The Eighth Intelligence

Low Lai Kim, principle scientist of the neurology department, hastened his steps as he glanced at his watch. He was almost 5 minutes late, and while that was perfectly alright within social etiquette, he hated being even a second late. His rigorous training in National Service had taught him the pain of being late, or rather, it induced the unneccessary fear in his civillian life. He knew Dr Ong would already be waiting for him, along with the patient he had mentioned in his email. Why a psychologist would be believe his patient should see a neurologist was unclear to him, why would a mentally defective person need to have his brain examined? Was it that complicated? In the first place, wasn't mental patients the job of a psychiatrist?

Low knocked on the door of the guest room and opened it as calmly as he could, thinking of a suitable excuse to explain his tardiness. Two people were already waiting for him, one was Dr Ong, another was a kindly young man, of around 20 years of age. He had neatly combed hair, dark eyes and a rather high forehead. His attire was neat and presentable, a youth groomed for professional conduct. There seemed to be nothing wrong with this person, he looked more intelligent than most youths of the age. Low began to wonder if this was some kind of joke, since Ong had known him since primary school. Then again, there were adults now, Ong wouldn't take up his time if it wasn't completely necessary.

"Terrence! I apologise for my tardiness, got caught up with this student."

Low was aware that Ong didn't mind, but then again, Ong was a psychologist. Ever since he obtained his degree, Low had always been conscious around him, wondering whether he was secretly analysing his behaviours. Would being tardy qualify as a disorder too?

"You know I'm quite fine with that," said Ong, smiling. "Well, no time for old time reminisciences, I would like to introduce Justin Toh."

The young man stood up from his seat and proceeded to shake Low's hand. There was a firm touch to it, which was a sign of professionalism. Was this really a mental patient?

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir," said Toh. "Dr Ong has told me much about you."

His tone was soothing and pleasing to the ear. There was no hint of embroidered speech, everything was sincere and down from the heart. This boy was a kind person. Low nearly blurted out 'There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you', but refrained from that for he feared it may induce some sort of trigger. He heard of some mental patients like that, kindly on the outside, ravaging murderers on the inside.

"Justin," began Dr Ong. "Would you please tell Dr Low about your problem."

The three of them took a seat on the comfortable couch. It wasn't the inclining one like Ong had in his clinic, but Toh didn't seem to need it. He put his hands together and hunched over slightly, ready to break into his tale.

"Ever since young," he said. "I have this strange ability. You know how a person analyses logical questions such as mental sums, or figures out how to win an argument, they go through a series of directions and plans in their head before acting it out in the real world? Well, the thing is, I don't have to."

At this point, Toh paused. Low was wondering whether he was stopping to let him absorb all that had been said or because he was getting to the depressing part. Then again, not much had been said.

"I can just figure it out, practically instantly, I need not do any thinking. Somehow, I just know how the problem is done, sometimes, I don't even need to learn how to do something. For instance, when I was in primary school, we often had mental sums tests. The teacher would say an operation and we would work out the answer in our heads. Some students are slower, they need to count in their heads. My sitting partner said when the operation '20*4' was said, he would add 4 20's together to get 80. He would do it very systematically, 20, 40, 60, 80. For me, the number 80 was appear in my head almost instantly, I don't know how I do it!"

"Why, this is clearly a case of you being a maths genius," said Low. "I don't see how that's a problem."

"That wasn't all, Sir. We were kids back then, and yes, I admit that I'm not the only one who can do this. There are other bright kids who could work out the answer almost instantly too. But I can do things that they cannot do. We had art class sometimes, and when we weren't drawing, the teacher would bring out a random piece of art for all of us to appreciate. She would then ask questions on what the painter was thinking when he drew it, or rather his mood. If you don't mind me asking sir, how would you go about it?"

Low recalled analysing art like this when he too was in primary school. He was often pretty terrible at it, but the teacher would bring the class through various colour tones, forms and spatial perception to deduce the artist's mood. He gave Toh his answer.

"Yes Sir, that's exactly how the teacher taught us to analyse. Then I said, 'but teacher, isn't it obvious, why do we have to go through so much trouble?' and I was promptly made to stand outside."

