Story #35 - Density

Density

These humans were incredibly dense.

Vikroth had been waiting all of his career for the chance to make first contact, but the things on the little blue planet he'd seen through yet another sweep of the Milky Way seemed to be going out of their way to ignore him. He scanned planets in this area every so often for improvements and the potential that they had finally grown beyond a simple food/work/sex mentality, and it appeared as though the inhabitants of the third planet from the sun might finally have done just that.

Many of his brethren had argued for contact when they fired a metal shell to their moon, but Vikroth was concerned – and had a right to be. Fewer and fewer spacecraft were coming from the planet now, as if they were regressing instead of moving forward. Of course, when his ship slipped by a probe on the outer edge of the solar system, Vikroth began to give the humans slightly more credit. Perhaps they had made some progress.

He slammed a fist into the control arm of his chair – now the bipedal fools were ignoring every message he sent. Telewave, Megasonic, even outdated radio had been tried, each carrying the standard galactic code. Of course, the humans didn't know the code, but it should have been obvious even to the most mildly interested observer. Perhaps no one was listening?

Part of his instincts told him to simply turn around and head home. His tour was nearly over and his brood would be pained by his long absence. Still, as one who had kept a careful eye on this planet for Spans and Spans, he had a vested interest in confirming just how far they had managed to come.

“Rith,” he said, and the smaller creature appeared beside him. He had the same six limbs as Vikroth but a slightly slimmer torso and carried his long form closer to the ground. Technically they were of different species but the two kinds had been working together for so long that aside from the stature and color variances – Rith's white to his own gold – few crews even noticed.

“I'm going down there.” Rith's displeasure was obvious and his colored darkened a shade, streaks of grey appearing along his slim neck. “Don't argue with me, please. I doubt they have anything that could hurt me, and I'm not planning an extended stay.”

Rith nodded sharply, immaculately placed head-feathers bobbing quickly forward. Some on the crew snickered at Rith for his dedication to visual perfection but Vikroth found it refreshing. The younger one was a cut above most in his rank, someone Vikroth knew he could trust.

“Good.” Vikroth rose and motioned for Rith to take his seat. “If you don't hear from me in four Units, you take the ship and leave. Do you understand?”

Rith nodded, but this time that wasn't good enough. Words were law, but gestures could be misinterpreted. “I know what you're doing, Rith, and I appreciate it, but you need to say the word. If you do not hear from me you will take the ship and leave. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” The word was quiet, but that was good enough.

***

The surface of the planet was barren, at least by Vikroth's standards. Here and there a larger building reached for the sky but stopped before it had truly achieved any measure of height. In choosing his landing zone, he'd seen acres of poorly-used space with tiny domiciles stretched out so far from one another it was a wonder any of these creatures ever felt a connection. How could they live so distantly, so spread out?

Vikroth shook his head. It wasn't his job to judge their ways, merely to evaluate their technical progress. If they'd come far enough, he could attempt some form of meaningful contact. If not, they would have to wait until the next time one of his ships came through.

He'd chosen a landing site in one of the urban areas that featured a large satellite transmitter. Fortunately he had a good grasp of his planet's own history and knew that at one time even they had looked to the stars, pointing great mechanical devices out into the night and hoping for an answer.

No one noticed his arrival or interfered with his movements; the eyesight of the humans was so incredibly narrow in its viable spectrum that he had no trouble shifting just out of their range.

It took him less than an hour to find two of the creatures sitting in front of a large monitor, arguing.

“I'm telling you Henry – there's nothing out there!” The human that had spoken had dark grey head crowning and was taller than his companion, with a face lined by deep crevasses and grooves. From the little he knew about the bipedal species, that meant this one was either very young or very old.

“There is, Walt!” The other was shorter and had far more mass, especially around the middle, along with a brownish colored, furry lump on his head. “Last night – 0300 hours – look at that transmission!”

Walt glanced at the data on the screen and Vikroth could see that Henry had isolated the communications pulse the ship had sent.

Walk snorted loudly. “Hah! That's just background noise, Henry, and you know it. Probably an increase in solar radiation or something that's pushing its intensity up. It's natural.”

“What about this?” Henry pointed at another display on the screen. “There was a displacement – something's out there, just above the North Pole.”

Walt leaned in and considered the data for moment, then clasped his hands in front of him. “Faulty equipment. That change is barely big enough to register and you know as well as I do that we've been having trouble with that array.”

Henry's face fell, but the human finally nodded.

Vikroth was stunned. What kind of species gave up to easily when confronted with a problem? What kind of intelligent life dismissed the signs so quickly?

He would have to try something more direct. Glancing at his wrist monitor he saw that his vocal frequency was far too high for the two in front of him to understand. Adjusting it that low would be impossible without more serious technical help, but he would likely be able to lower it just enough that they could hear him.

“Hello,” he spoke softly.

The two in front of him sat straight up, glancing around the room with worried eyes.

“Henry, did you just...” Walt trailed off.

“No,” Henry said, face flushed and eyes scanning the room, “I didn't. Let's get a cup of coffee.”

The two stood, Walt picking up the conversation again as they left. “You know what they say about this part of the building, right? Build on an old burial -”

“Stop it!” Henry's voice was sharp. “We're both just overworked. Let's go.”

Vikroth had been in space many Spans, seen countless races come and go under the oppression and benevolent rule of empires and alliances, but such active ignorance was beyond his capability to comprehend.

Returning his modulation to normal, he spoke into his communicator. “Rith, I'm returning. It's time to go home. There is, as yet, no intelligent life here.”

These humans were incredibly dense.

-D