Historical Account of Ilfeq, Crewman of the Xlnfrag

Grenouille had invited me to his cabin so that we could eat together. A ritual amongst the humans that has existed so long, it is older than their very civilization. It is supposed to strengthen friendly bonds between individuals. He promised to prepare food that I would find to my liking, which was very considerate: As I was well aware, the humans find most of the things we consume repulsive. They insist on meals that consist at least partly of natural components (ideally, of course, they would like a meal to be completely natural, no synthetic components at all), and they eat it either raw or disinfected in one of several ways: Dumping the food in boiling water, for example, or preparing it directly above a fire. They seem to like it, and I suppose that's all that really matters since they get their nutrients just fine.

Grenouille had told me that there would be two or three other humans present to whom he would like to introduce me. He said he was sure I would like them, and I was inclined to believe him. I enjoyed the company of the human with the dark flesh. Given that the similarity between our colours can only go so far as a bonding mechanism, I knew that I also liked him as a person. Thus, it would be logical to conclude that I would also like the people he liked.

As I walked through the human area, I was met with quite a few stares by the Germans, bared teeth by the Americans and, eventually, disregard by the French. Grenouille had assured me that these gestures and attitudes had no meaning, that they were simply how these people acted around other people, even their own. No one means any harm, and no one means any good, he had told me. It's just what they do, but really, no one cares about anyone either way if they aren't personally affiliated with them. I didn't understand why these three nations had developed such vastly different behaviours, nor what the point of any of them was, but since no one attacked me, and no one talked to me, I figured it wasn't all that important.

The humans had, almost all of them, used some method or another to obstruct vision into their cabins. We had not known that this was a necessity for them, or else we would have taken care of it, but they seemed to get along quite well even if they had to rely on sheets and towels. I saw one that had taken the legs off of a table and used the plate as an obstacle. Since the human need for privacy was not only of an optical nature but also required seclusion form sounds, that was probably more efficient than the others. I think I wondered whether it had been the human's own table, or if they had stolen it from another Terran. Even if I didn't ask myself this back then, I certainly have been doing so since. You must know, the Terrans took their own personal property very serious, but often had little to no regard for that of others.

I arrived at Grenouille's cabin punctually. He had used flags to close the entrance: I didn't know what countries they represented, but there were about sixty of them (I counted them later on), each too thin to be of any use for the obstruction of sound, but together they functioned just fine.

I entered, and was met with the stares of three humans: The one at the right side of the table was unknown to me. He was a young man, with white hair, longer than the human warriors usually had.. On the left, there was Grenouille, who immediately bared his teeth at me in their ritual of kindness. Now that I knew what it meant, and had spent enough time with him and other humans to get used to it, it had the intended effect of calming me down. That was good, because in the middle, sitting so he directly faced the entrance, was the human that had spoken Qar on the first day. He stared at me without any emotions. No anger, no happiness, nothing. Just... a stare. It was very unsettling, as if he acknowledged my presence, but not my status as a life form. Then he, too, bared his teeth.

"You must be Ilfeq", he said in Qar. "The prophets in the sky have seen this day, and they have blessed it."

I had expected something along these lines as soon as I had recognized him. I still had no idea how he learned our language, but I honestly couldn't, and still can not, imagine how someone would go about learning a language without picking up a few things about the culture as well. "It must have been what made them smile, to see us meet as friends", I finished the ritual. It was old, obviously outdated – a civilization that has proceeded far enough has no need for rituals – but I appreciated the thought he had put into it. Of course, my words were translated into English by the device hanging around my neck, so Grenouille and the young male had at least a little bit of insight into our short conversation. "You are Daniel Sylber", I said. "I have heard about you. Grenouille has spoken of your deeds in the British War. It is an honour to stand with a Warrior of your reputation."