Low was by now getting rather interested. It seems that Toh was an art genius as well. He had heard many stories of incredible people performing seemingly superhuman capabilities at calculations and deductions. Now he was seeing one right in front of him.

"Justin," said Ong. "Is the very first person I've seen with an enhanced intuition."

Low was taken aback for a while. Indeed, that was the word that was lingering in his mind, but was hesitant to say it. Intuition! Of course, but could it be studied, could it be quantified, was there an equation for it? His scientist mind ran through all the logic of it all, then sheepishly, he laughed to himself over the fact that Toh would be able to tell in an instant.

"Intuition, you say. That's a rather psychologist field isn't it? Why bring him to me?"

"Patience," said Ong, and he seemed very patient. "Let Justin finish."

"Well," continued Justin. "It was a very good thing at first. I got excellent grades in school without even having to study, I could win arguments easily because I just knew how it was progressing. Then it got scary, as things became harder, you would expect that even a genius would need a fundamental amount of learning, of attending classes. Well, I didn't. I once had the misfortune of being sick for an entire week before a test, and many new things were taught during that week. I was given the option of taking the test at a later date, but I decided to give it a shot. After all, my grades were tip-top, I can afford to take risks once in a while. Then when I took the test, most of the material were taught in the week I was absent, and I somehow knew them all, without even learning them!"

"Could it be subliminal?" asked Low, intrigued. "Did any of your classmates pay you a visit to pass you notes or anything?"

"They wanted to," said Toh. "But it was a flu and I told them out of -" He had wanted to say 'my good heart', but decided to refrain from sounding arrogant. "I told them it was best for them to stay away from me, for I didn't want them to be sick on the week of the test as well. Besides, it was a decision I made on my own, I shouldn't implicate anyone else."

"Ok, so here comes the bad part. Because of my abilities, I was chosen involuntarily as a tutor for many of the weaker students. I protested, because there was no way I could tutor others if I didn't know how I worked out my problems. At first the teachers didn't believe me, but after going through several tutees and causing them to fail, they became pretty convinced that I didn't know the basics of problem solving. But to them, the whole notion of 'I know because I just know', was ridiculous. They began to suspect me of cheating. My mother came to my defence, and after much pleading, they agreed to let me take an IQ test. I scored a full 200."

At this point, Low let out a short gasp. To him, an IQ of 200 was godly. It almost seemed as if a god was sitting in front of him. Toh ignored it, and continued speaking.

"But I didn't know how I was so smart! To me, the answers just appeared in my head, I didn't even think! The logical steps were all missing! After that day, everyone in school shunned away from me, thinking I was some freak or something. And word of it grew, and everywhere I went, people looked at me as some sort of freak. I don't know what to do anymore, I don't want my abilities anymore."

Low nodded his head in sympathy. It was indeed a cruel thing to be ostracised by the rest of humanity, and for what? An ability which you didn't ask for, an ability which you never showed off.

"So that's why you went to see Dr Ong?" asked Low.

"Yes, I wanted to know if there was a way to fix this."

Low had wanted to say 'interesting', indeed, it was. Intuition was a well-recognised phenomenon in the scientific circle, every good scientist uses it to consider almost impossible logic. However, no one knew how it worked, or why it worked. The laymen were taught not to rely on it because anything that couldn't be explained, wasn't reliable to them. However, here was one person who only had intuition to rely upon, and it had brought him misery. If he had indeed said 'interesting', Toh may just come on him like some deranged lunatic, the type he had been expecting to see.

"I'm quite intrigued," said Low. "Why you decided to see a psychologist instead of a counsellor or psychiatrist. A psychologist doesn't do this kind of work."

Low nearly slapped himself when he asked this question. Of course! How would Toh know what made him think that? He just knew. The startled expression on Toh's face already gave him the answer he needed.

"He made the right choice actually," said Ong. "I would have thought that a counsellor or psychiatrist could solve this problem better, but if you think about it logically, this is a problem psychologists are adept at."

"Why is that so?"

"Do you know who Howard Gardner is?"

