Alien or Alian

“So, Ethen tells me that he and Ezra have already disclosed to you about our history,” Nina started. She took small, quiet sips from her mug of coffee as she observed Ozias from across the table.

“Uh, yes,” Ozias replied quickly. The plate of bacon was still present on the table and exuding a savory scent, but the tense mood filling the kitchen was overriding Ozias’ ability to give anything else attention. “They told me about the blue liquid that runs beneath the town; how your kind originated in Elbel and evolved like humans, and that only the residents of this town really know about all this.”

“And they told you about the founders of the town, right?” Sid asked, his lips curled into a grin and his mouth half-full of bacon.

“Oh yeah. They told me that one of the Founders of Elbel Court helped other humans to coexist with the aliens here, that they worked together with your ancestors,” Ozias said the last part to Nina.

Sid swallowed the last of his bacon and gulped down half a glass of orange juice. “That founder was none other than Sir Durion Corte! Not the most common name in the world, but our family just has a knack for that.”

Ozias recoiled slightly in his seat, both from the sudden loudness of Sid, and from confusion over what he said. “W-what do you mean about ‘your family’?”

Sid’s head snapped over to Ethen and Ezra with a questioning glare. “You didn’t tell him about me?”

“Must’ve slipped my mind,” Ezra replied. He leaned against the counter taking small sips from his own glass of orange juice, not glancing even once in Sid’s direction.

Ethen simply shrugged as he gave Sid an unpitying look. “It didn’t come up.”

“Sidriel Corte is indeed a descendant of the founding Corte family,” Nina went on to explain, ignoring Sid’s resounding scoff of annoyment. “Durion Corte and Elbel Knillimyhr came together long ago to build a society where our species and humans could live peacefully. It’s because of those two that we have this place we call home today, so the citizens here had thought it was only fitting to name it after them.”

“Elbel Court,” Ozias said slowly and gently, as if he was saying it for the first time.

“Precisely,” Nina continued. “The Knillimhyr and Corte families have been thick as thieves ever since, and when the 70’s rolled around you could say we were getting quite comfortable with the phrase. When we heard that a man had landed on the moon — a human man — well, our town was so overcome with curiosity. As creatures who are supposedly supposed to come from outer space, but have never actually seen any of it beyond a gaze at the sky, we pondered it for weeks, months...I think almost two years went by before something practical was proposed to curve our curiosity.”

“Something like what?” Ozias eagerly but quietly asked.

“Something like going into space ourselves, exploring the Milky Way galaxy, and visiting all the different celestial bodies out there.”

“That sounds amazing…” Ozias said in awe. Until now, he had never thought about the grand mystery that was outer space beyond what he could see for himself standing on Earth’s soil; the twinkling stars, the glorious sun and moon, a fallacious shooting star. “But, how could you even begin to accomplish all that?”

“Wylliam Corte, proficient in science and engineering and several other subjects. He was the brains of this grand idea. He had so many blueprints worked out and even created a program where people in town who wanted to volunteer for space travel could properly train for it. He was also Sidriel’s grandfather.”

Sid strolled over to scoop up a few more strips of bacon, reverence in his eyes as he nodded at Ozias to confirm Nina’s words. A slight smile reached Ozias’ lips as he stared back at him, something he never imagined he would ever do in the presence of Sid the Squid.

“And there was Linus Knillimhyr, the visionary of the idea. Not only did he want to discover the full capabilities of our kind, but he wanted to know if those stories and speculations about other forms of life being out there were true. He had so many questions.”

“I heard he had a colossal imagination too,” Ezra added. Ethen made a quiet sound of agreement but kept his eyes averted from everyone as he sipped his coffee.

Filled with fascination, Ozias leaned on one side of the table as he gazed at the twins. “Was he your...”

“Grandad?” Ezra finished. “Yeah. Ethen and I never got to meet him in person, but from all the stories we heard, it sure feels like we know him really well.” Ethen released another hushed sound of agreement.

Nina chuckled gaily to herself. “Linus was a man everyone knew around here, he was like an open book. But alas, when he and Wylliam first shared this idea for an ambitious space voyage, the entire town was against it.”

“What, why?” Ozias eagerly questioned.

“They may have been curious about the mysteries of space, but that wasn’t more than their fear of attracting unknown dangers to our home. We’ve kept the knowledge of our species within the confines of Elbel Court, and because of that we can live peacefully. If we were to start traveling into space, there would always be a chance that we could end up bringing back something that could be dangerous. Then the people that come here to attend the university would tell whoever will listen about the otherworldly horrors that run through our streets. Our town and its citizens would no longer be at peace.”

“Oh, yeah I guess that’s right,” Ozias said dolefully.

“That’s absolutely right,” Nina confirmed, “but our foolish families went ahead with the idea regardless.”

“What? You did?”

