The Tomb World Ch6 (Patreon)

Gotari

Daniels was back on the bridge of the Staff of Lore, having finished a six hour session of hand waving and miming with the thigh high aliens who had come to great them. Lizard-monkey was not a bad descriptor, it’s just that it didn’t really encapsulate everything they were. It would have been just as applicable to call them featherless chicken-monkeys. Generally speaking, evolution on different worlds had many similarities. Fish were fish, mammals were mammals, and birds were birds.

Some mammals on some worlds developed certain similar adaptations to mammals on other worlds and could be broadly identified and Candide, Bovine, or Avian. Canines like the Balikstro and Kunan’ai were common since pack tactics often led to social behaviors and more. Bovines like the Icutoo and Kaydic were just a pastoral reflection of the canine like aliens. And Simians/primates were common since most worlds had trees, and the intelligence required to swing from branch to branch often led to sapience. Humans, Carkic, and Feals were all primate species who had a lot in common due to shared adaptations. And the newly discovered Torweni were almost exactly like humans, with just some different skin tones and a shorter average height.

The thigh aliens however didn’t fall under any of these categories. It seemed that their world was one that didn’t hold to the common trends of evolution at all. They had a shiny scale like skins, with no hair whatsoever. Daniels even got the impression that hair was general uncommon since Fezzen had asked to feel Daniels very short, cropped hair. Their fingers were single jointed and lacked all the finesse of human hands, at most they could hold things and push buttons. They had marveled at how much Daniels could move his fingers and hand. They hand four long arms that they used to assist with running, and could use them to add momentum to their jumps.

The faces were a cross between your average simian features, like forward face eyes and ears. But had unusual differences such as a more beak shaped mouth, with slits for nostrils like a chicken.

To put it simply Daniels wasn’t sure how to classify them at all, and they also appeared to be a people how didn’t have a species specific word for themselves. They just used the turn ‘Unopee’, which meant people. To them Daniels was also an Unopee, and they would get confused if they used that to describe them as a species.

A lot of their society seemed to be built around jumping and climbing rather than walking places. Daniels had seen plenty of hover pads around, and some big wheeled vehicles in the landing bay. Which made sense given the size of the place. But he had also seen them jump onto a hover pad for what would have been a short jog for Daniels. They also used a lot of pulleys and cranes to lift objects off the ground, but only while they were on the ground. When they were hanging about they could better leverage their muscles to move things around than while they were standing upright. It was all very strange.

Daniels had been the only one to go out so far, with Captains Jefferson and Fidelis on stand by incase things went bad. He had spent most of his time talking with Fezzen and a bigger alien called Fur-ighk, trying to record and identify as much of their language as they could. They had learned from their encounter with the Kunan’ai and hired a language expert to help them with first contact.

“Well they seem friendly enough” Jefferson said over the video call.

“So long as you don’t smile” Captain Fidelis rumbled.

“Yeah they didn’t like that, but they also seemed spooked by my size as well.” Daniels agreed.

Jefferson nodded “Its weird not be the shorter species in this interaction. Most everything out there is either our size or bigger. They’re gonna be terrified of you Fidelis.”

“Why me?”

She snorted “Because your seven feet of pure muscle and doom, you scare the shit out of me sometimes.”

Daniels waved a hand “I think we should wait until we have a better grasp of their language before introducing anyone else. I might bring Finch out next to show them a female human.”

“Might want to bring me out as well” Jefferson said. “They might get the wrong idea and assume the gender divide is by skin color.”

“I doubt that would happen.” Daniels scoffed.

“I’ve done some work in the core, the amount of mis-information they have about humans in general is astonishing. Besides, it would be good to have another captain present. Might make it easier to introduce Fidelis.”

Daniels thought for a moment “Alright. Now back to the translation. We’re still very new to their language, but what do you think about the term Tomb world?”

“Sounds auspicious” Fidelis offered.

“Are we sure we’re right on that?” Jefferson asked.

“Not entirely, it could be ‘our world, which is a grave site’ but the term Tomb World seems to fit into English better.”

Jefferson frowned, “one way or another it seems a fitting title. Either this world is going to be our grave, or we’re standing on the grave of an ancient civilization.”

It had been obvious from a single glance that current inhabitants weren’t local, all the architecture and infrastructure didn’t fit with their physiology. Daniels had showed them some photos of the dead world closer the system’s star and they had used a word Daniels was convinced meant ‘home’. It seemed his original assumption had been correct.

