Introducing Jed and the Xala

I'm not sure how this will turn out. Many of you won't believe what I am about to say, and that's perfectly fine. I hardly believe it myself, but I decided that I had to write it down, perhaps to help myself believe it, or perhaps just to get someone else interested in my story. Or maybe I'm just keeping myself from getting lost in this world. I don't know. All I know is I have to write this.
So what am I talking about?

Ah, I'm not sure I'm even calm enough to deal with it.

OK, here's the story:
A couple of days ago, I was taking a walk down to the bank when I felt this strange tingle. I would have forgotten it in just a minute, but as I walked past a little alleyway it got stronger. Soon it was an itching, then burning, then a pain like was being electrocuted. Eventually, it got to be too much to deal with, so I turned back the way I came, figuring I'd just go to the bank later, but as soon as I got back past that alley, it got weird.

There was a huge explosion that knocked me flat on my face. I could hear the windows of the nearby restaurant, or store, I don't know, shatter and a metallic creak as a truck settled itself into a stable position after it must have been shoved against a building. Then, amid the tinkle of the last fragments of glass hitting the pavement, there were footsteps. They weren't human footsteps, they had a funny pattern to them, a different rhythm – faster than a human's, and less regular. I started to get up and look around, but as soon as I turned my head there was a painful, bright white light – and then darkness. Whatever it was had blinded me.

I could feel a surge as my adrenaline kicked it a notch higher. It didn't matter that I couldn't see, I knew which direction I didn't want to go, and I ran as hard as I could what I supposed was the opposite one. As I ran down the street I felt an impact and fell to my knees. I thought I'd hit a pole, until I realized that the impact had been from behind, right square in the back of my head. I felt dizzy with a fog creeping over my already scrambled brain. Then, it all went blank.
__________

When I woke up, I was in some sort of metal building, and the strangest guy was standing there. He was wearing this weird gray robe. But the worst of it was that I couldn't figure if he was really a he or a she. He -- it -- showed no real disposition toward either. Now, trust me, I've seen people who I couldn't tell their gender immediately, but not like this. His, or its, or whatever, frame was slight like a thin woman's, but with the face there was no telling at all -- with some angular shapes like a man, but also full lips and effeminate eyes. It had very little hair on it at all, just some thin eyebrows, long eyelashes, and a head that looked buzz-cut. The thing seemed so strange that I started when it began to speak, "Who are you?"

"Well, first, who the Hell are you?" I didn't want to answer before I knew who I was dealing with. I thought some government agency had picked me up or something.

The whatever-it-was sighed a bit. "I suppose you've seen too much to be kept in the dark, and I won't risk erasing your memories. I am from a world known as 'Jez'*,"--he seemed to say that word rather strange, like it didn't fit right--"I have come here to observe your world and determine whether we should establish contact here."

I looked around the room, nothing but metal in sight. I didn't know what to think of this anymore. "Well, it seems to me like you've made contact already. And, I must say that knocking me out and hauling me off to this place, whatever it is, doesn't give a very good first impression."

The weird thing gave no expression. "I am sorry for causing you so much trouble. We had scanned the area prior to entering, and presumed there would be no witnesses to our entry. It seems that our technician was most inept at his choice of entrances, and I have made recommendations to prevent such mistakes in the future."

I didn't care to much for his talk. He sounded a bit too much like a politician or a lawyer for me. "Well, you'd better send me back home, or someone will be looking for me!"

"I cannot do that. It would be against protocol to release you before my operation is finished. In any case, no one will find you on 'Jez'."

"What?! I'm on your planet? Jez?" I commenced cussing at that androgynous, lawyery thing, saying things I'd rather spare from the general audience here.

"I am sorry, but we had to be sure that you were hidden away. By the way, I believe I have used a strange pronunciation. I think that in your language, the name of this planet would be more correctly as Jed."

"I don't care how the Hell you pronounce it. I want to go home, immediately!"

"I cannot do that."

"Can I at least contact my family? Talk to them?" I was getting desperate. I didn't think about the fact of my being on another planet, and probably so far from the service area of my cellphone service that the signal would be travelling for a million years before it reached a tower. I just wanted to talk to someone.

"I can't risk you complicating the mission--" It stopped, and made the first real facial expression I'd seen it make, a sort of head-jerk with some idea of a light-bulb going off. "Let me confer with the council."

He left before I could answer, moving rather awkwardly, like he wasn't in his own body.

When he came back, which must have been hours, he had a little laptop computer with him. He explained to me that the council had approved a little experiment. He'd told them he thought the people of Earth might be more receptive if some information leaked out beforehand, that we seemed to fear the unknown. So they had me set up this blog. "I'm not a blogger." I told them, but they told me they wanted someone from Earth who could tell it from a human perspective. They also told me that they wanted to keep things minimal at first -- no photographs, no verification -- so that if they decided Earth wasn't worth the trouble, they could pull the plug and I'd be written off as a joker or a crackpot, or maybe both. (Well, they didn't use those words, but that was the idea.)

Anyway, here I am. My name is Vinceon (They won't let me put my last name) and I'm blogging from Jed. They told me the days run different here, so I can't promise that I'll post terribly regular. These people, they call themselves the "Xala" (they told me spell it that way, but it sounds kinda like KHAH-lah), tell me that they'll be giving me a tour of their planet and some inter-dimensional trade network they run. Right now, I'm supposed to be resting up for the big trip and writing up this intro, but I'll be posting later, and hopefully I won't screw things up too badly.