It took a month to arrive at Ceis, and by then the mood had shifted. What should have been a fun story to tell around drinks, soon became something else entirely when Sumarin received word and announced that a passenger would, in fact, be boarding the ship. The passengers who had been chatting excitedly about the observations and sketches they would make, while getting drunk at the bar, soon fell into hushed whispers. They looked over their shoulders as though some invisible being were listening in on their conversations. Even the crew had grown tense, jumping at the smallest sounds. For Liza, an irrational and silent terror had crept into her heart. None of them had ever encountered a ceisite, but the rumors of their wise and peaceful natures, went hand in hand with those that spoke of infinite lifespans, and powers that could unravel the universe. Yes, she was feeling jaded with the ship and her crew, but the thought of this unfathomable being known only through stories coming into her home, and doing who knows what, caused her to shake in fright. She tried to play it off, but she knew very well that if there was potential for something to go wrong, it would. It always did, and good things were fleeting. Now more than ever, she wanted to be far from the ship and all the people on it.

Unfortunately, leaving was not an option, and soon it was time to welcome the passenger. Liza’s skin crawled, and her breath came out in short gasps as she and Ardon stood in front of the shuttle doors and began the opening sequence. With each unlock protocol completed, panic filled her lungs. She could feel herself begin to hyperventilate. What would this being do to them? Why would they choose the Imperza of all ships to board? If they were so powerful, why couldn’t they just teleport where ever they wanted? Why…

She jumped as she felt two arms around her shoulder and waist. “Liza! Are you okay? You look like you’re about to faint.” Ardon said, holding her up as her knees buckled.

Her eyes snapped to Ardon’s face, and she saw his four blue eyes widened in shock. “I…” she started to say.

“It’s okay, just relax… Actually, it might be better for you to go to your room. I’ll take care of things here.”

“No, no…” she shook her head and brushed his hands off, then stood up straighter and quickly wiped the sweat off her face. Her antennae were buzzing wildly, and she tried to calm them. “I’m fine, don’t worry.” She tried to smile but, by the look on Ardon’s face, it was unconvincing. “We can’t keep the passenger waiting,” she said, then flicked her fingers over the glyphs on the door’s control panel to complete the unlock sequence.

“We really need to talk after this, all of us. Something is wrong, and you need to tell us so we can help… Liza, are you listening?”

“I am, and I’m fine,” she said bluntly, but the only thought in her head was the fear of what the ceisite could potentially do to Ardon if she left him here alone. She knew it was irrational. All these fears were as likely to happen as Nol suddenly going supernova and destroying the entire galaxy, and yet she couldn’t control her mind.

The pressure of the airlock was matched with that of the air outside, and the doors began to open. Liza held her breath, and felt Ardon tense up beside her. Together, they watched the old doors slowly slide open. Soon the figure of the Ceisite was fully revealed, and they looked exactly like the holograms and pictures Liza had seen in Basic Education. A torso-only body with three thick trails, almost like tails of a kite extending from it. Their body was a pale yellow that looked like stone one moment, and metal at others. Their arms were long, ending in large five-fingered palms, their face… well, they had a head, but where the face should have been, was a small gray slab with some symbols or text on it. From their head, two long horns extended upwards, surrounded by long gaseous hair that billowed out like a nebula, they floated about a meter off the ground, and that was it. Yes, they looked different, but no more alien than any other race in the galaxy. Liza released her breath and waited for some sort of effect from the ceisite to hit her, some aura of power. Nothing happened, and after a while, the silence became awkward with her and Ardon staring at the ceisite.

The ceisite tilled their head, and Liza quickly stepped back, pulling on Ardon’s shirt to drag him back with her, but nothing more happened, and the situation became even more uncomfortable. Ardon glanced nervously at her, then nudged her shoulder. She nodded. Forced her still lingering fear down, and then stepped forward. She spread her hands outwards as if she was about to give a hug, then dropped her head forward slightly. From what she’d researched, this was the way ceisites greeted each other.

“Welcome aboard the Imperza Sof. Aleion,” she said, remembering their name from the information that was sent with their booking, and hoping she pronounced it correctly. “My name is Liza, the hostess, and this is Ardon, our… technician.” She continued, choosing to introduce him as a technician instead of chef as that seemed somewhat more appropriate for the situation.

