ZB Man and M4 characters. Rendered in Poser 6. Postwork in PS7. The planet base crew pored over their data to see what to make of the green people. They made extensive recordings of their speech and fed it into the ship's computer. It didn't take the computer long to come up with an acceptable translation. Once in place, the Captain and Lieutenant took the translator back to the village to try it out. At first, they broadcasted messages from their shuttle letting the village people know they meant them no harm. As they listened to the villagers, they learned the green people are essentially alone and mostly defenseless. After sending down tokens of friendship, the Captain decided to try a one-on-one meeting. He broadcasts a message to the village for them to send out two of their kind to meet with him and the Lieutenant. Using the translator, the Captain and Lieutenant became acquainted with the green men. They asked them if they wanted to see their big ship in the sky. The green men were delighted and immediatley said yes. Once back on the Mother Ship, Number One joined them in the main deck. He had studied the language and was able to converse directly with the two men. He soon made some extraordinary discoveries. These men are not native to the planet. In fact, they have something in common with the Captain and his colonists. They both have had experience with the pirates. The pirates are responsible for the creation of the green people. It seems that the pirates captured a brillaint scientist and tried to use him to create slaves for them. He cooperated with them up to a certain point, cloning these 50 men, but he tried to trick the pirates. After delivery of the clones, they morphed into these green men. Before the scientist could escape, he was executed by the pirates. It was also discoverd that the clones were hybrids meaning they could never mate. The pirates tried selling the clones on their home planet, but no one wanted them. In frustration, they dumped all 50 of the green clones on this deserted planet to survive or perish as fate would determine. That had been many years ago according to the green peoples reckoning. They had barely survived the first couple of years, living on various weird animals they could kill. Then they discovered a vegetative source of food and raw building materials. After that, they worked on building their fortress. Some of the animals were a bit scarey but could still be killed with their primitive weapons. It still wasn't safe for them to go out alone. There isn't much variety of vegetation in this area, so they became quite expert at improvisation. How many different ways can you prepare greenery anyway to make it palatable. They were just about to begin exploring more of the planet when the Captain and Lieutenant flew over. They felt it must be a sign or certainly a godsend. They hoped they would be permitted to join this colony to help settle the planet. For all they knew, there were no other intelligent beings on the planet. Thank you for taking a peek! Your support is greatly appreciated!