So, there was something out here after all.

Camellia smiled and marveled at their now sizeable collection of intercepted transmissions. As she scrolled through Halfmoon’s files, she saw business documents, digital postcards, verbal messages, and an occasional book excerpt or recorded theater show.

For almost six weeks, they hung around the wormhole. They practiced their flying, patched up the ship, and learned one of the dominant languages.

Every seven days, they re-entered the wormhole to check on Iruedim. From space, they could tell that Ul’thetos was awake but still trapped. There were no signs of Ah’nee’thit, which Halfmoon’s crew took to be a good thing. For Camellia, each short stay on the Iruedian side brought thoughts of Adalhard. No fantasies, just prayers for his safety and a hope that he would try to stop the cultists.

Meladee complained that it was a boring six weeks, but Eva asserted that they needed to prepare for a time when they would encounter the inhabitants of this galaxy. Camellia spent her six weeks translating messages and learning about the people through their words.

As Camellia continued to scroll through Halfmoon’s files, she found a few marked with question symbols. Those files were works in progress. One was a news program, delivered by a slug-like alien in a language and alphabet dissimilar to anything Camellia had ever seen. Another indecipherable text was a ship’s manifest, highly technical and riddled with proper names.

“If we’re going to choose an appropriate planet to contact, you’ll have to run the scanners,” Eva reminded Camellia from the doorway.

Camellia turned to see both Eva and Meladee. They took their seats.

Camellia answered, “I know. I wanted to wait for you before I started such a momentous scan.” Camellia closed her file menu and keyed buttons to program and initiate a new scan. She gave Halfmoon the following parameters: Ganden language, habitable planet, and five interplanetary messages per day.

Camellia initiated the scan, and Halfmoon flashed a message – scanning.

While Camellia worked, Eva planned ahead. “If we find nothing suitable in this area, we’ll go to superliminal speed and try one of our other locations.” She sat at the weapons station and pulled up a ship alarm program. Eva had fixed alarms throughout the ship to announce whether Halfmoon experienced a spontaneous leak or hull breach.

As Camellia’s scan ticked along, she remembered the first time she’d used the scanner, which also happened to involve one of those spontaneous leaks...

“We may not find anything,” Eva had warned, hovering behind Camellia’s seat. “If not, we can make another jump.”

Camellia was in charge of finding life, supervised by Eva. Meladee sat at the helm, ready in case Camellia found something they wished they hadn’t. Their superliminal path was preprogrammed, and they could leave the area any time. Camellia and Eva watched the scan, and the three women waited.

“Yeah, we’ve only had to make six jumps, but who’s counting?” Meladee asked.

Eva looked at Meladee. “Apparently you.” Eva pointed at her chest. “I didn’t place the wormhole’s exit on the very edge of this galaxy.”

“No, but who did? Who do I file a complaint with?” Meladee shrugged.

While Eva and Meladee bickered about the benefits and detractions of such a remote wormhole location, Camellia watched the scanner. They had set the parameters for transmissions, hoping to catch someone’s letter, business contract, or some other private message.

The scanner beeped.

“Oh! A transmission.” Camellia pulled the message up on her screen and attempted to read it.

Meladee shifted in her seat. “Finally. What’s it say?”

“I have no idea,” Camellia said. “I’ll try to translate. If I had more...” The scanner obliged as its net caught not one or two more messages, but nearly twenty. Camellia laughed. “More messages! Oh, thank you, Halfmoon.” She keyed through the messages, displayed on her screen. Of course, the people of this galaxy used a different alphabet, and Halfmoon struggled to display some symbols. “Everything uses different alphabets than Iruedian languages. Halfmoon has mangled a few, but most look plausible.” Camellia drew in a breath. “A few of these transmissions have pictures. Those will be useful. And, there are...recordings.”

As Camellia recognized Halfmoon’s symbol for recordings, she noticed that most of the messages fell under the verbal category. Camellia chose one and played the recording quietly. The voice was masculine and spoke with a calm, measured tone. Camellia listened in awe. When she had listened through, she pulled up a note taking program and began the message again. This time she tried to transcribe the words.

