Chapter: 21
KRABBEL Eighteen thousand light years past the Upward - Coreward divide, at the maximum reach of Union influence past the Klack Empire in the Perseus Arm of the Universe is the realm of the Archa. A small spacefaring nation by population standards occupied twelve solar systems. The Archa joined the Union only recently and even though being a minimal power on a galactic scale reached a Tech level of seven all on their own. The immensely powerful and relentless Klack feared the Archa tremendously. A fact that surprised many, as the Klack is generally known as a species having minimal emotions with no one suspecting fear to be one of them. The Klack tell of an unimaginable evil lurking in a region in the star system south of them. The Queen herself warning Union survey ships to beware of that region and spoke of eight-legged nightmare monsters roaming that section of space known in Klack legends as K'Nnktyensh (Certain Death by Darkness). Of course, this had the opposite effect on the Terran explorer captain. The USSNE David Kirk under Captain E. White shortly after being warned by the Queen's associates, on the 2nd of June 4991 made "First Contact" with an Arachnid sentient species which bore a striking resemblant to Terran Tarantula spiders, the major exception being the Archa grew up to seven meters from knee to knee. Their bodies from head to tail was approximately 5 to 6 meters. While the Archa shared similarities with many spiders life forms, especially those found on Terra, they were unrelated nor shared DNA tracers. The Archa were a uniquely different species. The Archa became Union members in 4995, and many Klack still develops panic attacks and feelings of sheer terror just seeing an Archa, intellectually they too accepted the Archa as members. (The historic meeting of the Klack Queen and the Sac Mother of Archa was transmitted on all GalNet Channels and caused much less panic and deaths than anticipated on Klack Worlds, and that was a good sign. Still, Union hospitals were overwhelmed for months. After much discussion between leaders of several societies including Archa, the conclusion was that the Archa was not violent or overly aggressive, but the rigid posture and no-nonsense mannerism as the primary cause of the panic in other societies. The Archa, over the millennia, developed hand-like manipulators on ends of two short legs on the front of their bodies. After contact with the Union, they began, rightfully so, to refer to these as their arms. This arms allowed them to catch and can digest solid food in small morsels, but still, prefer nutrition in a liquid form. They have an Endo and Exoskeleton, with the arms and legs attached to the Endoskeleton. That arrangement allowed the Archa to develop tremendous strength and agility. An adult Archa produces over forty different concentrations and quality of silks almost at will. Naturally, the quality and robustness depended on their nutritional intake. The marketing of the woven spider silks provided great commercial success. The Archa Silk is considered the most expensive fabric available in the known Universe and exceeds even Saresii Silk in quality. A Yard of grade A Archa Silk regularly sells for twelve thousand to fourteen thousand credits on the Union markets. The primary planet and location of the capital of the Archa kingdom was Archathen, a world located at the center of their occupied area of space. ###***###*** The shuttle with the Exchange student from Guayas was about to arrive, and Krabbel was more than a little nervous. Since the Archa had been admitted to the Union only about four standard years ago, so much had changed. Krabbel was still young and was to be the one of the first Archa to finish Union Basic School. The main spaceport was not built on the planet surface but constructed on the biggest of the two moons that orbit Archthen. The available land was too precious for growing edible food and habitat to be wasted on the structures required for a full spaceport. Shuttle bus ferried the passenger from the moon spaceport to large platforms suspended from and supported by towers above the enormous Authh trees. Vast forests covered up to ninety percent of the planet Archthen, with the predominant tree consisting of the Authh species. These trees quickly grew to 10 to 20 meters in a short period of times and then took thousands of years to grow to maturity. They grew to thousands of meters in height. The decision to cut down one of these trees amounted to a long and painful series of events as they were the primary habitat of the Archa, provided prey and other sources of food. They also offered areas of training and recreation. Previously the Archa had their spaceport and shipyard on the bottom of the largest Ocean. It was more than adequate for the fifty ships the Archa had before Union membership. While Union ships had no problem reaching the underwater spaceport, the sheer size of the majority of Union vessels caused disastrous tidal waves. The new Archathen spaceport was now on a cluttered rock moon that had no atmosphere and transport to the planets was via shuttle buses. The Sac Mother and the other elected officials of the Archa government had put a great of effort into opening Archa to tourism and advertised great holiday packages on GalNet. They believed the exposure of other societies would modify the strict posturing and