Harrigan spoke up. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this, carto. How does a species develop the ability to communicate three-dimensionally?”

I nodded. “That, sir, is exactly the crux of the issue.” I pulled up the next slide, a chart of the major known races in the galaxy. "Humans — and every other race we know of — are three-dimensional beings, occupying height, width, and depth. Some would argue we are also at least four-dimensional, occupying as we do the linear dimension of time, but that is more a theoretical concept than a physical — and it is the physical with which I am concerned here.

“As such, we occupy three dimensions and communicate in one.” Next slide. “What we have now encountered is a species that communicates in three dimensions yet occupies rather more dimensions that than.”

I looked at Harrigan. “I don’t wonder that you have a hard time grasping the notion. I’ve struggled with it myself, despite my special abilities as a cartographer.”

A breath, and then I continued.