Fabienne Gschwind - Star Map

"Shut up, Maxmale, and follow us!!"

Jay looked at his friends in irritation, somehow everyone had imagined a different first contact. But they were surrounded by the soldiers and taken through the huge hangar. The soldiers walked very slowly, and there was plenty of time to look around. In the meantime, Kiki also gave information using hearing aids. With the highly sensitive sensors of the Abhysal , everything could be analyzed in a very short time and Kiki gathered a lot of information.

First to the aliens:

These also were bipedal and stood upright. They had two arms, the head was on top of the torso. They had two pairs of eyes on the front of the head, but quite far apart. Their depth vision was probably not very good, but they had to have a very wide field of view for that. Around the head, they had other sensory organs. Kiki was convinced that they were some kind of pressure sensor.

Several holes were probably ears and some kind of dog snout seemed to be the nose. The soldiers wore gray helmets with visors, but there were other aliens in the hangar that could be observed. The color changes of their skin were particularly noticeable. Kiki pointed out that it was much like the way chameleons changed skin color, she even hypothesized that it was emotionally tied. Similar to the facial expressions of humans.

There were probably two species. One had scaly skin and short horns on its head. Their legs were also longer and they seemed to be good sprinters. The other had a kind of short hair stubble on their body and a crest on their head. Their legs were shorter and stronger, they seemed to have opposable thumbs on both hands and feet. The hands also had a different number of fingers in the form of claws.

All in all, the alien's appearance was not repulsive, only their legs were bent in somewhat unusual places.

The hangar was packed with ships, and it was not as warm here as the stated 30 degrees inside the ship. The temperature was more like 20 degrees, so perfectly comfortable for humans. Perhaps that was because the hangar was on the outer hull and didn't heat well. It also quickly became clear that it was cold here for the aliens. Many of them wore thickly lined overalls and a hat on their heads.

The others wore almost no clothes. Just some kind of apron. Joe couldn't help but think of her carnival costume when she was a kid. Basically, it was a big garbage bag in which they had cut a hole in her head and two holes in her arms.

When they came out of the hangar in a warm area, it became clear that this "plastic bag" was the standard attire. The bag had many pockets, and most of the aliens also wore a belt with small pouches around their waist.

The soldiers also wore such a plastic bag and over it a number of different protectors and helmets. In their hands, they held a weapon that looked like a short rifle. At their waist was another weapon that looked like a whip.

"You are now entering the inner area of the ship," Kiki explained, giving more details about the ship’s structure.

But here their escort stopped because the soldiers didn't seem to know where to go and their boss went over to a kind of phone booth to get further instructions. They continued in a huge corridor, the gravity was set very low to facilitate the transport of goods. Kiki used the time to clarify the ship’s structure.

There was an outside area where the ship's hangar and storage rooms were located. In the lower part of the ship was what Kiki calls a recreation area. "Shopping area, museum, food court, casino, miniature golf, and so on..." explained Kiki, who could see just about everything with her sensors. It had to be said that the ship was nearly cubed in shape having an edge length of about 500 meters.

In the middle, there was probably a living/working area. The ship was modular. The individual modules were the size of large gyms. The blocks were stacked on top of each other like Lego blocks and each was connected with open airlocks. In the event of a leak or fire, they could be sealed very quickly.

Kiki went on to explain that there were three types of blocks. One type of block was a kind of living area whose walls were equipped with small cabins, and there were also common areas where many aliens stayed. And there was a kind of office building where the aliens mainly did desk work. What was special about these blocks was that the floor and ceiling were used by simply putting artificial gravity on the ceiling. A strip in the middle of the room remained without gravity and was used to transport people and goods. The third type of block was more like what humans were used to, and it was used for laboratories, workshops, production facilities with a normal layout. The engine room, which housed power generation, propulsion, and life support, was located in a dome on one side of the ship.

The crew was very glad to have some information in advance so they felt they were not in the dark.

But how were the five doing?

No one had talked about it, but they all knew that if they left the ship, they might never return. Perhaps they would be imprisoned somewhere or dissected like laboratory animals? Who knew what atrocities these aliens were capable of?

It was not surprising that everyone had been injected with a strong dose of soslindum, the fear could be so well dampened.

Lex herself was the most fearful of the group, but with the soslindum she felt okay, and what she had seen so far didn't make her feel like her life was in danger. She was also firmly convinced that with all their knowledge, the crew would surely come to some sort of agreement. Nemo was thinking exactly the same thing, and Joe was so excited that she couldn't think of anything to say. Meeting aliens had been her secret dream, and now that dream has come true!

Milo's care robot had known full well that it wouldn't be good for Milo's sensitive nature to walk around in an alien spaceship, so he had sedated Milo appropriately with powerful anxiety inhibitors. Milo had also immediately agreed. Now he simply followed the crew, felt calm and content. At the same time, he watched the aliens with curiosity and interest.

Only Jay was annoyed with the aliens. He found their behavior totally unprofessional. They hadn't searched them, and now they were just standing around, not guarding them at all. As if they knew perfectly well that humans would not pose any danger!

Actually, that was not so wrong. After all, the aliens were neither fast runners nor good fighters, but they had prevailed in evolution because they possessed some kind of empathic abilities. Anciently, they could instantly sense if a hungry predator was nearby. This ability had atrophied in most of them, but all aliens could still judge whether or not another creature was about to do something "bad" to them.

And that was the case here, none of the soldiers sensed any danger coming from the strange Maxmales. The constant pale color of their skin also played a role. A constant pale color was a sign that one of them was particularly calm, content, and at peace with himself. It didn't seem to matter that Jay was dark-skinned, it was much more important that his skin color stayed the same and didn't show any other colors. Just as the humans had the feeling that the dolphins were always smiling, the aliens succumbed to a misconception here.

But at last, the time came and the soldier leader stepped out of the phone booth. He spoke and his words were translated and transmitted in the crew's hearing aids.

"Okay, we need to go to the government block. Morchen wants to see the Maxmales in persona."

Another soldier raised his visor and groaned. "The central corridor is closed today for construction, which means we have to walk a huge arch..."

The commander ignored him and took the path.

Meanwhile, all the soldiers were completely relaxed and had placed their weapons back in their holders.