I Just Want To Be Understood
Chapter 1
As I sit in here my shack contemplating what I hope to say, my three fingered 'claws' are barely managing to grip this writing implement designed for humans only.
It is a struggle in itself but then it is also the perfect accompanying analogy to life here on Earth for me.
Outside, barely an hour after sundown, I can already hear the first stirrings of another unsettled night in the district. There are non humans fighting with each other and the all too human gangs marauding around chasing debts. Prostitutes vie for trade and get into arguments with their pimps.
I have put a sign up outside my shack to warn off any would be sex workers looking for 'inter-species relations'
The humans, actually Nigerian gangs, are mainly engaged in stealing back the rip-off priced cat food THEY had already sold to us. They also enjoy shooting off gunfire in the air with their assault rifles and enjoy murdering non-humans with impunity on the slightest pretext.
Added to all this the pesky MNU patrols, with their helicopter searchlights all through the night and it is truly awful for me!
A true assault on all of my senses!
But this is a typical soundtrack for life here in the district, one which I have had to become accustomed to.
So I am partly completing this document out of a need to record the important events of the last few days (and my role in them) but also to give humans and future historians an idea of what it is really like for us, those branded as 'aliens', 'non-humans' or just simply 'prawns'
Some of us, you see, have what humans like to call 'intelligence'.
This means the ability to think, speak and act for oneself, completely independent of the so called paradigm of 'hive mentality' by which humans (represented by MNU) opt to deal with us.
They are all the same.
Stupid mindless prawn savages.
Kill them all.
I want to try and change this negative stereotype of us.
But why should I, they don't really understand or care anyway do they?
These horrible opinions have meant a great deal of fear being directed towards our kind, in the form of violence and a 'one size fits all' approach to managing us. It is easier to beat down an unruly prawn than try and talk to him, is it not?
That is the rule by which MNU operates anyway.
But just like humans we too have overt and subtle differences, not least in our characters, beliefs and appearances. If you visited the district at any time you would see beings that are different sizes, colours and temperaments!
There are those with hopes and aspirations, like myself, and those with none at all.
Don't misunderstand me though; we can by our very nature be fiercely loyal and protective of one another, often violently.
Would you not protect your home or family if it was under threat?
Would you not draw together as a species if you were in an unfamiliar world, surrounded on all sides by hostility and unwanted by the majority 'host' population?
This is how we have been conditioned for generations, to survive and to prosper against adversity. From harsh mining colonies on distant planets to our own somewhat barren home world, my people know how to exist in difficult climates.
This planet, your Earth, has given us many new challenges and fears.
Never before now have we encountered a native race so hostile and unwelcoming to our kind, nor have we ever been so outnumbered either.
Worse than this though is the terror of knowing we are virtually imprisoned here and at the total mercy of MNU, because we are herded into a hellish slum with all aspects of our life are controlled and monitored.
Like many others, my attempts to procreate have been destroyed, with my eggs being taken away or simply killed. I have thus been unable to raise a youngling, which has left me with an intense hatred of humans and caused me untold distress.
Every single day attempts are made to 'thin out' the non-human population, with outright attacks, 'accidents' and many other unexplained disappearances.
In the last few days (and which I have in part instigated) there has been a massive crackdown in the district after terrorist bombings instigated by my former ship mate David Forbes have paralysed the city with fear.
MNU have flooded the district with personnel and have broken up the resistance groups here.
Humans in general, so I sense, are in an ugly and unforgiving mood. Protests outside the gates, even human incursions into the district itself from surrounding areas, have become the norm. It has never been quite this bad.
For years we have been cooped up inside the district, with MNU security forces constantly present. It would seem foolhardy if not suicidal to try and attack us here.
But MNU have assured me that I am quite safe, given my sterling work of assisting them to capture Forbes. But I am not quite so sure and besides I don't trust MNU or humans one jot!
Like all of the other so called non-humans, I came to Earth on our mother ship when it was swept with sickness and damaged in subsequent power struggles. I had been a scientist's assistant on the vessel prior to then. And I too suffered in the squalid darkness for some time after the ship had shut down, unsure of what was happening to us, even what place we had ended our journey.
I cannot even remember my true name, so long ago had it last been used, but when MNU came they gave me the name 'William Peters' and placed a black and white 'ownership' stamp on the back of my head.
I was an asset to them now, a number...
They 'owned' me and the millions of other non-humans and like most property, would be free to do as they pleased with us.
After the government broke in and 'rescued' us, I was brought down from the ship and briefly placed in quarantine. After a short while they quickly began to realise that we weren't all mindless insects; some of us had instinct, cunning and real feelings…
But I was still studied like a zoo animal, caged with a group of others and observed by men and women in white coats and clip boards.
Titbits of food would be passed through the cage bars from time to time and the drones would always leap on the food, snarling at the rest of us to stay away. I practically starved because I was not a savage and this was noted by the humans. I just sat on the hard floor contemplating my future; it was imprisonment anew to be held here so why didn't they just leave us on the ship?
With my acute sense of hearing I often heard the phrases 'stranded', 'large colony' and 'command module missing' from the humans when questions about us had been asked.
This piqued my interest as I hadn't realised any part of the ship was missing, where could it be I wondered. Surely it held the key to our escaping here?
In time, through this and other interactions, I picked up the 'English' language in a few months and began to instruct my fellow 'prawns' (as we were now apparently to be known) in the Earth language.
This was all despite the obvious reluctance of the humans even to understand our language, despite the lengthy periods of time spent studying us.
When my kind had been 'processed' and declared unlikely to have brought any threatening diseases to this planet, we were released into the care of humanitarian organisations, living at first in a purpose built refugee camp.
Instead of fighting in the food queues like savages or simply resorting to stealing which was commonplace in those early days, I patiently waited in the long lines, day in, day out. I knew better than to fight for my food or steal off those less fortunate than me.
I always clutched with me a battered English language dictionary, which I had found in one of my first forays into salvaging human rubbish. It helped set me apart from the rest, assisting me to understand the human's complex dialects more easily. It seemed as if humans took a special interest in me, giving me extra rations or requesting my mediation in disputes.
MNU then took an interest in me and once again took me away to be 'studied'
Poked, prodded and interrogated with hundreds of random questions, they realised I was 'more dangerous than your average non-human' (their exact words) after this battery of tests was completed.
I would be certified 'intelligent' and of great use to them now. But when they realised I wasn't alone, that around one in every thousand members of my species had a sentience just like me then this scared them.
How is it that a repulsive race of creatures had willpower, feelings, even a brain?
This was the first of many presumptions mankind would make about us and which eventually proved to be hugely mistaken.
But more than all of this, the humans were becoming increasingly interested in our technology and how to exploit it, in particular what they described as our 'advanced' weaponry, which in actual fact was very primitive in our culture. I felt this was because of witnessing early weapon usage to settle disputes throughout the camp.
I suppose to humans what we had brought with us was 'advanced' compared to the ancient tools they used to live by.
But there was a flaw in the use of our technology, because put simply humans couldn't operate it.
They became frustrated at this inability to use even our most basic equipment and so the group of identified 'intelligent' prawns (my self included) were summoned to explain the operating instructions to MNU.
Many refused to and were killed for their resistive stand.
Reflecting back on this, I feel somewhat naïve and consider this my first own betrayal of my species. Believing in our cultural ideals of sharing technology and resources peacefully with other beings, I told them that only our species could operate our technology but if another being could somehow have our DNA.
So then the experiments started...