Preparations must be made

Two days later, James looked over everything in his house. He'd had the aquarium installed properly, a filtration system put in, coarse sand for bathing and a fridge for Novaxan food. He'd gotten a letter that Archie would be visiting, on official business. The two had talked on the phone several times now, and Aurora had been happy to talk to James as often as he could manage calling. He'd already given him plenty of advice. Apparently, aside from formalities, today was supposed to be going over communication and behavior. James put on a jacket he'd put together, with circles of LED lights along the arms and back. A quick test confirmed they could change to most of the colors he'd seen on Aurora before. He smiled at the coat. Somehow it made him feel closer to her.

The knock at the door shook him free of his reminiscence. He answered, clicking a button that shined out a bright blue from the coat. The large, red Novaxan on the other side smiled.

"Hey, Archie."

"Hello, James...I see you're ahead of us. I'm supposed to go over our emotional communication."

James nodded, gesturing to his living room where the chair had been modified with materials to keep it cooler for Novaxan bodies. A bowl of eggs and mushrooms sat on the table. Archie nodded approvingly, sitting down and retrieving a folded up chart from a pocket on a pouch that hung from his hip. From left to right it showed red, orange, yellow, blue, green, teal, and white. At the bottom, everything faded to grey.

James sat down across from him, eyeing the chart curiously. "Okay...I remember red was bad. Blue was good... Is it...okay if I call them by the colors I know them as?"

Archie nodded. "We have accepted for some time that this is not a concept that will translate properly. It's alright. I can recognize what you would say as well...this, red, is a threat. It means any further and the Novaxan will fight. Yellow is ready to run, fearful for our lives. The orange is caught in the middle."

"Okay...and blue and after?"

"Blue is calmness, serenity. Peace. It is why you knew to greet me with safety, it represents no threat. The next is happiness, joy. Green. The brighter the happier...as for all of them. Brighter is more emotion."

"And...the last two?"

Archie pointed at the teal area. "This is compassion. And the last, white, is neutral. It's used more for statements and questions...I suppose you could say it is our punctuation."

There were colors missing, James noticed. He searched but couldn't find them.

"What about purple, and pink? Or brown?"

Archie looked stunned. "You've seen those? Hm...the first two are... Sexual. The second moreso than the first. The last color... is friendship. True and firm."

"And at the bottom...orange and red don't fade down to grey...why?"

"Grey is resignation. Despair...despair does not allow for the willingness to fight. It hardly translates with yellow, but grey with fear means the will to run...but recognition that it is futile."

Despair? The grey color that Aurora had in the police station flashed in his mind. It was all she had before.

"And grey-blue?"

"That...is a mixture of unfortunate sorrow. A Novaxan with that is barely clinging to hope."

Oh...then, she'd given up by the end of that moment. Wait, but what about...

"What about gold?"

Archie looked like he might even frown. "That...is not a color humans need to know."

"But she-"

"Is not. Part of your life. I'm sorry...this will only be painful to continue. Look to the future, and those you've chosen to help."

James nodded. Maybe he's right...even if this is all just to feel a little closer to her again. He should probably...