Janet pondered her situation.  Her leaders had told her to ignore the signal.  This was what she must do.  The leaders word was the law, and the law was to be obeyed.  Her first memories were of learning this truth, and there was no one sane on her planet who believed otherwise.  Those crazy enough to believe otherwise were, quite appropriately, removed from society.

     And yet, she could not help thinking that this was the wrong course of action.  She wondered if her leaders even really knew who this alien was.  Did they even know anything of her mission?  She had been sending them data for the past seven years.  The required studies on human behavior had all been completed years ago, and yet her transport home had still not come.  Her reports became more insignificant, more repetitive through the years, and yet they continued to make her study this planet.  Did they even intend to bring her home?  She was ashamed to admit it, but on more than one occasion she had toyed with the idea that they were purposely keeping her on Earth.

     “No!  No the leaders have purpose.”  He voice was filled with strength and purpose, even though the only person to hear it was herself.  “My patriotism has never faltered, and it will not now.  I must obey the will of the leaders.  I will obey the will of the leaders!”  Her voice rose with each word, which echoed against her walls.  Not used to hearing another voice, her returning words startled her.  She quickly recovered.  “It’s only my echo.  Just my own voice.”

     The realization that she only had her own voice to communicate with reminded her of how lonely she was.  Normally, her feelings of desire for company could be ignored.  As long as she focused on her research, she needed no one.  She knew when she came on this mission that she would be alone.  She took pride in her independence - it was a trait that all on her planet admired and strived for.

     But that was seven years ago.  And seven years of contact only though brief calls to a faceless screen were wearing on her.

     “14!  14 come here!”  A small robot appeared from behind a panel of screens to her left.  Janet had built the robot herself during her fifth year on this planet.  Her need for companion ship had struck her then too; she made the robot as a pet and named it after the number of the human street she lived on.  It was nothing more than a silver box on six spider-like legs, but she had programmed it to produce a semi-transparent, squid-like hologram around itself.

     “14, I must obey the leaders.  But I do not believe the leaders are aware of the situation.  Perhaps this alien is a threat to my studies.”

     “Oct, oct, occcct.”
     “No, no.  I would never disobey the leaders.  I am completely loyal.  I am no savage!”
     “Oct.”
     “My studies here are important.  I am sure.  I must observe this threat.”
     “Octt.  Occt.”
     “It is not against the law.  I shall only observe the signal, I will not acknowledge it.”

     14 could have argued more, but Janet was already packing the tools to stake out the area.  Not that it would have mattered, his speech chip had always been faulty - Janet could not understand a word he clicked.


     Two and a half hours later, at the far edge of the town, Janet had finally tracked the signal to it’s source.  An odd, L shaped house at the edge of a large pond.  Her handheld sensors detected a spacecraft in a dock under the water, and signaling technology in the upstairs of the home.  It was too risky to attempt to go any closer, she still knew nothing about this alien.  Instead she would wait to see what it’s first move was.


     Zack, fast asleep after his talk with his father, had no idea that he was being watched.  It was protocol to run interplanetary life scans, but the previous Earth exploration team had found nothing, so he didn’t even bother.  Besides, he had so much more to attend to that he hadn’t even planned to run the scans.  But as to what would be his first step for the mission tomorrow, he still didn’t know.

    It was my full intention to make this story my summer project and update every Tuesday with a new bit of story, so that by the time skool started again, I'd have a fair share written up.  However, here it is June and I've only managed two pages.

    It isn't that I don't want, or have the drive to write.  I would like nothing more than to write.  These are characters I've had in my mind for some time now and I'm still excited about telling their story.  It's just that I haven't been getting the participation I had hoped.

    I'm not expecting a flood of views or anything, but I had really really hoped I could get at least five votes on each page.  Yet I've been waiting several weeks now and my last page only gathered two.  This is an experiment that requires audience participation, and I just don't feel that two votes is enough for me to move on with

    I'm posting this because I don't want to leave this journal without updates.  I don't want you to think I'm quitting.  This is to remind you that I'm waiting, and watching, and willing to write as soon as I get votes to go on.

    In the meantime, I'll continue to advertise and pass out links in hopes to get a few more views.

    Thanks for reading!

    Sun fully above the horizon, Zack lifted himself onto two legs.   He stood for a moment to catch his balance, and then wobbled across the dock.  He was pretty proud of himself, he only fell down twice before reaching the door to his new home.

