Rick spent the following days trying to facilitate communication with the slugs. For this purpose he set up simple objects and tried to convey their meaning to the visiting slugs.

Everyday he was visited by several of the slugs. The purpose of their visit was unknown to Rick. Did the want to trade? Did they try to understand what Rick wanted from them?

Progress was very slow and frustrating.

He usually greeted each guest with a friendly gesture, inviting them with open arms. They usually approached him after this invitation to examine the things he had laid out for them.

He had tried various items. From simple glass pearls to foodstuff, nothing really got him anywhere. Every time one of them came to his camp he'd sit down behind the items, opposite to the slug. When the slug would examine the items Rick would name them in the hope of any response from the slug in question, verbal or any other means that the scanner could detect. The problem was not that there was no response. Quite the opposite. Each time an item was examined and named the scanner happily chirped away collecting huge amounts of data. The problem was that the responses where all over the place.

"I don't understand this." Rick said aloud, partially to the open com link, partly to help himself think and partially to combat the loneliness he was starting to feel after almost two weeks without seeing another human. "There is absolutely no correlation between any of the chemicals released by them and the objects displayed. Every individual slug reacted totally different."

"The computer was unable to find any kind of pattern so far. Keep in mind that this is the first intelligent species we found that communicates completely different from what we know. It could also be that they are telepathic." One of the researchers back at the camp told him.

"I know. I think it's time to try something very different." Rick said.

Later that day he spotted another visitor. A slug, one of the larger ones was approaching his small camp. As far as he could tell, this was one of the returning visitors, he easily recognized the brown snake with a distinct gray spot on the front, therefore named Spot Rick set up his objects again and greeted Spot in his normal manner. Today's objects where foodstuff native to the planet that Rick was able to eat, he was fairly certain that he had seen some of them in the village during his first, brief visit.

As Spot came up to examine the objects Rick sat back and let his thoughts wander. He was feeling a bit hungry so he pulled out an apple from his pocket and bit into it. Savoring the taste it took him a moment to realize Spot's reaction. It completely froze in place upon spotting the apple. Rick was so stunned that he also froze in place, not daring to move or continue chewing.

Spot slowly approached him, ignoring the food that was placed on the floor it to examine.

With some trouble Rick managed to swallow the piece of apple with minimal chewing without choking on it.

"Haven't seen this before, have you?" He asked slowly waving the apple around.

Spot's stalks where basically glued to the apple.

"Wanna give it a try?" He asked.

With no real face and not meaningful way of communicating it was very difficult to judge any form of response from Spot. He pulled out a pocket knife and cut off a piece of the apple. He then picked it up and handed it to Spot.

It hesitated only very briefly before extending thin feelers with which it grabbed the apple slice. It pulled in back to his body where it disappeared together with the feelers.

"Want any more?" Rick asked.

Back at the camp several scientists where staring at the bank of monitors transmitting visual and sensor data from Rick's camp.

"Did he really just feed an alien life form an apple slice?"

"He sure did."

"But, that could easily kill or poison the slug, we have no idea how they react to our food."

"Relax. We already know that the biochemistry is close enough that we can eat their food. Therefore the opposite should also apply."

"But there are people on earth who are allergic to apples, this is insane."

"Relay, what's done is done. Let's just see what happens further."

Rick was bustling with excitement. He was walking next to Spot back to the village. Ricks long legs making it easy to keep pace with the steady motion of the slug, who didn't seem to be in any hurry to get wherever they where going. Hopefully Rick had interpreted the nonverbal communication correctly and they where really interested in the apples he carried in a bag over his shoulder. He was only carrying his pocket knife and the scanner as bringing any form of real weapon was completely inappropriate.

It didn't take them long to reach the small central square of the village. To Rick's astonishment a large number of slugs had already gathered there, obviously waiting for him to arrive.

To Rick it was quite a strange occurrence. With humans a crowd that numbered in the dozens there would be noise. People would talk, cough, babies would cry and so on. Not here. These people where utterly quite, as far as Rick could tell. A quick glance at the scanner showed a different picture altogether. The whole square was drowned in chemical compounds, most likely the local equivalent of chatter.

Spot guided Rick through the masses directly to the center of the square. The slugs parting before them and closing again behind them. They seemed to carefully avoid crowding him but where otherwise getting very close to Rick. Another behavior not seen before.

