As soon as it uttered the first syllable, my heart ached with longing for something that it had never before known that it wanted. Words, as we know them, are instruments that relay information. In this case, however, it was more like I was the instrument being used by the word. I understood clearly what the voice meant to convey while it was speaking, but once it stopped, so did my comprehension. The truths those words held could not be distilled through human thinking. It was a language more primal than thought and the part of me that responded to it had no words beyond reptilian grunts and hissing.
“Well, what did the damned thing say?” the colonel asked through a mouth stretched taut with loathing. “Is it a friend or is it a foe?”
“I guess that depends on how we treat it.”
“Does it have potential to be a threat, lieutenant?”
“Again, colonel sir, that probably depends on how we treat it.”
“Lieutenant Madison, I need a positive assessment of the threat level of this biological asset.”
“It’s too early to assess the threat level, sir. It doesn’t have claws or fangs or poison. It can speak words.”
“Yes, we’ve established that, yet you don’t know what they mean.”
“Well, that’s just it, sir. Its words seem to have a more fundamental meaning. Did you feel nothing when the being spoke?”
“Yes! A pronounced dissatisfaction with the ‘expert linguist’ I’ve been provided with. You don’t seem to have any better idea than I do what the damned thing is saying, let alone what it is.”
“Sir, yessir, but I think this language serves a function that is much deeper than mere communication. It’s more like a transfer of absolute truth to the consciousness.
The colonel raised his left eyebrow indulgently and asked, “What precisely was this absolute truth that was transferred to your consciousness, lieutenant? I’m dying to know.”
“I knew it while the creature was speaking, but now I’ve… Not forgotten, exactly, but more like my mind couldn’t grasp it.”
“So, what you’re saying is that it’s not capable of speaking an intelligible language.”
“No, colonel, sir. The language is only unintelligible because of our own limitations. There’s no telling what it might be capable of in terms of…”
“That’s enough, lieutenant. If you don’t know what it’s saying, then it’s unintelligible. We’ll have the specimen euthanized, preserved, and sliced into…”
“That’s not fair!”
“That’s right, lieutenant. It’s not fair. It’s the army. And as long as it is, you will honor my rank when you speak to me!”
Just then, the creature restrained on the table spoke a word whose rough human equivalent might be something like “fair” or “justice.” As soon as it was uttered, the world shook from its foundations to its firmament, and it became not just the law of the land, but a law of physics.
“Remove those restraints and make the patient comfortable, lieutenant,” I ordered.
“Yes, Colonel Madison,” he responded.
Literature in Small Doses 