Another World

We don’t have names on our planet. In my head I refer to my mother as “The One I Came From”. It would be a mouthful if we spoke, but we don’t. We communicate through our thoughts. It brings us closer than your planet, which is full of wars and prejudice. On our planet, everyone is connected. We have no differences and we are at peace. That isn’t to say we are perfect. When the transmission came through, some of us thought it would be best to retaliate. I was not one of them. The transmission ignited a curiosity within me and I only wanted to know more about your people. 

Your transmission was odd. We could see what you looked like on a screen. We had only ever used the device you projected onto to track the weather cycle for our farming. We had never put ourselves on the screen before. Then all of a sudden, there you were, on all of our weather devices. You were hairless beings with shorter limbs than ours. Your bodies were rigid where ours were soft. You gestured carelessly when we would have considered every movement before we acted. You were unlike anything we had ever seen before and I was intrigued.

They speak aloud in a harsh guttural tongue, one of us spoke into our heads. I had known them since I was small. They were one of the tallest among us so I had christened him with the name “The Tall One”. 

It hurts to hear their language, another one added.

But their intentions seem to be friendly, an elder countered. For days we discussed how we should move forward. Some of us wanted to ignore it. The harvest season is almost upon us, they reminded us. We can’t put our energy elsewhere.

Others like The Tall One disagreed. They didn’t like the new strangers. They believed the transmission was a warning, that we should strike before they did.

I didn’t like the new ideas brewing. We had never acted violently before. We didn’t even hunt the other creatures on our planet like your people. We took our sustenance from the planet, from the vegetation that our home naturally provided for us. As a result, we inhabited a verdant landscape, lush with various species of plant life for us to consume. Our ancestors learned how to cultivate our food so that we wouldn’t run out when the land frosted over. We figured out how to track the ebbs and flows of the weather cycle, tracking them on the devices that the smartest of us had constructed for our collective’s benefit.

I confronted The Tall One a few days after, confiding my doubts, but they disregarded my feelings. They mistrusted your people from the first time they laid eyes on them, and no evidence suggesting otherwise would change their mind.

I realized that my attempts at swaying their resolve would be fruitless. I returned to my dwelling where The One I Came From was waiting for me. They were against the violence as well, and were disappointed to learn that I couldn’t prevent what was to come. They comforted me, pushing my fears from my mind so I would be able to sleep at night.

The most fearful of us were the most passionate about protecting ourselves against the strangers. Instead of preparing for the upcoming harvest, they locked themselves in The Tall One’s dwelling, scheming and inventing methods of destruction. When they finally emerged, weeks later, they showed us what progress they had made.

We marveled at the weapons they had crafted for us to wield. Even against my better judgment, I was impressed by the effort they had put into their task. The weapons were well-crafted and capable of fatal consequences.

The group was expecting the strangers to arrive on our planet before the harvest’s end, which meant we had little time to prepare. They thrust the weapons at us and taught us how to handle them, showing us the moves that would surely kill your people. They promised us that when the bloodshed was over and the strangers extinguished, life would be better than ever. We would be able to protect ourselves from then on and study the technology your people had used to make harvesting easier than ever. 

Their words were enticing, false promises entering my brain like the fantastical stories my people would tell each other after a long day of harvesting. Even I started to believe their ideas, until I too was fully entranced. I picked up one of their weapons and trained with my people everyday. The harvest was forgotten about. The Tall One told us that the strangers’ technology would double our harvest next year and until then we would just have to ration what little stores of food we’d had left over. None of us argued because there was no reason to doubt. We all trusted each other and we had never failed each other before. There was no reason for failure to occur now.

The Tall One and his comrades were proven right when your people landed some weeks later. The time for harvesting was ending as the chill creeped out and the waters started to freeze over. The frost was arriving and it was too late to back out of our plan.

