#xcha'lanu

[aelincreativ]

Human Warrior

(Part 1) | (Part 2) |

11-7-18- System 43- Orbit of Planet Kanrea- Crewing Station-

Bethany had a nagging feeling in her stomach. Full of worry and confusion. Before her stood Commander Xcha’lanu. A feared battle Commander of the Kirothian Fleet. A renowned and heavily fear warrior who had led his fleet to many victories. And she was a regular human soldier, preparing and anticipating her journey into space. She had warped out here to meet the vessel she would crew on. She now stood face to face with the Captain and Commander of the ship and fleet he was to serve on. The Commander was a great figure. Over 9 foot tall, bipedal, with hard red skin and a square head to match his appearance. A truly fearsome figure. So why did he look like he wanted to run away from her presence?

“Commander Xcha’lanu, is everything alright sir?”

His eyes shifted away slightly as he answered, “Not at this moment Special Forces Human Warrior Bethany.”

His use of her full descriptive title made her pause and added to the weight in her stomach. He classified her as a Human warrior. Human was being the added descriptor. He must have found something that warranted being addressed as such on their first meeting before she had even boarded the ship.

“Commander Xcha’lanu, what have you seen in my file records?”

The Commander was not even trying to pretend he was avoiding her gaze.

“Brazil Two, Planet Mars, Situation- Android Revolt.”

Bethany cursed. She thought that had been erased from her record. It was obvious what was bothering the Commander now.

“Sir, I promise that I am no threat to the crew of this ship.”

The commander almost seemed insulted at her statement.

“No threat? Not a threat! You destroyed an entire legion of your manufactured soldiers with nothing but a long sword and a rifle! You made scrap metal of three-thousand androids! Androids that had been your people’s first line of offense for colonization and confrontation! How can you not be a threat to this crew and fleet?!”

That feeling in her stomach now was tinged with the bitter taste of annoyance and anger.

“Commander Xcha’lanu. I am classified as a Special Forces Warrior for a reason. I have trained for specific situations. My specialty is in solo onslaught army destruction. Specifically for combat against the androids. Humanity feared and was wary of its own creations, to the extent that before a single android was launched into service, there was an entire battalion of forces at the ready and prepared to combat anything like the Android Revolt of Brazil 2 on Mars. After the thirty years of peaceful androids the force was scaled back to just a few dozen of highly trained fighters like myself. When the revolt took place I answered the call and was transported to Brazil 2 within 24 hours. I was sent along with 9 others. We were dispatched in the primary 8 direction from the landing point with the final two manning the weapons of the station. I was dispatched to the west. With my fellow Warriors on either side of me we progressed. The battle waged for two weeks with little chance for rest. I served Humanity at great risk to my own life. My loyalty to those I swear to protect will hold no bounds as long as I am not betrayed. I swear to you now Commander Xcha’lanu, I am here as a delegation of peace between our two peoples. I will not be a threat to this crew unless I or the Human race are threatened first.”

The gaze Bethany leveled with the feared Kirothian Battle Commander would make any man run scared. But Commander Xcha’lanu was no human man. Yes, he feared the human before him, but his fear was now laced with the respect of a fellow warrior, not of a mindless beast he had feared her to be upon viewing the videos in her file.

His gaze met hers and he felt the atmosphere shift.

“I swear to you now, Special Forces Warrior Bethany Nizdala, Slayer of the Androids and now Delegation of Peace, you shall come to no harm on this ship. Prepare to board and serve.”

A grin lit up her face as she saluted the Commander. He had dropped the Human out of her title. She now stood on an even playing field with him. “Aye-aye, sir.”

Bethany had a nagging feeling in her stomach, but this time she was pretty sure it was just anticipation. The stars were calling her after all.

[aelincreativ]

A Turtle, an Old Man, and a Key

(Part 1) | (Part 2) | (Part 3) | (Part 4) |

11-9-18, System 43, Onboard Ship – Preparing to Launch

Bethany the Special Forces Warrior of Earth was adjusting nicely to the Kirothian ship she had only just started to crew on. Having been on board for a full Earth day, she was excited when the ship began its preparations to launch on its next journey. She was on board as a Peace Delegation without an official role on the ship’s actual crew. She was going to find an unofficial one as soon as possible. She believed that the best way to make connections and to initiate the famed “Human Pack Bonding” was by being actively involved with those around her. She had her limits to how much social interaction she would be able to handle but the newness and just wow factor of finally crewing on a ship would provide her enough social energy for a very long time.

