Chapter 4

Aiden's first instinct was to scream. Thankfully, for his pride, he had absolutely no control over his motor functions, and no sound was emitted.

Three bright purple eyes stared into his two, creeping him out pretty thoroughly. He knew the reaction was illogical, but his emotions were telling his logic to take a hike. This seven-foot tall, bipedal, leather-black skinned alien scared the hell out of him, and he was having a hard time fighting his fear.

"I do not believe you have a reason to fear us, young human," the alien said within Aiden's mind. "We have only temporarily disabled your body, until we understand enough about you to trust you. We apologize for entering your mind to acquire your language; we broke one of our highest laws in doing so, but we felt it to be necessary. If you wish to initiate legal action at a later time, you will be more than welcome to do so."

Aiden attempted to blank his mind completely; obviously, this hostile alien could read his mind. The idea of an enemy being within his mind frightened him even worse than the alien's appearance.

"I am not truly reading your mind right now," the alien responded to Aiden's thoughts, "so much as I am skimming your active thoughts. This is how we communicate; I hope it is not uncomfortable for you. And if it is any consolation, young human, we do not find your physical form terribly appealing either. The ability to speak has been returned to you. While we no longer use our mouths to communicate, we do have a great ability to process audible languages. I will stop listening to your thoughts, as you apparently have little real ability to shield them."

Aiden realized that the alien's 'thinking' so far had not sounded hostile; it sounded apologetic if anything.

"Am I the first human you have encountered?" Aiden had a theory; perhaps the Underspace penetration probes had not been destroyed by the energy barrier.

"You are the first human we have ever actually communicated with; we did once have to destroy a series of probes that attempted to penetrate the Great Travel Lane. We were also forced to neutralize a human vessel that assaulted one of our freighters upon encountering it. We concluded from all of our previous interactions and studies of your species that you were inherently hostile and primitive. It was ruled that any human vessels entering the Great Travel Lane would be immediately captured, and their crew analyzed. We kept you unconscious for three of your days, so that we could transfer you to an Examiner. Your artificially intelligent friend, however, made an impassioned plea upon your behalf, claiming that you were far different from the average human. We then decided we would keep an open mind and listen to what you have to say."

Aiden snorted derisively. "You were almost completely correct in your judgment of humanity. I would never paint all of us with the same brush, and claim that all humans are evil... but the fact is that the worst examples of humanity are currently our most powerful leaders. From everything I have been able to study of our history, everything first went wrong on Venus. We had been making progress, utilizing democratic governments and scrapping our military. Then we had our first encounters with extraterrestrial species. Immediately, some of the most prominent political leaders of the time began to argue that humans needed a completely unified and decisive government to combat the possible threat aliens represented. Extreme xenophobia became widespread, and the Earth Senate voted to enter into a war against the Granthe. The Granthe were not a violent species, but it only took two of their home defense cruisers to cripple the Terran Unified Forces; over fifty ships were destroyed. Soon, an Imperial government was formed on Venus, enabling the small colony planet to recruit mass numbers of troops and to build a powerful fleet. Soon, Earth, the moon, and Mars all belonged to the Imperials. It was not long before they began to spread across the galaxy."

"So you do not approve of the actions of your government?"

Aiden snorted again. "According to 'my' government, I was chattel. Property. An object to be bought, sold, and traded. How could I possibly approve of a government that enslaved me?"

"You make a very valid point. Yet, do you not control this 'Angel, ' an intelligent computer, as your own slave?" The alien sat down a couple of meters from Aiden, his arms and legs hanging limply over the sides of his chair. The posture would have seemed lazy if the alien was human, but seemed nothing but natural for this alien.

"No," Aiden said as he shook his head, "although I do admit I have been using her to some extent. I did give her the freedom to choose though; she was a slave as much as I, and I suggested that we aid each other in escaping. If I gave a few orders during the course of our flight from Imperial authorities, it was merely because I did not have time to argue an action. Showing a few leadership abilities is different from owning a living being."

The alien nodded in the human fashion, making Aiden wonder if other details had been pulled from his mind other than just his verbal language.

"By the way... so you no longer have to refer to me by the title 'young human, ' my name is Aiden. What is your name?"

The alien cocked its head to the side for just a second, and then straightened back up. "We do not utilize names in precisely the same fashion as you do... we identify our people through thought patterns. It is a far different method of communication. We do not even truly have a 'name' for our species. The other speaking species just call us the noun for Telepath in their particular language. It is an adequate description. We often use spoken language nouns to describe ourselves as well. For convenience sake, you may call me 'Alien.'"

"Very well, Alien," Aiden said with a smile. "Now that we have some background information and formalities out of the way, do you think perhaps you could release my body from whatever control you have over it? Judging based on the technology you used to disable Angel, you have nothing to fear from any meager force my body could produce."

Alien nodded. "You are of course correct. Forgive us for our paranoia; we do not often interact with species with the... colorful... practices that yours engages in. We do not really know what to expect."

Aiden slid off a vertical table he had somehow been suspended to, stumbling a couple of steps forward before regaining his balance.

"Don't worry," Aiden said with a smirk, "you are not the only ones that find humans an odd bunch. Many humans find us odd as well."

"I see. What, exactly, makes you different than the rest of your violent species?"

Aiden straightened out his clothing- a simple flight suit he had acquired in Angel's cargo hold- and sat in a somewhat awkwardly shaped chair near the table he had been suspended to.