The place we all ended up at was some sort of a great hall, or room. Actually, it looked more like an abandoned theater room. Only the theater chairs had been removed and only the stage area remained. The entire concourse to the main stage was devoid. The edifice outside was stripped of any indication of what this place once was.
Again, no signs at all. No writing at all. It was dark and only candlelight illuminated the walls and main area where the food was placed.
Someone must have alerted the kitchen crew because baskets and other earthenware was distributed on a plank of tree that extended the entire length of the stage area. As we walked up the side steps there was quite the assortment of various flora and legumes well-appointed and served with decorum from this planet.
The plank itself was literally just that. A plank of tree. It was old, rotted on the edges and rough to the touch. It was mounted upon stumps and other bits of brick that had moss and other indications of age and decay.
It smelled like an old closed up shed after a rain.
There were no chairs.
I had visited Morocco once in my 20's They eat like this, but it was much more sanitary. Bowls to wash your fingers, carpeted floors and tables, lots of cushions everywhere. Beautiful Nubiles attending to your every need. I did a layover once on a space port outside of Orion and they had this type of setup. Only the women there had the figures of irradiated potatoes.
Our youthful tour guide motioned A and I sit in the center of the plank which was good. I did not want to be at the 'Head' of the table. I did not want to be 13 inches from A at any moment.
" So far so good." I spoke.
" I do not detect any subterfuge, Sir"
" From what I can see you were correct. They don't eat meat."
" Try to be mindful, Sir. They have invited us here and we should present, as humans say, 'a good faith effort'."
" Oh! I agree. Actually, I'm kind of hungry."
The locals began to show up. It soon turned into a clown show. Two showed up and sat at the far end and began making out. Another two showed up wearing some sort of costume and sat opposite of myself. Our Andro-friend sat across from A. She/it seemed to be the least fucked up of the Rocky Horror Picture Show that assembled before me.
One couple arrived and I swear they had both their heads up both each other's asses. To my left several sat down and instantly began complaining about everything (as A would point out to me later).
However, to my right a few elders sat next to A and I. They seemed normal. Or, as normal as this scene could muster.
It took a moment, but I soon figured it out. The so-called normal ones sat on the right of the assembly.
But what I was not prepared for were the children of this maniacal society from the Island of Misfit Toys. They ran everywhere! Screaming and crying. Flopping down in tantrums. Tugging on all of us as if they wanted something. There seemed to be Nannys of some sort that raced around chasing them, pulling them off the plank as they trampled the food.
No one said a thing or stepped up. The amorous couple at the end of the plank was now getting naked. The costumed ones were making some sort of animal noise. Others just stuck their heads into their asses. And the complaining ones just kept on complaining.
Meanwhile to my right the elders just sat quiet.
Even A was trying to figure out this circus show. I just sat there. A's two eyes were bouncing left and right independent of each other. Her droid hand tapped fingers on the table. Oh! She was totally confused.
I love when this shit happens. A million-dollar droid can't figure out what a three-ring circus is.
I just started to laugh and reached across the table for a piece of what looked like fruit in the shape of a pear. I whipped out my buck knife to cut it and the room went silent.
All eyes were trained onto my hands. Even the amorous couple at the end of the table disengaged from coitus, which was sad because I had not seen a good live sex show since Titan Station before I loaded up the Union for this fuckery of a mission.
A moved her metallic hand onto mine to cover my obvious social faux pa'.
" Ahh-nuu-ahhme" pointed our andro-host to my hands. But she seemed to be the only one the least phased by my use of a utensil. She just reached out for another piece of alien fruit and smashed it open with her hand. She looked up at A as she shoveled a handful of whatever that was into her mouth.
"Ahh-nuu-ahhme. Ahh mii-mii." She spoke. Pointing to my hands.
"Sir, put your knife away." A kept his hand over mine. "Have you not noticed there are no eating utensils on the surface?"
Actually, I did not notice. I was so occupied with the sex show and the screaming kids to notice anything that resembled a sense of dining decorum. I put the knife away into my side pocket, smiled at our host. Then I placed the pear thingy on the table and slapped it with my hand.
Apparently, that worked!
The room's occupants made approving noises. The fur costumed couple went on purring, the complaining couple just shifted the argument and the sex freaks started back in with a reverse cowgirl. The brats were eventually escorted out, although one kid had to be dragged out by their feet. The group on my right still remained silent.
"A. ask her...it.. about the fires. What was she going on about?"
I reached down to pick up some of the smashed fruit pieces to eat but parts of it started moving. I wanted to point this out to A but she was too busy translating my question.
But our host did not respond. Instead, asked A why she did not require food. The fur people were eating. The sex freaks were using the food for... Never mind. Even the silent minority on my right was busy smashing fruit and picking up the runaway morsels. But it was the complaining Karens that pushed the subject.
I guess the pixie dust might not be such a bad idea Afterall.
I decided to interject. "I want to hear more about the cities." A stopped and translated my question again. I decided, yet again to interject. "Tell her."
"Tell her what, Sir?"
"Tell her what powers you and why you don't eat and what the fuck happened here?"
Poor A. She was ping pong balling between the three of us trying diplomacy with pragmatism, which did not seem to be the axiom of these people. It was at this point in time that the group to my right was summoned by our Androgynous host to speak up.
But I had to chime in once again. I tend to do that from time to time when I see something that just isn't right.
"What is with this group?" I elbowed my arm to the right. "Why are they here and silent?"
A listened to our host as she rambled on. I let her speak because I wanted the full explanation from A of how and why this society came into being. I looked to my right and the elders there sat in silence with heads bowed, but NOT up their asses.
Something happened here.
Finally, the conversation was finished and A was ready to translate. And she would word for word being an AI Droid.
"Once there were great cities. Many peoples. Many problems but also much hope and help to keep the society going forward. Commerce, trade and education that would excel our people into the future. There were wars but they ended up making society better and creating much technology. The environment suffered but there was much help and people who changed things to preserve it. The society became better.
"However, certain words and actions started to spread in the society and the people became scared. They demanded an end to the old technologies and histories. Eventually laws were passed that prevented people from improving society and speaking out against the... Sorry, Sir my translation cannot find the correct Earth word in their language. But, the algorithm in my central processing keeps defaulting to an old Earth term from the early 21st Century."
"What is it?" I asked.
"Political Correctness, Sir."
I had heard of this. I took a semester in early 21st Century history back in Academy. I was too busy hooking up with girls and my flight training so I could qualify to pay any attention to history. I just needed to pass the class. But from what I can gather there was a time when words and actions became offensive to groups of people that laws were passed so no one was made to feel (what was the term?) triggered. Yeah! That was the term!
People got all upset about everything all of the time. Earth descended into chaos leading up to the Cultural Civil War of 2090 in Old America. Chaos reigned in other nations for decades after.
Eventually those people wiped out anyone who did not use the proper terminology. It was a genocide. Which was odd because those groups doing the killing were the same groups calling against such crimes to others. It was almost Oxymoronic. They eventually began killing their own. It kind of worked like a virus until the host was dead and the virus just died out on its own. The death toll was in the billions. History was wiped clean.
Only a small group of people who thought outside the general acumen (and survived) went on to build the society I grew up in. They saved what books, documents and something called Videos that they could and ushered in an era of reason, faith and a zest to explore the stars.
Were these people on my right those old men from a similar time?
