“What’s the plan?”
“Well, I have a knowledge of modern Hebrew from my studies. Ancient Hebrew is similar, but different. I am going to kidnap somebody who is a native speaker, and bring him or her back up here, and then learn the language from him or her using a telepathy drug/machine combination. It should be relatively easy for me, because I already know modern Hebrew, but these people speak ancient hebrew or maybe even something that is similar to hebrew but different”.
“Sounds vaguely unethical”
“I’m open to suggestions. I don’t want to go down there and make a lot of linguistic mistakes”
“Couldn’t you use the language pills?”
“I am planning on meeting with a large number of people - making them take a pill, especially when they’ve never seen a pill, seems unlikely. Besides, I have to fight a war. I am going to kill people. That’s unethical, too”.
“Aren’t you going to kill the bad guys?”
“Walter, while I am gone, I want you to go to the ship’s library and read the book of Joshua. It makes for unpleasant reading - the Hebrews basically committed genocide on the Canaanites, at God’s command”.
“I like it already”
“And that’s why you are a war criminal and I am your jailer”
“So what’s your plan?”
“I’m going to beam down after sunset, find somebody wandering in the street, tranquilize him or her with a dart, then beam them up, give them a telepathy drug and the learning machine, and then get a language lesson”
“Why use a dart?”
“The transporter relies on the communicator to get a fix on what it is supposed to transport. It can’t just transport some random person, it has to know where the person is. So one of us has to be there. If I tranquilize him or her, they will hopefully think the experience is a dream”
“Okay.”
“We have tranquilizer darts with an effective reaction time of 5 seconds. But I have to deliver the dart to the neck.”
“Since you want to be stealthy, you might want to use a pneumatic pistol instead of a rifle.”
“Ok, I can use a pistol”
“That means you will need to be within 5 meters of your victim to get the best shot.”
“Maybe I should practice a little”
“Good idea”
“I’ll rig up a training”
“I used the replicator to create a reasonably realistic simulation of what you are trying to do. Remember that this is a training exercise, the real thing is going to be much more dramatic and stressful”, Walter explained.
“I will remember”
“Adelle?”
“Yes”
“Dim the lights”
The room plunged into darkness. Deborah crouched in the darkness, next to a building. Her target walked out of the building, away from her. She carefully pulled her pneumatic pistol from her cloak, activated the infrared laser, and very quietly crept after the man, crouching low. Unfortunately, her cloak was designed for somebody her height walking erect, and she tripped over the edge of it, and fell flat on her face. Lights turned on.
“What went wrong?”
“I tripped over my cloak”
“Let’s review the video”
Deborah watched the light-enhanced recording of her actions. In the enhanced light, she was very visible. Under real lighting conditions, she would be hard to see, but not invisible. She watched herself come out from cover, crouching. She paid attention to her foot work, saw that she had indeed gotten tangled in her cloak, and fallen.
“Maybe I should gather up my cloak?”
“No, you want to keep your left hand free. Didn’t you ever wear a dress or a long skirt?”
“Not really. Maybe I should just wear pants”
“Does anybody in this time wear pants?”
“No”
“Well, if anybody spots you wearing pants, then you are going to have a hard time explaining your clothing. This is important - if our mission is to succeed, then you have to learn how to work covertly.
“Thank you”
“Try shortening the cloak about 15 centimeters”
Walter and Deborah walked out of the empty cargo bay and across the hall to a machine shop. She found a pair of scissors and clipped off 15 centimeters of cloak. That left a rough hem, but she could deal with that later.
Deborah crouched in the darkness, next to a building. Her target walked out of the building, away from her. She carefully pulled a pneumatic pistol from her cloak, activated the infrared laser, and very quietly crept after the man, crouching low. She was 10 meters behind. She walked faster to get close enough to fire the dart. Suddenly, her target turned around, grabbed her by the wrist, and dropped her to the ground. The lights turned on.
“Ouch”
“I heard you”
“Yeah, but why am I on the ground?”
“I wanted to teach you a little bit about Akido. Are you alright?”
“I’m bruised and angry”
“I could teach you how to do that”
“I don’t need a lesson in how to be angry”
Deborah got up, and brushed herself off.
“I’m beginning to think that this dart business is a bad idea.”, Walter said.
