The sky over Jakar was a light violet purple.

Strings of long striated clouds cut across the sky at intervals looking like the ripples you see on the face of a sand dune. The Sun hadn't yet risen hiding just below the distant horizon. The air around them was warm, but not tropical, rather moderate.

Standing on the loading ramp to the Harbinger and staring out over the strange moon, they could see for miles and miles onto the unbroken horizon. Under the purple sky, there were no trees or rocks, just acres and acres of evenly spaced crops gently rolling over minute hills and shallow divots in the earth. A gently wind blew up from their front rolling over the ground and bringing with it the cool moist scent of fertile dirt.

The sun inched upwards over the horizon, casting a honeyed yellow glow over an unbroken sea of green. With the engines of the ship off, and not a soul in sight, the scene before them was absolutely silent, almost surreal.

As they watched, a ripple of wind blew up from their right churning the green sea before them into a stormy sea. The plant stalks rolled in waves under the slow push of the wind, which, when it reached them, brought the subtle whisper of leaves brushing over each other.

All together, if they closed their eyes, they could almost imagine the sound of a distant sea.

Both Krill and sunny were riveted to that quiet morning in fascination.

They had never known a thing to be so beautiful, so quiet.

And even though the land was touched by man, the quiet serenity almost had them forgetting that fact.

They stood like that for many minutes, enjoying the silence until a distant sound rose up from the horizon.

Krill craned his neck and Sunny shaded her eyes.

It can in beats of four, a rhythmic thudding of.... something .

They were alerted by the dust cloud, brown tinged purple rising up from the right.

Looking a little longer,they watched as a very strange creature galloped towards them. The animal had four legs, a long snout, a thick neck, and streams of long hair flying from it's head and rump. THe joints of its front legs faced the wrong direction.

Krill shifted back up the ramp a little ways.

The beats of the animal's feet grew louder as it got closer, and only then was Krill able to see that, to his shock and dismay, there was a human riding astride it's back, just casually sitting atop the one ton beast as if it was nothing bouncing up and down with the animal's jostling movements.

He stared dumbstruck alongside Sunny as the human pulled to a stop gently tugging at the contraption which had been fixed around the animal's head.

A familiar tawny, and black dog came chasing after her tail wagging, her ears perked.

Waffles skidded to a slow trot and began frantically sniffing through the nearby plot of plants.

Sunny and Krill stepped forward as the human, turned to look at them, restings his hands against his upper thighs as the beast lowered it's head to sniff at the ground.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Sunny asked the commander.

"A better question is what the hell are you riding." Krill could already tell this day was going to make him angry, "Aren't you well aware that falling off that thing could kill you, not to mention if it decided to cave your head in with its feet."

Commander Vir pulled the patterned cloth triangle down from around his face, eyes mostly shadowed by the brim of the very dorky hat he was wearing. The shirt he had on was long sleeve and mid range blue in color with a collar, and matching jeans with a very strange set of heeled boots.

"Forgot you've never seen a horse before."

He kicked one of his feet up over the top the back of the creature and let himself gently down onto the dirt.

The large animal turned it's massive head, nudging him in the chest with it's soft pink snout.

He smiled and rubbed it's nose.

"A horse?"

"Yes, one of man's greatest achievements."

The horse threw its head up and down as if in agreement.

"A knobby kneed dog creature?"

"No a knobby kneed beast of burden, from the back of which humanity conquered the world. He patted it's neck, "These guys are the reason humanity got as far as it did, at least one fo the reasons.

Krill stared at the 'horse' nervously staring into its wide dark eyes, sensing a hint of cunning intelligence that he did not particularly appreciate. Sunny stepped forward a bit, and the horse lifted it's head, wide nostrils flaring menacingly.

It stepped back, and the commander held firm, "Woah, easy girl. It's just sunny."

The horse didn't seem convinced, and Sunny stayed at a polite distance.

"Commander, I must insist, that beast could kick your head in if agitated."

