Telesquirrel - Daughter of the Samurai

 It was a clear sunny day, a gentle breeze softly rustled the brightly green crowns of the trees, somewhere in the distance chirped cheerful birds, and this earthly paradise warmed the soul and heart of the traveler walking along the forest path. At first glance, he was no more than forty years old, of sturdy build, wearing a large wide-brimmed hat, and boots, and with a sword by his side, he seemed like a character from a fairy tale or an ancient story about musketeers.
 As the traveler delved deeper into the forest, the crowns of the trees closed in tighter, and within a few minutes, our hero found himself in a dense dark forest where the sun's rays barely penetrated, and the thickness of the tree trunks had increased so much that the last traces of the path had disappeared, and the traveler had to orient himself more and more by the northern, moss-covered sides of the ancient trees rather than the sun.
 But our traveler, feeling ravenous, eagerly reached into his bag and pulled out a loaf of bread, a rock-hard piece of cheese, a handful of nuts, and a flask of water. He wasted no time in satisfying his hunger, his appetite not dampened by the simplicity of his meal. Despite his extraordinary abilities, he possessed a humble and practical demeanor, finding contentment in life's simple pleasures.
 While he washed down his modest dinner with water from his flask, a bold squirrel approached and, unafraid of the man, deftly nibbled on a nut and also began its meal, showing no hesitation in such proximity to the traveler.
 The wanderer smiled, quietly slid a few more nuts towards the squirrel and began arranging a more comfortable resting place for himself by spreading dry moss between two fallen trees.
 And suddenly, he heard a soft and gentle girlish voice behind him.
- Thank you, kind traveler, for sharing your meager dinner with me.
- Who is speaking?- the traveler whispered in surprise.
- It's me - the squirrel.
- But how?! How can you speak with a human voice? Am I dreaming?- he pinched himself on the earlobe.
- No, kind traveler. You are not dreaming,- the squirrel replied.
- But how can you speak?
- I do not open my mouth, traveler. But I can convey my thoughts and sometimes read yours, - said the squirrel.
- And what was I thinking just now?
- You were thinking that I could be of use to you in your fight against the bad people,- the squirrel replied.
- Correct... Well, you've got me!" the traveler smiled, and for a moment, it seemed to him that the squirrel smiled too and cunningly winked at him with one twinkling eye.
- In reality, I am not a squirrel. I appear to you as a squirrel, just like to any other person who might see us now.
- And who are you?
- I am Princess Telesquirrel, the daughter of a samurai from the planet Samura in the Cygnus constellation. I have come to you, earthlings, to get to know you better and understand. Perhaps, in five hundred years, you will be ready for contact with our civilization, but for now, consider my visit as scientific reconnaissance and an experiment.
- And you don't want to hide this truth from people? After all, they will start hunting you to study and exploit your abilities.
- Don't worry about me, kind traveler. I can fend for myself and change my appearance. Right now, when you treated me to your dinner, I decided to appear before you as a squirrel, as your creature resembles our telesquirrels, and I thank you by showing you the true appearance of our people from the planet Samura.
 And then, in the dim light of the night, the traveler noticed that the eyes and mouth of the squirrel were slightly different from those of a regular squirrel and resembled more human ones. The fingers on its front paws were slightly longer than a typical animal.

