Chapter 5
Tammy’s Story
From Tammy’s viewpoint, she waved goodbye to everyone with both hands, like she was at the scene of an accident waving down a passerby. With Dale jumping into the front end of the Pod, Tammy put her arm around the escort, like they were old buddies, and proceeded to the aft end of the vehicle . She kept thinking of how monotonous these people seem to be so far, and was hoping it wasn’t going to be boring. But if it was, at least Dale will be around to keep it lively. Since, it was Tammy’s turn to explain the events of her week, we all knew it had to be exciting, or engaging at the least.
Tammy composed herself and explained her story to us. “I asked the escort how fast the Pod could go, if accidents ever occurred, how does it respond in storms, and other various questions. She said, ‘A good steady pace. Accidents? Oh, very rarely. Quite well in turbulence.’” Tammy mimicked the Vlanco woman’s plodding methodical voice.
“I guess I was looking for a little more description,” Tammy groaned, “but my escort wasn’t one to give details. Later I learned that the Pods don’t vary their speed much, as I guess they aren’t in a real hurry to get places...every event ‘has its time and place.’” She sighed and curved two fingers into the air to represent quotes.
“They have enough light beam houses on the planet to keep them from crashing, but if there was a power disturbance the Pod’s onboard power grid or the power station would bring it down safely to the ground.”
“Anyway, we were given a list of places of leisure to investigate. And since this is such a warm planet, we thought we would check out what kind of water parks they might have. By the way, the clothing they wear incorporates environmental conditioning almost as good as our En-suits, but without the energy packs. We found a park with a number of activities—”
“Oh dale, what did you think of that Bubble Transport Sphere! Wasn’t that awesome?” Dale nodded appropriately.
“Anyway, we walked in to the... Oh, let me tell you about the Bubble first. You Enter a platform, either by yourself or with a friend, then they energize some sort of magnetic field, and a bubble appears around you. It picks you up and floats around in some random pattern that flips you around like you were in a washing machine and ends up right over this big swimming pool, and just—pops! You drop straight into the water, ready for another flight. It was a gas!”
Tammy caught herself getting carried away with her story and straightened down her shirt.
“Anyway, back to the ‘research’” she quoted in the air again, nudging Dale. “Oh, I’m sorry Dale. It didn’t go so well for you did it.” She gave him a sad puppy dog look. Dale rolled his eyes as she talked. “Oh, I saw this good looking Vlanco guy...”
“Tammy!” I scolded, with bulging eyes, “Please stick to some sort of continuity.”
“Okay, OKAY.” She took a deep breath and looked up. “Lets see, when we entered the park, the people were very helpful with social procedure and the location of different leisure activities. It was a lot like Earth. They had food on sticks and drinks in shaded areas and many, many options for fun.
Oh, yeah, it was so funny, when what looked like a three year old kid walked by me with her mother and said, ‘Mama look at the furry people.’ pointing to me and Dale, HA, HA! Furry! That cracked me up! I guess if you’re bald, furry is a perfectly normal thing to say.” We all smiled at Tammy’s obvious pleasure.
“Its Dale and I,” corrected Chip, for the fourth time this week.
Tammy smiled sweetly, and batted her eyes at him. “Oh, thank you so very much Chip for putting a depression on my uplifting story”
Chip leaned his head on the palm side of his hand, waiting for more pertinent information to be revealed. I was getting suspicious of this tit-for-tat grammar competition, but she quickly got on task.
“Anyway, we continued to investigate many of the rides and activities and they were really a lot of fun, and the Vlancos really enjoyed themselves too. In fact Dale and I seem to have a little group of Vlancos follow us wherever we went. We had our own little groupies. I felt so important,” she said, pursing her lips and patting her chest, like she was royalty. “Eventually, one of the male Vlancos named Derngo, who was hanging around us awhile, invited us to a Vlanco Creation celebration. Its known as a birthday party to you and me, she confided. Anyway, this is how it went:”
“‘Tammy?’ said Derngo, ‘you really seem to enjoy yourself in our Entertainment Arenas. When you get an opportunity, you might like to go with me and my friends, and your escort of course, to a Vlanco Creation party.’”
“I nudged him affectionately and said, ‘Really?! A Vlanco creation party? I can hardly wait to be a part of this!’ I gave him a wink. ‘I hope it’s just you and me, babe.’ He and the others laughed heartily at my humor. ‘Well, take us to it,’ I said, pushing on Derngo.”
“I was always willing to try anything new, at least once. As she turned to talk to Dale, I noticed he was gone. “Well where the Hell-o did Dale-go,” I said, looking around the group.”
“‘We can go look for him if you want us to, Tammy.’ said Derngo.”
“‘Na, he’s a big boy. We’ll meet up later somewhere else I’m sure. Okay people, lead onward.’”
