The guinea pig in question was a single Edrehmaia that had approached the ship with Velth and remained behind after Kim and Selah had left the bridge to head to the airlock. It had been Drur who had decoded the transmission indicating the Edrehmaia’s intended destination, and this minor victory had given him the courage to begin testing his theory as soon as he and the single alien had found themselves more or less alone.
Drur had begun by transmitting his genome and name to the Edrehmaia. The response had been immediate. The alien had sent back its own genome but nothing else over subspace channels, nor had it asked any new questions. Drur and Kim’s initial breakthrough, when the Edrehmaia had asked them to “define set,” had made it seem like they had begun to understand one another. But Drur’s theory was that despite this, the aliens really had no idea what a language was in that they did not attach meaning to any of the things they transmitted. Their communication was limited to the constant exchange of factual information only.
In a way, they were very much like Michael Drur, or, at least, he imagined this to be so.
If this was true, it didn’t matter how many common terms they might develop. The key was linking those terms to objects of importance. For instance, did they understand when Drur transmitted his name following his genome that he was the owner of that genome? Or were they simply repeating terms that were common between them?
Drur believed the latter was the case.
Every journey began with a single step and in this case, the step was the equivalent of a chasm. It was similar to the null space that existed between Drur and everyone else in the universe. The time had come to try and cross that chasm.
Drur repeated the transmission of his genome and name.
The response was the same.
He then transmitted the genome of Glenn, Velth, Kim, Selah, and Lawry, followed in each case with their name.
The response was the same.
He then transmitted the genomes of the entire crew, followed by the phrase “SET DEFINED AS CREW.”
This time, there was a short pause before the entire transmission was repeated back to him followed by the phrase “SET EQUALS CREW.”
“That’s right, exactly,” Drur said aloud.
He then transmitted his genome again, his name, and the phrase “MICHAEL DRUR EQUALS ELEMENT OF SET CREW.”
The next response came immediately. “DEFINE RANSON VELTH.”
“Now you’re getting it,” Drur said. He quickly transmitted Velth’s genome, name, and the phrase “RANSON VELTH EQUALS ELEMENT OF SET CREW.”
The next question was something of a head-scratcher. Two full genomes were sent, both followed by the name “Ranson Velth,” followed by the word “DIFFERENTIATE.”
Drur quickly compared the two genomes and found a number of new base pairs that had been added to Velth’s original DNA. He responded by sending only the new base pairs along with the phrase “EVALUATION OF CURRENT INPUTS INDETERMINATE,” his attempt to communicate that he did not understand the nature or value of the additions to Velth’s genome.
This was greeted by a long string of bright flashes and no subspace equivalent.
“Don’t get frustrated. This is hard,” Drur said. “Stay with me.”
He decided to try to change the subject. This time he transmitted the first alien genome he had received in response to his initial message, followed by the word “DEFINE.”
The alien responded by sending the genome again and nothing else.
“Come on, you have to have a name,” Drur said.
The truth was the alien didn’t actually require a unique designation. His genome was perfectly accurate to differentiate him from the other Edrehmaia, just unwieldy. But if they were going to get anywhere, understanding the concept of a name was imperative.
Drur sent the same message again, this time adding the phrase “DEFINE ELEMENT.”
Another pause that seemed to last forever. When the reply came, Drur could barely contain his excitement.
“CERTAINTY ADDED. DESIGNATE ELEMENT.”
As best he could tell, that reply roughly translated to “I understand. You should give me my name.” Drur thought long and hard. He finally settled on a name that was dear to him, that of his father’s father and one not shared by any other member of Galen’s crew. He transmitted the alien’s genome followed by the phrase “ELEMENT EQUALS FRED.”
The response was unequivocal. Fred transmitted his entire genome back along with the phrase “ELEMENT EQUALS FRED. DEFINE SET FRED.”
That one didn’t require a lot of thought. Drur just hoped Fred wouldn’t mind the designation the rest of the universe had adopted for his species.
“FRED ELEMENT OF SET EDREHMAIA.”
Another long pause, followed by the largest transmission to date. It took a full five minutes for the computer to parse, even including the new algorithms installed to speed up that process. When it was done, it contained over eleven thousand discrete genomes followed by the phrase “SET EDREHMAIA.”
“That’s right,” Drur said. “Hello, Fred.”
When Harry Kim entered the quarters he had been assigned since he had become a de facto member of Galen’s crew, he found Conlon seated on the edge of the bed, her chin resting in her hands as she stared straight ahead.
“There you are,” he greeted her. “I was just about to go down to engineering to see if you wanted to grab a quick rations pack.”
She sat up as he entered, tilting her head toward him with a faint smile.
“How’s Velth?” she asked.
“Doc is still working on him, but he seems like he’s going to be okay.” As he continued, he crossed past her to the quarter’s ’fresher. “We have officially acquired some samples of Edrehmaia technology. They created things that allowed him
