Levi understood there were definite benefits to being Sonny or Alice. Biological intelligence was slow. Painfully slow. Reconciling emotions, morals, and social decisions slowed everything down. After exobiologist Anna Hauser's second meeting with one of the Te'Hat, things were starting to get complicated. This whole vision thing had taken on a life of its own. He couldn't leave for Earth if it doomed the colonists to disaster. They couldn't pick up and leave either. The colonists couldn't even move the domes! It was still possible they could be moving the domes to the future disaster location. The Te'Hat had said later rather than sooner. A meaningless statement. Later could be tomorrow. Later could be a thousand years from now. At this point, he needed to prepare the colonists for the worst and take their chances with later.

Then there was Corporal Harris. He continued to be doing fine although unhappy about being a specimen. The odds were improving for him. Even if the atmosphere eventually checks out, we would never actually know if some bug doesn't rear its ugly head and try to wipe out the colonists. The colonists would have the best chance of survival if they all took the Elixir. The nanobots against an unknown would be good insurance. The Valiant's crew will not want the Elixir. They would consider it an invasion. He could make them, but should he? Should he let them choose? If half of the colonists die off, it would imperil the rest of the settlement.

The repair work in space and construction down on the planet continued. Atlantis had already lost a few people to accidents and curveballs this solar system sent their way. Levi understood knowledge is not free, and there is always a price to pay for ignorance. He also knew that after you build your mighty ship, and escape, you don't get to leave death behind. Neither do you push a button and zip to your new Eden and live happily ever after. If Atlantis spent a couple of years at each pit stop, this journey was going to take an eternity.

Levi had instructed Dr. Hauser to stop by every day at the last place she had met with the Te'Hat. They didn't know when the next meeting would take place. She would ask if Fred would accompany us to the dome for continued talks. Levi couldn't wait to speak to this Fred fellow. He needed to know if the colonists would be alright if they remained behind. For that matter, if they would be allowed to stay!

"Captain," Sonny said. Interrupting his thoughts.

"Yes, Sonny," Levi replied.

"Specialist Anna Hauser has reported a pair of Te'Hat moving purposefully in her direction."

"Good. Dr. Hauser is to continue as planned. Security will not move in but stay on guard. I am moving to her location now."

"Already executed Captain," Sonny acknowledged.

Captain Metcalfe visited the domes daily in case there had been contact. He could hit the ground and move in quickly to the meeting. Levi put his suit on in seven minutes. A new personal record. A couple of hundred yards away from the dome Anna waited. He quickly covered the distance and met Dr. Hauser and the two Te'Hat. Levi didn't exactly know what to expect.

"Hello, Dr. Hauser, can you introduce me to your friends?"

"Certainly, Captain Metcalfe. May I present to you the delegation from the Sce'Rood clan? On the right here is the leader of the Elders and his clan, Mat'Ma and his Elder Representative Melon. Melon has been known to us as Fred. Mat'Ma, may I introduce you to the leader of our clan, Captain Metcalfe?"

Levi noticed the Mat'Ma to be larger than Melon and with slightly different markings. "It is a pleasure to meet with you at last. Is there someplace we can all travel so you may be more comfortable?"

The Mat'Ma spoke first. "It is good calling out to you this day. No shame on Anna Hauser who we have first spoken with, but she is not an Elder leader or one that can make decisions for your clan.

Levi had been prepared for the telepathic speech, but it jarred him nonetheless. As he spoke, the Te'Hat read his thoughts. "Dr. Hauser has been an excellent representative of our people so far, much as your Melon has been for your clan. I am eager to learn your ways and customs so we may communicate with respect."

Mat'Ma let slide the fact that Anna Hauser was female, and females were never part of the process of guiding the clan. He could understand these humans might have customs entirely different from theirs, just as other clan's traditions were slightly different. "We too are ready for an exchange of information about cultures and intentions." There, he said intentions he thought with some relief. The Mat'Ma didn't quite know how to ask them respectfully about their plans for being here.

Melon stood quietly while the leaders spoke. He had introduced the Mat'Ma to Anna Hauser when they first approached and before Captain Metcalfe appeared. He would watch and learn from this exchange, so he could understand how to speak respectfully to this leader of the humans.

The use of the word intentions wasn't lost on Levi. He talked to the Mat'Ma, "I can assure you we do not intend any disrespect or harm from our arrival here. This is the primary purpose of our meeting with you and your representative. We wish to discuss and plan a settlement here to study and understand this planet and your culture. We do not want to offend you with our presence."

