The year was 1838. Early springtime. West in modern day Kansas.
A group of 30 or 40 men journeyed by horseback through relatively untrotten plains. They were Americans, set out by a company based in Philadelphia to survey the land for mining. They explored for many weeks, occasionally coming in contact with native peoples, occasionally finding a good spot. Finally, as summertime grew near and the heat of the Earth quivered, the settlers chose and settled. They sent some men back to alert their highups of the success, and thought they might as well get started with the digging of the mine.
It was a small foothill, but surveying showed a promising underbelly of rare materials. A slab of dirt against the greater flatness. The men set up some explosives in their dug-out holes, and set fire. In a few moments, a large blast was heard echoing miles away. The men rushed in toward the crater, and as their mustached, burley, grimy faces peaked in, only God would be able to understand what they saw.
The explosion had released a silver ball from its eternal grip. A rupture in an object older than humanity, older than most things; brought on by masterminds older than Earth. From the rupture climbed a humanoid being. His skin was blue and shiney. His clothes a glossy metal. His eyes pure black like voids in space.
The Americans stepped away, holding each other, fearful that they had just unleashed a monster from the ground. Some ran for their lives. Some stayed, frozen in awe; in trying to comprehend what he was. The blue being stepped up and out of the crater. His body smoking slightly, his gaze neutrally fixed on the men before him. He limbered forward and knelt down to reach their eye levels. One brave settler asked what the blue thing was. No response. After a few sinking, suffocating moments, the blue being inched his hand outwards in a friendly gesture.
For the next several months the blue being lived with the Americans as they continued progress on the mine. He named himself Pale Blue as he quickly learned English and the customs of his hosts. Pale Blue seemed to be extremely intelligent; advancing in all the studies, rituals and linguistics that the settlers were able to teach him. He never ate, never slept and didn’t seem to breathe either. His only notable trait besides his curiosity was his love for fire; often sitting in it each night while the men slept. Many of the settlers became very fond of Pale Blue in those few summertime months. They shared stories of their lives with him. Taught him their values, and were very excited to show him off to the world come autumn.
But one day changed it all. An afternoon in early September. The settlers and Pale Blue packed their horses for the journey east. A cool wind blew as they traveled, the first wind of the new season. The group encountered a large pack of buffalo on the prairie. Bang. One buffalo down. Bang – two. Bang – Pale Blue stood up and grabbed the hunter’s gun, his hand completely and totally blocking the bullet from release. “No.” he said.
The men were angry, uncomfortable and a bit scared as Pale Blue explained:
“I cannot allow you to injure or destroy without proper cause for survival. Two is enough for you.”
One man pointed his weapon right at Pale Blue’s forehead. All of the settlers surrounded him. They wore frustrated faces, flinging questions; distrust was colored in the air like a growing mold. That was the first of many odd behaviors that Pale Blue engaged throughout their trip, his guardianship persona conflicted with the settlers over and over again. But it all came to a point as the group traveled through the hills of Appalachia – as Pale Blue stopped one of the men from killing a young Native American boy.
Pale Blue’s chest smoked. A blitz of sparks rising from it. A dark sponge and a scattering of metal pieces. The men stood in complete shock as the bullet remnants fell from Pale Blue’s skin. It was at that moment when the settlers truly understood that Pale Blue was more than just a blue man – and the world would understand even more so, soon enough.
Pale Blue traveled for many decades; he caught the wind on his face as he flew like a jet through the skies of Earth. He often intervened in the quarrels of nations, countries, tribes and colonies. Using his near impenetrability, immense strength, lightning speed and aeromanic abilities to defend the lower peoples, lower beings, impoverished, and as he states many times to world leaders:
“I am the greatest defender of the natural world of Earth.”
Safe to say that as the industrial revolution, the rise of consumerism, capitalism and dreaded weaponry emerged from its newly-nuclear shell, the natural world became a lot harder to defend. And Pale Blue, despite his best efforts, could not be everywhere at once.