Bluest Skies

Chapter 1

Sleep was fast overtaking me, and after the long day I had at work, I was very ready for it. Just as I was about to finally drift off into the land of dreams, I heard a loud boom, and heard something fly past my house and out into the dark forest just behind my property, followed by the sounds of impact a few moments later. Cracking trees and other sounds shook the air, and I heard the birds' raucous cries as they fled the sudden invader. Shaken by the volume of the noise, I jumped out of bed and opened my bedroom window to peer out. What in the world could that have been? I didn't recall hearing the approaching noise of jet engines or a propeller of a passing aircraft? Either way, if someone had crashed out in the woods, they likely needed serious help!

I rushed to my phone and picked it up to dial, but noticed it wasn't coming on. Odd, I could have sworn I had plugged it in earlier? I snagged my charging cord and plugged it in, hoping to get enough juice to dial 911. When I plugged it in though, nothing came up! No charging indicator, no phone brand logo, nothing! I unplugged it and plugged it back in a few times, but it remained stubbornly dead. Well, so much for calling for help! After a moment's thought, I grabbed my jeans and a shirt from beside the bed and yanked them on, and then pulled some boots from my closet. It was a freezing cold night, so I couldn't very well let someone just suffer out in the woods. If they were hurt, they could freeze to death before I could get from a drive into town to get professional help. I would ask for a neighbor's phone, but the nearest neighbor was almost as far away as town was.

After yanking on a coat and gloves and finding a good flashlight, I jogged out of the house towards where I saw the glow of what I assumed was fires in the forest from the crash. I set a steady pace, trying to balance not wearing myself with getting to any survivors as quickly as possible. After a 5 minutes or so of jogging, I could tell I was nearing the crash site. Strangely, I still didn't hear any sirens. Surely if a plane or helicopter was going down, it would have called for help on the radio? Why weren't the authorities on their way? This place was out of city limits, yes, but it wasn't THAT far. There was a firehouse that was only about 4 or 5 miles away. Surely any emergency calls would have had them enroute by now?

As I crested a small hill, the wreckage from the crash came into sight. There was a twisted craft that looked somewhat like a plane, but... where was its wings? It didn't look like a helicopter, so it had to be a plane right? I looked around, but didn't see any trace of extra metal in the trees that might be wing or rotor wreckage. When I turned back to the wreck, I caught sudden movement out of the corner of my eye. I realized it was a body flying at me just as it tackled me to the ground. My brain barely registered that something about it looked strange before I hit the ground on my side, and it pinned me to the ground.

After a split second of shock from the impact, I turned my head and stared up in shock at what I saw above me in the dim light. Blue skin, light purple hair, eyes slightly larger than normal, and... small fangs?! Its hands were spayed out like it was ready to attack me further, but its blue eyes seemed to glow a little!

The creature opened its mouth, spitting out a shouted, "WHO ARE YOU?", in oddly accented English.

My brain was still refusing to process what I was seeing, so all I managed to gurgle out was, "Wheeeere youfromwhat?"

Its voice came again, in tones I recognized as both angry and frightened, "ARE YOU ONE OF THE BAD ONES? I KNOW SOME OF YOUR PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET ARE BAD?!"

Trying to collect myself somewhat after the shock of seeing what obviously must be an alien, I coughed a few times, caught my breath, and tried answering again, "Um, I'm a native of this planet, yes, but I don't think I'm one of the 'bad ones'. My name is Lucas, Lucas Blackstone. I saw the crash and wanted to help anyone that might be hurt. Umm, are you hurt?"

The creature paused, seeming surprised by my response. It slowly lowered its hands, realizing I wasn't putting up a fight. With a frustrated but curious look, it climbed off of me, settling in a crouch a few feet away. It tried to brush dirt and soot off its lightly charred clothing and seemed to inspect itself for injuries. It turned its slightly glowing light blue eyes on me again. "You're... not scared of me? You aren't going to attack me?"

I sat up slowly, spreading my hands in a peaceful gesture, trying not to surprise it with my movements. Grimacing, I tried to avoid the worst of the rocks on the rough ground as I propped myself up into a less awkward seated position. "I read a lot of science fiction, and have always hoped there was life in the universe other than just what is on this planet. Are you ok? Do you need help? Do you have a name?"

