The First of Many
by M. L. Wight
“Mom,
where did humans come from?”
The question hung in the quiet night air on the drive home from Grandma’s. They had gone over for dinner and to hang out with the cousins. It was late-the sun had set hours ago. Little Kenzie had been staring out the rather dirty car window at the open night sky full of twinkling stars. Mom glanced in the rearview mirror at her daughter, wondering what had brought up this question.
“Well, if you believe the Bible and practically any religion, then humans were created by God in his own image, and if you believe a man named Charles Darwin, then humans evolved from monkeys.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard both of those,” Kenzie replied with a distant voice. Mom could almost hear her rolling her eyes in the backseat. “But what do YOU think?”
“Well, seeing as how I don’t particularly believe in God, then God theory is out. My argument with evolution is that if we did evolve from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?”
“Well?” Kenzie seemed slightly irritated as she leaned as far forward as her seat belt would allow. “What do YOU think?”
“Let me think for a minute….” Mom’s voice trailed off as she quickly began to think of every story and logical reason for the best answer to this question. It had to be slightly believable. Kenzie was at that age where she questioned everything; Santa, the Easter Bunny, and even the Tooth Fairy had not missed her adolescent scrutinizing. Even more recently the question all parents dreaded had surfaced; how babies are made.
Mom slowed the car down for the upcoming red light, the brakes squeaking slightly. Brakes need checked, she thought distractedly. Glancing up at the stars as they idled at the light, Mom had a moment of inspiration.
“Okay I think I’ve got it. Are you ready?” Mom glanced in the rear view mirror to watch her daughter’s response. The traffic light glinted off her tiny glasses lens, making her eyes luminous.
“Ready,” Kenzie sat back and folded her arms across her chest.
“A long time ago…
Far beyond the Milky Way, in the galaxy known as Andromeda, the planet of Alaery rotated slowly on its axis, the hazy lavender clouds floated gently across its surface. The planet was beautiful, a soft glow of purples, blues and greens. A few large bodies of crystal blue water could be seen through the breaks in the clouds. As beautiful as this planet was, it was old, and it was dying. Their sun had been slowly fading and with the loss of heat and light, the planet was wilting.”
“Mom, did the Alaerians have pets?”
“Um, yes. They had animals similar to cats and dogs, except that they were shades of blue and purple. Striped and spotted and they could talk.”
“Oh, that’d be sweet!” Kenzie’s voice lit up with excitement. “I wonder what Harley and Mitzi would say if they could talk.”
“My guess,” Mom replied dryly, “would be ‘come play with us more, you incredibly lazy human child!’”
“Haha funny, Mom.” Kenzie’s voice was sarcastic. “So any way, continue.”
Mom chuckled and continued.
“From the center of the planet, a sleek silver ship lifted off, setting its coordinates for the new galaxy that had only recently been reached. Traveling across space was hard on any ship and its crew, which made far distance traveling nearly impossible. However, with this new ship the latest design with the best technology the planet had to offer, it seemed possible. The Alaerians had done many short tests of the ship, but never as long or strenuous as this trip would be.
The new galaxy had been mapped out by previous captains over the last few decades, and they were finally going to explore it. Eight planets orbited around a huge golden sun that radiated extreme heat. A sun that was young, unlike the sun of the Andromeda galaxy that was growing dimmer with every century. The Alaerians desperately needed to discover another planet capable of sustaining their life forms before their sun completely gave out. Once that happened, life might only last a few more years as their planet could never survive in complete darkness.
The captain set their course and then the crew of nearly two hundred geologists, scientists and soldiers, retired to their sleeping tubes. It would take nearly five years to travel the 2.5 million light years to the new galaxy, simply named The Milky Way. The best way to travel these insane distances was in kryosleep. The captain and one engineer would be awoken every year to check on the ship and to make sure they were still on course.”
“Is kryosleep kind of like hibernation?” Kenzie interrupted again. “Humans technically can’t hibernate.”
“Yes, it’s like hibernation but at the same time, you are hooked up to feeding tubes that bring your body nutrients and water to keep you hydrated. So in this ‘technical’ way they can.”
“What about urinating?”
Mom laughed. “Urinating? Seriously? How do you even know that word? Don’t little kids just say peeing?”
“I learned it in school,” Kenzie responded. “Only little kids say peeing.”
“Oh, okay. My bad.” Mom rolled her eyes. “They also have special tubes that take care of that for them as well. Kind of like a catheter. That is a little plastic tube that goes up into your bladder and lets out all the pee.”
