Page 19 of Purring, Presents, and Parties

The vid degraded badly after the cubs pulled the rock out, so they didn’t get a chance to see how the young took care of their pet, but what could a rock need?

“Is that all?” Bazium asked, feeling disappointed. “They don’t specify what kind of rock they liked to befriend or other details?”

“There’s nothing more on the pet rock, but there are several more vids,” Danisal said, and the next vid began. This one pictured cubs opening up items wrapped in some kind of colorful material that was easily ripped apart. The sound was mostly static so all they could hear was the occasional excited exclamation.

“We’ve determined that these are presents,” Danisal explained. “There are several vids of humans ripping open an outer layer to reveal the gift inside. We can’t make out what the gifts were, but they’re all wrapped in this same easily manipulated material.”

Bazium tapped the display to replay the last few submarks of vid. “Do we know what the layer is made of?”

“Reconstituted tree fiber,” Danisal said. “I’ve checked, and we don’t have any products like the ones they referred to as paper.”

“Paper,” Hesarium repeated, struggling with the foreign word.

“What about foil insulation?” Tarrian said.

“What’s foil insulation?” Bazium asked, and by the sound of the questioning rumbles from Danisal and Hesarium, he wasn’t the only one who didn’t know.

“It’s a thin insulation we use as shielding around delicate electronics in ships and space stations. It comes in different colors for different levels of thickness, but all of it is highly malleable, like that paper, and the colors are bright. Green, red, gold, and silver.”

“Excellent,” Bazium said as he pulled up his Ident. It only took him a few submarks to locate and order a roll in each color. With that done, he looked up at Danisal.

“The next one is…” she hesitated as if searching for the appropriate words. “Interesting.”

Curious at what would cause that reaction, Bazium watched the display. It was a vid of a human opening a present and drawing out an item of clothing. It looked to be a short coat, but the fabric of the coat was irregularly lumpy and there were tendrils hanging off all over it.

“That’s made of a plant!” Hesarium announced with an amused rumble.

“We found a static advertisement for it,” Danisal said as the vid finished and the advertisement displayed. “It seems wearing living plants as garments was popular. I’m not entirely sure of the process, but I thought it would be easy enough to make short cloaks from a domeki plant.”

Bazium noticed a number on a display in the background of the vid, 2150. Was that the human year? He didn’t know enough about human dating methods to know how long ago this was recorded, so the number gave him no insight.

“Humans like novelty,” Tarrian murmured. “This might have only been a passing fad.”

“Or it could’ve been something only the very wealthy could afford,” Bazium argued. “If it wasn’t expensive, why bother advertising it?”

“Good point,” Danisal said as the next vid played. This one was of humans sitting around a table burdened with food, eating and laughing. That was no surprise, everyone knew humans loved communal eating and used it as a time to visit and talk with each other. That’s why he planned his celebration during the evening meal.

The next one after that was of a large, rotund man dressed in a red outfit trimmed in white. He must be elderly because he had a long white beard to match his white hair. He was pulling presents out of a sack and handing them to people.

“This is one of their deities,” Danisal explained. “He visited once a year to give gifts to those who lived honorable lives. It’s also interesting to note that to those who did bad deeds, he gave coal. Coal was a naturally occurring mineral they could burn to cook and keep warm. I believe he was seen as a benevolent god who cared for even the worst among them.”

“Fascinating,” Bazium said. “We will give each human presents for pleasure, so they know everyone is valued and lived honorable lives.”

Everyone rumbled out a sound of agreement as the next vid played. This one showed several cubs jumping up and down on a round, spring-loaded surface. Each jump sent them higher into the sky as they laughed and almost crashed into each other.

“Absolutely not!” Bazium said with a decisive clap of his backplates. “Much too dangerous.”

“I agree,” Hesarium said while Danisal and Tarrian sounded rattles of affirmation.

“It seems humans are inventive in everything, including finding ways to injure themselves,” Danisal pointed out dryly, making them all rumble out sounds of amusement.

The last two things recovered were a vid of a strange looking terrestrial transport that made a horrifically loud noise and only fit one person inside and a short audio of two people talking about something called Comicon.

“I can’t find any conclusive evidence of what Comicon was,” Danisal explained. “It’s all conflicting because some sources say it was a place to buy and trade stories and art. Other sources stated it was a place people went to show off their most expensive outfits. It was also described as a large gathering place for people to meet and talk to each other.”

Bazium gave Danisal an approving rumble. “You’ve done well to get this much out of storage crystals in such poor condition.”

“Thank you, Bazium. They’re still being worked on so more might be recovered, but it will be a while.”

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