She smiled and waved her hand. “Sorry. I was raised believing that your ancestors and family from before are always around and either approving or disapproving of your choices.”
“If they disapprove, then why listen?”
“They are supposed to bring great wisdom.”
“Again, they’re dead.”
She chuckled. “You know, I used to ask my mom the same question. She always said honoring and respecting those who came before us was an important part of our lives.”
“As you like, I suppose.”
“Anyway, I was afraid I’d culturally offended you somehow back in the cafeteria.”
“If anything, I was the fool, being in the way of the station. I should have moved.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I wished to speak to you.”
“Well, I’m here now. Speak.”
“Is that not what we’re doing?”
“Yes, it is.” So, he’s pretty literal. Okay, she can work with that. Many of the aliens are. Or maybe they just didn’t get Earth humor or sarcasm. Either or she could work with it. “Did you have something specific you wanted to speak to me about?”
“Telepathy,” he said.
She blinked. “What about it?”
“Do you have it on your world?”
She blinked. “No. Why would you think we did? Is that like an alien thing?”
He raised his eyebrow. “Humanoid.”
She snapped her fingers. “Right. Humanoid. Sorry. I forgot.” That was one of the interesting things she’d learned. ‘Human’ wasn’t exactly an Earth word. ‘Humanoid’ was like ‘human’ on Earth. So they weren’t ‘aliens,’ but humanoids, as long as they fit the consensus of the humanoid definition.
“All bipedals are humanoid,” he said. “Defined by their species of origin. Surely, they explained that to you. Your people are Earthlings, as you’ve informed us. My people are Dalgurian.”
“They explained that to us,” she said. “It is just a change from what we know. Those from other worlds, we label ‘alien’.”
“For now, your ignorance is forgivable. But if Earthlings wish to remain a part of the galaxy, they will have to learn fast those cultural differences.”
Jenny raised her eyebrow. “We’re trying. This has literally been dropped on us. We didn’t have a lot of prep time. Polly just showed up six years ago, a green husband in tow, and everything kind of went bananas.”
“Bananas?”
She waved her hand. “It means crazy or messed up. Regardless, we’re trying to adapt. That’s part of the reason I’m here. Beyond the bioengineering, we’re here to make sure that this is something that can work with our people and the rest of the galaxy.”
One of those small little addendums to their mission parameters; to see if humans—Earthlings—could handle being around aliens.
One person might adapt well.
A small group too, would adapt. Everyone in the group she’d come with was adapting. As larger groups are integrated, it could prove all kinds of things, so the Earth commission that was working with the aliens wanted to integrate slowly.
See where the breaking point was.
They were here to put this together and see what they could accomplish. Jenny hoped it was a lot. There was so much potential here. She wanted to learn so much from all of them.
