by J. F. Holmes
“Those reports are restricted! How did you learn of them!”
“I wrote two of them myself.”
The Senior Scientist stared at the cavalry officer for a second as her mouth slowly opened in a display of pleasure, the first Ka’Pella had seen on this trip.
“Horde Commander Do’Nartho was wise to send you on this mission. You will be suitably rewarded for the knowledge you bring. These aliens have probably polluted their own world. We cannot allow them to do it to ours. It’s the only world we have.”
Ka’Pella could see a large, white shape through the trees. It did not look like the wooden structures the rest of the village was made of. It was smooth, with a large, light blue rectangle and white markings she assumed were lettering. The village seemed busy, but not so busy not to stop and gawk at the cavalry that began fanning out through the streets. The village Intern, in fine but sturdy robes, approached the carriage as it came to a stop. The Intern crossed her arms in submission. Three creatures she did not recognize stood back from the entourage. They appeared to be males and wore blue clothing that covered all but their heads and hands and wore black footwear. All three wore belts that secured various small pieces of equipment. One was a pale pink, one was dark brown, and the third a lighter brown. The pink one had yellow hair that fell to his shoulders and had what Ka’Pella assumed were armor plates on his chest, worn beneath the one piece clothing. The two brown ones had their black hair cropped close to their heads.
The footman opened the carriage door. Ka’Pella exited the carriage first and approached the Intern as Herd Leader So’Latho slid off his garnah.
“I present to you, Her Grace, Senior Scientist Na’Galla, Department of Scientific Ethics!”
With this, the Senior Scientist exited the carriage and strode towards the village leader, Ka’Pella and So’Latho falling in behind the Department Head. The Intern was now bowing her head in fear. A visit from Ethics never boded well.
“Greetings, Your Grace,” the village leader intoned formally, “I am Intern Se’Gantha. Your presence honors us.”
“Yes, it does.” Na’Galla replied haughtily, “The Dean of Science sends her regards to you and your… people.”
“We expected someone from the Department of Communications…”
“Of course you did. I convinced the Dean this fell into my department’s area of expertise. We have questions for you.”
At the word ‘questions’, the Intern involuntarily ducked even lower.
“I stand ready to assist you in any way you require, Your Grace.”
“Good, now introduce me to these visitors you failed to send away.”
“Send away?”
“Did you not think their presence through? Does not the Protocols of Environmental Science state that everything leaves a trace? Did you inquire what pollutants their vehicles expelled into our air? Did you not think how their presence would pollute your village? Give your people forbidden ideas of innovation? Our primary duty is to protect our planet from ourselves. Now it is to protect it from them! This is the only planet we have!”
Ka’Pella suppressed surprise at what the Department Head was saying. Could these alien’s presence really cause so much damage to their planet? They had to come from somewhere. That meant they had to have survived there long enough to travel here. She reminded herself to ask how they handled pollution and industrial waste on their world. If the same could be done here, maybe they could approve some new ideas.
“My apologies, Your Grace. I did not think this through,” The village leader said penitently. “While I admit my sin, accidental though it is, please have mercy on the rest of my people. I bear this alone.”
“We shall see. Bring them here.”
“We have prepared a feast for you and them, as is proper to greet guests. Even unexpected ones.” The Intern stated, glad to change the subject to something she had done right as she gestured towards the aliens for them to approach. “The villagers are preparing it in the school as we speak.”
“Excellent.”
The aliens stopped before the Senior Scientist and the yellow haired one bent slightly at his waist and recovered while the dark brown one stood with his hands behind his back. The light brown one fiddled with the brooch on his clothing.
The yellow haired alien began to speak. His voice was high pitched and odd. Then the brooch on his chest started speaking.
“Greetings on behalf of the United Nations of Earth. I am Doctor Tera Bjornson. I am to act as Ambassador to you and your people. I hope we can find a mutually beneficial relationship.”
Na’Galla stared at the alien. She glanced at the brooch and back at the alien, unsure which to talk to.
“Just talk to her and ignore the brooch.” Se’Gantha whispered to the Senior Scientist.
“That’s a her?” The Department Head responded incredulously.
“Forgive me,” the yellow haired alien interjected, “Yes, I am a female of my species. We are foreign to this world and therefore developed differently.”
Apparently, those brooches could pick up even whispered speech. Something to keep in mind.
“Of course,” the Department Head recovered quickly, “I am Senior Scientist Na’Galla, I lead the Department of Scientific Ethics. The Dean of Science sends her regards, but I do not think any relationship will be possible between us. We will explain ourselves more during dinner, but then you must leave as soon as you are able.”
The light brown alien crossed his arms and looked at the yellow haired female, who was either oblivious or ignoring him.
“Leave?” the came the voice from the Ambassador’s brooch as the alien’s eyes widened, “We just arrived!”
“We did not invite you here. I do not know what you did to your own world that brought you to ours, but we will protect this world. We have no other.”
“We will discuss this. I think we will find some means to compromise. Until that time, let me introduce Doctor Jacob Bear Talker, our Linguist.”
