Stevans, his assistant, nodded. “That is probably why they are keeping out of the public eye right now. I imagine that they will be around later in an attempt to bargain—
trade information for information.
“I think you’re right.” Halwit frowned as he lit a cigarette. “From what we’ve been able to learn about the six we have, I’d say that they are the most important members of the crew. A point in our favor when it comes to trading information.”
“Why should we trade?” Stevans asked archly.
“Have to,” Halwit blew a smoke ring towards the ceiling, “no telling what they can find out. I think we’ll have to arrange a meeting wherein we can question all members of the crew that were found, including the Russian ones, under U.N. supervision.”
“Supposing they won’t agree to it?” Stevans asked.
“Then we’d better start worrying,” Halwit said as he carefully released another smoke ring.
Cakna, Druit, and Drul were near the point of exhaustion. They had been questioned, probed, and examined for forty-eight hours with barely a let-up. If nothing else, the relentless questioning had resulted in a limited vocabulary which at least allowed for some degree of sensible communication, via the blackboard in the examination room. The language was a group of pictographs based on elementary physical laws. It gave both the Soviets and the aliens a dictionary of several dozen picture words consisting of such terms as: up, down; near, far; light, heavy, et cetera.
“What sort of unfeeling savages are these?” Cakna asked angrily, during a lull in the questioning. “We’ve already told them how we happened to be here, and how important it is for us to get to rendezvous as soon as possible, and what do they do? They question us for time-unit upon time-unit until I feel as if I’ve just been pulled out of a combustion chamber. Besides that, they haven’t even offered us any food. What do they think we eat? Questions?”
“Cakna is right,” Druit admitted grudgingly. “These creatures are, beyond a doubt, savages. But this advanced culture they evidently possess—it just doesn’t jive with their barbarian personalities. I simply don’t understand it.”