Novita

    A woman frantically ran down a dimly lit corridor.  She was breathing heavy and had a confused look on her brow; she came upon a large and circular room and couldn’t help but gaze out the window.  A large and empty void stretched before her, dotted with an endless sea of stars.  “I can’t believe we made it.  Space, the final frontier.  Now it’s come to this,” the woman looked down and focused her eyes on the planet below.  “I still have time,” she affirmed to herself with determination now brimming inside as she continued to run.

    She ran out of the circular room and entered into a long corridor.  Hexagonal shapes were etched into the walls and pulsated with a dim, green glow.  At the end of the hall, there was an even smaller, circular room.  She pushed her body to the limit and shot straight for the room in front of her.  Her hand instinctively reached out and pushed one of the glowing buttons on the wall.  The floor slowly opened up and the woman found herself now floating in midair.  A light green light burst forth from the now open ground and the woman started to float upwards; her whole body became weightless as she was caught in the sudden light.  She let herself get swept upwards and felt a sense of calmness come over herself as she breathed a sigh of relief, “This part always makes me feel at ease despite the everything that is going on.”

    As she arrived at the top of the elevator, the floor closed in on itself and became a platform for her to land atop.  “Finally.”  She raced out of the elevator into the conjoined room and was met by every eye in the room.  “Hello,” she stammered as pulled at her suit’s collar.

    The room was filled with an entourage of aliens called the Anginimo.  They had ocular heads that ended in a sort of cartilage fringe.  Each had three eyes, two in the front and one under their fringe. Instead of legs, they had a large tail, not unlike a snake, and clawed hands with three digits on each.  A large chair rested in the middle of the room and it began to slowly turn around.  “Ms. Kelley,” the alien spoke between a set of mandibles.  

    “Xlagheff,” Kelley muttered as the two of them stared each other down. Xlagheff was the leader of the Anginimo and their body had some distinctions to show this fact. Instead of two front eyes, they had four, and they had four arms as well. The additional arms came from their back where their shoulder blades should be. A set of antennae rested atop their head too and they had a dim glow to them.

    “You know you are always welcome here, but why choose now to visit?”  Xlagheff rose from their chair and stood tall on its single tail. They easily towered over the human by about two feet.

    “You know why,” she snapped, making a fist through gritted teeth.

    Xlagheff folded his front facing arms.  Though they were alien, Kelley could feel the disdain coming from them.  “There is no stopping it.”

    “You have to!”  The woman desperately shouted.

    “Ms. Kelley, you are a long way from home.”  Xlagheff took their seat once more, “We do not have to listen to you.”

    “Please.  I’m begging you!”  She was at the point of tears now.  She knew that this was her final gambit.

    The alien once again rose and slowly slithered towards the human, “We gave you a chance.  You humans came here.  This is our home.  You do not belong here.  You were unwelcome, yet we gave you the benefit of the doubt.  We are not heartless.  We could sense your plight.  We had empathy.  So we let you stay.  We let you live on Novita.  We could have sent you on your way, adrift in space for millennia.  The Anginimo were there for Humanity.  You soiled our trust,” Xlagheff was now face to face with Kelley, although he had to bend his head several feet to do so.

    Kelley couldn’t keep her composure anymore and crumpled in on herself.  She was now bawling on the floor, “I’m sorry.”

    The Anginimo extended their hand to hers, “Do not be.  Be better.”

    The broken woman thought on this for a moment and decided to take their clawed hand.  The two of them walked back to the command chair where Xlagheff seated itself once more.  “Isn’t there another way?”

    “This is the best way.  Humanity needs a message and this is it,” the alien placed its clawed hand onto hers.  The two of them looked forward at the planet below them.  Novita was supposed to be the new home for humanity, but it wouldn’t last much longer.  “We saw what happened to Earth.  The destruction that was wrought.  The state you left the planet in was despicable and nobody is left.  No humans that is.  Humanity is cruel and selfish.”

    “I know, but we’re trying to change, to not repeat the mistakes of our ancestors!”  Kelley gripped Xlagheff’s arm as if using force would somehow convey her message better.

    “Sheridan.”  Hearing her first name somehow put her a little at ease and she loosened her grip.  “You are Humanity’s Shepard.  It was your job to lead them through this trying time and to help them make the right decisions.  Of course not everyone would agree with you, and that’s why you’re here.  We do not wish to eradicate Humanity, but we do not wish for Humanity’s folly to ruin our galaxy.  This is our home and all we asked for was your trust, and yet you could not deliver.”