The smile vanished from Sylber's face so abruptly, I thought that I must have insulted him. "Yeah." he said, "I suppose it would be." He spoke in French now. During my time with Grenouille I had learned to distinguish between English and French, even though I didn't understand either without my translator. I remember wondering what I did wrong. Was it not the highest goal of any Warrior, after serving his people, to be known to all as strong and victorious? You have to understand that humans, in spite of everything the late Thinker Chx believed and spoke about so vehemently, do not have a genetic system as we do. Their species is not evolved enough to allow for a culture, for a civilization, strictly speaking: They are still too close to their primitive ancestors. Thus, their fighters, their Warriors, may still have flaws: They can be cruel, merciless murderers, no better than butchers, as we can all attest, or they can be full of kindness, only fighting out of necessity and regretting every life they take.

Grenouille was neither, as far as I know. He just fought because it paid well, and because he was good at it, and he had no patience for people who mourned the things that couldn't be changed: "Oh, come on, Daniel. At some point or another you'll have to stop clinging to the past. No one here judges you: I've killed people, Ilfeq has killed people, Nicolas here, well, hasn't killed people, but you don't sign up for the Foreign Legion if you don't plan on taking a life or two". He laughed, and Nicolas joined in. Sylber didn't. "Oh by the way", Grenouille said, remembering something, "This is Nicolas. He is training to be a sniper. They allowed him to keep his hair this long for" he grinned "cultural reasons".

Both the young man and Captain Sylber started grinning as well. I think that something funny had been said, but I didn't know what. Maybe the culture of the man called Nicolas was amusing. A lot of jokes in its legends, perhaps. Or maybe it just had an odd name. How could I know? Humans have even more cultures than they have languages, and they have thousands of those. The Thinkers believed that this was not because they were primitive, but because they were young: We, as well as the Sherim and Tarifel and, as far as I am aware, also the other Sapients, have had many languages and cultures when our civilizations were so very young. But it is the way of nature that languages fade away, cultures die and religions perish, until there is only one of each left. Even now, and even then, words from the Sherim language make their way into Qar, and vice versa. Of course, it took longer than when we were but one species, since not every word can be pronounced by every race. But humans, they didn't see the logic in it. They didn't see that a common language, a common culture, would make infighting less likely, thus ensuring longer periods of peace than otherwise possible. They clung, and still do cling, to their differences. Every last one of their cultures thought they were special. Every last one of their subtypes thought that somehow, they were flawless while all the others were flawed in some manner. Well, rather it was a common theme. Not all individual humans thought themselves superior. The Thinker Asilish, who accompanied us on the mission, wrote about this a lot. His work lives on, so if you are interested, you can read it.

My apologies. I got sidetracked.

Grenouille waved at me. "Come on, Ilfeq, sit down. We've got food for you, and water." Another one of their oddities, I thought as I sat down. Sitting. Chairs. This one, however, does not seem to be related to their early evolutionary stage, but rather to their being mammals. An inner skeleton never quite develops the capability to actually stand or walk upright. Even for the Sherim and the Tarifel, two species of mammals who are at the peak of their evolutionary cycles, it is not possible over a longer period of time. Standing for a long time can even be used to torture a human. I am not ashamed of being able to say that I can attest to that first hand.

"Tell me, Ilfeq", Sylber said as soon as I was seated, "What do you think why we can't go faster than two and a half percent in hyperspace?"

"Oh, come on! Daniel! Leave the man alone. I thought we agreed that this was going to be about personal stuff and cultures, not the topics he's definitely been ordered not to talk about", came from Grenouille before I could even open my mouth to answer.

"It is personal. I really want to know. That makes it personal."

They bantered on for a while. It seemed to be tremendously important to both of them to leave this meaningless exchange victoriously. I don't remember the entire conversation, or rather I don't remember what words and phrases they used, but they seemed to make a lot of jokes. Apparently, the earnest effort to win a discussion did not mean that a human actually had to take it serious. A few minutes in, however, I had the thought that maybe, the entire reason they could make jokes was because they were friends. It took me a lot longer than I can take pride in to realize that they didn't actually take the exchange seriously. I think Grenouille won, in the end, but it didn't seem to matter:

"Either way", Sylber said, "What is your theory? Why the speed limit?"

