Sometimes it feels as if the purpose of life is conflict. It seems no life can exist without it. From animals fighting over territory, or “more intelligent” species fighting for their pride and vanity. Killing each other to decide who has the correct answers to the un-knowable questions of life. We fight over boundaries and differences, things that don’t exist out of our minds. For god, the one thing we can never understand. If it looks down on us and sees this useless carnage, what dose it think? Is anyone even right? Or are we just fighting to feel we are right, perhaps thats the only reason.
This was what happened when the men and women of Earth came to Uboa. They had been searching for decades, trying to discover a light else where in the vast universe. They had technology, far beyond the understanding of any Uboan. When they arrived in their light-speed ships, carrying weapons that could fill you up with bullets faster than you could blink.
I remember sitting in our small village, every thing was as it should have been. People came and went from the woven reed houses, talking and laughing. In the center of the village women were cooking a large kofai, a sort of giant arthropod that lives in jungle under-brush. They turned it on the spit, brushing it with folfi sap, and collecting the drippings in a pot under the creature. Suddenly a bright streak appeared in the sky, like a drop of sunlight had fallen from the heavens. Everyone stopped to watch as the streak changed directions and slowed so we could see that it was some sort of huge shining disk. It stopped and hovered about a mile away from our camp, then fell from the sky landing with a large crash and went silent.
Someone yelled “the gods have returned!” Everyone joined in cheering and dancing. Hakashi Matrona, the village matriarch walked out of her hut holding her staff.
“what in the name of Ulti is going on out here?” she shouted.
“Hakashi, the gods have returned!” Alki the hunter shouted. “We saw them come in a drop of sunlight!”
“That might be so, we must gather a party to go and find them!” She announced to the crowd. “All hunters report to me, and the rest of you prepare a feast for when we return!”
Everyone cheered, and the twelve hunters, including myself came forward grabbing spears, bows and arrows. Nupa,  the lead  hunter began to saddle the chiffs and attached a woven canopy to the largest one for Hakashi Matrona.
We all jumped on our chiffs and waited for the signal from Nupa to ride. She flicked her wrist and we all kicked our mounts and rode into the jungle.
  Alki rode his chiff up beside the Hakashi, and they began to speak in hushed tones. I began to contemplate what was happening.
In our culture we believe that the gods descended from the heavens to create the Uboan people, then left and they will return someday to unite all Uboan people into a single people. At the time of the Human’s landing I had only a very basic understanding of the universe, and had no idea how utterly vast it was, or even that I was living on what the Humans called a moon. A small ball that circles around a larger ball. For all I knew the world in which I lived in was all there was in the entire universe.
We rode for about an hour, trying to find the site where the disk landed. When we finally found it we waited for a minute in the brush watching what was happening. The disk was white with wheels on stalks protruding from the bottom. The top was covered with black shiny panels and there was an insignia made from three rectangles stacked on top of one another. Each was colorfully decorated, like a matt or a blanket.
There were five creatures, also white with a large black pupil-less eyes taking up most of their head. They were in the process of unloading the disk, which had a panel that opened up in the front forming a ramp. Two were setting up some kind of shelter that folded out of itself, and another was pointing a device around. They were all utterly silent.
Suddenly the one with the device put in a holster around its waist, and reached up pulling at its head. With a twist and a hiss it popped off revealing another head.
“don’t worry, I scanned the air composition, and microorganism levels and its safe” It shouted. It had skin the color of milk, with red splotches at its cheeks. Long brown hair tied with a band down its back.
“Gods!” cried Hakashi Matrona. “It’s skin has no color!” 
Uboans have light blue to dark purple skin, and seeing a creature so pale was an incredible shock.
The others followed it’s cue and removed their false heads as well, revealing diverse skin tones and hair lengths. The Three taller ones appeared to be male and had short cropped hair. The females both had longer hair, and one had a frame around her eyes, which were attached behind her ears. A man with dark brown hair and a huge chest stood in the middle giving orders.
“The men order the women?” exclaimed Alki, with a puzzled look on his face.
Hakashi Matrona had a strange look on her face. “Gods with pale skin, false heads, and flying disks?” she mused. “Nupa, what do you think? None of this is in the stories.”
“They have obviously demonstrated their power, I think we should approach them with cation”, Nupa replied.
