Episode #2: Weird Visitors #2: Understanding

May,14 2025

Frank, our police officer, was the first to mention quarantine.

Kukey repeated "quarantine", laughing when they heard the word.

"You are right, let's all stay close, in case of illness. But we need to form a common vocabulary first, no?"

"Sure"

I turned to the alien.

"Yes", I said, nodding.

Kukey repeated "Yes", and nodded.

I then said "No", and shook from left to right.

"oooo. Yes", they said, nodding, and then "no", shaking. Then, they said "Yes, Kay. No, Pock"

I laughed. "Okay, same as Yes"

They looked at me. "Same", they said, pointing to Uke and themselves, and then "Same", pointing at me and the other.

"Yes. Same." I picked up two rocks. "Same"

"Kake. Same", they said.

"Good"

"Good?", they said.

"Yes? Happy?"

"Happy", they said.

"Oh. This is hard"

"Ooooh. Hard", they say, moving their arms as if forcing. "Clock"

I mimick forcing. "Hard. Clock", I say, laughing.

"Yes. Kay", but then, "Happy", with a sort of confusion.

I laugh. "Happy", I smile. "Happy". I then take a sad look. "Sad"

Kukey looks at me, shows hand.

"Wait?", I say.

"Wait. Krieg"

I lift a finger. "Wait", another, another, another, another. "Wait"

They laugh. "Wait. Kreig".

They get inside, and return with a box. It's made in metal, but it's clearly a box.

I say. "Box", pointing at it.

"Kik", they say. "Box"

The first thing they get out, is a round ball.

"Ball", I say.

They laugh. "Koll. Ball. Same"

"Almost"

"Oooh. Peka. Almost. No same. Yes same. "

"exactly"

"Ooooh. Exactly. Greg"

"Greg?", I asked.

"Greg. Yes no. "

"Question? What?"

The Kukey looked at me, and took out a board.

It's made of metal, and has holes in it, in a grid pattern.

Each row has 9 sections. The first has 1 dot, in the middle, with a weird symbol under it. The next has 2, in diagonal. The next has 3, in a triangle. Each has a symbol.

This is the numbers, from 1 to 9. And I notice, that they repeat under it, with the symbol for 1 on the right of it. This means they write right to left, not left to right.

Kukey points to the single digit.

"Ba"

I says "Ba. One"

They say "Kay. Bo", when poiting to two.

"Bo. Two, but then, I point to three. "Three"

"Bee, Three. Bo Two, Bee Three. Ooooo. Peka."

"Peka. Same ending"

"Ending? O, E? ", they ask.

"Ending. End. O, E. Start"

"Clock"

"Yes. Hard. Clock. Four", I say, pointing to the one with 4 dots.

"Ka"

"Ka, Four. Five"

"Ko", when they point to 5.

I say "Wait, Kreig."

"Kay"

I point to 6. "Six... Kee?"

Kukey makes a little dance. "Kee! Yes. Kee."

I point to 7. "Seven"

"Ga. Seven"

I point to 8. "Eight, Go?"

"Go! Yes! Go!

I point to 9. "Gee", with a hard G, not a soft one.

"Gee, Yes, Gee!"

I point to 10, on the second row. "Ten", and I try. They are in base 9, because they have 3 fingers, not 10. But they put a 1, not a 0. so it's 11, not 10. Which is weird. Do they not have the concept of 0? So I propose, "Baba?", meaning 11.

"Bakba. Ten"

Then, I point to 11. "Eleven".

They look confused. "Eleven? Not one ten?"

"No, ten one. BakBo?"

"No, Bokba"

I look at them. Wait, they write numbers right to left but read them left to right.

We keep going, until we make it to 20. Their numbering system is very organized except for the lack of a 0.

When I name twenty-one, Kukey gets excited. They seem to have figured out we are base 20, but when we make it to 31, they get confused.

Still, we keep going, and they understand by the time we make it to 41.

They seem to memorize everything, to never ask me to repeat anything.

The next plate, has colors. I can't seem to memorize the colors, but Kukey gets them.

It's obvious to me that this is a first contact box, to help establish vocabulary.

The third one, is more complex, and I need the people next to me to help me.

It's atoms, we soon realize. We teach them the words for Hydrogen, Helium, and more, but we do miss a few. We are not scientists.

They then have simplified drawings, like up, down, left, right, over, under, before, after, remove, add, lift. I think they were obvious, but I wasn't so sure.

I also pointed to a few things, like the sun, grass, body parts, the names of the people in our group, the spaceship.

It didn't take long for Kukey to realize that I kept forgetting some words. They even quizzed me about some of the numbers, and saw that I forgot. They never forgot anything.

So, they simply told me fewer words in their language.

Uke never spoke again. They were bigger, and potentially stronger, so I took them to be a soldier, while Kukey was the first contact specialist.

Kukey learned a few grammar lessons accidentally.

When I said. "Sun. That is the sun". They tried. "That is Luke. That is Uke. That is Lucy", and I corrected Kukey. "This is Luke. This is Uke. This is Lucy"

It took a while, but they understood that "That" is for things, and "This", is for people.

The longest time, was to explain the basic questions. Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Where wasn't so bad, but I think we got it, with a lot of confirmation by Kukey.

But as more and more words were known, the process became easier. "Cause" was important to me. I think I got the meaning right, and Kukey proposed their own confirmation, by kicking a rock.

"Kukey cause rock move"

"Yes", it was no time to address term tenses.

I worked on "sick", which Kukey got. Apparently, they vomit and feel dizzy when sick too.

Finally, I asked the big question.

"Kukey and Uke cause Luke sick, yes or no?"

Kukey said "wait", spoke with Uke, who returned inside.

"Answer, Uke", said Kukey.

Soon enough, a sort of computer appeared. It wasn't laptop shapes, it looked more like a tablet, but a lot more thick.

Kukey put on the ground between us, and it showed two symbols of ADN, one I am familiar with, with 2 strands, and the other with three.

"Luke", said, Kukey. And then "Kukey, Uke", on the three strand ADN. "No sick"

"Do you mean that our DNA is incompatible?", I said.

But that only led to more deconstruction of the sentence, until both Kukey and I felt he understood, but ironically, it's on mean and our that they had issues. DNA was simple. Their word for it was long, and they were surprised ours was so short.

I could sense my party was tired, so I proposed that they return to town, but instructed our police officer to remain silent about what was happening. I wanted to finish establishing a communication before involving the higher authorities.

Soon enough, I was alone, with Kukey and Uke.

And the work was only starting.