Ursulla XT 009 looked all around, turning slowly, scanning the environment, uploading the images to the Mother server immediately back home, her planet Xanadu 27Y9.
According to the information she had this planet was supposed to have life forms! Different from hers : with a 2 legged creature topping the intelligence chart. Some kind of organism carried out photosynthesis and trapped the energy from the ‘Sun’ to procure food and nourishment for all. Nothing!
“Whirr- chk- chk” she turned her Vision 360º …. Nothing again! Wait, wait, wait! There was some movement at the very edge of her viewing field. She zoomed in …. Something strange! Appeared to be a resident of this planet…. She started moving towards it.
The landscape looked barren. The structures seemed haphazard, as if some constructors had just dumped whatever they were carrying, no aesthetics! There were pits and craters on the surface. Luckily her all terrain ship floated way over all hurdles. As she approached the ‘Earthian’ she wondered why she didn’t see what her research had indicated.
She had reached here as fast as she could, on the latest model of the Inter galactic spaceship, “Luminescence 108”.
Around her were masses of some lifeless matter lying in the most haphazard way. The atmosphere had strong traces of radiation. Her suit and mask protected her from all. But she had been told the ‘atmosphere’ was cool, had around 20% of oxygen and low percentage of carbon dioxide! The ‘Earthians’ didn’t need to carry respiration gear, nor did they need a mask…. ( Once, in their history, there had been an outbreak of some mutating virus, when everyone stayed in their ‘burrows’ and wore masks!)
AS she reached the coordinates, she turned around to see if she could spot the unique creature… “Ah! There it was….. Not very tall….in fact just a few inches, shining in its suit. It had antennas and some kind of spotting device.” She tried to establish contact…….. “Hello! I am Ursulla XT009, from Xanadu27Y9. I come in Peace. Who are you?”
“Are you talking to me, Giant?” said the creature twitching its antennas. It had never seen anything like this. A tall creature, emitting a steady light, not touching the surface of the earth. No other creature looked like this or bothered to speak to it. He remembered his great grandfather narrating times when his folks had to scurry, as the two legged monsters approached, their legs would land on them and squish out all life or they would bring some sophisticated weapons, flat with two straps and use it to forcefully land on them and squish life out. He shuddered with all eight limbs shaking. He remembered the huge prayer meet they had organized under the sewers, criss- crossing the city. They prayed for the termination of all terminators.
And their prayers were heard!
The huge factory outside their city and outside many more such cities just blasted, when they were at Peak- production. There was such a loud bang! So much white light! Yuck it was like a thousand suns during the day…. Which was horrible!
They stayed in the sewers for days, listening to scurrying feet, loud voices crying: ‘Help!’ ‘Water!’ ‘Food!’ and some other words like: “Roy!” “Ramu!” “Rehman!” “Hey Ram!” “Hey Shiva!” “Hey Allah!” “Oh Jesus!” “Wahe Guru!”
And there was so much dust, rain, thunder, bleating of goats and sheep, barking of dogs, mooing of cows…..
Then came the swish and gurgle of flowing water. They had to scurry up higher and higher lest they be swept away.
Only a few years back the cockroaches had started surfacing again. All over the surface was broken, charred remains of beautiful homes, buildings, parks, towns. In an instant all life seemed to have been snuffed out! Only the cockroaches survived! The Inheritors!
Ursula thanked him for all his memories and zoomed off!
That couldn’t have been a very intelligent species, she thought, which terminated its very own existence! So much for Folk- Lore and legends that, ‘ Man on Earth was smart and intelligent!’ Or was it … ‘From the highest peaks when you fall, you land in the deepest trenches.’
