I can’t believe what I’m seeing as we approach Auru. My nerves are shot, and I am astounded by the view as Violet weaves back and forth through space stations and satellites. Auru looks quite different from Earth, the land appears much like Earth, varied colors which correspond to specific ecosystems. The special thing is the oceans, they haven’t got an inkling of green in them. They are entirely blue, pristine light blue. The planet is surrounded by many larger stations, which are all connected with a ring, the ring appears to go far out, but ultimately wraps around the entire planet.

“Violet, what are those?” I ask, as I press myself into the window to try to see more of the ring.

Looking over from her seat, she explains, “Those are space-elevators, it’s a fancy way of getting into space without rockets.”

Mouth agape, I simply nod, and watch as objects fly past the window… screen. Soon we are approaching a station which looks much like the others, only now that we are closer I can appreciate the size of it, looming over us…

Violet grabs my arm and lightly pulls me away from the window, “You might want to get down.”

“Why? Aren’t we going to land on the planet?” I ask, as the ship suddenly shakes, scaring me. I tighten up grabbing at the console in front of me, “What the hell was that?”

Violet looks down at me, “That’s normal,” she laughs, “so normal that I forgot to say anything about it…” she stands up, sidestepping her chair and taking my arm again, as a sound of rushing air emerges from the back of the ship.

“We just landed, and I’ve seen some of your Earth movies about space and aliens, we don’t just have people flying ships all over the place, it would be madness! Now come on, we need to get you dressed.

I follow Alice to the exit. “What’s wrong with this?” I ask as I look down at myself and realize I’m still wearing the nightie. “Oh right.”

“Since Auru is safe, so we don’t need armor, just something to wear,” Violet taps a couple panels near the door, “here you go, pick something you like.”

The screen is full of clothing choices, bright colors, and most of the outfits look quite interesting. While I am not personally interested in wearing the styling choices that look like scene kids from back home, I find a long, tight silver dress that looks nice enough. I tap it, and the screen asks, “New user, colors?”

“Oh shit I forgot! You’ll need to choose colors to represent your home… since you are the first from your home you get to make that choice… for your planet.”

Surprised, but excited I tap “new” and three color wheels appear, I choose, blue, green, and blue, pressing the last button, the system makes a few noises, and the clothing appears on the table in front of me. The silver dress, and a bracelet with my colors.

Slipping into the dress is easy enough, I’ve done that enough times in my life, but putting on the bracelet is odd, it is much too big for my wrist, each time I put it on, it simply slips off. As I struggle to put it on I can hear Violet trying to suppress her laughter, as she grabs the bracelet.

“Okay, this is how it works,” she pulls at the band from each side, and the bracelet grows. She takes my hand, stepping in front of me, and slips it over my wrist, compressing her fingers around either side of it to form it to my wrist. “There, nice and snug,” she smiles and pulls me into a hug. “Excited?”

I breathe in, and then out, “Excited is not the word I would use… I am totally not ready.”

She smiles, reaching back to the hatch without breaking my gaze, and opening it. Walking through we enter a large translucent tunnel with long handles running along each side. Through the translucent panels I can see a beautiful view of Auru and several of its moons. When I step out I realize why there are handles, there’s no gravity in here.

At the end of the tunnel is a large open room, with windows spaced throughout with comfortable looking benches throughout. The windows offering a fantastic view of the artificial ring that surrounds Auru.

Although the view is fantastic, the scene inside the station is far more interesting. In the room there are a number of women standing, waiting for a ride down, but looking down I can see movement in the floor. It takes me a moment to figure out, but under the glass floor there are tiny people walking around.

The sight is unsettling… and Violet invites me to sit by her, so I do. Once seated, I try to look closer, and see that the movement is indeed people… men who are about eight centimeters in height… I could easily hold several of them in my hand. This seems dangerous… to have these tiny people in the floor, what if the floor broke… I would crush them like grapes…

The concerned look on my face was probably more indicative of my state of mind then I thought it was, because Violet tugs on my sleeve, “Alice, what’s wrong?”

“Violet, why are there people in the floor?”

She sighs, leaning over to me and speaking a little quieter. “In the past thousand years, Auru has evolved past the evolutionary gender roles… long ago Auru was much like Earth… where men still dominate… physically, and politically.” She leans over, looking into my eyes. “Here, about a thousand years ago women started to grow to their full potential… our bodies obviously capable of more strength and power then men could dream of. Women are the strength of Auru, women protect and care for it, and it has become a better, more peaceful place because of it.”

“So, you think men are worth less?”

A smile spreads across her face, as she blushes deeply, “No, not like that Alice! Men and women are both equally intelligent, and here on Auru we work, arm in arm to further knowledge and progress as a society… women are simply larger and stronger and because of that we control the military and police. What use would men be in a dangerous situation anyways?”

