Chapter 7: Learn Thy People

“There is no doubt that failure in persuasion may occur. Beliefs, ideologies, and cultures will clash with others’ intentions and desires. However, there are a number of ways to overcome such differences and challenges. It is a statement that is easier said than to commit to. Both sides are selfish regardless of noble intent. Persistence, acceptance, and seeking to become one with a society can be achieved. It works both ways, from the guest to the occupant. Both sides must be open to allow such communication, and an alliance can be born. But what about those that seek mutual destruction of one another? There is no simple answer to this. Usually, the method of such an alliance is to seek common ground, often finding the same enemy of both sides and eventually establishing cooperation. However, even the Emphra proved that such an alliance between clans was difficult to obtain. Regardless, in the end, the Itreans choose to help one another or die separately. Courage and patience are the key to friendship and perhaps adoration even when time is finite...,” Gular’shel 2289 AD.

Fengge reached his hand up to the towering male Alara’jal that looked down upon him. Tonja gave the gesture to the male causing him to open his hand. Fengge then took his hand and tried to shake it, his fingers failing to grasp the massive hand. The lanky featherless Alara’jal only gave a look of confusion. He responded to Fengge with a series of Itrean words. It simply translated to “Welcome, alien.”

“So, you run the local greenhouse here, Goosa,” Fengge commented. Tonja did the honors and translated for him.

Goosa replied with a small series of quick nods. It had been a half hour. The array of crops that grew in the village would receive a fair amount of sunlight. By now, the twin stars were directly overhead. The direction almost made the binary stars look like they were next to each other, but this was only an optical illusion.

The farm was quite large in appearance. No doubt, a large amount of food was needed for such a society in which the people were so big. The crops consisted of a variety of goods. All of them carried a tannish green appearance. The stalks had signs of yellow to them.

Interestingly, Fengge noticed that some of the fruits had a similar shape to them. It caused him to recoil a little bit. With the bright overhead light from the stars, Fengge was thankful to have a big hat to shade his head and neck.

“Oh!” the paleontologist commented. “Those are the same plants that tried to kill me! I need to back away...”

“It is alright,” Tonja replied, pressing her tail to halt his movements. “We call the fruit ‘Givna’tolatradana Click.’”

“Sounds like... ‘Needle Rage Fruit?’”

“Close...” She corrected him. “The fruit that shoots needles ... carry seeds inside the stalks. We engineered this ... fruit not to shoot. It is good tasting ... try some.”

The stalks of these plants would reach half the size of the Alara’jal at full growth. There had to be at least hundreds of similar crops with the same design. Tonja walked up, leaned down, and plucked two of the fruits from one of the stems. She reached over and plopped one onto Fengge’s hands while she kept the other.

“That’s ... interesting,” Fengge commented. He held the fruit with his right hand. He used his finger to tap his wrist. Blue lights began to erupt from his left hand as a small beam of light dotted the fruit. Tonja and Goosa reacted with some surprise.

“What is that?” Tonja asked.

“My left arm? Oh ... I have an augmented arm. This ... it’s an artificial arm.”

“You replaced your arm?”

“Hmm ... more or less. I’m scanning to make sure that the fruit isn’t going to kill me when I ingest it.” He paused as a green checkmark popped on his left hand’s three-dimensional projection. “There we go. Good to go.” He shut off his left arm, brought the fruit to his mouth, and took a bite. The taste was quite unique, having a combination of sweet and sour.

“Mmm ... tastes pretty good,” he chewed. “Reminds me of Cebravin grapes, strawberries, and a mix of lemon aftertaste to it.” He nodded his head and smiled.

The towering Goosa produced a deep chirp and asked, “Good?” in Itrean.

“Yes,” Fengge replied. As he continued to eat the fruit, he saw Tonja open her enormous jaws. Her row of razor-sharp teeth could be seen. She tossed the entire fruit in her mouth and began to chew. It didn’t take long for her to swallow it. Tonja gave a mild set of quick nods. However, her reaction to the taste was not as substantial as the paleontologist had.

“That’s interesting...,” Fengge said as he chewed. “I studied the T-Rex back on Earth. Your descendants were meat eaters.”

“We eat meat and plants. The word you use ... omnivores?”

“Correct. Your diet goes beyond meat. Makes sense that your people survived besides just eating protein.”

“Long ... long ... long time ago, legends tell us that ... we ate meat only. Then we eat meat and plants ... become friends with the other clan species. We still eat meat ... get protein.” She said some other words to Goosa that added to his comments.

Fengge finished up eating the fruit. The remaining husk was given to Goosa that tossed the remains into a bucket to be composted. The sour taste remained in the human’s mouth, but he could swear that he felt his thirst be quenched.

