Drakeathon Leftovers: Enter the Anklea

The first of the leftovers, prompts I didn’t get written during the 8 hours of the ‘thon, from ysabetwordsmith‘s prompt “Aliens land in Washington, D.C. and say “Take me to your leader.” They are taken to a CEO instead of a politician.”

We’ll note I did a lousy job of sticking to wordcount in any way this time around. 260ish words.

The Anklea had listened to the radio transmissions and watched the video signals for years as they neared the Djarit-class planet, so that when they arrived, they would have a working understanding of the major languages and the expected landing protocols. They had practiced the language that appeared the most frequently until their extended muzzles and bifurcated tongues could handle the strange sounds.

It was a long journey. Their linguists wrote a Ankpose-to-English dictionary and then, when that bored them, an English-to-Ankpose. Their scientists wrote treatises on human biology; their engineers studied their greatest engineering achievements.

They landed their Visitation Vehicle in the water outside biggest city of the primarily-English-speaking continent and sent their best diplomats and their best linguists to make contact. When they encountered the first humans, standing on a dock staring at them, the chief diplomat proclaimed, in carefully-practiced English, “take us to your leader!”

The CEO of the marketing firm overlooking the Bay was the nearest leader around, and she was having lunch with her press secretary. The press secretary took one long look at the Anklea, enough to ascertain that they were unlikely to be humans with clever prosthetics, and called the media, while the CEO called her lawyers.

By dinner, all rights to the Anklean’s images belonged to the company, and they had artists working on a comic and a plushy doll. By Friday, the whole world had heard of the alien visitors, and their image as slightly-absentminded professor types was well-cemented. With their long, peltlike coats and their muzzlelike faces, they did look a bit canine, after all, and everyone like a shaggy dog story.

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3 thoughts on “Drakeathon Leftovers: Enter the Anklea

  1. *giggles* Oh, nice twist. I’d like that plushie doll. Now I would like to know what happens in a few years when the Anklean’s scholars figure out copyright law, and sue for their own images. And possibly sue for slander…

    • As long as they haven’t made a cultural mistake like the one the Terrans made in Babylon 5 with the Ambassador Molari doll, it might not be too bad. After all, they have stopped anyone using the images in ‘evil, bad alien’ pieces and they have presented them in a way that gains them acceptance by the planetary populace. The PR firm could argue that the use of the rights is payment for their ongoing professional services, there being a lack of common exchange at the time of their arrival. Rix P.S. If you never watched Babylon 5, the issue with the doll of Ambassador Molari was very funny. But of deadly personal importance to the Ambassador.

      • There are a number of ways this could go, which is the neat thing about it. I only saw 1.5 seasons of Babylon 5 on Hulu. Swapping captains threw me. I should give it another try, given that everyone seems to love it so.

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