Prelude to Expedition

" .and now my Comrades; I want you to meet the Leader of the Expedition: Space Captain Olokun". The sound-proofed door swung open and a woman of no minor size marched into the office of Admiral Watanabe; the Shegun of Palm Tree Planet's Interstellar Space Navy. There were rumours that he may rise to be the Aare Ona Kakanfo; a title that originated from the last days of Home Planet Ile, before The Asteroid forced many people to evacuate to their present planet. She slowed down as she approached the Red Table where the Highest Exploration decisions are taken.

She gave the Martial Salute to the partipants in Expedition Powder. Four captains sat around the table; Shango, Wachuku, Atahunava and Ochu. Watanabe motioned to the empty chair. Olokun sat down slowly, wandering what in the Galaxy would pull her away from her Training School duties.

Watanabe cleared his throught briefly, picked up a small bottle of liquor and libated a few drops to the ancestors who had stubbornly refused to be evacuated into spaceships, as the asteroid was getting closer."Ashe", they all whispered in unison. Olokun patted the sides of her black kinky hair. Atahunava toyed with his red dreadlocks. Wachuku had naturally straight black hair.

On Palm Tree Planet, everyone's hair varied from tight kinky to loose curly to straight.

"Now comrades, we have received reports from Commander Orunmila's expedition that there are tribes of discolored people roaming the icy northern parts of Planet Ile." Orunmila had spent 400 days touring the planet. "You mean albinos?", asked Shango, the Head of Electrical Systems Group of the Navy. " Well, I do not know what would could make albinos to detach and congregate in tribes. Orunmila mentioned that these people had blue eyes and yellow staight hair. Also when he stepped out of his spaceship onto their cold and icy terrain, they bowed down and worshipped him. He was given a name, something like 'Thor' or 'Tor' ". "Perhaps Orunmila also decided to go native and marry one of their women", Atahunava joked.

"Well, comrades it is a fact that their are people with a strange appearance roaming the northern icy parts of Ile. You all are to go and bring back one male and one female of these so-called Norse people. We want to know how come they are different from the rest of us. Fine, they are obviously human beings, we should not disturb their way of life. But whatever made them to pale away should not affect us; we do not want to be backwarded by paleness. These people had to be taught by Orunmila to communicate with Orishas!".

Olokun asked her own question:"Are we going on exploration or colonization? What do we have to gain from these people?"

"I see that you underestimate the knowledge of doing research on these people. Watanabe shrugged his shoulders and continued, " Fine you see them as backward today.But they are living under very harsh conditions. A harsh enviroment can be a stimulus for an eventual domineering spirit. Not that they can one day come and conquer us, but what about our ancestors that we left behind after The Impact that caused The Flood? They are in a much more conducive enviroment.

Olokun tried to imagine her role in Expedition Powder. About a year ago she participated in an Architectural expedition to build Pyramids on The Red Planet that was close to Ile. Exploration: OK. But colonizaton, for human labour? There were robots and machines that were producing robots and machines on Palm Tree Planet.

"Well, your mission remains to go and bring back samples of these presumably human species." With this final statement, Admiral Watanabe asked Olokun to take charge of the meeting. He warned them not to come back empty-handed. All of them stoood up to salute him as he walked out through his private door.

 

Onimisi Baiye