One year passed since the aliens appeared. This was a long year for humanity, but even longer for those, who were directly involved, just like me. But let’s start from the beginning. 

It was in 2028 October that humanity got its first unshakable proof of extraterrestrial life. This came in the form of an unknown spaceship right besides our Moon. The media picked it up, the world stopped moving and everyone looked out for what is about to happen. In the first days, there were many attempts to make contact. Different languages, codes, with the use of mathematics, but neither got an answer. 

I was a member of the organization responsible of space research under the Western Alliance. We were the first one to get media attention. The days passed, but nothing really happened. The force of the media grown, but we couldn’t do anything. We didn’t know if they even used radio signals or even capable of decoding our messages that we sent them. It was time to wait. We just sat and waited, waiting for what will happen. 

In the middle of the second week since detection, parts of the alien ship detached. From the scans it came to light that there was some kind of inner explosion. We were lucky, because the East took it as an attack and was close to using nuclear weapons in response. After this, many similar things happened. Again, thousands of speculations spread over the whole internet. The two biggest ones were that one of the Unions took a shot at it, the other was that they got damaged in a space battle and if that’s true, the ones who attacked might be coming here soon. The spaceship indeed seemed damaged. The taken pictures shown that its shape got broken in numerous locations, there were things that were missing from one or the other side, breaking the assumed symmetry. 

For the next milestone we had to wait quite a lot. After four weeks of its appearance, we got a noisy radio signal from the general direction of the Moon. It was a binary code, with its content being “Peace”, nothing more. The world sighed together. Our organization started bombarding them with binary coded messages. Early on, we had to wait for the responses, then they arrived more frequently, until it started to become cleaner, more complex. We only found out later that they had to learn and acquire all these skills on the spot. Our language, our writings, our coding and our less advanced telecommunication techniques. 

After the official report, it become clear to everyone. In short: The alien ship indeed got damaged in a battle and then “jumped” to the first planet with life on it. They guaranteed us that the hostile ship wouldn’t follow them here. The only thing they wanted was help. They would purchase natural resources from us to fix their ship. In exchange, we would get technologies. 

The Western Alliance accepted the proposal on short notice. Only that this event involves the whole world, they didn’t make a move without inviting the Eastern nations into the deal. It was a good time to solve the long lasting hostility, or at least ellaviate some of it. There was also the chance that the Eastern nations would start a war because of said technologies. 

The Eastern block accepted the proposal due to citizen push, with that a new weak alliance formed. In many years, this was the first step towards a real unified world. We got nothing from the aliens for now, yet humanity already won something from it. 

A space program started and with combined resources, the first supply rocket successfully left the atmosphere in the sixth month since our contact. The space program’s fantastical speed of evolution was thanks to the aliens and the two alliances combined work. From design to launching the rockets, everything happened uniformly. 

After the first rocket was launched into space, a grand scale operation was on the verge of beginning. To save costs and to make things easier, they moved the alien ship from its Moon route closer to the Earth. The operation was a success. The world rejoiced as one on the streets when the ship got a stable route on the arranged path, orbiting around the planet. 

In the next six months, a rocket left Earth each month and each of them were totally different, more advanced and more effective than the last. Technology that would benefit the citizens appeared around the ninth month mark. It touched mainly on our computer science and telecommunication, then achieved progress in our medical fields as well. The people started circulating the “Third Industrial Revolution” which was a really splendid name for what was happening. 

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As time passed, most of the aliens perfected their language and could use lingua franca. The information exchange happened with them. In time, our text messages changed to voice calls. Then video calls. 

Everyone was holding back their breath as the first video connection happened. The media broadcasted a live feed around the whole world. Everyone was curious how they looked. They then got surprised how much resemblence there were between them and us, as appearance goes. It was hard not to, the old scifi alien portrayal was the first thing that came to everyone’s mind, but on first look, outside of their skin being a lighter grey, and due to cultural differences clothing and fashion might differ, there wasn’t really anything noteworthy to mention as difference goes. It was in a way creepy how much resemblence there was. 

But let’s jump to the present. 

It was a regular workday. Althought the meaning of regular changed in the meantime. Ever since the alien ship appeared, our abnormal turned into normal. The aliens were an everyday topic for start. Some even got paper, news portals, even television channels dedicated to them. 

I woke up in the morning then following my usual routine made my way to work. It was a wonderful friday morning in autumn, as I looked around I remembered how much the scenery around me changed in the last year. The previously dirty, lethargic big city changed into a flourishing, living one. The people enjoyed their everyday lives. The technological advancement brought a new color into the everyday man’s grey days. Compared to how things were, sometimes I started thinking if it’s really us who were saving the aliens or the opposite happened instead. 

I reached the building of the Space Research Organization. After checking in, I made my way towards the office on the twenty-third floor, which I shared with three of my coworkers. In the last year, the organization got plenty of new recruits due to expansions, while the building itself remained the same. Happily, our cozy office was big enough for the four of us. 

In the beginning, making contact was the priority of our work group, but later we got pushed out of this work and a more specialized group took our place. Like this, our job switched to relaying news towards the media. Which was interesting early on, but got boring quite fast. Nearly every day, we did the same processes, without change. Thanks to this, most of our day was trying to make ourselves not get bored with busywork, doing this or that. We watched movies or series, someone cut videos or happened to be talented enough to do animation work as well. Me? I stick to playing games or watching some TV series. 

“Good morning!” I greeted everyone inside. “I mean only to you.” 

“Sup!” barked back to me Andrex, glancing up from a pretty important game fight “You are late again. Aren’t they bored of it?” 

“Aren’t they bored of you playing all day?” 

“Most of the time I take the night shift. No one else is here at night. Who cares then.” 

“Right, right.” I agreed as I sat before my table. 

I did pretty much nothing related to work until my lunch break. After a long lunch, I made some small changes on the last report and handed it down, the first half of my afternoon was spent with similar high efficiency work. 

I was watching a video, when an ad popped up somehow. It was about some hiking boots. I closed it and continued the video. But after a short time, an itching feeling took over me that maybe it wouldn’t be that bad to finally move out on the weekend a bit. 

“Andrex.” I called out. 

“What?” came back a lazy question. 

“Would you be up for some hiking on the weekend? We could go up to some mountain, or something.” 

“Just the two of us?” he asked back a little confused over the proposal. “That would be way too romantic for me. Think about my poor heart.” 

“Hehe. But seriously.” 

“Thanks, but no thanks. Maybe next time.” he ended the conversation just like that. 

Can’t say it didn’t take the wind out from under me, but I was already determined to see this through, I will go to some mountain climbing on the weekend. Our time in work ended fast. As the people arrived for our shift change, we were on our way home. 

The route was uneventful, except me planning my little holyday for tomorrow. Around the city there wasn’t any place for this, so I planned to go down to somewhere remote instead. 

After getting home I ate dinner and took a shower. I packed everything needed for tomorrow. I packed some extra clothes in case the weather would turn sour and a tent, so I don’t have to sleep in the open. Everything else that might be needed, I purchased on the way home. After being done with this, I went to sleep.