Take me to your leader

[MarieDavisRPs]

Take me to your leader

PLEASE TAKE NOTE:
I am going to open this to 1-4 writers at some point in time.
That time, however, is not now.
Please do not post here without invitation.
I thank you so very much, really.​

Harrisburg, Oregon, USA
15 January 2027, Friday
3:47am local time (11:47 GMT)

Olivia Boone had been doing chores in the barn on the family farm since before sundown. It was an odd time of night to be scooping poop, spreading fresh straw, and immunizing recently birthed Boer kids. But Liv, as most called her, wasn't out here almost 11 hours after sunset and another 4 hours before sunrise solely to retain her deserved reputation as a hard working farm girl.

The cell phone in the back pocket of her tight fitting but stretchable jeans vibrated, making her smile. Setting the pitchfork aside and silencing the alarm, she checked her path for tripping hazards, flipped off the barn's lights, and headed outside into the pitch black of night. There, she looked up into the night sky, thankful to find it clear. After a few minutes, a bit north of northwest, the reflection of sunlight off the hull of the International Space Station appeared as a relatively quick moving point of white light.

"Hi mom," she said aloud, waving to the satellite from 252 miles below it. "Hi, dad."

She watched the ISS cross the sky until it disappeared behind the property's tallest oak tree, then headed for the house, eager to get a few hours of sleep. The ranch's three winter season hands would be showing up in just over an hour to start the day's work without her. She always felt guilty about not being out here with them on these days when she stayed up to spot her parents' flyby, but the two women and one man all understood that these nights when Liv's astronaut parents passed overhead were special to her.

Olivia Boone had the very unique distinction of being the only person ever to have both of her (or his, if it had been applicable) biological parents off the planet at the same time, in this case as part of the ISS's Expedition 99. Her father, who had been a career Air Force pilot was the Commander of the current mission and had gone up on a Space X vessel last November; her mother was a Microbiologist who specialized in the study of pollution-eating microorganisms, and she'd gone followed her husband skyward just two weeks ago on Bigelow Aerospace's first manned rocket to the ISS.

She was, of course, very proud of both of them. At the same time, she missed them terribly and wished they'd just fucking come home. The farm had been in Liv's maternal grandmother's family since the late 1800s, and when Granny Glenda passed away last summer, Liv -- who'd been living here all her life -- was the only family member around to care for it, its meat goat herd, and its 66 acres of sustenance farm crop lands.

Scanning the buildings only barely illuminated by the light of the moon and stars, Liv contemplated that very little ever changed here. She was about to learn, though, that that wasn't true. She ascended the porch steps, dropped into an old wooden chair that was older than her own self, and began shedding her dirty rubber boots when something caught her eye. Looking up over the peak of the bar she'd just left, Liv stared in confusion for the longest time at a light that was not only crossing the sky but was growing inexplicably larger at the same time.

She refastened her boots again and headed out into the yard for a better look as she began losing the object behind the barn. Liv found herself baffled at what the thing could be: it wasn't a jet airplane or a helicopter or a blimp or anything she could explain. It didn't seem to be in the atmosphere as either of those three would be either, and yet Liv knew it couldn't be above the atmosphere either because that would have made it unbelievably huge.

The white appearance of it, which she'd known was from reflecting the sun which was still below the eastern horizon, began to slowly redden. Soon, it appeared a bright reddish-orange, and after that Liv realized that it was burning. Whatever it was, it was entering the Earth's atmosphere, glowing as the resistance of the air passed around it at anywhere between 10-20,000 mph.

If she hadn't just seen it pass overhead on the expected flight path without error, Liv might have thought that what she was seeing was the ISS. This UFO was too big to be anything else of which Liv knew to be in the sky. It wasn't a natural object, a meteor or comet, that she knew from the way it had been reflecting light before it began burning up. It has to be a satellite, she told herself. It can't be anything else. Martians maybe.

Liv laughed about that last thought as the object continued to glow across the sky and disappear behind the same big Oak in which she'd lost her parents' craft. She just stood there for the longest moment, contemplating the sight. Then, scaring the piss out of her, a massive explosion sounded from the general direction of where she'd first seen the object. Sonic boom? It was followed by a low rumbling sound that lasted about as long as the thing had been crossing the sky. It was an odd sound, something Liv couldn't identify.

She continued to just stand there for the longest time, uncertain about what she'd seen or about whether or not she should take some sort of action regarding it. But what? She turned away for the house again when her phone, which was supposed to be on vibrate, began emitting a tone that Liv didn't immediately recognize. By the time she got it out of her pocket and checked the screen, she realized that it was the Emergency Broadcast System tone.

As she read the message, her eyes and mouth opened in shock. The populace was being warned without any explanation at all to take shelter and remain indoors until further notice. People with basements or fallout shelters were asked to go to them; those who didn't have either but lived near buildings that did were told to reach them in haste; everyone else was simply told to find a place to safely hide.

Liv's grandfather had built a storm shelter on the property twenty years ago, so that was where she headed. She kept it stocked with food, water, and other supplies because Oregon had been suffering some pretty damaging and scary storms as global warming worsened. She plugged her phone into a charger also kept there, opened the App for NPR Radio, and waited for news.

It came quickly, with a live Washington DC-based broadcast interrupting the recorded BBC News that played this time each weeknight. Liv listened to what was little more than more detailed reports of what she'd seen for quite a while, complete with witness interviews and some off the record government and military responses from people who didn't want to share their name.

The news continued to get more detailed and stranger as the hours passed. One of the hands, Linda, showed up an hour early for her work shift, her young daughter in tow as she expressed concern for her boss being here all alone. They continued listening to rampant speculation for another hour or more...

Then finally, to their shock, it was announced that the President of the United States would be making a national broadcast. Before that began, though, that rampant speculation had been narrowed by details and facts from an array of informed but mostly anonymous sources, and neither Liv nor Linda could believe it:

An alien spacecraft had entered and passed through Earth's atmosphere, blazing a trail across the sky from over the Western United States to Central Russia before again heading back out into space.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

Hours earlier:

An officer knocked on the open door to his Monarch's chambers and, upon being casually gestured forward, entered to announce, "We will be entering two-forty-two tach three's atmosphere in twenty minutes, my Queen."

"Earth," she said to him, clarifying when he only donned a questioning expression, "The planet is called Earth. Use the name."

"Yes, your majesty ... Earth," he said as he gave her a slight bow of respect. "The Commander wishes to know if you would like to be present on the bridge at this time."

"Would it help ... my presence?" she asked with a wry tone. She could see the man's answer in his expression. "No. Please tell the Commander I do not wish to add any more stress to an already stressful situation."

The man repeated his bow, backed a step, turned, and departed. The Queen almost stopped him to ask more about the vessel's current condition but didn't. She doubted that very little if any had changed since the last time she inquired about the ship's condition.

For the first time in her life, she was frightened. There was a possibility, slight as it was, that in twenty minutes -- less, more, whatever -- she and every person on this vessel would be killed when it broke up and burned in Earth's atmosphere. The ship had suffered damage to the hull and to key systems that protected it during entry into the atmospheres of planetary bodies such as Earth. The Commander had estimated the chance of catastrophic damage at less than eight percent. Still, eight percent wasn't zero percent

"Allie...?" she asked softly to seemingly no one at all.

The ship's Artificial Intelligence emitted a soft tone, indicating that it was aware of her intention to address it, followed by a very polite, "How may I serve you, my Queen?"

