LF Friends, Will Travel

Date: 71 PST (Post Stasis Time).

Tauress was confused. It wasn’t the first instance, and considering how much time she spent around Terrans, it wouldn’t be the last. But out of all the Terran induced confusions that the Ritilian had suffered, this was one of the more confusing.

Tauress was dwarfed by the primates that were part of the crowds and queues that surrounded her, Tauress’s 4ft reptilian stature causing the Ritilian to almost be swallowed up by the swarm of bodies, only her natural pattern of green and blue iridescent scales causing her to stand out slightly from the crowd. Not that anyone gave her much notice: The Ritilians had long been allies and friends of all types of Terrans and everyone here was far more interested in the exhibits this facility had to offer.

The unaltered red rocks of mars fell underfoot as she walked around with Joseph, her Terran friend who had invited her with such enthusiasm to this museum. Mars was well known for its unique architectural style, as the surface had been plagued by war after war during its long and bloody history: different countries sending their own terraforming efforts, fighting over control of the surface, followed by the great colony rebellion. All of these have meant that throughout humanity's entire history there was almost always some kind of war or conflict happening on the fourth planet from Sol.

This meant that Martian cities were more fortresses than liveable spaces, every single apartment and building built to last against all kinds of weaponry, paths and rivers doubled as trenches. You could hardly walk two steps without finding something that was designed to make defending any area easier. There hadn’t been a conflict here for over 100 years, but the impact of those design decisions gave Mars a unique feeling not felt on any other planet.

Apart from this location. This location was as untouched as the day it was created, unaltered red rock was scattered around this educational establishment. Every war fought on this planet, every skirmish, every battle; Both sides had come to the same agreement: You don’t touch this area, this area is sacred. If it wasn’t for the terraformed blue sky, it would have been as natural as the first day that the rovers had landed.

“Dude, I totally got to input commands into Curiosity, this is awesome!”

Joseph beamed with an animated enthusiasm as he spoke, further increasing Tauress’s confusion. The Museum was a simple thing, based around the original exploration and terraforming of Mars. Informational boards were scattered around as they explained the exhibits: videos and other relics of the time, standard activities that were found in millions of museums around the galaxy. A perfect place to visit with kids or just a lazy afternoon.

Apart from one main selling point: This museum’s claim to fame, was to have all 10 original Mars rovers, 7 of which were still in working condition; admittedly much repaired over the many many years. The exhibit in front of them had one called “Curiosity”, still working even through its apparent age, lovingly maintained by experts specially trained in keeping the rovers running.

Tauress had watched Joseph type some commands into a terminal, causing the rover to go sample a piece of soil. Soil that had probably been sampled billions of times by billions of visitors to the attraction over the years. There were very few secrets left to be discovered in this small pile of rocks.

“I don’t understand this, why are you all so excited about an exploration machine?”

Tauress wasn’t the only one confused. While the vast majority of the people at this establishment were Terrans, other species were interspersed within the crowd: the ever adorable Hatil, insect like Krikken, or even a few other Ritilians. All of the non-Terrans were chasing after whatever excited Terran had dragged them here, each one trying to understand why their friends were so excited by the mundane.

“Because it’s Curiosity, it’s the original explorer! Before FTL travel, before the god plague or the Terran Alliance, these were our first steps into the universe! Didn’t the Ritilian’s have their own scientific missions before FTL?”

Tauress shrugged, one of the few motions she had picked up from being around Joseph for so long. She guessed that there must have been similar exploration vehicles and scientific drones sent out into space, but she didn’t know any of their names. Presumably they were all called something reasonable like “Research Drone 5C”. Still, the Ritilian had to admit that compared with most things that excited Terrans, this one was rather… tame. Nothing was on fire for starters.

“I dunno, probably. Honestly I’m more surprised that you haven’t strapped knives or guns to them and fought them against each other.”

Joseph looked a little shocked at that idea. “These ones, the original rovers? Giving them weapons seems… wrong somehow.” The Terran paused for a moment before conceding a point as he continued “Although admittedly there is a place a mile away from here where you can fight weaponized replicas of the rovers against each other… we can go check it out after the singing.”

“The singing?” Tauress questioned worryingly. Anything that had a title given to it by Terrans had half a chance of being dangerous and chaotic. If there was a Terran event going on maybe the Ritilian had laid a clutch of eggs in unstable sands.

“Why do you think these tickets have a four year wait time? Happens once a year. Now shush, it’s starting.”

