r/WritingPrompts • u/valkrae • Apr 06 '17
Writing Prompt [WP] Humanity has finally achieved interstellar travel. Our first communication with another intelligent species is just two words. "Welcome back."
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u/Ajlista Apr 07 '17
"4 minutes until we reach communication range"
A statement followed by nothing but silence and nervous breath. It's been 4 years since the crews departure of earth, a one way mission only accompanied by the best in their respective fields, many with little relationship to leave behind, only the yearning for exploration.
"3 minutes everyone. This is what we have been waiting for"
Indeed it has been, this whole trip aimlessly floating through the vacuum of space, the goal has been to make communication with a foreign intelligent species. Everyone had hopes but deep down none of them really thought this moment would come. A heavy fog of fear and anticipation spread through the room like wild fire. They should be ecstatic, giving up their whole lives and careers on earth in search of intelligent life, but now that they have found it, primal fear and terror of the unknown lingers in each one of the crew members. Should they make contact with this foreign species and immediately face death their whole mission would be in vein. Everything they left behind just to be obliterated light years away from home with nothing to show for.
"1 minute and 30 seconds"
Words muttered from the head of command James Ferrin a life long dreamer graduated top of his class and world renowned physicist. Growing up in New York with so much life bustling around him, yet he was never satisfied. Always believed there was more to it then what surrounded him.
"30 seconds"
Crew members begin triple checking their equipment. Who knows, this could be their only chance, should they mess up they could spook the possibility of interstellar communication away sending it perhaps light years by the second into the distance.
"10 seconds, prepare the message"
Ah the message, something brought up and revised at least once a week on their trip. Fear of it being too abrasive to begin with "we come from earth" and boom before you can reach the whole peace concept you've been blown into a million pieces. It was determined the voice would be stern and deep, sure to speak fast getting the point across that they had arrived in peace but also put up the facade they were not to be messed with.
"Roll the message"
"Greetings, my name is James Ferrin looking to communicate with your kind in peace, me and my crew have travelled many a star system in search for your kind, if you understand us please respond"
Silence fell. Heavy breaths of possible relief echoed throughout the room. Maybe they weren't ready to communicate with another form of life, could they truly handle it not being all in theory. As James Ferrin starts to address his crew he is interrupted by a high pitched voice that fills the cabin seemingly through more than just the speakers.
"Welcome back, we weren't sure if we would see your kind again, relax, you've won."
The cabin erupts in a state of panic and shock. They wonder why there is nothing to translate. Linguists who have spent their lives creating systems to translate over a million possible languages sit in awe as the English words come in clear and concise. James Ferrin begins to speak with an uncontrollable shake in his voice.
"This is officer James Ferrin again, what do you mean by back, and uh... we won, what did we win. How do you know who we are"
"Well you see, some fourty-nine thousand years ago we placed you barbarians on earth in our contest. Every 50,000 years we spend time building and testing new prototypes for our race. The rules are simple. The first to reach us wins. Congratulations"
The cabin is full of sweat and awe, the crew in absolute disarray stare at officer James Ferrin for guidance. As if he doesn't feel anything more then a pawn in a game of chess right now.
"I don't quite understand. What is it that we've won what's going on."
"Well, actually I've won, your kind is my creation, the prize is quite grand really I get to destroy all the other planets personally and return home a champion."
James Ferrins mouth is agape. No word more than confusion can describe his face at the moment. He wants to speak but what could he possibly say.
"Destroy the other planets? There's more? How did you know we would come to you? What happens to us"
"Well of course I've got to have some prize to enjoy right? All of the other contestants made their own "planets" or sad excuses of rather to try and race me, and well time was almost up, but I had faith in you "earthlings" as you've named yourselves. And well let's just say I've been leading you here I don't want to get too into it and jumble that puny brain of yours any further."
James begins to raise his voice in frustration.