“Goosa says that we grow ... at least ten different plants,” Tonja translated. “Three plants grow here ... seven we brought with us ... seeds from the Alaron. They help form our diet.”

Fengge continued to note the array of growing plants. There were a couple of Alara’jal that would regularly pluck the different vegetables and fruits that grew. While the paleontologist hadn’t been looking at the crops closely, he did note the soil. Something was telling him that the dirt’s condition was not wholly adequate. However, he quickly discarded the thought and resumed his chat with Goosa and Tonja.

“So, you’ve been living off these crops for hundreds of years?” Fengge asked. “I mean ... you don’t know how long a human year is. Ehm ... since the Alaron reached this world?”

“Yes. I grew up eating these...,” Tonja said. Goosa waved and left to resume his work in tilling the field.

“How is the health of this village?”

The female Alara’jal gave a confused look, but she quickly figured out the best way to respond. “Our food is good ... we live full natural ages ... water is good ... we expand with more children.”

“I know that Itreans, in general, can live up to 200 years ... our measured time. When were you born? Try your best to answer. I know you have your unit of measurement.”

“Our days... 417 days in one cycle ... a year. I am 63 cycles old.” She seemed hesitant to answer the question.

“Assuming that the days are the same length, estimated, you are roughly 70-75 years old. What about your parents? How old are they?”

Tonja put her hands together and seemed to smile a little bit as she looked away. It was odd seeing it from a low height. Her hands were fidgeting together.

“What is it?” he asked with curiosity.

“You ask ... these questions are ... odd...” even in her deep tone, it almost appeared that she was partly embarrassed. Was she blushing? “Your questions ... they are intimate.”

“Oh ... I wasn’t trying to proposition you. I didn’t know asking age was considered to be ... well ... I’m sorry.”

She quickly recomposed herself. “It is alright. Alara’jal, we age, and we die. Age is almost meaningless ... to our bodies. We celebrate life and bury when we die ... rejoin the cycle of this planet.”

“Humans ... we take time more candidly and with more degree. It almost sounded like you keep your ages a secret.”

“No ... age just not important. To ... answer your question ... my father passed five cycles ago ... my mother passed two cycles ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It is alright. Parents are together now. It is life...”

“Well...” Fengge put his hand to his heart. “Without trying to sound any more provocative, I’m 34 years old. Sounds like we’re almost the same age ... if the math and ratio are the same. Pretty interesting to see parents be able to have children at such late ages.”

“Yes...,” Tonja replied. There was a hint of emotion on her face. Fengge interpreted it as something embarrassing. He changed topics.

“There is something I should have asked,” the paleontologist asked. “With the whole situation going on with trying to make alliances, I failed to bring up the fact that my people are checking out the Alaron in orbit. Do you ... have any issue with that?”

“We almost forgot it was there...,” Tonja confessed. “My mother ... her followers, gave up ... there was little food ... water. From what she told me. The ship was left behind ... just like Zalri’eko. As for me ... do what you want, but ... don’t use it against us.”

Her last statement was an empty request by her but the best way for her to reply. More or less, Fengge interpreted it as a simple fact that the Alaron was abandoned goods. Passos and the lesser adjuncts of the Menshe’tat would have free access to unlock the secrets of the Alara’jal technology.

“Your ship is quite remarkable,” he commented. “Quite a perfection in engineering. It’s so big.”

“It is a warship...,” she noted. “It is a ship where people fight ... no choice ... but fight.”

“I know...”

“I am hesitant ... calling the T’rintar clan friends.”

“Why is that? Oh...” he looked down.

“Yutilians ... Aksren ... Shal’rein ... I never met one till now. My mother knew them ... as enemies ... killers. Yet, you bring one with you ... to us.”

“Our alliance was necessary ... in many more ways than one. You could almost say that we didn’t have a choice.”

“They force you to fight for them?”

“Not at all. Never, in fact ... but there is a hint of truth to what you feel.”

Tonja looked up to the sky. “I wonder what is out there...” she confessed. “Seeing you here helps that ... it...”

Somebody, a familiar voice, spoke not far from the two. It interrupted Tonja’s thoughts, causing her to turn around quickly. Upon looking behind him, the paleontologist was greeted by a familiar face.

Towering above him was Tochasa. His gaze was pressed to both the small human and female Alara’jal that were talking with one another. He had a scolding look on him.

“Oh ... Tochasa...,” Fengge replied. “Umm...,” He began to say a couple of words in Itrean, such as “Hello” and “How are you doing?” However, the Alara’jal ignored his questions.

