Still under the influence of the drugs, John murmured to himself “Stupid machine… I’m gonna kill it… I’m gonna make him eat his processor...” He looked around and saw the hall and two robots beside him. “You guys sure know how to decorate. I have an apartment on Earth, can I hire you guys to decorate my bathroom?” He said to one of the robots but got no answer. He heard a commotion in the back but couldn’t turn around to see what the fuss was about. The drugs started to wear off and his mind got a bit clearer. He heard footsteps approaching and thought ‘Finally, someone I could talk to.’

Five aliens walked in front of him and sat in the five chairs. They looked like human-shaped deer. They had deer horns, but smaller, elongated faces and black fingertips like hoofs. The biggest one sat in the middle chair. They all had a device on their left ear and the one in the middle chair, told something to one of the robots in the same gibberish language, giving him a similar device. The robot took the device and turned towards John, grabbed John’s head ad put the device on his left ear. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You could have just asked me, you know.” John said.

“What would be the point in asking when you wouldn’t understand?” One of the deer aliens said.

John looked at the aliens sitting in the chairs and said. “You’re not talking gibberish anymore. How?” John asked.

“First things first. I am Shundi, the ambassador of our planet.” Shundi said. He was the biggest of them all and had the posture of someone important. He had brown fur, with a few gray hairs. He was dressed in a robe that was dark blue at the shoulders, decorated with an intricate silver pattern of different stylized animals running through the forest. The robe’s color got lighter and at the bottom until it turned turquoise and depicted marine animals in silver stitched in silver thread. However, the robe was not the thing that made him look like the leader it was the scepter. It was taller than he was and made out of intertwined wooden branches that, at the top, ended looking like deer horns. At the top, in the middle of the horns, the scepter had leaves, flowers and the biggest sapphire John has ever seen. It was bigger than his hand.

“To my right is the defense minister Noxu and his assistant Zerzo.” Shundi said and extended his right hand to the colleagues on his right. Noxu’s fur was black and he was muscular, he had broad shoulders and a look that could squish an ant. Even his assistant looked afraid of him. He was probably the reason that John was up here on the ship for so long.

“To my left is the alien rights minister Saiyani and her assistant Tati.” Shundi said and extended his left hand to the colleagues on his left. Saiyani was the only one that looked normal. She had a red dress laced with a white pattern on the edges, glasses and a small notebook on her lap. Her assistant Tati was so cute. The chair she was sitting in looked five times too big for her. She looked like a three month old puppy you just had to play with.

“It’s nice to meet you all. I’m John.” John said.

“We are sorry we had to keep you here for so long but we didn’t know what you were and couldn’t understand you. The device on our ears is a universal translator and it can translate over three thousand languages, but it couldn’t translate yours.” Shundi said.

“How couldn’t it translate mine? We occupy fifty planets in the galaxy. It should have our language in the database.” John said confused.

“Fifty planets? Are you sure? Because we have never seen any being like you before.” Shundi said.

“Yeah, I’m sure. After we won the galactic war we freed the planets that were occupied and built our colonies there.” John said.

“Hmmm… When our ship picked you up you were the only one.” Shundi said. “With no other way to get information and to know more about you we had to make you talk so our universal translator could translate your words. You call yourself John, is that the name of your species?” Shundi asked.

“No, my species is named Human and we are from a planet named Earth John is the name we give members of our species we can’t identify. What about you?” John asked.

“We are the Godeer race and come from the planet Poin that is underneath this ship.” Shundi said.

Yeah, I’m impressed with your ship. But why are you moving your planet?” John asked.

“Our sun was destroyed by a black hole and we found a similar solar system to our own. So, we are traveling to that solar system to put our planet there. We have been traveling for four generations now.” Shundi said.

“Wait. Four generations. How long do your people live?” John asked.

“Around two hundred years. Why?” Shundi asked.

“So you have been traveling max for two hundred years. Right?” John asked.

“A little less. But it will take us around four hundred years to get there.” Shundi said.

“That means that I have been in cryosleep at least that long. But that isn’t enough for you to not see humans.” John said.

“What’s your point?” Shundi asked.

“What galactic year is this and what galaxy is this?” John asked.

Godeer looked at one another confused and Shundi said. “It’s the galactic year sixty-four thousand, five hundred and twenty-five, and we are at the edge of the milky galaxy.”

“You mean the Milky way galaxy?” John asked.