"I hope you're getting all this." Rick spoke to the air so that his colleagues back at the camp could hear him.

"We are. The pod is also on standby, just in case we need to pull you out of there."

"I really hope that won't be necessary." Rick said while carefully eyeing the crowd. It seemed that the whole village was present. The slugs ranged from very small ones that kept close to certain adults, to very large and obviously older ones.

Spot stopped as they reached the center of the square. Unsure what to do Rick slowly turned in a circle to watch the crowd.

"Apple… Want" his scanner suddenly spoke.

Rick went though a large percentage of his emotional spectrum in a very short amount of time.

"You want some apples. No problem." He sat the bag down and pulled out a piece of cloth which he spread on the ground. Then he took an apple and his knife and slice the apple up. Arranging the slices on the cloth he gestured to the crowd.

"Apples. Who wants first?" At that chaos broke out. Every slug wanted a slice of apple. All of them. All at once. As suddenly as the chaos had started it was over.

Directly in front of Rick, between the apples and the crowd was a large slug. It was different from the other slugs as it was colored in a dull green and quite a bit larger than the others. The slugs in the village where colored in all kinds of color, but Rick had yet to see a green one. Especially and all-green one as most of the others where at least freckled.

According to the scanner there was quite an exchange ongoing between the green slug and the crowd, with the green slug doing most of the talking. After a short period the crowd began to disperse. The green slug turned to Rick and measured him with it's sensor stalks.

"Come. Talk." It said.

Rick was completely stunned and could only watch as the green slug turned and moved towards on of the buildings. He felt a small nudge on his leg and looked down. Spot had moved to his side and was pushing him in the direction where the green slug was moving.

Rick quickly gathered his stuff and followed the green slug with Spot in tow behind him. They shortly reached one of the larger buildings and the green slug entered. Rick hesitated at first but quickly decided to follow. As the slugs where much lower than humans their buildings reflected that. This was one of the largest buildings in the village and it barely came up to Rick's chest. Unfortunately the doorway was way lower again, coming up to about Rick's hips. Groaning he got down on his knees and crawled into the building on all fours, followed by Spot. The doorway stood open, the door was cut from a large piece of wood in one single piece. The inside of the building surprised Rick who did not have had a chance to look into the buildings before. The floor was not on ground level but carved from the soil with a ramp leading down to it. As there was no second floor the ceiling was almost high enough for Rick to stand in. The walls where the same as on the outside, interwoven sticks and branches covered in dried mud. The single room of the building was surprisingly bright with light sources strewn around the room. Curiously Rick approached the closest one and scanned it.

"Interesting, bioluminescence. Who would have thought." He informed his colleagues.

Meanwhile the green slug had moved behind a low block of stone that seemed to serve as a kind of table. As there where no seats to be seen Rick settled on the ground opposite of the green slug and placed the scanner in the middle between them.

"Where from?" The slug asked him.

"Careful now. Just tell him you're from far away." The voice in Rick's ear told him.

"I'm from a land far away." Rick answered.

"Why come here?"

"Wait one." Rick was instructed.

It took the others a moment to come up with a response, but finally they answered.

"I'm here to meet you and trade."

"Meet me? Trade?" The neutral tone of the still rudimentary translation left a lot to be desired.

"Your people. You're so different than my people."

"Different, yes."

"I come to trade." Rick said and placed one of the apples on the table.

"Trade."

"Yes. Do you want to trade?"

It was impossible to tell but to Rick the slug almost looked puzzled. As no answer was coming, Rick took one of the apples from his bag and placed it on the table.

"Apple. Trade."

"Yes. That is an Apple. Do you like them?"

"Like. Apple."

Rick was on his way back to his camp, he was constantly talking to his colleagues.

"That went rather well, but the translation leaves a lot to be desired. Is there a way to improve it?"

"As we now have a kind of basis for understanding, the computer should be able to improve the matrix with more exposure, no other way of doing this, sorry. Problem is with the nonverbal part."

"Yes, that will be quite tricky. I'm confident that something can be figured out, given enough time."

"We have contacted the ship. They're setting things up on their end, for now you should rest. Good job today."

Looking towards the slowly sinking sun Rick could hardly disagree.

"Agreed. As soon as I'm back I'll call it a day."