“Hello, I happy meet you.” The light brown alien stated without the brooch translating.
“You actually speak our language!” Ka’Pella exclaimed, causing an annoyed glance from the Senior Scientist. The pink female turned and snapped something to the light brown alien.
“Turn your cross-garble back on, Jake,” Her brooch translated.
The light brown alien tapped the side of the brooch and said something in his own language.
“I am still learning,” his brooch translated while he continued to speak, “This thing is a walking prop.”
Ka’Pella paused to think what he meant.
“Crutch?” she asked, using her arm to simulate the walking aid.
“Yes!” the alien exclaimed as he bared his teeth.
The pink one said something else which her brooch translated as “We’ll talk about this later.”
Turning back to the Senior Scientist, the pink alien spoke again, gesturing towards the dark brown alien.
“This is our ship captain, Greg Washington, Commander of the UNES Vespucci” her brooch translated.
“How do you do.” the dark brown alien said through his brooch.
“How do I do what?” Na’Galla asked, confused.
The light brown alien began making quiet noises as air escaped from him in short, staccato bursts. His brooch began laughing.
“I’ll fix that,” the Linguist said to his companion. “It’s a greeting,” He said, turning back to the Department Head, “The garbled is still in development.”
“I see,” Na’Galla returned, haughtily, “How soon will your ship be ready to leave?”
“I am not free to discuss the disposition of our transportation, ma’am.”
“You are on our planet.”
“Yes, we are.”
“If you do not leave in a timely manner we will force you to go.”
The dark alien’s eyes narrowed.
“How do you want to play this, Tera?” The ship captain ask
ed without looking away.
There was a short pause.
“Commodore Perry,” was all the Ambassador stated.
“Dr. Bjornson, don’t set that precedent,” the light brown male begged.
“Do it,” the female alien commanded.
The light brown alien close his eyes tightly and cocked his head away.
The Captain bared his teeth, nodded and turned to the Intern.
“Se’Gantha, you have been very kind and welcoming to us since we arrived. Allow me to help you with some firewood.”
“We’re have enough firewood for the feast. The Protocols only allow us to harvest so much…”
“I insist,” the alien stated, reaching into a triangular pouch on his belt. He held the object by a handle while a cylinder protruded past his fingers. He pointed it at a medium sized tree near the edge of the village. One of his fingers tightened around a lever on the handle. Ka’Pella suddenly realized it was a gun!
There was a loud boom and the base of the tree splintered. Creaking, the body of the tree fell away from its shattered stump. Doors opened and people ceased working as every villager stopped to stare at what had just happened.
The dark alien placed the gun back in the pouch he had retrieved it from and crossed his arms. Ka’Pella began to suspect that wasn’t a submissive gesture for the aliens.
“We will talk about this at dinner,” the Ambassador intoned. Gesturing to her companions, she turned towards the large white shape and began walking away, the two males following in her wake.
The entire village had turned out for the feast. The school auditorium was normally used for the end of harvest feast. The added numbers from the alien vessel made fitting everybody in a challenge. Ka’Pella realized she should no longer call them aliens. They called themselves Humans, just as her people called themselves Karan. They came from a planet called “Earth” or “Terra” but, apparently, their species had colonized other worlds as well. And now they wanted a presence here.
The large room was lit with oil lanterns. The oil was distilled and processed until it gave almost no smoke. The stoves were still wood, but it was hard to get the better tech out here to the edge of civilization. Senior Scientist Na’Galla sat next to Dr. Bjornson. She could tell Na’Galla was not happy with the discussion. Herd Leader So’Latho sat with a group of crewmembers from the Human ship. He appeared to be having a good time. Ka’Pella, herself, sat next to a male that introduced himself as Dr. Parkesh, a Geologist, and across the table from Dr. Bear Talker.
“… So when the wind mills and the solar panels couldn’t keep up with demand, it was decided we had advanced beyond Karan’s ability to sustain us. We had to limit ourselves to sustainable technology,” she was explaining.
“You use wood and coal,” the Linguist responded. He seemed confused, “How is that sustainable?”
“Replanting the trees we harvest is simply part of being good husbands of our planet. It is the only planet we have, so we have to take care of it. Senior Scientist Na’Galla thinks you are here because you have polluted your own planet. How bad is it?”
The two aliens looked at each other, their eyes widening and their mouths opening. Suddenly laughter erupted through their brooches.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh,” the Geologist apologized, “We went through a phase where we had problems with industrial waste. Some of the later developing countries were really bad. Some just didn’t care. But we developed new technology that allowed us to move beyond that. Now the worst problems are occasional accidents and problems that occur during natural disasters. Our planet thrives.”
“You still have other countries? You are divided?”
“We still have countries,” Dr. Bear Talker responded, “Dr. Parkesh is Pakistani. I am an American. Actually, I am what we would call a Native American or a member of the First Nations. I call myself a Mohawk…”
“But we are united under an organization called the United Nations,” Dr. Parkesh interrupted, “For all that we have countries, one organization runs the planet and its colonies.”
