Summary of Generation 1

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Dear diary, my name is Stuart Miller and this is a brief summary of my weird and adventurous life. First of all, you have to know that I'm an astrophysicist with a PhD in exoplanets identification, and that I moved to Oasis Spring to study signs of Unidentified Flying Objects in the local labs. 


I've been working hard in the analyses and in the invention of new devices since the very beginning, immediately noticing that the lab was definitively not like any other one in the Country. Many of the machinery in there literally appear to be breaking the known laws of physics, and everyone seemed to be hiding some unspeakable secret from me. I was so naive back that, and this only made me even more curious and willing to discover the truth.


It was around that time that I met Sylvia, the woman I spent the rest of my life with, and Nacho the cat. We were an uncommon family, but we were having a good time together. But the situation derailed a few months later, when this happened:


And, soon later, also this:



Long story short, we had just found out that aliens do exist, and in the worst possible way, I would add.

Sylvia was pregnant with our child at the time, which could explain why I overlooked so many symptoms that nowadays would appear so obvious. Milo was just born, when not even I managed to deny it anymore...


It soon became evident that I was pregnant too, of a child that somehow the aliens managed to implant in my uterus-less body during that abduction.

And this is how our second child, Luna, was born less than one year later than her brother.


From that moment on, it was a downhill of frenetic study and experiments, aiming to stop aliens in their plans. 
I and my colleagues all underwent the same treatment, and we couldn't denounce it to any authority because the aliens would have erased and modified our memories to avoid it. 


On the other hand, in that lab we had to work on hyper-technologic machines invented by them, and we were learning so much about the physics, chemistry and engineering behind it every day. If we continued to work hard, soon or late we could have learned something that could have helped us to stop the aliens, we thought.


Our best way to measure the time passing was our kids, they were growing and learning new things so quickly! Milo has always been an introverted kid who loves the outdoor, while Luna always showed a more decisive and rational personality. She also learnt quite early to use several of the incredible aliens' abilities, starting from the disguising into a human form to be able to blend easily with the rest of us. This way, she managed to (almost) grow up like any other kid.


The aliens made their ultimate plan public a few years later, when Luna was 15. Their planet was becoming uninhabitable, and to save their species they decided to colonize the Earth and replace us humans.
The abductions and the born of alien kids like Luna was meant to increase exponentially the number of said aliens and to find the most stable genetic asset for allowing an easy survival of their species on our planet. When they managed to demonstrate that the latest generations of aliens were able to reproduce without human surrogates, they decided to make their next move: train all the aliens born and raised on the Earth for the colonization.


So Luna had to often travel to their home planet, Sixam, and follow said training programs. The main technology of those aliens consists in their teleport devices, so it took her just a few seconds to reach that place on the other side of the galaxy. Nevertheless, I probably don't even need to specify that she was all but happy about being dragged there every other day and being taught how to pulverize humans with laser guns, isn't it, my dear diary?


It was talking with a few other young aliens with a past similar to hers, like Hermes or Ivy, that Luna had a revelation. The aliens ruling them, the Elder's Council, was made of individuals grown up in a very different environment from theirs, they were purely rational individuals who didn't know about emotions and sentiments, nor about concepts such as friendship, family, or love. But Luna and the other young aliens were very different from them, just like any other human teen raised as an earthling.


Eventually, we decided to use telepathy to mark those concepts straight into the meninges of those old and emotionless aliens. 
Afterwards, we asked them to move on the Earth together with us, instead of erasing our species and replacing us as they initially intended to. It wasn't an easy choice for them, but after several days spent calculating statistical projections of the possible outcomes of their choice, they decided to accept.


It could not sound so important to you, my dear diary, but on said occasion I also managed to visit Sixam and interact better with those older aliens. For a curious person like me who studied alien technology all his life, this was definitively an unforgettable plus!

Soon after, all the aliens started to relocate to various countries of the Earth.


The majority of humans are still clueless about it, but now there are some millions of aliens in disguise among us. They seem to be doing well, and my family and our friends have definitively been enjoying this well deserved peaceful period together.


