Civilization

Chapter 1-3

After Murdock had eaten and drank, he lay on his side looking at the fire. He knew Beron was close by, even though he couldn’t see him in the dark, the firelight having robbed him of his night vision. As he lay there, he started to get the barest inkling of a clue that there might be something that Beron wanted to ask. It was like an itch inside his mind. This was the way Beron got him to ask if there was something he wanted. A statement of that nature would grant the over-polite Oomah leave to ask what he wanted to know.

“Was there something you wanted to ask?” Murdock finally asked, capitulating. Sometimes, it was the only way to scratch that itch.

Murdock was presented with two mental images of his father. Murdock didn’t understand. One image seemed to zoom out, and the view was on this planet. It looked like him standing on the edge of the terrace, just a few hours ago. The image zoomed back in on his face. The other image zoomed out showing one of the many images from his first sharing session with Beron. He recognized it as his father talking to his uncle in their home. The image zoomed back in on the face.

“Same. Why?” Beron asked pointedly. A human would have said he was rude, but the Oomah didn’t mince words.

“Same…age?” Murdock speculated. This was disturbing to him as well. He had no mirror to look at his face every day, so he had no way of seeing what Beron, or anyone else, saw. As best he could figure, he now was the age his father was then, but that didn’t explain why he should look so much like his father. I know sons tend to favor their fathers, but this seems to be more, like we were identical twins, he thought. “Other than that, it is mystery to me.”

Beron was quiet for a long time. “Mystery. Investigate later.” Murdock knew Beron disliked mysteries. Beron’s world view was that there is always an explanation and he always needed to know what it was.

As he lay there, he decided to check with Mei Lee and tried to communicate with her telepathically. Their telepathic communication was more than just checking in to see how she was and how the kids were. There were those questions, to be sure, but that wasn’t the extent of their communication. They also exchanged many of the personal things husbands exchange with wives. It was made all the more personal because of the telepathy. What could be more personal than sharing thoughts with someone else? They were still in telepathic contact when they both fell asleep.