    “The terraformer is all powered up Xlagheff,” reported one of the anginimo on the bridge.

    “Kelley,” Xlagheff gently patted the human’s head, “this is a lesson.  For Humanity.”  Kelley said nothing, but wore a blank expression on her face.  “Sometimes to go forward, you must step back.  This step is to look upon all you have achieved and to better realize where to set your foot next.”  The alien raised his two right arms for a brief moment and then swung them down, “Fire.”

    “You bastard!”  Sheridan yelled, brushing the claw off her head and simultaneously throwing a left hook at the attachee.  

    Before it could land however, she became motionless, surrounded by glimmers of green light.  “I know you are angry, but do try to control your temper,” Xlagheff calmly stated with an outstretched hand, their antennae were now a bright green.  A loud humming could be heard as the energy ran through the ship, followed by a massive stream of blue light emanating straight towards Novita.  The light struck the planet in a massive explosion and then dispersed in waves all around the planet.  The once lush blue and green ball was now an icy shade of blue-green.  The alien lowered his hand and Kelley fell to the floor once more.  “I’m sorry, Sheridan.”

    The entire room took a small while to marvel at what they had accomplished.  An entire planet was transformed in just a few seconds.  “Good job, everybody.  This will surely send Humanity a sign and help build our two species into greater harmony.  They may not see it now, but time will be the ultimate teacher to them.  They will come out stronger and so shall we.”  Xlagheff’s fellow aliens gave a small cheer at their leader’s speech.  They knew his wisdom far surpassed their own.

    It was at that moment that Sheridan bolted upright and took in a sharp uptake of air, “Wha!  I-I’m alive?”  She hastily began to check all of her body parts, questioning what exactly was going on.  She now turned to Xlagheff, hoping for an explanation, “I thought you killed everyone on the planet?  Why am I still in this thing?”

    “The Mechatars are truly some of Humanity’s finest work.  An android body without an operating center.  It’s marvelous how you can uplink your consciousness into one and remotely pilot it.  That will surely give you a new outlook on life.”  While they travelled the stars, Humanity was able to develop the technology of neural-uplinking to certain machinery.  It allowed them to look at the world in a whole new way.  Now if anything was deemed too dangerous for a Human, they could pilot a Mechatar instead.

    “Ok, I get that, but I thought you killed us?”  Kelley was shaken up from her body’s experience down below, but she still didn’t comprehend what just transpired.

    Xlagheff let out a dry chuckle, “Goodness no.  I said that we did not want to eradicate Humanity, did I not?  We essentially flash-froze Novita.  Brought upon an Ice Age, so to say.”

    “So we’re not all dead?”  A glint of hope sparked in Sheridan’s eyes.

    “Of course not.  Merely frozen.  Everyone is still aware of what is going on, however.  That is how your mind is still able to operate your machine.  This way, everybody on Novita can think over their actions and what brought this upon them.”  The alien once more offered a hand to the fallen Human, “No harm will come to them. This, We promise.”

    Kelley took the hand again and hoisted herself up, “Thank you.  For not destroying us all.  It was wrong of Humanity to put it’s noses where they didn’t belong.  I’m sorry we trespassed on your sacred sites on Novita.”

    “Take this back to your people and let them be aware of this.  We wish to live in harmony, but Humanity must earn our trust.”

    “I’ll return to the Moirai straight away,” she sprinted off, only to return seconds later.  “I actually don’t have a ship since you let me store this Mechatar here.  Could you give me a ride?”  She sheepishly asked.

    “Of course,” Xlagheff affirmed, “set the destination for Humanity’s Moirai space station.”  The crew nodded in affirmation.  Buttons were pushed and the engines began to whir alive.  Sheridan Kelley took a stand beside Xlagheff and eagerly awaited her return to the station.  A control panel appeared in front of Xlagheff and was lit up across the board.  “Prepare for FTL jump.”  Xlagheff pushed one of the button on his console and extended his two left arms to hold onto his human companion.  The ships engine’s changed from a bright green to a bright blue.  The whole ship was then wrapped in a veil of the same colored light.  It then shot forward through space, leaving a trail of blue lights in its wake.