Nothing else happened the rest of their shift, and the next morning James and Howard described what they had seen to the others. Natalie was adamant they were just seeing things until she saw them herself along with James the next night.

“They must be nocturnal,” Howard decided.

“This is ridiculous,” Natalie said, clutching her forehead with one hand, “There are aliens here and they have started checking us out.”

“Technically we are the aliens here,” Leon pointed out. His comment went ignored.

“The night is plenty bright here, especially with the glowing trees, but why would they be nocturnal?” Selina asked, “Are they allergic to the sun like vampires?”

“Do not bring vampires into this!”

“It is probably the heat,” James pointed out, “We have air conditioning in here, but I can still feel how hot the days are here.”

“People in hot climates don’t just become nocturnal,” Miranda argued, “I have been all around the world and that includes the hottest climates.”

“The night is much darker than this back on Earth, not to mention the fact that the majority of countries have a unified time system to allow better communication between them.”

“They’re not likely to stop coming,” Sanders brought up, getting the conversation back on track, “and they won’t give up until they meet us. Probably.”

“Right. Probably,” James sighed, “So what are we going to do?”

“I think we should meet them,” Howard said, “Both Sanders and Leon claim the air is safe and our supplies won’t last forever. If there are locals nearby our best bet is to get along.”

“Says the recluse.”

“Even I grew up in a town,” Howard replied, “We will have to learn about this world from scratch..”

“Hopefully not scratch,” Jonathan said with a smile, “I intend to find many similarities to help progress my research.”

“Meeting the natives would be in our best interests,” Natalie agreed, but I think we should be on our guard. James, Howard, you both brought weapons, right?”

James put a hand on his pistol while Howard nodded.

“Let’s use aggression as our last resort,” Sanders suggested, looking a little nervous.

“We don’t intend to start a war,” James assured him.

“When should we go out to meet them and who do we send out first?” Leon asked.

“Sanders,” Selina said, “Just in case.”

“Next time they come, most likely,” Howard answered.

Sanders sighed. “Fine, but if they are friendly, you should all come out.”

“That seems reasonable,” James agreed.

“Do you think they will come tonight?” Selina asked Howard.

“They have come for the last two nights,” Howard replied.

“We are lucky they haven’t tried to break in,” Natalie muttered.

Leon smiled. “This craft might be so far beyond their understanding they don’t know how to break in.”

“So we have no way of telling whether or not they are hostile,” Howard muttered.

“I guess we put Sanders on night shift tonight?” Selina suggested.

Sanders stretched. “I will get a quick nap in now then,” he said, “I don’t want to miss our big moment tonight.”

Sanders left the room.

“He is probably going back home again,” James muttered.

“Definitely,” Jonathan agreed, “But he has gotten more sneaky about it so I can’t catch him.”

Howard sighed. Hopefully this wasn’t going to create another anomaly they would have to deal with.

Night came and everyone went to their sleeping bags, but the nerves kept most of them awake as they waited to either hear Sanders tell them it was safe, or hear him trying to fend off the natives. However it wasn’t until most of them had dozed off anyway that they finally heard the signal.

“They’re here!” Sanders called, “I am going to meet them now.”

Howard groggily woke and started to wake the others. “Sanders is meeting the natives,” he grumbled, still only half awake.

Everyone woke and stumbled to the control room where they could see Sanders talking with three tall beings. Now that they were in clear view it was easy to see that the natives had varied dark skin and darker hair. They were at least nine feet tall, but they still gave the impression of being thin. Other than those main differences, they looked like humans. No strange green skin. No scales. No fur.

Most of them seemed to have brown skin, but there was one with something like midnight blue and another with a reddish hue. Somehow they fit in perfectly with the auburn trees with glowing teal leaves.

“They’re not talking,” Miranda noted.

She was right. Neither Sander nor the natives were moving their mouths at all. Were they having a stare off of some kind?

Sanders turned and headed for the airlock before coming inside. “They’re friendly but it might be difficult for you to communicate with them,” he said.

“Why?” Leon asked.

“They are a telepathic race,” Sanders replied.

“That explains why their mouths weren’t moving,” Natalie sighed, “Let’s get this over with.”

Natalie headed for the exit and everyone followed. Howard moved cautiously as he wondered exactly what came with being a telepathic race.

Outside the three natives watched them come out with curious expressions, but what surprised Howard was the surprising impression he got from their gazes.

{So many children were locked in that box. Poor things.}

Children? Was he imagining things or had the natives just referred to them as children? Howard looked around to see that the others, aside from Sanders, had frozen up similarly.