“Thank you,” Aleion said, returning the gesture. Lana felt her throat dry up at the ceisite’s voice which seemed to come roughly from their chest area. The sounds they made were spoken in a language she’d never heard before, but somehow she understood it perfectly. She felt goosebumps rise on her skin, and glanced at Ardon, who seemed similarly affected.

“Sorry,” the ceisite continued with their strange sounds, a mixture between grunts, chirps, and melody. “I’ve never been off Ceis, so I don’t have a good grasp on standard speech, but once I spend some days with you all, I will pick it up quickly. For now, I am directly transmitting my meaning to your minds.” They made a squeaky sound, which was translated in Liza’s mind as a laugh. “The sounds are just for effect!” Somehow Liza understood their amusement and the impression of a smile.

Contrary to the ceisites cheery tone, no, even more so because of it, Liza felt bile rise to her throat but tried to keep it down. This was clearly mental manipulation! Not only were such powers rare in Nol, but there were strict laws about their usage. The first and foremost was the request for permission before touching people’s minds in any way, and yet this ceisite was blatantly disregarding all that and taking joy in it.

She saw Ardon clench his fists and step forward. “Sof. Aleion. I…um, that is… I understand you don’t know how to speak standard, but you must know that manipulating people’s minds is illegal. I know you are trying to communicate, but perhaps using your auto-comm for translation would be a better option, especially with other passengers.”

Liza was impressed by Ardon’s bravery, but as the ceisite continued to remain quiet, Liza was worried that they had angered him. Finally, they tilted their head — it seemed to be a common body language- and began to speak, still using the same method.

“Mind manipulation?” confusion was evident in the impression that Liza received. “I know the Galactic Union edicts and laws, and I assure you I am not breaking any of them, this….” They gestured with their hands, “This is how all ceisites communicate.”

The chirps, and grunts, and nonsense sounds that were being made before with each communication had been stopped, and so in pure silence, somehow, Liza was understanding what the ceisite was ‘saying,’ and it made it all the more creepy.

Aleion continued. “As you can see, we don’t have vocal cords or organs that produce sound. All communication is done through impressions and mind-to-mind communication. Absolutely no manipulation is happening. My ‘words’ are simply being impressed on your mind, and I’m making that happen in reverse for your words on mine.” They raised up their hands, palms facing down, and Liza immediately understood that they were practically pleading at this point to not be misunderstood, but everything they were saying, only made the situation more frightening to her. “The sounds from before was me manually vibrating the molecules in the air.”

“I see…” Liza mumbled, trying to remain professional, although a part of her wanted to immediately send an emergency help request to the GU. “I think when dealing with races that are… Uh… Less… psychically gifted, well even in general, it is considered best practice to always request permission before such mind-to-mind contact.” At this point, Liza just wanted to run away. This was all too much. It was one thing to know that for some races in the galaxy, her mind was as easy to read as the words in a book, but to be faced with the almost callous way in which such power was being displayed, left her feeling vulnerable and exposed.

“This is unexpected, but….” Aleion paused, and Liza could tell they were considering something.

While they spoke, Ardon had begun preparing the ship to un-dock from Ceis’s ITS. Liza almost asked him to stop, still retaining some hope that the ceisite would change their mind and return to their planet. It seemed unlikely as the door was resealed, and he signaled Sumarin that there were all set to take off.

The ceisite carefully began again. “Communicating with the auto-comm is not easy for ceisites… the artificial brains in them are not sophisticated enough to clearly pick up and decipher our form of communication, and all the nuances involved…a better idea would be….”

They hesitated. “Well, if one of you would simply allow me to actually access your minds in a real sense, I can quickly grasp the language. This was what I was planning to do anyway, in small bits, with each person in the shuttle… although I sense far less people than I assumed would be on such a large vessel. This was all to be done with permission, of course, but I’m starting to see that it might not be taken as lightly as I expected.”

“You want to read our minds?!” Liza said and took a step back.

