LF Friends, Will Travel

“You have the spirit of a Terran” - Ritilian saying, modern. Meaning: To dive recklessly and selflessly to aid others.

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Excerpt from “Cold rock - A memoir of a Colony member” Author: Sautrian R Wrell. Originally published by ShellBound Books in Ritilian.

Chapter 14: The Terrans.

In order to accurately describe the shock we felt, when the Terrans returned to Cuca for the second time, one must tell of the first time the Terrans visited. First contact with the Terrans did not go well, the colony that would be known as Cuca had been under initial construction for around three months when the Terran’s own colony scouting ship had landed.

It isn’t uncommon for species just entering the galactic community to accidentally attempt the colonisation of planets that already had colonisation efforts ongoing; the Terrans were no exception to this mistake. Differences in locations, cultures and just general biology means unless you know what you’re looking for, entire settlements can be missed. The current galactic record is five years for two settlements coexisting without either side realising.

What is less uncommon, is for such a meeting to end so poorly. From the Ritilian perspective a group of heavily armed 6ft tall Primates invaded the planet. From the Terran perspective they were quickly surrounded by a large group of reptilian predators. It was to use the Terran term: A clusterfuck.

This ended about as well as one would expect in such a situation, and even after much investigation, which side started shooting first is still unknown. However, regardless of who started it, it quickly became a diplomatic mess on both sides. While both governments and species attempted worked out what was going on, the damage had already been done; people had been killed.

While it might seem strange to people reading this currently, considering what we know now, at the time the entire galaxy held its breath. We knew very little about the Terrans other than their insane proclivity towards using dangerous AI based technologies, and that their first move into the galactic community was to get into a war with the Hatil: our common neighbours. A war that had ended with the complete destruction of the Hatil’s military might and a cracked planet. There was a worry that this new species would be a warfaring one, one that had a unique destructive element due to their use of AI.

Luckily, calmer heads prevailed; the galaxy breathed a sigh of relief and the mistakes made were left as just that: mistakes. Both parties agreed to closer communication and agreements between our peoples were made. Unnamed agreements that would later turn into the Terran Alliance, technically making us the first voluntary member.

Eventually the minor spat would be relegated to the history books as “The Terran invasion of Cuca” or “The Ritilian Oopsie”, depending on whose database you were searching on.

This context is needed to explain the sheer shock we had that a mere year later, of all the people in the galaxy it was the Terrans who responded to our cry for help.

The Tritian AI has always been a problem and back then it was no exception. You never quite know where or when they’ll turn up, Xenocidal sociopaths continuing on their digital quest to purge the universe of all organic life. So when eight Tritian Warships entered on a collision course with Cuca, each one containing thousands of AI and hundreds of thousands of deadly androids, despair flooded my hearts. The Ritilian fleet could deal with such a problem, but the galaxy was a large place and this was a new colony. We would have aid, but in seven days time that would only by confirmation that someone would be around to dig our graves after the Tritians had finished their work.

So when the Terrans offered their aid, we readily accepted any help we could get. 250 Terran Humans, spread over 5 ships. Not even a military outfit, they were a private charity that had been on their way to render their continued aid in the aftermath of the Hatil - Terran war. No orbital capabilities, no war machines or technologies of extreme violence. We would later find out that the actual number was 255, due to the 5 Terran AI that also were part of this group, a fact they didn’t make clear until afterwards. In retrospect, considering our limited views on AI during that time, this was probably for the best.

We didn’t expect much more than evacuation of a handful of our youngest when we saw who had actually responded to our call. I personally believed that they wouldn’t even arrive after seeing the situation. Why would they? They had no stake in our lives, they had no real bond with us? Why would they dive into a hopeless situation?

How wrong was I.

Please keep in mind dear reader that I write the next sentence as someone who owes their life to Terrans, that I mean this statement with the greatest of respect.

Terrans are insane.

Everything they did, they did with reckless abandon. During my efforts to stall for time, I saw the Terrans doing the most insane actions. I saw a doctor literally crack open the chest of an adult Ritilian and start operating as gunfire erupted over their heads. I held on for dear life as one drove our vehicle at high speed through enemy lines in order to get to where we were needed. I watched as they took the simplest of supplies and turned them into instruments of death and destruction.

Somehow it worked, somehow the hours turned to days.

They were everywhere, even though they only numbered 250 they seemed to just appear where they were needed, as if the trickster god Lutashi had summoned them into being. I know many of us at times believed that somehow the Terrans had brought a far larger force than they actually had.

But the real insanity was their stubbornness. They refused to even entertain leaving us, and seemed to take offence at the idea of evacuating with as many eggs and hatchlings as they could carry. Each terrible milestone they reached they passed with almost an increased motivation. Surely once we lost power to the colony and the negative temperatures of Cuca kicked in they would leave? Once their casualties hit 10% a logical being would cut their losses? When the first of their spacecraft were destroyed, bathing the night time sky in its terrible glow, they would realise the insanity of staying around for people they had no connection to.

Yet in their insanity, they stayed.

If anything as the days and losses ticked on, it seemed to motivate them further. Terrans never stopped. One could state that the mammalian advantage and Terrans natural inclination to persistence gave them an advantage here, but I could see that they were just as tired as we were: They just carried on through sheer power of will. As the days ticked on they continued to stall, continued to defend, continued to risk themselves for colony members they had never met before, fighting as if they were lifelong friends.

I heard stories. A group of 5 Terrans who held onto a hatchery for three days as if it were their own offspring. The sky lighting up with a terrible explosion as they rammed a Tritian warship with their own spacefaring vehicle. A Terran beating an android to scrap using nothing more than a cooking implement. Frankly, based on my experiences, these stories were probably less insane then the real thing.

I remember the feeling of unclawed hands grabbing me, ripping me from the wreckage of the building. I remember being dragged to safety as chaos rained around us. I remember seeing the Terran who had pulled me back from death's door, covered in grime and his own blood; the complete lack of hesitation as he ran back into the fray to help others.

I never did get to thank him.

7 days eventually passed. But each day had paid its price - the colony would take another year to rebuild and the estimated casualties amongst the colonists were around 20%. But it was nothing compared with what the Terrans had given up. By the time the Ritilian fleet arrived in orbit, just 44 Terrans remained with one half broken ship. The Terrans in their insanity paid a very high price for the twenty thousand lives on Cuca.

We asked them what they wanted in return? Riches? Resources? Man power? A few of the colonists even suggested that the Terrans should be allowed to settle Cuca, like their original plan had been. Frankly with the debt we owed them we probably would have given them the planet if they’d asked for it. Instead their response was always the same when asked what they wanted.

“Doctors without borders could always use new donations”.