“Alright”, the Hakishi whispered. “Everyone dismount and follow me.”
We all got off our chiffs silently and arranged ourselves in a sort of procession. Hakashi Matrona walked strait into the clearing, with Nupa and Alki flanking her. The creatures all turned at the noise obviously shocked, but quickly recovered.
“The gods of old have returned!” she yelled in a stately voice. “We are your humble servants!”

Esther looked at the wavy line running across the screen of the tox-meter. It mostly ran in a straight line, but occasionally raised slightly when it encountered an unidentified gas or bacteria. “its good enough” she muttered to herself, and placed it back in its holster on her hip.
She was the crews biologist and had been put in charge of monitoring the environmental conditions on this planet. So far it seemed similar to earth, but with higher oxygen levels and and a unidentified microbes in the air. The higher oxygen wouldn’t be problem, but she did a closer scan of the microbes, to make absolutely sure they would not be harmful.
The scan revealed that they were similar to earth bacteria, and the body would have almost no problem fighting them off. Even if someone got sick, it would certainly not be fatal. She was just glad that she could take the stuffy helmet off before she sweat to death.
She removed it with a twist, and there was a hiss as the air was released. The air outside her helmet reveled to be not much better than the stuff inside, but at least there was a breeze. Esther shouted to the others and they followed her example by removing their helmets as well.
Looking around she observed a dense, steamy jungle. There were tall knotted trees and the ground was covered in thick underbrush and vines. Large insects-like creatures scuttled across the ground and birds flew from tree to tree. Its was amazing to behold, like a dream.
Sergent-corporal boss around(also known as Coal) was standing in the center of the clearing the ship stood in  yelling and ordering people around, didn't he realize this was a voyage of discovery, not an army maneuver.
Suddenly she hear a rustling in the bushes, and a procession of blue humanoid creatures appeared from the jungle. They were tall and with feline features and long blonde hair braided with bone and wooden beads. Their cloths were made of brown cloth and some had bows hung over their shoulders. At the front one that seemed to be their leader was mumbling something, and dipping her head and waving her arms. Here it was first contact with an intelligent alien species and unlike the movies told us they were cavemen.
The ships linguist, Jeff was already running for the ship to get the universal translator, a brand new piece of technology, fresh of the assembly line. He returned momentarily and thrust the microphone under the leaders nose. She stopped her diatribe immediately and looked quizzically at the microphone. The machine worked by analyzing words, inflections and tones to translate the statements into english. It began to play the recording back again, starting and stoping as it preformed its calculations.
It began to speak in a slow synthesized voice: “gods, we are your servants, you have returned at last!”
Everyone just stared at each other, finally Jeff spoke up.
“well shoot”, he said softly. “how are we going to explain this to them”.
The alien woman broke the awkward silence by saying something else, The translator followed her que and repeated her sentence in english.
“Come to our village, we have food, and a place to rest after your journey from heaven.”
“what should we do?” asked Kyle.
“I think we should follow them, so we don’t upset them” replied Coal with a look of concentration on his face, as if it had taken hours of carful calculations to come to this conclusion.
Esther yelled at him angrily, “you think we should impersonate their gods? Not only would we be taking advantage of their ignorance, but we would probably be doing something sacrilegious!”
“Listen”, Coal said in a condescending tone, as if he was talking to a child. “I just don’t want to upset them, they seem pretty worked up.”
How could he talk to her like that! She had a PHD for crying out loud, he was just some beef-headed astronaut that though it was automatically his job to control everybody.
“Who put you in charge, Coal?” she said angrily. “Don’t you think they’re going to be even more worked up when they find out we were impersonating their gods?”
“Look”, he said in an even more condescending voice. “I just have a feeling its the right thing to do.”
She was obviously going nowhere with her argument, so she shook her head and shut her mouth. When they got back to earth, she was reporting him for harassment. The thought of him getting banned from space program, made her feel a little bit better so she followed Coal and the rest of the crew who were following the group of aliens into the forest.
The group of aliens lead them to a group of large scorpion-like creatures that were fitted with saddles and pointed to one with a canopy of leaves attached to the creatures back. The leader alien began to speak and the translator followed.
“A royal seat for the king of the gods” it said.
