The aliens were so...well, alien.

It had taken some years for the crew of the Starcraft Ürning to arrive at this distant planet after Earth astronomers and xenoscientists had selected this destination as a solar system that seemed most likely to possess Earth-type planets.

Michelle Gazebo was the commander of this successful expedition, and she reflected upon the irony that they had found a truly alien world and life form. As she stood on the foreign soil, her brain struggled to understand every alien telepathic message.

Yet, she also sensed a tone that spoke of their mutual achievement:

- - We are beginning to meld...to become one shared soul - -

The planet was far from Earth, and, so too, its xenobiology was far distant from the familiar creatures and creepy crawlies of Earth.At first, the astronauts had been unaware that the haze was anything more than an atmospheric phenomenon. Similarly, the communal life form of this planet had taken time to recognise the individual humans as intelligent life.

Their increasing awareness of a shared empathy - at first, merely primal feelings, but then more refined and intellectual concepts - had allowed them to comprehend each other as a sentient life form unlike any that either had experienced before.

The humans had struggled to conceive of an intelligent non-corporeal life form, while the native life had struggled to understand that a separate and self-contained physical entity could be anything more than simple pre-sentient matter.

It had taken a great deal of effort and patient communication before common reference points had been reached.

- - We have become one with the information you have shared...Still, we find it difficult to discern between the life forms you have shown us from your planet...What you call trees, animals, birds, fish, humans...all these life forms share the same common organic structures...you all look the same to us - -

The aliens could not understand the concepts of oral speech, music or the emotions of humour or loneliness. Eating, digestion and excretion were also alien to a life form that instinctively absorbed what it needed from its environment.

Similarly, the humans could not understand several states of being that the alien commonly experienced during its intellectual explorations of its universe. Most obviously, the atronauts had to grasp the idea that the mists and moistures were part of a collective consciousness that also enveloped the pulsating crystals and gently swaying, tinkling rocks.

And although the alien had undoubtedly experienced birth back in the distant pre-dawn of its planet, death was unknown to it. Its lifespan and life views did not incorporate a sense of mortality.

- - Share more of yourself with us. Share with us your communal structure - -

Community. It was the most basic indigenous concepts that the alien - or actually, aliens - could understand. Strangely, the value of community was something that humans also shared, although in a vastly different way.

"We, too, value being together," she told them, "We feel most fully human when we share our lives with other humans."

- - Yet you are individual physical entities. How do you share your spirits when your bodies remain separate? - -

"Er..." she paused awkwardly, "When we share our thoughts...share our souls together, we feel emotions that create a bond with others."

There was a pause as the aliens evidently sought further explanation. She added as a reluctant afterthought:

"We sometimes share our physical bodies with those who are important to us."

- - Physical community?? - -

"My partner is aboard the space ship," she confirmed.

- - You are separate physical entities, yet you share a joining of body as well as of mind? Is this normal for your kind? - -

"Yes..." she replied, "It is a natural function of being human. For one thing, when two particular types of humans join together, the results can be physical reproduction."

- - This is most intriguing. Have you and your partner created such physical reproductions? - -

"We call them children. But no. My patrtner and I do not produce children when we join. Our joining is a different type."

- - ? - -

She sighed deeply. How could she explain gender, or discuss her own partner, without crossing the boundaries of Violetta's own privacy?

"Generally speaking, there are two physical types of humans. For reproduction to occur, physical joining must take place between these two types. Violetta and I are both the same physical type of human, so when we join, no children are produced."

- - Then why do you join? - -

She smiled ironically, "Now you're beginning to sound like some humans back on Earth. They also fail to understand the concept of same-sex love."

- - ? - -

Michelle continued to smile as she shook her head, "The other humans who are with me, we all share a physical and emotional attraction to other humans of our own physical type. This was one of the very reasons we were chosen for this mission: no children are produced, and our emotional and psychological links stay stable for long periods. But some humans fail to understand our capacity to link with humans of the same type."

- - But these other humans would themselves link with humans? - -

"Yes, but with humans who are physically different."

- - Humans are all the same to us. Is not any type of physical joining a joining of same to same? - -

"That's not how they see it."

- - How they see...using their physical eyes...? - -

"Um...excuse my poor choice of words there. I meant that many humans on Earth have set up communities that share the same outlook on life, on the Universe or its origins. Some of these are called cultures, or religions, or philosophies. Many humans who share such ideas consider humans such as myself to be different."

- - Different...not the same...yet all humans, all Earth life is the same... - -

"Unfortunately, not all humans would agree."

- - And such difference is not of the community? - -

"Do you mean, are different people treated with equality?  The answer is no. Often, humans see such difference as something to distrust."

- -  Distrust?  - -

"A primal emotion that was originally linked to survival. It creates in us a desire to reject the subject of our distrust, in order to eliminate the emotion."

- - To reject...Yet I...we...are different to you. Do you distrust us...wish to reject us?"

"Distrust you?" she laughed aloud; a free, joyous, uninhibited laugh of joy, as the alien world engulfed her and tinkled its secrets against her face.

"No!" she replied, "I celebrate you. I desire to learn more about you. I wish to spend more time...becoming...with you!"

- - Then humans have chosen well those who would be their representatives. Commune more with us  - -

Michelle Gazebo was overwhelmed with alien ideas, concepts and understandings as she bathed herself in the flow of shared thoughts and experiences.

She was not a religious person, yet she couldn't help wondering at the way the Universe was unfolding itself to her. Her gay and lesbian crew had been maligned by some back on Earth, then cast aside by those same people who had bade them good riddance.

Ironically, it was gays and lesbians who would lead the way into the future; explore and colonise alien worlds, because they could fully understand and relate to what it meant to be different...

...to be alien.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story was inspired by "Alien Odyssey I: The Un-Conventional" by Stephen Stonewall, and is entitled as a sequel in that series of stories with that author's permission.