Chapter 8: Squids
It was slow-moving in the ‘ducts’, although Beau hesitated to call them that; There were too many things about the structure that made his gut twist. They were body heat warm, cramped enough that the pleather-feeling walls slid against his skin and dark enough to multiply the creepy-as-hell factor by about a billion.
Even though he was at the helm of their expedition, their progress was slowed due to the irregular placement of the snotball cameras. They sat in the bottom of the shaft, in clear, concave, open-faced covers. Beau had made the mistake of pushing his entire left arm through one before, and was now covered in alien fluids. It smelled like ass.
Beau had been trying to keep track of how far he and Ryo had travelled, but he had lost count somewhere around the first camera crushing incident. They had to have gone at least a few clicks though, and with no end in sight their ‘prison’ must be huge.
“You holding up okay, Ryo?” he called over his shoulder.“Hai,” came the teenage groan in reply.
“That’s good, cause this is some real bullshit. Bet you never figured you’d ever have to crawl down some janky-ass, alien spaceship.”
“No.” The reply was annoyed this time, but Beau didn’t feel like staying quiet. There was only so much he could hold in without it causing problems later.
“I’d always thought I’d be on the ground, fighting the ‘good fight’ as it were, not that an alien invasion was the first thing on my mind. Figured someone would have pushed the red button before aliens…” Beau wiped the sweat from his brow. “What were you doing before your life was up-ended?”
Ryo sighed louder, stopping his crawl to answer his question.
“Camping,” was the answer.
“Heh, you too? Jesus it’s a small world. Me and a couple of buddies were just sitting around a campfire talking about the not-so-good old days, then next thing we know, our dogs were barking like crazy and a bright light blinded me…” Beau stopped and took a breather. His limbs were starting to complain about the cramped conditions, laying down flat and stretching. “You in school, Ryo?”
“Yes,” Sugawara lied.
“That’s good, you should stick with it. What are you studying?”
There was another long pause as the boy tried to remember the right words, finally setting on, “Science?” with a shrug, although Beau couldn’t tell if the question was the word or the subject. Conversation was going to be awfully one sided..
“That’s going to come in handy. You handle the brains, I’ll take care of the brawn!” Beau replied, catching himself getting louder. Why was he shouting? The last thing they needed was to be heard.
He held his breath and listened.
There was a humming, just loud enough that he couldn’t ignore it, a creepy, wet, pulsating noise. It swelled and levelled with the rhythm of a laboured heart. The soldier followed the noise with his fingers. He could feel it in the veins that ran along the walls.
The objective to escape was becoming an increasingly urgent priority.
They had no choice but to keep moving forward, only at a slower pace than he would have liked. Ryo was sounding a little out of breath.
“I wanted to go to school,” Beau breathed quietly, reigning himself in, “to become a veterinarian, get outta Smallville, but life didn’t turn out that way. Plans rarely make it out the other end intact.”
He fought the urge to shout, to lash out, to turn the alien taser on the walls themselves and cut their way out.
Objective list:
Keep moving forward.
Keep civilian on side.
Stay alive.
“You wanna tell me about yourself, Ryo?”
“... No.” the reply was resigned, exhausted.
“Alright, we’ll just listen to the creepy pulsing alien tube then,” he snapped. The dark and claustrophobic environment was getting to him. “I ain’t tryna rub you the wrong way man, just trying to get to know you.” Beau peered back over his shoulder, correcting the harshness in his voice. “You’re doing pretty good actually, I know grown men who would have turned into jello if they were in your position.”
“...” Ryo didn’t respond. Whether that was a translation problem, he didn’t know.
Beau stopped in his tracks.
Up ahead, a small, glowing light appeared. It bobbed from side to side, growing closer.
Ryo’s hand touched Beau’s foot, nearly knocking into him from behind.
“Down,” Beau whispered and he dropped flat on his stomach, reaching for the alien taser and aiming it at the light, in case it decided to be hostile.
They lay absolutely still, breathing shallowly as the light came closer. Beau could hear a quiet but distinct whistle echo down the tubes.
As his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw it was being held by a long black arm, a mass of tentacles coiled around a bioluminescent orb.
