"I guess that's why they answered you so quickly," I replied with a sigh. I mean, what company would leave the leader of the free world waiting for a reply?
"I also used his account to pay for it," said Jun Li and I am sorry to say, it took me a second to realize that he was being serious. Shaking my head, I realized that it was a good thing that we weren't going to be here for long.
"All right," I answered nodding my head. As far as I was concerned this was not my problem. "But you are having them build it exactly to your specifications?"
"Yes, they said it wasn't going to be a problem at all," boasted Jun Li. "But they also said that it would take about a week to be finished and ready for delivery."
Honestly, I had no idea if a week was a long time or a short time to be able to build a human robot. Hell, a lot has changed in the 6 years since I was last here. It could take them a matter of hours to create a fully functioning human body for an A.I.
"You did get them to make it look human, right?" I sighed as I left the library and went to the command bridge. I needed to look up more than a few things for myself online, plus grab groceries and other supplies.
"You'll see the finished product after I have downloaded a part of myself into it. I am actually excited. At least, I think I am excited."
"You probably are," I mused with a smile. I mean, as far as I was concerned, he was a living being without the whole living part. But anyone with the ability to process 10,000 things at one time would also want the freedom of being able to be in multiple locations at once and interact with other species without the fear of being killed as a result.
"I hope you will like it," he said shyly.
"I think that the only person who needs to like it is you," I said as I looked at the camera in the control bridge. I was almost nailing getting to and from different places on two levels now. "On a completely different note; how did you guys manage to abduct me in the first place?" I asked.
I mean, if I didn't have to go out and get my own groceries, toiletries, furniture, rugs, bedding, blankets, or any of that other stuff, then all that much better.
"The Sisalik have the ability to cloak themselves and become invisible. It was another thing that they took from the Saalistaja," admitted Jun Li. I blinked a few times at his response.
"So, you mean to tell me that I can become invisible, go down to Earth, and just take whatever it is that I want?" I asked, just to make sure that we were both on the same page.
"Yes," he replied quickly. "I am sure that your armor has the exact same capabilities," he continued causing me to let out a frustrated breath. I was this close to dripping a liter of my blood onto the stupid collar just to make this thing work for me. But when it did… oh it would be so sweet!
"So what do I do if I can't get that function working on my armor?" I asked. "It's not like whatever suits that the lizards were using would fit me."
"May I suggest getting delivery then?" replied Jun Li with more than a hint of sarcasm in his tone. I was going to be happy once he got a body and I could slap him upside the head when he took that tone with me again.
"And where should I have it delivered to? Space? How about the Country M Space Station?" I responded with more than a little sarcasm of my own.
"You guys have space stations? Is the shopping good there? Should I have my body delivered there too?" asked Jun Li clearly not understanding things.
"Our space stations are nothing along the same lines as your space stations, I imagine. For us they are used more for gathering information on our planet and taking pictures," I replied not sure if I was really understanding what we used the space station for anyways. Studying the bones of people who have been murdered or died was a long way away from caring about astronauts or space stations.
Then again, if I knew I was going to be abducted by aliens, maybe I would have prepared more.
"That's true. The barrier that keeps most of the sentient species off of your planet is still firmly intact. There is a hole in it that allows for entrance and exits, but that one is heavily monitored."
Taking a deep breath, I went to go sit in the oversized captain's chair as I tried to process what he was saying. "What barrier?" I asked as I rubbed my forehead. This had nothing to do with getting supplies and yet, it was the most important thing on my mind right now.
"The barrier, you know… the barrier between your world and the universe," said Jun Li more than a little confused. And I can't blame him. I was more than a little confused.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," I rebutted as I closed my eyes and leaned back against the back of the chair.
"Give me a second," replied Jun Li, and less than a minute later he came back. "You guys call it the Ozone layer. Ooh, and it looks like you are creating more unsupervised holes in it. You know, if you keep doing things like that you will have nothing keeping the 'aliens' off of your planet."
Once again, I was left feeling incredibly dumb. "You are telling me that the thing we call the Ozone layer is actually an alien built… barrier… to keep the inhabitant of Earth… safe?"
"Yeah, I mean, didn't you think it was weird that there were only 11 of your kind taken from your planet? I mean, there were probably more, but the others were smart enough to put the lesser species back where they found them."
"Lesser species?" I screeched. "Did you seriously call humans lesser species?!?"
Jun Li's body should be delivered tomorrow if the mail is on time. This is your last change to go to my Instagram and vote for which body you want to see him in!
