The man just looked at him. Nathan thought he saw a spark of understanding in his eyes, like he thought he understood what Nathan was trying to ask him, but was afraid to answer incorrectly. And the woman, she had the same look, but even more so than her leader. Nathan repeated himself, after which the two of them exchanged words in their own language. It sounded as if the woman was trying to explain something to her leader, maybe something she understood, or at least thought she understood.
“We-are-from-the-Sol-system,” he began. Nathan frantically searched his mind for the right words, which was usually not a problem for him. But these people were from another world, another planet. How do you communicate with someone from another planet? “Sol? Have you heard of it?” he asked in frustration. Again, he thought he saw a glimmer of recognition from the women. “Earth?” There were more unintelligible words exchanged between the woman and her leader, and Nathan got the feeling that the two of them were in disagreement about something. “Earth? Have-you-heard-of-Earth?”
The leader said something else to the woman in a stern voice, after which she spoke up. “I hear,” she said, thinking for a moment before continuing, “I-hear-Earth.”
“You have?” Nathan responded, shocked that he had actually made a connection, no matter how slight. “You’ve heard of Earth?”
“Yes,” she answered, her pronunciation of the simple word slightly off. He could see she was struggling to try and use a language that she might once have learned, but had long since forgotten. “I-have. I-heard-of-Earth.”
“Then you speak English?”
“An-glees?” she mispronounced.”
“Yes, Eng-glish.”
She thought again, then realized what he was saying. “Ah, Angla!” she exclaimed excitedly. Suddenly a flurry of communication erupted between her and her leader that seemed to last forever before she finally settled down to try and communicate with him.
“I-learn-Angla-much-young,” she stated slowly, thinking about each word before speaking them. “Please- slowly-I-to-understand-you-much.”
He could see that she was struggling to remember the language that she had learned when she was young. “I-will-speak-slowly. My-name-is-Nathan.” It was difficult for Nathan to control his excitement over his new found ability to communicate with her. And all manner of questions were popping into his mind, making it impossible to select which one to ask first.
“Me, Jalea.
“Jalea?” he grossly mispronounced.
“Jah-LEE-yah,” she corrected.
“Jalea?” he tried again, getting a nod of approval from her.
“Ask her who was shooting at us,” Jessica suggested. Nathan motioned with his hand for her to be patient.
“And he is Mah-rahk?” Nathan asked, pointing to her leader.
“Yes. Marak.”
“Marak-is-your-leader?”
She thought a moment before responding. “Yes.” Her tone of voice left Nathan less than convinced, and he wondered if he was their leader, or just the leader of this little group. But he figured he could unravel that mystery later.
“Where-are-you-from?” he asked next. “Your-world?”
“Bah-KAH-rah.”
Nathan repeated the name of her planet to verify the pronunciation.
“The-big-ship. Was-it-from-Bakara?”
“No,” she answered immediately. “Ship-from-Takara.”
“Takara? And they are bad? These Takarans?”
“Yes. Takar, very bad.”
“You fight them, yes?”
“Yes. Long time. Many years.”
Jessica was growing impatient. “Ask them why they’re here?”
Nathan knew she was right. He was letting himself get swept up in the situation and not thinking of the big picture. They were still without main power, and the sensors were down. And they didn’t have maneuvering or main propulsion back online yet, let alone any weapons. And to top it all off, he had no idea what the tactical situation was in the immediate area. Hell, he didn’t even know where the immediate area was.
“Okay. Why are you here?”
“To help,” she answered instantly, and with a smile. “We call. You no answer. We come. You help us. Now we help you.”
Nathan was a little surprised by the offer. He had no idea how they might help them given the circumstances, but the fact that they were offering seemed a positive step. “How can you help us?”
“Your ship, broken. We help fix,” she explained, pointing at the other two men. Up until now, Nathan had thought of them as their personal security detail. But she seemed to be indicating that they were some kind of engineers or technicians.
“You can help us fix this ship? How?”
“These men, very smart, fix many things. Maybe they, fix you.”
Jessica did not like the idea, and feared that Nathan was thinking of accepting the offer. “Lieutenant, I don’t know about this. Maybe we should just say thanks but no thanks and try and fix it ourselves?”
“Soon, more will come,” Jalea added. “Very soon, maybe few, maybe many.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of,” Nathan admitted, more to himself than to Jalea.
“Nathan,” Jessica spoke up, pulling him aside and turning away from them. “Four strangers, only one of which barely speaks our language, cannot be of enough help to justify the risk,” she insisted.
“How do you know they’re only talking about these four? They’re only from one ship, and there were at least six of them out there before.”
Jessica began to offer more reasons, but Nathan turned away from her to speak with Jalea again.
“How many people do you have that can help?” he asked slowly.
Jalea turned to Marak, undoubtedly asking him the same question. “Many,” she answered.
That did sound like it might help, and Nathan’s expression turned from one of skepticism to one of curiosity.
Marak noticed the change in Nathan’s expression, and said something else to Jalea.
“We have many more to help, but not here.”
“Could turn into an ally?” Nathan explained to Jessica. She still didn’t look convinced. “I’ll let you keep your big gun pointed at them the whole time,” he promised, drawing a patronizing look from Jessica.
“You’re in command,” she said.
Nathan turned back to Jalea and Marak. “We accept your offer,” he explained slowly. “But this nice lady and her friends will have to watch you. I apologize, but we do not yet know you very well. Is that alright?”
Jalea explained the terms offered by Nathan as best she could to Marak. The two of them seemed to debate the issue for a bit longer than Nathan would’ve thought necessary. But then again, sometimes he and Cameron probably debated things for a bit longer than normal as well. In fact, the captain had scolded him for allowing it to happen too often.
Finally, Jalea turned to him. “Yes, is good.”
“Wonderful!” he exclaimed. “Now, these people will take you to where we need the most help.” Nathan turned to Jessica. “Escort them to engineering, please.”
“Yes Sir,” she reluctantly agreed.
Before she could get away, Nathan grabbed Jessica by the arm and stepped in close to her ear and whispered “I wasn’t kidding before, Jess. Keep an eye on them at all times.”
“I had planned on it,” she assured him.
Nathan smiled at them as they filed out of the room, one of the armed crewmen leading the way, with Jessica and the other crewmen following them out the door. After they had left, Nathan flopped back down in his chair, breathing out a sigh of relief. After a moment, he turned on the comm-set. “Engineering, Briefing room.”
