Challenge #02605-G048: Atomic Element Number Six
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n0wvDwSnzcw
Can you Please write a Humans-Are-Space-Orcs Story about Humans commonly wasting Resources (like in the Video) on the Production of Things, Goods… that Aliens can do cheap/better/with less effort? (Like Coalpower/Atomicenergy…)
Thanks in Advance – Mike
Deathworlders live in harsh conditions that should eliminate most life. This is known. Therefore, one might expect that Deathworlders would be frugal with their resource expenditure. One would be wrong. Most of them evolve with short lives and reproductive cycles in the earlier stages of their lifespans, and therefore don’t think much further than what they have now and what they can get tomorrow.
It is called Stopthink. When something is beyond a Deathworlder’s comprehension, they stop thinking about it. How big is that ocean? Infinite. Stop thinking. How far away is the sun? It’s in the sky. Stop thinking. Stopthink is useful in the earlier stages of evolution, where staring at clouds and wondering how they move gets one into the mouth of the nearest hungry predator. However, when civilisation occurs, Stopthink is hazardous. Humans are the worst at doing it. Or the best, since they’ve had so much practice. It all depends on perspective.
How much pollution can the air hold? The smoke seems to go away just fine. Stop thinking. How much toxicity can the ocean hold? It goes on forever, so it can hold infinity. Stop thinking. How much drinkable water can there be? It will always rain tomorrow. Stop thinking. We don’t need this, throw it away, it is now gone. Stop thinking. This sort of behaviour is responsible for more extinction events on Deathworlds than the Deathworlds themselves.
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Challenge #02604-G047: Worth the Ordeal
“Wow, you really did it!”
“I said I would, didn’t I?”
“Well, yes…”
“Then why are you so surprised?”
“Oh, I figured something of a higher priority would come along and you’d do that, then you’d be busy and forget about it, so I just assumed it wouldn’t happen for, like, three or four months so I wouldn’t give you a reason to be mad at me for being frustrated that you didn’t do it when you said you would!” – Anon Guest
The human twisted their rubbery face around and scratched at themself. “So… you were getting pre-emptively mad because you were expecting me to fail?”
“No, that’s not quite what I was aiming for, I mean…” Grex flailed around as if trying to swat the correct words out of the air. “You have said yourself that you are easily distracted. As -er- the kitten under a disc-go ball?”
“Near enough. Yeah,” Human Tin agreed. “I did say that. And I am. But… this is you asking,” they said, as if that explained everything when it clearly did not.
“I have asked you to do things before that you forgot, or thought you did but didn’t. Or otherwise became distracted from performing. I do not understand the difference here and now.”
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Challenge #02603-G046: Also Ferocious
Hey InterNutter, I’m so glad I found your new site. Remember me from way back when, on your X-Men Evolution focused Nutboard? I saw your post on the hummingbird station, with all kinds of aliens enjoying the “harmless” hummingbirds.
Hummingbirds can also be aggressive to the point of taking on eagles, will sometimes fight each other to the death, and were even the basis for the Aztec god of war. What happens when the aliens learn or discover (the hard way) some or all of these things?
Here is your original post: https://steemit.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02507-f317-the-jewels-of-the-tour
And two articles that focus on hummingbirds’ dark side: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hummingbirds-are-beautiful-but-their-personalities-are-for-the-birds/2015/09/21/0280e5b4-5afb-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html
Addendum by OP: I thought I’d clean up the above prompt a bit…
Bejewel station was known for it’s beautiful, delicate, impossible hummingbirds. Many of the visiting havenworlders took them as living proof that those with a delicate constitution could survive living on a deathworld. Until some “clever” being had the brilliant idea of reducing the number of nectar feeders so that there were areas of more concentrated viewing. Until a few other “clever” beings had ideas to further concentrate the areas of hummingbird viewing. The special livesuits that included attached nectar feeders were particularly popular. Until the first of a series of incidents.
After the incidents began, the biologists discovered records of hummingbirds harassing eagles 1000 times their size. All havenworlder biologists agreed that the records of hummingbird territoriality around limited nectar sources was extremely understated.
…and the poor fools that were trying to escape the angry hummingbirds discovered they could dive at 45 miles per hour, turn on a second, and that they were willing to use their beaks as spears. – Neemers
They are small. They are delicate. They are brightly coloured. They are creatures that eat nectar. All these things would make you think that they are harmless, but… they are still Deathworlders. The people of Bejewel station chose them as pollinators because they wouldn’t get stuck in the air filters. Visitors must also remember that Terran bees, which are also venomous Deathworlders, are what hummingbirds more or less imitate.
The recent administration change refused to do their homework. They knew that the tourist dollar was the biggest earner for Bejewel Station, so the implemented a policy of installing hummingbird feeders only where the tourists could see them. After all, it took money and effort to maintain the parks when tourists were wandering around wherever they whist. This was cheaper, more efficient, and kept visitors to the paths.
The new administration also refused to listen to anyone familiar with the profitable avians in favour of catering exclusively to the tourists. They would learn their mistakes in full in less than a Standard week. It took that long for the birds to adapt fully to the new locations and, realising that resources were close together and limited, to begin territorial behaviour. Which included dive-bombing said tourists at speeds slightly in excess of twenty sidu per second. Still avaricious and hoping to minimise costs, the new administration began the complicated process of fixing the wrong thing[1].
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Challenge #02602-G045: The Motivation Solution
What are you doing?
No, don’t jump down here!
WHERE ARE YOUR PANTS??? – Anon Guest
Here’s the thing with having Humans on your ship. Sometimes they are young Humans and don’t always know the rules of proper behaviour. It is difficult to know which Humans are capable and which are… less… capable until such time as they reveal their limits. Humans are a relatively unknown species and those taking the risks of their company on the Edge are more or less on their own. This is merely a compilation of what we have learned…
Humans like a challenge… The new ships’ Humans were about the same size as the average Thoqnath, at least at the port where they signed on as security guards. They had amenably compatible omnivorous diets. And they apparently had an arboreal ancestry, since they loved to climb… everywhere.
Their limbs were too long and their feet the wrong shape for Thoqnath hop-rungs, so they used literally everything else, including the sides of the maintenance tubes, to get up or down between decks. They also made use of air vent passages or just took their joy from getting somewhere awkward to be.
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Challenge #02601-G044: Memento Quod Sis Mortalis
There are old sayings of humans: “The value of a man is what he does with power.” And “Power is like a beast; either you tame it or become its food.” – Anon Guest.
There is a third: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. All are true simultaneously. Be wary of any Human leader who uses power like a flyswatter, but also of those who dispense their power with tweezers. There is a fourth: It is not how strong you are, but where and how you use that strength that matters.
In some cases, it would have been wise for leaders to know and understand every single one of these sayings. Money is power. Time is money. Imagine if power could be converted into actual hours and minutes of a lifespan. There would be no stopping the wrong kind of leader. Thankfully, the conversion is one way. Time is money. Money is power. There is no way to buy extra time, no matter how hard you try to cheat.
Presented for your approval… the wrong kind of leader… Past or present, it doesn’t really matter. There are many, even in the future. Pick an era that suits you. The leader has, through assorted foul deeds, taken his position on an exalted seat. In a prized palace. Wearing the pinnacle of raiments as befit a head of… a city, a state, a nation, a world… take your pick. The blood on his hands is only visible to those who can see souls. The corruption of his heart is no longer visible, since he has arranged for the deaths of all his detractors. He has made it illegal for anyone else to strive for his position. His word is law. His reign is absolute. Nobody can come close enough to harm him and, thanks to a supremacy of weaponry, nobody dare try. Nevertheless…
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