A Parent So Far Away

     It's the year twenty fifty-five when the space transport Eros was making it's routine trip to a nearby planet Cliffordius deep within the Siberian Galaxy. It is approximately forty-seven billion light years from what was known as Earth. Eros was carrying a cargo of needed supplies to the planet Cliffordius where humans have set up a base camp with a diplomatic agreement with the Cliffordians. They are a native species with no knowledge of basic survival from a human's perspective. We have been sharing our knowledge with them in exchange for being able to erect a space dock for travelers.We have agreed on specific rules of diplomacy and basically what each species can and cannot do. One of the major rules were no interplanetary relationships between species. It has been enforced since our agreement back in twenty forty-seven and the penalty for breaking this rule was exiled to an isolated planet two galaxies away from each other, and that any offspring would be destroyed at the moment of birth.
     Let me back up some and catch you up to speed. Earth was going downhill fast with humans depleting its natural resources daily. No one could come up with a plan to sustain the Earth or its natural resources, so a plan was to find another planet that would sustain human life where we could begin over again with the knowledge of how not to deplete its resources and new ways of using solar power. The Siberian Galaxy has one of the hottest suns, even incinerates hotter than that of Earth's sun. Humans have traveled around galaxies looking for new places to colonize before the demise of Earth. We have been able to establish colonies on Mars, Jupiter, Ceres, and a few planets in nearby galaxies to Earth.
     When we discovered Cliffordius, it had an atmosphere quite like that of the Earth but was much richer in Nitrogen than Oxygen. We landed our shuttle and began exploring while wearing suits to make up the difference in Nitrogen-Oxygen ratio. The planet was in no way barren, on the contrary, it was lush with green scenery, mountainous areas, and very exotic plants and flowers we had never seen before. We don't know what it was, but maybe these trees and foliage flourished more off of Nitrogen and less on Oxygen. We continued our exploration of the planet until we came upon its inhabitants which were very welcoming to strangers.
     They were humanoid in shape but had no body hair and were very easy to the eyes. Instead of having natural skin tones like humans, their skin tone stayed in the ranges of lavenders and bubblegum colors of pink. Their eyes were a bit larger and more apart than our own. They did not have a nose but instead it was two nostril holes planted in the middle of their faces. They had no lips but had a mouth. We have four fingers and a thumb, whereas they have only three fingers and what seems to be a thumb. We were not aware of any genitalia and found it to be difficult to determine which was female from male. It did take some time to remember how to tell them apart, but eventually, we did.
     They showed us around and took us back to where they lived. Communication was difficult at first, but our scientists invented a language translator just like we use on other planets. The Cliffordians were a gracious host and we traveled back and forth discovering more area and resources that this new planet had developed. Everywhere we explored and ran tests, the soil was rich with nitrogen and we found alien creatures which would be added to our collection of bugs. As far as I was concerned this planet flourished with life. Granted it didn't have the same animals you would find on earth but these creatures were similar to our own.
     Our department heads met with the ruler of Cliffordius and everyone came to an agreement which was put in place. Being that their natural resources were rich, we showed them how to plow the ground and plant seeds that would harvest their own type of food to sustain life. We built condensers to create water and moisture from their own atmosphere to also assist with their gardening. We weren't sure if they bathed or what their grooming habits were, so we didn't touch that subject. In exchange for helping them, they gave us free access to their planet and some of its resources.
     We found these inhabitants to be very kind and forth giving in nature and saw no threat of confrontation or brutality. We seemed to coexist well together and humans also became their defenders against other harmful alien species. We learned their language and they learned to speak ours so communication was becoming very profitable for both of us. We set up base camps and colonies that were supplied with oxygen regenerators so that we could move about without suits. All of our housing or pods were interconnected so we could freely move around.
     The Eros was bringing more supplies and parts that were needed to expand our colony so that more research could be done. We were learning much from these inhabitants and it was an honor to provide them with new skills. A few of their so-called science people followed our guys around and stood over them while they worked. It was more of being curious as they watched for long hours as our scientists ran test after test. They showed so much enthusiasm when projects blew up or didn't react the was they should have.
     We have transported approximately four hundred and twenty-three people to Cliffordius to colonize the planet. The Cliffordians were great in number and were perceived to not be a threat in any manner. We have lived amongst each other for approximately eight Earth years and seemed to be doing well. Everyone has been obeying the few rules that were set in place until one of our female scientists, Rebecca, had grown fond of one Cliffordian inhabitant. They were being noticed around each other quite a bit and acted a bit strange when approached by another scientist. It was common to see both of our species intermingling with each other, but these two were acting like they were doing more than mingling. When you saw one there was the other and vice versa. As long as there were no complaints or anyone speaking of their actions being more intimate, I say leave them alone. We were learning from each other and promoting a good coexisting life with one another.