After waking up on board for the first time, a strange experience in and of itself, she dressed in her uniform and headed towards the cafeteria. Making her way through the levels, responding to any greetings sent her way. More of the crew were able to say her name correctly now, after an extensive lesson in how her name was pronounced after supper the night before.

It had turned out that the Kirothian that had approached her first yesterday was named Ka’lari and was an engineer in the lower hyper engine. Ka’Lari was on the younger side for a Kirothian, only 82 Kirothian years. In a species that lived close to 500 years, if Bethany made an equivalent to the human lifespan, Ka’lari was about 18. Kirothians matured at about 50 but were still largely considered minors and the equivalent of teens until about 100.

Ka’lari was the first to greet Bethany when she walked into the cafeteria and signaled her over to her table after Bethany grabbed her food. When Bethany sat down Ka’lari greeted her.

“Hello, Bethany. Have good morning?” Ka’lari was a fast learner when it came to languages, through the translator she had explained that since she also saw the functions of the engine as a language, with the advanced technology of the hyper engines, Ka’Lari worked with the energies and the way the energies fluctuated and the changing of the engine as much as any mechanical part. When she applied her language theory to anything she learned she found it much easier to learn and understand. Bethany honestly didn’t get it but she appreciated the fact that it would be less than a month before Ka’lari would be fluent in English.

After returning the greeting to Ka’lari and saying hello to the other occupants of the table she tucked into her breakfast. She had a long day of getting “settled” and “becoming familiar” she was sure that this was actually meant to mean “go find and pack bond like a good human”. Honestly the whole human race found the impression the greater space population had of them rather comical. Sure, humans sought companionship but the levels many aliens seemed to think all humans needed was very exaggerated. If she hadn’t had Ka’lari approach her, Bethany would have survived by communicating and messaging with her other friends who had been placed in other fleets around the Galaxy.

“Bethany, knowledge of creature turtle?”

Bethany looked up startled. “Huh?”

Ka’lari grinned. “Turtle? What knowledge have you?”

“A turtle? Why would you be asking about a turtle?”

Kalari grabbed a tablet that was being held by another Kirothian who had introduced himself as Zch’lino. The screen displayed a picture of an older human man who was holding a snapping turtle. Bethany had to read through the first few lines of the story before she realized what it was she was looking at.

A snort and a sputter of laughter escaped before she slapped a hand over her mouth to keep the laughter in. It was a picture of the so called “Turtleman” from Kentucky. He had been dead for many years now but he had apparently just made into the Kirothian news cycle. Only reason she knew of him was the fact that it was discovered that a majority of the “turtles” Turtleman had caught over his career and his TV series, were actually a form of a race called Persuniks. A shapeshifting, aquatic species that had crashed onto earth at about 1896 A.D.. They had taken a general form of snapping turtles and just existed that way until they revealed themselves after The First Contact Off World.

The Persuniks had been allowed to decide whether to stay on earth or leave as only a few were still of the originals who had been born on their home world. About 2,000 Persuniks had been transported back to their planet in the following year. The existence of the Persuniks on Earth had actually been a blessing in disguise because the fact that another semi- to fully intelligent species had lived on Earth for so long without coming to major harm proved that Humanity was mature enough to step foot into the wider galaxy.

After finally calming herself down she managed to get her explanation typed out on the tablet. “I’m going to jump over a few steps and hopefully explain what you are misunderstanding. That man is now dead and he had a career as a creature catcher. When the Human people discovered that the Persuniks had been living on Earth as turtles it took a few months before someone, as a meme, made the connection to the “Turtleman”. After analyzing footage and taking with the Persunik people themselves we actually discovered that Turtleman was one of the few humans aware that the Persuniks were an alien people not just turtles.”

The Kirothians thought this over for a minute or two before the one called Ki’loke asked, “What is meme?”

Oh no. She was no ready to eplain that key bit of human culture.