"Display the view of Planet Earth, please."

She was always polite to the AI, despite it being little more than, well, artificial. There had been times in her life and during her reign as Queen that she'd felt like Allie had been the only person she could talk to.

Before her, a three dimensional display nearly 10 feet high and almost entirely opaque showed the planet at which her vessel was rapidly approaching. She studied it for several minutes, awed by the beauty. They were approaching Earth from over its largest body of water, which she knew to be called the Pacific Ocean. The Commander had explained to her in an earlier update that their flight path would then take them over land, water, and finally land again before they were ejected out of the atmosphere yet again.

"Allie, show me the vessel's course, please," she asked, adding, "Please indicate where we enter the atmosphere, where we start and cease our braking maneuver, and where we exit into the void again."

The AI acknowledged the request and did as ordered. When the Queen asked it to rotate the image of Earth so that she could see the other side, she again responded and did that as well. The Queen then asked, "Show me the path of the Humans' manned space station."

Another course appeared on the map, and after she asked the AI to zoom, the Queen grimaced at the sight. The two lines very nearly met. She'd already been told that collision with the only currently occupied, artificial object in Earth orbit was a possibility. She'd asked with concern at the time, "How much of a possibility?"

"Enough that we should be contemplating what to do about it," had been the answer.

"Allie, open a link to the Commander," the Queen requested.

After a polite tone and verbal response, a 3D image of the Commander appeared. The man nodded respectfully, greeting her, "How may I serve you, my Queen?"

"Are you still anticipating an unacceptable probability that our--"

"Yes, my Queen," the Commander interrupted.

He wasn't intentionally being rude cutting his Queen off. He simply knew what she was asking and how hard it was for her to ask. Of the options they'd discussed regarding the fate of what the Humans called the International Space Station each had their own risks of tragedy. He looked away for a moment; here in her quarters, it appeared as if he was glancing toward her dining table, but on the bridge where he was actually located, he was looking to one of the Bridge Officers for an update.

"I regret to inform you that the probability of the Human station being damaged is more than 60%," he told her, adding, "It is very likely that all aboard will be killed, my Queen."

"By collision?" she asked.

Again the Commander looked away, received an answer from a bridge member who was monitoring the conversation, and then looked back to the image that he was seeing standing before him on the Bridge. "Unlikely, my Queen. If we passed through and escape from the atmosphere without serious damage ... which is currently estimated at 88% likely ... the odds of collision with the ISS is less than 6%. However--"

"We're going to eject them from their orbit," the Queen said, she now doing the interrupting. "And likely also do significant damage to the station as well."

"Yes, my Queen," the Commander said.

"Is a rescue with--"

"Yes, my Queen, however...!" he again cut in. He looked away, looked back, and reported with a bit of urgency, "If we are to deploy one of the Battle Cruisers to attempt a rescue of the Human crew, it must disengage soon ... within three minutes."

"Dispatch the Cruiser, Commander," the Queen ordered without hesitation.

The man before her and not at the same time reminded her, "There is a great danger that the Cruiser won't survive the--"

"Dispatch the Cruiser, Commander," she repeated more firmly. After he'd nodded to her and passed the order on to someone she couldn't see, he asked if there was anything more she needed. She hesitated, then said in a solemn tone, "Pray."

She ordered the connection cut and returned to studying the image of the planet before her. Ordering the AI to also display the Cruiser, she watched as the two alien crafts' courses slowly parted. A few minutes later, the mother ship began shaking as it reached Earth's upper atmosphere. The Queen clenched her jaws, the fright in her intensifying.

Seconds later, the 3D hologram vanished a moment. The cameras on the exterior of the vessel wouldn't work during entry into the atmosphere. But the Commander had been dispatching probes periodically over the last hour, and they would show the Queen what she wanted to see unless and until their courses took them into the atmosphere as well, which was possible as the Mother Ship would have no control over them during the pass through.

It was odd to see this new view from the probes. While the image she'd been watching earlier had seemed to be from the front of the ship as it approached Earth, in reality the view had been from a camera on the ship's stern as the craft was approaching the planet backwards. The probe view showed this; the Mother Ship's engine end began to glow as the heat built upon the protective hull sheeting.

Without having to be asked to announce the warning, the AI told its Queen, "Brace for sudden deceleration, my Queen. The main engines are about to be powered for the braking maneuver."

The Queen thanked the AI but otherwise did nothing to prepare herself. The ship shuttered as the mains were brought to power, and a moment later the Queen was almost thrown to the deck as the ship's speed dropped suddenly. She did as the AI suggested and found a seat as the deceleration increased.

The Queen watched the image of the ship as it passed low over the planet. She wanted so badly to call on the bridge again to learn whether or not all was going well. But she knew that to do so might pull the Commander's attention from critical actions. Instead she only asked the AI to display some of the statistics important in the operation that was taking place and to explain what a few of them meant.

And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the maneuver ended. The vibration that had been affecting the Queen deep inside her body ceased as the entire vessel suddenly calmed. She asked the AI for an update, and a moment later was told, "There is minor damage to the hull from failed shielding, my Queen. A compartment on Level 8 has a breach that has been isolated and caused no deaths, injuries, or serious damage. The damage was likely caused by a collision with a Human artificial satellite."

Looking to the big 3D image and asking the AI to zoom to where three course lines were very near one another, she asked, "Allie, tell me about the space station."

Another short moment passed, and the AI reported, "The course of the International Space Station has been altered as a result of our vessel's--"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" the Queen cut in. "Are they alive? Are the Human's still alive? And if so, are they safe?"

Another moment, then, "Uncertain. However, the Battle Cruiser survived entry and exit from the atmosphere and is approaching the space station now. We should know shortly, my Queen."

 

[KingOfNowhere]

(Thanks for the invitation to join. And thanks for the image below. It fit well with my post.)



Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

Just as was happening more than 250 miles below them, an alarm was sounding on the ISS to let Robert Boone know that the couple's current home away from home was about to do a flyover of their actual home in the State of Oregon. He silenced the alarm and looked at the time. It was early, too early for his daughter Olivia to be up and around simply to spot them floating by overhead. But Robert knew she'd be there. He called it an obsession, but his daughter and wife called it love.

He pushed off from where he was to float through the Zero G to the next module, finding his wife reading from her tablet. "Anything interesting?"

She showed him an image of some microscopic creature he presumed was a bacteria, then began explaining about it. He cut her off, saying, "Passing over the house."

She smiled, secured the tablet so it wouldn't simply drift off and bump into things, and followed him to a module that was dark and had the best viewing windows for observing the planet below. A couple of minutes later, they were taking turns identifying the glow of such cities as San Francisco and Sacramento to their right and a few minutes later Eugene, Salem, and Portland to their left.

"There she is," Robert said, pointing casually in the direction of the first city of that last grouping. They playfully waved before the window, then laughed. His wife kissed him on the cheek before returning to her work. As the identifiable metropolises of the Pacific Coast moved out of sight, Robert said softly, "Sweet dreams, daughter. See you soon."

He presumed that that would be true as his mission as Commander ended in 14 days. Robert couldn't have known what was about to happen, making going home a much more complicated issue.

An emergency alarm sounded throughout the station, and without hesitation Robert was pushing and pulling his way toward the section of the ISS that after some major tech updates was now called the Command and Control Module. By the time he got there, several alarms and indicators were vying for his attention, as was Mission Control in Houston.

