Outwards

A ship sailed silently through the seemingly endless stretch of blackness, searching for life that most were sure did not exist. The young colonial, Et, paced back and forth on the carpeted floor of his office. He did not want to be here. Here he was separated from all other life. Here he was searching for something he believed did not exist. He had not even chosen this job. His parents had wanted him to do this job. Heroic, they said. Lonely, answered him. But eventually his parents won, and here he was stuck in space in a place he was sure he should not be.

***

Vacer was sure there was life out there. The other kids thought him crazy, but they could believe what they believed. Even if they were thousands of light-years away, he was sure that there was a they to find. His seniors could stop him from trying to go, but they couldn’t stop him from inviting them to come. A Wormhole, a glitch in time and space made by his own hands and scrap metal, he made it and dragged a random spaceship through.

The strangest machine landed on Extrestrial in the form of a long, sleek spire with a strange pattern on it. It had white and red stripes, with a blue section that had… was that fifty little white dots? The strangest noises came from their strange looking mouths, as they “talked” into a black device while grabbing it with their strangest looking hands and the strangest looking skin on it. Why tan of all colors? Why not a normal skin color, like green or purple? He was so, so curious about all of them. Galaxies away, what’s it like on that planet? His curiosity instantly vanished, though, when they took his little sister.

A little earlier

Et was sitting in his office enjoying a meal of space food that he had previously despised. Suddenly a form rushed in “Captain!” cried his first mate " There is a worm hole in front of us!” “Well, steer around it then.” “We can’t, it is pulling us in!” and that was all he could say before they got dragged into the glitch in time.

Suddenly, there were aliens in front of them. A threatening mass of green. “Grab one,” he cried, “we can use it as a hostage to get us out of here. I bet that they made the worm hole.” His guilty continuous hit almost immediately. He was naturally a gentle person and could not stand the kidnapping but it was too late to take his orders back, they were already being followed out by the loyal members of his crew.

Then his lab scientist walked out. “Ah, I see you brought me one of the green things to study. N-” he tried to reply, but the scientist cut him off. “Oh, thank you, thank you, I’ll have this thing brought to my lab Asap.”

Suddenly he had a quick change of heart. His already wavering conscience broke entirely. “No, I think I will let the alien free,” he told his scientist stoutly. “Oh yeah, who’s got the alien here? Look, remember that 10,000 dollar reward for anyone who has information about aliens? Well I plan to get that reward.” There was a murmur of agreement that went through most of his crew. Only three of his men looked appalled. The scientist said, “Et, look at it this way. I have the alien, and most of the crew and the aliens are mad at you. What are you going to do about it?”

Zborg was the coolest person and everyone wanted to be his friend. But Zborg wants more; he wants to rule over everything. He thought that wealth and good looks were all it took to be great in life. So he looked for others sending out signals to see if he got a response but he checked no response. He looked for others that had the same cause. Recently he found one Vacer he was interested in more than me. He followed him into the place and he saw a weird thing there: a machine and someone came out of it. They had tan skin. It was weird how their skin was colored. They had weird bodies. Then, while hiding, he saw them take Vacer’s sister.

***

Maver was ready. Nobody else thought he was ready, but he was. So when the rocket ship was ready to blast he climbed on to the side of the rocket ship. As far as anyone else knew this was an unmanned flight. But that is as far as anyone else knew.

***

Et ran up to the new rocket ship that had just arrived. “Help, I need help,” he cried. “What do you need?” “I need a way to communicate with the aliens. Is there any way you can help me do that?” “Yes, I can help you. I was smart enough to make a translator”. “May I use it? There is something I really need to say”.”yes you can use iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttt…………..” Then he died. Et ran for the translator. “Aliens,” he said. “I was not thinking when I took one of you. Now I want to undo my actions. Help me get your fellow person back. What do you say?”

Zborg looked at Vacer with disdain ”Why would I talk to the human that kidnapped my sister. “Please, I am trying to get your sister back. I need your help to do it though. Please help me.”.”no, only my brother can change my mind ”. " Are there any aliens that will help me?”

