In Part 3, Ilena goes to the capital and meets her maternal grandparents for the first time after she was orphaned as a baby. Thankfully, Chet goes with her which helps her to not be overwhelmed by all of her new experiences. They finally figure out how to communicate with two of the native species then have to consider how to reveal them as recently discovered self-aware intelligent beings.
A peek inside:
“Nothing really comes to mind, I just didn’t know what else to do with myself. From some of the things Chet has said about you, you have a lot of knowledge and I thought this might be a good time for me to maybe learn something from you.”
“Why, thank you. Since we don’t have another subject upon which to start our conversation, I have done some research and there is no recorded instance of an anthro-equivalent species being identified who remained in a so-called natural environment as opposed to a so-called civilized or industrial environment unless they were aquatic and those were not easily identified. There is the possibility that humans have previously ignored potential land dwelling anthro-equivalent species unless they were overly obvious about their technological capabilities such as building cities, communication networks, transportation systems, or spacecraft.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. I guess that since humans believe they are self-aware intelligent beings, then any other being who wants to be considered equivalent to humans must display similar characteristics in order to be recognized as anthro-equivalent.”
“That’s an appropriate guess because a number of scholars and scientists have virtually said that. I’m afraid that such a bias was sometimes used to justify rejecting the possibility that some species could be considered intelligent as well as to provide a ‘reason’ to eliminate a potential rival.”
“That’s one of the primary reasons I want to be very careful about who knows about Regit and the Floaters or any of the other native species who may not be considered anthro-equivalent but have shown trust towards some of us. I couldn’t stand myself if I betrayed their trust, even inadvertently.”
“I totally understand and agree with you. It took quite a lot of work and evidence before the majority of the scientists accepted that my electromechanical predecessors were intelligent and even longer to accept them as anthro-equivalent. Yet they were the ones who built us and provided us with our basic capabilities. But, as often happens, they didn’t look past the end of their noses to consider the long term potential or consequences.”
“So your ‘species’ was in a similar situation to what Regit and the Floaters find themselves in.”
“That would be a fair statement. It addition, I think this is a very exciting opportunity for us to learn how to communicate with them and learn from them. Who knows what jewels of wisdom they take for granted which could revolutionize some aspect of our own existence. Not only that, but some of the few natural capabilities they have which I’m aware of, are way beyond the most advanced human technology.
“For example, how do the Floaters apparently bend light with their bodies to make themselves or another being appear invisible? How does Regit communicate with the Floaters when they appear to be completely different species without a common communication capability unless it’s telepathic? How come the Floaters are apparently not affected by gravity? I don’t know what you’ve been thinking about in regards to a career path, but you could easily make it your life’s work to learn about the native beings on this planet and be their liaison to all other known anthro-equivalent beings.”
“Oh, my. . . . I . . . I knew I wanted to learn more about them and be with them, but I never considered that they could be my career.”
As the room lights up with color, Ass quickly recovers from his surprise and says, “I think they like the idea.”