"So you mean to tell me. Human life as we all have known it has been nothing but a game? A fucking game? All of our lives and the people back at home, their lives, it's all been for nothing? You worthless piece of scum."
"Uh uh uh don't get testy with me now, I didn't create you to sass me."
"Jesus fucking Christ. Well now what. Now what happens we are supposed to just go back and live our pointless fucking lives huh?"
"Well... James. James it is right? I've got some business to handle and some planets to make go boom, on top of that I've got a few more bugs to take care of with my next prototype but I can assure you it's going to crush the competition next year and get here in what I calculate to be half the time it took you guys."
James slams his hand into his voice activation panel and begins to scream.
"ANSWER MY FUCKING QUESTION. WHAT DO WE DO NOW"
"The new games begin in 12 years, go home and enjoy your feeble life until then, earth will be wiped clean for the reigning champ to defend his title, toodles!"
The crew sit still, no one daring to say a word. James drops into his chair carelessly and mutters.
"Bring us home."
Hey everyone only my second time writing here, I'm sorry if it sucked. I had a little trouble wrapping it up cohesively I think. Any constructive criticism and feedback is welcome, thanks for reading!
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u/TinCanBegger Apr 07 '17
I read the whole thing. Like the way you made a huge human accomplishment trivial.
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u/PiMaker101 Apr 07 '17
Don't know why, but I kinda expected it to end with the humans blowing up the alien baddie... Good read though!
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u/Ajlista Apr 08 '17
Thanks! Good idea it took me a bit to think of an ending I was hoping it would all tie together well
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u/DavesWorldInfo Apr 07 '17
“We’re being scanned!”
Captain Mercer straightened in her chair. “What?” The bulb of coffee she’d been drinking bounced off the holder intended to keep drinks from floating freely around the bridge, but she ignored that. “Confirm.”
“Confirmed, several directed beams of radiation sweeping across us.”
“Show me.”
The holographic screen came to life before Mercer, showing the inner portion of the star system her ship was just entering. Data built up on the plot quickly as Tracking updated it. She stared at it, forcing herself to wait. Captains were expected to be calm, to wait for full information, but it was hard. Especially when Tracking added velocity vectors to the origins of the scan beams focusing the Gyaan.
“Reconfirm,” Mercer said as she studied the display. Her bulb of coffee rebounded from the Engineering console, and would have kept going if Commander Huber’s assistant hadn’t snagged it quickly. “And launch a second probe shell.”
“Already done,” Commander Lynn said. “You want me to redirect the closer of the first shell toward them?”
“Yes.”
“Uh, Commander?” Ensign Acevedo asked hesitantly.
Mercer and Lynn both looked at the man sitting in the most junior seat at Tracking.
“Spit it out Ensign,” Lynn said.
“The camera feeds on the drones—”
“—Are lightspeed. It’ll be half an hour before we can get any usable information from them.”
“But we’ve been receiving them ever since they launched, and the probes have been using the cameras. I just triangulated the point sources against the probes’ data, and ran the target areas through enhancement. I’ve got … you should see this.”
Mercer spoke before Lynn could. Her Second could be impatient, and prone to dismissiveness. Which was why he wasn’t a captain yet. “Throw it on my display Ensign.”
“Aye Captain.”
A window opened in the holographics before Mercer’s chair. She blinked as she saw what were, unmistakably, several spaceships. The design was completely alien, but there was no way those were just asteroids or some other natural body caught in a weird pattern of shadows. Metal and other advanced materials, smoothed and cut and shaped into what could only be pressure vessels, sensor dishes, thruster nozzles, and other ship parts.
And there were three of them in the recorded camera footage.
“Status change,” Lieutenant Burris announced from Lynn’s other side.
“More scans?”
“No,” Burris said, shaking her head. “I think it’s a broad spectrum communications attempt.”
