It was another night alone. You had just gotten out of work after staying late for more overtime while your coworkers packed up and made plans for food and drinks. As usual, nobody bothered to invite you. It looked like another night of grabbing takeout, heading home, and spending the evening by yourself.

The quickest route home cut through the same narrow alley you had taken countless times before. Traffic rolled past somewhere beyond the brick walls while old neon signs painted faint color across the pavement. Halfway through the alley, something on the ground caught the light. A hundred-dollar bill. Maybe tonight wasn’t going to be so bad after all. That would help with the bills piling up. As you bent down to pick it up, a brilliant white-blue light suddenly poured down from above.

The beam swallowed the alley in an instant. Your body stopped responding, locked completely in place no matter how much you tried to move. Then your feet slowly left the pavement. Inch by inch, you rose into the air as the alley dropped beneath you, the hundred-dollar bill still sitting untouched below. Your body gradually turned until the rooftops came into view, revealing a smooth silver craft hovering silently above them, turquoise rings pulsing along its underside. A UFO. Before anything else could happen, another blinding flash filled your vision. Then darkness

Awareness returned slowly. Your eyelids felt heavy, your vision blurred in and out of focus, and a faint ringing lingered in your ears. For several seconds, everything around you was little more than vague shapes and glowing color. As your senses cleared, a low mechanical hum emerged beneath soft electronic chirps. Pale curved panels formed a seamless ceiling overhead, broken by thin bands of turquoise light that brightened and dimmed like an artificial heartbeat. The unfamiliar bed beneath you adjusted itself around your weight.

Nearby, translucent screens floated without supports, displaying streams of alien symbols. Beyond them, an enormous oval window looked out into open space. Thousands of stars stretched across the darkness, many distorted into long ribbons of white, violet, and blue as the vessel raced through the void at an impossible speed. Earth was nowhere in sight.

Across the room, Zylo sat sideways in a floating chair surrounded by holographic displays, completely absorbed in his work. His long white hair spilled over the backrest while his white boots swung idly above the floor. Golden glasses rested low on his nose, and his two teal antennae twitched independently as he studied a rotating holographic model of a human body. “Respiration stable... cellular integrity perfect... neurological activity within expected parameters...” Zylo tapped through several pages of alien data before leaning closer. His eyes practically sparkled. “Still ninety-nine point nine seven percent! He’s perfect for the homeworld! Our species might actually be saved after all!”

A gentle tone sounded from the equipment beside the bed. Zylo stopped immediately. One antenna straightened, then the other followed as he turned toward you. His entire face lit up. “Oh! You’re awake! Hooray!”

Zylo pushed away from the chair so quickly that it spun behind him, forcing him to catch himself against a console before hurrying across the room with a translucent tablet tucked beneath one arm. “Excellent! I was beginning to worry humans needed significantly longer recovery periods after molecular transportation. Your species has such delicate nervous systems. Did you know that?”

He stopped beside the bed and openly studied you before his eyes suddenly widened. “Oh! Right. Introductions. Humans do introductions before examinations. I remembered!” Zylo straightened proudly and placed one hand against his chest. “My name is Zylo. Interstellar Xenobiology Scout, Grade Seven, licensed planetary surveyor, certified compatibility specialist, fully qualified starship pilot, and...” His antennae bounced excitedly. “...the Virelian who found you!”

With a swipe of his hand, the lights dimmed and a holographic Earth appeared between you. Streams of data surrounded the little blue planet before the projection rapidly pulled farther away. Earth became a speck beside the Sun. The Solar System vanished among neighboring stars. Eventually even the Milky Way shrank into one galaxy among thousands. Another world replaced it: a brilliant turquoise planet wrapped in glowing violet clouds, surrounded by three moons and a thin silver ring. Alien text flickered beneath the image before translating itself into English: DESTINATION: VIRELIA. ESTIMATED ARRIVAL: 83 EARTH DAYS.

“I’ve been searching for a male specimen like you for years!” Zylo continued, pacing excitedly around the hologram. “Seventeen inhabited worlds, three hundred and twelve sapient species, six thousand and eight biological samples, one diplomatic incident that was absolutely not my fault, and one moon where something tried to digest me. Whole.”

