Finger Dancing (Sequel to 1,2,3. And continued in Chad..) Lttr watched the young female walked through the camp. There was something about her - the way her mane flowed over her ears, the patterns on the pelt that wove there way down to her elegant tail. Her gait was - exquisite and intriguing.... Heart racing Lttr tried to casually over wandered to intercept her. She stopped and looked at the handsome young adult male standing before her. "Mmmmyyyyyy ccnnnhaammee uuuussss Ltttrrrtt" he stammered. "Hmm " she replied looking with casual interest, not comprehending Lttr's words due to the garbled speech and local dialect. "Council? where?" she asked patting him on a shoulder. Lttr sighed and pointed up the ridge to a cave. She turned and walked off. Mike watched this interlude from a distance, sighing as the tall furred figure seemed to collapse in on itself. Tail drooping ears sagging Lttr turned and disappeared down the ridge. Savi wandered up to Mike. "Poor Lttr - that's the second time he has tried to meet an outsider female. And it is the law to pick a mate from outside your own tribe." "You could not have known love. Look - your medical knowledge gave Lttr his reason, and skills." "I know Mike, but I wish we could have been sooner and saved his speech centres - at least now we know when a male Trill's the blood-cooling must be set-up with 2 days on it's onset. Otherwise the speech centres are the first to go." Mike nodded. Both he and Savi had found this planet and it's natives 20 months before. They were a fascinating people with lots of promise for advancement, and now the quirk of nature that used to render all males into speechless idiot-savants at the onset of puberty had been solved they were really developing. EarthExp had given the project the green light, and even now there was a ship on it's way with more blood-coolers to help the Chrrt. Poor Mike had been hard pressed to make 3 more blood-coolers from the parts they had - and these were already with other tribes. Turning Savi watched another couple approach. Yrtti was the second male to be helped, and she smiled at the playful banter and gentle teasing that went on between him and his new mate Hrrte. Hrrte came from a distant tribe but had decided to stay rather than take her mate back with her. One thing that Savi feared was the giving the males their reasoning would make then too aggressive and territorial. But her fears were unfounded. The four new males all had the easy disposition and gentleness that the pre-speech ones had. "Mike.. Savi.." "Yes Yttri?" "Hrrte and I were discussing cubs again. If we have a male - will you help him when he comes of age?" "Of course we will Yttri." Hrrte remain silent - still very much in awe at these two sky-people and their magic that Yrrti seem to accept so easily. Later in the cool of evening Mike climbed the bluff to where Lttr sat despondently. Chad, Lttr's father kept a silent vigil in the background - his huge form silhouetted in the dusk. Chad seemed to have accepted that his son talked - thought he still sometimes acted confused when a male did the actions of a female and ordered him around. Mike often wondered what Chad would have been like if they could have saved him - he was one of the brighter of the pre-speech males. But Mike knew the damage was done and could not be repaired - short of a major Neuro-surgery ward. And that was 50 light years and 3 years in deep-sleep. If deep-sleep would even work for the Chrrt. "Hi Lttr" Lttr looked up "Hi Mike " he replied, words and sounds slurring together. Most of the tribe could understand him - but when he became excited or nervous the resultant sounds were too garbled to comprehend. This unfortunately happened often as Lttr had a razor sharp mind and often became frustrated when his speech could not keep up with his thoughts. "I'm sorry what happened today. If you want I can speak with her and explain." Lttr dismissed the offer with a sweep of his claws. "No! I want to impress her myself. Not let another do my wooing. It would seem to be too much like the Trrr-traders." Mike nodded, knowing well of the distant tribe that bartered their un-mated males to other tribes. Lttr gestured to his throat "Can not you and Savi - fix me?" he asked. Mike sighed "I truly wish we could - but the damage is in your head, not in your larynx. We cannot fix that here." Lttr dropped his muzzle onto his chest. "Perhaps I should have been a silent male. And not had the need to talk." Mike rested his hand on Lttr's shoulder - feeling the thick soft pelt and the warmth beneath. "Both Savi and I are working on it and we WILL find something to help. - please trust us. And silent. No! - that aqueduct idea to bring water to the tribe - that was brilliant. for you to be silent would be like " Mike gestured upwards " that nebula not shining." Lttr nodded, letting his thoughts flow like the wind as they both gazed at the shimmering stellar cloud. Savi cuddled up to Mike. "What can we do for him, his frustration and despondency is getting worst. "I don't know love. He has the dexterity to learn sign-language, but what good will that do. Anyone he wanted to talk with would have to learn that." "True" Savi nodded and leaned over to call up the next day's lessons for the advanced cubs and adults. An old video-byte popped up briefly on the screen. Mike watched absently as the discussion on early 21st century astrophysics rambled on. Hoyle, Einstein, the early greats. Savi muttered as she missed - hitting a key - and a bent, crumbled, wizen form appeared in a motorised chair. The body ravaged by disease but the eyes still burning with an intensity. An electronic voice was heard "So you see that when the universe began time was essentially created at the same time.." Mike leaned forward "Stephen Hawkins - one of the real greats. His theories finally allowed us to leave Earth. What a shame their medicine could not help him. " "How