Chapter 1146
The first person Anton put in significant effort to speak with was of course the friendly algae. Assuming that whole thing was a single individual was easier, but he didn’t actually know that. Still, a few minor discontinuities on a physical body being connected was a small matter compared to lacking the normal requirements for sapience such as a brain of some sort.
His friend was excited to see him again. They bubbled out of their new home into a humanoid form and went right in for another same-side handshake. That was more or less where communication broke down, but Anton was in contact with others who should be able to help.
He tried a few things. Sound still didn’t work, but his movements seemed to be perceived by his conversation partner. Sign language was suggested, but not one that Anton knew. There were some language specialists who took stock of the situation, and having received updates along the way they had begun to develop something that seemed to fit.
Since the algae didn’t seem to do well at distinguishing smaller digits like fingers, the specialists in space had come up with a sort of full body sign language. Anton felt very silly, waving his arms around and making exaggerated gestures, but the algae didn’t seem to care and happily joined in while mimicking his actions.
After a few hours the algae seemed to get tired, but the next day it happily interacted with Anton again. It took several days of attempts before it actually seemed to understand the meaning behind anything. They were beginning with object words, starting with relevant things like lake, river, and human. The translators weren’t really sure if they should come up with a name for the algae. Calling it algae might not even be correct at the current point- that would be more like calling humans ‘skin cells’ or something equally insufficient like ‘flesh’.
The algae based individual’s ‘hands’ were still more like mittens than anything else, but they placed them ‘palm down’ and made a wide sweeping gesture towards the lake, then an arm gesture that Anton was trying to use for follow. They then moved out onto the lake, collapsing into a floating pile.
“They did it!” the voice of Anton’s contact, Abioye. There was a whole team with him, but it was easier if only one person spoke directly to Anton once they made decisions on how to go about things. “I think.”
“I will follow to find out,” Anton agreed. He stepped into the lake, following after the algae. There was a microscopic chance it was trying to lead Anton to a watery demise, but that didn’t seem likely.
He felt curious senses on him as he began swimming. Clearly they didn’t expect him to move in that particular way. The algae formed into humanoid shape and tried swimming, but it quickly gave up. As a single mass, it moved around sort of like an octopus, swimming circles around Anton in a way he was quite certain he could interpret as happy.