To the soldier, it could only be described as a black octopus wearing a tool belt, and it was happily whistling as it inspected the tube. It didn’t even seem to notice them at first, slinking over to an open camera in the floor, spraying it with some sort of bottle that it wore around its ‘waist’. The alien black octopus purred and tapped the goopy camera with a free tentacle, dripping the contents of another bottle of fluid over its surface.
Beau waited, taser ready, but the alien just whistled and purred to itself. Then it noticed them.
“Hold still,” he whispered back to Ryo as the curious little creature approached.
It looked over them both with its single big eye, shining the light on them both. Beau saw the resemblance instantly, now he knew what the cameras were made of. The alien squeaked, and a single tentacle reached out. Instinctually, Beau returned the gesture, offering his hand for it to inspect.
The creature took it gladly, purring as it coiled its slinky arm around Beau’s fingers.
It tickled.
Beau then moved forward, gently stroking the creature’s head. The alien really liked that, pressing itself into the pets and whistling loudly in return.
Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep!
A timer on the alien’s belt sounded off, a string of happy whistles before it promptly turned around to scuttle back down the path it came by, carrying the light with it. “What?” Ryo asked.
“I...I don’t know.” The soldier wasn’t quite sure how to answer. By all rights he should have skewered the walking seafood, but his gut told him otherwise. “There’s a way out, we just need to keep moving,”
With newfound vigour, Beau and Ryo began crawling forward.
-*-
It wasn’t much longer before the light at the end of the tunnel manifested, metaphorically and literally. Bright light poured in, fresh air filled their lungs and the anxiety inside the humans melted away as the shaft opened up enough that they could stand for the first time in hours.
Their feet touched down onto cold, white tiles. Their fleshy prison had come to an end.
“Oh thank God.”
As their eyes adjusted to the light of their new environment, they observed the disparity between it and the old one. This place was huge and open compared to the tunnels, and alight with harsh fluorescence.
Behind them was a wall of tunnels, with more little alien octopuses moving in and out of them, scaling the walls like gravity wasn’t a thing.
“Whoa..” Ryo breathed, staring up towards the light.
Beau turned from the living tunnel system to the new room before them and it was no more familiar.
Rows and rows of box-like apartments were stacked on top of each other in a never-ending sprawl, each one just the right size for the alien squids.
“You think they live here?” Beau suggested, looking for any dangers in their surroundings, more guards or cameras. “Or they prisoners like us?”
“Nice cage,” the kid replied, walking over to inspect the alien structure.
There must have been hundreds, thousands of the things, each one with its own nest-like bed, water and food pipes just as in their prison cell, only these guys appeared to be able to come and go as they pleased. He saw more personal items in each one - baubles he had no hope of identifying, some sort of glowing orb of light, a tool belt sat to one side. If they were prisoners too, these octopuses were treated significantly better than they humans had been.
The squid aliens themselves were curious, but they treated the humans as though they were in the way, rather than like the escapees they actually were.Simply happy to go about their business and even walk around the pair if they stood in their direct path. For whatever reason, these aliens were unconcerned with the entirely new species roaming around their living quarters.
“Oh hey, little guy..” the American whispered. Sugawara watched as the alien from the tunnels came up to the man’s knee, pawing with five of its numerous legs. Beau’s voice seemed softer in this new environment, treating the alien like an animal rather than the potential threat it should have been.
Sugawara frowned incredulously.
“Shoo!” he snapped, hoping to scare off the creature and knock some sense into the older man. Beau shot Sugawara a stern glare, the kind that froze him to the spot.
“Be nice,” The instruction was quiet enough that the alien didn’t notice, but Sugawara felt the scorn.
The soldier crouched down to pet the squid.
It was inky black like the cameras, shiny but not slimy, and it seemed to enjoy being petted.
“They aren’t the same as the bugs,” Beau warned his companion. “No sense making enemies where we don’t need to.”
Sugawara curled his lip in teenage disgust, he wasnt over fond of being touched, much less by a xeno-squid.
The purrs and coos the creature produced caused a few other squids to start approaching Beau, looking for the source of the other’s enjoyment.
“Hey hey, one at a time,” Beau responded, but the aliens clearly didn’t understand. They began climbing over each other to try and touch the human, never malicious, just curious.
The youth turned his back, leaving Beau to figure out his predicament alone, while he did some reconnaissance.