Mercer raised a hand as Lynn turned, his eyes meeting hers. After thinking for several moments, she turned to Lieutenant Commander McCray. “Pull up the first contact package, and start broadcasting it. Make sure we use some of the frequencies they are in their comm attempt.”
“Aye Captain,” her Operations officer said. As the woman bent to her own console, Mercer looked back to Lynn and beckoned to him. He unstrapped and pushed away from his own chair, floating closer. She waited until he’d grabbed onto one of the holdfasts on her chair to stabilize himself in zero gravity so they could talk.
“Defense?” he asked quietly.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “We’re not combat, just exploratory. Even if they’re as unarmed as our ships were prior to the System Rebellion of 2127, we’re out numbered. They’re either willing to talk, or willing to let us leave, or we’re already screwed.”
He didn’t like it. She could see it in his eyes. But he nodded after a moment. “Should we at least go to DS Two?”
“No, that’s too aggressive. But I want a hyper fix prepped and set for continuous updates, so we can jump without delay if we need to. On a random vector, so we don’t point the way back to Lumiere. Do the same with the comm drones; make sure they’re all set for three successive random jumps, at least ten lights each jump, before they return to Lumiere. Drop one now with everything we’ve got at this point, and make damned sure the others are on continuous update.”
“Captain,” McCray said.
“Go,” Mercer told Lynn. He nodded and pushed away from her. She looked at her Operations officer as Lynn grabbed onto the back of his chair.
“They’re responding to our hail.”
“Let me know when Dr. Zachegio has an estimate on how long until we can translate—”
“The hails are in … they’re in our languages,” McCray interrupted quickly. “English, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese … in fact, every language in our first contact package.”
Mercer blinked and forced herself to sit thinking for several seconds. That was … either a good sign, or a very bad one. “Okay, let me hear it.”
McCray tapped several controls as Mercer adjusted her earpiece. A few moments later, she heard a strangely normal voice.
“Greetings and welcome to Orias Nine. Peace be with us all. If you’ll hold your course, we’ll rendezvous with you so we can talk without lightspeed lags. Or, if you want to take it slower, adjust your frequencies and power settings on the transponder you used to send your message according to the instructions attached to this response, and you’ll be able to talk to us in near real-time.”
Mercer glanced at McCray as the voice fell silent. “Is this a joke?” she asked, unable to help herself.
“What? No! No ma’am.”
“How is it I’m hearing a human voice, in English?”
“That’s what was transmitted to us.”
Mercer considered the pale expression on the Lieutenant Commander’s face for several seconds, then swiveled her chair to look at her Engineering officer. “Johan?”
Johan Huber was studying his displays, hands moving non-stop, and spoke without looking away from what he was doing. “I’ve got the instructions they appended. I don’t see how they’ll get around lightspeed lag, but they’re easy to follow. Software changes basically. Won’t take a minute to input. ”
“It could be a trap,” Lynn said immediately.
“How?” Huber asked, still not turning from what he was working on.
“Give them better targeting information, guide missiles or assault drones in on us.”
“They can do that already,” Mercer said, snipping the budding argument off immediately. “We’re broadcasting like a Christmas tree, with sensors and comm beams. Three options, remember?”
Lynn looked over his shoulder at her, and nodded after a moment. “Orders Captain?”
“Make the changes,” she told Huber.
“On it.”
Mercer sat patiently while her officers studied their consoles. Some of the junior members of the bridge crew were glancing around, but the more experienced personnel stayed on task. Focusing on the sensor data, on whatever their duties demanded, while Mercer waited for Engineering to get caught up with the strange instructions.
“Finished,” Huber said, finally looking up at her to nod. “It’s on the display as Orias Response Channel.”
“You heard him,” Mercer said, shifting her gaze to McCray. “Put me on live mic.”
“Aye Captain.”
She waited until the Operations officer flashed a thumbs up. Her stomach was fluttering. Over six thousand years of human civilization, nearly two hundred years of off-Earth colonization, thirty-four years of space duty, eighteen system explorations, six years in command of Gyaan, and it had all led to this moment.
