Thruokoot Fnaaffpfaargaan hated
space travel -- space was too damned
cold, and no matter how stuffed the ship was with thermal
reactors, it could never quite
warm the place up enough for his liking. He longed for the vast
seas of his
home, where the warmth never ended. But he knew he might never see those seas again, for he was on a
mission, a vital
search for a new home for his entire kind.
A signal sounded in his pod, and Thruokoot deftly used his whispy
tentacles to drop the ship out of
superlight speed and into
orbit around a Class G
star. The system checked out; everything about the size and stage of the star seemed just right to support life. But then, he wondered, would there already be life there? He pulled into a lazy curve through the system, when -- there it was, another ship, a strange little one, but definitely unnatural, something created by
intelligent life. He scanned the conditions of the vessel and found it incapable of supporting life. Perhaps it was a
probe, employing some bizarre
technology? Perhaps it had once supported life, but had lost power and been
frozen in place? But then -- impossible!! He received a signal from it!! Some living thing inside that tiny, frozen vessel was trying to communicate with him!!
His ship's
translation devices crackled and sparked before finally completing a translation of the incoming signal: "Alien spacecraft, this is
Earth Defense. Identify yourself and your
purpose here."
The tone was
ominous, but they had not attacked, and so it might be possible to reason with them. Thruokoot resolutely crackled his tentacles, knowing that he had to communicate to these beings the
plight of his people, to beg their
indulgence for the sake of the continued
existence of his race. "
I come in peace," he began. "My people originate many light years from here. As we speak, our star is on the brink of going
supernova; if we do not find a new home, we will be extinguished."
A moment's pause. And then a reply begin to filter through. "We must be sure that your
intentions are
peaceful. We are going to send a
boarding party--" and then in the background, suddenly, a different voice; "Captain, wait -- this -- this is impossible!! We can't board this ship, the temperature is over
thirty thousand degrees!!"
Thruokoot tilted a whisp to the left -- it
was a bit chilly in his pod.
The other ship remained silent for a moment longer, and then, with a slightly confused tone, its captain communicated again. "What.... what are your intentions towards the third
planet of this system?"
"Third planet? Why would I have any intentions towards a
planet? Nothing could survive in one of those; you'd freeze into a
liquid, or even a
solid." A quick scan of the satellite in question revealed it to be unlivable; three quarters of its surface was coated with
toxic liquid
dihydrogen monoxide; even the core was a chilly slurrly of liquid
iron, not even 10,000 degrees.
And then
realization dawned. These people, they were actually from the
planet -- they were
solids, solid life forms composed of some strangely suspended mix of frozen and liquid
particles. Thruokoot had heard the
scientists amongst his kind
speculate that such a thing might be possible, but he could never conceive it to be so. Now
understanding, Thruokoot made clear, "we have no interest in any of your planets. We are
plasma life forms. We wish to live in your star. From the planet, you will not even know we are there."
Some quiet
chatter could be heard from the other vessel, until the
verdict finally came through. "If you wish to live on -- in, is that right, you want to live
inside our star?"
"That is correct."
"Well that is -- beyond our
jurisdiction, I guess, so you may carry on. We, uh, we look forward to sharing our system with your, uh.... people."
Within half an hour, Thruokoot was laying a few meters below the surface of the
Sun, utterly content as its
flames energized his aching whisps, and its delightful
gravitational and
magnetic fields washed over him. His ship remained in orbit, a quarter way between the surface and the
first planet. The signal had been sent; his people were coming to their new home; the habitable star had been found.