One by one, the other five members of the current Mission joined their Commander in the CCM. Some of them had responsibilities for such situations and joined in on communications and monitoring. Others had no such duties and simply watched and listened, stunned at what they were learning.

Without any warning whatsoever from any of the many Near Earth Objects programs and systems located on the planet or in the space surrounding it, a massive object was about to enter Earth's atmosphere, most certainly on its way to striking the planet and, of course, doing incredibly horrific damage. The reports coming in from NASA were vague regarding the objects size, mass, speed, direction, course, and estimated striking down point.

"Can we see it?" one of the two Russian Cosmonauts asked. His fellow countryman was already at a window, looking to where the object was supposed to be. The man shook his head and spoke in Russian. The first Cosmonaut translated, "Beyond the horizon, behind us."

After twenty minutes of conversation between the ground and the station, Houston suddenly went eerily silent for over six minutes; their only replies to the ISS's inquiries during that time were variations of Standby.

Then, with wide eyes and obvious fear in her voice, the European Space Agency's contribution to the current Mission pulled her face from the window and struggling to control her heavy French accent, announced, "Jesus Christ ... it's a space ship."

All eyes went to her, then to the Cosmonaut who still had his face to a window. He confirmed and added to the French Astronaut's startling discovery, "It's a massive spacecraft ... and alien spacecraft ... and..."

"And what?" Robert was asking as he made his way to a window while simultaneously asking his wife to swing one or more of the outside cameras in the presumed direction of the object. He looked out the window and simply stared at the approaching spaceship for a long moment, finally murmuring, "Fuck ... it's gonna hit us."

As if Houston had heard Robert's warning to his crew, Mission Control was suddenly back on the radio warning of a possible collision with a large object.
The crew was ordered to the Soyuz craft that would act as their escape pod. Robert was the last one to enter it, ready for the old Captain going down with the ship scenario in case they ran out of time.

"Get inside, Commander!" his wife called as the fifth of them entered. Beyond the capsule's locking dock, the interior of the module to which it was attached went darker as the alien craft passed by and eclipsed the sun coming in the windows. "Robert! Get inside the--"

Suddenly, the ISS shuttered, and distant sounds indicated a possible strike from an object. Robert grabbed hold of a rail and pulled himself forward. He barely got inside in time to allow the others to close the airlock behind him before there was another massive shift in the station. It didn't feel as though they'd been struck by an object again, let alone the incredible ship passing less than 2000 meters from them. They would learn later that it was the alien vessel's propulsion systems that were affecting it, as the ship continued with its braking maneuver.

"Disconnect! Disconnect!" he called to the Cosmonaut who, here in the Soyuz capsule, was actually in command of such operations as their attempted escape. "Get us loose, before the lock is breached by the force."

A moment later, the capsule was free, and just in time as beyond the smaller but still useful windows they saw the ISS snap in half just two modules from where they'd been attached. Quickly, they delved into the escape procedures, a process that was mostly automated and without need of anything from the Cosmonauts other than flipping one or two switches.

But then a shadow caught their attention, and a moment later one of the solar panel arrays slammed into the capsules. Debris filled the space around the pod, which itself began a slow rolling spin. The Cosmonaut at the controls leaped into righting the tiny vessel, but nothing seemed to work. Communication with Houston was gone, as was communication with the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Another collision, this time even more soundly violent than the last, put the craft into an even worse pitch and roll. Robert could do nothing but offer verbal assistance, and even then he kept quiet because he knew that if there was something that could be done, his Russian counterpart would know what it was.

And then, "Holy shit."

Robert looked to his British Mission mate, who pointed to a window on one side of the craft, then another, then back to the first as the capsule continued to spin. The doomed Mission's Commander searched for what the Englishman was indicating, then added his own words of surprise, "Is it gonna hit us, too?"

Seemingly closing on the Russian vessel was another alien craft, this one smaller yet still incredibly large. It was hard to gauge size without reference, but ultimately Robert would come to realize that the triangular shaped vessel that the aliens called a Battle Cruiser was over over 400 meters in length and just short of that wide at its greatest point. In American speak as his metric-loving companions would say, that was almost a quarter mile long and across.

The Russians struggled to calm the ship's movement down while the two Americans, French woman, and British man gawked at the nearing UFO. It would take almost 20 minutes to finally bring the rolling capsule under full control, and by that time a truth had come to be realized: the capsule had been moving away from Earth during its acrobatics, and it didn't have the fuel necessary to get it back into a reentry arc before the oxygen supply was depleted and they all died.

That was about the time that Robert told the others in a calm voice, "Holy shit. They're opening bay doors. Look."

There was only one window with a view, and only Robert and the French astronaut had views from their secured positions. The others unbuckled, though, and one by one moved to take a gander at the alien craft, which during the rolling period had moved to within 200 yards of the Soyuz.

"They're coming to save us," someone said, to which another person asked, "Save us? Or capture us?"

A discussion broke out about what was being seen, one that included more than enough bad cracks about alien anal probes, mind wipes, and body snatching. Robert probably should have tamped down on the lewd comments, but the levity was easing the realization that the members of the International Space Station's Mission 99 were about to be the first people to make contact with an alien species.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

The Queen rarely visited the bridge of her ship, and never in all her years of rule had she gone there during maneuvering situations such as what had just taken place. The crew had important work to do, vital work, and the last thing they needed was their Monarch looking over their shoulders while they were making decisions or performing tasks that could be life threatening or life saving.

This day was an exception, though. The vessel's pass through Earth's atmosphere had threatened the Humans' vast artificial satellite system, which involved everything from communications to astronomy to weather to military security. And, of course, it very possibly may have killed the crew aboard the manned space station.

The Queen knew that this action could be interpreted as an act of war with the occupants of this world. She and her people had come to Earth to seek help, and causing death and destruction was not the way to begin this relationship.

The Commander was surprised to see his leader and ceased his current conversation without hesitation to bow deeper than normal to her, rising again to ask, "How may I serve you, my Queen?"

"Go about your duties, Commander," she said with a polite tone. When he didn't immediately turn back, she gave him a shoo gesture and repeated, "Go! Back to yourduties, Commander. Pretend I'm not here."

He chuckled, as if to say Good luck to that. But he did turn, reengaging with a trio of Crew who were active in a number of issues that simultaneously needed his attention. Reports, orders, supplemental information, and more went back and forth quickly, and the Queen quickly found herself very impressed with the display of professionalism. Her gaze shifted again and again from the Commander to the Crew to the three holographic displays depicting the situations at hand.

One display was a wide view of the vessel and its relationship to the planet it had just passed. Listening, she could hear the crew explaining that the maneuver had gone better than expected; the ship had slowed 20% more than the target deceleration, which meant they would likely be able to achieve a stable orbit around Earth much sooner than hoped.

The second display was of the Battle Cruiser, which was currently very near a debris field. The Queen realized with horror that she was looking at what had once been the Human's International Space Station. It had been ripped into two large sections, with the solar arrays and other parts separated and floating off in all directions.

She wanted desperately to ask if the Human crew had survived but resisted. I'm not here, she reminded herself. She looked to the third display, which she hadn't yet paid much attention to she didn't understand what she was seeing. It seemed to simply be a closer view of the Battle Cruiser maneuvering near the debris field. Over the next few minutes, though, she realized that one of the pieces of debris was an intact capsule. And after one of the crew began tapping at a panel and additional images revealed themselves on the holographic image, the gave out a gasp of relief that attracted the attention of the Commander and others.

