"So, where are you guys from?" I asked. If I was going to be stuck in the back of Aldaris' ship with these people, I might as well get to know them. "I got zapped here from America."

"Me too." John stretched out his legs. "I'm from California."

"I'm from London." Toby said. "Though I don't know if I can expect to see it again. It's so interesting to be abducted by aliens, but we'll be lucky if he brings us back to where we live."

"We'll be lucky if we live." John retorted as he picked up a random pack of Scottish shortbread. He'd found it on the floor, but since it was still in its package, it was probably safe to eat. "Aldaris hates humans."

"How do you know so much about the alien?" Toby asked me and John. "You're acting as if you know who he is."

"We do," John answered. "What makes things really strange is that he shouldn't even be here right now. He's not real. He's a fictitious character from the game Starcraft."

"You haven't even heard of it?" I asked. "Starcraft was one of the most popular computer games out there in the past ten years. That, and Starcraft II ads have been everywhere, since Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm just came out."

"Not where I live." Toby thought a moment. "Wait, was it that ad with the alien woman, and where a spaceship crashed into the Earth?"

"That wasn't Earth," John said. "Starcraft takes place in the Korprullu Sector."

"Oh. So he's really not supposed to be here. Well, as bizarre as all of this has been, I wouldn't want to miss it for the world." Toby turned to me. "So does he really hate humans?"

"Oh yeah," I nodded. "We're like little barbarians to him. Or no, more like animals that can't take care of ourselves. The good news is, he's not particularly violent and probably won't kill us."

John raised an eyebrow. "Probably?"

"Probably. He's a pretty civilized guy who doesn't like to get his hands dirty. I don't see him stabbing us or anything like that."

"Do you see him teleporting us out into the dead of space?"

"Uh...maybe..."

"So he's definitely NOT the Doctor." Toby sighed and leaned back against the wall. "My first space adventure, and it goes like this..."

"What, were you expecting to go on adventures in space?" John snorted, nibbling a little shortbread. "You're not one of those crazy people that think aliens are just waiting out there, ready to show us the secrets of the universe?"

"No, of course not...alright, maybe a little. It's just that this one," - Toby gestured over toward me - "Got me all excited for a minute there with her Doctor talk. But I do think we should try to be optimistic. Come on, we should try to think of what we should do next."

"The only things we can do," Toby said between bites of shortbread. "Is either wait and see what happens, or go attack him. I don't know that we can do anything else, and there doesn't seem to be any chance of contacting Earth."

"Attacking would be bad." I yawned before continuing. "Even assuming we can defeat a giant reptile monster, he's the only one who knows how this ship works. Besides, I like Protoss. I don't want to fight them."

Toby nodded vigorously. "We should be open to new cultures and people. Isn't there a chance he could be a friend?"

"No, absolutely not. Don't be ridiculous. I've already told you that Aldaris doesn't like humans." John rolled his eyes. "So what do you open and tolerant people suggest we do?"

With a burst of electricity (psychic power?) to my left, all conversation ceased. We jumped back as the blue glow grew. It subsided only a few seconds later, and there before us was nothing scary: just Cheonha, sitting in a sofa-chair, covered by a blanket. Her eyes wrinkled, and she opened them only wide enough to look around. Spotting us, her grumpy grimace deepened.

"ALDARISU!" she screamed. "ALDARISU PAHBOYAH!"

With that, Cheonha pulled the blanket over her head and hunkered down into her chair. We just stared at one another, then as the shock passed, we sat back down again, this time with Toby at a better angle to see behind himself; it's not exactly pleasant when a big ball of electricity suddenly appears behind you.

"The real issue here is what Aldaris wants to do." I said, making sure my voice wasn't too loud so Cheonha could sleep. "He's in a strange place with a bunch of us little critters running around. His ship can't run forever without fuel and he's got to figure out how he got here in the first place. Well, unless all of you are figments of my imagination and I'm dreaming all of this stuff while locked up in an asylum."