“It’s about time we finally got something. So...how are we going to talk to these people?” Meladee asked.

“We need to learn the language.” Camellia kept only one ear exposed. The other she set to work, listening to the messages. “Preferably a language that’s used in many locations.”

Eva nodded.

“Learn the language?” Meladee shook her head. “I can’t. I’m terrible at languages. I’ll never get it.”

Eva frowned and gave Meladee a strange look. “You spent over half your life as a sailor and know three Iruedian languages.”

“Yeah, but I only know enough of one of those to say – I agree/disagree on the price and I do/don’t want to sleep with you.” Meladee spread her hands. “And, I hated every minute of learning those languages. It took me years. Goddamn years of staring at people with a blank face.”

“It’s not like that for me,” Eva stated, with a skeptical look.

“Learning a new language can be hard,” Camellia agreed. “I had a year of nothing but languages at the AAH, and I was lucky to already know two when I started my schooling. I think you can learn it, Meladee. The key is to find similarities with the languages you know and practice.”

“Oh, god. I may want to face the monster.” Meladee frowned and turned back to the windshield.

Eva shook her head and peered over Camellia’s shoulder. Camellia wondered if Eva would translate something faster than she, their anthropologist, could. Camellia wanted to be the first. She couldn’t deny that it really mattered to her.

Camellia opened a long text, containing several images. Her finger traveled over a picture’s caption. She tried to decipher what the pictured man and woman were doing. They wore some kind of armor and carried helmets. The background contained a ship and some far-off buildings. On the same page, more pictures displayed a giant city and a group of people in regal clothes, posing by a table.

“I think this is a textbook,” she said. “Someone is passing notes back and forth to study.” Camellia continued to read.

Meladee drew breath to say something, but an alarm blared, interrupting her words.

Eva strode to another station, swore in Lurrien, and ran from the cockpit.

Camellia glanced back. She saw Meladee agape, but she didn’t care to offer words of comfort. Camellia had her chance to study the language without Eva’s presence. She turned back to her screen and continued to read.

The alarm continued for several minutes. Around the cockpit, orange lights flashed. Meladee stared hard at Camellia. Camellia could feel it. She did her best to ignore Meladee’s gaze and the sound of the alarm. Both conspired to rob her of success.

“Hey, doesn’t this worry you?” Meladee called.

“Oh yes,” Camellia agreed absentmindedly. “Very much.” She nodded as she focused on her work. She had noticed several words that appeared in all three captions, probably names.

“I think Eva swore,” Meladee pesisted.

Camellia thought, yes, she certainly did.

Meladee continued, “She never swears, and this alarm is still going.” Any weight to Meladee’s words dropped away, as the alarm fell silent. “Okay, that’s better, but there are still warnings on my screen. Camellia, I can’t read this thing. It’s in Lurrien. What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure yet, but I’m working on it.” Camellia wrote in her notebook, lining up similar words. Prepositions and proper names littered the page.

“Are you talking about the textbook? You better not be talking about the textbook.” Meladee glared.

Again, Camellia could feel those eyes. She let her own gaze slide to the side and looked at Meladee through her peripheral vision.

Meladee threw her hands up. “She doesn’t give a damn if we die!”

Eva re-entered the cockpit. “I give quite a lot of...damns whether or not we die.” She grabbed some tools from her seat and turned to go.

“What happened?” Meladee asked.

“Just a small air leak.” Eva hoisted her tool bag and paused in the doorway. “I’m going to check over the ship to see if there are any more weaknesses.”

“Another air leak?” Meladee asked.

Camellia registered their conversation, but tried to focus on the captions. Potentially, she might have identified the word “and.” In celebration, she announced it, “I think I’ve found a word!” Though, she didn’t say which word.

Camellia smiled at the memory. Since then, they had fixed other issues with the ship and begun language lessons. Camellia had deduced that Ganden was the name of a dominant language, used toward the center of the galaxy as well as some regions on the edge. Camellia applied her knowledge of other languages, picking Ganden up quickly. Now, she was confident she could have a conversation with a native speaker.

