Twin Earth

As the gloopy walls of the adjacent blob cage cleared, we stared at an abnormally thin being, which was stood with its back towards us staring out at the view beyond. It wasn’t much taller than us, but its arms were spindly and long, almost reaching the floor as they hung loosely from its shoulders in an almost painful direction, giving the impression it could fall backwards at any moment. It was also naked. Its skin a deep shade of reddish green, almost reptilian in nature.

“What’s it doing?” Rachel whispered, leaning over to me and making me flinch in surprise.

“How should I know?” I quipped in annoyance. “It seems to be staring at the sun.”

“But why? Can it see us?”

“Not if it’s looking the other way dumbo.”

“Okay okay. I was just asking. I was just thinking it could help us get out of here, that’s all.”

“Is it me, or does he...”

“How do you know it’s a he?” Rachel interrupted.

“Does he, or she,” I replied sarcastically, “seem surprised to you at what’s happening to this planet?”

“It does seem fascinated by the view,” Rachel replied curiously. “It keeps twisting its fingers as if its nervous.”

“Yeah, I noticed that.”

Suddenly the strange being turned around and flinched in surprised as it discovered us standing there, staring at it.

“Well, I guess that answered your question Rachel. The thing has breasts... I think,” I whispered, trying to calm my nerves as the female alien walked towards us, cocking its head to one side like a praying mantis would do to its prey. Neither of us spoke as we backed away slowly, unsure of our next move.

“What’s it doing?” Rachel whispered nervously.

“I think it’s studying us. It’s probably just as confused as to who we are, as we are of it.”

The reptilian female, we discovered, had more than one set of arms, which we hadn’t noticed from behind. Hidden under its armpits were short, stumpy hands, but nothing like a human’s. They were more claw like, with pinchers that were actively twitching in anticipation of what I didn’t care to think about. Its knees too were bent awkwardly backwards as it stood looking at us with its wide, blackened oval eyes. Even its head was like a praying mantis; triangular in shape with bizarre spiny flaps like those you would find on a bearded dragon. Then suddenly it lifted up one of its long droopy arms towards us and held it there, cocking its head to the opposite side as if waiting for us to respond. So I did the same.

“What are you doing?” Rachel asked horrified.

“I don’t know, saying hello?” I retorted. I had no idea what I was doing, but I had a feeling it was just as stuck in its cage as we were. What did I have to lose? I thought, as I lifted up my own hand. The mantis like being then moved its arm from side to side, copying me as I did the same.

“This is incredible,” Rachel replied, but as she did so the being looked over to her and then dropped its arm, turning away to look at the view once again. “What did I do?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t think you did anything. I think it’s genuinely bothered about the destruction of this planet,” I replied as the alien began to frantically point at various parts of the view and then look back at us both.

“It’s like it wants us to know what’s happening to this planet,” Rachel suggested.

“But we already do. So what’s it trying to say?” I mumbled more to myself as we continued to watch the alien frantically move about, almost hopping now on its lanky legs. Then suddenly it stopped and looked down at the floor as if trying to find something. When it did find whatever it was looking for, it stood motionless, staring over at us. Then it closed its eyes and for a second I had strange sense of sadness come over me. Even Rachel remained silent, keeping her endless questions to herself for once. Then finally it reached down with one of its arms and pressed something, instantly disappearing into a momentary flash of black, taking its gloopy cage with it and leaving us with just the desolate terrain beyond.

“What happened?” Rachel finally breathed. “Where did she go?”

“I think it was trying to tell us to get out of here, which we kind of guessed, but how the hell did it leave? And more importantly, where did it go?” I replied.

“It was kind,” Rachel whispered in recognition of what had just happened. “It wanted to help us. That’s so...”

“Yes, all very touching, but where did it go? It has to be something to do with that plate on the floor. It has to be,” I interrupted, staring down at the floor.

“Tom, have you completely lost your sense of enthralment? Do you not realise what has just happened. We just met another intelligent species, from who knows where in the universe, and unlike all the horror sci-fi movies you probably watch, it wasn’t hostile. It wanted to communicate something to us.”

“Yeah, to get the fuck out of here, which is what I am trying to do, but we aren’t going anywhere if we just stand here taking notes about alien encounters.”

“You know what, fuck you Tom. You’re such an ungrateful ass-hole. Why oh why did I have to be stuck in here with a moron like you. I hate you.”

“Yeah well, at least one of us is actually listening to what that thing was trying to tell us. I may be ungrateful as you so kindly put it Rachel, but I’m not an idiot as much as you like to think I am. Look.”

Even though Rachel was flushed with anger at my seemingly blunt attitude towards first contact - if you didn’t count the Mochuvians - she did as I said and looked down at my feet to where I was pointing.

“The plate!” Rachel exclaimed, completely forgetting her anger. “We can see it. What did you do?”

“I just stood on it. The bogey like gunk just moved aside.”

“There looks to be a metallic hook or something on it, but it’s fading in and out. What is that?”

“I think it’s a hologram. When I step off the plate, it disappears,” I replied, moving off the plate and back on to it again to reiterate my point.

“That must be what the alien pulled.”

“But I can’t reach it if I need to stand on it. You’ll have to pull it,” I replied.

“Me? But where will you go? What about me?”

“I fail to know what else to do, do you?” I retorted. “You can try it first if you want?”

“Do we even know where we are now? Shouldn’t we be writing all this down? It doesn’t seem safe. I...”

“Rachel, get a grip!” I snapped. “It doesn’t matter where we are, or where we go. If we stay here we’ll most likely die a very long, agonising death from starvation. What else can we do?”

“Uuuuugh,” Rachel screamed in frustration. “I hate this.”

I was just as exhausted and stressed as Rachel, but we had to copy what the alien had done and hope for the best. A part of me had faith that it would still lead us to the creators and that we hadn’t quite got to their home world yet. I was beginning to ponder the idea that this planet was just an interim stop to help propel us to somewhere even further away.

“I think we should just trust whatever this technology is. It has to lead us to the creators. I don’t think we’re there yet. If this is a system in the Andromeda galaxy, then maybe it’s only a beacon. A kind of truck stop if you like on the space highway to creator-town. I think this huge sun is being used as a gravity sling-shot somehow.”

“You really think so?” Rachel asked with a tremble in her voice.

“I really guess so,” I replied, trying to sound confident. “It has to be worth a try.”

“Okay fine, I’ll pull the lever or touch it, or do whatever.”

“Stand on the plate with me. It can easily fit us both. I’ll lean down. Just hold on to me okay?” I ordered calmly, pulling her over. She was shivering with shock so I held her close. I didn’t want to leave her behind any more than she wanted to stay behind. We had come this far together, no matter how much she annoyed me.

As Rachel held onto my shoulders, I squatted down and slowly moved my hand over the hologram, which immediately lit up and glowed bright blue. Then it morphed into the shape of my hand and so without thinking I placed my hand onto it and watched it glow brighter. Then a series of numbers flashed around it, which grew bigger, turning into holograms of planets and stars, then solar systems and galaxies. I had the feeling that I could manipulate the tiny space imagery if I’d wanted to, but I resisted the urge to interfere. Instead, I held my hand motionless inside the galactic soup and held my breath as the celestial imagery grew larger and surrounded us, spinning faster and faster until eventually everything went black.