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“Who’s there?” Eden asked shakily, hearing something with heavy, plodding footsteps that shook the cabin approaching down the corridor. She leaned forward and pressed her face against the small window in the door to get a better look, but she was entirely unprepared for what she saw. 

Two tall, suited, four-armed aliens with long tails crouched uncomfortably in the hub, the one closest to her turning to train its two pairs of shimmering blue eyes on her through the small window. 

Shrieking in terror and pressing herself as far down into the pod as she could, Eden knew that she couldn’t hide, it had seen her. “Do not be afraid, I am trying to release you,” the voice came again. The creature moved in front of her pod, sliding open the door effortlessly. 

Though she knew she could move, she was frozen by fear.

Eden’s blood ran cold. Now there was nothing between her and the nightmarishly tall, unearthly creature which loomed over her, crouched uncomfortably in the hub. It kept perfectly still in front of her as her skin crawled. All four of its small, blue eyes blinked at once, as if it was studying her. 

The second alien was already working on Jodie’s pod, sliding open the heavy metal door with four arms as if it weighed nothing. It scanned her with a small device, which shone a shimmering blue light across her form for a few moments. The one before her pointed a similar device to her face. 

Eden’s voice crawled up her throat and past her lips in a shrill “What the fuck!” which made the creature hesitate, lowering the device. 

It spoke in clear English, with a deep and powerful but noticeably feminine voice; “I will not harm you. This will show me if you are injured,” it softly explained, before continuing; “Please, let me help.”

Confusion and fear held her mind by the reins, but she had little alternative. 

“Um…” she said nervously, bracing herself. “Okay.”

She couldn’t be sure, but she sensed that this had relieved it. It activated the device and a wide beam of light shone over her body, causing a light tickling, warm sensation which seemed to come from everywhere inside her at once. After a few moments it seemed satisfied and turned off the beam, inspecting the readouts on the device. 

It opened its mouth to speak, but paused, looking again at the device, then back to her.

“Severe dehydration, malnutrition, muscle atrophy and hypothermia. You require medical attention,” the alien reported, and though she wasn’t an expert on alien facial expressions, Eden could swear that it was concerned. “Please accompany me to the medical bay, we will treat you and your crew.”

As it spoke to her, Eden looked past it to the similar looking creature across the hub, who had already carefully picked up Jodie and cradled her limp body across its arms, carrying her down the corridor towards the escape pod hatch. Though her confusion remained, her fear began to dissipate a little. Finding the will to move, Eden shakily reached for the sides of the pod, making a weak attempt to pull herself out of the freezing cold. 

Testing her legs in the sudden gravity with enormous effort, Eden’s muscles were sluggish and slow to respond; as she leaned forward and stepped out of the pod she lost her balance, tumbling into the alien who caught her effortlessly.

She couldn’t muster the energy to fight it as it gently scooped her up and took her in its four arms, carrying her carefully out of the hub and through the escape hatch. 

Struggling to concentrate, Eden wondered if she was dreaming, or delirious. She needed answers. 

“Who are you?” she asked, and the creature replied without looking down, carrying her through tall, arched hallways she didn’t recognize. 

“You may call me Keipan.”

“Okay, now for the big one,” Eden continued. “What are you?”

It turned its head to look down at her, tilting it slightly. “I am an Akerbi. There are many Akerbi here, but other species as well,” it explained. 

Eden’s eyes went wide, dazed. “You’re not the only aliens!?”

It chuffed audibly, and its four mouth mandibles clicked together, almost like a laugh. “Not even close.”

As they passed through an open doorway into a large room, Eden heard more voices, and she turned her head to get a better look.

Throughout the room were rows of oversized, gently glowing beds, where she could see the pilot and Jodie had been placed and were sleeping soundly, being closely monitored by similar aliens wearing different, blue colored clothes. Possibly the doctors, she thought.

She noticed that the mechanic was missing.

 Keipan set her down on the closest bed which began to softly glow blue as she touched its warm surface, thrumming softly with a calming, deeply reverberating sound. It felt like heaven; waves of warm comfort washed over her, and she could almost feel as her body began to heal itself.

