IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 176

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of these.

H Trope: Hitchhiking ghost

Current Event: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BewareOfHitchhikingGhosts

Fatima Ozturk peered out through the tiny port of the Space Station Courage repair pod – the SSCRP affectionately known as a “Scrapper”. She said, “What are we supposed to be looking for?”

Her lab partner, Durante Ghandour shrugged, “The query marker path on the screen says we’re supposed to look for a malfunctioning satellite positioning dish.”

“How are we supposed to know if it’s malfunctioning?” Fatima muttered. She shot a look over to Durante. He wasn’t exactly her first choice of partner, but he WAS supposed to be some sort of history genius.

Durante leaned forward and tapped the display screen. “It says that it will be obvious.”

She nodded. “Bent then, most likely.”

“I’m just thinking it might be obvious to you, you’re the mechanical genius. Besides, I’m not sure I’m excited about being here.”

“How can you not be excited? We’ve been running 3D sims ever since we started Class 14! I am SO ready to be in space!” She shook her head. She hadn’t taken him for an agoraphobe.

“Not that I didn’t want to be out here – it’s just the timing…”

Piloting the pod forward, Fatima growled when the computer made a course correction she was just about to make. “It may look like I’m doing the job, but Station is still flying this toolbox.” She concentrated on keeping them oriented toward the body of the station while scanning the com dishes that came up on the screen. She tried to get a visual inspection as well as the two windows swept around. “What about the timing?” she asked as they flew to the next com dish cluster.

“Nothing. You’ll think I’m lunar.”

“I already know you’re lunar, so tell me already.”

Durante bristled, “What do you mean you know I’m lunar?”

She shrugged – a tough move in the heavy EVA suits they had to wear. They wouldn’t graduate to thinkskins until they turned eighteen and could sign all the paperwork saying they were responsible for themselves. “Forget it. What about the history of being here?” She figured that might deflect him.

She was right as he said, “This place we’re in right now? This is where Laika and Vladislav Volkov died. Practically the same place.”

“Who?”

He sighed then said, “The Soviet space dog? First living creature in space? She died around this point when the launch of Sputnik 2 overheated. They lied for about sixty years, then let the truth out. Then, three Soviet cosmonauts died in June of 1971 when their ship pulled away from a really primitive space station and a valve got stuck open and leaked all their air out.” He gestured out the window, “I expect their…” He lurched forward, banging his helmet against the thick quartz, whispering, “Yaa ilaahee!”

Names: ♀ Turkey; ♂ Italy, Egypt

Image: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121120041613/althistory/images/3/3b/Space_station_tracking-1-.jpg

Slice of PIE: ESL in the 29th Century and What Was Extant in 8000 BC?

The international language of aviation is, “of course”, English.

The international language of business is, “of course”, English.

The intergalactic language of The Empire AND the Republic, is “of course”, English...

How about we go the other way? What was the language of commerce on Earth eight thousand years ago?

That would depend on where you lived...

Some 10,000 years ago, there were many languages – though linguists, archaeologists, and evolutionary biologists have traced them back to their “roots”. They might be broken down into a few groups: Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Niger–Congo, Afroasiatic, Austronesian, Dravidian, Altaic, Japonic, Austroasiatic, Tai–Kadai, Eskimo–Aleut, Na-Dené, Algic, Quechuan and Nilo-Saharan.

Do you know what this means: “Alā! Kḷējō Taru!”

It’s written in the source language of English – why can’t you read it? All right, how about the same question written in Latin. This one is only a fifteen hundred years old and is a DIRECT root of English: “Salve! Lorem ipsum dolor sit Tarusatium!”

Still nothing? Hmmmm…we’re getting dangerously close to just telling you what it means. One more try – this time an even closer time period in which this would have been considered a common language: “How now! Yclept Taru!” (Not entirely accurate, but the general idea would be the same.)

STILL nothing? All right – I relent: “Hello! My name is Taru!”

“Alā! Kḷējō Taru!” – Indo-European, approximate 10,000 years ago.

“Salve! Lorem ipsum dolor sit Tarusatium!” – Latin, late Roman Empire, about 1500 years ago.

“How now! Yclept Taru!” – Old English, approximately 400 years ago at the height of the British Empire and “America” was only a rude colony.

From my own heritage, in Norwegian, “Hei, jeg heter Taru!”; and from my wife’s German heritage: “Hallo, mein Name ist Taru!” (Whew! I might have guessed that one!); and from the place I live now, “Aanii! Ndishnikaaz Taru!”, Ojibwe was the language I would need to speak to be understood – and not run out of town.

All this to say that when it comes to English as a Second Langauge and the ATTITUDES people have about language – especially when addressing the issue of people learning English as a second language, there’s not much separating all of us all from being incomprehensible to one another.

The next time you talk to someone for whom English is a second (or third or fourth) language, consider that your own English skills would have brought you face-t0-face with a grossly negative response wherever you’re reading this even as few as two hundred years ago. You might even be transported to the country your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, or great-great-grandparents came from and find that your English is the incomprehensible language.

As for the science fiction context, why do we blithely assume that dolphins, chimps, or (for gosh sake) ALIENS will be even remotely comprehensible – or that they would even CARE to be comprehensible to us or that they would want to learn to speak English? Even given that they would find Human languages comprehensible, why would they learn English when more people on Earth speak Mandarin Chinese than English. What if their brains are hard wired to understand the structure of Basque? In that case, “Kaixo! Nire izena da Taru!”