The alien tilted its head, thinking for a moment. It seemed to come to a decision, and nodded to itself, and looked back at its ship. "I... I think I'm uninjured. But my shuttle... it's destroyed." It turned back to look at me again, and crawled a little closer. "I suppose I can tell you my name is Alessio. I'm what you would call a male, and I'm from a race called the Sraniko. You did say you're from this planet, right? You are a male human right?"

Seeing that Alessio wasn't going to attack me again, I nodded and finished pulling myself back to my feet, and brushed dirt and forest debris off my clothes. "Yes, I live a few miles over that way", pointing past that edge of the crash site I had come from. "I'm glad you are ok. Can I ask what caused you to crash? I tried to call for help, but I couldn't get my phone to work."

Sighing, his shoulders slump. "I think it was kidnappers. They probably wanted to capture me, probably to ransom me back to my family." Alessio's large eyes flash vulnerable for a moment before he quickly looks away. "They disabled my transport ship's shields and then the engines, and I barely escaped in this shuttle. I triggered the release of several shuttles, but they still shot at this shuttle as I escaped, and managed to do some damage to it. I didn't originally want to land where anyone from this planet would be nearby, but the damage they did to the shuttle made me come in at too steep an angle, and the heat from the atmospheric entry burn finished off a few more critical systems, so I couldn't fully control the landing. My shuttle's automatic anti-detection systems were probably suppressing your local technology... up until it finally hit the ground at least."

I glanced in sympathy at the remains of his shuttle, and tried to smile reassuringly as I could at the little alien. "Well, congratulations on messing up your kidnapper's plans, I guess! Screw them and their plots, right?"

Now that the heat of the moment had passed, I could see he was actually a somewhat small biped in comparison to me. He must have been no more than 5' tall, probably several inches less, with a slender waist. I couldn't help that my jaw dropped in further surprise as I finally noticed he had what was clearly a furred tail that was wrapped partway around his left leg, and that his ears were slightly pointed and sat high on his head, almost like a cat! When my brain caught up to what he said, I blurted out, "Wait, ransom? Is your family space rich or something?" I clap my hand to my mouth, realizing quickly that might have sounded offensive.

He nodded his head quickly. After a moment longer, he tilted his head, as if he was considering the way I phrased my outburst. "Well, yes, I suppose they are 'space rich'! My family is a branch of royalty on my planet, after all. I suppose you could call me a Prince, even." He pulled himself to his full, though meager, height as he said it, and crossed his arms. It looked like he was trying to act the imperious part of a Prince, but I thought it just made him look sulky and adorable.

Trying to keep up with how quickly the situation had evolved, and somewhat failing, I blurted out yet again, this time in alarm, "Wait, do you think your attackers may have followed you? Do they know where you are now? Did they track you here? Will they be landing here too? If so, we need to get away from here, fast!"

Alessio's eyes widened with sudden panic, and he darted forward to grab my arm tightly. "They had a tracking signal linked to something that must be with me! When I left the university ship and got onto my transport ship, it wasn't but a few minutes after the university ship jumped to another part of your system that they jumped in and tried to capture me! When they disabled my transport, I dived into this shuttle, and also triggered several other shuttles to launch automatically at the same time this one did, to try to confuse them. They still shot at this shuttle though, not the other ones!" He frantically fumbled around in the dirt next to him for a moment, before picking up what looked to be a small phone or computer. "They could be here soon! If they were actually still tracking me... wait a moment" He fiddled with his device for a moment, and then suddenly yanked off the necklace he was wearing and threw it back towards the shuttle! "There was some sort of signal from my pendant! It wasn't there before!" Tears began to flow from his eyes, "My arranged marriage partner gave it to me just before I boarded my ship! They must have set me up! But why, I just met them for the first time a few months ago?! Do they hate me? Were they trying to get rid of me? Was this about money, or something else?"

