Scorched Earth, Alien Wonders

My first mission report to Qualdron took place the following morning. I used the binocular two-way communications link, which allowed us to see each other through the lenses. I had never worked with Qualdron before this project, but I knew of his reputation. He was an ambitious, high-ranking, frosty-haired, unusually pale, Rosenian official, known for conducting deep-space, exploratory projects.

First, Qualdron assured me the transporter was in the process of being repaired.

“Excellent,” I said, feeling relieved. “Everything has been uneventful here. We made contact with the town’s leader and gained her trust. Next, we will circulate among the other PD residents to see what they know about any humans living nearby.”

“Okay, keep me updated,” replied Qualdron. “By the way, I did confirm the addition of a scientist to your team, but it was authorized at the last minute by someone higher up the chain than me.”

That statement caused the fur on the back of my neck to stand up.

“I thought the only authority further up the chain for a mission like this was Empress Osette,” I replied.

“I can assure you it wasn’t Osette. She is busy with other planetary affairs,” he said, sounding vague and rather annoyed.

Damn, who’s running this show?

After a few more minutes of routine discussion, we signed off. I started thinking about how Daisy responded to our news the day before.

I told her the truth...

Yeah, I know...unusual for me.

I explained we were a group of aliens from across the galaxy, and we were in her town with a bot-shifter, a telepath, and a Draxian monkey. I explained further that we needed to observe how humans treated lower life forms to determine if they had evolved enough to respect other sentient beings, because previous reports were sketchy at best. Our leaders wanted to know the moral capacity, or lack thereof, practiced by present-day people.

Daisy was understandably reluctant to believe my story, but a strange thing happened when I offered proof.

We were standing in the middle of the Rabbit Hole, when I took the mini-binocs from my neck, sat them on the ground and told Torie to shift into another prairie dog. But that grumpy, old rascal changed into a burrowing owl instead.

“I said ‘prairie dog’, Torie,” as the owl landed in the dirt close to me. He swiveled his head and shrugged a shoulder.

“I think he means, you don’t have any imagination,” Brown responded in Torie’s defense.

But it was the astonishment that settled over Daisy’s face I remembered the most. Was it because she had aliens disguised as tall prairie dogs in her chamber? No, it was because she had never seen a live burrowing owl before or any other flying creature for that matter.

“I have never seen anything like it and it’s beautiful,” she said, watching Tori with fascination. “They have been extinct for eons, along with most of the other Great Plains wildlife. I think we prairie dogs have been among the very few animals to adapt and survive. We have not heard stories of coexistence with other creatures for several generations now.”

If that turned out to be true, it made prairie dogs exceptionally rare. So, it was even more important to determine how they were being treated, because clearly they were worthy of respect and protection.

“Torie draws from an Earth animal database in the binocs, so he really has a lot of options, because this planet once thrived with biodiversity,” said Davis, joining the conversation.

“Thank you for showing me the owl,” she said to us with barely concealed emotion. Daisy’s trust and acceptance was quite remarkable from that point on.

The fact that she didn’t faint, panic or puke from anxiety over having alien visitors in her midst—as some others had done on previous operations—was a true testament to the decency of her species.

Either that or she had a serious character flaw.

Daisy was rather entertaining, though, when she made a funny comparison between us, and fictional heroes she had seen in a movie.

“You guys are like the Aliens in Men in Black who take over the bodies of humans to live and exist among them, but you will be living among our town-folk instead, right?”

“Well, kinda...but...not exactly,” I said, shaking my head and cringing at the thought. “These bodies are our own, but they were disguised by our scientists based on ancient prairie dog DNA samples gathered periodically over the centuries from interstellar probes.”

At least that was as close to a scientific explanation as my limited knowledge of science allowed.

For quite a while that day, we answered every question Daisy had, while Torie flew around the chamber stretching his wings and showing off. She could hardly take her eyes off him as she asked her questions.

Meanwhile, Jones sat quietly nearby listening to the rest of us talk.

Daisy promised to help us any way she could, and she agreed to keep our mission a secret from the town-folk. This tiny, prairie dog leader had no idea at the time, how much we would need her to keep her word.