Chapter 1
*We cannot colonize this planet, it has higher life forms. They are primitive, but are sentient,* observed the Leader.
*Yes, I know, Leader,* said Second. It regarded the group they were studying. *They bear a superficial resemblance to us,* it commented, *except in size. They are small, but there are other similarities, and they are bipeds.*
*They are,* agreed the Leader, *but there, the resemblance ends. They are mammals, we are not, and it only takes two of them to procreate.*
*Yes,* said Second, *and they are quite prolific in spite of this.* It considered for a moment. *I think we need to study them a little longer. Perhaps we can learn from them just how they can be so fertile in the face of the adverse conditions under which they live* Second watched as a very small, naked, dark brown child toddled towards the fire the adults kept going in the middle of their encampment. An adult female rushed and snatched the child up before it could burn itself. She was nearly as naked as the tiny male, wearing only a rough made garment covering her from waist to mid-thigh. Her prominent breasts were bare.
The presumed parent, the mother, held the little one in her arms, speaking to him and shaking her head at the fire. No doubt warning the child not to go near the fire, though Second had the sound turned down, and could not hear her. It could have read her thoughts, but chose not to, as that was considered an invasion of privacy. The female carried the child into a tent-like structure made of woven grasses, still scolding him.
Second sighed. It did not have children, and knew it was doomed to remain forever childless. Not having been able to acquire any group-mates, it knew children would probably never happen. Even when going to the luanna house to mate with the surrogates, a reluctance to mate on their part was detected, though they were required by law to do so. They were always polite, even seemingly friendly, but there were always excuses for not being accommodating, and the few times they did provide service, Second suspected its sperm had been sealed off and rejected. This, too, was against the law except in cases of illness, but very hard to prove. And even during the few times it had been able to mate, the surrogates had always had reasons to provide only a half-mating, so Second had never in its life received sperm. It had been too embarrassed to tell anyone, or complain about this. It was a very young Elvwist, but had already ceased hoping this would improve.
Second had been born with a singular birth-defect none of the Healers had been able to correct. It had been born without the beautiful, feathery, foot high crest every other Elvwist had. Instead, its head was covered in layers of multicolored, iridescent feathers that lay flat, no matter how it tried to get them to stand up. Also, there were feathers that ran underneath its arms and down the sides, so that when stretched to the sides, they unfolded, resembling wings. The Healers said they were a throw-back to when their species was mostly aquatic and swam to catch fish. The arm feathers were less of a problem, though the condition was rare.
People were always polite, trying to pretend not to notice the lack of a crest, but, without fail, even when meeting someone with whom it might wish to just be friends, there was always an awkward pause, then the would-be friend would make up some type of excuse for leaving, and it would not see them again. Second had never asked home by anyone to meet their parents and siblings.
Even while a child, it had not been able to acquire any lasting friends, and after a while, had ceased trying. Though Second knew its parents and siblings loved and valued it, they had their own lives, and it had always felt a deep void in its life. It was, perhaps, the loneliest Elvwist in the universe.
*I will consider your suggestion to study these people further, Second. You make a good point about their fertility, and we need to learn as much as possible to try to help solve our lack of abundance when it comes to offspring.*
The Elvwists evolved from a small semi-aquatic, avian-like, egg-laying creature, that was gender neutral, having aspects of both male and female. Though they eventually became primarily land dwellers, and increased in size, they still laid their eggs in ponds two weeks after fertilization, with the eggs hatching two weeks after that, into their larval stage - aquatic, tad-pole-like swimmers. These transformed into their final, land dwelling form over the course of a year. They crawled out of these ponds once they developed legs and arms, becoming infant Elvwists, nurtured and cared for by their parents.
Telepathy in the species arose naturally, as a defense against predators while they were still swimmers in inhospitable ponds, before developing higher intelligence. Their scientists theorize being telepathic pushed them into evolving bigger brains at an accelerated rate, and thus into dominance over other life-forms on their planet much earlier than what would have otherwise occurred.
On land, being telepathic did not save them from all predators, as they were not always able to detect them until too late to escape. They discovered fire, and developed weapons to hunt, and defend themselves with. As with all developing species, they sometimes used these against each other while fighting over resources, such as good breeding ponds, food, territory - even the best mates. Eventually, they learned to farm, and domesticate animals and to build artificial breeding ponds within their homes to keep their young safe.
As their civilization became more advanced, they continued to war amongst themselves until, shortly after they developed space travel, someone invented a new weapon so terrible, no one wants to speak of it, even to this day. This weapon destroyed a large portion of the population, including the entire nation it was deployed against, knocking them all nearly back into savagery. This is when they began being born with other psychic abilities. Scientists believe it was the weapon that nearly killed them all, that caused these to develop.
They learned the folly of war, and thanked the gods of the universe they had done so before extinguishing themselves completely, and were grateful for their new abilities, which they learned to use for the benefit of all, gradually building their - this time, united - civilization back up. But they also paid a price. The same weapon that gave them their new abilities, also caused them to become less fertile.