“I think that this Akidio business is a good idea”
“Why?”
“Imagine I am talking to a potential warrior. Wouldn’t it be cool if a 60 kilogram woman could drop a 80 kilogram trained warrior without killing him? That might be a powerful recruiting tool”
“Agreed”
“Okay. Let’s try again, and then I can teach you martial arts when we have more time”
Deborah crouched in the darkness, next to a building. Her target walked out of the building, away from her. She carefully pulled a pneumatic pistol from her cloak, activated the infrared laser, and very quietly crept after the man, crouching low. She was 10 meters behind him. Walking carefully, she got closer to him. He walked past a building. She ducked behind the building and looked around. Nobody there. Then she came out hiding, and, walking carefully, she crept towards him. When she estimated that she was 5 meters behind him, she raised her pistol, looked through the sight, and fired.
“Ouch - that hurts”
The lights came on. Walter reached behind his neck and pulled out the dart.
“Very good. I didn’t hear you at all. I think you are ready”
As the sun set on the eastern Mediterranean, Deborah beamed down 500 meters from a large town. The town wasn’t on any of her maps, so she didn’t know the name of it, but it was the largest town in the area, and she decided that this would be the best place to start her search.
She was dressed in a dark cloak, and she wore dark makeup on her hands and face. She walked to the town, and listened. She heard the sounds of conversation coming from a building. Inside the building, she could hear the sounds of men talking and laughing. She could understand only every 5th word or so.
This is going to be more difficult than I thought.
Two men walked out the building, still talking and laughing in the night. Deborah stayed low and out of sight.
Two more men walked out of the building, and turned toward her. Fortunately, in the dark they didn’t see her. She could hear her heart pounding, felt the adrenaline flowing.
One man walked out of the building, staggering a bit. He walked away from her. She pulled the pneumatic pistol from her cloak. She watched her victim. He was still walking away from her, and still having troubles walking a straight line. She crept behind, trying as hard to be as quiet as a cat, as quiet as snow falling. She was within 10 meters of the man. Heart pounding like a drum.
He must be really drunk - he can’t hear my heart
5 meters now. She looked around - nobody but some mules, or were they donkeys? in a pen. 3 meters now. Carefully, quietly, just like in the training exercise. She raised her pneumatic gun, looked through the sight, and shot the man in the back of the neck. He didn’t shout, which was A Good Thing, but he did grunt audibly, and reached back to his neck, pulled the dart out. He then turned around and looked at her. She looked at him. He tried to say something, but instead fell to his knees, and then fell flat on his face. Deborah pulled out her medallion, and pushed the button.
“Adelle”
“Yes?”
“2 to beam up”
And they were gone.
Walter was waiting for her in the transporter room. “That was fast”, he said.
“It’s a funny thing, but real combat is a lot more stressful than training exercises.”
“I believe I said that”
“You did, but the training was so real that I didn’t believe you.”
“I’m not offended - that’s a common reaction. Welcome to the Real World”
“Let’s get our captive secured”
The man was about 160 centimeters tall, and weighed about 70 kilograms. He had a short gray beard and a moustache. His hair reached to his shoulders. He was wearing a tan cloak with a rope securing it at the waist. He wore leather sandals.
Walter and Deborah secured him into a chair by binding his wrists and ankles to the chair.
“Let’s get him to the autodoc”
They wheeled him down the hall, through the airlock, and into the autodoc.
“Is this the test subject?”, the autodoc asked.
“Yes”, Deborah answered.
“Very well. I am going to give him a complete physical examination first, and then we can proceed with the knowledge transfer process. Please come back in 10 minutes”
Walter and Deborah left the autodoc and went to the kitchen. Deborah fixed herself some mint tea while Walter served himself some chocolate ice cream. They sat in silence, each thinking their own thoughts. I hope this works, that this man is learned enough to be helpful. I ought to ask him who are the wisest people in town, and dart them. After 9 minutes, they put their dirty dishes away and went back to the autodoc.
“Well?”
“He seems reasonably healthy. He has a vitamin B deficiency. He has three cavities in his teeth, one of which has reached the root and has infected the tooth. It really ought to be replaced or filled. It’s painful. His left leg had a fracture of the tibia and fibia which did not knit properly. His blood alcohol concentration is .12% so he is impaired. However, it is safe to use the telepathy drug and hook him up to the learning machine.”
