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Hubcap was nearly hopping with excitement, but he forced himself to appear calm. He didn’t want to startle the alien. Belatedly, he introduced himself and brought out the humans, noting that while they made the colortalker uneasy, he did not run. Instead, “Mudtail” pulled himself together and greeted the half dozen offworlders from atop a rock that brought him to eye level.
The translator made conversation easier when put on the right setting. It already accepted Mudtail’s mental words and beamed them to Hubcap in the same way, since he was the one holding the thing. After a few adjustments, it also repeated everything in spoken English. This ate into the translator’s battery life though, so Hubcap set it back to one-on-one translating once the introductions were done.
Larry and Xian conferred with Vic, then took off to get the car, explaining that it would be easier to fly it back than to lead the timid native through the woods.
While they waited, Hubcap had more questions. The way Mudtail was describing it, there were creatures on this planet — “invisible blue clouds” — that fed on emotions. Hubcap was ready to wager a large amount of money that some of those creatures had drifted onto a human spaceship years ago. If they were really what caused the frenzy, then there were populations of very confused cloud-things all over human space now, searching for their symbiote race and finding other species instead.
It was too much to put into one question. “Why do you call them ‘invisible blue clouds?’” Hubcap asked, letting the translator repeat it to Mudtail. “How can something be both invisible and blue?”
=You don’t see them with your eyes,= Mudtail said in ripples of color, searching for words. =They kind of smell blue — Oh, I can’t say it right!= His blank tail lashed, and the alien looked away. =They just are,= he said.
Hubcap left it at that. He made a note to check the settings of the translator to see if it could better pick up what the colortalker’s speech impediment had gotten in the way of saying. The machine seemed to be catching only what was actually said, not what was intended. For the time being, Hubcap asked about the other village, and Mudtail told him everything he knew.
The alien was still talking when the aircar made its appearance around the bend. =And they have a large herd of armormeat... What is that?= Mudtail cut off to stare in speckled amazement as the vehicle from another world came in for a landing on the grassy shore, its hover engine whirring quietly.
Hubcap grinned widely. “That, my friend, is an aircar,” he said. “With plenty of space for you with us. Ready to see the other mating grounds?”
Mudtail gaped, then visible excitement covered him in starbursts of gold. =Yes!= he said. =Yes, I am very much ready!=
Hubcap showed the alien over to the door, proud of his bravery, and he told himself not to get attached. Brave or not, Mudtail wouldn’t live to see the sunrise. The alien’s tendency to wheeze from excitement made Hubcap wonder if the air-breathing adults had defective lungs, or if their lifespan was more of a circulation problem. He focused on the task at hand, trying not to think about it.
Dale tripping over a loose floor panel made for a momentary distraction. Then as Elliot was helping him up, shouts from down the river reminded everyone of the unwelcome human presence at the mating grounds. Hubcap had a flash of inspiration.
He told everyone to wait before taking off, then had a quick conversation with Mudtail. A bit of prying with metal fingers was all it took to free the loose panel, then Hubcap began digging around for a waterproof pen.
“What are you doing?” Vic asked as Hubcap started to write. Mudtail sat and watched, looking from the panel to the rest of the exotic aircar.
“Helping the villagers send a very clear message,” Hubcap replied. He wrote on the thin metal sheet in block letters: “Leave our mating grounds! We will only talk to the robot.” Then he handed it to Mudtail, who tucked it against his chest and scrambled out to the water’s edge. Vic nodded in silent approval.
Hubcap followed to see the alien splash into the water, heading for one of the little islands with a cluster of plantlife growing on it.
“What is he doing with that?” Elliot wanted to know.
Hubcap folded his arms with pride. “Giving it to one of the villagers. She’ll give it to the guards, and they’ll fling it at the humans on the beach.” He looked over at his co-host. “I’m hoping it hits one of them.”
Elliot shook his head. “Well, it’ll certainly confuse them,” he said. “Though there won’t be any doubt of which robot it means. We should go before they start looking for us.”
Hubcap nodded. “It’ll take a few minutes to get the thing to the guards, and I figure that’s plenty of time for us to be on our way. Who knows how quick the guards will be to whang it at someone’s head.”
Out in the river, Mudtail handed the sign to someone underwater, then came splashing back to shore. Hubcap lifted his translator to hear =It’s done! Let’s go!=
He welcomed the excited alien back onboard, and Larry started up the hover engine. Soon they were skimming the water on their way upstream. Mudtail ran from one window to another like a dog on the way to the park, and no one told him to sit down. Hubcap translated his stream of exclamations, delighted himself to be able to see into that clear part of the river beyond the mud barriers.
=I can see the snapper pens!= Mudtail enthused, =And the play jungle! At the same time! Wow, they look so strange from up here! And I can see how many hatchlings are in the jungle, all at once! This is amazing!= The alien scampered over to the other side of the car. =Oh, I remember that spot, with the fallen tree that you can only swim over during flood! I haven’t been there since I was little!=
“It’s a great view from up here, isn’t it?” Hubcap asked.
Mudtail looked back at him =This is incredible,= he said in bright colors. =No one from my town — no one anywhere! — has seen the world from this high before! I’m the first! Thank you!= He went back to watching out the window.
Hubcap realized he was starting to care more than he wanted to. This was a friend he would lose in the next few hours. He started to pull back, but Mudtail continued.
=I was sure that my life in the air was going to be miserable,= the alien said. =This is more than I could have imagined! Do you swim the air like this all the time?=
“Often enough,” Hubcap said. “What I don’t do much of is swim through the trees. Your normal life is amazing to me.”
=Really? It’s not that special.=
“Sure, if you’re used to it, but where I live we walk everywhere, and if we need to reach something high up, we have to climb to get it. You can swim straight there.”
=Well, I could,= Mudtail said, and Hubcap regretted his words. But the alien cheered up again. =And now I can swim through the air too! I will die happy tonight!=
Hubcap found himself smiling. “I’m glad,” he said.