Memory transcription subject: Valek, Amateur Ecologist in Training, Self Taught.
Date [standardized human time]: Sept 5th, 2136. 1st Claw.
When I woke, my brain was shocked with a jolt of fear! I thought for a moment that I was swimming! A gentle blue-grey light filled the apartment from the lighting in the ceiling, itself a projection of clear skies of the same shade. As we drifted to sleep last paw, the ceiling had been an inky black filled with sparkling points of light, an occasional streak shooting across the panorama. Maeve said it was a projection of the night sky on her world, recorded in a place where light and air would not impede the view.
Some part of my brain expected to wake to the same, so I marveled at the change of this waking almost as much as the view from the previous night. Was this what it was like to live on a circadian world? Every time I thought of it, the light and color of everything seemed to change! I was watching the projection when what I swore was a Bluebird flew past, but it was black and the tail was wrong. Something about it tickled my brain, like I had seen it before when Maeve and I first landed. As I tried to remember, the sky quickly shifted to a warm gold in the span of barely a few minutes. As the color leveled out to a grey-less blue, Maeve’s alarm started to gently chime, growing louder with every repetition.
As I silenced the alarm, Maeve stretched out against me and kissed what she could reach of my snout, before turning on her back to watch the projection with me. “Well, darn, I missed the sunrise.”
My ears did what they could to perk in curiosity while I laid on the firm structured mattress. “Why is that bad? Are sunrises not common on your world?”
Maeve gave a contented hum before answering, “No, no, we have had a sunrise and sunset, once each every… uh… six claws, for as long as the planet has been spinning. But humans are busy, and skies are not always clear, so we miss them pretty frequently unless we plan for it. Seeing the colors change is always beautiful.”
We laid there together for a moment, allowing our bodies and minds to wake up, before Maeve whispered, “You’re going to the library again today, right? When does your shuttle leave?”
“Leaves the village every half-claw or so. Why?”
Maeve pulled herself to lay on my chest, the blanket slipping to reveal her star-white skin, “Just wondering how much of your morning I can steal…”
I felt hot fingers drift through my coat as my paws traced her familiar curvature. I whispered in feigned terror, "Aaah! Help! A vicious predator has me trapped in their bed! Whatever shall I do?!"
--
Date [standardized human time]: Sept 5th, 2136. 2nd Claw.
The library seemed almost diminutive, surrounded by the forest of glass that sprung up around it in the centuries since its construction. Though what it lacked in height, it made up for in pawprint: the hexagonal building took up a whole city cell by itself, with every wall and level inside packed with reading material. Keneles saw me step through the set of double-doors from his information desk, public-use pads on tables behind it. Small patches of his skin flashed a hue darker than his normal teal, and his tail gave a happy greeting.
“Good waking, Valek! Will you be checking out ‘Analysis of Automated Forest Maintenance by Preservation of Native Predators’ again? I find that Dr. Turin makes very… unique observations of predators; which might explain her essay’s reception.” Those same patches flashed waves of color brighter than his skin, signaling amusement, “But she certainly shows her work!”
My tail returned his welcome with equal enthusiasm, “Not today, thank you. Her work was very informative for wild environments, but I was wondering if you might have something more focused on interactions with sapient settlements?”
The Kolshian focused on their workstation, typing intermittently for a long moment. “We do have a copy of ‘An Argument on Behalf of Certain Kinds of Predator’, though it is more than a century old at this point.” He waved a tentacle sympathetically, “I’m sorry, but if you are avoiding Exterminator manuals, there is just not much to see.”
My tail slowly fell in disappointment, “Alright. Well! I’ll have that, and if you could recommend to me a few of the less violent Exterminator sources I would love to hear it. I’d rather not use them, but I need more than two sources if I want to learn anything.”
---
I pushed my cart of literature to a substantial table in a well lit corner and got to work. Not wanting to start my day with discussions of optimal burn temperature, I started with An Argument. As with most academic essays it was information dense and page light, the same and yet opposite of a children’s book.
