The day the Universal Unity Committee received the video it was immediately passed from one office to another, frantic and secretive and endlessly fascinating for it.
The committee, founded from the ashes of a much more iron-fisted universal rule, had pledged from its inception to be an open palm for the universe to hold, take from, and press itself to. Many planets had taken them up on the offer and soon the once small committee became a bustling network of interstellar travel, communication and community which made the once dark expanse of unknown space seem smaller with every passing day.
However, there were some planets which had neglected to reach back toward that open hand. Some out of fear, some out of malice, and some for unknown reasons.
Opranov was one such planet.
The video, recorded on old software and sent by hand to the committee’s furthest outpost, had been given to a worker at the crack of dawn.
“You have to see this,” the messenger said, and something about the look in her eyes made the worker stop to listen - if only so she wouldn’t pursue him. However, the next words hooked him as they would soon hook many in a line trending jaggedly upward to the top of the committee’s ladder.
“It’s from Opranov.”
*
Lila Campbell sat in the middle of the U.U.C’s head offices. Though they were usually abuzz with interpersonal chatter and calls from all across the universe, today they were empty aside from her and her supervisor.
“We want you to take a look at the message from Opranov,” she’d been told that morning, the call waking her from a nightmare. “Tell us what you think.”
As she stared at the monitor in front of her, Lila didn’t know what she was supposed to say.
The person on display looked unnatural. The moment she laid eyes on her, that’s what Lila had thought. The woman was pale and her dark eyes matched the all-black outfit that wrapped around her thin body like an insulated second skin. Every inch of her was covered except for her nose and eyes - even her mouth was wrapped and hidden away behind that black fabric.
“I am from Opranov,” she said, adjusting her body strangely as she spoke. It was a slow, deliberate movement which looked too fluid to be unpracticed though there were moments of sudden jagged twitching.
Lila felt unsettled, seeing it. It reminded her of an electrified corpse or a spider. She had the feeling that at any moment the woman might lunge through the screen at her - though she couldn’t imagine what would follow.
She shivered, thinking back to her nightmare. She’d started the day off on the wrong foot or…she wasn’t the right person for this sort of job. What was she supposed to think about this?
“I hear that’s how everyone from that planet moves,” her supervisor, Delgrick, said. He was watching from over her shoulder and whistled before taking another sip of whatever was in his mug. “But it’s freaky to see it in person. Especially a Human…well, you know. That’s why the higher ups are so interested.”
“A Human on Opranov?” Lila asked, leaning closer despite herself. Rationally, the person was not Novian. She didn’t have the tendrils and though her eyes were large they were not the dilated pits of color that were associated with Novians, what little could be associated with them.
A Human on Opranov. How was that possible? Opranov was a planet composed mostly of overlapping oceans with the dominant humanoid species living entirely underwater. Lila leaned even closer, looking into the other woman’s dark eyes. It wasn’t just their color but there was a sadness in them and blotchy circles marred the surrounding skin.
How could a Human live there?
The room behind the currently paused individual didn’t give much away. It looked like it was some sort of lab but Lila couldn’t tell what any of the machines did, so to her they only blinked and beeped ominously in the background. There seemed to be a window running through the room like a gash, letting in gray light and boasting a view of what seemed to be an endless ocean.
Lila looked at the woman in the center once again. If Delgrick hadn’t prefaced the video with ‘A woman from Opranov contacted the higher ups’ as soon as she’d seen him, she wouldn’t have been sure it was a woman at all.
“I know,” she’d said, stepping onto the lift. “They called me.”
The two had been quiet the ride up. Then, moments before the doors opened, Delgrick had asked if she was afraid.
Lila had remembered her nightmare: Her teeth falling out as she was chased through a maze-like reinterpretation of her childhood home. She’d shifted from one foot to another.
“Well…they’re always a little scary, aren’t they? The people from no-contact planets.”
Lila pressed play again.
“Help. I want leave. I want go on a ship with my companion. Olaan. Olaan.”
Something in the corner of the screen began to move, slowly dripping down onto the floor. It looked at first to be a viscous blue goo but it slowly built itself up into the shape of a humanoid figure which stood behind the woman’s shoulder, immersed in darkness.
Lila hadn’t ever seen a Novian in motion before. Very few in the United Planetary System had. It was no wonder the U.U.C was so interested.
Opranov was historically a no-contact planet which meant it was outside the U.U.C’s purview and thus considered dangerous to travel to or near. Unlike other no-contact planets, Novians were not recorded as being hostile but their incredible secrecy meant that vanishingly few people alive knew anything about their species or planet.
There was only one recorded attempt by Opranov to cooperate with the U.U.C and it’d gone poorly. So poorly that the first formal meeting had lasted less than an hour and all further attempts to contact the planet had been ignored entirely.
Of those who’d been part of that mission, Lila had never met one with anything good to say about Opranov or its people.
One of her professors at the academy, a man around her grandmother’s age, had been among the first group to ever speak with a Novian.
“I won’t lie to you all, it was frightening.” That was how he prefaced his lecture, standing in front of the class. “They aren’t warriors or cannibals but to be honest, I’d take that over a Novian any day. At least you can figure out what they want, how to talk to them…”
He sighed, straightening.. “Our meeting with the Novians lasted five minutes. That’s the longest anyone’s managed face to face.
