IT WAS not easy to judge the passage of time in this planet of constant daylight, as it seemed, but Jacqui reckoned it was a couple of days before Major’s return. She pondered for a while on his last remark ‘I must consult with others’. Major did appear to be super-intelligent—but not intelligent enough.

Major returned in due course, bearing in his clenched-up Big Bell what turned out to be two squares of what looked like flimsy greyish plastic. The larger square had holes cut in it for one’s head and arms: it looked like a sort of poncho with arm holes. Jacqui tried it on. Despite its appearance, the fabric was warm and soft to the touch, and it reached to just above her knees. There was no underwear, but this would suffice as an outer garment. At least it was comfortable and extremely light.

The smaller square looked more like a surgeon’s mask than any­thing else, with two loops to pass behind the head. Major explained that, wearing this, she would be able to venture outside her dome and breathe normally. But she must keep the mask on at all times, other­wise she would soon asphyxiate with hypercapnia. The dome would, for now, remain her ‘safe’ habitat, filled with an atmosphere that she could breathe without the mask.

Jacqui was wondering whether to mention the other ‘need’ she might have, every twenty-nine or so of her days. But she decided not to bring up the subject. After all, if she was now to be allowed outside, a little of her blood would hardly be enough to contaminate the ocean which apparently covered most of this world.

She had, on the other hand, contemplated a number of questions that she felt minded to launch at Major upon his return. She hoped she was not annoying him as she began:

“Where did you learn such perfect English? Can others of your kind speak? And how do you come to know so much about our planet? And how did you know my name? And the ‘food’—and my other needs,” nodding towards the commode. “I hope you don’t mind my asking you these things.”

“No problem, Jacqui. I am one of those who have been genetically altered to generate and detect atmospheric compression waves— ‘sound’, as you call it—via one of my extremities.”

“ ‘Big Bell’ and ‘Little Bell’ we have named those appendages,” put in Jacqui.

“Very well. Those such as myself are employed should it be necessary to communicate directly with species who use that system. And we studied your planet and its communications intensely, when we first visited you. I was trained to speak in English, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Malay—these being the languages used in the localities we chose to send breeding ships to—”

“So you have visited other places on Earth!” Jacqui could hardly contain her astonishment. “Why don’t we know about those? Where were they?”

“Two other ships landed, but the progeny deposited by them all died before they had been found by humans. This is not uncommon, so when we are checking out a new planet we often send two or three ships. A form of redundancy, you would call it. When this happens, our ship lands again and collects up the remains, leaving no trace.”

“But where did your other ships land? Where?” A vague suspicion was forming in Jacqui’s mind.

“One was in the country you called either ‘Russia’ or the ‘Soviet Union’; the other one in what you call ‘Mexico’. That’s as much as I can tell you.”

“ ‘Mexico’ or ‘New Mexico’? This really matters. Can you remember?”

“It may have been ‘New Mexico’. Once our progeny fail to be taken in, we erase records of that particular visit. Sorry.”

“Does the word ‘Roswell’ mean anything to you? It would have been two or three years earlier than the landing at Wistbourne.”

“No,” replied Major. “As I said, we did not keep records. But with Wistbourne, the adoption was—so we believed—successful, which is why we have a full record.

“As it turned out, my services as an interpreter were not required and I never visited your planet. I am glad to have the opportunity to use my English, now. As to knowing your name, that is simple. It was already known to ‘Wiggy’ and her sisters—and they passed the message on.”

So Major was quite the polyglot! Certainly on Earth, if he told the truth, he could pass for a gifted linguist. Jacqui could speak Spanish, and, feeling a trifle skittish, she decided to ‘test’ him.

“Pues, ¿hablas muchos idiomas también? ¡Estoy impresionada! Pocas personas en nuestro planeta son tales políglotas.”

“Sí. Te entiendo,” replied Major in fluent Spanish with a Mexican accent. “Pero, no he ejercido la lengua española, tanto como la lengua inglesa.” He switched languages. “So could we please continue in English, your native tongue?”

“OK, sorry. Just a bit of fun,” said Jacqui. “About my food. I am thankful that you can provide it—although it’s not very interesting.”