    Zack couldn’t tell if his home looked like a normal Earth house.  Sure, he had studied thoroughly all the information brought back from the exploration team, but it didn’t seem like much use.  Human homes could come in any shape - there was no standard form like back on Tideling.  Back there the only difference in houses was the size and interior, but here homes could be round, square, tall, or long.  They could be built into cliffs, or over water, or even in trees.  Zack’s home was blue, and shaped like an L.  It had four rooms.  His base and sleeping chamber would be upstairs.  Downstairs would be the restroom, the kitchen, and his family room.

    The family room.  This is where the door entered into.  He braced himself with his hand along the green wallpaper with a bubble print.  Blue carpet, deep green couch, brown chair, a small human TV.  It all looked beat up.  He thought out loud, “They must have got it second hand.”  Yeah.  It wasn’t like the team who set up his base had access to earth currency.  He was lucky they furnished him with this much.  It would probably feel cozier if he had an actual family in it. 

    “I’m gonna call mom and dad.”  He wanted to talk to them.  “Really though,” he realized, “I’d be happy to talk to anyone, instead of talking to myself like I am now.”

    He clumsily climbed the stairs in the corner, and on the fourth step to the top tumbled down to the bottom again.  After laying on the floor in pain for several minutes, he worked his way up again.  He unlocked the door at the top with the retinal scanner.

    Much different from the downstairs, but no more inviting.  The room was so packed with supplies and technology for his mission that there was no room to move.  The small space in front of the door was the only place in the room that the floor was visible.  He flopped over onto his bed, and from there he could reach the communications monitor. 

    But first things first!

    Zack’s instinct was to sit with his tail behind him, but this didn’t work with human legs.  Human legs don’t bend that way.  He stretched his legs straight out in front of him instead, and wondered if this felt uncomfortable because he wasn’t used to it, or if it was awkward for humans to sit this way as well.  Not liking this position, he bent his legs and sat on his feet, which he found much more acceptable. 

    He checked the clock for the time back home.  It was early afternoon, so his father would be at work.  He tapped the codes into his monitor.  The screen flickered and a pretty young Tideling answered.  “BloonOP!”  Zack translated her voice into English in his head.  “This is Tideling Grand Medical Station 21.  Who are you wishing to reach?”  Zack replied, “BloonOP.  Arkling, please.”  The lady taking his calls gave a weird look when he included the English word “please,” but she quickly went back to her business and connected him to his father.

    Arkling was a key brain surgeon and nervous system expert on Tideling, he headed the department for bother Grand Medical Station 21 and 10, as well as about 15 of the lesser medical stations.  It was a big position.  Zack, being a psychologist, would probably never met his father’s rank on Tideling, which is why he felt it was so important to take this trip and study psychology outside of his home world.

    When the image of his father took the screen Zack didn’t realize just how excited he was to speak with him.  He nearly shouted into the screen, “BloonOP!”  Arkling had at first been shocked at the image of his gill-less, scale-less, now-hairy son, but at the sound of his voice he could instantly tell who he was speaking to.  “BloonOP,” he chimed back.  “How…  Is… Earth?”  He stuttered in the little English he knew.

    “I don’t really know.  I only just got here.  But, it’s a nice temperature.”  Wait, thought Zack, that phrase might be a little tough for him.  “Unog, cassh e floone.”
    “Your mother… and I… are… proud… of you.”
    He knew they were proud of him, but it was nice to hear it said.  “Where is mom?”  He asked.
    “Working… at Grand Station 38”

    Codling, Zack’s mother, had a difficult and busy job.  She was a Recoonless.  Zack wasn’t sure if there was an English word for what she did.  He tried hard to think of something, and could only come up with “Encyclopedia.”  While most Tidelings chose very specific medical fields to go into, Codling’s job was to learn a little from many fields.  If she tried to work in one area, she would be swiftly replaced with someone more capable in that area.  But if the more capable person were to find an issue that required another field’s input, they would be lost.  So the Recoonless travel from station to station giving their opinions on issues outside of the field in focus.  She also kept memorized a list of specialist names to refer them too if they needed more information.

    Zack asked his father to give her his regards.  Then he just talked and talked for a very long time.  It felt so good to have someone listen to him after his long journey.

    But miles away another ear was listening.  This ear was listening to the faint signals sent from Zack’s computer into space.  The monitor in this distant room had caught the energy from Zack’s ship landing earlier that morning.  Now a green girl sat in front and watched with great interest.  She could not hear or know what Zack was sending in his message, but that was no concern.  The important thing was that someone had come to Earth from space that morning, and that that same someone was not of her own race.

    She called her leaders immediately.  He monitor remained dark, but their deep voices filled her control room with her common alien language.  <Who calls now?>

    She answered with the series of clicks and small squeak that made up her name on her home planet.  <I am stationed on Earth.  For mission GL41, Sirs.>  She waited through the usual pause.

