Chapter 2

We knew, of course, that alien creatures were going to land on our planet. Almost all 50,000 of our people knew it and they were not concerned. Meriah, our matriarch and leader of our citizens’ council, knew it too; she decided that, since they were here as a result of a collision in space and there were so few of them, we could let them land in peace.

We could always kill them later if that became necessary.

The creatures called themselves ‘human’ and they decided to land near a large inland sea. We called it ‘the big sea,’ but the humans called it Nelson’s Sea. Apparently, they had a name for everything they ‘discovered.’

Meriah had suggested that every one of our citizens should leave the area and only she, I and our offspring would maintain a close watch on the humans. Of course, when ‘our camp’ traveled anywhere, we traveled with Meriah’s three sisters. That retinue helped me take care of the young, and did most of the hunting. We made a camp on the largest hill in the area: A place where we could watch them and still not be overly bothered by them. The humans called it Mount Hemp, because Alexis Hemp discovered it (!!). Imagine: we had been living here for at least 100 Grahhlls’ (or Bards’) lives, enjoying the cool of the mountains and the waters of the big sea, and ‘they just discovered it.’ Merlin has suggested the word I’m looking for is: hubris.

Oh, yes: The phrase “100 Bards’ lives.” That’s how we reckon time past. A Bard’s life is about 100 years. I’m The Grahhll, a Bard. I tell tales and sing songs of times past remembering. To be truthful, there are hundreds of bards among the citizens. But I am ’The’ Bard. I am not being boastful, merely as honest as I can be. My voice is pure. Those who hear my song will always remember it.

How can I explain this to you readers? There were great singers and story tellers in Earth’s history: In the 2400’s ER, there was Rendorich. The 2200’s brought Mortok. In the 1900’s ER, there was Sinatra and Woody Guthrie and the poet Bob Dylan. A few centuries earlier was my namesake, William Shakespeare, who carried the title of ‘The Bard.’ Considering all those, still, I am greater among my people.

There were others before me, of course, and there will be others after me. There is a title I wear, in the language of my people: ‘Grahhll.’ It doesn’t translate to English. Hence, Merlin’s suggestion of ‘Shakespeare’ -- THE Bard.

In any case, I digress. I like to hear myself tell stories (smile) and I sometimes get sidetracked.

I became The Bard at age 32, when the previous title holder died at the age of 103. Two months later Meriah took me as her mate. I am now 54 and I feel old. Meriah is thirteen years older -- 67. I feel old because we have three offspring, one male and two female; they run me (the primary caretaker) into the ground, even with the help of others of our clan. That has not stopped me from trying to sire another -- successfully, I may say proudly. Meriah is gravid once again!

Sidetracked again. Back to the humans.

The humans landed near the big sea. Two of their shuttles came to rest about 20 meters apart amid great clouds of dust. [Thank you Merlin for supplying the conversion to human grokable units.] The shuttles were about 30 meters long, 10 meters wide, and were roughly rectangular. At first the humans didn’t do much. Eating, looking around, naming things, idle chat.

Justice: “We need to have some sort of memorial to those who died in the Destiny.”

There was a lot of silence at that point.

Robertson: “A lot of good people in that crew. A lot of friends. Especially...”

Gabriella: “Yeah. We know. Sarah Ventin. You and her...”

Robertson: “We were going to get married.”

Jay: “A lot of good people. They should be remembered.”

Gabriella: “No offense, ship, but I’m getting tired of just materialized food.”

Ship (Merlin): “If we were still on Destiny, you’d be eating nothing but.”

Gabriella: “Yeah, but now that we’re planetside, and we can see other stuff, I’m getting tired of nuclear food. I saw something this morning that looked like a deer.”

Merlin: “You know it’s not nuclear.”

Gabriella: “Well. It goes in as waste or rocks and comes out as a burger. You preserve the atoms but everything else is changed. So technically it’s nuclear.” This was said in a teasing voice.

Merlin: “But it’s not radioactive ... that’s what people mean when they say ‘nuclear.’”

Jay: “Relax, ship. She’s just pulling your abiological chain.”

Alexis: “Maybe a hunting trip would be a good idea. Give us something to do while we wait.”

Gabriella: “What are we waiting for anyway?”

Jay: “We’re waiting for somebody to have a great idea about what we should do here, or how we can get off this rock.”

There was silence again.

The next morning, one of them (the man I think: Robertson) took out something he called ‘binoculars’ and eventually he saw Meriah just sitting in the shade of a tree, looking at him, at great distance. I guess they didn’t have very good vision; it was only several kilometers. Our kind was blessed with exceptional vision; it’s our second best sense.

He quickly called the one they named Jay, and she looked through her own set of binoculars. They conversed and then called Alexis Hemp. The one who ‘discovered’ this hill, remember?

The conversation went something like this:

Alexis: “Okay. We all carry rifles from now on.”

Jay: “You think that’s really necessary?”

Alexis: “Safety first. I can’t tell what it is, but it’s not a rock or a tree.”

There was some other talk about making a marker in honor of the crew of Destiny, then Alexis said: “Tomorrow morning, I’ll go hunting. I haven’t seen any game around here, but I’ll find something.”

Meriah called to me, and said: “We can’t have them traipsing all over looking to kill something. Who knows what they will consider ‘game?’ I take it from their reference to hunting, that they are carnivores. Or at least omnivores. Merhnah...” (one of her sisters who was always in our camp) “ ... take some of the women and bring some game close to their camp tonight. Bring them some edible greens, too.”

So, the women of our little camp went hunting that night. Just before dawn, our hunting party left two antelopes between the two shuttles, having avoided the human guard easily. The ‘lopes would have stayed if we’d asked them to, but we didn’t want to alarm the humans. Nearby, we’d left them a pile of berries and some mountain grass that was good to eat raw.

Alexis was the first to find the antelopes.

Alexis: “Everybody! Come and look at this.” She slowly retreated to the door of the shuttle that was the combined sleeping quarters. She slung something they called a ‘rifle’ over her shoulder.

Jay: “Well ... Isn’t that just creepy! Somebody knew we were going to hunt today, and didn’t want us to go anywhere.”

Gabriella: “But who? There’s nobody here.”

Jay: “Doesn’t matter if they’re here or not ... they knew.”