“Ew. I’m not even going to ask about pooping.”
“Good. May I continue now?”
Kenzie gave her consent.
“Five years passed relatively smooth. One day, they woke to the alarms blaring, telling them to get up, that they were nearing their destination. Groggy eyed and sleepy, the Alaerians stumbled out of their sleeping tubes and struggled to pull on their inflight wardrobe. They had special flight suits that kept them warm in the subzero temperatures of space and working in sync with the artificial gravitation of the ship.
The captain, a hulking man of forty with graying hair and hard blue eyes, settled in his pilot’s chair and began to lightly tap on the clear surfaces of the ships instrument console. Through the huge window that wrapped nearly completely around the cockpit the crew could see the eight planets, half of them looking hot, dry and uninhabitable.
“That one there,” Captain Jameson tapped on the panel in front of him and brought up the third planet from the sun onto everyone else’s control panels. It was green and blue with white vapors, similarities to their own home planet. “That one looks that most habitable. Let’s start with that one. Begin the process to enter the atmosphere.”
The crew quickly followed orders, tapping messages down to the engine rooms, and to different parts of the colossal ship. Working in unison, the crew maneuvered the ship, quickly closed the gap between them and the strange, new planet. Just as they began to enter the planet’s atmosphere, a warning began to sound. The captain glanced at his panel, typed out a command and then reassured the crew everything was fine.
One of the scientists began to run tests on the air as they flew lower. He opened a small door that allowed the wind to rush into a small capsule. Closing it quickly, he typed a few keys and had results in seconds.
“78.09% nitrogen and 20.95% oxygen, along with a few small traces of argon, carbon dioxide and water gasses in the air here, Captain,” the man called out. Rereading his samples, he looked up smiling, his green eyes bright. “We can breathe the air when we land, sir.”
“Very good,” the Captain acknowledged with a nod and then focused on a flashing light on the instrument panel. There was something wrong with the ship. His engineers were working desperately on it. He remained calm, knowing that any sign of worry would only make the crew panic. They were millions of light years away from home, and if the ship went down, they be marooned on a strange planet, and any radio signal to reach their home planet would never be received in time for help to come.
Flying lower, the crew passed over a massive body of dark blue water, very similar to their own oceans back on Alaery. The captain slowed the ship down to nearly one hundred knots an hour. They needed to find a place to land before the engines gave out. The message board lit up. He opened the message with a flick of his finger, glanced at it long enough to read it and then dismissed the message from his chief engineer. They had thirty minutes of flight time left before the engines gave out completely. During hyper sleep the heaters had stopped working on a small portion of the ship’s engine, due to a faulty wire and a part had frozen over and broken off. There was nothing the crew could do until they landed.
Studying the topography sketches that were uploading from the scanners, he saw with relief they were nearly across the large body of water. A huge land mass was beginning to open up in front of them, the greens and browns altering the skyline with majestic peaks. Gasping, the crew leaned forward in unison. Back on Alaery their mountains were purple and the vegetation varied in blues and greens. Here it was blues, greens and browns, all manner of colors, some of which they had no name for.
The captain dismissed yet another warning signal before speaking over the intercom. They were rapidly descending and the ship was beginning to shake.
“My crew, I must inform you that the ship is going down. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done. Strap yourselves in whatever seat is closest to you and hope the landing is gentle enough that we will all live through it and will be able to repair the ship. If we don’t make it, the atmosphere is breathable and we are strong Alaerians. We will survive this.”
“The ship crashed and only a handful of the crew survived. Twenty men and fifteen women, of the original two hundred. The ship was beyond fixing. The crew scavenged what little they could and then began to make their lives on the new planet they named Earth. The first few years were the hardest. They were constantly surrounded by animals they couldn’t communicate with, animals that were constantly trying to kill them. They had to revert back to what they referred to as the Far Off Days back on the planet for ideas on how to survive. Their first success at fire gave them more hope than they had ever dreamed it would. They survived and flourished on the beautiful planet, but even though they were happy and alive, they still longed to return home to Alaery. The years passed and the people multiplied. The story of the landing was lost with the years, leading to stories of gods and aliens, no one realizing that they were the aliens. That is why on nights like this, when the sky is open and every star is visible, we long to return to the stars. We want to go home.”
Mom finished the story just as they pulled into the driveway. Kenzie sighed and unbuckled her seatbelt.
“That was awesome. I totally think that’s exactly what happened.”
“Yeah?” Mom smiled as she turned off the car.
