Three hours later and I was finally discharged from the temporary hospital wing, I was limping out of there as fast as I could when a hand wrapped around my arm.

I turned quickly to see a pair of bright blue eyes staring sadly at me, Silas! I threw my arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight and desperate hug.

“Silas,” I sobbed “I was so worried I didn’t know what happened to you!”

His hand began to rub soothing circles in my back until my breathing slowed “It’s okay Esmeralda I would never leave you alone okay?”

After reassuring myself he was real I reluctantly let go, leaning back on my crutches. Silas puts his hands on my cheeks and grins down at me. Out of my peripheral I see orange, I turned my head so quickly I swear I almost broke my neck.

Rue looked away abashed when my eyes met his “Sorry for interrupting, I was just seeing how you were doing…” He rubbed his neck, how very... human.

I pulled back further and smiled at the alien “it’s okay!” I quickly reassured him “This is my friend Silas, he’s a very good friend of mine.” Silas furrowed his eyebrows but nodded at Rue in acknowledgement.

Rue noticeably relaxed, the easy smile back on his lips. “I know you are not military, but I was hoping to speak to you privately if allowed?”

Before I could answer, Silas put his hand on my shoulder protectively “Sorry but I think Esmeralda needs to rest- she went through quite an ordeal to get here.”

I felt annoyance bubble in my chest at Silas talking for me, but before I could say anything to refute what he had said Rue slowly blinked at me and smiled “Of course, I will speak to you later Es, get some rest.” With that Rue span around and marched off down the corridor.

I turned to Silas accusingly “why did you do that? I can answer for myself you know!”

He rolled his eyes at me, placing his hand on my back to steer me down the corridor in the opposite direction “you need food Pom, and to sit down. Not talk to some random alien, you aren’t militia so don’t feel so obliged to talk to these people! Now come on, the Caaknai has provided us with some food. Actual food that wasn’t dehydrated or grown in a petri dish! They have this weird meat that reminds me of crocodile, and it is delicious!” Silas grins down at me in excitement and I can’t help but to join in, I was so worried about him.

I need to find out what happened to the others- Nathaniel, Valana and the rest- but I don’t think I can take any more bad news at the moment, what I need is to eat something hot and filling and get some shut eye.

Silas pushes open another door revealing what looks like a canteen, the smells that hit my nose make my mouth water, I can’t place any of the fragrances assaulting my senses but boy was it incredible! The room was large and round, filled with round white table and stools, most tables filled with humans in various states of injury.

Silas steers me towards a table with two others sat there and trots off to fill up our plates. I turn to the man sat opposite me and say hello with a smile on my lips.

He looks up at me and grunts, his salt and pepper hair filled with dust and flecks of debris “so you’re the girl that ken doll was telling us about” he looked me up and down “you don’t look the type,” I blinked at him a few times in shock, how rude!

“Oh no, we are just friends! Best friends!” I quickly assure him, he grunts again in response.

The other younger man next to him tuts and rolls his eyes “Ignore him, my dad is a right prick when he wants to be.” He had a mild cockney accent and bright ginger hair, what a weird combination I think to myself, amused. “I’m Mira and this miserable old goat is my dad Ed.” Mira sidled closer to me smiling “our Ozzie friend over there has been going out of his mind worried about you – especially after we heard your pods were blown to bits!” He put his hand on my arm and gave it a squeeze “glad to see you’re okay sweetheart!” He let his arm dropped and pulled his plate closer to him, digging in to his food.

Just then Silas returns and dumps a plate and a small bowl in front of me, curiously I examine the food.

Inside the bowl is an almost transparent liquid, it has a slight pink hue and small chunks of something floating about inside, it smells tangy, not unlike onions from Earth! At first glance the plate appears to be a curry of some sort, with rice and chunks of meat in a bright yellow sauce. However, with closer inspection, the ‘rice’ doesn’t look quite right. I look around for cutlery to eat this delicious smelling food and come up short.

Silas notices me looking and hands me a spatula looking thing with a small handle “Drink the soup and use this for the food. And here,” he slides a tiny cup towards me “it tastes kind of weird but it’s a nectar drink they have here. By some miracle a lot of the food they have is suitable for humans!”

I pick up the bowl of soup and take a sip.

Oh my god.

