The first thing the crew thought of is how would the aliens even dock, there was no way their docking mechanism would match the ISS’s, but the Anoi’s said not to worry about it.
The second thing was the space inside the station, ISS was expanded but it was fit to hold 35 astronauts comfortably, and up to 50 of them when the shifts were happening. There was the new unused part which the crew was expanding to fit more people later on and the Anoi’s said they would quickly retrofit it to suit their needs until they fix their ship.
The leaders and other people that were part of the initial call were not happy that the ISS crew made the decision on their own and assured James, Chloe, and Meng that they would face the consequences once they landed down on earth, as they were the ones that took the blame. But they stood by their decision, all 35 of them agreed now that this was what they had to do. They were first on the line and they just couldn’t wait for the leaders and higher-ups to butt their heads indefinitely.
Another thing they warned the crew about from Earth, were diseases, and viruses, they were unknown life forms to us chances were high that they would expose us to something and we were ordered to wear suits at all times. Anoi’s reassured us that were not in any danger in regard to new viruses, diseases, and so on, but to ease our worry they would also wear their own suits all the time.
They prepared everything on their side for the docking and the crew just stood there waiting, excitement and nervousness combining into a new feeling inside them.
The Anoi’s brought the ship as close as 100 meters to the ISS and then they deployed their docking mechanism. It spewed out of the side of the battleship like a hand reaching towards the station. Their docking mechanism looked to be alive as it changed its size and shape while approaching the station. The arm reached the ISS dock and made itself fit perfectly then it stiffened and expanded in height resembling a hallway between the ship and the station.
Anoi’s announced they were coming towards the station and the crew embraced themselves for the true first contact. They had no real means of defending themselves if the Anoi’s had ulterior motives for this visit.
The docking finally opened and the first Anoi stepped in then the rest followed, they seemed to have their own gravity field as they walked normally while the crew floated in the station. They all were similar in height, almost 7 feet tall, and lanky in build. They all wore matching suits that looked far more advanced than what the Astronauts wore. Their suits resembled something you would see in Sci-Fi shows and movies, a battlesuit.
First Anoi that came in walked towards James who was unknowingly floating a bit further than the rest of the crew. The Anoi stood in front of him then slightly bowed and opened his left palm in front of him. James wasn’t sure what to do, then palmed the alien creature’s hand similar motion to a high-five, the alien then straightened up.
“Greetings humans, I am the one you spoke to over the radio, my name is Azcrawford or it’s what it would sound in your English language and this is my crew.” They all did the motion of slightly bowing and showing their left hand.
“My name is James, I am an astronaut and part of the Earth International space program and these are the 34 astronauts that are occupying the station in this cycle,” James said gesturing towards the crew.
“Nice to meet you all and thank you for finally letting us in, we really need to get to work, firstly to completely turn off our ship and then fix it, we might need some of your help as well,” Azcrawford said.
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“The Earth country leaders and other higher-ups will want to talk to you directly right away,” James said.
“We don’t have time for that now, tell them it can wait for now James,” Azcrawford added then turned towards his crew.
He clearly turned off his translator as the next time that came out of his mouth, if he even had one James thought to himself, were a bunch of noises scrambled together unlike anything he ever heard. It sounded animalistic yet had a syntax and clear slow and unlike animal noises, it didn’t repeat itself as Azcrawford relayed commands to his team.
Chloe showed them the new part of the station they were expanding into and part of the alien team followed her. The rest of them went back into their battleship inviting James and Meng along with them.
The corridor towards the ship looked both mechanical and organic, a mix neither James nor Meng ever saw in their lives. But once they entered the alien ship their jaws truly dropped. They both expected something they saw in movies a rough-looking interior with not much substance to it, a space tank, but what they saw was a ship that was alive with vibrant colors and beautiful-looking hallways that led deeper into the ship.
“Not what you have expected humans?” Azcrawford asked.
“Not in the slightest,” Ming answered looking around the ship.
“Well, Anoi ships are known as one of the most beautiful in the coalition, even our battleship can put other species cruisers to shame,” Azcrawford said.
The two humans floated behind the Azcrawrod as he walked down the corridor of the warship. They came to what looked like a hangar, a huge room in the middle of the ship. The alien gave them several boxes to carry back to the station.
“I am sorry to be blunt, but who the hell are you, can we get some explanation, this also feels so surreal to me,” James said as he wasn’t able to contain a million questions burning inside his mind.
“Ahh, where to even start? I know you must curious right now, but everything will make sense someday I believe. But fine, I’ll put your mind to ease a little bit now.” The lanky Alien said.
“As I already said we are the Anoi, a race that comes from a solar system around 15 000 light years away from earth.” The Alien continued. “We are far older civilization than yours, we have been in what you call modern age for at least 20 000 of your years. We are explorers by nature, we love to travel the vastness of the universe and discover new species and civilizations as well as the ruins left of the former ones. But we were forced into this coalition because in one of our largest explorations ever we stumbled onto Kraz’ox, a race of war-hungry maniacs that see nothing but war. They saw our exploration as part of the aggression as we broke into their space unannounced, but we didn’t know they even existed.” The Alien stopped for what looked like a deep breath and then continued. “They wiped our whole expedition and came after our home planet. Luckily for us, the coalition containing almost 15 other races contacted us and came to our aid. It was some hundred of your years ago and we are at war ever since again the Kraz’ox and their alliance.”
“Are those Kraz’ox the ones you said will find you if you don’t turn off your ship,” Meng asked.
“Yes, we will talk more later, we need to hurry now, get the rest of your crew to carry all the boxes and equipment back to the station before we turn off the ship,” Azcrawford said.
They all spend the next hour carrying various boxes and equipment back to the ship, once they were finished Azcrawford popped a terminal on his hand that expanded into a hologram screen in front of him and turned off their ship. The giant battleship now looked like a dead beast next to the station.
Azcrawford and the rest of the alien crew took their time to show the astronauts how to use their various equipment and then gave them instructions on what to do. James with three other astronauts was tasked with helping to fix the outside of their ship, more precisely their thrusters that were busted down in the flight.
Four astronauts and three aliens made their way toward the thrusters and started working on the instructions of Azcrawford. Some ten minutes in they finally caught the rhythm of the job, it seemed like welding but with some form of nanites that latched themselves onto the broken parts of the ship and what looked like healed the broken parts.
James was concentrating on the job when in his peripheral vision he saw the lights puff out of nowhere, he turned his head towards that part of the space and saw an armada of battleship appear out of nowhere.
“Azcrawford what are those?” He asked pointing and the Alien turned his head in the direction.
“We were to late, those are Kraz’ox ships…”