Not been on here for some time for one reson or another but I have a few bits to share !
This is a  little scribble on the subject of 'Neighbours' which was  the theme and prompt at my local writing group , Garston Writring Group, where I have been getting back into my scribbles now I have the time.  I hope you enjoy them but if you DO share, please leve a credit as all my work - writing or artwork - is copyright to me. 🤗💞💞



                                                             Neighbours....

Homework 23-10-24
1295 words

 

“What about the little blue one over there...?”

“Hmmm... it DOES look interesting, I must say. Pretty colour, but it may be a bit on the small side..? Best to run it past the Boss first though - he has some very old- fashioned ideas.”

“Well, to be fair, mate, he IS as old as dirt – what was it last time? Nine hundred and fifty-three or something..?”

“ Nahh – 955 – it was a threshold one – big celebrations all round!” They both laughed, big hearty bellows like only juvenile males can manage to create.

“He IS the boss though, “ Jer sobered up suddenly, “and he could be just around the corner...” he gestured to the partition.
“Oh yes,” Tez spoke slightly louder, “he’s such a good boss and never zaps a junior unjustly...”

“Do I feel my antennae burning?” a silky voice came to them, “someone needs ‘zapping’ do they?”

“Oh no Sir,” Jer answered, “we were just looking at that blue one there, “he gestured to the screen “and wondered if it might be worth a look?  The colour is very interesting – don't you think?”

The boss looked more closely at the screen and the two juniors saw an involuntary shudder rattle right through him – something they’d never, in all their endevours and investigations, ever seen before.
Their boss was a total warrior – he was afraid of nothing and no-one. For him to have reacted in this way, this tiny blue one must be truly terrifying.

“No, no no...!” the boss put up his tentacles, “not that blue one - it’s far too dangerous – we monitored that one once – never again!  The inhabitants are completely uncivilized and unpredictable – they call it ‘EARTH’!”

“OH...! Jer and Tez both gasped in horror – even they had heard the horror stories about that planet.

“Is that the one where they hurt their own babies...?” Jer asked

“...and they EAT each other!” Tez looked disgusted.

“...and pollute their own environment!” Jer and Tez looked at each other in horror.

“...and multiply in disgusting quantities, so millions of them starve...” added the Boss, whose personal name was Bal, but the juniors weren’t allowed to use that, “which is why they have a very short lifespan – they just haven’t evolved enough to deserve longer.”

“Why? What is their normal span?” Tez asked

“Well, if they haven’t killed each other first and if one of the diseases they have created doesn’t get them first, they CAN get to about 85 – 90.”

“...centuries..?” Jer asked, “doesn’t seem too bad – I mean I’m 50 centuries old and I’m only a youngling...”

“Years,“ Bal answered, “80-90 YEARS”

Both youngsters looked at each other horrified. “My baby sister is ONE century old...!” Tez looked sad, “imagine all those babies dying...”

“Oh, babies much younger than that, die or are often killed by their own parents.  I know it’s unbelievable, but it’s absolutely true. And they send their children to war – to fight each other for them.”

“Universe weeps...” Jer was almost leaking from his antennae, “what do they fight over? Resources, food...?”

“No - their main cause of unimaginably horrific destruction to their environment AND their lives, is a thing called ‘religion’.   This is where...” he stopped, trying to fix it in his brain how to describe this to these two younglings. “.. let’s say Jer “ and he nodded at one youngling, “liked wind. And Tez,” he looked at the other, “liked water. Then you two would fight to the death about which one is best.” 

The youngsters looked at each other, trying to work out ANY logic from that.

“That makes no sense, Boss.  Both are good and both are needed and there’s plenty of both to share. Why do they need to even talk about it, let alone fight?” Jer was baffled.

“Oh, it gets worse, much worse” Bal continued.

“HOW!” the younglings exclaimed in unison.

“ I used wind and water for example but the elements they fight over, don’t actually exist...” and he waved his tentacles in exasperation. “They call them ‘Deities’ and if you subscribe to this idea it’s called ‘faith’ or ‘religion’.”

Tez and Jer looked horrified.

“I’m really, very sorry to have had to explain all this to you at your tender age – no youngling should have this kind of knowledge. But the worst part of this is, WE may have started this nonsense.”

“US? But HOW?  None of this is anything like how we live?”

“Well, you know I said we’d been there once?” Bal said

“Yes, “Tez and Jer answered.

“Well, we MAY not have been quite as ‘invisible’ as we normally like to be. We had a problem with the proton drive...”

“That’s ancient technology!” Tez stated – we don’t use that anymore.”

“No, but 3.3 million earth years ago we did. And we had a teeny problem on a couple of our visits. They saw us.”

The younglings were aghast.  Open mouthed.

“That’s a banishment right off!” Jer looked at Tez.

“It IS now, because we now know the consequences of such actions,” Bal told them, “And to be fair, we did try to not be seen – we were only trying to do our usual work and observe. We just weren’t expecting the magnetic field of this planet to interfere with the PD.”

“That is too terrible to think about.” Jer had a tear dripping from his antennae.

“Oh, don’t be too upset,” Bal patted him on his cowl, “it was a long time ago and you aren’t responsible.”

“Perhaps not, but WE are.” Jer responded, with a sob, “our interference has caused all this trouble.”

“ I don’t think it has.” Bal explained. “Yes, we might have fostered the idea of deities, that much MIGHT be true, but HOW they have dealt with that is totally down to them.”

Tez looked up at Bal. “In what way?”

“Well, all their so-called deities are meant to have left strict instructions for them to ‘Love one another’ and to ‘turn the other cheek’ and to ‘live in peace’ and lots of other peaceful messages,” he smiled, “We realized what we had done, fairly soon after the first visit and so we went back and were deliberate in our ‘unveiling’ so we could direct these, already fairly feisty, beings, into our peaceful ways.  Sadly, these beings are faulty, and their default setting is more like the ants from their planet – warlike and organized.   They, actually, seem to LIKE war and fighting. They even commemorate these things as honorable!” He shook his cowl sadly.

“They sound a horrible species, “ Tez looked very sad.

“Not entirely,” Bal said,” some of them are quite different. More like us.“ and he winked, in a way only their species can.  “We are hoping that this particular strain multiplies and out breeds the warlike ones. Oddly enough, part of the reason we went to this planet in the first place was because there is a direct ancestor of ours that lives in the oceans – that's the blue bits – and we were hoping they would proliferate and evolve as we have but I’m afraid the humans are decimating them too.”

This HAS to be one of the most bizarre history and science lessons we have ever had Boss,” Tez shook his cowl, “so much to take in. But I’m glad we’re not going THERE today – I'd be too scared! “

“Me too!” added Jer, “They might hunt US!”

“Bal laughed his deep bellowing guffaw, “No younglings, that wouldn’t happen but we’re still not investigating the Blue Planet yet – let them sort themselves out for a couple of centuries more. We’ll visit next term, perhaps.”

“With no Proton drive!” Tez sniggered.

They all laughed their deep wet, guffaw and headed home for dinner.

                                                                           ~~~~~~