Up for Adoption! Part II

[WP] When aliens invade Earth, humans are seen as very fascinating creatures, but also confusing. The aliens decide to 'adopt' humans that are sad, scared, or alone as pets. You're trying to avoid your toxic family, who are determined to keep you around and beg an alien to 'adopt' you.

*****

Believe it or not, there are actually VERY extensive protocols in place when making first contact with a new sapient race. …Granted, the various races that make up the Ul’dril Galactic Collective only had to pull that set of protocols out and dust it off once every couple of millennia or so, but they’re there. And in the case of the discovery of Earth and the humans upon it, they followed them to the letter.

To summarize said protocols completely would take several hours, but the most important directives were as follows:

1: Discreetly monitor the species for a while so as to A: determine their general behavioral patterns and physiology, and B: let the auto-translator AI algorithms pull as much language data as possible to generate an accurate language package (no one wanted to say “where’s the restroom” when meaning to say “we come in peace” like what infamously happened when the Jazuli joined the collective due to the scout ships rushing things).

Only upon completion of a comprehensive language platform for all native languages of the population would contact be established, broadcasting a global message of peace and a desire for peaceful contact in as many languages as is feasible.

2: During initial, first-five-year interactions, under NO circumstances resort to any violence whatsoever save for disabling enemy weapons if under attack in a manner that does not harm those wielding them. Anyone found guilty of deliberately harming a member of a first-contact species in a manner that isn’t self-defense within the first 50 years will be summarily executed, and the remains of the guilty presented to the species in question to show that the violent individual was an outlier, nothing more. …That last bit is rather draconian, yes, but “first impressions” and all that.

3: If the species agrees to join the Collective, uplift the species to the current levels of technology that the rest of the galactic collective uses as soon as is reasonable, so as to provide a post-scarcity way of life for all sapient species. This serves to reduce the probability of conflict over such petty things as physical resources or advanced blueprints/technology.

When the first contact of humanity finally commenced and the broadcast went out to Earth, all individuals of the Collective involved in the project waited with excitement and bated breath.

…That excitement slowly turned to horror as the helpless onlookers saw the world below them almost immediately fall into complete chaos.

---------

Despite what had transpired regarding fixing her up, it still took several hours of rest, double that for time to process her situation, and quite a bit of gentle prodding and coaxing before Kate was convinced she was safe enough to follow Y'ggrasog to eat at a proper dining table instead of in her impromptu hidey-hole. She sat across from him, slowly eating some fabricated oatmeal, as he simply watched and waited, before finally feeling comfortable enough to break the silence.

"Do you want to talk about it now? I mean, regarding what you said about your family?"

He saw her grip on the newly-fabricated spoon tighten until her knuckles turned bone-white. There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

"...I understand if it's an uncomfortable subject, I was just-"

"No, it's- it's fine. I'm just still reeling at, well, all of this. Aliens. Spaceships. ...The world going mad."

"What was your experience like on the ground? I'm afraid the view from a spacecraft is rather broad but shallow. And I'm curious; I've seen several, almost blinding-white flashes dotting the atmosphere, but whenever I inquire about it to my superiors they just give me an odd look and ignore the question. ...What happened?"

She sighed. "A bunch of sick old men afraid of change, desperately clinging to what little power they have, and simultaneously deciding it was high time that the world committed suicide, that's what that was. Israel, Pakistan, the USA, Russia, China- countless others, I'm sure, but those are the ones that launched the most ICBMs at each other. All these old, pointless grudges flaring up at once during the panic, over events that took place generations ago."

"Icy... beans? That didn't translate well-"

"Nuclear warheads. Thousands of them."

Y'ggrasog's mandibles dropped open, his bioluminescence going through the entire rainbow within seconds before settling on a dull beige.

"I- ................oh."

"...Yeah..."

"I... I am so, so very sorry. I- we had no idea this would lead to-"

"Don't apologize for humans fucking themselves over. It's in our nature. ...But I'm getting off-topic. You wanted to know about this..."

Kate motioned down to her broken arm. There were a few moments of silence, then Kate gave a wry smile.

"Ironically, when the panic started, my father's only reaction was feeling very, very validated. He was a "prepper." Built a lead-lined bunker on our farm in rural Montana, and constantly kept it stocked with enough rations and water to last us multiple years. Constantly mocked about it by what few neighbors we had in the area and most of all I thought it was an enormous waste of time and money that we could put into the rest of the farm instead. ...But I suppose it paid off in the end. He rushed us all down there as soon as the news reports came in.

We had only been down there a few hours when the radio updates stopped. All the EMPs from the nukes fried the radio stations' ability to send out information. Until they could be repaired, all we had was silence, and there certainly weren't any electronic shops still open to fix the issue. We were just... alone. My father, mother, a couple of older cousins that were visiting at the time, and me. All with nothing but our own company to entertain ourselves with.

...All the research he'd done, all the food and water and air filters he'd stocked, but he failed to account for one thing; morale. He didn't pack so much as a card game down there, and the boredom kicked in sooner rather than later. We were all bored, of course, but- I dunno, it just... affected my father differently than the rest.

Boredom turned to spite, then anger... and then hate, on the 5th day. He just kept verbally unloading on me at random, about how he was right all this time, about how I was wrong to doubt him for building that bunker, that I was an ungrateful little bitch, and- a-and that-"

A tear dripped from the tip of her nose, fizzling against the nanobots as they landed on her arm.

"...And that I didn't deserve to be in there with the rest of them."

*****

TO BE COMTINUED