Blacksphere

Only just beginning

Ateyu was unsure how long two hours are, but it was faster than he expected. Nara walked back into the white room, and carried some sort of fabric in her arms. 

"Hello again, Captain. I hope the wait was not too long." Nara said, and smiled, as she did before. 
"No, it was not. I forgot to thank you for the explanations so far. It is hard to understand everything." Ateyu responded, and smiled as well. 
"Not a problem, I was once in your position, so I know how overwhelming this must be... but that is a story for another time. Please, let me show you around on the Blacksphere. First, take these though." Nara said, and handed him the fabric, which was formed into shapes that reminded him of his space suit. 
"In our culture, we tend to cover ourselves in these clothes. Particularly the reproductive organs. We ask you do the same for now. It's also fitted with a nanite shield to prevent any pathogens from infecting you. So, a kind of armor, until we know you're safe among us." 

Ateyu looked at the clothes. It made sense, so stood up and he put them on. He felt a soft tingling sensation as the shield activated. It was a strange piece of equipment, for sure. 
Nara nodded. "You look the part now! In the meantime, our First Contact ambassador has arrived on your planet and..." 
Ateyu blinked a few times. 
"Already?" He interrupted, dumbfounded. 
Nara grinned. "Yes. Our way of travelling the stars is... uh... slightly more sophisticated than the nuclear drives you used. The journey that took you about forty-nine years, took us ninety minutes." 
Ateyu had no concept of the timescale that humans used, but if the travel time was less than the 'two hours' he waited for Nara to return, then these humans were exceptionally fast. Apparently his silence was telling, as Nara continued: 
"Speed of light is just an arbitrary value if you can do what we can. We can bend space, even compress it to such a degree that one lightyear becomes a couple of planets in length." 
"Amazing..." was all that Ateyu could say.   
"Yes. But, to finish what I was saying: The ambassador has initiated contact and it seems to go well, your planet is in upheaval of the news. Meanwhile, let's just go. We can ask each other questions while we walk." 

Nara gestured to the door, and it opened. Ateyu followed her. They entered into a corridor, mostly metal and grey. Very different from the white room where Ateyu awoke. 
After walking for a few minutes, they arrived in a large spacious room, with windows that looked out upon Mirach. It was very close, but still far enough away to see the curvature of the red giant. Nara saw Ateyu staring at the magnificent view. 
"We're at the inside of our dyson sphere. We harvest energy from the star here, and use that to power our society. The inside of this dyson sphere is where we have placed all kinds of industrial complexes, ranging from agriculture, to science, to military. The shell of the sphere is three-hundred and sixty-seven kilometres thick. The outside of the sphere is where we have housed over two-hundred billion humans, and a few billion of other species."

Ateyu was quiet. These... humans perplexed him still. It seems every time Nara said something, he only got more and more questions. 
Nara looked at Ateyu. She knew that look. She was part of a first-contact expedition herself, nearly a century ago. Except that went terribly wrong. 
Ateyu broke his gaze, and saw that he was being stared at by a small group of other humans. They were clearly the same race, but had very obvious differences. Skin color, posture, weight... and those clothes... they all had different clothes. Some of the humans also had floating orbs, almost like flying eyes, looking at him. 
"Don't mind the news reporters over there... we told them to keep their distance for now, at least until you've acclimatized here." 
Ateyu nodded, and sighed. He had one pressing question, a curiosity that Nara had not explained yet, and was about to ask it, until Nara spoke again: 
"The question I have for you, Ateyu, is how you found us. The Blacksphere is supposed to be invisible, and you flew straight at us." 
Ateyu nodded. It seems the humans wanted this gigantic structure to be invisible... but for what? What were they hiding from? That is another question, one he did not want to ask, perhaps did not want to know the answer to, because he was afraid he was not going to like the answer. But he could answer this question, at least. So he explained it: 
"You were actually the first stop on our expedition. This place is a scientific curiosity that had to be studied up close to explain it. Our scientists found you because... uh... one of the stars in our constellations just disappeared nearly a hundred Cycles ago. It grew weaker and weaker... but no Endflash that designated the end of the star. So, we thought it was a Hogstar that consumed it. A few Cycles later, Mirach passed in front of another Starcloud, it bent the light. But not enough to be a Hogstar... so we wanted to see it up close. The star you call Mirach is the one star that stays practically still in our sky. Our early explorers of the seas used it for navigation... and one of our religions saw it as a holy star. They thought that it was a terrible omen when it disappeared and they went mad... a war was fought because of that star's disappearing. We wanted an answer for what happened." Ateyu finished, and looked at Nara, who held one of her hands in front of her mouth, looking shocked, but also as if thousands of thoughts rushed through her mind.   
 
After an uncomfortable silence, Nara regained her composure.
"I... have no words for this. I'm so sorry." She said, her voice trembling, nervous. 
"Don't be. The answer to this is much more amazing than I ever imagined." Ateyu responded. He meant it. They may have lost a star, and arguably a piece of culture... but now they found the Humans. 
After Ateyu said that, Nara seemed to relax a bit. 
"We will likely make it up to your kind. I'll discuss this in our council. You said this was the first stop of the expedition, what was your next destination?" 
"A nearby star... very close. It had a planet that we thought we could live on. We were supposed to confirm that, relay it back to home... and build a first camp there if it was. Symbolic, mostly. We would probably die out there. But an honorable death, one to be remembered." 
"Yes... seems like a good idea to help you in this then. I will arrange for the rest of your crew to be woken up from stasis once we are done here. I will also give you access to our datanet. Limited, of course, as we're reluctant to share technology with just anyone, but you can get a basic impression of our culture, our customs, our measurements, and so on." 
"That would be very generous of you, giving us a new colony like that." 
"Very well. If you don't have any other questions..." 
"I have... two questions." 
"Ask them, I will answer the best I can." 
"How come we look so much alike? I thought aliens were supposed to be... completely different. But put two of us in the same room and you'd hardly see the difference." 
"Well, we are not entirely sure about that ourselves. It's not the first time we've met other humans that evolved on a different planet. We look the same, although with certain differences... some of these races have keener senses, or better physique. Some of them can climb better as they evolved on a jungle planet. Sometimes they're worse, worse eyesight because they lived on a dark planet, so they rely more on hearing. And then not just individuals that stand out, but the entire species has changed that way. In your case, you seem to be mostly hardened skin, almost like scales, because you evolved on a desert planet.
We were from a planet we called Earth. We're the most technologically advanced of all the human-like races we have gathered... Some of us, including myself, believe that we are not the first iteration of humanity, but somehow we forgot over time. The commonly accepted theory is that it is panspermia; one source of life that spread everywhere. We have the same genetics, meaning that we will mostly evolve similarly. Where that source is, we don't know. 
The religious ones among us confirm this multi-humanity that we were created in the image of a God, and that God placed us on several Edens. Take your pick, the truth is... we just don't know for sure. It just is." 
Ateyu was silent. The theories he personally had for their similarities were less probable. 
Nara continued: "And your second question you really wanted to ask now?" 
Ateyu looked at her. He was just going to ask it, even if he did not like the answer. 
"Why hide this.... what are you hiding from?"