Toby jokingly poked his arm. "No, I'm pretty sure I'm real."

"I would have way better insane delusions," John added. "With better food for one. And something to drink besides ginseng soda."

"Ginseng soda? Seriously?"

"Oh yeah." John turned around for a minute and shuffled around until he found a bottle, then held it up for me to see. "Orange flavor, no less."

"Ew. Well, at least my delusion has aliens." I grinned. "Anyway, sooner or later Aldaris is going to have to get help from earth, even if it's as little as something to power this ship. So it's more or less an inevitability that people are going to find out about him. So what we need to do is get him to tell people that he's here, and then no one will get too freaked out. So we can't tell anybody about him until he's ready."

"Wait, what? No!" John exclaimed. "That could be dangerous! There's no telling what he'll do if we just let him do what he wants! He could take us by surprise!"

"One ship?" Toby questioned. "Unless he has nukes, I don't see how one spaceship can do anything to Earth. I don't know about England, but I'm certain at least America could defend against him."

"Besides, even nukes aren't all that powerful on a global scale," I pointed out. "Fat Man and Little Boy didn't take out the entirety of Nagasaki and Hiroshima."

"That makes me feel better," John huffed, folding his arms. "Need I remind you what the Protoss did to Chau Sara? They blew the entire planet up."

"Wait, WHAT?" Toby's eyes widened to the size of tires. "They can do that?"

"Again, you're making a lot of assumptions about one ship." I tried again. "I very much doubt-"

"And what if he decides to call his friends, hm?" John retorted. "Don't you try and say that he can't contact the K-Sector from here, because if the humans in Starcraft could send transmissions back and forth from Earth to the K-Sector, then so can Protoss. I say our only option is to destroy the ship. We might not get back to Earth, but at least we can save...uh, save it."

The stuttering wasn't his fault. John was the loudest of us, and he was also facing Cheonha, and was the first one to see her disgruntled face as it peeked out from under the blanket. Like a very cranky bear, she silently threatened John's life before hiding back under her covering. John cleared his throat and settled down.

"You're forgetting that this isn't his universe." I said, glad that he probably wouldn't interrupt me again. "He can contact the 'K-Sector' all he wants - it's there in the Starcraft world, not here, just like the UED isn't here. Secondly, if he was going to send a message back home, he's had plenty of time to do so since we got here. And, thirdly, I really wouldn't start planning an attack back here, not where he can hear us."

"He's probably at the bridge, and we're pretty far back in the ship," Toby pointed out. "Does his telepathy go this far?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Somehow I doubt it. But think a minute. If you're a human-phobe 'Toss and you've got three of us little folk stranded on your ship, are you really going to let them just sit there and plan something bad? If he can't listen with his head, he can at least with his computer."

We sat there in silence a moment, John paler than the other two of us. What do you say in a situation like that?

"I didn't mean it, Aldaris!" John raised his voice, looking around as if for a hidden microphone. "I was just joking!"

"He's not going to believe that." Toby said.

"Shikkurowayo!" a cranky Cheonha hissed.

After another awkward pause, I spoke again, quietly. "Okay, so what we have to do is just get him to let us go for now. It won't help him stay hidden if he kills us or keeps us here."

"Yeah." said Toby.

"Uh huh." said John.

Another pause, interrupted only by a yawn from Cheonha on her chair. Seriously, I know Aldaris wanted us back on the ship so we didn't blab on him or something, but stealing someone's stuff is not cool. It's bad enough he accidentally teleported all this random stuff on the ship. There's no way he could return it all to the proper places. Not to mention the fact that the guys ate whoever's shortbread and I was wearing somebody's clothes. Ew. I know that's what you're doing when you're trying on an outfit, but it's extra gross when you don't know how long they wore they clothes before you put them on.

"Let's look at all the stuff." I suggested. "It's something to do."