"The psychologist who came up with the 7 intelligences?"

Low had recalled reading about it a few days earlier, in a random book he found in the library. Gardner was the man who theorised that intelligence came in 7 forms, namely, linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, musical intelligence and bodily/kinesthetic intelligence. It was practically the thing that people used to prove that IQ tests were a big phoney, for most of them mainly dealt with only 2 intelligences, linguistic and logical-mathematical.

"Yes, well, what I theorise here is that intuition could be the eighth form of intelligence, the form that supercedes all the other 7."

Ong's tone was so serious, so matter-of-factly, that Low wasn't sure how to react.

"Of course I don't intend to make it public, it's just a personal theory. You know how people would react if I declare something so elusive an intelligence."

"But, you've got Toh here! You can use him as proof!"

At this point, Low realised he had made a very big blunder common among scientists. He was treating a human being as nothing more than a test subject. While Ong winced at this remark, Toh seemed indifferent.

"Dr Ong," he said with a smile, still looking Low in the eye. "I think we should leave. This clearly isn't Dr Low's field of expertise."

Low was terrified now, he had always been careful in front of others to avoid offending them. Now he had made the most basic of mistakes, and the 'victim' was mocking him. He had to find a way to remedy his problem.

"Hold on! I'm sorry Justin," he said. "It wasn't professional of me. Please, what can I do to help?"

"Justin doesn't want his enhanced intuition," said Ong. "I was hoping you could find a way to help correct that."

Toh nodded.

"Yes sir, this is something only a neurologist can do. You can shortwire some nerves or something can't you?"

At that moment, there was an eerie air of silence in the room. This time, everyone knew it, not just Toh. What Toh had just said was the biggest careless mistake for a person of an IQ of 200. A neurologist studies the brain, and while many believe they knew what produced the intelligences, to shortwire the neurons in the brain would be to turn the person into a vegetable. There was also something else, if Toh knew this all along, why did he agree to go with Ong in the first place?

"I don't understand," said Toh, rather sheepishly. "This has never happened in my life! How...how did this happen!?"

The tone wasn't one of fright or disgust, it was one of elation. Toh was happy that he had been wrong, for the first time in his life.

"You see, Justin?" it was Ong that said it. "Do you know why your intuition was wrong?"

Toh shook his head.

"You were overcome with emotion and thus, you blocked out your intuition. Your intuition wasn't wrong, you were right to come to me. However, you were wrong when you agreed with me that a neurologist should be able to do it. At that point in time, you had wanted not to believe your intuition anymore, you wanted to get rid of it, so subconsciously, you shut out your own intelligence."

There wasn't only one shocked person in the room this time, Low was horrified by what Ong had said.

"So that means..."

Ong motioned for him to wait, and continued speaking to Toh.

"Justin, I brought you here today to show you how dependant you are on your intuition, just like other people are dependent on certain intelligences they have. If you remove it, you won't be able to experience the joy everyone else has in life. You would be lost, devoid of all logic and well, I dare say you would be quite a buffoon. You have a powerful gift, Justin, one many people would kill to get. I want you to treasure it."

Justin sighed.

"As I said, Dr Ong, this intuition has given me nothing but trouble."

"The trouble came from your own unwillingness to explore. Everyone can find a way to help others. You are weak in logical intelligence because, well, you never used it. In this case, why don't you let yourself be the tutee, read books on how people would solve problems and ask yourself, how do they do it? The answer would come readily, you already know that, but at the same time, you would get an insight into how others not as extraordinary as yourself, do their best to help others. You can also ask yourself, 'how can I understand the normal workings of humanity?' Then you would find that you are able to fit in."

Toh thought over what Ong had said, it was the first time he really thought.

"You're right, doctor," he said. "Without my intuition, I can't do anything! And of course, why didn't I think of it before! I can use my intuition to help me figure out how to get into the normal workings of society! I can use it to figure out how to make friends! I don't have to fear my intuition anymore, how can I fear something that is really a part of me...wait, that means..."

"I'm sorry to say it, Justin," said Ong rather solemnly. "But all the sufferings you had gone through, you can only blame yourself."

