Lessons in the Stars

Chapter 5 - Meet the Aliens

Another 25 hours on, the students were starting to feel like trapped animals. In some ways, they were. The tension in the room could have been cut with a vibro-spoon. They did not speak about what had happened the night before, but inside Jon was mulling it over. What could have elicited such a reaction, simply by mentioning Rogue's mother? Could she be dead? No, Jon decided, people didn't react that way simply because a parent was dead. He knew this personally.

Rogue was quiet, which was strange in itself. Simply watching the ship's course and monitoring the readings. "We're entering Bal'Takar's orbit," Rogue announced suddenly. They were all startled out of their thoughts, peering through the glass to get their first glimpse of a truly alien planet. It was small, more of an asteroid than a planet, and it was dark and rocky. Not much vegetation was visible.

"Benny," Jon began, "Get on the short-range comms unit and ask permission to land."

Benny nodded and began fiddling with his controls, "This is..." He hesitated, turning to face the rest of the crew, he asked, "What are we called again?"

"The Eridanus," Scarlett provided, without taking her eyes off the asteroid that was steadily coming closer.

"This is the Eridanus," he continued as protocol required, "Species aboard are humans. We request permission to land on Bal'Takar," he listed into the unit in accordance with inter-species space protocol.

A couple of minutes later, a rough, lisping voice spoke, "This is Bal'Takar Control, what is your purpose here?" They exchanged glances.

Benny entered a few commands into the unit then answered, "This is Eridanus. Simply a rest stop and repairs before we return home."

A seemingly long silence ensued before the reply. "You have permission to land, bay 21 please."

Rogue grinned and entered some commands into the flight computer and they flew through the shield. This was the first time any of them had been to an alien planet or indeed seen a real alien. Rogue had seen them on videos in classes, of course, but this was completely different. Rogue carefully steered the ship along the directed route. She lightly touched down on the landing pad and turned the engine off, the ship beeping and the words Course Complete: auto inter-planetary flight mode off. Rogue realised that she would have to fly the ship back herself. The autopilot had switched off and wouldn't turn back on until the ship was shut down and rebooted. Benny stood up with a metal box in his hands. He pulled out five earpieces and handed one to each of the others.

"These are personal comms units, we all need to wear one," he said.

"Why?" Sam asked, "I haven't seen these in training. What are they for?"

"They do the same thing the ship's comms unit does. Each unit translates any known alien language into our tongue and turns what we say into their tongue so we can all understand each other. It also connects us all as a crew, so if we get separated we can still talk to each other," he replied.

"Cool." Rogue shrugged, placing it around and inside her left ear.

"We stick together here, we get our bearings, and we get some parts to fix the ship's long distance comms unit and the transporter. No side trips. Understood?" Jon regarded them all.

"Yes, sir." Sam, Benny and Scarlett saluted. They all turned to look at Rogue, who was cleaning her nails.

"What? I heard you," she sassed, "But the chances of me calling you sir are about as likely as a planet orbiting a blackhole.