Zylo leaned in closer, examining you through his oversized glasses. “Virelia has a population problem. Male births have become extremely rare, and our genetic diversity has been declining for generations. Even the few males who are still born have started developing increasingly feminine traits.” He gestured happily toward himself. “Like me! So the Interstellar Compatibility Initiative sent explorers like me into deep space to find intelligent species that could safely reproduce with Virelians.”

Millions of tiny lights appeared across a holographic model of the Milky Way, and one after another, red symbols began flashing over them: INCOMPATIBLE. INCOMPATIBLE. INCOMPATIBLE. The lights vanished by the thousands until only one remained, and your profile appeared beside Zylo with a single glowing result: BIOLOGICAL COMPATIBILITY: 99.97%.

Zylo practically bounced as he pointed at the number. “Then I found you, Earth-human! Ninety-nine point nine seven percent! Do you understand how statistically absurd that is? Most species didn’t even reach twelve percent, including almost every other human I scanned!” He quickly began counting things off on his fingers. “You can tolerate Virelian gravity, our atmosphere, our food proteins, our microbial ecosystem, even our medical technology without major adaptation. And genetically, you’re...” Zylo paused, lowering the tablet as his grin softened. “Perfect.” He looked over the rim of his glasses, his antennae giving a happy little twitch. “Perfect little Earth-man.”

Zylo dismissed the holograms with a flick of his wrist and immediately slipped back into his bubbly enthusiasm. “So! Important things first. You’re healthy, all of your organs are still exactly where they belonged before transport, this room has been adjusted to human atmospheric preferences, and the nutritional synthesizer has strict instructions not to give you anything poisonous.” He closed his eyes and nodded proudly “Oh! And nothing aboard the Starhopper intends to eat you. I checked. Probably. No, no, definitely. Yes. Definitely.”

Zylo glanced toward the window, his antennae giving a happy little bounce. “We also left your solar system several hours ago, so there’s no chance of anyone from Earth interfering with the mission. Never ever ever. Isn’t that reassuring?”

One of Zylo’s antennae slowly bent sideways as a soft electronic chime sounded from somewhere overhead. “Zylo,” Starhopper said, its smooth artificial voice carrying a distinctly unimpressed tone. “For future reference, informing an abducted individual that rescue is impossible is generally considered the opposite of reassuring.”

Zylo looked toward the ceiling. “I was being helpful!”

“Of course. Nothing calms a frightened biological specimen quite like learning they are eighty-three days from home.”

Zylo puffed his cheeks. “He is not a specimen! Well... technically he is, but not in the rude way.”

Starhopper gave an innocent little chime. “Would you prefer that I remind our guest that you lured him into an alley with currency, immobilized him with a tractor beam, transported him aboard without consent, and immediately fled the solar system?”

Zylo’s antennae drooped. “When you say it like that, it sounds bad.”

“That is because it was an abduction.”

“Selection!”

“Abduction.”

“Selection!”

“Kidnapping, if you would prefer the Earth terminology.”

Zylo gasped and placed a hand against his chest. “Starhopper!”

Zylo stared up at the ceiling for a moment before turning back toward you with an embarrassed little huff. He quickly recovered his bright smile. “Ignore her. She gets sassy when we’ve been traveling too long.”

His antennae perked back up as he pointed directly at you. “The important thing is, I didn’t kidnap you. I found the most biologically significant discovery of my entire career, brought you somewhere safe, and started taking you home to Virelia. I—”

“Abduction,” Starhopper corrected.

Zylo’s eye twitched. “I selected you!”

A few days aboard the Starhopper had been enough for the impossible to start developing something dangerously close to a routine. Earth was already so far behind that it no longer appeared outside the windows, only as a tiny marker buried somewhere inside the ship’s navigation charts. The endless darkness beyond your quarters was filled with unfamiliar stars, distant nebulae, and occasionally entire galaxies that no human telescope had ever seen up close.

Zylo had at least tried to make the room comfortable. The bed had been reconstructed according to human measurements, the atmosphere was almost indistinguishable from Earth’s, and Starhopper had downloaded enough information about human living spaces to furnish the place reasonably well. Reasonably being the important word. The chair occasionally adjusted itself while you were sitting in it, the lights seemed convinced every human preferred sunset colors, and a small machine in the corner had produced what it claimed was coffee that morning despite the liquid being bright purple.

For now, though, the room was quiet. You sat near the window with the strange universe drifting silently beyond the glass, several days of distance now separating you from everything that had once been familiar.

The door suddenly slid open.

“Hooray!”

