Ceasair watched as the trapdoor opened again, and the female human came once more through the opening. She lifted up her eyes, saw him, and her eyes widened in shock.
Wordsworth saw a humanoid male...six feet six in height if he was an inch, with symmetrical features, bronze skin...bronze as in the metal bronze, not a tan...and the musculature of a weight lifter. He wore a silver space suit (all space travelers, from all worlds that had independently developed space travel, wore silver spacesuits. There was a reason for this, which Wordsworth would learn much later.)
“Asvara chuli ne!” Ceasair said to her, putting desperation into his voice.
Wordsworth could only blink at him. “What? Do you speak English?” she said, drawing out every word.
“Asvara chuli ne!” Ceasar repeated urgently. (You must help me!)
Why couldn’t he speak English, Wordsworth fretted. Didn’t he have a universal translator, or at least a Babelfish, and if not, why not?
“Asvara chuli, ne,” Ceasar repeated again.
“Klaatu borada nikto?” ventured Wordsworth, without really expecting that it would do any good. And she was right. But he seemed to be asking for something, and then...he put his hands together, as if he were praying, as he repeated his strange saying. He needed her help, desperately, it seemed.
“Come down into the library,” Wordsworth said. She beckoned for him to go through the trap door, and Ceasair complied. Then, she followed him down, closing the trapdoor behind her.
Part 2
The sentient spaceship, Tanhi, perched, invisible, on the roof of the Polar Bear Library.
She (for all craft, on all worlds, are shes) ran through all of her memory banks, desperately trying to compute a way to prevent Ceasair from wreaking havoc on this world.
She could not send a distress signal to any other ships, let alone any other planets. Ceasair had sabotaged her transmission equipment.
Was it possible to depend on the law enforcement representatives of this planet? She had no choice. But how could she contact them?
If Tanhi had had a visage, she would have smiled. Of course. She sent a pulse of energy into the command console...and the cloaking device switched off. There was a shimmer, and then her sleek, needle-nosed lines appeared, pointing toward the sky.
Tanhi was now visible to anyone who had the eyes to see it. If the vehicles of the law enforcement representatives had computers...and surely they would have computers...she would be able to communicate with them, and they in turn would be able to communicate with their masters.
And Ceasair would find that edifice which he had just entered, had become his tomb.
Vocabulary
symmetrical - well-proportioned, as a body or whole; regular in form or arrangement of corresponding parts
bronze - an alloy consisting of copper and tin
alloy - a substance composed of two or more metals, or of a metal or metals with a nonmetal
fretted - to feel or express worry, annoyance, discontentdesperately - made reckless or dangerous because of despair or urgency
wreaking - to inflict or execute
havoc - great destruction or devastation
transmission - the broadcasting of electromagnetic waves from one location to another
representative - standing or acting for another or others
visage - the face, usually with reference to shape, features, expression
vehicles - a conveyance moving on wheels, runners, or tracks, such as a cart, sled, automobile, or tractor
tomb - an excavation in earth or rock for the burial of a corpse; grave
Cultural References
Klaatu borada nikto - in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, these are the instructions from the alien Klaatu that prevent the robot Gort from destroying the earth.
universal translator - in Star Trek, a device that translates English into alien languages, and vice versa.
Babelfish - in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a fish-shaped alien that feeds on thoughtwaves, and thus translates alien languages into the language of te individual who has the Babelfish in his or her ear.
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