Hello! This another short story that I have written. This one though, is of my own invention rather than being Star Wars. I hope that you like it.
It had been over two hundred Flaxen years now since the Ochestin’s – the sentient species who inhabited the planet Flaxis – were first granted the gift of hearing. When the spacemongers had first arrived on the cold, arctic world, they’d brought with them the technology that had made it possible for them to communicate: Tabanas. These small devices were given to every Ochestin child when they reached six years of age. And as Avion adjusted the frequency of sound that the Tabanas picked up, she remembered the day that they’d been given to her; twenty years ago.
It had been like a dream. For six whole years of her life, Avion had only been able to hear the deep rumble of a yukomi or the vibrations that her fellow kin left behind when they walked. Then, all of the sudden, she could hear more than that: Wind, rain, waves, and all of the other sounds of nature and of life.
Until an Ochestin was given a pair of Tabanas, they were taught how to speak Hand-Tongue. This complex language used a variety of strange hand and finger gestures. And there were certain key rules that had to be followed in order to get your point across. For example: If you didn’t put your left hand behind your back and right by your shoulder, then you would be showing great disrespect and hatred towards the person you were speaking with. It was because of the strictness of Hand-Tongue that a child needed to master the difficult language before they were given Tabanas. That was why an Ochestin wasn’t granted the small gifts until they were six.
Hand-Tongue was such a large part of their culture that it was still used in every-day conversation, along with their adopted spoken language, Soladict; most commonly known as Orthodox. When Avion had first learned how to speak Orthodox, it had been… strange. Stranger then anything else that she’d done in her life. Until then, she didn’t even know what speaking was. Even today she still had trouble with the complexities of some words and sentences.
Adjusting the frequency setting on her Tabanas, Avion pressed the button on the small pile of electronics in front of her, one more time. A loud buzzing noise filled the room. And then, as soon as it started, stopped. This was her four hundredth eighty-eighth attempt at creating a machine – that could learn, that could think – but it was the first that had ever made noise. After nearly five hundred times of going through the trial and error process, something had happened. She brushed her long, black hair out of her face and smiled; it actually worked! Excitement and adrenaline were coursing through her veins. She didn’t know how to control herself. She placed a hand over her mouth and burst out with sheer laughter. Laughter of both joy and disbelief.
How could it be?! She’d spent the last five years of her life making plans, finding parts, and building this machine. And the whole time, the answer had been right in front of her! She had to tell someone, this could not be left unknown to the world: Artificial Intelligence was on the verge of creation. So, Avion took one last look at the machine that had been created, then headed towards the Gathering of the Sage to tell them of the good news.
This picture is something that I made. It is currently being used as a temporary book cover.