We, the Aliens (1)

For several minutes, we wandered the new planet, following the trail of flourishing grass. Soon, we found a wide, beautiful field of grass. Each dew-lipped filament heavily accentuated the slight roll of the hills. The sight was so heavy and so light on the heart and mind. My eyes began to moisten just like the grass. We have not even fully arrived at the field, and yet, our steps slowed. Each awe-stricken step in sync, but both of us forgot each other’s presence. But I was determined to fall last. I slowly panned to Vyo and saw him fall to his knees.

“O’ mankind, o’ nature, thank you for the gifts you’ve given us today,” he spoke as if praying, though he knew no god.

I wanted to scoff——despite what mankind has brought upon itself: destruction, fatality, deception, Vyo still had the heart to be grateful?——but, there was no hint of mockery. The tears that flowed, the shuddering of his body, further proved no malice.

I wanted to rebuke him, to ridicule him, but the swaying of the grass dissuaded me. Instead, I wanted to join him in his worship.

Vyo fell to his knees, sobbing, his face planted on the ground. I only stood upon weak legs and watched him. Still, the rolling plains were a sight to see.

I looked at the sky, refusing to break face. Some clouds wistfully floating. The firmament offering no sighs to our weeping. If anything, Vyo was laughing now——it would be a joyful rain. He looked up at me, with some particles on his forehead, smiling.

“Sorry, I was being overdramatic,” he sighed and stood back up, wiping off his suit. “I thought I would never see and be entrenched in green and blue again.”

I pat him roughly on his back, intentionally so that I would absorb my tears by force. “No, you were perfectly dramatic. If only I had a camera...”

“Ha!”

It was probably safe enough to remove our heavy suits. While we removed our suits, the ground began to subtly quake.

“An earthquake?” Vyo asked.

We were on high alert, reminded that this is an alien planet, no matter how earthlike it was.

We stood on guard, but the shaking only intensified; it was nothing in comparison to our doomed spaceflight.

“Look!” Vyo pointed at the ground some meters away from us. It was turning, no, morphing into a familiar manmade material——charcoal gray, gritty up close, but smooth from far away.

“Asphalt… is it?”

But, how? What on earth— no, what on this alien planet was conjuring before us?

Our confusion arose from the trembling, and the asphalt snaked past us as it continued to spread out; the shaking with it subsided. Then, we heard a rumble… an all too familiar rumble of an engine.

I saw it before Vyo pointed it out. It looked human, and we were humans, but we were the aliens here. Of course, the possibility that this was a human was not far off, but on a different planet? It was inconceivable.

What was even more unbelievable was the engine it was riding on. It was like one of the vehicles back on Earth, a motorcycle. It had the same design philosophy and noise as other motorcycles I was familiar with. It was also the stereotypical gang bikes I’ve seen in the movies.

There was no time or space to stay shocked. Whatever was approaching us was a threat, and it had no signs of its intentions. Along it rode the magical asphalt, nearing beside where we stood.

“What do we do? Do we try to fight it?” Vyo asked.

“All we can do is wait and see. Even if we fight it, what do we get from it?”

“I say, we fight it. I’ve seen what I’ve always wanted to see before I die. I’m satisfied.”

“This isn’t the time or the place to be joking around.”

“No, I’m serious. I don’t care if I die now… because I feel like we already died.”

I stare at him for a moment before turning my attention to the unidentified object again.

We saw it slow down as it approached us and came to a full stop.

Its rider, clad in a sleek black leather jacket and matching leather pants. Even if the pasture was in front of us, it was still quite hot, considering we came from barren ground some hundred of meters before. I can only imagine what this “person” felt. I guess, fashion over comfort.

Its motorcycle also matched the color scheme this alien was going for, black, but, much to my dismay, no flame decals or anything like that——only plain black and boring chrome metal.

We relaxed a bit, but held our breaths as the creature took its helmet off, revealing a near-human, if not human, cranial and facial structure. It had hair, eyes, a mouth, and a distinguishable neck.

“Are you human?” I blurted out. No need for respect, we were screwed either way.

The human-like creature turned its head to me. Assuming it was human, I still couldn’t identify what sex they were. Male or female, it could be both——an androgynous alien.

They only coolly smiled at the question as it drew its breath, flipping their hair too short for a traditional woman, but enough for a tomboyish appearance. And to add to the stereotype, they removed what seemed to be a squarish lollipop from their lips. Then, they spoke…

They spoke what seemed to be several syllables of incoherent babbling, but it sounded as if they were human. Still, it was all gibberish, and we could only frown, trying to identify what language it could be, and if it was anything we knew——certainly not English, not Russian, not Mandarin.

“What?” we both blurted out.

The stranger repeated the same nonsense.

“What?” we said again to no avail.

The stranger changed their response to two syllables.

“What?” we said, a little irritated.

