Alex heard a faint knocking sound coming from one of the walls near the computer terminal he was working on. He walked closer to the noise, trying to locate its origin.
He found it was coming from one of the few walls that had nothing in front of it. Upon further inspection, he noticed a glob of green goo had melted what looked like a door handle or latch.
There must be someone trapped on the other side, unable to work the door to get out, Alex concluded. "Hey, Bjorn. Do you think you can get this door open? The latch is melted."
"I can try," Bjorn said, walking over to Alex. Being careful not to touch any of the green goo in case it was still dangerous, he grabbed the edge of the door and ripped it off its hinges.
The door came off like it was supposed to detach like that, even though Alex knew otherwise. On the other side was a thin blue bio-luminescent alien.
It stumbled out of what looked like a storage locker. There were even appliances in it similar to a broom and mop but more high tech looking.
Seeing that its robot guards had all been dispatched and it was surrounded by enemies, it got on its hands and knees and began to grovel. Or at least that's what it looked like to Alex.
"What do we do with this thing? We can't exactly talk to it," Sophia said.
"I can. Probably," Alex said. "I have telepathy."
"Yeah, but can you telepathically speak an alien language?" Chet said.
He had a point. Alex wasn't sure himself how communicating using telepathy worked since he hadn't used it yet. Did you need to speak the same language for it to work, or did it transcend language?
Alex was hoping for the second option when he focused his mind. Tapping into his telepathy, he reached out towards the alien with his psychic tendrils.
He felt initial resistance as he latched onto the alien's brain, but then it relaxed. It realized this wasn't an attack. This was an attempt at communication.
The alien reacted with its own psychic tendrils. Its tendrils intertwined with Alex's in a sort of psychic handshake. Alex felt a tingling sensation rush through his body as the connection took hold.
Dozens of images flashed through Alex's mind, each associated with a word or phrase. After a second, he realized the alien was teaching him its language so he could understand its communication. It felt less like him learning it and more like it was being downloaded into his brain.
The images sped up to hundreds of images a second, then thousands. Alex could feel something filling up in his mind which felt something like a progress bar. When it was full, something flashed in his mind:
[Download complete]
[Alien language assimilated]
[Translation initiating]
What was first a foreign language slowly morphed into English. He could understand what it was saying.
'My name is Morcai. Please don't kill me—I come in peace! I swear I'm one of the good ones. I love human stuff! Like, uh... hot dogs and that big green lady. New York, right? Go Yankees!' Morcai said in Alex's mind.
'Whoa, easy there, Morcai. We're not the Yankees, we don't suck that bad. Though I can't promise you won't end up in a room smaller than that closet. How about we play a little game of 20 Questions? You answer, and we don't turn you into alien sushi. Deal?' Alex thought.
'Deal! I'll spill my guts—figuratively, not literally! Please don't make me into this sushi thing. It sounds tasty, but I prefer my insides diced, not sliced. Ask away, but go easy on the wasabi!' Morcai thought.
'You're funny. I like you. We might actually get along. Now are you a man or a woman? Meaning do you use he or she pronouns? Because I keep calling you 'it' in my mind, and it's making me uncomfortable,' Alex thought.
'It works perfectly! We don't have multiple genders like humans do. We still reproduce with each other, but we have all the parts instead of just half like you humans. If you know what I mean. Bow chicka wow wow ;)' Morcai thought. 'That's the right human mating call, isn't it? I learned it from your "internet". Is it true you all communicate primarily through "memes" and pictures of cats?'
'Basically. On the internet, yes. In person, kind of also yes. We try to throw in a few words here and there to mix it up though.' Alex thought. 'Wait, does that mean you get each other pregnant and have each other's babies? I feel like my brain is exploding.'
"Do you want to include us in your conversation?" Sophia said. "Just watching you two think at each other is like being stuck at a mime convention."
"Oh yeah, shit, sorry! We've established a line of communication, and it's ready to answer any questions we have," Alex said.
"It?" Sophia said.
"That's what it said it prefers," Alex said. "They don't have genders."
"Ok," Sophia said. She got real close to Morcai, and said, "What's your role here, and how many more of you are in this facility?"
"I can answer that," Alex said. "It is the only one here. We kind of destroyed all of its operational assistants."
"I see," Sophia said. "What do you know about Earth's defenses?"
"Do you want me to connect you with it? The idea of relaying messages back and forth feels awkward," Alex said.
"Yes, beam me up or whatever," Sophia said.
Alex tried to split his psychic tendril into two separate pathways. One going to Morcai, and one going to Sophia. When he connected with Sophia, he felt resistance. It was like she was slapping his psychic hand away.
"I need you to work with me, Sophia," Alex said. "I can't connect with you if you shut me out."
"That's you?" Sophia said. "I thought it was an intrusive thought. Ok, I'll try to relax and be open."
When Alex tried to connect this time, Sophia grasped onto his hand tight, like he was pulling her off a cliff. With the two connections established, Alex relaxed his mind and imagined he was just a telephone operator connecting two callers.
'Whoa! Ok, this is new,' Sophia thought.
'Morcai, can hear you. You're connected,' Alex thought.
'What? You should have given me a moment to adjust!' Sophia thought. 'Ahem. Morcai, is it? I'd like to ask you a few questions.'
'Ok, I'm ready,' Morcai thought.
'What do you know about Earth's defenses?' Sophia thought.
'They're practically nonexistent. At least when it comes to an alien invasion,' Morcai replied.
'Not what I was expecting, but that makes sense,' Sophia thought. 'Why did you invade Earth? What are you planning?'
'We wanted Earth to be ours. Earth is a nexus point in the multiverse. It connects to countless other universes and dimensions. We plan to use it as a central hub to expand our operations,' Morcai replied. 'Our home worlds were destroyed in a great calamity. We need somewhere to settle, so we can survive.'
'Why didn't you just come in peace then? If you just wanted to immigrate, we may not have said yes initially, but lots of countries have laws about letting in refugees. You probably would've gotten at least a few countries to let you in,' Sophia thought.
'Your planet is dying, and you are the cause. You were seen as a threat to our survival. Besides, our population is far too vast to survive on Earth alone. We come from multiple planets. Our population is in the trillions,' Morcai thought.
'Oh. In a fucked up way, that actually makes sense. That by no means gives you the right to kill us and take over our planet, but it at least explains why,' Sophia thought. 'Thank you for your cooperation. This was very helpful.'
Alex felt Sophia disconnect the line.
"Bjorn, crush its head." Sophia said.
Bjorn started walking over to Morcai with a grim look on his face.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alex said. "I told Morcai that if it answered our questions, we would let it live."
"Why, would you do that?" Sophia said.
"Because that was the only way it was going to talk," Alex said.
"Yeah, exactly. That's how you interrogate enemy combatants, Alex." Sophia said. "You get on their good side, assure them you won't hurt them if they cooperate, and then you kill them when you get what you need."
"What the fuck? That's fucked up!" Alex said.
"That's war, kid," Sophia said. She gestured for Bjorn to continue.
Alex stepped in front of Morcai. "No! That's bullshit! I won't allow it. If you want to kill Morcai, you kill me first."
Aisha stepped in front of Alex. "If you hurt Alex, then I quit. You'll get no help from me here on out."
Bjorn looked at Alex, then Aisha, then at Chet, who was picking his fingernails, and then at Sophia, not knowing what to do.