I mumbled my thoughts as I skimmed the document, “The Problem: A variety of pests, mostly… severely damaging crop… Efforts to exterminate… supremely expensive and ineffective. Oh, a Q and A!... ‘Isn’t it better to be safe than sorry, and exterminate all predators anyways?’ ‘...the predators do not hunt anyone likely to come here.'? Wait, we knew that not all predators were dangerous? And this was… 150 years ago?! What happened?! … Linked Chains… ” That last name really caught my eye. I made a mental note to ask Keneles about it later.
Having finished the report, I checked its reference material which seemed to be absent; might have to order it. I was halfway through my first Exterminator Manual, ‘Duty Burns’, when Keneles was doing their rounds.
His eyes flashed over my pile of reading material. Sensing my distress he set down his work and approached, “How grows your garden?”
My tail thrashed in frustration, “Slowly. Every time I think I’m making progress, the information just stops, or in the case of this nonsense,” I closed the heavy textbook with a thud, “a full reverse. I don’t get it!”
Keneles’s skin made slow waves of color, trying to encourage calm, “What is there to get? I am so very glad to see someone so excited to learn, but you could not have chosen a more straightforward question! Predators destroy. That is all they do and all they have ever done.”
“But That…!” I took a breath, “I’m sorry. Look:” I brought what I had read in front of him, flipping to relevant pages as I did so. “Dr. Turin talks about how her predators brought back the Kuru, because their predators were able to keep other prey from taking or destroying the Kuru's homes. And the Colony 3 report mentions a 200% crop yield after reintroducing predators, since they hunted prey that got into their stores. Even this mud,” I thumped my paw on the cover of Duty, “mentions that Predator attacks on sapients are in mid-hundreds monthly across the entire federation! We have more attacks from predator diseased than from natural predators!”
I huffed with exasperation. “What little I have found is still more than enough evidence that predators are not as dangerous or destructive as we believe, yet we still teach ourselves that they are death incarnate. And even then, we still have almost no information on what predators even are! By the sun, this almanac is paw-drawn! And all of the actual photos are of burn piles! Something is missing!”
Keneles read the passages I indicated, “What… are you trying to learn here, Valek?”
I thought about our conversations on the station. I thought about how Maeve defies everything we know about predators simply by being kind. "I need to know why predators exist. If the Federation is right, and all they are is chaos and destruction, they would burn through their food supply and starve to extinction. There is something more happening that would require our interference."
I thought about the Colony 3 report, something it mentioned… my ears focused on Keneles, "Who are the Linked Chains?"
His tail shuddered in thinly disguised panic before he regained his composure and answered, "Linked Chains is- was- a group of death cultists. The Federation has worked tirelessly to save us from their lies, and burned all of their literature."
My ears swiveled in confusion, as that statement seemed almost rehearsed? "What was so dangerous about their ideas? What made them a death cult?"
As he answered, his eyes focused on his periphery, "They believed that predators were essential to the natural order, instead of the perversions they are. They thought that death and cruelty were part of nature, and that we should return to that... barbarism.” He looked slightly pained by that word. “To those ends, they burned exterminator offices on several worlds, even sabotaged their equipment; story goes, that was what prompted their arrests."
My fur fluffed at the mention of their actions. I was no fan of the exterminators, but to weaken our only defense… wait a minute. “Those worlds,” I began, “the ones where they sabotaged the exterminators… what happened with predator attacks?””
Keneles looked to be internally debating himself at the question, his blue patches flashing nervously. “If you met someone from Linked Chains, what would you do?”
I flicked my ears in confusion. “What do you mean? What does-”
“Humor me,” he interjected, “would you report them? Or maybe listen first?”
The answer was surprisingly easy for me. “I would listen.”
Keneles relaxed, before sitting at the table with me. “There were none. Not a single attack was found or reported for that duration on any of those worlds.”
My mind began to spin with the implications. “But if the exterminators weren’t there to keep predators at bay, we should have seen a spike in attacks? If there were no change, how did the people stop the predators that did attack?”
His tentacles curled, he knew why I asked that. “You didn’t hear me. I didn’t say ‘no change,’ I said none. On those worlds, once the exterminators were gone, the predator attacks dropped to zero. No reports at all. Not even for ones found after the fact.”
