The upside

Hello! I just wanted to say a few quick words before you got into the intro of my story. This is a new idea for me, so I'm not sure about many things. It would be a great help if you guys could give me a few tips or suggestions to keep my story along. Thanks for reading "The upside" and I hope you enjoy it!

We arrived at a new planet that looked like a great place to start new. As we hovered above on our spaceship, "The Starfall," I couldn't help but be completely mesmerized by the green, gold, and electric blue colors mixing together and creating an amazing memory to cherish.

The captain got Starfall to line up on the golden piece of land that seemed to stretch forever. This planet was ten times bigger than Earth and humans were excited to inhabit this new beginning.

As we slowly and carefully descended, another ship appeared to the left of us and gained more speed down as they let gravity take them, not caring about vigilance. They came really close to us and had a ship of substantial size, but they looked like they wished us no harm and really didn't care if we continued to land here. They seemed to have more people on board their ship and I determined this because most of their ship was a type of clear material. Their eyes glared at me curiously through my window with the identical shape and size of the average human eye. Their faces were shaped the same and their bodies too. They were equivalent to the human race but somehow still different.

Gossip started on our spacecraft about who this alien race was and why they were so eager to get to the ground fast when we were here first.

I leaned out the window and saw that this planet wasn't all by itself. There were tiny creatures the sizes of small horses ramming the other spaceship with resentful faces and force. I didn't know if I should feel awful for these innocent creatures or the other people on the clear spaceship, but this was the creatures home and we were invading. If we had stories and movies on Earth where we were intruded upon by aliens and didn't like it, shouldn't we consider these creatures and their home and the fact that we were intruding on them? But I didn't think the captain or leaders knew this planet had life forms until we got closer. I felt like we should leave and let them have peace again. But what was the point when the aliens on the clear spaceship were invading anyway?

Starfall suddenly stopped moving and I heard rumors that we were being contacted by the other alien race who was asking for help to fight off these creatures and to take their homeworld. We had translators to understand them because they spoke a language unlike ours. The elders in our ship made a meeting with a few important people and leaders to discuss this hard decision.

After what seemed like forever, they decided to help this other race we didn't trust and we did something unfortunately wrong: we killed these creatures who were only trying to protect themselves and their planet.

One year later:

Our two species were not getting along. That was the truth. Everyone fought because we were from two different home planets. Mother's wouldn't let their children play with the Keylee children. I felt like we were going to have a second Civil War and if that did happen, I hoped that none of us, including the Keylee, would be having slaves. The fighting happened mainly because the keylee were gaining a single power for each one of them while the humans were remaining their old boring self.

And the humans were jealous.

The elders were in a meeting, but instead of it being just the human leaders, the Keylee elders were also in it. They were trying to find a solution to this horrible problem.

I waited outside for my father to come out of the meeting. I was staring at the two suns encircling the planet we selfishly claimed. The grass here grew brighter and more green, trees were taller and wider, the air was clean, and the water was pure. I was sitting on the wall surrounding the main building made for important meetings that we made a few months ago and wondered what they did with the creatures and their homes.

When flying through galaxies on Starfall, we were forced into school, but history class was my favorite. We learned about how we polluted the air, making it impossible to go anywhere without gas masks. We learned that our trash covered the land and filled up the oceans leaving us with nothing but an ugly covering from our space stations above. We ran out of water and food and then we decided that we should find another planet. One to create a fresh start, to protect, and to take care of; not like what we did to Earth.

I am the fifth generation to live on Starfall so I've never seen Earth with my own eyes. I've only seen pictures of how it was before we destroyed it and then pictures after when it was too far gone to save. I honestly wanted to know more about Earth, but my dad wouldn't say much. He's never seen Earth either. Only his grandparents and great grandparents saw it. He loves to talk about the things his grandparents told him, even though they were children at the time. About the way the wind would blow and sweep up skirts and dresses, leaving women blushing in embarrassment and men trying to get a better look. I don't know how the wind feels like though, because this new planet didn't have it. It had calm waters and a few hills, but no tall mountains. It did have beautiful forests where the trees were bigger than mountains and clouds that were never-moving, but they stretched across the sky in waves. Because of the two suns, the sky was mostly an orange-yellow, but when it got closer to the evening, it turned blue like Earth's sky, and then finally black.

My dad finally stepped out of the building and walked over to me with power in his steps. He was the number one leader of humans and tried to decide what was best for everyone.

"Kaol, hurry along, and follow me. I have some things to talk about with you," my father said quietly, not wanting to draw attention.

"Yes father," I reply back, grabbing my water bottle and hopping off the wall.

We arrive home and I can tell that my father is scared. He sits on the couch and pats the space next to him with a shaky hand.

"Father, what's wrong? Can we have peace between us?"

"Well... we talked about a name for the planet and both sides agreed on Ethilia. It was a miracle that we decided on that since when we barely get along but I am very sorry to say that the other leaders of our race want the planet to themselves. They spoke in private knowing that I wouldn't agree to what they had to say and they discussed killing all of the Keylee. They are still letting me lead them, but I told them I would have no part in it. I don't understand why they can't just share the planet. The keylee want to share this planet and they promised no trouble, but it's the humans that aren't being fair."

Just then, an ear-splitting scream cut through the ever still evening and when I looked out the window, two Keylee women dropped onto the grass, lifeless. I started screaming from the grossness of it all, but the main reason for my screaming was also because my own race was killing and destroying a species that meant no harm to us or had any agendas against us. As I sat next to the window, I prayed that somehow these harmless people would survive. I felt anger and hatred building up inside of me, but it was only for humans and their twisted logic.