What followed was a very awkward several minutes.

Not wanting to talk aloud and confuse the poor ‘guide’ any further the time was passed with meaningful glances, mild snorts and a breadth of communication over a pidgin of resonance protocols jury rigged together between the three of them’s mutual comfort and preference.

Aleph could not decide if Quarti was better or worse like this.

Aleph

So what is it some kind of robot? It’s saying a lot of stuff about processing.

Omega

It looks pretty fleshy, I’m thinking maybe it’s asking for more resources to be dedicated remotely to the translation? We did something similar on Terra to run the translation.

Aleph

Wait really?

Quarti

OMG LOL! ofcourse silly ! You thought we could fit the  needed to translate a new alien  every few years in a box that fits on your lap? TROLOLOLOL!

​

Aleph grimaced and shook a fist at Quarti for shoving that awful spew through her symbiotes! But maintained the awkward truce of silence while the sign outside continued gently blinking “please wait”.

Aleph

Please don’t put that in my feed! it’s giving me spine cramps!

Omega

She’s right though, well it was also a team of linguists and a bunch of algorithms we got from some of the first traders too and lots of tuning and tweaking and dictionary feeding in the first few months of contact with a new language. Proper exchanges in real time sometimes never actually became possible until after the visitors had already left.

​

Omega looked over at there guide who turning between each of them as the sign continued blinking softly how they just need to wait.

Aleph

Okay, so it’s probably just calling in for more real time processing to crunch our language? Why didn't they do this sooner? I mean they managed to handle text fine right? And it understood our body language more or less perfectly.

Omega

My guess is that they didn't know how varied speech tone and speed would be and only did bare bones processing on some kind of dictionary digest that Pylo probably gave them.

Quarti

LOL course yeah, but did you  and ️ that bit about Siren? reps that me thinks! OMG they ️ now!

​

The sign blinked out to white and then filled in with script smoothly and quickly. The soft voice spoke over the cylinder embedded in the side of the bubble with a distinctly stronger sense of life and less metallic tones.

“Thank you very much, I apologize for the delay-”

The text melted away as soon as Aleph and the others had managed to read it, flowing in time with the voice who was contrite and apologetic but otherwise very attentive and a little confused.

“-but when risking a potential catastrophic translation failure as you seemed to indicate it is best to multi-check all the base assumptions from the ground up.

Fort with we have run a full entropic analysis of all linguistic records provided and atmospheric pressure recordings obtained from you as well as anatomical and resonance scans of your personages.

We have also performed the necessary correlaries and hired four hundred and fifty thousand independent experts to verify each step of our re-rooting of the translation map.

You are certain that your Siren host the Ship-Sitter of Tunie, Pylo of Clan Courtesan was not comprehensible to you?”

Aleph blinked a moment then looked at Omega and then Quarti. She realized her mouth was gaping a little bit before she managed to close it and wheeze out a bit.

“You did all of that in a few minutes?”

The voice continued with a soft and gentle tone, it was comforting, sincere but also stern beneath the softness.

“Of course, mistranslation errors of the possibly identified magnitude could be catastrophic to consent and well being of guests and citizens, it was paramount that it be corrected at all expense required, as is written in the dock works health and safety doctrine of the ministry of external affairs. The necessary expert staff and clerks are prioritized to such tasks from other duties immediately as per their work contract arrangements and that of their owners and patrons”

There was a bit of an exasperated tone that followed next.

“However normally this is not necessary when linguistic materials and advice are provided by a expert vetted species in linguistics and diplomacy such as a Siren, so I must repeat have you really been unable to understand or comprehend your communication exchanges with your host?”

Omega blinked a few times then fumed a little bit.

“Well yeah kind of, she sounds like she’s propositioning us with just about every other word... Or rather she is making our heads hear the sound like she is, and that’s after months of work with her to get the whole thing feeling less invasive and intrusive, When we first started it was like she was dry fucking our sense of self trying to-”

Aleph’s eyes were widening in horror and she quickly slapped a hand over Omega’s mouth.

“I mean... we found her accent a little rough to follow at first but it’s been mostly fine now we just get stuff that is a little bit ambiguous now and then! Like we don’t know the proper place names for this place. But It’s totally otherwise fine we promise!”

The balloon person with those big red soulful eyes fixed each of them with a very intent look then sighed heavily over the speaker then began to pick up with a forced cheer.

“I see! Well I feel I should inform you then that you are in a Polis of Crimson Bounty, or Redweed colloquially. A thriving community of Eight thousand and Seven nation districts totalling a population of a little shy of five quadrillion citizens and serviles. We boast good trade relations with all surrounding reef farms and harvesting ventures of the surrounding twelve solar volumes! You are locally in the High energy dockyards district of Acelerata The 35th! Capital meeting place of the Ministries of External Affairs and four time winner undefeated of the Pan-polis Skipper relay baton event!”

Aleph blinked a bit then looked at Omega and shrugged.

The voice deflated a little bit from the thrilled exuberance and took on a bit of a pained hushed.

“Now I should also inform you that Acelerata offers an amnesty program for abused refugees from trader deprivations and is willing to offer to buyout your contract if your conveyor is abusive or neglectful of your needs or has taken you against your will or best interests”

Omega blinked and Quarti had gone strangely stone faced and serious.

“You w-would buy out the contract and offer us amnesty? But what about our colony... and the colonists in storage... We paid a lot for this trip...”

The orb half as big around as Aleph was tall ‘nodded’ slowly and spoke softly, as if to a child or a injured animal.

“I understand, we have emergency funds set aside ... periodically... just for this situation, if the cost of the contract buyout plus penalties and arranging living conditions and life support is exorbitantly in excess of that fund we do offer servile contracts to refugees and their descendents to work off the balance but-”

Omega shoved off to bounce against the bubble wall.

“Slaves? You are trying to buy us and the colonists we were entrusted the safety of as chattel slaves? Over what? A bit of a perplexing accent? No thank you!”

The voice sounded a little bit hurt and the writing was a bit looser and less controlled as it wiggled into being.

“I was going to say that there are several charity organizations willing to lessen if not outright annul any servile contracts for refugees, on the whole I like to think we are a civil people here in Redweed. We are trying to look out for your well being, not slavers and monsters trying to EXPLOIT you. The amnesty program was put in place to try and help those that are locked into that very exploitation you just accused me of, legally and without need for violence with the traders-”

Omega cut in with a firm tone, she looked a little less angry but still firm.

“We are perfectly fine with our situation so far... we just wanted to get a chance to see how... people live on worlds other than our own... Just a friendly outing alright?”

The guide bobbed a bit with the sign blank white.

“Very well, I will respect your wishes, but if you change your mind. And this goes for any of you... feel free to signal me. And please if you have reason to believe you are the victims of gross neglect or abuse let us KNOW we CAN help!”

The voice sounded very sad, almost forlorn. Whatever they had done on the translation system it was practically perfect as far as Aleph was concerned.

Almost too good.

Aleph just nodded.

Then the voice was suddenly perky and delighted.

“Now this was supposed to be a tour right? Was there anywhere in particular you wanted to see? I know lots of wonderful sights locally! Why I was budded just three docking spokes counter-clockwise from here! You can just see the towers over on our right-”

Aleph looked over at Quarti and Omega.

Aleph

Sooo uh that’s a thing.

Omega

Yeah. A Thing.

Quarti

I’m not sure if I  these or .​

She didn't know what to think.