Eva was already fluent, and Meladee had finally started to improve. Meladee attributed her progress to the spell she’d written and cast to help them all absorb information faster. She called the spell Increased Learning and usually announced her intention to cast it in a bellowing tone, twenty times a day. Increased Learning!

It was a powerful but short-lived spell. The spell also didn’t work on Eva, much to Meladee’s mirth. Camellia had to admit that Meladee’s Increased Learning spell made their study of Ganden speedy. Camellia had even gained understanding of other Iruedian languages – ones she’d struggled with.

When asked why she never invented such a spell before, Meladee answered, “Because I have never been so desperate! Increased Learning!” Then, she cast the spell.

Camellia did not give full credit to the strange if short-lived spell. Eva had insisted they speak only Ganden for weeks, and Camellia argued that Eva’s insistence helped, much to Meladee’s chagrin. Many times, while Camellia and Eva conversed away, Meladee stared daggers at them, unable to add anything meaningful to the conversation. Sometimes, Camellia gave their pilot a few moments of conversation in Tagtrumian, but Eva put a stop to that, telling Camellia to keep her sympathy to herself.

Now, it didn’t matter how they had arrived. All three women agreed they were ready to initiate contact.

“Anything on your scan?” Meladee asked from the helm. As usual, the pilot sat ready to initiate a pre-programmed superliminal path.

Camellia exhaled. “Not yet.” She glanced back at Eva. “Eva?”

Eva turned in her chair to face Camellia.

“I’ve been wondering...how far can Halfmoon see and hear?” Diagrams complete with coordinates began to pop onto the screen, and Camellia caught the flashes of information in her peripheral vision.

“Not very far at all. Only between 12 and 15 light years,” Eva said. “That’s why we’ve had to engage the superliminal drive so many times. Space is vast, and most of it is not filled with interesting objects.” Eva spun her chair fully around and gave Camellia her full attention. She sat back with arms crossed. “Having the wormhole on the outskirts of this galaxy ensures our privacy...and Iruedim’s safety. But it certainly made it difficult to find people. We were lucky to have stumbled upon so much activity within three of our search areas, but remember, we did have to search nearly fifty places to gather all our information. Without that luck and my skill in determining good search locations, we might have searched much longer.”

“A little extra flying practice doesn’t hurt.” Meladee fiddled with her controls, careful not to disrupt the scan. “Once we do that light travel thing about...say fifty more times...I might get comfortable.”

“Not comfortable yet? We’ve already made fifty jumps. Should I not have said that mistakes can land us in the center of the sun?” Eva asked.

“No, no. I need to know that.” Meladee rotated her chair to face Eva and Camellia. “God knows I don’t want to put us in the middle of a star, or a great gas giant.”

“Will the existence of such planets give you nightmares?” Eva rose from her seat and crossed to Camellia’s station. Eva leaned on Camellia’s chair and put a hand on her hip. “I have little experience with these things myself. My knowledge comes solely from simulations – games really. I’m giving you all my knowledge to better prepare you.”

Meladee sighed. “I know; it’s all we’ve got. I just wish we had a better teacher than second hand Wormhole Cartel.”

“I’m terrible at that game. I never attack the hostile invaders soon enough.” Camellia’s eyes remained glued to the scan.

So far, Halfmoon had found nothing to fit their search criteria. The first star system they scanned contained only gas giants and planets too hot for habitation. The second star system had the opposite problem. Those planets were too cold, too far from the system’s sun, with the exception of one tiny planet. The little molten ball could have learned a thing or two about personal space.

“Hey?” Meladee asked. She paused a moment, testing the unfamiliar words under her breath. “What would happen if we got sucked into space during an air leak?”

Eva straightened. “You two would die.”

“Yeah, I know that. I mean, what would happen to you.” Meladee’s finger jabbed at Eva.

For a moment, Eva remained quiet. She wore an expression of annoyance. “I suppose I wouldn’t die immediately – like you,” she added. “I would float in the vacuum of space, until rescued or…or my body ran out of fuel to rebuild itself. That could take over a year.”

