A trip to another world.

Within the warm waters of Bondi beach, a surfer sat on his board as he took in the view.

He knew what lurked in the depths out past the nets, but he considered risk thrilling, so he took it upon himself to go out and test his resolve. He made it past the nets with ease, and sat for a time to contemplate his situation.

Sharks aren’t dangers, he thought. Not unless they’re staving and my wet suit is red, a color of danger in the animal world. Oh, he thought, sharks can’t see color. Regardless, I’m on a board. I could make it back over the nets quickly. This is not exciting enough.

He had made up his mind. He wanted a thrill; he wanted excitement. He took it upon himself to gain distance from this net. Ten meters, not enough. Thirty meters, clear and present danger, but still, he wanted to see the sight of the coast line so he continued. He wanted to enjoy the thrill of it. Now some would consider this suicidal, but in truth he considered himself to have a good life and his camera footage would prove his strength.

He sat on his board taking it all in. The salty sweetness of the air, the waves of the water, and the sight of both what lay below and beyond the nets filled his senses. Something wasn’t right; something seemed to be coming for him.

Frantically he looked around. Within the watery depths he could see many shadows none of them moving, most seaweed. His heart beat steadily rose as he lay on his board to remove his feet from the water. Something was coming, something big.

Damn, I’m done for. This is it. Stupid, stupid… He thought.

The largest of the white pointers, a monstrously sized shark twenty feet long knocked him from his surfboard and in an instant… Darkness. He lay on the ground in complete darkness.

“Am I dead. Doesn’t seem like heaven. Am I in hell? Where’s the torture? Where’s the heat.” A light flashed into existence and whilst almost blinded by the change he took in his surroundings. There were chairs, a table with a few glasses of water and a towel.

Within moments a woman wearing white walked through the door. “Sorry about that. I’m Mary. Please take the towel and dry yourself off. There’re some clothes coming for you. How rude of me I forgot to ask you name.”

“Ah… Bill. Am I dead?”

She looked heartbroken but said, “No, you’re not dead. We rescued you, but you cannot return. People saw the great white take your board and will assume the worst. We cannot have anyone knowing we exist.”

“Why? How did I get here?”

“You were transported here,” Mary said as she walked over to the wall and placed her hand on the center. A window instantly formed. Bill walked over and took in the view of greater Sydney.

“So, we’re on an airship of some type. I didn’t know we were this advanced. Come to think of it, I didn’t think I saw a blimp in the sky,” Bill said.

“Oh, well in short, you’re not. Not as a species on a technological level anyway,” Mary said.

“So, there are aliens who look like us?” Bill said.

“Yes, but we are not of their kind.”

“You look human; you sound human. What gives?”

“Are you prepared to see my true face?” Mary said.

Bill thought he was prepared for anything. He thought himself to be a true man among weaklings. “Sure. How bad could it be?” What he saw scared the bejesus out of him.

As she reached behind her head and pulled, it was as if her skin was being cut and removed, but what lay beneath had a dark green scaley skin like texture. Mary removed her fake teeth to reveal sharp pointy ones that would suit a wolf more than a human. Finally, she removed contact lenses from her eyes to show a blood red iris. It was enough to scare a four-star general.

Her voice also changed to that of a rough throaty nature. He turned his head as Mary stated in a raspy voice, “Ah, this is much better. Do you know how uncomfortable those things are? I’m so glad you were ready to see my true form.”

“Why has your voice changed?” Bill said as he took a glance in her direction only to be forced to turn back his head to the pleasant scene of greater Sydney.

“Jez Bill, I’m not dangerous. We are not uncivilized beings. We did rescue you, and if I may say, you seem a tad ungrateful,” Mary said.

“Yes, but you won’t let me leave. Will you.”

“Well yes, but that’s more about management, isn’t it. Procedure and all that.”

“So, what am I to do?”

“Well, there’s lots of things you can do for us. We currently need administrative staff. If you allow us to implant a control chip, we could trust you to accomplish a range of missions. You would be perfect for the task,” Mary said as she pondered the situation.

“You’re not implanting anything to do with control in my head!” Bill said overly shocked at the prospect.

“Oh, it wouldn’t really control you. Just monitor your thoughts, vision, hearing and prevent you from making mistakes is all.”

“That’s a no!”

“Well, OK, but the earning potential is verry high in comparison. You will need money if you are to live on our world. We will only pay your way for so long. You don’t want to go hungry do you? Regardless, we feed the poor, just not food you would care to eat.”

“I want go home.”

