Plot:
Marty is looking over blueprints and sipping bourbon at the bar of the Bayside Hotel on Proxmia b. Most people visit the Bayside for the salty air and a walk on the beach. Humans have been living on Proxmia b for a little less than five hundred years. Communication with earth ceased off after the first ship landed.
Today, Marty is watching the non-human Gliesians, who look surprisingly like humans, but with marked differences. Don’t tell them that, however. Gilesians regard humans as stupid and reckless. It was the Gilesians who informed the humans that earth is no longer habitable, after all.
Thoughts:
This is an interesting setting. I liked the idea of two similar peoples, both on a planet that’s not home to them. One views itself as superior to the other, the rube of the galaxy.
The Gilesians have mastered English, even the technical aspects of it. A Gilesian (who does not deign to give his name to a mere human) asks to see Marty’s blueprints and has no trouble reading them.
Of course, he’s revealed to be a jackass.
However, this jackassification is hard to catch. The story reads like a joke with a buried punchline.
Bio:
According to the blurb on his blog, author Eddie D. Moore travels a lot for work and spends much of that time listening to audio books. The rest of the time, he spends dreaming of stories to write. His stories have been published by Jouth Webzine, Saturday Night Reader, Every Day Fiction, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Adventure Worlds.
The story can be read here.
Title: “Elevators and Aliens”
Author: Eddie D. Moore
First published: Theme of Absence, March 14, 2020
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 