In the beginning...
The human male paused for a moment. He wanted to catch some air from his breathing tubes. These breathing tubes snaked around his padded suit, clinging onto him as a matter of life and death. His appearance was unclear to the any onlooker that may be around in this desolate place, as his whole body and face masked by his space suit and helmet.
He moved forward stepping through a contraction of space, overtaken by numerous machine or ship parts, panels, etc. You name it; it was probably taking up any space the human male needed to walk through. He walked through a darkened place, corridor, sleeping room, or maybe what was left of a bridge, this astronaut was not sure. Wherever he was, he came nearby some rubble of metal slabs; maybe these were remains of a ceiling. He had to duck under the collapsed ceiling, which was dangling at a very prickly angle. He then had to mount over some old steel girders, which may have kept the ceiling or walls in place at one stage of the ship's lifetime. There were some waving hanging wires, which he dodged. More panels, slightly smaller, became his next obstacle, which he tackled with ease as he stepped over, and again under more of the same archaic wiring, this batch of wires would spark too close to him and too often. All this he did in pale darkness with just his torch attached to his helmet to help guide him through this dark vault of a ghost spaceship. What happened to the crew was anyone's guess, as the remnants of their activities were not clear as their paths were now snowed under dust and ship parts.
Elsewhere, in a temporary cubicle built for their observation mission inside this same dark vault, deep inside the same ship, were two other humanoid beings, Toll and Dell. Their surroundings were brighter due to their props of lanterns and overhead lights put in place so they didn't had to observe in darkness. These two aliens were watching their first ever humanoid that they had encountered in their lifetime. Nobody before them never had this opportunity or experience of seeing this rare specimen.
They watched through their mini portable screen, which Toll held in his gloved palms. Toll was short in stature; Dell was the eldest, by twenty or more years, who can tell with these creatures as they were both filled out with bulging waistlines drooping over their belted white, shiny pants and with sagging skin all over their faces, making their eyes droop downwards following the force of the ship's gravity.
They both wore identical pants and white jackets with pockets filled with gadgets and laser pens, handy for quick note taking. They didn't wear helmets or a spacesuit. Metal tipped boots upon their feet and matching white gloves adorned their aging hands. These gloves were no clumsy type gloves, these were the kind of gloves that some of us in the 21st Century could do with when we were doing tricky delicate work outside in the winter garden, or inside our homes, in the not so insulated attic as we were doing our DIY, when the attic room temperatures always seemed to drop below the freezing temperatures outside in the wintry garden.
These new, modern gloves, fitted better than a glove normally should. These gloves protected the wearer's hands from the extreme cold and also from the heat, and any other nasty, chemical substances that could be accidentally handled. They fitted around your fingers in a comfortable fashion, not tightening the skin like those see-through plastic gloves we had to wear in the school chemistry labs way back in the 21st Century. These new, modern gloves of Dell and Toll's were made from a 'magic' stretching material, which stretched so as to fit your odd sized fingers inside. These gloves were also non-disposable, easily cleaned, and the wearer had often had a spare one sharing accommodation with the gadgets and laser pens inside the large white jacket pockets.
The wearers of these amazing gloves continued to watch the screen as the human went on his exploration of a particular box that was secured upon an ancient wall. Once he studied that piece of history, the human male caught something at the corner of his. It was a dangling placard that hung against a decrepit wall of bent metal.
"It can't be!" Toll exclaimed, "They are supposed to be extinct."
"Do you think this place is his habitat?" Quizzed Dell.
"No! I'm not sure?" Toll pondered, studying the human male that glimmered on his handheld screen. The human was up to his head in protective apparatus, which he checked regularly.
"Hold ..led Toll. He pointed his wrinkly long finger towards the image on the small screen in front of him. "He has been walking in a constant circle, and around the corridors."
"Is he lost?" Dell was getting curious about their new find. Dell peered at the image on Toll's screen, trying to make out the human's movement.
"Yes!" Confirmed Toll, "Look!" He excitedly pointed to the moving figure on his screen.
"His behaviour mimics our own behaviour when whenever we get lost and lose our bearings."
"But is this a human? This is wonderful!" Dell glees for joy. "Migi Gell was right. His theory about the human's survival in this spiral of stars is true."
"Some call it a 'galaxy'." Dell insisted. His arrogant tone annoying his colleague. "My previous generation insisted on it as the word came from their ancestral language." Dell asserted himself.
"Well, my previous generation insists on 'spiral', and they are much older than yours." Toll said smugly. He knew what he was talking about. "Galaxy indeed!" He mocked cruelly at his colleague's upbringing of such nonsense.
Ignoring Toll, Dell turned to the screen. "Look!" trying to break away from their little disagreement. "He has dialect, but there is no one there. Who could he possibly be talking to?"
"O.K. Record and study!" Toll ordered.
