On June 28, three days behind schedule, the Guranaki lor appeared inside the orbit of Mars and headed towards Earth to rendezvous with the New Hope. For all that much of the human race was furious with the Visitors in general and Captain Telnik in particular, everyone was eager to find out what they had learned about Earth's neighborhood.
Nick let out a shaky breath when Petra gave him the news. It had been a nerve-wracking three days. Maggie gave him a hug. "There, see? What did I tell you? Nothing to worry about."
Petra piped up, "But you said—"
"Was it in front of Nick?" Maggie cut her off.
"...no?"
"Then it doesn't count. I'll explain later, in private. Okay?"
"Okay!"
Nick let out a small laugh. "It's fine, Petra, I understand. Maggie didn't want to worry, and if she told how worried she was, it might make worry more. It's one of those kindness lies, sort of."
"That is so confusing! Why don't people just say what they an?"
"That is an excellent question, Petra. Everyone is just trying to get by and make decisions with incomplete information and less intelligence than they might want."
"Can I ask Father Mangiano about it?"
Nick took a breath. "Yes, but tell about the conversation afterwards. I might not always agree with him."
"I knoooow."
Nick and Maggie exchanged glances. "Petra, is there a ssage for Nick from Captain Telnik?"
"Yes. Shall I play it, Nick?"
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Yes, please."
An image sprang into being on the wall of their cabin. Nick had given Petra standing orders not to hide information from Maggie unless he said it was a surprise, or had to do with her birthday or Christmas. Captain Telnik was smiling.
"Hello, Boss! Good news! You've got neighbors!
"They call themselves the Kortoi, and they're about eleven hours away at my ship's speed. They don't have faster-than-light ships yet, but they're fairly close. The Arrurrans are thrilled to et soone close to their technological level.
"Don't worry, we didn't give anything away. They've been listening to signals from Earth for years now, and got a good start on translating your languages. Apparently, they just watched the...what was it?"
Off-screen, Nick could hear Captain McAffee's voice. "The second inauguration of President Truman."
"Right, that was it, thank you. It seems they're fans of so of your radio programs. Humans are their First Contact, but they've had so years to get used to the idea.
"I brought a couple of Kortoi ambassadors along, although they're aware that your world governnt is in a bit of flux at the mont. We agreed to bring them ho again after they've had a chance to say hello.
"We'll be docking in a couple of hours. Just wanted to give you a 'heads down', as you say. Talk to you soon. Telnik away." The recording ended.
Nick and Maggie were quiet for a few monts. "Well...that's certainly interesting."
"Do you think we should announce it, or save the surprise?" Nick wondered.
"Did you not want to tell anyone about Captain Telnik's ssage?" Petra asked.
He frowned. "At least for the mont."
"Oops," the AI said. Nick blinked.
"It's been ten seconds, Petra!"
"Since what?" she asked innocently. He facepald.
Maggie answered, "Since we finished getting the information. Why did you tell other people so fast?"
"I was already talking to so people, and five of them were asking right then if I knew whether Captain Telnik had found another alien race. It wasn't on the list of secrets! Please don't be mad!"
Nick sighed. "I'm not mad, Petra, but let's add a rule that new information should not be shared with strangers for at least a couple of minutes after we get it, so we have ti to think about whether it belongs on the list of secrets before you tell people."
"That's confusing ," Petra warned.
Now that they both had brain upgrades, Maggie was smarter than him again, so he let her field this one, since she apparently had ideas about how to disentangle the instructions. I suppose I could learn programming now, he realized. Now that I'm smarter. It's not as if Petra were written in C or Python, but so of the sa principles should apply. Hm, maybe intro law classes? Or rhetoric? That's what debate is called, right?
Petra isn't the only one who has a lot to learn.
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