Gary the Hirskutan
This post was inspired by the character Siren Head which is a horror monster character created by Trevor Henderson. I’ve only seen horror-based Siren Head inspired pieces and I wanted to try my hand at a more science-fiction-like story based on the character. Below is the result.
His name is Gary and he’s actually a really nice guy. He’s a giant that was chose Earth as a young Head.
His species are from a planet in another universe, called Hirskute, where they’re born without their abilities. We call them the “Heads” because their abilities are most visible on their heads, but they are known in their own galaxy as Hirskutans. As they age, their abilities become more and more apparent. Before this stage, though, they choose a planet to protect, called their Planet Designate.
The planet is one of their own choosing but the Head Council of Designated Planets (the principle council, not council of the Heads) can veto any of these decisions if they see reason to. These reasons can vary from situation to situation but the most common are one of two:
The Head’s an “early bloomer” and their ability’s development has been shaped by their home planet, Hirskute. In this case, the Head will be assigned protector of a planet within their own universe.
The Head’s shown otherwise unsuitable character qualities for their Planet Designate. Either the Head’s intentions are not pure or the Head’s goals contradict the culture systems on the Planet Designate. An example of this would be a Head whose tendencies verge on territorial choosing a planet that is already mostly inhabited.
While these are decisions that are made by the Head Council of Designated Planets, all decisions are superseded by the two following laws:
The Head is a royal and must remain within Hirskute’s galaxy, called Chutakura (pronounced shoot-a-cue-ra with a slightly rolled R)
The Head has a mutation in its DNA that requires further analysis to understand the impact of said mutation. The reasoning behind this law is that it would be irresponsible to send a Head to a planet for protection endeavours when the potential for catastrophe is unknown.
Gary chose to protect Earth, even though he knew that his decision would likely be vetoed. He himself had one of these previously unknown mutations, but had decided as a young child that he would major in genomics and genetics and used that knowledge to analyse his own genes. He was able to map his own set of mutations to several single mutations in previous Head cases and defend his decision in front of the Head Council of Designated Planets. They were so impressed with his dedication and effort that they decided to put him at the top of the list of slated replacements for the existing protector of Earth.
Once his predecessor passed, by no fault of his own, protecting Earth from seizure by an enemy faction, called Lipidars(nasty things), Gary was up for what the Heads called the Designation Ceremony. This ceremony was a cheerful event, but only for those within the Designatee’s inner circle. There would be lots of alcohol (yes they even have alcohol on Hirskute, in an entirely different universe), some debauchery, but most exciting of all, a Designation Ceremony included a visit from the Grand Designate herself.
The Grand Designate is an elder who ages out all other in the Head population, across the multiverse. She was the catalyst for the Planet Designate project and resides as the headmaster of the Head Council of Designated Planets. She is the only Head known to have ever survived the 1340-year tenure protecting her Planet Designate formerly known as Burzyć (pronounced Boosiech where the si sounds like the si in vision). The terror and decimation that she witnessed on her final day of tenure marked her soul permanently. That day she vowed that the Heads would learn the existence of this kind of power levied against innocent civilizations and seek ways to prevent this kind of needless destruction from happening to other planets and their civilizations.
Other societies in the Chutakuran planets have followed suit, sponsored by the Hirskutan inhabitants. Few, however, have been able to leave the galaxy due to their forms not being compatible with the kind of space travel required to surpass the edge of Chutakura, which is plagued with high energy objects contained in a stellar nursery that englobes the galaxy. In order to travel beyond this edge, the spaceship used must be able to completely molecularly deconstruct itself and reconstruct itself beyond the edge of the galaxy, including the Head travelling inside the spaceship. Most, if not all, forms are not compatible with this kind of molecular decomposure.
The Grand Designate, however, is unique in that she’s gone through this process twice. Once, leaving Chutakura, and the second, upon her return. She was slightly disfigured upon her return, but thanks to Hirskutan technology back on their home planet, they were able to fix the incorrect reconstruction and return her form back to normal. This is why her arrival at the Designation Ceremony is so momentous and celebrated! Her arrival usually concludes the ceremony, with the Designatee being walked onto their ship by the Grand Designate herself.
