"You know," Gregory said, as he regarded the basketball-sized blob of luminous plasma floating beside him. "This isn't how it's supposed to go. It's backwards."

"In what way, Representative?" the blob inquired -- somehow. It had no mouth, despite somehow giving the impression of an obsequious smile.

"Well," Gregory said, as he followed the blob down the corridor, watching colorful translucent wisps swim through the air around him. "I've heard people say that drugs made them see aliens. But I've never heard of anyone getting abducted by aliens, and only then do they start hallucinating."

"You are not hallucinating, Representative." the blob said, cheerfully. "You are merely recovering."

"Yeah, you keep saying that." Gregory mumbled, irritably. "Recovering from what?"

"Chronic malnutrition, mostly. Though your species, as well as the other three sentient species native to your world, seem to have adapted remarkably well, all things considered." the blob replied.

"That's another thing! We tried to tell you when you brought us on board, before you separated us: Dwayne, Ben, Penny and I are all the same species," Gregory said.

"So you have said, Representative. While we recognize that taxonomy may be reckoned differently on your world, for the purposes of membership in the Confederation each of you represents a different sentient species, albeit ones that doubtless share a common evolutionary ancestor," said the blob.

Gregory sighed. "I see how you got there, I guess. I'm about average height, Ben's a little person, Dwayne must be almost seven feet tall...Penny's actually pretty average too, though I think she might be autistic or something, so maybe that's what you're picking up on? Either way, we're all human."

"And we think it is good that you feel a sense of kinship with the other species from your homeworld," the blob said, encouragingly. "The ability to see past species differences will be beneficial, as you join the broader galactic community."

"Except there are no differences, we're the same!" Gregory protested.

"Yes, yes. No need to virtue-signal, Representative. Your strong attachment to your fellow homeworlders has been noted." the blob said, somewhat testily.

Gregory let out another long sigh.

"Now then, since you've completed quarantine and had time to recover while receiving nutritional supplements, we'd like you to join the other representatives for a meeting, so we can discuss how best to conduct a formal First Contact with your species."

Gregory perked up. He hadn't known Ben, Penny, and Dwayne before they were all abducted, and he hadn't spent much time with them before the aliens had separated them, but he found that he was eager to see them. It had been almost a week since he'd seen anyone who wasn't a flying orb of goo.

"Are they hallucinating, too?" Gregory wondered aloud.

"No, and neither are you," the blob reminded him. "We have not given you any psychoactive substances."

"There's something in that food." Gregory grumbled, watching a ghostly six-winged eel swim by through the air, and briefly swivel its eyestalks around to look at him.

"That is true. Specifically, the food we've provided has been fortified with Element 104, a rare mineral formerly present in your planet's food chain, and vital to the life cycle of many species around the galaxy. It appears to have been depleted on your world sometime between now and our last survey of your world some 15,000 years ago," the blob explained. "It's actually quite remarkable that so many of your world's species were able to adapt to living in an ecosystem without it."

"How does a mineral make me see things?" Gregory asked.

"In much the same way that many trace minerals are vital for your biological function, Representative, including that of your sensory organs," the blob said. "Though in point of fact, your species is actually the least sensitive to Element 104 -- only a small gland at the base of your brain is directly impacted by its presence or absence."

"The...pineal gland?" Gregory asked, frowning.

"Yes, I believe that it is your term for it. It was severely atrophied when you were brought aboard, but bioscans indicate it is now recovering nicely," the blob said. "The other species' recovery has been more...pronounced, however."

"I told you, we're all--" Gregory began, and then trailed off, as a door slid open before them, and they entered a large chamber. Inside, were two people he barely recognized.

Ben had grown -- not taller, but broader, and his limbs and facial features had become thicker and more robust. What's more, while he'd been clean shaven when they'd been abducted a few days earlier, he now sported a long, bushy beard.

"''Sup, Greg!" he called cheerfully.

"Ben?"

Ben grinned broadly. "Yep! I'm as surprised as you are, but I had a half-dozen different back and joint conditions that were giving me hell, and now they're all gone, so I ain't complaining."

"In the absence of Element 104, many of your species' connective tissues fail to develop optimally," the blob chimed in to Ben. "We are pleased that its reintroduction into your system has caused such rapid reversal of atrophy."

Before Gregory could even begin to process this, Penny appeared beside him, scaring him half to death. How had she snuck up on him like that? When he'd last seen her, she'd been curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth and trying to process the sensory overload and understandable anxiety created by her abduction.

Now she was different, only slightly taller, yet almost as transformed as Ben, in her own way. Her eyes were large and almost uncannily blue, and her ears had become long and pointed. He remembered her being afraid of anyone touching her, but now she stepped in front of him, and placed long slender fingers on his cheeks, before leaning in to touch her forehead to his. When she opened her mouth, she didn't speak, so much as she sang.

I greet you as a friend, here among the stars.

Share with me the light they shine.

Share with me the songs they sing.

Then she let out a laugh of almost childlike delight, and literally tumbled away from him, before coming to rest on the floor near Ben, calmly sitting cross legged.

"Yeah, she's...she's like that, now." Ben grumbled, eyeing the smiling woman seated on the floor beside him. "Not sure it's an improvement to be honest. But from what the blobby guys tell me, that's actually her natural state, like this is mine. What about you?"

"I..." Gregory said looking from Penny to Ben in confusion. "I mean, I-I just started seeing things." He glanced at the other side of the room, where a strange pufferfish-like like spectre was floating by. "Like right there, I see--"

As he extended his hand towards the thing, an inexplicable gout of flame leaped from his fingers towards the space-pufferish-ghost, and set a nearby decorative plant ablaze.

"Shit!" Gregory cried.

"Ah," said the blob, as a nozzle extended from the ceiling and sprayed out a jet of gas that smothered the fire. "It appears you have recovered your species' ability to modulate local quantum fields. Please refrain from doing so while on board, as it may interfere with our vessel's systems."

"Well," said Ben, soberly. "That's a helluva thing." Penny simply clapped excitedly.

"Sorry." Gregory said, his mouth suddenly dry. He glanced around nervously. "Where...uh...where's Dwayne?"

"He should be along shortly," the blob assured him. "In fact--"

One of the wall panels slid aside, and an immense shape ducked down low and squeezed through the opening into the room. As it straightened, all three of the abductees gaped up at it in amazement. It wore the ragged remnants of Dwayne's clothing, but stood almost ten feet tall, despite still being partially hunched over. Looking down at them, it blinked its dark, beady eyes, and then its face split open in a wide grin.

"Hey y'all." Dwayne rumbled. "Or, uh...'fee-fi-fo-fum', I guess."