“Which leaves us with one big question.” Daniels said.

“What?” they both asked at the same time.

“What is this ‘swarm’ and where did it come from?”

~~~*~~~

Fezzen had definitely come down from his adrenaline high. Meeting the alien Dan-yalzz had been amazing, and he now had the honor of being the first person to ever directly communicate with an alien and shake its strange hand. But after spending a whole half cycle miming out things and saying words very slowly Fezzen had lost a lot of his enthusiasm.

Dan-yalzz had dealt with the long meeting with an impressive amount of skill, miming everything out with simple precise arm movements that were easy to interpret, and catching on to important words and terms pretty fast. Fezzen had wondered if they were also Dan-yalzz first alien encounter, but when he had asked for the third time Dan-yalzz had just turned their head to the side a couple times. A gesture they soon determined was a negative for their people, with an up and down motion meaning affirmative.

Dan-yalzz then fiddled with the projector and showed them a new picture, one with Dan-yalzz and several long six legged creatures covered in a fine bristle like texture. Dan-yalzz then named the other aliens in the picture before changing the picture to show the same kind of aliens on a green moss like plant next to a blue coast. The bristly aliens in the first picture looked sad, but in the second they looked much happier. Dan-yalzz then brought up a holographic projection of the Chalky Streak galaxy, one star was highlighted and Dan-yalzz called it ‘Sohl’. The imaged zoomed in on this Sohl and Dan-yalzz pointed to the third world from the star and called it ‘Erth’ and then used the word for home that Fezzen had spent a long time mimicking out.

It had been a strange meeting, and it only ended when Dan-yalzz saw that Fezzen and the assembled troops were fighting off the cloying call of sleep and called it good for the cycle. Throughout the whole meeting Fezzan realized one very important thing, he was very under qualified to lead his peoples first contact with spacefaring aliens. Which was an unfortunate realization since Uncle Foric decided to take him off of normal duties so that he could partake in all further meetings with Dan-yalzz and his people.

“We have a problem.” Uncle Foric said allowed as Fezzen sat next to him before the assembled council on the next day.

“What kind of problem?” Councilman Juleen asked.

“It appears our language is lacking in a very important feature, a name for ourselves.” Foric said gravely.

Councilmen Shod hissed angrily “Of course we have a name, we’re people. What other name do we need?” blustered. Fezzen wasn’t a personal fan of Shod, he was known to have a few affairs with other mans mates and had even been caught in the act. Fezzen had voted against him in the last election, but Shod had blackmailed his opponent in to backing down and won by default. As a citizen Fezzen disliked Shod, but as a Watcher in the defense of United Refuges Fezzan had no choice but to quietly sit and listen.

“Yes” Foric said patiently, “But the aliens are also people. And they seem to have a specific word for themselves as a people, they’re called ‘Terrahnz’ or ‘Hyoomahnz’.I’m not entirely why they have two words, but I am certain they are species specific words.”

“Are we sure they’re even people. I refuse to be such a clumsy giant could ever possibly invent space travel.” Shod scoffed.

“With all due respect councilmen” Fezzen said before he could stop himself. “But while Dan-yalzz might be large, but he is not clumsy. I felt his strength when he gripped my hand, he could have broken my hand with ease, but instead he carefully controlled his strength to only give me a firm hand shake. He also has a great deal of dexterity in each of his five fingers. I saw him typing on his screen, each of his fingers could move independently without any pause. I’m not sure how are two written languages compare, but I’m certain he could type much faster than me.”

Shod glared at Fezzen “Oh good, a race of stenographers. Your insight truly is invaluable Watcher.” He snarled sarcastically.

“Yes, it is” Juleen interrupted. “Watcher Fezzen had firsthand experience with the alien, it would be wise for us to listen to his insights.” He said with a pointed glance towards Shod.

Fezzen wished his city had a councilmen like Juleen instead of Shod. He knew that all politicians played dirty games, but at least Juleen put on a respectable show for the public and actually worked in the United Refuges best interest.

Juleen turned back to Feric “Do you think it a pressing issue?”

“Its not of grave importance, but it would be trivially easy to decide and would help with diplomacy.” Foric answered quickly. Fezzen caught on to the phrasing in Forics words and saw the reaction from all the councilmen. Low effort for a high payoff was something every politician dreamed of.

