We called them “Gators”. They weren’t, but they kinda looked like an alligator. If one had evolved on an alien planet light years from Earth.
The planet was down towards the center of the galaxy, and it was old. The tectonic plates no longer moved and the mountains had worn down to high hills. The shallow seas and meandering rivers were lined with swamps, wetlands and marshes.
The Sem lived, in their villages and cities, around those marshes. At the top of their world’s food chain, and without the glaring genetic differences that drove mankind to war over the millennia, they were a peaceful lot.
The Empire discovered them by chance. An exploration vessel dropped from warp with a minor mechanical issue and there they were. They had a modest amount of space travel, some orbital industry and mined the few asteroids and moons the star system held.
The Sem leaders and the population had no objection to being added to the Empire. Indeed, among those of us who represented the Emperor on the planet, it was often debated if most of them even knew they were part of the Empire.
The Imperial mission was small by any standard. The Sem made nothing that the Empire needed and needed nothing the Empire made. A modest amount of tourism and a steady stream of graduate students in Xenobiology writing their doctoral dissertations kept a few small hotels and restaurants open at the gates of the spaceport.
Few Sem ventured into the Empire. For one thing, aliens created quite a stir when they traveled to human worlds, making them uncomfortable. And, the Sem seemed to have little desire for adventure or new knowledge.
The arrival of Professor Roscoe Higgins, with an entourage of students, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, along with a half dozen media types, created a stir at the spaceport and in the small human community.
Higgins was well known in both academic circles and the popular media as the foremost proponent of the “Forefathers” theory. Using various translated alien legends, some odd ships seen drifting in space and a great deal of self confidence, Higgins maintained that all the alien races had been seeded on their planets of origin by a mysterious race known as the “Forefathers”.
He had come to the Sem homeworld to collect and translate the legends he was certain they had about the “Forefathers” and their part in the creation of the Sem. One comely assistance even let it slip that most of his paper on the subject was already written. He just needed a few scraps of legend to support his conclusions.
Those of us who represented the Emperor on the planet had grown accustomed to the regular arrival of one fervent believer or another. The Sem treated them all kindly and hardly any had to be removed in restraints by the Space Marines guarding the embassey and the Imperial interests. Religion was the most frequent practice that the believers wanted to bring to the Sem. One religion or another, and multi-level marketing, were the two beliefs that people seemed compelled to inflict on the aliens citizens of the Empire.
Higgins fell into that category, but because of his prominence, we rolled out the red carpet for him. The Ambassador held a reception. A bright ensign was assigned to be his liaison, and a set of eyes and ears for us. The Sem were formally and informally notified that he would be visiting them.
- to be continued -
Table of contents for The Sem
- The Sem