New world, new people

Research log. Day 2. Corithan year: unknown.

As soon as I stepped through the wormhole, I passed out. Turns out sending a human body through a quantum dimension isn't the best for consciousness. I'm told I was promptly picked up and bought to the local research centre.

Everyone says their first encounter with an alien was life changing, so it's hard not to get excited. Yet, I was a bit disappointed at first. Don't get me wrong, being on another planet and looking into the eyes of a non-human sentient being was pretty cool, but it wasn't as life changing as I thought. It just seemed, normal.

As I woke up, looking down at me was a yellow skinned, humanoid woman with wispy golden-like hair and round eyes that were lacking detail. As soon as she noticed I was awake, her skin and hair immediately shifted to a bright pastel pink as she jumped back.

“O-oh! S-sorry, you surprised me a little. I apologise if I was a bit close. I've just never been so close to a human before.” As she said this, her voice sounded warbled and there were occasional pauses and cuts that didn't seem natural. “If my voice sounds a bit off, let me know and ill recalibrate your translator. It has a bit of trouble with my species, since we don't speak phonetically like you humans.” She looked down at a small screen and began to click away at it.

I immediately had several questions. How did she change colour? What did she mean when she said she didn't speak phonetically? Were her visual changes based on mood?

She looked up and stopped typing “Metachrosis using cells akin to chromatophores, I vocalise in distinct pitches to communicate and, yes, I do change colour based on mood!” She said all this is such a bubbly and excited manner that she seemed to embarrass herself. “S-sorry, it's just exciting to meet an alien scientist in the same field of study as mine.” She paused, “Oh wait, you didn't say that out loud, did you? I'm soooo, sorry. I'm just so nervous, it was hard for me to help myself.”

I quickly regained composure from my state of shock. “No, no, it's fine. I don't really mind. More importantly, you can read minds?” I say.

I take a quick second to look at her. She changed her colour again to a bubbly blue colour. She was sitting down on a floating cushioned office chair, with no chair legs. She looked to be wearing a casual t-shirt with alien lettering that was tucked into skinny jeans. Interesting how fashion appeared to be similar here, and also how despite presumably being a researcher, she dressed so casually. She had a somewhat thin frame and her body seemed similar to a human.

She stands up and looks at me. “Are you able to stand Dr. max?” she says, her voice way clearer now, “I know you have plenty of questions and believe me, I want to answer all of them, but we have to do some tests before we can keep going.” As she's saying this, her skin shifts to deep purple.

“I can stand sure. May I ask what your name is?” As I say this, her demeanour immediately changes, and she changes colour back to a pastel pink.

“Oh! I'm so sorry, that was rude of me. My name is a complicated set of notes arranged in a song like pattern. It's really quite pretty. But for now, just call me Bianca.”

As I get out of bed, I reply, “well, lead the way Bianca!”

(Surely some experts will disagree with my use of woman when referring to Bianca, as the word is traditionally defined as referring to an adult human. But I believe that's outdated, and it would feel demeaning to use it against a sentient life form)