A Sky Not Their Own

Posted on 30 Nov 2025 @ 9:53pm by Captain Sabrina Corbin

1,055 words; about a 5 minute read

// Cargo Bay //

The UT gave another uncertain chirr as Sabrina approached, its matrix stabilizing by degrees, like a room slowly coming into focus. The woman at the front of the alien group watched her with luminous reflective eyes, her bioluminescence shifting in slow, rippling waves beneath her skin. Every subtle motion seemed to carry meaning. Dr. Amberlyn’s report floated back to Sabrina: the head tilt to the right with closed eyes means gratitude… palms pressed together means need… a slow tilt of the chin upward means yes.

The woman performed the gesture for gratitude now, head angled to the right, eyes closing briefly. The movement was elegant, practiced. Directed at Sabrina.

Sabrina felt a soft warmth catch at the edges of her chest.

She touched her fingertips to her sternum, a human gesture, but open, and repeated herself, just to be certain. “I’m Captain Sabrina Corbin,” she said gently, slowing her cadence. “Sabrina.”

She tapped her chest again. “Human. From Earth.”

The woman made a melodic sound, three tones layered together, and the UT, after a moment of wavering static, offered an approximate rendering:

“…Elaera…”

Sabrina repeated the name with care. “Elaera.”

Elaera’s tracers brightened, and she performed the gratitude gesture once more. Then, to Sabrina’s quiet delight, she paired it with a softly spoken, “Thank… you.”

Behind her, the others stepped forward: the tall one with deep blue tracer lines, the quick-lit one whose glow danced in rapid pulses, and the soft-glowing one whose entire presence felt tranquil. Elaera gestured to each.

“…Kaet…”
“…Serel…”
“…Myrren…”

Sabrina introduced each name back to them, one by one. Myrren responded with the gratitude gesture; Serel mimicked Sabrina’s chest-tap with curious enthusiasm; Kaet tilted his chin upward slightly, agreement.

The UT gave another soft ping, adjusting.

Sabrina took out her PADD. “I want to show you where you are,” she said, projecting a star map into the space between them.

The holo-map flickered to life: their current position in the Spinward March, nearby star systems, the cold quiet around them.

Elaera stepped closer, her eyes reflecting the map in shifting silver. Myrren made a soft, harmonic hum, eyes closing, focus, or perhaps concentration.

“This is where we are now,” Sabrina said gently.

Then she zoomed out, way out, until the spiral arms of the Milky Way filled the display, glowing softly in the dim cargo bay lighting. She highlighted Sol with a faint pulse.

“And here,” she said, “is Earth.”

Elaera attempted, with exquisite delicacy, “Eur-th.” Then she gave the gratitude gesture again, thanks for the explanation.
Sabrina exhaled slowly. They were trying so hard to meet her halfway.

“Can you show me where your home is?” she asked.

The question shifted the entire group’s energy. Their bioluminescent patterns dimmed, then swelled again, uncertain, searching. Kaet was the first to move. He reached out slowly, following the galactic disk with his gaze… then lifted his hand beyond it. Past the rim. Into the dark where the map showed nothing.

He made a long, layered tone, melancholy, beautiful. The UT stumbled.

“…far… beyond… star-home… not here…”

Serel flickered, drawing lines through the projection with his fingers, not touching, but indicating shape. Myrren echoed the gesture, their glow pulsing softly in an emotional timbre Sabrina didn’t know but felt.

Elaera added her voice, a deeper harmonic. The UT tried again:
“…wrong sky… home lost…”

The phrase pierced her.

Not dramatic. Not panicked. Simply true.

Sabrina let herself breathe into the ache that rose. “We want to help you,” she said quietly. “Help you understand what happened. Help repair your ship.”

Elaera reached toward her, not touching, but hovering her hand close to Sabrina’s wrist. A gesture she’d seen a few of them use when reassurance was meant but physical contact might not translate.

Then Elaera spoke again, slower this time, as though pushing the words through the narrowing gap between their languages.

“We are…”

A layered tone followed, melodic, lilting. The UT hesitated, then rendered:
“…Eirian.”

Sabrina repeated it softly, reverently. “Eirian.”

Elaera nodded, the upward tilt of the chin, Amberlyn’s sign for yes. Serel mimicked the motion with a quick flicker of light. Kaet’s tracers brightened in steady lines of affirmation. Myrren pressed their palms together at their chest, need, perhaps, or emphasis.

“Eirian,” Elaera said again, placing her hand over her sternum. Gratitude gesture. “Thank… you… Sabrina.”

The way she shaped Sabrina’s name, with care, with effort, sent a gentle tremor through the Captain’s chest. This is what first contact is meant to feel like, she thought. Wonder threaded with responsibility.

Sabrina lifted her PADD again and switched the holo-display from the galactic map to the Eirian vessel outside, the damaged hull, the breached sections, the faint energy readings Sorvak’s team had been monitoring.

“We want to help repair your ship,” she said. “If you guide us, we’ll follow your lead.”

Elaera’s tracers dimmed, then warmed, a slow cycle that Sabrina suspected signified emotion. “Home… hurt,” the UT translated haltingly.

Kaet stepped forward, pointing to one of the breached sections. He tilted his chin upward, agreement, and paired it with a quiet, “Fix… need.”

Serel gave the gratitude gesture, then tapped his own temple twice, an unfamiliar motion. The UT offered only pieces:
“…dark paths… danger…”

Myrren touched a hand to their chest, eyes closing. “Guide… we,” it rendered.

Sabrina nodded. “Then we do this together.”

Elaera made the gratitude gesture again and whispered, “Thank you”—clearer this time, as though the UT were catching more threads with every exchange.

Sabrina tapped her commbadge. “Corbin to Batenburg. Our… Eirian guests,” she used the word intentionally, testing it, “are ready to join the away team. We will transport them directly from here to meet you.”

“Understood, Captain,” Suzanna replied. “Engineering and Operations standing by.”

Sabrina turned back to Elaera and her companions. “Your ship is your home. You guide us. We follow.”

Elaera nodded. The others followed suit. Bioluminescent tracers glowed in soft, unified rhythm.

And Sabrina felt the unmistakable tug of awe, quiet, powerful, and grounding.

This is how you begin a bridge, she thought. One gesture, one word, one shared step at a time.

Captain Sabrina Corbin
Commanding Officer

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