[aelincreativ]

Broken Conversation

(Part 1) | (Part 2) | (Part 3) |

11-8-18, System 43 – Onboard Ship

Bethany Nizdala was the first human to make it on board of a Kirothian ship. It had taken her many months of additional training and lessons on culture of the Kirothian people. She had already made a lasting impression on Commander Xcha’lanu and earned her place on board. Now she just had to convince the crew of that.

Unlike the Commander, the rest of the crew did not understand very much English. She had been learning the language of the Kirothian’s but it had many hard to pronounce consonant pairs. It had taken her a week to pronounce the Commander’s name right! She could catch snippets and a few words as she was walking through the corridors towards her quarters. The Kirothian had a very simple written language so she had learned that in a few months. She was following the signs to the floor and number of her room.

“Human… small… Commander… androids… avoid…” The sparse selection of words she could understand as she walked past the groups in the massive corridors did not do much to improve her mood.

Great. The crew knows about it. Am I going to have to repeat the whole speech to every crew member?

She shook off the comments and kept walking. She was a floor closer to her room when someone called out to her. Only reason she could tell that the shout was directed at her because of the “Human” and the butchered pronunciation of her name, “Batany”.  Her instructor in the spoken Kirothian language had pronounced her name that way when he had first read it. The pronounced “th” combination didn’t exist naturally in their language. And somehow her instructor had never had to pronounce a name with “th” in it before meeting her. It was an interesting day.

She waited and looked around till she saw the 8ft tall figure making its way over to her from back down the hall. The difficulty with the Kirothians was that they were not immediately distinguishable by gender. They had no male or female characteristics that where known to all. The best you could do was listen to the timbre in their voice. Female Kirothians often resonated higher than the males, but even that wasn’t always a given. The fact that they used gendered pronouns too could cause additional confusion when you were sure they were the other but they used the female “I” in Kirothian.

The one who had called out to her was finally in range. She raised her hand in a standard Kirothian greeting. The approaching figure repeated the gesture.

The very slow and crude English that followed almost made her double over in laughter.

“Batany… truth… androids? Warrior?”

She fought the laughter. After speaking with the Commander who could speak fluent English it was a stark contrast. She managed to contain the laughter and smiled. She, slowly, in her best Kirothian replied, “Exaggerated, yes warrior, no threat to ship.”

The Kirothian grinned in what she could assume was the amusement she had felt when they had spoken. The Kirothian’s face suddenly was clouded with an emotion she hadn’t seen on a Kirothian before. The Kirothian then smiled and reached into their pocket. When the Kirothian pulled out a tablet like device. Bethany wanted to smack her head. Of course! Until she got more fluent in Kirothian or the crew learned more English she could use the translator function or even just type out what she wanted to say since she could read and write much more Kirothian than she could speak!

The Kirothian typed out what they wanted to say, it took a minute but eventually the tablet was turned around and the speaker read out in the robotic English, “Is it true that you defeated an entire legion of the androids by yourself? If so what weapons did you use? Do you have other skillsets like other humans or are you a static category? Are there more humans like you? Do you have a food preference? How do you pronounce your title?”

Bethany laughed at the long succession of questions. While the voice had been speaking the Kirothian had been trying to mouth and mimic the voice. While it would help with the pronunciation she knew that the sentence structure and ordering of subjects in Kirothian was very different than English. She might have to add teaching an English class somewhere in her schedule. These broken conversations were going to get tiresome real quick even if they were humorous.

She took the offered tablet and began to type her responses and then her own questions. It would be slow going but she would get there. She had a scheduled Earth year on board this fleet initially. She’d be making pun jokes in Kirothian by the time she left.

[aelincreativ]

Bethany Nizdala Directory

Part 1 - Human Warrior  

Part 2 -  Broken Conversation  

Part 3  -  A Turtle, an Old Man, and a Key 

Part 4 -  Ala’dar 

Part 5  - The Never-Read Book 

Part 6 - Greedy Little Man

This is the directory for my Bethany Nizdala series following the Humans are weird trend. This series has sat dormant with only the addition of  my post Farm Land which a completely separate event in the Humans are weird universe. I am hoping to get this started up again so send me some prompts on stuff you’d like either Bethany to do or something you think Cassie from Farm Land could run into. (BTW I like only just learned how to create these link pages so if it is completely messed up and needs to be fixed somehow let me know.) I’ll also go in and add links to the post to direct to the next post in the series.