"Oh I know. Believe you me I know."

The horse tossed it's head.

"Can we get back to the important question of..... What the hell are you wearing?"

He looked down, "This, my fine friend is the historic gear of the Cowboy, and early symbol of the west, your rough and tumble man's man who lived rough, worked hard, and is, arguably the symbol of human manifest destiny."

"I have no idea what you just said."

The commander sighed, "Look they were total badasses who rode horses, shot guns, and drank too much."

"Badasses who wore heels?" Sunny wondered

"Yes, yes they were."

"And where did you get that outfit exactly?"

He tugged at the shirt rather proudly, "My mother made it for me, you know because that is what she does for a living."

"Do you often commission really dumb clothing from your mother." Sunny continued to tease.

"I have an outfit for every major time period from here to to the early Byzantine empire." He bragged, not that it meant anything.

Her continued teasing was cut off as more noises rose up from the distance, the sound of hooves and the shrill chatter of, what Sunny could only assume was the horses. A larger dust cloud was riding up this time, and as she watched, another group of human came riding down the track. At least three of them riding horseback and wearing outfits much the same as the commander now wore. Though one of them was riding on the front of a strange wooden vehicle pulled by the creatures.

And krill had thought current human technology was primitive.

The two men, and one woman came to a halt just to their side, and looking them over, Krill couldn't help but notice the strange nature of these humans, tanned dark by the sun, their skin tough and calloused, especially about the hands. Though it was early morning they were already covered in dust. One of them touched the brim of his hat upon seeing them and dismounted from his horse walking over to shake the commander's hand.

"I'm gonna assume your Commander Vir." He looked around, "Seeing as you're the only human here."

"Yes sir."

His voice was deep, and rather slow with a sort of relaxing quality to it, though there was an edge of steel behind his voice, "Didn't think you fancy space captains knew how to ride horses."

"My father worked on one of the farming conglomerates when I was a boy. He made sure we knew how to ride."

"Smart man." The old human turned his steely brown eyes on them looking sunny and Krill up and down though he didn't seem all that surprised. He held out a hand to sunny, "Looks like you've got plenty of hands to shake."

She chirped a laugh and took his hand surprised at how strong he was, how rough his hands were.

Krill received a nod which was more than alright by him. He turned back and motioned to his companions, "Meet, Jack my son, and Liz y daughter. They volunteered to help out with our little problem."

"Smugglers you were saying."

"Yes. We think they are some of those Tesraki types using our fields as stop points. Wouldn't mind it so much if they didn't keep destroying the product. They tend to land where we plant the pink orbs-" He looked at sunny, "Think they are from your planet. A bitch to get to grow here, we have to cut the soil with imported volcanic ash to get them to grow, and every time those bastards show up we lose a yield."

His daughter motioned at Sunny and Krill to climb up onto the strange wooden death machine with wheels. At first Krill refused, but sunny grabbed him and hauled him upwards, sitting on one of the wooden benches.

Krill reused to sit.

He could see splinters.

"They aren't supposed to be in for another few days though." The two men had mounted their horses and were riding side by side now as the 'what krill learned to be a cart' started up, rolling over the uneven ground and threatening to rattle his brains out of his head.

"Doesn't this thing have shocks." he moaned

The humans laughed, and the head human turned back to look at him, "Don't need socks on a wagon....." He paused, "This one ain't mch for country livin'"

The commander snorted, "He isn't much for anything new. Guess you could say he's a big city surgeon. I don't think his species has been without automated assistance for the past ten thousand years. But Sunny there probably gets it, her clan was mainly gatherer types."

"Yeah, I heard about the Drev. Don't live so differently from us all told." beside them lines and lines of crops grew up in the distance, a never ending line broken up by nothing more than a distant building rising many stories above the fields. Massive silver constructions in cylinders with pointy tops.

"What are those?" Sunny asked, pointing.

The daughter looked "Those are silos. Once we harvest the produce, all the food goes in there for storage until we sell it."

