<span style="font-family:Arapey"><span style="font-size: 15px">Allison nearly let out a bark of laughter. Thankfully, she managed to restrain herself. <i>Dozens</i>, he'd said. Dozens of world with intelligent life! How completely ignorant they all were, here on Earth, thinking they were the only sentient beings to occupy this corner of the galaxy. How would everyone react when they learned that the scope of life was so much broader and impressive than any of them had thought? Would it be met with the same level of fear and borderline hostility as this stranger's arrival? Or would curiosity outweigh the sense of distrust and the desire to conquer and dominate?<br/>
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Blinking away the thoughts, she focused her eyes back on her host. She looked up to see his hand extended between them, an achingly human gesture. Slowly, she lifted her own hand to take his, touching flesh that felt as human as her own. Her grip was confident and firm as she pumped his hand a few times. "Valinor," she repeated, mentally storing it away with the other information she was collecting. Her hands itched for a pad and pencil, a recorder, something, anything that she could use to document what he was telling her. Every time he spoke, a million more questions seemed to surface and notes might have helped her sort through them. But this was the first contact anyone had made with anyone on this ship and she didn't want to overstep her bounds until she'd received permission. <br/>
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"Valinor," she said again, cementing the name in her brain. "I'm Allison... though, I suppose if you asked for me by name, you probably already knew that." Some of her usual briskness had begun to return as the initial shock and surprise wore off. There were more questions she wanted to ask, like how he spoke English so fluently, or just how many other beings were aboard this ship. But those seemed banal and unimportant at the moment. She wanted to get to the meat of the situation. "So... you're exploring, you said," she began tentatively. "Exploring a link between us here on Earth and... others like us?" Though it was phrased as a question, it was meant as a statement, speaking aloud to help sort out her thoughts in lieu of something more conventional to take notes on. "Does that mean you aren't here to overthrow or destroy the human race?"</span></span>