Zaira almost smiled at the artwork she’d hung on the wall, but caught herself just in time. Smiling wasn’t something Axorthians did. It was a human mannerism she’d picked up in the year she’d spent on Earth.
Truvaxijunio walked up beside her.
“Are you sure having that on the wall will help the humans feel more comfortable?” he asked, all three eyes widening in distaste.
“I’m sure,” she said.
He tilted his head in the equivalent of a human shrug.
“You’re the expert.” He still looked doubtful as he walked away.
Zaira resisted the urge to sigh. While the human mannerism would help her feel better, it would make her coworkers question her decisions even more. That was something she had to avoid. If they were to disregard her advice entirely, the negotiations with the humans could fail. That was the last thing any of them wanted after they’d put so much time into this mission.
It had been two Earth years since a Rangian Alliance exploratory team had located the star that humans called the Sun. After the team reported its location, the Alliance had sent three Axorthian ships to handle the situation. The ships had traveled to the closest solar system connected to the wormhole network and then proceeded at standard velocity until they reached their destination.
The original plan had been to construct a Matrioshka brain around the star. Before doing so, they had done a sweep of the planets orbiting it. When the sweep found sapient life on Earth, they had decided to build a Dyson swarm around the star instead. While two ships of Axorthian engineers worked on that, the third ship had prepared to open diplomatic negotiations with Earth. It was Alliance policy to attempt to have good relations with any intelligent race residing near its megastructures.
First, they had sent probes to record human language. When they’d recorded enough that their communication spheres would be able to translate the human’s most common languages, a small contingent of Axorthians had gone to Earth in a shuttle to make first contact.
The humans had launched primitive missiles to destroy the shuttle. When that was ineffective, the humans had been willing to begin peaceful negotiations.
After several meetings, the humans had decided that they wanted to visit an Axorthian ship, but that they wanted to get there using a shuttle they built themselves. Even with Axorthian assistance, everyone knew that constructing such a vessel would take more than one Earth year.
During that time, the Axorthians had decided to send Zaira, the only xenosociolgist on board, to live on Earth and learn about human culture.
Armed with tiny holoprojectors that could make her appear human and a communication sphere, Zaira had spent a year living in the United States with Dr. Megumi Tanaka, a professor of astrophysics whose dream was to travel by wormhole.
Looking at the painting now, Zaira couldn’t help but remember one of her first experiences on Earth. She had gone with the Tanaka family to help their daughter, Amy, move into her college dorm. After they had moved everything in, Amy had frowned.
“We need to go buy some posters. This place looks like a prison.”
That evening, Zaira had made a note that humans were not comfortable with unadorned white walls.
Surveying the white walls of her ship, Zaira knew the humans would appreciate the artwork, even if her fellow Axorthians did not. Satisfied, she turned to look at the conference table, eyes widening when she saw the centerpieces. Immediately, she walked over and started removing the red spider lilies from the flower arrangements.
“Amonizaira, what are you doing?” Ruvenolita demanded. “These arrangements were ordered from a human shop, as you recommended.”
“Some of the delegates are Japanese,” Zaira explained. “These flowers would have a different meaning for them.”
“If you say so,” Ruvenolita said, walking away.
As she removed spider lilies, Zaira thought back to when Megumi’s father had died. Zaira had accompanied her to Japan for the funeral. There had been red spider lilies everywhere. When Zaira had asked, Megumi had explained that they symbolized a final goodbye. That was not what she wanted the humans thinking about during the negotiations.
Once Zaira had thrown the flowers into the moleculizer, she surveyed the room and noticed that placards had been set up to tell each human where to sit. Without hesitating, she started removing them as well.
“Assigned seats will reduce confusion,” Parforiti said.
“Humans value freedom over order,” she replied.
As he walked away, Zaira was glad she hadn’t told him her actual reasoning: humans preferred to sit with their friends. She knew he wouldn’t understand the term any better than she had at first. “Friend” was not a concept Axorthians had.
Zaira remembered when Megumi’s husband had gone to the hospital to sit with a coworker while his son had surgery.
“Why is he going there?” Zaira had asked Megumi. “He can’t do anything to help.”
“Because that’s what friends do,” she’d replied.
During her time on Earth, Zaira had learned that friends also “hung out,” helped each other, and sat together whenever possible.
When all of the name placards were removed, Zaira decided the room was ready.
The human delegates arrived an hour later. Megumi waved at Zaira as she sat down, and Zaira gave her a miniscule nod.
After two hours of negotiations, a group of human scientists left with two Axorthian guides to see some of their technology. Zaira accompanied the group, ostensibly to help with cultural misunderstandings.
The Axorthian scientists gave the humans a tour of the ship and then took them to the wormhole station that had recently been constructed near Mars. Megumi grinned at Zaira as she strapped herself in, and Zaira couldn’t help but smile back.
Zaira had “pulled strings” to make sure Dr. Megumi Tanaka would not only get to fulfill her dream, but that she would go down in history as the first human to travel by wormhole…
Because that’s what friends do.
Miriam Thor started writing in second grade and hasn’t stopped since. Her first (unpublished) work was an illustrated children’s book about seals that is probably still on her mother’s shelf. Currently, Miriam lives in Alabama with her husband and six adorable cats. Her published works include Listening to the Rain, Wish Granted, and Her First Noel, as well as short stories in Crunchy with Chocolate, Swords and Sorcery Magazine, and other publications. Visit her website at https://www.miriamthor.com/ or follow her on X @Miriam_Thor17
3 comments:
What I like about this story is that the Axorthians are the sort of aliens I hope we someday meet. They'll like _nice_ Vogons. They didn't come here to establish contact at all; they came to use the Sun as the power source for an engineering project, but when they found life on the 3rd planet, they changed their plans.
If they were like _us_, they'd be like, "Oops, sorry, didn't notice you were there. Look, we're going to scoop up as many of you as we can catch and transplant you to Mars. Enough of you should survive that in a few generations you will have rebuilt your population."
I love when a story highlights things about human nature that I don’t even register (preferring freedom over order, assigning meaning to a flower, being put off by blank walls). Loved this, Miriam! You packed so much creativity (and a lovely theme about friendship) into such a punchy story!
This piece is so solid and also so sensitive. It’s grounded and relatable and still delicate and subtle. Also, the terms “matrioshka brain” and “Dyson swarm” are fantastic!
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