A series of mode lamps began blinking. “I’ll be ready tomorrow at about this time.”

THE COMEDIES WERE slapstick. The creatures ran con games against each other, inevitably got caught, and fell down a lot. They pretended to skills they didn’t have, chased each other around the set, pursued hopeless get-rich-quick schemes, failed consistently in their efforts to score with members of the opposite sex.

Even up close, Hutch had trouble distinguishing the sexes. The females were smaller, but otherwise possessed no obviously different features. No breasts, no flaring hips, no sense of softness.

The shows contrasted to the relatively sophisticated comedy to which she was accustomed. When she commented along that line to Rudy, he smiled condescendingly. “You have to open your mind, Hutch. Don’t assume just because it’s different that it’s not at our level.”

“Rudy,” she replied, “it’s dumb. Falling over your feet constantly is dumb.”

The dramas were, for the most part, shows with villainous characters. Good guys and bad guys. White hats and black. The villain makes off with someone’s fiancée for reasons that often weren’t clear. A series of chases ensued. Inevitably there were shoot-outs with projectile weapons, and the female was recovered.

“What I don’t understand,” she told Antonio, “is that we know this civilization has been around a long time. How come the entertainment is at such a childish level?”

“I thought they were pretty good,” said Antonio.

There were news shows. And commentaries, although the latter seemed to be limited to scandal and discussions about celebrities. She heard no politics.

In the morning, all the males agreed that the shows were very much like Earth’s own. And that therefore it seemed inevitable that the inhabitants of Makai were remarkably human. “Not anatomically, obviously,” said Rudy. “But in all the ways that matter.”

“You don’t think anatomy matters?” asked Matt.

“I still think it’s dumb,” said Hutch. “I mean, these people, hundreds of thousands of years ago, were out looking around the galaxy. And now they’re watching Briggs and Comatose?”

“Briggs and who?”

“I made it up,” she said. “But you know what I’m trying to say. Whatever happened to evolution? Did they go backward?”

“You’re overreacting, Hutch,” Matt told her from the McAdams. “Give these people a break. It’s entertainment. So it’s not Bernard Shaw. What do you want?”

Jon couldn’t resist a chuckle. “You think modern entertainment is sophisticated?” he asked.

That put her on the defensive. “It’s okay,” she said.

“How does it rank with Sophocles?”

“Well, hell, Jon, be reasonable—”

“I’m doing that. Ask yourself what Euripides’ audience would have thought of the Night Show.”

She let it go. There’d be no winning that argument.

THAT AFTERNOON, PHYL announced she was prepared to act as an interpreter. “And I may have found somebody.”

“Who?” asked Rudy.

“Name’s not pronounceable. At least not by somebody with your basic equipment. He’s a physicist. Appeared on a health show yesterday. They even posted his code so we can contact him.”

“You know how to translate the code so we can input the right signal?”

“I think so. But there’s a problem.”

“Which is?”

“They use radio communication, but only as a public medium, or for point-to-point commercial purposes. It’s not used for personal links. It’s ships at sea, planes to airports, that sort of thing.”

“And personal communication?”

“I’d guess by landline. They have wires strung along many of their highways. That’s probably what we’re looking for.”

“Do we know where this person with the unpronounceable name lives?”

“I pinpointed the area where the broadcast originated.”

“You said the code refers to a landline. We’d have to go down and tap in.”

“That’s correct.”

“And you say you can’t pronounce the name of the place he’s from?”

“I said you can’t.”

“It should be doable,” said Rudy.

Hutch shook her head. “Phyl, show me what the landlines look like.”

A stretch of highway appeared on-screen. It was night, with a cloudless sky and a big moon. The lines were strung on a series of posts off to one side of the road.

Rudy sighed. “It doesn’t look much like an elder civilization.”

As they watched, a pair of lights appeared in the distance. Vehicle approaching.

“Are they communication lines?” Hutch asked. “Or power lines?”

“Probably both. You’ll have to go down and find out.”

“That sounds dangerous,” said Antonio.

That was exactly what Hutch was thinking. But the opportunity to sit down with aliens from an advanced civilization, something humans had been trying to do her entire lifetime, to sit down with one of these guys and ask a few questions…It was just too much to pass up. “How do we go about doing it?” she asked.

“I’ll design a link for you to use.”

“Okay.”

MATT WANTED TO make the flight down. But there was no way Hutch was going to pass on this one. “I’ve got it,” she said. “You stay with the ships.”

“I’ll go with you,” Antonio said.

“Me, too,” said Rudy.

She needed a backup, just in case. And if she got in trouble, she was reasonably sure Antonio would be more help than Rudy. “I have to take Antonio,” she said. “He’s the media. But, Rudy, we’re just going down to tie a link into the landlines. We aren’t going to talk to anyone.”

His jaw set. “Hutch, I want to go.”

“Rudy.” She adopted her most reasonable tone. “I’m going to need you to help conduct the conversation when we establish contact with these creatures. Meantime, I want you out of harm’s way.”

He sighed. Grumbled. Sat down.

She led Antonio below to the cargo area, which also served as the launch bay for the lander. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have used grip shoes for a surface operation, but they were rubber and would ground her against electrical shock. She pulled on rubber gloves, made sure Antonio was similarly fitted, collected two e-suits, and asked belatedly whether he’d ever used one before.

“Ummm,” he said.

“Okay.” It was beginning to feel like old times. “It’s simple enough.”

The equipment generated a virtual pressure suit, a force field that would protect him from the void or from a hostile atmosphere. She showed him how and helped him get the harness on. They tested the unit until he was sure he could manage it. Then she helped him strap on his air tanks.

When he was ready, she picked up a knife from the equipment locker, and they climbed into the lander.

An hour later, they descended into a clearing alongside a lonely road with electrical lines.

HAD IT NOT been for the poles lining the side of the highway, she might almost have been in Virginia. The road was two lanes. Its shoulder was cleared for about three meters on either side, then the forest closed in. It was late, the stars were bright overhead, the moon in the middle of the sky. A brisk wind moved through the trees, and insects buzzed contentedly. She’d been in forests on a dozen or so worlds, and they all sounded alike.

Dead ahead, the road went over a hill and dropped out of sight. Behind them, it disappeared around a curve.

She walked over to one of the poles and looked up. The pole itself had, in an earlier life, been a tree. The lines were high. Phyllis had thought there’d be footholds, but she didn’t see any.

“How are you going to get up there?” Antonio asked.

“Not sure yet.” A car was coming. From behind them. As headlights came around the curve, they sank back out of sight.

It was a small, teardrop vehicle. Three wheels. It was quiet. Probably electrically powered.