"They're alive," she said, more of a statement than a question.

The Commander nodded, adding, "Yes, my Queen. It appears that they are alive. The Cruiser is retrieving the capsule now."

She raised her hands to her face, covering her mouth. Her species didn't cry as a result of emotions; it simply wasn't in their biology. But if she had been a Human, the Queen's face would have been drenched in tears of joy at this moment.

"I'll leave you to your duties, Commander," she said, adding as he bowed in respect to her, "You will let me know when they are onboard."

"Yes, my Queen."

She departed the bridge, and all the way to her quarters, she felt a feeling that on Earth would have been described as giddy. Immediately upon entering her antechamber, she called out, "Allie, show the display of the rescue of the Humans."

The AI did as ordered, and the Queen settled into a soft chair with a hot drink and watched the event unfold. The Battle Cruiser's bay opened wide; it had been emptied of its equipment and weapons in anticipation of being needed for this rescue. It maneuvered closer to the Soyuz module, something that seemed to take forever to the Queen.

Then, when the Battle Cruiser was close -- it was actually still 100 meters from the relatively tiny craft -- four small craft emerged from the big vessel's bay and maneuvered toward the Human ship. They moved in concert to surround the vehicle, moving in closer, carefully, until arms reached out and took hold of the escape pod. Working in concert, they headed back the way they'd came, and some twenty minutes or so later, they were inside the Battle Cruiser's bay while the big doors began closing once again.

"Interior view of the Battle Cruiser, please, Allie," she instructed. The AI again did as asked, and the Queen watched as cargo handling arms reached out to take hold of the pod. The drones disengaged and returned to their charging stations. The cargo arms moved the Human vessel into a smaller repair bay, which was then pressurized with the atmospheric mix of gasses that their research and study of the Human Race told them was necessary.

With the escape pod now in gravity, setting on a pedestal that supported it well, and surrounded with breathable air, it was just a matter of waiting to see what the Humans did.

 

[KingOfNowhere]

"What do we do now?" Betty Boone asked after she and the others had determined that the vessel they would soon learn was called a Battle Cruiser was coming to get them. She laughed nervously, asking her crew mates, "You realize that we are about to be the first Humans to be, without doubt, abducted by aliens?"

"Are your sure about that?" her French crew mate asked, clarifying, "About being the first?"

There was laughter, but Robert thought it was a bit strained. He answered his wife's question about their next actions. "We do nothing."

He looked to the Cosmonaut piloting the Soyuz and reminded him, "You said it yourself, we don't have the fuel to correct our course and make a survivable reentry. So, either we let them, whoever them is, abduct us as my wonderful wife pointed out, or we drift off into space and die."

There was a long silence during which the six crew of the former ISS looked between one another or out at the slowly nearing alien craft. The Cosmonaut at the controls eventually reached to the panel before him and began powering down propulsion. Just in case Mission Control in either Kazakhstan or Texas was listening in, the Cosmonaut spoke in Russian to the former and then in English to the latter, "We believe we are about to be taken into the alien aircraft. Pray for us, and tell our families we love them."

Robert wished so badly that he could speak to his daughter at this moment, as he was sure his wife was, too. Had she seen the UFO cut through the planet's atmosphere? Had she heard news of it on the radio or her phone? Had NASA's Public Relations people already come to the house to tell her first hand that her parents had likely just been killed in a tragic space disaster involving an alien craft?

Over what seemed like an eternity, small drone-appearing craft collected the capsule and delivered it to the Battle Cruiser's bay. Arms took hold of the Soyuz then, depositing it in a smaller bay. Robert felt a jolt as it was rested upon some form of support, then realized he was beginning to feel something he hadn't expected.

"Gravity," one of the others said before he had a chance to verbalize what he'd recognized. "Artificial. But how?"

"These guys figured it out," Robert said casually, not feeling as though a conversation on that discovery was the most important thing at the moment. "Check your suits. I'm going out."

Whoa, wait, what?" his wife asked with shock.

She tried to talk him out of it, as did two of the other crew. But Robert told them, "Either we go out or they come take us out. They didn't invite us in her to just hang here. They brought us in here because they want to meet us."

"Or eat us," the Englishman quipped. "But, I agree with you, and I'd like to go out with you."

Robert agreed, and after everyone checked their suits for containment, they worked the exit door open and Robert, then Gerald made their way out onto the deck of the compartment. He looked around for a long moment before moving forward a few steps. It didn't look that different than the cargo bay of the Shuttles, only bigger. There was some equipment he didn't recognize, and there was a small flying craft that looked like it was straight out of a Hollywood movie. But other than that, it could almost have been Human made as opposed to Alien made.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

"Please my Queen, I insist!" the Commander was almost begging as he walked down the long, central passage way beside his Monarch. "Allow me to greet the Humans and assess any dangers or risks before you yourself meet them. There is simply so much we don't know about them."

"We've been studying them since we made the decision to visit their planet," she reminded him. "I think we know who and what they are. They can be dangerous and volatile. But they can also be compassionate and understanding."

"But my Queen--"

She gave him a familiar gesture and he went silent. She turned for the elevator that would take her down three decks to the Docking Compartment for the returning Battle Cruiser. "Does it appear that any of the humans suffered any physical harm during or following the destruction of their Space Station?"

"No, my Queen," one of the Bridge Crew walking with her answered. This female was dressed in a white gown and carrying a small case; if she'd been Human, there would have been no doubt that she was a Medical Caregiver, which despite not being a Human she most certainly was. She glanced back to the two male crew -- also in white -- who were pushing carts before them. To the Queen the Doctor said, "We have everything we need to ensure that the Humans are not infected or inflicted with any microscopic organisms or other ailments that might be dangerous to our people."

"How long until the Cruiser docks and is ready to transfer the Humans?" the Queen asked. She was told the craft was already docking. "Are the Humans still in their capsule?"

"Three of them have exited the capsule and are in Repair Bay 2 of the Cruiser, my Queen," the Commander reported. When his ruler asked about the actions the crew of the Cruiser had taken in regards to their guests, the Commander said, "My Queen, if you are asking whether or not they have seen any members of our species yet, the answer is no."

The elevator had reached the proper deck and the 11 aliens had emerged to transfer from the Mother Ship to the Battle Cruiser and then down a series of ladders and passages to the door of the Repair Bay. The Queen suddenly found herself nervous as she stepped up to a porthole-shaped window in the compartment's door for her first viewing of a Human in the flesh. She knew what they looked like, of course, from more than nine Earth years of studying them.

But when she reached the window and peered through it, she was disappointed by what she saw: the Humans were still in their space suits. "Is the Repair Bay pressurized?"

"Yes, my Queen," one of the alien Technicians at a nearby control panel responded. She asked about the compatibility of the atmosphere in the room, to which the Tech said, "It is as a Human would find at or near sea level, my Queen ... 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, and .04% carbon dioxide, with a moisture content of 1% and temperature of 24."

The Queen shot the Tech a surprised look, and he quickly clarified, "Forgive me, my Queen. That is an Earth measurement ... Celsius, not our measurement."

"Oh, yes, I understand," she said, suddenly relieved. She'd spent many hours a day, nearly every day of those nine Earth years, learning about the people of Earth. Her tutors -- who were obviously well versed in their particular areas of expertise -- often told her that she likely knew more about Earth, its people, and the history of both better than many of the Humans did.