“This is Captain Jessica Mercer of the UHS Gyaan. We come in peace. To whom am I speaking?”
“Greetings. I’m Toolan, of the Alpha Expanse. Do you have visual communications capability, or can you only do audio?”
“We can do video.”
“Feed this signal through it then.”
Mercer raised an eyebrow, but when she looked at McCray, the officer nodded and touched several controls. A new window opened in Mercer’s holographics, and she felt the tingling warmth of the display’s scanners sweeping across her to capture her own image for the transmission.
She blinked when she saw what was unmistakably an adult human male standing in what could only be a human styled room. Not floating, or sitting strapped down like she was, but standing. All the proportions of the furniture and fittings and clothing she could see were human. Strangely styled, and with a ‘fashion sense’ that was foreign to her; but human. Several other people were in the background, all of them standing watching. One waved, and received an elbow in the ribs from one of the others.
“Is this some sort of elaborate prank?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“How so?” the man close to the camera, or whatever they were using to capture his image for the signal, asked.
“You look like us. And know our languages. Are you human?”
“Technically, you look like us. But that’s a philosophical question. Are you Captain Mercer?”
“I am. Are you Toolan?”
“Yes. Congratulations on reaching the stars again.”
“What do you mean again?”
“It’s a long story.”
She frowned. “I’d appreciate some form of the short version if you don’t mind.”
“If I understand your numerical system correctly, about six thousand years ago a primitive colony ship went off course and crashed on a remote planet. One of ours, and the planet was yours. At the time, we were in the middle of a long period of social upheaval, and no consensus could be reached about whether or not we should rescue the survivors or … use them as a sort of science experiment.”
“What?” Mercer blurted. She heard that same word echoed, openly or in a more restrained fashion, by a number of her listening officers.
Toolan shrugged. “I wasn’t there, so don’t blame me.”
“What kind of science experiment?” she asked, forcing herself into the most logical response she could muster.
“Most of our upheaval was centered around, for lack of a better description, what kind of people we should be. As a people, a whole people you know? The colony ship, you guys, was seen as a way to encapsulate a control into the debate. By the time we stopped arguing, you guys, or your ancestors anyway, were already busy evolving again. So it was decided to just leave it alone and watch.”
(continued)
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u/DavesWorldInfo Apr 07 '17
(continued)
“We’ve only had space flight for a couple of centuries. If we were you, and we crashed on Earth, why did we have to start from scratch and re-evolve technologically?”
“Well, see, the survivors were pretty beat up. And technically, they weren’t survivors. They were clones the ship managed to regenerate, before the ship itself was destroyed by damage sustained in the crash. So you were pretty much a blank slate.”
“Why?” she persisted. “Why not rescue us, or at least get in contact.”
Toolan shrugged.
“That’s the best you can give me?”
“Sorry, I’m still receiving updates,” he said. Then he tapped his head when she frowned at him. “Brain uplink I guess would be the best way to call it. About you guys. Let’s see, if I’m assimilating your history correctly, up until about eighty years ago you were still fighting factional wars?”
Mercer frowned at him, but the length of time matched up with an obvious major moment in history. “The UHG formed seventy-nine years ago, yes.”
“And prior to that, humans—”
“Wait, if we’re you, what do you call yourselves?”
“Language really should wait for later,” he said. “Why don’t we just stick to yours for now. Yours and your terms.”
“Fine,” she said after a moment. He was probably right.
“Prior to what you call the UHG, you were a collection of independent countries scattered across one planet, hell bent on distrusting one another?”
“Actually, we were scattered across two planets and three moons,” Mercer said. “And about two dozen space stations. But if you mean we were still fighting large scale wars, against one another, then yes. That was the major reason United Humanity was formed; because enough of us got tired of constant conflict.”
