by Hana Starr
The moment that its hand rested lightly on her shoulder, she felt...she wouldn't call it a jolt, nor horribly alarming – although it certainly should have been – but if she had to place a feeling to it, it was like that of a gentle rap of knuckles against a door: a soft, polite request for permission to enter a space that was hers and not theirs. Then, she heard that same, low singing again, but in her mind, as though it was a thought that she had produced. She blinked, not knowing what the being was trying to convey or do, but didn't sense any hostility from them, so didn't fight against it.
Unsure of what to do, she simply allowed whatever was trying to happen, happen, and soon it felt as though there were fingers, long and delicate, gently probing around the corners of her mind. They seemed a little unsure, like the hand of someone reaching into a dark space for something that fell where they couldn't see, feeling for something to grasp onto, but clearly not wanting to be invasive or cause harm in the process. Anne Claire watched the stranger's face as its...whatever it was, skimmed the surface of her mind, fascinated with the brilliant blue and green tones their eyes kept shifting between. She vaguely decided that their eyes were like Alexandrite, ever shifting, and always a different color when viewed from another angle.
When the sensation ended and the being's long hand left her shoulder, Anne Claire felt a rather strange sense of loss, as though she wouldn't be warm without that touch again, and was left gasping at the feeling of the figure parting from her on a physical and mental level all at once. It felt akin to being tossed into a bath of ice water – it stole the breath from her lungs, and all she wanted to do was seek out the source of her warmth again.
They blinked at each other a moment, and the stranger's eyes changed color again with a tilt of their head, flecks of gold swirling around in their pupiless pools. Anne Claire wondered what those shifting colors meant, or if they meant anything at all.
“Helloooo,” the being said slowly with the same, small wave of its hand, as if to test her reaction to it. The motion on such a tall and lithe figure struck her as odd, but Anne Claire didn't dare make that comment, and opted to swallow.
“Hello,” she rasped with another meek little wave of her hand in greeting. That earned her a smile from the stranger, and though it was something she had never seen before, nothing had ever put her more at ease than seeing it. “Did you...learn English from...from that?” She asked, tapping her finger lightly to the side of her head. It nodded, but seemed to look almost pensive.
“Your language- it is different than the one that I learned when I last came to this planet,” the figure turned to look at their surroundings. “Is this...is this the home of Doctor Anne Claire Brahmsworth?” Her heart stopped when it said her name – what would an interplanetary creature need with her? And how did it know her name?
“You're,” she blinked stupidly, suddenly struck by how odd it was that she was more comfortable talking to this literal being of a different species than she probably should have been. Why wasn't she panicking? She wasn't sure. “You're looking for me?”
“You are Doctor Anne Claire Brahmsworth?” It's already large eyes widened, their irises taking on a bright electric blue. She could tell it was excited, but she couldn't divine why she was so important to this being.
“I am,” she said, making a point to pull her shoulders back a little; it traveled all this way to find her, least she could do was take a little pride in her name. “Though I'm not entirely sure why that matters.” She shrugged, at a loss.
“You are my mission,” it said as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. “My people require your help.”
“I assure you, I wouldn't know how to help them,” Anne Claire said with a shake of her head.
“You are Doctor Anne Claire Brahmsworth,” it repeated. “Please, come with me. I need you. My people need you.”
“I don't-” her head was reeling. Was this being truly giving her the chance that she had been dreaming of her entire lifetime? But...what about her life here? “I don't understand. Won't people worry where I am? How long will I be gone?”
“Those are things that my people can address,” the being reassured her. “I am sorry. Time is of the essence.” It waved its hand in front of her face, its long fingers caressing her forehead, and though she was sure she opened her mouth to protest, she couldn't be sure that she even spoke. Her vision blurred, and she soon knew no more.
Chapter 5
When she came to, Anne Claire tried desperately to blink away the blur in her vision. She scrubbed at her eyes when blinking wasn't good enough, wracking her brain to piece together when she had passed out and why. She had gone stargazing, and found an alien. Then it talked to her, and then she passed out.
Surely that alien and everything attached to it was a dream.
Shaking her head, she opened her eyes again, grateful that her vision was cleared but only more confused when she found herself sitting on a cool, smooth surface with stars streaking past her at an alarming rate. She frowned, wondering why the stars were moving so fast when it felt like she was very much a stationary object relative to them.
And then she sat up.
The being that she had sworn was just a dream was seated in front of her with its back turned to her, piloting the ship that it had crashed in. Wait, how was it flying after a crash like that? Wouldn't it have sustained damage? Her confusion mounted.
The stranger must have sensed her rousing, as it turned to face her, its warm golden eyes blinking owlishly at her. She sat up fully, leaning back on her hands and stared at it in kind, wondering if it would be impolite to speak first. Was it smart to talk without being spoken to when you've been kidnapped? They never covered this in med school.
