Interview with an Alien

Chapter 3

 Abel looks through a tiny porthole window at a large blue planet. Feelings of excitement and apprehension fill him. He thinks, How could a planet have so much water! The planet becomes larger and larger, and Abel adjusts his position to glance at the planet's moon to his left. It was gray, rocky, and clearly inhabitable. A passing thought crosses Abel's mind about establishing an Essen base unit there as a means of easy transportation, but Abel resists the urge to delve into the idea any further. He needed to focus.

Abel turns around and addresses the ship computer that he wants tot go to the sciences lab. His purple pathway lights the floor at his feet, and he follows its directions to the life sciences lab. Abel ensures all the various natural Essen plants are secured and locked in their air tight containers. He and some of his fellow scientists had run tests on Essen to ensure the plants would not react in any unusual way on Earth with its different atmosphere and dirt, but they wanted to be sure just in case. Nothing spells out more of a welcome than a big bang and poisonous gas piling out of their ship.

Abel had suggested genetically altering the plants to adapt to Earth, but the idea was thought over more and turned down. It was debated that it would destroy the plants authenticity as a native Essen plant, and thus potentially render its possible benefits to both humans and the Nihil useless.

Abel shakes himself out of his thoughts and returns back to the main control room and buckles himself into a seat. Noah shortly after floats in, and joins Abel in the seat adjacent to his. Noah says joyfully, "Ready for a bumpy ride?" Abel chuckles at this, and a little piece of his fear about entering Earth's atmosphere floats away. Because Earth had less oxygen and less gravitational pull, Abel wasn't exactly sure how the ship would react to entering it's atmosphere. He wondered if it would be anything like entering Essen's atmosphere as he had done many times before.

Despite his thoughts about landing, however, Abel's thoughts were dominated by the humans he may soon meet. Noah was chosen to take part in the integration program the humans and Nihil had decided to implement to help each species adjust to each other and learn each other's culture. Abel couldn't help but hope in the back of his mind that he may be chosen to bed in the integration program. He had so much more to learn about humans that he couldn't have learned back at his home planet.

"Are you nervous, Noah? About talking to the humans?" Abel looks Noah directly in the eyes and tries to asses his feelings. The Nihil were able to connect with each other and share feelings and to a certain extent, thoughts. Abel was reluctant to connect with Noah and touch his feelings, simply because he didn't want Noah to feel and understand his own. It was in Noah's nature to put others before himself and try to help Abel with the complex emotions whirling inside of him, and Abel just wanted to focus on Noah. It would be a good distraction for Abel. Noah's eyes show a flicker of something Abel couldn't identify.

"Well, I am technically only talking to one human face-to-face. The rest of the communications will happen through calls between their science leaders, the captain of our ship, and other integration pairs. But yeah... I am nervous." Noah swallows, and Abel feels a rush of sympathy for him. Just moments ago, Abel was wishing he was in Noah's situation so that he could have the opportunity to learn so much more. Now he understands the pressure Noah was under- the future of the relations between humans and the Nihil literally rested on his shoulders.

Abel reminded himself of this in the back of his mind, as it was easy for him to get so caught up in knowledge and learning more, that he didn't always consider the consequences. It was another characteristic of his Studi breed. It often got his breed in troubling circumstances, such as tracking a new hybrid species into dangerous weather conditions back on Essen. Abel chuckles at the fond memory of his grandfather, Avram, doing this long ago.

Abel turns his attention back to Noah and says, "You'll be in the history books for ages!" Noah chuckles at his joke. Noah and Abel had a previous conversation on the ship earlier during the trip about human's tendencies to store their history in incredibly biased and entertaining ways. More often than not, it was incredibly inaccurate and full of myth the older the history was. Back on Essen, however, the Nihil's history was told like it was a dictionary. Facts, facts, and more facts... It made for boring reading and Abel thought about human history and its many differences.

Noah then closes his eyes, and Abel breathes a sigh of relief at the slightly more relaxed expression on his face. Despite the short trip- only over a week long- Abel had grown fond of Noah. While all peace holders were friendly, Noah had an empathetic and comedic personality about him that drew Abel closer. Not only this, but Noah wasn't scared to show the darker parts of himself despite being a peace holder. He shared his troubling emotions when he connected with others, and this created a closer bond to the people he was also trying to help. Abel found it all incredibly interesting, yet odd of his breed.

Abel turns away and straightens in his seat before also closing his eyes. An announcement comes across the intercom of the ship announcing the ship entering Earth's atmosphere.

The ship enters the atmosphere smoothly at first, and Abel could faintly feel the thrusters of the ship working to fight the gravitational pull of Earth and make for a smoother ride. Suddenly, the ship begins shaking violently as it descends further into the atmosphere, and Abel grips his seat tightly. He focuses his attention on one point on the opposite wall and attempts to block out all the sounds of commands and shouting around him as the crew works to land the ship safely. Abel was never a good flier, and the landings on Essen was never nearly as rough. The crew were unaccustomed to the different atmosphere, however, yet thankfully were trained to compensate.

Within minutes, the intercom sounds throughout the ship as the strong sound of the captains voice says "Landing in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1."

The ship lands surprisingly softly, and Abel takes a deep breath. His body relaxes only to tense up again at the realization that he was on an entirely new planet- and with humans! He looks over at Noah to find he holds a very similar expression of excitement, disbelief, and a little fear.