The only problem with an alien species is that, well, they're alien. As in so completely different from you that their physical appearance is the least of your worries when it comes to getting to know them. Having seven of what appear to be arms can at least be deemed to have practical applications and can be taken at face value. But not being able to tell whether someone is hungry or sad is another matter altogether.
Dr. Mackenzie Connor (Mac) is a Marine biologist whose major concerns in life are ensuring that the research facility she helps administer has access to protected land, and making sure she's out in the field on time to be there when the salmon run. She never envisioned having to deal with anything more difficult then the civil servants who controlled their funding, so to say she was surprised to find that a representative from a species that had never visited earth before had traveled across the universe to meet her would be putting it mildly.
Compounding matters is it seems that the rest of the known species, in the shape of the Interspecies Union and specifically Earth's Ministry of Extra-Sol Human Affairs, consider the alien a flake whose theory is far-fetched. Unfortunately for the known world they can't take the chance of him being right, because if he is, it would mean the end of all life. The end result being that no matter what Mac would rather be doing, she must drop everything to work with Brymn from the planet Dhryn for the duration of his stay on Earth.
Mac isn't xenophobic or anything, but she'll be the first to admit that her work has been more than a little earth-centric. "I study salmon" becomes her standard means of expressing, to herself and others, her incredulity at the situation. What could a marine biologist working on the West Coast of British Columbia studying the genetic patterning of salmon do to help a seven-armed, blue-skinned archaeologist who believes the universe is in deadly peril?
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!