Unity

Chapter 24

I quickly regained my composure and bowed in return, saying, "Welcome back to the Unity. You spoke correctly. I am just surprised to hear you learn our language so quickly."

She smiled and explained, "We are still perfecting the translation. Your language is one of the more strange we have encountered."

"It hasn't even been a day. How were you able to learn it so quickly?" I asked wonderingly.

She grabbed her hair and moved it away from the back of her neck. "I downloaded your dictionary and current translation index to..." she paused for a moment. "I cannot find an appropriate word. They are small robots that are injected into the body."

"I think we would refer to them as nanites," I replied after a moment of thought.

She thought for a moment and said, "That seems appropriate. My nanites are helping me learn. The more I speak to your kind, the better the translation gets. My nanites synchronize with those on Tuleeriri so they can benefit from my experiences as well."

"So, what you are saying, is as you get better at speaking English, so does the rest of your planet?" I asked.

"That is correct," she answered. "Do you not have similar technology?"

"Our scientists have created single units in labs, but that is as far as they got," I responded.

"I have one question before we begin our preparations," Shahae said. "In your last message to me, you said Commander Turner would be ironing out the details. It makes no sense when translated. We are still trying to understand your meaning."

"That's funny," I said, letting out a chuckle.

"I do not see the humor in this," she said, with a confused look on her face.

I pulled out my tablet. Luckily, we had vast databases of reference material stored in the Unity. I pulled up a list of commonly used expressions and their meanings. The list was quite extensive. I never realized just how often we use them. "Maybe this will help," I said, showing her the screen. It took her about ten seconds to scroll through the list. When she reached the end, she closed her eyes and stood perfectly still for about thirty seconds.

She finally opened her eyes. "That does indeed help. I have also transmitted an update back to Tuleeriri. Shall we begin?"

I made a mental note to send a list of slang words and anything else that might add to the confusion of translating. I pulled out the translators and set them in a storage compartment in the hangar. "I guess we won't need these," I said. "We have three hours until the queen arrives and much to do

Shahae and I walked to the conference room. She was inspecting everything as we walked. "I hope everything meets your approval," I stated. "This ship was built for war, not for the comforts of visiting royalty."

"What comforts should royalty possess?" she asked. This question caught me off guard. I had been applying human attributes to an alien race and making assumptions where I ought not. Other than what I had read in preparation for the queen's visit and my discussions with Shahae, I knew nothing about the culture or history of the Tuleeriri.

"What is your queen like?" I asked suddenly.

"She is practical, wise and ancient," she explained simply.

"What do you mean by ancient?" I asked, confused.

"We perfected the technology behind nanites thousands of your years ago," she replied. "The nanites cured disease and illness, as well as halted aging, we found the secret to eternal youth. We quickly realized a flaw that had not been considered. With death being overcome, our planet began to get crowded, very quickly. A decision was made and the nanites were programmed to end a person's life when they reached a hundred of what you would call years in age. The queen at the time realized this was the perfect moment to change how a successor was chosen. Previously, the ruling of the planet had been kept within a few families. To make a long story short, as you would say," she looked at me with a proud smile as she used the human expression, "the queen, as well as future queens, would be exempt from the hundred-year rule. They were not allowed to select a successor until their three hundredth year. This would ensure that their children and grandchildren were gone. Queen Shaniir has ruled longer than any previous queen. She had chosen a successor and was about to step down when her successor was killed by the Zrynt. She has ruled for almost six hundred years. Despite the nanites' ability to prolong life, she has begun aging. Many worry that she will pass before a successor is chosen and trained."