Oxildi watched the animations on the screen and drizzled another
spoonful of the deep brown goo from the can into her mouth. Some of the brown
ichor spilled over onto her chin and she nimbly wiped it with a finger back
into her mouth and then sucked on that finger like a industrial strength vacuum
clean.
She had yet to figure out the humans' fascination with the
show. It had been on for almost two years and she only now getting the time
to spend and analyze why the earthling children rallied around their televisions
religiously to watch it. Oxildi attempted to understand how they could be
lured to such exclusion by these extremely fictitious creatures. This human
fascination with fantasy intrigued her and had become her specialty study.
"How can you eat that stuff," Anald said.
She looked up at him and smiled through chocolate smeared lips.
"It's called chocolate," Oxildi replied and used
a finger to swipe the last of it from the inside of the can. "It's really
good and a habit-forming foodstuff. I learned about it during my very first
excursion here... a Michigan mother's chocolate fix for everything. I'd offer
you some, but I just finished the last of it." She held the empty can
out for him to see then tossed it into the disposa-unit beside the lounge.
"I couldn't wait to come back for research so I'd be able to have more
chocolate."
"Sure," he replied and slumped down beside her. "Addictive?
Could this be considered contra-band? Remember what happened when they brought
back mead?"
Oxildi remembered back over her history and the study of this
planet. Mead was an ale heavily produced over the ages which caused a soothing
affect on humans. On Arrisium it was a totally different situation. Mead,
when used heavily, produced an extremely euphoric stupor and then brain deteriation
would set in. It took almost three centuries to eradicate its usage. And tobacco.
They had learned it from the Indians long before the white man had visited
from Europe. The leaves were also considered contra-band and illegal to import.
In fact, over five hundred years ago the Commission for the Studies of Universal
Intelligence had deemed it mandatory to legislate a total ban on all imports
from outside Arrisium. The plaangee from Higor in the Quasar system had been
the last official import and the reason for the ban. Plaangee was more than
habit forming, it was a unique symbiotic relationship. Only after consumption
did the full impact of plaangee affect the host–that's when plaangee
became a living symbiotic entity.
Oxildi shuddered at the thought and watched Anald sulk beside
here. They had been assigned to Commander Plinol for their first research,
and here, almost ten years later, they were again working together under Commander
Plinol.
"So, how goes your studies this trip?" He cocked
his white scientist's hat back on his head then stuck his hands into the pockets
of his smock.
"I'm not sure about this one," she answered and frowned.
Oxildi absently twisted and played with a blonde lock of hair that had strayed
from beneath her white hat. "I've examined approximately eighteen hours
of these shows and other than drowsy eyes, nothing. What do the humans see
in these animations? What can they learn? The children's minds are being blatantly
desensitized and being stuffed with blandness."
"Well, we're about ready to be cycled out," Anald
said. "You've only got another three days of study to complete your assignments.
Finally, my ten years of research is finished."
"One day," Commander Plinol stated and sauntered
over to them. "We leave tomorrow. New orders came in. Some bigwig wants
some unauthorized viewing time and since we're the next ship out, we've been
ordered back early."
"But my studies," Oxildi cried and jumped up from
the lounge; her hat falling to the side. "I'll not have time to complete
them. Am I expected to wait a full two years this time before I'm allowed
to rotate back?"
She stared at the commander standing there hoping that perhaps
he'd change his mind. He stood his ground, eyes firm, his white beard almost
glowing against the blue scaled skin.
"You see this?" Plinol said pointing at the top of
his head.
"Yes," Oxildi sighed. She didn't need to look at
Plinol's head to see the red hat that denoted his authority. She bent down
and picked up her white scientist hat then let her eyes stray back to the
monitor and the programming that she'd been studying.
She moved away from Anald and Plinol. Commander Plinol had
called her bluff. She became engrossed in the action on screen, the men's
conversation becoming just an annoyance in the distance.
"Commander," she said, her voice strangely distant.
"I believe we have a problem. I think that our existence has been compromised."
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