Seeing that he was thoroughly distraught and likely on the edge of shock, I pulled him into a hug instinctively, and rubbed his back, trying to sooth him. Realizing almost as quickly that might not have been ok, I released him and jumped back, "I'm so sorry if I overstepped there, and I'm so sorry that someone close to you betrayed you!" I babbled on, trying to put on a more brave face for him, "If that necklace is a homing beacon, we need to get you away from it as quickly as possible! Do you need to trigger a self-destruct on that shuttle or something? Does your species have rules about that type of thing?"

Looking somewhat dazed by the sudden hug, he nodded his head slowly, "Yes, we aren't supposed to leave tech around for species that haven't developed it yet. I do need to trigger the shuttle's destruct sequence. I should probably leave the pendant here so it is destroyed as well, so they can't track us past here, right? Do you think we have enough time to get away still?"

In the light of the slowly dimming fires from the crash, I could see his eyes were full of fear. I tried to act as if I knew what the hell I was talking about, since it looked like he was feeling lost and overwhelmed. I nodded back at him confidently, and turned to scan the night sky, looking for any signs of the kidnappers, "Yes, we have time, and we definitely don't want them to trace you further with it! Do you have a way to escape this planet? You said you had released other shuttles at the same time you took this one? Can you tell if one of the others is near? We can go back to my place and grab my car and take you to one, so you can get out of here and back to somewhere safe."

Alessio stared up at me in apparent shock, his large eyes guarded, but beginning to show a sliver of hope. "You... you'd really help me, just like that? You aren't going to demand money or tech or anything first? Primitive species always want payment for anything risky they do for someone else, or at least that is what my teachers said. Not to be rude, but your society is a little primitive from what our people studied."

I simply nodded at him, trying to project continued confidence, "Just like that, no payment needed or requested."

The little alien suddenly jumped forward again, grabbing around me around the middle in a tight hug, "Thank you! Oh thank you!" After a moment, he let go, and jumped back, looking a little embarrassed by his outburst. He fiddled with his device again for a moment before looking back up at me, trying to hide a small sniffle. "One of the other shuttles automatically landed in a hidden cave system that is also near here, but I need to get there as quickly as possible, before the kidnappers start overflying this area!" He suddenly grabbed my hand with both of his smaller ones, and looked up pleadingly. "Please, can you get me out of here before they find me?"

I nodded quickly, "Oh course, I can drive you wherever you need to go!" I turned back in the direction of my house, and waved him forward, setting as fast a pace as it seemed he could go. After a minute of jogging, I turned my head towards him, "How far away do we need to get before you can destroy the shuttle remains?"

He paused in his running long enough to pull up his device again and push a button. Behind us, I heard a small THWUMP sound, and the glow of the fires suddenly disappeared. "Oh we only needed to pass the furthest of the fires. The self destruct isn't an explosion, it just disassociates molecular bonds in the calculated area the... um, wait... I guess I probably shouldn't be explaining our tech..."

In the low light it was hard to tell, but it looked like he was fidgeting in embarrassment at his slip up. I chuckled lightly, and waved him onward as we resumed our jog.

Alessio caught up to me pretty quickly and ran by my side, his blue skin visible faintly in the moonlight. At least, the skin that was visible under the patches of soot from the crash. I could feel his eyes on me, as he watched me. "You're not what I expected from humans. I thought you were going to try to capture me or attack me or something." I heard him sniffing the air as we passed the bushes and trees along our path, then after a moment, I just barely heard him murmur, "Also, you smell... really really nice."

I glanced back at him, but he just shook his head telling me to ignore him, and we continued our jog in silence. Once we crested the hill just before my house, he paused, looking worried again. I turned back to him, holding out a hand, "Its ok, I promise I'm only going to help you, I'm not after anything from you." This seemed to relieve his moment of fear, and he once again caught up to me, and took my hand, holding it tight.

I opened the garage door and backed my car out, not worrying about my non-existent neighbors noticing him standing in the driveway waiting for me. I helped him into the car, and then paused, realizing we might need a small amount of food for the road, since I didn't know how close his other shuttle was. I quickly ran back into the open garage and grabbed a few bottles of water from the garage fridge to take with us, along with a few pieces of fruit and some fresh vegetables, and then I pointed my car up my driveway and out onto the highway.

