Contact Gone Wrong

Prologue

6 human years ago…

Splash! The waves crashed into each other, and the sun flashed brightly in the Hawaiian weather. It was a beautiful day for some time at the beach. I was having the time of my life. I couldn’t believe that we would be leaving Earth in 2 days! It surprised me that I was going to leave the place I considered home. My family and I would be taking a rocket to Mars. I haven’t used my telescope in a while, I thought.

It is so comfortable in the house; you lie down on your bed and drink some hot chocolate. That’s nice, I thought to myself. I looked through the telescope, and there was Mars, bulging out a bit. Tonight was a perfect night to see thousands, maybe millions of stars. I wanted to stay at what I call home. I wondered, will there be any consequences?

Chapter 1

I woke up tired and drained after taking a nap for 12 hours straight. My name is Hugo Gibson, a kid who’s about to turn into his teen years. “Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong,” sang my sister, Melissa Gibson. I got up. “Please, stop,” I told my sister.

“Why?” my sister asked me.

“Because it’s annoying,” I replied.

“Why?” she asked me again.

I didn’t reply because I know that after I answer her question, it’s going to be another “why?” again. I should probably tell you what’s happening right now. We, in 3 hours, are about to land on an absolutely majestic world called Oceanus. You may ask, “Who is we?” We, as in the remaining humans in the literal universe. “What happened to Earth?” you may also ask. Humans themselves destroyed it (You don’t want to know the details). Okay, let’s get back to Oceanus. Oceanus is a place full of aliens that can breathe in water, and the planet itself is full of water (You probably figured that out already).

I exited my room and Cora came running past me. Cora Edith acted like she was a robot; she was as serious as an angered lion.

“What’s happening?” I asked her.

“Get ready, we're landing much faster than we should’ve been.”

I also forgot to tell you, I’m the captain's assistant. “Why a teenager?” you might ask. It’s because in my earlier investigations, I’d done a great job, and so the captain had thought I would be perfect for the job.

Chapter 2

We’re landing, finally! Most of the people lined up against the entrance. We waited in awe as the door opened and steam poured out. Slowly (it felt like an eternity), the steam disintegrated and the door was fully open. Already, by noticing whatever I could see, I knew this planet would be the most beautiful place in the universe. We all just stood there, too amazed to know that we had come this far. I’d done some research myself, and I used to look at endless space using the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope). I thought I had been hearing a drumming sound, but then I realized it was the pounding of my own heart. We all had the tightest helmets in the world on our heads, ready to step on the surface. Then, the aliens appeared.

“Aliens!” I whispered to my dad.

“We’re the aliens now,” my dad replied calmly.

They looked like the people from the movie Avatar. We were surprised, but we were all holding it in. We’d put our earpieces on so we could partially understand what the aliens were saying (or Nugurin). The earpiece translates some Nugurin back to English, French, Spanish, or Chinese. Each earpiece is designed for one person. For example, if you speak English, it will translate Nugurin to English, same for the other languages.

“Hello, humans,” said one alien.

“Come with us,” said another.

We followed them under the ocean. In the distance, I spotted a gigantic dome, which I assumed was just for us humans.

“This is your center,” the guide says.

“Thank you, we appreciate it,” says my mom.

The aliens somehow didn’t reply and we all entered the center.

Chapter 3

We should all be getting ready for the interspecies feast, but instead, I just want to stay in the room, although it is so uncomfortable. After the trip, I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. So I asked an alien, “Straight, right, take left.” I’m pretty sure the earpiece couldn’t indicate all the words the alien was saying, but I figured it wanted me to go straight, take the right, and then a left. You may be wondering, “What are these species called?” They’re called the Nug.

The bathroom looked as if it were a lion’s den. I took a dump as fast as I could and ran faster than a startled cheetah. You may think I’m an ungrateful kid who doesn’t appreciate anything, but if you think that, then you're wrong. On Earth, I used to live in Hawaii, on the beachside, but then disaster struck and we had to find the fastest exit ticket out of Earth. We took Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket ship to Mars, then soon, the oxygen levels on Mars dropped and I had neared death. We had to come here; it was our only choice.

