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From the personal log of CSS Command Pilot Alexander Banachek. 9th of July 2440 - 04:27 UTC Commonwealth Starsaucer Moonlight Seven CASX-407 Doctor Smith and I spoke at length in the command dome this 'evening' - again. Of coarse, a notable takeaway from this exchange would have to be the word 'spoke'. Past meetings being better characterized by the word 'shout', peppered with the derisive 'over glorified rickshaw runner'. Curiously, she seems to make more sense with this recent and welcome change in tone. She has even tried my absinthe. Dare I believe that she likes it. To be fair few do. But within the new civility came an unexpected question. She asked - me, "when did you first feel alien?" A rather new vector of inquiry for our dear Doctor Smith. I confess I had no concise answer. I suppose that's strange itself. Beyond Earth, all humans are 'aliens'. This is true of any member who ventures beyond the birth world. Space travelers know this in the technical sense. And I'm sure other space faring races understand it too. So then Smith asked - me - differently, "when did you first feel that you didn't belong?" To that I held back, much to her visible dissatisfaction. To her credit the shouting did not return. I didn't care to explain that most, no all, deep space pilots 'don't belong'. We've felt that as far back as any of us can remember. Why? If I could answer that question I would be the Dean of Psychology at the Nanyang University. And such analysis brings me back to living in the schism between the green and blue worlds. A subjective, not scientific perception which would only aggravate the good Doctor. And myself for that matter. But her question has lodged in my head. I do remember my first deep sky expedition - to Avalon. To the rings some call, "the circles". The rings are thought to be the closest complete and 'functional' alien artifact to Earth. Forgetting Gardener intrusions into our sphere of coarse. Well, if it is 'functioning' no one understands what it is 'doing'. Even our neighbours in the Community have no knowledge to add of this 'machine' - or perhaps over glorified 'artwork'. The universe is full of surprises. The rings are strange. They consist of mineraloid ice - solid polymerized water - with the individual particles maintaining perfectly constant separation from each other. Also, there are obvious signs of static charge transfer between the ring particles in spite of this 'permanent' separation of components. It is as if each ringlet were in reality a solid electron conduit; mostly invisible, undetectable save for small patches which we take as 'icebergs'. Avalon is a gas giant closely orbiting an 'M' class red dwarf. The smallest, most ancient and dimmest kind of star. Though, close in, it is impossible to overstate the pervasiveness of a dwarf's crimson light. Everything is tinted or glows deep red. A light that would penetrate into even the private confines of our vessel. And equally inescapable when sleeping, when dreaming. My colleagues and I described it as a mist - again, not very scientific. Into this 'mist' I regularly dispatched floaters to survey the ring plane. It was during these duties I became, beguiled, by the navigation lights on the bots. For days I was fascinated by their new strangeness. Then I asked myself, "in nine-and-a-half billion years, when has green existed here?" I understood, never. No, we brought this alien named green to Avalon. A stowaway within our technology like any invasive species. To think of green as 'unnatural' is counter intuitive for me. Yet, green definitely did not 'belong' in Avalon. Our work concluded, we departed leaving our technology to continue observations. They are still there. And green stayed with them- The newest colour in Avalon. I doubt Zoe will be satisfied with these ramblings either. Why would she now be interested in my life experience. After so many years of, well- self-self interest as the diplomats say...

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