“Happy Halloween!”
The Easter Bunny* #quote
CJ isn't coming over this weekend so oh-well, but I'll be certain to
get myself into plenty of shenanigans. Anyway onto the flash fiction!
Steam-O-Nomics
“Gentleman,” the alien spoke to the humans across the table in
English the thick accent from his native language giving his vowels a
sort of slippery sound, “I simply cannot take a deal where I fail
to see the profit for who I'm making the deal with.” The alien went
by Mr. H around humans since his name started with an h sound but
contained a few sounds that only a few human languages naturally came
close to producing. Mr. H wore a blue, long-sleeved shirt and long
pants made out of a sort of cotton-like material created from a the
wool of a rare creature on their planet. The cotton reflected light
slightly to create a gentle glow and the outfit would be considered
the equivalent of a suit on their world. He had no hair and frog-like
eyes and mouth and nose. His skin stood to be one of the most unique
aspects of his race with scales able to spread to open up pores that
could excrete a number of things to cover and protect his skin when
his body needed it, from simple sweat to a fine film.
“What, are you suspicious?” asked Roland Bartly, the head of the
three men speaking with Mr. H. The three men represented corporations
and were negotiating mouthpieces. Roland was the most important of
all the three since he possessed controlling stock in the company he
represented.
“Of course.” Mr. H responded. “You're offering to sell me your
solar panels, claiming it was to spread awareness of your product,
but the loss of setting up the panels on my planet is ridiculous. The
amount of panels you need to equal my steam output would cost an
absurd amount of money. And there's no reason for my people to want
solar power anyway since there are no environmental laws promoting it
and all the steam my factories give off we're fine with.” Mr. H's
skin moved a little in some spots as a reflex to the thought. His
species's skin allowed steam power to be used without much care. The
skin filtered any problems with the byproducts. A moss rampantly grew
on their planet that they harvested, hardening with a simple process
into something like coal for their engines. Their planet and people
were hardier than Earth.
“We're just trying to sell solar panels to the people of your
world.” Roland smiled.
Mr. H stood up from the table they were negotiating at said, “I
don't know what you're trying to do. But I didn't become one of the
richest of my kind by being tricked. I won't buy solar panels for my
factories, even the small fraction that you're asking me to. You will
get nothing from me.” Mr. H walked away from Bartly and the
other men. He assumed he dodged being ripped off. However the alien
overestimated his importance in the grand scheme of things. The
corporations that the three men represented now regretted that they
bought the land next to Mr. H's factories.
Humanity was buying land where they could. However the rampant use
of steam made it difficult for humans to settle. Due to the way their
skin could manage them Mr. H's species functioned fine with their
technology and used it everywhere, but it made their world like a vindictive
sauna to humans and forced them to being tourists in protective suits or environments. But corporations and governments in the
guise of corporations aimed to change the alien world with one
resource they knew worked. Money.
And they just needed to find the right people to buy, they couldn't
stop every household, but they planned to puncture holes in areas in
the world by finding people like Mr. H who controlled large sources
of steam. Mr. H didn't listen, but they figured that eventually
they'll find enough aliens with the right prices.
Until then Mr. H goes to bed watching the sun of his world set on a
horizon filled with steam.
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