“So we are looking for the manual, huh? Let’s spread around and look for it. What does it look like?” I asked Neva while trying to make sense of both the alien and ancient terrestrial language on the wall. I silently cursed myself for not paying attention to the linguistic course in the Academy and relied on the Universal Translator (AKA UT) for my communication needs. And my communication officer on the ship, Hari Krishnan, was not in the party that landed. It too was my call to exclude her, and I was feeling much regret for that decision. She would have been the perfect person for that task as one of the last remaining Sanskrit speakers from the Academy. But we had much more urgent issues to resolve than regretting over the past decisions, although I must admit all of them were mine.
Neva didn’t reply to my question, and neither did Dio. Both of them were too absorbed staring at their scanner screens. I could see texts scrolling at a furious pace on the screen, translating the alien signs using the known words from the Sanskrit. It would take an hour to completely translate an unknown language with pairing from a known language, but Sanskrit is such an expressive language that I would expect it to take longer than normal.
“Got it!” Neva shouted. Dio immediately painted his face with the disappointing look. I could feel the intense rivalry between my two best officers.
“Ok Neva, go ahead. How do we bring back the ship?” I asked.
“It is… How do I say it?” said Neva.
“Say it out loud. We have no time.” I barked. He should know the situation we were in and still gave me a half-hearted answer. Maybe I should send him back to the Academy when everything is over.
“Well Captain, one of us has to go into the light to get to the ‘switch’ to reverse the transmission. This would, according to the translation here, would bring back the ship. But..”
“But what?”
“I think he would say that person is stuck at the other side. Captain” Dio continued the sentence looking up from his scanner which apparently just completed the translation.