A small ding in the hall indicates the arrival of the elevator climber, “You said arm in arm?” I ask as we walk into the climber.

“Okay, they sit in our hands… and wiggle our heels.” she laughs, pointing out the window, “See, and we all get a nice view.” She pointed to the compartments in the corners where tiny little seat line the sides so the men could see out as well. “Men, in their proper place are extremely important. In the past they were often… not helpful. Now that they see enormous women all around… they don’t have power trips like men on your planet do.”

I look her in the eyes, “You talk about them like they were incapable of reason.”

She laughs, matching my gaze, “No, they are quite capable, some of my greatest teachers and mentors have been intelligent reasonable men! We ladies have our own problems… I think we are just less likely to impose on others.” She sighs, “Civilization works better this way.”

Her point of view is refreshing, and I think I’m starting to understand, “So, what are we doing now… you still haven’t told me…”

“First we need to go get some testing done, then we will be talking with some friends of mine.” Suddenly her eyes widen as she looks past me, and points out the window, “Damn, that’s pretty.”

Spinning around I look just in time to see the sun pass beneath the horizon, the view darkens, but in the distance I can see several threads rising into the sky, the space elevator tethers… that glow white, casting a dim white light over much of the planet.

“It’s beautiful…” I look down and marvel at the beautiful, although dim colors of the approaching landscape, illuminated by the light shining down from the tethers.

I turn around and meet Violet’s gaze, the light shining through the window glistens in her eyes. She looks so… happy. I smile, looking down I see her hand resting on the seat back, I take her hand and caress it softly… it is so soft and warm. A few moments later, I meet her gaze, “Thanks for bringing me along… I’m not sure I deserve this.”

She looks away, with a grin on her face and to my surprise blushing a little, “No Alice, you do deserve this… thank you for trusting me.”

Looking to the hologram in the middle of the climber, I notice we are still twenty minutes from the ground. I just watch the hologram as the decent continues… slowly falling asleep.

……..

I hear a light ding, and the sound of opening doors… and the low grumble of city life outside. Opening my eyes, I realize I fell asleep and fell onto Violet’s lap, her arms holding me close.

I sit up, moving her arms, but she is still asleep. I run my fingers through her hair and rub her shoulder. Her eyes open quickly, but she takes a moment to actually wake up. She looks at me, then the center hologram, then back to me before shooting to her feet. “Naptime is over, let’s go!” as she hurries to the exit, I jump up to follow her out the door, laughing at her facial expressions.

Walking out, we emerge to a street which is flanked on either side by buildings which are drastically taller than anything on Earth. The street is beautiful, decorated with lights, and signs, mostly holographic in nature. Women line the streets, many wearing clothing I would consider beautiful, and some wearing things I would consider part of the circus. It is a strange sight though, no men, anywhere.

Then I realize, when I look to the ground, they are underneath. The sidewalks have grooves drawn in with miniature pathways, and tiny little trains moving to and fro. Men going every which way, working, playing, doing what needs to be done… They live underneath the feet of women… so different from home.

While I am distracted, Violet takes my arm pulling me to the right, “Over here Alice.”

I turn and follow her lead, because that’s all I’ve done for the last couple days! We pass through a bright red doorway, passing a number of signs that I cannot really decipher, and entering an office. I assume this is a medical institution of some kind by the oddly familiar sterile smell, but that’s all I can really tell. Violet speaks to the receptionist in her language, who stands and takes us into another room with a couple diagnostic looking chairs and a large holographic console on a wall.

The woman makes eye-contact and speaks to me, but I obviously can’t understand anything she says. I just look back at her, and try to make my best, I-have-no-idea-what-you-are-saying face. Violet grabs her attention, speaking in this unknown language.
The woman smiles, now understanding the situation, and Violet gives me big grin. “Don’t worry Alice, just sit down, and we can get you a linguistic aid later.” I shrug, and sit down where Violet told me to, and she sits in the chair next to me, and I suddenly realize what we’re doing. The woman pokes a needle in Violet’s arm, taking a small sample of blood.

Then as quickly as she had moved before, the woman is next to me pulling out another needle, she takes my arm and presses the needle in, taking a small sample of my blood. Small being a relative term of course, there is more of my blood in the vial then I imagine a man would have in his whole body.

Honestly, I would be upset by the sudden poke, but it didn’t hurt at all. As quickly as she started, she cleans up and steps out of the room.

Violet holds both vials in her hands, rolling them nervously, pressing them into the console. “Okay watch this.”

The console starts analyzing our blood, and what appears to be chains of DNA. Running through the structures. A results page shows on screen after a few moments.

