Drown #8: reclamation day, part 1

October 5th, 2085 — Keri Riley is 24. Cabe Deppiesse is 44. Lampyridae Coleoptera, age unknown. 


Keri was alone on the observation deck for a short moment. Lately, people couldn't stay away from the observation deck. Everyone wanted to see home. Small, insignificant, Earth. It looked as little and helpless as it actually was from up here. Everyone Keri ever cared about was down there on that tiny blue rock, and they were all dying. She guessed that Justin wanted to believe she never cared about anyone but herself, but that wasn't true. She cared deeply about at least a half dozen people down there, probably more than they would ever know.

But how stupid and pointless it all seemed now, the fuss everyone made when she came out here. As it turned out, she was so much safer out here than they were down there. The little shits wanted nothing to do with the moon.



All these empty chairs and someone sat down right beside her.

She was a small woman. No—not a woman at all, maybe. Keri couldn’t distinguish any obvious gender. Her head was covered in a draping hood, only her face showing, and she was not human. Her skin was a pearly shade of seaform and her eyes black and opaque like an owl. She was beautiful, Keri thought. She hoped that the being didn’t mind being called a “she” in her thoughts—she had a motherly aura around her. Keri couldn’t help it.


"I come with a peaceful message," the being said. "Can you help me send it?"

Keri didn't know why she felt absolutely no fear in the presence of the first extraterrestrial being she'd ever met. They learned in school that they were not alone in this universe, but nobody had ever met one before. Not even anyone in the government, as far as they knew. Although, of course, there were the conspiracy theories. But like this, face to face, just inches away from each other, Keri did not feel afraid. Instead, she felt the opposite of fear. She felt wholly at peace. When this being said her message was peaceful, Keri never doubted that was true.

"Well," the being said. "You are an ambassador for your people, are you not?"

"I, uh, I’m just a communications specialist," Keri said. "I’m first apprentice translator to General Deppiesse, I was just a junior translator on the Europa transcripts for a little while, but I got promoted to work on the Eta Cassiopeiae project instead."

"That is what I thought. You are skilled at the communications devices. You can send this message for me and reach all of your people in all of their languages?"

"Well, I know most of them," Keri said. "The major ones, at least. People on the ground can translate from there."

"Thank you, my daughter," she said. "Thank you for keeping your promise."

"But what promise did I keep?"

"Your family adopted our littlest one. You promised that they would look after her like one of their own, did you not? And that promise was fulfilled. I hear she is quite well. We are indebted and honored to offer our protection in return. We came back as soon as we could."

"Whoa," Keri said.


"And if I might ask a favor, when the message is sent, would you be able to help me find General Cabe Deppiesse?"

Keri laughed to herself. "For a minute there I thought you were going to say, ‘Take me to your leader.’"

The being shook her head. "But I do not wish to see your leader, I require correspondence with General Cabe Deppiesse."

"I know," Keri said. "Sorry, it was a joke. Do you have a name?"

"Yes, but it cannot be pronounced with a human voice box."

"What should I call you then?"

The being thought about this. "I would like to be named after the Lampyridae Coleoptera," she said. "They are such magical creatures."

"What are they?"

"I suppose in your informal language, you call them fireflies?"


Someone else walked into the room and took a seat in the row behind them. They couldn't talk here.

"You need to follow me," Keri said, looking over her clothing choice. "You need to wear something else."

Keri asked Lampyridae to wait in her bedroom, and Keri went to the control room and prepared to send the message she was given.


"EMERGENCY ALERT: Please stand clear of the falling debris. Do not go outside until the rains have finished. "

English, Spanish, Mandarin, and French, the four human languages that Keri knew. Over and over, the message looped on all news networks. "Translate as necessary, first priority emergency alert. Please stand clear of the falling debris. Do not go outside until the rains have finished."


The message was sent around the planet. "Please stand clear of the falling debris. Do not go outside until the rains have finished."

Nobody knew that they had asked for help, but they had. They didn't know when or how. They didn't know who had come, but they came and they helped. They looked nothing like the little shits. People would call them angels because their ships were large glowing halos of white gold. But they weren't angels, they were allies. Humankind had kept their promise, and so they would be saved.


The little shits were disintegrated, not with bombs but with something else we didn't even understand. Please stand clear of the falling debris. People stood under awnings and sat in cars and watched from their windows. It rained from the sky in shards of metal and dust. It coated the ground and trees like snow. It would rain metal for three days straight.

And then there was silence again on Earth, just as there had been for the short moments when the little shits stopped flying. This time, they had stopped for good. The skies were empty and Earthlings were alone again on their ruined planet.


With the message sent, Keri hurried back to her room. She dressed Lampyridae in one of her crew suits. She borrowed a costume wig from the rec room stage props to cover her head. It was obviously fake, but it was less conspicuous than the robe and hood she wore before.

"Follow close and keep your face down," Keri told her.


"General Deppiesse, sir, someone would like to see you. She said you would recognize her."


Keri stepped aside to reveal Lampyridae's face, and Cabe was stunned, but not alarmed. It was all true then, he did recognize her.

"Keri, would you stand outside and guard the door, please."

"Yes, sir," she said.


Keri guarded the door like it was the most important order she'd ever been given. Maybe it actually was.

Troops from all different departments walked by that guarded door. "Hey Keri, what’s up? Cards later in the common room?"

"Maybe another time," Keri said.

They hadn't heard yet, but they would hear the news soon. The war was over. They had just reclaimed planet Earth. It was unlikely that anyone would have the attention span for a card game within the next few hours.


Keri gloated. A selfish spoiled princess, they called her. A space secretary, they called her. But maybe even a space secretary could help save the world a little. With a little help from her family, of course.

Cabe came out of his office with Lampyridae several minutes later. He said to Keri, "We need to help her reach her shuttle. I want you to follow closely behind and make sure no one stops us."

"Yes, sir," Keri said.


They helped Lampyridae to her shuttle.


And they stood by at the shuttle deck until she departed safely.


Keri had so many question she wanted to ask, but she wasn't sure if she was allowed. "But how did you recognize her?"

"She's one of my brother's people," he said. "Did you know, it was the baby they heard from first? The little newborn baby. The others had all been so humanized from the time they'd spent growing up here. None of them ever thought to use their powers on anyone outside the planet, but the baby didn’t know any better. She asked for help. I need you to tell your people I said thank you."

"I will," Keri said. "Will we ever see her again?"


"I think we might," Cabe said. "Their people would like to keep an open correspondence with ours. They say, when we are ready, they'd like us to come visit. They're going to send us notes on some new technologies. They've adopted us. They consider us family. She said that if a team is gathered, she would like for you to be a part of it. How would you feel about that?"


"Oh my god, for real?" Keri stopped bouncing and composed herself. "I mean, yes, sir. Absolutely, I would!"

—

footnotes: the littlest one 

more notes: Lampy the alien // Eta Cassiopeiae