"I didn't think you'd want to associate with a `uncivilized barbarian' like me," I commented to Raspa as she told me to follow her aboard the small disc shaped spaceship the next morning. Such ships being used for travel over the surface of Mars and short hops out into space. They are powered by small bits of anti-matter about the size of a large pea held inside a special magnetic containment field. Should the anti-matter come in contact with normal matter, then of course there is a great release of energy, even a pea-sized bit of anti-matter containing a dozen kilotons of explosive power. Normally, of course, the anti-matter is safely controlled and there is little danger from the use of such material. On the other hand flying around in something that could just go "BOOM" at any moment does bother your nerves just a bit! Especially mine after what happened with our disc.
"You can't help being `what' you are," Raspa answered, settling herself on the couch there before the controls and clipping the ship's computer feeds to her antennae. The oxygen cylinder there at my hip and my breathing bag and mask a necessary part of my attire were I to step out onto the surface of Mars with its .5 PSI oxygen pressure, that of the Earth being about six times as great! I had to admit even to myself that I was starting to get used to the sight of the Lorr, Raspa being no longer the nightmarish creature that she had first appeared to me. Why she took this interest in me was something I didn't know or dare ask, although I was happy that she did, since otherwise I would have learned little about this very alien civilization on a world that I'd visited before only in the far reaches of my own imagination!
"I'll try to do better in the future," I told her, settling myself as best I could beside her on the other couch, the close confines of the ship and the thought of what laid behind that deck beneath me making me just a bit nervous. The bigger ships are powered usually by fusion reactors, and thus are "safer" in my opinion, although the Lorr don't feel their smaller craft are in any way dangerous, Raspa having pointed out to me that she knew of only two failures of the magnetic containment fields in the entire fifty thousand year span that they had been using anti-matter as the power supply for spaceships of this design! I of course mention this only because of what happened to our ship!
"One should always seek to improve one's self, for that way lies true civilization," Raspa answered me with a gentle wave of her antennae. The movement of the antennae in conversation being somewhat similar to our movement of our hands and arms when we talk. The saucer at the moment gently rising up a long shaft to the surface of Mars, the only sensation being that faint "tingly" feel that seems to be a side effect of the Lorr's anti-gravity drive. Raspa once explained how the system works, but I didn't really know any more after she got done than I did before I asked her! I am well educated by 20th Century standards, but the Lorr use technologies that Man hasn't hardly even dreamed about using!
"I'm rather surprised that you'd want to be alone with me, considering how `violent' I am," I answered, remembering how that had been brought out the day before. Not that Raspa had anything to fear from me, since obviously I was totally dependent for life itself here on Mars upon the continuing "good will" of the Lorr!
"You are an intelligent being," Raspa answered, the saucer now rising just over the rim of the shaft and then moving across the surface of Mars, much to my pleasure and delight. My earlier arrival on this planet having been while in a state of unconsciousness where I had awoke on a bed with a young woman watching over me, the lighter gravity and the thinness of the air leaving no doubts that I was indeed now on or rather "inside" Mars!
"And attacking you would be a stupid act, wouldn't it?" I smiled back, enjoying this conversation considerably more than the one I had the day before with this very same creature.
"I am capable of `defending' myself if attacked," Raspa assured me with a wave of her antennae. Below us the viewscreen showed rolling plains covered with low broad leaved green plants called "Life Plants" due to the oxygen they released into the atmosphere. The leaves are edible, being similar to that of a cabbage and also hold considerable water, which they extract both from the soil and from the thin atmosphere of the planet itself, making the plant both food and drink. They are a genetic construction of the Lorr designed for the purpose of "terraforming".
"You rather `look' like you would be," I observed with a smile. Raspa had both her mandibles and the stings at the tips which released a paralyzing poison into the bloodstream of the one stung. I suspect that the Lorr long ago in their evolution were hunting meat-eating creatures not unlike Man, and they stung their prey and then dragged it back to their underground nests for later consumption. Due to the nature of their venom, one can be stung and remain conscious but helpless, and totally paralyzed. I once had a nightmare while on Mars about being stung and then dragged off into a dark cavern where I was then actually eaten by a number of Lorr. The nightmare such that I could "see" their mandibles tearing me apart, ripping me open, my flesh being then torn from my body until I could see my own bloody skeleton!
"Where did the comet strike?" I ventured, not knowing what Raspa's response to that would be. She was the one responsible for the "terraforming" of the surface of the planet, the Lorr due to their subterranean natures having little interest in the surface of a world. In my opinion the Lorr should have let themselves be known to Humanity back in the 19th Century when there would have been nothing that Mankind could have done to threaten them. Perhaps starting their terraforming operations about the time of the American Revolution, so that they might be able to present to Man a new clean world that might be shared. While the existence of the Lorr would have been a big jolt to Man's opinion of himself, especially to religious fundamentalists, I do believe that the Lorr made a very serious mistake in waiting until after Man first developed the capability of interplanetary spaceflight!
"The impacts covered one entire hemisphere," Raspa answered in what seemed level tones, although it was hard to tell given the means of communication that we used. The Lorr had sacrificed their larger starship, the one we once called Phobos, in a futile attempt to destroy the comet. The impact did shatter the comet, but the hundreds of fragments still struck the planet and did a great deal of damage, even with what defensive preparations the Lorr could make. What puzzled me, however, was why the Lorr had permitted the comet to come so close before making any attempt to destroy it, since the orbital change was made on its "in-swing" before it arced around the Sun and came back out aimed at Mars.*
* A very small change in orbit was all that had been necessary to redirect the comet. NASA used somewhat the same means to send its own unmanned spacecraft out into the solar system. I understand how such things can be done, but they are difficult to explain without the understanding of space flight the Lorr possess.
