Issue 17, Page 9
Transcript
1: The robot hovers near Julia. Julia has a hand out as she speaks.
Robot: [untranslated robotic alien speech – quizzical tone]
Julia: Um… hello?
Robot: [untranslated robotic alien speech]
Julia: I… don’t understand you. Listen, I’m not from around here. I came from the building with the portal…
Can you even understand me?
Robot: [untranslated robotic alien speech – urgent tone]
2: From the robot’s vision, Julia looks up excitied
Julia: …okay, let’s try this: can you give me a sound for ‘yes’?
Robot: <positive blip>
Julia: Huh. And how about one for ‘no’?
Robot: <negative buzz>
Julia: Haha, shit, it worked.
3: Julia tries to speak to the robot.
Julia: Is there anyone else around? A… person I can talk to? I need help.
Robot: <negative buzz>
Julia: Shit… well… I came from the tower, the uh, the portal. The door to other planets. Do you know what I mean?
Robot: <positive blip>
Julia: I’m trying to get to another one… here-
4: Julia shows her wrist computer, on which there is a photo of the map she saw in the portal room. She’s pointing out the destination.
Julia: Can you take me here?
Robot: <negative buzz>
5: The robot has turned from her and extends an arm, picking up some of the boxes Julia tossed to the ground.
Julia: I… I don’t know the language, so even if I got there, I need someone to help me get through…
Robot: [untranslated robotic alien speech]
6: The robot mostly ignores her as it sets boxes back on shelves.
Julia: Please…?
Hey, cleverness with first contact! Nice work! Yes and no in any language always has workarounds!
What’s strange is that it understands her. It must have either a root language similar to Julia’s, or it has encountered the language itself. That’s quite a feat, if she has left the solar system.
As for the language the robot is speaking, maybe a little cryptography is in order, just like with the avian language.
The portals connect to Earth so it’s quite likely there’s some knowledge of Earth language off-planet.
well, it kinda looks like every character is made out of 6 squares…
Clearly the robot understands Julia.maybe part of this robot is worn out or destroyed.