“So, you’d get rescued?” Meladee asked.

“Space is large remember. I doubt I would get rescued. Consider how we’ve seen no other ships while we’ve gathered information.”

Camellia glanced back. “We’ve stolen a lot of messages, and we’ve always had a general idea where those messages came from. We could have performed a more detailed scan like this one, gone closer, and met people on our first day.”

“Yes, but we have sensors to find that information. Without transmitters, I would not be able to send or receive messages,” Eva said.

“So, unless you had Halfmoon’s communication equipment, you’d die a slow, painful death in space.” Meladee sounded smug.

“No,” Eva said. “I would end myself with whatever tool I held at the time. Probably the welder, considering my hypothetical predicament was caused by an air leak.”

“No, no.” Meladee shook her head. “You don’t have the welder. You don’t have communication equipment.”

“If there’s an air leak, and I get sucked out, the last thing I’m going to do is let go of the welder.” Eva crossed her arms.

Camellia tuned them out and watched as the ship scanned for a planet where people spoke Ganden. As Halfmoon catalogued their options, Camellia perused the list. The optimistic side of Camellia – however small that was – felt joy. Halfmoon had located several sources of transmissions. Numerous places championed Ganden as the primary language.

The pessimistic side of Camellia mourned that none of the planets seemed habitable, yet all of these planets had passed the planetary message criteria. She couldn’t fathom how people were living in these places.

This planet is much too hot, yet they just sent three interplanetary messages. And, this planet is too cold. Yet, they’ve sent six interplanetary messages in the last 15 minutes, and some of them look like entertainment programs. How do they have time for entertainment while freezing their privates off? Maybe they live underground.

Camellia looked for a more familiar living arrangement. She caught her breath at the volume of communication whizzing across the next planet. She checked the planet’s statistics. But...how? It’s a gas giant. I can’t imagine how they’re getting on. Aren’t any planets in these systems pleasant like Iruedim?

Just as Camellia thought it, the planet of her dreams popped across her screen, verdant and watery, with breathable and temperate air.

“Eva, is this planet like Iruedim?” Camellia asked, confident it was.

Eva looked at the scan. She smiled. “Yes, this planet seems just right, and even better there’s a space dock and space station.” Eva looked at the rest of Camellia’s scan information. “This system seems very active.”

“Yes, there are many many people,” Camellia agreed. “And, they’ll live just about anywhere.”

Meladee rose from the helm and joined them.

Camellia zoomed into the scan and focused on the space dock. Halfmoon couldn’t determine the exact appearance of the structures, but their ship’s sensors did report estimated sizes and shapes.

“There are so many ships there.” Camellia drew a sharp breath.

Halfmoon’s sensors showed the ships only as an overlapping mass of dots, with the exception of ships leaving and arriving. The largest ship approached the space dock.

“Let’s go closer.” Camellia opened a new screen and began to calculate a superliminal path.

Eva put a hand over Camellia’s. “We should be cautious. This is a bigger society than I’d hoped for, and they might be hostile.”

Meladee huffed. “We’re not spending even more time trying to learn everything we can about them. Come on, we’ve been here for ages already, and everything we’ve found about these people suggests they’re harmless.”

“We have yet to find military transmissions.” Eva crossed her arms. “But, they’re out there.”

“Look, things worked so well for you last time. You didn’t meet anyone hostile. And, I doubt that place is hostile.” Meladee pointed at the scan. “Looks like a tourist trap.”

Camellia looked up at the other women, grabbing their attention. Then, she turned her eyes back to the screen. “I agree, there are ships of different sizes and shapes. That suggests a congregation of different peoples. Small ships move between the dock, station, and planet, which might be tourist traffic. The planet is warmer than Iruedim by a few degrees. Maybe, it’s tropical – ideal for tourism. Of course, it may be a military space dock, but then, we shouldn’t be picking up so many frivolous messages.” Camellia looked through the array of communication and noticed several postcard-type writings. She didn’t bother to read them in detail and instead pointed at the screen. “Besides, even if this were a military base, we aren’t very threatening. That enormous ship just docked. What would they have to fear from us? Even militaries can be curious.”