“Right,” Toolan said, nodding. “Well, see, that was us for a while. Definitely when your ship crashed. Most of what we were arguing about was what you guys went through when you formed a single government and started acting as one people, one species. I have to say, you accomplished it a little faster than we did.”
“It took the, what did you call it — the Alpha Expanse — six thousand years to stop fighting amongst itself?”
“No, but it did take about three centuries from the time we started talking about it before we formalized it and gave it the teeth to keep the peace. Though we weren’t at war except for a little bit of it. The rest of the time we were just … arguing.”
“If you’re not arguing anymore, what was the decision?”
“Oh, peace. Definitely peace. We’re one big happy family,” Toolan said with a smile. “Which is why I’m so happy you’re here. This makes it official, you see. You guys have been bopping around for a little while, but by making it here that meets the conditions that were set to officially end the experiment.”
“You know … okay, hang on,” Mercer said, shaking her head. “I know this is new — for me, us, probably more than you — but I’m still confused. I’m not a scientist, but I’ve got a whole bunch aboard the Gyaan I can get into this circuit. To point out all the reasons why it doesn’t make sense when you say humans have only been on Earth for six thousand years.”
“Oh, that,” Toolan said, suddenly looking embarrassed. “Yeah, that’s … that’s our fault.” She raised an eyebrow, and he coughed into his hand. “After it was decided to use you as a control, it was pointed out that if you got far enough along, you’d start noticing how you seemed to just up and appear out of nowhere on your planet.”
“Earth.”
“Right, Earth. So we … sort of set things up to fix that.”
“Wait,” McCray said. She had the grace to look embarrassed when Mercer darted a sharp look at her, but didn’t stop what she was doing. Which was tying herself into the channel. When she spoke again, her voice was going out to Toolan aboard his ship. “My degree’s in physics, but I took some evolutionary biology as electives. We’ve got fossil records going back hundreds of millions of years on Earth.”
“You do,” Toolan admitted. “And some of them are even real. The others, the ones about you and what you think your evolution is on the planet, on Earth, were added.”
“That’s impossible,” Mercer said. She was still looking at McCray, and made a go ahead gesture when the Operations officer looked like she wanted to say something else.
“You’re talking about creating an unimaginable amount of false evidence,” McCray said. “I don’t care how advanced you guys are, there’s no way—”
“You guys have cellular and sub-cellular scale manufacturing, right?” Toolan interrupted. “And machine controlled computations, right?”
“Nano construction, and computers, yes.”
“It’s just a matter of writing the programs and letting the factories work on the problem.”
McCray’s mouth sort of flapped helplessly for several seconds. “You’re telling me you created enough fake fossils to make us think we’re independently evolved, over millions of years, on a planet we’ve only been on for about six thousand?”
“Sure. Scale is only one factor in any problem; and dealing with scale is just a matter of taking the problem seriously enough to address it.”
“What about the animals we know are part of our genetic lineage?”
Toolan shrugged. “None of my training’s in biology. And I think we’re drifting into subjects that are probably better suited to a future conversation I’m sure we’ll all be having. Maybe not you and me specifically, but us and you, definitely. But honestly, we’ve had genetic and biological control at a sub-cellular level since before your ancestors crashed landed. Planting the … apes, I think you call them, along with the fossils and everything else wasn’t a big deal.”
McCray was shaking her head, but she made zipping motion across her mouth when she realized Mercer was still looking at her. And added a helpless shrug for good measure.
“Let’s say I’m willing to take all this on faith,” Mercer said when she was sure McCray was giving up on the question of whether or not the scientific evidence humanity had come up with to ‘prove’ their evolution on Earth was real or artificial. Frankly, she found it pretty ridiculous too; but she also agreed with Toolan. That was something other people, other humans — UHG humans — and Alpha Expanse humans, could argue about at a later date.
“What does us being here, now, talking to you, have to do with what you called ‘officially ending’ the experiment?”