    <Yes.  Mission GL41.  Earth.  Are you in need of supplies?>
    <No Sirs,> she answered.  <I received a large supply shipment in place of my transport home five Earth months ago.>
    <Then what is issue?>
    <An alien craft has landed here.  It is not of our signals.  I am wondering if this is my home transport by an allied race’s task force?>

    The was a very long pause.  She could hear several of the leaders mutter through the background.  One of them squealed loudly.  He must have lost an argument.

    <We have sent no transport.>  Came her answer at last.  She blank face seemed to show no disappointment.  <Send us these signal data.>
    She moved her hands quickly to send them everything she had picked up.

    <We will check this data and discover it’s race of origin.  Continue your studies of Earth.  Do not contact the outsider.  Do not acknowledge the outsider.>  *pfzt*  They hung up, the call ended.

    And she was left alone in her control room with only the alien signal to keep her company.


Poll #1191262 .:ES:. [Page 2]
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What is her next move?

    An issue with Earth Studies is that the alien races have their own languages.  Zack and our other main character, who will be introduced soon, both understand and speak English because they have studied it for quite some time.  But how will you be able to understand the other aliens they talk to?

    To begin, Zack is constantly trying to improve his understanding of humans and their speech, so he will often translate conversations to English in his head.  Zack's character is a bit more open, so readers will get a better look into his mind than with other characters.  This makes it easy to use Zack's thoughts to understand his conversations.  As an added bonus, many characters involved in Zack's mission have tried to learn a little English too - so while not as fluent as he his, they will sometimes speak English to help Zack practice.  Still, there are times when he may speak in his native tongue.
   And then there is our other alien character.  Though her English is well developed, she doesn't see a need to continue to practice or translate any words in her head.  Adding to that, those from her home world have no desire to learn English at all.  All of her conversations with her home world will be in her own native tongue.

    In Earth Studies, when aliens are speaking in a language other than English, the words will be in angle brackets (< / >) rather than quotations (" / ".)  This is how you will know when they speak their own languages, as well as translate what they are saying.


    Finally, for fun, I'd like to teach you a little bit about the language Zack's home world, Tideling.  The alien race that inhabits Tideling are called the Tidelings.  Pretty easy to remember, huh?  But another nifty thing to know is that all Tidelings have the suffix "ling" at the ends of their names.  In the history of the race, there has never been an exception.
    The common greeting on Tideling is "bloonOP."  But there are variations!  Said normally, "bloonOP" is a simple "hello".  Said with a sigh, "bloonOP" is "good morning," or "good evening," depending on the time of day, of course.  Said with more emphasis on the bloon, "blooonOP" is a more casual "What's up?"  Said as a question, "bloonOP?" means "it's nice to see you," which isn't a question at all, but that's the way this particular word works.


Page 2 of Earth Studies is written up and coming later today.  So check it out when it comes out.  ; )

    Effortling slithered away from his desk and toward the controls.  No.  Zack slithered toward the controls.  He would have to use his new name.  Practice now.  Speak English even in his head.  He had been assigned to live on Earth for a year, he’s gotta live the life.

    Speaking of Earth, Zack was looking at it for his first time.  Wow.  It surprised him, how much land Earth has.  Zack’s home planet, Tideling, is almost entirely covered in water.  The largest landmass is smaller than Australia, and aside from that one continent, no other land is larger than Puerto Rico.  But land isn’t used much on Tideling anyway, most cities are built underwater.  Remembering home made Zack nervous.  Humans lived entirely on land - he would have to spend the entire year on the ground.

    He shook it off and calculated his landing, right in the area prepared for him.  He couldn’t be nervous, this was a fantastic opportunity.  Earth was relatively unexplored, only two crews from Tideling had visited it.  The first exploration team scouted the area, the seconded team came later to set up the area where he would be spending the year.  Yes, he would be the first of his race to actually study this planet and it’s life forms.  Granted Earth is was not a high priority for Tideling study, but Zack was only a student so he felt pretty lucky to get the chance.

    Back home Zack studied psychology and mental health.  He had to specialize, you know.  85% of Tidelings were doctors of some sort.  It was extremely important for his planet that as many people studied the medical sciences as possible.  After all, when the ultimate goal of your race is to eliminate all disease in the universe you need a lot of doctors.  Zack was proud to be part of his race’s goal.  These humans he was going to study, they may be sentient, but could they comprehend that the people of Tideling have been destroying diseases since long before the first caveman discovered fire?