Toh looked on the ground, hanging his head quietly, then looked back at Ong and smiled.

"Thank you Doctor, you've made me seen the light, I guess I wasn't wrong in coming to find you after all."

"That's great, now if you don't mind, I would like to speak to Dr Low here for a moment. Would you mind waiting in the car?"

With that, an elated Justin Toh skipped happily out of the guest room, quite forgetting the proper etiquette. It was alright though, for he was a psychiatric patient who had just been cured.

"Well, you had to take up my time to cure this guy, huh?" Low asked Ong, not with distaste, but rather a little humour. "In the first place, you're a psychologist, how come you go about treating patients like a psychiatrist?"

"Well, I was intrigued," said Ong, in good humour. "The eighth form of intelligence, doesn't that puzzle you? When Justin emailed me, I too was puzzled as to why he didn't choose a psychiatrist, or a counsellor for that matter, but I could tell, somehow, he knew I was the right person to choose. A psychiatrist dealt with madmen and depression, someone he should go to, but by coming to me, he has invoked my interest in this field of research. In a way, you could say his intuition chose the path which benefits the most people."

"Yes, a few questions there though. Didn't you say you weren't going to publish the theory? It's still a little difficult to stomach why he didn't choose a counsellor though."

"Well, I lied at that time, because I didn't want it to interfere with matters at hand. And well, you almost blew it."

Low cringed at this remark.

"You also know that a counsellor wouldn't have any knowledge of the 7 intelligences, and wouldn't be interested in a follow up. I intend to keep in contact with Justin, learn more about his phenomenal intuition, then hopefully publish a paper about it. It would benefit many people who believe they are dumb and inept."

Low saw that Ong was ready to leave.

"Well, I'm sorry for taking up your time, Lai Kim, I understand it hadn't benefitted you at all, but I had to do something for Justin's sake. I hope to make it up to you someday, how about lunch tomorrow? My treat."

"Why that would be excellent, Terrence," said Low gleefully. "Just a few more questions though, how do you know people are going to accept your new paper, and also, how did you learn those skills of counselling? I mean it doesn't strike me that you were a good counsellor, or even knew anything about counselling, no offence."

Ong laughed.

"Well, I guess there's a Justin in all of us," he said. "The answers to those 2 questions are 'I just know'."

Scifi Shorts by others, review!

Hey hey, yep, I decided to put reviews of other scifi stories here instead. I think the atmosphere is better here for that.

ya, I've been reading some works by Asimov over the past few days, his lengthy 'short' stories from 'The complete collection volume 2'. I haven't finished the whole book yet, think I've at least 5 stories to go, but the famous ones were all put in front. Since this is a review, I'll still comment on the stories even if I think they were not so fantastic.

The Ugly Little Boy
In the not too far future, a company known as Stasis Inc has invented a method to obtain individuals from the distant past and bring them to our present time, on the condition that they stay within an area known as Stasis, where normal time doesn't flow. This lady, Fellowes, was brought in to take care of a Neantherdal child that had been brought to the present.
It is a very sentimental story, where the child learns to speak and how Fellowes becomes more accustomed to the boy's ugliness. Then, like in any other sentimental stories, the two were about to be separated, since the boy had to be sent back to his time. By now, Fellowes had felt like his mother, so I guess you can expect what happened next.
Personally, I find such themes overused, about how a person interacts with a strange object or person with first revulsion, then affection. The idea of bringing objects to the present time isn't new to me either, I've seen it somewhere before and I kind of find that idea boring. So, sorry, this story would only get a 3/5 from me.