Chapter One: Escape.
 In the highlands of Kantyn, the time of winter colds had arrived. Hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest settlements, the castle monastery of the ruler of Samura proudly towered over the snow-covered mountains with its sharp dark spires of fortress towers of various intricate shapes. Some mountains resembled bears, others - terrifying dragons, and some - fluffy rabbits and squirrels. But even though three moons hung in the fading pink-blue sky above all this beauty, Telesquirrel didn't even think to raise her gaze as she briskly walked towards the Flying River or the mountain waterfall. She had no time for the beauty of Kantyn's nature. She needed to get as far away from this castle as possible before her father's guards, the ruler of Samura, caught her. Why did she decide to run away from her father? - you might ask. Well, it was like this.
 Long ago, even by earthly standards, on Samura, a year equaled three Earth years. At that time, the ruler of Samura was very young, and samurais on Samura lived for five thousand local years. The chief assistant to the ruler, responsible for studying the Sky and Stars using a magical mirror and a huge tube, presumably a telescope, discovered a planet that resembled Samura in many ways. After conducting some calculations, he informed the ruler that he had found another civilization of humanoids or sentient beings. The ruler had no interest in other sentient beings, but he dreamed of conquering the entire world, elevating the status of samurais as representatives of the ruling race.
 No, they were not aggressors in our earthly understanding of the word. Their civilization was advanced enough not to enslave others. However, they had already conquered dozens of similar worlds and, while governing them, naturally enjoyed their privileges within reasonable limits. It was similar to how developed countries deal with countries that are significantly behind in their development.
 A year after this discovery, an expedition consisting of six samurai-scientists, specialists in contacting new forms of intelligence, and seventeen samurai-warriors, members of the Samurit starship crew, was sent to the planet Earth. And just a year later, almost immediately after the starship landed on Earth, communication with it was lost. Throughout the known history of the samurais, this was the second instance of losing a starship.
 A thousand years earlier, in a neighboring star system Lyra, a starship had disappeared. At that time, the samurai's starship was attacked by a space jellyfish, a sentient creature, a rare species that was protected and could not be destroyed because it was listed in the Red Book. When the captain of the ship realized that the ship was doomed, it was too late. The jellyfish breached the ship's hull and consumed the thoughts and memories of all the crew members: the thoughts of the samurais were its delicacy. Since then, samurai ships have been equipped with a special anti-jellyfish coating.
 The incident on Earth greatly frightened the samurais, and the ruler decided to send two state-of-the-art warships that were invulnerable to any known space anomalies. The ships reached Earth in three months. However, they suffered the same fate: communication was severed within seconds after landing. The ships disappeared along with their crews. At a meeting of the council of elders, the ruler believed that the right decision was made: to prepare for war with the planet Earth.
 The only one who disagreed with the council's decision was his daughter, Telesquirrel. While her opinion was important to her father, the samurai, it held little weight for the ruler. Despite hesitating and not fully understanding his daughter, the ruler issued a decree to prepare for war over the next twenty years. At that time, Telesquirrel was only ten Earth years old. Her opposition to the war stemmed from reading many kindly fairy tales and stories.
 As the preparations for war neared completion, Telesquirrel, now a talented scientist specializing in the study of alien intelligence, had her own family and two little samurai-squirrels. "I will not allow war," resolved the brave Telesquirrel, daughter of a samurai. She dreaded the thought of her sons growing up only to perish in battle. Moreover, there was no evidence of hostility from Earth's intelligence. She decided to leave her children and family behind for the sake of saving the entire world of samurais.
 At the edge of the cliff near the mountain waterfall, where Telesquirrel hurried to, awaited a single-seater starship for short flights between neighboring stars. However, her scientist friends, fellow samurais, helped install a more powerful and fuel-efficient engine on it, making it possible to travel to Earth and return to Samura. Instead of weapons and provisions, Telesquirrel took with her only a small universal printer, which could create any food, objects, and even small weapons from null subspace, almost out of nothingness.
 Moments later, the roar of the starship's engine woke up the sleepy Plotics—creatures resembling small hippos, lounging in the river near the waterfall. Suddenly, the onboard computer detected and reported an approaching plane from the direction of the castle. There was no time for deliberation. "It's probably the guards or even Dad", - Telesquirrel thought fleetingly and decisively pressed the "Takeoff" button on the control panel. Within minutes, she was thousands of kilometers away from Samura, humming her favorite song "Starry Road":

Planets glide,
Stars wink and sigh,
Seeking answers, we stride,
Before time runs dry.

Just a bit, we plea,
Of happiness, we seek,
On the Milky Way's spree,
As we journey, peak.

Time's barriers and gaps,
Black holes, deep and wide,
Still, we hold onto our maps,
In dreams, we confide.

In bright dreams we trust,
In beauty, in peace,
Being true to us,
Our fate, we release.