     One day, as a group of us were heading to one of the science labs, we noticed these two being a little more comfortable with each other. As we walked into the room, the Cliffordian was rubbing Rebecca's shoulders and she was grinning from ear to ear until she noticed us there and sort of sprinted away from him as if they weren't doing anything wrong. I had my concerns but kept them to myself for now. A little shoulder rubbing wasn't anything to run to command about. I let it go, until one day Rebecca came running to me and wanting to speak to me privately. I was the one everyone trusted with confidentiality and their dirty little secrets.
     We headed for my quarters where we could speak informally with each other. When I asked her what the problem was, all Rebecca said was that she needed to be transferred off of this planet to somewhere else. It took a bit of prying for her to tell me what was going on and of course she was my friend. Rebecca finally broke down and told me she had broken one of the major rules and when I asked which one, the look on her face was enough to tell me which of the rules she had broken.
     She broke down crying collapsing in my arms as she started blubbering about her relationship with her Cliffordian counterpart. I knew something was up between them but they never let on it was this serious. Rebecca told me in confidence that she had been in relations with the Cliffordian for about seven months and now she is trapped because she ran a test on herself and she is now pregnant with a Cliffordian child. My jaw dropped to the floor as she told me how it happened and I even panicked a bit at first before getting grips on things and informing her not to worry I would handle things.
     I left Rebecca in the hallway after telling her to go back to work and let me see what I could do. I began looking at all the travel vouchers and logs seeing where I could possibly send her where there would be no repercussion of her actions. Rebecca was carrying a new life inside her and who knows what will be birthed from her womb. I finally found a transport that was heading back to what used to be Earth which is now just a lifeless planet with a few basic essentials for survival. Most of the Earth's inhabitants have already been transported to other planets for colonization and only a small number refused to leave their home. I got Rebecca a seat on the transport and thought everyone would be okay until the commanding officer asked me why she was heading back to Earth without his approval? I tried to come up with a good excuse which didn't go over so well and the commander took her name off of the list and sent me back to my duties.
     I was at a loss of ideas and quickly reported back to Rebecca with what news I had of an Earth transport leaving in the morning. I informed her that I had put her name on the list but the commander had taken it off due to non-approval. She decided to break down again crying and becoming hysterical because she was in fear of her child being destroyed. She also didn't want to be sent into exile for her rule-breaking, so I told her the only thing she could and that was to sneak onto the transport right after they do cargo check. Rebecca stopped and looked at me with some hope in her eyes and agreed that would be best for both of them.
     The next morning, in Earth time, Rebecca was nonchalantly walking around the transport dock acting like she was checking things and when she saw it clear to sneak aboard the Earth transport, she did. Rebecca hid behind a couple of large cargo crates and remained there until the transport made a safe landing on Earth. During the trip, she noticed her belly was getting a little bigger and sat there talking to her unborn child while rubbing her belly bump. It was a long trip so her unborn child kept her company.
     Once Rebecca felt the transport landing at the space dock on Earth she was very careful as to not be seen while exiting the cargo area. She grabbed her things and headed out of the space dock area and wandered around while feeling her child kicking and moving about inside her. She needed to find somewhere to settle until her child's birth which wasn't too far off. Every day her belly seemed to get bigger so labor was eminent. She found an abandoned house on the outskirts of town that looked promising and secluded.
     Rebecca went inside and found the place to be kept well cleaned and there were still pieces of furniture and household items left in good condition. This was a good place to have her child so she made it a home for her and this alien child she was carrying. Later, after setting things up she needed to go out and find food and water to sustain the two of them. She wandered about and ventured into a couple different stores finding and gathering food and bottles of water. She used an old shopping cart to push everything back to the house she made her home. She stocked the cabinets with dry goods and placed the water inside the refrigerator, which at this point there was no power but keeping it safe inside and out of view.
     Tired from her shopping, Rebecca went over to the old sofa and laid back to relax when out of nowhere she had this very sharp pain in her stomach. The longer she sat there the more intense they became until she knew for a fact she was in labor. She managed to get up off the sofa and headed for the bedroom where she had prepared everything for the delivery of her child. She had scissors, water, towels, and everything she needed to make the delivery as easy as possible.
     Once she laid back on the bed and got comfortable the pains grew until Rebecca had the notion to push. She pushed what seemed to be several times until she heard the strong cry of her child resting on the bed below her. She sat up, reached for her child, and nestled it close to her chest wrapped in a towel. Rebecca held it for a few minutes while she rested before laying the child back on the bed and cutting the umbilical cord. She took the water and cleaned her newborn child and then began looking the child over for any deformities.