He quickly hopped on the things back and grabbed the reigns.
“Now, I know why he wan’t to go with them”, thought Esther. “I guess he didn’t get enough royal treatment hanging out with us”.
The rest of them hoped on  the remaining two creatures, and followed the aliens into the jungle.
The village was small, with about twenty huts and a fire pit in the middle. The creatures were roasting something that looked like a cross between a spider and crab. They would turn it on a spit, then cut off bits off meat and cut it into slices. Beside the fire more creatures were pounding nuts into flour, mixing it with water and berries and place it on rocks beside the fire.
When the crew and the other aliens on the scorpions came into the village everyone stopped what they were doing and began to crowd around them, mumbling things and reaching out to touch them. The leader walked to the center of the crowd, and began speaking. The translator copied her.
“Do not fear my people! The gods have returned, and we have brought them to our village. Tomorrow after a feast we will send messengers to other villages to spread the word!
The rest of the village began to chant and bow their heads.
“This is not good”, thought Esther. “We are going to be in serious trouble”.
Coal seemed to be enjoying him self, smiling and bowing back to the creatures worshiping them. He went to the leader and began gesturing for her to lead her around the village. She took he arm, and began to walk around, showing him the huts and then offered him a seat at the fire. Suddenly she pulled an obsidian sword from her belt, yelling something and arced it to towards Coals head. Before she could even get close to him, he had pulled a gun from its holster on his belt and shot her five times in the chest. There was look of confusion and pain as she crumpled to the ground, clear liquid oozing from her wounds. Everyone was absolutely silent.
The translator came to life speaking slowly, “I dub you a hunter of this tribe, bow and receive you blessing”.
“She was preforming a ceremony, and you murdered her!” screamed Esther. “You killed her for no reason!”

We all looked in horror as Hakashi Matrona crumpled to the ground, blood pouring from her many wounds. We all knew now that these were not gods, they were monsters! The rest of the false gods looked equally as shocked as we were and stood silently, while the box that spoke repeated the Hakashi’s words in its unnatural voice. We all turned to them, anger welled up in my chest ready to burst. Then they ran, they each grabbed a chiff and took off into the jungle.

“What have we done?” thought Esther. “First contact and we have to go and kill their leader!”
They were riding through the jungle at a break-neck speed the scorpion’s eight legs scuttling over rocks and tree roots. Coal seemed unfazed by the whole thing, he was in the lead hunched down on the scorpion’s back trying to avoid the snapping tree branches. This was all his fault.
The crew reached the ship quickly. everyone dismounted and stood their stupefied.
“what should we do?” asked Lisa the crew’s anthropologist.
“I think the best thing to do is pack everything back onto the ship and find somewhere else to land”, said Coal in a measured voice. Suddenly the tip of an arrow sprouted from his stomach, and his eyes rolled back into his head. His body fell to the ground with a thud. The aliens began to swarm from the jungle, throwing spears and shooting arrows.
“Everyone in the ship!” Esther shouted.
They ran up the ramp, and she smacked the button that closed the hatch. It began to rise slowly.
“Jack, get the ship started!” she yelled. He ran for the bridge, flipping buttons and pulling leavers.
“We have to much weight for the magnetic thrusters to lift us!” he yelled back at her.
Esther looked out the window and saw the aliens were throwing ropes with heavy rocks on the ends over the ship, pinning it to the ground.
“S#!t!” she swore, “we’re never going to get out of here”
There was a grinding noise and she looked over at the closing ramp. Hands and sticks had been forced into the almost closed door, with brute strength they were forcing it open. They all crowded together as the door slowly opened.

We all pulled with all our might, pulling the closing ramp open.
“Pull” screamed Nupa. As the lead hunter she had taken charge of the tribe, and was acting as Hakashi.
“Prepare for war people”, she yelled. “We’re invading heaven!”
The door finally was forced open and we streamed in, surrounding the small group of pale-skinned creatures. They looked terrified, huddled together and clutching each other.
“Lock these creatures somewhere”, she yelled at Alki. “I must discover the way to pilot this sky-ship”
The rest of the tribe had set up camp outside the craft, The twelve hunters, including myself were in the piloting room. Nupa sat in the chair in front of a panel covered in blinking lights and nobs.