“Yeah.”
The question hung in the quiet night air on the drive home from Grandma’s. They had gone over for dinner and to hang out with the cousins. It was late-the sun had set hours ago. Little Kenzie had been staring out the rather dirty car window at the open night sky full of twinkling stars. Mom glanced in the rearview mirror at her daughter, wondering what had brought up this question.
“Well, if you believe the Bible and practically any religion, then humans were created by God in his own image, and if you believe a man named Charles Darwin, then humans evolved from monkeys.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard both of those,” Kenzie replied with a distant voice. Mom could almost hear her rolling her eyes in the backseat. “But what do YOU think?”
“Well, seeing as how I don’t particularly believe in God, then God theory is out. My argument with evolution is that if we did evolve from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?”
“Well?” Kenzie seemed slightly irritated as she leaned as far forward as her seat belt would allow. “What do YOU think?”
“Let me think for a minute….” Mom’s voice trailed off as she quickly began to think of every story and logical reason for the best answer to this question. It had to be slightly believable. Kenzie was at that age where she questioned everything; Santa, the Easter Bunny, and even the Tooth Fairy had not missed her adolescent scrutinizing. Even more recently the question all parents dreaded had surfaced; how babies are made.
Mom slowed the car down for the upcoming red light, the brakes squeaking slightly. Brakes need checked, she thought distractedly. Glancing up at the stars as they idled at the light, Mom had a moment of inspiration.
“Okay I think I’ve got it. Are you ready?” Mom glanced in the rear view mirror to watch her daughter’s response. The traffic light glinted off her tiny glasses lens, making her eyes luminous.
“Ready,” Kenzie sat back and folded her arms across her chest.
“A long time ago…
Far beyond the Milky Way, in the galaxy known as Andromeda, the planet of Alaery rotated slowly on its axis, the hazy lavender clouds floated gently across its surface. The planet was beautiful, a soft glow of purples, blues and greens. A few large bodies of crystal blue water could be seen through the breaks in the clouds. As beautiful as this planet was, it was old, and it was dying. Their sun had been slowly fading and with the loss of heat and light, the planet was wilting.”
“Mom, did the Alaerians have pets?”
“Um, yes. They had animals similar to cats and dogs, except that they were shades of blue and purple. Striped and spotted and they could talk.”
“Oh, that’d be sweet!” Kenzie’s voice lit up with excitement. “I wonder what Harley and Mitzi would say if they could talk.”
“My guess,” Mom replied dryly, “would be ‘come play with us more, you incredibly lazy human child!’”
“Haha funny, Mom.” Kenzie’s voice was sarcastic. “So any way, continue.”
Mom chuckled and continued.
“From the center of the planet, a sleek silver ship lifted off, setting its coordinates for the new galaxy that had only recently been reached. Traveling across space was hard on any ship and its crew, which made far distance traveling nearly impossible. However, with this new ship the latest design with the best technology the planet had to offer, it seemed possible. The Alaerians had done many short tests of the ship, but never as long or strenuous as this trip would be.
The new galaxy had been mapped out by previous captains over the last few decades, and they were finally going to explore it. Eight planets orbited around a huge golden sun that radiated extreme heat. A sun that was young, unlike the sun of the Andromeda galaxy that was growing dimmer with every century. The Alaerians desperately needed to discover another planet capable of sustaining their life forms before their sun completely gave out. Once that happened, life might only last a few more years as their planet could never survive in complete darkness.
The captain set their course and then the crew of nearly two hundred geologists, scientists and soldiers, retired to their sleeping tubes. It would take nearly five years to travel the 2.5 million light years to the new galaxy, simply named The Milky Way. The best way to travel these insane distances was in kryosleep. The captain and one engineer would be awoken every year to check on the ship and to make sure they were still on course.”
“Is kryosleep kind of like hibernation?” Kenzie interrupted again. “Humans technically can’t hibernate.”
“Yes, it’s like hibernation but at the same time, you are hooked up to feeding tubes that bring your body nutrients and water to keep you hydrated. So in this ‘technical’ way they can.”
“What about urinating?”
Mom laughed. “Urinating? Seriously? How do you even know that word? Don’t little kids just say peeing?”
“I learned it in school,” Kenzie responded. “Only little kids say peeing.”
“Oh, okay. My bad.” Mom rolled her eyes. “They also have special tubes that take care of that for them as well. Kind of like a catheter. That is a little plastic tube that goes up into your bladder and lets out all the pee.”