“If you call it that, that then yes.” Shundi said.

John sat in the chair very still, speechless. He was in cryosleep for twenty-five thousand years and his pod drifted to the outer edge of the galaxy. No wonder that the godeer never saw a human, humans were light years away from here.

“Where is your planet Earth?” Shundi asked.

“Huh?” John was still in shock so he didn’t hear the question. “Sorry, what did you ask?” He said.

“I asked where your planet is.” Shundi said.

“I don’t know.” John said with a blank look on his face staring in the distance.

“I think this is enough for today. We will continue tomorrow.” Saiyani said and the robots took John back to his room. A metal tray was waiting for him in his room, but he wasn’t hungry.

So much time spent in cryosleep explained why he didn’t remember anything. He was now worried that he’ll never remember. He tried to wrap his head around that he was twenty-five thousand years in the future and that he’ll probably never see another human again. With thoughts of despair keeping him awake, even after the lights turned off, he felt like the loneliest creature in the universe.

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After the lights turned on, and the metal tray was pushed into his room, John was still lying on the bed awake. The door to his room opened ant the machine came in.

“I mean you no harm. I am a medicine machine and I am here to help you.” The machine said.

John lifted his head and angrily looked at the machine. “I can understand you now. Was that what you were saying all the time?” He said.

“Yes. I am here to help.” The machine said.

“You didn’t help me. The first time I thought that I would drown and the second time you scrambled my brains.” John said.

“I am only trying to help.” The machine said and started moving towards John.

“Get away from me you lunatic!” John yelled at the machine as it was taking the gun-like needle injector out of the compartment on the side. “Stick that thing in me again and I’ll kill you.” John said.

The machine pointed the injector at John’s leg and John kicked it so hard that the machine fell over on its side. The robot at the door heard the commotion and rushed in. He grabbed John and pulled him out of the room. As the robot was putting shackles on his arms and legs, John yelled at the machine. “This time you were lucky that your friend stepped in! Next time I’m going to make you eat your own processor!”

Another robot showed up and they took him back to the same hall as yesterday. They sat him down in the chair and attached his shackles to it. John thought about things that he would ask the godeer. Surely, the technology would have advanced in thirty thousand years, so there must be a way they could send him home, to Earth. As he thought about the questions, the godeer came into the hall and sat in their chairs.

“Hello, John. How are you feeling?” Saiyani asked.

“Alright now that the machine didn’t scramble my brains.” John said and bent over to scratch his nose with his right hand. When he lifted his hand, he saw four of the Godeer hiding behind their chairs and Noxu standing up ready to attack.

“What’s wrong? What did I do? My nose was just itchy.” John asked confused.

Shundi, behind the chair, said. “You told us that the machine didn’t give you an injection today.”

“Yeah, so? What’s the problem? Why are you hiding?” John asked.

The Godeer stood up, looked at each other and sat back in their chairs and Shundi said. “Those injections are mild sedatives.”

“Mild sedatives? Yesterday that mild sedative scrambled my brain so much that I drooled all the way here.” John said. “Why did you even give me sedatives?” He asked.

“We were watching you solve the puzzles we gave you and every time you yelled and threw pieces of the puzzles at the walls or the floor. You even put one in the sonic shower and blasted it with the hottest setting. Another one you almost destroyed by jumping on it, hitting it with your head and yelling at it.” Shundi said. “We also saw you destroying your food. We saw you take the bowl with red Kazu, throw it against a wall, pick up the pieces, throw them in the toilet and urinate on them. After that, you looked at the camera and extended your middle finger towards the camera. What does that mean?” He asked.

“I did that in the spur of the moment, I really didn’t like that reddish gelatin thing. I’d rather not explain what the finger means, trust me.” John said.

“So, after all of that, you can see why we are cautious. You seem to us as a violent being.” Shundi said.

“Oooooooh…” John said. “That’s just a misunderstanding. I tend to overreact when I’m frustrated but I would never hurt anyone. Don’t you ever get angry or frustrated at something and just want to lash out?” He asked.

“What do you mean?” Shundi asked.

“You know. When your wife is angry with you...” John started to say but was interrupted by Shundi.

“My wife is dead.” Shundi said.

“Uff… Sorry.” John said. “Well then, when you tell someone to do something, and how to do it, and he doesn’t do it. Are you not angry at that?” John said.