***

“I’ll help,” Vacer said. A strange noise came out from the translator the other creature had made. He had a knack for tech, he fixed his brother up when he almost died, replacing his parts with machinery, so he could tell from looking at it that it was far, far too complicated for his mind. It worked, though as when the strange noises came again from the creature’s mouth, it translated into the familiar clicking of the Extrestrial language. “Thank you, but we need to hurry to get your fellow alien back. My lab scientist is taking it to the lab on the ship right now. He is scared of you, so all you have to do is walk in and ask. I will go with you.” Vacer was confused. “Aren’t you, like, the leader of your kind? I saw you ordering them around earlier.” “Where I come from people do not have to follow orders. We get paid for bringing back an alien and most of them like money more than me. They only followed when they thought I was doing what they wanted. Now that I changed my goal, they will not follow me.” Vacer was only more confused by this. So strange, these “humans”, and what exactly is “money”, anyway? He’d go with this strange creature anyway, to rescue his sister, if not because of his curious nature. Still having received no answer Et said, " I am going to go, you can follow if you wish.” With that he hoisted the translator and walked aboard the ship. Vacer followed, but stopped when they heard a slight crunching behind them. Probably just some why falm plants.

***

Zborg followed Vacer on to the ship. “Why brother, why’d you side with the human? “ I will not live in a world where my brother sides with humans” Then he exploded.

***

Et was glad that at least one of the aliens was following him. He had mainly expected for them to all get into a big mass and attack him, but he had had to try, and they had listened to him! When they arrived at the lab he said “hand over the alien”, then he handed the translator to the green creature beside him. “Hey. You better give me my sister back right now. ” The scientist backed away, obviously scared of the alien. “Uhm, uh, sure, he stuttered. Here, take her”. He pushed the alien towards the other alien.” Now, you get out of the ship.” said Et “you are now at the mercy of the aliens” Suddenly, his first mate rushed in. “I handed over the disloyal part of the crew to the aliens. The ship is broken though. It looks as if something exploded!”

***

Exploded? Vacer thought as the translator translated. Strange. “It exploded near the lab” The human said. It took him a couple of seconds to figure out what it meant. Lab section… Then, it hit him. The crunching sound behind him? The explosion? As he knew, there was only one explosive object on Extrestrial. His brother.

***

Et gently unchained the alien and returned her to her brother. It had been a shock for him to find out that she was his brother. That must have been why he had been the only one that had come to help. He then said to the alien brother, " My ship is now broken. I know it is asking a lot, but can you help me fix our ship so we can sail back to earth?

***

The human asked Vacer to fix something. He had asked him to play around with tech. “Yes please,” he said. “It’s my fault it exploded anyway”. His momentary excitement was replaced with sadness in the fact that his brother was dead. Again. His family had been so afraid, so terrified for his life. It was his only chance to play with technology, so he took it. I’m going to get you back. Somehow. And he started on the spaceship.

***

1 hour later:

“Thank you for fixing my ship, wow this is new. This is brilliant!” I have 100 percent faith that this will get me back, well, I guess it is still a risk, but less of a risk than I was taking coming here. Well I better be leaving now, but let you and your planet be friends with the humans forever. I won’t tell humans about you, I’ll say that part of my crew got lost on mars. Peace be with you. With that he launched the ship into space to arrive, months later, on earth.

***

Epilogue thign

Where am I? Am I dead? Vacer was in three places at once. Earth and Extrestrial, and someplace else. In… the afterlife? No. I recognize this sensation. When I was activating the wormhole, I was in this place too. Why am I here? Is this some sort of aftereffect, karma for playing with time and space? Was he dead? No, he thought. I’m not dead. It feels as if I… understand. Time and space. They fit in my palm, perfectly. It feels as if I can change things. It took some time for that to sink in. He could change things. Time is in my hands. I choose to turn it back.

“Hey. What’s up?” asked his brother. Alive. “Nothing,” Vacer said, tears in his eyes. “I just wanted to see you.” He Gazed out at the sky looking at the power of the universe. The power he could control.