Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Richard again asked, ‘did you speak to them?’

Re was silent…for the first time Richard has seen him

looking remorseful!

He turned towards the native in the orb and used the

universal sign language to get out!

He saw the other vehicles and waved at them and smiled

and gestured them to land.

He saw them slowly coming down and landed. The native

in the ailing vehicle opened the orb with the click and

came out.

The native’s upper body was exactly like human but the

lower limbs were like flippers. But unlike Buddyone, the

tips of flippers folded and he could stand. It was around

five feet tall and Richard recalled a picture he had seen of

a mermaid, as he resembled the mermaid …The skin was

so smooth like a glass and he covered his lower half with a

sarong made of a fine material that refracted light into the

seven rainbow colours!

Richard stretched his hand and the native hesitated for a

fraction of a second and the native put his hand out and

tentatively touched him!

Re understood what Richard was trying to do and he asked

a Rean to bring a glass of an extract that they relish. The

Rean brought eight small vials of the extract they drink

and offered it to the native who was standing and the rest

he took it to the other vehicles that were parked in the

periphery.

Richard was watching the natives to see if they would get

out but to his surprise they did!

He spoke to the nearest native, ‘what is your name?’

The native looked at him little strangely and said, ‘We are

Aatians and it means the first gift and I am Victon Aati’

Richard could easily understand him and again he was

amazed at the telepathic ability of Proxima’s inhabitants!

Every inhabitant understood what he said in seconds and

he could understand them too! Not because he had any

power but they adapted to his lingo!

Richard, ‘Victon, I am Richard and these are my friends

who have come to make this beautiful planet as their

home. You can call all your friends over here… we must

speak!’

Victon called all the other Aatians to come closer. Richard

could see they were similar but showed minor differences

in their structure and facial appearance.

He welcomed them and introduced all the Reans to them.

One of the Aatians asked him, ‘You look different and

obviously you are another species...so how are you going

to stay with them?’

Re replied, ‘Richard is our King our guardian… he would

stay as long as he desires and we listen to him.. In fact we

have already made friends with the native land species…’

Unexpectedly they laughed, and an amused expression

came on to their eyes!

Richard was observing them keenly and he thought these

beings were supremely confident and did not show any

fear or hesitation to meet new beings.

Victon said, ‘But these land beings are only plants and

don’t have much intelligence… What is the use of making

friends with them?’

Ro came forward and looked up at all the Aatians and said

in a clear voice, ‘ if you do not know the uses of plants ,

then I am sure you beings need to learn a lot about land

dwellers!’

The natives were surprised to see this tiny being speakng

so vehemently and one of them crouched down to look at

him and said, ‘Perhaps yes …and we are the water

dwellers and we don’t have much use for these plants. But

we do use their dead wood to make furniture sometimes!’

Richard was amused to see Ro for once was silent. Re

stepped forward, ‘we have come to stay permanently and

there will not be only plants here on land any more’

Richard was anticipating the reply to be negative and the

natives may turn aggressive but to his amazement,

Victon replied, ‘Welcome to Arda and it has eighty

percent water and remaining is the land. We the water

beings are in millions and so many different species are

evolved from Aati the first being on Arda the results of

years of evolution. We do not fear any land dwellers now

or we will not fear in future too!’

‘

We will inform our Cynig who is our final authority

and I am sure you will be invited to our Cynig Stad…’

Richard , ‘ Cynig is your King and Cyni Stad is your

capital ! Am I correct!

Victon smiled at him and said , ‘ yes … you are right. We

will let you know as soon as possible. You are safe here

and I will leave my vehicle here and I will tow it later!’

Re wanted to know, ‘ What do you use for energy to run

the vehicle’

Victon looked surprised, ‘ why we use liquid fuel it is so

abundantly available in the underground ! But bigger

vehicles run on invisible force’

‘We call it electricity’ Richard explained but Victon

shook his head and said , ‘ I understand what you mean

but it is not electricity… we use invisible gas that is

harvested from underground! Ruf needs to go home…’

and he showed the Buddyone that was standing to one side

and listening.

Ruf came closer to him and said , ‘ No, I would spend the

rest of my life here with them please…’

Victon looked at it for some time and shrugged his

shoulder without telling anything!

It was all very thrilling to learn that some aquatic being

were capable manufacturing machines and their

knowledge about fuels!

Re gave them one Link, ‘ This is our gift to your King

Cynig! Go in peace!

Victon climbed on to another Orb along with the original

Aatian who was piloting it and all the orbs flew away in

seconds!

Richard addressed Reans, ‘Hereafter no one should be

aggressive towards another native here and if they threaten

you immediately become invisible but don’t antagonise

them! Let us wait for them to make a move but keep all

your weapons ready!’

It was very clear that the Reans gave importance to

Richard as there was no objection. The usual opinionated

Ge and Ro were nodding their head and that gave others

the confidence.

Re told them to disperse and continue with their work and

they moved away taking among themselves.

Buddyone came closer to Richard, its movement very

awkward as it used its legs and flippers to move!

Richard squatted down so that he could talk to Buddyone!

Buddyone shook its flippers just like a dog looked at him

with such a trust and love that Richard melted

immediately. He petted him and gave him a rub until it

whimpered with pleasure.

,

‘Thank you for not fighting with Aatians… They are in

large numbers and completely rule the water and its

beings.’

‘But why do you fear them?’Richard was puzzled.

‘They have many weapons to hunt other beings and they

have formulated rules to every species community. The

punishment is very severe if anyone breaks the rules!’

Richard was thinking about Earth and on Earth, the

humans never could rule over the other species … But

humans were the last in the process of evolution but here,

the Aatians were the first one to appear and the other

beings came later! Perhaps that was the reason that the

Aatians could rule over all the other beings…

He wanted to know more about them but Buddyone was

sleeping with his head on his feet. He kept the head down

gently and straightened up. He decided that he must find

more about the aquatic beings as soon as possible.

*

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