Oxygénia

06 – Search for the unknown one
Peter felt he had to find the young man. Some inexplicable
feeling told him that this young man wouldn't reject his approach,
not walking by him without noticing him. This young man...
He jumped up, left the raspberry cream and hurried into the
entrance hall. The young man, however, had already disappeared.
Angry and disappointed, he went out to the square again. Before
his dinner, it had been much brighter than the day before, now it
was much darker. Peter mused whether the air was much more
polluted now, whether the source of light – the sun? – much weaker
now. The square made an even unfriendlier appearance, even
repulsive.
Peter exactly knew the history of spacefaring of mankind. He had
learned about the conflicts that came with the first contacts with
other inhabited planets. There had been planets where the
spacefarers from Earth had been welcomed warmly and with open
arms. With numerous satellites along the Milky Way there were
regular radio and television connections, and there were space
flights that ran to schedule. But there had been cases where the
bold explorers had to endure torture and death. Sometimes, the
natives had been scared by the comers from Earth, had put them in
chains or showed them in zoos. On other planets, they were taken
for gods, natives threw down themselves before them and offered
them sacrifices. There were planets where it was tried to
communicate with the inhabitants with the interplanetary
translator, and others where a landing couldn't even be attempted
because the defense weapons of the planet destroyed them long
before. Who knew who lived on this planet? Was it a united tribe?
Or where there differing beings here? Was July also get captured by
them? How would she be? Or had she also met these strange,
indifferent beings that were equipped with masks? The machines he
had worked on and the supply indicated for the presence of beings
that were higher developed. But where? And who were they?
His thoughts went in circles. He couldn't break through this
chain with logic. Now that he wasn't hungry anymore he decided to
take a look in the school book. He had given up on finding the
unknown young man.
He sat on the concrete bench next to the playground, switched
the translator to the little hieroglyph and pointed it towards the
school book. Eagerly, he started to read:
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