I awake. I feel a bit dazed...
Where am I? I ask myself, The last thing I remember...
"Oi, Kiddo!" I saw a familiar figure walking from the back door.
"What do you want?"
"Why're you swimming today? It's the first day of the week. Never swim on this day."
"I'm not swimming, I'm splashing." I kick my bare feet through the water to emphasize.
"Whatever. Anyways, supper's ready."
"What are we having?"
"Noodles."
"Ew."
"Suck it up!"
"I like to chew my noodles, thank you." I saw a look on his face that said 'ouch'. He knew what I meant.
"Speaking of chewing on noodles, how's that alien? I heard you cut off his... ehh... I can't see how he's alive."
"Oh, he's dead. We've the female one left. Seems that she's fond of our planet. She likes fruit a lot, too. I like her."
"Well, good for you. Oh, and did you hear?" He paused to let me through the door and into the house. "The wanderers have successfully harvested another planet! Seems like we'll bask in some good resources for another few hundred years."
"What planet is that?"
"Oh, some planet where they still don't know how to use energy rifles. Simple beings, they are. Actually, I think it's the girl alien that you've been calibrating."
"I heard we lost plenty of wanderers to their modern weaponry. Who knew people as cute as that little creatur in the labs could actually harm our wanderers?"
"Bah! That's just because they have over eight billion people on their planet! Well, only few now..."
"Well I do hope they bring back some exotic designs for decoration. Our planet's fashion is bland."
"But their planet's life is dust. Hah!"
"Oh, but I feel bad for hurting these poor, lesser creatures."
"Who cares!"
"Humph."
We sat and ate. We had more subtle conversations during supper.
Afterwards, I slept. When I woke up, I went to the lab, as I work commonly from the morning to the early evening. I went to the cell with the peculiar female alien in it.
"Hello again," I greeted in her strange, native tongue.
"Hello!" She seemed energetic enough.
"How are you?"
"Very well. And you?"
"I'm doing absolutely wonderful, especially since I get to ask you more questions. I would like to know what planet you are from."
She answered with that weird word again, as she had all the other times. "Erahth". Some odd word that my species has difficulty speaking. Once I made it clear that I couldn't comprehend that word, she answered with, "Planet a12, I think you call it."
"And your species is... human, correct?" I scratched my head with my uppermost arm's hand as I was guessing.
"Yes! Homo Sapiens."
"Huamio Scapriuenst? ... I don't think I got it right..."
"It's one of the languages on Earth."
"Oh, what weird words your kind has. Anyways, would you like some breakfast?"
"Yes, please! But do you have any of my planet's food?"
"We might have some soon. Just you wait for the wanderers."
After some more interrogation and playing around, I left the cute little thing to herself. I arrived back at my house soon enough to watch the news about the wanderers returning. It seems that they wanted my lab's support and cooperation with making another journey. They wanted the best scientists that major in alien studies. Tch, that means me and my coworkers.
After about a month, I was ready for the trip. I made sure to say goodbye to family and that the female human was ready for space travel. It took three months of worm-travel, but we made it. I saw a desolate planet before, like the last two times I accompanied the wanderers. Actually, I'm considered a wanderer myself, since the minimum is just one trip to another planet. Being a wanderer is the highest title in my kind's society.
Once landed, we built a camp. We made sure that we had breathable air in the camp's dome before we set out for exploration. Only a few days of traveling and we found so many things. There was even a giant, rusted copper statue of a human woman holding some kind of square prism object and a primitive torch. I wanted a piece of that copper; it looked ancient!
But it seems that humans enjoy storing their ancients in buildings, as if to display their history. Why would anyone like to know about their ancestors? Ancestors are always so different from the current people. Always.
After a week of being on the planet, we found a large body of water, salty water, but it was nice enough. It was actual water, not anything acid. At least we know that humans are made of normal water like us. Perhaps we can relate.
And so one day I decided to have a swim in the salty water, leaving only my breather on.
"No swimming on the first day of the week, miss," one of the wanderers warned me.
"Nothing bad can happen!" I explained.
"The first day of the week is when we are weakest and most vulnerable to anything that can pierce flesh. Our skin sheds this day."
"A good day to let off the clothing, so that the skin won't stink the suits."
He sighed. "When humans attack, don't come to me for aid."
"Sure, I won't."
But after only minutes of enjoyment, dusty humans came. They seized me and the wanderer that accompanied me. My friends and the other wanderers tried to fight the humans, but there were too many... an infestation.
They took us to a city sort of place. Rectangular-shaped buildings towered over us. The atmosphere must be large for these buildings to be so tall. Or, at least, the atmosphere was large, until we harvested it.
But our friends found us, and rescued us. However, only five of the total hundred that came survived while we were gone. Most died from humans. And so we tried to lift off, but alas, the engine was damaged. The hull was damaged, too, because of humans. It's only lucky that our breathers can convert oxygen into breathable air, because the dome collapsed from the torment by the humans.
We starved. I collapsed after only some few days after the rescue. Two of the five of us deserted immediately and left the camp. One went towards a musty, gooey sort of place, holding one of his only charms found from the bandit humans in his hand. Those charms must be special to the old man. The other one was old as well, and he just... wandered the planet. It was me, the female human, and one other. The other took the rest of the supplies, including the compass, and left on the last day I was conscious. The human seemed to be able to last a few more days.
I regained consciousness on and off. I was taken to a place with... tree, as humans call them. It was so cold... I felt like I had gone into my kind's hibernating sleep for years.
I'm stoking the fire as a stranger's figure falls onto the cold floor. After some warming, she explains that she can build things. She looks familiar, as if she is a larger version of the little, two-armed human that I knew when we first landed.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
