Welcome to Last Story for the month of March here at Clarksville magazine, issue 234. My name is Kate Baker and I'm your host and narrator. And this story, like all of our stories here at this magazine, are possible by your ongoing support. Please visit us at patreon.com for a slash Clarksworld or Clarksville magazine.com to see the myriad ways that you can support us. And if you already are, thank you so, so much. You help me do something I love each and every month. We are so grateful for your support. So our last story is titled Person Place Thing and is by Marissa Lingen. Marissa Lingen is a freelance writer who lives in the Minneapolis suburbs with her family. She is the author of over 200 works of short science fiction and fantasy and has no intention of stopping anytime soon. She also writes essays, poetry and whatever comes to her next. Her debut novella, a dubious clamor is coming soon from Horned Larg Press. And if you like which here, we have a bunch of stories by Marissa, a shaky bridge, the music must always play, the plasticity of youth, left to take the lead and the grandmother, granddaughter conspiracy. So my dear listener, I do hope that you'll go back and listen to those. But right now I hope that you'll sit back, relax and let me tell you a story. I speak human very well, better than any of my colony. You can tell that I speak human very well because I didn't make the obvious mistakes like I speaking human good or speak this entity evaluation positive your species or any of those. Dr. Kira tried to tell me that I should say that I speak English well, but I demonstrated for her that I can do it in French, Navajo and Japanese as well. My even and this is how good I am at speaking human. Remember to leave the what does she want out of the Japanese version, the eye and the subject marker, which you would think would be easy for us as a colony, but is in fact very hard because the eye is still there even when you don't say it. Humans are very big on things that you don't say, which would be fine, except they are also very big on saying things. You think they could make up their minds. They even insist that there are things that you can't say in words. From what I can tell, most of the things you can't say in words are things you can say in words, but that human doesn't want to say them at that particular moment or to that particular other human. Frankly it's exhausting, but it's the life of the translator sub colony. It's what we can do for the colony. So I do it and I'm good at it. At least I have more to do than the olfactory sub colony. Humans make a great many smells, but not to very much purpose. That sub colony is bored a lot. For the purposes of learning about humans and their languages, my colony has relocated to a small moon called Deimos, which is orbiting the planet Mars. Dr. Kira, who is a linguist, makes a very big deal about how there are human languages that exist in reference to some natural feature. Not usually something like a moon, but more typically a large mountain or the sea. Captain Daniel says that those languages are funny, and Dr. Kira gives him a reproving look and says they are interesting. Captain Daniels is not a linguist. He is here to make sure that the colony runs smoothly, which is not always compatible with Dr. Kira trying to learn more about our languages. It is also not always compatible with our learning preferences. I used to think I did not understand what smoothly meant, but now I know I had that part right, and so I am left with two options. One, Captain Daniels is not good at his job, or two, other forces are making Captain Daniels' job hard for him, even though he is reasonably good at it. I do not like those options. The rest of the colony does not like those options either. I do not see how the others of colony parts are learning and participating in our contact. They only see me. I try to tell them, I am not alone, and Dr. Kira said, of course, we understand that there are more of you back on your homeworld. This was not what I meant, so I tried again. I am not alone here. I knew enough of human body language to know that the smile that lit up her face was a very good thing. I am so glad you feel that way, Camilla. They asked me for my name. I am myself. I do not have a name. I am the sub-colony learning to communicate with humans. But in one of the pieces of art they used to introduce concepts of human life gradually. There was a flock with no names except one, and the one who was named Camilla. So I told Dr. Kira. I was Camilla. I hoped it would help her understand. I do not think it did. The part of the colony that does radiation shielding had tried to be gentle and polite when it first interfaced with the human colony to let us pass between. It took us some time in our early interactions to realize that the human colony's structure was not being standoffish but was in fact a tool rather than part of the colony. That the space suit itself couldn't answer us only the human inside it could. I have tried not to feel foolish over this. I am not the only one who has the problem where the inconceivable cannot be communicated. I have seen this problem in smaller form with Dr. Kira and Captain Daniels. There is some ground we hope between using known and created terms to describe a new idea. The former introduces the risk of confusion when the listener thinks they understand something that is distinct from what they understand. The latter marks the lack of understanding but may not illuminate it. How many times have I heard Captain Daniels complain that Dr. Kira is using linguistic jargon 37 times which I believe most human languages would be able to put under a heading of something like many. Language is good at conveying new ideas but only the new ideas that your brain can hold. If you don't think something is possible then you will find something else that piece of language can mean. This is true of us and it is true of humans. It is true of everyone we've met. This explains why we didn't understand that humans we had started to know Dr. Kira and Captain Daniels and the rest could be forced by other humans to leave us. This is not a thing that would happen to us. We could choose to leave. We could die but we swarm. The idea that others of our species could drive us away was something we only understood from having it happen to humans we were watching. I have looked into the species of old earth pre-contact and I think the closest analogy for our behaviour in a species humans have encountered before is the sugar ants. I do not attack other sugar ants from other colonies. Other ants attack based on colony these do not and we do not. Humans do. Now I have seen them do it though I did not understand at first what was happening. Captain Daniels screamed a lot. Dr. Kira cried. They were bundled into spaceships that were separate and not part of them at all. The spaceships left and it was only when they didn't come back right away that I understood. I did not like under standing. It must be very dangerous to be human not knowing whether something that is like you will be like you. Until then we thought that humans were like us that anyone who could use language and form spaceships and make plans to take them to find other life forms would not attack. All of our plans to convey goodwill to humans were based on the