What is a Human?

Adrian was enjoying floating freely in the zero gravity environment he was in, not having the slightest idea of the alien beings that were watching him from a far distance. While floating around the neural capital city, he also took his time to observe the place.

He observed that the entire city was built around a dome-like structure in the middle of it. He got to the dome and to his surprise, the door was still open. He got in, expecting to see some people, but to his disappointment, it was empty. Devoid of people.

All he saw were some giant metal rings. These rings looked like those interstellar stargates which he saw in movies.

He looked beside it and saw an indicator that showed a steady red light. He walked through the ring and came out at the back. He then walked around it and left to the other parts of the large dome complex.

There were four rings in total, each ring wide enough to comfortably contain four men standing side by side. He stood in the middle in total admiration of the place.

What really is this place? This doesn't feel like a dream. Adrian thought.

DING!

There was a sudden sound like that of a bar bell. Adrian quickly looked behind him and figured out that the indicator on the ring behind him had started blinking and with that, a strange light began coming out from the insides of the ring and going towards the middle of it.

As Adrian watched, the light became brighter and was coming close to the middle of the ring. When the light fully covered the ring, the indicator turned green.

Then he began walking towards the ring. Before he got close, he saw a leg come out from the light, then another, until a handsome buff humanoid came out, staring down at him. This humanoid had green eyes, and a slightly long vertical slit on his forehead. As Adrian watched, the slit opened and in it was another green eye.

Scared, Adrian began walking backwards while the humanoid with the three eyes was walking majestically towards him.

WHIZZ!

An arrow flying from behind Adrian whistled past his ear. The buff humanoid raised a hand and caught it like he was catching an apple thrown at him.

"You missed." The humanoid said, staring past Adrian, who was on his knees trying to catch his breath as he could've lost his life few seconds ago.

"I wanted to." A feminine voice replied. Adrian widened his eyes and looked back. He was so focused on the male ripped humanoid that he didn't notice the stargate behind him had opened.

He was surprised to see a humanoid female. She looked more like a human except her hair was a strange shade of green, just like the serum his dad injected him with years ago.

He stood to his feet. Both humanoids were staring at him intently.

"He looks harmless, Narah. Normally intruders have to be armed and ready to fight any resistance. And I was really hoping for an exhilarating fight."

"Don't sweat it, Greene. That arrow I deployed was just a test to see his offensive capabilities. It seems there's none." Narah replied.

To Adrian's surprise, he could understand what they were saying.

"You know I can hear you, right?" Adrian said, scared and confused.

Narah and Greene stared at each other for a while.

"Follow me." Greene said to Adrian and walked out of the dome building.

Floating in the neural space, they made their way to one open building in the neural space that had stone seats facing each other.

Greene and Narah took one seat, while Adrian took the one opposite them.

"What's your name and how did you get here? And how old are you?"

Adrian took a deep breath. "My name is Adrian. And to be honest, I don't even know how I got here. I went to bed back home and now I'm awake on a world I don't even know. First off, I thought I made it to heaven, until I saw an empty city." He replied.

"Well, this is a neural space. In order to get here, you have to be one of the Aava. You have to have the blood of the pure Aava to be able to access the neural space through dreams." Greene said.

"How did you get here then?" Adrian asked.

"There are special sleeping pods that allow us to come to the neural space without any effort." Narah answered.

"So. What kinda thing are you? And where are you from?" Greene asked, stroking his beard.

"I'm a human." Adrian answered.

"Oh I see. From where then?" Greene asked again.

"From Earth." Adrian answered again.

"Okay. What's Earth? And what's a human?" Greene asked again. Raising his voice.

Adrian was already getting pissed with Greene's constant questioning.

"Earth is a planet. I and my kind, the humans, are the primary inhabitants of the planet. Animals come next after us. Any other thing you'd like to know?" Adrian answered with a stern face.

Greene had no more questions and instead turned to Narah.

"I understand you're already getting pissed with his questions already, Adrian, but it's for security's sake. Nobody's been down here for half a million years. We just have to make sure you're not a threat." Narah carefully explained, which calmed Adrian's quelling anger.

She went further. "The Aava are an advanced race. We've been here for almost two billion years. About five hundred thousand years ago, we discovered the existence of habitable planets in far away star systems. By then, we had already developed our interstellar radar, capable of receiving signals from more than a hundred million light years away in all directions from our planet.

"Then, we started a historical and iconic project we called The Great Expansion. We were going to expand our species in these void worlds so we would have somewhere else to go in case something catastrophic happens and claims our world.

"The project was successful. The first two years, we were constantly in contact with the Originals that were on board the Magnus-Class interstellar explorers, which happened to be the biggest at that time. Some had reached their designated worlds while some were still in the jump gates that would bring them closer to each of those distant planets."