An alien with an intricate blue suit stood by her bed and prepared a small vial of clear liquid, loading it into a thick pen-shaped instrument with a flat, small round tip. Noticing that she was eyeing it nervously, it stopped and spoke softly. “I am Burch, the lead medical officer. You are in no danger,” it reassured her.

The alien looked to her with its four eyes and showed Eden the instrument, explaining, “This compound will help to strengthen your body.”

Still worried, but in too much discomfort to refuse it, she anxiously asked, “Will it hurt?”

Bending its mouth mandibles into a strange grimace, which must have been its attempt at a friendly smile, the doctor replied in a not-so-subtle brag, “Our pharmaceutical technology has been developed for eons, you will not even know that it happened. You can apply it yourself, if you prefer,” it said in a soothing tone, holding the device out to her handle-first. 

“No… that’s okay,” Eden relented, getting tired of her weakened state. “Where do you need it?”

“Your arm, please.” 

She presented her left arm, turning it over palm-up. She laid still and watched as the alien softly took her wrist to support her arm, feeling along the underside of the crook of her elbow with two fingers. It found a site, and quickly touched the tip of the device to her skin. The device hissed sharply, but as promised, she felt nothing. 

Burch turned and discarded the empty cartridge into a small receptacle nearby, before taking two more from a tray and crossing the room to where Jodie lay. It pressed the pen shaped device against her sleeping arm with a hiss; switching to the last cartridge, Burch started towards the pilot’s bed.

Eden was shocked by how quickly the shot took effect.

The cold that the stasis pod had worked into her bones began to recede as she felt a flush of warmth pervade her core, spreading rapidly through her body, bringing with it a soothing relief to her sore muscles. 

Eden wanted to lie there forever, let the alien drugs work through her body and cozy into the softly glowing, tingling bed.

Though, if she did, she thought suddenly, she would never get home.

 She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, sitting up and stretching her arms above her head. Flexing the long-unused muscles in her body as they rapidly returned to seemingly perfect working order, she yawned loudly, feeling as if she had just woken up from a particularly refreshing nap. 

Keipan hurried to her side, concerned. “Are you alright? Are you having difficulty breathing?” it turned on its scanner, passing it over her in a sweeping motion. 

“Yeah, no, that’s…” Yawn, “normal, I feel fine. Great, actually.” she affirmed, which seemed to please it. 

There was a sudden commotion, and she looked toward the noise. The pilot had woken up, stumbled out of bed, looking pale and disoriented. “Don’t touch me!” He screamed as several of the aliens started after him, keeping a distance but blocking his exit. 

Eden watched from her bed as Burch slowly kneeled to the panicked pilot’s height so as to not frighten him, calmly explaining, “Your skull is severely fractured, and there is significant neurological trauma present. Whether or not you choose to believe me, you will soon begin to suffer without immediate treatment. Please return to bed.”

“Hey,” Eden called to the pilot, catching his attention. 

“It’s okay, they just want to help,” she affirmed. “Just… chill out.”

It worked to a small degree, as he calmed somewhat, but not enough to reply without shouting. “Where the hell am I? The last I remember, I…” He didn’t finish his sentence, looking suddenly off-balance. He teetered, narrowly catching himself on the side of the bed, wordlessly struggling to support himself, his face mixed with surprise and pleading. He offered no resistance as the alien doctors rushed to his aid and lifted him onto the bed, rapidly setting to work. 

As they applied various tools she didn’t recognize and the pilot fell unconscious, Eden hopped down from the tall bed to the floor, holding onto Keipan’s arm for support.

“Take it slow! Despite how you feel, your recovery will not be immediate,” Keipan protested as Eden stretched her legs, finding that after spending so long resting, she barely remembered how to use them. 

“I’m okay,” she insisted, letting go of Keipan and standing on her own. Just then, she heard Jodie groaning softly, watching as her face twisted in her sleep. She was starting to wake up. 

Moving to her bed, Eden turned to Keipan. “Maybe it would go smoother if I took this one,” she half-joked, waiting at Jodie’s side for her to open her eyes.

The woman began to stir, grimacing and blocking the light from her eyes with a hand as she squinted hard. 

