2.12.

Eodar ran.

He kept his suit’s stealth systems engaged, the active camouflage rendering him nearly invisible to the human eye, allowing him to pass through roads and around towns and cities as he made distance from his landing sight.

His suit was low on power, however, and it would lose its stealth capabilities and weapon systems soon.

For some reason, there were wires running everywhere with high levels of electrical current running through them. Eodar questioned their purpose, but they were ultimately useless to him at this stage in his infiltration. His suit didn’t run off of an electrical battery or capacitor, but off of a reserve of strange-matter that provided a reserve of energy of a sort for which there were no english words.

And his reserves were nearly empty. He’d come to consciousness with only forty-percent power. Stealth was an expensive system to run, but not compared to the inertial compensator aerial recovery insertion system. The ICARIS had run him down to nearly fifteen percent. His stealth was running on fumes.

He avoided habitation for now, and made his way into a large forested area. He disengaged his stealth systems when he found a cave with a stream of water nearby. He made a fire, using the traditional Yonohoan methods rather than his suit’s energy systems, and he spent a few moments watching the flames dance.

He thought of home. Of his early childhood, sitting around the fire and listening to his clan members tell the tales of how they thought the world was.

Before the night of the meteors, when the scouts from the stars had come to the People of the Yonohoah.

He remembered that night as well, and he thought of the parallels to his own situation. The scouts in that mission had been ordered to make contact with Eodar’s people, while Eodar’s own mission required stealth, but the purpose was the same.

Evaluate the planet for any evidence of the enemies of mankind. Report the finding to High-Command. Await further instructions.

He removed his helmet and set it nearby. The air on this planet was musty and thick, heavy with moisture. He had grown up in a savanna, with sweet smelling grasses and dry heat. His suit mostly regulated his body temperature just fine. He didn’t need the fire to keep warm; he had built it for other reasons.

He sighed and made a rocktala from a stone. The Rocktala was primitive, barely intelligent enough to understand it’s purpose, but the nanites in his suit quickly transformed the rock into a thinking device and Eodar threw it into the fire so that it could generate the power necessary to fulfill it’s functions.

“I am Eodar of the Yonohoan. Forward Scout Rank 2 of the human liberation forces out of Totola space. I do not know how long ago I was born, I suspect I have been in stasis for some time. But I have lived for twelve years. I am a recent graduate of Scout Training, but I have received orders to infiltrate the planet known as Earth and evaluate it for hidden elements of the enemies of humanity.

“Earth is not entirely undefended, as Totola was when the scouts arrived. They detected me in the asteroid belt and I was forced to sacrifice my transportation vessel in order to arrive on the planet. Hopefully, the officials of this world believe that the pilot of the shuttlecraft died when the self-destruct method was engaged.

“I am currently in a wilderness area. My suit is low on power, and I will be forced to abandon it soon. I will attempt to infiltrate Earthling society by posing as one of their children. It is for this purpose, after all, why scout training typically begins at birth. I was grateful when High-Command recognized the value of the Yonohoan people and included me into their training program despite being eight years old prior to the training, if you disregard the four years that I spent aboard a Toormonda vessel.”

Eodar continued his report for some time, the small and stupid Rocktala recording his image and his words. When he finished, he placed the rocktala in the top of a tree to assist its message in being broadcast and set it to issue his report in six months.

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Then he returned to the fire and continued to watch the flames dance until he fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~

In the morning, he followed the stream from the cave he had slept in for some time. He was uncertain how to make contact with or infiltrate the human society of this world. It would help significantly if he knew who their overlords were, as that would tell him much about the shape of their society. He had been ordered to infiltrate, which hopefully meant that the intelligence of his commanders had determined that he wouldn’t be killed on sight for being an outsider.

Following the stream led to a lake, and at that lake he had his first encounter with the humans of this world. Five children were swimming and splashing in its shallow waters. All boys. He examined them from a distance with his stealth systems engaged, watching them play while they remained unaware of his presence.

Unfortunately, he noticed a problem. Their heads were shaped differently than his. The difference was small and subtle; their foreheads were more prominent and didn’t have the slight slope that was common in his people.

He cursed as he realized that this might out him as an outsider, and he realized he was going to have to make an unfortunate sacrifice to protect his cover.

He returned to the cave for privacy, and he prepared himself. He brought up a holographic depiction of his image and he modified it to match the features of the humans of this world as he had identified the key characteristics while he had been watching the children play. Then he engaged his nanites, causing them to forcibly alter the structure of his skull.

The pain was intense. He screamed into his helmet, which silenced his voice but not his soul. He did not hold back, feeling no shame in the display.

It was agony.

It was necessary for the mission.

He would endure.

Once the pain subsided, he decided that it was time to make contact. And abandon his suit. With a command, he ordered it to self-destruct. The suit dissolved into nanites, which flaked into powder and blew away on the wind.

He walked back to the lake, hoping that the children who were playing in the river would accept them into their number, and that he could learn from them their language and sneak back with them into their society.

When he arrived, the children stopped playing. They turned and talked to each other nervously in their language. Eolai remained silent, a friendly smile on his face.

One of the boys turned and called out to him. Eolai repeated the words of greeting back. The boy said something else, and Eolai repeated the words once more.

The children spoke among themselves once more, and then the youngest one ran into the forest. The boys gave him a pair of pants to put on, and after a few moments an adult emerged. Eolai was unafraid, he had expected adults to be nearby to protect the children, despite having left them alone to play with each other.

The adult spoke with him for some time. Eolai carefully repeated each word as it was said, making it clear that he was trying to be understood.

The man pulled from his pocket a device and spoke into it for some time.

Soon after, another man appeared. Dressed in green, the man had a serious expression on his face as he walked over to Eodar. He spoke for some time, and Eodar continued to repeat the words faithfully.

The man shook his head and sighed.

“Come with me, son. I don’t know who abandoned you out here, but we’ll get you the help you need,” he said.

Eodar repeated the words back, completely unaware of their meaning. He followed the man for some ways until they arrived at a vehicle, and he left with the man.

Hopefully the officials of this world would not associate his appearance with the events that had taken place the day before. Even if they did, however, he would simply escape their custody and use the knowledge that he had gained of their language and culture to establish a new cover.

For now, he was content to surrender themselves for whatever this world’s practice was for finding lost or abandoned children.

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