by G. L. Argain
264
Lives Of The
Unknown
Book 1:
The Legend of Andrew Lockeford
Written By:
G. L. Argain
Chapter 1
A shooting star soars through space at twenty kilometers per second, set towards a specific planet in a spiral galaxy. Many life forms watch this meteor as it passes by—some making a wish upon it, even though there is nothing a mere meteor can do to magically grant their wishes. Although there is a negligible chance that someone (let’s call him Jimmy) wishes for the meteor to strike somebody’s head—anybody’s head—and as such the meteor falls towards the planet and crushes some unlucky guy’s head into the ground. That unlucky bastard was probably outside just so he could take a deep breath and enjoy the sunshine—nothing at all harmful. Did you ever think of that, Jimmy?
The meteor indeed infiltrates the planet’s atmosphere, increasing its temperature by thousands of degrees from colliding with so many air molecules. The meteor, however, is as durable as a spacecraft and does not deteriorate. The ground gives way to form a crater as the meteorite lands into a wildlife area outside of civilization. No one was outside to look at the wildlife for the time being, so….sorry Jimmy, no crushed head for you.
No, this is not Earth, but rather a planet millions of light years away from Earth, capable of not only life, but also an intelligent alien society. No, Jimmy is not a human, but rather an alien from another planet. And finally, no, the meteorite is not just a hunk of rock that made it through the atmosphere. This meteorite is a spacecraft—an escape pod, to be precise—that appears to have an alien life form inside of it. This life form is not native to the current planet, and it looks very primitive—although not primitive enough to certainly be labeled an unintelligent species. The crater that the escape pod created is several meters in diameter, making its mark on the surface of a large shield volcano. All of this information is gathered from within a nearby laboratory, where two scientists of a specific alien species—different from the one inside the escape pod—have tracked the meteor’s progress and used various technologies to determine what may be inside.
The two alien scientists are both fifty-two inches tall (or 130 centimeters—whichever unit you would prefer), having short legs and long, double-jointed arms that reach down just below the knees. Think of them as arms with two elbows on each. They stand upright, like many intelligent species do, and each has an I.Q. above two hundred. They have small noses and ears, along with three eyes to see. The center eye looks straight ahead, while the other two look to the sides like the eyes of a bird. Finally, they have hairless, dark-gray skin. They are really speaking in an alien language, but for the sake of those reading this, it is translated into a human language.
“Activate the teleporter, Shul. We’re bringing it in for analysis. Make sure to get all of your tools ready,” said Anzem, the first scientist.
The other scientist named Shul hesitates at this comment and looks back, saying, “But what if this alien life form is just part of some sort of trap? What if it has come here to kill us?”
“Did I stutter? I said get all of your tools.”
Shul pauses for a moment, appearing deeply offended, and says, “You didn’t have to say it like that, Anzem. I was just clarifying whether you were aware of our safety—”
“I’ve been working here for many more years than you have! I know exactly what I’m doing! Unlike you, perhaps.”
Although Anzem is a rather critical and harsh person, Shul knows for a fact that he had endured worse words. Shul is just a bit on the sensitive side, that’s all.
After equipping his vaporizer, Shul sets the coordinates for the teleporter onto the spacecraft’s position as it gathers energy. He pushes the button and, as a result, a flashing beam of light envelops the escape pod, teleporting it to the lab within two seconds. Both the scientists wear suits that conduct very little heat and electricity, so that when they pry open the hot door of the escape pod, no one gets burned or electrocuted by some chance. As they look into the pod, they see that the life form is also wearing a suit, although a different one from the scientists’ suits, considering it is specifically made for the occupant to survive the impact of crash landing. The pod’s mechanisms make various hissing and beeping sounds from feeding water, oxygen and other nutrients into the occupant’s body. A lab computer ran a diagnostic on the creature within the pod, saying that there was insufficient data on it.
“This looks like a Selentor escape pod,” said Anzem, “and yet it doesn’t look like there’s a Selentor inside. It’s something else….”
“What is it, then?” asked Shul.
“The computer doesn’t say….let’s open up the pod and remove the life support tubes from the body. Then we’ll take this guy out of the suit and place him onto the platform.”
“Wait, what?”
“It’s the best way to analyze this thing at this point.”
“Alright, but I’m not taking any chances.”
Ready to fire, Shul aimed his vaporizer directly at the creature while Anzem opened up the pod. The life form inside was unconscious, according to the computer, but Shul did not lower his guard.
“You’ll have to put down the vaporizer for a second, Shul. I’ll need help—”
“I already know what to do.”
“Oh, do you?”
Shul pressed a virtual button on an electronic screen, affixed to the wall towards his left. A smaller vaporizer popped out of the ceiling, with its aim locked onto the creature. The computer system would fire the vaporizer if it detected any sudden movements from the life form.
“How could I be here if I wasn’t prepared for anything?” said Shul.
Anzem developed a slightly annoyed yet impressed expression upon his face.
