2. English.
Everyone's eyes were wide. The girl was smiling.
Jenny tensed slightly. "My name isn't Claudia." She said, glaring at Cutter like it was his fault this girl had shrieked out the name that no longer belonged to her.
The girl's smile faded. "Etaca? Claudia! Eca laurna! Yota laorat nakto! E Florlic! The Guard!"
"What do you know about Claudia?" Cutter asked, somewhat desperate, but not missing the small bit of English the girl had said. The Guard.
She looked at him, then pointed at Jenny. "Claudia?"
He shook his head. Jenny. He wrote.
"Jeh-ney. Jenny?"
She stood up and looked at Jenny. There was absolute silence for a moment, and then something seemed to click in the small girl's mind.
"Oh…" A tear began to form in her eye. "Tolio Terria." She whispered softly. She stumbled back into the chair, her eyes blank.
"What do you know about Claudia?" Cutter asked again. Desperate as he was, he wrote the whole sentence down and handed her the paper.
It took her only slightly longer to read the sentence as she had the words. "Claudia… Knows…Ita."
"What?"
The girl pointed to herself. "Liska…Knew… Claudia."
You knew Claudia? Cutter wrote.
She looked at it and nodded.
How?
"Tolio Terria."
What?
She sighed. "Liska normalk, dee nako!"
He sighed as well.
Lester walked into the room. "Anything?" he asked.
The girl smiled slightly. "Lester." She said proudly.
Lester's eyes widened slightly. "Very amusing." Like Jenny had, he turned to Cutter as though it was his fault.
The girl looked at Connor and pointed at the paper. "Erta?"
Connor took the paper and wrote down Lester's comment.
She studied it, and a small frown crossed her face. "No… Not… Amusing. Twerta!" She turned to face Cutter. "Telo?"
Cutter shrugged, and she shrugged back.
"So… She does know English." Lester commented.
"No, actually." Cutter replied. "She's just learning."
Lester looked confused for a moment. "What?" He asked.
"She can't say it until she reads it." Connor said, coming into the conversation.
"Erta?" The girl asked, pointing to the paper. Connor wrote down what he had said. She studied it, and then exclaimed, nodding, "Telo!"
"That's not English." Lester commented.
"Not… Not…" She tried.
English Connor wrote.
"English!" She exclaimed, proud of herself.
Lester's eyes widened slightly. "Well that's all very well, but have you gotten to any of the larger questions?" He pointed to the pattern on her eye. "Like what that is, for instance?"
The girl looked around the room, confused. Connor wrote the question down. She studied it, and then nodded slowly. She looked around the room again, and her eyes focused on Connor's pant pocket.
The sound of a phone ringing made everyone jump. Connor pulled his phone out of his pocket so that he could turn it off, but stopped. "That is weird." He said. He showed the others his phone's screen.
It was like a mirror. The girl was smiling and waving on the phone and in real life. She looked proud of herself.
"This phone doesn't have video." Connor said. "How did you do that?"
She shrugged.
"So… What? You can make cell phones ring? That's it?" Lester asked. Cutter wrote it down.
She studied it, and then shook her head. She looked around the room again. Her eyes focused on a light bulb and it began flickering on and off.
"Technology?" Abby asked. Cutter wrote it down, and the girl nodded, smiling.
Lester shook his head slowly. "All right, Jenny, get a dictionary and show her the basics. We need answers that don't come from a game of twenty questions."
Jenny nodded, but the girl's eyes had gotten colder as she read Lester's statement that Connor had written down. "No." She said. "Connor shows Ita the basics." She pointed at Connor.
A few of the team half-smiled at Connor's expression.
"Erita, Jenny." The girl said, looking at Jenny. It was clearly an apology. "Tolio Terria Sertia morkla Claudia… Erto clersa."
"Oh, very well." Lester said. "Connor, you show her."
A few hours later, Cutter was standing outside of the window again. Inside, the girl was reading the dictionary. After seeing the major words, she decided to take over from there, taking the dictionary from Connor.
Lester came into the room where Cutter was watching. "How's she doing?" He asked.
"3,000 words and still going." Cutter replied. "She's a machine."
There was a pause, and then Cutter continued. "You know, that could be what we're dealing with."
Lester looked at him. "What?"
"Think about it. She's obviously from the future. How do we know that she isn't a machine? It would make sense. How she can learn these words, how she can make cell phones ring and lights flicker."
Lester looked at him. "You mean that she could be A.I.?"
Cutter nodded.
"Good grief. That's all we need. A glorified tin can."
Cutter smiled.
There was a pause. "Let's see what she knows." Lester said, breaking the silence. "Shall we?"