    Rebecca noticed her child's skin color was a little on the pink side and that she had no hair. When checking her hands she noticed that the child had three fingers and a thumb. Her feet and toes were that of a human and that her eyes were like her fathers. The child took most of her characteristics from her father and Rebecca named her Siberia for the galaxy her father lives in and where they fell in love.
     She would not forget her lost love and had dreams of him almost every night since she left Cliffordius. Looking into her child's face Rebecca could see her long lost love. She still felt his closeness even though they were billions of light years away from each other. She only wished that he could see his child and hold her in his arms. How was she supposed to tell her child who her father was and that she would never see him? It was just Rebecca and her child alone in the world.
     As the years went by and Siberia grew in age she still asked her mother about her father and it tore Rebecca apart having to hide him from her. One day Rebecca finally broke down and told her daughter about her father and where he lived and explained why Siberia would never see him. It broke both of their hearts and every night since then Siberia would go outside to a starlit sky looking upwards and speaking to her father as if he could hear her. Siberia hoped her voice would reach her father light years away.


 

Alien Invasion on Mars

     "Have you ever wondered why a visitor to our planet scares the hell out of us and the first thing we want to do is butcher them up?" My name is Bryan Stratton, Dr. Bryan Stratton senior biologist for the One World Space Frontier Program. It is a program designated to assist our planet in studying other worlds. It consists of organizations from all over the world united to collaborate and seek out evidence of other existing worlds or colonies. We have had evidence of other species visiting planet Earth before but at that time our government was so infatuated with studying them that they became the world's biggest biology dissection. We still don't know any more than we do now. That is where I come in. I am a world renown biologist who leads a team of others to explore new worlds. We have scientists from all other departments like genetics, geology, marine biology, and scientists who work with relativity and nuclear fission. I stand by my team and feel we are the best.
     We have been working on a plan to travel to other worlds in search of inhabitants to study and build relationships with. Our main goal is to have a planetary alliance to defeat our enemies whoever they may be. We are set to leave planet Earth and our first stop is to the neighboring red planet of Mars. We have equipped our ship with everything we could possibly need for our month long trip there and back. Yes, we have come far in our research to be able to build a ship that travels in less time than our predecessors. Well, everything is ready and we are suited up for our mission so let's take your seat's people. We get buckled in as the countdown begins and do all of our take off checks before lifting off. Everything seems to be checking out with the ship and we are ready for lift off.
     We sit back as the engines fire up shaking the whole ship until we can actually feel it lifting from the platform. It slowly moves into the air and we can literally feel the G-force picking up. It feels almost like your skin is going to be ripped from your body, but it will ease up once we get out of Earth's atmosphere. My teammates admire out their windows as the sky goes from blue to a dark gray and then to black. It is always such a sight to see outer space surrounding you and encompassing you in almost total blackness except for the shimmering of nearby stars. We are situated now and on autopilot where we can unbuckle and move about the ship. We do not use thrusters anymore to push us into outer space like times of old. Our new technology has really advanced to make it possible to leave Earth with engines that remain intact instead of being discarded once we reach the outer atmosphere. We have access to engines the whole trip if need be.
     Our ship consists of an engine room, control room, sleeping quarters, a small kitchenette, and a restroom to relieve ourselves with its own gravity to make it easier to go. We do not use diapers like the older astronauts used and have entirely more advancements than that era. It only takes one person to operate the ship at a time while the other passengers can use the facilities, eat, or just catch a nap. Our ship is powered by lithium which is the new power of our time. It has been mutated to become more like nuclear power which propels us through space at faster speeds to meet our destination in a shorter time. We also have an observatory where one can go sit and study the stars or gaze at nearby comets. It is very nice up here with plenty of quiet places to relax or study.
     With all of our technology it now only takes two weeks to reach our neighboring planets and then two weeks back to planet Earth. I am so anxious to visit Mars and take plenty of samples. Look it is there in the distance out of the front window. It looks so tiny from here but as we get closer it will get bigger. After thorough study, I believe that it's inhabitants dwell under the surface to hide from the gasses that their planet omits. It has a harsh environment but with technology being created every day we will soon be able to change that. My team and I are looking forward to this expedition and finding what so many humans have tried in the past and that is to learn about the inhabitants of Mars. My colleagues and I have come to believe that we can make peace with other worlds and continue to make progress building alliances.
     It has now been two weeks and we see the red planet of Mars in front of us. Some of us have slept most of the ride to be fresh for exploration. I have been sleeping here and there but making sure to journal the events of every day in space. I can feel my heart beating with anxiety to land upon this unexplored planet. Earth has never set foot on Mars but we will be the first. Everyone has come to the control room to make preparations for landing. All eyes are on us from Earth by way of remote satellites. We have been waiting a long time for this moment and it is here at last. We are taking the ship off of autopilot and resuming with landing coordinates. We want a safe touchdown people. You can feel the shutter of the ship as we land down upon the red sand and finally shutting the engines down.