As Ryo walked, heading deeper into the apartment complex, he fumed under his breath.
‘I’m not a damn child, He didnt need to talk to me like that.’ he seethed with embaressment under his breath. Didn’t Beau see how well he had handled himself with the Bug guards? Yet, they were surrounded by the enemy and the guy was acting as though they were at a petting zoo. He couldnt tell whether the guy was stupid or… he let the thought petre out on its own.
As Sugawara walked the halls he found little gathering spots where the creatures munched on their kibble bits, or sat around a glowing ball whistling to each other. They were completely ignorant of the storm brewing in his mind, lost in whatever passed for entertainment in this sterile environment.
Then he turned a corner and another burst of bright light drew his eye to the centre of the complex. Flashing and blazing with glory stood a giant pale blue bug, duelling another with taser swords.
Sugawara stood gobsmacked as he watched the scene unfold. The warriors were in no rush to arrest him, they danced meters above the actual ground, to the entertainment of the squids. Nearly a hundred of the aliens were sitting in an amphitheatre several steps deep, watching a holographic ‘play’ in the middle.
The hologram was fascinating, the pair of bugs posturing and flourishing capes as they struck each other. A mass of screaming clicks and whistles substituted for words as the squids all bounced along to it.
To say it was surreal was the understatement of the fucking century.
The holographic warriors thrust blades toward one another, shattering upon impact, a flash of light exaggerating the moment like a movie explosion.
Sugawara lifted his hand to shield his eyes and felt a tight grip on his shoulder.
‘What are you doing standing around?!’
Sugawara‘s head jerked in search of the voice. The hand on his shoulder was gone, but his heart raced like it still was.
That wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all.
He looked down at his own hand and saw nothing.
It would only get worse from here on out. He’d have to be careful.
Sugawara backed away from the light display, returning down the hall to find the American covered in the curious squids.
“Hey, Ryo! These guys are much friendlier than those other assholes,” Beau greeted him, seemingly having forgotten their prior conflict. Sugawara sighed through his nose in response, unimpressed with the antics of a man nearly 15 years his senior.
One of the squids tore away from the pack and tried to get the younger man’s attention. With mild distdain, Sugawara gently shoved it away with his foot. The squid blurted out a small squeak of surprise before it scuttled off.
He found a spot on the floor to sit down, out of the other man’s line of sight, while he grabbed the alien weapon from his hip in order to get a closer look. It was like a baton, weighted and solid in his hands but with a shelac like texture. The other curious feature there was a large wheel-like dial on the hilt where the blade should have been. The sword wasn’t shaped for his hands but he did his best to find a grip, placing his thumb on the ‘wheel’ and moving it slowly as he had seen the hologram duelist do.
With every turn the ‘blade’ of the taser grew longer or shorter, explaining the sudden thrusting movements that they had been attacked with.
There were a few other buttons and dials. He pressed the one closest to his thumb and the entire blade was engulfed in the hum and crackle of electricity. He nearly dropped the thing then and there, but pressing the button for the second time turned off the taser. He wasn’t as confident with touching the rest in case he electrocuted himself, or it spontaneously self-destructed. For now, a giant metal spear with lightning damage was better than nothing. He turned back the dial so the blade slid neatly back inside its shaft, and tucked it into his loincloth before deciding to bring his findings to his companion’s attention.
Beau had since gotten the squids to an orderly sort of formation. Those that tried to cut in front were harshly hissed at by their fellow squids. Some of them were bringing bits of food, dropping them on Beau’s lap, trying to barter for more pettings.
“Hey, the food is great and all,” he said, biting into one of the offered up kibble bits, “but how about you get us some more of this, huh?” He showed them the fabric of his torn loincloth. “You’ll get some serious love if you find me some new threads.”
A few of them whistled and hurried off to God knows where. Beau’s lips curved, proud of himself for establishing contact, securing food and a means of trade.
He watched as the sulking teenager came back, having finished whatever business he had in the alien complex.
“Yo Ryo, you find anything? A way out?” he asked.
