The Aliens of the Flaming Red Sun/5 He cried because….
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[edit] He cried because….
Blue Grey Tentacles crouched on the hard stone floor of a prison cell sobbing. He didn’t shed tears from his eyes as a human would. None the less anyone who understood Centaurian feelings would know that the young alien was utterly and abjectly miserable. Everyone, even his family on prison visits said it was good his tentacles no longer flashed scarlet. Little Blue Grey Tentacles felt he’d lost part of himself with that and with the name change. He cried because prison psychologists, a Terran innovation, had explained to him how badly he’d behaved and he couldn’t stop feeling ashamed. The Terrans had done him no harm. He simply shouldn't have frightened Terrans and told them so many bad things. He knew he’d let down his family and abused all those powerful computers his wealthy family could afford. He'd let down all his friends as well and he was sure all his friends hated him and no one would ever like him now. He cried because he was sure no decent Centaurian would ever find him sexually attractive again and he certainly wouldn’t want the type who would go with a former prisoner. He cried because petty thieves and criminals shook their tentacles at him and jostled him and told him they were better than he was. Those thieves and petty criminals had never upset a whole planet. He felt so awful about himself and he was sure all those criminals really were better than he was. He hated being with other prisoners and he hated being alone. And little Blue Grey Tentacles cried and cried and cried for a mudbath.
There was a short, two (Terran) day winter when Porrila was furthest away from Proxima Centauri in its orbit. Then the little alien was cold in his prison cell. There was a slightly shorter summer when the planet Porrila was closest to its sun. Then the cell was uncomfortably hot. There was not even the cycle of day and night as on Earth. Porrila kept always the same face to its sun as our moon does to the Earth. Proxima Centauri always stood in almost the same position in the sky. It wobbled just slightly because Porrila moved faster during summer than during winter. That hardly made a difference. The blood red sunlight shining through the one prison window always hit the cell floor at roughly the same spot. The stones were slightly faded there. Then something broke the prison monotony. Sunlight was increasing, the sun was a bit brighter and more yellow, like our sun. For the first time the prison cell was well-lit.
[edit] Flare
Blue Grey Tentacles shuddered and couldn’t enjoy the light. The alien knew from his earliest childhood what it meant. Proxima Centauri was flaring. There was a small cubbyhole he could go to during flares. Otherwise the radiation would kill him. His octopus-like body squeezed into it. A human could not have got in. The alcove wasn’t comfortable but it kept him safe. He could even move about a bit in there. The cubbyhole was designed for adults larger than Blue Grey Tentacles. The alien wriggled about till he could see into the sunlit cell. “Even the sun hates me.” he thought. Blue Grey Tentacles knew Proxima Centauri’s flares affected the whole daylight side of the planet. Still he felt the flare was punishing him personally. “Please don’t hurt me, Great Lord Sun” he shouted aloud. He felt that the shafts of radiation from the sun were trying to strike him like the spray of cold, clean water when they forced him to take a prison bath. And that hurt. It hurt a lot.
[edit] The prisoner knows he is judged
The sun was judging Blue Grey Tentacles as the Centaurian judge had. He remembered clearly the judge saying, “Don’t imagine the short sentence means you’ve got off lightly. You will never finish paying for this crime as long as you live.” That struck terror into the whole of his little alien being. “I will never finish paying as long as I live.” he repeated to himself. An adult would have found that difficult to handle.
The sun was judging him and forcing him to stay in the small cubbyhole. He felt as if the judge was talking to him at that moment. He remembered vividly the judge saying, “We know those Terran limbs are different from ours and can look ridiculous. Despite that Terrans are intelligent and have feelings. You should not have disregarded their feelings.” He remembered how the judge continued, “We know that hairy stuff the Terran have on their heads is clumsy and disorganised. It’s not at all like our nice smooth heads. They like themselves that way and I repeat you should not have disregarded their feelings.” Many in the Court Room lifted up their tentacles on astonishment. Even the prisoner had risked lifting his tentacles a little bit. The judge continued sternly, “The Terrans are used to the way life is on their strange planet. Terrans like themselves the way they are. Who are we to tell them how they should and shouldn’t look?”
Blue Grey Tentacles thought of all the terrible things he had said. He remembered that those transmissions were rushing towards the Solar System at the speed of light. He wished he could stop the transmissions. Older Centaurians told him that could not be done. In three to four years the messages would reach Earth. In about eight years the Centaurians would find out how the Terrans reacted. He would have to live with that for all his life. Yes He would live with it for the whole of his life. And the sun knew he had done wrong too.
Little Blue Grey Tentacles peeped into the main cell which was bright from the flaring sun. He was really scared.
“Can the radiation get me even here? If the sun is really angry can it?” he asked himself. Then he shouted aloud,
“Please don’t judge me, Great Lord Sun. Please don't let the transmissions reach Earth if you can stop them. Oh sun who keeps the light strong and never allows the dark to stay, please forgive me.”
It was a long time before the flare ended.
[edit] External links (Background to the alien evolution)
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