Chapter XXXVI: Ballester! In! Space!

Chapter XXXVI: Ballester! In! Space! 

“We’ve arrived at Planet NG-566!” Ballester cheers. “Alright, who’s coming with me?” 

“Protocol dictates that upon arriving on a new, undiscovered planet, you’re going to need a science officer, security officer, and a doctor.” Gorgax says. 

“Sounds good babe, hold down the fort. Oigres, you and Chimmy are coming with me. We’ll pick up Nyvar on our way out. Don’t forget to suit up.” The ship lands on the planet, and the crew exits the ship and looks around. 

“Looks pretty dead, dad.” Oigres says. He collects some rocks, when he sees something move in the corner of his eye. “Oxygen/Nitrogen/Hydrogen atmosphere, I think it’s ok for us to breathe.” He notices something move again. “Who’s there?” Chimmy readies himself and gets in front of the group. A bird with a monkey head peeks out at them. “Hmm, if there’s life here, maybe there’s more, maybe there’s something we’re not seeing.” They follow the bird/ monkey creature and it leads them to a field of blue grass and orange trees. Living there, are many animals that look just like it in the trees. They continue walking, and find a nearby pond. Oigres collects samples of the trees, the grass, and the water. The animals seem to be afraid of them. Chimmy breaks off a piece of bread and throws it towards them. One of them picks it up, sniffs it, and eats it. The others gather and Chimmy continues to rip off pieces of bread and tosses it to them. 

“I wonder if they can understand us.” Ballester says. He turns the translator on, collects voice samples coming from the animals and attempts to talk to them. “We’re friends, we’re not going to hurt you.” 

“Thank for food.” The bird/monkey hybrid says. 

“What are you called?” 

“Called?” 

“What’s your name? What species are you?” 

“Not understand.” 

“I’ll just call you mords.” 

“Mords?” 

“Monkey birds. Mords.” 

“Monkey? Bird?” Ballester shows examples of monkeys and birds on his tablet containing information about different species of animals. 

“Ooh, colorful!” He attempts to grab the tablet, but Ballester is too quick. “Want to look.” 

“Ok, careful, easy break.” 

“Yes.” The Mord attempts to swipe through pictures, but can’t, due to having wings. “Not working.” 

“Need fingers” Ballester waves his fingers. The Mord gives the tablet back to Ballester. 

“Show more.” The rest of the species gathers while Ballester informs them of monkeys and birds and how they’re a combination of the two, possibly going through evolution similarly to Earth’s creatures. They seem to understand to a degree. Oigres walks up to one of them. 

“Hair?” Oigres asks. The Mord allows him to snip hair and feathers. “Spit?” He holds out a vial. He mimics spitting, and the Mord spits into the vial. “Thank you.” 

“Friend.” 

“Yes, friend.” 

“We have more of the planet to explore.” Ballester says. 

“More home? More friends?” Oigres asks the Mords. They point in a direction, and the crew follows, waving goodbye. As they’re walking, they come across a desert, similar to the one they landed on, except the sand is purple. Ballester kicks a rock, and it starts moving. It sprouts legs and walks up to Ballester and jumps on his foot. 

“Ow, that actually hurt!” The rock creature sprouts spikes and rolls towards Ballester. Oigres captures it in a jar. 

“It looks like a rock urchin.” Oigres says. The rock urchin, angry at getting captured, rattles around the jar, slamming itself against the glass until it breaks free, and lands in the sand, where it rolls away quickly, bumping into other rock urchins, who wake up, and start chasing the crew. The crew rushes back to the ship and closes the door behind them. “That was close.” They look out the window, and the rock urchins start piling on top of each other, fitting like puzzle pieces, assembling a giant rock monster. The Mords see this and rush the rock urchins, breaking the structure apart. One of the Mords eats a rock urchin in front of the others, and they scatter back into the desert. The crew opens the door and rush over to the Mords. “Thank you.” 

“Friend.” The Mord says. 

“Friend.” Oigres hugs the Mord, which surprises it, but it enjoys it. It repeats the hug to the other Mords, who accept it. “Hug.” 

“Hug.” The Mord smiles. 

“I wanna draw blood, but I don’t want to hurt them in the process... Nyvar, do you have anything we could use?” 

“Actually, I do, it works via vaccum.” Nyvar says as she rummages through her bag. She takes out a syringe, but instead of a needle is a hole. She suctions the syringe on the neck of the Mord and draws blood. “It uses osmosis, so the patient doesn’t feel anything, nor does it leave a mark.” 

“Incredible, sis.” 

“Just one of my own inventions. Here ya go.” 

“Hold on to it, we’re going to study this together.” 

“Sure.” 

“Is it warm blooded?” 

“Yes.” 

“That’s a start, I can’t wait to analyze the samples. I wish I could have held onto that urchin.” At the word ‘urchin’, one of the Mords flies to the desert, and comes back with a broken, dead rock urchin. “Thank you, friend.” 

“Friend help friend.” The Mord says. Oigres hugs the Mord, and so does Nyvar. Other Mords join in on the hugging. After a few minutes, the crew gets back on the ship. 

“Well, that was interesting.” Ballester says. 

“What happened?” Gorgax asks. Ballester recounts the story. “That’s crazy! I can’t believe there’s life down there!” 

“Yeah, that reminds me. Yo, Chimmy!” Chimmy comes over to Ballester. 

