Memory transcription subject: Estala, ??? Ecologist?
Date [standardised human time]: October ???, 2136
I am a monster.
Of course, that was the entire point of this endeavour.
I had spent a lot of time getting the effect ready. Fake feathers of a dull broken colour had been inserted as well as a few of my less important real ones cut away haphazardly. Dirt and fake blood were smeared on top of the feathers. Makeup had been applied to give the small amount of exposed skin around my eyes a rotten dead appearance, with two pure white contacts worn to give them that dead look. I’d even done some rather clever trickery to give my beak a broken off cracked end.
The only thing normal about me was the bandolier I wore, of woven grass and feathers. My mother had given it to me before I’d left for Venlil prime, and I had decided to wear it for luck.
I looked absolutely monstrous: exactly what I needed for this plan to work.
It was part of a charming tradition for the new species called “humans''. Humans were a species of omnivore primates, nothing really special in the long scheme of things. The universe was filled with all kinds of people: herbivores like the Venlil, omnivores like the Krakotl or Gojid, or even Arxur, the single known instance of a sapient obligate carnivore.
Not that any of that mattered. “There are no prey or predators in the galaxy”. That was the Federation’s mantra.
Technically humans weren’t a “new” species. The Federation had found them over a hundred years ago, but had assumed them to be destroyed once evidence of nuclear warfare became apparent on their home planet. It was unfortunate and a sad moment for the Federation, but not uncommon. One of the reasons we try to uplift species as fast as we can is to avoid new friends from falling foul to one of civilization’s great filters.
That sadness however had turned to joy when we discovered that not only had humans survived, but they’d managed to uplift themselves! While they weren’t anything special on a galactic scale, any new contact with a sapient species was one to be cherished.
Well not special apart from for one thing; the reason I was here. Most of the other members of Venlil prime who were attending this human tradition of a “Halloween party” were simply here to meet humans. A few had taken the leap to visit and live on Venlil prime as part of an exchange program. But I, I was here for other reasons.
“You see, while most people would normally think that Venlil Prime only has three ecological zones, in reality the correct number is five, or seven if you take the Planak model including the poles as their own systems”.
I stood there with a glass of water in one wing, talking the ear off a Gojid dressed in an Arxur costume; the poor guy had the clear expression of someone who most definitely didn’t want to be in this conversation. Unfortunately for the Gojid, I was far too nervous to stop, I needed an outlet of my nervous energy.
I wasn’t here to make friends or meet humans. I was here to get on Earth. I desperately wanted to get a trip to the human’s cradle planet, along with basically the entire Federation. But as an ecologist Earth in particular fascinated me. Most planets have maybe one or two clearly defined ecological systems. I originally moved to Venlil prime due to a grant from Nishtal’s ecological guild to study the rarity that is the tidally locked planet: Venlil prime had a total of seven unique ecological systems, which until recently was one of the highest numbers.
Earth had hundreds. All staggeringly different and overlapping. If even half the stories were real you could spend an entire lifetime studying just a single island on the planet. I desperately wanted to get a trip to Earth, so my plan was simple: Befriend a human, use that to get onto Earth.
“You see, the Dusk and Dawn sides of Venlil prime actually have their own unique ecosystems, where the habitable band intersects with the dark and light sides, although there are a few models that suggest it’s less of a set of ecological systems and more of a wide band.”
I swung my wings outwards to emphasise my point, a sudden feeling of pain in my wing as it collided with something. Or someone. Both of us gave a cry of surprise as the sound of breaking ceramics clattered along the floor. I spun around, turning to see who or what I had hit, and came face to face with my first human.
Bipedal, primate, two forwards facing eyes, nearly twice my size. No feathers or fur apart from a small amount on their head. While the eyes were slightly worrying, triggering a feeling of instinctual unease from some unknown now extinct predator, the rest of them were… slightly adorable if I was being honest. The lack of feathers and weird fleshy hands gave the overall impression of a giant newly hatched chick.
This one that had the remains of his smoothie splattered down his chest, the rest of his drink now covering the floor along with shards of broken cup. He seemed to look forlornly between himself and his now floor based meal, as if trying to turn back time before his snack was no more.
Absolutely fantastic job idiot! Your first human and you assault them!
However the sad look on the human’s face quickly turned to worry as his eyes spotted me cradling my now throbbing left wing, quickling kneeling to take a closer look.
“Oh god I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there! Are you ok, it’s not broken is it?”
Of course, that’s the one thing that had become apparent from every single test and interaction with humans: Their empathy. I had basically attacked this person and the first thing he was worried about my dumb self.
“No It’s fine, was my fault really not looking where I was going while talking with…”
I trailed off as I realised the Gojid I’d been nervously rambling to had taken this opportunity to escape the grasp of my nerdy conversation. The human however just looked relieved, placing a hand over his heart as he gave a sigh.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Well that’s a relief! Spent the last two months basically having it beaten into my skull ‘don’t cause a diplomatic incident’, then the first week here might have broken the wing of a… a….” the human trailed off for a moment, his face scrunching up with mental strain before giving up. “Sorry I can’t remember what you are, there’s so many aliens I’m trying to remember them all.”
I held out my wing in what I had read was the standard human greeting. “Krakotl. I’m Estala.”
“Human. Joseph.” he had a large smile on his face as the human took my wing with one of its hands and gave a small mock shake, before turning to the mess of broken pottery and yellow slush covering the floor. “We should probably clean this mess up.”
I bent over to start helping Joseph clean up the strange food, some kind of sweet smelling fruit of presumably human origin. I’d not had the courage to try any of the human cuisine yet, although many people had raved about it.
“So how are you finding Venlil prime?” I asked, trying to break up the silence.
