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It never occurred to them that we might be anything but Terrans; Terrans who didn't know the Mancji. And they were canny enough to use an old form of Interlingua; somewhere they'd met men before. "Then we needed food. They knew what we ate, and that was where they went too far.
"This sounds like simple electric current they're talking about, Captain," Mannion said. "They want a battery charge." "They seem to have power to burn," I said. "Why don't they generate their own juice? Ask them; and find out where they learned Interlingua." Mannion sent again; the reply was slow in coming back.
"They just repeat that over and over," Mannion said. "They don't answer our call." "Try translating into old Interlingua, adding their sound changes, and then feeding their own rise-and-fall routine to it," I said. "Maybe that will get a response." I waited while Mannion worked out the message, then taped it on top of their whining tone pattern. "Put plenty of horse-power behind it," I said.
I sent another query, but the reply was abrupt and told nothing except that Interlingua was of "old knowledge." Then Mannion entered a long technical exchange, getting the details of the kind of electric power they wanted. "We can give them what they want, no sweat, Captain," he said after half an hour's talk. "They want DC; 100 volt, 50 amp will do."
That made some sort of sense, but I was intrigued by the reference to Interlingua as a trade language. I wanted to know where they had learned it. I couldn't help the hope I started building on the idea that this giant knew our colony, in spite of the fact that they were using an antique version of the language, predating Omega by several centuries.
Then the clatter began again. "This is different," Mannion said. "It's longer." I went back to the bridge, and waited for the next move from the stranger, or for word from Mannion. Every half hour I transmitted a call identifying us, followed by a sample of our language. I gave them English, Russian, and Standard Interlingua.
"That's a highly inflected version of early Interlingua, Captain," Mannion said. "After I taped it, I compensated it to take out the rise-and-fall tone, and then filtered out the static. There were a few sound substitutions to figure out, but I finally caught on. It still doesn't make much sense, but that's what it says." "I wonder what we're invading," I said. "And what is the 'Mancji Presence'?"
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