(Photo by Pixabay)

We have arrived.

I stayed still, lying on the couch and staring up at the ceiling, as I heard the newest Broadcast in my mind. It was hard to believe that it was only Thursday. It felt like much longer since the first Broadcast three days ago on Monday. So much seemed to have happened since then, and at the same time nothing had really happened yet. I hadn’t left my apartment for much more than going on walks. This week had been both incredibly exciting and boring all at the same time. Though, perhaps exciting wasn’t the right word to describe the last few days. Anxious might be a more accurate description, though I wasn’t personally feeling all that anxious.

The bedroom door opened and Brandi peeked out. The moment she saw that I was awake she came out and sat down on an armchair.

“Morning. How’d you sleep?” I asked.

“Fine,” she replied. “You thinking about going to one of the cities?”

“I think I’ll let others be the first to try it out,” I told her, shrugging.

“Me too,” Brandi nodded. “Besides, school’s got to open back up soon.”

My phone began to buzz and Brandi’s phone chimed from inside the bedroom. While she got up to get it I pulled my phone out to see what the message was about. It was an emergency message, listing dozens of people who had vanished, most of them minors. I recognized a few of the names from my classes.

I turned on the morning news right as Brandi came back out into the living room, one hand covering her mouth in shock as she read the same emergency message on her phone.

“…of people vanishing right in front of their friends and families. Most witnesses claim that the people who vanished had just declared their intent to go to the alien cities. Some are drawing comparisons to the transporter technology from Star Trek.”

The anchor paused and their expression turned from concern to outright fear before they caught themselves and regained their professional demeanor.

“We are just now receiving reports that several nations have launched attacks on the new cities. America has not confirmed any involvement in the attack yet but it appears that several European and Asian nations have launched dozens of fighter jets, drones and ICBM’s towards the cities. And–

Again, the anchor’s expression faltered and this time they didn’t recover as quickly as before.

“I understand we have a reporter on one of the cities right now. We’re going to Greg Nemori now.”

“Good morning,” Greg said as the image on the screen switched to displaying him standing on a walkway along the outer perimeter of a floating city. “I arrived here a few minutes ago along with a small camera crew. Our hosts here are boosting our signal since we normally wouldn’t be able to transmit live to you from the middle of the Atlantic ocean.”

“Greg,” the anchor back in the studio cut in, “are you aware of the attack that has been launched against the cities?”

“I am,” Greg replied, “but I’ve seen several people in military uniform arriving in the last few minutes, some in flight suits. They appear to be the people carrying out the attacks. If you look over there,” Greg pointed and the camera swung around to show a wide barge floating not far from the city. Aircraft and missiles were appearing on the barge, “I believe those are the weapons sent against this city.”

We understand the fear some of you feel.

I heard them in my mind and apparently so did Greg because he stopped talking and listened along.

Your vehicles, weapons, and personnel will be returned to you without any reprisal. There are children who have come here alone. They are safe and happy. We invite their families to join them. Some children have already chosen to return home, some have chosen to remain here. Those still here will be sent home in one hour if their families do not choose to come here. All may come to the cities if they desire. All who are here may leave at any time.

“I wasn’t aware there were any unaccompanied minors here,” Greg said once the Broadcast ended, “I can imagine the concern their parents must be feeling, but I want to assure you all that there’s nothing I’ve seen to cause alarm. Right now, people are mostly wandering about, seeing what there is to be seen.”

Greg began to walk along the outer perimeter towards an opening into the cities inner structure.

“As you can see, it’s very much like how we were shown it would be,” Greg said, “There are several levels going both above and below the water. There’s residential space, recreational space, and even a commercial district. Even though everything here is free, everyone is still strongly encouraged to work in some capacity or another. I’ve heard some people asking about and getting space for workshops, and some have even begun to set up research labs in conjunction with companies back home.”

Greg entered the interior of the city, revealing a truly astounding sight.

“I’m told each city has a similar layout,” he said with a grin that revealed just how spectacular a view it really was.

The true scale of the floating city hadn’t really been established yet but as I watched it seemed as though this entire level of the city was a massive park with rolling hills, patches of forest, streams and small lakes. It had to be at least a few miles across. It was impossible for the camera to capture the full breadth of even this one level of the city. If I hadn’t known what I was being shown I would have assumed this was on land somewhere, with a strange ceiling stretching impossibly far over it all.

“Each city is its own self-contained ecosystem,” Greg said. “There are hundreds, maybe thousands of different types of animals here, as well as flocks of birds, fish in the lake and, although there are also insects, I’ve been assured they won’t bother people.”