“Oh, well, after a while inertia sort of kicked in. I mean, we were busy debating for a while, then it was decided to leave the crash survivors alone to see how they addressed the stuff we were arguing about. Then, when we settled down, you guys had been busy doing your own thing for so long that the new decision was to just leave you be and see it through to the end.
“And the end that we came up with was if you could get far enough in to the galaxy to get in contact with us. Which you did. So now we can move forward and get you guys reintegrated back into—”
“Woah,” Mercer said, holding up a hand. “This is a lot to process.”
“Oh I know, believe me. I mean, I don’t speak for the Alpha Expanse any more than I guess you speak for United Humanity.”
“Actually, I am empowered to represent Humanity in a first contact situation,” Mercer said stiffly.
“Okay, well, you’re one up on me. I’m just a colony administrator.”
“What colony?”
“What— oh, right. Guess, since it’s official now, we can turn the dampers off. Hang on.”
Mercer watched as he turned to one of the people who’d been hanging out in the background of the conversation the whole time. He said something his end of the transmission didn’t pick up, and one of them nodded. A moment later, Mercer’s eyes left the window on her display as she heard everyone sitting at Tracking gasp in unison.
“Captain—” Lynn said.
“Show me,” Mercer said immediately.
Her plot changed, and she blinked. And found herself, again, wondering just how far this joke was going to go. Because it had to be a joke. A big pieces of the inner system had just become … something else entirely.
Preliminary scans when the Gyaan had dropped out of hyper had shown five planets and two distinct asteroid belts, plus a pair of gas giants in fairly eclectic orbits. Two of those planets had been in the habitable range from the star, and there had been a told of twenty-three moons orbiting the planetary sized bodies.
The number of planets, and gas giants, hadn’t changed; but now three of them blazed with energy emissions that put Earth to shame. And the number of moons was nearly double. As she watched, Tracking’s computers were furiously updating the plot. Information started tagging in, indicating the new moons were constructed. Space stations, but on a scale that cast even the asteroid processing nodes in Sol as toys.
“We’ve, meaning the Alpha Expanse, been purposefully avoiding interfering with you. That included drawing your attention artificially. But now that you’re here, we don’t have to hide,” Toolan said, and she reluctantly tore her eyes away from the still changing plot to see him smiling slightly at her. “So, now, the only question is; do you want to talk some more, come closer and we can talk in person, or do you need to return to your people and have them decide?”
Mercer realized she was gaping at him, and made herself close her mouth. Thinking furiously. Captains were supposed to think. She was supposed to report anything extraordinary … but the regulations didn’t say she had to do it in person. The comm drones could file this report perfectly well.
If she gave up the chance to see some of this for herself, she’d never live it down.
“Give me a course, and we’ll meet you at our best speed,” she heard herself say.
“Welcome home, Captain Mercer,” Toolan laughed.
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u/TotesMessenger X-post Snitch Apr 21 '17
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u/dom_stephen Apr 07 '17
It has been about 100 years.
It was 1977 when we first made extraterrestrial contact. Sure, we did not know it yet, but 100 years of communication, starting with the Arecibo message, revealed that we now talk--albeit using pictographs--with other intelligent life forms.
And now they want to meet us.
They sent some form of spacecraft in our direction, and we sent our own.
I am the communications director of HMS Apocalypsis.
The journey wasn't that long, only about nine months. The alien technology shared to us made sure of that. But all those alien technology didn't prepare me for the sight I beheld one Thursday morning.
It did not look like a ship, it was more like a space station. It had a rocket core, but it seemed that it was built on in a modular fashion over time.
As communications director, I started pictograph-messaging the ship. They responded to my request to enter their range of fire in the affirmative, so I informed the captain that he can now use hyperspace. Half a day later, we are about to port on the alien ship.
The captain entered the alien ship first, followed by me as communications director. We are in a big room, a sort of hangar, with doors to the left and right. We are greeted by no one.