Something was indeed happening, as the crowd of excitable Terrans had all at once quietened, a member of staff parting the crowd through presence alone as they approached the terminal. There were a few moments as the Terran typed command after command, tension rising as every person in the crowd waited to see what would happen next.

Then, the rover started to move, almost randomly. But each movement produced a tone, a series of tones that Tauress recognized as song, as music. A song she’d had sung at her when she’d told her Terran crewmates that it was her hatching day in offhanded conversation. A song that comes once a year with cake and candles. It was very strange that this rover, an inanimate object with no concept of birthday, was “singing” this song. It ended, leaving the Ritilian more confused than ever in a brief moment of silence. Then in one moment hundreds of voices screamed out at once.

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!”

The sudden influx of noise caused all the non-Terrans, Tauress included, to jump or otherwise exhibit signs of shock. Even when they were doing something peaceful, having this many chaotic crazy apes do the same thing at once was a scary sight.

“Happy birthday Curiosity! Happy Birthday to you!”

“HIP HIP HOORAY! HIP HIP HOORAY!”

The song ended with the crowd cheering and hollering, clapping and whooping. Hugs of joy were exchanged as hundreds of people shared the elation of singing an inanimate object its happy birthday song, thousands of years after it was originally created. Tauress felt the far larger Joseph wrap her in a hug. Not a bad feeling considering the considerable body heat that Terrans gave off compared with the cold blooded reptiles.

“So you enjoyed that I gathered? Was it worth the wait? Do you wanna go check anything else out first or just head back to the ship?”

The Ritilian didn’t understand why the Terrans acted like they did, but it was hard not to feel happy for their joy. Sometimes half the fun of being around the crazy primates of Earth was simply basking in their emotions, even if you didn’t understand why.

“We got one more thing to see, then we can try something else you’ll enjoy.”

—-------------------------

Tauress was still confused, but now for an entirely different reason. The excitement was gone. No longer were Terrans running around in elation, like excited children hopped up on candy. Instead the mood at this exhibit remained sombre, like a funeral.

There were no informational games or terminals here, no fun children’s activities, just a simple raised viewing area, made out of wood, surrounding a single exploration Rover. This one seemed just like all the others, except this one wasn’t moving; half covered in red dust and seemingly untouched for quite some time.

A single informational board was found at the entrance to this area, with a single set of words written on them:

“My battery is low and it's getting dark.”

-Opportunity.

Here lies the last resting place of the Mars Rover Opportunity, after 14 years of dutiful work.

Humanity thanks you.

“I don’t get it…”

The Ritilian started to speak, before Joseph turned to her with a glare, shushing her instantly. His eyes were filled with tears and her Terran friend looked like he was about to cry. Joseph wasn’t the only one, the hundreds of Terrans surrounding them also in various states of distress, from a sad solemn look on their faces to outright silently crying.

It made no logical sense. This machine had been built over a hundred years before any current Terran had been born. Why would they care so much that an expendable exploration drone had stopped working? Because they gave it a name?

It wasn’t like it was the only thing with a name. Terrans had literally formed the biggest galactic alliance in 70 short years, the Terran Alliance meant that they had plenty of inanimate objects to choose from, it wasn’t like they lacked friends… or at least anymore...

With that thought, it suddenly clicked for Tauress.

There were many words people used to describe Terrans. Annoying, Insane. Chaotic. Insurance liability. But in the Ritilian’s experience there was one word that described them more than any other.

Lonely.

They were as a species so lonely that they didn’t realise it, didn’t realise that’s what drove them the most, drove them to explore and make friends wherever they could. This robot, this machine… was before they met friends among the stars. Before they made AI or uplifted their pets into sapience.

Back when they were alone.

All they could do was look up at the night time sky and hope that something was out there waiting for them. In that hope they made a machine to go where they couldn’t, then they flung it across the darkness of space.

When they did so they gave it a name, they gave it a mission, a personality. In doing so they tore off a small part of who they were, and willingly gave it to the inanimate object, knowing that they would never get that part back. Then, they let that part of themselves go, they threw it into the void of the universe, losing that part of themselves forever. Hoping that someday, they’d be able to follow.

Tauress could feel her own eyes start to water as the Ritilian gave up a few of her own tears, joining in the hopeful sadness of the Terrans around her. Tears not for a simple exploration drone, but for Opportunity...

The little part of humanity given away freely and willingly to the universe.