NABC Book 5: Chapter 39: A Civil Discussion
Book 5: Chapter 39: A Civil Discussion
Book 5: Chapter 39: A Civil Discussion
Bob
June 2343
In Virt
Theresa had invited me to her place—in VR, that is—and since I hadn’t seen her in a while, I was unreasonably excited. She had recently discovered the UFS Federal Library and had jumped in with both feet. She hadn’t even answered messages for several days. Now, it looked like she was finally coming up for air.
We didn’t have a need for tokens, being on the same subnet by tacit agreement, but it was still polite these days to knock first. I received an ACK, then popped in. I was taken aback, though, to find the layout considerably changed. I was in what I’d have called a home theater room back on old Earth. Theresa was sitting, in Quinlan form, in an easy chair reminiscent of the furniture in the Heaven’s River transit system. She patted the arm of an empty chair beside her, so I converted to Enoki and took the hint.
“Are we going to watch a show?”
“A couple, actually. Just short clips. A few are from your YouTube site, and a few are from our own version, which for some awful reason has been dubbed QuinTube.” She paused. “You do understand there’s no cultural justification for that name?”
I smiled at her. “Remember what I said about the English language? Turns out it also infects other languages. Kind of like an STD.”
Theresa looked confused for a moment, then said, “We don’t have those. Different mating strategies and all. But I get your point. Anyway ... ”
The big screen lit up, showing a Quinlan quartet. They began singing right away—no intro, no warm-up, no credits. QuinTube still needed some refinement, it seemed. But the singing was—well, incredible. I’d heard some street performances in Heaven’s River and had been impressed. But those were mostly solos and probably impromptu. This was a practiced, coordinated group. The way the multiple melody lines interwove and—wait a minute.
I frame-jacked and backed up a few mils. A bit of quick filtering, and I came out with six different melody lines. With only four participants. I returned to VR normal and opened my mouth to comment, but Theresa paused the video and beat me to it.
“I see that you’ve noticed the singing. Bob, I knew humans had poor hearing, but while researching the issue, I discovered that it’s a lot more involved. We have a wider audible frequency range, yes. But we also have finer discernment within that range. And vocally, we have the ability to simultaneously sing two notes. So an experienced singer”—she gestured to the screen—“can sing two melody lines at once.”
“Well, we have those, too.”
“Yes, I’ve seen some of your movies.”
“Cultural exchange on those as well?”
“I truly, truly hope not.”
I chuckled, and she continued, “Do you know what the sensory differences between humans and Pav are?”
“Not offhand, no. Please enlighten me.”
“Sorry, I cannot. Interestingly, no one seems to have thought to ask.”
“But someone like Bridget—”
Theresa cut me off. “Bio-human contact with the Pav has been rare, and strictly by video communication. After all, they went straight into stasis, then got dumped on a remote planet. Only Bobs have had any degree of contact with them, and I have to say, as a group, you are remarkably obtuse about such questions.”
“Huh.” I sat in silence for a few moments, thinking about this. “Maybe you’ve found yourself a new career here, Theresa. Ministry of Exobiological Diplomacy or something. It certainly seems to be something that’s slipped through the cracks.”
Theresa gave me a smile. “I’ve talked to a few people. This just might happen.”