Gamelli and Friend: A Prose/Poem

(The Middle of the Story Series Compiled - Chapters 1 - 5)1

Chapter 1: I Am Starting In The Middle Of the Story2

I knew Gamelli was the third sex,
but I didn’t know how to think about this person
who had found me
and saved me. 3

I needed a pronoun, an inoffensive way to speak.
We saved our neutral for the inanimate, objects.
Was everything we knew until this point twice gendered? 4

Then I felt Gamelli sifting through the loose flour of my brain,
the fine steel mesh of alien intelligence
rubbing oh so very gently inside my head,
looking for words and meanings
that would explain the impossible,
rationalize the unbelievable,
solidify the unspeakable. 5

“It,” Gamelli said. “I will not be offended,
if you call me ‘it’.
I simply have not chosen yet,
and it is not required that we choose. 6

Until and if I do,
just think of me as
Friend.” 7

It had found the flour fine enough.
Now it would make the bread to break between us.8

Chapter 2. Before Gamelli9

I often wonder
how far in space
we would’ve come,
if Jules Verne hadn’t written
“Earth to the Moon” in 1865.
And would we have ever postulated
that space could be “folded”
if Frank Herbert hadn’t written
“Dune” in 1965?
Prophets both,
100 years apart,
But dreamers and
Writers first.10

That folding of space was the only way we Terrans could have arrived half-way across the galaxy within my lifetime, and negotiated with the three primary governments of the planet Morneth to permit a space-lab, since they would not allow any research facility to be built on the surface. We could observe, take samples of non-living or no longer living organisms, and begin to build relationships with representatives of the government. So far, the extent of sentient beings had astonished us. I was currently playing Fossi to the Gripitchi, many of whom I had named and followed for months, when I came upon a small group in great distress.11

The gripitch Semi had fallen from the high embankment around his water-village. Nothing broken, but the fall had stunned the six chambered muscle which served as his heart, and it had stopped pumping. The pale feathery air-gills at the base of his neck were turning black, and his huddle mates gazed up at me, pleading, mewling piteous little sounds, green viscous tears flowing from their thrice-lidded eyes. 12

I shook my head and sighed deeply: Despite our best intentions on non-interference, we were forever being dragged into planet cultures. I pulled on my electro-magnetic gloves and keyed the cuffs to defibrillate. Bending down, I put one index finger on Semi’s thorax and the other above his pelvis and activated the gloves. Semi lurched, his eyes opened and the crowd’s mewling turned to chirps of amazement, pleasure, and awe. 13

I activated the anti-grav lifter
and floated over the embankment,
away from the Gripitchi village,
toward the shuttle
which would return me to my lab.
I wondered what new legend
the Gripitchi would now invent,
about the giant gods who swam in the air
and raised the dead.
Do all the Lazarus stories start like this?14

It was as I lifted away
that a sharp cyclonic wind caught the lifter
and tossed it like a straw hat against the cliff. 15

All I remember thinking, was,
oh, shit, I have to die
before I can become a god! 16

Then nothing,
blankness,
a cold descending dark.17


Chapter 3. Meeting Gamelli18

The fight would have been
To the death.
But Gamelli floated in like an autumn leaf,
Side to side, seemingly unsteady, but drifting determinedly
Toward the fray. 19

The furry logs-with-mouths snapping at my arms and legs
As I lay pinned beneath the fallen lifter
Were not responding to,
Much less stopped by my stunner,
Even set on max-kill. 20

The death would’ve been mine,
Isolated and inglorious;
Why had I needed to fly over the salt-marsh,
Noting the dead algae, the washed up sea life,
The darkened grayish waters,
Against orders? 21

And I would have been lost, too,
Except for the bubble carrying Gamelli,
Which began to hum, humming from a low sound
Right up the scale to a high pitched scream,
Needles through my ears and skull,
And then silence. 22

But the snapping mouths slowed and back away,
Slipping into the river beside my crash site,
Leaving me gasping and bleeding
And grateful.23


Chapter 4. After the Rescue24

Afterwards Gamelli took me in the bubble to its home, a deep den built into a clay-sided cliff overlooking the salt marsh. I looked around, noting the bell-shaped jars filled with a kaleidoscope of fluids and perhaps sea-life specimens not so different from those sitting in my sky lab just miles up and a starship away. On another wall were weird shapes, wire swirls hanging at odd angles, and bits of metal and shell twisted and floating from the wires. Art, I supposed, but I didn’t understand modern human art either. Two other walls were glassed, letting in a grey-blue light. But Gamelli ignored the view, pushed me gently onto a pallet and hurried to another smaller set of jars.25

