The Initial Frontier
Jan. 11th, 2011 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwrnmnbsolThe savannah. The open frontier. These are the journeys of the Panther tribe. Our five-moon mission: to explore strange places; to seek out new sources of food and gather them; to boldly go where no hominid has gone before.
Kruk’s log: our journey has carried us far from our home-caves, where we were starving not long ago. But now – argh! Why am I telling my tale to this stupid log? It’s so heavy, and completely inedible! I will throw it down this cliff -- nGAH! -- and speak my story only to myself.
My tribesmen are more than fingers and toes combined, but I will tell you of some of them. There is Spakk, who is smart. Spakk cannot make fire, but when we find some, he can carry it with dry sticks. There is also Bones. He is called Bones because he collects them and wears a skull on his head. Bones talks to the spirits. This makes him grumpy. There is also Sloo, who can find his way in the dark, and Ooraw, who is good at shouting. Finally there is Ska. I make him walk in the back because he is useless.
“Ska!” I yell from the front of the line. “I need more!”
“More what?” Ska calls back plaintively.
“I don’t have words for what I need!” I bellow. “But I need more of it!”
Ska temporizes, trying to figure out how not to get beaten up here. “I will give you what you need in a day!” he says.
“No! you have only until night!” I reply.
This is how it always is with Ska. I don’t know why.
“Chieftain,” Spakk tells me seriously, “we are about to enter Neanderthal territory.”
“You must be very wise,” I compliment Spakk, “to know such a thing.”
“There are many signs that can be seen,” replies Spakk agreeably. “For instance, there are a bunch of Neanderthals over there.”
Neanderthals! I knew we would encounter those hostile beings once we crossed the neutral zone. They are heavy of brow and very fierce warriors. I must use all my skills as chief to see my Panther tribe through this conflict.
Once we have fled, we rest panting in the shade of some rocks. “I wish,” complains Bones, “that we did not have to run away from the Neanderthals all the time.”
“If wishes were extremely slow-moving horses, then we wouldn’t be hungry anymore,” I reply sourly. “Neanderthals are twice our size and covered with a thick hide. They’re biters. We’re more adapted to bitch-slapping-type attacks.”
“I tried a new type of attack on a Neanderthal,” Spakk says. “I pinched him near the base of the neck, just here.”
“How did that work out?” I ask eagerly.
Spakk hangs his head and turns his swollen eye away. “Not so well,” he murmurs.
Ooraw runs up. She is a female and she commands respect, because if we do not listen to her she will yell at us, and she is the tribe’s best yeller. “Chieftain,” she says, “there is something strange up ahead.”
I stand. “Spakk, you and Bones are with me. And we will also take another warrior. That one.”
The warrior shudders.
**
We crawl forward on our bellies. The strange object seems to mock us. It is black, and smooth-sided, and it juts from the ground of the savannah: a great rectangular form, towering over us, of dimensions one by four by nine.
“Chief, I urge caution,” Spakk warns. “I believe this object is of unknown origin and power.”
“Spakk, you’re a freak,” hisses Bones. “Your pure logic and reason has made you less of a hominid.”
“Well, I’m not the one who licks every toad he comes across,” retorts Spakk hotly.
“I can’t help that!” Bones yelps. “I’m a Witch-doctor, not a….”
“Hush.” We are close to the monolith now. It looks perfectly smooth and frictionless; its surface is unmarked and it joins seamlessly with the ground. The urge to destroy it is strong.
Spakk frowns. “Chieftain,” he says, “I feel a consciousness impinging on my mind….”
“Strange…compulsions…” barks Bones, forcing the words out. Shuddering, his hands pluck a flower and tie its stem into a crude knot.
In a flash I see an image of myself picking up a large bone lying in the grass. I do so, and now I see myself using it to smash the rest of the bones to splinters. Suddenly the notion of using a club as a weapon has a perfect kind of clarity to it. Turning to my warrior, I swing the bone and knock his block off. I spend several minutes pounding in his skull. My warrior is dead. Such is the fate of warriors.
A little while later we stagger back to the rest of the tribe. “Chieftain, what happened?” asks Ooraw.
I take her in my arms, lean her back, and kiss her deeply. “Something wonderful,” I tell her. “Let’s go camp in the shadow of the monolith-thing. We’re all going to learn about smashing things.” We walk through the savannah grass hand-in-hand.
“Oh, and another thing,” I say absently. “Call me ‘captain.’”
**
We are now resuming our travels. The Panther tribe is still the Panther tribe, but we have learned much on our journey. We are transformed. I instruct Sloo to chart a course that takes us through Neanderthal territory. He guides us using the stars, a new technique. It works.
Sure enough, Neanderthals spring out from the rocks to ambush us. Expecting to frighten us away easily, they do little more than gesticulate and bark. But we are changed, and we will not scare so easily. I smile grimly.
“Spakk,” I purr. “Report.”
“Captain,” my first officer says seriously, “applying our new ‘counting’ techniques, I have determined that there are ten of them.”
“Excellent. Ooraw, standard hailing please. All languages.” Ooraw steps forward.
“GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” she shrieks. She’s really loud. She accompanies this with a series of hand gestures whose meaning cannot be mistaken. This excites the Neanderthals, who bare their teeth and advance.
“SKA!” I shout over my shoulder. “Raise shields!”
“Aye, captain!”
The warriors slowly raise hides stretched over frames of bone and ready their new clubs. Ska grins fiercely, useless no more.
There is blood. For once it is not ours.
