Invader- Foreigner Book Two by C. J. Cherryh

Author:C. J. Cherryh
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-05-20T22:13:27+00:00

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CHAPTER 13

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"I'VE GOT a very little of a few languages," Graham said, on the phone patch-through. "I'm as close as we could come. I'm a history hobbyist. That's how I'm elected to the atevi side of this --- I've got a background in history. The other of us, going to the human population --- she's got all the technical background you want, but no study in languages at all. Nobody has, much. We don't have different languages. I just got into it because I was interested in history, and I got curious. And I teach, too. It was something I thought I ought to know."

"You're a teacher?" Bren asked, and poured a cup of tea from the pot on the office desk, with growing visions of a gentle, professorial young man, politically naive, dropping into political hell.

"Well, computers most of the time, but somebody's got to write the lessons for the kids. I gave them language study. I thought it was good for them. But not too many were interested."

"Know a noun from a verb?"

"Yes, sir. Conjugations, declensions, participles ---"

"That's going to be useful. I've prepped another data-load for you this morning, atevi-Mosphei' grammar notes with at least the basics --- you're not going to understand half of it. A handful of phrases in the remote case you have to communicate with somebody other than me. We're not dealing with a human grammatical structure, as you'll find out. Good in math?"

"Up to a point, sir. Why?"

"Because you have to do some calculation constantly. The number of persons in a polite sentence isn't by head count, it's by calculations of rank plus real number, and there are forms you use to avoid jinxing somebody when you have to use an infelicitous number of persons. You'll love it. I'm so glad to have somebody from the ship who's going to understand that this isn't a straightforward matter of word-for-word translation. I've been trying for years to make my department heads understand that answers one time aren't the answers the next time. If I haven't scared you by now, you may do."

"I'm at least daunted."

"Good judgment. Atevi and humans have deep but solvable conceptual differences, moderately significant psychological differences, and I'll tell you, we were just on the verge of important breakthroughs including space missions when you turned up in the sky scaring hell out of the children. Any background in negotiation? Politics?"

"History. Just --- history."

He had an academic on his hands. God help them. Or a dilettante.

"Good vocabulary?"

"A pretty good one. Better than some."

"I've asked your captain to give you real authority to negotiate. And stand behind you. Will he?"

"I've heard what you said. He told me just --- call if I had a question and I'm supposed to get a thorough briefing before I go down, on what we're going to need, on the lift vehicle and after. I'll need regular communications with the ship. I can get the technical details in download. "

Either the captain was

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