"We looked already." Toby yawned, indicating a small pile of things on the floor behind John. "There isn't too much here, and I don't think we can get any use out of five empty bottles, two broken chair legs, a pack of pudding, and a suitcase full of strange money."

"Strange money?" I asked. "From what country?"

"I don't know." John said. "It's got all this weird writing on it, so it's not from the west."

I got up and went over to the pile of stuff. It was basically what Toby said it was, though he hadn't mentioned a pack of candy sodas, a broken plate, and some candle stubs. The suitcase (had the guys broken into it or were the locks already broken?) was indeed full of cash, but it wasn't strange to me.

"Ah," I chirped. "Hanguk toni-yehyo. Korean money. And a dang lot of it, too."

"Cool." Toby yawned again. "But not useful to us. Hm, I'm starting to think Cheonha has the right idea. There's nothing we can do right now, anyway."

"Nothing we can do?" John retorted. "You're just going to give up and take a nap now that we're prisoners of an evil Protoss?"

"Yep. Sounds about right."

"Aldaris is hardly evil, John." I yawned too. Even though the only unused blanket in the place was the one still half-wet from my misadventure with the sevengills, a nap was beginning to sound really good. "He's just a dude."

"And you're going to go to sleep to let him kill us all?"

"He could kill us all when we're awake too. So whatever." I snuggled against the wall. The jacket I was wearing was sort of like a blanket, so all I needed to do was find a pillow of some kind. "I'm too water-logged to think. And I still feel kinda gross from the poison."

"Great." John snapped. "So the plan is we'll just be asleep when he kills us?"

"Sounds good to me." Toby looked around. You could tell he was kind of irritated with himself for letting me have the jacket. "It hurts less that way."

"Screw you." John stood up. "I'm going to see if I can find something to contact Earth with. Great job telling him to hide behind the moon, Bethany!"

"You're welcome, Statkus." I shut my eyes and yawned again. "Have fun."

"Bethany, you will come to the bridge."

At once all of us were wide awake. That wasn't any of us speaking. It was Aldaris, and judging from the mechanical sound of it, he was communicating through the ship's speakers. Er, psychic speakers. Maybe he could hear us after all. Blinking at the others, I just shrugged.

"Well, here I go." I grinned. "I'm the first one dead."

"Don't even joke about that." John said.

"Relax. I think I can talk to him. And seriously, Cheonha, kwenchannayo. Don't look at me like that with those eyes. Go back to sleep."

To be honest, I'm not really sure how Cheonha was looking at me. Her eyes were so bleary and tired that I don't know if she was worried for my sake (did she remember my name?) or simply mad at me, wanting me to hurry up and go so that Aldaris wouldn't call again and keep her awake. At my words, she covered herself with her blanket again, but left a little space so she could watch me go.

"Good luck!" Toby shook my hand. "And remember, the fate of the entire earth depends on you."

"Pfft. No pressure, huh?" I grinned. At least one person back there had a dang sense of humor.

I wasn't really sure how to open the storage room doors. Were these like Star Trek, and they opened when you approached them? I went up to the massive gold panels and they did in fact open, but I wasn't really sure if they were automatic or Aldaris was controlling them somehow. It made more sense to assume the latter.

As I stood there in the midst of trying to figure out how exactly I was going to get to the bridge, the doors opened up to my answer. Aldaris was there on the other side, his hand still on some controls. It was about then that I noticed that the controls for the door were on the other side. Clearly whatever room we were in was storage, or something like that, and we wouldn't have been able to get out on our own.

It takes only milliseconds to have this mini-revelation, during which time Aldaris gestured in front of him. Great. I hate it when people walk behind me. Like really bad. But alas, he was probably trying to make sure I didn't mess with anything. Not that I was particularly inclined to do so when Aldaris could easily stop me, but it is what it is. We started walking, and I noticed of those little fuzzy worm decorations up on the wall, hanging from some kind of pipe near the ceiling. Huh, Aldaris was going to have a time cleaning this place up.