"It is time that I presented myself to them," she said to no one in particular.

My Queen..." the Commander began again to no avail.

His ruler cut him off by asking the Doctor, "Am I safe to enter before you have performed your tests?"

"The Bio-Field is active, my Queen," the Tech at the panel answered. "You will see the boundary indicated."

The Doctor added, "Yes, my Queen. You are entirely safe."

The Queen looked to the Tech and nodded, and with the push of a button at his panel the door slid open to reveal the aliens to the Humans, including in the middle forefront, their Queen.

She stood in place for a long moment to see how they would react to seeing their first true alien. She knew that for generations, aliens and UFOs had been part of Human folklore. But it was unlikely from what her Researchers had found that Earth had actually been visited by Extraterrestrials until now. And actually, she and her people hadn't actually visited Earth yet either.

In many ways, the Queen's people were very much like the Humans. They were bipedal with what the people of Earth would call a humanoid appearance: two ears, two eyes, one nose with two nostrils, and one mouth, all located in one head and no more; two arms and two legs extending from a single normalish torso.

Of course, some of these items had differences from their Human equivalents, too. The ears were longer with almost a point; the people of Earth might think them to be similar to the Elves of their fantasy stories or the Vulcans from their science fiction. But that wasn't the only difference with the ears, as each had two canals leading to hearing organs; this doubling of the workings gave her people an extended hearing range, extra sensitivity, and a far greater sense for the direction of a sound's source than did the ears of their Human counterparts.

The aliens could see in a far wider range of radiation levels as well, reaching into the ultraviolet and infrared bands. Although their necks appeared to look identical to those of the people of Earth, their breathing and digestive apparatuses did not cross, meaning that the aliens had never had to practice what the Humans called the Heimlich Maneuver.

The females of the Queen's race had what they called mammary globes and what Humans, she'd learned, often called boobs or tits. The males had a penis for breeding, much like their Human counterparts, but even it had differences to the other race's cock as well. First, each adult alien male's penis was almost the same size, by Human measurements being 9 inches or nearly 23 centimeters in length and 1.75 inches or 4.45 centimeters in diameter.

The Queen had been told by her Human Physiology Tutor that that meant the sex organ of the males of her species were both longer and wider that the average Human male's penis. Apparently, according to her Tutor, size was of some importance to a portion of the Human population as it affected the level of the pleasure of their sexual interactions.

That theory was up for debate, though, as the Tutor had also told her a popular Earth phrase that apparently was on the topic of partner sexual gratification: It's not the size of the tool but the skill with which it is used. The Queen didn't understand this, of course, particularly since the pleasure their males brought to their females during sex was more a factor of the sex organ's ability to vibrate rapidly and warm to 50% more than the rest of the body when in use.

But that wasn't anything that would be apparent to the Human visitors before the Queen now, of course. No, they'd be seeing a 6 foot or 183 centimeter tall alien with with skin markings that filled her upper face, the backs of her arms and legs from neck and buttocks to wrists and ankles respectively, and -- if ever the visitors saw her backside -- two inch tall, triangular shaped, spinal ridges that looked sort of like a long row of pectoral fish fins.

Oh, and of course, the tail. Each had a 4 foot long, prehensile tail that was about the diameter of a human forefinger with a little ball of fluffy fur on the end. Teh aliens themselves didn't consider it too often -- it was just a normal part of them -- but when the Humans saw it, they might actually think it was kind of cute as it seemed to always be slinking around as if having a mind of its own.

 

[KingOfNowhere]

Earlier:

Robert had to adjust his stance as he involuntarily leaned to the left. He looked to his left and told the Brit, "We're moving. The ship, it's moving."

"Returning to the larger ship?" Gerald asked. "The mother ship?"

Robert nodded within his helmet. He looked around the bay of the cruiser, pointing out things to the Englishman. After a bit he said, "Lord knows what they're gonna look like, but by what I'm seeing, I'd say something relatively close to our own size. Hands with deterity..."

He pointed to some wheels and handles that controlled systems, explaining his last comment. As he and Gerald continued to muse about what was ahead in meeting their alien hosts, Robert looked back to find his wife exiting the capsule. She joined the pair of them out near the middle of the bay.

"Why aren't they coming to greet us?" she asked as she reached to Robert's hand and gripped it.

"Or eat us...?" Gerald repeated yet again, looking to the married couple and shrugging his shoulders as he smiled. He looked to one of the many doors connecting the bay to other compartments and noted, "It's about eight foot by four, so, if they can fit through that, maybe they'll be roasting me over a fire, as opposed to eating me raw here where I stand."

Robert shouldn't have, but he laughed at this. "Don't put your Pounds down on a bet yet, Gerry. A lion or even a grizzly could get through that, so we might not yet be out of the--"

"I wish you two boys would stop talking about how we're all gonna be dinner for these people," Betty cut her husband off. Again she asked, "What do we do?"

And again her husband repeated his earlier answer with a few additional words, "We do nothing. We wait."

He didn't just stand their idly, though. Robert took a slow stroll through what felt like about 80-90% gravity toward the small space craft sitting in one corner of the bay. He didn't want their hosts to think he was going to carjack it and fly away or anything, so he kept a distance at first. Looking closely at it, he was disappointed to determine that it was likely an unmanned drone, meaning he wasn't going to learn anything about the alien's physiology as no pilot was required.

He and the other two continued to stroll about studying the bay, often looking to the doors in anticipation of one of them opening. They kept in contact with their comrades still inside the capsule, discussing what they were seeing. There was so much to be learned and so far they hadn't learned much at all.

Eventually, the ship's movements and sounds led them to believe they were about to dock with the mother ship. And then, finally, all was still and quiet. Robert, Betty, and Gerald moved a bit closer to the capsule again, standing together as they again watched the doors. They couldn't know that they were already being watched through port hole windows that, from inside the bay, they couldn't see, almost as if they were one-way mirrors.

And then the door Gerald had noted earlier slid open, and the Humans both inside and outside of the Soyuz space capsule were staring at their first extraterrestrial being. Robert was immediately and simply in awe. They weren't just humanoid in appearance, they almost seemed Human. He might have thought they actually were Humans with face paint and unfamiliar clothing if, a moment after first laying eyes upon them, he didn't also notice that they each had a tail that was dancing about behind them.

He was still working on his assessment of their appearance his wife murmured softly, "They're beautiful."

"The one in the middle," Gerald offered, apparently meaning the tall, female-appearing one in what almost looked like gold breast plate. "Do you think that's there leader?"

"No," Robert said, mirroring the thoughts that the ship's Commander had had. "I don't think they'd hit us with their leader up front. A Rep', maybe like a Liaison."

"She's beautiful," Betty repeated again, adding, "They all are. My God. I wish Olivia was here to see this."

Robert glanced to his wife at the mention of their daughter. He was suddenly ashamed to realize that he hadn't thought of her since their Russian pilot had sent the message to Earth many hours ago. Betty was correct in her thinking, he mused. Olivia had always hoped that one day Humans would find evidence that they weren't alone in the universe. Robert was sure she, like the rest of their race, knew this to be true by this time in this episode.

"Well," Robert said casually, "shall we go say hello?"

He looked to the other two, then began a slow walk forward toward the greeting party. He only covered about a third of the distance from the Soyuz to the alien party before stopping. It was time for them to make a move, he thought.