The Mat'Ma thought for a moment. "We would like to discuss this and many more things. Since it is not possible for you to be our guests under the ground, Melon will go with you to help you understand our ways and help us understand your people." To Melon, he turned and said, "Be careful not to offend these powerful humans. Do not make any critical decisions without consulting myself so I can bring those decisions to the Elders."

"I will not let you down, Mat'Ma." He lifted his third leg in a parting gesture.

"The clan is well inside your claws! See you soon." The Mat'Ma also lifted his third leg in response. He turned back to the humans and raised his leg in parting.

"Now what?" Dr. Hauser broke the silence.

The captain smiled, "Now, we escort our guest to dome two where we may show him around our home away from home." He walked casually toward the dome careful not to outpace Melon. "Melon, when we get to the dome, I have prepared a container to protect you from our air and microbes. Do not be afraid."

"What is container? And what is microbes?

"The container is a temporary shelter that will have you and your air inside. We do not want you to breathe our air since it may have tiny microbes you cannot see that can make you sick. It is the reason we wear this outer covering to protect us from your air."

"It is hard to believe that our air is unhealthy."

"We are still checking your air out. It looks promising that your microbes will not harm us. We hope to walk upon your world without our protections. The same may not hold true for you and our air. We must be careful."

"It is good to be cautious. I will trust your good judgment."

"Ah, here we are." The captain walked up to the cart and transparent cube three feet in width and length but two feet high. The top opened to allow the Te'Hat inside with enough room to turn around. "May I pick you up and place you in the container?"

"Proceed."

Levi picked up Melon and placed him in the container, careful to keep him upright, so as not to trigger the appendage that broke Corporal Harris's helmet. The container sealed and promptly began to pump Searth air into his protected environment. "Now we will enter the airlock and be decontaminated, so we do not track in any possible microbes from outside. You will be safe inside your box."

"Box equals container?"

"Yes."

"I will trust your good judgment," Melon repeated. He didn't say anything about being afraid. He was moved into a small space where loud noises and whooshing took place. Then a purple light and a buzzing sound for a short while. A green light appeared above the door. They move through the now opened door into a spacious area. The two humans started taking their outer coverings off. Melon now viewed them for how they appeared. The outer coverings concealed much. The differences between the females and the males were more apparent. Melon still marveled at how they walked with only two of their four appendages. The most popular curiosities the Te'Hat had about the humans revolved around their lack of legs. The memory prompted him to ask out loud. "Why do you walk about on only two of your four legs?"

"That is an excellent question, Melon. Dr. Hauser, would you like to field this one?"

"Sure Captain. Let me ask you a question. Have your kind ever found remains of distant Te'Hat that looked different from yourselves now?"

"Yes. Our shells were not always this shape. Sometimes they had projections and different claw sizes."

"This change over a very long time in the past is what we call evolution. We also looked different. We had hair all over our body and moved around on all four of our arms and legs."

"What are arms?"

"Arms are what you would call our front legs." She stretched out her arms to illustrate. "As time went by it became more advantageous to walk on two legs so we could use our arms to accomplish delicate work, like making tools."

"Tools?"

"Tools are things we create that help us do work."

"Yes, we have tools as well."

"As you can see, we are very much tool users. It is one of our very best talents."

"Yes, I understand. Thank you."

The captain asked, "Well, there is more to see than this locker room. Shall we continue forward Melon?"

"Yes, thank you." The cart trundled away again. Melon felt strange moving along so high above the ground. While he waited for his next stop, he marveled at the container he was in. A kind of rock you could see through! But it wasn't rock, the captain said, it was metal. Transparent aluminum they called it. Strange indeed!

After traveling the spacious hallways for a while, they turned into a double door that opened into an enormous cavern. There were vegetation and things all about. Quite a different color scheme than outside.

"This place we call the park," Anna said as the captain followed along. "You may notice a lot of our vegetation is green, and not brown."

Confused, Melon asked, "What is green and brown?"

"I forgot. The Te'Hat sees colors differently than humans do. You see, we are from a distant world where our sun is yellow. Your kind had evolved to see light a little differently than we do. We call the grass, the ground covering, green. We call many of your plants outside of here different shades of brown. It may confuse you to read images in our minds to be one color, but your eyes see it as a different color. Try to remember our eyes see different from your eyes."