The broth did in fact taste remarkably similar to the onions we had back on Earth, the small chunks however were harder to place. Earthy, perhaps likened to mushroom? Either way it was incredibly delicious, I finished the bowl in a few gulps and quickly picked up the spatula to dive into the next delicacy. I put a few grains of the ‘rice’ on the spatula and try it, surprised to discover it was actually very sweet! I added the mystery meat to the sweet rice and shoved it in my mouth, unable to hold back the groan that burst from my lips. I couldn’t describe what the sauce tasted like, the flavours all new and different to what I’ve ever had before but it was so rich it complimented the sweet rice beautifully, and the meat was unusual as it very much had the texture of chicken, but the taste is like a fishy pork chop. Either way it tastes incredible, the Caaknai sure know how to treat an alien.

It doesn’t take long for me to finish the feast placed in front of me, Silas and Mira make small talk as I devour my dinner. Once done I stretch my arms above my head satisfied causing Mira to laugh “Good right? Those Deus have been holding out on us!” Ed stood up and collected all our plates, taking them over to a drop off point where a very bored Caaknai is stood.

It’s interesting how different the Caaknai appear, considering how many features they share.

As an egg laying species, the female don’t have breasts but significantly larger hips than the men who have broader shoulders, the skin colours are always a shade of blue or green and the eyes range from browns to reds to yellows. Rue’s orange eyes pop into my head again and I mentally slap myself, you stop that.

Silas helps me up and I bid goodbye to Ed and Mira and took me to the temporary housing sector, the Caaknai were kind enough to provide us with a large number of rooms and we filled each room with around 30 beds, I fell onto a mattress that smelt of Silas and quickly fell asleep.

When I awoke a few hours later, Silas was nowhere to be seen so I grabbed onto my crutches and made my way to the door, smiling at all the humans who looked my way.

Once I exited the room, I notice a large clear door not too far away leading outside! My curiosity piqued I quickly hobbled over and pushed the door open, stepping out onto the alien world.

It looks exactly as you would imagine for the semi-aquatic creatures, huge trees covered the land as far as I could see, the air thick with moisture, there were a few Caaknai dotted around relaxing in the cool evening, I walked over to a bench and closed my eyes.

I’m on an alien planet. Me, the nobody who had a dead-end job back on Earth was sat on another planet surrounded by incredible aliens.

After a few minutes I feel someone sit next to me, slowly I open my eyes to see none other than Rue with his signature smile on his face “nice to see you again” he looks away from me towards the trees “what do you think of our new planet?” he turned back to me.

I smile softly, “it’s beautiful” and it really was, the trees were gigantic with light brown trunks and blue leaves and the ground covered in a thick undergrowth, dotted between the trees stood small dome-like structures partly submerged, this planet looked a lot like the rainforests back on Earth, except with much more vibrant greens and blues.

“How’s the air for you? I understand you have a similar atmosphere but there are differences.” He turned his concerned eyes to mine.

It was true the air was slightly harder to breathe than the air back on Earth or aboard our ship- but the difference was barely noticeable. I shook my head with a smile “ I feel perfectly fine, all things considering.” I remembered his words from earlier before Silas took me away “What did you want to say to me earlier on?”

He started slightly before giving me another gentle smile “your ship isn’t going to be ready for launch for a very long time, if at all. So we have agreed to alter one of our carrier ships for your use to get you to the Alliance base. Our scientists are currently altering the air filtration systems so it’s slightly more suitable for your species while still allowing the few Caaknai who will join us to breathe easy.” My heart squeezed a little at leaving our ship behind, but we must go on and reach our final destination, once we unite with the rest of the humans and the other races, hopefully we will find the answer to the monsters targeting human ships.

Wait, did he say us? My head snapped to meet his gaze “us? You will join us?” I perked up at the thought.

“You are taking my ship after all.” He smiled, reaching out to place his hand on my arm “ I was somewhat disappointed to be assigned to terraforming so I jumped at the chance for a quick adventure,” his eyes grew serious “besides, what’s happening to you has never happened before, as a member of the Alliance it’s my duty to make sure Alliance space is safe for all species.”

I smile at that, his genuine words touching me, not all aliens will have the same attitude as Rue, but it’s nice to know at least some care. 

That we aren’t completely alone in this.