“I am sorry to have taken you like that,” it said in that soft, tenor voice that it had. She was half tempted to inform him that kidnapping was illegal where she was from, but wondered if something like that would even remotely register with someone from another world – was that something that they would even concern themselves with in the grand scheme of things, when they lived in a completely different star system from the law that they broke? “I wish I had been able to tell you sooner why I was sent for you.”
“I mean,” she shrugged, wondering why she didn't feel more uncomfortable with the whole situation. Maybe because she was actually in a space ship flying through the stars just like she had always dreamed of? She wasn't sure. Maybe it was just the shock. “I would have rather had the choice.”
“You still do,” the being nodded emphatically. “I will show you why we need you. If you do not want to help, I will bring you back home. You are not a prisoner. You are not going to be harmed, Doctor Anne Clair Brahmsworth.”
“Please, just Anne Claire. Or Anne. I'm flexible, really,” she shrugged again. The knowledge that she could be taken home any time she wished was a great comfort, so she relaxed around her new pilot. “But I...um...” Anne Claire struggled with how to word it. “Do you have a name? I don't know what to call you.” The being blinked at her, scrunching its face up in thought.
“I do not have one. At least.” It frowned. “Not...in your tongue.” It paused to tilt its head again. “Should I make one? Would that make communicating easier?”
“Yes, please,” Anne Claire nodded. There, she thought. Said politely enough that the chances of starting an intergalactic incident were decreased somewhat. The being smiled.
“I like calling you Anne Claire,” they said, as though tasting the name on their tongue. “It sounds nice. It suits you,” they concluded with a smile. “I am...a traveler of worlds. Do you have a name for that, or just, 'Traveler?'”
“Well,” it was stupid, borderline insulting contextually, and she knew it, but it was the only thing that she could think of. When she was a teenager, she had taken a shining to a bird that often came to rest on a branch outside of her bedroom window a few times every day, so much so that she named it. The name had meant, 'traveler,' so named because she li
ked to think that it would soar to places that she would likely never go. But this person didn't need to know that, not right now. “Faer is a nice name. It means, 'traveler,' in a different language.” She paused as she thought of something. “But that's a more masculine name. I...I don't know your gender. I don't want to presume anything.” It seemed to contemplate the suggestion before nodding its head.
“I like it. Faer,” the being, Faer, decided after testing the name on its tongue. “Call me Faer. We...we do not have, 'male,' and 'female,' where I come from.” Faer was clearly trying to make sure they had their words right. “Those words are not even in my tongue. They are...strange to say.”
“I had wondered if that was a thing anywhere else,” Anne Claire mumbled, mostly to herself. Faer shook its head.
“Where I come from, you simply are who you are. If you choose to carry a child, then you do so. It does not change who you are.” Faer shrugged, and the gesture was so strangely human on such an otherworldly being that Anne Claire vaguely wondered if it was something that Faer had picked up on one of their visits to Earth, or if it was just a universal motion that was shared among species.
“That's...fascinating,” Ann Claire said earnestly with a nod of her head before a thought occurred to her. “Shouldn't you be piloting the ship?” She asked, pointing to the controls in front of Faer's seat.
“The ship knows where we are going,” they shrugged. “I just like to observe the stars as we travel.” Anne Claire felt the stirrings of kinship between the two of them, prompting her to stand and walk over to where Faer was sitting. She noticed that there was a spare seat beside them – probably for a copilot – and smiled.
Chapter 6
“Mind if I take a seat next to you? I would love to look at the stars like this.” They nodded, and she slid into the crystalline chair beside them, surprised at how the seat itself was oddly soft in contrast to how it seemed to be made of a hard mineral. “What is this material?” She asked, pressing a hand into the seat and giving it a little press. “It looks like the same stuff that your ship was made out of, but it's...soft? I don't understand.”
“It is a polymer that was created by my people,” Faer explained. “It is malleable, and responds to outside stimuli to form whatever it needs to be to adapt.” Anne Claire nodded silently, and figured that was probably the best explanation that she could get while still grasping the concept, however vaguely she had managed to do so. “I do have a question for you, Anne Claire.” She turned her head to look at them. They walked over to the other side of the ship's interior, opening a storage closet and pulling out a familiar red plaid blanket. “What is all of this for?” Faer asked as they'd laid out the blanket, exposing her kettle, thermos, telescope, and journal bundled within.
“Ah.” Anne Claire flushed. “Remember the hill near where you landed?” They nodded. “I like to go out there and look at the stars from time to time,” she explained. “It's nice to get out and get away from everything and just sort of...I dunno, relax and take in the universe, you know? It's peaceful.” She shrugged, trying not to let her face flush too deeply and failing spectacularly.