“Human...,” Tochasa said correctly. He began to walk to the side and stood adjacent to the crops. “Noreep ClickClick, aza’tepa’to ... layan...,”

“Excuse me?” Fengge understood half of the words as insulting.

“He...,” Tonja translated. “States that Noreep ClickClick wishes for you to leave the village.”

“I already know that...”

Tonja waved her hand at Tochasa. She said a few words defending Fengge and his right to be there in the village. Tochasa only sneered and walked to face the small human. He went on a tirade of words. His hand gestures said it all while Tonja was doing her best. The paleontologist was having to argue with someone that was almost three times his height.

“It was agreed!” Fengge yelled back in English. He then repeated it in Itrean. Tochasa responded by kicking the dirt. His massive foot quickly shoveled a bunch of sand into the man’s face. If Tochasa made a step further, his foot would have impacted and crushed the human with ease. Tonja had had enough. She stepped forward, baring her teeth at him. Fengge was busy wiping the dirt that smacked his eyes. The human was momentarily blinded. When he gained enough sight, he could see Tonja was putting her deformed left hand to his chest.

“Golarren ... Tonja ... Tes’hip Click,” Tochasa said. His hand pointed at Fengge, but Tonja had enough. She took the four fingers of her left hand, made a fist, and brought it to the male Alara’jal’s face. The act of violence took Fengge by surprise. Tochasa recoiled a little bit. The amount of power that was thrown by the female’s fist was enormous, and Tochasa was partially dazed. He shook it off, with his hand pressed to his struck cheek. Finally, he said a few words in Itrean, anger still on his face. For Fengge, he understood most of it: “Watch him closely.”

With that, Tochasa left the two to their thoughts. Fengge managed to get the rest of the sand off of him. However, at the end of the confrontation, the paleontologist understood a familiar word that appeared again. Golarren...

Tonja’s fists were clenching and opening again. She was greatly disturbed. She took a few deep breaths before she regained her composure.

“I’ve heard that word...,” he told her. “The word for Golarren. What does it mean?”

She didn’t want to answer it. Finally, she summoned the courage to say it. “Freak.” She looked at her thumbless hand. Her face was filled with sorrow.

It finally made sense to Fengge, and it disgusted him. Tonja had a deformity on her left hand. The same could be said with Ioren on the UHN Lifen. The Itreans had their own word to define those that weren’t like them and weren’t perfect, and it was used to the gravest of insults.

“You’re one of the elders...,” Fengge remarked. “He ... disrespected you.”

“He said it out of anger...,” she replied. Her nostrils flared. “This ... today ... has upset him. He is ... venting...”

“You know him better than I do. Both him and Noreep.”

“Noreep ClickClick,” she corrected.

“Yeah ... both of them have been quite ... vocal. I suppose if you and Yoretalaj weren’t there to make things ... better, me and Oventala would be getting scrapped off someone’s foot.”

“It is more than that...,” she decided to change topics. “I think that you need ... to see more of Alaron’tre’til.”

“Lead away.”

Tonja decided to slowly move away from the farm area as the paleontologist moved quickly alongside her. The game of big slow walker vs. small, fast jogger had become commonplace by now. The nearest set of buildings was that of a lab. Much like everything else, its construction was partially made of wood and various metals.

“How did you build all this?” he asked her.

“Time...,” she answered. “Wood from forests ... metal from a mine.”

“You have a mine? Looks like you managed to establish quite a place. What type of lifeforms live on this world ... besides plants?”

“We hunt the Goagoa and the Ulen ... that is what we call them.”

“I wouldn’t mind getting a chance to see how you hunt.”

“Then you will see it.”

They arrived at the open lab, perhaps one of many in the village. There were no doors to this area. Only struts and wooden supports kept the roof intact. It provided shade above and a stone floor to walk on. Various large tables were in place. There were dozens of various pieces of equipment that Fengge wasn’t used to seeing. Most of it seemed like lab equipment. Vats carried multiple plants. Different displays had been established with solar panel roofs to provide power. With this lab, it was obviously more attuned to the nearby farm. There were two Alara’jal working here. Both of them were women. One had brown and green scales and wore long white dresses that covered much of their body and frame. One of them was busy looking at a large microscope. Another was tapping her chin, causing the tiny yellow feathers on her head to shake. She was overlooking the specifications of one of the plants along with various soil samples on the table.

“The feathered one is Kira’no’kalin’mesha,” Tonja explained. “She researches and improves yields. She studies the dirt for health.”

“Makes sense that you would have a botany lab,” the paleontologist said. The table height was a little too tall, as most furniture was for Fengge’s height. For a brief moment, he could see an open container with soil. A large spotlight was drawn over it.