“Okay so, since we are finally planning on truly starting this, this…journey. I guess we should finally get a real game plan worked out.” I stared at what little resources I had, enough canned food for a week, maybe. A case of water bottles, and barely a thousand dollars in my savings. “Damn, hospitals are so fucking expensive.”
Yes, well checking out the other possible meteorite sites should be our first major goal. I do not know what if any other species may have joined me on this planet, but if there are others it may help to deduce my origins.
“Yeah, truthfully I am kinda hoping you are the only one. Not knowing what other kinds of species could be out there, how aggressive or dangerous they could be. Kinda scary.”
Yes. The thought of another species possibly hostile to my own or even humans in general would be more than disastrous. Although it seems that you are also a little jealous that you are not the only one with an interspecies relationship.
“Well, it is nice to be unique in the scope of things. To have a purpose that only I can do, it's exciting. Although thinking about it now seems kind of stressful.” Being the one that has the chance to change the world. Forced to bear a moral burden, unable to allow someone else to carry it before it's done. Even if it is for the better, even with other people there to help. Hmm, people like Ghandi and Martin Luther King must have been crazy stressed.
Well unless we actually find any evidence I suppose it is best to expect the worst but hope for the best.
“Alright time for a plan then.” Walking over to my laptop, I proceeded to search for all the different possible meteorite strikes over the Western Hemisphere in the last week.
What turned up was hundreds of articles of people sitting by knocked over trees, standing in sinkholes, or just holding random rocks. “None of these are them, I mean I’m not sure if all the other ones are containers like yours but…”
I looked over to the little pill shaped capsule sitting on my counter, you could see the water vapor rising from the freezing metal. It was starting to slowly lower the temperature in my apartment. “Oh duh the capsule.”
We forgot about it.
“Yeah. Alright let's see what this thing even is.” Looking over the strange little prison, it was still covered in frozen blood and dirt. Taking it to the sink and turning the water onto nearly as hot as it got, carrying the metal cage over in a sling made of towels. As soon as the cold metal touched the hot water, a huge bloom of steam washed over my face. I proceeded to wash off the mess covering the capsule, with only mild frostbite covering my fingers.
That should be enough, let us see if there is anything to indicate where I came from.
“Let’s see here.” Getting a closer look at the capsule revealed that it was nearly a single solid piece of metal. There were no seams, the only opening being the large pieces of metal sticking out. It was scratched and battered but nothing that would help us figure out where it came from. “Damn”
No, no, no, no. It can’t be empty. There has to be something. If there is nothing on this one, then there is nothing on the other ones. NO!
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
My arms slammed against the counter. Shaking the container back and forth. The light glimmered and shone off the strangely dark metal. Revealing the lines of scratches and marks, seemingly from the impact with the ground. “Wait, what is that?”
What is what?
Myc was still annoyed, I suppose one of the most major clues in finding out where you came from, being a bust could do that to you. Although I could feel the frustration and anger coming through our connection. It made me shake in rage and caused my hands to clench in frustration.
“Look at those scratches, they look weird.” Leaning in closer revealed that when in the right light, they didn’t look like scratches from crashing but patterns.
Wait, those aren’t just patterns, they are symbols. Almost like a language.
Grabbing a pad and pen, I proceeded to write down the strange looking symbols. It was difficult to write all the letters, they were strangely cryptic and wrong. As if the language wasn’t meant to be written with the human hand. “Well, I have no idea what it means, but it is something.”
Yes, if we are capable of deciphering this strange language then maybe we can understand my purpose here. Although how we are going to do that is beyond me, we may need to find the other capsules before we have a clearer picture.
“Hmm, maybe. I mean this is probably from an alien civilization right?”
Most likely whether it is my civilization or some other.
“Well they sent it here, and if it was on purpose then these may be instructions, instructions that are likely to be able to be read by any species that found it.”
Meaning that there has to be some universal constant that can allow the translation of these symbols into meaning. Similar to how you humans used hydrogen as a unit of measurement on the Pioneer probe. This could allow us to better understand my species, where I came from, what other species that may have been released, and maybe even why they sent us here.
The burst of excitement Myc felt, put a genuine smile on my face. It meant that there could be a real chance of getting some actual answers. “Unfortunately we have no idea what constant they used or even if humans have discovered it yet.”
Hmm, you are right it may be many years or decades before your society advances enough to reach that point. Although with a few more minds helping on the solution, we could figure it out far faster than letting the humans do it for us.
Flashes of the moon colony crossed my vision again. “I suppose we could test your propagation method. Although don’t you think we should test your other limits first. I mean we should be careful who we infect, plus how are we even going to find them in the first place.”
Well first I believe that we should find out whether or not other species were in the meteorites. It may take some time, so we can test my abilities while on the way. Although finding people who are trustworthy enough with this secret may be difficult.
“I mean there is no going back once they are infected. We should find some way to ease people into a group or something, let them better understand our goals. Then if we feel like we can trust them, we can tell them about us and they can choose whether they want to join us or not.”
Yes, I don’t know if it will be possible to sever a bond without taking ‘extreme measures'. But letting them better understand us, that seems perfectly reasonable, although how to gather enough people in one place to test whether they are trusting, honest, intelligent. That will be the hard part. Although…”
“Seriously, you think we should start a cult.” I looked at the container with a questioning glance, the cold metal reflected my image back at me.
Well, it will allow us to gather enough people into one place to get to know them better. We can weed out the real crazy ones, compared to the ones with some potential. It will allow us enough time and space to gather the recruits and even do research with the actual members. It is not illegal, and if we ask for donations from our members we will have a steady source of income, until we are capable of producing our own cash flow.
“Okay, I suppose that makes sense, even if it is morally questionable. Although getting the land to build this in the first place will be a problem, and people who are willing to join a cult may not be the best recruits. You know, people who are stable enough to help us.” I walked back to the bathroom, looking in the mirror to get a better look at myself. It felt like I was actually talking to someone rather than just out loud to myself.
Well, robbing rich criminals wasn’t a bad idea, and just because some people are willing to join a cult doesn’t mean that they are unstable. Well maybe some of them, although if we organize it right and push it as a society focused on interconnectedness and progress…
“We could get a bunch of people that think we are a free love community, rather than an alien fungus bent on world domination.”
Hmm, perhaps. We can work out the kinks later. First we need startup money, then we grab some supplies, finally we look for a plausible location of a nearby meteorite crash.