Acronym for: Humanoid Indigenous Life Form;
On Earth, human beings are hilfs to visiting
alien species. On
alien planets, natively inhabited by humanoid
native inhabitants are hilfs to visiting Earthlings or other extraplanetary beings.
As a NASA hilfer, it is my responsibility to make contact with any hilfs our expedition discovers on extraterrestrial planets and moons, as
well as
studying their culture, learning their language, and assessing the capabilities and limitations of hilfs relative to human beings and other known species of life.
Upon hearing of the unexpected attack and slaughter of the logging
camp's 207
men by wild hilfs, which were believed to be incapable of violence, the Legion of Worlds representatives decided to outfit World 41's base
camp with the ansible communications device intended for World 88. Their reasoning was that World 41 had an emergency need for instantaneous communications with headquarters on Earth some 27
light years away. The official report by the colonizing hilfer obviously made erroneous assumptions about how the hilf population may or may not react to their forest homes being razed by Earth
men for lumber to be shipped to Earth. Now, the colonial command staff on World 41 could receive advice and orders directly and immediately from the home planet headquarters instead of waiting the 54 years for normal laser
radio transmissions to travel to Earth and receive responses here. The hilf revolt at the logging
camp had created an unexpected crisis the
small colonial task force was unprepared to handle without Company directives.