The Life of Me

Before I tell you about the experiences of the Esterilman voyagers on Earth, I will be failing in my duty as the chronicler of this event if I were not to tell you at this juncture the composition of the group. The crew consisted of the Captain of the ship, Captain Zemobius; the pilot/navigator, Histarel "Hit" Maxter; the communications expert, Xanth Maxter (yes, they are brothers!); the security incharge, Major Kantzon; the medico, Elswane Vold; and the "hardware" guy who looked after the general upkeep of the ship's various mechanisms - Jandrez Migaston. In addition to the crew, there were also: a representative of what can best be translated as the Federal Government of Esterilma - Councillor Dravond, a Secretary in the Central Governing Council, and his secretary, Mirdy (it is surprising how young secretaries all around the universe are addressed only by their first names with no mention of their last names); Dreston Gombolin, an affluent businessman in Esterilma; and Samlena Corotis, an anthropologost specialising in the leading emergant races of the universe. For those of you who are wondering as to how the Esterilmans planned to communicate with Earthlings, they had what can best be described as the two-way equivalent of the Babel Fish, made popular on Earth by that magnum-opus, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". So the problem of communication or rather the lack of it was not a significant issue for the Esterilmans.

While they were still crossing the Rings of Saturn, the Esterilmans analysed the atmosphere of the Earth and, with wrinkled noses, had their first inkling that all was not well with the Earth. As they got closer, they surveyed the demographic distribution on the surface of the planet to decide which would be the best place to start their trade negotiations. Understandably, they decided to make their landing at the Big Apple - New York City - that great amalgam of Wall Street Big Money and the mugger-infested 'backlands' of the Bronx. Given the sensitivity of their tissues, long used to pure air, they found the ambience stifling, to say the least. But while they were still preparing to land, events were underfoot to prepare for their 'reception'. The US Army was on top-emergency alert, while the various intelligence networks of the world were swapping allegations at first and information later in a frenzy. Inspite of all this, surprisingly when the landing did take place, it was the media that got there first, pipping all the enforcement agencies. This came about again by sheer coincidence - something I think has become all-too-familiar by now to the readers. The landing took place near the regional office of a well-known round-the-clock news station. Now, you may well imagine the kind of media circus that such an event as the landing of an inter-galactic spaceship can create...

On this day, the Twenty-second of March in the year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Four, I set down to recount the fantastic and tragic experiences of the crew and passengers of the spaceship Glutamoda of the planet Esterilma, third from the star Zeta Oblangata, which is tucked away in the not-so-far recesses of the western sky as seen from our own planet. It must be pure coincidence, as is often witnessed in the hyper-drive enabled modern space travel of today (albeit not in our planet), that the far-flung planet of Esterilma and our own Earth share quite a few similarities. As you must understandably have noticed, it is the third planet from its sun, which as anyone knows is a medium-sized star - similar to our own Sun. There is water on Esterilma and a weather and an atmosphere almost similar to those of Earth. Of course, the air is purer for the breath, with the Esterilmans having developed purer modes of transport and energy usage long ago. On the whole, you can say that Esterilma is a lot better than Earth, by Earth's standards.

Coming back to the intrepid bunch of space travellers of the Glutamoda, it is of interest, to those who are interested in such things, to know what made this merry group to stumble upon Earth. Thousands of years ago, the Esterilmans developed unmanned space probes that can travel at a speed of about a million times that of light. One of these probes stumbled on Earth around 2500 years ago, when the Egyptians were busy building those glorified tombs of egotistic Pharaohs which we call the Pyramids, the most glorious examples of which stand at Giza. After taking some friendly sight-seeing photographs, these probes went back to their land. The Esterilmans had realised by then the power of the living mind and bvelieved in condensing this power and using it. Curiously - yet again the Coincidence - they used pyramidal structures for this purpose. Hence, they thought that the Earthlings are going to reach the same level of technology as them, in the near future. Giving ample time for the Earthlings to develop to their level, taking into consideration the pace of development of science on their planet, they finally sent a group of young Esterilmans to visit Earth and convey their desire for a healthy trading relationship. I hope to have satisfied the curiosity of those inclined to nitpick at the details of how the inter-galactic travellers came to find themselves on Earth. Back to the story of these adventurers...

To be continued...