Empyrean Iris Story Collection

We Come in Peace

Captain Kelly stood below the ramp of the strange alien ship surrounded on all sides by her most trusted companions. To her left, her first lieutenant, to her right, her linguistics specialist directly behind her three of her most experienced men, and right to the back.... The 2nd lieutenant who had begged her on his knees to tag along. He was young and inexperienced, but then again, he had shown resolve under pressure and probably kept them from being shot. Because of him they were taking their first steps into communication with an alien race.

Above them, the ramp began to lower releasing light downwards upon them. At the top a set of sentries watched them with tense anticipation. She may not speak alien, but she knew caution when she saw it. She urged her team upwards, the boots of her space suit thudding against the strange material.

Lieutenant Vir hurried up to stand next to walk next to her a bounce in his step, eyes wide with childish wonder. She sort of hoped he never lost that, she also hoped that he would never have a reason to.

They stopped at the top of the ramp, as the door hissed shut behind them leaving them alone and stranded aboard an alien ship.

***

The atmosphere of frustration was clear. The galactic assembly's best specialists had been sent out to attempt and make communication possible between the two species but so far, they had made no real progress. The variability in the creature's intonations and voices made it structurally impossible to tell what they were trying to say and even identify if they were saying the same thing. A hiss from one sounded completely structurally different from the hiss from another. Additionally, they seemed to refer to themselves through a multiple combinations of the sounds.

On the other hand, scientists had made greater headway in learning about the creatures genetically and structurally. The human leader, the small one, had handed off the green-orbed creature for scientific testing, and despite its constant need to touch things, it was easy to deal with. From examination, they learned that the creature spoke based on a system of fluctuating air pressed out from its esophagus, through two vibrating vocal bands, and the interaction of its mouth, specifically a muscle within the mouth. Unfortunately each creature had varying sizes of vocal cords, tongues, teeth, and nasal passageways making communication completely different creature to creature.

Conversely, the creatures seemed to be growing irritated, as they did not understand their complex, additional, body posturing. One specifically including one digit pointing in random directions, and then the creature would get angry when they didn't understand.

Things had ground to a halt at this point. The main creature was resting its head against the table, the second one was frantically gesticulating towards and unknown device, and the other three looked saggier than usual. The only one who didn't seem to have changed was the green-orb creature watching from close by as a scientists took measurements about his chest.

The curious-eyed creature had been watching silently for some time before shrugging himself away from the scientist, to range across the room gathering all the chairs and dragging them into a large group. Creatures and member of the council alike stared at the creature with confusion. By the time he was finished all the chairs were piled in the circle at the center of the room. Everyone was standing ty this point having had their chairs confiscated.

The creature pulled one of the chairs forward a sharp chirp and a growl. He brought forth the next one and repeated the sound. He did this over and over again, and then urged the other creatures to do so one after the other.

"Wait, wait, I think I understand."

"Someone, start recording."

They ran statistics comparing the different sounds and found they had the same rhythmic pattern to them. "Chair," They repeated.