A time to keep, and a time to cast away

“If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.” - Oscar Wilde

The Aviril were an ancient race that traced its roots to a small, extinct planet around a now large, red star on the far edge of the Milky Way. At some point in their history, they had fled their world of birth and colonized hundreds of systems over a span of many millennia.

Over that same period of time, they had evolved to a point of almost supreme ability in reason and science. Dispersing as they did guaranteed the survival of their kind, as well as creating for them a sense of self assured primacy in the universe.

Physically, they were gender neutral, self-replicating, exoskeletal with a highly developed, twin dual-sphere brain. They sported six appendages, with the rear two mostly for bi-pedal locomotion but in a crisis, could rely on the mid set to produce a quadra-pedal gallop. The forward pair were counter-hinged and arm-like, with three digits and one opposing per.

Communication was both telepathic and through animated movement of the appendages... though the latter was now used mostly for ritual than important exchanges of information.

Over a span long since lost track of, they had been explorers of the universe. Their science allowed them to bend space and time on demand so that there was really no place they could not eventually know. For this purpose, discovery craft were sent out on extended tours to hitherto unexplored regions.

On board each discovery ship, there was an ‘Interpreter’ who was trained in extreme telepathy and empathy. It was the job of this crewmember to communicate and understand alien races they would come upon. This was facilitated by extracting samples from various time periods of any race in question, so as to gain a fuller understanding of their evolution and capabilities.

It should also be noted that the Interpreter was not a diplomat, as the Aviril had no interest in such relations with alien species. In fact, once an alien race was discovered and properly examined, they would generally leave without ever announcing their presence. Also, each sampling was taken from the last moments of life, so as not to affect the course of time and event.

One such discovery craft was now finally reaching its destination in a sector on the far side of the galaxy where the Aviril had never before been. The system in view had once hosted a life-bearing world but because of a violent solar storm originating from the nearby star, the biosphere had been stripped away and what was left was a mostly barren, rocky globe.

Cont'd

‘Across the vast reaches of space are stars, planets and moons. They are as many as the sands upon all the beaches along all the continents on Earth. In between those places is time and in that volume, more than enough moments to explore all of creation from its birth unto its death.’

“What was that, my friend?” The Commander had picked up the thoughts of comrade and lifelong friend - who was also, in this case - the ship’s Interpreter.

“My apologies. I was reviewing some data from the world below. It appears that they were, at some point, advanced and had some degree of understanding of the universe.” Interpreters could cognitively reconstruct thoughts and memories that became embedded in certain types of stone and other naturally occurring materials.

“And from that, would you recommend a more thorough investigation?” the Commander asked in thoughts.

There was a pause for a just moment and then almost a little insecurely, “They were a very emotional race, torn between their physical drives and their spiritual personalities. I think, yes. Perhaps a few temporal extractions would be worth the effort.”

“Then so it shall be.” was the reply as orders were issued for a stable orbit.

On the lowest deck of the vessel, there was a room that contained the technology to open temporal windows, or vortices, for the purpose of sampling. Once engaged, the target would be selected and then extract onto an examination platform.

The Interpreter stood staring into the empty space where soon would materialize those subjects for examination. “They were a gender-specific race, with male and female that mated to breed. They were also, comparatively speaking, a very short-lived species that depended on multiple reproductions to assure survival.”

Behind him, the Commander watched carefully because the telepathic/empathic exchanges with alien species could be quite taxing on the examiner.

On a round dais, there was a bright flash of light that gradually oriented itself into the shape of one of the creatures. The subject was fully capable of thought and communication but was not able to leave the confines of the dais.

“They called themselves, ‘Humans’.” the Interpreter explained. “This one is a male and was taken from a subterranean environment where he was about to be executed for speaking about a specific deity in a manner that his captors did not agree with. He believes that he has now expired and is in the presence of yet another deity; a particularly negative one.”

The dais was again activated and in another flash, the alien was quickly returned in both space and time to his previous predicament. The Interpreter lowered down onto fours, “There was little useful information from this subject. His intelligence was rudimentary and his mind cluttered with a combination of fear and anger. We will not reach so far back into their past with our next sampling.”

Watching an old friend labor with this kind of research was painful for the Commander. They had been in space for an extended period, visited many worlds and with each encounter, there was the suspicion that the toll was accumulative. “Maybe we should retire for a time and allow you to refresh yourself.”

“Your concern is appreciated but, no, that won’t be necessary.” was the reply. With that, there was again the brilliant flash and the materialization of the next subject upon the dais.

The young male was attired in what appeared to be a uniform but that was also torn and dirty, “He is a soldier and is about to be struck by several rather large projectiles directed at him from another soldier applying a combustion weapon known as canister shot. He believes that he is fighting for a cause worthy of his life, but still hoping that he will live through the event.”

The alien turned slowly, looking around in wonder at his sudden change of environment.

“More rage and fear?” asked the Commander.

“Not entirely.” answered the Interpreter. “He is afraid but there is no anger. I have not allowed him to see us so he is not in any fear of his current circumstance. Similar to our previous example, he also has a strong belief in deity and is wondering whether he may be in a mythical place called heaven or hell. He is also concerned about his immediate relatives whom he left behind to join the conflict. There is a great emotional sorrow as he considers them.”