As I accelerated as fast as I thought prudent in the dark, I nervously checked my mirrors to see if I could spot any signs of anything in the sky. "Can't they just somehow track your biology with sensors somehow? That is always how it works in our science fiction stories. Am I actually doing you any good by trying to get away from a spaceship in a car?"

He smiled at my concern, and pulled a hood up out of his outfit to cover his head, tucking his ears inside. "You're doing great with the saving! And no, they can't track my biology that well. Our ship sensors are sophisticated in lots of ways, but not that way. Plus, even if they had thought to bring more specialized sensors that could sort of be tuned towards that kind of thing, I have dampening technology built into my clothing. Part of the perks of having the best of everything as a Prince I guess."

I sighed in relief, "Well that is a worry off my mind! Thank goodness! So which direction do I need to head from here? There are a lot of caves and waterfalls around here. Lots of old mines too for that matter, which might show up as caves. Am I even going the right direction on this road?"

Alessio blushed, realizing he had yet to give me guidance. "Right, right, sorry, I'm still nervous, one second." After fiddling with his device for a few moments, he pointed straight ahead. "Yes, we are going the right way. The cave system is about thirty of your miles that way. The entrance to it is hidden behind a waterfall, from what I'm seeing on its sensors remotely. When we get a little closer I'll be able to tell you exactly where to go."

After a minute of silence, he spoke up again, "Lucas, right? Lucas. Lucas." He repeated my name a few times to himself, then turned to me with a bright smile. "That's a nice name. Thank you again for helping me! I'm sure you have a million questions you would like to have been asking me this whole time, so thank you for not overwhelming me with them right away." His smile dimmed, "I still can't believe I was nearly kidnapped! I never thought I'd be in so much danger! My people are usually so peaceful! I guess I am just assuming it is my people, it might have been one of the other species after all..." He fell silent again for quite a while, so I tried to just concentrate on the road and give him his space. As the estimated approach time ticked down, his device chirped again, and he glanced down at his screen again, reading the information it was scrolling to him. His expression turned excited again. "We are getting close now. There should be a path not far ahead that branches off of this one. There are a bunch of large pieces of metal next to it."

I began talking again, as I watched for the turnoff he spoke of. "By the way, you are right, I do have a million questions I'd love to ask. Can I maybe ask you one or two, now that things have settled down a little? Would that be ok? Can you tell me a little bit about your people? Are there many other intelligent species out there?"

Alessio looked back up from his screen, seeming to perk up a little bit, "Well, a few won't hurt I guess. It is the least I can do to thank you for helping. As I mentioned earlier, my people are called the Sraniko. We are one of the older space-faring civilizations. We've encountered over twenty sentient species so far. Some are space faring while others are not." As he obviously warmed to the subject, he got more animated. He counted on slender fingers as he spoke, "In terms of space faring species, the Xaltons are insectoid traders with groups of hive minds, the Threpsians are rowdy amphibious warriors with a fierce society, the Q'Marz are energy beings that generate literal power from group consensus..." He trails off, and looks over at me, seeing if I'm still paying close enough attention.

I grinned back at him, encouraging him, "Go on, please, this is amazing!"

He smiled wider, getting more enthusiastic, his earlier reticence forgotten. "There's also the Silvatti, who are plant-like beings who communicate through bioluminescence and spores. The K'Var are crystalline life forms that sing in quantum frequencies to produce wormholes to move themselves around the galaxy. The N'Zoeth are tentacled philosophers who live in gas giants. But my favorite is the..." His eyes seemed to sparkle as he paused dramatically, playing up the suspense.

I laugh, enjoying his dramatic presentation, "Come on, you're killing me here, don't keep me waiting! What is your favorite species?"

With a dramatic hand flourish, he continues, "...the Anaki. They're a giant feline race twice my size, and they have incredibly advanced biological technology, and can manipulate gravity with their bodies alone! They look so cute and cuddly even though they are huge! Never get on their bad side though! They can flatten you into a pancake if you disrespect them!" He giggled, obviously enjoying the theatrics of this revelation. His device chirped yet again, and he suddenly pointed to a turn off onto a rough trail just ahead, with several junked cars next to it. "Turn here! The waterfall is just past that hill, past all that junk!"