Chapter: Chapter 17
↓ Transcript
Emily: This is so exciting!
Dee: But no promises, remember!
Emily: That's ok. Hey, if you can't show me aliens, could you at least tell me about them instead?
Dee: Uh... I can try... But remember how hard it was describing trees!
Emily: Don't worry, that was different. You were trying to tell me what it felt like to be a tree. I don't need to know that for this, I think.
Dee: Even so, they're very different from you... It might be easier if I get some paper. (He vanishes.)
Dee (flying back from around the corner of some shelves, with a notepad and pen): I'm not very good, but maybe I can draw them for you.
Emily: Oh! Ok.
Dee: Now... ... God, where do I begin!?
Emily: Um... do you have any favourites? Are there humanoid aliens?
Dee: Hm... not really, and... sort of? There are points of similarity here and there... something with two arms and two legs, or a similar nervous system, or... But you know, some people are so different I'm not sure you'd recognise them as life! Oh, there's this one kind that's almost more mineral than organic. They grow right out of the rock, with this stone shell and a digestive system of chambers full of acids.
Dee (while roughly sketching the creature he describes): They draw minerals up through these chambers... kind of like your digestion, really. They can't move, though. But they're intelligent - I don't know how to explain their brains to you, but they have this really complex language of singing. The frequencies would be too low for you, though. Anyway, basically all they do is talk and sing. And there's no privacy so they have to make codes... Oh, and there are these other ones...
Dee: But no promises, remember!
Emily: That's ok. Hey, if you can't show me aliens, could you at least tell me about them instead?
Dee: Uh... I can try... But remember how hard it was describing trees!
Emily: Don't worry, that was different. You were trying to tell me what it felt like to be a tree. I don't need to know that for this, I think.
Dee: Even so, they're very different from you... It might be easier if I get some paper. (He vanishes.)
Dee (flying back from around the corner of some shelves, with a notepad and pen): I'm not very good, but maybe I can draw them for you.
Emily: Oh! Ok.
Dee: Now... ... God, where do I begin!?
Emily: Um... do you have any favourites? Are there humanoid aliens?
Dee: Hm... not really, and... sort of? There are points of similarity here and there... something with two arms and two legs, or a similar nervous system, or... But you know, some people are so different I'm not sure you'd recognise them as life! Oh, there's this one kind that's almost more mineral than organic. They grow right out of the rock, with this stone shell and a digestive system of chambers full of acids.
Dee (while roughly sketching the creature he describes): They draw minerals up through these chambers... kind of like your digestion, really. They can't move, though. But they're intelligent - I don't know how to explain their brains to you, but they have this really complex language of singing. The frequencies would be too low for you, though. Anyway, basically all they do is talk and sing. And there's no privacy so they have to make codes... Oh, and there are these other ones...