“We are sorry that we cannot provide food which is more like what you are accustomed to. But what we have made should supply all your nutritional needs. It is made from an organism which grows in our waters—similar to your ‘algae’—which is rich in the same proteins, carbohydrates, and other nutrients, that you depend on, on your home planet. We hope you are satisfied.”

“How long am I going to stay here?”

“That is your choice. Once we have finished questioning you, you can remain here for the rest of your life, or you can return to your planet if a ship becomes available to take you. But I should caution you: things are not going well with your planet. Our most recent information is, of course, thirty-six years out of date: that is, twenty-two years after you left, but our last report informs us that the pheno­menon of global warming and Climate Change, mostly due to your species’ wasteful usage of carbon resources, is now irreversible. You will find much changed if you return. The human species is in decline, as are many other species. Parts of your planet may no longer be habitable by your species.”

*

With a heavy heart Jacqui let this grim piece of news sink in. It was no more than she had expected. Ruefully, she muttered, more to herself than to Major, “It was already like that before I left Earth. I wonder how many animals and plants are already extinct…”

“I am sorry,” put in Major. “No-one wants to see their planet die—and we have seen instances on other planets: yours is not the only one. The only solace we can offer is, you may stay here as long as you like. We can provide better living quarters for you. But if you prefer to end your days on your home planet, whatever it has become, we shall of course repatriate you.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Perhaps I should see what your planet is like,” said Jacqui, taking the mask and placing it over her face, covering her nose and mouth. The edges seemed to press themselves against her skin, not uncom­fortably, but just enough to create a good seal. It was quite easy to breathe through it. Jacqui felt strange wearing a mask, but she would get used to it. Major gave her a quick inspection, and then touched a point low down on the dome. An arch-shaped crack appeared, though there had been no crack visible before, and a curved section of the dome slid open, large enough for Jacqui to walk through.

“You may be somewhat disorientated at first,” said Major, as he led the way out. “We have not welcomed many sentient aliens to our planet, but they all showed the same reaction. It is normal. Please do not disturb your mask.”

What had Jacqui been expecting? Monstrous, unimaginable buildings, touching the sky? Fantastic machines? Exotic plants and animals? What she could see, as she waded out through the archway, was a seemingly endless seascape all around, reaching to an unnaturally close horizon. The air was quite warm, and there was no wind that she could feel, and hardly even a ripple on the water. The sky was blue, though paler than the sky on a sunny day on Earth, with a tinge of mauve—red, almost—about it, and streaked with darker clouds. And she was correct in deducing that the bright reddish object in the sky was the planet’s sun. It was far dimmer than Earth’s sun and had a hazy appearance, as if it was shining through thin cloud, but it appeared larger in the sky. It could be looked at directly without harming the eyes. Jacqui summoned up what astronomy she could remember, and guessed that it might be a Red Dwarf star, with this planet orbiting very close in.

It was a strange environment indeed, but she did not feel dis­orientated. She looked all around her. The monotonous seascape was broken in only two or three places. There were a couple of what she took for islands, no more than irregular grey lines on the horizon: she guessed they must be several miles off. Nearer, no more than a mile away, was some sort of light grey structure, roughly square in shape, standing out of the water, but she could not make it out in detail.

*

Major had stopped just ahead of her and reared up his Big Bell again. “I cannot talk while I am swimming. So if you have any questions, ask them now.”

Jacqui found she could talk through the mask without difficulty. “Do you have a day-night cycle here? How long is it?”

“Yes—but as you have already realised, it is much longer than yours. This planet is quite close to its sun, and its rotation is in a tidal resonance with its orbit. A similar thing happens with the planet Mercury in your own star system. Our planet rotates three times for every two orbits; but the effect you will see is that the day-night cycle lasts two of our years. Our ‘year’ is approximately twenty-three of your days, so we experience twenty-three days of daylight followed by a similar period of night. We measure any long passage of time in ‘days’ rather than ‘years’. To your species it will seem quite strange. Any more you want to know?”

“I think I’ve seen enough for now. Let me just do a circuit of the dome,” replied Jacqui, as she waded around her little habitat. It was hard work, but luckily the hem of her poncho stayed above the water all the time. She gazed in all directions, but could not see more than she had already spotted. She waded back into the dome, climbed on the bed and wiped her legs dry as best she could with the hem of the poncho. Major had followed her in and closed the arched door.

