I read an article a while back about humans having some sort of line system (like a fish with sensors) which controls for example diseases like (sorry not english: Gürtelrose[AN: Google says 'shingles']) it lays outside of the human visible spectrum. Only humans have this and no other animal or plants have.
Also we humans shine. Like really, really low, but still, we glow very weak in the dark. Again not visible for us.
But what if other aliens don't have these either. Like animals.
And one species can see these Ley Lines and the glowing.
Instantly the species views us as ideal looking and epiphany of beauty (no matter how we look).
Please write a story about the first contact with this species.
(P.s. if you wanna have a good look at what I mean google glowing ley lines of humans. You won't be disappointed^^) -- Anon Guest
[AN: I tried, but I couldn't find it. I can find chakras, I can find ley lines, I can't find humans having ley lines in their bodies. If it's anything like Kilian photography images then it could well be interesting]
There has never been a species like the V'raithid. There may never be another like them. Their kind evolved from insects in a sargasso zone, where abandoned hulks melded together through accident and happenstance. Strange biochemistry happened in the abandoned darkness. They developed a way to see without light.
Call it what you will - ley lines, kirlian radiation, electromagnetic emanations - they see those. They see them in hues that many accustomed to light cannot possibly understand and are mostly untranslatable. Humans, for instance, can understand the concept of some hues, but the translation is not directly into a colour. The colour Phyrinthi, for example, translates into the sensation of stepping into a warm bath at the end of a long, cold, wet, and tiring day.
It may be possible that the V'raithid are the most alien aliens that Humanity has ever made friends with[1]. Primarily because the V'raithid are allergic to light as we understand it. Therefore, it was Human ingenuity, tenacity, and determination that made the first contact possible. What they did not expect was admiration of entirely different qualities.
Gen had been born blind. The usual array of optical implants weren't compatible, and Gen didn't mind so much. Ze did well enough with Sonarsight, which translated sound into a rough picture of the world when in use. Hirs is a world of shapes in space. Outlines and, when ze chooses to do so, non-invasive analysis of permeable matter's interiors.
Infrasound is eminently useful, that way. The trick is finding the frequencies that don't bother anyone else. Landing on the wrong frequency, for some, really hertz.
That was something of a joke that Gen used to amuse hirself. It didn't amuse very many others.
Ze explored what seemed to be a kludge station for a host of very shy beings with hir Sonarsight hooked into hir livesuit recording as well as the cochlear implant that turned the sound signal into an approximate visual input. "So far, so boring," ze noted into her vocorder. "Some precursor ships, some progenitors... some absolute cowboys. I swear some of this looks like it vac-welded... Oh. Hel-lo?"
To Sonarsight, it looked like a large bug. Null and low-G insects get to some impressive sizes and some develop spikes and spines for reasons unknown to science. This one appeared to be... curious. A deeper 'beep' to analyse the creature's organs revealed some suitably impressive neural clusters.
Gen activated hir livesuit speaker, so something approaching communication might occur. "Greetings from the Galactic Alliance?" There was an incredibly low chance that they could understand GalStand, but Gen believed historic first words were important. As per protocol, ze came to a stop, adopted an awkward, non-hostile posture, and spoke gently.
A burst of what felt like static filled hir RF receivers. Followed by some musical tones in rapid and random order.
History would later record that the V'raithid called Ailerin had said, "How can you spark in so many colours?"
Obviously, actual conversation was going to take a while. By then, Humans were aware that they glowed in the dark, but... they had no idea that they had different ways of glowing in the dark. When they did reach that knowledge, there was a frenzied competition to achieve a way to perceive it themselves.
It was a way to see others that blew their minds. There was something in the way of a vague body shape, but it was woven out of light. Every nerve lit up like a Christmas display, sparking with each thought and movement in a sort of symphony. This is what the V'raithid had meant when they said that Humans shone their emotions across their world.
This was why even the most scarred and physically malformed Human was a beauty in their view.
[1] Humanity makes strange friends in interesting places. The Galactic Alliance eventually just rolls with it.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / focalpoint]
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