The Lost Little One

It was a sunny day.

Well as sunny as sunny gets when there isn’t a sun anyway.

Suffice it to say; it was bright out.

At the time, I was walking to work in order to do my day’s tasks; rubbing my arms to stave off the cold as I travelled down the street. It was when I came upon a crosswalk that I saw them: a small child wearing a heavy coat and with no parents to be found.

“What a foolish guardian to let their young walk around unattended!”

I thought to myself indignantly.

But my tasks were the sort that could easily wait until a little one had been reunited with their parents. Besides, it would hardly be proper for a person to simply ignore a lost child.

“No, certainly not, I’ll take them to my friend. They are barely a short walk away and are well acquainted with the residents of this colony. They will certainly know whose child this is.”

I decided silently.

I approached the child, all the while being careful not to startle them, and as I got within arm’s length they turned around and looked up at me. They had good cold protection at least, the rigid sort that snow wouldn’t stick to and wind wouldn’t affect, but that is no excuse for a parent to simply let them wander. Our community is a relatively safe one, but the stars are bright today and the native fauna will be able to see better than usual. The child babbled at me for a moment as I crouched down to get a better look at them. The child only came up to my waist and so was certainly not grown enough to outrun any wildlife that might chase it. I figured that I had better get them to my friend quickly.

I tried to take the little one by the hand, but they backed away clearly protesting. I suppose I couldn’t blame them for not trusting me but, there was no helping it, lost children must be escorted to safety. It was only proper, after all.

After an awkward few minutes, and much protesting, I was walking towards my friend’s residence with the small child held on one arm. The little one was most certainly not happy but seemed to at least have decided that I would not hurt them and begrudgingly accepted being picked up.

As I walked, I reminisced. It had been nearly a dozen cycles since my eldest had grown up and left my protection. Holding this child reminded me of my own children when they were still small. Like so many others, they wished to travel; I did not have the heart to stop them. My eldest even went and joined up with an armada. ‘Humans’ they called them.

Personally, I can’t say that I know much about Humans; each time I hear about them it seems to be largely exaggerated. Some say that they are the slayers of gods and demons, feared by most and worshiped by all others. Then some others say that they are cruel, vindictive, prone to anger, and bloodthirsty. And then there are the truly… Odd… stories of humans… often said to eat anything and everything or being willing to make starship sized weapons just because. I put very little stock in those rumors because there’s hardly a species alive that would be so ridiculous thank you very much!

As I thought about it, I remembered that apparently a few Humans were going to move here sometime soon. There was something about pirates in the area and a few of them offered to stay for protection-or some such. Well, if there was even a single thing that the stories could agree upon, it was that Humans are capable warriors with significant tenacity. But that was hardly relevant at the moment. I have a child to escort after all, and said child was beginning to squirm in my arms. I wished that the little one were not so heavy. Thankfully, I arrived safely at my friend’s home where they could assist in the situation.

To say my friend was surprised when they answered the door would be a significant understatement.

They were positively flabbergasted and demanded,

“What are you doing?!”

Rather confused at their sudden bellowing I stated questioningly,

“I came across this lost child and was hoping you might be able to contact their guardians?”

The child babbled helpfully for a moment.

My friend, still aghast but now strangely cooperative, let us inside and quickly went into the other room saying something about a spare. Still confused at the reception I elected to sit down in the front room with my arms wrapped around the child in my lap as I still did not trust them to sit quietly. A moment later my friend returned with a small device that they handed to me. They gestured to an identical device near their ear and motioned for me to put it on. I tentatively attached the small device, and after a moment of brief static, looked to my friend for explanation.

“Ma’am could you please put me down? I am Sargent Brunner of the 4th Exo-squad dispatched from the carrier: Shadow of Progress and I DO NOT LIKE BEING HELD LIKE A BABY!”

Suffice it to say, I was quite surprised.