First Contact

Prison Planet (Scouring Two Galaxies)

THE APARTMENT THAT RAL AND LELA COHABITATED WAS PERCHED PRECARIOUSLY ON THE 205TH FLOOR OF THE KERA TOWER, ONE OF THE TALLEST AND MOST FLEXIBLE BUILDINGS IN LU PRUGNA. It was the second largest city on Neercedes, a quirky and unstable world in the Andromeda Galaxy famous for its extreme temperature fluctuations, devastating natural disasters, and frequent celestial wonders created by its three feeble suns. They had met predictably enough at a party six Terran months previously, and moved in together the following day. Captured by the vibrancy of Lu Prugna and their attraction to each other, they had pledged to stay on the planet indefinitely, or at least until the magic waned. Which might well be tomorrow, since fads were so shortlived these days...

Though it was mid-morning, the rare Nerceedean triple sunrise was still in progress; the atmosphere was lit a sublime shade of liquor-green, highlighted against a bruised and broiling purple sea. The combined gravitational force of those three red dwarfs was initiating the mother of all king tides, unleashing a tsunami that was presently rushing to the sunward face of the planet. Soon Lu Prugna itself would be submerged, but Ral worried not... it was designed for this kind of caper. In fact, cataclysms like this was part of the reason that he and Lela had moved there, along with the cocktail bars and public art installations, of course. They were there for adventure!

<<Are you ready?>> Lela asked, appearing at his side. Her Frida Kahlo getup was gone, and she was now clad in a sequined miniskirt that glittered in a constellation of colors, from amethyst to topaz to rose quartz, depending on her mood, or other aesthetic considerations.

<<I told the apartment to look after itself>> Ral said. <<It'll keep us updated on the tidal surge. We can replay it when we get home.>>

She slapped him gently with a smile, and led him to the teleportation pad. She programmed their destination as being the History of Man Museum in Kenya, Earth, and stepped up on to the pad. She always teleported with Ral by holding hands.

A flash of destruction and reconstruction followed, and her eyes reported a successful journey. The museum materialized around them, all sleek and open-plan, with a wide wall of glass separating them from the African savannah. Out on those plains, she thought, humankind had first appeared. It had taken them hundreds of millennia to reach the Andromeda Galaxy, but less than a second to return.

At the exit of the teleport, a floating sign bid them welcome to Terra and more specifically to Africa, the "Dark Continent - The Great Laboratory". A walkway led to the first of the exhibition halls, which portrayed the evolution of mammals from primitive shrewlike beings, up until the primates. Lela milled from exhibit to exhibit, connecting headbands to enjoy multimedia explanations of the artefacts, or gazing intently at actual skeletal remains preserved inside vacuum-sealed cases. Ral began to feel bored - an affliction which should have been eradicated long ago, but somehow persisted on the margins of experience. He had half a mind to hook himself up to the nearest arcade game and "trip out" for the rest of the afternoon.

For the sake of his relationship, he persevered. The second hall detailed the rise of apes and then the archaic humanoids, culminating in the supremacy of Homo sapiens over its more unfortunate rivals (like the poor Neanderthals). The third hall recounted the development of technology progressing from language to tools and then mastery of various metals - copper, bronze and iron. This coincided with the dawn of civilization and a flurry of empires jostled for power in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, India, China, and Mesoamerica. Religion gave way to science, foreshadowing the flowering of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Communist revolutions, the antiCommunist revolutions, and finally the first Utopian experiments. Through it all Ral wondered how people could survive in those bygone days, without mindtrips, happy juice, or teleportation.

There was too much detail for one session, so they gave up in the fourth millennium. They sat in a shadowy restaurant animated by holograms replaying great moments in history; their table was situated on the edges of the Battle of Hastings.

<<Have you seen enough for today?>> Ral asked hopefully while sipping a chocolate milkshake, circa 1959(AD).

<<What?>> Lela protested. <<We've still got 3000 years to go!>>

<<Think of that party!>> Ral pleaded vigorously. <<It will be just heating up now. And it will be hot, if it's in Egypt. You won't need that dress.>>

<<Just one more hour... and then you can have your fun!>>

At that moment their discussion was interrupted by an eccentric figure striding confidently through the warring Normans and Saxons, and wearing a late 20th Century business suit. Ral initally thought that the program had gone haywire... but then he recognized the man rapidly approahing them.

<<Professor!>> he cried.

The greyhaired man, puffing for breath, took a long draught from Ral's milkshake. <<Ah, reminds me of my youth!>> he confided. He flopped down at the table between them, his voice hasty. <<Thank goodness I found you. I've scoured two galaxies looking for you delinquents!>>