Nina nodded. “Linus and Wylliam were much too curious to cease their plans. They were convinced they could conduct their voyages with the utmost safety, and they convinced the rest of the Corte’s and Knillimhyr’s of the same, that our curiosity was worth it. So for the next several years, they built rocket ships, trained day-in and day-out, purchased thousands of dollars of all sorts of materials, and they did all this in a clandestine area located beneath the town that only our families are aware of. With another one of Wylliam’s blueprints they were able to fashion part of it into a laboratory and another part into a training space, and the launch area was built somewhere isolated from the town. I was just a little girl at the time so I can’t recall too much about those early days.”

“Wow…” Ozias whispered. It was unusual enough trying to wrap his head around there being aliens living on Earth for billions of years, but it was even more unusual trying to imagine aliens preparing for space travel. “So, have any of you actually gone into space yet?”

“Quite a few times, yes,” Nina continued. “Linus was the commander for many of them in the beginning. When he finally passed away from old age almost thirty years later, his son, Rhys, was in training himself, and took over as commander when he was 27 years old.”

Ozias glanced over at the twins again. “His son… So, that must mean he’s your-”

“Yeah, he was our dad,” Ezra confirmed, beaming with pride as he said it.

Filled with nostalgia, Nina smiled to herself. “Rhys was just as curious as Linus was, if not more than he was. There was a time he tried getting me into training so that we could travel together one day, but I never had as much energy as he did in that department, though I admit I was quite tempted. And later I got pregnant with these two,” she waved airily at the twins, “then Rhys didn’t want me going anywhere near the training area!” she breathily laughed to herself before taking another sip of her coffee. “That man...he was something else.”

Ozias crinkled his face in unease as he glanced at Nina and the twins. “You keep talking about him in the past tense…”

The mood had suddenly shifted. Nina averted her eyes as she slowly set down her mug of coffee. Both Ethen and Ezra had also looked away; Ezra, gazing dismally at the floor, and Ethen glaring angrily at the wall. Even Sid was looking dispirited as he let the edge of the cup linger on his bottom lip.

“W-what’s wrong?” Ozias carefully asked.

“Rhys passed away ten years ago,” Nina finally said.

“Oh...I’m sorry...what happened?”

Nina afforded a depressive shrug. “To this day we aren’t entirely sure. One day he returned with a team from a voyage travelling around Mars, and they all seemed very pale and sickly. Rhys insisted that they were just a bit out of sorts from being out there so long, so we never ran any tests. But by the next day they had all gotten worse and....Well it was too late to treat them, let alone run any kind of test…”

“Can we move on from this already?” Ethen uttered. Nina, Ezra and Sid glanced over at him, defeat in their eyes, while Ozias stared at him with saddened shock. Ethen didn’t acknowledge any of them; he was still having an angry staredown with the wall.

But Nina still did as he asked, and continued with a forced look of professionalism. “Right, well, Ethen and Ezra were only around ten years old at the time, but they were already showing so much interest towards space travel. And when the time finally came that we needed to choose someone who could take Rhys’ place as commander, Ezra practically jumped at the chance.”

“Guilty,” Ezra commented, making a tiny grin appear on Ozias’ lips.

“So, you’ve been going into space since you were ten years old?” Ozias asked him.

“He of course had to train and study, just as his father and grandfather had to as well,” Nina answered. “Because he was quite young, the process took some more time, so it wasn’t until he was almost 17 that he became the new commander.”

“Wow,” Ozias assented, genuine amazement flooding him. Ezra noticed and couldn’t hold back his satisfied grin. “But, with all that training, didn’t that make it hard to do that and go to school?” he asked this while looking at Ezra.

“Well, in the first place he and Ethen were homeschooled until they were ten as well,” Nina answered again. “For a long time now every alian child in Elbel is homeschooled before they are enrolled in a regular school. During that time they learn about who they are, our species, and develop their human shape. It all takes about ten years, and then they are ready to integrate with other human children. In those first ten years, aside from the Knillimhyr and Corte families, not many knew I had twins. When Ezra accepted the role to start training for commander, I only enrolled Ethen in school and kept Ezra hidden from the rest of town, so that no one could find out about the explorations into the void.”

“Wow…” Ozias said again. It was all he could think to say. It was one thing trying to process the apparent fact of Ethen having a biological look-a-like; it was another trying to make sense of aliens being homeschooled.

“Wow is right,” Nina intoned with a modest smile. “I really don’t give the long version about all that very often. Do remember to keep it all to yourself.”

Ozias gave a profuse nod. Nina’s sharp but cordial gaze forced him to blank on anything more to say.

“If we’re done with all the backstory, we should get to why we came here,” Ethen insisted.

Nina spared him a fleeting nettled look, silently scolding him for his blunt impoliteness. “Your brother is right though, Ezra, it’s time to explain.” She looked to Ozias, “since you know the gist of everything now, you might as well stay for this too.”

“R-really? Are you sure?” Ozias directed the last part to Ezra.

“I’m sure. I want you here, Oz,” Ezra assured. He ignored the stunned and skeptical looks Ethen and Sid shot him, and offered Ozias a small smile.

He set his cup down on the counter behind him, and began his recount…