Occupied Space

John Mabry | Senior Year | 1980

My name's Hollerhan. I'm a sociologist. I've often wondered about the lifestyles of various animals in the Beta-Sigma system. It was an act of providence that I was chosen to go on the first mission. The flight was long, but not unpleasant, and we're told that we only aged two of the eighteen months we've been in space. When Dr. Jauhsen and I arrived I was very glad to have old terra firma-ah, well, Beta-firma underfoot. The atmosphere was breathable-but there was a small lack of nitrogen, which accounts for the fact that most of the plants are carnivorous. Small insects, things like that. It was where the story truly begins.

Jauhsen brought them in-them being small bipedal beings capable of fire and language-the first signs of true sapience. We hooked up the translatoriox and found their native tongue to be very close to the speech of the Varians of the Garmona System-strange. We found out their names when they loosened up a bit-and soon we were conversing freely. They chattered constantly almost-if not to themselves or us then they would ramble on uncaring of who heard. All was being recorded, of course, both audibly and visually, because we knew that we would miss so much.

This was a sociologist's dream. We discovered history, poetry, and genealogy. We found a tribal system and mating rites. They were far from finished when the alarm rang out. It was routine, of course. Something that happened everyday. It just meant that the mother ship was on the other side of the planet, and would not be able to reach us for another hour-until it circled back around. We had become oblivious to it by now-it was just an annoyance to be ignored. But the aliens were frightened beyond measure-so frightened that-and I can hardly believe this now-that they moved together and actually occupied the same relative space. I rubbed my eyes, but-yes, it was true. Both solid organisms were there in one limited region-each inside-or on top of each other-how does one describe it?

As a scientist it is my job to explain everything logically-but I was truly stumped. I immediately-fool that I am!-began to explain to them that what they were doing was impossible!

I explained mass and volume and relativity-and in every possible term-and they remained-two bodies in one space. I explained for hours, until-God! How I wish I could have accepted it-a flash of understanding, recognition-realization flashed their eyes.

Less than a second later, Dr. Jauhsen and I were covered with blood and meat and fur, and so was the rest of the room. As we cleaned up the mess we discussed what we had learned. The beings had understood-and had exploded. Dr. Jauhsen excused himself from my presence and promptly got sick.