The End Of The Voyager

The End Of The Voyager

         “Y’know Yong, I just don’t get this thing we found. It looked like it was a shiny color at one time, but now it’s dull as can be.”

         “I hear you Dinfut. It’s very quiet too. Unlike everything in our world, it makes no sound.”

         Dinfut and Yong were beings from the planet Aineat. They worked in the empty area that surrounded their world. They were assigned to find anything they could and hand it to their leaders. But this ‘quiet’ thing was too unusual to hand over without them investigating it first.

         “Maybe it does make sounds, we just can’t hear them. I wonder if Dr. Yearly’s sound machine can find it emitting something? Yong was always the one to think out of the box. Working as they did so far from their planet gave her plenty of time to read up on things most Aineat’s wouldn’t think of. It was after reading of Dr. Ramakit’s article on the vastness that surrounded Aineat that caused her to start a new career. It was there that she met Dinfut, another Aineat who wanted a new start on life.

         “Let’s take this home to Aineat then! On the way we can see what we can learn about it, then give it to our leaders.”

         “Won’t that get us in trouble? This thing is already in the craft’s log. We’re supposed to inform Lord Draughfit of anything unusual immediately after all.”

         “Who’s to say this is unusual? Just because I think it is doesn’t make it so.”

         “Ummm, if you think so. It can’t be all that bad.”

         On the three terseg journey back home Yong and Dinfut carefully looked at that thing they found. There was a round disc, now badly eroded that had a few imagas on it that seemed to be mounted on the side of this object. Almost all made no sense to them. They were unsure what to do with it, and would have discarded it, except their law required them to send everything found to their Lord Draughfit. What mystified them most, was the incredibly low velocity this thing traveled at. It was moving so slow and was so small that their scanning machines almost missed it. By the time they reached home they had learned close to nothing about it.

         Their arrival on Aineat was nothing like they had expected. As soon as they gave the small object to Lord Draughfit, he had them put in shackles. This upset them so much that their tentacles almost fell off! Lord Draughfit’s reason for doing this was that they didn’t report it immediately as required. True, it was small, too small to consider important. The images on the object implied some kind of alien intelligence though. The Aineateans were a peaceful race unless threatened. Unknown aliens were treated viscously though, until the Aineateans were sure they posed no threat to them. Sometimes entire alien races had almost been eliminated before it was found they posed no threat to the Aineat’s.

         The next few days were ones of trepidation for Yong and Dinfut. They couldn’t help but hear the news about their discovery. Lord Draughfit announced that Yong and Dinfut had discovered evidence of a superior race. This race was miniature in size compared to the Aineat’s, but posed a severe risk. In fact, it was felt that this object had already sent news of its discovery back to its home star. Perhaps those beings were already approaching Aineat! Peaceful they were, but vicious they could be.

         Yong and Dinfut appeared before a tribunal. It was there that violations of the code were announced by the leader of the tribunal, Lord Leiful.

         “Yong and Dinfut have brought alien beings to Aineat in a small foreign object. These beings possess a superior intelligence to we Aineateans The tiny images on the side of this object reveal they are violent, and want one thing. Complete control of everything they find. This means they intend to conquer us as soon as possible The object must be destroyed! What say Yong and Dinfut to these statements?”

         Yong spoke first. “If I may, I am speaking for both Dinfut and mydself. You are wrong in your statements, we are being falsely accused of these charges. It’s outlandish to think that the images depict violent beings. Have the images been investigated to see what they really say? I think not, that’s why I say we are being falsely accused.”

         Lord Leiful replied, “Aineateans, you’ve heard me, and you’ve heard their pitiful response. You know what do to now. Let us know how you feel about this.”

         The Aineateans responded using the readers strapped to their #1 tentacle. The response was 100% with the tribunal in their accusations against the two. The two were to be placed in unsalted water, where they would dissolve. As for the object? Being too small for normal disposal, Lord Leiful swallowed it before anything else could be said. His body dissolved it into a small, bright lump.

         Such was the fate, and end, of the Voyager Spacecraft, and the beings that discovered it, Yong and Dinfut.

Jim Dorrell
2/29/24

867 words