George was sipping his coffee after the squad morning drill when Lieutenant James walked into the locker room.
"Good morning sir," The Soldiers chroused and saluted him.
"At ease," He replied and made a hand gesture for them to relax.
"George, finish up. We have a small mission at hand," Lieutenant James stuttered as the soldiers gathered around.
"Earlier, this morning. We got a call from some local security who claimed that there might have been a possible alien invasion in Tambe, one of the villages dominated by coffee farmers. The story doesn't sound genuine but we can't just overlook it," Lieutenant James paused for some seconds while trying to figure out the village on the map.
"It's right here, very close to the industrial village. Navigating the village shouldn't be a problem and your flight leaves in an hour," the Lieutenant marked the village on the map and left the locker room.
The soldiers freshened up and packed their gear. Exactly an hour later, they departed for Tambe.
It was a short flight and upon landing, the soldiers checked the local security post and asked for a detailed explanation of what they saw.
"Very early this morning, we heard a scream while patrolling so we went out to check what was happening and it turned out to be one of the farmers here. He said that he saw a scary creature and every attempt to find it was futile. Instead, we discovered that one of the companies toxic waste had spilled in some parts of our farms and destroyed our coffee plants overnight," Bada, the head of local security briefed the soldiers.
"What does this scary creature look like and what steps have you taken about the spill?" George asked.
"The company is ready to compensate us and promise it won't happen again but for the man who saw the scary creature, it's best you hear directly from him," Bada responded and led the soldiers to the witness house.
George asked the question again and the man explained. "I don't even know if it's a human but it had a female body without a head,"
"Are you kidding? Is it a dead body you saw?" George stuttered.
"No, she is not dead. She had a coffee bean shape head and her skin colour was similar to that of a coffee bean,"
The soldiers burst into laughter after the man narrated everything he saw and they felt like coming to Tambe was a complete waste of time.
George put a call across to the Barracks immediately after the interrogation and requested for a helicopter to transport them back to base but that didn't happen.
Lieutenant James insisted that they spend the night in the village to be sure nothing strange was happening there. The soldiers patrolled the village but found nothing strange so they made a camp in the woods outside Tambe.
"Guys, enjoy your time here. I need coffee," George said to his colleagues and set out in search of a coffee drink.
Immediately he got to the village, he found a villager who offered him coffee.
George tried paying but the woman turned him down and even told him to visit again if he needed more.
George was heading back to the camp when he noticed that he had been followed. He took the wrong route, hid behind a giant tree and patiently waited for whoever or whatever it was. Immediately George made eye contact with the stalker, he quickly grabbed his gun.
George's hands were shaking and he started sweating profusely.
"How is this possible? What are you? Where are you from?" George stuttered with his gun still aimed at the stalker standing in front of him.
The stalker moved closer to George and sniffed his body.
"I am hungry, I want coffee. You just had coffee," The creature muttered.
"You want coffee?" George asked and she said, " Yes."
George was shocked to know that she could talk and what he just experienced didn't make any sense to him.
"I have a lot of coffee for you but are there more of you?", George asked and she nodded.
"What in the world could this be?" He thought and told the creature to follow him.
George was on high alert as they returned to the camp, he couldn't help but admire the humanoid with a coffee bean-shaped head, earthy skin tone, and dark rich hair.
Immediately the other soldiers saw him and the creature, they reached for their guns.
"Stand down guys, she's harmless and just wants coffee. The villagers will freak out if they see her so I just brought her here," George whispered.
"What are you? A beanling?" One of the soldiers asked as he captured pictures and sent them to the barracks. Immediately Lieutenant James received them, he sent a group of military scientists and it was discovered that the creature existed as a result of the toxic waste that spilled into the coffee farm.
The existence of these creatures became a global issue, they were all captured and kept for observation. Scientists from different parts of the world came together to check the possible risk of keeping them alive but they had nothing against them.
After 2 years of keeping them away from the world, these creatures were allowed to roam around in a restricted area and surprisingly, they bonded well with people. Humans found out that these creatures were intelligent, strong and had an inviting demeanour. They also had outstanding knowledge about anything coffee-related but still saw them as a threat.
There was a global protest against having these creatures roam the streets but with time, the hate faded away.
Humans eventually made friends with them and named them, human beans. Their existence was beneficial to the human race most especially the coffee lovers and they became a norm in the society after a decade.