“He sounds like a salesman,” Brandi commented. “There are countries shooting missiles at the city and he’s just smiling and giving a tour.”

“Well you saw how effective those missiles were,” I replied.

“He’s still too…I don’t know, he just reminds me of my brother whenever he talks about his current favorite tech-bro. Everything about them is great and anything that’s bad is immediately rejected or ignored.”

“You’d think he’d at least acknowledge the political situation,” I agreed.

“And why is it going to take an hour to send the kids back?” Brandi asked. “I can’t imagine how freaked out their parents must be.”

It certainly didn’t make for a good first day, in my opinion, though it did establish the fact that there wasn’t much we could do about the cities. They were here and we weren’t going to be able to just get rid of them by force.

“We’re free to come and go,” Brandi muttered darkly, “but we might not let you go right away. You might be delayed an hour or two, maybe a day. Don’t worry, we’ll get you sent on your way soon enough. Just wait a week, a month, just sit tight and–

We assure you that is not our intention.

Both Brandi and I jumped as not only did we hear that reply to her muttering, but there was now someone else in the room with us. I couldn’t quite see them clearly, or at least I couldn’t figure out any details about them. They weren’t hard to see, but instead it was as though I forgot any details the moment my brain registered them. There was a definite human shape to them, and they were dressed in business attire, but that was as far as I could get. They stood in the middle of the room, looking at Brandi and me.

The children were an accident on our part. We are sending them back as quickly as possible. The process we used to bring them to the city is very efficient but there is a slight risk involved if a person is sent through it too soon after a previous usage. This information has already been conveyed to the parents involved. Previous cultures have not had children with such independence of thought and action. We are still learning much about you as a species.

“You sent those military people back without waiting, so why not the kids?” Brandi asked.

As we said, there is a slight risk involved. We did not deem it prudent to take that risk with the children. As for the others, they will be monitored for any abnormalities. If they occur then we will offer our aid in correcting them.

“Why are you even bothering with us?” Brandi asked.

We desire to form good relations with your planet.

“No, I mean, why are you bothering with us, here in this room.” She gestured to the two of us.

Why would we ignore your concerns?

Brandi and I just looked at one another.

“Because we’re not anyone important,” Brandi finally said.

We disagree. You are just as important as anyone else. We do not consider rulers of nations to be of any greater significance than the people they govern. We do not value fame. What we do value is life, individual autonomy, honesty, personal accomplishment, and fulfillment.

“So what if people just show up to your cities and do nothing?” I asked.

That is their choice.

“You won’t kick them out or anything?”

No. They will be encouraged to pursue their interests and passions, to learn and improve themselves, but they will not be shunned or cast out.

“Why are you here?” I had to ask it. It seemed as though I should have asked that question at the very beginning but at last I’d gotten around to it.

They looked at me and I tried to hold onto whatever their facial expression was. Confusion? Pity? Disappointment? In all honesty I couldn’t tell and thought I was projecting onto them as much as anything else. For all I knew they could be smiling or making ridiculous faces and sticking their tongue out at me.

We are here because we want to meet you. We want to learn about you. We want to help you. We want to prevent suffering.

I had no other response to that and after a few moments of silence they left, vanishing from view and leaving Brandi and me alone once again. We sat quietly for some time. I wasn’t sure what Brandi was thinking, but I was wondering whether or not I believed them. I could accept that they weren’t here to destroy us, but could they really be so altruistic?

As if hearing my own thoughts, Brandi looked over to me and said, “I’m not buying it. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. And this has free lunch written all over it.”

“We could just go and see for ourselves,” I mused, though without any real intention of doing that just yet.

“We could,” Brandi agreed, “but that would require me actually trusting them to send me back when I was done looking. It would also require me to trust their whole teleporter technology. Maybe they have some way of scrambling people’s minds so they suddenly think everything is great.”

We do not do that.

Again, we froze in place but this time there was no visitor.

“And listening in on everything we say isn’t creepy at all,” Brandi said.

“Yeah, we humans have along history of just loving being spied on,” I added, being extra heavy on the sarcasm. “We don’t value our privacy at all.”

“Nope,” Brandi went on. “And we certainly haven’t fought wars or based entire governments around that sort of thing.”

This time there was no response.

“Good,” I said, “they’re learning.”

“Doesn’t mean they aren’t still listening,” Brandi concluded.

I just shrugged and got up to begin making breakfast. There wasn’t much else we could do.