Fiction:Not Your World Anymore

=The Contact=

The Announcement
Dirk Vorhis walked home from the bookstore where he worked. He had a bottle of fendor blood in his hand, and idly sipped from it. His long, luxurious hair, which covered his entire body and rendered clothing unnecessary, flowed behind it. He did need to get it cut. He got to his apartment complex and took the stairs up to his apartment.

As he went on, he passed his neighbor and his two wives as they went into their apartment. In his species, the Markabs, there were about seven times as many females as males. This meant that either most women would have to go unmarried, which was an unforgivable social sin, or that polygamy would be allowed, which it was, and no one ever questioned its morality. Indeed, Dirk was of marrying age and ought to have been seeking out his first wife. He could easily find one online. Females had not been legal property for about fifty years now, and not been truly treated like property for about two-hundred, but they still played a subordinate role in the family groups which Dirk’s species formed. Generally, males seeking wives or females seeking to be wives would advertise themselves, and the female’s family would have as much or more weight than her in the decision of whom she would marry.

He, as was his custom, drew a bath for himself, which he would take as he watched the news report for that evening. He turned his television on. There was a special report. He was told that a specific large announcement was to be made by his own president. As he sipped the last of the blood and tossed his bottle aside, he waited in anticipation.

After a commercial break, he saw his president come onscreen to deliver a speech.

President – For many decades, even many centuries, our species has looked skyward, wondering if there might be some other life out there. Well today…

The President stopped, as though he was nervous as to the reaction he would receive.

President – Today our suspicions have been confirmed. Today, we have learned with certainty that there is life in this universe outside of this… this… humble planet. Today shall go down in history, as the date of our first contact with extra-terrestrial intelligence. They came here last night, deliberately silent, and made contact with government officials from over two-hundred countries. They call themselves the Aeoneonatrix, and they say that they would like us to join their empire.

Dirk was speechless. Aliens… Aliens had come. They had asked us to join them. A complex stream of emotions entered Dirk. He felt surprised, certainly, that was the easiest one. He was definitely excited. The rest, though, was hard to untangle. There was nervous in there somewhere, he thought. He wasn’t sure. There seemed to be some delight, or was that just more excitement? The complexity of these feelings was unmatched by any experience he had had before. There was one other one that was relatively clear, doubt, or was it mistrust? Perhaps it was a little bit of both. He had to question the true agenda of the aliens. Why would they feel the desire to come here? Why would they want the Markabs to join them? The Markabs were still split into nations and confined to one planet. There had to be something which was motivating the aliens to come here, some ulterior motive. Dirk was not sure what that could have been, and he was not confident that it was good for his own species.