Header Promotion
Below is a story that resulted from discussions about the “black moment” which has it’s own thread. Please let me know what you think.
Decoding The Alien’s Secret Languages -- 511 words
Bonnie Moon watched StarStation #4 grow larger in the viewscreen. She was very anxious. This mission would likely get them both killed. And for what? To steal the strange hidden languages these aliens used? A theft that carried the death penalty! She and John were not spies. They were astro-neural-linguists and what they were doing was a violation of galactic law.
John Helm held a different opinion. Just like Central Intelligence he wanted to know why these strange aliens had long ago developed two languages. One spoken only by females and the other only by males. Speaking your language to the opposite sex was an immediate death sentence. But why? Why would natural selection lead to this weird situation. What survival value could this possibly have?
This mission had to be successful. John thought. Discovering the alien’s secret would guarantee promotion to full Commander. He could then finally ask Bonnie to marry him.
“Now, Bonnie, don’t be revolted by their appearance. You get used to looking at them. I knew a few of them at the Academy. They are weird, granted, but not evil,” John said.
“Don’t they ever talk to each other?” Bonnie asked.
“Never. They only use sign language. Even their written language is a pictorial version of their sign language. Something very terrible must have happened back at the start of their race to give these two languages survival value.”
***** ***** ********
John and Bonnie tried their best to steal parts of the Alien languages over the next three months. Progress was very slow. The risk of discovery was just too high. Fortunately, Central Intelligence didn’t need much of the language to recreate it. They had booked time on ComputerPlanet to project the language into a working model with only a bare minimum of samples.
On the 188th day of their mission, Bonnie was caught. A trial was set. Both John and Bonnie were convicted of attempted language theft but since they didn’t actually obtain any information, they were simply expelled from the StarStation.
As the alien Starstation grew smaller in the rear viewscreen, John and Bonnie watched their wall computer flashing with incoming data.
“Do you think we got enough samples before they caught us?” Bonnie asked.
“I would say no. But we can hope. Here come some more results.”
Both watched as numbers flashed across the screen. “We did it!! We did it! We cracked the most secret languages in the galaxy!” They jumped up and down.
“Bonnie, will you marry me?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes!” Bonnie hugged John.
Their celebration was short-lived.
“There’s something wrong here.” John was the first to say.
“What? Tell me!”
“Both languages are exactly the same! This has been confirmed by undependably generated programs. My data was never mixed with your data.”
“It just doesn’t make any sense.” John said shaking his head. “If it’s the same language, why keep it secret? Why forbid its use between the sexes?”
“John, I warned you before we took this mission that these Homo Sapiens were just plain crazy.”
THE END.
“Romances are the emotional vitamins of the soul.” Vince