There’d been a beat of stunned silence as the information sank in. A mere five minutes.
Slowly, the girl sitting next to Lila had raised her hand.
“Yes?”
“Sorry, um. What makes the Novians so scary if they aren’t violent?”
There was a murmur of tepid agreement. Lila had looked down at her notes, drawing random lines. Wasn’t it obvious? She’d thought. People you couldn’t speak to for more than five minutes…
There were those who wanted nothing more than to travel to no-contact planets but Lila had never understood why. She was of the opinion that one should leave well enough alone. The universe was full of rich cultures, cooperative and friendly people from all sorts of planets. Why seek out those who didn’t want to be a part of that?
“Good question. I was rambling, wasn’t I? Don’t be afraid, I can admit it.” The classroom laughed, relaxing at the shift in tone. The professor smiled, turning back to the board.
“It was the tension more than anything. We fundamentally misunderstood each other. I’ve been part of the U.U.C for over fifty years and I’ve never since had such an overwhelming feeling of…well, forgive me if this sounds insensitive or obvious but; ‘This is an alien.’”
Lila had stiffened, looking up. Pictures the U.U.C had managed to take of Opranov were being displayed on the board: An infinite ocean, barren land composed mostly of rocks and mountains, a gray sky. Underwater, they’d taken a few blurry pictures of what looked to be a city in the distance - that was the only thing beautiful about the photoset and even that picture had made her a bit uneasy. It was hard not to be.
The underwater city was frequently described as being like a fairytale from ancient Earth, but all Lila could think about was death and natural disasters from that very same era.
The professor continued. “Living as interconnected as we are, we’ve come to think of different species as people just like us. I want to stress to you that that’s always the goal - friendship and cooperation throughout the universe. Each and every one of you should think that way if you’re given the privilege of making initial contact with an unknown species.”
His expression had taken on a hint of wistful longing as he’d paused, looking out the window at the busy evening sky. “Opranov just…isn’t ready for us yet.”
The woman on the monitor shrieked, pulling Lila from her thoughts with a racing heart.
The woma’s head had been moved violently to the left, held at an intentional but painful-looking angle. The humanoid behind her leaned back so its face was no longer visible, holding up its hands as if blocking some invisible blow. For the first time, Lila recognized that it was draped in cloth, fine cloth, bejeweled in excess - entirely unlike the woman’s outfit.
“Can any being hear me? I want leave. A ship with my companion. Olaan. Olaan.”
She turned toward the screen, pausing before raising her hand in the air as if about to wave. However, she didn’t move after that point. Instead she stared at the recording device and a long period of silence followed.
“Respond,” she said, her voice low and trembling. “Help me. Leave. I want go.”
Then both she and the humanoid bowed their heads and the video began again.
Lila shut it off before hearing the repeated first words.
“Well?” Delgrick asked after a long sip from his mug. “What do you think?”
“I…I don’t know,” Lila admitted, gripping the desk to keep her hands from shaking. She didn’t know why she felt so unsettled. It was probably why she was in administration rather than flying out across the galaxy. She wasn’t able to calmly stomach or marvel at something so unfamiliar.
“It’s pretty amazing,” she offered, the words ringing hollow to her own ear.
“Mm. That’s one way of putting it.”
Lila looked at Delgrick. He was a Forlarite, a species who’d once declared themselves enemies of the U.U.C. The alliance between the committee and FO 19, the planet he hailed from, was only four decades old. She took in his blue skin and his mouth with its rows of small pointed teeth.
Despite Folarites being seen as dangerous in her parents’ time and the fact that he was clearly alien, his presence felt as normal to Lila as her morning cup of coffee. She’d never once been afraid of him.
Delgrick looked back at her. “Checking something?” he asked.
Lila blinked. She hadn’t expected to be caught but before she could apologize he raised a hand to stop her.
“No need. I did the same thing but no…” he shook his head, letting out a whistling noise. “These guys are freaky. That’s all there is to it.”
Lila wondered if that was true. She sighed, stretching as subtly as she could and turning away from Delgrick. “So the higher ups want us to send a ship?” she asked.
“Yep,” Delgrick said rotely, reading from a portable file. “Send Bridgers and his crew - he’s experienced with welcoming new members into the committee and his grandfather was the photographer on the only contact mission.”
“Oh really? I didn’t know that.” Lila said, beginning to pen a letter to Bridgers’s ship.
Delgrick snorted, taking another sip of coffee and he turned away. “Then you haven’t talked to Bridgers…oh, what’s her name by the way?”
“Who?” Lila asked, answering her own question before Delgrick could reply. “Oh! The girl.”
She quickly found the attachment that’d been sent to her and started scanning through it. There’d been a transcript file given so she didn’t have to watch the video through everytime.
“Um…oh, it’s Pearl.”
“A Human jewel. That’s unexpected,” Delgrick said, already halfway to his desk. He never said goodbye but you could tell when a conversation was over after being around a Forlarite long enough.
Lila nodded though he wasn’t watching, catching a glimpse of the woman yet again. Her eyes…were they really that big or was it just because there was nothing else to focus on?
For a moment, Lila wished she could see her in person. Then she shook her head.
No, she knew herself too well. If she met the woman from the video in person she wouldn’t even be able to keep her hands from shaking - let alone keep the fear from her eyes.
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