Milo on The Earth

12: Apology

The day after the funeral, a speech was made by Unagugst 782, President of The Intergalactic Community, Humans had been classified as a hostile race, and all beings that did not evolve on Earth must leave for their own safety.

Chloe remembered vividly sitting in Milo's living room with Alex, trying and failing to take in the fact that she would never see the beings she had come to recognize as her second family again.

"So that's it?" Alex asked fuming, "This is our last day together."

Kazutlru came in from the kitchen with mugs of tea, "I'm afraid so, we leave tomorrow."

Chloe looked down, being unable to bear the sight of everyone's faces. "I thought we had actually done something."

"We did, but you hardly even noticed," Milo stood up, finally snapping from months of sweeping emotions under the rug, "do you even realize how groundbreaking your culture is? On my planet, on all the other planets I've been to, everyone collects their own food, treats their own sick, and all the technology is available only for scientific purposes and emergencies. Yet you make everything so readily available. It is such an intriguing concept, but on further examination all it does is make you forget about everything except your own desires."

"Stlrakashu!" Kazutlru yelled, "This is our last day on Earth, stop spoiling it with unnecessary rampages."

They stood their silent for a moment, evaluating what they had said, then sat back down, ashamed, "I'm sorry, that was awful."

Alex sat down on the couch leg next to them, moving Kai onto the cushion next to him, "I have something for you." he whispered, setting a small package in Milo's lap.

Inside, were various hard drive chips made for stlrakl computers, "I put some Star Trek, The Next Generation in that one," He held up one of the small squares, "and that's some Fifth Doctor episodes, ooh! And this is the new season, with that female doctor we were excited about, and this last one is Sesame Street for Sonthsya, but I'm sure Kai will like it too when he gets a little older."

Milo smiled, "Thank you, Alex, we very much appreciate it. We also arranged something for you and Chloe."

They ran into their bedroom and came back with two identical books labelled The Official Guide To Our Intergalactic Community, and handed a copy to each of the humans in the room.

"The English translation was released just a month ago."

Chloe flipped to the first few pages, finding three personalized notes. The first one, obviously written by Sonthsya read 'We will miss you' in shaky handwriting. The next was from Kazutlru.

Dear Chloe,

You are an interesting human, I don't think I've ever met a being who was not genuinely frightened by us at first sight, you were confused of course, and that is understandable, but fear is a more natural, and certainly more dangerous reaction that is difficult not to act on. I suppose it's a miracle you were the first human Milo properly got acquainted to, goodness knows what could've happened if it was someone else, I'm sorry it had to end like this.

Sincerely, Kazutlru

She then turned to Milo's.

My dear Chloe,

I'm sorry for more reasons than I can describe, I can't believe I was so foolish as to assume your species would accept us with open arms. I look at the glunsuk and fluhoofs, and think humans will be exactly the same. We were blind, as a species and as a community, and now we have to pay the price for it. Thank you very much for trying.

Your loving friend, Milo

"Don't blame yourself." Alex growled, closing his copy, "You said that in Chloe's, and you said that in mine, you did nothing wrong."

"I did many things wrong-"

"Name one thing."

Milo looked up at the normally friendly figure looming over them, caught off guard. "I showed myself in public before your society was ready."

"That has nothing to do with how things turned out, this was our fault! Do you hear me?"

"Alex, don't say that, you know it wasn't." Kazutlru said sweetly.

"It was, and I'm not going to deny it anymore, humans SUCK, and no one will convince me otherwise at this point." He sat down on the couch and grabbed the TV remote. "I'm not going to argue about this. How about we watch Doctor Who?"