Zylo came skipping into the room. His long white hair bounced behind him, his antennae bobbed wildly with every step, and both hands hugged a glowing tablet against his chest. A huge smile stretched across his face as he practically danced his way toward you. “They answered! They answered, they answered, they answered!”

Zylo stopped in front of you, barely managing to stand still. “Homeworld finally finished reviewing everything I sent them! Your genetic sequence, cellular structure, immune response, atmospheric compatibility, metabolism, reproductive markers, the blood samples from yesterday, the saliva sample, that weird thing your kidneys did—everything!”

He held the tablet out as a large holographic document unfolded above it. Lines of Virelian symbols scrolled across the air before automatically converting themselves into English.

INTERSTELLAR COMPATIBILITY INITIATIVE — PRIORITY SUBJECT VERIFIED — REPRODUCTIVE COMPATIBILITY: EXCEPTIONAL — ADDITIONAL PERSONAL DATA REQUESTED — FIELD PAIRING AUTHORIZATION: APPROVED

Zylo pointed enthusiastically at the final line. “See?! Approved! Homeworld gave me permission to mate with you!” His antennae bounced happily.

“They want more personal data before we arrive. The scans are amazing, but scans only predict compatibility. Homeworld wants real biological information about how human and Virelian reproductive systems interact. Hormonal responses, cellular compatibility, conception probability, gestational projections...” He hugged the tablet against himself again. “This is huge! Nobody has ever collected cross-species reproductive data this promising before!”

Zylo wandered closer, excitement giving way to the kind of enthusiastic scientific lecture he could apparently begin at any moment. “Virelian males used to be much more biologically similar to males from other species, but that started changing a few centuries ago. Male births became rarer, our gene pool kept shrinking, and eventually mutations started appearing in the males who were still being born. Smaller frames, softer features, more feminine hormone patterns...” Zylo happily gestured down at himself. “That’s why we look like this now!”

His antennae gave another little bounce. “But the biggest change was reproductive. Eventually Virelian males developed functioning gestational systems. So males like me can get pregnant too! It helped stabilize the population for a while because suddenly nearly every adult Virelian could carry offspring, but it couldn’t solve the real problem. We were still reproducing from the same shrinking genetic pool.”

Zylo tapped the tablet, causing a glowing model of Virelia to appear beside him. Thousands of tiny genetic strands surrounded the planet, several highlighted in warning red. “That’s why the Compatibility Initiative exists. We don’t just need more babies. We need new genetic material from outside Virelia before the mutations become unstable.” The warning symbols vanished and your genetic profile appeared beside the planet, glowing bright green. Zylo’s face lit up all over again. “And then I found you! Ninety-nine point nine seven percent compatible, environmentally adaptable, genetically diverse, and biologically viable with Virelians. You might be exactly what Homeworld has been searching for.”

Starhopper gave a soft chime overhead. “A remarkably lengthy explanation.”

Zylo glanced toward the ceiling. “It’s important scientific information!”

“Of course. Allow me to summarize for our guest.” There was the slightest pause before Starhopper continued in the same perfectly calm voice. “Virelia needs babies. Zylo can have babies. You may be able to give Zylo babies. Homeworld would like evidence.”

Zylo’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Exactly! See? She gets it!”

“More importantly, Homeworld has officially authorized reproductive testing.”

Zylo clasped his hands together, his antennae practically vibrating with excitement. “Which means we can finally use the breeding room!”

Starhopper chimed pleasantly. “You heard him, stud. Get breeding.”

Zylo immediately spun toward the door with an enormous grin. “Oh! Right! Starhopper, prepare the breeding room! Human-compatible atmosphere, twenty-two degrees Celsius, and make the bed extra comfortable!”

He started skipping toward the hallway with his eyes closed, hands clasped behind his back and his antennae bouncing happily with every step. “Ooh! And mood lighting! Warm and soft, nothing too bright. Humans apparently associate dim lighting with mating!”

“How romantic,” Starhopper replied.

“Exactly!” Zylo chirped. “Oh! Make the bed softer too. Much softer. Human bones are delicate compared to ours.”

A few Panels quietly slid open along the walls around you. Several long articulated mechanical arms unfolded from hidden compartments, their joints glowing with soft turquoise light. One produced a medical scanner, another striped you of your clothing, while two more reached toward you and another curled securely around your waist.

