Daniel had reached his limit. In actual fact, he had long surpassed his limit three or four drinks ago. He felt the room pulsate, the voices blur with each word and finally made the wise decision to leave the bar. Living on what was pretty much an isolated space station in the middle of nowhere in space left Daniel and other humans like him on-board at the mercy of the new and very different types of alcohol that they were surely fortunate enough to be amongst the first humans to consume. This night though, Daniel felt, as he traversed through the sea of red giant men, green women with four eyes, and gas clouds that communicated through a kaleidoscope of colours, that maybe just maybe he had enough.

He stumbled out into the clean, white hallway, and began his journey passing through the very many similar doors. It was confusing enough finding your way through the station when sober, God knows how tough it was completing the same task while your brain seemed not to care about finding home. Daniel checked right and left, up and down, for the right number. These numbers on these very similar looking doors were the only guides that he had. However it seemed that every time he would try to inspect a door he encountered problems only a drunk Daniel could, his head wouldn’t hold still or his vision would all of a sudden blur or he would simply forget which actual number was his room. He quickly became frustrated and began abusing the nearest door by furiously swiping his card even though at each swipe it would very loudly tell him that the card didn’t belong to this room.

Finally the door slid open and Daniel stumbled through the body of a floating, iridescent man.

“May I help you?” the floating man spoke.

Daniel mumbled and looked as if he were falling asleep.

The floating, iridescent man rolled his many eyes and strode on to the other side of his sterile room. He opened a closet, which all contained similar articles of clothing and through Daniel’s blurred vision he saw the man slip into a red rubber suit that vaguely reminded him of the cartoon astronauts he saw as a kid. This warm memory put a smile on his face.

“What are you doing?” Daniel slurred his speech through intervals.

 The floating man appeared in front of him. “Don’t worry unfortunately this isn’t the first time this has happened. And I’m sure it won’t be. Now get up?”

Daniel latched onto the floating man whose body was now easier to grasp because of the suit. He smiled at him. “What’s your name?”

They began walking down the white corridors.

“My name?” replied the floating man.

“Yes.”

Daniel listened attentively as the man spoke and marvelled at the pronunciations he had never heard and more syllables than he could afford to repeat. He shook his head. “There’s no way I would be able to pronounce that. Maybe I will call you rubber suit man.”

“Very well,” the alien seemed confused, “but –“

“You can call me Daniel,” he interrupted.

The floating man, or rubber suit man as he had now been christened, nodded his head. “Danno.”

“No it’s pronounced Da-Ni-El”

“Danno.”

“No listen – “

“It doesn’t matter anyway Danno. We are here.”

They stopped in front of a door. A387 it read.

Daniel looked surprised. “You know where I live.” He pondered for a few moments, “If you read my mind that isn’t cool. We kinda have to consent to those type of things where I’m from.”

The rubber suit man swiped a card and the door slid open. He smiled, “I picked your card off the floor and saw the room number.”

“Oh, well thank you,” Daniel drunkenly stumbled inside knocking a few frames of pictures that were on his wall.

The rubber suit man picked the frames up and put them back into their place.

Daniel smiled, “This is so trippy man.”

“Excuse me?” the rubber suit man seemed distracted by his task.

“I mean it’s so strange.”

“What is?”

“You.”

“Me?” the rubber suit man paused, stared Daniel down, and inspected his suit in one of the mirrors. “Is my gear not clean enough?”

“No, no, no,” Daniel leaped forward and held the rubber suit man by the shoulder. “It’s weird how I’m living with aliens. If I could go back in time and tell eight year old me he would be freaking out.” He paused for a moment. “Have you guys invented time machines?”

The rubber suit man seemed intrigued. He shrugged off the question about the time machine and continued, “I always forget your species never interacted with foreign species.”

Daniel stumbled to his bed and collapsed onto it. Laying on his stomach, he continued, “Well there were always conspiracies about aliens visiting but – “

“But what? Were they ever confirmed to be true or just nothing but conspiracy theories?”

Daniel gazed at the ceiling, his head bobbing back and forth.

“Danno,” pressed the rubber suit man.

“Oh. No. I actually don’t know. They were always weirdos that claimed to be abducted and probed by little grey men.”

“Little grey men?” his voice seemed to take a more serious tone. “Danno. You must show me a picture of these little grey men.”

Daniel ignored.

“Danno,” he commanded.  Daniel still stared at him in silence his head bobbing back and forth. The rubber suit man leaped forwarded and shook him by his shoulders. “You must listen. This could be the difference between the survival and death of your race.”

Daniel seemed to understand the gravity of the situation even in his current state. “Hold on.” He walked to his computer. After a few seconds he motioned for the rubber suit man to come and look for himself. “I mean,” Daniel continued, “these pictures aren’t real.” He paused, the words seemed to be stuck on the tip of his tongue. He shook his head, smiled, and continued “they are just an artistic representation if you will.”

The rubber suit man was stunned.  He stumbled back. “You know of the old ones?”

Daniel seemed even more confused. “What’s happening? What do you,” his voice grew weaker eventually fading into a whisper.

Once again the rubber suit man grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him. “I know this race. They are one of the oldest and certainly the most dangerous races in the universe. They study ecosystems, its habitants, and civilizations for long periods of time before finding the most efficient and painful way to systemically destroy every living thing on it.”

Daniel’s eyes were wide open. He sat up in his chair. “Wait. What?”

“They will destroy everything and everyone you love?”

“Even my mother?”

“Especially your mother.”

Daniel began finding it a bit harder to breathe.

“This is a serious matter. Are people aware of the danger?”

“I…  I don’t know.”

“Contact your leaders.”

“I don’t have their number,” he shouted in his panicked state.

“Well call your head representative on the ship. Surely you must be in contact with her.”

Daniel nodded, and let his trembling fingers fall stroke the keyboard. He waited. A woman appeared on the screen. Daniel, short of breath, relayed the information he had heard to the woman.

The woman looked confused.  “Wait. Who is with you?”

The rubber suit man leaned into the screen and gave the lady a wave. They both erupted into laughter.

“Another one?” the lady spoke.

“They keep disturbing me when I’m trying to sleep,” replied the rubber suit man.

“What’s happening,” Daniel still short of breath interjected.

The woman on the screen sighed “there is no end of the world coming. It’s a silly joke some of the crew on board likes to play to new human recruits. Go to bed.”

The screen switched off. Daniel slumped in his chair. “Wait. So it’s a joke.”

“Yes,” the rubber suit man continued his laughter. “Be glad I didn’t let it linger on for a few days like I usually do.”

“Oh”

“By the way the name is Lecilite. Pronounced Leh – See – Lite. It really isn’t hard to pronounce. Goodnight.”

Lecilite left the room. Daniel pondered in his chair for a few moments and threw his head back and slept uncomfortably for the rest of the night.