Chapter 4

The dining area was bustling with people. The dishes were plentiful. I couldn’t believe that we were going to have a feast with a new alien species. The two species were just at one gigantic, smooth, and marble table. There was a lot of chatting going on and it was quite noisy. The captain of humans and the captain of the Nug gave some very long speeches. I didn’t understand much of what the Nug captain said; I only caught the words “honor”, “truce”, and “peace”. The alien food looked as if it were to die for. It looked like it could glisten in the dark. The dish had a shiny sauce on this bread that was white. Meanwhile, the humans had chosen the fanciest foods they had in their culture. I took a seat and we all munched up the food. I took a nice crunchy bite out of the alien food; it had an exotic taste. It tasted like cheese and a sundae together. Mmmm… I couldn’t wait to eat as much alien food as I could. You may think that a sundae and cheese don’t taste good together, but it’s awesome on this planet.

Chapter 5

Wow, the feast really did fill me up. I took a long nap. A very long one. I took a look at a Nugurian clock: 10:30 in the morning. I changed quickly and headed out to the main hall.

“Mom! Dad!” I called out.

No answer. There was no point in wasting my voice, so I headed on. Where is everyone? I thought to myself. My pace started to pick up speed. Wait a second… I thought to myself. I headed to a few rooms back, thinking I’d seen someone sleeping in their room. It was the captain, the person I least expected to see. Seems like the captain woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He seemed as if he wanted to hibernate more than a bear. The captain was lying on the floor.

“Sir, where is everyone?”

No answer. He was probably sleeping since the feast. I didn’t want to disturb him, but I really wanted to know where everyone else was. I rolled him over.

Blood.

No, no, no, this isn’t happening. The captain was dead.

Chapter 6

I ran for what felt like forever. This was a dream, I thought to myself. I found people packed in the main hall.

“THE CAPTAIN IS DEAD!” I shouted.

Everyone looks at me; some of them are snickering, while some of them give me death stares. I couldn’t believe that nobody believed me. Had nobody seen it? A bunch of questions swarmed my mind. “Was the captain’s death an accident, or was it a murder?” was the question that kept popping up in my mind.

“Are you crazy?!” one of them shouted.

“Yeah,” said another one, out of nowhere, and everybody shouted at the top of their lungs at me. I couldn’t take it anymore.

“It’s real!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

The room went as silent as a mouse.

“I’ll show you,” I paused, “trust me. Please,” I added.

I couldn’t control my pace anymore. I sprinted. Some people followed behind me; some people didn’t. Where’s the room? Where’s the room? There it was, just lying on the floor. One came beside me, Mike, my best friend. His mouth opened wider than a black hole. People slowly came.

“OMG!” one yelled. “Hugo’s right!”

Chapter 7

They all panicked like headless chickens. One of them even fainted.

“Stop, stop, stop!” I hollered over the screaming and shrieking. “Stop!” I yelled again. “You panicking will only make it worse!”

The room went silent.

“I, as the captain’s assistant, will investigate the case to determine whether it was a murder or an accident. If this is a murder and if it’s one of you, I recommend you turn yourselves in. This also means that I will be taking over as captain.”

I was not expecting my voice to be so stern.

“Aww,” one groaned, “Yeah, why do you get to be the captain?”

Another one groaned, “Because I’m the original captain’s assistant.”

Why is everybody so stubborn today, and at the wrong time? People shuffled away, leaving me to my own investigation. The first thing to do is check the room. I scanned the room, shuffling to different places.

“You need help?” asked Mike.

“Sure. Scan the room for any evidence.”

“Okay,” replied Mike. “Can the computer be one?” he asked.

How had I not thought of that?

“Yes, we have to check it out,” I replied. “It’s a bummer we don’t know the passw-”

He stopped.

“What?” I asked.

“The password is right here,” he replied.

“Oh,” I said. “Check the files,” I said plainly.

He opened up the files, scanning them like an eagle.

“Wait, what’s this?” he asked randomly.

“What’s what?” I asked him.

“This,” he replied.

I strode across the room over to Mike.

THE TREATY IS A TRAP.

That’s what it had said. The file.

