"I-I- hardly know.... wh-where to begin," he admitted. His brain felt absolutely scrambled, he could feel the tension of a headache coming on behind his right eye, and since he'd mentioned his family to the English girl he was suddenly desperately worried about what had become of them.
And that was what he was thinking about when the metallic voices started jabbering away again. He pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead, as if counter-pressure might ease the sting of it. Miguel's suggestion was a good one. A great one. He gave him a sort of weary sigh and nodded in agreement as he kept following along.
Now that the voices were to be ignored, he turned his attention to the strange symbols as they passed. "Wh-what... what is... th-the local language?" he asked, and then felt exasperated all over again. "I-in fact... wh-what is... what is local?"
Oh God, he was going to say space. He was going to say it was an alien language. He feared the pressure in his head might force his eye to pop right out in a minute.