Telaliel blinks a bit at the captain's words, pausing before she says something that could be misconstrued.  What was it about being alone with him that made her want to make, as her father would put it, 'unwise, however so humorous' comments.  Saying something like, 'but I see something wonderful already' was likely to be taken in the wrong way.  Or was it the right way?  She was definitely going to have to find some time for meditation in the near future before her mind wandered too terribly far afield.  She groaned inwardly and bent her head to rub her eyes for a moment before looking back up to him.  "Of course, captain.  No need to apologize, it's simply been a very long, stressful day.  I'm afraid I'd already been awake some time when someone I won't mention popped into my star system and spooked my guardian into basically dragging me out of the palace."  She smiles a bit and nods, stepping into the corridor with him.<br/><br/>For a moment, as the enter the observation room, she isn't sure what it is that he's taken her to see.  Then the brilliant light of the local star broke over the sharp edged disc of the world, bringing the world below them to life in sudden clarity.  The clouds, the continents, the oceans and streams in sudden perfect color.  Without even realizing she had moved, she lets her hand slowly stroke the impossibly strong glass between her and the beauty of the world below.  She knew enough of the maps she could almost draw the lines of the borders of the states, the paths from city to city, the names of the lakes and rivers, and yet...to see it all without those markings, as simple a perfect globe, slowly spinning under the light of its distant star somehow changed it, making it both more and less that what it was.<br/><br/>The translator might hesitate for a moment as her speech changes, a much more archaic language, like Ælpheran but more rough, more unrefined.  "And the allies brought them from the world, opening a door as they did, a moment revealed the darkness and the light and Terra hung upon nothing."  Her hand slowly curls as her fingers stroke the glass, staring as she continues, "and the allies opened the door again, revealing to us a world not Terra, and pronounced it Ælphera.  The doors closed once more and we became, remade as not Terrans but as Ælpherans.  And the allies spoke as they left that, in time, it was possible that we would open those doors ourselves, to reveal not only Ælphera or Terra but the countless multitude."<br/><br/>She blinks a bit, shaking off an almost religious trance and returning to her normal language, "sorry...I just...never realized that the stone was so...literal.  That so many years ago, we stood just like this, seeing the world for the first time from above...and for so many years we were unable to see it that way again."  She smiles, turning to him and gently placing a hand on his chest. "Thank you," is all she says, going on her tippy toes to give him a gentle kiss on the cheek before settling back down to the deck.  "So few of my people even have a chance to see the monument, or the handful of tablets from that era kept carefully near it.  Fewer still speak the words or can read them...only the priesthood and my family.  Being able to see what it was that they saw, to understand what it is they meant..." She smiles slightly and shrugs, "there are no words."