Chereads / Day 0 / Chapter 4 - Andrea

Chapter 4 - Andrea

Day 1

"Warning: Entering Atmosphere" the screen blinks on the small ship. The seven are seated, bracing themselves for a bump.

The Andreans start to change. They are now the same size, humanoid, but are a misty purple matter.

"What's happening?" Talea asks. Then she looks down at herself.

"Interesting," Spock says.

Talea is quickly changing. She is now a misty humanoid but is pink instead.

The three others quickly change as well. They are all a white misty color. Then the ship lands.

"Forgot to tell you," Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ says, "You are now in our true form- you will discover that you have quite strong abilities."

They glide out of the ship, and into Andrea's capital city, Wiglaph

There are towering spires. The tops of the spires float above the buildings. There are airships flying around. Everyone is made of the same misty matter of the Andreans. It is a beautiful, large city.

"How do you have a problem?" Isaac gasps in awe.

"This is the issue," Åଅᐊᅶ says, shaping his form into a shape that points at the ground and the sky, "Our core is cooling too fast, and our star will go out. In twelve of your solar months, this will all be destroyed. Like Talea, we feed on solar radiation. In fact, we found something interesting out about Talea. Would you like to tell her, Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ?"

"Yes," an uncomfortable looking shape that is Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ says, "Talea… you are one of us."

"What do you mean?" Talea asks, "I've never been one of anyone."

"As you know, we are the scientific leaders of our planet," Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ says, "so we dug through the records of our people. We found an interesting fact-- one of our explores named ۿv𐤥ㄪ landed on your Earth and took the form we took, to make everyone comfortable. He was taking off when he found a ship in space. It was a waste ship. He saw a small toddler, slowly suffocating, among the piles of dead bodies. He blasted the ship apart, and left his ship. Talea was that child. He surrounded Talea, forcing air back into her lungs. He and Talea drifted in space for a while. He realized that he was unable to last forever, and one of them would have to die, and he would have to choose who. He chose himself. He gave his abilities, everything to Talea. That is why she is so powerful. That is also why she has down syndrome- that extra chromosome on the 21st pair is from Andrean genes. The doctors misdiagnosed her at first-- she had some ESP usually associated with what you call Tourette's syndrome. They thought she had Down Syndrome because Tourette's have been gone for a thousand years."

"You mean…" Talea says.

"Yes. All people with down syndrome are part Andrean. The down syndrome rate dropped off completely when we stopped visiting your galaxy.

"I'm part Andrean? Woo-hoo!" Talea says, "so my own people didn't abandon me! My people came around for me!"

"Why did you visit our galaxy in the first place?" asks Spock.

"We were looking for planets to go to because ours was in the first stages of deterioration at the time. Yours is too violent," Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ says.

"Let's see what we can do for this planet," Robota says, "Spock and Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅, you two have knowledge of geothermal reactions. How about you work on the planet? Isaac and Åଅᐊᅶ, you work and see what can be done with the sun. Talea and Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ , we will see if there is a possibility to move to another planet, if it turns out that way."

***

Months pass. The season Ʉųȕਉ turns to 𝔗ᣕţȶ. No progress. Spock and Isaac report every day, and the situation grows even more hopeless. Not only is Andrea cooling down, but it is electromagnetically unstable. Not only is the sun going out, but Isaac predicts that it won't be a cool burnout as most stars in the Andrean galaxy burnout- it will be violent and explosive, engulfing Andrea in flame.

"What planets have you been able to look at?" Robota asks Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ .

Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ shakes his mist sadly. "The only type suited for our long-term needs is Earth. The Earth people would try to kill us if we arrived, they are so violent," he says.

Robota's misty eyes light up. "Get me on the space communicator," she says, "I have a call to make."

Spock approaches her. "I don't know if it's logical-- they might try to trick us into bringing the Andreans back just to slaughter them."

Robota stares him dead in the eye. "And if we don't?" she asks.