Nightfall
Wow, throughout this story my heart was like, wooh! racing all the way. Imagine your world was surrounded by 6 suns, well, not orbiting all of them of course, just one, but the other 5 were well in the vicinity. because of that, there was no such thing as night, as total darkness over the landscape. no one believed in night, nor the so called 'stars'. Everyone was terrified of the dark, spend too much time in it and they'll lose their minds.
then there's a cult on the planet, predicting the coming of total darkness, where all men lose their minds and the cities go up in flames. no one believes them, but scientists discovered that they were right after all. an eclipse would occur when only one sun shone in the sky, then the long night begins.
the story follows a young reporter, Theoreon, on this distant planet as he interviews the scientists who believe the coming of darkness was right, on the very night of the eclipse. He stays with them and watches the entire eclipse as it happens. As it happens, the scientists talk of many theories, about how many stars there were, and how they all believed there were to be no more than 6 stars, about how they might survive the long night. and it also tells of the crazy cultists who try to obtain salvation at the last minute. the story continues until the eclipse was complete, and 35 000 stars shone down on the dark land, making everyone lose their minds, and burning their cities for light.
the concept of this story is very different, and a worthwhile read, for it is a situation which would never be imagined on Earth, for we only have one sun, and we know what night is. It is a very interesting portration of the end of days on another planet that has never seen night. a definite 5/5.

Hostess

What is it with aliens that make humanity seem so pathetic? Probably it's because they never die involuntarily, because they never stop growing, and you could expect them to be at least a few centuries old when one visits you.
their equivalent of cancer would known as the inhibition death, where you stop growing, then you die within a year. quite the opposite of cancer actually. after interaction with earth, the numbers of such diseases increase, particularly on the planet closest to earth. a biologist on earth pays hostess to a doctor from this planet, and much to her dismay, he has aroused the interest of her policeman husband. after much pretense and flowerly words, the man kills the alien in an attempt to prevent him from bringing back the truth of the inhibition death to his world.
it is a very interesting concept we have here. the reason why we live limited lives on earth is due to a parasitic intelligence that resides along with us. this parasitic intelligence sucks on our life force, and thus we die after a while. however, other planets don't have such an intelligence, and so are effectively immortal lest they choose not to be. however, we can't get rid of our parasitic intelligence now because we will all get cancer. written by asimov in his position as a biologist, this story is given 4/5 stars for concept and scientific accuracy, and thus possibility that such an intelligence may actually exist.

well, thts all the stories i want to review. the others weren't tht significant to me. i may be reviewing more stories from the book soon. anw, soul machina part twelve will be the next post, thts a definite promise. haha, i think my writing has developed quite a bit after reading asimov's stories.

The Specimen

Ladono switched on the lights over the operating table and motioned for the surgeons to stop work. The cries from the struggling creature lying on the hard metallic board had died out but not before giving everyone working on it a headache.

"5 minutes," he said to the other surgeons who promptly threw their tools into the tray and left the room to take a breather. Ladono couldn't understand it, why was the creature in so much pain? All he did was cut up the surface of the skin, it wasn't as if he drew a knife right into the body.

Ladono followed the other surgeons as they watched the new planet from outside the window of the spacecraft. It was the homeplanet of this creature, a rather melancholic one. All shades of dark gothic colours could be seen, mixed with bright colours of blue and green. He imagined years ago, the planet had been a beautiful one. The liquid of the planet would have been the small blue bits that were remaining, and the vegetation of the planet would be the green areas. There had been areas where neither the liquid nor the vegetation were present, areas of brown. Now those areas were huge, greater than the liquid and vegetation areas. Ladono understood that the brown areas could only sustain the sturdiest of life, and the creature, now lying dead on the operating table, wasn't the sturdiest of life.

The planet had been a home for an intelligent species, a species which somehow couldn't get along with each other and killed each other for their own survival, a very disturbing and angry species. Ladono's ship had arrived at the most perfect timing. A major war had just been waged on the planet's surface, turning the lush blue planet into a sad one. The remnants of the intelligent species were now struggling to survive, and Ladono had managed to capture one of them, roaming around endlessly in the ruins of civillisation.

Through studies by other scientists, the species of the planet consisted of 2 genders, one was the life-bearing gender, the other responsible for the fertilisation of them. This was in contrast to the beings of Planet Cories, where Ladono was from. There was only one gender, and everybody was capable of reproducing asexually. In fact, Ladono had just given birth to his first offspring. The creature they captured was believed to be of the 'female' gender, the life-bearing one. Ladono recognised this by the presence of ovaries and the absense of an external sexual organ. Another thing he learnt of these species, is that they were somehow unreceptive to the idea of appearing in the nude. They wore layers of fabric over their naked bodies, and everyone seemed to do it. It was a running joke among the scientists that the different genders found each other's sexual organ offensive, for they wore an extra layer over those regions. It was hard for the Corians to accept, for to them, nudity was pride in one's body.

