Supernova Rapture

Prologue

Prologue

Of all the places they could have sent him, of all the galaxies, of all the solar systems, They had to choose this little back water, forsaken, violent, un-evolved rock to send him on his latest survey mission. Darvien looked down from the viewing platform to the planet below him. He shuddered to think he'd have to spend the next 3 years, 3 Earth years, of his life down there. The Earth was mostly covered with water that was polluted almost beyond drinking. The various landmasses teemed with quasi-intelligent life. 'Well at least I wont get too lonely.' He thought sarcastically. A hand clapped him on the shoulder as a laugh sounded in his ears.

"At least the women aren't too ugly to touch." He heard his old friend and mission supervisor say. "They're not too different from us, a bit exuberant but there are places that that's not such a bad thing." Kashlin added with a lecherous leer smeared across his face. Kash was famous amongst a promiscuous people for his very active social life. But Kash might be onto something. The less time spent with any one woman was sure to lessen the risk of breaking one of many aspects of the most important laws of his people. It was understood that their people shouldered a great responsibility. They made sure the universal community was as safe as could be from young and volatile races. As such they couldn't afford to ever be selfish! They needed to keep cool clear heads. So their laws had been developed to reflect this most basic principle. It was broken up into many different facets. One facet was that they were to never fall in love!

Romantic love was a danger to everyone. It tends to make a person selfish in ways most races simply don't see. Even the people who are in love don't see how it makes them selfish while they're blinded by their own emotions. But they lose sight of the bigger picture. They no longer care about serving the greater good. They fixate on the health and happiness of one person, the one they love. They tended to develop a 'let the rest of the universe burn so long as the one I love is safe in my arms' mentality. Selfish and stupid, they protect what they love because it would hurt them to see harm come to that person. But if it was the life of the one they love or every life on a planet that hung in the balance shouldn't the greater good be served? When love comes into the picture the greater good gets shafted, forgotten and ignored or simply brushed aside. Never spending more time than was necessary to convince a woman to copulate willingly would be one way to make sure Kash never risked falling in love. He rarely saw the women again. It seemed to work well for him and he recommended it enthusiastically.

"Maybe, maybe not. Maybe some of us just have higher standards than others." Darvien replied. Kashlin didn't have very high standards in his temporary bedroom companions. He didn't much care who she was or even what she looked like, well to a degree. So long as she was willing to take him to bed that was all that mattered to him.

"Some of us just don't get out enough to see that there is fun to be had with just about anyone." Kash threw back at him. Darvien was rather picky in his amorous encounters like Kash he rarely ever saw them again. But he couldn't bring himself to go to bed with just anyone.

"Anyone? Really? How about that purple pustule covered race Zenon was sent to survey last cycle?" Zenon was a fellow surveyor and neither of them much liked him. He was rather pompous and arrogant. They had quite the long laugh at Zenon's expense when he was assigned the Gorvonians for his mission. He had requested Earth. But was told he would be given the honour introducing the highly physically unattractive, but technologically advanced and mentally mature race to the fact that they were not alone in the wider universe. He would spend the next few months to years helping them assimilate into the wider community of intergalactic brotherhood the Andavarnians had helped to create. Zenon didn't like them either, that fact seemed only to be exacerbated when Darvien was announced a few minutes later to be the surveyor chosen for the extended mission to Earth. Humans had potential to be an asset to the wider community, but few actually believed they'd ever achieve it.

Kash cringed and shook his head. "I said just about anyone. I wouldn't trade places with Zenon for anything right now. It may be one of the highest honours we could ever hope to have, being the one to introduce a species to the wider universe when they mature enough to be an asset to the universal community we developed. But to have to either remain celibate or take THAT to bed for possibly the next couple years? I think I'd rather go home to my mother. Or maybe your mother, she's still a fine looking woman. So on second thought I'd go home to your mother!" Darvien mock punched Kashlin in the kidney and Kash backed away with his hands up in surrender. "Easy now big fella, I've got a date later, don't go making me have to miss it because I need to clean up after I'm done beating your sorry ass!" Darvien back away and looked back down at the blue and green planet they orbited.

"Am I doing this right? Do Humans really talk and act like this?" Darvien asked.

"Yes you are, and yes they do according to all the radio and television signals they send out typical male bonding on their planet is done via jokes about sex and violence, and talking about sports. Have you picked a sport you can study so you can talk to someone about it and not seem too out of place?"

"They all seem so pointless. They either expend copious amounts of energy just to end up in the same place they started like in baseball, or just to put a ball or puck into some kind of hoop or net. What's the point, how does it prove anything? Do I really have to pick one?"

"It's a rare man down there that won't talk about their sport of choice every chance they get. Look at it this way if you must, it's a way in. Common ground is hard to find between the humans and us. While they might look like us we are very different."

"Great. Just great."

"Sarcasm, nicely done. Have you been practicing it much?"

"Just my whole life."

"Good. Keep it up. Just remember though there are times when even the most sarcastic human holds their tongue!"

"I know, I read the reports, watched their broadcasts, studied all the material I was assigned. I just hate the first few days of awkward adjustments because it's all usually a few years out of date. I wonder if any of the references to their TV shows, like Buffy the vampire slayer or Friends would even be recognized now."

"They should be ok past a certain age range anyway, the younger ones just entering adulthood might have a harder time with the references. However, people the age you'll be pretending to be should still remember them. It hasn't been that long since those signals were sent out, and by the way, Buffy? Friends? You picked those to study?" Kash snorted in derision.

"They weren't the only ones I chose to study and women were worth every second." Darvien smirked back at Kash. The Andavarnian race was very different from humanity, they achieved physical maturity much faster, but then they aged much slower after that. While Darvien appeared to be in his early to mid thirties if he were human, he was actually closer to sixty human years old.

Kash walked away laughing, letting Darvien get into the mindset he'll have to have by the following morning. Bright and early on the American continent he'll be 'joining' the human race as Darien Mitchell for the next 3 long Earth years. Here's hoping the food is better than the last assignment he had. Rocks and bugs in your food doesn't do much for the health of a man's teeth after a while. But at least that planet had been clean. No polluted air, or water. He's going to really miss those. New York city was short on both. Maybe central park will be a place to escape to. Then remembering news broadcasts about the amount of muggings that happen in that park he highly doubted it.