“A bunch of dirt bound bureaucrats telling people…”
“How did you even get on this mission!” the Geologist exclaimed to the Linguist.
“I translated the books the UNES Cortez brought back,” Dr. Bear Talker responded, baring his teeth.
Dr. Parkesh rolled his eyes.
“What books?” Ka’Pella asked.
“We are not authorized to talk about that,” Dr. Parkesh stated, his eyes narrowing at the Linguist.
“Shut up,” Dr. Bear Talker returned tersely, “We need to be up front with them.”
The light brown alien turned to Ka’Pella, “We visited your planet before. Our protocols require our crews to minimize contact with any sapient aliens upon initial encounter to avoid any misunderstandings. They took time to explore some ruins on your second largest continent. They found a library and removed all that they could. I used that library to learn your language.”
“Captain So’Latho’s White Sky Demons,” the Scientist responded in realization.
“What?” both the aliens stated at once.
“Never mind,” Ka’Pella needed to change the subject. Fortunately, Dr. Bear Talker did it for her.
“Why did the Karan choose to abandon their technology? You had internal combustion engines. You had industry. You had rockets while we were developing indoor plumbing. But you abandoned it. I know about the problems you had with waste and pollution, but technology could have overcome it.”
“No, it couldn’t. It was going to doom us. The skies were always overcast. The ground water was becoming poisoned. It was either go back or perish.”
“But you never even tried,” the Linguist admonished.
“Okay, mister-know-it-all,” the Pakistani alien interrupted, “Try with what?”
“Err, they could have…”
“With what resources? Did you bother to read the brief on the Geological Survey?”
The light brown alien just looked at his fellow.
“That’s what I thought. They have iron, they have tin, they have copper, Great Allah, do they have copper, but their coal and oil are crap. They burn dirty. It’s no wonder they almost smoked themselves out.”
“Nuclear.” The Mohawk responded defiantly.
“Now I know you didn’t read anything outside of your area. What do you need to get nuclear power?”
Dr. Bear Talker cocked his head to one side. His lips tightened. “I was awfully busy translating yours and every other expert on this mission’s books and treatises into Karan to worry about what you were saying. Let’s not play guessing games. They were starting to get into atomic science before they went garbled. It was far behind most of their other science, which is surprising, but they had it. I know, I translated their news articles.”
“This planet has almost no Uranium. They had nothing to study.”
“Uranium?” Ka’Pella interjected, “What do you use it for?”
“Not much anymore,” the Geologist answered, “We have better materials and more efficient means of generating power now. But it can be used to power a Nuclear Reactor.”
“What’s that?”
“The process of Nuclear Fission generates heat,” the Linguist responded, “Use heat to turn water into steam. Steam powers a turbine, turbine powers a generator, generator gives you electricity.”
“We could expand our electrical generation beyond the few government buildings that are allowed to have it. What waste does it produce?”
“Mostly water vapor and depleted Uranium.”
“Is the depleted Uranium hard to dispose of?”
“We don’t have a problem with it anymore. We should be glad to show you what to do.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Ka’Pella sighed, “As Scientist Parkesh said, Uranium is very rare and Senior Scientist Na’Galla would probably decide against the idea even if it were not.”
“What do you mean?” Dr. Par
kesh asked.
“Her Department of Scientific Ethics hasn’t approved any new ideas in fifty years. It would need to be waste neutral to have a chance of passing her office. I’m not sure anyone in my Department would even push for it for fear of being drummed out of the Academy altogether.”
“But you burn coal and wood!”
“It hasn’t happened recently, but Senior Scientists have discussed stopping that too.”
“That doesn’t even make sense! I thought you were Scientists!”
“I am a Scientist!” Ka’Pella retorted
“I don’t think that word means what you think it means!”
The Mohawk’s eyes suddenly widened. He raised one hand as if to stop the Pakistani scientist.
“Hold up, Ali, I don’t think that word means what we think it means,” He turned to the Karan Scientist, “What is your job?”
Ka’Pella was taken aback. She was a Scientist. Didn’t they know what that meant?
“New ideas are brought to me and I try to determine ways in which they might be used without damaging the environment. I write up an implementation plan and present it to the Department of Scientific Ethics for approval. They’ve never approved anything of mine yet, but I hope we can learn something from you that will allow us to advance ourselves again.”
“You don’t actually try to advance your people’s knowledge yourself?”
“That’s a politically dangerous area. While I am close to it, I do not participate in it.”
Herd Leader So’Latho and several of the Human ships officers stood up and began making their way to the door.
Senior Scientist Na’Galla broke off her conversation with the alien ambassador and called after the former balloon pilot, “Where are you going?”
So’Latho, turned around slowly and crossed his arms in false submission.
“The Humans have offered to allow me a flight in their aircraft. Would you care to share with me the honor of being the first Karans in space since The Three were lost? We’ll be part of History!”
