I thought I was alone on this alien planet, but there is another. I don’t
know if he belongs here, or came here from somewhere else, like me, but he
doesn’t seem the least bit surprised to find me. I should not be surprised
that he is not surprised seeing as we’re standing before a fountain
containing statues resembling the two of us, along with many other
creatures, who I presume to all be evolved alien species. My guess is that
this is a monument to the intelligent races who live in this galaxy, though
I couldn’t say whether all of them visited here at some point, they’re only
the ones that the Pegasus being specifically knows about, or it’s
comprehensive. All I can say is that I’m so pleased to finally have someone
else to talk to. And he does indeed talk, even though he looks like a horse
with wings. The first thing he tells me is his name, and though I imagine
his peoples don’t use Latin script for their written language, what I hear
sounds a little bit like the name Perseus, albeit with some kind of
non-North American accent and pronunciation. It’s interesting that he should
be named that, since both Pegasus and Perseus appear in ancient Greek
mythology together, and it’s never been suggested that they are one and the
same, or that the latter is the proper name for just one particular member
of a whole race of the former. Perhaps all religion was inspired by reality
in some way, but the truth has been corrupted overtime, kind of like how the
Norse gods are often depicted as real aliens with advanced technology, who
humans mistook for deities. I try to ask Perseus what this fountain is, and
why a statue of me is in it, but he sort of brushes it off and says that
it’s “just this thing.” I find it strange that I should be placed closest to
him in the artistic rendering, when we have only now met, and the other
aliens probably have much more experience with their interstellar neighbors.
He brushes this off as well, and offers to give me a ride on his back. I
feel awkward, accepting such a thing from a clearly sentient entity, but if
he doesn’t, I shouldn’t.
We fly up, and up, and up, through the clouds, into the bitter cold, and
right past what I might consider to be the boundary between atmosphere and
outer space. I don’t bother freaking out, or trying to hold my breath. If
this is his way of murdering me, then so be it. What am I gonna do, hop off,
and go back down? I don’t die, of course. I assume some kind of invisible
protective barrier forms to hold in the air, and the heat. The farther we
go, the faster we move, until we’re traveling at faster-than-light speeds.
Our ships can do that, but not nearly this fast, and before I know it, we’re
on a new planet, which I initially figure to be Perseus’ homeworld. I don’t
see any other Pegisides around, or whatever it is his people call
themselves. I only see humans, standing in and around what I remember to be
human architecture. They don’t gasp at the sight of the alien, so he has
likely been here before. After I admire the city for a moment, Perseus
explains what happened. The reason our scout ship crashed in the first place
is due to tidal forces from a relatively nearby collapsis, which my
ancestors used to refer to as a black hole. The planet’s proximity to this
region of high gravity is also what caused me to experience only fifteen
years of time while the human settlement here has been around for nearly two
centuries. It’s nice to know that humanity survived the disasters on Earth,
and also that I’m still around to enjoy the fruits of that labor myself. The
people here welcome me warmly, and I realize just how much I missed being
around other people.
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