Unarmed

5: The Cost of Living

The creepy no-armed alien refused to answer any of the Final Fifteen's questions until they had come inside her dinghy gas station and sat down willingly for a cup of tea, or what looked like tea. Everyone sat in a semicircle in front of her, sipping their tea and raising their hands to ask questions like a kindergarten class.

"Who are you?" Was the first question asked.

"My name is Haggy, I'm the elder here on this planet". She replied. Well that wasn't very helpful, thought Izzy.

"How do you know English?" She asked, trying to get more information about this strange creature that was treating them like children.

"You see, we have very advanced technology here on the planet Landor. We have created a translating system that translates anything you say so that the other non-native speakers can understand it."

Ok now this was useful info. There was technologically advanced life forms living here. It was starting to seem like colonizing wouldn't be as hard as they had thought.

"This planet's called...'Landor''?" asked Cassidy, trying to hide a smile.

"Yes. It was named after my great great great great great (x200) grandfather, Lan Dor the Great. Usly you've heard of Lan Dor the Great?"

There were a few uncertain exchanges.

"No?? Well. If you're going to live here, you'll have to read up on your history."

"So you're letting us settle here?" asked Neil excitedly.

"Of course, as long as you abide by our laws and don't disturb the wonderful life we have built here."

"Yes! Awesome! We would never do anything to disturb your people's ways." Neil exclaimed. "Oh one thing though, we saw on our radar that you had wonderful vegetation and water, do you... still have that? Because from the looks of it our radar lied."

Haggy gave a crooked smile and gestured out the lone window of the gas station. The outside world was no longer the bare, desolate wasteland that they had landed on, but a beautiful, lush forest, teeming with exotic flora and fauna.

"What..." "How..?" "Woah" Some admiring voices came from the group.

"An illusion" explained Haggy, "we use it to keep unwanted visitors away and to keep Landor safe."

They turned back to Haggy, trying their best to pull their eyes away from the magnificent purple plants and strange, 3 legged trees.

"Haggy, I don't know how to thank you" said Neil, beaming. "You letting us start our new lives here is a miracle".

"Oh well there is a price to living here that I should mention" she said with glee.

Neil's beam shrunk a little. "A...price?" He asked warily

"Yes" replied Haggy, "you know the saying 'it'll cost you an arm and a leg?"

Neil nodded, the smile completely gone from his face.

"Well here it's two arms" she explained, wiggling her little nubs happily.