thinking of the Archans and allow the different species to view their people in a more relaxing environment. Complete with free visits to the prey gardens and as much Trexi and Nuflug killing as desired, however only a few tourists had shown up. It was no wonder the tourism traffic had not been more active since the Union was a vast collection of civilizations and offered a mind-blowing variety of recreation and vacation spots. It did not help that Archathen was exceptionally far from Pluribus and the Union Center. The Klack were close neighbors but ever since that little misunderstanding a few millennia ago, where an Archa expedition reached a Klack world and thought it was a world full of wingless Nuflug bugs and went happily for dinner only to realize later they ate sentient Klack. It didn't help either that the Archa looked precisely like the personified death demons of Klack ancient lore. The Klack Queen was very brave and invited the Sac Mother to Klacktic Planet to show her subjects that there was nothing to fear of their new Union partners, but the Queen passed out three times, and the Klack Honor guard fled in panic at the first two tries. Therefore, realistically Klack tourists would not be flocking to visit them anytime soon. The Archa citizenry gave a supreme majority approval of the membership in the Union, mainly because every Archa carried a money machine in their abdomen, and Archa silk and textile products proved to be an enormous commercial success. Krabbels parents owned a silk weaving company went from being of the poorest to becoming As his father would joking say "filthy rich," with the joke being Archains were compulsive cleaners. His mother required that he clean his room in the morning before school, after returning, that one he never understood as no one entered, and hen just before going to bed. A few months ago, it was decided by his Ult Union teacher and his parents that, Krabbel would partake in the Student exchange program. Krabbel, as did most Archa, loved high places with a great view. He watched a dozen juveniles jumping over the edge shooting trailing silk and most likely swinging to the treetops below. These shuttle towers were immensely popular, and for a few moments, he contemplated a jumping dive himself, but a high pitched alarm sounded announcing the approach of a shuttle. While that happened, a bright flashing force field established itself around the center of the platform. Krabbel knew the Exchange student was about his age and he was human. Of course, he had seen humans in Virtus and product buyers, but none so far close up and for real. The shuttle landed silently using its Arti Grav. His teacher had warned Krabbel that the human student might react strongly upon seeing a huge spider. He knew that arachnoid life forms existed quite frequently on many Garden worlds, including Terra and often considered to be harmful and disgusting nuisances. He promised to keep calm, but he was not sure if he liked to be considered disgusting. The shuttle door opened, and a massive human appeared. For Krabbel, it was not that easy to differentiate between their males or females. He hoped he would not insult the human by that mistake. However, the human strode right towards him and said with a loud and friendly tone. "Are you Krabbel? I am Mao Mao from Guayas." "Yes, I am Krabbel. I am here to take you to our home and show you around." Krabbel scurried to the edge of the platform to lower himself, but then he remembered that humans had no silk-producing organ and relied on elevators and other contraptions to negotiate vertical obstacles, but Mao went right to the edge of the 600-meter tall tower and looked down. "I guess the first step is the big one. I did not bring a flight belt or parachute, but I guess I could use one of those many silk lines hanging all about." Krabbel felt embarrassed." I am sorry, Mao. The tower has an elevator. We just never use it to go down. Please follow me." "No need to feel sorry. I should have been better prepared, I guess." He laughed." I am sure glad I am not too much afraid of heights." Krabbel went with the human to the elevators and asked completely surprised. "Someone can be afraid of heights?" Mao stepped into the elevator and said. "Yes, there are humans and other beings who do not feel very comfortable high up, and there are those who are very much afraid of it. It's called Acrophobia, and I believe with Psycho Surgery it is eliminated. However, most humans with a fear of heights commonly stay away from ledges and do just fine." "I guess there are lots of things I have to learn about humans and other beings. Do you find me in any way, disgusting?" Mao looked surprised. "No, I don't, should I?" Krabbel moved his left leg with no gesture. "My teacher warned me and said I should accept that the human student might find me disgusting and work toward changing their minds and attitudes." Mao moved the parts where his arms were attached to his body in an up and down movement. "I guess there could be humans who might think so but there are equally as many I think who find spiders extremely beautiful. I don't think there is a generalized human taste or perception of anything. What one guy finds pretty, the next one finds ugly." Krabbel attempt to imitate Mao nodding but gave up and ask him to explain what it meant. Mao, laugh a little and then saw Krabbel was