“I’m not a man,” Van hissed grudgingly. “I’m Valikhilya,” he shook his little head in a sign of utter despair.
He sped up to get away from Jean-Pierre. Debby, noticing how offended Van was, grinned and indicated with her eyes that Jean-Pierre should apologize. Jean-Pierre declined without a word.
They were all walking through a vast valley that shimmered yellow, orange, and red under their feet. Somewhere in the distance, high flames were erupting and flying off the surface into the blackening sky like huge glowing ribbons.
“Wow,” Jean-Pierre said, impressed by the sight. “And what is that?”
Van remained silent and pointed away from the travelers, indicating that he only accompanied them and did not want to join in the conversation.
“Van,” David called out to him.
Silence. Dr Capri turned to Jean-Pierre. So did all the other earthlings.
“What?!” replied Jean-Pierre in a mute rebuke. “All right.”
He took a few wide steps to get closer to the flying Valikhilya ahead of him.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to offend you.”
“Van cannot be offended,” the little creature replied without looking, “but,” he paused meaningfully, “you can’t call one living being by another. I’m Valikhilya, and I’m proud of it.”
“I see it,” Jean-Pierre smiled.
Van shook his head, inviting everyone to move on.
“So there are no people here?” David asked.
“People are a form of body. In order to travel to other planets, you have to adapt to life on them. If your body is not suitable, you have to change it.”
“I don’t understand,” said Yulia.
“A human being is,” Van tried to find a word, “one way to live on the Earth. To live on another planet, you need another way.”
“We use spacesuits for that,” David said.
“I know,” Van replied, expressing some level of distaste. “I don’t imagine how that’s possible.”
David looked at the doctor and smiled.
“Don’t you have such technology?”
“Technology?” Van grinned. “It’s a real punishment, isn’t it? To be trapped in a cocoon that you can’t get out of, and to think you’re in another world. You can’t even see the world for what it is.”
“So we changed bodies?” David clarified.
“Bodies?” Van laughed. “Took the suits off. You must feel very well now without your bodies.”
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Yulia shook her head, not wanting to hear these words.