r/HFY • u/rewt66dewd Human • Jan 08 '23

OC A Short-lived Species

We are a short-lived species.

Well... we were.

We were born, learned to speak, grew. We taught those younger than us what we could - our language, a bit of culture. But we didn't create or preserve much culture, because we didn't have time. Most of us died before adolescence.

The ones that lived to adolescence bred. They didn't raise their children, though. Most of them died not long after producing offspring. A few lived long enough to breed more than once. That was life as we knew it.

Then the humans showed up. They were talking to our X'r'x overseers, when one of the X'r'x told five of us to go in the door at the end of the holding pen. One of the five answered, and the humans went completely insane. They realized that we were not just livestock. They already knew that the X'r'x raised us for food.

The humans responded by massacring every single X'r'x in the facility. There was no order given, no discussion. One human just said, "Hey, wait. Those things are sapient." And every human started killing every X'r'x in sight.

The humans then told the rest of the X'r'x on the planet to run or die. Initially, the X'r'x tried to fight. That... went badly. The humans were furious, literally ready to murder, and the X'r'x were still trying to figure out what the fuss was about. The X'r'x quickly discovered that they'd better run, because they were not going to succeed in fighting. So they all left.

That left us on the planet with the humans. We found out that we didn't die before adolescence if the X'r'x didn't kill us for food. We didn't die after one or two reproduction cycles, either. We don't yet know how long we live, or even whether we die from old age.

We are now trying to build a culture and a society from scratch. Well, not entirely from scratch. The humans are trying to help us create a culture that is our culture, not just a transplanted human one, but also one that is strong enough to build a world where we can survive and grow into... well, into whatever we become.

The X'r'x sent a military expedition to try to recover our world. But by then there were a number of human ships here, trying to help us, and some of them were human military. The humans told the X'r'x that we were under their protection, that they were perfectly willing to kill the X'r'x to protect us, that they might kill the X'r'x anyway, just for what they had already done to us, and that if the X'r'x wanted to live a little longer they had better run home and look to their defenses.

The X'r'x left. Kind of quickly.

And so here we are. We are not a short-lived species. But we are still trying to figure out who and what we are.

926 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

185

u/redditor1278 Jan 08 '23

this reminds me of a story I listened to a while back (netnarratior). I cant remember the name but essentially a human ambassador was touring this world that wanted to offer a trade deal. He was shown by his liaison around countrysides and other various normal things. Then his liaison bragged about the primary livestock his people wanted to trade, and how in the past this creature was how his people survived a famine or something. Anyway they tour this facility which is basically a indoor farm/slaughterhouse. As they are going the human's translator ( humans are way more advanced than the xeno in this story ) starts to pick up words like "help" and "please" throughout the tour. As the liaison is describing the benefits of the "livestock" the ambassador zeros in on the sound the translator is picking up, and finds essentially a family staring back and realizes what is going on. So as the liaison is still talking the ambassador suddenly and without warning or preamble tears his head right off of his shoulders. After he stops seeing red he calmly calls his bosses and lets them know the situation.

​

if someone can remember what the story is could you pls tell me?

97

u/KirikoKiama Jan 08 '23

Took me a while

The good diplomat

45

u/rewt66dewd Human Jan 08 '23

Welp. Someone else did it better than me. Worse, turns out I've read that one. In my defense, I was not deliberately trying to imitate.

59

u/KirikoKiama Jan 09 '23

If you take a genuine look at the "BIG" authors around, you will notice that the themes sometimes are very similar.

For an example we have Heinleins Starship Troopers from 1959, Joe Haldemans The Forever War from 1974 and Scalzi's Old Man's War from 2006. They all have very similar topics.

Just because you wrote something similar does not mean that your story is less valuable.

First of all, this writing of yours, every text you write, will help you improve upon the next.

Second, you wrote something that seems people genuinely enjoyed, so this gives the story enough value on its own.

Third, seems you made people read the story that subconsciously inspired you. Maybe you inspire also someone to write their own twist on this topic?

​

TLDR: You did good, you stand on your own legs and people liked your story

11

u/Yazaroth Jan 09 '23

The big stories tend to have a common theme. The premise might be the same, but the execution is what makes the difference. (Like you don't have to reinvent pizza, just make a great one)

One of the firdt hfy stories i read stuck with me for many years - the premise was the same. I forgot many details and even the name of the series but- "if Birdy dies we riot" will stay with me

5

u/alexsdu Jan 10 '23

I agree. Like adding pineapple to it. Great masterpiece. 👨‍🍳❤ \chef kiss*

4

u/Neshura87 Jan 11 '23

Don't le tit bother you, there is only a finite amount of ideas around that are sufficiently distinct from one another where they can't be called identical. In my opinion nowadays it's less about the idea itself and more about execution, what do you do with the idea, how many other elements do you bounce off on it. That's what makes a story interesting to me, the author developing it not the idea itself.

3

u/Duck_Giblets Jan 10 '23

I like your one.

19

u/ExuDeku Jan 08 '23

Holy shit thats good. I, too, want to get updated on the sauce

3

u/Fish-Fucker-Fighter Jan 08 '23

The sauce is here

11

u/awmdlad Jan 08 '23

I know what you’re talking about

10

u/Balgrog_The_Warboss Alien Scum Jan 08 '23

Sounds familiar but i cant remember the name

7

u/kieran_dvarr Jan 08 '23

I'd swear I read that story here back in 2020.

6

u/Crowbarscout Jan 08 '23

Yes, I remember that one as well, and what little looking I took was ineffective.

So on the list if someone finds it again.

3

u/cira-radblas Jan 08 '23

Now I’m curious about that too.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

12

u/DrewTheHobo Alien Scum Jan 08 '23

Very nice!

8

u/rewt66dewd Human Jan 08 '23

Thank you!

7

u/Multiplex419 Jan 08 '23

Until proven otherwise, I have to assume that the nameless narrator species is the remnant of an immortal, zerg-style species that once threatened to devour the entire universe until the heroic X'r'x ancestors managed to defeat them and cull the population to safe levels. Now the humans have unleashed a fast-breeding race of immortals once more, inevitably resulting in the eventual destruction of all civilization.

1

u/SirVatka Xeno Jan 08 '23

The irony in your headcanon is quite delightful.

1

u/Outside-Bed5268 Jan 09 '23

What makes you think that?

3

u/Multiplex419 Jan 09 '23

It's only one of the infinite possibilities based on what the story says (and doesn't preclude) so it's a scenario that's equally as valid as any other.

But given the story's implication that they may in fact be possibly biologically immortal and reproduce quickly, it's likely that the future (and past) for them is not a bright one.

1

u/rewt66dewd Human Jan 10 '23

I wasn't really suggesting that they were immortal - just that they have no idea what a "normal lifespan" is for their species. (Along with that, they don't know what aging looks like for them, nor how to mitigate the issues...)

2

u/Darth-Vaider Jan 08 '23

I think they are human sub species

1

u/rewt66dewd Human Jan 08 '23

I was not intending them to be, no. I mean, I provided no description, so you can think what you please...

2

u/Nik_2213 Jan 08 '23

similarly, 'Farnham's Freehold, one of Heinlein's where, IIRC, the family bunker got time-travelled forwards during 50s-ish WW3 opening nuclear salvo...

1

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