Back inside the isolation chamber, Dr. Palin immersed himself in the language problem, absorbing the words, phrases, and inflections that Milla uttered. The language seemed more elegant with every word he deciphered, but he knew he was missing a critical piece of information. There was something about the decidedly one-sided conversation that was troubling him. The words came quickly, but try as he might, the meanings slipped past him. Even so, the discourse slowly became a two-sided exchange as Palin’s instinctive comprehension of the alien language was complemented by the computer’s growing data file.

“Docteur Palin, what is this…shippe?” Milla’s accent certainly bore out his earlier comparison of her language to the Terran Romance equivalents.

“This is the NACS Odyssey, a long-range exploration vessel.” Palin wished the captain had told him how much he could reveal to their guest.

“Odisee? I do not understand that word.”

“The word odyssey means ‘voyage of destiny,’ or something similar. It seemed to fit the purpose of this ship.”

Milla’s laugh rang through the room. “It was certainly a voyage of destiny, from my perspectif.”

His mind ran through what she had just said and how she said it. It’s the inflections! He surged up from the table and rushed to the terminal built into the wall.

“Computer, adjust translation matrix to include Asian inflection coding as well as the European Romance languages.” Palin’s fingers leapt across the small keypad as he modified minute details of the translation program.

“Confirmed. Translation algorithms have been adjusted. Estimated time to adapt current data to new codes—five minutes, twenty-seven seconds.”

Palin turned back to Milla, somewhat surprised to find her almost cowering back from his sudden moves.

“It’s all right, my dear, just stay calm.” His calm voice floated out of the suit, soothing Milla’s fear and bringing her back to the discussion.

Dr. Palin spent the next five minutes calming Milla down, getting her back into the same frame of mind she had before his outburst. When the computer chirped the completion of its task, Palin keyed it into the induction set.

“Do you understand me properly now?”

Milla’s face lit up with recognition, which was quickly followed by extreme puzzlement. “Yes! I do…but…how?”

“It was quite simple, my dear. Your language uses changes in the timber of the voice to distinguish different meanings in the same basic word. Once I told the computer to add that to its decoding process, it simply went back through everything we had said in the past several hours and recompiled its program.”

Milla smiled at the pride she heard echo through his voice; this man was not one to be humble about his accomplishments. Still, she supposed he had a right; translating a new language in just under eight hours was a remarkable accomplishment—even with computer assistance. Although she was still worried about these people, she wasn’t as frightened as she had been. They weren’t the Drasin—that had been obvious the moment Palin and Rame entered the room. Despite their concealed bodies, she could tell they were as human as she was. For a brief moment, she wondered what colony they were from, but she put it out of her mind since no one in the colonies would feel the need to conceal themselves from her.