Starsnatcher - Trapped In An Alien World [COMPLETE]

Epilogue

"Is this your planet?" Crick asked.

I glanced at the camera screens. I could never forget its looks. Our blue marble with the outlines of North American visible. Its continents weren't red like Eden's. Nor was the whole planet black like Draugr. Nor was it cubic like Lucas' new home. It was just Earth.

A swarm of automated starships accompanied us, passing the satellites. No-one mistook us for enemies. Layla had already sent NASA a signal that explained who we were. We entered low Earth orbit safely.

A spherical dropship split off. It sent me, Layla, and Crick straight onto the path to Ernstburgh. Meanwhile, dropships from our automated ships headed towards Earth's big cities. Their nanofactories caused a new industrial revolution.

On our screen, I saw the oceans disappear and the mainland come closer. I saw clouds become bigger until we broke through them. I saw the green lands. I saw towns and forests and people. Lots of people gathered around the landing platform built for us near Ernstburgh. It lay amidst meadows near the forest where Ay abducted me and Layla.

The waiting crowd was huge and diverse. Not everyone fit into the grass areas. Plenty of people had to wait in the woods instead. Every third had their cell phones or cameras out.

We landed. The dropship's hatch opened. I and Layla stepped out. I held my hands over my extra-sensitive ears because of their noise. Except for some Ernstburgh resident, I didn't even recognize most of them. Many were little boys with space and alien T-shirts who asked their parents to fly them here. Next to them stood scientists in tweed jackets as well as politicians and diplomats in business suits. In the masses, I recognized mine and Layla's families as well as friends like Emma who struggled to get past the jostling crowds. I also recognized Burger Bob staff like Mr. Graves and Steve. Next to them were two people who looked a lot like how Lucas described his parents in his diary.

Everyone who knew us either had tears of joy or nervous anticipation written over their faces. Everyone else, particularly the little space-geek boys, looked in awe at our dropship or Layla's futuristic gadgets.

Finally, our special guest left the dropship. Crick walked out.

"This!" I shouted, hoping my voice could be heard over all the murmuring, "is a real alien!"

The crowd burst into ecstatic screams. Several of the little boys with alien shirts tried to climb over the fence between our landing station and the crowd. They stretched their hands out to touch Crick.

"Is this characteristic behavior of your species?" Crick transmitted.

"Nah, we only behave that way during special events and on Fridays," Layla transmitted.

Someone threw me a microphone.

I caught it and explained everything. I explained how Mustafa Ay had been cryoprisoned on Shadowmoon. I explained how Earth narrowly avoided infection by the Plague. Finally, I explained how close Ay came to releasing Götterdämmerung and how Lucas turned himself into a godlike computer to stop it.

The people I pegged as Lucas' family had tears in their eyes. They knew he wouldn't come back anymore. I consoled them by pointing out how he was immortal and how they had all the time in the universe to visit him. With our technology, it was more than possible.

Microphones passed through the crowd and they asked questions with a common theme. What will happen now? Will the Seizers start a war with us? Will the Plague come back?

All of this overwhelmed me. I didn't feel well after the whole fight with Ay, so, I let Layla handle most of them.

In the end though, I felt like I had to say something. I wanted to have the closing remarks. I tried to inject pathos, to make it lively, to make it sound poetic, yet as natural as I could.