“Ew. I’m not even going to ask about pooping.”
“Good. May I continue now?”
Kenzie gave her consent.
“Five years passed relatively smooth. One day, they woke to the alarms blaring, telling them to get up, that they were nearing their destination. Groggy eyed and sleepy, the Alaerians stumbled out of their sleeping tubes and struggled to pull on their inflight wardrobe. They had special flight suits that kept them warm in the subzero temperatures of space and working in sync with the artificial gravitation of the ship.
The captain, a hulking man of forty with graying hair and hard blue eyes, settled in his pilot’s chair and began to lightly tap on the clear surfaces of the ships instrument console. Through the huge window that wrapped nearly completely around the cockpit the crew could see the eight planets, half of them looking hot, dry and uninhabitable.
“That one there,” Captain Jameson tapped on the panel in front of him and brought up the third planet from the sun onto everyone else’s control panels. It was green and blue with white vapors, similarities to their own home planet. “That one looks that most habitable. Let’s start with that one. Begin the process to enter the atmosphere.”
The crew quickly followed orders, tapping messages down to the engine rooms, and to different parts of the colossal ship. Working in unison, the crew maneuvered the ship, quickly closed the gap between them and the strange, new planet. Just as they began to enter the planet’s atmosphere, a warning began to sound. The captain glanced at his panel, typed out a command and then reassured the crew everything was fine.
One of the scientists began to run tests on the air as they flew lower. He opened a small door that allowed the wind to rush into a small capsule. Closing it quickly, he typed a few keys and had results in seconds.
“78.09% nitrogen and 20.95% oxygen, along with a few small traces of argon, carbon dioxide and water gasses in the air here, Captain,” the man called out. Rereading his samples, he looked up smiling, his green eyes bright. “We can breathe the air when we land, sir.”
“Very good,” the Captain acknowledged with a nod and then focused on a flashing light on the instrument panel. There was something wrong with the ship. His engineers were working desperately on it. He remained calm, knowing that any sign of worry would only make the crew panic. They were millions of light years away from home, and if the ship went down, they be marooned on a strange planet, and any radio signal to reach their home planet would never be received in time for help to come.
Flying lower, the crew passed over a massive body of dark blue water, very similar to their own oceans back on Alaery. The captain slowed the ship down to nearly one hundred knots an hour. They needed to find a place to land before the engines gave out. The message board lit up. He opened the message with a flick of his finger, glanced at it long enough to read it and then dismissed the message from his chief engineer. They had thirty minutes of flight time left before the engines gave out completely. During hyper sleep the heaters had stopped working on a small portion of the ship’s engine, due to a faulty wire and a part had frozen over and broken off. There was nothing the crew could do until they landed.
Studying the topography sketches that were uploading from the scanners, he saw with relief they were nearly across the large body of water. A huge land mass was beginning to open up in front of them, the greens and browns altering the skyline with majestic peaks. Gasping, the crew leaned forward in unison. Back on Alaery their mountains were purple and the vegetation varied in blues and greens. Here it was blues, greens and browns, all manner of colors, some of which they had no name for.
The captain dismissed yet another warning signal before speaking over the intercom. They were rapidly descending and the ship was beginning to shake.
“My crew, I must inform you that the ship is going down. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done. Strap yourselves in whatever seat is closest to you and hope the landing is gentle enough that we will all live through it and will be able to repair the ship. If we don’t make it, the atmosphere is breathable and we are strong Alaerians. We will survive this.”
“The ship crashed and only a handful of the crew survived. Twenty men and fifteen women, of the original two hundred. The ship was beyond fixing. The crew scavenged what little they could and then began to make their lives on the new planet they named Earth. The first few years were the hardest. They were constantly surrounded by animals they couldn’t communicate with, animals that were constantly trying to kill them. They had to revert back to what they referred to as the Far Off Days back on the planet for ideas on how to survive. Their first success at fire gave them more hope than they had ever dreamed it would. They survived and flourished on the beautiful planet, but even though they were happy and alive, they still longed to return home to Alaery. The years passed and the people multiplied. The story of the landing was lost with the years, leading to stories of gods and aliens, no one realizing that they were the aliens. That is why on nights like this, when the sky is open and every star is visible, we long to return to the stars. We want to go home.”
Mom finished the story just as they pulled into the driveway. Kenzie sighed and unbuckled her seatbelt.
“That was awesome. I totally think that’s exactly what happened.”
“Yeah?” Mom smiled as she turned off the car.
“Yeah.”