“Any suggestions?” Councilmen Jerkid asked, hoping Foric could do the rest of the work for them.

“A few. It seems our visitors have two names for themselves, the word hyoomahn refers to themselves as an animal, while Terrahnrefers to themselves as the people from the planet Erth.

Shod scoffed “People are not animals. That’s the very definition of the word People.”

Fezzen wasn’t a fan of Shod, but he had to agree that the idea of reducing his people to mere animals didn’t sit right with him.

“Then how about something traditional.” Juleen mediated, “what about Gotar?”

Couniclmen Jerkid trilled in thought “After the sons of Gotal-anan?”

Gotal-anan was the hero of almost every children’s tale, the great immortal warrior who slept with the Moon goddess Muta and had seeded six mighty sons who he then took to hide beneath the canopy of the Foortop blooms so that they would safe from the anger of Muta’s mate Corvalis the sun god.

Juleen flicked the end of his tail in confirmation “According to legend we are the descendants of those six sons. So calling ourselves Gotari wouldn’t be a stretch.”

“The traditionalists would be pleased with it. First contact is already going to rile them up, this may appease them if we present ourselves as the sons of Gotal-anan” Jerkid mused.

“Shall we put it to a vote?” Councilmen Shen asked.

All hands, including Shod were raised, and their people then became the Gotari with little deliberation because it was the most politically convenient name. There was a reason Fezzen didn’t follow his father into politics and instead followed his uncle, being a Watcher was much more honest.

“Good, include this decision in our briefing towards the media outlets.” Juleen said, ushering the meeting into its next phase. “Now as for the aliens, what does their arrival change?”

Foric’s tail drooped “I’m not sure, our conversation was brief, and we mostly went over vocabulary.”

“But we can infer a few things.” Juleen interrupted. “They obviously have access to more advanced technology, the chief among these being warp technology. It would be prudent to have examine project MUTA.”

Shod hissed “Are we to allow these strangers to know all our greatest secrets?”

“Would it matter? These aliens must already possess faster than light technology, showing them our early warp drives couldn’t hurt.” Shen said.

“It would be exposing a weakness.” Shod shot back.

Foric cleared his throat to draw everyone’s attention just as Fezzen began to wonder about project MUTA. “It might be best to hold off on this sort of discussion. Watcher Fezzen doesn’t yet have that clearance.”

The five council men turned to Fezzen and nodded.

Councilmen Kendin the only councilmen who had yet to speak, and Fezzen’s father, cleared his throat “It might be best to work on getting him up to speed on MUTA, he’s already on the list, and it seems like he will have to be included in any further meetings with this Dan-yalzz.”

“I don’t see any reason to further include the boy” Shod scoffed.

“The thing Dan-yalzz asked for was the person who saved them.” Foric countered. “And in our conversation Dan-yalzz addressed questions to both me and Fezzen despite knowing that I was Fezzen superior. I’m not sure what code of honor these aliens have, but it seems that Dan-yalzz has taken a liking to Fezzen and might be upset if he isn’t there.”

“Scary thought” Kendin muttered. “A person like that could a lot of damage if it ever went on a rampage.”

“That brings us to our next point” Juleen said. “While I’d prefer a friendship with these aliens we must prepare ourselves for any violent outbursts. I’m told it seemed to express pleasure by baring its teeth and making a barking sound. We need to brief our troops on what is and isn’t aggressive, and furthermore we need to be ready for if they ever show pointed hostility.”

Shod flicked a tail “Finally I can agree, we need to ready weapons capable of killing them.”

“I don’t think we need to go that far.” Kendin said. “Maybe a general gauge of their physical abilities. And maybe showing some of our strengths could go a long way on the diplomatic fronts.”

Shen nodded “yes, that seems most appropriate.” He agreed.

This was Fezzen’s first time seeing a council meeting firsthand, having only every scene the councilmen in news articles and posters. But he had the sneaking suspicions that Shen only ever stated his opinion on well liked ideas and rarely made suggestions of his own.

“Then we are in agreement?” Juleen asked. And once again when given a convenient option with little risk the council made their decision. Fezzen left the meeting with Foric feeling like he had wasted an entire morning, but soon forgot about it when he remembered that he would be meeting Dan-yalzz again.