“What’s up?" Chimmy asks. 

“I’m going to put a demerit in your official record.” 

“What? Why?” 

“Because as head of security, you were supposed to at least attempt to knock down that tower of rock urchins. Instead, you ran with the rest of us.” 

“Oh s**t, my bad, bro. I just went on instinct. I saw you guys running, and I just naturally followed.” 

“Don’t let it happen again. Next time, fight before you run.” 

“Yes sir.” Chimmy says, dejectedly. 

“Ok, Gorgax, you’ve been watching the rotation, is there anywhere else we should land?” There’s mountains in the northern hemisphere, and what looks like volcanoes.” 

“Alright, move the ship, hon.” 

“Sure thing.” They start the ship up, and fly it to the peak of a mountain. 

“Come on, guys. Heh, I said ‘come on guys.’” 

“Babe, do you mind if I lead this mission?” 

“Sure, go ahead. Here’s the translator, hopefully you can get along with any natives you find.” 

“Me too.” The crew leaves the ship, with Manboutu replacing Chimmy and Gorgax replacing Ballester. They come across lizard bird hybrids. They look like lizards, but have big, scaly wings, like a pterodactyl but smaller. Also, they have the head of a bird, only scaly. Gorgax takes samples of their clicks and hisses. “Hello? Can you understand me?” The creatures immediately stop and look at Gorgax. 

“You talk at me?” The lizard bird says. 

“Talk in short bursts, their brain can’t process too many words at once. Talk like them.” Oigres whispers to Gorgax. 

“Yes, I am friend.” Gorgax says. 

“Welcome, friend.” A chunk of obsidian gets up and crawls. The nearest lizard snaps it up with its tongue and crunches it with its beak before it’s small enough to go into its mouth. 

“What call you?” The lizard scratches its head, confused. 

“Me not know.” 

“Fine, I’ll call you Bizards, bird lizards. 

“Bizard?” 

“Show them the tablet, mom.” Oigres says. “Explain lizards and birds. And then show them a picture of the Mords and ask if they ever encountered them.” Gorgax does exactly this, while Oigres grabs a chunk of obsidian and puts it in a jar. This one offers up no fight. The Bizard is mesmerized by the technology and the information it’s learning. When the picture of the Mord comes up, the lizard is intrigued to know there’s other life on the planet. 

“Would you like to meet them?” Gorgax asks. 

“Yes, meet planet brothers. But what call you?” The head Bizard says. 

“I am Galaxian as you are Bizards.” 

“Hmm, meet Mords now.”  

“You follow.” The crew gets into the ship as Oigres is collecting the last of his samples. Gorgax briefs Ballester on the plan and soon, they’re off, with a flock of Bizards behind them. They land at the Mords side of the planet. The crew leaves the ship to witness the historic moment. At first, the Mords hide, but peek out of curiosity. The lead Mord from before crawls out, and approaches the lead Bizard. After hooting from the Mord, and screeching from the Bizard, it’s clear they’re not getting along. 

“Must be a language barrier. Mom, give him your translator.” Oigres says. Gorgax gives the Mord the translator. The Mord speaks into it, but Bizard language comes out of it. The Bizard speaks, but Mord language comes out. And, that’s how the translator works. As the two are talking, they seem to get along better. Prime Directive? Never heard of it, if Ballester and his crew can get these two species to get along without them killing each other, it’s worth it. And you know what? I’m gonna make it rain translators so they’ll always (hopefully) learn to get along. 

“We will get along.” Bizard says. 

“We will stay out of each other’s home.” Mord says. The Bizards fly away back to the mountains. 

“No friends?” Ballester asks. 

“No, not friends, not enemies either. Mord says. 

“Well, that’s ok too.” 

“Thank you, friend. Maybe Bizard be friend with us one day.”  

“Well, maybe we’ll see you around some day.” 

“Friend always welcome.”  

“Goodbye.” 

“Hree hee caw!” The crew gets back on the ship. 

“I gotta say, that was actually pretty fun. Did you guys get the DNA samples you needed?” Ballester asks Oigres and Nyvar. They both nod. “Arizona, patch us through to Earth, will you?” 

“Yes, sir.” Arizona says as she pushes a big button on her console. Ballester and Goragax start the ship, and make their way back into orbit. 

“...can’t... you...beacon...” Serge says. Arizona pulls the lever and drops a beacon. “That’s better, so, how was NG-566?” 

“Amazing.” Ballester says. 

“Oh yeah? What’d you find?” 

“Two species evolving at the same time, both intelligent enough to understand us...to a degree.” Gorgax tells him. 

“So not one, but two dominant species? Interesting. We humans conquered all, and look what happened. Maybe with two species, it’ll be a little more balanced. Or maybe one will wipe out the other for domination. Haha, who knows? Not even me, and I know everything!” 

“They’ve chosen just to ignore each other for now.” 

“Yeah, that’s how it starts, but all it takes is one curious mind and everything would change forever. Either for good or bad, who knows? Not even me. Hahahaha I’m so funny.” Nobody else is laughing. “Ok, so your next stop is to drop off Shitbag at S**t Planet. I hope he’s not stinking up the whole ship.” 

“We have him quarantined.” 

“Ok, good, send me your reports by morning, I look forward to learn what you’ve found on the supposed lifeless planet. Gorgax, update your species while you’re at it, I’m sure they might take an interest, considering they haven’t been there for 500 years.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Serge out.”