He flinched in surprise at a buzzing metallic sound and the sudden movement across the floor of what appeared to be an arc of light. It stopped about halfway between the door and himself, and when he studied it further he spoke into his helmet's microphone, "I think it's some sort of barrier."

He, Gerald, and Betty talked about it a moment, followed by the real science geek amongst them back in the capsule wondering if perhaps it was some sort of Star Trek force field to keep our cooties off the aliens.

Robert walked as the alien he would come to know as the Queen conversed with those around her, followed by a pair of them in white clothes each entering slowly while pushing carts of equipment before them.

"Just stay calm," Robert said as his shipmates began wondering what was happening. "If they were going to eat us..."

He didn't finish the absurd statement as he hoped that none of his people truly believed that was their fate. The two male-appearing aliens neared the shield-thingy and stopped. One lifted a hand and gestured Robert forward with curling fingers that weren't unlike his own except for being a tad bit long for their thickness.

Robert hesitated a long moment, listening to his crew giving their opinions about what he should or shouldn't do. But ultimately, he began forward, stopping a yard or so from the barrier when the alien gestured him to do so. The alien showed him what looked very much like a standard computing tablet, the same thing millions of Humans were using on Earth for school, work, entertainment, and more.

The alien gestured to numbers and images; it only took Robert a few seconds to realize that he was looking at a pie graph complete with Arabic numbers, percentage signs, and images of elements and molecules: oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and one other he didn't immediately recognize as argon.

"I think they're indicating that the air in this bay is breathable," he spoke into his mike. Then, as he watched the two aliens nearest him reaching their hands up around their heads and making upward gestures, he said, "I think they're indicating its safe to take off our helmets."

This resulted in most of his ship mates instantly offering their opinions about that idea, with each of them saying they thought it a badone. But after a moment, Robert asked, "Are we gonna live in these things for ever?"

To his amusement, Gerald quipped, "Well, it would offer our hosts a crunchy outer shell if in fact they are still wanting to eat us."

Robert laughed again, and after he'd settled himself down, he reached up to begin unfastening his helmet, but not before saying, "Kids, don't try this at at home."

There was a short but noticeable hiss of air as the pressure difference balanced. Sensing no immediate danger from the air he was now breathing, Robert lifted his helmet off his head and leaned over slowly to set it on the ground.

"Seems safe," he said, unsure of whether or not his crew mates would hear him on their external microphones or not. "But like I said, don't remove yours yet."

The alien before him was gesturing again, this time to a device on the cart he'd been pushing. Then, to Robert's surprise, the alien pushed the cart forward through the barrier. There was a sort of electronic-buzzing-sparkling reaction between the cart and its contents and the barrier, as well as between the barrier and the alien's gloved hand when it passed into the human-side of the bay and then back out again.

The alien picked up an identical copy of the item on the cart now before Robert and lifted it up to his head. It looked like a rather large headphone set, like something from the 1970s, before the Walkman and other such cassette players with their tiny headphones became the rage. But looking at it more closely, Robert guessed that he was looking at quite an array of technology all wrapped up in whatever that thing was.

The alien was indicating that Robert should don the device over his ears, with the curved band that held the two ear pieces dangling before him, over his chest. Robert picked the apparent communication device up, put the large, cushioned pads over his ears, and waited for something to occur.

There was a sudden flash of pain in his ears and skull, and Robert pulled the apparatus off with a grimace and soft cry. Looking through the transparent barrier, he saw in the alien's expression and gesture a sense of apologetic regret, as if he understood he'd done something wrong. That alien and the one who'd come forth with him feverishly worked at a control panel for a long minute before the first alien again gestured for Robert to don the headset.

Behind him, the astronaut Commander was being warned that perhaps the thing was some sort of mind probe that was going to either cause him to go insane or cause him to turn on and -- here it came again -- eat his Human companions. He shushed the other five, drew a deep breath, and donned the headset again.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

The Queen was watching the interaction between the Human and her two BioMed Techs from a distance, wanting so badly to get nearer the other being. But while she had overridden the Commander's request that she not be here at all, she had consented to remain distant until the situation was better defined.

The BioMed Techs toyed with the controls of the device the Human had donned and, finally, turned to look to her and nod. She began forward, slowly, while one of the Techs came her way, reaching her and handing her a second set of the communication device. She donned it as the Human had and stared at him ... as a smile slowly spread her lips.

"Do you understand my words?" she thought, her mouth unmoved. She saw the reaction in his face. Her smile widened yet again, revealing a set of teeth not too unlike those of Human beings except that they were more plentiful and much brighter white. There was joy in her face as she went on, "You do ... you do understand me. This is good."

 

[KingOfNowhere]

"Do you understand my words?"

Robert's reaction was immediate surprise, and for so many reasons. The words were clear and concise and in his language, in English. How the hell did these aliens from a distant world understand English? Additionally, the alien female's mouth did not move as the words filled Robert's ears. Did that mean she was telepathic? Or was it something about this device?

"Yes, I understand you," Robert answered verbally, uncertain whether or not the alien would be able to hear a response that was merely spoken.

She looked genuinely pleased that he confirmed his comprehension of her question.

"You do ... you do understand me. This is good."

Robert smiled as well. "Yes. This is good."

He looked back over his shoulder to Betty and Gerald, then over the other to the capsule; he could clearly see two helmets pressed up to windows, and he had a fair idea that the third was likely studying a monitor currently showing the view from one of the four exterior cameras.

"My name is Robert Boone," he said when he looked back to the female alien. Gesturing toward the suited people behind him, Robert continued, "I am the Commander, of Mission 99 of the International Space Station. These are my crew mates, Mission Specialist Gerald Houghton and Microbiologist Doctor Betty Boone. Betty also happens to be my wife. My life mate."

Robert wanted to say more about the ISS but didn't. The aliens had destroyed the vessel, though of course, not intentionally. Instead he informed the alien, "Three more of my crew are in this craft. We call it the Soyuz Capsule."

Robert couldn't know whether or not the alien had understood all of that, so he ended his part of the conversation asking the questions he was desperate to have answers to. "Can you explain how we are able to communicate? And can you tell me--"

Robert was actually concerned about the answer to his second question, yet he continued, "--why have you come to our planet? Why are you at Earth?"

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

"My name is Robert Boone," the Human began, introducing the two behind him and also explaining that three more of his people were still inside the tiny capsule at the far side of the Repair Bay.

The Queen became only more obviously delighted that the Interspecies Translator Device, as her Techs had named it, worked so effectively. It seemed to understand and translate every word, not that the Queen understood the use of all of them. Her people had been studying the Humans of Earth for even longer than she'd been planning to bring them here.

They'd learned early on that while it wasn't the most widely spoken language by population, English was the most widely spoken language across the planet's individual nations and states. It was why the ITD had first been designed to translate English first, before moving on to Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, and others.
The ITD could now translate 12 languages with better than 99% fluency and another 133 with a rating over 90%.

"Three more of my crew are in this craft. We call it the Soyuz Capsule."

"They are welcome to join you, Commander," the Queen thought and the Human heard. She sensed hesitation, though, and offered, "In their own time. Did I say that right?"

"Can you explain how we are able to communicate?"

"The device you are employing translates my thoughts into your language," the Queen said. She smiled wider, laughing softly, which was the first actual audible sound the Human had heard from her. "Please forgive me. You must realize this already."