“Aaah! I see your point. When something doesn’t go as you want it to and you can’t do anything about it you feel irritated and you go home.” Shundi said.

“Yeah, like that.” John said, happy that Shundi understood him. “It’s a bit different for humans but you get the point.”

“Tell me more about humans.” Shundi said.

“Shure, but only if you tell me more about godeer.” John said.

Shundi looked at him and his colleagues said. “We are a peaceful and timid race. We don’t like outsiders. We had contact with other aliens and it never ended well because the other aliens hunted us for meat as if we were common animals. Our planet is mostly covered in water and forests. We built our cities in the forests and we live in balance with the nature on our planet.” Shundi said.

“We put a lot of resources in technology and defense technology because we are not fighters. Only a small percent of us have the courage to go into battle and those are celebrated as heroes.” Noxu said.

“But we did encounter some aliens that were peaceful like us and we traded with them. It all stopped when we left our solar system behind so we are hoping that we’ll met new peaceful races in the new solar system.” Saiyani said.

“Yeah, and if we come across an unfriendly alien race we have the ship and the shield around the planet to protect us.” Shundi said. “Now tell us about humans.”

“I will but don’t judge all humans by what I’ll say. Humans are all different. There are no two humans alike in the universe but we all have one thing in common. You saw that when you were watching me. I’m a good guy, I wouldn’t hurt a living being but I get violent when I’m frustrated or angry. ” John said looking at the godeer faces. Godeer were nodding so he continued.

“The best analogy I found was that humans were like magnets. Every human has a positive and a negative side. The only thing guiding the sides is our moral compass. Some humans are evil, murderers, thieves, liars, while others are good, honest and unselfish. However, unlike you, we are a warrior race. In the past, we were at war with each other almost all the time and at the same time, we were also at peace. I know that doesn’t make sense to you, to be honest, it doesn’t make sense to us humans either. We want peace but we wage war to achieve it.” John said looking at the confused faces of the godeer.

“When we reached the level of technology so we could travel through space, we stopped fighting with each other and started fighting evil alien races that enslaved planets and aliens living there. We were so successful at freeing the occupied planets that the evil aliens united and attacked us. What they didn’t know was that we’ve been at war with each other for thousands of years and knew every war tactic. We destroyed all of their ships and won that galactic war in less than a decade. We lost only two ships out of tens of thousands.” John said.

Godeer were looking at him as if he was some kind of monster.

“I told you not to judge me by what I said. Not every human is the same. We humans know what’s right and what’s wrong. I have a strong moral compass that’s telling me to be good. And humans only fought in the galactic war to free the planets and the enslaved aliens, they didn’t do it just to kill the evil aliens. That’s a noble cause.” John said.

“But you said you made colonies on those planets.” Shundi said.

“Yeah, to help the aliens recover from slavery. We are not the bad guys.” John said. “But what I really wanted to ask you is if there was a way you could send me back to my part of the galaxy. I mean, you have a ship carrying a planet. There must be a way I could go back to Earth.” He asked.

“Maybe there is. However, we don’t know where your planet is. The galaxy is big and finding a planet is not an easy task.” Shundi said.

“I can point you in the right direction. I know approximately where my planet and the colonies are. That would narrow your search, wouldn’t it?” John asked with a hopeful voice.

“It would, drastically. Nevertheless, we still can’t guarantee that your planet will be there. A long time has passed since you last saw it.” Shundi said. “Get the shackles off him.” Shundi said to one of the robots and it obeyed the command.

“Come, let’s see the galaxy map.” Shundi said to John, stood up and walked over to a console. He typed something on the console and the Milky way galaxy appeared before them.

“Whoa!” John said looking at the 3D image of the Milky way galaxy. “Where are we now?” he asked.

Shundi typed something on the console again and a green dot appeared on the map on the outer edge of the galaxy. “We are here. Where is your planet?” He asked.

“Can you zoom in on this section?” John asked.

“Yes.” Shundi zoomed in on the section John pointed and the map showed a cluster of stars and the Helix Nebula.

“That’s it! That’s the nebula closest to my planet and the colonies. My planet is the third planet, blue like yours, in a solar system with eight planets and a dwarf gas planet. Will that help you search for it?” John asked with hope in his voice.

“Yes, it will. However, I don’t know how long it will take. Do you mind staying on the ship until we find it?” Shundi asked.

“No problem. Just keep that medical machine away from me and we’re good.” John said.