I was, of course, under orders not to tell the humans about the functionality of the hyperspace drive. So I thought for a few moments if I could tell them without disobeying the Leaders. I figured that I could tell them what I knew about this specific problem though, partly because I didn't know anything but rumours, partly because, in order to get to the source of these rumours, the humans would need the ability to go through hyperspace themselves. "I do not know for sure.", I said. "But if you are willing to listen to the rumours I heard, I will gladly tell you." They were quite willing, actually. Humans love a good story, occasionally more so than the truth. "My people do not know. The Sherim and Tarifel do not know. The three Sapients of the Alliance do not know. Everyone of them and us just listens to the rumours. And the rumours say that the First Beings know."

"Who are the First Beings?" asked Grenouille. "Are they like space gods? Kind of a lame name for your deities, if you ask me." and then, hurriedly, "meaning no offence to your space gods."

"They are not space gods", Sylber answered in my stead. "They are one of the Eight Sapients."

"Yes." I said "The First Beings are old. Older than any of us. They say that civilizations rise and fall in the time it takes for a First Being to even reach adolescence. You humans, you live for a century of your world if you are lucky. My species can live for thousands of years or die at three hundred. The First Beings, it is said, do not die unless they are killed. They do not have a home world, because they are older than planets. They used to live on asteroids, and now, they live on spaceships. They were the first to discover both subspace and hyperspace. But they no longer go to hyperspace. It is said that they used to be able to go at half the speed of light there. Until one day, it just wasn't possible any more. Now they cruise the universe on their ships below the speed of light. Their empire has taken a quarter of the galaxy for them already."

"That's a stupid explanation, until one day they just couldn't. Weak.", said Nicolas.

"You know that hyperspace is filled with the lights?"

The three of them nodded. It had been one of the first thing many humans on board did, to just go to the observation deck and stare into hyperspace's absolute darkness, only occasionally illuminated by the strange, distant sources of light that hovered in it. Strange, because we did not know what they were. Distant, because anyone who ever looked at them decided that they would rather not find out. "According to a story a Thinker once told me, a ship of the First Beings hit one of the lights. And then, half their species was eradicated." They stared at me in shock.

"How?", Grenouille asked. The translator, of course, didn't bring over the emotional component of that word, but he had said it very silently, barely audible to the machine, so I assume he was somewhat scared.

"We do not know. Occasionally, however, we find some of their relics on the worlds we colonize, and there are abandoned Jump Cannons just floating in space." I did not tell them that one of these Jump Cannons had simply drifted into our native star system, which is how we learned of the fluids we use for our sublight drive.

"First Beings is a terrible name for a species.", said Nicolas.

"Any suggestions? I'm sure we can get anything through with the higher-ups that doesn't include obscenities.", said Grenouille.

"I have one", answered Sylber. He started smiling again. "Furisto" he said. "The first one in old German. Later became Fürst, our word for Prince. The kind that doesn't become a king when their parents die."

"Well, I'd say that's better than First Beings. Did that do anything to answer your question, Daniel?"

"Not as much as I had hoped for, but more than I expected. Thank you, Ilfeq." he turned his head from Grenouille to me, smiling. Then, he laughed. "Oh, goodness, Jean Baptiste, where are our manners?"

"What?"

"The food, man. The food!"

There was a fascinating moment in time when the dark flesh of Grenouille's face became a shade or two lighter. The effect comes from blood draining away from their heads a bit. I had seen it with some of the more pale humans before, and knew it was an indicator of shock or something similar, but never with one of the dark ones. Seemed a bit odd to me, to be honest, that their brains would deprive themselves of the source of their oxygen when they needed to work the most, but maybe there is a sense behind it that the Thinkers specialised in human biology would know about. Either way, it looked unnatural when it happened to Grenouille, at least to me. But it didn't last long.

