The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The following morning, as Beautimus poked her head through the flap of her abode, a magical dawn greeted her. The larger red sun, Racine, appeared over the peaks of the white-capped volcanoes. The smaller blue sun, Purmoso, rose a scant higher in the dawn sky. Together, the suns cast a hazy violet light.

Beautimus relaxed a little, and allowed a gradual sense of giddiness to overtake her. She often streamed Earth music through her Crystal Interface. Symphonic music and opera were her favorites. As she strolled through the forest, she hummed the overture to Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. A much higher octave hum joined hers in a bright duet. Samuel S. Goodwings. “Hi, Sam. What a perfect day.”

“Yes, indeed. Beautiful morning. Off to the university?”

She noticed the brown chicken, too, attempting to conceal herself behind a fallen tree. The hen’s tail feathers poked out from behind a limb. “You’re a complete idle-headed scut.” Beautimus said to her.

“Who is a scut?” Samuel asked.

“Oh, just that nosey hen following me around.”

“I don’t see any hen.”

***

In the front row of class, as always, sat her most intelligent and eager student, the white tiger, Cicero.

“So glad to see you, Ms. Bea.”

“Why thank you, Cicero. We have a lot to cover today. I assume everyone has read through Chapter Three of their text? I believe during our last meeting we discussed the Crystal Interface and interplanetary travel. Can anyone tell me where we left off?”

The tiger raised his paw.

“Cicero. Please proceed.”

“We discussed how the Crystal Interface is useful as a communication device on Rendaz, but has also been used for over 200,000 moon phases to enable space exploration through wormholes. The Crystal Interface enabled us to discover Earth.”

“Yes, Cicero, exactly, thank you,” Beautimus said. “No doubt many of you studied Crystal Interface Physics at the Rendazian College of Refined Sciences?”

Several heads nodded.

“For the benefit of those who have not completed a course on the Crystal Interface, can someone please provide a short explanation of how it works?”

Cicero raised his paw again.

“No, Cicero. Let’s give someone else an opportunity. You, Jackie, please review for us how the Crystal Interface works.”

Jackie, a green woodhoopie who tended toward shyness, had a brilliant mind, but had also earned the reputation as a top-notch Crystal Interface mechanic.

“Please, don’t be shy, Jackie. You don’t have to fly to the front of the room. Remain on your perch and speak from there if you wish.”

The bird ruffled her feathers. Her eyes darted about the room, but as she began to speak, she relaxed. “The Crystal Interface hardware is a flat screen manufactured in sizes from less than a millimeter square to thirty feet or larger. It is constructed from quartz crystal imprinted with codes that enable the user to ‘think’ a communication. Although the internal driver is complex, for the sake of simplicity we’ll say the Crystal Interface works through a combination of quantum physics and magic, which some scientists postulate are one in the same.” The bird hesitated.

“Yes. Please continue.”

“The Interface can be used as a recording device, for projection, communication, data storage, or reception. With advanced mind training, a captain of a starship can use the Interface to locate wormholes, and propel a ship and its crew to universes light years away, sometimes even into alternate universes.”

“Thank you, Jackie.” She nodded to the bird. “All right. Let’s continue. I’ve asked Hano, whose ancestor commanded the first Ark of Rendaz, to tell us a little bit about the discovery of Earth. Hano?”

Beautimus sat back onto a pillow. A large male chimp swung hand-over-hand on the rafters and dropped in front of the class.

“My great, great, great, great….maybe 10,000 greats….grandfather was an astronaut. At a young age the Grand General commissioned Grandfather as Supreme Commander of the first Rendazian Ark. The Butterfly Council ordered him and his crew to seek intelligent life on other planets. According to official historical accounts, and from what I have studied in our family diary, after several light years the Ark came upon a small but beautiful blue planet in a single-sun solar system.

After the ship’s engineers tested the atmosphere, and scanned the surface of the planet for probable danger, they declared it ‘Most Likely Safe.’ Commander Hano…my mother named me after him, you know,” He pointed with pride to his chest, “issued the order to land. He put the Ark down in what is known on Earth as the Rift Valley on the continent of Africa.” He pointed to an Earth map hanging on a wall. “They discovered a verdant planet, a paradise, with bountiful water, miles of greenery, fecund and rich.”