"Logical enough," he says, and floats back to his geothermal station.

***

Robota is shaking as she approaches the telephone-shaped thing. She picks it up and dials the number.

Riiiing!

Riiiing!

Riii-- "Hello, this is General McDonnavan's personal phone. I don't recognize this number, it's more like a pattern of symbols than a number."

"Hi," Robota says, "this is Robota".

"Wha-- How?" McDonnavan asks.

Robota takes a deep breath. "This is a space communicator. I am on the planet of Andrea. The Andreans, the people who took us away-- they need your help. They need a place to land, their planet is in danger. It will be a three-month trip. We are willing to share technology and tactics for peace."

She hears a deep breath on the other end of the line.

"I'm a general. I have to make decisions," McDonnavan says.

"Yes. What is your decision?" Robota asks.

"Do it," he says.

Robota yells to the others and tells them about the success.

***

Over the next few months, Robota, Isaac, Spock and McDonnavan discuss the landing.

"It will be weird. Our people don't like weird things," McDonnavan says to the communicator.

"Humans are weird. They are a race prone to self-destruction. We are offering peace," Spock says.

"Everyone needs to be weird to survive," Isaac says, "otherwise, there would be no mysteries."

"We are sick of people destroying themselves. We need humanity to stay together. The Andreans will be a great peaceful force. They can live in the 'inhospitable' lands, and many lives will be saved. If being weird is what you need to stop killing each other, so be it," Robota says.

McDonnavan sighs. "I'm a general. I know this stuff."

"Good," Robota says.

There is still one more problem.

"We have the ships to get all of our people off of this planet, but not the fuel," Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ says.

"We can manipulate energy," Talea says, "we'll fix that problem. Can you get all of your people into four ships?"

"Can do, will do," Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ says.

Five days later, the Andreans and their earthly companions take off. After the last ship has left and is a safe distance away, their star bursts into flame.

"Whoa, good thing we got out of there!" Isaac says from the generator he is powering when Åଅᐊᅶ tells him the news, "I thought we might be a little off!"

"Indeed!" Åଅᐊᅶ says.

They cruise through space for three months. On their way, they pick up a piece of ƃᧇꞗḇ, a space rock that absorbs solar radiation. This piece has been absorbing for 5 million earth years, long enough to give Talea all of the energy that she needs to survive on Earth. They arrive on Earth. Everyone is nervous as they come off the ship, the Andreans in their true forms, the earthlings in their true forms, and Talea in a halfway state between Andrean and human.

General McDonnavan meets them. He seems shorter than when they last met him, less intimidating.

"I'm pleased to meet you again," he says.

Talea rushes over to him.

"You are the man who advocated for my life. I can never forget that" she says.

He looks shocked.

"You're still alive?" he asks, "I thought I had failed!"

"The Andreans saved me," she says.

McDonnavan looks at her, then at the humans, and then at the Andreans.

"Okay then," he says.

"Robota, did you lead them here?" he asks.

"Yes," she says.

"I knew you were a leader," he says, "what about you, Isaac?"

"I did the solar readings and powered a ship!" he says.

"You're quite the scientist. What about you, Spock?" McDonnavan asks.

"I reasoned logically and have arrived here," Spock says.

"Lighten up," McDonnavan says, "I read that poem. I know just as well as you do that you have very human emotions."

Spock's face turns a deep shade of maroon.

"Interesting," Åଅᐊᅶ whispered, "I didn't know they could do that."

***

Over the next several centuries, Earth prospered without war. Long after Talea, Spock, Robota, Isaac, Åଅᐊᅶ, Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ , Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅, and McDonnavan are gone, they are remembered as the bringers of peace. Earth people and the Andreans live without war. Down syndrome, Tourette's, and Autism all come back, but now people with those conditions are regarded as people with special abilities instead of retards. Finally, the earth people and the Andreans reach out into space, wherever it may lead, together.