Then Gamelli came to where I lay, pulled the torn cloth away from my leg and smoothed green unguent over the bruised and bloody wounds. Instantly the pain lessened, and I was finally able to ask,26

“Why? Why were those log-mouths, attacking me? They were supposed to be placid, non- threatening, certainly not dangerous!”27

Gamelli hummed a little tune, minor notes, mournful, and turned its grey eyes on me:28

“Starvation. They have gone mad with hunger, for themselves, and their chugs, their little ones. There is no more seafood for them: all the tuncla mollusks and sera fish have died, all in this bay, this island, and we think, this continent. We hope, hope and fight despair, that some in the northern hemisphere may yet survive this killing plague."29

The next question leapt from my mouth: "What plague? How – what is it affecting?30

Again Gamelli hummed, and put another layer of the jade-colored ointment on my leg. “You are not susceptible, at least not from this airborne plague. After all, you live with it. You brought it with you.”31

I sat up, astonished, disbelieving. “But we vaccinate ourselves, decontaminate the air of our vehicles, our clothes, we purify all objects we bring to the surface of your world!”32

Gamelli nodded its pearl-colored head, sadness obvious in every movement. 33

“Staphylococcus aureus -- Such melodious sounds for this devastating killer. You carry it on your skin, you shed it in the minutest cells that float off your bodies like deadly missiles. We Handla are immune, as apparently are you. But the tuncla, and sera, they are gone. And the chigona, your log-mouths, they may soon die off as well, unless we can find a substitute food source for them.”34

I am heart-sick, horrified; we have vowed not to interfere with alien life. But this was beyond interference! My mind goes dark, my heart flutters: Two species, in all likelihood, gone from the Universe. oh, Mother's Oath, what have we done?35

The crystal door-frames at Gamilli’s entrance rang like a carillon when the Handla soldiers burst in; the greenish gel upon my broken skin had not yet dried.36

They clicked and uttered guttural commands, and then switched to broken Terran, obviously for me, pointing to me, but still speaking to Gamelli:37

“This one is genocide! We come for murderer!”38


Chapter 5. Incarceration39

Enormous glittering black weapons
Fat, twisted, round wide ends,
Pointed my direction,
Handla soldiers towered over Gamelli,
Their blood red uniforms covered with bulging pockets
I assumed also held weapons.40

I sat frozen on the pallet:
Danger fogged my vision.41

Gamelli stepped in front of me,
And, without raising its voice,
said something quietly,
Caused the soldiers to lower
Their fierce tubas
But still they glared at me.42

“This one is a scientist, not a warrior,”
Gamelli said, switching to Terran for my sake.
“And not a murderer.”43

“Is genocide!” insisted the larger of the two soldiers.
“Brought poison. Killed tuncla and sera –
Ocean life beings!
All gone!
Must face Sea Judge Advocate.” 44

This was followed by more sharp remarks
Full of clicks and low growls.
Finally Gamelli nodded its gray head.45

“Yes, we will come with you,
But no bindings, no chains.
This one is injured.”46

“Ayah, Healer. Understand. We carry.”
One soldier looked at the other,
A silent message passing in their eyes.
One soldier produced from a lumpy pocket
A device that with the push of a yellow button
Grew into an air-filled litter that floated
A half-meter from the floor. 47

Gamelli helped me on, lifting my injured leg.
As remarkably comfortable as the litter was,
I shook with fear.
Gamelli patted my hand and walked beside me
As we left its den,
One crimson soldier leading,
the other following.48

As I wafted between them
I looked toward the shore below us.
Even from here I could see
The stagnant yellow reeds,
The dead orange fish washed up
Befouling the beach.
Nothing moved, except
The brackish water
Lapping sluggishly at the sand.49

Were we truly responsible?50

Once in the soldiers’ shuttle
They locked a clear plastic screen
To separate us from the bridge.
Suddenly a pale pink gas
Started to fill the chamber
And I saw Gamelli sway and crumple.51

Then a red haze filled my brain
And I faded from my own view.52

Later, when my blurry vision struggled
To find the light
I saw both Gamelli and I
Were imprisoned in a dark cell,
Chained to dank walls.53

Gamelli sighed deeply
When it saw I had awakened.54

“I am so sorry,” it said.55