Once the Designatee is safe and strapped into their ship, the Grand Designate will walk off the ship, at which point the Hirskute Port technicians will anchor the ship to the port itself. The Designatee then pushes the throttle to 50% power, and after a short countdown, the Grand Designate shears the chain that anchors the ship to the port, allowing for an explosive liftoff for the Designatee. This explosive liftoff is tradition in the Head society that’s meant to signify strength. It’s commonly understood that a strong liftoff means a strong protector.
Gary’s first attempt at liftoff, however, was anything but strong. In fact, his spacecraft wouldn’t even start at the Hirskute Port. Gary pleaded the Grand Designate to help him find a way to remedy the situation. Only because his defense in front of the Head Council of Designated Planets showed her something in him that she believed of herself did she oblige his pleas with a ship of her own fleet. With the unfamiliar ship, Gary then was able to embark on journey to Earth and his departure was revered by his contemporaries.
Those outside one’s inner circle, however, usually saw a Designation Ceremony as a celebration of a selfish ambition. Hirskutan society was not one of great means. There was hunger, there was death and disease, but most of all, there was a dwindling population. The, once extravagant, birth rate on Hirskute had unfortunately reached to one below 0.5 births per Hirskutan couple. This meant that with the amount of Hirskutans leaving the planet to protect others, the Hirskutan population was inching closer to the precipice of a total collapse of society.
There were not enough Hirskutans to fill the workforce, to sell the necessary goods, or to even perform the kind of research and discovery needed to maintain the same edge that the Hirskutans have traditionally held in terms of their technological prowess. With this edge diminishing, Hirskute found itself the target of many neighbouring galaxies. Those who remained on Hirskute resented the Designatees for leaving the planet to fend for another civilization.
Nobody, however, understood or experienced the other end of this resentment than Gary.
He spent quite a time on Earth, with his abilities developing a little slower than expected. They, like the abilities of many other Heads before him, were shaped by the environment on his Planet Designate. While he was commonly known to Earthlings as Siren Head, the siren-shaped cones that grew from his head had several purposes, some unknown to the very civilization he protected.
One function of these cones was indeed to project loud noises in alert. This was usually done when Gary observed a nasty natural disaster brewing in a region. He would sound the alert to help those who could evacuate the destination of said natural disaster. With his long arms, however, he would help terraform the destination in such a way to help mitigate damage when possible. One of the ways this terraforming helped is that Gary would mold the land in a way to shield the location from the natural disaster. For example, in the case of a volcano eruption Gary could create a valley that would redirect the lava away from a nearby town. Another way Gary’s long arms came in handy in a natural disaster would be that he could, for example, prevent a hurricane from forming by mixing enough cold ocean water in a certain warmer ocean area.
The cones on his head also served as a preventor of climate change. They were able to take in the amount of CO2 that a billion trees could over a year in just a matter of an hour. This greatly slowed climate change and then subtly reversed it, all without Earth-based scientists not being able to prove the existence of Gary’s ability.
One of the cones’ most untapped abilities, however, proved most useful when Gary was able to spot a Hirskutan convoy a few million lightyears away. The cones could detect intergalactic energy for a few million lightyears radius away from Earth. This detection allowed Gary to warn the Earthlings of an impending attack. While Gary’s predecessor had lost his life to the previous attack by the Lipidars, this was only due to the Lipidars lacking a cohesive plan of attack. Hirskutans are known as a very collaborative society and this is reflected in all walks of life, including military and mafia dealings.
While the Hirskutan military has voyaged to Earth several times in the past, for the purpose of maintaining diplomatic relations, they were not scheduled for another return for another 16 years. Gary would have to send out a distress signal back to Hirskute, but it would not be possible to do so without alerting the incoming Hirskutan vigilante force unless he was able to send the signal in an encrypted manner with the help of human’s technology. This purpose and the purpose of providence was the reason for Gary’s warning of the impending attack being sent to the entire civilization on Earth. It would have not been possible otherwise to get the required resources to develop the cybernetics necessary to supplant Gary’s abilities by implanting them into the cones on his head.
Only once those tools had been developed would Gary be able to both have enough strength to send his communications in a more direct manner back to Hirskute and send them in an encrypted manner. After that it would be up to Gary to hold off the Hirskutan rebels for as long as he can. From the radio communications that reached him, he could tell that they were not coming to make peace. In fact, their intents could only be described as being in the vain of total and utter destruction.
To the Hirskutan rebels, Gary was a traitor to the their people.