     My team and I are preparing to step out on the red planet and its barrenness. It almost looks like a wasteland from back home on Earth. Nuclear wars have devastated the Earth for a long time and made many places barren and dead. Our first goal is to explore regions where there can be caves or entrances that lead down into the planet under its surface. We broke up into teams of four so that we may be able to explore a broader range of surface. We will have radio communication with each other and hope to make the best of it.
     Our teams have separated and have gone into two different directions while maintaining radio contact while some of our scientists stop to take samples to bring home to Earth for analysis. It seems to be humid on the surface as we walk for what seems to be miles until we came upon what seemed to be a tunnel that led down into the ground. We switched our head lights on and contacted the other team to let them know where we are and what we found. We proceeded to walk down this unknown tunnel and not sure what we'll find but the excitement is mounting.
     Deeper and deeper it seemed to descend until we can tell we were in utter darkness. You can almost sense a change in temperature the further down we went. Then, there were some strange lights ahead of us. We couldn't make them out yet but were sort of a greenish color and very fluorescent. We have probably traveled about a mile down and found it to be strange to see these lights from an unknown source. The closer we got, the more fluorescent the color became. We knew that we would probably come across a new civilization of beings and were not prepared so much as to what we would say or what our reactions would be, we only hoped for the best outcome.
     As we came down a shaft, we encountered a large chamber with the fluorescent green lighting. It almost looked like a wall of rooms similar to how the Mayans or Incas lived in walls of clay. It was astonishing to see something so magnificent but where were the inhabitants? We carefully walked around in the chamber looking for signs of life when we stumbled up a room full of its inhabitants which were small in stature and were not green as Earth portrayed them to be. They were more of our skin tone with tiny little hairlike strands protruding through their skin. Their eyes were like that of drawings from children, big and round, and full of life. They were everything we thought they were and more. Although communication was in its primal stage but they seemed to be friendly.
     We introduced ourselves to them and reassured them we meant no harm but came in peace. One who seemed to be one of the leaders walked up and grabbed my hand and studied it for a minute. They were more like us than we imagined except they only had four appendages that we call fingers and thin short little legs with the first appendage being the biggest one. I think they were more frightened of us than we were of them. This was such a delightful discovery that I had to note it in my journal. All of this encounter was being recorded and sent back to Earth by remote satellites so they can see our mission progress. The longer we were there the more of them decided to come out and investigate. We were among several hundred inhabitants of Mars and not once did we feel threatened in any way.
     We spent what seemed to be hours with these strange little creatures and took plenty of pictures. They were allowing us to explore their chamber and see how they lived. They were not much different than us and it came to be quite astonishing to me. I sat writing in my journal while two of them came over to me and fumbled around with my pen and journal. They were very curious little buggers but with pleasant demeanors. We were enjoying our time with our new friends and looked forward to spending more time studying them. It was getting late and we needed to head back to our ship for the night because our analysis of the planet was that it dropped below freezing overnight. We said our goodbyes and that we would return in the morning. A few of the small creatures escorted us back up to the surface and we headed back for the ship.
     Once arriving back at the ship, the other team was waiting for us and we sat and told them of our discovery. We even showed them pictures of these strange little creatures that seemed to be harmless. While we sat and chatted and made notes we received a warning signal that another ship was coming into the atmosphere. We all gathered to our posts to see what our new visitor was going to be. Once we found it on the radar, it was one of our own but slightly larger than this ship. We tried to contact Earth to see what was going on but no one would respond. We weren't sure what was going on and had no idea how to find out either.
     We watched as this new ship landed not far from us and then it came. We were contacted by the ship to stand down and that it was in their hands now. We tried to question what was going on but did not receive an answer. We then suited back up and went to pay the new ship a visit. By the time we reached their ship they were deploying troops with guns.They used us to find life so that they could annihilate them and take the planet as our own. We could not let them do this. The inhabitants were no threat to us but they were going to be slaughtered by humans. We were the aliens that were going to invade their planet. We sat by and watched as our troops entered the tunnel and killed each and every one of its inhabitants that they came across. We watched as they were being burned alive and their children slaughtered. I had no faith in our race anymore. We were space butchers and the bad thing is we knew it. We were locked inside a cell as they terrorized this planet and killed every living thing. There was nothing we could do to stop them. We were at the mercy of our own cruel humanity. It is no wonder that our planet's defenses are being watched so closely waiting for the right time to seek revenge.