The kid shook his head but pulled out the alien weapon and with a quick flick of the wrist and flourish of his thumb, the taser sword crackled with lightning, scaring off any other would-be pettees.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about…!” Beau smirked. Copying Sugawara’s movements exactly, he soon mastered his own taser sword. “We’re no longer unarmed, that’s one less thing to worry about.” he offered Ryos a sample of the slightly better alien food he had aquired, “So, I’m thinking these guys are the workers, keeping whatever it is in the tunnels running, might be the whole damn ship…”
Sugawara nodded. “I count, uhh,” he paused trying to remember english, counting on his fingers “one, two, zero, zero, zero.”
“One two?... wait, you mean 12,000? 12,000 what?” Beau clarified, Sugawara nodded his head, pointing to the apartment blocks.
“That’s a lot of maintenance workers…” Beau whistled. The ship must be huge. And if it was that large, they werent anywhere close in orbit. “We need to find a way out of here.”
The few squids that had run off returned, this time carrying, some-freaking-how, lab coats, made from the same pleathery material as the walls of the tunnels.
“This just keeps getting better and better!” Beau half laughed.
The coat was too small for him but fit Ryo well enough. The kid even got to roll up his sleeves.
He would have to make do with an even larger loincloth. At least now there wasn’t as much of a breeze downstairs.
Beau looked at their options. They could keep wandering aimlessly down dark tunnels, away from the more dangerous aliens but without any way of knowing where they were they would end up.
They could try walking the hallways, but they were two men, one not even trained, under surveillance, against an armed and dangerous enemy in their home territory. Beau’s joints protested, but it wasn’t exactly a hard choice.
“So, we know that tunnel leads to our cell, armed guards and a dead end. You wanna pick our next route?”
The kid looked about as happy with their options as he was. Shoulders slumped, he pointed to another tunnel, higher up off the ground. Beau stared at it a moment. Higher ground might not be the worst idea.
“Alright then, going up.”
Chapter 9: Looking Back
Xant stared at the grey canopy above them, but it was not his focus.
One of the many new abilities his expanded nervous system granted him was the option to process multiple things at once. He could feel the sleek, tight fabric of the ‘sun lounge’, the heat and scent of the human next to him, and the curious sensation of his own breathing motions.
Feeling the air passing through his nostrils and the filling of his lungs, Xant realized he had not been consciously aware of these functions prior to joining with the human, but she was apparently conscious of them at all times.
Jasmine had asked him to take a moment to ‘recoup’ after their dizzying tour of the super yacht, the height of human luxury, and he was all too co-operative. Any researcher could spend their entire lifespan studying the vessel, be it citizen, corporate or military, and would have found something of worth. Jasmine could become rich off the fabric and wood the ship held alone.
More and more variables kept getting thrown their way. It would be almost impossible to calculate everything until the human’s citizenry status was decided upon, but there was a small part of him that was happy.
As long as there were questions to be asked or answered, he would be able to stay by her side, especially now that both a Lieutenant Commander and an Engine Lord recognised him as part of her entourage, human and Arvas cultures notwithstanding.
The doctor’s ears flicked up as he heard the oncoming footsteps of a much larger being.
“What is it?” Jasmine asked, still staring up at the hangar’s immense ceiling.
“I believe the captain may be approaching,” Xant replied. Jasmine audibly grinned and sat up immediately.
“Rynny!!” she shouted, running over to the safety railing to see him, waving with all the grace of a drunk worm. “Up here!!”
The captain was sniffing around the Pajero. He stood a clear head and shoulders above the thing, but was very surprised when he saw the small creature aboard the much taller yacht.
“Now how’d ya manage to get up there without zero G?!” he laughed, impressed.
“Like this!” Jasmine swung herself over the edge and slid down the short ladder, landing on top of the car with very little effort.
“Huh.” Rynard folded his arms. “Nimble little thing aren’t ya?”
“Only when I have to be. Come on up! There is sooo much I gotta show ya!” she insisted, climbing back down into the Pajero to retrieve her things.
Rynard eyeballed the side of the yacht, specifically the tiny ladder the human had used in her descent.
“That doesn’t look like it would hold me--”
“Jeez, you too, Rynard?” Jasmine laughed, throwing bags out the car window. “Give me a sec and I’ll show you how to get up.” Four different bags of different sizes were lying at Rynard’s feet. “Could you throw them up on deck first though?”