“And with that, the group directed me to a local transport system in the area. The transport was a series of bus sized vehicles that operated on air. They were powered by photovoltaic type fans, which were very quiet and just hovered across the ground. The escort, me, and a few Vlancos, jumped on board…including Derngo, who gave directions to the party location. I noticed no monetary exchange going on and so I inquired. “‘Hey, Derngo, how do you pay for your trip?’
He looked at me with deep blue eyes and strong squared facial features, accented with a big smile. ‘Tammy, I don’t quite understand?’”
“‘Don’t you pay for your rides someway?’ I gazed up to him with my usual fraternization.”
“‘No, Tammy we do not. Our economic system allows us all to profit in all business ventures in the system and a portion is given to each member of the society. We all work in the occupations of our choice and work hard at them. Our reward is knowing that it helps the society at large.’”
“I was intrigued, but not impressed. ‘It sounds like the communist got to you. So how do you avoid one group of society from being corrupt and taking advantage of others?’”
“‘Corrupt?’ Derngo replied, incredulously. ‘Tammy, that has not been a concern of ours since the Great Battle, almost 400 years ago.’”
“Great Battle?”
“‘Yes Tammy. Ever since that time, there has been no need to be concerned with issues such as corruption or selfish desires.’”
“‘This Great Battle didn’t involve the Negritee did it?’ I half expected the answer.”
“‘Why yes, Tammy. It did.’”
“‘I thought so,’ I said shaking my head, ‘Jerks! Anyway, we can talk about this another time. I really don’t want to put a depression on my excitement.’”
“‘Very well, Tammy. We will discuss it later.’ He pointed to a tan, octagon shaped building. ‘There is the dwelling of Manstro.’” The transport had arrived at our destination, and as we exited the vehicle, a group of other people had arrived and were making their way inside. Entering the building, I could see that the people were pleasantly surprised and anxious to meet me…the Alien.”
“‘Tammy, we must hide over here and be quiet. Manstro will be entering any moment.’ He said, guiding me over to a concealed area.”
“‘Oh…This is like a good old fashion surprise party, isn’t it.’ He gave me a puzzled look. ‘Nevermind.’”
“As I looked around, I saw a boy talking to a cute little girl. She couldn’t have been more than three. The older boy was explaining the situation to the girl. “It is a surprise for Manstro, won’t this be fun, Mana!’”
“Mana, the girl said, ‘why are we quiet?’”
“‘Shhhh,’ said the boy. ‘They might hear us.’”
“‘Who, Yobo?’ said the girl in a normal volume? ‘Who, might hear us?’ she said louder. ‘Who?’ she persisted.”
“And before he knew it the boy blurted out anything to quiet her. ‘The Negritee. That is who. We have to be quiet or they will hear us!’ He said with impatience. But just as it came out, he turn to everyone with his hand over his mouth, as if to take it back. ‘I lied.’ He whimpered. Tears started to roll down his cheeks.”
“A nearby woman went over to comfort him, while some others drop their shoulders in disappointment.”
“I turned to Derngo. ‘What’s wrong?’”
“Derngo seemed like he had been hit in the gut. ‘Yobo is almost twelve and he has not lied for three years. It tears at your heart to see it happen in front of you. Does it not?’”
“I was baffled. ‘“I don’t get it. Was that little fib a big deal?’”
“‘Tammy,’ he said straightening up. ‘Of course it is. The truth is always a big deal.’”
“I gave him a smirk. Just then, Manstro walked in and everyone jumped up and shouted praise for him and sang a local celebration song. For a while, I kept thinking back to the boy and his fib. I didn’t understand why such a minor thing was so important to them. Nevertheless, the party was fun and novel and distracted me from my ethical critiques. The Vlancos taught me some new dances, I taught them some, and everyone seemed to enjoy their time together.”
“The next day, I requested Derngo come along with me and my escort, Tooma, to see some more sights. After I finished getting ready, I walked in on my escort. She was down on a pad facing the window, with her hand together in front of her. She bowed to the ground, whispering something about the Creator. I tiptoed behind so I wouldn’t disturb her. But a little later, my escort started exercising, to which, I was not bashful about interrupting.”
“I smiled and strode into the room. ‘Hey Tooma, how about letting me in on some of your Vlancoian work-out secrets.’”
“‘Tammy, it would be my pleasure.’”
“After a series of flexing, endurance and strength exercises, we got ready for our adventure of
the day. It was a blast. Every morning, we would exercise together. However, I was able to find other things to do during Tooma’s prayer time.”
