peaceful?” Liam asked.
The youngest officer, a young American man named Benjamin Winters, who was just eighteen, grinned at Liam, “Yep, no signs of E. T. either.”
Liam laughed, “Hopefully if we do meet any aliens they’ll be as friendly as E. T.”
His final stop was the ship’s infirmary. There was only one patient, a twelve year old Irish girl.
Liam chuckled, “What was it this time, Amy?” The young girl had been in the infirmary several times already.
She pushed her red curls out of her blue eyes, “I fell in the hoverboarding room and sprained my ankle.” She grinned unapologetically.
Liam shook his head, “Maybe we should just wrap you in bubble wrap.”
“She’d still find a way to get injured doing one of her daredevil stunts.” The doctor strode towards them, shaking his head.
“You can go now Miss Brannon, ice that ankle tonight, and take it easy the next few days.” The doctor looked at her sternly, “That means no sports, got it?”
The girl sighed, but nodded. “Alright, alright, bye Doctor Anderson, bye Captain Hawthorn.”
The doctor shook his head as Amy left.
“That girl will be the death of me,” he muttered, but his tone was affectionate.
Liam clapped him on the shoulder as he left, “You know you’d be bored without her, Doc, she keeps you in practice.” Doctor Anderson just huffed.
At 7:00 that night Liam met his family and Mei in the dining hall. Tonight the cooks had prepared a stew, using freeze-dried beef, but real vegetables from the ship’s gardens. Esther was more interested in the dessert, cherry pie.
“Eat your stew first,” her mother lectured, looking at her husband for backup, only to find him sneaking a bite of pie. “Liam!”
Mei watched the scene in silence, both amused and fascinated to see the captain being lectured by his wife.
When she had finished most of her stew Esther turned to her father, her eyes wide, “Daddy, some of the big boys said that aliens are gonna come and eat my brains, is that true?”
Liam exchanged a look with his wife, suppressing a chuckle, “I don’t think so, Esther.”
“Are there real aliens?”
Liam considered, “There might be, but there’s no reason they should want to eat your brains.”
He poked his daughter in the side, leaning close as if confiding a secret “Or maybe there are brain-eating aliens. Maybe there’s a little one, your age, and her mother makes her eat her brains before she has any dessert.”
Esther giggled, “Rawr! I’m going to eat your brains, daddy!”
Liam ruffled her hair, “You can’t, my head’s too hard.”
--------
Another month passed with nothing out of the ordinary happening. Then, in early October, when the leaves would be starting to change colors back on Earth, Liam was paged to come to the security room.
“Our sensors are picking up an object,” the chief of security briefed him, “We aren’t quite sure what it is, but we don’t think it’s an asteroid.”
“Do you think it’s dangerous?” Liam questioned.
“No sign of a threat yet; it’s still pretty far away, but it appears to be coming toward us.”
“How long until it reaches us?”
“A few hours, sir.”
Liam nodded, “Keep me updated, I’ll be in the control room.”
He spent the next few hours pacing the control room, wondering what the mysterious object could be.
At last, his communicator beeped and a message came through from the security room, “Captain, you better turn on the exterior view screen.” The voice sounded strained.
One of the officers on duty pressed the button to turn on the screen. Someone gasped and then the room was dead silent as they all stared at the screen. No longer far in the distance, there was no mistaking what the object was. The security officer had been right. This was no asteroid. It was unquestionably a ship.
First Contact
Liam was dimly aware that the eyes of everyone else in the room had moved from the view screen to him. He knew they were waiting for him to make some sort of decision, to tell them what to do. He kept his gaze fixed on the screen in front of him. The other ship had come to a halt, as had Liam’s own ship. He wondered if whoever was in the other ship was as surprised to see the Amity as the Amity was to see them.
“Captain.” Liam tore his gaze from the viewscreen to look at the officer stationed at the communication panel. The technology had been tested, but no one knew how it would really work in space.
“I think the other ship is trying to contact us,” the officer reported.
Liam nodded tensely, “Let’s see what they have to say.” The officer hit a few keys and the view on the screen changed. It now showed the inside of the other ship.
The beings that now showed on the screen weren’t little green men or giant bugs, but they also were certainly not human.
In shape they were similar to humans, but their skin was pale blue and their hair appeared to shift shades. The most noticeable feature about them, however, was the large, butterfly-like wings that sprouted from their backs.
Fairies, Liam thought, knowing the thought was absurd even as he thought it, they’re blue fairies.
A young woman, or at least she looked young by Earth’s standards, who was almost certainly the ship’s captain, stepped forward. Her hair shifted between shades of orange and red, like a sunset. Her wings were a soft shade of gold with twisting and curving lines of purple that looked as if they had been drawn by an artist. She looked directly at Liam with large purple eyes, clearly she could see him as well as he could see her.
“Greetings, Earthlings,” her voice was light and musical, “You are far from home.”
“You speak English,” Liam replied, surprised by the levelness of his own voice.
The woman smiled, “I do. My people have been aware of yours for a long time, though you have not been aware of us. I have studied several of Earth’s languages. However, we have never seen an Earthling ship so far from home.”
“We have left Earth to find a new home elsewhere,” Liam replied, “I am Captain Liam Hawthorn and this ship is the S. S. Amity.”
The woman looked thoughtful, “The name means peace, does
