Oglala's Mission

A story, for my sister…

In the far, deep, outer reaches of space there lived a quirky little creature by the name of Oglala. Little did he know that his name was actually that of a type of Native American Dakota Indian on a small and rather insignificant little blue planet called Earth!

Oglala was a space farer. He didn’t have much choice really, having been born in the depths of space much like Great A’Tuin the turtle, of Discworld fame. But unlike Great A’Tuin, he was not a turtle, and he didn’t carry four huge elephants on his back which in turn support a disc called Discworld (see Terry Pratchett for more…). He was, in fact, well he was something, anyway, with big bat-like ears and supersonic hearing, the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, x-ray vision… (no, wait, that’s a mixture of a few other guys – sorry.)

Oglala was just like any thing else in his “species”. Not quite Moya from Farscape or Tinman from ST:TNG, but a space traveller nevertheless. And he had blue eyes. ALL of them! Well, except for the green one near what equates to a nose for him, but his mother asked us never to talk about that one – apparently it’s something of a family embarrassment!

Now to get to the heart of the story – if there is one, that is. Or maybe I should start at the beginning? Or the end?

How did I come across this strange space traveller? You COULD say he came to me in a dream. You’d be wrong of course, but it’s your prerogative to say it, I guess…
No, I met him one rainy day in a coffee shop, of all places. Where that place was, I can’t rightly (or wrongly) remember now – it could have been Earth, but then it could have been the third star of Alpha Centauri! (Or it may have even been in the Delta Quadrant…)

I DO remember, however, that he ordered a double strong Vulcan Mocha with a pink marshmallow, and a piece of New York Cheesecake, from the planet Olympus in the Nepta System. I, of course, had my usual – a mugachino and a turkey and cranberry sauce (with lettuce) croissant. We talked about the weather (as you do), our mothers (which is always a touchy subject, whatever the species), the recent terrorist attacks in the United States (strange that – he kept asking me where the United States were, and why they were united…). In general, the usual stuff any strangers talk about over coffee.

Then he passed me a data padd and left. It was a nice little data padd. Pretty to look at – very Trekkie and all that, but not much good, as it was really only a nicely moulded piece of plastic with an Okudagram in the front!

And so I went in search of him, to find out what he really wanted. My travels took me to strange and far away places that had REALLY beautiful waterfalls and mountain paths to climb, and very odd (and some suspiciously familiar-looking) wildlife. Eventually I found him, in the deep chasms of a very musty, dank, dark, and mysterious-looking dungeon-type place that turned out to be a little-frequented second hand bookstore in down-town Elizabeth Street, Brisbane.

I asked him what he wanted over a rare and much out of print copy of an original manuscript by some unknown author from ancient Greece, by the name of Socrates. He said he was interested in learning the answer to the meaning of life. So I asked him the question everyone asks when finding themselves in this kind of situation – “whose life?”.

This is when he told me to shut up, and handed me a piece of much-folded paper, and again, up and left.

I unfolded the much-folded piece of paper and read what was written there:

To anyone who reads this much-folded piece of paper,
Greetings.
My name is Oglala, and I am a space farer, mainly because I was born in space.
I am searching for many things, but specifically:
The Answer To The Meaning Of Life.
Not anyone’s life in particular,
just life in general.
(is that clear enough for you, HUMAAN!!??)

Was he Ferengi? I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. Maybe he just watched too many re-runs of ST:DS9 or ST:TNG.

I never did see him again, nor did I ever answer his question, but for those who are interested, according to Douglas Adams, the answer is 42!