<3
D
"I am sorry," said Jun Li sounding genuinely confused. "Is there something that you would prefer to be called?"
I took in a deep breath. I would admit that we might not be as technically advanced as species such as the Sisalik or the Saalistaja, but I wouldn't consider us lesser simply because we didn't fly through space, have laser guns, or could turn invisible. "You can refer to us as humans," I said with a sigh.
"Fine," he agreed. "I will change all lesser species to humans," he continued.
"No!" I shouted starting to get irritated, but I had absolutely no idea why. "Only species from the planet Earth are called humans," I emphasized.
"So are these humans?" Jun Li asked as he put a picture of a German Shephard onto the screen in front of me on the bridge.
"No, those are not humans. Those are part of the Canidae Family also known as a domestic dog," I said. I could feel the headache forming across my forehead, the pounding in time with my heart rate.
"But they are a lesser species from Earth," pointed out Jun Li going back to being confused. "And according to you, anything that was considered to be a lesser species from Earth should be labeled as human."
"Okay, I am only going to explain this once to you," I said as I closed my eyes and leaned back into the captain's chair. "There are billions of different species on planet Earth and they are all going to be classified under different things. The classification system itself is divided into seven sub-categories that go: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species." I paused for a moment to let that sink in.
"Those, for example—" I said waving to the dog still on the monitor, "Are part of the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia, Order Carnivora, Family Canidae, Genus Canis, Species Canis familiaris. Understood?"
"I understand what you are defining as a classification of species, we have something similar, but I don't understand why you are insisting that these… domestic dogs aren't human. They are lesser species from Earth."
"Fine, in comparison, humans are part of the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia, Order Primates, Family Hominidae, Genus Homo, Species Sapiens," I said trying to be as detailed as possible so that he could see the difference. I mean, I knew that I didn't explain the Domain category, but I didn't think that it was necessarily relevant to explain why humans and dogs weren't the same things.
"But according to you, you and the domestic dog share three classifications which, in your own words, would mean that you share a commonality," said Jun Li, apparently completely missing my point. "You know, it is rude that you are insisting on being the only lesser species known as humans on Earth when you technically have similar characteristics to the dog."
"Fine, just label everything thing on planet Earth as human then," I said with a sigh, completely giving up on my explanation. At least this way if a tiger managed to make its way to another planet it would be considered to be listed under human and therefore an endangered species.
"I was planning on it," he said smugly.
"Now, can we get back to the topic of the barrier that was created to protect us lesser species?" I demanded getting comfortable in the chair. I would have to bring in a blanket or something if I was going to spend any amount of time here. Or maybe I would just have a supply of blankets in every room.
It wasn't like I was going to be paying for them.
"The Ozone layer?" asked Jun Li.
"Yes, how is the Ozone layer a barrier constructed by aliens?" I asked because that was the first time I had ever heard that theory about it.
"There was a particular species that was around before the Alliance was created, maybe about 240 million years ago by Earth standards. They went around to the different planets in the known universe searching for one that they could call home. Once they got to Earth, they found giant lizard creatures similar to the Sisalik and decided that they were to be protected. They took the gases found in the atmosphere and created a barrier between the lesser species and the rest of the universe so that the lesser species could grow and evolve as they should without outside influence or being hunted to extinction."
I was going to skip over the whole lesser species, aliens meeting the dinosaurs, and the creation of the Ozone in order to ensure that we could evolve at our own pace and bring up the elephant in the room. "If you have all this information, and yet, humans are not a known species in the universe, how did you learn all of this?"
"What do you mean?" he asked and I was ready to bang my head against a wall.
"When I was first released, and when I met Pippa, it was brought up that humans were an unknown species that must be protected and that Earth's coordinates must be erased so that no one learns about us. If that was the case, then how could a) you find Earth the first time and b) know that it was aliens that created the Ozone layer to protect us?"
"I did mention that this was around 240 million years ago right?" asked Jun Li and I would have sworn that if he had a body right now he would be looking at me like I was stupid. "The information that the Sisalik were able to get their hands on was nothing more than myths and legends of a completely untouched, pure planet in a galaxy far away that no one knew about. According to what I understand from my online reading, you have a similar legend and yet you are susceptible?"
"What is the Earth equivalent?" I asked stunned. Never once had I heard of Earth referred to as an untouched, pure planet. Clearly, no aliens had been here to see it for themselves.
"Atlantis. You humans have a legend of the Lost City of Atlantis that scientists are still looking for. Is it really that much different?"
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