Notes
This story was tricky. Because it’s the only era “in the future”. And—this may come as a surprise—I can’t predict the future.
For the first cycle, I wanted a story near the beginning of this era. So I wouldn’t have to look too far into the future. Humans are exploring the universe, but they still know very little and encounter all kinds of problems.
The more I thought about it, the dumber it would be if they actually encountered alien beings. Life completely different from what we know. Life that had evolved independently.
Why? We can see quite far into the universe, but haven’t found any signs of life. Moreover, everything indicates that the emergence of life is extremely rare. On Earth we probably won the lottery over and over and over.
For humans to suddenly find very different life close to home—and learn to communicate with it—was too unrealistic. (But who knows … in the far future …)
The disadvantage of short stories
Moreover, in such short stories there isn’t enough room to build up a completely different world. You pretty much always need locations that require little explanation. Maybe I’ll find a solution for that in the future.
Similarly, I would have liked to build up tension much longer at the beginning. Are there other beings? Where are they? How will this end? But there was no time for that.
Characters
- Hera: talks extremely fast and a lot, uses fancy words and old-fashioned idioms. Linguist. Mindy is her role model: the first to somewhat communicate again with animals. (Uses “fud” as a curse word, though more humans do so in this era.)
- Simmo: avoids all conflict. Avoidant and evasive behavior. Still very young, no profession, doesn’t know what he wants or should do. Only wanted to become an astronaut when younger, something for which he has great talent.
- Casjara: fit and muscular, active, passive-aggressive, cynical, doesn’t trust easily, thinks she’s amazing and superior. Daughter of military advisor Aprania, but due to his cowardly escape (Rocketrace of Aprania; Bluff of Kran), she never got the high rank she wanted. Thinks her actions make her a hero.
Hera and Casjara constantly talk past each other. Someone will say something that can be interpreted two ways, and the other thinks the first, when they meant the second.
The animals speak the same language in principle, but they have unlearned how to pronounce the letters M, N, K, H or Y. They also don’t know newer (“human”) words.