“I knew it was a murder!” I screamed.

Mike covered his ears.

“Oh, sorry,” I said.

“It’s okay,” he replied.

“Let’s investigate,” I said boldly.

Chapter 8

“Any more evidence left?” I asked.

“Nah,” Mike replied.

First, we need to figure out what species it was. I’d asked the humans to interview a few of the aliens. My mom told me that the Nugs said that they would never do that, and that they don’t know anybody who would do that.

“It must be a human,” I declared to Mike later.

“You sure?” he asked.

“Of course,” I said. “It must be someone who hated the captain and hated his decision to come here,” I stated.

“Time to interview some humans!” stated Mike.

Chapter 9

I investigated Marco; he seemed a bit suspicious to me. Marco was no puny little human; his adult muscles bulged out and he always seemed fierce, ready to fight. When I had investigated him, he seemed to be getting sweaty and looking back and forth at something. Mike and I then went to Filip, who also seemed the same way. Was something going on? Mike and I wondered.

We sorted things that they had in common, and we related what they had said during the “interview.” We figured out two things: 1. That the person hated the captain, and 2. They could have hated the treaty, or they could have hated both. The alien king was absolutely devastated by the situation. He looked like somebody had taken his favorite food away from him. Realization hit me as to what actually happened to the captain.

“Mike, follow me.”

Chapter 10

“Food,” I said.

“What?” he replied quizzically.

“He’d probably been stealing people’s food during the feast,” I stated.

“Are you sure that this might be the correct theory?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “But he’d probably been annoying somebody for their whole life; they were tired of it. I’d seen the captain looking suspiciously throughout the feast.

Looking around, afraid that anyone had noticed him,” I stated.

“I think I’m getting the gist now,” said Mike.

“Do you know anyone who hated the captain and the aliens?” I asked my dad.

“No, I don’t think so. Actually, Casimir could be a possibility. He hated the captain so much, and he always doubted his choices,” he said.

“Oh no,” I realized. Casimir’s buddies are Marco and Filip.

Chapter 11

“It’s them,” I said to Mike.

“It’s who?” he asked.

“Casimir, Marco, and Filip,” I said.

“Why them?” he asked again.

“Trust me,” I said. The story was that Casimir and his buddies jumped the captain at night and killed him. Marco and Filip were told not to hesitate if I investigated, but they messed it up. I’d noticed sometimes that for those exact two investigations, Casimir was always behind me. The trio was in the hallway.

“You both messed it up!” Casimir shouted.

“Hugo’s here, boss,” said Filip.

Casimir smiled at me, pretending to be happy.

“Hi!” he said happily.

I forgot to tell you, the trio always acted like they were teenagers, although they were young adults.

“It’s you,” I said aggressively.

“What’s us?” he asked.

“Everyone!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Chapter 12

“It’s the three of them!” I told everybody. We were all in the main hall.

“How?” one asked.

“Good question,” I answered.

I got into a full explanation of what happened during the interviews and what the reason behind all this was. “The captain was sitting next to Casimir during the feast, and he’d been stealing Casimir’s food and had made Casimir’s life miserable,” I stated. “Am I right?” I turned to Casimir.

“You two just couldn’t listen to what I said, could you?” he yelled at Marco and Filip. “Fine, but I did it so I could make my life better. I was in ruins after I had met him on Mars,” Casimir grumbled.

“Great job, Hugo!” one yelled.

“Yeah!” the others said.

“I’m sorry, Casimir,” I said.

“You win this time, but I’ll get my revenge,” Casimir said as he was dragged away from me.

Epilogue

3 human months after the investigation…

I guess it seemed that this would be my new home. Oceanus. I’d be living with two other species: the Nug, and now the Zhuri. We’d developed the earpiece, and now it could understand both Nugurian and Zhurian. We had two new friends joining me and Mike, one from the Nug and one from the Zhuri. Naeth was from the Nug and had been born here, and living here for 12 human years, while Miinx, from the Zhuri, was also 12 human years old.

“Let’s go for a swim at the waterfalls,” said Naeth.

“Sure,” said Miinx.

“Let’s go,” said Mike and I.