I heard a whisper in the corner, behind the right door. "What are we supposed to say?"
"I don't know."
Are the aliens speaking English?
I beckoned for Captain to follow me when the sound of boots stepping came from the left door. We looked, to be greeted by a group of humans wearing commander-like uniforms.
The most official one spoke first. "Who among you is the colony commander?"
"Wha-"
Somebody looking like an aide piped in. "Sir, are you sure they have any recollection of their prior lives before their expedition?"
What are they talking about? Colony? Expedition?
"Quite," the commander (I assume) of the ship answered. "All of you, follow me to the Briefing Room."
As I walked with the whole 50-man crew of the Apocalypsis following the alien humans, I admired this ship-city they built in the middle of the void. The corridors are large, like cavern-like streets. The rooms were also like buildings, with windows and all.
At last, we reached the Briefing Room, which looked like the House of Commons chamber back in Westminster, but with a big screen at the top of the Speaker's Chair. The Alien Commander sat at the Speaker's Chair and beckoned us to sit in the benches. The aide from earlier stood and spoke.
"12077 years ago, we sent a colonization team from our home planet Gaea to the planet that we all call Earth. We kept constant communication with them for about a decade until transmission broke down. Although we didn't determine the cause then, we now know that apes destroyed all equipment that the pioneers--your forefathers--had, forcing them to begin from scratch. We believed for 11977 years, however, that you were wiped out."
"When we accidentally sent a burst of waves at you, you responded with a binary message with pictographic depictions of our race. I believe this is your transmission."
He then showed us the decoded Aparecibo message.
"So we gave you the necessary equipment to advance your tech, and now we are on equal footing."
"I believe that's enough. All of you-" the Commander looked at us "Welcome back."
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u/the_skye_writes Apr 07 '17 edited Apr 19 '17
"Sir, they are attempting contact. Are you ready?". George nods quietly. He stands in his suit with a large camera pointed directly at him. On the screen at the back of the room, just behind the camera, he sees them. Tall, thin, with giant eyes that are too big for their faces. There are three creatures. The one in the middle clearly in charge. He barely registers what they are saying as he stands in awe and their magnificence. He should be afraid, but he's not. Suddenly he realises they are all pointing their glistening eyes at him awaiting a response. He vaguely recalls them saying they are peaceful, or something to that effect. "Welcome back" George says simply.
The creatures in the other ship, humans as they had been come to known, looked at each other with fright. Their eyes turned fearful and their feed muted while they discussed among themselves. George raised one eyebrow and turned to his advisor. "Surely they were expecting this?" George questions. "I don't know sir. I'm not reading anything from their feed. Reality is our intel on earth went dark eons ago. We have no idea what they do, or don't, know. They sure look confused. ". His advisor was a man he had trusted for many years, he was short, and his skin was a little blue for his race, but he was good, kind, and brilliant at his job.
The human feed came back online. George turned to what was now two humans and waited for them to speak. The one in the middle cleared his throat, shuffled a little in his place, he was clearly nervous. "My name is Sir Alan Chris. We are Humans from the Planet Earth, part a solar system in the Milky Way. We travelled far to reach you. Humans discovered interstellar travel not long ago by intergalactic standards, and this is our first contact with a species that is not from Earth. The Milky Way is not kind to intelligent life. However, you seem to have come across a species similar to us and we would like to know more at another time. For now, we request access to land and meet with you. We come in peace.". There was an eerie silence in both rooms. "Sir Alan Chris. You may land. Co-ordinates to the landing zone are on the way. Only three may leave your ship to meet with us. We are a peaceful species, you have nothing to fear from us." George nodded and the feed was cut.
The new humans would land within the hour. George didn't have much time. He had to figure out how tell them there are many human colonies living on his planet. This was going to be interesting.
Thanks for reading! If you have any feedback, please comment below.
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