Read Online Hellspark by Janet Kagan - Free Book Online Page B

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    screen on the far wall. Not a bad choice, that, since it contained one of the sensor banks that Maggy used to watch the control room.
    She was saying, “I’m sure I wasn’t drunk enough that my ears were playing tricks on me. It sounded as if Tocohl said, first, ‘Hell Spark,’ and then, ‘Hell’s Park,’ when she talked about her people.”
    “She did,” said Maggy.
    “But which is it?”
    “That’s a state secret,” said Tocohl.
    “That’s a joke, Alfvaen,” Maggy said, her prim tone making it sound much like a child’s confidence, “Tocohl told me.”
    Tocohl grinned. “So it is, but you’re entitled to use the joke too, Maggy.”
    “All right, but Alfvaen wants to know. She wants to get it right.”
    “I accept your reasoning,” Tocohl said. “Alfvaen, the correct pronunciation is to alternate the two pronunciations—to use first one, then the other, even in the same sentence.”
    “How odd. Why?”
    “For the same reason anybody does anything in any language: because.”
    “That’s not enough reason,” Maggy said, sounding primly offended.
    “I know, Maggy; but that’s all the reason there is in most cases. In the case of Hellspark, well, since that was originally an artificially created language, there’s a bit more reason. The alternation I think was intended to remind you of the need to be flexible in language. If so, it’s failed in a way. I can no more use two Hell’s-parks followed by a Hell-spark than some people can learn to alternate them every time. So I
    don’t think it achieves the desired result, but it’s retained as a joke all by itself—even without the
    ‘state secret’ line.”
    Alfvaen added thoughtfully, “Every Siveyn I ever met pronounces it hell-spark. I suppose that’s because
    , too.”
    “Hell-spark means something in Siveyn, while hell’s-park is only nonsense syllables. One tries to make any new word fit the parameters one is accustomed to. When I speak Siveyn, I pronounce it hell-spark, too.”
    “You didn’t that time,” said Maggy.
    Tocohl considered this. “Had I been speaking Hellspark to you, Maggy, while I was talking to
    Alfvaen?”
    “Yes.”
    “That would account for it, then. A holdover from language to language. Tell me if you catch me doing that again. It’s bad practice.” This last was directed at Alfvaen as well.
    Speaking very slowly and very carefully, Alfvaen said, “But I’d like to try doing it anyway, even if it’s bad practice for a Hell-spark. It seems common courtesy to pronounce ‘Hell’s-park’
    the way a
    Hell-spark would.” Her green eyes lit with pleasure. “That’s not easy!”
    “No, it’s not,” Tocohl agreed. She rose, crossed the room to hang her cloak near the best source of light, and said, “If you can hear it and, better still, do it, then I think I have a good pupil. That Page 29

    is, if you’re still interested in a crash course in Jenji, Alfvaen?”
    Alfvaen came to attention instantly, so eager in manner that her words were unnecessary. She said them anyway, “Oh, yes! Please!” then looked momentarily worried. “I haven’t much to pay you, not after passage.”
    “Passage is for acting as my liaison with the survey team. As for payment for language lessons…
    if you’re helping Maggy with her Siveyn, I’ll consider it even.”
    (She can pay you by teaching me?) Maggy inquired privately.
    (Anything you learn is to my advantage. And it has never seemed right to me to charge for such a basic tool as language.)
    (I think I understand.)
    Alfvaen began, “Does Maggy—is that all right with you, Maggy?”
    “Of course,” said Maggy, this time aloud. “If I learn Siveyn, I can help Tocohl.”
    It was so much like a small child’s absolute assurance that Tocohl couldn’t help but smile.
    “That’s
    settled, then,” she said. “We might as well get started. On your feet, Alfvaen.”
    Alfvaen looked at her with surprise.
    “Up,” Tocohl said. “You were expecting the