“These controls are as alien to me as are those creatures”, she finally said. “In order to fly this thing we will need their help. You, Gill! Find the one who can pilot this thing and bring it to me!”
I walked down the hall, and nodded to the guards at the door to the prisoners room. They opened it and I saw them huddled together in the corner of the room. Two were crying softly, while one sat calmly comforting them. She was the one we first saw taking off her head, and she looked up at me as I entered the room.
“Which one of you can pilot this craft”, I asked looking around. “I am afraid our leader cannot understand the controls.”
The tablet with the stick attached on a rope to it repeated what I said in their language.
“That would be me”, said the one sitting away from the others. He was sitting with his back resting against the wall, hands on his knees.
“I am sorry”, I said. “I do not understand what you said”
He pointed at him self, and clutched an invisible object. He rotated his wrists and arms back and fourth. I remembered seeing a wheel that looked like you grabbed it on either side in front of the chair in the control room. Either it had gone mad, or it was trying to say that it could pilot the ship
“Alright, come with me”, I said to him. The translator repeated my sentence, and he got up wearily.
He grabbed the translator from the ground and followed me into the hall. He looked pained, and I truly felt bad for him. We walked into the control room and the hunters turned to look at us.
“Have you brought the pilot?” asked Nupa.
“I believe this one is the one that can steer the ship” I replied. Then I remembered the three huddled together and the pained look on the creatures face. “Nupa, the other creatures seem truly remorseful for there leaders action, I think they were unaware of his plan to kill the Hakashi. Perhaps we should let go, if they promise not to return.”
“Have you lost your mind Gill? Have these creatures put a spell over your mind? They have murdered the Hakashi and now you wan’t to forgive them?” she asked angrily.
“I am sorry Nupa”, I said bowing. “You are right, They must pay for there actions.” 
   I sat back down behind Nupa, and watched as the creature began to press the nobs. After about a minute it stopped.
“What do you want me to do”, it said.
“ I know not of what you speak”, said Nupa.
It raised both its arms, and bent its elbows at a 90 degree angle. Its palms pointing to the ceiling, with a questioning look on its face.
“I believe it doesn’t know what to do”, said Alki.
“Take us to heaven” Shouted Nupa, pulling out a knife and pressing it to its throat.
“If you attack my world, you will all die”, it said a look of desperation on its face. “I’m sorry about your leader, but there is nothing you can do against my world.”
“It speaks curses!” yelled Nupa. “Silence creature, and take us to your world.”
It sighed and hit a button, causing the ship to rise. I looked out the window, and saw the many faces shrinking bellow us. They were counting on us to get revenge. Suddenly a ripple went through are bodies and the view outside the ship turned into blazing light. We squinted as the creature hit button, and covers slid over all the windows.
“I don’t have to do any thing until we hit earths atmosphere, but of course you have no idea what I’m saying”, it said standing up. It seemed that the craft moved without any help from a driver.
“How long will the journey take?” asked Nupa. “Days, weeks, months?”
It held up two fingers, and then repeated the Uboan word for weeks.
“Is there food aboard this ship?” asked Nupa.
It nodded its head up and down, and pointed to a room down the hall. We followed it in and saw that the room was lined with cabinets. He opened one up revealing small bundles wrapped in some sort of cloth. He tore it open and placed the small brown brick inside in a bowl. He then walked over to a basin bolted to the wall, with a tube hanging over it. He held the bowl under the tube, and turned a nob on its side causing water to pour into the bowl.
“Then just pop it in the microwave”, he said placing it in some kind of box, and pressing a panel marked with symbols on  the side.
After a couple seconds, the box dinged and he pulled it out. But instead of the little hard back from before, there was a delicious smelling brown biscuit. He broke off a corner, and put it in his mouth.
“Mmmh, Brownies”, he said smiling and passing it to Nupa.
She hesitantly took a bite of the biscuit, and a surprised look came onto her face.
“Its sweet!” she exclaimed. “ The sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted.”
We past it around each tasting it, it was indeed very sweet.
“Do you carry anything more hardy”, asked Nupa.
He replied by opening the other cabinets. Each held more bricks with a picture of the food inside on it. There were meats with sauce, breads, and fruits and vegetables. There was even some boxes of short hard yellow sticks and jars of red sauce.