"Hold on! I don't think I need to. Some of his dialect is similar to the old language. I can translate."
"Still record it; I need to prove of my theory." The scientist barked. "This proves it that the old language is a distorted form of the human dialect."
The human male moved away from the placard once he finished talking to himself. HE had to climb over an bent desk that was still plastered with large circuit boards. Once he climbed over he stopped, pausing in front of a circuit board. He started jotting down notes of the group of symbols displayed, by using an electronic pen on his hand-held monitor. He copied down everything meticulously, every little detail. He drew the symbols D.A.N.G.E. and R. He then spoke to his electronic pad.
"Six symbols in one group. Each symbol is different. The next group is a group of four symbols. The two middle symbols are the same." He then drew the symbol's K.E.E.P. onto the pad. "The third group had only three symbols, all individually different." He copied down on his pad the third group of symbols, carefully, OUT. "Each group," he commented, "are in large print and bold colour, maybe to alert certain people, or it may be an important message to the crew."
After Dell translated the human dialect, Toll and Dell looked to each other.
"Obviously this place is not his habitat. If so, he would be able to recognise those symbols" Dell commented, excitedly.
"That destroys my theory." Toll was disappointed at being disproved. Until now, his theories had been proven correct.
"I told you those symbols weren't human." Shouted Dell. "Are you sure that 'he' is a 'he' and not a female?"
"Obviously, you haven't studied the new screens hot of the recent excavation of the human fossils." Gloated Toll.
"When did this happen? I stayed at my habitat a full day waiting for the report." Dell became disappointed. This was a regular occurrence for Dell, to be left out of the news loop.
"You must have slept."
"I was exhausted." Excused Dell.
"Not my fault. Your age is getting to you."
"Well, you're not far behind."
"Hello!" A different voice interrupted their flow of banter, "Can you understand me, but can you two stop arguing or whatever?" Toll and Dell looked to their screen. The human male was no longer in view. Talking with difficulty, Dell froze as the new voice spoke again. "I'm right behind you."
Dell managed to utter a short sentence, "Sounds like he's near."
"From my sound receptors, I can tell that he maybe behind us." Shivered Toll, 'Can this rare specimen be this close to us? Wow!'
"Just be calm!" reassured Dell, taking control of their sudden anxiety. "I....will....turn around to check if he is behind us." He slowly nodded his head to get Toll to give him the O.K. Toll nodded his head nervously and excitedly. Dell slowly and guardedly turned his ripened head around to glance. He glanced, and he squealed. Then Toll squealed.
The human male was behind them, and he reached out his suited arm to calm them down.
"Sorry!" he tried to soothe them "I didn't mean to frighten you, but you frightened the pants off me." They squealed some more. "I wish I can understand what you are saying or arguing about? Maybe, I can help?"
Toll panicked, "Quick! Interpret, hurry!"
"Pardon!" Dell stopped squealing and joined in the panic with his colleague. He dropped his hand-held console in the panic. "I...talk...I..." That was as much of any words Dell could utter.
"Oh! Holy above!" exclaimed Toll, "How are you supposed to interpret, if you can't speak your own language?"
"Sorry! I am nervous. It is our first encounter of these Gods." Dell spoke slowly. "These are the Gods of the Genetics, creators of the Techno Civilisation." He sighed, controlling his nervous breaths, "I'll try my best. I cannot concentrate when I am nervous."
"Hold on!" the human said, holding out his little console, his eyes perused the data of symbols and information cluttering the screen. "You know that some of your language is similar to mine. I'm picking out similar pronunciations."
"He is saying that some of our language is similar to his." Dell translated. "Obviously, he is one of the more intelligent humans."
"Didjtu!" Toll frustratingly slapped Dell on the head, "Don't insult his race. Of course he's intelligent. All humans were intelligent, as they were gods."
"Not all humans were gods, and not all were intelligent!" Dell argued. "Did you read my report on my findings last solar week? I believe some were less intelligent, and definitely uncivilised. Most didn't contribute to their own social development. This is probably the reason why the humans became extinct."
"EXTINCT!" shrieked Toll, frightened of a reprisal from the Godly human. "Well, apparently they are not extinct!"
The human looked bemused, even he began to show signs of panic in his voice and face, as he stared, his blue eyes wide opened as they pierced at the two strange beings. Like them he shrieked, but not with his voice, but in his head, his inner voice. His heartbeats tightened inside his chest, and the tension burnt inside his stomach. One of the pronunciations sounded familiar.
"EXTINCT!" He checked the translator on his monitor. "Extinct?" He looked back at the two aliens. "Hey! We're not extinct! Do I look extinct?"
"I think he is displeased with us," Dell looked away from the human, trying to avoid eye contact.
"How can you tell?" Nervously spoke as he shied away from the human.
"The shrieking tones of his tongue." Dell confirmed