idea that we were conveying that we were like them. Not like rock or plasma or mould but like them. I still tried it with the new human when they came through our shared airlock because we had not fully adjusted our thinking yet. You don't look dangerous. That dumbass Daniels managed to get as far as if you don't shoot I won't shoot with you. Asked the new human. I was pretty sure this was insulting on multiple levels starting with not sharing a name and going out in ripples from there. At the same time I said to the new human. Away. Put your weapon. I mean you know harm. Which in addition to being literally true is a reference that should put them at ease. You could not put Roman humans at ease that way even if they knew the reference which they could not do. They did not fuss about word order. For them it would sound very close to a different and less comforting reference. Put away your sword. For all those who live by the sword will die by the sword. These are not the same thing and humans do not feel the same way about them but I chose the correct one to make the new human smile a little. You're not green. She said. Good. It is not easy. Being green. I said. The new human smiled more. This is again literally true. Performing one's own photosynthesis puts an energy use burden on a part of the colony that we have allocated to another sub colony and it leaves us free for cognition and communication. But also again a reference to put humans at ease. I would not have told you that I am good at speaking human if it were not true. You're cute. But I wish they hadn't gotten you used to kids stuff. Said the new human. We're going to need to have some very adult conversations. I did not want to have any of the kind of conversations humans associate with adulthood with this stranger. We'll see. I said. Dr. Cura did not mean to teach me that that was what you should say when you meant no but did not want to say no. But I had learned it anyway. Yeah. You will. Said the new human and not in a very nice way. You seem like you know more English than Daniels was letting on. We're going to have some real interesting conversations now. Like how do you build your spaceships? The sub colony at shields and the sub colony that propels are far more precise than I am. I said. Very carefully. Oh, a wise guy. Well you're not going to have long to figure out how to tell us wise guy. I'd like to be your friend. I don't think you'd like me as an enemy. I thought about this statement. The new human was apparently Captain Daniels and Dr. Cura's enemy. I was pretty sure they were my enemy. And they were correct. I didn't like them. That is true. I said. Well just you figure out how you can give me some schematics and we'll get along fine. The spaceships are just started. If we're going to be friends, you're going to need to tell me everything. Dr. Cura was my friend and I couldn't tell her everything. Even when I tried very hard, I did not think this new human would be better at listening. Worse this new human made me worse at talking. I could not give schematics. I did not want to. There were parts of the colony that might have been able to interface with me to do that, but they were no more motivated than I was. As soon as I understood that, I knew what my mission was and I swiftly got the rest of the colony to agree. They would have to go down to earth and find Dr. Cura so I could resume my conversations with her. I was here to learn. The rest of the colony was here to support me. We could learn from Dr. Cura. We even learned some things from Captain Daniels. The other humans should have asked before taking them away. We can remedy this. We are not. Demos. Demos is not us. Is the colony a person? Is it a place? Is it a thing? When Dr. Cura was still here, I asked her questions about people things, about place people and she agreed that indeed the categories are not firmly fixed, but her manner was uncertain. She believed that most things were only one person, place, thing, not two, not all. Then I asked about person movement, about place being, about relation being and Dr. Cura wanted to talk about gerunds and this was missing the point. The colony is a being and an action. The colony is all of those things, but Dr. Cura did not understand. Humans think that being a part of the whole means never disagreeing. This is obviously not true. The sub-colony that photosynthesizes our food does not want to go to earth. We all understand this. The photosynthetic mechanism is cumbersome and hard to alter on short notice. The sub-colony that photosynthesizes our food has every reason to want to stay on demos or better move to a safer location possibly in our home system, but the food making sub-colony will not abandon the rest of us and we will not abandon Dr. Cura and Captain Daniels. Who knows if there are other humans we can talk to, I believe so. I hope so. I know, but I am not so ready to let go of the ones we already had. The old factory sub-colony may have a lot of work ahead. We have no idea whether we will be able to use language to accurately detect Dr. Cura and Captain Daniels, but if the humans will not assist with this, the old factory sub-colony will track them for us. The old factory sub-colony will not be bored anymore. I do not think any sub-colony will be bored. When we prepared to go to Earth, the new humans became very upset. They fired projectiles at our colony. Specifically, they fired projectiles at the sub-colony, that is, me. Shielding sub-colony is more comfortable with shielding against vacuum and radiation than projectiles, but it is flexible. It is commuted to the success of the colony. It absorbed projectiles in my vicinity. Because I speak human very well, I understood everything the new humans shouted. They were the kind of irrelevant sentiments that are used non-literally to convey anger and distress. I shared some of those irrelevant sentiments in return. Speaking human very well can be quite satisfying. When we find Dr. Cura and Captain Daniels, I will tell them how happy I am with their instruction. They will likely find this information satisfying if they are in any condition to receive information. We are prepared to provide assistance for a wide range of human conditions, we hope, not to have to assist the new humans into any worse configurations. I hope that I can be large in this trip to Earth. I hope that most of the colony can be dedicated to learning and communication. That would make me happy. I would feel fulfilled, but I fear that we will not be able to be colony learning. I fear that we will be colony defending. That is not the part that answers to Camilla. That it is still part of the whole. And this colony acts in concert. Human divisions are not useful for us. We are Camilla, habitat on Deimos spaceship. We are understanding, becoming. We are colony moving. What are your thoughts on the story? You can send me a message at Kate at Clarksworldmagazine.com. Thank you again for all of your support. Thank you for being here and listening to yet another story. And guess what? We have a new month coming your way. April brings new worlds, new characters, new places to visit. And that is thanks to you. So I do hope I come back and listen. Should you so choose? And until then, my dear listener, I bid you very fond and hopefully very temporary. Farewell. Be well.