earnest, so he took time to describe the human's body parts and what the meaning of most movements. He said maybe later he would go over the more cruel gesture after they became more accustom to each other and it would not be offensive but learning. The elevator had reached the bottom, and Mao added. "I am in the middle of that until a month ago, I didn't think about spiders one way or the other and we have a few big types on my world, well hand sized and small compared to you." They both left the tower lobby and went outside. Mao looked around and saw that the buildings and structures of the Archa City were around and between the enormous trees, and attached with silk strands, steel-like cables, and wires to the trees. After looking closer, he believed the wires were for other than an attachment, but possibly for data and energy transfer. Most of the buildings reminded him of insect cocoons in their organic round shape. Some looked thin and tall, and there were a sphere and bean-shaped buildings between the trees on the ground. There were traditional windows, advertisement signs, and light flyer traffic. The forest floor was not paved but a bed out of brownish leaves. He did see a group of Archa workers collect branches and fallen tree limbs and spread fallen leaves to even pathways. The city had a tranquil, quiet character. Mao had seen several busy Union cities on his way to Archa when he had to change space busses. That was, according to his guide pamphlet, the capital city of a member species and yet it was tranquil, you could hear the wind and the crunching leaves under his feet. Krabbel raised four of his legs. "Welcome to Archa and Tab our biggest city." Mao looked towards his host. "Your capital is quieter than the jungle villages of my planet. There does not appear to very much traffic for a capital city, as other capital cities are super busy and noisy." Krabbel pointed upward, saying, "Most traffic is up there among the treetops, we use bridges and swings of silk threads. Also, our acoustic speech range is a much higher frequency than used by humans. I am using a universal translator/simulator device to communicate with you." ---- Mao had met with the Sac Mother the elected Queen for life and a group of officials who assured him that the entire planet and all Archa worlds would be open for him to explore and everything would be paid for by the Archa tourism board. He then was shown to Krabbel's home, a bean-shaped cocoon house suspended by a network of silk cables between three trees. The house had no stairs inside, but there was an elevator on the outside connecting the house with the ground. It was a circular platform without hand railings which accelerated quickly up a thin woven silk thread. Mao had to sit down and hold on to the edges of the disc. Archa Elevators were something he needed all his courage to use. Krabbel's parents were amicable and tried to make him feel welcome. Krabbel's father was missing two legs and three of his eight eyes. He suspected it to be war wounds or an industrial accident but was informed by Krabbel that his mother almost killed his father after the mating, but loved him so much she was able to suppress her killing instinct and only cripple him a little bit. He would not think of having them regrown or replaced as he explained it was a great honor and visible proof of his wives love for him. A week into his stay on Archathen, Mao, arose at first light and got ready for his jogging and then a refreshing swim. He found that the Archa rarely woke before noon, as they remain active until late at night or the wee hours of the day. So he had plenty of time each morning to thinking thing through and enjoy the solitude. This morning was to be different as he was greeted by Krabbel, "Good morning, Mao." "Good morning, Krabbel. What woke you so early?" "I wanted to join you in your morning activities and learn a little more about the way human act." "I don't think you can generalize that either, humans have different morning habits. I like to exercise and keep in shape. My brother is much like you, stays up late, and then sleeps till later in the morning." "It honors me that you find me worthy of being compared with your brother." "Krabbel, as you know I have been here only one week, and I am certainly no expert on Archa, but you guys need to loosen up. Relax when you talk with others, I and the others will no bite you. I mean we will not think badly of you if you make a mistake. So long as you correct it the soonest, you know better. You got a wonderful planet and the most amazing city, and I am not so sure you and your leaders fully understand how a gang of tourist will change things, unfortunately, not for the better. They will ask, no, demand you change to serve them better. You keep advertising, and they will come, you know." Mao made a broad gesture as if to describe a planet with his hands. "I am from a very secluded planet, and we take great efforts to keep it that way. I am not exactly a traveling person, but from what I have seen so far, large talking spiders are, by far, not the most unusual life form out there." "But it seems humans and humanoids are the dominant species," Krabbel said. "We discussed that subject many times in our Union school. It's is known as the Human mystery, and most Scholars believe that the Pree or the Uni seeded the human life forms somehow on many