Feeling more comfortable with the exchange, the Queen took another step closer to the energy field that was protecting the members of the two species from one another. She told him, "This may come as a surprise to you, Commander, but long before my ship's arrival in your system, I was very aware of who you were, where you came from, and what language you spoke. I am also aware that your companions speak your language but, in some cases, have a different first language. The translator is capable of allowing me to communicate with each of your companions as well, in their first language."

He listened to her, then asked a question she had been expecting as much as he'd wanted to ask it. "And can you tell me ... why have you come to our planet? Why are you at Earth?"

"We have come in peace," she communicated to him, again smiling. "I believe that is a common phrase in your culture's alien arrival fiction. I have come to enjoy some of the fiction your world produces regarding, what do you call them ... extraterrestrial beings?"

She waited a moment to see if the Human would comment, then continued, "This vessel ... what you would call a Mother Ship, yes...? It is damaged. It needs repair. We have come to your planet, to Earth, in the hopes that your people will aid us in repairing our vessel. It is in essence our home. Without it, we will perish. I wish to speak with your leaders and find ways in which we can help one another. You have likely come to realize that my people have technologies and knowledge that perhaps your people do not ... that perhaps your people could make good use of."

She could see that his mind was working hard and fast in regards to what she was explaining. That pleased her, even though she couldn't know what those thoughts were. Perhaps he was envisioning the end of hunger, poverty, disease, environmental disaster, and other tragedies that she knew were plaguing Planet Earth. Or perhaps he was envisioning himself as King of the World with armies of soldiers carrying advanced weaponry, supported by ground, air, and water vehicles armed with weapons his people had only ever seen in those science fiction works she'd come to enjoy.

"For now, I would like to ask that my BioMedical Technicians be allow to examine you and your companions," the Queen went on. Again she smiled, promising, "It will not be the invasive probing spoken of so often in your alien fiction, though, it will involve taking various biological samples from your body. Would you be willing to allow this, Commander. Once the Techs have completed their tests and approved the mingling of our two species, the barrier can be lowered ... and I will take you and your crew on a tour of my home."

Betty Boone, who had removed her helmet during the conversation, called to her husband, "Robert, ask if we can communicate with Mission Control."

Despite Betty not having an ITD, the microphone on the one around Robert's head and neck picked up her question and translated it. The Queen looked to the other Human and sent the answer to her Commander and husband, "Yes, I will make it possible for you to contact your people on Earth immediately."

She turned to look back at the Commander and spoke to him in their own language; to the humans it may have sounded like she'd only spoken one, multisyllabic word, as their language was spoken at a very fast speed relative to the languages of Earth. The Commander spoke with the crew near him, leading to one of them disappearing from sight beyond the Bay's bulkhead.

"We are working on it, Commander," the Queen told him. "While we wait, I should introduce myself as you already have. My name is, well, long ... and likely incomprehensible to you, let alone impossible to hear, recall, and repeat. I have chosen the name Sahana. Queen Sahana, though, you may feel free to ignore the title at this time. I am the leader of my people, as that title would imply. My people also have a long and complicated name, but we have chosen to offer you a, I think you call it a nickname, yes...? You can call us the Preck."

Beyond Sahana, the alien who had departed returned, this time pushing a cart before him that had an electronic device on it about the size of a toaster oven. Communicating with his Queen, he pushed it through the screen, then returned to stand with the others.

"You may speak with your people, Commander," Sahana told him. She pointed a long, slim finger that sport nails the same color as her armor-like torso covering, and said, "Just press that button."

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

Harrisburg, Oregon, USA
15 January 2027, Friday
10:33am local time (19:47 GMT)

Olivia Boone and her guests, Linda and Linda's 4 year old daughter, Kimmy, had all managed to get comfortable and calm enough to fall asleep on the cots in the underground shelter. It had been nearly 7 hours since an alien spacecraft had burned its way through Earth atmosphere, then apparently returned to outer space

Olivia was desperate to know whether or not her parents and their current home, the International Space Station, were safe, but there had been no news on the radio and service to both her Samsung on Xfinity and Linda's iPhone on AT&T were without service. Since the Emergency Broadcast Service was telling them to stay inside, and since the ranch was more than two miles from the nearest neighbor with a landline that might be working, the three of them were simply going to have to wait.

She stirred a bit, then awoke, at an unfamiliar sound. Lifting her head, she found the little girl playing farm with some of the toy animals Olivia had scrounged up from various stored boxes during the first hours of their confinement. Olivia rose to search through the shelter's pantry and found some fruit snacks. She and Kimmy whispered with one another quietly, trying not to wake Linda while Olivia joined into the game that wasn't that far off from her own real life.

Linda would awake soon enough, though, but it wouldn't be due to the other two females in the hole in the ground. A distant, repetitive sound soon revealed itself to be the beating rotors of a helicopter that was landing on the property. Olivia retrieved a shotgun she'd ensured was hidden from the 4 year old and went to the shelter's door to listen.

After a bit, she began to hear men calling out over the previously overwhelming sound of the aircraft's rotors. Olivia practically leaped out of her shoes as a fisted hand beat on the outside of the locked door, the man attached to that hand calling out loudly, "Olivia Boone! This is the Oregon State Patrol. Are you in there? Miss Boone, Olivia Boone, daughter of Robert and Betty Boone. We are hear to pick you up and take you to safety. Are you inside? Please confirm."

The two adult women stared at each other in shock, while little Kimmy just sat in the blankets of her mother's cot with her hands over her ears, begging, "Too loud, too loud!"

"I'm opening up," Olivia told her ranch hand as the latter was moving over to comfort her daughter.

The astronauts' daughter slid the locking bar aside and pushed one of the two doors up a bit. This door and then the other were quickly pulled fully open by two men in State Patrol Uniforms and flight helmets. A third man, in a suit and helmet, gestured Olivia to come up, repeating in other words what he'd already told her through the door but adding, "We have new of your parents."

Olivia very nearly burst out in tears at that. She looked back to her guests, gesturing Linda to bring Kimmy. To the man in the suit, she said, "I have friends. They're coming."

"I'm sorry, Miss Boone," the man began, "I'm not authorized to--"

"They come, or you can fuck off!" she snapped at the man. He relented, and a moment later all of them were running off for and loading up into the helicopter. once they were in the air and curling off toward Salem, the state's capitol and location of the State Patrol's headquarters, Olivia gestured for a headset and spoke into the microphone, "What about my parents? You said you had news about them."

"I'm sorry, Miss Boone," the suited man responded. "I don't personally have that information. I'm taking you to the people who do, though."

It was a difficult twenty minute flight for Olivia as she was unable to get anything about her parents from the man. She asked about the spacecraft, too, and to that the man simply said, "I'm not authorized to speak about that, Miss Boone."

They landed at the State Patrol's headquarters and disembarked. But as some of the officers escorted Linda and Kimmy toward the building, Olivia found herself being taken to a dark windowed SUV instead. In it, they rushed at double the speed limit through city streets that were blocked off and otherwise empty, except for an alarming number of official vehicles.

Just a couple of minutes later, Olivia found herself at the Municipal Airport, being put onto a small jet and flown out of the State, still with no more answers than she'd had back at the ranch shelter. The man in the suit, who'd finally introduced himself as Taylor Thompson from the US Marshall's service, told her, "Feel free to get some sleep if you need it, or we have those little bottles of alcohol, like they have on the commercial flights. I could use one of those about now, but, well."