“Unfortunately, that’s a no. I take it you would like an administrative roll?”

“For the time being, yes,” Bill said as he sat down. He started to ponder the severity of his situation. No friends, no family, nothing other than these new people, but at least they seemed accepting enough.

“Don’t worry, in your time you will see sights that most have never dreamed of. That is from your species anyway,” Mary said now in her first voice with enthusiasm.

“Oh, another thing. If I’m here, what happened to the great white pointer?” Bill asked.

“Oh, great white, they’re intelligent species. It’s fine. We considered teleporting a portion of it up to the ship for food, but thought it better to allow the public to think you were just another surfer taken by a shark. You know they’re kind of pissed off that you are taking all their fish and polluting their oceans. The Atlanteans are also majorly pissed off at your race for doing the same.”

“The Atlanteans?”

“Yes, you would know them by the fabled lost city of Atlantis. They’re about to go to war with you all,” Mary said.

“Bugger.”

“Well, you kind of brought it on yourselves. You do know that the ocean provides around seventy percent of your oxygen don’t you, and you all think you can stop global warming by planting trees. Think a little more about your ocean please. Well, I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. You will never go home.” With that Bill’s heart sank. “Oh relax, there are plenty of fun things to do on ship. I’ll get you something to eat, but you may take a while to adjust to our pallet. Oh…” Mary manipulated some sort of control in the air and both a bed and some clothes teleported into the room. “These were just fabricated for you. Please, I’ll give you some privacy.”

“What did you just do?”

“Oh, that? The control chip has its advantages.” Mary left the room. The door slid shut.

Over the course of a year, Bill stuck to his administrative duties with the side job of explaining human culture to the almost clueless aliens. The eccentricities of reality shows like Big Boredom, and Top Cook. Eventually the aliens decided reality TV was not worth studying, and didn’t portray a realistic portion of the population.

Eventually the year ended as did the crew’s contract. It was time for the ship to depart.

As there was nothing to do and nowhere Bill needed to be, he stood in his cabin on the ship. He wanted to watch the departure. Bill enjoyed the view of his planet that he hoped he would see again someday.

By now he had become accustom to the food which was mostly blue. It was barely cooked. He decided against paying for implements to use inside his cabin due to the need to generate as much income for his survival on this new planet as possible.

Bill was assured there would be plenty of jobs available for an alien from his culture. They wanted him to continue his administrative rolls, pick his brain about his culture, and learn a variety of other rolls.

Within minutes Bill could see the entirety of the Earth. His cabin was in the forward section of the ship.

Moments later a blue shimmering wormhole burst into existence in front of the ship as the ship hung in orbit. He had been told it wouldn’t take long to reach their home planet, but he hadn’t been told about their use of wormholes or by what means they would reach the planet.

Moments later the ship proceeded through this hole in space time and instantly appeared on the other side, but what surprised him was that this new planet was a lush green globe with little water covering its surface. The odd lake could be seen, though he had yet to spot an ocean. Not a single desert could be seen. He was amazed at the speed of transit. In the movies, wormhole travel was nothing like this.

The ship proceeded at a slow pace down into the gravity well of the planet. Bill presumed there was a greater possibility of a collision.

As the ship made planetfall intact; the crew were told informed they could exit the ship.

Bill hardly accumulated any possessions. He was given a credit chip implant and told how to use it, but to use it wisely until he gained employment. Gaining employment was said to be a simple matter of entering one of the many communication hubs in the area and searching for cultural scientists. He was informed that he would eventually need to have skills in other areas and that it would be best if he were to accomplish one of the many free training programs on a computer system that he would purchase when he had accommodation. With a year of service for multiple jobs and positions he had enough funding for two years if he were to use it wisely, regardless, he would find a job as soon as possible. All Bill had was his credit chip, the funds within, and a translation device he wore as glasses.

As Bill exited the ship via a ramp, the air smelt sweet. Nothing seemed to use fuel or have exhaust pipes. He gathered that nothing on this planet used any type of burnable fuel.

The streets were filled with trees plants and animals of various types. There were large amounts of different sentient species that all seem to talk to each other without the slightest hesitation. He didn’t notice any conflict between these species. It was as if he were on earth, but every race seemed to get along with each other in peace and harmony.

In the distance, he noticed a human woman. None of the reptilians wore masks on this planet. With joy, he immediately approached her as her back was turned. “Hello, I never thought I’d see another human again.” She turned instantly.

“Thank god, it’s hard to find a human on this planet,” she said.

“Let me introduce myself, my name is bill.”