“Please do not take off your mask yet,” he ordered. “You need to wait for the atmosphere to be re-adjusted. Can you see that green spot on the wall, just above the water, next to the door? When it changes to red, you can take off your mask.”

“Green for danger, Red for safe. I’ll have to remember that,” said Jacqui. But she complied with his instructions and was relieved when the spot turned red and she could remove the mask. She now felt very tired and told Major she would like to rest.

“That is well. I shall leave you now. In a short while—one of your days, I shall return and take you to a different habitat. Now you should rest.”

*

So it was a day later, by Jacqui’s reckoning, that Major appeared once more. He explained that she was to leave the dome for good now, and she should collect up her ‘belongings’. But they consisted of nothing more than her poncho and mask.

Outside the dome, masked up and ready to go, Jacqui stood surveying the surroundings. She could see nothing more than before. Where was she being taken?

“I’ll just follow you—wherever you’re taking me,” she remarked.

“Very good. We are making for that structure that you have already noticed. I shall lead you by a route where the water is not deep. You can wade easily.”

“I can swim,” remarked Jacqui, taking off her poncho and offering it to Major.

“We would prefer you not to. I’m sorry, but I cannot carry your garment while I am swimming, and your mask might become detached. Just wade. Do not worry if your garment is splashed with water: it will dry off instantly.” And with that Major furled his Big Bell, making himself perfectly streamlined, and lowered his entire length into the water. He swam fairly slowly, no faster than Jacqui could wade, using a sinuous movement very like an eel, Jacqui thought. Wading was tiring and unpleasant work, and Jacqui could see that it would take well over an hour to reach the ‘building’.

When they were about halfway, Major halted: Jacqui was clearly exhausted. She took off her poncho and sat down in the water which was only about two feet deep here, and splashed some over herself: it was pleasantly cool but not chilly. The air was still warm. From here, she could make out some detail of the ‘building’. As best she could see, it looked like a tangle of wires, almost exactly cubical in shape. It was big: more than a hundred yards to a side. She needed to get closer.

After about five minutes, Jacqui felt she was sufficiently rested, and signed to Major that she was ready to press on. And so the journey continued.

*

When they were closer she could see the building in detail. The ‘wires’ had now resolved themselves into a mass of semi-transparent tubes, totally haphazardly arranged as if a demented plumber had been at work. At intervals in the structure she could make out larger clear volumes like rooms, interspersed with the tubes. Some were high up, some almost at ground level. Looking carefully, she could see dark elongated objects worming their way along the tubes. Presumably these were Sous going about their business. So perhaps the tubes were more like the enclosed flumes you saw at some swimming-pools and theme parks. If so, they were clearly the correct size for a Sou: Jacqui would stand no chance of squeezing through one of them! What was she to do once she had reached the building?

For a moment she felt dizzy and her legs felt like buckling under her. She could no longer take in the strangeness of her surroundings. She recalled once visiting the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and having marvelled at its exterior design. This was a thousand times weirder.

When she had recovered a bit, Major led her to a certain point at the side of this fantastic structure, where there appeared to be one of the ‘rooms’ at ground, or rather, sea-level, separated from the outside by a transparent wall. Again, Major touched a point low down, under the water, and an arch-like opening appeared, just like the one back at her dome. Major signed to Jacqui to wade in. The door closed behind them.

“Please keep your mask on for a while. Once again you must wait while the air in here is recycled.”

The room was, like her dome, flooded with water, and Jacqui saw no furniture except a sort of dais raised out of the water, with what looked like a bench on it. At a sign from Major she sat down upon the bench, and found it soft and fairly comfortable. At last her legs could dry off!

“We shall wait here until one of my kin arrives—one who is superior to me,” said Major. “She wishes to ask you many questions. She does not speak as I do, so she will put them to me via our own communication medium, and I shall interpret for you.”

Jacqui could barely stop herself laughing. In fact she couldn’t avoid sniggering a bit: she hoped Major wasn’t offended. So she was being put through the ‘take-me-to-your-leader’ routine! What happens now? she wondered.