Stellar Allies

Part Five

GT July | Stellar Allies | Part Five

Words: Overbearing, Out of Reach, Distortion

The question lingered in the back of Cliff's mind for a few moments as the situation settled over him. It made perfect sense that Ol'oih, their newfound alien companion, would probably have crew members with him. If that thing that was in the sky was their ship, the pieces that broke off were probably also escape pods and not just meteorite debris as he and Jax originally thought.

With that being said, Cliff's mind drew a complete blank. When they realized how close Ol'oih's escape pod, what they thought was a meteorite, had landed, they'd abandoned all observation on the other chunks that broke from the main body. If he thought about the trajectory of where the main body was going, it was possible for them to maybe find out what happened to one of the pieces.

On the other hand, it was equally as possible th-.

"What did he ask?" Jax's voice made Cliff jump. He'd been so focused trying to solve the question and the issues it presented that he completely forgot about keeping his friend in the loop. He looked down into the crate and saw Ol'oih's hopeful features gazing back at him while Jax's face held minor annoyance that he had to wait for Cliff to translate since he was the only one with a direct line of communication to the alien.

"I... sorry. He wanted to know if we knew what happened to the rest of the crew. I'm guessing the thing we saw falling from the sky last night was the main ship, and he wants to know if we know anything about the others," stated Cliff. He looked down at Ol'oih and swallowed the dryness forming in his throat. "How many others were a part of your crew?"

"There are seven of us total," Ol'oih pathed, not hesitating when being asked. He felt like he could trust these two, at least at the moment, and he needed to know anything and everything he could before planning his next move. "There is Captain Immott Imai, second-in-command Adda Noz'ex, medical officer Scix'en Trok, our two technical specialists Arcal Kor and Valaih Du'uhl, and then cultural specialist Q'crul Kaelis. Also, as stated before, I am the linguistic specialist. I was meant to be a translator and dialogue analyzer on our information gathering mission."

The names came so quickly from their six-inch-tall alien companion that Cliff had no hope of trying to memorize or pronounce any of the names correctly. He doubted he could even list one of the names at the moment and instead continuing to listen as Ol'oih continued "pathing" to him.

"We were in orbit and descending in our ship to harness clearer readings when something happened aboard our ship. I do not know if it was an electrical issue or if we were struck, but whatever the case we began entering the atmosphere and had to abandon ship," Ol'oih pathed as he felt a wave of sadness sweep over him.

I don't even know if they're alive. Best case scenario, they managed to rendezvous with the observation team here on the ground and are trying to track either my pod or my suit. Worst case scenario... they've been found.

Ol'oih remembered hearing stories and reading books written about the human race, and much of the literature read like a horror story. Capture. Torture. Containment. Uncooperativeness. Destruction. Granted, in those stories the alien race was often the aggressor, but Ol'oih's people were different.

We're Stren, not some warring race like the Off'el. We wouldn't hurt them. It's why we're here – to gather information to see if they're ready for true first contact. Are humans more like us? Or like the Off'el?

"Um... Ol'oih?" He looked up and could read it in the boys' faces. Though nonverbal communication was limited from their various intercepted transmissions, the miniscule alien could tell that the information they boys had was going to be minimal and disappointing.