“I do something similar with my observatory at my home,” Faer spoke up quietly after a moment of contemplating her words.
“Oh?” She tilted her head. Faer nodded as they gently pressed a few buttons on the pilot console. The buttons were not physical, rather a holographic display that did not come to life until Faer's hand hovered over the panel.
“Yes. The stars have always calmed me, even when I was very little. Travel is usually heavily restricted for me with the job that I have, but I travel to different planets and systems whenever I am able to.” they explained, fingers sliding and flicking along the display to look at different things that Anne Claire couldn't decipher. “I have witnessed countless beings come and go on several planets, your Earth included,” they hesitated after a moment, hands stilling from their graceful movements. “You are the first from your planet that I have truly spoken to.”
“Truly?” Anne Claire said, surprised. “So you've just kind of...what, been a silent observer or something while you traveled to different places?” Faer quirked their head in thought, eyes shifting into a deep violet color.
“Not...not intentionally,” they finally said after a pause. “Ordinarily, I land somewhere isolated and sufficiently distanced from a major settlement to keep suspicion low. By the time I would encounter a local that I could converse with, I was already blended in with the crowd.” Faer hummed thoughtfully, and the noise sounded akin to their native language to Anne Claire's untrained ears, but no less soothing. “I have spoken to others many times, but none cared to know what to call me. They were normally too distracted with their own lives or something else than the stranger in front of them. It is the one thing that has been a constant, no matter what planet I travel to, no matter what system that planet is in.” They looked away uncertainly. “This is...new to me. I am uncertain as to how I am supposed to behave.”
“Just be yourself,” Anne Claire said with a shrug. “That's all anyone should ever be,” she grinned. “If it's any comfort to you, this is the first time I've ever spoken to a stranger that's whisked me off of my planet, so this is new to me, too.” Faer laughed, the sound melodious and smooth and it warmed her heart in a foreign and unfamiliar way that she couldn't explain. “Why...why did you take me, anyway? Why do you keep saying that I'm, 'needed?' What is it that I'm needed for, anyway?” She asked with a tilt of her head. She vaguely wondered if they would even tell her yet.
“I will not lie to you, Anne Claire,” they said after another contemplative pause. “My people may be highly intelligent, incredibly advanced, and capable of traveling greater distances than most other races, but we are in grave danger,” they stared ahead, into the stars whizzing past their observation panel. “Within the last lunar cycle, an illness has swept through my people. Many have developed it, but it is not contagious, and it has baffled even our best doctors.”
“What could I possibly do for them, then?” She countered, a deep frown marring her features. “I've only studied how to help humans. I can't even help another species from my planet, let alone a different one.”
“There is a phrase that your species has that I have taken a liking to as time goes on,” they replied easily. “that it is beneficial to, 'get a fresh pair of eyes on the problem,' to find a solution,” if they were going to elaborate further on what they meant, they shifted and wrapped their hands around the pilot controls. “Ah, we are nearing my home,” Faer noted, tapping on the holo-screen in a few more places. “I will take the ship out of warp speed, and we will land soon.” She wanted to press them on what they were referring to with the crisis of their people, but figured that it would be better to hold her questions until she was able to have something in front of her to study; the more information she could get at one time, the better.
“So should I just...buckle in?” Anne Claire asked, mentally and physically bracing herself as best as she could given that there was no seat belt built into the ship. Faer tilted their head.
“I am not sure what that means,” they admitted, and she did her absolute best not to panic. “But it is as I promised you: you will not be harmed, Anne Claire.” She opened her mouth to inquire further, to ask what they meant by her not being hurt when there was nothing to stop her from being hurdled forward when the ship's speed shifted, when she saw the stars that had been streaking past them suddenly return to their singular dots that pierced the blackness of space, and a large planet looming ahead of them. She blinked in surprise; the shift, to her, had been little more force than someone accidentally nudging past her in a crowded space. Astrophysics might not be her strong suit, but she knew that it shouldn't have felt that way.
Chapter 7
Faer took manual control of the ship, guiding it toward the planet and entering its atmosphere. As they neared, Anne Claire took in the planet itself, its purple sky and lilac clouds lazily cir
cling in its atmosphere, and found herself in awe of the strange parallels it had to Earth; where Earth had blue skies, blue water, and greens and browns swathing the world, this planet's water was so deep a purple it resembled an amethyst, its land masses filled with blues and silvers, and she wondered how it looked up close.
The ship zipped into the atmosphere with little difficulty, and soon they were coasting over a wide expanse of the deep mauve waters. Anne Claire silently took in the view in awe, resisting the urge to press herself against the clear window of the ship. They neared a coastal cliff consisting of sapphire stone, and perched at the highest point was a humble building that she had to guess was Faer's home. The structure was a soft orange and popped against the contrasting colors of its surroundings.