So much time passed that now Luna is an adult, and she also started her job as a doctor for aliens in disguise. I know she is writing a diary too, so for knowing what happened next you should probably read it, my dear curious private diaries reader...

Chapter 1.25: The end of a Generation

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From Stuart's diary


Sylvia: Are you sure you're okay? No suspicious belly glowing?
Milo: Yes, I'm sure, I definitively don't feel pregnant at all!
Stuart: What other reason could they have to abduct you, then?

We just don't get why Milo was abducted like that, it doesn't make any sense. The incident was immediately reported to the alien authorities, Luna and Hermes contacted them well before Milo was sent back to attempt to localize that spaceship, but all their efforts were useless.

The most important thing is that Milo is fine, but I can't avoid being worried about this new mystery...


Luna: I don't understand, who could have done this? The pollinator units should all be dissolved by now!
Hermes: ... I heard some rumours, but...
Luna: What kind of rumours?
Hermes: Someone says that some aliens preferred to remain on Sixam rather than coming here and pretending to be earthlings. But there are no resources left in there, so someone had been speculating that they could have taken the old pollination units to raid what they need here, on the Earth.


Luna: This would sound too irrational for them... And why would they need to abduct people like my brother, then?
Hermes: (thoughtful) I don't find this explanation convincing either, something is missing.
Luna: And why aren't these rumours official? Why no one knows?
Hermes: (Shaking his head) I have no clues...


Both Luna and her friends are working hard to make the alien's integration among humans as smooth as possible, so I can understand why this kind of event can make them feel so frustrated. 

Luna started her internship at the local hospital a few weeks ago, she is one of the alien medics working all over the world to prevent their human colleagues to freak out when noting the newcomers' weird anatomic features. I also had the chance to talk with Hermes about his job: he recently started working as a journalist, he follows the progress in the aliens' relocation process and writes the related news in their newspapers. 
They are really working hard so that aliens can be able to live peacefully on Earth without friction with humans, and we are really proud of them.

Luna often tells us about her internship at the hospital: she is doing well, even if she still has a lot to learn.




I am so proud of her, just as I am of Milo. He's in his second year at college, and he's also getting good grades.

Milo seems to be spending more and more time with his (according to him) friend Noemi. She is a nice girl, but she just doesn't seem to get along well with the many felines at our place. It really is a shame, because talking to her I found out that she likes cats a lot, actually.



Noemi: ... By the way, is she always like that?
Milo: I'm sorry to say this but... Yes, she is. Mango, there is no need to attack every person who comes to visit us!
Mango: mh.....

MSSSC: Escape Plan

This short story is my entry to the Monthly SimLit Short Story Challenge (February 2022). You can find the challenge details in the related blog entry and forum page. The theme for this month is the word: inveigle.

This monthly theme was particularly challenging to me, English is not my first language and I'm not sure that in my language we have any word translating perfectly all the shades of meaning of this term. Either way, I had quite a lot of fun writing a short story focusing on a character who has never got enough attention in my legacy, and I hope you may enjoy the read as well!



Escape plan

It was morning again and, as usual, they were about to return back.




-You are late. What happened?- 
-It’s what humans call public transport, it’s so inefficient. Surely this is the last time I don’t take the teleporting machine. In addition, I can’t stand this disguise anymore, it’s getting itchy.- 


From the other room, I cautiously listened to them as they entered.
For all the furballs sake, why couldn’t they arrive just a bit later? I was about to find an exit to this place, if just…


-Hey, where did it go?-
-Grrrrrrrr!
-Oh, it jumped on the fridge. Again.-
-I still don’t get how it manages to escape his cage so often, is the lock defective?-
-Just put it back into its cage, we are late enough already…-

I didn’t even try to protest, at that point I knew it was useless. My chance for today was gone, all I could do was think about a new plan for tomorrow...