"Oh God, of course!" He typed something into his interface. ArmyCom, they called it. "Should be here in a few minutes.", he said. Sylber laughed.

"When you arrived, Warrior Ilfeq", said Nicolas, "the two of them were just talking about Grenouilles heroics during the British War". The translation implied that he said it with sarcasm, but was only about thirty percent sure. He hesitated. I think he wasn't sure whether I would consider what he was about to ask acceptable in terms of politeness, but he overcame his doubt after a few moments and asked: "Have you been in any great battles?"

I thought about that for a little while. Then I asked "What would you consider a great battle? I have been in battles, yes. But in the time I have lived, which is three hundred and seven years of the Item'qar, there has never been a war that my people have participated in. I defended three planets, two of them successfully, until our colonists came to mark them as their own. I attempted to conquer another four planets for the Confederacy, but I have to admit that only one of those undertakings succeeded. They are not the battles between two armies. It was some three thousand Warriors each time on our side, with two to six thousand Tarifel as our enemy. Would any of those qualify as a great battle?"

"It was a stupid question", answered Grenouille, but even though the young human with the white hair showed signs of shame, his superior warrior seemed in a good mood. "A battle is great because of what's at stake. Because of who fights in it, and who dies in it. And, of course, because of who kills in it." Sylber's eyes rolled in their sockets once. I remember thinking that maybe he had an aneurysm, but since Grenouille laughed at it, I assumed it had some sort of implied meaning.

"Take Daniel here, for example", he said, pointing at the man in question. "Daniel fought in the British War, just like I did. We met in London, two days after it fell. But unlike me, he was in Cardiff, too. And that's why he will always be more famous than I am. Because Daniel was in Cardiff, and so was the Hyena."

"Don't", said Daniel. "Jean Baptiste, stop it. It's a stupid story, nothing more"

"What is a hyena?", I asked.

"It's an animal. Carnivorous. Supposedly only eats carrion, but that's a myth, they hunt as well."

"There was such an animal in the battle?"

"No no", made Grenouille while shaking his hand as if to shy away some pesky fly "The hyena, you see, it makes a sound that is a bit like human laughter. No idea if that's true, but the point is, there was a human in Cardiff, a Welsh soldier, or maybe a one from the WEA, that laughed while he fought. A lot. And it was so high-pitched that those who heard it thought it was like that of a hyena"

"Like, two people thought that", interrupted Sylber. "Everyone else thought it just sounded like high-pitched human laughter. They made that whole nonsense up because they thought it would be more dramatic. For crying out loud, Jean Baptiste, stop glorifying that guy."

Nicolas leaned forward a bit. He spoke in a hushed voice, which struck me as rather odd, considering we were the only ones around to hear what he was saying. "I heard that the Hyena got angry at his own comrades at some point, because he felt that they were keeping him back, so he killed them. That's why no one can identify him. And then he ran out of ammo some time later, and from that moment on, he just started killing enemy soldiers with his bare hands. Brutally. About two hundred people, give or take."

"Bullshit", said Daniel. "Unlike either of you and, by the way, also unlike the majority of people who tell these stories, I actually was in Cardiff. There was no one there, running around without ammo, who still took out two hundred soldiers, believe me."

Nicolas ignored him. Humans love a good story more than the truth, and they will often do their best to keep the lie alive even though they do not personally benefit from it. "The Hyena was in London, too, and Grenouille heard him there. But London was where it was the second time, so it's not as famous. He didn't kill that many people there. Only a hundred and twenty, I heard"

"Don't be ridiculous, Nicolas" Daniel seemed irritated. At the time, I still had a few problems recognizing human mimics, but I was certain of it. "The Hyena may exist, but I guarantee you, he didn't waltz through the Battle of London killing over a hundred people with his bare hands"

Grenouille, reading the rising tension, brought the