boucher book oct28.pdf - Index of

Expedition 377
In this posture the fact was not markedly noticeable, but he is a biped. Used as
we are on our own planet to many forms of life—octopods (though the Great One
be thanked that those terrors are nearly wiped out), ourselves hexapods, and the
pesky little mammalian tetrapods—a biped still seems to us something strange and
mythical. A logical possibility, but not a likelihood. The length of body of this one
is approximately that of a small member of our own race.
He held a container apparently of glass in one foreleg (there must be some
other term to use of bipeds, since the front limbs are not used as legs) and was
drinking from it when he spied us. He choked on his drink, looked away, then
returned his gaze to us and stared for a long time. At last he blinked his eyes,
groaned aloud, and hurled the glass container far away.
Halov now advanced toward him. He backed away, reached one forelimb
inside the structure, and brought it out clasping a long metal rod, with a handle
of some vegetable material. This he pointed at Halov, and a loud noise ensued.
At the time some of us thought this was the being’s speech, but now we know
it came from the rod, which apparently propelled some form of metal missile
against Halov.
The missile, of course, bounced harmlessly off Halov’s armor (he prides
himself on keeping in condition), and our specialist in life sciences continued to
advance toward the biped, who dropped the rod and leaned back against the
structure. For the first time we heard his voice, which is extraordinarily low in
pitch. We have not yet fully deciphered his language, but I have, as instructed,
been keeping full phonetic transcriptions of his every remark. Trubz has calculated
psychologically that the meaning of his remarks must be:
“Ministers of the Great One, be gracious to me!”
The phonetic transcription is as follows: ∗
AND THEY TALK ABOUT PINK ELEPHANTS!
He watched awestruck as Halov, undaunted by his former experience, again
went directly into the fifth approach. The stick in Halov’s digit traced a circle in
the dirt with rays coming out of it, then pointed up at the setting sun.
The biped moved his head forward and back and spoke again. Trubz’s
conjecture here is:
“The great sun, the giver of life.”
Phonetic transcription:
BUGS THAT DRAW PRETTY PICTURES YET!
Then Halov drew a series of concentric ellipses of dotted lines about the
figure of the sun. He drew tiny circles on these orbits to indicate the first and
second planets, then larger ones to indicate the third and our own. The biped
was by now following the drawing with intense absorption.
Halov now pointed to the drawing of the third planet, then to the biped,
and back again. The biped once more moved his head forward, apparently
as a gesture of agreement. Finally Halov in like manner pointed to the fourth
planet, to himself, and back again, and likewise in turn for each of us.
∗ For the convenience of the reader, these transcriptions have been retranscribed
into the conventional biped spelling.—e d i t o r