With nowhere to go, Moriarty clung to his training as best he could. His last coordinate put him somewhere over North America. His calculations didn’t narrow it down much further.
Before crashing he remembered seeing sand, like a giant desert, and thought back to his geology courses. Giant deserts in North America weren’t his strong suit.
He didn’t seem to be in the desert any longer. Deserts were hot, and there were skies above them. He was in a cool room, and couldn’t see the sky. He determined he was inside somewhere, but without familiar landmarks he had learned about, he was as good as lost.
“Hi, Jeff!” Another human recognized the man suit, stuck his hand in the air and waved it around.
Moriarty waved his own fleshy hand in response. He remembered this from the same class as handshakes: Greetings 101.
“Did you hear about the alien?” The man said. “They lost him, I guess.”
Moriarty made a sound he thought was human laughter, but he must not have gotten it quite right.
“Are you okay?” The new human asked.
“Yes.” Moriarty replied, staring at the man. This man didn’t have a mustache, but did have some kind of identification badge. “Thanks…” Moriarty leaned in and inspected the man’s identification. “…Leo.”
“You sure you’re okay?” Leo asked.
Moriarty made sure to continue his eye contact, as per training guidelines. He forced head to nod and his face to smile, too.
“I-um… I have to go.” Leo walked past Moriarty, who turned and kept trying to keep eye contact. “If you see that gray alien-”
“Blue.” Moriarty cut the human off. He maintained eye contact.
“Blue… alien. If you see that guy, let us know.”
Moriarty bobbed his head up and down and watched Leo walk away. This didn’t seem too hard, he thought. He realized fooling humans might be easier than he, or anyone from his planet, had realized. But he would still need some help to get back home. His thoughts continued in his squishy, carbon-based brain as he walked down the rectangular area of the building; a hallway, if his memory was right.
He didn’t mean to crash, of course, but unfortunately he had. His navigational system had led him astray, away from the rest of his crew, and eventually sent him spiraling out of control near a desert. In North America. He obviously didn’t know where the rest of his crew ended up; somewhere better than him, he’d imagine. Maybe even their original destination. Maybe they were waiting for him. Maybe they realized something went terribly wrong. Maybe they were sending help. But probably not.
Something had gone terribly wrong, but that’s what training was for. Earth was the only known hospitable and populated planet between their home base and their final destination, so they had trained just in case.
What were the chances of an incident, he remembered thinking on the first day of class.
There’s never been an accident, he thought at the time.
That caused him not to take notes.
He now realized that was a mistake.
But he still couldn’t believe his luck, as he passed another human, this one with no hair. Moriarty simply showed his teeth and waved his fleshy fingers. The hairless human waved back and kept walking.
Easy, Moriarty thought.