"Cast your eyes upon the floor and keep them there."

I did so, trying not to sigh. I guess I couldn't really be mad at him not wanting me to see his ship, but it was still annoying. Especially since I was supposed to navigate the hallways while staring at the floor. It wasn't quite as difficult as expected, because Aldaris gave me a sort of nudge with his thoughts if I ever started going the wrong way. I walk fairly fast for a human, but I bet it wasn't so much fun for Aldaris to have to walk along with someone with such comparatively short strides. If this did bother him, he didn't say. I did not then think about asking how tall he was, but I sure did think about it later.

Before I knew it, we were in that same room again before the teleportation. The computer wasn't going crazy this time, and I'm assuming that the peaceful swirls of some glowing blue lines across his computer screen meant that all systems were nominal. A bit of text running along down the side of one monitor was running, but it was also something I couldn't read. It's not like I could ask, either.

He pointed to a little stool (Protoss footrest?) thing bolted to the floor near one of the chairs near a side console. I sat, and he sat a little farther off. For several seconds he considered me, rather like a king staring down at one of his more rustic subjects. I tried not to squirm.

"So," he finally said. "I am not real, you claim? A 'fictitious character' as it were?"

Probably it would have been meaningless to point out that Statkus said that, not me. I hesitated a bit, because it was strange enough to have to explain all of this. I was kind of overwhelmed by how weird it was to have to explain all of this. After a second, I realized that Aldaris probably didn't have a plan to go back to the K Sector, and that he was going to find out about Starcraft somewhere. At least he was in a better mood at that point.

"So yeah, there's this game called Starcraft, and you're a character in it," I shrugged. "The game concerns the happenings in the K Sector, starting right after the burning of Chau Sara, up until...uh, well, Kerrigan dominates the Sector. Or at least she's at a point where no one can threaten her. The game isn't entirely clear on that point."

I paused there a minute to see if Aldaris would react. It suddenly ocurred to me that Starcraft the game might not always be very accurate to real life (because if Aldaris is real then it must be "real life" somewhere), and maybe this Aldaris didn't know who Kerrigan was. Also, Brood War ends significantly after Aldaris's death, so Kerrigan dominating the Sector would be news to him. Bad news. He didn't react to this, however, and not even my thoughts about his character dying. He just patiently waited for me to continue. I'm not entirely sure if he believed me, either.

"Uh, so, Starcraft was made by a company called Blizzard," I said. "And, uh, it came in two parts, both in 1998-"

"Stop," Aldaris said, finally expressing some disbelief. "You mean to tell me that humans were aware of the existence of the Protoss a great many human generations prior to your first interactions with us?"

I blinked. Actually, now that Aldaris mentioned it, it is pretty weird that humans would forget about the Protoss. Sure, Starcraft is set 500 years in the future, but even now we have pretty good electronic storage, and "Protoss" is a Greek word. Surely they're be some kind of archive where we'd be able to look up something like that. Unless that somehow never made it out to the K Sector. At about this point I remembered that the psychic in the room could hear my musings. That's all they were, so I just shrugged.

"Well, either you're correct about us forgetting, or Starcraft - where you're from, is an entirely different universe that we in this universe know about for some reason," I said. "Somehow I'm suspicious it's the latter, but frankly I just found out you're real today, so I have no idea."

Aldaris leaned back in his chair, considering things for a bit and letting me squirm. Somehow it almost seemed like he didn't believe me, even though as a telepath he has to know that I'm telling the truth. Well, you can't exactly blame him for not believing this. I wouldn't believe my life was a video game either - especially as up until this day my life had been rather on the boring side.

Aldaris shifted a bit in his chair, getting my attention again. "I do not know that it is relevant at this present time to inquire about this 'Starcraft'. I will likely seek knowledge of it at a later time. At this moment it concerns me more that Cheonha does not know english. Is she truly North Korean?"