"It is confusing. I will try to remember what you said. I keep forgetting myself that you are so large! And so, everything you use is large. This cavern you call a park would hold ten of our biggest gathering places."

The captain turned to Anna, "We should head over to the medical unit to meet people who have many questions and wish to speak with you. Our medical people are well acquainted with our bodies and the way they work. If you have questions on this topic, they can answer them for you. Likewise, they have many questions about the way your body works. Would it be alright if they speak to you?"

"Yes, I have many questions on this subject."

The captain continued. "We also have many tools to aid us in studying a body. They may ask if they can obtain a sample of your body to study. You don't have to give your consent to do this if you do not wish to. The medical staff will not harm you, and you will not be forced. They will explain what they want, and you can decide if you want to comply. I have ways of watching everywhere to be sure you are being treated correctly. They may be able to show you samples of our bodies if you are curious enough."

"I am not too sure about what you are asking. I will decide after talking to the medical unit."

"That's alright. We appreciate your patience. I will be leaving you for a while once we get to the medical unit, but I will return after I tend to some business."

"I appreciate your patience as well. You are the leader of your clan. I cannot take up all of your time."

"Here we go!" They turned into the medical unit a little stroll from the park. "Dr. Hauser, would you be so kind as to introduce Melon to the medical staff and help translate for the parties involved?"

"Yes, sir. I will see to it." She followed the cart into the med unit and disappeared.

Levi thought while he was here, he would check in with Major Patel and see if he had any new information from interviews with Corporal Harris. While he strolled down the corridors to Major Patel's office at the dome, he checked in with the bridge for a status report, approved seventy-two project proposals, and conferred with both Sonny and Alice. "So, what are your thoughts of the current situation?"

"Can you be more specific?" Alice asked.

"Specific?" Levi replied. "Sometimes I think you two are not as intuitive as you imply sometimes."

You could almost hear the sympathy in Sonny's voice. "The word currently, as with all present tense words are always in flux. Your human minds work slowly enough that currently encompasses a larger span of time for we machines than for you. At this moment, one hundred forty-seven thousand items are in progress. This is not counting computing processes. We are intuitive. However, you could try to narrow it down a bit for us if you please."

"You were monitoring myself and Dr. Hauser, correct?"

"Yes, Levi," Sonny acknowledged.

"Then that is generally the focus of current referred to. It is relevant to the person speaking, not necessarily the listener," Levi explained.

"I understand. That does narrow down your current to twenty-eight events. Can you be more specific?" Sonny said.

"I concur," said Alice.

It was Levi's turn to feel sympathy for the machine's narrow definitions of everything. "I am referring to this business with the Te'Hat."

"We did not record anything the Te'Hat said other than some hissing and clicking that must be their verbal language," Alice said.

"This was my error. I got so caught up with having my first telepathic conversation I forgot you two were not going to detect it. I should have verbally brought you along with the conversation. I will do you one better, though, I will allow both of you access to watch the whole conversation again." Levi lowered his firewall enough to allow this bit of data to slip over to Sonny and Alice. "In future exchanges, I will confer with you two at the earliest convenience or try to arrange something in real-time."

"We appreciate that Levi," Sonny said.

"So, what is your assessment of the interaction with the Te'Hat so far?"

Alice replied, "It is noteworthy that the word intentions had been used by the Mat'Ma."

"Yes," Levi had also been concerned. "I knew we would have to deal with that word eventually, and now here it is. How do we communicate our intentions without sounding like an invasion force?"

"I have two recommendations," Sonny began. "First, you should see that a chain of trusted individuals be well versed with the natives, so they can parley with them in your stead. We will be unable to help Searth while we are away traveling back to our Solar system. Second, we should make it as plain as possible to the Te'Hat we are foremost a scientific colony. Our primary goal is to study the planet and its inhabitants. We will remain here for approximately ten years, then it can be decided what is best."

"That is very reasonable," Levi thought. "The best part is, that it is the truth. We need to make sure sufficient authority is left behind the other colonists won't get the idea later to forget why we are here. This cannot be a permanent home for us until we are sure we can coexist with the Te'Hat peacefully. We will proceed with this course. Thank you for your input."

"You are welcome, anytime," Alice smiled.

Nearly to Major Patel's apartment, Levi remembered what Chairman Rocha had said to him earlier about living history was not as romantic as studying it from afar.