99.9 Percent Match, .01 Variance, Display Data?

“Alice, there are many planets in our galaxy, and all of the inhabited planets are populated by the same species, You and I are the same species.”

My eyes open wide, “How did that happen? How could that happen?”

Drumming her fingers on the wall where she was leaning, she continued, “That’s the greatest mystery in the galaxy, all I know is what I learned in school, and all life we’ve found has developed from the same initial genome, and it’s like someone, eons ago, placed humans all over the galaxy, and left them to grow. I’ve been searching for answers for a decade… and I think I’m starting to crack it.”

I stand up to take a look at the list of differences, throwing the list down, I ask, “So you are close to figuring out what happened?”

Violet stops drumming her fingers, and slams her fist on the wall, “No, I’m close to finding where they were from.” Taking the vials and deleting the data. She presses buttons on her wrist, and a hologram appears as she opens the door for me.

“What are you doing now?” I inquire as I step out of the room.

“Making an appointment with an old friend.” I shrug, following her out to the street and into a nearby building which appears to be an electronics store of some kind. The room is filled with screens and diagrams, Violet grabs a couple small devices, apparently paying with her wrist device. She takes my arm again, “He wants to see us, and we need to hurry.” She pulls me out to the street again.

A little flustered, I inquire, “Who is he?”

Violet barged through a large group of ladies, and pulled me onto a train “A mentor of mine… who taught me almost everything I know about genetics.”

We ride in silence for a while, Violet seems worried, while she tinkers with one of the tiny devices from the store. I am curious why she’s worried, but decide not to bother her, I will likely learn soon enough anyway. Looking out the window, we are flying through the city, at speeds of ludicrous magnitude. Parked in the walls of the train are smaller trains, the ones filled with tiny men that I had previously seen running under the translucent sidewalk.

I find this interesting, the male trains take the tiny men where they need to go, and when they need to go farther, they just join up with a larger train made primarily for women. Mass transit for people of all masses. Brilliant.

The exterior view suddenly changes as we transition out of the city, we are traveling into a valley, the tracks curving, before dipping under the surface, the lights in the train compensate for the darkened cabin maintaining a constant light level, until we emerge again exiting the valley and transitioning to a desert landscape. Now, I’m getting bored, because I can see very little besides sand in the distance.

Then Violet pulls at me. “Okay, time to gear you up Alice. See this?” she holds up a tiny device, then speaking in the language I cannot understand, she raises her eyebrow, and places the little device inside my ear, adhering it in the canal, and I can’t really feel it in there. She opens her mouth again, “My name is Violet and now you understand me.”

I am impressed, “This is what you meant by linguistic aid?”

She smiles, reaching into her bag and grabbing an elegant wristband, similar to the one she wears. “Okay Alice, this is a hard light projector, or HLP, and it is how explorers, like us… can make tools, and other helpful things. It also is linked up to the extranet… if you get lost somewhere, my connection ID is in here for you.” She presses a couple holographic buttons

I take the device when she offers it to me, “You lost me there, what’s a Connection ID?”

“Oh, it’s like an Earth phone number, except much longer… when you have trillions of people to deal with, and several hundred planets… you need a lot more numbers.”

My mind is blown again, and at this point I’m starting to get used to these futuristic ideas and technologies Earth would consider science-fiction being normal and common for Violet and her people.

“You might just want to play around with it, I can teach you a few tricks later.”

I feel so… cared for, Violet is doing everything in her power to help me feel welcome, introducing me to a society I couldn’t have imagined this time last week. Most everything on this planet is shiny metal, or translucent, but strong. They use light to make temporary structures. To say I will get used to this? I’m not sure I can say that, I do feel alone though, like a stranger. I’m the only person around who grew up in an inferior society… I look around the cabin, at all the people mesmerized by the devices they carry.

I guess some things never change. At the front of the train I see a family, a mother and daughter, looking out the window, the daughter is holding out her palm, standing on her hand is a man, who I have to assume is her father. Even when these people are vastly different sizes… they get along.

This society is so… perfect. I wonder if it truly is so, or if I am just… mesmerized by the power and technology they wield. I am grateful to have a guide, a mentor in this new world. Violet. I see her hand sitting on bench, so close to mine.

I slide my hand, taking her hand in mine and intertwining our fingers. She smiles, leaning over and resting her head on my shoulder. Her blue hair cascading down. I lean into her, my free hand running through her hair. This position is new… and relaxing.

“If you want to sleep, when should I wake you up?” I ask as Violet begins to doze off.

Violet nuzzles me softly, as she gets a little more comfortable, “Furaka University… it will be about an hour... from now.”

Continuing to run my fingers through her soft blue hair, “Sleep well.”

Soon her even breathing tells me that my beautiful guide… is asleep.