The dais was then activated and the alien solder was sent back to the battlefield where he would suffer a mortal wound less than a second later.

The Interpreter was now visibly stressed, but waved off his friend’s advance. “A last sample and we shall have enough to file our report.”

One more time, the flash. On the circular platform now appeared an alien female...

Cont'd

She was attired in a single-piece uniform with various insignia and signage. Staring as if into nothingness, she seemed in a trance. The Interpreter appeared to struggle and then spoke, “She is a spacefarer from the latter days of her planet. The vessel she pilots is in orbit and is about to activate its engines to depart for a journey to the fourth planet in this system. However, there is an undetected leakage in one of the nacelles and...”

“It’s that damned coolant reciprocator valve, isn’t it?”

The sudden verbal outburst from the alien startled both attending, but she was not through yet.

“I can hear you, your thoughts, in my head but I cannot see you. Where am I and... who are you?”

The Commander moved quickly to deactivate the temporal conduit but his friend stopped him, saying, “She is not like the previous two samples. She is aware of her surroundings and is capable of communication. We should not neglect this opportunity.”

The visual blind was lowered. Alien and Aviril now stood face to face but she seemed neither afraid nor even startled. “So, you DO exist.”

“Yes, we exist as do thousands of other species across the universe. Would you assume that yours was the only sentient life form?” This entire self-centric, human concept was in itself alien to the Aviril.

The female astronaut paused in her thoughts and then offered, “Oh, I suppose it was something that comforted some but, most of us have come to believe that the whole notion was just a little ridiculous. Your presence will change our world.”

“I’m afraid that you are working from a false assumption, as you will not be able to report this meeting to anyone. At the moment we extracted you from your vessel, there was less than a second remaining from a critical malfunction. It will leave the pressure hull compromised and also be fatal for you and your entire crew.” The Interpreter felt a degree of remorse in sharing this but tried to remain separate from it.

“If you have the capability to manipulate time and matter, as is fairly obvious, you should be equally able to return me to my ship with enough time to correct the malfunction before it results in a catastrophe.” she replied.

“Yes, your observations are correct but we are forbidden from interfering with the course of events or altering them, as it would be. In our timeline, your life, as well as that of your world, have long since passed.”

“Oh, I see.” was her only reply.

The conversation with the long dead alien came to a close as the Commander activated the temporal portal and returned her to the predetermined fate that waited. “You have done enough here. It is time to move on to our next destination.”

Cont'd

[edit on 28-1-2010 by redoubt]

The Aviril ship left Earth orbit and was proceeding to the fourth planet of the system, as it appeared that this race had made some effort in that direction. In the report, though, the Interpreter noted that it was highly unlikely that the species, known as humanity, survived on any other worlds.

It had been an extremely draining encounter and though there was a feeling that this race had much potential, it was probably doomed to extinction, either from the same forces that destroyed their world or by their own actions.

Upon reaching the next planet out, the Aviril vessel prepared to begin a scan of the world in both present and past time sequences to determine what, if anything, could be discovered. On the command bridge, the Commander was in the process of initiating this investigation when a bright light filled the room.

The Commander and the Interpreter suddenly found themselves in a bare, white cubical with nothing but a large, reflective panel on the furthest wall. Gathering their senses, they began picking up words and numerous voices, in the way of thoughts. They were both alien and familiar...

“They refer to themselves as the Aviril. We picked them up on one of our old sensors from Earth.”

“Earth? What in the hell were they doing there?”

“Poking around with a temporal gateway, best we can tell. Probably taking historic samples for some survey.”

“Are they dangerous?”

“No, not really. Physically, they resemble insects with exoskeletons so; they are muscularly weaker than we are. My 12-year-old daughter could probably snap their legs off without much effort. And they also appear to be herbivores with very thin, brittle mandibles. They won’t be biting anyone.”

“How about their technology?”

“Nothing special. Encapsulated gravitational outboards with a run-of-the-mill fusion energy source and second gen space/time walk-over. No weaponry that we can detect.”

“Have you tried to communicate with them?”

“No need. They are telepaths and are probably picking up everything we say.”

“Well, what are we going to do with them?”

“We sent the details to Virginis 4 but haven’t received a reply yet. Colonel Downs suggests that we isolate them in the bio dome at the old Russian Nyra colony, at least until we get an answer. The greenhouse is still functioning so they’ll have plenty to eat. we also have their ship in a stasis-lock so... it isn’t going anywhere.”

“Okay, that sounds like a plan. Go ahead and bring the rest of the crew down and tractor the ship into the security bay at New London. And have defense work up a program to classify it… just in case there are any of their friends in the neighborhood.”

…

[edit on 28-1-2010 by redoubt]

Good work

I like the twist...

reply to post by Signals


Hey Sig! Thanks

I enjoyed it.Keep up the good work. Certainly better than some paperbacks I've bought at the bookstore.

Awwwwww! Why did you stop it? That was very interesting and well put together!

Ha! I love those kinds of endings with a sudden shift in perspective. This was well written, engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable.
Now, I'm off to read "The Ability To Need".