“How?! How could the attacks drop after losing the exterminators??”
His skin flashed a darker shade, “There are a few ideas. W-They think that once the colonists were scared of predators again, the beasts didn’t need to attack anymore. The settlers stayed in their settlements and farms, and the predators stayed in the forests.”
I gave my head a shake. “But what happened to the farms?”
“Across the board, the farms saw fewer attacks even when the exterminators were allowed back, and get this: better output. Colony 3 was not an outlier! Every time that predators were allowed to thrive, they helped to grow the world.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The question flew from my mouth as my mind struggled to keep up, “Hold on, that doesn’t make sense; if they attack colonists, they wouldn’t be able to keep up, right?”
“But that’s the thing! They never attacked the colonists for food, they hunted the native wildlife! All of the pests and blight bearers, the things that were truly causing loss of crop yield, were caused by the prey that exterminators allowed to flourish. The same prey that were the predator's primary food source. The Federation spent so much time and resources doing what these ‘tainted’ predators just did naturally. They succeeded in doing what we couldn’t, for free and with no input by the colonists.”
My tail froze and my fur stood on end as recollection hit me. Why did this sound so familiar??
Shifting the river with wolves…
My ears locked on to the Kolshian, “Keneles… What do you think about the humans?”
He sat silently, his blue patches flashing in thought. “You are the one who spent the most time with them, even brought one into your home,” he said, “so my general thoughts aren’t what you’re asking. What are you really asking?”
“Keneles… I think the humans… I think Maeve, is Linked Chains.”
His patches flashed in amusement at my words. “I’m very certain she isn’t.”
“But how?” I asked, “her beliefs line up exactly!”
The Kolshian rose and walked to the Fiscal Histories section, pulling out a copy of ‘Venlillian Tax and Agricultural Policy, 3rd edition.’ He brought the tome to my table and opened it to page one. Inside was a cut-out, within was held a metal hoop, with three chains of woven metal bound to its border, and themselves holding a free spinning metal ring in the center. Under the pendant I could see what looked like the title page of another book,
The Linked Chain
“Because,” he stated, “we never went to Earth.”
---
Memory transcription subject: Maeve, Village Monster
Date [standardized human time]: Sept 5th, 2136. 3rd Claw.
“Of course not! We grow our food, every bit of it.”
It really felt like the village was warming up to me; the pups mostly. The parents didn't chase them off anymore, so that was a good sign; probably thanks to the Gossip on the balcony there.
I should send them a Pie. Do Venlil have Pie? What kind of civilization wouldn't have Pie?!
Another set of parents were glaring at me from the cafe. Maybe if they had Pie they wouldn't be so grouchy.
The crowd of children in front of me had just asked if Humans have to kill to eat. A rather morbid question for children, but if they can ask it, I guess they're ready for the answer, “Humans used to eat creatures that were once alive, I won’t lie to you,” The mini-mob gasped in horr- wait, no, wonder?? That can’t be right. “But for many decades now, we have used machines to grow nearly all of our food, even and especially meat. To modern humans, there is no major need to kill something to eat.” I sigh for the hard part. “I won’t lie and say it’s everyone. I don’t want you to think us perfect. Still, there is no chance any human you would ever meet would want to eat one of you. Ok, it’s my turn!”
All the kids had their ears perked, eager to hear my question.“What are your favorite foods?!”
A cacophony of bleats and whistles erupted in front of me, “One at a time, one at a time! How about you, with the spotted eye. What is your name?” -- “Thicimek!” -- “Hello Thicimek, and what is your favorite food?”
“My mom makes this really good berry stew! It’s thick and - and sweet and really warm!” The tiny thing was bouncing in place and I could swear I saw a little drool in the light.
This child needs pie. With God as my witness, I will get them one.
“That does sound really tasty Thicimek! I’ll have to ask your mom for some when she picks you up.” I couldn’t stop myself from giggling at the swaying tails in front of me; a greyscale field of poorly synced metronomes.
“How about you, Ilnek? What is your favorite food?”