At the time of their visit to this particular planet, it had been a thousand years since their last war. They had only recently gone back out into space, hoping to find the three colonies planted on other worlds before the war. They had hoped these had flourished, and perhaps could help invigorate the species, increasing fertility. Unfortunately, all they had found were ruins. In determining how they had perished, it was learned that, after they were cut off from the home world, the colonists had engaged in war with each other. They had destroyed themselves. They re-colonized these three planets, and went about setting up colonies on other, uninhabited worlds. Perhaps these would fare better, and maybe the people would be more fertile on the new worlds.
The Elvwists also searched for sentient life on other worlds, someone on their same level who could perhaps be friends. However, they found that of all the races of beings they discovered, theirs was the only advanced civilization still in existence. They found numerous extinct ones, some having been nearly as advanced as they, but in each instance, they had all destroyed themselves either shortly before, or directly after leaving their planets. They did find a few worlds where the beings were truly alien to them, non-bipeds having no common references at all. None were space traveling species, being apparently content to live solely on their planet, never seeking anything more. All overtures toward these types of societies by the Elvwists were totally ignored, and so they were left to themselves.
They found plenty of primitive societies, though, where the species were just starting down the road to civilization, and were at the hunter/gatherer stage, or just beginning to farm and domesticate animals. They had a policy of non-interference, and kept to it, so they never contacted these alien races, or when such contacts happened accidentally, they wiped all memory of themselves from the affected beings, as these young societies tended to believe they were either gods, or demons. Of all the races they had found, there were no others with psychic abilities.
On this world, they had discovered one of the races of beings just starting on the road to being civilized, being still at the hunter/gatherer stage, though there were signs they were beginning to discover the merits of farming. For that type of society, these people were very fertile, indeed.
Over the next several days, the Leader watched how young Second looked at the children of the primitive group, and its hearts ached for it. It knew how much Second wanted group-mates and children of its own, but also knew that was never likely to happen.
The Leader had another world to check in a nearby star system, so made a decision. *Second, there is one other world that has to be visited before we return home, therefore we must leave this one, as it is not suitable for colonization.*
Second, nodded, knowing the time was nearing for them to leave. *Yes, Leader, I know,* it sighed, and thought with disappointment, The Leader has decided not to make a study of these people.
*I have taken into consideration your suggestion to further study these people. Would you like to stay and observe them for a while? It will take some little time for us to get to the next world, and make our observations, and then returning here to retrieve you will take a while longer, so while that is not enough time for a full study, it should be enough for a preliminary one, and that may be enough to at least give us some ideas. That is, if you wish to do this. However, it will be lonely for you.* The Leader waited for an answer.
Second’s large blue eyes widened in surprise - and eagerness. *Oh, yes, Leader! I would be happy to stay, and I am used to being lonely.* Re-thinking its wording and not wanting the Leader to think this was a complaint about being alone, it corrected itself. *That is to say, I do not mind being alone, Leader. Nothing would please me more than being able to help increase our understanding and knowledge of another species, and perhaps, find a solution to our low birth rate.*
*Good! Then we will leave enough supplies to last until our return. Just remember - when you take tissue samples, you must not harm the subjects, and you must memory-wipe them afterwards, if they see you. We want to interfere as little as possible.* The Leader regarded the young Elvwist. Second was only nineteen years old, but, as did all advance scouts, had several required psychic abilities in addition to telepathy: Healing, levitation, telekinesis, psychic location, and memory wiping, and, also had several other, non-required ones.
Second was quite a talented youngster. It was unfortunatet to have been born with those particular birth defects, for it was otherwise a handsome being. The head and arm feathers were very beautiful. It was the lack of a crest that was causing its problems.
The Leader sighed. If it had not already been vow-mated with three group-mates it truly loved, it might have considered taking Second as a mate. But, then, acquiring any other mates would have been problematic, as no other Elvwists would ever have accepted one such as Second, and four were needed to reproduce. But, still, it was beautiful.
The Leader did understand the reluctance, though. The head crest was a definitive Elvwist feature, and as far as it knew, no other Elvwist had been born without one since their species evolved it. No one deliberately tried to make Second feel bad about its lack. It’s just that no one wanted to mate with it for fear of begetting crestless children.
While nearly every other young Elvwist its age had already been asked to vow-mate, sadly, most people would not even befriend it, and last year, before the start of this trip, the Leader had seen Second, when it had not known it was being watched, changing colors in distress as it left the luanna house at the space port. The Leader had made inquiries inside, and learned the surrogates had all been ‘busy’ while Second was there.
Second had finally left in despair when other single Elvwists had come in while it still waited, and gotten service from the surrogates. Upon questioning this, it had been told these others had ‘appointments’. Second had known better, of course - appointments were unnecessary at the luanna houses - and it had the right to report this, as it is against the law for surrogates to refuse anyone, but the Leader knew it had not done so. The Leader also knew it had never returned to the luanna house.
The Leader hoped the decision to leave Second alone was the correct one but knew it wanted a chance to prove itself, that it thought perhaps someone would then feel it worthy of having as a mate. The Leader knew this was a forlorn hope for the young one, but saw no harm in indulgence in this matter. It felt Second would do a good job.
They left everything Second would need to carry out the study, along with a food supply in the cave from which they had been observing the primitive group, wished it well, sang their departing song, and lifted off from the planet.