The next morning, I woke up before the first sunrays were visible. I had slept for long enough before landing on this planet, so I wasn’t too annoyed by getting less sleep. Hoping that Tryox was still asleep, I sneaked out of my room and down the stairs to the kitchen. Now that I knew this wasn’t a stranger’s home, I felt a bit more comfortable. However, it still didn’t feel like my home.

Tryox’s words kept replaying in my mind while I made breakfast for the both of us. Why had he volunteered to live with a human if he didn’t like us? I found everything I needed to make a big breakfast with pancakes, fried eggs, bacon and sandwiches with cheese. Nobody had told us what or how much the people on this planet ate. Judging by his size - just a bit taller than an average-sized human - I assumed the blue guy didn’t need much more food than humans did but I didn’t want to offend him more than I already had.

Once the breakfast was ready, I could see two suns rising over the horizon. That’s a fact we had been informed about: two suns meant we had to be more careful outside. At the same time, the world around me seemed to come alive as well. Humans left the houses with their partners, probably getting shown around the area. There were still no sounds from upstairs, so I got a pen to write a quick note on a piece of paper.

Good morning! I made us breakfast, I hope you like it.
I could cook one of your favourites next time but
you’ll have to show me how to make it - or just leave a
recipe on the fridge.

I’ll be back in a bit - just heading out to talk to some friends.

When I had pinned the paper to the fridge with a magnet, I quickly headed to the front door. I did hear the sound of a door from upstairs but decided to ignore it. He was awake and he’d see my note in a few minutes, that was all that mattered.

***

Honestly, I hadn’t made any real friends during my time on the spaceship. Yes, we all had worked together and we were so many that I hadn’t even met everyone but I wasn’t the type of human to just start a conversation with strangers if I didn’t have to. Everyone seemed to take my silence as a sign to stay away from me unless it was necessary to get me involved in something. However, now I needed someone - preferably a human - to talk to about what was going on. The day before, they had shown us a building where we could meet to hang out. I was hoping that someone was already there.

Luckily, some humans already sat together to talk in one of the rooms. I carefully approached them until I heard what they were talking about, “It’s not right. Why can’t they leave the houses without us?”

“So it’s the same for everyone?” I interrupted, getting the attention of every person in the room. “Tryox got angry yesterday, complaining about how we ruin their lives and planet.”

“Tsaja didn’t get angry but she seemed quite hopeless about her situation,” someone replied.

Another person added, “They have strict rules to follow if they want to live in freedom again. At the evening interview, they told me to report every issue I had with my partner even though he’s an absolute sweetheart.”

“I hid from that interview,” I mumbled when they all looked at me expectantly. A few of them nodded as if they recognised me as one of the quiet ones on the spaceship. More stories were told after I had gotten myself a chair to sit down. More and more humans joined us, coming from their houses alone to share stories and parts of explanations that they got from their partners.

“To me, this looks like they’re not letting us stay here voluntarily. They wouldn’t have offered us their planet as a new home if they wanted us to stay away from the rest of their society,” a man concluded at the end. We all nodded in agreement but we were all clueless about what to do now. When Earth had still existed, humans must have offered something to the people of this planet that was valuable enough to make them let us stay. Was our real purpose to take over and destroy this planet, just like Tryox had said? Whatever the humans of the past had planned, none of us was willing to follow any plans other than the ones we made ourselves. This was our chance for a new life and most of us were willing to do better than in our last life.

“How did you end up on that spaceship?” someone asked into the silence that had fallen on us. This time, all of us just looked around. In complete silence, we shared looks that said more than any words could. The humans who wanted to explore space and new planets had tried out for various Mars programs and those who wanted to live forever had joined communities that had offered life on Earth at a high price. We - the ones that were now still alive - had chosen the free option that had shown us an easy way out. Family members and friends that mourned us could be easily convinced that we just wanted to follow our dream of living in the future. It was easier for everyone, at least that was what we thought.

We never talked about it but it had become quite obvious that we had all ended up in that program for the same reason. The mandatory therapy sessions with robots were the subtlest sign. You could even sort us into three different groups of how we coped with the results of our actions. Some had decided to move on, leave their old life behind and try again, find a place in this society. Others had been devastated when we had woken up on the spaceship, not wanting to believe that their plan had failed miserably - maybe not for the first time either. And then there were the people like me who were kind of in the middle of the others. During my year on the spaceship, I had barely cared about waking up again. Now, everything was so new and different that I saw a chance for a better life but I knew I hadn’t changed, so why should my life have changed? What could make this new life worth living?

The reappearance of those thoughts was what made me leave that building as one of the first ones. I wanted to head back to “my” house before the feeling of guilt pulled me down a dark road. I needed to apologise to Tryox, tell him we had no idea and that we wanted to help. There were still many people outside, it was probably around lunchtime. The various different kinds of people distracted me for a while. Many of the natives had green skin, something I hadn’t noticed the day before. The world around me was mesmerizing and its inhabitants were stunning. We had to make sure to protect this world - not repeat the same mistakes.