The alien voice was back. Weird sounds came from the speakers. “Petra, put the location of the source on the map.” Petra did so, and the source looked like it was on the other side of a hill north of their current location. Nick started them moving in that direction. Then he waited for a pause in the alien voice, and hit the control to transmit.

  “Hello. Hello. I am Nick. I come in peace. Hello.”

  The voice on the other end stayed quiet for several moments, then repeated a phrase a few times, then fell silent.

  Nick hit transmit again. “Hello. I am Nick. I do not speak your language.”

  More incomprehensible alien talk.

  Nick sighed. This isn't going to work. Scientists would be doing shit with numbers and a universal language. What languages do I speak? A little Spanish. That won't help. How do I tell them I'm friendly?

  Nick got a wild idea. He hit transmit, and started whistling, as clearly as he could. First, he whistled a scale, nice and slow, and did it again. “Music. Scale.” What now? Something really simple. Hey, what about that ding-ding-dong song for kids? For lack of a better idea, Nick whistled the tune that went with, “Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, brother John? Brother John?”

  The alien said something brief, then fell quiet. Nick tried to imitate it, cleared his throat and tried again. The alien repeated themselves a couple more times as Nick tried to pronounce it. Finally, he sighed and said, “Sorry, guys. I'm not good at your language. This is a scale.” He whistled one again, and then descending. “This is music.” He started whistling again, this time a catchy oldie with nonsense words like “Oh blah me, Oh blah you, Oh blah me, yeah!” or something like that. He slapped his thigh in accompaniment.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  At least this way I don't have to remember the lyrics.

  When he finished the song, he said, “Song. Music. That was one song. The other one was another song. Uh...” Nick blew air out his cheeks, temporarily stumped. What did Petra do when she tried to learn more English? She started with numbers.

  “Okay, guys, try this. One.” He slapped his leg once. “Two.” He slapped it twice. “Three. Four. Five.” He slapped the number of times for the number he was saying. Then, he did the whole thing a couple more times, and waited for a response.

  “Wa.” Thud. “Oo.” Thud Thud. “Ee.” Thud Thud Thud. “Ohwa.” Four thuds.

  “Yes!” Nick yelled, glad a moment later that he wasn't transmitting right then. He hit transmit. “Yes. Good. One...two... three.” Nick spoke slowly and distinctly.

  “Wa...oo...fee.” There was a pause. “Flargkh. Zozo. Koog.”

  “Flarg. Zozo, Koog.” Nick stopped transmitting. “Petra, do you understand that language yet?”

  “No.”

  “Guess we aren't in a sci-fi show, then.” He hit transmit. “One is Flarg. Two is Zozo. Three is Koog.” He clapped the appropriate number of times.

  “Izzzz...” There was a pause. “Oo...oo...izzz...Ohwa.”

  “Holy shit. Yes. Yes! Two...and...two...is...four. One...and...one...is...two. One and two is three.”

  “Oo...ann...fee...izzz...fi.”

  The aliens said several words. Nick had no clue what they meant. He was impressed with these guys, though. He wouldn't have thought of a way to teach “is” on purpose, but they picked it up anyway.

  He took a look at the camera displays and blinked. “You guys have a radio tower! I see it!”

  The aliens started responding rapidly in their language. Nick asked, “Petra, why is their transmission a lot louder?” He had to try a couple more ways to get his question across.

  “Centimeters are less.”

  “Wait, does that mean our transmission is louder, too?”

  “Yes.”

  They might be realizing how close I am. Sheesh, I hope that's not the sound of aliens panicking or threatening.

  They were gliding down one hill, and the radio tower was at the top of the next hill. As they reached the bottom of the valley between and started up the slope, the speakers suddenly broke into music from Argoroth Dragon Hunters 9, surprising the hell out of Nick. Petra spoke up with a sound clip from the game.

  “Congratulations, Hunter! You have discovered a dungeon! Do you wish to enter?”