“I have never seen so much food”, exclaimed Nupa. “Thank you for showing us this creature. Perhaps we will not kill you.”

Esther sat on the ground of the storage room, an arm over her two crew members. Jack had not been gone for about a half an hour, and she was beginning to worry. The ship had started, and they were definitely headed back towards earth. But why had they not returned him?
She wondered what the creatures plans were. If they thought they were going to invade earth, they were sadly mistaken. Even against two policemen in riot armor they were dead. She supposed they couldn’t imagine a whole world teeming with people. They probably didn’t even know much about their own world, let alone an alien one. Honestly she was sorry for them, they had barged in and killed their leader. Even if military ships didn't intercept them as the got close to earth, they would definitely be shot on site when the landed. She decided it probably didn’t matter anyway, they'd probably kill the crew once they landed any way.
The next two weeks passed slowly. Jack had returned later that first day, saying he had shown them how to use a microwave. Eventually everyone calmed down seemingly exerting their fate. The only time they saw her captors was when they brought them their daily meals, other than that the goings on outside the prison was unknown. She kept track of the days on a note pad she found in the room.
She had formed a sort of friendship with the Alien who brought them their meals every day. He seemed genuinely sorry for what had happened. They soon learned each other’s names. He would nod his head and say Esther, and she would return the gesture but say Gill. She was often remorseful. If only Coal hadn’t shot the matriarch, perhaps they could be true friends.
As they neared Earth Gill began argue with the new Matriarch, Nupa. He wanted the humans let go, but she would hear none off it.
“Honestly I think she’s lost her mind”, He told her one day. “I don’t know what we can do against your people. After what happened to the Hakashi, I seriously doubt any of us will survive this attack. Everyone’s just too afraid of her to say anything.” She patted him on the arm.
On the last day of the voyage, Gil came to collect Jack to pilot the ship through the atmosphere. He bent down and began to speak quietly to Esther.
“The Hunters have organized a coop on Nupa. I have been speaking to them and many of them do not want to loose their lives in this pointless battle. As the craft lands we will turn on Nupa, and the hunters still loyal to her. If you agree to take us home then we will forgive you, and leave your world alone.”
“Yes”, Esther said. This was one of the words in english Gill had learned. He nodded his head and left with Jack.
It had been about an hour when Gill burst through the door.
“We tried to attack Nupa, but she killed Jack!” he shouted. Without him we’ll crash!”
Esther jumped up the only way out now was the Escape pods, and they were on the other end of the ship. She yanked up Kyle and Lisa by the wrists and ran out the door.
The ship was tilting wildly from side to side, and Aliens ran back and fourth screaming. The mutinous aliens and Nupa and her allies were fighting wildly. Slashing at each other with knives, and swords. Gill yelled to his fellow rebels.
“Follow Her!”
They wove through the battle headed for the pods. As they reached the end of hall where the pods were located, she glanced out the window and saw the skyline of New York city looming ahead. The New York Space Port was where they were supposed to have landed, and now it looked as if the ship was going to crash directly into the crowded city.
Suddenly the ship jerked wildly, sending everyone crashing into the walls. They were loosing altitude fast now, She could tell by the awful feeling of falling in her stomach. There was nothing they could do for the ship now. Lisa and Kyle had been knocked unconscious when the ship jerked, and she reached for them, the smell of the ship burning filling the hall with smoke.
Suddenly Gill grabbed her, and threw her into the escape pod, and jumped in after her. As she landed her head hit the launch button and the pods door slammed shut. An enormous feeling of guilt hit her as the pod detached itself from the ship, its engines shooting them across the sky. Lisa and Kyle were still on board, she didn’t save them. Then the engines stopped, the pods parachutes unfurling as they drifted to the ground.

Two Months Later:
“This is John Rael with ANN nightly news. Tonight we have  Esther Collins, the sole survivor of the infamous Brooklyn disaster. Which many are calling the greatest act of terrorism the world has ever seen, Esther what can you tell us about the disaster?”
“Not much John, Only that I am angry that the government has disallowed any further contact with this species.
“And why would that be? After what they did to you and your crew, It seems you would be furious with these creatures.
“Well John I don’t think you have the full story, and I have a good friend that might just be able to tell you what really happened”