**
The savannah. The first of many frontiers. Finally I am confident we shall conquer all of them, in time – from every cave in the hillsides to every star in the sky.
By the Gods, it’s full of them.
Kruk’s log: our journey has carried us far from our home-caves, where we were starving not long ago. But now – argh! Why am I telling my tale to this stupid log? It’s so heavy, and completely inedible! I will throw it down this cliff -- nGAH! -- and speak my story only to myself.
My tribesmen are more than fingers and toes combined, but I will tell you of some of them. There is Spakk, who is smart. Spakk cannot make fire, but when we find some, he can carry it with dry sticks. There is also Bones. He is called Bones because he collects them and wears a skull on his head. Bones talks to the spirits. This makes him grumpy. There is also Sloo, who can find his way in the dark, and Ooraw, who is good at shouting. Finally there is Ska. I make him walk in the back because he is useless.
“Ska!” I yell from the front of the line. “I need more!”
“More what?” Ska calls back plaintively.
“I don’t have words for what I need!” I bellow. “But I need more of it!”
Ska temporizes, trying to figure out how not to get beaten up here. “I will give you what you need in a day!” he says.
“No! you have only until night!” I reply.
This is how it always is with Ska. I don’t know why.
“Chieftain,” Spakk tells me seriously, “we are about to enter Neanderthal territory.”
“You must be very wise,” I compliment Spakk, “to know such a thing.”
“There are many signs that can be seen,” replies Spakk agreeably. “For instance, there are a bunch of Neanderthals over there.”
Neanderthals! I knew we would encounter those hostile beings once we crossed the neutral zone. They are heavy of brow and very fierce warriors. I must use all my skills as chief to see my Panther tribe through this conflict.
Once we have fled, we rest panting in the shade of some rocks. “I wish,” complains Bones, “that we did not have to run away from the Neanderthals all the time.”
“If wishes were extremely slow-moving horses, then we wouldn’t be hungry anymore,” I reply sourly. “Neanderthals are twice our size and covered with a thick hide. They’re biters. We’re more adapted to bitch-slapping-type attacks.”
“I tried a new type of attack on a Neanderthal,” Spakk says. “I pinched him near the base of the neck, just here.”
“How did that work out?” I ask eagerly.
Spakk hangs his head and turns his swollen eye away. “Not so well,” he murmurs.
Ooraw runs up. She is a female and she commands respect, because if we do not listen to her she will yell at us, and she is the tribe’s best yeller. “Chieftain,” she says, “there is something strange up ahead.”
I stand. “Spakk, you and Bones are with me. And we will also take another warrior. That one.”
The warrior shudders.
**
We crawl forward on our bellies. The strange object seems to mock us. It is black, and smooth-sided, and it juts from the ground of the savannah: a great rectangular form, towering over us, of dimensions one by four by nine.
“Chief, I urge caution,” Spakk warns. “I believe this object is of unknown origin and power.”
“Spakk, you’re a freak,” hisses Bones. “Your pure logic and reason has made you less of a hominid.”
“Well, I’m not the one who licks every toad he comes across,” retorts Spakk hotly.
“I can’t help that!” Bones yelps. “I’m a Witch-doctor, not a….”
“Hush.” We are close to the monolith now. It looks perfectly smooth and frictionless; its surface is unmarked and it joins seamlessly with the ground. The urge to destroy it is strong.
Spakk frowns. “Chieftain,” he says, “I feel a consciousness impinging on my mind….”
“Strange…compulsions…” barks Bones, forcing the words out. Shuddering, his hands pluck a flower and tie its stem into a crude knot.
In a flash I see an image of myself picking up a large bone lying in the grass. I do so, and now I see myself using it to smash the rest of the bones to splinters. Suddenly the notion of using a club as a weapon has a perfect kind of clarity to it. Turning to my warrior, I swing the bone and knock his block off. I spend several minutes pounding in his skull. My warrior is dead. Such is the fate of warriors.
A little while later we stagger back to the rest of the tribe. “Chieftain, what happened?” asks Ooraw.
I take her in my arms, lean her back, and kiss her deeply. “Something wonderful,” I tell her. “Let’s go camp in the shadow of the monolith-thing. We’re all going to learn about smashing things.” We walk through the savannah grass hand-in-hand.
“Oh, and another thing,” I say absently. “Call me ‘captain.’”
**
We are now resuming our travels. The Panther tribe is still the Panther tribe, but we have learned much on our journey. We are transformed. I instruct Sloo to chart a course that takes us through Neanderthal territory. He guides us using the stars, a new technique. It works.
Sure enough, Neanderthals spring out from the rocks to ambush us. Expecting to frighten us away easily, they do little more than gesticulate and bark. But we are changed, and we will not scare so easily. I smile grimly.
“Spakk,” I purr. “Report.”
“Captain,” my first officer says seriously, “applying our new ‘counting’ techniques, I have determined that there are ten of them.”
“Excellent. Ooraw, standard hailing please. All languages.” Ooraw steps forward.
“GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” she shrieks. She’s really loud. She accompanies this with a series of hand gestures whose meaning cannot be mistaken. This excites the Neanderthals, who bare their teeth and advance.
“SKA!” I shout over my shoulder. “Raise shields!”
“Aye, captain!”
The warriors slowly raise hides stretched over frames of bone and ready their new clubs. Ska grins fiercely, useless no more.
There is blood. For once it is not ours.
**
The savannah. The first of many frontiers. Finally I am confident we shall conquer all of them, in time – from every cave in the hillsides to every star in the sky.
By the Gods, it’s full of them.