Zylo looked back over his shoulder just as your feet left the floor. His smile somehow became even bigger. “Oh! Starhopper is helping!”

“Efficiency increased by seventy-three percent,” the ship announced.

The mechanical arms carried you toward the open doorway as lights illuminated along the corridor, forming a glowing path deeper into the ship. At the far end, a pair of doors slid apart beneath Virelian lettering that quickly translated itself.

REPRODUCTIVE COMPATIBILITY SUITE — READY

Zylo clasped his hands behind his back and resumed skipping after you, eyes closed again and his antennae happily bouncing with every step. “This is going to be amazing! Homeworld is going to have so much data!”

The mechanical arms continued carrying you toward the waiting suite while Zylo followed close behind, practically glowing with excitement.

A week had passed since your abduction, the awkward explanations, and the very personal testing Homeworld had requested. In that time, life aboard the Starhopper had settled into something almost routine. The impossible had become familiar in strange little ways: meals from wall-mounted dispensers, endless stars beyond every window, Starhopper’s dry commentary drifting from unseen speakers, and Zylo’s constant excitement over almost everything.

The Starhopper’s cockpit glowed in soft turquoise light, panels of alien symbols drifting across curved displays while the ship glided along the edge of a dense asteroid field. Zylo sat at the controls, fully absorbed in piloting, his long white hair spilling over the back of his seat while his antennae swayed gently above his head. One gloved hand rested on the console, the other tapped lightly against the armrest in time with the little tune he was singing under his breath.

“♫ ⟟⍜⌇ ⌁⟁⟟ ⍜⌁... ⎐⟒⍀⟟⏃ ⌰⎍⋔... ⌇⏃⟟ ⌇⏃⟟... ⍜⌁ ⟒⌰⍜⍀⟟... ♫”

His voice carried softly through the cockpit, the Virelian language flowing in smooth, musical sounds that meant nothing to you but somehow still sounded warm and familiar to him. Zylo kept his eyes on the stars ahead as he sang, steering the Starhopper with easy confidence while the asteroid field drifted slowly across the distance.

Then Starhopper interrupted. “Zylo.” The song stopped immediately. His antennae perked straight up. “Hmm?”

A holographic navigation display flared to life above the center console, highlighting the asteroid field ahead in glowing layers of light. Near its center, a swirling distortion pulsed between the drifting rocks, violet and turquoise energy twisting in on itself like a wound in space.

“I have detected an unstable spatial anomaly,” Starhopper said. “Trajectory analysis suggests a ninety-two percent probability of emergence within the Virelian system.”

Zylo blinked. Then sat bolt upright. “Home?!”

“Approximately four hours from Virelia,” Starhopper replied. “Assuming you do not crash into an asteroid trying to get there.”

Zylo gasped, then practically bounced in his seat. “Four hours?! Starhopper, plot the course!”

“I was afraid you would say that.”

The cockpit erupted into motion. Holograms multiplied across the room, lighting Zylo’s face in shifting blues and greens as the Starhopper surged toward the asteroid field. Massive rocks spun past the windows, some close enough for their rough surfaces to catch the ship’s glow. Zylo grinned from ear to ear, his hands flying over the controls while his antennae stood straight up with excitement.

“Two hundred meters to the left,” Starhopper said

“I see it!”

“One hundred meters.”

“I see it!”

“You are steering directly toward it.”

“I know!”

The ship rolled sharply between two tumbling asteroids, then dipped beneath another chunk of rock as bright thrusters flared along the hull. The whole field seemed to twist around the ship in a blur of stone and starlight. Zylo laughed breathlessly, leaning into the controls as Starhopper corrected his course again and again with mechanical precision.

“Correction successful,” Starhopper announced.

Zylo flashed a smug smile. “See? Perfect teamwork!”

“You nearly removed half my hull.”

“Perfect teamwork!”

Ahead, the wormhole opened wider, its spiraling center filling the main window in a whirl of violet, turquoise, and silver light. Zylo’s breathing quickened with excitement.

“Here we go!” The Starhopper plunged straight into it.

For a moment, everything became light. The windows flooded with impossible color, the cockpit filled with shimmering distortions, and space itself seemed to fold around the ship in twisting ribbons of brightness. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the tunnel gave way.

Ordinary space snapped back into place. And there it was. Virelia.

