The Fool

"The Fool" by David Mason is a science fiction story about Duncan, an unqualified human teacher on a faraway planet of violent aliens called the Tarchiki. The story looks at what happens when different cultures clash, the dangers of hoping for the best, and how even small actions can have big effects in a strange place. Duncan tries to teach the Tarchiki about Earth's morals, but they just laugh at him for it. His mistakes lead to him destroying their god, Kachan, which gets him killed by a Tarchik priest. But things get weird when the Tarchiki misunderstand his last words, thinking he was forgiving them. They build a statue for him and start worshiping him as a new god, turning his silly ideas into a religion, creating a funny but strange situation that shows how complicated it can be when cultures mix.