Codename Alpha: Intervention

Chapter Six - Moon Rocks

We were both silent for a bit. I glanced outside towards Earth before continuing. "God, that's just depressing," I laughed. "I just hope nobody else is gonna hold that against you guys. Man, we need something fun..." I looked around the room a bit, seeing that it was now empty. "Hm... how much of the ship did you see during Ibrahimov's tour?"

"Ah, mainly the key locations. We had stuff to do, after all. The shuttlebay, clinic, here, the bridge, and... the meeting room, right next to the bridge. Me and the other... uh, Humans, were up there having dinner with Ibrahimov and his first officer."

"Really? What'd you have?" I asked, trying to steer the conversation far clear of weapons of mass destruction.

"Some kind of steak. Lab grown, too, if you can believe it. Well-" He cut himself off, evidently realizing the inherent fact there. "Yeah, obviously you believe it. It's definitely crazy to me, though, especially how good it was."

"Well, consider yourself lucky," I laughed. "Only one of our protein synthesizers has been working. We're usually only able to have a little sausage when it's time to eat. Most of our botanical growing stuff is in working order, though."

"Oh, so you all can eat, like, vegetables and stuff without much trouble?" He seemed genuinely perplexed while asking that question.

"Yeah? Well, I'd hope so. I feel like malnutrition would be a problem, otherwise," I laughed.

"That's interesting. You know, now that you mention it, are we allowed to go into the kitchen? One thing I've been wondering this entire time is, like... what you guys even eat. On Earth, wild animals will typically just eat other animals, uh... raw. It's kinda nasty, in all honesty. Do you have bovines on... Valdera?" He seemed to be asking for approval in his pronunciation of my home planet's name.

"In regards to the thing with the kitchen, we might be able to in a bit. We're supposed to schedule in advance if we want to use it, so it'd probably be best just to wait for all the cooks to head out. That shouldn't be too long, though." I looked into the kitchen, where I could see two of the cooks standing next to one of the dishwashers, conversing. "Anyways, luckily for you, we do see the value in, you know, cooking things. And yes, we do have cows."

"And the cows aren't... evolved like you? It's not a weird thing to eat them?"

"They're not, uh, evolved. Why would it be weird?" I asked. "You're an animal too, right? Is it weird for you to eat steak?"

"You're..." he began, without finishing his sentence. After a few seconds, he just laughed and shook his head. "Fair enough, then." "You know, another thing I've been thinking about lately, is how... bizarre language is. You're one of the people who helped, uh... Ensign Vance create that computer translator thing, correct?"

"I am, yes," I nodded. "Well, it wasn't too big of a role, just training it once it was finished to try and give us more accurate translations. Most of the credit goes to Daliborka and Ward for that thing."

"Training it?" He asked, once more perplexed. I was just about to dive into machine learning before he continued. "Nevermind. It's just very strange to me how something like this is possible, you know? We're two aliens, completely separated by light years of distance, whose species developed and evolved over millions of years, and yet here we are, just having a simple vocal conversation. It just seems impossible to me, you know? Drake is spinning in his... office chair." I didn't really understand the joke at the end, but it was still kinda funny.

"Trust me, it's weird for us as well," I said.

"Yeah? Speaking of weird, by the way, your language is just that. Like, don't take any offense, but I'm really having a hard time getting my head around all the gendered pronouns. There are a whole bunch of them, all with slightly different tenses, and I think I might've offended Lieutenant-Commander Kató at that dinner thing I mentioned earlier. For that matter, what the hell does 'like Viktor's Bunker' mean? It's possible it just didn't translate correctly, but at least some of the other phrases I've heard make some sense."

I laughed, probably a bit harder than I should've, before answering. "Ah, Viktor was a key player in that war I mentioned earlier. Leader of the Kreml, and objectively a pretty bad guy. Shot himself like the coward he was in his bunker when the war he started didn't turn out so good for him. If you'd like, we've got plenty of stuff about him and the war on Brzopedia you can read later. Essentially, it means to take the easy way out when faced with the consequences of your actions." I briefly wondered why, exactly, he heard that phrase, but I figured I should just leave it as is.