Browsing Czech translation

5.

NORDO is a world consisting of a group of seven planets, each with a civilization of its own. The inhabitants of each planet have a distinct mythology with the common element of the seven planets fighting amongst each other. But they never do in reality. This makes the various races of the seven planets fear each other intensely, though there is no real need to do so.

6.

The seven planets are:

7.

Idsnak - inhabited by the Skullmonkeys. Skullmonkeys look like monkeys with skulls for heads. Skullmonkeys spend the whole day chasing each other in a nervous, hyperactive way. While Skullmonkeys would love to scare the young of other civilizations, they can not, for other worlds are not accessible to them. For this reason, transportation research is a primary concern of the smarter Skullmonkeys. Alpha Jaw, the leader of the Kingdom of the Skullmonkeys, hoped to have a spaceship of some kind built to fly to planets full of youth to scare.

8.

One day while Alpha Jaw busied himself with detailed plans of a great ramp to launch a great rocket, his assistant Hairy Jo climbed down the great fort and decided to rest at the watering hole. Hairy Jo drank deeply from the pure waters and looked at himself in the still reflection. He poked his finger in his ovicular foramen and wondered what it would be like to have flesh on his head.

9.

''I am very ugly.'' thought Hairy Jo.

10.

This was an odd thought since most Skullmonkeys have no concern for appearances.

11.

''For this reason I will cast myself into the water, and live no more.'' he said, then jumped.

12.

His body made a loud splash and he felt the cool water touch every part of his body. His hair grew deeply saturated with water until all of the air bubbles wriggled their way up to the surface. Hairy Jo exhaled and sank even deeper, far deeper perhaps, than any other Skullmonkey had ever gone before. Weightless, he refused to move or struggle. Dark waters surrounded him and he thought about his youth. Hairy Jo remembered a particularly unpleasant day many years before when he was just a lad-Skullmonkey receiving his lesson from an elder named Low Jaw.

13.

''Many are the hairs on our backs,'' said Low Jaw, ''and likewise are the number of Skullmonkeys in this world.''

14.

Hairy Jo looked up to Low Jaw as a father figure. For weeks, Hairy Jo followed every move Low Jaw made. If Low Jaw went into the forest to forage for nuts and grubs so went Hairy Jo. If Low Jaw tended to his garden, so did Hairy Jo.