The Second Part. Samurit.
 The scientific research starship Samurit hovered in Earth's orbit for two days before initiating the descent of its first shuttle to the surface of the unexplored planet Earth. The planet was strikingly beautiful even from space, but now the samurais had the opportunity to use powerful video magnification to observe not only large creatures like whales and elephants but also humans, their children, and small domestic animals.
 The samurai scientists were curious about everything: the level of intelligence and culture of the people, their methods of communication and information transmission over distances, and their technical devices. By the end of the first day, it became clear that Earthlings posed no threat to the samurais due to their significantly lower level of intelligence. According to preliminary estimates, the difference in development was about a hundred to two hundred times. Earthlings, in their view, were smarter than turtles but dumber than mice. Nevertheless, they were humanoid beings, which meant that even without direct contact, they needed to be studied more thoroughly.
 By the end of the second day, all six samurai scientists and five accompanying samurais from the ship's crew began their descent to the planet. However, during the final kilometers above Earth's surface, communication with them suddenly disconnected. The ship's commander then decided to descend in the main starship, which was more fortified, to rescue their samurais in distress. Starship Samurit landed safely on Earth, but just as before, upon landing, its communication with their native planet Samura was disconnected.
 Nothing was left but to disembark a squad of ten samurais led by the commander. Two samurais were left to guard the starship. The squad ventured into the adjacent forest, where, according to the testimony in the black box of the remaining two samurais, they disappeared without a trace. To the surprise of the remaining two, not only was communication lost, but also the spatial-temporal coordinates of their home planet vanished. Apparently, time on Earth had a different anomalous nature, distinct from Samura, leading to a complete loss of communication and disorientation of the ship.
 The black box was found adrift in open space by another samurai starship only two centuries later. At this point, the story of the disappearance of the Samurit could have ended. At least, that's all the samurais knew about it in the future. But we won't leave the readers hanging with an incomplete plot and will tell you about the starship's crew, as Telesquirrel later learns much more about what happened next.
 Ten samurais survived. All their electronic communication devices, location tracking systems, and the food printer malfunctioned. They didn't know what they could eat in the unfamiliar forest, and they might have died of hunger if they hadn't encountered ordinary Earth squirrels, so similar to them, who treated them to a supply of nuts. This was the first contact between the samurai civilization and Earth creatures.
 Until now, we haven't mentioned what the samurais from the planet Samura look like. Externally, they closely resemble Earth squirrels, only slightly larger, with large, almost human-like eyes and stronger front paws than Telesquirrel's. Additionally, their fur had a slightly bluish tint, while Telesquirrel's fur closely resembled that of typical Earth squirrels. Earth squirrels couldn't be called intelligent, but who knows what they will look like in a million years?
 Moreover, the samurais quickly found common ground with the Earth squirrels, and over time, realizing that they were not destined to return to their native planet, they decided to stay and live in the forest alongside their hospitable Earth counterparts. Telesquirrel learned all of this much later. But for now, let's continue our story about how Telesquirrel herself managed to adapt to life on Earth.

Part Three. The Oath.
 Our traveler, who spent the night in the forest and met Telesquirrel, was known to almost everyone in the country of Iberia. His name was Mark Postumus. "There is no such country, and there never has been," an erudite, but not very much so, a reader might object (Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus - a Roman military commander who proclaimed himself emperor of the Roman Empire in 260 AD. He organized the so-called Gallic Empire, which included Gaul, Upper and Lower Germany, Britain, and Iberia).
 All events took place in the territory somewhere between modern Western Europe and Georgia. But, to be honest, I didn't understand: where did such a country as Iberia come from on Earth, later swallowed by the Persian Empire? There is one idea that I will share with you, dear readers and listeners of this story. The point is that the most logical, and naturally, fantastic explanation for the disappearance of the samurai spacecraft and the vanished country of Iberia on our map could be such a thought: the Earth being discussed is not quite our Earth. What does "not quite our" mean?
 Many modern physicists believe that parallel to our planet Earth and our world, there exist hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other "parallel" worlds. Usually, we cannot enter or even see these worlds in space-time, through which one can only pass in one direction, as the crews of samurai spacecraft did. Entering certain areas on Earth at high speeds causes some temporary spatial-temporal ruptures or "wormholes" through which the samurai were transported to another, perhaps also our Earth. Which one is ours, and which one is the other? Now it doesn't matter. But the thought that our history has been repeatedly altered by such "wormholes" and will continue to change in the future, does not leave me in peace.
 It would be unfortunate if this story were to disappear from the pages of the internet one day. But theoretically, such a scenario is entirely possible. Therefore, I would be very grateful to you, dear readers and listeners, if you would purchase my book, just in case, in print. How about this for an advertisement: "Buy a book from a parallel world, because tomorrow it may disappear from the internet without a trace, just like much in our history"?)