As the scientists try to lift the suit out of the pod, both of them think about how remarkably heavy the creature must be, especially since each scientist is about two-thirds the size of the life form. They don’t have a harness or leverage system in the lab at the moment, so if they absolutely had to take the creature out, it would be easier to just gather some more people to come and help out.
“Screw this, we can’t even lift this thing out of the pod. It’s more than just the suit—that seems fairly light.”
“So should we just open up the suit where it lays as is?”
After a big sigh, Anzem says, “I guess so.”
Shul takes the head protection off of the creature’s suit and, although seeing plenty of other alien species before, felt his heart pulse harder after viewing the life form that lay before him.
“Oh my Yhn, what is that? I don’t know whether I should be fascinated or frightened by this….this….whatever it is, it’s definitely not a Selentor!”
“Ok, you need to shut the fuck up about this ‘Yhn’ nonsense, because there’s no scientific proof that such a thing exi—oh, wow, that really does look, um….fascinating, I guess.”
As far as curse words and expletives go, the meaning behind them has been extinct for millions of years for aliens such as these, since they are often related to religious references, sexual activity, or perhaps anything crude—much of which is not a part of these aliens’ modern culture. However, the expletives stuck as they provided the alien people a way to express their thoughts with emphasis.
Both the scientists had the same expression on their faces at this point. They had seen beige skin before, as well as hair, ears, lips, and noses, but never all at once on the same head, and they were especially amazed with the structure of the creature’s head�
�it looked strange yet familiar at the same time.
“Big head,” said Shul, “It must certainly have an effective brain.”
As Shul said this, Anzem took out a device that shone a ray upon the creature’s head and listed data about the brain onto a floating screen of light. The ray did not work through some materials, hence why the head protection was taken off. “Hmmm….doesn’t look like it. See how the cortex doesn’t have that many folds and wrinkles? Says here that it has two-thirds the capacity of most intel-beings.”
“Two-thirds? So is it just an animal?”
“Doubt it—you can see here,” pointing to various parts of the creature’s body, “that it walks upright, has an oral cavity fit for language, and its hands could easily use tools such as ours. Plus, you should remember that this is a primitive life form whose body has almost no genetic modifications whatsoever.”
“So is it capable of intelligent life?”
“I would believe so. Although I don’t know if I would necessarily call it an intel-being.” At that very moment, Anzem had an epiphany and ran to look at a list of known species with a shocked expression on his face.
“What? What is it?”
“Oh shit, it better not be what I think it is,” said Anzem, searching deliberately. He looked through both physical storage cabinets and electronic files, only to find no data on the creature. He stopped for a couple of seconds, then he went back to the body with a conclusion: “This creature’s not anywhere on the list. That means he—or she—is either part of a species that we haven’t discovered yet, or a species that we are forbidden to contact. Yeah, he’s got to be one of the forbidden species, considering how primitive he is.”
“Out of the tens of thousands of intelligent species we’ve discovered so far, there’s only….let’s see….fifteen species that we can’t contact. And you’re telling me this guy’s one of them?!?”
“Apparently so, although we can’t really say we contacted the species, since this guy has technically contacted us.”
“Still, this is bad news.” Shul was shaking at this point. “We’re done for, aren’t we?”
“Oh, calm down, Shul, I’m worried too, but you don’t see me whining.”
“But what if the AOIB finds out and—”
“Enough already! I’m sure even they will be lenient, given the situation. In fact, call in Juvir right now.”
Utterly shocked, Shul elevated his expression and shook his head while saying, “WHAAAT?!? No way! If you’re thinking that we should even let him about this, then forget about it! I don’t want him of all people to find out we brought in a forbidden species!”
Anzem begun to laugh at this—he thought Shul looked hilarious whenever on the rare chance he got angry. “Ha ha ha….I know you’re scared shitless about all of this, but come on! Don’t you want some change in your life? Some excitement?” Shul thought he had enough excitement for one day, but he had also spent most of his adrenalin at this point, so anything on par with this would not surprise him as much. Anzem added, “I’d rather see what happens next than spend another boring day in this lab anyway.”
Eventually, Shul took a deep breath and said, “Fine, let’s get Juvir in here. Whatever may be in this pod is most likely going to end up in the hands of the AOIB anyway.”
Chapter 2
The creature woke up, appearing unaware of its current surroundings and somewhat amnestic, as though it had been in a coma for weeks. Its eyes were white, with a small hole in the center of each eye and a brown, circular area surrounding each hole. It had thick black hair on top of its head, and its nose was extruded in a way unlike any of the other aliens.
“Place the translator into here,” said an alien standing near the creature, pointing to its ear. Once the translator was placed, everyone formed a wide circle around the being—out of its pod and suit now, placed onto a circular platform.
“Welcome, fellow life form,” said Juvir as he stood about ten feet away from the waking mortal. Juvir was the one to ultimately decide to keep the life form and interrogate it, so he felt the most responsible in introducing himself first. “Do you understand me?”
