A pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09, overlaid upon itself
“I'm going to need everybody giving out tourist company permits in the NhiiPaal System to start doing a basic literacy test on everybody – if you cannot read 'DO NOT GO INTO THE WATER,' you need to stay your immobilized tail off of NhiiPaal 6!”
The Amanirenas and the Farragut could not take the call to respond to the emergency on NhiiPaal 6, but Commodore Wilhelm Allemande was still ticked off by the situation because his dear friend Admiral Benjamin Banneker-Jackson did have to put his mind to a solution – it was critical because if the problem was not solved in seven days, it would never be solved in a life-saving way.
The beautiful creature above is one of the indigenous rulers of NhiPaal 6, a watery world settled later by humanoids on the beautiful islands of the planet. In the many tide pools, these beautiful creatures live and rule over the marine ecosystem benevolently and efficiently, and in their 'reflections' record the history of the region.
Everywhere on NhiiPaal 6, there are neural sensing signs that will serve up the warning in any language the universal translator can access, warning people not to go into the royal reflecting pools.
Unfortunately, human tourists just had to be the people to blow through the stop signs, and get paralyzed as they entered the waters. A few hearty souls had made it knee deep, and were stuck like statuary.
The space fleet had been called for help as the sea fleet had not yet gotten set up on NhiiPaal 6.
The challenge was that no known stimulant had been able to revive the humans in question, whether in the water or out of the water, carried away from the water and to the hospital.
Adm. Banneker-Jackson considered this, and came to a conclusion that would make some people angry.
“My recommendation, since the humanoid NhiiPaalians are so adept at neural net telepathic communication, is to put the word out telepathically that humans are not as strong as rocks – in seven days of not eating and drinking, not only are human beings likely to die, but also leak, thus polluting the pools.”
My uncle's supposition, un-uttered, was that the royal NhiiPaalians in their pools were also telepathic, powerfully so, and had a collective grip on the minds of the intruders and had ordered them into stasis. While the order stood, no mere physical stimulant was going to wake the intruders up. But when the admiral's suggestions had gotten to NhiiPaal 6 and the people began talking about it, the royals of the pools realized the danger they were in and released their grip.
The regional governor for the consortium was not pleased, and called Adm. Banneker-Jackson to express his displeasure.
“How are we going to maintain the dignity of humanity in the galaxy compared to other beings if we don't give the impression that our smack don't stink?” he said.
“I think you have a bigger perception problem that you might want to solve first, Governor: our folks don't read,” my uncle said with a sweet smile. “You might want to talk with the tourist agencies you let operate in your region.”