    He continued to bring the ship down.  He had passed through the atmosphere and was keeping his ship steady down to the assigned landing place.  There was a lot for him to do.  He had to take samples of plants, of germs, of mold, of anything that could be useful really.  He had to study the human body, the human mind, the human society, all without bringing attention to Tideling’s existence.  He had to do his psychology homework for school back home and send it in on time.

    His landing area was underwater.  The pond he parked in would not only provide him with a fine hiding spot for the ship, which he would not be using for the next year, but it would also bless his with the feel of fresh, cool water the moment he exited the ship.  Amphibious creatures don’t do well on long spaceship journeys.  Sure he had plenty of water on the ship, but it was becoming stale.  Were all his things gathered up?  He double checked the ship.  Yes.

    *Splash*

    Good old H2O.  The same on any planet.  Though, admittedly, this Earth pond’s water had some impurities that he didn’t recognize, but at this moment he didn’t care.  Fresh water, and a wide space of it.  Alright, so his friends at home would be shocked at the limits of the space he same in.  This would be a puddle on Tideling.  But after that claustrophobic ride it felt like an ocean to Zack.  He couldn’t even think of exploring his house, he had to swim.  He had to stretch his scales, to move his tail.

    His poor tail.  Leaving the pond meant that the mission had official started, so he had to say goodbye to his tail.  He sat on the dock, letting it hang in the water as he rummaged through his bag.  Where was it?  His floorangoe.  No, no, he had to speak English now.  What did the scientists call the floorangoe in English when they gave it to him?  The… putty pill.  Yeah.  This was specially designed just a few years ago.  It would manipulate his skin, turn it to an almost rubber so that he could mold himself into a human form.  The dose was enough for a year, but he’d have to mold fast because the effects become stable after only 18 minutes.  He tried it once back home under the supervision of the scientists in order to practice forming and moving with legs.  The legs were the tricky part, you know.  He needed to use a prosthetic base for one of them because he didn’t have enough bones to make two on his own, and he’d have to be careful to divide the muscles from his tail evenly.

    When that finished he smoothed away his scales.  Then the head was easy though, it was already fairly human in form aside from the ears, the gills, the additional fins and, oh yeah, the hair.  There were two limitations in the putty pill.  The first was that it could only create a small amount of hair.  But that could pass, after all, humans only looked at hair upon the head and face anyway.  So Zack managed to grow a short hairstyle and eyebrows before he reached the limit.  The next issue was that he could not change his skin color to a more human pigment.  But that was OK because he already formulated an excuse for his green blue skin.  He would say he had a full body tattoo, he thought it was pretty brilliant.

    Zack took a deep breath and looked out from the dock.  He had to wait there, still, until his newly reformed body would become stable.  The sun was rising.  There was a lot to be done, so what to do first?

     He tossed around the options in his mind.  He could call his parents and tell them he had arrived.  They told him they wanted to hear from him on Earth, but their work was important to Tideling and he was sure they’d be busy.  Perhaps he should call to check in with Dr. Glowemling, the man in charge of his mission?  But he didn’t really need to be contacted directly - Zack would be sending all his data and mission logs in report form via electronic mail.  Still, he wanted to talk to someone.  He had finally reached his destination, worlds away from home, and it seemed like something he should announce.  He could call his professor back at his school, the one who referred him to this Earth Studies program.  Professor Yosling was a favorite teacher of Zack’s.  He wouldn’t know much about Earth or the mission, but he would be available after all.

    The sun continued to move up, and he could feel his body settling.  Well, whoever he decided to call, he would chat with them, and then start unpacking.

Poll #1175294 .:ES:. [Page 1] This poll is closed. Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All Who will Zack call? View Answers His Mother and Father 2 (50.0%) Dr. Glowemling - The mission director 1 (25.0%) Professor Yosling - His teacher 1 (25.0%)

What is Earth Studies?

Earth Studies is a project I'm working on, it's a story about two aliens on Earth who are trying to learn more about our world.  What happens to them an what decisions they make will be influenced by the readers, so the outcome of the story is still unknown.


How it works:

• Step 1:  I post a section of the Earth Studies storyline.  Each section will end with a choice that will determine something that will happen in the next section.
• Step 2:  You read the story and vote on a course of action.
• Step 3:  I write the next section of the story according to the majority's decision.
• Step 4:  Repeat.

So what's the plan?

Voting will last for 5 days.  After this point, the poll will be taken down and I'll use the choice picked by the majority to write the next section.

The plan is that I'll update the story on Tuesdays.  Due to the nature of life and the internet, however, I probably won't update every Tuesday.  I'm going to try to keep to this schedual though, and when I do update, it will be on a Tuesday.


So I hope you enjoy the Earth Studies story and participate in its creation!  Thanks for reading!