The light grey venlil perked up at his name, and thought for a moment before answering, “My dad gets these salted groundfruit rounds from the city! He always brings me some on his way home from work.”
“Wow you guys would love potato chips! Ok, Next question!” The pups raised one ear and dropped the other. I pointed to one in the back I haven’t heard from yet.
“Why are you grooming Alvi with your paw? Is she your friend?”
“Hmm?” I hadn’t noticed that the fingers of my good hand had worked their way around Alvi’s far ear. “Oh, I’m sorry Alvi!” I jerked my hand away, like it was caught in the cookie jar.`
She lazily responded, “I didn’t ask you to stop. And uhh,” her tail curled in embarrassment as her snout turned a shade darker, “I might have put your hand there when you weren’t looking.”
Alvi and I laughed and the pups along with us. This has been quite likely the best day I have had since mine and Valek’s art project!
“Far be it from me to deprive a Venlil of their scritches. As to your question," I continued absently kneading Alvi’s ears and crown, while I addressed the pup who asked. I was very pleased that most of the pups had gotten used to my facing them, though I still wore my brand new White Burka for the parent’s sake. “Humans are a very touch focused species; some more than others. We have a lot of words for this, namely ‘petting’, but also ‘scritches’ ‘ear rubs’ and several others.”
“Will you pet me?” A voice called from among the flock.
What left me was not a giggle, evidenced by the visceral flinch from nearly everyone in attendance, “I’m sorry, child, but that would be very inappropriate. Only after your parent’s ‘ok’ will that be a possibility, I’m sorry.” judging by her downcast ears, I believe it was the colorblocked girl who asked that.
A blackfurred boy, taller than the rest raised their favored ear for attention. “Yes, child? What’s on your mind?”
The boy’s ears swiveled in panic, and then found their focus, “A-Actually, I have a question for Alvi?”
The crowd couldn’t see it, but my mouth cracked in a joyful grin. I leaned over to check on her, “You got this?” and her tail flicked a cautious affirmative. She shifted her focus to the boy to prompt his question.
The boy stood slightly straighter, “Are you going to stay in the Grove for long?”
Alvi shifted in her seat, before asking with a noticeable change in shade, “Yes, I think I will be staying a while. Why do you ask?”
The boy struck a pose, his wool fluffed out and tail swaying.
”She carries the Night upon her back.
The thoughts of her I cannot t-track
Ohhhh no, boy, don’t do this! I was very thankful for the veil, but it was a real struggle to keep from laughing with the rest of the flock, though I did my best to quiet them. Alvi beside me had frozen almost as bad as when we first met!
I hope that I can be her rock
So won’t you be part of my flock?”
The children around him tittered while his whole body seemed to get oranger by the moment, even through his dark wool. I leaned closer to Alvi and barely whimpered through my held laughter, “You still got this girl?”
I could barely hear her through her clenched teeth, “No, I really don’t!”
I spoke up louder for the boy to hear, “Thank you for that, child. What is your name?” -- “V-Vaibek” -- “Thank you, Vaibek. Alvi needs to think it over, she’s a little nervous around crowds. Do you mind hanging around once we’re done, so we can talk privately?” The boy swayed his tail in a very sad affirmative, “Alright, thank you for letting her think about it. Ok! New question!”
“I have a question for the human!” One of the smaller ones asked from the front.
“Yes, dear?”
“Your chest is swollen like mama's! Are you pregnant?!” I could feel myself turning a vibrant shade of red, not helped at all by the intense focus of the whole flock. Alvi whistled her bemusement beside me.
“Oooooo-k, uh. No, I am not pregnant nor-”
“How do you know?!” — “Can we play with your pups?!” — “Do you lay eggs?!”
“Nor have I ever been.” Ears and tails fell around me; Alvi was right, you can really sense the whole crowd with these big movements. I have got to see a Venlil rock concert. “I am sorry to disappoint, but there won’t be any little humans around here for a while yet.” Though not wanting to end on a sour note, I quickly moved on to my next question.
“My turn: What are some games that you pups like to play?”
