Celestial Dawn

Communication

     Mira's companions were at the habitat when she arrived. Sirena, being the closest as she approached, was the first to notice her, "where have you been, we worried about you ... Ah, but you found something," she exclaimed. 

     Mira retrieved the human from her specimen pouch and showed him to her her companion. Sirena's eyes opened wide with interest, she brought her hands up, her left under Mira's, the other reaching into her palm as if to touch him.

   The sudden appearance of Sirena and her two long fingers reaching towards him caused the human to cringe and shrink back from the probing digits. Sirena realized she had startled the little creature and immediately pulled her hand back.

"He is very timid," said Mira.

"Is it what I think it is?"replied Sirena.

"Yes,  a human," remarked Mira excitedly.

       "A human," grumbled Otead who abruptly joined the group. Otead was a Geotechnical Researcher who viewed what he considered the less developed warm blooded life forms with contempt. He believed their wasteful abuse of natural resources to be the primary cause of decay in many planets.

Otead glared down at the tiny human who cowered in Mira's hands. "This was the indigenous species declared culpable for this planets deteriorated state by the Council. This also means there must be more!"

Mira sensed her charges sudden anxiety due to Oteads presence and held him close to her. "I know you all want to study him but  he is frightened and needs to be calmed down," she declared.

     Mira hurried off to the transport research lab with Sirena close behind her.  Sirena's expertise lay in collecting and cataloging biological organisms for study and was familiar with the protocols for handling agitated specimens. Upon entering the lab she picked up a small narrow tubular device and directed the nozzle at the human's face. She slid her finger over an orifice and a light touched the humans body. A reading displayed in the air above the instrument followed by a soft spray that encompassed his head immediately putting him to sleep. 

          Mira placed the human on an examination tray and activated the optical scanner. Sirena joined Mira and together they reviewed the data on the scanner's register. A holographic image shown above an instrument panel they would use to access the various data streams regarding the physiology of the specimen.  The register had stored in its crystalline memory supplementary information on the human anatomy gathered before the terraforming and Mira was anxious to compare that archived data to her live specimen.

     Several items of particular note caught Sirena's attention. The human speech mechanism was located in the throat below his mouth. Sounds were produced by the passing of air from it's two paired lungs through the rhythmic opening and closing of muscle and folded tissue. A process that had the potential of generating sound rich in harmonics and tone.

Conversely, the Miorpean speech center is located in their chest. Speech was created by modulating the intensity of air as it passed through a cavity above a single lung. By manipulating the amplitude of air passing through the chamber Miorpeans could form an infinite variety of pitched sounds, many of which are inaudible to the human ear.

      Now Mira understood why her attempt to calm him verbally only caused to increase his distress. Her voice would have sounded like the rush of wind intermixed with high pitch squeals and squeaks. Sadly, she recognized that their vastly dissimilar vocal faculties coupled with his lack of psychic abilities made direct communication with the human all but impossible.

The examination also served to reinforce much of the data already in the central memory core. Mira concluded that Miorpean internal structure had more in common with the plant life on this world than this tiny creature with warm fluids coursing throughout his body. Additionally, Sirena identified several parasites, lesions and other abnormal tissue growths that were easily removed and sterilized. She also repaired some old injuries, a fractured finger and a torn ligament in his shoulder.