What do you think would happen if humans are the only species that believes in luck.
What if aliens never correlated crossing fingers, walking under ladders, seeing melanistic felines, as things that can affect an outcome of a project (or life's) success? What if humans are the only ones who believe in that kind of stuff?
Even non-superstitious humans cross their fingers for good luck, just because that's what you do.
Human right before they're doing something dangerous: Cross your fingers.
Alien: *visibly confused*
Brall headed down the corridor, stepping lightly around the larger debris. The corridor was still under construction after last weeks’ earthquake shook loose a ‘hobby room’ the humans had installed against regulation and without permission. How the humans managed to get weighted iron bars as tall as they were onto the base was impressive in itself, how they managed to get them into the crawl space in between floors was even more so.
“Stop!”
Brall froze, a quick response he learned after being around humans for so long. He saw no danger, no problems, or any reason for his quick change. He turned around to face the human who’d called for him.
“Why can i not continue down the corridor?”
Thane was moving quickly towards Brall. He was trying to protect Brall from, something.
“The ladder.” Thane grabbed it and lifted. He carried it to one side, collapsing it against the wall. “You can’t walk under ladders.”
“It was sufficiently high enough. I would not have bumped it,” Brall assured him.
Thane shook his head. “No, it’s bad luck.”
Brall wasn’t aware of what luck was, or even the concept of it. He was in a hurry though. “Can you walk with me and explain what ‘bad luck’ is?”
Thane nodded. “Course.”
Brall kept going, but diverted half his attention to the human.
“Luck is an invisible force that can change the outcome of anything regardless of what actions have been taken. You can have good luck or bad luck. Good luck is when things work out for you for no reason. Bad luck is when terrible things happen for no reason.”
“But walking under a ladder causes bad luck?”
“Yes, because you can attract good or bad luck based on what you do. Black cats carry bad luck with them, so if you see one, boom, bad luck. On the other hand, horseshoes are good luck. Bad luck is easier to get though, so you have to be extra careful not to attract it. Good luck is a lot harder to manifest.”
They stepped through the doors and headed for the next building.
“But are humans not known for their preparedness and tenacity? Why would a species believe in mindless chance when they are, well, human. It seems counterintuitive that a species who routinely looks death in the eyes and laughs would allow themselves to fall victim to such a hollow belief.”
They stepped into the next building. It was much smaller, only two rooms large. The first room acted as a barrier to protect the sensitive equipment in the second. Another human, Vikram, stood there waiting for Brall.
Thane frowned. “It’s not a hollow belief. There are things that happen that can’t be explained. Despite everything that is prepped or done, sometimes things happen and people don’t make it. It’s bad luck.”
Vikram laughed. “Dude, stop filling his head with nonsense. Luck isn’t real. It’s a small mind ignoring the butterfly effect. Things happen and just because you don’t know what caused them doesn’t mean nothing caused it. The universe doesn’t have an opinion.”
Brall was now very confused. Thane spoke as if luck was a human constant but Vikram refused it outright.
“Oh yeah?” Thane challenged.
Vikram shrugged. “Yeah. Luck is for dummies.”
“Cool.” Thane nodded. “Then I’ll just go ahead and take the narwhal toy with me then.”
Vikram’s face changed so quickly Brall almost expected to see a weapon appear.
“You touch that narwhal and I’ll snap your finger.”
Brall took a step away from Thane first, distancing himself from the potential danger.
“Ha! Now who’s superstitious?”
Vikram frowned. “I’m not superstitious. But if you move that narwhal then Brall and I won’t be able to fix anything.”
“How does the piece of plastic help us?” Brall asked.
Vikram shrugged. “Don’t know, but it does. So don’t touch it.”
“Brall, if you need any more information about luck, I’ll gladly give you some reference material to look up later. Because at least I’m honest about my beliefs.” Thane left, smirking.
Vikram shook his head. “Alright, let’s just get to work.”
———————
“I still don’t understand why the repairs aren’t holding. We worked out all the bugs.”
Vikram had been complaining for the last ten minutes. Nothing they did was working.
“You didn’t touch anything, did you?” Vikram asked.
Brall couldn’t lie. It was an unknown quirk of he species that humans discovered. So he knew he was caught.
Brall pulled the narwhal from his pocket. “You said luck was not real so I wished to see for myself.”
Vikram lunged for the narwhal, frightening Brall. Brall flicked the toy into the air and jumped backwards. Vikram grabbed the toy with a hunter’s focus and immediately rushed it back to its rightful place.
“I told you not to touch the narwhal!”
Vikram began scolding Brall, but Brall was distracted. All the red, orange, and black indicators were shifting to blue and purple behind Vikram’s back. The human was going on about how personifying the equipment and placating it was important, but Brall was only partially listening.
“It’s working.” Brall was in disbelief. Replacing the toy somehow fixed everything.
Vikram turned and smiled. He exhaled all the pent up stress. “Of course it’s working. We gave the toy back. It’s happy now.”
Brall made the mental note to request the reading material from Thane later.
