FAST MONKEYS (a story idea)

December 8, 2002

FAST MONKEYS

A novel.

Examines the point of first contact from a human and extraterrestrial perspective. Starts close up looking only at point of initial contact, and then backs away to reveal more and more about both sides of the interaction.

Human side is usual fucked up world with competing agendas and power blocks. First contact occurs as manned missions move to asteroid belt in search of raw materials.

Non-human side is much more complex. Contact has been expected and has been planned for decades based on considerable experience. A slow monkey race of scholars and caretakers called C’reska, has been building a major research and point of contact facility in the asteroid belt for almost a hundred years. The discovery of humans as a race of technologically advanced “fast monkeys” has excited much of this section of civilized space.

Many fast monkey ruins have been found and a lucrative business has evolved by slow monkey races who move in and sort through the remains to mine technology, science and ideas. Fast monkeys have a tendency to self destruct but the few which have attained inter system travel capabilities have caused a general commotion in the neighborhood in the process of doing so.

What is even more interesting is the prospect of a Nova race of fast monkeys. There are only three of these known which have made it to extra-system space, but each of them changed history in the process. About a dozen others came close, only to self-destruct in truly epic fashion. These have provided technological bonanzas and the export of video also was big.

The C’reska are quite certain that humans are Nova class fast monkeys, and have pulled out all the stops to develop a major presence in the solar system. As well as the C’reska, there is a large diplomatic bureaucratic contingent, to make sure that the C’reska take no unfair advantage (of either the humans or of the other races and species in the sector) and that the humans do not escape the system prior to contact. There is also a f

Galactic Federation military presence to maintain order.

About 50 years after the C’reska started the project, a military garrison of Tornadors arrived. The Tornadors are a very old lizard race, led by a sub race of slow kings. The Tornadors claim that humans evolved from the activities of visiting Tornador emissaries, and that the humans are rightfully Tornador property.

This is a fairly common Tornador practice, and will end up tying up the region’s legal system for centuries. Meanwhile the Tornador will siphon off anything of value in the system they can get a hold of. However they are also capable of direct military take over if they feel they can get away with it. Conflict with the Tornador always results in the total elimination of the losing side in the system being contested, but the Tornador only win about 1 in 5 tries.

Over the ensuing years, the Tornadors have established three bases in the belt, one close at hand to the main C’reska facility, one on the outer edge of the belt across the system from the C’reska facility and one buried deep in the most dangerous part of the belt.

The Tornado legal position is based on interpreting human religious texts including genesis, which they claim, shows the snake (Tornador) giving the gift of intelligence to the human monkeys.