Challenge #01745-D284: Wolf by the Fireplace
How about alien species who don't realize we're allegedly the dominant species on the planet? Maybe they value empathy more than intelligence, which would make dogs the most likely contender for dominant life form. -- Bard2DBone
When humanity met the Fressik, there was some evident confusion and quite a lot of debate. They had crashed on a colony world, and hit some large buildings, so the rescue teams had the rescue dogs with them. The smaller ones worked their way through the rubble to find survivors, and the larger ones found their smaller friends, directing the rescue crew to the survivors.
The dogs were the one who comforted the Fressik survivors whilst the humans conducted triage and extracted every body, living or dead. They knew their job and their job was to lie next to the shocked survivors and be comforting and soft and fluffy. They were good dogs.
And it didn't help relationships that the Fressik language consisted of yips, yaps, barks and whimpers. The dogs responded in kind, even though both sides sounded like gibberish to the other. The dogs responded instantly to Fressik distress. The humans, busy and with their minds on their work, were slower.
The Fressik, who valued empathy, sympathy, and the comfort instinct, related deeply to the creatures that stayed with them until the 'lesser' beings finally came around to deal with the problem. It took them months to learn that the dogs were non-cogniscent. And further months to understand that it was, in fact, the humans in charge.
There was a court case over it, in the end. With argument and counter-argument that lasted for years.
The final argument that won humanity's case for proving themselves actually empathic any sympathetic was this: "Your honour... humanity made dogs. We saw the wolf in the darkness and thought it would be nice if they were on their side. We created dogs to be helpful, friendly, loving, empathic, and sympathetic. We made them to help all kinds of people. Especially when we were too busy with others to do so ourselves."
Even the Fressik were swayed. Any species that created dogs knew what they were on about.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / ksuksa]
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