"I think it was the ships."
"Explain your statement, Booj."
"Well, Human Gina, it's like this. Humanity is still pretty unadvanced compared to us."
Gina nodded. In terms of bulk Booj was vast but his mass was considerably less than that of his drinking partner. "We had noticed. The vessel I attached to for the first lift here made mine look like a pushcart.
"Where I'm from it's a fairly advanced ship but it barely even compares to the lowest-tier vessels you people use. You've got the jump on us in terms of vessel development."
"Go on."
"So I made my technology freely available to you and your people, seeing how I didn't think we had anything to hide because we had nothing worth hiding. Not compared to your catalyzed fusion reactors, not compared to your photonic drives. Against that level of technology, we're pretty backwards. Our ships are your museum displays."
"It is convenient however. Since I fitted your ship with a proper reactor, you've gained a tremendous amount of range and consumables storage capacity."
"For which I thank you..."
"Well, you have made me pretty rich in a short period of time."
"...but the real kicker is the CVT. A doodad that picks me out of space in one place and puts me in another? Absolutely amazing."
"Don't ask me how it works."
"I won't. But against all that, it just makes sense that your people, everyone in this whole system, wouldn't expect much of humans."
"Until you put this on the nets for everyone to watch." He indicated the wall with a nod.
"Right. Until you saw some what we are, where we are." She waved at the viewer, where an old recording of human athletic competition was playing.
"Well, you are not very fast swimmers."
"Compared to...?"
"Oh, the Llobbans for instance. They're not the fastest I can think of but they swim in liquid environments at about ten meters per second." Gina could hear whatever increments Booj actually spoke in his own language, but the translator provided the conversion smoothly. "I think your fastest human swims at about three meters per second?"
"Nearly. Humans aren't made for swimming. We do it because it's fun, but we're not well adapted for it."
"And there are many other sports in which you participate. Individual racing is common here too, that's all very normal. When your recording first starting playing, the runners were unimpressive until the message went out to remind everyone what kind of gravity you humans run under. And even then some of us would consider humans kind of fast."
"Sure. All manner of jumping and running competitions, the various field competitions like javelins, hammer throw."
"Yes. These. These are exactly what I was talking about. What you call "field competitions." Those are incredibly dangerous."
"Dange...Booj, I made you rich by fighting people for money."
"Yes, but that's just fighting."
"I don't take your meaning."
"Your field competitions are based on how humans used to make war. Not just fighting after too many drinks, that's normal enough. War, Human Gina. You make games out of how you used to practice to kill many of your own kind."
"So?"
"Your sports are modified war training. The javelin is a thrown spear - just throwing a spear is unheard of in these worlds, did you know that? Hunting is by snaring, not stabbing and definitely not with a thrown pointed object. The strange device the human whirled his legs around..."
"Pommel horse."
"...yes, that. It's a development from your ancient solders training to mount a riding beast quickly. So they could get to the war faster so they could kill more of your own kind!
"We thought you harmless because your ships are unimpressive. Now we think you are somewhat less harmless, because you are not peaceful. I have watched you in action, and come to the conclusion that an angered human, even one utterly bereft of weapons" - where, Gina wondered, had the translator learned the word bereft - "is a significant threat to anyone in its path. You, Human Gina, have been an interesting person with whom to become acquainted, but your people cannot all be like you, peaceful and amenable."
"I'm not actually that peaceful. I just like you, Booj."
Booj paled noticeably. "What if humans in general don't like us?"
Gina sloshed her drink. They didn't put ice in drinks on this moon, but whatever this stuff was, it would go down better if it were colder. "Well...we might learn a new sport."
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