And the stranger spoke, slightly frustrated.

We, including the alien, descended in an uproar of “What?” and one-syllable otherworldly reply, which we came to understand as “What?”

Gradually, we all lowered our voices into silence, understanding that we were misunderstanding. Then, the thankfully accommodating native took an earpiece from one of their ears and presented it to us on their gloved hand. Vyo and I looked at each other, and I took the earpiece and inserted it into my ear. Awkwardly, I removed it and placed it in my other ear since it was on the wrong side.

The foreigner pushed their hands from their mouth towards us, speaking a two-syllable sound. I only squinted in response.

“I think they’re telling you to speak,” Vyo said.

“Speak?” I snapped. “How is that gonna help?”

“I don’t know, just say something.”

“Like what?” My voice grew to frustration.

“Be creative! Start with the alphabet, maybe.”

I scoffed, but I took his suggestion after pondering for a bit.

“A B C D E F…” I groaned with every recited letter, then I moved on to the common verbs, linking, action, then anything that came first to my head, then conjunctions, prepositions——anything that I cared to remember. Then, I randomly listed words that I knew in each alphabet, exhausting my suite of knowledge halfway.

“You do it. I don’t want to embarrass myself even further.”

“You have a weak vocabulary.”

“Shut up!” I shoved the earpiece into his chest, and he inserted it into his ear and completed the vocabulary test.

Soon after, the hospitable mimic seemed satisfied and gestured to return the earpiece and pulled out a rectangular block of metal coated in glass, which also looked awfully similar to a smartphone.

“Looks like our technology might be similar to theirs,” Vyo remarked.

I only responded by nodding. Right now, the small details were trivial and would only serve to confuse my emotional and mental state. We should solve each problem one by one, and right now, it was linguistics.

We waited for what seemed like ten minutes before the native handed both of their earpieces to each of us and spoke into their ‘phone.’

“Hello,” the sound from the earpiece masked the one-syllable sound from their actual mouth. It seemed like the quality of their voice was retained.

I jerked in surprise, “Whoa.”

“ Whoa?’” their mouth not syncing at all with the audio.

“I was just surprised,” I replied.

“Good. We can finally communicate.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

I stared into their eyes. Something about their facial features pulled me in. It was handsome and pretty at the same time.

…

Vyo spoke up, “We are astronauts who crashed some meters away over there.” Vyo pointed to the thin pillar of smoke.

“I saw,” they said without glancing in Vyo’s direction.

“You did? Did you come for us?”

“I had no intention to, but decided otherwise.”

“Well… thank you.” Vyo fell into silence. Both of us knew there was one elephant to be revealed. “Are you going to kill us?”

They chuckled, “Do not worry about it. I’m only passing by, but…” They looked around. “Someone will be coming for you. But, I’m not offering you an escape from them.”

“So, you’re leaving us here?” I asked.

“What is the compensation if I help you?”

We thought for a while, and Vyo spoke first, “We came from a different planet.”

They spoke immediately, “Precisely. I desire no conflicts.”

Wait, was the fact that we were aliens on their planet the reason why we were wanted?

“I guess we are alien fugitives from space,” I chuckled, and they laughed with me.

“Precisely, precisely.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Vyo interrupted. “We are no threat. We only want shelter for the night… to adjust to our circumstances. And seeing you’ve been so kind to even pass by us, maybe you could extend your hospitality further.”

…

They pondered for a while before they spoke up. “Prove it.”

“Prove it?” Vyo fell silent.

“Look at our spacecraft. We have nothing but ourselves and this suit,” I pointed out.

They pulled out what seemed like binoculars from their jacket and looked over, observing it for a while before they turned back to us.

“Fine, but only for a short amount of time. I do not desire a conflict. Furthermore…”

“Furthermore?” Were they speaking like this, or was this the limitation of the translation?

“Furthermore, someone might overlook you for now.”

“I see. That’s good.” I nodded, but didn’t understand. Many thoughts and questions swirled in my head, speculating reasons for their hesitance. But I set them aside.

“Come near to me who’s at my bike.”

Technologia!

…

We followed them to their bike, and I sat close behind him, while Vyo sat behind me, hugging my chest, but the light pressure tickled me.

“Can you not hug so tight?”

“It’s for safety.”

“Then, cling tighter.”

Vyo groaned as he did so. What was that all about?

I hugged our gracious rider at their chest.

They nudged their elbow against my arm, “Please do not touch me there,” they gently pulled my hand down to their waist.

I guess we guys——assuming the rider was a male——were quite sensitive about some parts of our bodies.

…

The bike started to ramp up in speed, the magical asphalt still being conjured many meters away in front of us. Then, I asked the courteous question we both somehow forgot to ask:

“What’s your name?” I spoke, my voice rivaling the wind.

They stayed silent for a moment while the air rushed past us.

…

“Beal.”