“I tell jokes,” Azdrei’in confirmed amusedly. “It is just not easy to do in a language I don’t know well.” After making her laugh, he suddenly found himself with another reason to master English though. He thought the sound of it was beautiful in spite of himself. Her laughter was lighter than that of his own people, melodic and almost contagious. It made him want to bring it out of her again. When they were on the mothership, he would have to spend some more time learning her language, both to translate effectively when she met with the Om’phaers and for his own selfish reason of talking to her and finding out if he could make her laugh again.

When she went on to tell him about a story that her people had created, he found it interesting that they would paint themselves in a villainous light. In Lunvalgan stories that were passed down between generations, their people were always described in a positive manner. There were a few rare occasions in which different groups would fight amongst each other, but it was even rarer for those fights to turn as bloody as the ones his leaders had seen in just a few short years of observing the human race. [i]At least they are self-aware, I suppose,[/i] he mused. Earthlings may have been more violent than his kind was, but they seemed to know that they weren’t as peaceful as they should have been.

“I would not like loud spaceships,” he shook his head at her comment about how quiet his craft was. The ship wasn’t totally silent, but the steady thrum of the engine was reminiscent of white noise, monotonous and easy to forget when one wasn’t paying direct attention to it. He needed to be able to hear the internal parts working, so he could tell if something was wrong with the vehicle, but he also needed to be aware of his surroundings. If the ship had been loud, it would have cost him one of his six senses, which was potentially dangerous if he needed to hear a threat in the area.

Once Artemis affirmed that she was ready, Azdrei’in nodded and adjusted one last dial on the panel. The ship change course from gliding over the ruins to easing upward once more, carrying them toward the upper atmosphere. As it moved, it slowly gained speed, and he wrapped one arm over her lap to hold her steady while they breached the invisible barrier. The familiar sense of pressure made his stomach drop and pressed him into his seat, and he glanced at her to make sure that she was handling the increased force alright. He wasn’t sure if her kind was more sensitive to the sensation than his was.

Fortunately, she neither vomited nor fell unconscious, and in just a moment, they had passed into outer space. The ship’s artificial gravity had switched on at the same time, and he checked idly over the autopilot settings while she got up to walk about the cockpit. Once he felt sure that everything was functioning correctly, he unstrapped himself from his chair and stood up as well to stretch his legs, noticing that she was staring at the mothership that they were headed toward.

The ship that housed the rest of the colony was massive, reflecting the same smooth exterior as his private craft. It was made from dark metals from Ashad’te too, and every shape was reminiscent of organic life, even though it was made from inanimate material. It cruised just beyond the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, utilizing the planet’s gravitational pull to hover close without burning energy.

“That is where we are going,” he told her, stepping over to stand behind her while she looked out the window. Her question was difficult for him to understand since he didn’t grasp the word ‘float,’ but he took a guess at what she was referring to anyway. “You mean why are we not off the floor?” he rephrased it using words he’d memorized. “My spaceship pulls us down, just like Earth does. The home spaceship will too when we arrive.”

Leaving her to take in the sights of her planet and the mothership, he ambled back over to the controls and bent down to activate the ship’s communication system, waiting until the signal was received by the colony’s ship before he spoke in his own tongue, “This is Azdrei’in. I received an order to bring the earthling I discovered to the Om’phaers. I have her with me now, and I am on my way to the mothership. How long do I need to wait before I can board?”

“You may board at any time, Azdrei’in,” the warrior on the other end of the line permitted. “We were made aware that you would be returning, so the landing station is open.”

“Thank you. I will be there shortly then.” Ending the brief transmission, he turned back to Artemis, switching to English once more, “They are ready for us, so I will take us to the home spaceship now.” With that, he sat down in the pilot’s seat again to take over the controls and fly the craft the rest of the way to the mothership.