Eva looked between the two women. “Alright. We can go closer, but I want to hail the big ship and make sure it isn’t military. We’ll approach on this vector.” Eva traced a path on the screen. “That’ll put us behind the planet’s farthest moon. We can call the ship from there.”

Meladee skipped to the helm and entered the coordinates carefully. She calculated their superliminal travel and waited for Eva to take her seat.

Eva walked to the weapons station, sat, and nodded.

Meladee engaged the drive.

“I’m glad we took the time to learn some language. I hope they can understand us,” Camellia prayed.

As Meladee set their ship just behind the moon, Camellia fidgeted. She hadn’t felt so excited in a long time. Not since she’d met her first truly foreign Iruedian culture, just beyond the borders of Ponk.

Meladee put Halfmoon in orbit and set an alarm. The alarm would sound in case they stuck around long enough to find themselves on the moon’s opposite side. Then, Meladee would hide the ship again.

“What if they scan for us?” Camellia asked.

“They might. So, we should hail them quickly.” Eva nodded at Camellia.

Camellia sent simple text - “Hello. What kind of ship are you?”

A second later, the ship returned a message.

“They answered!” Camellia read: “Greetings. This vessel is the cruise ship Galactic Enchanter – explore the bewitching planets of remote Girandola. Do you wish to come aboard?” Camellia grinned at her companions. “Should I say yes?”

“Told you this place was for tourists. I say we go aboard.” Meladee also smiled.

“We approach slowly. If the situation seems accurate, then we’ll go aboard.” Eva’s narrowed eyes captured both Meladee’s smug expression and Camellia’s excited smile. Then, she ordered, “Scan them as we get close.”

Meladee and Camellia turned to their stations. Meladee eased them around the moon, and Camellia sent more text - “Yes, please!”

Once the message was sent, Camellia scanned the vessel. Galactic Enchanter returned with docking instructions and a request for their ship’s make and model.

Camellia half-turned and called, “Oh, Eva, they want some information about us, and they’re sending docking instructions.”

“Give the instructions to Meladee. I’ll take care of the make and model.” Eva rose from her chair and entered the make and model into Camellias return message.

As soon as Camellia sent that information, the Galactic Enchanter pinged them again.

Camellia read the message aloud: “I see you are scanning us. The Galactic Enchanter boasts 21 decks! With 15 cabin types to choose from, all 7,103 of our guests can find a comfortable fit. Relax on one of 14 star gazing decks. Explore our large botanical garden, or find adventure in our combination zoo and aquarium. Need to entertain the kids? Take them to our three playgrounds. Or, do you need time to yourself? Relax on the library and tanning deck, or work out in the fitness center. Take the whole family to swim in one of our 37 pools, or play in the ship’s four game zones and climbing gym. When you get hungry, visit one of our 23 restaurants. We want you to enjoy your stay! Upon your arrival, please see the booking desk.”

“We’re talking to a computer,” Eva said.

“I don’t mind.” Upon the completion of the spiel, Camellia received a brochure in Ganden as well as two other languages. She swiped through the pictures and words. “This brochure would be hard to fake. I think the ship is what it says it is.”

“It sent you a brochure?” Meladee practically squealed. “This place sounds even better than that library where Cahir tried to engage you on behalf of the Tentacled Tot of Darkness. It’s going to be great...until the creeper guys come out.” Meladee flew towards the Galactic Enchanter, keeping her speed within their dictated parameters.

Camellia sighed. “As long as they don’t have tentacles, we can handle them.”

“We can handle them even if they do have tentacles,” Eva said.

Meladee waved a dismissive hand. “Sure we can. All I’m saying is...if someone creepy approaches you, give him the cold shoulder. Don’t let him invite himself to lunch. Don’t entertain his conversations, and don’t make mooney eyes at him. Eva would never do this stuff, so I mean you, Camellia.” Meladee delivered the entire warning with her back to the others, never taking her eyes off the window and the cruise ship ahead.

Camellia sighed again. “Don’t worry. I have no plans to entertain anyone in that way soon.”