the Dark Light Years by Brian W. Aldiss

definition of intelligence is simply 'information received'; if we receive no information from them, and they none from us, then we are entitled to say these ETA's are unintelligent.”
    "This is all very puzzling to me," Enid said. "You make it sound so difficult now, yet in your letters you made it sound so simple. You said these creatures had come up and attempted to communicate with you in a series of grunts and whistles; you said they each possessed six excellent hands; you said they had arrived on what's it -on Clementina, by spaceship. Surely the situation is clear. They are intelligent; not simply with the limited intelligence of an animal, but intelligent enough to have produced a civilization and a language. The only problem is to translate their noises and whistles into English.”
    Ainson turned to the Director.
    "You understand why it isn't so easy, don't you, Mihaly?”
    "Well, I have read most of your reports, Bruce. I know these are mammals with respiratory systems and digestive tracts much like ours, that they have brains with a similar weight ratio to our own, that possessing hands they would approach the universe with the same basic feeling we have that matter is there to be manipulated - no, frankly, Bruce, I can see that to learn their language or to get them to learn ours may be a difficult task, but I do feel you are overestimating the hazards of the case.”
    "Do you? You wait till you've observed these fellows for a while. You'll feel differently. I tell you, Mihaly, I try to put myself in their place, and despite their disgusting habits I have managed to preserve sympathy towards them. But the only feeling I get - amid an ocean of frustration -is that they must, if they are intelligent at all, have a very different point of view to the universe from ours. Really, you'd imagine they were - they were -" he gestured at them, calm behind the glass - "holding themselves aloof from me.”
    "We shall have to see how the linguists get on," Pasztor said. "And Bryant Lattimore of USGN Flight Advice -he's a very forceful man - I think you'll like him - arrives from the States tomorrow. His views will be worth having." It was not the remark to please Bruce Ainson. He decided he had had enough of the subject.
    "It's ten o'clock," he said. "Time Enid and I were shuttling home; you know I keep regular hours when I'm on Earth. We've enjoyed the celebrations, Mihaly. We shall see you at the end of the week.”
    They shook hands with returning cordiality. Provoked by one of the bursts of mischief that ensured he would never rise higher than his present sinecure, Sir Mihaly asked, "By the way, my friend, what was it Aylmer and the girl did that so conflicted with your point of view that you threw him out of your home?”
    A tinge as of dusty brick mottled Bruce Ainson's throat and jowls.
    "You'd better ask him yourself; he may see fit to gratify your curiosity; I don't see him any more," he said stiffly. "We'll find our own way out.
    The shuttle on the district line climbed upwards through a night punctuated by the city's orchestra of lights. It clung dizzily to its thread of rail. Enid closed her eyes and wished she had swallowed an Antivom before they boarded; she was not a good traveler .
    "A tubby for your thoughts," her husband said.
    "I wasn't thinking, Bruce.”
    After a silence, Ainson said. "What were you and Mihaly talking about while I went to get your wrap?”
    "I don't remember. Trivialities. Why do you ask that?”
    "How much did you see of him while I was away?”
    She sighed, and the noise of the air flowing past the cab drowned the small sound she made.
    "You always ask me that, Bruce, after each trip. Now stop being jealous or you'll give me ideas; Mihaly is very sweet but he means nothing to me.”
    High above outer London, the district shuttle decanted them on to the great curled lip of the Outflank Ring. Their section of the newly-built structure was crowded, so that they preserved silence as they