tried and true mantras of the Tros. These natives are so thin and weak. Even the clothing they wear serves little purpose in this asrid climate. Porous (non-seamed?) covering for its lower body half with a thin section or loop of animal skin at the top to hold the bottom covering to the body…Quite an interesting fastening under the bottom covering. Here the native wore a blue, absorbent covering under the bottom covering with a stretchy band at the top. That stretchy stuff is interesting, probably some weird plant material native to this environment.

...hair between its legs too...these must be the reproductive organs, Rett noted...definitely the fur served for friction reduction since the legs would rug against each other and these reproductive organs…Strange that they are so exposed and outside of the body. It probably wouldn't be worth the effort to dissect this native since I'm not specialized in off-world biology, Rett thought...not worth cleaning up afterward. It wears thin, porous upper body coverings that extend over the arms almost to the five manipulative digits. Its hands are exceedingly fine and supple, probably capable of great detail.

It seems to have a short layer of facial hair. It has a thin and long neck. The eyes, blue colored, are disturbingly close together. The eyes…fixed in the front of the head…the head would have to be mobile to change viewing angle...inefficient design...these eyes can change direction and the head stem turns. The nose appears too long for preheating air in this area of the planet. A broader, flatter nose is dictated for this area's climate. That must mean these natives are or were migratory.

A heavy growth of black hair growing on the top, back, and sides of the head…Ears are small and stationary…Teeth are frightening; omnivorous by the looks of them…Manipulative digits have vestigial claws; odd that I didn't notice that before, Rett thought...omnivore…possibly some survival adaptation. Body structure is taller and thinner than mine. Weak, but well adapted to this planet's light gravity.