“It’s been fantastic! Everyone’s so friendly and well… I’m on a bloody alien planet! With aliens! It’s like a dream come true. Although…” Joseph trailed off for a moment, a small frown appearing on his face as his voice dropped from the over enthusiastic excitement to a whisper. “As someone who is not a Venlil, does the entire sun always up and high gravity thing get better? Because I am so fucking tired right now.”
I laughed. I remembered when I originally moved to Venlil prime two years ago, the adjustment period had me almost flying into a tree during my first month. “It gets better. Invest in some automatic blackout blinds, they help with the tidally locked thing.”
Eventually the floor was cleaned, Joseph standing up with his still food-splattered clothing adorning his front.
“So I’m going to go get a refill, you want to join me Estala? There’s a human food called mangos that I think you’ll love…”
—-----------------------
Memory transcription subject: Estala, Venlil Extermination consultant.
Date [standardised human time]: February 18th, 2137
Confusion ran through my mind as I felt the headset get lifted from my skull, the sudden bright lights of the facility causing me to squeeze my eyes shut as my head pounded with memories new and old. Everything seemed to spin as reality recentered itself.
My name was still Estala, but I wasn’t an ecologist, or whatever that was. I didn’t have two loving living parents, and I didn’t meet Joseph at a human gathering. The Federation didn’t accept humanity with open arms, and billions of people around the galaxy were currently dying in a war.
I could feel the fake memories start to dissipate. The general memories of growing up with my parents, studying ecology, living in a federation not based on bigotry and lies. It had all felt so real, so... happy. Everything I ever wanted was in those false memories, and I forlornly tried to hold onto anything that wasn’t the false meeting with Joseph, desperately trying to get that feeling back in the seconds as they started to fade away.
“Hey, are you ok after that? Can you tell me your name and who you are?”
It was the voice of Wally, one of the humans in charge of this experiment, standing in front of me with a clipboard in hand. The humans had started tinkering with the memory transcription technology and had figured out how to generate false realities, false memories, false experiences. The hope was it could speed up “predator desensitisation” though providing experiences without the federation’s harmful propaganda.
“My name is Estala, and I’m a special consultant for the Exterminators guild of Venlil prime.”
I just hadn’t expected it to… feel so real, feel as if there was an entire lifetime of lived experiences that previously hadn’t existed before. The system worked by using the memories you already had to fill in the gaps and for those brief moments I couldn’t tell the difference between reality and fiction.
“So, what are your overall thoughts, especially as a training tool for getting used to humans?”
Wally looked down at his clipboard of questions as I thought back to my experiences, normalcy slowly returning.
“It’s hard to tell as I’ve already gotten used to humans, but it felt real. Almost too real.”
I saw the humans in front of me give a frown as I said that
“What do you mean ‘too real’?”
I paused for a moment, wondering if I should say what I was actually feeling. The feeling of loss and longing for a world that didn’t exist and never could. It felt like a cruel trick, a glimpse of a better world that could never be reached.
“I… I kinda want to go back.”
“Oh. I will make note of that. We really don’t want a Matrix situation for this.”
There was a brief moment of awkwardness as the researcher clearly didn’t know how to deal with this information. We were both saved the awkward silence by my phone going off, Wally deciding now was a good time to leave me alone to think. It was just Joseph sending me a message, checking in with how my “Crazy science experiment” was going. As I quickly responded with my own message, I heard a voice call out from the back of the room.
“Wait, Is that my phone?”
I glanced up to see the source of the voice, one of the humans who had been doing maintenance on the machine I’d been strapped to not that long ago. He was now staring at me with a confused look that matched my own. My confusion however quickly turned to panic as I realised I recognized this person.
The human made device I was using to communicate with Joseph had been so useful for research, that I had long forgotten that this item wasn’t actually mine. I had stolen the item, and its brightly coloured yellow case, right at the beginning of my journey. From the human who was now staring at me with a confused expression.
The correct thing to do would be to return the device, but… this device now had my search history on it. Including all my anti-human research. Including when I looked for the phrase “Venlil Flesh” and got some eye meltingly cursed images in response, instead of the “secret predator plan” I had hoped to see.
I panicked once again, throwing the phone to the floor and ferociously stamping on the device, the glass metal and plastic shattering under the strength of my talons. I carried on attacking until I knew the phone and all its shameful data was destroyed.
“Duuuuude….”
The human looked half shocked and half disappointed at the mass of broken pieces that used to be the phone. A small sliver of guilt ran through me, but it was far better than anyone seeing what was on that device.
“Look, I’ll buy you a new one.”
—-------------
I eventually entered through my apartment’s window once again, setting my bag down and just slumping against a wall. I still felt the forlorn melancholy for a life and world that didn’t exist. While I knew the humans didn’t mean it that way, the entire thing felt like a mean trick. A lie, a bitter sweet reminder of everything that could and should be if the galaxy just wasn’t so messed up.
Everything but the fake meeting with Joseph was gone, but the idea, the feelings of contentment and peace still remained, leaving a gaping empty hole behind that reality might not be able to fill.
It was then that I looked around, and I couldn’t help but puff by feathers up with joy. Joseph was sprawled asleep in the chair, a book of Krakotl myths and legends on his chest as he slept. I had to agree with fake Estala: When you stopped thinking of them as scary predators, humans did have a touch of adorableness to them.
How far had I come since the Humans had arrived? If you’d have told me half a year ago that I’d consider a “predator” a friend, that I’d be willing to host one in my home… well I would have diagnosed you with predator disease. But now I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Maybe that happy world I had been a part of for such a small time wasn’t a cruel lie. Maybe it was something else. Maybe with just a little bit of effort from people, a little bit of empathy and understanding…
It could be a vision of a better future, a happy ending.