“No,” Aleion said, and she sensed a mild spike of annoyance, quickly tapped down. “No, I simply want to access the language, some memories may leak through, as language is obviously tied to some degree with your memories, but it will be small things. This would be avoided if I could sample a bit from everyone, but this way is faster.”

Her memories… Aleion made it sound like a trivial thing, but nothing about this was trivial. There were no memories that she wanted to share with this person, or anyone else for that matter. She could feel herself mentally retreating. Maybe it was better to just let Aleion communicate however they wanted to, after all, it was normal for ceisites. So what if it makes everyone uncomfortable? It would be a spectacle! A great event, an experience they could tell their friends about. That’s what they had wanted, right? Why should she be the one to deal with this?

A small beeping sound broke her out of her thoughts, and she looked to Ardon, who had pulled out his auto-comm. “I have to go work on tonight’s dinner…uh,” he glanced at the ceisite, then back to Liza. “Can you handle things here?” she could tell he was glad to get an excuse to leave, and she resented him a bit for it.

“Yes, thanks. Go get dinner ready.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded, then turned back to face Aleion. She heard Ardon shuffle out of the room. “I thought he was a technician,” Aleion asked.

“He is, and he is also the chef.”

“Interesting… I find it strange how much fear is being emitted from everyone. I assume I am the cause of this?” She sensed a hint of an emotion, not quite sadness, but similar.

“Yes,” Liza answered bluntly. It wasn’t that she wasn’t scared of the ceisite anymore, but emotion, in general, was becoming too exhausting, and she could feel her heart growing numb to it all. “Please follow me, and I’ll show you to your room.” She turned and began walking.

“How odd. Why would you all be scared of me?”

“Most people haven’t met a ceisite before.”

“But still, we don’t have a violent reputation… We shouldn’t anyway.” Aleion seemed contemplative, and Liza was finally getting used to their soundless communication.

“Not violence, but power. Apparently, your race is incredibly powerful. The oldest race in the galaxy and, according to some, the most powerful… That kind of stuff scares normal people.”

“Sof. Liza, I think of myself as a ‘normal person,’ as you put it.”

Liza glanced at them. The words did not carry any impression of an emotion, but the absence made it obvious that Aleion was hiding their feelings.

“I’m sorry if I offended you, Sof. Aleion. It’s just in the face of the powers you’ve so effortlessly displayed, it’s hard not to think of you as extraordinary.” She said, then suddenly felt tears welling up. She should have known that wasn’t an appropriate thing to say, especially to a passenger, but her mind seemed to be underwater. Her emotions were erratic, fluctuating by the second, numb in the next. She took a deep breath and tried to do some calming antenna vibrations her mother had taught her as a child.

“I was not offended, so no need for apologies,” Aleion said. Liza could immediately sense that they meant it. She had to wonder how ceisites lied to each other when the way they communicated was so direct. Well, it was obvious they could control to an extent the degree of what was shared, but still, it felt too raw. She wondered what sort of emotional impressions Aleion was getting from her. Probably nothing good.

They arrived in front of the room she’d prepared for Aleion. She’d picked one as far away from the crew’s and other passenger’s rooms as possible, and she felt a bit silly for doing that now. She keyed in the master code into the door, then set it for calibration. “Place your hand over this light here,” she said, pointing to a blue, circular spot of light on the door. Aleion did as she directed, and a small burst of light flashed and logged Aleion’s mana signature.

“Now, place your auto-comm in front of the same spot.” Another burst of light, and the necessary biometric data stored on the auto-comm was keyed into the door. Now the only people who would be able to get into the room were Aleion and the crew members with the master key, her and Sumarin.

“Ok, That’s all. The map of the ship should have been sent to your comm, but feel free to message me if you have any issues. I prepared the room as best as possible, but we’ve never hosted a ceisite, so let me know if anything needs to be changed, and we’ll accommodate for that.” She waited politely for Aleion to respond. When they said nothing, she turned and was glad to be finally done with the whole situation, but a tap on her shoulder stopped her.

“You have a question?” she asked, trying her best to remain polite.

“Yes, it’s about what I mentioned earlier. Have you considered allowing me to learn standard speech by accessing your mind briefly?”