I startled. Aldaris knows about North Korea? ...There is a North Korea 500 years in the future? I really don't like the sound of that. As much as I wanted to pester him about it now, I don't think he'd've been all that eager to let me ask questions at that point.

"Yes, she said she is," I answered.

"Then it is not..." Aldaris paused for a few seconds in thought. "It is not 2501, Earth Standard Time?"

Oh good. If by knowing Cheonha's North Korean Aldaris can tell that it's earlier than 2501, then clearly North Korea doesn't last 500 years into the future. With its crap economy, that would be ridiculous.

"Be not so readily distracted," Aldaris retorted. "North Korea fell in 2089, if the few memories I have of Earth's history are correctly recalled. It did not long last in its freedom before the UPL forced all the Koreas to its will. Be satisfied with this answer, and speak now the present year."

Aldaris has been transported to a place he's never been before for no reason, so I cut him some slack.

"It's April 25, 2016," I said.

"And the Earth is divided into many nations? Your technological limitations restrain you to this sector?"

Aldaris doesn't want me to get distracted, but there are so many implications to what he's saying, many unpleasant ones at that. I shook them off for the time being.

"Yes, that's true. At this point in time, we don't really have anything comparable for space travel like you would have seen in the K Sector. There's NASA, and there's some other space programs here and there throughout the nations, but it doesn't amount to much at this point. We have the Hubble space telescope, some satellites, and a space station. That's about it."

"And you speak of this willingly?"

"Well, I'm no expert or anything like that, but we have plenty of bombs, I guess." I scratched my head. "We did have a space station, but I think it got scrapped or something at one point. Not really sure why. Probably a funding cut. It's always funding cuts. My dad would've been in space already if it hadn't been for Jimmy Carter."

From the look on his face, it was clear that Aldaris didn't care about Dad or Jimmy Carter. "And this is not a scheme on your part to make me underestimate your forces?"

"Uh, well, correct me if I'm wrong," I was saying 'well' a lot, and made a mental note to stop saying it as much. "But can't Protoss tell if someone is lying?"

"At most times, yes." Aldaris replied. "I personally know of many techniques to produce honesty in creatures who might be inclined to deceive."

"None of 'em very nice, I bet."

"Precisely."

"Oh...okay." I sat there, flummoxed. How does one respond to a statement like that? "Oh, and by the way, please don't attack Earth. I'd really appreciate it if you didn't."

Aldaris was silent again, musing over the little human on his ship once again with some amusement this go-round. Le sigh. After a moment, he turned around to his computer, pushing a few buttons on his controls. Some data in his language appeared, and whatever it was that scrolled across the screen didn't seem to make him happy. He glanced back at me once. Something started blinking on the console. It musn't have been an emergency warning, because Aldaris was very calm as he held his hands over the controls. His computer must be psychically controlled, because he didn't touch anything.

"That is correct," he said, facing me once more. "You have no hope of control over my vessel, for this and many other reasons. You cannot hope to return to your home if the four of you were to overpower me." Aldaris narrowed his eyes disdainfully. "That is, assuming such a thing were possible. Your little association cannot harm me by means physical or psychic. Indeed, I have many ways of disabling potential threats. Do you understand?"

I nodded, unperturbed. It's not like I wanted to attack Earth's first alien visitor. Aldaris' eyes darkened to a slightly oranger color, and his brow wrinkled just a bit at me. After a moment he continued.

"I have not the facilities to maintain four human prisoners," he said. "Thus it is in the best interest of you four to convince me that it is the wisest course to return you to your homes."

"I take it that you're more concerned about our governments and stuff, like what we would say to them and how they would react."

Aldaris nodded almost imperceptibly. "What assurances can you make that your release would not result in human forces taking advantage of a stranded Protoss target with desirable technology?"

