Did you ever play the game where one person whispers a sentence into the ear of the neighbour who tries to repeat the same sentence to his neighbour and so on? At the end of the Chain, you'll probably get garbage. 

If you want to know what happens when translators play, check out the next six chapters. We take a short story from English to Spanish to French to Swissgerman to German and back to English...

Thanks to rosaimee, angerbda, RainerSalt and linahanson who played along when we sent this story on a world trip!

Promising Start

by jinnis

"Soldier Chirco, report."

"Yes, commander Horac. We secured the prime perimeter. Jungle is dense, out there, but so far we didn't encounter hostile life forms. Nonetheless, the area seems cluttered with indigenous people, we captured a few promising specimens. Shall we bring them in for interrogation?"

"Yes, soldier, proceed. Deliver them directly to medical. In the meantime, I'll send down an interrogation team."

~ ~ ~

Report to Space Command, JK Horac, commander of ground mission, 345.76 h - ta 870°896'65

We extended the perimeter to 500 ki' today. No severe problems encountered. Native life forms are abundant and plants grow to enormous dimensions. If exploited carefully, this colony may solve our fuel problems for millennia: No need to dig for fossil fuels anymore.

Animal life is primitive although some of the species look sentient at first sight. They might be our far related cousins, going by their looks. Predictably, an old science fiction tale about aliens visiting our own planet in prehistoric times popped up and became quickly popular amongst the troops.

To prevent this storytelling to get further out of hand, I ordered an investigation. Med and security joined to test some captured subjects' IQ. Disappointingly, it compares to the one of purple sea slugs at best. Autopsies disprove biological ties with our species in spite of superficial similarities.

Doctor Orci and her biology team now engage with classification of the alien fauna. Her most convincing theory so far is that here, similar environment led to similar forms of adaption.

Doc Arraco believes this world lacked catalyst trigger events like climate change or extreme food scarceness to pressure wildlife into developing higher intellectual capacities.

Tomorrow, we plan to expand our action radius towards the sandy flatlands and the giant solitary mountain beyond. The topography of this planet is dominated by abrupt changes between angular surfaces and soft, eroded landscapes. This lacks comparison, and we sorely miss the head of geological department. He was one of those who didn't make it through hibernation.

However, the mission advances better than expected after we solved the nav problems troubling approach. We are lucky to have found such a perfect landing spot after sailing in predominantly blind.

JK Horac out, transmit.

~ ~ ~

"Tommy? Come in, dinner is ready!"

"Yeah, mum, coming. I just want to finish the new road for my bug soldiers! I even built a bug trap, see?"

"Bugs? You're playing with bugs? Oh my goodness!—Paul, come here, our garden is infested by thousands of big, ugly ants or termites. Bring me that instant insect killer!"