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A flash of white light and our ship was in a completely different location. Surrounded by smooth blue walls, instead of fields. We were inside a large cylinder, with a few automatic doors around us. Before I could really react the prime Kapok had already entered with a few guards.
"Follow me." He said, turning on his heal and continuing out the door.
We followed him out the door into the rest of the habitat, the whole place was one massive city. Riddled with lights and fauna. Here thousands of Kapok lived and thrived, although unfortunately none of us really know how we got here. History says that the Kitob attempted an attack that destroyed most of the habitat, thousands not wearing helmets or armor were flung carelessly into space and killed. That's why helmets are so strict, though taking them off is quite nice I'll have to admit.
We walked through the streets, some onlookers giving us a passing glance. But paying us no other attention. We kept a silence as we walked through the city.
Eventually we reached our destination, a rather unassuming building. Then we were told why we were brought here.
"I do apologize for the rather cramped space, we weren't expecting to have to return you so soon." Was the reason we were given by the prime Kapok. We all just stayed there as he left, expecting him to do something else.
Shortly after he left our sight I let out a breath a didn't realize I was keeping.
Eventually we made our way inside, Tert being the first to enter.
The inside had a bathroom to the left past the kitchen, we had a living room to the right, and bedrooms straight ahead. The kitchen was open, with the fridge and other appliances behind a counter. The living room had a screen and some the bedrooms were spilt into two at the end of a hallway.
"It's lunch time." Olop said walking over to the kitchen.
"It's 10 p.m Olop." Tert complained as he rested on the couch.
"No it's 10 p.m here, it was roughly lunchtime on earth when we crashed on it." Olop corrected, looking through the fridge.
"Well I still want sleep." Tert said, meandering off to the bedrooms and then taking a right into one.
John was fidgeting with his tablet attempting to connect it to the screen.
"Okay, Derg." Olop started as he walked towards me from the kitchen.
"Your choice, paste meal, or, and hear me out, paste meal." Olop jokes as he chucked a meal at me.
Luckily I caught it, stumbling slightly as I did so. I decided to go rest my legs on the couch, after the walk here they were killing me.
I ripped open the bag from the notch, taking out the spoon and beginning to eat. The paste wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I had been hoping for some good food after exclusively eating these when studying the humans.
"Finally." John sighed with relief as he let his body fall against the couch. I could feel him plop down from the other side of the couch. It was nice, especially after sleeping in the cramped ship's beds every night.
"Alright the movie we're watching is Independence Day." John happily explained as he began tapping on his tablet once more.
I was quite familiar with the holiday. It was a staple of the country our habitat was adapting.
"Is this gonna be like Selma?" Olop asked as he took a seat between us.
"You're in for a treat. It's about aliens invading earth." John explained with a smile on his face. With a final tap of his tablet the screen lit up, and the movie began.
I caught Olop laughing multiple times at the movie, these were a generally enjoyable experience. If not for the actual movie, the fact that aliens are almost exclusively evil. Even more so how the humans win, against a space race a hundred times more advanced than they are. John enjoyed the movie a fair amount as well, although occasionally he would jokingly comment on how bad this makes us look. Although those comments stuck with me a little more than they should have. What if they don't trust us? What if they try to nuke us? I don't worry for our race as a whole, the habitats could resist any human weapon. I however, could not.
Once the movie ended I realized how tired I really was and went off to bed with the others. Straining my leg as I pealed myself off the couch. I took a right at the end of the hallway to join Tert. He had already claimed the left bed so I took the one on the right. I lied down on the considerable improvement of a bed and tried to let my mind drift away.
It was harder than I originally anticipated though, I kept thinking about the Kitob ship that fired on us. And by extent how close I was to death, never mind that though. I lived, and that's all that really matters in the end of the day.
—————————————————————(super smooth scene transition)——————————————————
My mind decided not to give me any dreams and send me straight into tomorrow morning. The sun seeped through the bedroom window not quite reaching my eyes to pull me awake. In fact when I checked the time on my wrist I was quite surprised, 8:00 am. Pretty good time for having just had to change my sleep schedule.

The source of my awakening soon made itself known when a sound echoed through the place I currently called home. The obnoxious jingle of a doorbell forced me out of bed. Landing on my leg still hurt, but I put that up to having just woken up.

I walked over to the door, unlike the automatic doors on the ship this one had to be opened manually. I pushed the button on it and it whirled open as usual. Through the door I almost slammed into John, who must have also been woken up by the doorbell. He gestured for me to go first. I accepted his offer and took a left down the hallway into the living room.

The room was almost entirely dark except for the daylight seeping through blinds either side of the screen. My eyes burned as John turned on the light behind me, a slight groan escaping Jhon as his eyes encountered a similar problem. Eventually My eyes readjusted to the light, and I could continue towards the source of my annoyance.

I could hear The bathroom door open and close as I reached the door. Only temporarily looking behind me to notice John was no longer there. I felt like getting angry at whoever was causing this noise. But my complaints were silenced when I realized who was at the door, the prime Kapok.

It was nice, how closely knit the habitat was. Our population was split between a myriad of different habitats, each studying a different culture. With the aim of making reunification easier. This also has the fortunate side effect of letting the government work far closer to the people, and it wasn't uncommon to have a government official show up at your house.

Nevertheless it still had me wondering what this intrusion was about. Luckily my questions were swiftly answered. Well, after we exchanged hellos, and I got him something to drink.

Humans drank via a simpler method than we did. For us every cup acted as an extension of the helmet, like a beer hat. But more socially acceptable, and less stupid looking. All inefficiencies aside it had some nice benefits, like not having to hold a drink.

"Why are you hear?" Was the question I opened with, luckily his answer was simple.

"To inform you of your new role." Bit disappointing, although not unexpected. After my........our failure to keep the ship and our secrecy in one piece, I figured a demotion was the best I would get.

"So what am I being demoted to?" I asked, rather curious on the severity of our punishment.

"No demotion, we're sending you down to earth." I was shocked quite frankly, before I had a chance to ask anymore questions, he was already answering most of them.

"Originally I was mad, but after a night of deliberation. It really wasn't any fault of yours, a Kitob ambush on a ship not built for combat. Heck you're lucky to even be alive. Unfortunately the diplomats that we have been training aren't of age or experienced enough to go down so we're sending you. Make no mistake however, you are simply here to spread information about our intentions and be friendly, no diplomacy." He very much so stressed that last point, and it made sense. I was just glad to not be demoted for my failure.

————————————————(The administration of space, two days earlier)———————————————
"Hey Jeff." Todd almost shouted as he struggled to make the distance to his fellow coworker. Luckily getting his notice this time.

"What is it Todd." Jeff asked as he pushed a button on the elevator to go to the observatory.

"You know that black hole you told me to track?" Todd panted as he caught his breath against the elevator wall.

"Yes, and Todd you really do not need to sprint like this. I'm only going up an elevator you can just wait awhile longer to tell me. It's also probably not good for your breathing problems." Jeff said as he walked up to the observatory giving more than enough space for Todd to slowly walk next to him.

"It's urgent sir. The black hole and that ring around it have disappeared." Todd answered almost instantly getting Jeff's full attention.

(And so the thickens plots)

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⏰ Last updated: Aug 19, 2020 ⏰

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