Jake now knew his assignment but he really was most interested in Riojme. He spent several weeks on the space station with Ming, Jang, and Riojme. He used the time well.
He spent much of his time with Riojme learning all there was to know about Replin and its inhabitants, the Replini. Replin was similar to earth in mass but had a much thicker atmosphere with much more methane, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. There was still plenty of oxygen so it was breathable, though the different atmosphere mix would take some adjusting to. The planet was quite a bit warmer than earth, the average surface temperature was 90 degrees Fahrenheit, but the thicker atmosphere made the temperature more evenly distributed. That was especially helpful since the days and nights were about three times as long as on earth.
The Replini were about the same size as a human but their body plan was more like a dinosaur, similar in appearance to a velociraptor in Jurassic Park. Though they looked like dinosaurs, they seemed to have more in common with amphibians. They had soft, non-scaly skin, laid eggs in water and spent their first year of life in the form of an eel-like tadpole. When they grew into their adult form, they kept their tail and at the end of it grew two large dangerous looking horns which they took great pride in decorating. They were hermaphrodites but they still formed pair bonds like humans and took care of their children once they emerged from the breeding pools. Their life expectancies averaged about 400 earth years. Jake postulated that long life expectancies would make their society more conservative than human ones.
They only used one language throughout the entire planet and the Aye could mostly decipher it. There were aspects of the language, apparently critical, that it was not able to completely decipher. The language was composed of a series of rapid clicks almost like Morse code. Given Jake’s amazing abilities with the Canadian native’s language, Jang and Riojme hoped that he would be able to completely figure it out if the computer encoded it into an intermediate, human sounding language. There was little hope that even Jake would be able to directly understand the clicking noises.
Technologically, they were more advanced than the early 21st century but not as advanced in some ways as the 23rd. They had developed fusion power more than a thousand years prior and they built their structures out of advanced nanomaterials. Their cities were very earthlike from what could be seen from orbit. They had computer technology much like Jake had seen in 2068. Artificial intelligence had not advanced far enough to change their world like it had earth. It was fascinating to see that they had videos that were very similar to TV programs but they didn’t seem to have any computer based games. They had space stations including some that looked like massive weapons platforms, but weren’t even close to time travel or interstellar space exploration.
Jake also got to know the space station. It was quite large enough for four people. Its shape was like a donut and it was spun to provide a simulacrum of gravity. The exterior was cloaked using some kind of special invisible material so that it shouldn’t be detectable by the Replini. The large window that Jake looked out of would have been visible, though, if they had been looking through their telescopes at just the right place. There was a running track and a gym for exercise and robots provided food and whatever else was needed. Supplies and waste were transported in and out using the same room Jake and Ming had materialized in.
Jake and Riojme’s already very warm relationship improved as she taught him about things. The adventure clearly made her happy, though she missed her pets back at home and she was concerned that the elderly people she visited weren’t getting company, though Jang assured her that all was well. If Ming caught Jake failing to keep up with his exercise routine, he would disable Jake’s headband as a way to motivate him. This happened frequently but as a byproduct, it provided the necessary incentive for him to learn Lajbon.
