#25 – Emptiness
When I first met my human friends, I secretly thought of them as a simplistic race. They are anything but simple. Indirect, layered, and confusing are all good adjectives to describe humans. But simple? No.
-From the Earth Journal of Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
Ax
I think if I spent an entire lifetime in the company of humans, we would never run out of surprises for each other.
Marco was shocked when I told him that all Andalites have an instinctual uneasiness about space travel. He could not fathom how such a thing could be so when we had a great starfleet, multiple planetary colonies and outposts, and space stations.
(Your people conquered the sea,) I pointed out. (I have read in my books that the sea was a great, terrifying mystery for much of human history. Your people once thought it full of horrible monstrosities. They believed that if they sailed far enough, they would fall off the end of the world.) I did not add how unbelievably ludicrous such a theory was. (Yet they sailed anyway. They conquered their fears.)
"I guess that's true," Marco conceded. "But space isn't as mysterious as the ocean. I mean, when you look at the grand scheme of things, it's mostly empty. All you have to do to know that is to look up into the sky." He laughed. "There aren't any monsters lurking below the surface in space."
I tried not to let Marco make me angry, something I am getting better at. (That is a very interesting thing to say, given the creatures on your planet at this very moment. And where did these creatures come from, I wonder? Not from your oceans, Marco; they came from space.)
Instead of agreeing with me like a logical person would, Marco pushed his argument from a different angle. "Okay, fine. There are scary things in space – I get it. There are scary things in the oceans, too. If you think a twenty-five foot shark or an eighty foot long squid aren't scary, I'll crap in my shoe and eat it."
I didn't argue that point, although it would have been amusing to watch Marco defecate into his foot covering and then ingest it.
"But to be scared of space itself? I don't get it. It can suffocate and kill you…but so can water. But there's nothing unpredictable or malicious about it."
(We are not afraid of it,) I said, feeling my temper rise and not able to help it. (I said it makes us uneasy. We like grass under our hooves and atmosphere above our heads, because that is natural to us.)
"Being uneasy about space is the same thing as being uneasy about what's in that box," he pointed to the empty cardboard container my latest books had been carried in.
(There is nothing in that box, Marco,) I said, on the verge of exasperation.
"I know," he said smugly. "It's just emptiness. The same as space."
Tobias had been listening to our "discussion" from a low branch just outside of the scoop. Now he chimed in. (Well, Ax must be terrified of the space between your ears, Marco. That's a hard vacuum, too.)
I waited until Marco was out of thought speech range. I do not want him to know I possess a sense of humor similar to a human's. But as soon as he was out of range, I burst out laughing. Tobias joined me. (Don't listen to him, Ax-man. He's just trying to pick a fight because he's bored.)
(Oh, but did you see the look on his face?) I asked gleefully. I was well-versed in human facial expressions by this point, and I know the "blush" was a form of extreme embarrassment. (He did not like your comment at all!)
(He had it coming,) Tobias said smugly. I agreed.
As annoying as Marco can be, I was very glad he'd been forced to move out into the woods with Tobias and I.
He often provided entertainment, if nothing else.
A/N – A sincere thank you to Sweetbriar, Kim, Chiro, all the principles of heroism, and Salad Shooter for the reviews. Much appreciated, and the main reason I'm still writing this one. …still a lot of folks out there not bothering to let me know what they think…really wish you guys would. This isn't a gripe session, though; just wanted to thank everyone who is reviewing, especially the five I mentioned . =D