Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Curiosity

Report ID 2241571

Author Krill

*long silence, shuffling of papers.*

You know, after all these reports, all this anger, and..... Confusion... I can finally say that I have found something that I find quite... beautiful about humans.

It isn't much in the way of how they behave, how they move, what they do, but more about how they feel, how they think... Did you know that humans have spent thousands of years naming star formations, even before they knew what stars were, they saw pictures in the sky, and named them....creating stories for them. Even on the ground with no possibility of making it to the stars, they still looked up.

Did you know that the humans had detailed maps of their moon and the neighboring planet Mars before they had detailed maps of the ocean sea floor? It's like there is something out there that's pulling them further and further away from Earth. They never WATNTED to go under sea as much as they wanted to go into the stars.

The truth is apparent in the words they use when naming their spacecraft, sure they could name them space 1, 2 and 3 (And they often did) but sometimes they had other names.

A. Explorer = A human word defining a person who goes into unknown territory on purpose simply to learn things about it...an adventurer.

B. Pioneer = A person who is the first to explore or settle a new area.

C. Ranger = A person that ranges wide over a large area

D. Scout = A person that goes ahead to gather information

E. Mariner = someone who sails on body of water

F. Hitchhiker = someone who catches a ride with someone else to get to a specific destination, or just to travel.

G. Surveyor = Someone who investigates or examines something

H. Sojourner = person who stays someone temporarily

I. Pathfinder = someone who finds the way

J. Challenger = a rival or someone who engages another in a contest. (Humans will never stop their quest to the stars..... no matter the cost.... The terrible.... Terrible.... Cost.

K. Messenger = someone who brings a message or information to another

L. Voyager = from the word voyage which means to take a long journey by sea or (now) by space.

Can't you see, how they throw their own attributes onto machines, naming them after humans that had done the same, despite the fact that no human would be capable of preforming this mission? They place their hopes and dreams onto a machine and thrust it into space hoping beyond hope that they will find something out there as they stare at the same set of stars they have watched for thousands of years

They have been fascinated by the power of space in such a way that their own mythology named the stars, dubbing them in the name of their gods, first their planets, than their missions.

a. Titan = The fathers of their gods

b. Atlas = a Titan who held the sky on his shoulders

c. Apollo = the god who pulled the sun across the sky

d. Phoenix = a mythological bird made of fire who, when stricken by death, rose from the ashes. (Not so different form the humans rising from the ashes of war to rebuild when they would have been destroyed)

e. Pegasus = a mythological winged horse. A creature that should never have possessed wings (a little like the humans I think.)

Every moment, the humans have spent naming their hopes and their dreams without even knowing it, connecting their discoveries to themselves, to their long dead gods (not dead because they haven't been forgotten.

a. Odyssey from the name Odysseus, from an ancient human epic detailing the spiritual quest of a man attempting to return home from long years at war.

b. Discovery = to find something new that no one has ever seen before.

c. Curiosity = the desire to learn about soemthing simply for the sake of learning, to know, and to understand it (even if that means launching yourself into space with the potential of never coming home)

d. Opportunity = a set of good circumstances which make it possible to do something. (perhaps to survive years longer than one technically should have)

Did you know the humans send songs to their rovers? Or they used to, even though the metal will never truly understand the meaning, they still send their transmissions supporting a lifeless thing as if it were human, and eventually saying goodbye.

And then they started to travel themselves conquering their nearest planets on ships, no longer relying on metal, but on themselves.

a. Survivor = a person who defied odds that should have killed them

b. Seeker = someone who looks for something

c. Honor = respect

d. Hope = a desire for things to be better tomorrow.

e. Enterprise = a difficult undertaking or project (A callback to a hope humans have harbored for many years, when they could only daydream about interstellar travel) Enterprise was the first interstellar spacecraft)

At the core of every species, there is an attribute that wins out above all others, For the Vrul, it is logic, for the Rundi, it is peace, For the Drev it is persistence, but for the humans.... it is their inner curiosity, their wonder.

*...*

*...*

And then there is the asshole who named his ship USS Stabby.

*laughter*