It was almost time, Ladona decided to go back to the operating table and analyse the specimen a little before they began further internal work. He saw that the creature had not too fair, not too dark skin, but apparently different types showed different skin colour. However, it was believed that the colour of their blood were all red. In contrast, Corians all had the same skin colour, green, but had different colour bloods. Those from the northern hemisphere of the planet had blue blood, while Ladono, from the south, had orange blood. There were other blood colours too, all across the visible spectrum. The skin colour of the species weren't as constrasting, ranging from very dark, to very fair. The hair of the female was black, long and silky, and hair apparently appeared in other regions too. The range of hair colours were also diverse among the species, from what he knew. Ladono only had a few strands of green hair protruding his ovoid head, and this was about it for the Corians. On the face of the specimen, there were 2 seeing organs, 2 hearing organs, a smelling organ and another organ which all the cries had been coming out from.

"Ladono," said one of the surgeons as he returned. "What do you intend to do now?"

"I was wondering why the creature was screaming so badly when we dissected it, we had taken all the necessary precautions to prevent it from feeling pain."

"I'm afraid we do not have the necessary chemicals," said the surgeon, whose name was Elkis. "The nerves of this organism is very close to its skin."

"Oh, I see," replied Ladono, at the same time wondering why he seemed to be the only one not aware of this fact.

"What do you think about it?" asked Elkis.

"A very simple structure," replied Ladono, toying with his 4 tentacle-like arms. "A head, two limbs on the upper body and 2 at the lower body, their evolution took place for little over a million years, so it's no wonder they look so pathetic. Look at us now, five billion years of evolution, maybe we looked like that once."

"Unlikely," said Elkis. "Our home planet wasn't as beautiful as this one was before. There was a need for our features even in our early stages of evolution. Four legs connected to an elongated body for mobility and speed, tentacles for flexible handling of objects, large eyes to counteract the dim light of our sun. These creatures have it easy, pity they had to ruin their own homeland."

By now, the other surgeons had entered the operating theatre, gathered over the corpse of the female alien.

"Sir," it was Ladono's student, Norto. "I don't mean to be rude, but I think the specimen is dead."

There was laughter among the other surgeons, Ladona too let out a chuckle.

"Yes, we can see that," he replied, trying to stuff down his laughter. "How would that affect our operations?"

Norto wasn't offended, he knew he didn't get his point across like he was supposed to.

"Would there be trouble studying the specimen if it's dead?"

This time, no one laughed. Norto had a point. There hadn't been much preparation for the operation since everyone was really excited about having captured a species from the planet for the first time, and an intelligent one to boot. The first thing that ran in any Corian scientist's mind after capturing a new specimen would be to cut it open. On Cories, no one died of dissection, it was done when the specimen was wide awake. Some medical students even dissected themselves in front of the class to present their findings. All it took was some minor medication to seal back the wound. Apparently, the alien species were very vulnerable.

"What do you propose we do?" one of the surgeons asked Norto.

Norto confessed that he had no idea, because there wasn't equipment or chemicals they knew of that could nullify pain in the specimen. Ladono and the others let out a sigh, the only way they could find out anything new would be to go capture another specimen and try to keep it alive while they were studying it. As such, the remainder of the session wasn't much. In the silence, they extracted internal organs and did a map of the body. They weren't sure exactly what did what, just that the ovaries bore the fruit of the next generation.

"I think I'll raise the possibility of setting up a base on the planet in the next council meeting," said Ladono. "With their civillisation in shambles, we shouldn't have any trouble creating our own down there."

There was much discussion afterwards, until Ladono called off the session. The surgeons took a few cell samples and stored the organs in preservatices before throwing the hollowed-out corpse into deep space.