It had taken almost two full days to get a good sample of the goods the Hermes was carrying – that would be of interest to these people. A lot of that time was spent debating exactly that. They had seen some primitive tools, but most of the tools they carried for trading where too sophisticated and simply way to big to handled by waist-high-slugs. The slugs had also not expressed any real interest in things that they could not eat. So they had settled on something that hopefully would be of interest.

Rick was carrying a large bag to the village. He made his way back to the same house as last time. Strangely the village seemed to be deserted as there was no slug around to be seen.

As he entered the house he was greeted by the same slug from before. Rick was puzzled at that as the room was empty beside the other slug. Maybe he had misunderstood the meaning of trade?

Rick approached the table and set down his heavy bag. He checked his scanner to make sure the translator was up and running and placed it on the table.

"I'm here to trade." Rick said.

"Trade. Yes." The slug answered

"Alright." Rick opened his bag and began putting things on the table.

They had decided of foodstuff, mainly fruits and vegetables. First came a selection of the fruits that had been harvested around both camps. Rick set these to the side.

Next came a selection of fruits and vegetables from back home, freshly picked the day before from the hydroponics on the Hermes. These he put right next to the native fruits.

After that Rick pulled out a selection of meat from the native wildlife they had slaughtered several days ago. Those went next to the exotic fruits.

Last he pulled out a selection of foodstuff the crew had suggested. Cured ham, Jelly, cheese among different processed foods. Those went on the other side of the table.

With Rick's bag almost empty the table was quite full now.

"What do you want?" Rick asked, his hands gesturing to the stuff on the table.

"Want."

"Ok, anything in particular?" Rick asked.

The slug extended it's feelers and let them wander over the exhibits on the table. What started as a fast, almost dismissive movement on the side with the native fruits became a slow and meticulous process once the feelers reached the exotic fruits and vegetables. While the feelers examined the foodstuff Rick checked his scanner, it was recording quite some data and the link to the Hermes was intact and busy.

The feelers seemed to stall when they reached the meat from the native animals. They then quickly skipped over it and examined the rest of the exotic foodstuff carefully.

After some time the feelers retracted again, signaling the end of the investigation.

"What do you want?" Rick asked again.

"Want." The slug answered without any further explanation or comment.

"Ok."

Rick started on his right and took the first item, a local fruit that was the size of a plum but was of a green-brown color different from what could be found on earth. It also tasted very different.

Rick held up the native fruit.

"Want or not?" He asked.

"Not. Have."

"So not want?"

"Not want."

Rick put it back into his bag. He then proceeded to continue this with every item on the table.

The local stuff all went back into the bag, fruits and meat. The fruit and vegetables from the Hermes all stayed on the table.

The processed stuff also got to stay on the table for further consideration.

"Alright. Do you want to try what you're buying?"

"Try. Buy." The translator still left a lot to be desired in Rick's opinion.

Rick pulled out his pocket knife and started to slice up the fruits and vegetables. From every different specimen he handed a slice to the slug on the other side of the table to sample it.

First was a slice of tomato. The feelers got a hold of the slice without any noticeable difficulty and it disappeared into the lower section of the slug. Unfortunately this part of the slug was hidden from plain sight from Rick by the table. He had yet to figure out what they used for a mouth.

After a moment Rick asked. "Want or not?"

"Want."

"Alright." Rick slid the tomato to the right side of the table and picked the next in line.

It took some time but all the exotic items went to the right side of the table with all the native items being discarded.

"That makes sense. Why buy something you already have." He said more to himself than to the open com link.

"Now the tricky part. What do you have to offer in exchange?" Rick asked his counterpart.

That got no reaction at all.

"Exchange. I give you, you give me?" Rick tried again with a piece of fruit. The feelers grabbed the piece but Rick did not let go.

"Want?" Rick asked.

"Want." Came the prompt response.

"Then give something. Trade."

"Trade."

"Yes. I give, you give something back in exchange."

"Give back."

"Exactly."

"Give."

"I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say." the frustration in Rick's voice was easily recognizable. "Let's try again."

"Well, that was very frustrating to say the least." an exhausted Rick spoke into the com link.

"Agreed. They might not really know the concept of trade." his colleague answered.

"This guy obviously doesn't. To be honest I have no idea how to proceed here. I could really use some advice."

"Already passed on. We'll see what the others say. Head back to camp for now."

"Understood."

With a sigh he shouldered his now much lighter bag and headed back to camp.