The Helper

AXKZ was awake again, groggy from his night of sleep in the rather uncomfortable chair. He was really starting to doubt the sanity of the humans. Still, they achieved so much so quickly. There must be something in these stories that could reveal their power. The only way to find out was to keep looking. AXKZ slammed the button down, ready to analyze today’s story and determined to discover the secret...

It was dangerous out in space, especially for small space ships. The tiny, independent ships knew they stood no chance in a head on battle against one of the Empire’s dreadnoughts. Even so, they took their chances and often flew very close around them. These enormous ships hung around the best resource deposits in all the galaxy, protecting them for their leaders against pirates and others looking to make a quick buck. However, this also meant the ships served as giant markers for the best places to mine.

The independent ship Mus was flying around in one of these zones once, when suddenly the nearby capital ship Leo sprung to life. All of a sudden Mus was caught in a tractor beam, completely unable to escape. A message was relayed from Leo to Mus: “Trespassers will be dealt with with extreme prejudice. Prepare for immediate capture and destruction.” The Mus quickly sent a responding message: “Please reconsider. We meant no harm. We simply wanted to gather some resources from the area. If we are let go, we promise to forever be your ally and come to your aid in your time of need.” Response from Leo: “The notion that you will ever save us makes us laugh. However, we are feeling kind so we will let you live another day.” The Mus was released from the tractor beam, and fled off into the vast expanse of space.

Soon after these events transpired, the ship Leo found itself in quite a troubling situation. In its overconfidence it had run itself right into the middle of an asteroid field. It was now surrounded on all sides by asteroids, which alone would do little to the giant ship, but together held the potential to completely wreck it. Desperately, Leo sent out a signal for help, hoping it would reach one of their other dreadnoughts or cruisers before it was too late. Their signal was so strong, though, that every ship within several light-years picked it up, including Mus.

Remembering its promise, Mus quickly raced out to see what was wrong with Leo. Upon arrival, it saw the dismal situation and knew what it had to do. It began using its small mining laser to zap all of the asteroids around Leo. Mus was nimble enough that it could weave between the asteroids without worry, so it freed Leo and cleared a path for him. When the ordeal was finally over, Leo sent a message: “We are forever grateful for what you have done here today, Mus. Before, we could not see the use of such a small ship, but you just saved us from certain peril.” From then on, Mus and Leo traveled as a team, far stronger together than alone.

The monitor flickered off. AXKZ sat in silence. Yet another story with this same theme. Over and over again, humans made stories about the bigger, more powerful force gaining something from the little one. Why? What truth had they stumbled upon? Were... were they the smarter ones? This society of power he lived in... was it really not the best way to go about things? A word had popped up frequently in AXKZ’s research: teamwork. Their culture had no concept of the word: they collaborated only in the way a worker collaborates with his employer. There was no cooperation, only a hierarchy of control in which some held power over others, who held power over others, and so on. AXKZ knew he needed to really think about what all was happening. His entire view on life was being challenged. He took the rest of the cycle off, and wandered the ship in reflection.

>>Original Story Source: The Lion and the Mouse, Rohini Chowdhury, Orignally by Aesop, 2002. Web Source: Long Long Time Ago.

>>Pictoral Archive Information: Silbirius, Through The Asteroid Field, 2010.

>>'Internet' Location: deviantArt.

Author’s Note: The story of The Lion and the Mouse is a fairly short story in all of its incarnations, so I had to go into a more detail than is usual for this tale. Once again, my biggest alteration was the setting. Virtually all of the versions of this story I came across were set in the wild featuring an actual lion and mouse. However, the brevity of the story made it so the common elements and themes were very easy to transfer to a retelling set in space. The most common version of the story, or at least the one I heard most when growing up, had the mouse removing a thorn from the lion’s paw, but this version had the mouse freeing the lion from a snare trap in which he gets caught. Obviously a space ship cannot be caught in a net (well, actually, maybe it could) so I had it get trapped in an asteroid field instead. Still, though, the small size of the “mouse” proved incredibly useful despite the initial doubts of the “lion.” The only part I really added was a more explicit statement of the message at the end: namely, daying the ships worked better as a team.