Mannion was our language and code man. I hoped he was good.
"What does it sound like," I asked. "Tune me in."
After a moment a high hum came from the speaker. Through it I could hear harsh chopping consonants, a whining intonation. I doubted that Mannion would be able to make anything of that gargle.
Our Bogie closed steadily. At four hundred twenty-five miles he reversed relative directions, and began matching our speed, moving closer to our course. There was no doubt he planned to parallel us.
I made a brief announcement to all hands describing the status of the action. Clay worked over his televideo, trying to clear the image. I watched as the blob on the screen swelled and flickered. Suddenly it flashed into clear stark definition. Against a background of sparkling black, the twin spheres gleamed faintly in reflected starlight.
There were no visible surface features; the iodine-colored forms and their connecting shaft had an ancient and alien look.
We held our course steadily, watching the stranger maneuver. Even at this distance it looked huge.
"Captain," Clay said, "I"ve been making a few rough calculations. The two spheres are about 800 yards in diameter, and at the rate the structure is rotating it"s pulling about six gravities."
That settled the question of human origin of the ship. No human crew would choose to work under six gee"s.
Now, paralleling us at just over two hundred miles, the giant ship spun along, at rest relative to us. It was visible now through the direct observation panel, without magnification.
I left Clay in charge on the bridge, and I went down to the Com Section.
Joyce sat at his board, reading instruments and keying controls. So he was back on the job. Mannion sat, head bent, monitoring his recorder.
The room was filled with the keening staccato of the alien transmission.
"Getting anything on video?" I asked. Joyce shook his head. "Nothing, Captain. I"ve checked the whole spectrum, and this is all I get. It"s coming in on about a dozen different frequencies; no FM."
"Any progress, Mannion?" I said.
He took off his headset. "It"s the same thing, repeated over and over, just a short phrase. I"d have better luck if they"d vary it a little."
"Try sending," I said.
Joyce tuned the clatter down to a faint clicking, and switched his transmitter on. "You"re on, Captain," he said.
"This is Captain Greylorn, UNACV Galahad; kindly identify yourself." I repeated this slowly, half a dozen times. It occurred to me that this was the first known time in history a human being had addressed a non-human intelligence. The last was a guess, but I couldn"t interpret our guest"s purposeful maneuverings as other than intelligent.
I checked with the bridge; no change. Suddenly the clatter stopped, leaving only the carrier hum.
"Can"t you tune that whine out, Joyce?" I asked.
"No, sir," he replied. "That"s a very noisy transmission. Sounds like maybe their equipment is on the blink."
We listened to the hum, waiting. Then the clatter began again.
"This is different," Mannion said. "It"s longer."
I went back to the bridge, and waited for the next move from the stranger, or for word from Mannion. Every half hour I transmitted a call identifying us, followed by a sample of our language. I gave them English, Russian, and Standard Interlingua. I didn"t know why, but somehow I had a faint hope they might understand some of it.
I stayed on the bridge when the watch changed. I had some food sent up, and slept a few hours on the OD"s bunk.
Fine replaced Kramer on his watch when it rolled around. Apparently Kramer was out of circulation. At this point I did not feel inclined to pursue the point.
We had been at General Quarters for twenty-one hours when the wall annunciator hummed.
"Captain, this is Mannion. I"ve busted it...."
"I"ll be right there," I said, and left at a run.
Mannion was writing as I entered ComSection. He stopped his recorder and offered me a sheet. "This is what I"ve got so far, Captain," he said.
I read: INVADER; THE MANCJI PRESENCE OPENS COMMUNICATIONS.
"That"s a highly inflected version of early Interlingua, Captain,"
Mannion said. "After I taped it, I compensated it to take out the rise-and-fall tone, and then filtered out the static. There were a few sound subst.i.tutions to figure out, but I finally caught on. It still doesn"t make much sense, but that"s what it says."
"I wonder what we"re invading," I said. "And what is the "Mancji Presence"?"
"They just repeat that over and over," Mannion said. "They don"t answer our call."
"Try translating into old Interlingua, adding their sound changes, and then feeding their own rise-and-fall routine to it," I said. "Maybe that will get a response."
I waited while Mannion worked out the message, then taped it on top of their whining tone pattern. "Put plenty of horse-power behind it," I said. "If their receivers are as shaky as their transmitter, they might not be hearing us."
We sent for five minutes, then tuned them back in and waited. There was a long silence from their side, then they came back with a long spluttering sing-song.
Mannion worked over it for several minutes. "They must have understood us, here"s what I get," he said:
THAT WHICH SWIMS IN THE MANCJI SEA; WE ARE AWARE THAT YOU HAVE THIS TRADE TONGUE. YOU RANGE FAR. IT IS OUR WHIM TO INDULGE YOU; WE ARE AMUSED THAT YOU PRESUME HERE; WE ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR INSOLENT DEMANDS.
"It looks like we"re in somebody"s back yard," I said. "They acknowledge our insolent demands, but they don"t answer them." I thought a moment.
"Send this," I said. "We"ll out-strut them:"
THE MIGHTY WARSHIP GALAHAD REJECTS YOUR JURISDICTION.
TELL US THE NATURE OF YOUR DISTRESS AND WE MAY CHOOSE TO OFFER AID.
Mannion raised an eyebrow. "That ought to rock them," he said.
"They were eager to talk to us," I said. "That means they want something, in my opinion. And all the big talk sounds like a bluff of our own is our best line."
"Why do you want to antagonize them, Captain?" Joyce asked. "That ship is over a thousand times the size of this can."
"Joyce, I suggest you let me forget you"re around," I said.