"So much food." Sunny muttered

Krill didn't like the look of them, they appeared dangerous. Up ahead of them, the dog, waffles seemed to be enjoying herself romping about over the dirt road and through the first few lines of plants her tongue lolling her ears up.

"Your Shepherd seems happy." The man commented, "Better then being cooped up in a flying tin can."

"Yeah , she doesn't get to go outside much these days."

Looking up into the distance, Krill could just make out a slow break on the horizon. They were trees as far as he could tell, which surprised him since they seemed far to big to be here, as unnatural a species as they were.

"Are those oak trees?" The Captain asked, incredulous.

"That they are, got them imported in one of those massive fraighters. Putting them in the ground was complete bullshit, but they took surprisingly well. We wanted the two to be a bit more cozy.

The closer they got to town the more people they could see. Children ran in and out of the crop lines chasing each other and laughing.

Women carried baskets with them plucking bright red berries from tall growths of plants turning to wave at them as they passed.

Horses loitered, tied up on the sides of the road next to large, elegant houses in a style Krill had never seen before.

"Wow." The commander muttered, "This is.... Wow."

The man smiled, "Much as I love earth, you can't live like this any more. No more small towns. When I heard how cheep they were selling land up here for, I couldn't resist. Worked for one of those corporations like your father, and that's when I heard about the deal going on. Come up here, farm the land and get the property for free." He motioned to the houses and the barns, "Built most of it with our own two hands. Machinery is a bitch to get out here, so most everything we make by ourselves."

Krill and sunny stared on in complete fascination. The wooden buildings held together by nothing more than sharp metal spikes, still multiple stories tall and with glass windows. What little technology there was was overshadowed by just how provincial everything was. People carrying buckets of water with their own two hands, polishing boots, and sawing off planks of wood with manual blades.

And despite that, how much more difficult everything probably was, they seemed happy. The people themselves were rough, but well put together, tanned skin, and bright eyes over calloused hands and straight backed postures full of confidence and pride. As they rode past they received nothing but friendly smiles and waved greetings.

Adam was practically a pampered, prim little pretty boy in comparison to the rest, and he was a one eyed, peg legged, space captain for intents and purposes.

A pleasantly plump dark skinned woman waved at them from her porch, where she sat in a very strange looking chair, which instead of legs, had skids? And rocked when she shifted her weight. Which seemed to be the intention.

Sunny and Krill raised their hands back, not sure of what else to do.

The man at the front sighed, "Man you can't live like this anymore, not on earth anyway."

Commander vir was looking around with an appreciative smile, "it's like going back in time. Dam.... it's nice here."

"Almost makes you want to get your feet back on solid dirt?" The man wondered

The commander laughed, "I don't think so. Your town is great, but there is nothing like the majesty of waking up and seeing the rings of saturn outside our bedroom window, or a nebulae thousands of light years wide, or stepping out of the ship and just.... Floating weightless like nothing can hold you down ever again."

The man shuttered, "Can't imagine."

"Can't imagine but can't forget."

Adam's horse tossed it's head and he patted it on the neck.

The other human shook his head, "Cut from a different mold I guess. I'd like nothing more than an honest day's work under the sun getting my hands dirty. None of that outer space politics."

Adam laughed, "I suppose I forget about politics most of the time. Honestly consider myself more of an adventurer discovering new planets and new species bravely going where no man has gone before sort of thing."

The two of them laughed together.

Krill wondered at the strangeness of humanity. Here were two men, one of them a ship captain venturing into the unknown on one of the most advanced pieces of human technology ever created flying shuttles, talking with aliens and traversing the galaxy, while there was another human a lover of dirt beneath his hands, with no desire to leave his home, or likely even go outside it's farm's radius, content with living the same day for the rest of his life, with the same people, building everything with his hands, living without what seemed to be the most basic of human technologies.

And here they were sitting together speaking and laughing.

Getting along despite being so different.

Because humans can just do that.

Humans understand.