“Swingit!” — “Tower Tipper!” — “Fluff em’ Up!” — “Fill the Pond!”
“Wow those are some interesting games! Do you play those here?”
“No!” The flock answered as one. Loverboy clarified, “Our schoolhouse just had a field trip to the Dawn Creek Gravity Arcade! It’s got movies, arcades, a food court… and guess what’s the best thing!”
Alvi flicked her tail behind me. She seemed in on the joke, but I decided to humor Vaibek.
“What’s the best thing?!” I asked, trying to match his enthusiasm.
“The Dome! They have a whole city cell that’s gravatically shielded, so you just float! My favorite is the Maze!”
My back stiffened in surprise, whatever I was expecting, it wasn’t that! “Wait, you guys have an entire anti-grav stadium?”
Loverboy shook his tail smugly, “And you don’t?”
I feigned offense in voice and body, “Well pardon me! We, who have only just discovered FTL, cannot compare with the mighty Venlil’s technology!” eliciting excited whistles from the pups around me, after which I resumed my normal affect. “Seriously though, we know about anti-grav, but all of our resources for it are going into FTL ships. It is amazing you have enough of it to make something that large just for fun! Where is it? You said something about Dawn Creek?
“We had to fly there,” a voice squeaked from my left, “the trains were too long a ride. Daddy said it would have been paws.”
Alvi spoke up beside me, “It’s an industry town. The flight might be expensive, but we might be able to swing it.”
“Yeah, especially if I can argue that it's ‘culturally enriching’, Sam has been pretty accommodating.”
Seeing our conversation drift, I addressed the crowd. “It’s getting late, for me and for all of you. How about we call it here? I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully with some fun news!”
The pups all flicked their tails in good spirits before starting to wander off in pairs and triplets. Vaibek stayed where he was, though did not approach. I put a supportive arm around Alvi’s shoulder. “You want me to handle this?” Her ears flapped a negative, “Alright, I’ll be just over there at the cafe, ok?”
I found a seat with a good view, keeping an eye on Alvi as she talked to the boy. As much as I tried to give them their privacy, one couldn’t miss much once you knew tail language. The boy seemed to take it ok, and they parted with an amiable headbutt. Vaibek stood still at the fountain while Alvi walked over to me. “Poor guy,” I commented, “Hope he’ll be alright.”
“Yeah… So, Dawn Creek?” Alvi was desperate to change the subject.
“I love the idea! I’ll message Sam while you drive. Think there is enough to do there for a few days? I bet we could save a pretty penny if we take the train.” I stood from my too-small seat and we started our short walk to the cart.
“The ride itself is free,” Alvi clarified, “But you still have to pay for meals and a sleeping room.” Her tail swayed in concern as she turned an eye toward me. “That's several paws around people who wouldn’t know you. Many might act… like I did.”
Chuckling as I answered, “I’ll take your first hour over Leksi’s any day.” Alvi groaned, “But you’re right: a sleeper cabin it is. You or Valek could get food and drink while I stayed in the cab; a little cabin fever never killed anybody.”
“Stars, Maeve, I will never get used to human idioms.” She shook her head, “Still, I don’t want you to feel left out during travel.”
“Well, at least we have a plan for the worst case. How about the best case? If we fly we could probably get there in a few hours, or a ‘claw’, still getting used to that. What do we do when we are there though?”
Alvi took the driver seat while I hung off the passenger side. “I’ve never been there personally, but they’re a hub city, so they’re larger than most. I always saw ads for their entertainment district. Oh, and they have a few museums!”
I gasped in genuine nerdy joy, “Oh I would love that! Could probably skip the dome and just do the museums if I’m honest. I am not honest, please don't skip the dome.”
Alvi swayed her tail in amusement. “I couldn't skip that if I wanted to! Growing up I…" She gulped and shook the thoughts from her head. "I hope you can get it approved!"
With that reminder, I spent the short drive drafting my request to Sam, hitting send just as Alvi put the cart in park. “Okay, the request is sent,” I announce, “I'm so excited!! An alien museum and an alien theme park?! I'm the luckiest human alive!"