Your people arrived from the sky just as we had suspected. Your vessel was made out of a substance we had never seen before. It was just as hard and durable as a boulder, but almost as shiny as the crystals that covered the walls of the caves. You landed not far from our dwellings and we quickly gathered our weapons together and entered the formation we had practiced in for so long. Up until then, our practices felt almost like play. Even though we truly believed one day they would be necessary, the day had felt so far away. Now that was upon us, and I could sense fear among my people’s thoughts. 

The elders and young ones stayed behind in their dwellings. That included The One I Came From. The rest of us marched to the landing site with The Tall One leading the way.

We circled your vessel, trying to find an opening that you would emerge from to no avail. Finally a door dropped down from a place we had thought was just a smooth wall. A ramp slowly slid out and we saw the first of you emerge.

You looked nothing like your transmission. Your people were dressed in all white suits and our fears were confirmed that you were here for war. Why else would you be wearing such thick armor?

I had convinced The Tall One not to strike unprovoked. I still had hope for your people, and most importantly, for mine. I didn’t want to see my people become the violent kind I knew they weren’t. I couldn’t watch them transform into mindless beasts when I knew that they were capable of so much more.

The Tall One walked over to your people once three of them had exited the vessel, all indistinguishable from each other in their white armor. One of them turned their shiny head around to take in the sight of us all there, prepared for violence, and ran back into the ship. The other two bowed their heads together, communicating quietly, but verbally, just as we knew they could. We couldn’t understand their language so we waited for The Tall One’s signal of what to do next.

Finally one of your people stepped towards The Tall One and waved his arm slowly. They spoke in a tongue we could not understand, but we interpreted it’s meaning as reassuring. 

The Tall One hesitated. They had expected your people to attack us as soon as they got here. The Tall One was ready for the war they had promised themself, but they understood that peace was the best option. We would still be able to achieve the best harvest by studying your people’s technology even without taking it from them.

Your people looked relieved. The one who spoke patted their chest and said what we inferred was their name, “Sam”. They pointed at their companion and spoke another name for them, “Nick”. These names were fairly simple, but of course we would never be able to speak them out loud, much to the travelers’ disappointment.

The third traveler stayed in their vessel, while Sam and Nick followed us to our dwellings once they showed that they were unarmed.

We showed them our weather devices and they seemed impressed. We brought them to our harvest site and the river that ran through our home that offered a natural irrigation system for our crops. 

The young ones would dance around them excitedly. They had never imagined such creatures in their wildest dreams. The elders embraced them like they were of our own. 

When night fell, we showed them how we cooked our food and shared with them what little we had around a fire. We couldn’t connect to their thoughts like we could to each other so communication was difficult. 

After everyone had eaten, our best storytellers performed in front of the fire for our guests. We were desperate to impress them because we needed their technology so badly. Our livelihood depended on it.

The travelers did not understand the stories, but they seemed enthralled by our storytellers’ fluid movements and the shadows that danced around us.

When all was done, they returned to their vessel to sleep. The young ones were scared that they would leave us for good, but the wiser ones among our people knew they would return.

The next morning I awoke to the smell of smoke. I knew that the fire had been put out after our meal the previous night as it always is before we retire. Something was different. 

I told The One I Came From to stay in our dwelling. They were frail after a long life and would not be able to protect themself if there were danger. 

I exited my dwelling to see some of my people frantically running towards the forest. They were tripping over themselves, and at a closer look, I realized that they were tripping over bodies. Bodies holding weapons that had taken so long to craft, but had been proven useless. Sam and Nick were not there, but three or four other visitors dressed as them were. We had not known how many had still been in the vessel. Our numbers greatly outweighed their own, but their technology was more advanced than we had ever expected. 

They held little devices in their gloved hands and when they pressed them, they would release a small beam in whatever direction they pointed it in. When the beam hit a target, they were knocked down, never to rise again.

The smoke I had smelled came from a fire that encompassed multiple dwellings, including The Tall One’s. The four travelers stood in the middle of the chaos with their devices raised and pointed at our people trying to escape. 