“One day, at the Vlanco Star System Museum, I made some mental notes of the history of their people. The most intriguing was that the Negritee and the Vlanco were two cultures living in this triple star system. The Vlancos lived on Onos and the Negritees lived on what is now called Donos. The Vlancos scientific development was originally more advanced than the Negritee. When space exploration took place, they shared their knowledge with the Negritee to balance the two societies. However, the Negritee people were not as philanthropic as the Vlancos, and started hording the technology for their own purposes. Disagreements started to arise. The tri-star system escalated its technological development to a very advanced stage and ethical complications caused a major rift between the two cultures. Eventually, things erupted into final clash called the Great Battle.”
Tammy took a drink of water and then continued. “There was a spiritual awareness with the Vlanco people, who believe in a holy prophet named the Messenger. The Negritee, however, never accepted his teachings. Later when the Negritee tried to take control over the solar system, they were defeated in the Great Battle, which forced them to retreat to the nearest inhabitable system.”
We were just getting into Tammy’s tale, when she suddenly changed the subject. “Moving from the Vlanco Star System Museum, the next stop was the Vlanco Zoo. This was where I was serious and conscientious. It is, after all my specialty. This was where I felt at peace and at one with the creatures around me. In essence, the zoo was a huge game preserve, the size of a small country. Animals were allowed to roam free.” I pulled out my ComPad and entered visual and audio information for future evaluation. Most life forms seemed to have a similar structure and development as those on Earth. It opened up questions in my mind about the universe and its development. Was there a common thread between all life forms in the Universe? It seemed highly unlikely to her that these similarities could be of a random nature.”
“In all this, I sensed Derngo was my company. He stuck to me like glue.
“Derngo tried to peer into my eyes, while I was examining the animals. ‘Tammy, you seem very serious when we are exploring the animals.’”
“Yes, I am. This part of the tour is where my education comes into play.” I concentrated my scanning device on a furry, struthious creature with a melodic singing that rose up and down a three octave scale.”
Derngo rested his had behind my neck. “‘Tammy, you are a very unpredictable and likable human woman.’”
I tried to concentrate on the animal and look at him too. I gave him a slight glance. “‘Well, your not so bad yourself, ya big hunk.” I elbowed him in the stomach. After he gathered his breath, we laughed and teased one other, during our time with the animals. Tooma, the escort, watched over us with a smile.
“Anyway, things were going really smooth between Derngo and I.” She gave a brief stare over at Chip, to make sure he was aware of her correct grammar, then turned to me. “Oh, and mother Alex, don’t worry, the Vlanco men have no diseases and their plumbing is just like ours, not that I had the opportunity to find out personally,” she pouted. “Because what really blew me away, was how great things were going between us and he didn’t GET THE MESSAGE! If you know what I mean,” she said, pleading to the groups emotions, hands reaching out, in her typical dramatic way.
“For example, he and I were out at one of our dancing arenas and we were getting close and I squeezed his cute little butt.”
“He pulled back with a red face, ‘Oh Tammy, I am sorry if I caused you to become aroused.’”
“I started laughing, until I noticed he wasn’t. So I pursued the topic to find out what was up. I was direct. ‘Derngo, when is it appropriate to get intimate with the opposite sex.’”
“‘Tammy, do you mean copulation?’ He acted a little surprised.
“‘Yea, sure, copulation.’ I was thinking maybe five or six dates.”
“‘Not until the two people have gone through the Bonding Ceremony, of course.’ And he said it with dignity.”
“All I could say was, ‘Oh, yea of course. And all Vlanco guys believe the same?’”
“‘Yes, Tammy. With the exception of some that are mentally defective.’”
“I started thinking about how my Grandfather (when talking about sex) always said, ‘Ya can’t have a smooth coat of paint if you keep touchin’ it with your finger.’ All these Vlanco guys have so much integrity and so little fun. I guess we just weren’t on the same wavelength, because sex is definitely not a mentally defective—...” She stopped when she saw Shelby starring at the floor, shaking her head. “Hey, miss read-the-Bible-all-the-time. Don’t be judging me.”
Startled, by her remark, Shelby looked up at Tammy’s scowl. “Oh, Tammy, I’m not. Really. I just wish you could have been with me during my week, it was unbelievable...there is so much more to life than...”
“Than what?” Tammy shot back.
We could see Shelby trying to weigh the options before descending into Tammy’s abyss, of inevitable doom.
“What?” said Tammy waiting. “You mean, SEX?”
“Wow!” said Dale, scanning the rest of the group for a response.
After a pregnant pause, and with no one else volunteering anything, Tammy reluctantly spoke, “Okay, I’m sorry for that Shelby. But at least I’m honest with my stories. Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance to tell me about your week soon enough.”
There was no doubt, we had tension looming in the air, but I quickly shifted the conversation to keep the situation from deteriorating from bad to worse. “Thanks Tammy, we appreciate the information you have acquired and I think we would all like to hear more, but I’d like to move on to what Tom found out during his time with the Vlanco Military. And it may seem like I’m cutting you guys off prematurely, so we may want to consider having a meeting on a weekly basis to discuss further information about these people.”
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