Feeling that Raspa was in a "good mood", although it is hard to tell such things with creatures that have no facial expressions, the Lorr "face" being identical whether the creature is happy or furious at you, I ventured, "Raspa, why didn't the Lorr of the 21st Century stop that comet before it hit when you've must have seen how its orbit had changed?" The sudden agitation of her long whip-like antennae and the movement of her mandibles telling me that I had indeed struck a "SORE SPOT" with her now!
"We are not like you humans," Raspa answered in tones that even with the limitations of the communication devices spoke much of her emotional state, "We did not observe the comet because it was of little interest to us. It was only because of the Earth's own amateur astronomers that we learned that the orbit had been changed." Apparently the government of the World Federation hadn't been able to "muzzle" all the amateurs despite its best efforts, a few of which apparently "leaked out" the news to others less well equipped, and thus let the Lorr know what had happened!
"You humans have a `curiosity' about things that is almost incomprehensible to the members of our own race, and it was this failing of ours which allowed your race to very nearly destroy us." Raspa then added after a second's pause for further thought.
"But you built STARSHIPS!" I answered her, confused by all this. "Your technology is thousands of years ahead of our own!"
"We did what we had to do," Raspa answered. "Watching your own sun turn into a red giant does encourage one to considerable effort," she added, turning her head slightly so that she might look at me. The viewscreen showing the planet dropping away beneath us as the soft hum of our anti-gravity drive increased, the awesome power of anti-matter lifting us high above Mars' surface.
"But your work in genetics? The `terraforming' of Mars?" I protested, "That mind-scanning device of yours?" Obviously the Lorr had sometime back in their history done some pretty serious scientific research to develop all those things! I could see the curve of the planet now, the many indicators before Raspa telling me little of what was going on, as they were in an alien language that meant next to nothing to me. The Lorr use a base twelve mathematics which is difficult for us ten based humans to comprehend. Only our concept of time is similar as we both use a base twelve system, although the Lorr divide their "day" into twelve parts which can get a little confusing until you get used to it.
"Our `Servitors' now do much of the scientific research," Raspa answered. "They possess much the same `curiosity' that does your race on Earth. They are now our scientists, our research workers." I suddenly understood now that the relationship between the Lorr and the women that served them was one of mutual dependency with each performing those tasks for which evolution had best fitted them for! The woman of Mars being quite different in her outlook on life than her earthly counterpart. Viewing the woman of modern-day 26th Century Earth as little more than a savage and barbarian fit for only breeding more of her own kind! They do consider themselves to be a different species than human, having much the same outlook towards those of Earth as the Lorr!*
* This is not always the case, of course, especially with a few such as An'na and Aurora, who is sort of An'na's "foster" mother.
"This is one of the craters caused by the comet," Raspa said to me, indicating with her antennae a crater several miles across in the surface of Mars there below us, the disc swiftly descending from its near orbital flight around a quarter of the hemisphere of the planet. Once there had been water there at the bottom now carpeted over by the water-seeking "Life Plants", but liquid water does not remain long on Mars, since the atmospheric pressure is too low to allow water to remain a liquid for long. Most of the water from the comet is either locked up in the ice caps at the poles or remains buried deep in the crust of the planet. There are heavy frosts at night, when the temperature drops below freezing even in the summer months even at the equator itself. Mars is a cold, hostile world, not "friendly" like Earth.
"It was believed in my time that the extinction of many life forms on the Earth far in our past was caused by the crashing of asteroids or comets into the Earth," I commented, seeing the damage that had been done by Janet Roger's World Federation shortly after her death. In a way I felt responsible, for I had been the means by which Janet Rogers had made her start in life, and had it not been for me, there would have never been a World Federation capable of doing all the horrible things that it did here!
"The damage would have been considerably worse on your world due to your much thicker atmosphere and oceans," Raspa agreed. The fact that the Lorr lived far underground no doubt had helped too, although those living beneath the point of impact did not survive despite having a mile or more of planet over their heads! The disc now coming in for a landing near the edge of the crater.
"Must have been a big thing!" I commented, clasping my oxygen mask back over my face after speaking, puffing away at my oxygen there in the thin and almost worthless Martian atmosphere. The crater spreading over several miles, and going down nearly a thousand feet into the crust of the planet itself. A large crack nearby in the surface telling of the forces that had been involved. Raspa standing there regarding me, her antennae gently moving back and forth with an almost hypnotic motion. The sky overhead so incredibly deep blue that one could actually see the brighter stars and planets! I thought of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Mars" books. Of John Carter, Dejah Thoris and all the rest. Of the reality of the Lorr, who were the true inhabitants of Mars!
Suddenly Raspa leaped towards me, my little speaker in my ear hearing her scream, "CONTAINMENT FAILURE!" The First Princess' great mandibles seizing me as she leaped with me over the edge of the crack behind me, crying, "COVER YOUR EYES!" The pair of us falling towards the sands far below as suddenly EVERYTHING TURNED BRILLIANTLY INCREDIBLY BLINDINGLY WHITE AS IF THE ENTIRE WORLD HAD SUDDENLY EXPLODED IN A THERMONUCLEAR BLAST!!! A SEARING HOT BURNING SENSATION GOING OVER ME AS IT FELT AS IF THE SURFACE OF THE SUN WAS JUST OVERHEAD! THE ANTI-MATTER PELLET THAT HAD PROVIDED OUR DISC WITH ITS POWER HAD COME IN CONTACT WITH "NORMAL" MATTER AND HAD JUST EXPLODED WITH AN INCREDIBLE FORCE!
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