Chapter 10: Alien

“Beautiful and completely alien,” Nate said as he stared at the stars. “Does anyone recognize any of the constellations?” His shoulder touched mine, and yet neither of us commented.

Nothing looked familiar. I didn’t know the star formations very well, but I could always pick out the Big Dipper or Orion’s belt. I didn’t recognize anything in the star field. Yesterday, I would have said that stars looked random, but after seeing this starscape, I understood how non-random our stars looked. Our stars. As opposed to these alien stars.

I wondered if Sol, our star, existed in the mess of stars.

With his hand on Nate’s shoulder, Shivam said, “No shit, Sherlock, we’re in an alien dome.”

Shivam stared at his feet, partially covered in sand. It looked like white sand from Earth? Did it contain mostly quartz like ours, or some other material? Would we find alien shells mixed in? Just this moment staggered me, and I had to concentrate on my breath, or I would have hyperventilated.

Naked, with only two hundred and fifty other naked humans. I guess two hundred and forty-nine. Lost somewhere in the universe, on an alien world, with alien sand under our feet, alien walls, in an alien dome, under alien stars. No wonder they had such a rigorous selection process. Did they know this would happen? Had they trained the others? Why did they send me without training?

I couldn’t help glancing at my fellow naked humans. Even though they didn’t look normal, because no one looks normal when naked, they at least looked familiarly human. The odd person looked good naked, model good, but that made them stand out more.

Behind me, Alice breathed in short, sharp exhales while she mumbled, “We’re here,” over and over. Not the only one. Most people had similar reactions. A few, like Nate, stared up at the stars with their mouths open. Most stood with their arms tight around their bodies, and focused on their breaths. A military man had curled up in a ball, muscles strained, as he mumbled.

As Alice had helped me back on Earth, I turned and focused on helping her. I wrapped my arms around her shivering body, pressed my cheek against hers, and whispered in her ear, “Breathe. Just breathe. Allow the emotions. Just breathe.”

A few others did the same. Did the administrators plan this? Did the aliens plan this?

“Thanks. I’m ok. It’s just shock,” Alice whispered back as her body stilled, her arms loosened around her body, and she wrapped them around mine.

Skin to human skin, our warmth created a cocoon of comfort, of support. We humans. Together. Against the universe. And in that moment, it felt like we could win.

“Attention: you have arrived. Instructions will follow in two thousand heartbeats,” my mother’s voice, which morphed into my father’s voice, said beside my right ear. I resisted the urge to look to my right. However, a few people around still did. I wanted to feel self-conscious about my nakedness, but in the alien environment and with two hundred and forty nine other naked humans around me, I would have felt awkward with clothes.