Page 29 of Orange Lake
I shrugged off my shoulders. They only narrowed their eyes at me. “I honestly don’t know. From where I come from, crystals are just inert materials. They can cut and slice, power a watch, but don’t emit these kinds of energy. Most of us use fossil fuels and coals, hydro energy, and some radioactive elements to power up our whole planet.”
I can’t believe I’m explainingmyplanet to these people.
Roqs stood up and squat before me. “Oh poor Brynn. What are your rulers thinking?”
“I told her almost the same,” Zirc piped beside me.
Roqs looked sadly at me. “That will lead to mass destruction, eventually kill your children, everyone on the planet. Eons ago, it happened to our planet as well. And other nearby galaxies. So the Ruling Council at that time banned all types of fossil fuels and coal as power sources. We were able to mine the crystals but not before losing so many manasties.” He stood up and began to pace slowly around the room. “We also prohibit the use of plastics. That is when things started to fall apart. It only happened more than 10 centuries ago. The children were first affected by an unknown disease. Then our females started getting infertile.”
Roqs sprawled on a random chair but it allowed him to see me and Zirc on one side and Coone in his other side. Like a King holding court.
He sighed deeply and still looking at me, continued his story. “A genius scientist from the Purple Tribe proposed that they need to harvest the eggs from the female. Time was running out because already, tribal wars broke out, females being enslaved. It was a dark period of our past.”
They became silent for a moment. Most likely trying to remember or not remember what happened. Even Coone is frowning. He had heard this before.
“Fortunately, he succeeded but not without sacrifices. He and the rest of his tribe had to seek outside help which is simply not done then. We are a proud race and do not welcome visitors from other planets. The Garax, a race similar to us, experienced the same infertility in their women. They shared the technology on how to harvest the eggs. And like us, experience the same need for mating.”
“What is mating? Other than sex?” Funny, of all the things I heard about in this story, I am curious about that topic.
Roqs smiled at me a little. Coone snorted. “Ah, I am not sure if you have a similar rituals in your planet.” He leaned forward, his arms resting on his thighs, his hands clasped. “It is when two males and one female are in sync with each other. My fathers explained it’s like being hit by a thunderbolt.”
“My father said it was like being smashed by a Winox,” Zirc said, his voice sounded a tad bit melancholic. Out of my own volition, I placed a hand on top of his. He then took my hand in his. When I looked back, Roqs has a glint in his eye, not missing that little action. But he continued with his story.Even Coone is looking intently at our clasped hands.
“It differs from the pairs. When there were females, most males will fight for the female. They are most prized in a dominantly male society. A female death can cause a planet-wide uproar.”
“Is that why in your mating, there is usually one female and two males?” I asked Roqs.
“It is not that way in your planet?”
I looked at Coone who answered, “It’s actually the other way around. We are female dominant. So it’s one female and many nekos.”
Roqs had a sneer on his face. Looks like he doesn’t like the female variety of Coone’s species.
Roqs continued. “For centuries, our forefathers tried to get females from other planets. But it caused an intergalactic incident of massive proportions. For a race that is proud to be on their own, we were forced to get, no, more like raided other planets in search of female compatibility.”
“Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out so well,” Coone said wryly.
“Some manasties, when they found their female, chose to stay on those planet and never come back. Those who did come back and brought their females did not last long in our planet. Said something about being salty. Yet, there was no successful pairing that produced a child.”
I was about to say yes it was so salty on this planet but he continued.
“So no one was successful in those endeavors. Plus the Galactic Council planted themselves in our planet to guard us from making the same mistakes in the past. But eventually, they deemed us ‘harmless’ enough that now, the Galactic Council are mostly made of tribes from our planet.”
“How about the other race you mentioned? The Garax?”
“Ah, your memory is excellent for being so small,” Coone piped in.” Zirc remained to be quiet while Roqs tell the story.
“That is what happened. Our bumbling forefathers set out to conquer Garax for their females but Garax men are strong as well. Since they are far from our planet, manasties were easily conquered. No one can say for sure if there was a successful Manasty/Garax pairing because it was war then. It is said that there were no prisoner of wars in Garax. Everyone was executed.”
“But,” Coone said with glee. “I’d been to Garax and I saw a child who resembled one of the NimSim.”
“The NimSim?”
Zirc laughed a little. “The NimSim. You’ll meet them eventually, Brin.” He sounded like I should look forward to it. It’s good he seems to be in good spirits.
I looked up at him. He can’t possibly think -
But he had a gleam in his eyes that I do not want to interpret.
