A Narrow Escape

22nd x055, 

It has been ten years since that incident. Ship Tiffany was orbiting the gaseous giant Jo-k34. Everyone was sleeping in their cabins after a long space jump. We were tired. 

"Emergency, Emergency.." the alarms blared around the ship. The ship lost power and was being pulled into the gaseous giant. The only two astronauts with EVA experience were me and Julia. The power station was outside our block and we had to walk towards another block in our EVA suits. 

...

"The generator is in sight, Julia. We need to fix this up. We are losing altitude." I let the steam flow from the nozzles and slowly floating towards the generator I started fixing it, while Jula held on to the cable.

"THud, we disconnected from thr spaceship and got ejected out into space, the spaceship burnt off and it was nowhere in sight."

We floated there for some time, another spaceship came to pick us up. I lost consciousness.

"Julia.." I woke up in a bed rising, stretching out my hand. There was nobody in the room. The only thing over there was an egg-like device with a screen on it, with some readings. I looked around, the room was actually a dome and no one was in it. A being came floating towards me.

"Are you alright?", I heard the voice in my head. 

"Wait you didn't speak, how do you know English?"

"I don't know English, I spoke in waves u understand"

"Okay? where am I?"

"Have a look," the dome suddenly opened up, it had a whole 360 windows, the sky was pink, the weather was unusual, it was raining blue fire on the planet. I walked close to the window, I saw huge buildings like on earth. 

"What is this place?" I asked him, "this is plant Ort" 

"I like this planet."

"Did u find anyone else?" I was thinking to ask and he responded "No I didn't. All I found was you."

"Is this planet suitable for me?" I asked looking into his eyes. I now noticed, he wasn't built like a human, he was like a cloud, his hands, legs, nothing was there. Only his eyes and somehow he held a device in his hand, slowly I put my hand towards him," Don't touch me, you could get burnt."

No sooner, I heard sirens near the dome. "Ah Police, they are out to catch you, go and hide."

I tried running, he opened a shaft, and I crept inside. Strangely I wasn't suffocating, I was not even on life support or an oxygen cylinder. I touched my face, I could feel two beads under my nostrils. These might be what's letting me live, it's best not to take them out. I heard loud banging outside the shaft, I was discovered by some other beings, these weren't exactly smoke, they were rocks with fluid..water flowing around them?. I got caught, and they put me in their cars. at least something I recognize from this world finally, I thought. 

"Hey, you! You landed on the wrong planet. I think you will be electrocuted" roared the rocky being. 

"You don't speak through minds?"

"You think of me as that freak who roams around space, who thinks of it like his backyard," said the other being.

"Where am I? What is this planet?"

"Silence, I heard a voice in my head." the smoke guy said. "Don't say anything, you will be beheaded. These people are hostile."

I looked outside the window there were huge beanstalks that were sprouting. "Those are the places where the poor people live. It stinks all day, they are forced to shut themselves in the huge smelly structures, the black stalks are marked with red." 

"Oh, it's the same way in our world. Stinky slums, oppressed and thrown into the narrowest parts of the city, while rich people build their villas over the hilltops."

" You should mind your thoughts, they have devices that record our conversations." he leered at me.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner? " I was screaming in my head. 

"Hahaha, not so long after I saw an interesting personality like you."

"You sound like a creep, are you trying to flirt with me?" I cringed.

"I'm not gay, you know. Sexual reproduction on this planet doesn't work like earth's laws. People here don't reproduce. We enter the data into a computer called J0-k3r, and it prints out a baby."

"Really just like that? Yeah, and printing the baby takes 4 years. The printers are only available to the rich, the poor people go to a kiosk, which is in the underworld. But there's such a large demand for babies, that a family on average gets their baby collected 8 years after the first registration. Careful!" he told me.

The cars landed on a huge building, there were huge banners with different colors, and the spectrum shifted from white-grey-greyer-black. 

Is this an execution ground? 

"Far worse. Keep your thoughts organized. This is the central city's who-gets-to-live-decider system more like a judiciary building. You might get your head chopped off by the judge." smokey warned me.

I hopped out of the car, we all stood on a neon blue platform, the sky rumbled, it started raining fire again. My legs shivered,my heart trembled, and I tried jumping into the car again. "It's not going to burn you, the device under your nostrils, it protects you."

"Are you a smokey space alien geek?"

He frowned, that was the first time I saw an expression on his face.

At the Judge

"Yup, Mr. Pinkpants, you are an intergalactic species that was picked up by Mr. SmokeEyes here. Your arrival sure did spark an outrage here."

"People fear the unknown." I shrugged.

"People fear that you might piss off our species."

"I was saved by Smokepeas here,.."

"SmokeEyes!!" he was frustrated

"Yea, I was saved by Smokepeas on my mission at the Space Shuttle Tiffany, I lost my crew and I was floating in the space, thanks to Smoke here I am alive."

"Yes, you are. But this man has also brought mass hysteria, people are panicking." the judge showed a screen where the news reports were highlighting my face, like a criminal.

"Am I a celebrity?" I smirked.

"You are a fool. You don't understand do you."

"I do. I'm a harmless human who just turned...."

"I think you will be executed for your attitude, Pinkpenis." laughed SmokeEyes. 

"Am I going to die here? I want to see this planet further."

"Are you planning to turn me into a fugitive? I don't think we will survive one day out there." Smoke dude closed towards me.

"Hey Judge, I have something to say to your system, you fools can't accept an interspecies being, you are afraid of a foreign organism, saying that it might corrupt the planet. I never had any belief in the justice system, neither you nor the figureheads who drafted the laws concocted these beliefs into you. This creature is a beacon that there is extraterrestrial life, we could live in harmony, ..."

"Silence" shouted the judge, he became a giant fireball in an instant, my feet didn't move, my pride melted right there, I was trembling,

"Hey, ready to be an international fugitive," I heard a voice. It was him, it was SmokeEyes, for the first time he spoke. 

"Huh? What are y.."

I was floating in the air with SmokeEyes, he was carrying me across the building, something told me that he saw a chance to fight against the system.

"You are full of surprises, don't blame me if you die out there."

"Save yourself from the judge, please."

The judge was catching up to us, 

"Let's go." Smoke eyes jumped out of the building with me.

"WE'RE OFFICIALLY WANTED MEN NOW"