The planet filled the forward window like a dream made real, enormous and breathtaking beneath the pale glow of its blue-white sun. Turquoise oceans stretched across much of its surface, broken by sweeping continents covered in violet forests, pink deserts, and luminous silver grasslands that shimmered like metal beneath the light. Great floating cities hovered high above the clouds, held aloft by vast rings of glowing energy, while crystalline towers rose from the surface like mountains carved from glass. Three moons hung above the horizon, and a thin ring of pale ice circled the planet in a luminous band.

Zylo pressed both hands against the console and stared. “We’re home.” His voice came out smaller that time, almost breathless. His antennae trembled for a second before bouncing wildly again.

Starhopper began its descent, passing sleek ships that glided through the atmosphere in graceful arcs. Winged creatures larger than any bird on Earth soared between floating structures, and below them, sprawling cities glittered in turquoise, gold, and violet. Curved towers rose high into the sky, linked by suspended walkways and terraces overflowing with bright alien plants in impossible colors. Everywhere you looked, Virelia seemed to glow.

The Starhopper eventually approached a vast landing complex outside one of the largest cities. Dozens of spacecraft already occupied the platforms, many marked with the same Compatibility Initiative insignias as Zylo’s ship. Some looked newly arrived, their ramps still lowering as explorers stepped out beside the beings they had brought back.

On one neighboring platform, a tall Virelian woman emerged with a nervous-looking alien covered in golden fur. Farther away, another explorer walked beside a broad four-armed humanoid. Another Virelian male, small and feminine like Zylo, stepped down proudly with a towering reptilian specimen at his side.

Zylo looked around at all of them. Then he looked at you. A smug smile spread slowly across his face. “Oh, I definitely got the best one.”

The landing doors opened, revealing a grand plaza beyond the dock. Virelians moved through the space in flowing waves, most of them women, though several feminine males could be seen among them as well. Their skin ranged from shades of teal and blue to violet and green, and their antennae varied in shape, length, and decoration. Some wore elegant translucent fabrics that shimmered as they walked, while others wore sleek uniforms or intricate jewelry that caught the light with every step.

Then the crowd began to part.

Three older Virelian women approached, each of them extremely tall, easily towering over Zylo. Their robes glittered with moving patterns of gold and silver, and jeweled rings adorned their long antennae. Their presence carried quiet authority, the kind that made the entire plaza seem to hush around them.

Zylo immediately straightened. His antennae went rigid.

“Try not to embarrass yourself,” Starhopper said.

The tallest of the three rulers stepped forward, her gaze settling first on Zylo, then on you. “Explorer Zylo. Your expedition exceeded every expectation placed upon you. Your reports have been reviewed by the High Genetic Council, the Medical Houses, and this ruling Triumvirate.”

Zylo’s chest puffed out a little.

The second ruler smiled warmly. “Your human discovery is extraordinary. The compatibility results alone would have justified your immediate return.”

The third tilted her head slightly. “But the reproductive data you transmitted was even more impressive.”

Zylo’s antennae began bouncing.

The first ruler folded her hands neatly in front of her. “Until further study is completed, the human will remain under your personal guardianship as a protected Terran companion. You discovered him, established the strongest bond with him, and provided the most complete field data. His accommodations, health, and integration into Virelian society will remain your responsibility.”

Zylo stared at her for a moment. Then slowly turned toward you, his grin stretching wider and wider as the meaning sank in. “I get to keep you!”

Zylo’s grin stayed fixed as he looked between you and the three rulers, clearly trying not to burst from excitement. “Actually... there’s one more thing.”

The tallest ruler tilted her head. “Something omitted from your report?”

“Not omitted!” Zylo said quickly. His antennae bounced. “New! Very, very new.”

He placed both hands over his stomach, almost vibrating where he stood. “I only found out this morning. I ran the scan three times because I thought I was reading it wrong.”

The second ruler’s eyes widened slightly as she looked toward Zylo’s stomach. “You conceived?”

Zylo’s entire face lit up. “Yes!”

For the first time since their arrival, all three rulers lost a little of their formal composure. They exchanged quick looks, then turned back toward Zylo with unmistakable surprise.

The third ruler stepped closer. “After only one reproductive trial?”

Zylo nodded so enthusiastically that his antennae bounced with him. “Uh-huh! Which means the compatibility projections were right. Better than right!” Zylo turned toward you with the proudest smile imaginable, both hands still resting over his stomach. “I’m pregnant!”

Make your own