is he talking? " Savi asked. "Oh it's a computer interface in front of his chair. He types onto it using a simple handpad" Mike replied "Could it work for Lttr?" "I don't know. The Chrrts don't have much of a written language yet, and the number of words they do have would certainly overload the input capabilities of a handpad, besides - can you think of a handpad surviving a hunting?" "Hmm.. but I have a hunch we are on the right track." Mike smiled - he knew Savi's hunches all to well. "Lets look at that red-dwarf" she said, and sure enough they found the Chrrt's planet nestled up close to the warmth. The work on the aqueduct was going well, but Lttr was having problems. Sketching in the ground he was trying to argue with a female council member. His words becoming more slurred till finally mane bristling he turned and stalked off! Savi knew this one. She was against the males talking from the start, and resented that Lttr - a mere male in her eyes - was head of this project. But she found an easy way to get under his pelt. She just acted obtuse and pretended to misunderstand his words until Lttr stormed off in disgust. Wandering back to the shuttle she listened to the growls and clipped coughs that made up the Chrrt's tounge. "Mike love" "Hmm..." "How many sounds are in the Chrrt's language" "Sounds or phonemes " "Phonemes, Yes - How many phonemes are in their tongue." "I don't know, but its easy to find out. We've plenty of recordings, so we can run them through a linguistics' program" Through the night the linguistics program's crunched the recordings, sorting the sound-alphabet that made up the Chrrt's language. Savi was first up, and looked at the results over a cup of coffee. "Mike - come here. look, ignoring tonals there are 16 individual phonemes. " "16. that's 4 to the power of 4 , four fingers leaving the thumb to control the tone and volume." "Yeah - but he'll still have to carry it around." "True. " Savi mused as she watch Mike wander around playing with an imaginary handpad. "We could make a harness for him so he can wear it on the chest, or on the wrist." Savi grinned, she had the perfect answer - "Myo-electrics!! implated electrodes in the forearms against the hand-muscles. Then the unit does'nt have to be held." "Yessss... He could wear it around his neck, like a pendant. Simple field pickup just beneath his skin - and it can run off a small solar-cell. Hey! Look Ma! No Hands, Batteries Not Included" Savi laughed at Mikes antics. "Look Lttr, in a way it's like an artificial larynx. one that you control with your hand." Lttr picked up the small pack and pressed a couple of keys warily. A string of growls and coughs came out. "And these make the language" Savi nodded "You'll have to teach yourself how to do it, but you'll have better control when we implant it." "Will it be painful?" "No - you could watch if you want. " Lttr shuddered slightly "Or you could sleep." "I think sleep. I know what Chara told me when you cooled my blood. She thought I was going to die then." So Lttr slept, and Savi armed with a laser scalpel cut the tracks for the shining electrodes. Mike tested and programmed the hands-free handpad and attached the field pad to pick up the signals. It was over in a few hours. Lttr woke up and looked down at the faint scars on his left arm. He flexed his hand, but there was silence. "No Lttr - we've made a way for you to turn in on and off. Move your fingers like this. " Mike showed. Lttr repeated the gesture and was greeted by a shot beep. "Good. now it's on - you do the same movement to turn it off." Lttr moved his finders tentatively and a stream of baby babble flowed from the pack, rising and lowering both tone and volume. Speaking carefully with his own voice Lttr smiled "Thank you Mike and Savi, now I'll have to learn to speak again." Weeks passed. Lttr was often seen in his favourite spot weaving his fingers. From the outraged growls and whines slowly came crude words, then proper words - speech with inflection and meaning. Lttr had finally found a voice that could keep up with him. Treen padded into the camp. She had heard from others about the talking males here and was very intrigued. She remembered her father once gesticulating and growling desperately trying to explain something. What no one could have known then was a rock fall had buried her mother and her father was not strong enough to move the rocks himself. Later that year her father followed her mother into the unknown - wasting away at the site of her death. Heart-broken for the one that his life was bonded to. She had prepared herself for this trip - wearing her favourite bangle. the one with pieces of sky metal that chinked when she walked. Ochred patterns marked her fur. Oh Yes! She was a female in search of a mate - and not any mate. She wanted to bring back a talking male to her tribe. Let them in her council see that then. A male that could tell you things, things that could be important, like when another is in need of help. Lttr watched her, his heart pounded. She was beautiful. Tall, elegantly furred, and with the markings of mate-hunting. Could he. Would he get a chance to talk with her. Would she understand and not treat him as a non-talking male. Mike and Save watched the duo for the shuttle. "Go for it Lttr. Your can do it.. " Mike whispered hugging his mate. Lttr plucked up his courage and padded down to her. she stopped - looking at the tall handsome male with the light of.. something in his eyes. A strange box hung around his neck. The male raised his left wrist and gestured with his hand. A short beep sounded from the box. Then fingers dancing in the wind, claws weaving intricate patterns in the bright light. "My name is Lttr.. May I walk with you a while". The humans watched on as the female nodded. And together the furred forms walked on - one listening and smiling, the other - fingers dancing in the sunlight. Continued in Chad