Memory transcription subject: Valek, Venlil-Human Partnership Program Participant
Date [standardized human time]: August 24th, 2136, Early morning
I didn't really understand the human sleep pattern. They stay awake for 4 Claws at a time, sometimes longer, then sleep for two whole Claws, sometimes more? How could they survive to develop Civilization with such a long time of vulnerability? I was losing my own sleep, but I needed to know! Maeve said I could ask her anything, right? I crawled out of bed, and by the gentle illumination of the room, lifted myself to look into the top bunk.
Two predatory green eyes captured mine as I reached the top, and, with a startled Beep, I threw myself from the bed frame as if shocked! Delighted giggling flowed from above me before struggling to comment,
“You ok? Having trouble sleeping?”
She rolled off the bed and sat by me. I knew all the facts, this shouldn’t surprise me, but I was still taken aback by her compassion and worry. But the floor felt nice, so I resigned myself to the ground,
“Yeah I couldn't sleep. I just can't make sense of it. Nothing about you humans fits! You're predators but you don't hunt. You are relentless except you sleep twice as long, or longer than us? You have some of the strongest herd instincts of any federation species, yet you’re often intensely private… I just…”
My tail twitched in agitation, and I flailed my arms hopelessly while I ranted. Maeve lifted her hand, then set it back down.
“I'm sorry you're frustrated.” She began, “But I understand your confusion. According to your science, creatures evolve to do something, and we don’t seem to fit that mold. I had noticed while reading about the federation, that your people tend to come from prosperous backgrounds. I say this with kindness, but you were never really challenged. Humans are confusing because we evolved to do especially one thing best of all among everything else on earth.”
“And what's that?” I asked.
“We evolved to hold.”
I lifted myself from the floor, Maeve backing away from me, she motioned me to sit on the bed, and sat next to me.
”Most of the things humans can do, you see elsewhere on Earth. Even farming and agricultural behavior can be seen in other creatures; like Ants, of all things. But very few creatures have invested so much time and energy into fostering relationships as we do. Some of this is just an idea, we cannot prove what happened before writing or intelligence, but if we look at our evolutionary cousins, we start to see some hints.”
“Our early ancestors were much hairier than we are now, and with that came all manner of pests, so we learned grooming behaviors. Our hands evolved to be strong and dexterous to accommodate an arboreal environment, so we could just use those. Our eyes evolved to spot good fruit and bad threats near and far, so we used those to find small pests in our fur. We would then eat these pests, giving us protein and nutrients that would be more difficult and more dangerous to find otherwise. Keep ourselves clean, healthy, and well fed; Win Win.”
“When our environment changed, and food became harder to find, other animals were affected too. Wolves, or something similar, noticed our success and hung around us, picking up our scraps. We offered them a stable source of food, so they offered us protection; they would use their keener senses to detect threats, and warn us, and sometimes fight or hunt alongside us. Over time, these animals were pressured to be better suited to us. Kinder to humans, more emotive, diet more attuned to what we couldn't eat. Eventually we caught on to this, and started to intentionally direct these stressors to better suit our needs. We call this practice Domestication.”
She stopped and looked at me, waiting for a reaction. Figuring she asked if I was keeping up, I motioned for her to keep going.
“This is where Dogs come from. For Tens of Thousands of years, dogs have co-evolved alongside us. They are actually where a lot of our ‘predatory’ descriptors come from. Words like ‘pack bonding’ and ‘snarling’ and ‘growling’ are not descriptive of most primates in our history; it is because we evolved to be with dogs, and they with us, that we are what we are today.”
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“Our grooming habits that I mentioned earlier helped with this. Pre-human dogs showed trust and affection by physical contact, and we, with our hands, arms, and eyes, were well suited for it. When we learned agriculture, other creatures profited from our success, like mice. They would take our grain from crop and store, and we would be hungry. But then another animal noticed all of these small rodents around humans: the Cat. There are a lot of cats on earth, many of them large and dangerous, but these were small and no risk to humans. They protected our crop, so we let them stay. Eventually, they learned to imitate the cry of a human infant, which strengthened our bond with them. Technically, the cat domesticated the human, but that's a story for another time. More importantly, these cats also picked up on our physical displays of affection, and our bodies continued to learn and change to love.”
She held up her hand. “If I may?”
Looking at her hand, I was keenly aware that she could grab me, choke me, or break me with those strong fingers. Finding my trust, and after a nervous gulp, I nodded.
She reached over behind my head, and, after a brief hesitation when I flinched, reached behind my ear and worked her fingers through my wool. I don't believe the Venlil language has words enough to truly describe the immediate sense of comfort, safety, and satisfaction that found its way from the back of my head, down my neck, and through the base of my spine as what I felt in that moment. I found myself leaning, no, falling into her touch as she scratched an itch I did not know it was possible to have.
I was blind and deaf to the contented murr that emanated from deep within my belly, and the delighted giggle that came from my side. The pads of her fingers were like drips of hot water directly on my skin, her nails adding a barely painful stimulus to the touch. The strong, deliberate pushing and squeezing of my ear canal gave a feeling not unlike nursing a headache you didn't know you had.
“This... connection, this closeness, led humans to a very early, and very deep understanding of the intrinsic connectedness of nature, leading to a belief system called Animalism” she purred, more to herself than to me at this point.
After a moment’s pause, she relented, and a moment longer to find my wits, “How did you do that???”
“Well, if I'm honest, you look a lot like a couple creatures we are familiar with on earth. Not impossible given our biodiversity, but the fact that I have worked with both of these creatures before gave me a starting place. And, as I mentioned, humans have been doing this for many thousands of ‘ears’,” tittering at her pun, she ruffled my crown of fur and continued, “so most humans have an intuitive sense of what and where feels good.”
“Why hasn't anyone mentioned this? This alone is ample evidence of human empathy!”
“Well, like you said, sometimes we are intensely private. Humans have a lot of ... complicated feelings about displays of affection. Largely because there is a lot of overlap with displays of -- um -- intimacy.” Maeve flushed and shifted away from me, sensing something was wrong, I asked.
“And is that…. Bad? Why wouldn't you want to share your kindness?”
Thinking for a long moment, Maeve found her words. “We can’t choose our feelings. But we can choose our actions. And those actions have consequences. Humans are hardwired to seek companionship, it is one of the main drivers for everything I mentioned earlier. And sometimes, the companion… doesn't want you, and that registers as pain. Real measurable pain, in humans.”
“Humans have looked at the stars, and lifted to them the things we find important, ever since we worshiped the flora and fauna around us. We were guided by the Cub of Ursa Minor, and found strength in the Bull of Taurus. We have looked at our celestial tapestry and wondered at our place in the universe. But for thousands of years, we were alone. We invented the spyglass to look closer, and still alone. We lit bombs under our asses, flinging ourselves to other worlds, and still.” a shuddering breath
“Alone.”
I shifted closer to her, and wrapped my tail around her back. “Not anymore.”
“Ha. Says the Prey to the Predator.”
She said it in jest, I know that, but the cruelty of their situation was not lost on me. The prevailing scientific understanding remained that humans were many things but they were not a herd animal, that they were not kind. I knew better now, and the sting of herd rejection was something no Venlil would wish on anyone. My ears fell flat against my back, and I begged the Day for some way to comfort my friend.
She whispered to the gloom, "That's what our ambassador meant when he announced we were looking for friendship.”
From the other side of her, she took the end of my tail and kneaded the tuft, and I leaned my head against her.
“You’ve found mine”