"What the fuck's going on?" Olivia asked, repeating what she'd been asking for almost an hour now without getting a satisfying answer. "Where are you taking me? And what's going on with my parents? Are they dead? Did that thing in the sky, that UFO ... did it destroy the International Space Station? Are they all dead?"

Thompson just stared at Olivia for a moment before standing and going aft to a little closet and then returning. Like a man who seemed familiar with them, Thompson held out six little bottles of booze gripped by their skinny tops between the fingers of his fisted hands. "I'll join you. Don't tell anyone, okay?"

Olivia hesitated, angry about not being told what the fuck was happening, but also more than enthused about putting some alcohol in her system, despite it being long before noon. She snatched a Rum and a Vodka both, screwed off the cap of the former, and drank it down in a gulp. Grimacing and giving out a gasp, she looked to Thompson as he was tipping and slowly drinking down a sampling of whiskey.

"So...?" she asked, expectantly.

Thompson looked over his shoulder at one of his Marshall Service cohort, who was giving him a glare for his obvious violation of standards. Then, to Olivia, he said, "Your parents are alive. They and their crew mates are safe. Safely aboard the alien spacecraft."

Olivia's eyes widened in shock as she murmured, "What ... the ... fuck...?"

 

[KingOfNowhere]

Aboard the Preck Mother Ship, a few hours earlier:

"Do I leave this on?" Robert asked the alien Queen as he gestured to the ITD he was wearing. Sahana nodded, and he pressed the button on the communication device that had been slipped through the shield to his side. "Mission Control, do you copy? This is Commander Boone. Mission Control, do you copy?"

There was a brief moment of silence, Robert repeated his communication, and another silence followed as he, his crew, and the aliens all waited to a response. Suddenly, the speaker before him emitted a familiar voice. "Commander Boone, this is Mission Control in Houston. We have Korolyov on the line with us. Can you update your situation? Are you all alive and safe?"

Robert smiled wide and looked to his wife and British crew mate. Beyond them, the Frenchman and one of the Russians had exited from the Soyuz, while the second Cosmonaut was hovering in the doorway.

"Mission Control, Boone," he responded, using that title rather than Houston as to not leave out the Russian Mission Control center and personnel who surely were as worried about their two men as the US, France, and UK were about theirs.
Barely able to control his emotions, Robert reported, "We are all alive and well."

He was going to say more, but before he could, Mission Control opened their end of the communication line. In the background, dozens of people could be heard cheering joyously.

CapCom asked for more specifics without specifically mentioning the alien spacecraft. Robert gave some brief, dry facts, then looked to Sahana and asked, "May I tell them about you?"

She nodded, and after a moment during which he tried to figure out what to say, Robert began, "Mission Control, I don't know whether or not you have determined this yourself, but the six members of the International Space Station's Mission 99 are now safely aboard the extraterrestrial vessel that recently passed through Earth's atmosphere. We are being treated well, very well, actually. Our hostess..."

Robert hesitated for a moment, wondering whether nor not he should have used the gender neutral term host. Too late. He continued, "...is named Sahana."

Again, Robert hesitated. Should he have identified her as Queen Sahana? Many countries on Earth had royalty, and some of those countries were actually ruled, in part or entirely, by those Kings, Queens, Princes, and Princes. The United States, of course, had no royal family, and yet many Americans were in awe of royalty as was indicated by the losses of Queen Elizabeth just recently, Princess Diana in 1997, and Princess Grace -- once an American film star -- 15 years before that.

The countries from which the rest of his ISS crew originated had each had their history with royalty, of course. Russia had become the Soviet Union after ridding its country of royalty, as had France with Napoleon. And despite being under new management, England very much had its royalty.

In the end, though, Robert decided to go with his gut and give his alien hostess her due, by correcting, "Our hostess is Queen Sahana of the Preck, and she wishes to meet with the leaders of Earth in the very near future to explain her peoples' peaceful reasons for visiting our planet."

As he'd been talking, Robert's wife, Betty had neared him enough to whisper softly, "Do our family's know we are alive?"

Houston must have picked it up, because a moment later, CapCom came back on. "Soyuz, Mission Control. As soon as we realized that they may be an ... situation between the ISS and the unidentified craft, we sent people out to collect the emergency contact list members for each of the crew. They are, for the most part, in our care now or on their way to being so. We will update them ASAP regarding your situation."

Robert looked to Sahana, pointed to the communications device, and asked, "Would you like to speak to them?"

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

"Do I leave this on?" the American Astronaut asked the Queen.

Sahana knew that Robert could have communicated with his people without the device on his head and chest. But she wouldn't have been able to speak with him if he'd removed it. Also, she was eager to hear his controllers on Earth as well, and she wasn't entirely certain that if he removed it and set it aside, that she'd hear it translated coherently to her.

After she nodded, he pressed the button on the device and called to his people down on the planet. Robert and the other humans showed great joy at hearing the voices of those down on the planet, as those on Earth seemed to be regarding the six up here as well.

Sahana was happy that they were happy, of course. Her ship had very nearly killed the ISS crew. It had, she had recently been informed, killed a dozen or more artificial satellites in orbit of the planet, and likely would be the cause of the demise of many more by the time they settled into a maintainable orbit.

"May I tell them about you?"

She nodded, adding, "Please. It would be my pleasure to be introduced."

Robert would go on to say, "Our hostess is Queen Sahana of the Preck, and she wishes to meet with the leaders of Earth in the very near future to explain her peoples' peaceful reasons for visiting our planet."

This made Sahana smile wider. She, the Commander, and other Advisors had discussed how they would be seen by the Humans long before they'd set a course for Earth. The dominant species on the planet, generally speaking, had two attitudes that Sahana feared might endanger her people: If you don't understand it, kill it and another, Shoot first, ask questions later.

Oh, the entirety of the Human Race didn't feel that way, of course. But it only took one Human with his finger on a button to launch a barrage of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles at the Mother Ship and do it even more damage than it had already suffered.

"Do our family's know we are alive?" the female astronaut, Robert Boone's wife, asked with obvious concern.

Mission Control and Robert spoke about the family sistuation, after which Robert asked Sahana, "Would you like to speak to them?"

She gave him a friendly smile but responded, "Not at this time. I believe that it would be more appropriate for me to speak to leaders of the entirety of the Human Race at the same time as opposed to speaking to the leaders of only a few of them. Don't you think?"

Apparently Richard either agreed or simply decided not to push the issue. He returned to his conversation with CapCom, during which he learned that his and his wife's daughter would be at Mission Control in Houston in less than an hour. The situations with other crew members' families were reported to Robert, and finally he signed off with them.

"Shall we complete the medical tests now?" Sahana asked. She got a positive answer, and a BioMed Tech in a full personal protection suit came into her side of the bay, passed through the protective shield, and -- using an ITD -- directed Robert through taking blood, saliva, and mucous samples from his neck, mouth, nose, and even his ears.

The Tech turned to speak to his Queen for a fraction of a moment, after which she explained, "He is intrigued with how you can hear with only one sensory organ in each ear. We have two in each ear, which you will likely learn more about at a latter date."

He responded, and Sahana said with a confident tone that even the ITD showed, "I'm sure we are going to learn many interesting things about one another's species in the days and years to come."

The Tech explained to Robert that he was done and would have the results in only a few minutes. "I need to check the others. May I?"