First Contact

                                                     FIRST CONTACT



         Neville slammed the door of the LEM and turned to Walker.  “Well there’s a howdy-do nobody thought of.”

         Walker asked “What?”

         “Autochthones.  We didn’t expect to find any of those.”

         “What the hell are you talking about?”

         “Indigenous personnel.”

         “Talk English.”

         “I am talking English.  There are people here, man.”

         “People!  There can’t be. The atmosphere isn’t breathable.”

         “To humans!  Who knows what they breathe?  We don’t even know if they breathe.”

         “That kind of changes things, doesn’t it?”

         “Yes.  I would say so.”

         “Well now what?  Are they hostile?”

         “Who knows?  They came toward me and I was unarmed so I came back here.”

         “Did they say something?”

         “I couldn’t understand their talk.”

         Walker said, “We have to report this.  What do we tell them?  Our next call in is at 0800.”

         “We have to think of something to call them.  LIPs.”

         “LIPs?”

         “Lunar indigenous personnel.”

         “LIPs?” Walker said again,

         “Well maybe it ought to be Lunar Civilian Indigenous Personal but you can’t make a pronounceable acronym out of that.”

         Walker conceded, “Okay, LIPs.  What do we tell about them?”

         “We don’t know if they’re hostile.  They didn’t appear to be armed. They came toward me shouting something and I thought it prudent to return to the ship.”

         “How many?”

         “Three that I saw but there could be thousands of them in the caves.”

         “What caves?”

         “I don’t know. There could be caves.”

         Walker was preparing his report.  “So what do we do?”

         “We await orders.”

         “That makes sense.”

         “This changes the whole program,” Neville said.

         “How so?”  Walker was feeding the communication into the computer.

         “When we Terraform this place these LIPs probably won’t survive.”

         “So they’ll have to abandon the program.”

         “Or do away with the LIPs.”

         Walker looked up.  “Do away?”

         “We don’t even know if they’re -- I was about to say human.  We don’t know if they’re intelligent, whatever.”

         “You said they said something to you.”

         “They made sounds.  Look, we’re unarmed.  If they attack we don’t stand a chance.”

         Walker reasoned that was so.  “We didn’t know we’d find anything alive here.”

         “So I think we should leave and come back prepared for conflict.”

         “Maybe.  Did they follow you back here?”

         “Probably.”  He looked outside.  “Yeah, they’re out there.”

         “They don’t look dangerous.”

         The tallest LIP reached out and the lock opened.  That was a shock!  Then it spoke.  “We watched your vehicle arrive.  You came from the blue world.”

         “You -- you speak English?”

         “Certainly.  We learned your languages from your radio and television.  You should not be surprised that we speak your language.  On your Star Trek stories all the aliens spoke English and no one was surprised.”

         The other two made a sound that could have been laughter.  Walker said “You watched Star Trek?”

         “Very popular here.  Very funny.  We like Mr. Spock.”  More laughter.

The LIPS were kind of insect-like.  They had something that even could have been wings. They appeared to need no protection from heat or cold and seemed completely comfortable in the airless environment.  The tallest one continued.  “We watch your news programs.  We were expecting you to get here soon.”

         Neville cleared his throat.  “We come in peace.”  He thought it might be a good time to say something conciliatory.

         The tallest LIP nodded.  “From your broadcasts there seems to be little peace in your world.”

         There was no defense to that.  The two men could believe that these LIPs knew all about Earth history.  If the LIPs were as smart as they seemed, they would know better than to trust humans.

         Walker ventured a question.  “How do you live?  Without oxygen I mean?”

         “We are not like you,” it said as though the explanation would be too complicated for humans.

         Neville asked “Are there many of you?”

         “We do not count ourselves.”

         It was the wrong end of the disadvantage.  These LIPs knew all about Earth, at least as distorted a view of Earth as could be gleaned from television.  They knew Earth people had weapons and did not hesitate to use them on one another. 

         The spokesLIP said, “The old ones told us you would come here.  From the time the Creator made us and set us here we have known about your world, how you harm one another and kill and destroy.  The Creator said disobedience is part of your nature. In a world that has so much you always fight one another for possessions.”

         “The Creator?”

         “Who made us.”

         “You have religion?”

         The LIP hesitated.  “Not what you call religion.  We know the Creator and we communicate with Him.”

         “Then --” Neville could think of nothing to say.  Clearly these LIPs were not an inferior life form to be cleared away for man’s advancement.  On the other hand, Neville was thinking wildly that maybe there could be some parts of the Moon not Terraformed, sort of -- of reservations, where the LIPs could live in peace.

         Neville said “We had no idea you were here.  Earth has just learned of your existence.”

         Walker said, “Communication from home.  Orders to return at once.”

         The LIP seemed to nod its head.  “You will be back?”

         Neville said “Not for a long time.  You have no idea how difficult this trip was for the two of us.”

         Then he realized the LIPs knew exactly how difficult.  They probably knew more about it than he did.

         The three LIPs watched the ship until it was out of sight in the black sky.  In its own language the tall one said, “If we know anything about them we know they do not learn from their own history.  What they did before they will do again.”



548 words