@VisualInspiration

I’m not sure if the translator box was blaring so indistinctly because of the strange noises coming out of the Phocid’s throat or because my mission was (as always) underfunded and I had been equipped (as always) with second-class hardware. Nevertheless, I imagined the seal-like dweller of Epsilon Eridani II 3c sounding friendly.

- We are honored to have visitors from so far away… how far, did you say?

- Several light-years, I replied.

- From another world then? That did not happen before!

The Phocids have a quite high stage of development with a blind spot concerning chemistry. They invented combustion, elecricity, concrete buildings, simple computing machines, and radio waves – but no food chemicals, artificial preservatives, or synthetic fibres.

- We prefer natural resource. We take everything we can from nature, if possible.

He pointed at his overall.

- This, for example, is solely made out of sillut-skin.

I may have looked puzzled for he explained:

- Furless animals everywhere to be found on our, um, planet, as you call it. They pretty much look like… well, like you. They often live near our settlements and apparently expect that some of them are more or less regularly… taken out, you know…

- To be hunted? Shot?

- No. We slay them to preserve their skin.

- Don’t they feel pain then?

- To be honest, this is nothing we care about. They’re just animals. But we’re no savages. When their bones are broken and they cannot run away any more, they die within not more than, say, two days. And we use most of their bodies, not just their skin. The meat is edible and many of us prefer it even to fish. The guts and the bones are turned into soap and… ah, look, there is one of them! Just wait a moment, you can test a bite, if you want!

That having spoken, he picked up a large stone and turned around to hunt the skillut which indeed very much resembled a human being. Too much for my taste. While my contact officer ran after the animal, I headed back to my ship.

#microfiction
#scifi