FIC: "The Naming of Cats..."

[jeriendhal]

“There's one thing I don't get,” Rachael said to Rufus, pointing to a star chart she'd pulled up on the yacht's central holovid display in the center of the lounge pit. “Why is your world named Vulpine Prime?”

“What's wrong with the name?” he replied, leaning back in his seat and smiling.

She shrugged. “It's so, I dunno, generic. It'd be like Earth being named 'Sol Three' or 'Human Central.'”

“Well, that's just our home world's name in the Servitor's Tongue,” he admitted. “It's really...” He let out a series of rumbling growls that rose upward into a piercing yip. “Most other sentients don't have the vocal range to manage it. Translates out roughly to 'The Air, the Water, the Soil that the Den Mother Made for Us and Our Children.' Doesn't exactly trip off the tongue when it's translated from the native I fear, so we settled on Vulpine Prime for when we chat with the tourists.”

“Hmm, could be worse I guess,” she said. “I can't imagine what all of you thought when you first heard our home world's name.”

Rufus grinned. “Oh, I'll admit there was some confusion at first. Took forever to get the Galen to quit referring to it as 'Third Rock from the Sun.'”

Comments

[chaypeta.livejournal.com]

BWAA HAAAA HAAAA!!!!! that last line is CLASSIC!!!
And you're right by the way. The Vulpine home world's real name is difficult to pronounce so that's why it has a common name.

Ya know there's a scene coming up where Joleen mistakenly calls Earth 'Dirt'.LOL.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I was guessing that might be it. And I'm looking forward to seing Joleen call Earth "Dirt". :) I remember that being one of the funnier running gags in Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat" series.