"Oh, well then, you're in luck. The advantage of being a fictitious character is that nobody would believe us if we were to talk about you. Like, what are we supposed to say? That this Starcraft NPC came to life? Everyone would think that we're nuts."

"I see. And what evidence do you have that this 'Starcraft' truly exists? With what do you intend to convince me that I am an 'NPC', as you have said?"

I blinked. "Uh, me knowing your name is evidence."

"Possibly. Or it is evidence you are engaged in some form of espionage." Aldaris folded his hands together, settling back into his chair. "There are humans who know my identity, and I cannot control who has this information. This is of greater likelihood than my presence during the time prior to the fall of the United States. Convince me that this game of yours is real, if you believe it to be so."

I thought about it, trying not to get distracted by that whole 'fall of the United States' thing. There's plenty of evidence on Earth for Starcraft. There's gameplay castings by Lowko on youtube, plus that whole TV channel in Korea where they do nothing but play Starcraft. If Aldaris can pick up television waves, he could probably see that. Or I could just get my Starcraft discs from home - it's installed on my laptop. A Protoss ship definitely won't have something for me to plug my laptop into, but I could play enough of it on battery power to show him it's real. Or he could teleport me down to Irvine, California at Blizzard HQ, to get an audience with Chris Metzen (how I would love to see his expression on seeing Aldaris!). Or I could look up pictures of the voice actors. Aldaris' actor is Paul Eiding-

"That is enough," Aldaris said quietly. "You are not lying."

Aldaris sat there, intense in his brooding. His eyes glowed a steady red, and though he didn't seem angry with me, he could hardly help being angry at his circumstances. I bit my lip, feeling a little bad. Or at least I did until he turned his red eyes back to me. Dude's kinda scary, yo.

"Knowing what you know of Earth," he said. "What do you suggest as my next course of action? Particularly as it concerns the four of you?"

I managed to catch myself before saying "well" this time. "You should simply send us home. It's really the best way. No one will wonder why we're missing, and if anyone finds out about you, they'll cut you some slack because you didn't shove us out an airlock when you had the chance."

"Yes, that you may make my whereabouts clear from the moment you reach Earth. 'Hide behind the moon' indeed."

"Oh!" I realized. "I didn't think of it that way."

"I am aware," he said. "I would not have done so otherwise."

"Cool. Anyway, you shouldn't worry too much about us saying something. For one, Starcraft itself is on your side. Sure, we could say that we were kidnapped by a Protoss, but we'd have no evidence, and as soon as they figured out we were referring to stuff in a computer game we'd get declared insane. I mean sure, NASA might have some weird readings from your ship by now, but there's no sense in concluding that a fictitious character from a popular game is the cause of it. And two, if you kill me, an unarmed girl who hasn't done anything to you, you're a jerk. But if you kill Cheonha, you're the scum of the universe."

"Oh really? Please explain. How I love to hear the intricacies of human moral principles."

"Dude, that much sarcasm is really uncalled for. Seriously, Cheonha has it bad." I hoped my expression was convincing. "She's not just a normal person. She's lived all her life in North Korea, where she's had nothing but political oppression. The communist party controls everything in their nation, and anyone who isn't priviliged lives at the mercy of those few that are. They're so oppressed that the army literally has to keep everyone from fleeing the country and figuring out that everybody else is better off than them. You showing up helped Cheonha escape, and if you just kill her now that she has the chance to be free, that's some serious scumbaggery right there."

"I see," Aldaris said, though he did not appear swayed one way or the other by my words. "And is there any reliable way disguising my vessel as I deposit her?"

"If there is a way, I sure don't know about it. Hey wait, you've got a cloaking device or something on the ship, right? Can't you just use that again?"

"Yes, because Protoss ships run on energy resources incapable of depletion." Aldaris said dryly. "Somehow I very much doubt that a suitable fuel exists on this planet, and it is therefore prudent to use it as efficiently as possible."

