“I can’t believe I didn’t see that coming.”
Hannah turned her head at the voice, only to find the speaker was none other than Ronan Lynch. “What are you talking about? The planet doesn’t have a gravity well! It would’ve been fine.”
The boy smirked. “It’s not me it’s the alien planet. And no, I don’t mean the world itself but the part we were flying through it on.”
Before she could ask what he was talking about, there was another voice. “We have to take care of the situation first, though, before we figure out how to get back to our reality. This is a new planet, we have no way of knowing what kind of people live here. We might get eaten if one of us gets too close.”
Hannah raised an eyebrow and looked over towards the blueish light, which seemed like it came from some sort of space ship or something. That didn’t explain where the man’s speech had come from but she supposed that was one thing the future had yet to catch up with.
After Ronan left, Hannah made sure to make sure to be extra quiet as she walked across the room so as to avoid startling the inhabitants. A quick scan confirmed that they weren’t dangerous but then again, this wasn’t their reality. They still hadn’t decided if these aliens were friendly or hostile. If Hannah was being completely honest though…they all looked like little kids. No adult could possibly be that small or weak looking either, especially with those large swords they were carrying around. But there were only two of them.
She slowly reached forward and pressed a hand against one of their chests. Immediately, she felt warmth emanate from within and heard a low hum. ‘So this is a healing power. Maybe they could help us?’
A moment later, she found herself face to face with the biggest creature she’d ever seen. Not counting the giant bugs, that was. She couldn’t help but stare at its size. Its body was almost twice her own height and looked like a cross between a gorilla and a hippopotamus. Or perhaps the two mixed together. Whatever the case may have been, its skin was a shade of orange much darker than the rest of the people who inhabited this land. The creature wore the same strange black outfit as all of the other aliens in the room, though its eyes seemed less dark than others. In fact, there were a few specks of green visible in each of its irises.
It spoke once more. “Excuse me, miss. Can you tell us your name?” It spoke English surprisingly well for someone whose language consisted of clicks and growls.
She blinked. Had the thing just asked a question? What was going on today?
“Uh…yes. I’m Hannah, and you…?”
“I am Shirogane Takashi, leader of the Shirogane clan. We are also a race native to Altea and this is my partner, Keith.”
“Altea? What is that place?”
Keith answered immediately. “You must be from another universe. There isn’t even an earth anymore.”
Shiro nodded. “That is correct. We were sent to Earth by an old friend of ours, Adam. Unfortunately, Adam died many years ago in an incident involving a comet, and now we’re trying to find our friends to bring them home. As you can see, we’re currently on a mission to stop a comet that will destroy the entire human population of Altea if we fail.”
Well shit. She really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry right about now. First Adam was gone and now Shiro was telling her they had to kill everyone on Earth and that they would do it if she didn’t cooperate. How was she supposed to respond to that? Did the Galra really think she had any chance of stopping that comet if she refused to work with them?
“Look,” Hannah said, holding her hands up to show she meant no harm. “If you want to go stop a comet that’s destroying half of humanity, I totally understand. I’m sorry about Adam, though. That sounds rough. And I definitely agree with whatever you say about having to destroy everything.”
Shiro’s gaze softened and he lowered his weapon. “Thank you. However, if you would follow us to the control room we will explain what happened.”
They began to walk and Hannah quickly followed after them. She glanced over her shoulder to check on the other humans. One, a tall brunette woman, was talking to another young girl while they studied a map of the galaxy spread out over a console. Another woman, this time a redhead with long hair, appeared to be making a call to someone named Krolia.
Once everyone was situated inside the control room, they began explaining the details of their trip. While the explanation lasted, Shiro explained how Altea got hit by a meteor and that it was destroyed and that their colony’s survivors were being held prisoner here.
By the end of it, Hannah was practically shaking with rage. “Hold on, you mean to tell me that not only did the planet die because of an alien virus or whatever the hell it is, but all your people are going to be killed because of it?! You said they were being kept alive for research purposes but you haven’t told me anything about their condition or why they were taken! Why does this have to happen at all? Do they have a choice? Do they even deserve it? Are you trying to exterminate humanity? You seem pretty damn intent on doing that already.” Her voice rose into a near shout as she finished speaking.
Keith stepped in front of her, putting himself between her and Shiro. “Don’t you dare talk to him like that. He’s a grown ass man and he’s doing exactly what he thinks is best.” When he saw that Shiro was still standing there without saying anything, he continued. “Listen. You aren’t the first person who’s ever been in this position. There are probably a lot of people just like you. All you need to do is listen to what they have to say and then decide if you think they can actually make a difference.”
As soon as Keith stepped out of the way, the taller man turned to look at Hannah once more. “I apologize for my teammate’s behavior. He has never had any experience with…well, anyone from this reality.”
His words struck a chord inside of Hannah and a small part of her felt like it should apologize for the things she was thinking. She’d read countless stories about what it was like growing up in this time period, where everyone had always believed aliens and magic existed. Of course they did, it was just a matter of when they started believing it. And of course the ones who didn’t believed didn’t deserve the fate they had to deal with. She hated herself for thinking these things, even if it was the truth. She needed to learn to control herself around humans sooner rather than later. After all, she didn’t want to risk hurting one of the only real friends she’d ever known.
“No, that’s okay. I guess I got carried away.” She shook her head and looked back at the floor, hoping her cheeks weren’t as flushed as they felt. “I just need to learn.”
The shorter man smiled lightly and nodded. “We don’t usually receive visitors, so we rarely meet new people outside of missions.”
Hannah tilted her head slightly. “What exactly are missions? Is there another group of people that come to this planet every week to collect food?” She couldn’t imagine that many people would be willing to travel for months just to gather ingredients for one meal. At least not for such a short amount of time.
“Yes, yes. We have several groups sent out from time to time. They’re mostly used to gather supplies and information that needs to get to our colonies in other galaxies so that they can send them back.” Shiro paused before turning back towards the main controls. “Right now we are preparing to launch another mission which involves capturing the remaining members of the Altea crew. I’ve already spoken to Commander Holt and informed him of what’s happening. Hopefully, he won’t try to stop us from doing this, seeing as there’s very little we can do if there aren’t any Alteans left living.”
Hannah frowned and nodded. That made sense. Even if humans didn’t deserve it, she knew her family wouldn’t. If someone came along who might save them, she wanted to be there to support them. Besides, if she’d been in the situation and they’d come up and asked for her help, maybe she would have.
But she hadn’t been in the situation. And besides, her father was on that ship too. If they went back to Altea, they would likely find him as well.
As soon as she thought that, she felt sick to her stomach. Maybe they could leave, maybe they could escape. But she knew that wasn’t possible. Not with their luck and not with her lack of knowledge of her own world, which, despite all the books she’d read since she was a kid, she was certain she’d never heard of.
When Shiro finished explaining, he began to move toward the door leading out of the control room.