“Okay, give him the shot and hook him to the learning machine. Walter and I will be on the main flight deck with our learning machines.”
Walter and Deborah walked to the flight deck, assumed their seats, and put their learning helmets on.
“Ready at this end”, the autodoc announced.
“I’m ready”
“I’m ready”
They started with nouns. Pictures of things flashed on monitors before Walter and Deborah, and the same images flashed on a monitor in front of their prisoner. The prisoner thought of the word and it became a memory for Walter and Deborah. After this had gone on for a couple of hours, they had to slow down because they had to show movies of people and things doing something: verbs. Adjectives were next. Colors were easy to do, because they could be represented as abstractions. Adverbs were the hardest of all, so Walter took a telepathy pill and began sending concepts into the prisoner’s brain, and getting the appropriate word out and into Deborah’s brain. The conversation was recorded so that Walter could catch up on it later.
After about 12 hours of this, the prisoner fell asleep. Deborah and Walter decided that they could use some rest as well, so they agreed to get 8 hours of sleep and then resume the interrogation.
6 hours later, the autodoc woke up Deborah.
“Please come visit the prisoner right away”
Deborah got out of bed, dressed in a fresh jumpsuit, and went to the autodoc. The prisoner was awake, and fighting to get out of his restraints.
“What’s wrong?”
“He is going through alcohol withdrawal, exacerbated by severe psychological stress and that is causing delirium tremens. May I suggest that he get a Benzodiazepine?” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine
“What’s that?”
“A class of drugs used to treat convulsions.”
“Is it safe?”
“It’s safe for short term use.”
“Okay”
A robotic arm came down and secured his shoulder. Then another robotic arm came down and gave him an injection in his upper arm. He screamed. Then the arms went away.
“Hello”, she said to him in what she hoped was fluent ancient hebrew, “What is your name?”
He stopped struggling and stared at her. I’ll bet he’s never been restrained like this, never seen artificial light, never been in a room with square corners, never seen a woman in a jumpsuit or maybe never even seen somebody wear pants.
“Gamaliel son of Gomer”.
“My name is Deborah daughter of Sarah”
“Where am I?”
“Gamaliel, you’ve been drinking too much and you are having a bad dream.”
He struggled some more. “I want some wine”
“I know. I’m not going to let you have any until you help me”
“What do you want from me?”
“I want you to help me and my friend learn the language”
“Why?” That’s a damm good question. I can’t tell him the truth, but what is a good story that will reassure him?
“I’ve come from far away, and I want to trade with your people. I have many things to sell you, and I think you have some things that I could buy. I have to talk to you and your nation”
“What did you do to my arm?”
“You were suffering from the wine. I gave you something to make you feel better”
“It hurt”
“Does your tooth hurt?”
“Yes”
“For how long has it hurt?”
“A long time”
“I could heal it for you”
“How?”
“I would make you go to sleep, and while you were sleeping, I would fix the tooth. Your tooth is sick. I know how to heal it. Do you want me to do that?”
“This is a bad dream?”
“Yes. But you will remember that your tooth no longer hurts. May I cure you?”
“Yes”
Deborah addressed the autodoc in English. “How long would it take to fill the cavities and repair the infected tooth? Also, give him a complete cleaning. I want you to use a sedative - he’s already experienced a great deal of psychological trauma.”
“It would take about 5 hours”
“Alright, then do it. Also, give him a long lasting analgesic”
Deborah turned back to Gamaliel.
“Gamaliel: you are going to go to sleep now, and when you wake up, your tooth will not hurt”
Gamaliel smiled, and then promptly went to sleep. Deborah turned and left.
They kept him for another day. They had a long conversation about farming, the economy, the local political situation and life in general. Gamaliel, it turned out, was a leather worker. He had a son, 15, and a daughter, 17. The daughter was expecting a child soon. He was a widower, his wife having died in childbirth 10 years ago. There was a widow in the village that he was fond of. Deborah and Gamaliel rehearsed some ways of going about wooing her. Walter queried him about weapons, but Gamaliel knew very little about that.
Gamaliel grew tired, so they told him to lie down on a couch - he was soon fast asleep. When the ship was in range and it was dark on the ground, they beamed him back down.