"In that case...uh...hm. I'd say you could just leave us all in South Korea and be done with it, except I don't know how we'd get home without having passports."

"South Korea?"

"Yeah, it's the other half of the peninsula. It's like an anti-communist parable: the communist North is probably the worst country on the earth, and the capitalist South is like the fourth most prosperous in the world, or something like that. Marx'd roll in his grave to see such clear evidence that his theory is bullcrap."

"I do not know the philosophies of humans nor care to learn them." Aldaris muttered and started to key something in on his computer. "Just show me where to bring her and you shall depart."

As Aldaris pushed a button on his console, a purple Protoss symbol appeared on the screen. It must have been the cloaking device or something. Not long after, the moon disappeared from the viewscreen and we got a better look at Earth. I was going to head over to the window to look, because windows are always better than viewscreens to look at space. Aldaris, however, swept his hand toward the monitor, and I followed his gesture over.

"Hm, that's the wrong side." I pointed to the screen. "Europe's there at the top, and below it is Africa. We've got to go further east, past most of Asia."

It of course was the ship moving, but it almost felt like the Earth itself was turning just for our convenience. Pretty soon, though, the right geography showed up on screen.

"Okay, you can stop it there." I said. "See that line of islands? That's Japan. Korea is on the inside of the islands, right there sticking out from the mainland. Um, can we get a closer zoom in? I'd like to send Cheonha to Seoul, but it's pretty close to the border and I don't want to risk sending her back to the North."

Aldaris pushed a few keys while I was talking, and pretty soon he had a closer view of the city. I could see some stuff, but not really tell what it was, other than clearly being buildings and that sort of thing. Seeing any distinctive detail was impossible, but since half of South Korea's population lives in Seoul, it's a pretty big place.

"That is as close as I can get without going closer to your world." Aldaris said with contempt, as if he was being corrupted by Earth by simply getting within a hundred thousand miles of it. "Is this the correct location?"

I squinted at the screen. "I think so. I just hope it's near a...near a...actually, I don't know where you're supposed to bring runaway North Koreans."

"That, I presume, you may determine for yourself when you arrive." Aldaris tapped a few more keys. "Prepare yourself."

"Prepare...?" I stared down at my odd clothes. "Um, how am I supposed to do that? I don't even have a hairbrush-"

Y'know, Aldaris didn't have to just teleport us. He could have given us a countdown, or let us sort through the human things to find more useful stuff, or confirmed where we would land. Nope! In the middle of my sentence, the blue electricity took hold again, and before I knew it, my surroundings were gone. Thanks a bunch, buddy.

\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- I know reviewer participation is technically against the rules, but I just wanted to ask. If you could ask a Protoss a question, what would it be? You know, besides the obvious "how do you eat?"

Author's Notes New:

- One of the reviews I got for this story the first time around acted as though just because I asked the above question, that I did not in fact know the answer. I did, I was just using it as an example of what people could ask a Protoss. If anyone wants to review with other questions for Protoss, that would be great. I do have a few questions in mind, so it's not a big idea if people can't come up with any, but yeah, there's aspects of Protoss culture and physiology that don't have clear answers.

- I talked to my dad again, and apparently Jimmy Carter is less to blame for him not going into space than I thought. Dad says that NASA was too optimistic about him and his coworkers getting to go in the first place. If you ever happen to get a copy of "Spacefarers of the 80s and 90s" - it's an old book, so probably you won't - then you can see a picture of my dad in it. He's the very 70s looking, mustachio'ed man sitting in the background of one of the pictures.

- I'm so glad I rewrote this chapter. One of the things that annoyed me about the first version of this chapter was that I made Aldaris too angry. He was angry in Starcraft because of his circumstances, but the circumstances of this story are different. He would be frustrated, but not to the point I had previously written. He would see the need for self-control in front of the humans. That, and for some reason I had him letting me wander around his ship alone. Not something he would allow.