Codename Alpha: Intervention

Chapter Three - Daily Disco

The ensuing silence left me gazing out the windows at Earth. Currently, we were over what I believed to be the continent of Africa, and not too far out of view was another continent, Asia, where the sun was either setting or rising. Some faint city lights could be made out before it dipped into space.

I had certainly seen my fair share of beautiful planets in my time with the Navy, however short it has been so far. Out of all of them, my favorite was the blue gas giant Lasla. When I was younger, I'd often spend the winters looking at it with binoculars, which I'm still surprised was even something you could do. At least, it was my favorite until I had gone into orbit for the first time and saw Valdera- which quickly took Lasla's place, though it still holds a special place in my heart.

Both seemed to pale in comparison to Earth. Valdera had its own special kind of mysterious beauty - oftentimes, the thick cloud cover would leave you guessing what was going on underneath, and watching the flashes of lightning when over the night side never got old. It seemed that Earth, however, barely had any clouds, making the brilliant surface visible at practically all times. That's not to say that it didn't have weather, though. It was, of course, more than likely that my brain was trying to find some sort of good to the fact that we'd all be spending the rest of our lives, totally cut off from home, on an alien planet. I did find some genuine solace in that it'd be with my brother and Falco.

Seeing Africa and Asia reminded me of the fact that the Valiant had to be visible from the surface, considering its size andhull reflectivity. Hell, it was entirely possible that we could be seen from the surface with the naked eye, even if it was a simple bright dot streaking across the sky at night. I had to wonder how many Humans on the surface had spotted us accidentally with their backyard telescopes and were spreading rumors about the 'alien spacecraft' in orbit. To be fair, though, to them, the Valiant quite literally was an alien spacecraft. The Humans we had been in contact with were quick to assure us that our existence was being kept confidential, but surely by this point some tabloid or something had to have published an article about us.

I was thankfully brought out of my train of thought when Falco began to talk, with a mouthful of noodles.

"Alright, so, get this. I was reading last night, right?" he began.

"Wait, I thought you were playing About Face?" I interjected.

"Nah, Yura couldn't make it. Anyways, though... Conrad, you remember New York, right? That city I told you about?" He asked, after swallowing his food. "And those two towers?"

"Oh, yeah," I nodded.

"So, I found out that about a week ago we got a bunch of these, like... tourism books, I guess, scanned into the library and translated. Almanacs, essentially. So, naturally, I had to check out the one on New York, and I've found out way more about those two towers."

"Hm? Such as?" I questioned, after he paused, seemingly for emphasis.

"It's awesome, dude. The towers... or, twin towers, rather, are part of this whole complex called the World Trade Center. The complex has, like... a hotel, mall, this cool plaza, all sorts of stuff. Coolest thing, though, is that you can go all the way to the top of one of the towers, where there's a restaurant, and just... eat up there. It's the craziest thing. I think it's called... windows of the world? Something like that."

"So how tall are the towers?" Eric asked, seeming pretty impressed. I was as well.

"Oh, dude," Falco responded, stifling a laugh. "Like, five hundred meters, if not more."

"Damn," Eric and I both responded. "The Terchová Tower's only, like... well, it's a baby in comparison, isn't it? How do they deal with storms and stuff?" I asked, flabbergasted.

"Hell if I know. There weren't structural specifics in the 'visit our city' book. I did find out that most of the space in the twin towers is office space, so, hypothetically... say we end up with a best case scenario. Presume the Navy back home hasn't halted construction of the other Nomad classes, and that, on a whim, they decide to come here and find out that there's alien life and all that, which we've managed to peacefully greet and all that. Proper diplomatic relations are established, but we need somewhere to build an embassy or consulate, something of the sort. Some words slip up the chain of command about a potential space at the world trade center, and bam. Next thing you know, it's the turn of the Human century, and we're all chilling in these two giant skyscrapers, eating Human food over a giant city. How's that sound?"