Free Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles 2: Redemption by Andrew Beery Page B

champion came in shooting and asked questions later , only afterwards there was no one left to answer." Cat mused.
    " Regrettably, yes. It would help to explain why these people were so quick to attack anybody entering their system. Their recent history with other species cannot have been pleasant. "
    Squatting on the ground in front of the creature Cat tried to assume as small a profile as possible. Her efforts were rewarded by a visible relaxation on the part of the other occupant in the room.
    "I'd like a chance to be your friend," Cat said simply. She waited. There was absolutely no response. She turned her senses up to their maximum sensitivity. She could hear the movement of air molecules across the creature's external gills. These swished in continual lazy swirls that kept air moving over them.
    She spoke again. "Is there anything I can get you?" Across the full range of her enhanced senses she detected no response whatsoever. "You can't hear, can you?" she said.
    "Cal, what biometric data do we have on our friend here? Is there any structure analogous to hearing organs?"
    " Many insectoid species utilize an asymmetrical tympanal membrane that responds to different frequencies of sound by vibrating in-concert with the incoming wavefront. The mechanical movement is differentially propagated along the membrane and picked up by neurons along the membrane's  length. There is no evidence of such a structure in this creature's anatomy."
    "So this being has no sense of hearing."
    "That may be true, however, there is a bulbous bioelectric organ located near the brainstem with what appears to be a resonance chamber. "
    "We know these creatures communicate in space with radio signals. Is it possible that these creatures..."
    " … communicate primarily via radio packets. This is consistent with limited information the Yorktown was able to secure prior to the attack." Cal continued.
    "Then ," Cat said with a smile, "open a channel!"

Chapter Nine - Music to Calm the Savage Bug...
    Cat sat dejectedly at one of the tables in the galley of the rapidly reconstituting GCP Heidman-2 . For the better part of five hours she had tried every combination of frequency and amplitude modulation she could think of in an effort to elicit a response from the creature sitting across the table from her.
    At least she had developed enough of a rapport with her that she was able to coax her out of the small medical bay. Cat had randomly assigned a gender to the creature so she could stop thinking of th e‘ he r ’ as an 'it.' The smell of cinnamon was ever-present, but had diminished as the creature had become more relaxed.
    Ricky Valen and Rebecca Kirkland entered the small galley followed by Rudy McQuin. The smell of cinnamon increased briefly.
    "I see Cinnabon is making herself at home," Rebecca said while grabbing a cup of coffee.
    Ricky had of course come up with the obvious name for their guest. It had been the least egregious of numerous suggestions he had made ; suggestions which included Bugaboo, Cricket, and Madam Roach. As for the race she came from, he simply called them Buggers and the name stuck despite Cat's objections.
    "She is ," Cat confirmed. They had discovered that their guest loved both honey and maple syrup, as well as a variety of sweet jellies. A selection of each was on the table.
    Cinnabon extended a pinkish gray proboscis towards each of the samples and sipped at them.
    "My current concern is how to establish meaningful communication. We know from analysis of the signals we've intercepted that they use some type of paired orbital angular momentum radio signal to interact, but there seems to be some type of initiation handshake to kick things off that we can't identify."
    Cinnabon chose that moment to chirp. That was what Cat called it when their guest emitted a high frequency radio burst. Her guess was that if she knew how to respond to this signal they would be able to start interacting on something closer to real