4015: Earth

Lun could have stayed on Vihma. Lun could have lived the utopian life the rest of their kind did back at home, but there... They felt so isolated from the rest of the world. Everything moved so fast, yet on Vihma, time slowed and their kin only lived to 30. And when the local technology has already peaked and the Vihming lived in luxury, there was nothing to do but have fun and enjoy all the little sweet things in life. But after Lun met the humans... They noticed just how much more there was out there in the universe.

Their community wasn't very supportive of them leaving home, but others understood the desire to explore and learn. Amongst many of the latter were Valinams, the guardians of Vihma, the soldiers, the technicians, the scientists and the diplomats. The ones with far more awareness of the world around them than the Politams. Ever since the Vihming were split into the two classes, conflicts began anew. Many considered this a step back. Others thought this was necessary to thrive in a galaxy full of interstellar governments, corporations and militaries. Their way of living was often foreign to other species, not based on greed and survival of the fittest, but on mutual understanding. Perhaps it was their empathetic abilities that made it easier, and the others seemed simply unable to fully understand. They didn't know what it was like.

The split happened when the outside world reached out for contact. It was their time to be included in intergalactic society, but the Vihming would much rather have refused. Unfortunately, with awareness brought to their planet, they were sent back to the old times, where soldiers and borders were necessary to keep the dangers out of their homes.

To explore, Lun could have become a soldier, but they chose to take the earliest ship to Kvasir instead. The Vihming were never big on travel, but the spaceports where ships picked up travelers to foreign planets were set up again after the introduction to what was out there, only a few centuries ago. Those behind the blueprints of the spaceport were long dead now. Lun still remembered the day they waited on their flight amongst the small crowd of travelers, even having found two foreign diplomat scientists amongst them. They remembered the feel of the wind on their outer membrane, and the heavy rain knocking on the roof above them.

Kvasir was just one of the stops along their travel route, at an intersection that made it popular for the voyagers. Multiple routes branched out from that planet, and while the commuters waited for their ships to arrive, they passed through the local malls like cars in traffic. Laukkanen – the local human corporation in charge – certainly took advantage of their property. Lun found it immoral to own an entire planet, but little did they know that it was simply human culture to own. Besides, Kvasir was merely the size of an Earth continent, nothing more, nothing less, and Laukkanen has owned far bigger.

Their next stop was similar. Laran, in the very least, wasn't owned by Laukkanen, but it was far more desolate, merely a small moon orbiting the owning species' home planet. Lun only stayed one night, but already, they heard rumors of Laukkanen having their eyes on Laran, only stopped by the alliance between the locals and humankind. But sabotage was not out of the question, they said, and Lun already knew who to fear.

And then they came to Earth.

In comparison to Vihma, it was hell. Lun has heard the stories of their xenophobia, their wreck of a climate and their overwhelming penchant for conflict and capitalism. To a Vihming, this entire planet would be a carnal sin and best to be burned. But for Lun... It filled them with wonder. How could such a flawed habitat still function so well?

If not for the scholarship offered to them in an effort to improve interspecies relations, Lun would surely have been screwed. No institution would indulge their accelerated state of living without the word of government officials. No one knew the Vihming, and Lun was one of the first they allowed to live here. Because no one else wanted to, and later on, they could see why.

Lun was already 10. To a human, this would be a young child, but to them it was like being in their early 20s. A Vihming was considered an adult at just 7. Wandering the human spaceport of Minerva in Greenland, they eyed the entirely human flight attendants in awe, and those eyed them in return. 19 years later they'd recall these moments fondly, when they still had their optimistic curiosity about the world and little regrets.