-The data are clear, this experiment is just a waste of energy and time. The brainwaves of felines are too simple, there is no way we can alter them to collect information about the humans they live with.-
-I fully agree, we have to point it out in the next periodic report.- 

Life is so boring and stressful here... I went outside only once, when I still was a kitten, but I still remember it as if it was yesterday, meow.


-Hi, you really are a lovely little kitten, you know? Are you feeling unwell?-
-Mhhhh…-

I remember I was scared, everything was new to me. But she was different from the people in the lab, she couldn’t change her appearance, nor she talked all the time about brainwaves. Actually, she was so nice and kind to me…

-Don’t worry, darling, you’re going to return in full shape in a blink of an eye!-



In these years, I tried everything to escape from this place by myself, but it was no use. 

Long story short, I realised I need to persuade them to bring me out, and here there is a lot of stuff with a funny smell which could help me to trick them, meow!



Chapter 1.24: Peace and serenity

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From Stuart's Diary

Finally the aliens are no longer a threat, now we can live in peace and forget about that constant worry that accompanied us for most of our lives. A few weeks ago I've retired from my job in the lab, I don't have any reason to continue to overwork myself in such a place when I can focus on my family and passions instead.

Today Sylvia and I have decided to spend a day together. We haven't done it for years, and we finally have a lot of spare time to spend as we prefer to.


Perhaps we are not as strong as in the past anymore, but it is nice to have so many memories to share with one person.

Stuart: It's strange to think that the aliens are our allies now, and that they will live with us as if nothing had happened.
Sylvia: I really hope the newcomers will settle down quickly.
Stuart: Luna and the others have spent days teaching them how to live as earthlings and sharing their experiences with them, I'm sure they'll be fine.

Sylvia: Thinking about it, a lot of things have happened at home too, lately. Daisy has also become a beautiful furry cat...


Stuart: And also she is identical to the rest of her family... Have you bought a collar for her too?
Sylvia: Yes, a light green one.
Stuart: Then Milo graduated from high school, and we celebrated his birthday too.


Sylvia: and shortly after it was Luna's turn.




Stuart: And now they are both adults, soon they may want to leave the nest and start a life on their own...
Sylvia: We have taught them well, they would be doing great!

Sylvia is still as determined, strong and curious as when I met her. For sure, by deciding to live by my side she didn't have an easy or normal life, but she never showed hesitation or doubts about her choices. A couple of times I even asked her if she was really okay with the situation, but her answer always was that she'd rather know the truth about aliens and everything else than live a perfect life ignoring it.
Before meeting her I'd never believed to be able to think these things, and not for so many years, but I'm still really in love with her.


By now I don't have many interesting events to write down in this diary anymore, my days are calm, peaceful and predictable at this point. But I saw that Luna also started writing her own diary: for sure I won't read it, but I'm quite sure that it could be a more interesting read than these last few notes of mine...

Chapter 1.23: Agreement

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From Stuart diary


I, Sylvia and Milo were staring at Luna and her new friends (whom we'd never heard of before, by the way), waiting anxiously for their explanation. Was it really possible that they had managed to find a way to avoid being totally annihilated by the aliens?


Luna: We were doing an exercise with telepathy, that's how we got the idea!
Milo: (impatient) But what's your idea?
Luna: The older people of our species, and in particular the ones in the Elders' Council, have a very different way of reasoning from ours. They are extremely rational in what they do, but they do not conceive concepts such as friendship, family or love.
Stuart: ... I'm not following you, how could this information help us?
Luna: The point is that, for this reason, I, Hermes, Ivy, and all the other aliens born on the Earth are very different from them. We know what it's like to grow up in a family, have friends and feel loved. Some have been luckier than others, but deep down we are all fond of this planet, we feel like earthlings too! And, even if all this is inconceivable for the Elders' Council, we don't want to further help them destroy our home and our families!


Hermes: In brief, what we need to do is to make the older aliens understand how deep our bond with humans is, and at that point propose them a different type of agreement.
Ivy: Yes, that's it!
Stuart: But they have never understood it in decades, how do you plan to do?
Hermes: We will all use telepathy, to share with them the memories and emotions from our life here on Earth, and about our bonds with humans. To reach them all at once, we will need...


