{"id":2124,"date":"2025-08-07T11:48:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T10:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.alexisveenendaal.com\/?p=2124"},"modified":"2025-08-07T11:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T10:48:17","slug":"exchange-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.alexisveenendaal.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/07\/exchange-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Exchange: Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Read Part 1 Here.<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re here to make slaves of us!\u201d The human male on screen argued across the desk to his counterpart, his bald head glistening in the white lights, face reddening each time he slammed a fist on its surface. \u201cIt\u2019s why they\u2019ve disabled our weapons! Taken our skies! Stolen our children!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOr the aliens wish to use their superior technology to offer assistance in areas where we have failed,\u201d replied the human female next to him, her calm, dark gaze turning directly to the viewer at home. \u201cPoverty, war, global pandemics, climate change\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClimate change!\u201d barked the father, making Terix jump from his focus. The father pushed a button on the black device in his hand and the screen powered down. \u201cThey used to call it global warming until the PR ran out!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terix folded his bottom two arms and tilted his head to absorb this new interaction, his glow turning a purple shade of thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all a marketing scheme, you know. One thing after the other. But we\u2019ve been through it all before. Dinosaurs, then an ice age. Telling kids to be terrified because there\u2019s no fut\u2014\u201d The father froze as if just realising who stood in the room with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe data is correct,\u201d Terix informed him, unable to fully read the unusual patterns of the father\u2019s face structure at that moment. Interpretation would come in time, the elders promised. \u201cWe spent many Earth months studying your planet\u2019s biosphere prior to our announcement and have concluded that it is indeed headed towards a\u2026\u201d Terix searched for the phrase he\u2019d learned in class. \u201cA collision course.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The father\u2019s mouth fell open. That was shock. Yes! Terix understood that one. Shocked was similar to the stunned expression, which both the mother and father in this family unit had expressed two Earth days prior when opening the door of their residence and allowing Terix to step through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the father only shook his head at Terix and stormed out. Yes, stormed<\/em>. Terix had read that in one of the novels in Rebekah\u2019s room whilst the parents had \u2018gone out\u2019. He liked the sound of that. A thunder of footsteps, an imagined cloud swirling around the human\u2019s head. Their anger, a buildup of rain and wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terix had been told to expect such outbursts in the first few days of transition. The human parents seemed especially attached to their offspring, and the agreed exchange weighed on them more than it ought to, given the opportunities. Terix had kept his shield up in case the outbursts turned on him, but the mother and father seemed more lost than aggressive, like a ship without navigation controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the first drop of evening, Terix had overhead the mother telling the father, \u201cHe\u2019s just a kid. Like Rebekah. He\u2019s someone\u2019s kid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the enemy as far as I\u2019m concerned,\u201d the father had grumbled, but Terix guessed he didn\u2019t believe the words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll get our daughter back,\u201d the mother promised. \u201cThey told us we would.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that, all Terix overheard from Rebekah\u2019s room\u2014now his room\u2014was sobbing. It soon drifted into silence, and Terix stayed perched on Rebekah\u2019s \u2018bed\u2019, as they called it, wading through his ocular feed to learn some human recipes. He\u2019d encountered the phrase, \u201cThe way to a man\u2019s heart is through his stomach\u201d, and after determining this was a colloquialism and not a literal suggestion, he settled on a manual for \u2018Mac n\u2019 Cheese\u2019. In the dawn of the new day, he set to work boiling the pasta and melting the cheese for what the humans called \u2018breakfast\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mother wept often in those first days. The father didn\u2019t speak much except for his occasional outbursts about the government, or the \u2018conspiracy against humanity\u2019, as he called it. When the mother cried, he would comfort her by patting her on the shoulder. It didn\u2019t seem to help much. Neither did the Mac n\u2019 Cheese, it turned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, just that morning, the mother had asked, \u201cWhy? Why are you doing this to us?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terix couldn\u2019t say why these moments made him so uncomfortable. He flared green as he itched at the rainbow jumper. The elders said it would help to wear their clothes. Look like them as much as possible. Sound like them. The extra limbs couldn\u2019t be helped, nor the hairlessness, or the lack of distinctive nasal passages. But clothes<\/em>, well, those were a human comfort. Terix\u2019s skin prickled at the rubbing of mismatched textures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe exchange program is an opportunity for both our species to learn from each other,\u201d Terix told her, colouring a shade of orange to exhibit his confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elders had already explained all of this in their global broadcast after the Exchange, but Terix had quickly learned that the adult humans needed to be told something more than once for it to settle into reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a peaceful arrangement,\u201d he assured the mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen why weren\u2019t we given a choice?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is only temporary,\u201d Terix promised. It wouldn\u2019t help to tell her the truth now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She would come around eventually. They all would.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The human parents seemed especially attached to their offspring, and the agreed exchange weighed on them more than it ought to, given the opportunities. Terix had kept his shield up in case the outbursts turned on him, but the mother and father seemed more lost than aggressive, like a ship without navigation controls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,443,342],"tags":[239,224,185,197,16,80,440,344,345],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-fi","category-speculative-fiction-2","category-young-adult","tag-aliens","tag-fiction","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction","tag-series","tag-short-story","tag-speculative-fiction","tag-ya","tag-young-adult"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/blog.alexisveenendaal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Substack-Images-5.png","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/blog.alexisveenendaal.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"amazon":{"key":"amazon","url":"https:\/\/music.amazon.ca\/podcasts\/09c34bbc-b359-49af-a286-31830ed5634c\/short-stories","label":"Amazon","class":"amazon","icon":"amazon.png"},"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/short-stories\/id1621456328","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_play":{"key":"google_play","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGV4aXN2ZWVuZW5kYWFsLmNvbS9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qvc2hvcnQtc3Rvcmllcw","label":"Google Play","class":"google_play","icon":"google-play.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGV4aXN2ZWVuZW5kYWFsLmNvbS9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qvc2hvcnQtc3Rvcmllcw","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0lcQCRs52MfYlKs35lVX4K","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"itunes":{"key":"itunes","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/short-stories\/id1621456328","label":"iTunes","class":"itunes","icon":"itunes.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/blog.alexisveenendaal.com\/feed\/podcast\/default-podcast","embedCode":"

Exchange: Part 2<\/a><\/blockquote>