Resources:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_traffic_controller , http://hbr.org/2012/05/global-business-speaks-english/ar/1, http://www.cracked.com/article_18721_the-5-stupidest-ways-movies-deal-with-foreign-languages.html, http://habitableworlds.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/languagegenetics.jpg, http://indo-european.info/dictionary-translator/, http://listdose.com/top-10-languages-that-are-toughest-to-learn/

Image: http://asofthowl.com/Blog/Images-Weekly%20Review/gotg/weeklyreviewguardiansgalaxylights.png

LOVE IN A TIME OF ALIEN INVASION Chapter 21

The Cold War between the Kiiote and the Yown’Hoo has become a shooting war.  On Earth, there are three Triads one each in Minneapolis, Estados United; Pune, India; and Harbin, China. Protected by the Triad Corporation, they intend to integrate not only the three peoples and stop the war that threatens to break loose and slaughter Humans and devastate their world.; but to stop the war that consumes Kiiote economy and Yown’Hoo moral fiber. The Yown’Hoo know about the extra-Universe Braider, aliens whose own “civil war” mirrors the Cold War. The Braiders accidentally created a resonance wave that will destroy the Milky Way and the only way to stop it is to physically construct a sort of membrane that will produce a canceling wave – generated from the rim of the Galaxy inward. The Braiders don’t DO physical stuff on that scale – the Yown’Hoo-Kiiote-Human Triads may be their only chance of creating a solution. The merger of Human-Kiiote-Yown’Hoo into a van der Walls Society may produce a stability capable of launching incredible expansion, creativity, longevity and wealth – and building the Membrane to stop the wave.

The young experimental Triads are made up of the smallest primate tribe of Humans –two; the smallest canine pack of Kiiote – six; and the smallest camelid herd of Yown’Hoo – a prime eleven. On nursery farms and ranches away from the TC cities, Humans have tended young Yown’Hoo and Kiiote in secret for decades, allowing the two warring people to reproduce and grow far from their home worlds. Grendl, Manitoba is one such place. No one but the Triad Company has ever heard of it and the physical plant goes by the unobtrusive name of Organic Prairie Dairy.

The city Triads never hear of anything they aren’t spoon fed in their luxury worlds and have heard only rumors of the farms and ranches. Surrounded by a Humanity that has degenerated into a “duck-and-cover” society as the Big Boys fight their war, the Triads don’t care about anything but their own lives. Oblivious, cocooned, manipulated, they have no idea that their privileges are about to be violently curtailed and all of their biology ransacked for the correct Membrane pattern. (update: 5/2/2014)

I only barely understood what she was saying, but I bowed to her. The rest of the Triad pressed together. The lieutenant Bakhsh looked totally confused and so did St. Admiral. The leaders of the intelligent universe turned to look at us.

The Kiiote howled, the Herd Mother stamped, Bakhsh clapped his hands, and St. Admiral nodded slowly. Backing away, I exclaimed, “What?”

“This is why we need all of you!” Bakhsh said. “You knew what she was talking about – you should see all of your faces! You knew what she meant and accepted it within your own psychological matrices. None of us understood her. That,” he jabbed a finger at us, “is why we risk everything to get you out of here.”

I shook my head. “You expect me to believe that all of you think that Humans and Kiiote and Yown’Hoo can live just fine without each other?”

“We have always done so,” said Pan; her mate rumbling in agreement.

“As have we,” said Ji-Hi.

“And us,” said St. Admiral.

“You’re all disgusting,” I said.

Qap and Xurf turned and urinated in the direction Pan and Zir. They growled, but neither one made an move to attack. The rest of our Pack scattering to avoid the spray then stood by their leaders. Dao-hi and the Herd spit in unison, their acidic saliva hissing on the edges of the front hooves of the Ji-Hi, Mother of All Herds. She didn’t move, allowing the acid to eat the edges of her hooves smooth.

Lieutenant Commander Patrick Bakhsh said, “Explain yourself, Human Oscar.” I opened my mouth but he held up his hand, adding, “I don’t want you to explain yourself. I want you to explain your group. I want you to explain the Triad.” He put his hand behind his back and fell to a stance I’d seen in old movies. It was parade rest. St. Admiral did the same. The other elders also fell into their people’s version of parade rest. Everyone was looking at me.

“What do I mean?”

“You’re the one set off the verbal attack. Explain the Triad to us.”

“Um, I just meant…”

“You meant to shame us, Human child,” said Ji-Hi. She was so old, her head was almost level with mine. Yown’Hoo neck vertebrate begin to collapse and they grew shorter the older they got; there was a legend that it happened because of the weight of authority on them.

I shrugged. I didn’t mean to shame anyone, but I guess I did mean to. I finally figured it out. “You all don’t get each other, do you?”

The Zir and Pan said in choral response, “We do not…”, “…understand our enemies or Humans.”

Lieutenant Bakhsh said, “We have no idea what either of them think! Why are they tearing up our planet?”

Pan said, “We do not hate Humans. We hate only the food ones.”

“As we hate only the rule-less ones.”

“And we all get each other,” I cut into the hate-fest. “We know each other. We grew up together. We understand how we think.”

“That is why…”, “…you must escape. The Humans…”, “…do not work alone,” Zir and Pan said.

“The Humans have been joined in hate – Yown’Hoo and Kiiote together – as much as you have been joined in growing,” said Ji-Hi.”

St. Admiral said, “We have to go. Before we all die.”

“And we have to go now, or this is all over and Humanity, Yown’Hoo Shwee, and Kiiyaa will never have a chance to show how great we can be together.”

Image: http://www.amerrescue.org/scans/nycf.jpg