different planets, But recently, we had an avatar lecture by an exploration ship's captain returning from a three-year mission in the Andromeda Galaxy. They encountered many sentient civilizations, but none were humanoid. I bet if you had access to the entire Universe for the same amount of time, there might be just as many spider species as humanoids." Krabbel made his surprise gesture. "This sounds quite possible." The spider accompanied Mao on his five klick run and even took a swim with him and invited his new friend to Archathen's first Terran/human style restaurant. It was Arthur's Swine and Dine. Mao found the spider dressed up as a cartoon pig was the most frightening thing on this world, after regaining his composure, he expressed that to Krabbel. "Could you imagine Archa having Halloween and dressing up as ghosts and goblins?" "Oh, but we do. It is an enjoyable Terran custom, and it quickly became the biggest event on Archathen. Everyone participates and thinks about a new costume all year long." "Now that is frightening." "No, not really, most dress as kings, queens, court jesters, jugglers, with only a few choosing horror costumes. The most exciting ones are those who find they are excellent jugglers, imagine some with two hands and six legs performing as such." Mao was not especially hungry and already a warm day he ordered his favorite fun food, ice cream. Krabbel leaned over. "What is that?" "It's soft serve Ice cream. One of the few off-world things we have on Guayas. I and most everyone there loves it." "Sounds good, so think I will try it also." "I did not think you could eat human foods?" "Long before the Union found our system, we were slowly adapting to solid foods, most of us still prefer liquids, as we don't have teeth." "You don't need teeth for soft serve ice cream if you don't eat the waffle." The serving Archa brought the ice cream and remained there watching Mao first and then Krabbel. "You are our first real customer, and it is our first ice cream order. I hope you don't mind me watching to see what you do with it." Krabbel took the cone and extended his upper chelicerae and squeezed some of the waffles content into his throat, and it was nothing he had ever tasted or experienced before. The stuff was cold, freezing, and it refreshed him and felt fantastic, but the taste was even more amazing. It was sweet, aromatic, and creamy delightful. He ate the rest with gusto. Mao found it amazing to see a spider that excited with an ice cream cone. Several spiders had joined the grotesque pig spider, and they all watched Krabbel eat ice cream. Even Mao had forgotten to eat his and waited for a response of his eight-legged friend. Krabbel finally found his voice and almost screamed at the Pig. "More," He waved his legs, "Please, bring more. That is better than young Nuflug or even Hago wasp. It is like eating the nectar of the Gods. I love it, please more." Mao thoughtfully offered Krabbel his cone, Krabbel did not even hesitate but took it and down it in one quick squeeze. Other spiders now ordered it too, and within an hour there was a line of spiders that formed an extensive line around the restaurant and was down the path to the first building. The restaurant ran out of ice cream within two hours. Mao now wore a tiny special earpiece that allowed him to hear and understand the spiders, and he heard someone yell, "There is a new Arthur's, opening today at the Spaceport." The vast crowd scurried away to the next shuttle tower. Mao, curiously thought that it was not a mob but orderly and respectful. He wonders how long that would last after the tourist began it surge onto Archathen. Krabbel was disappointed that there wasn't anymore, but the manager promised they would have more as soon as the supply ship brought their next supply order, they promised to notify their headquarters to increase their request for ice cream making ingredients. The management of Arthur's called back and spoke to the owners o Arthur's on Archthen, hey decided to make a significant change in their menu, exclusively for them. It would be centered around ice cream, more correctly Gelato. And slowly introduce their regular list of solid food after gaining the population trust. After hearing the manger's of the two stores on Archathen, the owners knew they had a winner. Later at home, Krabbel convinced his mother to order a robotic Ice cream maker via GalNet. Mao was surprised to learn that the Ice cream discovery made the headline news as they called him into the family room while they were watching a local channel even with footage showing him and Krabbel eating it. But the exciting, happy newscast was interrupted by a GalNet News bulletin detailing a massive battle between Union, Dai Than, and Nogoll space fleets. The images were frightening but fascinating at the same time, and Mao wished he could be there. His eyes glowed with fascination as he watched a Union Battleship fire all weapons simultaneously. "One day, Krabbel, one day, I will be a tactical officer on one of those mighty ships." Krabbel hanging from a silk string from the ceiling watching the newscast twirled around to face his friend." I am hoping they will accept me at the academy too. I want to be the first Archa in the Union Fleet. To bring honor not only to my family but to show the Universe we, Archans are trustworthy and productive members of the Union."