A few days later, the council meeting was held within the ship. It wasn't a totally grand affair, for there was only one representative from the collective consciousness that was present. He had followed the members of the ship to study the new planet. But he alone was good enough, one could say the entire government was already present. Other than Ladono, the members of the meeting included reknown individuals in their profession. The social analyst was the first to speak.

"Your honour," he addressed the representative. "I have determined that the system of governance on the planet is nothing short of primitive. There isn't one nation on the planet, but rather hundreds, each having their own government whose interest is only for their own people. Furthermore, the government isn't a collective consciousness one like ours, but consists of many individuals all intent on their own needs."

"That's horrible!" said representative Yakan. "No wonder the war broke out. With such messiness, how could they expect to thrive?"

Representative Yakan was one of the 500 members of the collective consciousness. This consciousness was the only government on Cories. Each knew what the other member was thinking, and they all operated with one mind, literary. This resulted in 1 million years of peace.

"Actually," continued the social analyst. "Their system wasn't much different from ours 1 million years ago. We were in the middle of a war among nations back then, until the great rebellion occured and stopped the war before we ended up destroying ourselves. Apparently, on this planet, the same thing happened, but no one bothered to try to stop the war. They fought and fought to the very last man, that's the name of the non-life bearing gender by the way."

"I see," said the representative sorrowfully. "So they weren't as lucky as us."

The social analyst ended his report there, for there wasn't much he could understand from the planet at a glance. Apparently, it was too complicated, the interactions of many separate minds. It was impossible for him to imagine a government that operated like that. After him was the geographer, who gave a detailed breakdown on the tectonics of the planet. After at least ten more speakers, it was finally Ladono's turn to report.

"Your honour, my team have successfully managed to capture one of the intelligent lifeforms that live on the planet. After some study, I can conclude that we're dealing with a very frail species with a very frail mind. As such, I propose the construction of a base on the planet itself to study the lifeforms closer to their natural habitat."

Ladono had already expected the commotion that followed. Representative Yakan was the only one who didn't stir as he carefully analysed the possibilites with the rest of the collective consciousness.

"Dr Ladono," he said eventually. "The rest of the government would need more convincing before we can even consider sending you down there for a long period of time. Do you have any reports to show me?"

Ladono then took out the data he had collected the day he studied the specimen and showed it to the representative. As he looked at it, he was also consulting the relevant expert in the government.

"This is not enough," he answered dryly. "I'm afraid you would have to do more research before you raise that possibility again."

"But sir, that's the problem. The lifeform is just too different from us! We do not have the relevant chemicals, or equipment to keep it alive. We need to go down there, and see exactly how they work. Mesonic scans from up here aren't good enough."

This time, the room was silent. No one knew what to say. The representative was now listening to the thoughts of his colleagues, his gigantic eyes twitching over their comments. Before he could reach a conclusion, the social analyst raised a tentacle again.

"Sir, if I may. I would like to make a personal trip down to the planet too. I want to see for myself how the survivors of the war organise themselves. It would give me a better understanding of how their government had run before."

The whole room was now focused on Ladono and the social analyst. With two people intending to go, the pressure on the collective consciousness was effectively doubled.

"Alright," said the representative. "We have a lot of money and resources anyway, so there's no harm in making a trip to the planet for educational and research purposes. 3 months, the both of you have 3 months, effective tomorrow. You may ask for anything you may need, but after 3 months, if nothing turns up, I'm afraid you would have to pay back the government everything."

The meeting was adjourned, and congratulations were given to the social analyst and Ladono. Ladono now knew the social analyst was called Sydeburn, and after a liquor chat, they were friends. However, they were both faced with a new challenge. How were they going to get the denizens of the planet to accept them? The specimen had been terrified when they brought her up, and cried and struggled as they thrussed her on the operating table. Would they be able to keep their promise to the government? Ladono looked out at the planet again, the melancholic skies now turning ashen gray as it turned away from its star.

"I'm just glad we're not like them," said Ladono with a smile. He then went to find his offspring in the playroom, to give him a good lesson on how fortunate the Corians were.

Moral: Wake up planet Earth! In the eyes of aliens, we're such losers.