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by Geoffrey Hart
Previously published as: Hart, G. 2020. Drabble tryptich: First Contact. Flash in a Flash Episode 60. [10 April 2020]
The situation had become intolerable: invading herbivores ate the People faster than new individuals could regenerate. The people commenced a for-them frantic deliberation. Those who had wasted their lives speculating about ludicrous notions such as travel beyond the nurturing atmosphere were treated, for the first time, with respect.
Few of this sessile species had traveled beyond the field of their birth. Movement at the speed required to escape their planet and find a new home? The mere notion made most chlorotic.
Those in the first Seed Pods brushed tears from their hydathodes when they left their loved ones behind.
***
The meteor that penetrated the hull caused significant loss of atmosphere. The oxygen was trivial; as plants, they could produce it themselves through photosynthesis. But the lost carbon dioxide was catastrophic. That could only be obtained by mining comets—and this star system was surprisingly impoverished in such sources, which were anyways hard to find in the vasty dark—or from planets with active volcanoes. Fortunately, such a planet existed.
Unfortunately, it swarmed with life—some undoubtedly herbivorous. Still, with no alternative, they grasped their courage in all fronds and bent their course sunwards as the linguists prepared their plea.
***
“You’re not going to believe this Sir, but if the linguists translated the message right, we have a huge win–win opportunity.”
“Tell me more.”
“Well, it seems the aliens want our carbon dioxide.”
“That nasty greenhouse gas everyone’s making such a fuss over?”
“The same.”
“Why on Earth—or off it, I suppose—would they want that?
“Well, Sir... they appear to be plants.”
“Plants have spaceships?”
“By the evidence.”
“And what are they offering in return?”
“Pretty much anything. It’s hard to read subtext from a plant, but they seem awfully desperate.”
“Get me the presidential science advisor.”
"Drabbles" are teeny, tiny stories that total exactly 100 words. Much of the art in a drabble lies in communicating only the essence and leaving the rest to the reader's imagination.
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