I ran back into my dwelling and quickly communicated to The One I Came From what was happening outside. They remained calm, their years of experience had made them impossible to fluster. They grabbed my arm and led me out the door without explanation. The travelers had their backs turned toward us, focusing their wrath on the escapees running towards the safety of the forest.

The One I Came From took me around the side of our dwelling until it blocked us from view. They dropped to the ground and I followed their example, hitting the dirt with a small thud, unnoticeable from the sounds of panic. We crawled on our stomachs until we reached the river. The One I Came From told me to submerge myself fully and let the water float us downstream, past the harvest site and into the forest.

I worried for them as we swam. It was hard for me to swim underwater for so long, and I could only imagine what it must be like for their frail body. I also worried about my people. Would others have escaped as well? What would happen to us? My thoughts were drowned out by the increasing need for air. The hole I breathed out in my chest could not surface until we reached the protection of the forest. 

When I felt the dark trees fully surround us, I turned onto my back, frantically breathing in as much air as I could. The One I Came From sputtered from their chest and I reached for them to make sure they were okay. They reassured me that they were fine, but now we faced a new problem of having nowhere to go.

We wandered the forest for days, unsure if the travelers had left our planet or if they planned to stay. We didn’t see another one of us that entire time so we believed ourselves to be the only survivors. We ate what little edible plant life we could find, but food was scarce in the forest as most of it was poisonous.

As we feasted on a purple leafy plant The One I Came From said they had had in their youth, I felt the vibrations in the ground that were similar to the ones I had felt the day the vessel had landed. I sprung to my feet and told The One I Came From my discovery. They agreed that at nightfall, we would return to our dwelling and take in the damage.

When darkness came, we left the safety of the forest, walking along the river in case any visitors had stayed behind. We reached the back of our dwelling and I peeked from behind it to make sure that we were alone. When the coast was clear, we slowly creeped out to see the rest of the dwellings. Half of them had been burned to the ground with nothing but blackened lumps left behind where they used to stand. Dead bodies of our people littered the ground, foolishly grasping the futile weapons we had been so proud of. 

I dropped to my knees and screeched out of my mouth. It was the first time I had ever made an audible noise. It did not sound as sophisticated as your people’s words, or as natural as the sounds of the creatures in the forest, but it was full of devastation. It took every part of my being to call forward such a sound that it physically hurt me to do so. I knew no other way to convey my grief since I had never felt such an intense feeling before.

When I had finished my scream of anguish, The One I Came From put her hand on my back. I just stared at the ground, unable to bring myself to look at any more of the wreckage. After a moment, they patted my back with some urgency and spoke into my mind to look up. When I did, I saw that a few of my people had come out of the surrounding forest. They all stared at each other. They had not known that others were alive.

There were less than a quarter of us left, but I’d never felt more grateful than when I had seen my fellow people standing there. 

Now it is almost time for the new harvest. Much time has passed since the slaughter of my people, but we have not forgotten. 

During the frost, The One I Came From passed away. I’d like to think they joined our people on the other side. They are waiting for me to join them next, but I cannot. I have to lead my new people toward a new goal. 

We have rebuilt our harvest site, though it is not as big as it once was, it is enough. We cannot repair the weather devices that were so useful to us. Now we rely on natural signs of what is coming. We have taught ourselves to notice when the wind changes and the leaves grow larger. We are still surviving, but we are not the people we once were.

The people you massacred were peaceful. They believed in your goodness over their own fears. I miss those people, but I am wiser now. I will not wait for you to come again and destroy what we have left. 

That is why I am speaking to you now on our very own transmission. My scream that day was the first sign of a new era. We are very smart creatures, smarter than what you once took us for, and we have incredible memories. We remembered those words you spoke to us on that day and we have taught ourselves to speak back. We used the knowledge we consumed from your minds that night by the fire to learn the rest of your language, and though our voices may be hoarse and painful to hear, you will listen to every word.

You visited our home first, but now it is our turn. We learned the ways of mistrust and fear from you and now you will learn it from us. We will take revenge for the ones who have fallen and this time we will be prepared.