“Unngghh….Yeah, I hear you. If you’re speaking English,” it said drowsily, “then is this Earth?”
“No, there is no Earth here. I suppose Earth is the planet you came from?”
“Yeah, but why—”
At this moment, the creature—rather, the human—widened its eyes and inhaled deeply as it sat up immediately, just as most people would from waking up after a terrible nightmare. As it looked around to make sure that nothing would move too suddenly, it said, “WAIT! DON’T MOVE! Don’t move a single fucking muscle!” It looked around for a weapon as though it had one earlier, growing more frantic when nothing could be found. It then raised an arm and directed its hand towards the alien it was currently looking at, tightening its hand so it would look remotely like a eagle talon. However, the nails on each talon did not look pointed, but rather just looked like plates on the top of each finger. Not exactly an effective backup weapon, let alone fearsome.
None of the surrounding aliens moved or lost their composure. Everyone would stay exactly as they were until the human calmed down. No one dared to speak except for Juvir.
“Calm down, please, there is nothing to be afraid of. We have no reason to harm you anytime yet. Although we did find that sword you were keeping in the pod with you once we took you out.”
“Yet? What’s that supposed to mean? And where’s my sword?”
“It means that if you’re friendly, we will be friendly. If you’re hostile, we will be hostile.”
The human thought about this statement for a few moments, then it decided to lower its fake claw and listen to what these alien people might have to say. They were already better than the previous aliens he/she had encountered. Still, that person appeared attached to the sword Juvir was talking about, and since Juvir did not answer where it was currently at, he/she was sure to ask for it again.
“So then, what do you call yourself? Tell me about your species.” said Juvir.
After a moment’s pause, the human thought about a suitable way to introduce itself, then proceeded: “My name is Andrew Lockeford. I’m a human, from the planet Earth. And until a few months ago, I never had any certain proof that there were intelligent species outside of my own planet.”
“Really? Your species isn’t even sure whether there are more intelligent species in the universe or not?”
“Well, we know for a fact that there is intelligent life somewhere light-years away from Earth, but nothing for certain about specific— FUCK WHY AM I NAKED???” Andrew finally realized that he hadn’t been wearing any clothes, thus deciding to cover his privates with his hands. What’s funny about humans is that they sometimes mentally prioritize their most beloved possessions (his sword) above their necessities, such as clothes and food.
“We were just figuring out your anatomy, Andrew, and we had to take you out of the spacesuit that you were in. You’re a male, correct?”
Andrew developed a wary expression as though some creepy individual asked him the question. “Yeah?”
“Just checking. We’ve seen some species with reproductive organs like yours who were actually female. It’s a big universe, you know. I’ll give you a suit now.” Juvir pulled out a ball that was slightly over an inch in diameter then said, “Stay still, and don’t try to catch it.” He tossed the ball towards Andrew and, once it hit his arm, it immediately expanded and covered his body. Andrew tensed his body but otherwise did not move. He found himself covered in a thick, black material that lay everywhere on his body except for his head.
“As you can see, this suit is flexible, breathable, light, and very durable. Think of it as armor that you can wear anytime.” All of the aliens around Andrew were wearing this material, as it happens that most of the creatures on the planet wore this anywhere they went. Even the two scientists wore this kind of suit as they found Andrew in his es
cape pod.
“There’s something I want to ask,” said one of the aliens across from Juvir. This alien was a different species from Juvir, although it appeared that each alien surrounding Andrew was from a different species anyway. Andrew turned around to hear what this alien—or person, since Andrew is the alien here—wanted to say. “These increments of time that you state—‘months, light-years,’—how exactly long are they?”
This confused Andrew at first. He didn’t quite know how to describe the human’s version of time, so he said what he could think of.
“Well, to begin, my species’ measurement of time starts with the second.” He began to tap his finger each second onto his wrist, making sure that the guy was paying attention. “The amount of time that passes between each cycle that my finger is making here is equal to one second. Sixty seconds is equal to one minute. Sixty minutes is equal to one hour. Twenty-four hours is equal to one day. And about thirty or thirty-one days is equal to one month.”
Andrew doubted that this person could have understood everything immediately, but this person replied, “Got it. But I’m still curious about the light-year.”
“Actually, it’s a measurement of distance. A year is equal to twelve months, but a light-year is used to describe the distance that light can travel in one year.”
“Why use light as a basis?”
“Because humans believe that light is the fastest thing in the universe. At least, that’s all we know.”
“We believe trechens are the fastest particles so far, and they’re several times faster than light. However, none of our interstellar vehicles can go faster than light.” Andrew had no idea what trechens were—he guessed that maybe they were some weird subatomic particles.
“That’s enough, Lee,” said Juvir, “I know you wish to ask plenty of questions and tell him everything about ourselves, but have you considered how much information a being such as Andrew can take in so quickly?”