Stuart: ... the satellite dish.
Luna, Hermes and Ivy: yes!

It was brilliant, how could we not think about it earlier? If the aliens kept overlooking the emotional consequences of their plan, all we had to do was to force that information in their minds, all at once. 

The plan was secretly shared with all my colleagues, so that as many young aliens as possible could participate in the telepathic message. We know the frequencies they use for their communications and how to hack what they are broadcasting, so all we have to do is to collect all the memories from our kids and convey them to the satellite dish in our garden. Since telepathy is so important to them, their TV devices also allow the transmission and reproduction of brain waves, and so our signal should be as efficient as it would be in person.

All aliens have to follow their 8 PM news program, it's the one they use to communicate all the official statements for the day, so by acting at that time we are confident to be able to reach most of them at once.

Stuart: Ready, Luna?
Luna: Yes, I am!


Stuart: The signals from others are coming too, let's get started!


We managed to transmit 32.3 seconds of our signals before the aliens managed to regain control over their transmission. At the very moment it was over, I and Luna just watched each other and run upstairs, to join Sylvia and Milo and see the older aliens' reaction live on TV.


And we were not disappointed: all those aliens were literally flooded by the telepathic message of our kids. At that moment, they all had just been invested with the feelings and emotions that Luna and the others had experienced growing up on Earth, and they appeared visibly confused. Luna explained to me that the emotions and memories shared through telepathy are extremely vivid, to the point of being almost as strong as those experienced firsthand. And that telepathic message brought together the experiences of millions of young aliens like Luna, Hermes, Ivy and all their companions, as could the aliens who wanted to annihilate us being indifferent to something like that?

The TV news frontmen also seemed quite upset, and they seemed even more so when they received the transcription of our second message for that evening: a proposal for a new deal.


Frontman: (confused) ... Humans propose us to go to live on Earth together with them. They say there will be plenty of space and resources for everyone.

Instinctively, my colleagues and the other few humans aware of the matter would have wanted to expel every single alien out of the planet. But this would have meant to also exhile Luna and the others. How could we let such a thing happen, they are our children after all! And if we allowed them to stay, why not allow the other aliens too? 
Admittedly, the fact that any aggressive action on our side would have meant the instantaneous annihilation by their space fleets was also carefully considered when deciding the content of our new deal proposal.

Nowadays, there are just a few million aliens still living on Sixam, even the ones born on Earth have outnumbered them years ago. They can easily disguise themselves to appear similar to us, they would be able to integrate into our society in no time, just like Luna and the others did growing up here. With some planning, they could smoothly move here without anyone noticing.

Chapter 1.22: We need a plan!

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Stuart: (relieved) Luna, you're back! What happened to you, why did you go through the portal?
Luna: they dragged me to the other side, they wanted me to go there! I...

Only then Luna realized she was not wearing her disguise, and she hurried to fix it. She once admitted to us that she felt exposed and vulnerable when showing her true appearance, so she was always showing her human face even when we were alone at home.


Then, she started to explain to me what had just happened. She still felt a bit shaken, her voice was trembling slightly as she spoke, but she was also determined to report me all the information she could.

Luna: This is the beginning of phase 3, they want to supplant the entire population of this planet within fifty years, and they want us to participate too! And you know their technology, if...
Stuart: (sadly) ... if a war began, we wouldn't last for a week.

We couldn't waste any more time, the aliens would have done their move soon. We had to come up with a plan, and fast.
Luna was as aware of it as I was, I could see it in her eyes. So I instinctively told her:


Stuart: Don't worry, Luna. We'll find a solution.

We talked about it for hours, days, even weeks. I told Luna about the information I gathered during my journey on Sixam, upsetting her as I rarely did before (according to her, I had risked far too much that time, and I should never try it again). Instead, she reported to me every single detail of what she had been told by that first alien instructor on Sixam, and then of all the others she met in the subsequent "lectures".

So much information and no concrete plan, was it really possible that all the work we have done might eventually turn out to be in vain?