“Hey,” Eden said.

“Are we there?” Jodie groaned groggily, clearing her throat and weakly sitting up, rubbing her bleary eyes.

Eden wasn’t sure what to say. “I don’t… think so, I don’t really know where we are,” she replied, shooting an uncertain look at Keipan.

“Um… please don’t freak out, okay?” she added.

“Who’s freaking out?” Jodie joked, before opening her eyes. As soon as she did, her face dropped. 

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Keipan silently hoped that this one would be more resilient than the first two, as it exclaimed in surprise.

“Holy shit. What’s that?” the small, darker colored creature asked the other one, but not with fear. Its two small, blue eyes twinkled with excitement and a wide smile spread across its face as it studied Keipan and the other Akerbi around her, and she couldn’t help but return the infectious smile as she studied it back.

“It’s an acker… uhm…” the small alien struggled with the word, and Keipan assisted it.

“She,” she corrected, with an adoring click of her mandibles. “She is an Akerbi. My name is Keipan. Do you have names?”

“Eden,” Eden said, “Her name is Jodie, and he’s…” she looked over to the sleeping creature’s uniform, reading his nametag. “Nick. We’re all humans.”

Jodie interjected excitedly, “Are you an alien?”

Caught off guard by the question, Keipan replied, “I…suppose to you, yes, I am an alien.”

“Okay, just making sure. Eden, what’s going on? Where’s the mechanic? And where are we?”

“Um, we’re in an… alien hospital, the pilot has a broken skull, and the mechanic is missing. That’s pretty much all I know,” Eden answered. 

The Captain approached and addressed the two aliens. “I apologize for any unease we may have caused you. I am Captain Suvin, commanding the exploration ship Voyager. Your ship was found derelict, on a collision course with an asteroid. You had no shielding and would have been destroyed, had we not intervened,” they explained. “Since you made no attempt to respond to our hails or avoid the threat, we assumed, evidently correctly, that the occupants had been incapacitated and would require aid.”

The humans seemed to accept their reasoning, looking at each other and making facial expressions which Keipan couldn’t recognize, the display including subtle motion of the shoulders. 

“Captain,” Burch called from the injured pilot’s side, “This one will need to remain here a while to heal, but its vitals are stable and the cranial damage is repaired,” he reported. “The other two appear to be responding well to treatment, but require sustenance and rest, and I ask that they return for a checkup on their progress later.”

“Very well,” Suvin responded. “Inform me when their pilot is well enough to speak with me.” Turning their attention to the small aliens sitting on the infirmary  beds, they continued, “In the meantime, if you do not object, I will return to the bridge and bring you and your craft to our home world.”

Jodie quickly objected. “Why?”

“It is a question of resources. On this ship, we don’t maintain reserves of the materials your craft is composed of, so no replacement parts can be synthesized. Additionally, we lack the infrastructure to carry out the extensive repairs required for your vessel, as well as the familiarity with your technology to repair it. It will take time. In the meantime, we hope to learn more about your culture from you, and you may learn about ours. You will be considered honored guests, and will be shown every courtesy.” Suvin waited for a reply, but the sophont seemed to think deeply about something they had said. 

Finally, she replied. “We’re on a ship? What about the gravity?”

Clever little creature, Keipan thought. 

“Artificial gravity is standard on Akerbi vessels,” Suvin explained. 

This time, Eden spoke. “We can’t pay you for this,” she said softly.

Suvin was confused, “Pay? The word doesn’t translate, what is its meaning?” they asked.

“We have nothing to offer you in return for saving our lives, repairing our ship, giving us medical care and what sounds like a luxurious visit to an alien planet… I doubt at your level of advancement that you’d be interested in our technology, so the only thing I can imagine you might be interested in taking is… us,” Eden finished with a slight shudder.

“You are correct in assuming we are interested in you, but we do not expect you to ‘pay’ us in any form. We may exchange knowledge, experience, and insight, if you wish, but only if you wish it,” Suvin concluded.

The humans looked at each other, but neither objected. “That sounds… good,” Eden said apprehensively. Keipan understood their confusion and distrust. This was not her first time dealing with alien first contact.