“Sounds a lot like Rendaz,” a coati said.

“Yes, indeed, but with significant differences. Other than plants and trees, the exploration team found little life on the planet. Most of the plants did not bear fruit as they do on Rendaz, and other than a few minnows, some krill-like creatures, and corpulent grubs, there initially appeared to be no other beings. After traveling over several continents, the only viable food sources the expedition located were small red, tart berries we named ‘cranberry,’ because they grew on a plant similar to the cranbush on Rendaz, edible seaweed, and, of course, wild blue corn we discovered in what is known as “The Americas.” Hano pointed to the map. “Of course you already know we brought back the blue corn and it is now a staple food on Rendaz. Later we’d return to Blue Earth with flowering and fruiting plants and trees of all kinds.”

Hano paused to review the notes he’d had clutched in his toes. “After several moons of exploration, and collecting many samples, The Commander declared the mission a bust. Even though the expedition expended considerable time scouring the entire planet’s surface, they’d located no intelligent life. They gathered their equipment and made preparations for the flight home. Only a day before they were to board the Ark one of the Commander’s men reported a movement in a nearby blue wattle bush.

Grandfather ordered a group of men to investigate. They discovered a cowering male creature. They captured it and brought it back to camp. The creature walked upright on its hind paws. Save facial, head, and pubic hair it had no significant body fur, and no feathers. Its hide, rather thin and soft, proved a pathetic barrier against the elements. He was the oddest being the explorers had ever encountered. Besides his thin, yielding hide, and his absence of body hair, he lacked sharp teeth and defensive claws. He could neither run fast nor climb well. Nonetheless, this creature walked with extraordinary adeptness on his two long rear appendages, and his front paws were nimble with strong opposable thumbs. Even with an ape-like structure and general appearance, he demonstrated less intelligence than apes, and did not speak. He only grunted. The records refer to him as ‘filthy.’ I’ll read the report from the ancient log. Hano cleared this throat and opened a book.

This odd creature stinks, urinating or defecating at will, grabbing whatever he wants without asking. He stuffs food into his mouth with his front paws, drools and makes slurping noises as he eats. We have named this new species, Hu Man.

Hano looked up from the book. ‘Hu Man’ means in the old Rendazian language, ‘New Man.’ Later, others shortened the name to ‘Human’.”

“I always wondered what ‘human’ meant,” an owl monkey said.

“Me, too” said a chestnut-backed scimitar-babbler.

“The scientists discovered Hu Mans could use tools quite well, and demonstrated complex speech capability, but simply had never learned to speak. The explorers taught the Hu Man to use language, which to the scientists’ amazement, the creature picked up with astonishing ease. They gave their Hu Man a name, Dama, meaning in old Rendazian, ‘First.’ They covered him with protective cloth, and undertook the overwhelming task of teaching him rudimentary manners.

The scientists developed an appreciation for Dama’s motor skills and eagerness to learn. They formed search parties to locate other Hu Mans. With Dama as a guide, the crew members found Hu Mans well hidden, mostly in caves or in thick brush living in small family bands, all of them in the same shape as Dama had been when they first heard him rustle the bushes moons before.

Before long, Dama worked side-by-side with the Rendazians to educate and civilize this newly discovered, amazing species of animal, who along with nimble opposable thumbs, demonstrated a capacity for compassion. Also, Hu Mans did something other species did not…smile. At first, our explorers interpreted the Hu Man smile as hostile teeth-baring but soon learned that a smile indicates joy, affection, friendliness, or amusement.

Rendazians came to respect and love this fragile species, and wanted to help them. One problem then, and still remains, Hu Mans’ short life span. The Hu Mans died, barely having learned the ways of civilized beings.”

Cicero raised his hand.

“Yes,” said Hano.

“What happened to the first Hu Man?”

“When Dama passed, the Rendazians gave him a proper funeral with a full Ceremony for the Dead.

Beautimus nodded her head in appreciation. “Thank you. Let’s all give Hano a round of applause for his excellent presentation.”

The class applauded.

“Ok, next week, we’ll move on to Life with the Hu Mans, the Meteor Disaster and subsequent Fall of Earthly Civilization. Please read through Chapter Nine in your texts. Remember, your research papers are due on my Crystal Interface by the end of this moon. Thank you, Cicero, for getting your paper in early as usual.”