Chapter 13: Chapter Thirteen

The human self care routine was over within the hour and the human family had its food finished in short order, and when they were dressed in their clothing, short fabric pants called ‘shorts’ and loose fitting shirts that came in multiple colors and designs, William approached me about what I wanted to do today.

“Is it OK? Can we do that? I thought I should spend some time experiencing human entertainment?” I tried hard not to wag my tail when I said that, I’d seen their amusement parks in their videos, and it looked interesting. After experiencing the wind in my face from an open car window for the first time, I was really interested in what their open air rides had to offer.

Sadly my tail had a mind of its own and waved back and forth while I stood there and tried to keep myself under control.

William answered me with his head in the refrigerator and grunted while he handled something large and out of my view. “Yeah, of course. We went through your list of requested activities before you arrived, and we figured you’d want to get the summer and spring things taken care of first. That’s why we got this.” He said and straightened up with one more grunt and after pushing the door closed he stood still for a moment so I could see.

They were clear water bottles. Two large containers each of which held twenty-four smaller containers big enough for a human hand to wrap around and still leave space above and below.

I previously mentioned the human need for copious amounts of water, and part of this need is because their body’s cooling system is shockingly efficient, they expel their own water through tiny pores that cover their bodies, and this in turn drops their temperature down several degrees. It allows them to survive in very hot climates for long periods of time and keep going after most races would have fallen over dead. The human habitable biomes are very diverse, and their ability to constantly move over long periods of time is an enormous survival edge. In battles with the Zenti on land, the humans frequently simply ran them to death, the Earth forces would only chase their prey over areas vehicles couldn’t handle, and the Zenti eventually collapsed, they would then either surrender to humans or surrender to the environment. Human warrior classes are as of this writing, now the majority of elite teams in multiple military forces for their highly repairable bodies, great pain tolerance, and ability to ‘go’ for as long as they are supplied with food, water, and a few hours rest every now and then.

William’s forethought in acquiring the water is but one small example out of many in the ability of humans to make plans. It seems like little to some species, such as dlamisans like myself. But in reality we see most of nature does not plan much beyond the next meal, some of their primate species show the ability to think ahead, crafting tools in one location, then carrying those to another location and putting them to use. But those are short term, humans are capable of planning for not just days, but generations when they decide it is important to do so.

This means that the only true threat to humanity is a danger they don’t know about. Perhaps that seems like a lot to take away from a human having some cold bottles of water… but I transmitted my data to them long before I arrived, and they were prepared for my very first day when I got there. And to me, that is worthy of mentioning.

“Thank you.” I said when I saw the pack of water, and recalling how they appreciated offers of help even when they intended to reject it I asked, “Can I help with those?” He grinned when he took a shuffled step toward me.

“Yes, please and thank you.” He answered me and got out of the way. I grabbed the plastic wrapped box and hefted it in both my hands just as Rebecca returned with a thick red box with a white top.

“What’s that?” I asked and cocked my head down at the funny looking thing. They smiled when I did that, and I had to wonder if they’d ever tire of it.

“A cooler. We throw some ice in there and it’ll hold the cold in, this way the water will stay cold and we can get more whenever we need it.” Rebecca explained, “We’ll just pick up some ice on the way.” She raised the top and William approached with his box of water, he shifted it to his thigh and ripped open the plastic wrapping at the top, then began tossing bottles into the ‘cooler’.

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They thudded into place until his container was empty, then he reached for mine, I handed it over without thinking and he did the same. “Will we really need all that?” I asked. I knew humans needed a lot of water, but this still seemed like a bit much.

“Probably not, but it doesn’t hurt to have extra just in case, and if we see someone who needs some, well we can give up a bottle and lose nothing.” William shrugged off his comment and went to crumple his plastic and cardboard containers down for recycling, seemingly taking his own words for granted.

But the dismay I felt over the human propensity for generosity was still unabated. He hadn’t even run into someone thirsty, but still he acted as if he were ready to share with them. I had to ask myself if they really were a predatory race after all.

While he was clearing the trash, Rebecca had gotten Michael on her hip and was calling upstairs, “Fauve, are you coming with us, or are you going to sleep some more?!”

Fauve’s voice called out, “I’m going to sleep for one more day, you planned on two days, I’ll be fine with missing one of them.”

“Two days?” I asked, my head still cocked, I scratched my ears, “Isn’t that a lot.”

“No,” William answered, “The government program we signed up for for this provides me with the same benefits as parental leave, we get twelve months of paid vacation time to help you acclimate to your new world and let you get used to us and us get used to you.”

“Oh, wow. That’s remarkable.” I answered, but asked, “What about Fauve, she did say she wanted more time, but-?”

William shrugged, “She’s comfortable being by herself, she’s like me. Not to worry, a lot of people need frequent human interaction, but she likes her gadgets and books. To her, a noiseless house is a nice break from routine. She’ll go with us tomorrow, she can order in if she wants, and just relax and heal up the rest of the way.”

Human socialization is remarkable that way, some seemed to need constant human contact, while others, like Fauve, were just comfortable in their own skin, with their own thoughts… I couldn’t help but think at the time, and while we were on our way in the family car, that people like Fauve going out into the wider Universe with more isolated races who weren’t as social, would have a very easy time integrating into those societies. This wide variation in the human temperament and their ability to be unpredictable in what I should expect, would never really stop, not completely. Live among them for a lifetime, and even on their deathbed they can catch you off guard.

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