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First Contact


After attempts with AUSLAN, Venusian beetle-click code and even a Tele-psychic tophat, it was starting to dawn on Mousehammer that the Cephalopoidia Sapiens communicated via encoded tap-dancing... 



Later, in the laboratory aboard the airship. Mousehammer meticulously transcribes the squid's movements on to tiny brass cards and feeds them to the Analytical Engine. With a burst of steam the mechanism begins calculating ...

Time passes...

More time passes, Mousehammer lounges at the Engine console day-dreaming...

The sudden loud clattering of the hammers of the Gutenberg Mill startle the professor from his wool-gathering. The machine is printing the decoded message !

Intrigued to discover what wisdom the Squids wanted to impart , he hurried to the Mill to retrieve the completed parchment. On the page, in large friendly letters he read...

F🦑🐙k Art, Let's Dance .

Somewhat nonplussed by the answer, Mousehammer paused to think, then moved to compose a reply outlining the joy of Science, Technology,Engineering, Art, and Mathematics.
However, no arrangement of the statement would compile into the Cephlapoidal language. Feeding the codes to the Analytical Engine raised a "Contradiction" flag and eventually caused complete lock-up of the mechanism.

Later...
The clockwork pantograph plotted the output of a much simpler greeting,
a chime announced completion.

Mousehammer sighed as he examined the graph "I may need some help with this, like a dance troupe perhaps ?"