Rynard scooped up all four in one hand and tossed them up onto the yacht.
“Thanks! And here.” Jasmine scrambled up atop the Pajero, then easily jumped across to the yacht’s ladder and tapped the edge of the deck.
“Just pull yourself up from there. If you try to jump up in your suit you’ll break the whole thing. Be careful!” she laughed.
Rynard scratched his chin. Delicate work was not his M.O., but he could reach the edge well enough. He hopped out of his mobile armour and made the climb up.
The ‘ship’ wasn’t quite what he was expecting. The deck was a deep rich brown and made a nice timbre sound as he walked over, careful so his claws didn’t scratch the surface.
Jasmine was happily dragging the four bags over to the seats where Xant was waiting for them. She plonked them down and then eagerly scrounged through a pretty yellow one, grabbing out some clothes and tucking them under her arm.
“I’m going to go and get changed. Xant, why don’t you bring the captain up to speed!” She beamed, just about skipping down the lower decks for some privacy.
Rynard looked down at the doctor, who was still lying flat on his back on the sun bed.
“So, the entire engineering crew can feel the ‘jovial’ nature of Her Grace,” Rynard remarked. “I was coming over to check you weren’t dead,”
“Dead? No. Exhausted? Absolutely,” the doctor replied.
“So, uhh, what is this?” the captain waved his hands at the deck.
“A monument to excess,” Xant answered, sitting up. “I’d be surprised if anyone other than a minior queen held onto such luxury. There’s just so many things…”
Xant saw the captain was uncomfortably out of his depth.
“Anything on board I need to be worried about?” Rynard deflected.
“Jasmine mentioned there might be glucose and caffeine. I’ll do my best to contain it,” Xant assured him.
Rynard shifted uneasily.
“Take care of the caffeine first, make sure it’s contained before the lieutenant arrives.” he ordered.
Xant nodded. Rynard peeked curiously into the smaller cabins.
“Any weapons the engineers might have missed?”
“There was some industrial-grade cleaning fluid and perfume...” Xant joked. “But no, this is a citizen’s vessel, no weapons aboard.”
“That’s good.” Rynard relaxed a little and started looking for a place to sit down, but it didn’t seem anything human was made to accommodate someone of his size. “So this is for citizens huh? All a bit flash, really.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” Xant shook his head. “We barely scratched the surface. You should see what they sleep on, the craftsmanship and the detail is astounding.”
“So, a lotta sparkles and no substance? Nothing I can sink my teeth into?”
“No, Jasmine didn’t indicate anything of military use at all--” Xant’s ears flicked up as he felt Jasmine returning.
“Drinks are on me, boys!!!” she laughed, coming up on deck, carrying with her more of the dreadful ‘whisky’ and another mysterious bottle under her arm. The human was no longer wearing the dull grey armour but instead strange tailored clothes in bright colours with flamboyant patterns, shorts that barely covered her legs and a long lacy robe that was clearly more for show than actual function.
“So, what do you think of my new threads?” she asked, twirling around and lifting up the sunglasses to sit on her head.
Both aliens stood there stunned for a moment, but Jasmine just pressed on, offering them both more glasses.
“I think I would be fine without a drink, thank you, Jasmine.”
“Ah, don’t worry, Xant.” The human smiled, plonking herself back onto the sun bed. “I’m not going to make you drink any more whisky, I found some tonic water that had rolled under a chair, it should be safe for you both!”
“Should be?”
“It’s water, H2O, with some minor natural minerals, and there isn’t even a hint of sugar anywhere, in case you were wondering.” She held the bottle away from her body and winced as she cracked open the white lid. The clear water inside came alive with tiny bubbles.
“Ooh! It’s still carbonated. Nice!”
She poured the two glasses and then filled her own with some more whisky.
“Cheers!~”
She took another swig and the aliens copied her motions. The ‘water’ wasn’t unpleasant, the carbonated bubbles tickling Xant’s tongue. Rynard had thrown the entirety of his drink down his throat, barely wetting his lips, once again disappointed in the quantity provided.
“Now then.” Jasmine produced from her back pocket a small black dataslate that fit perfectly in the palm of her hand. “Do you guys want to see what I looked like before the brainballs picked me up?”
It was a rhetorical question of course. Xant undoubtedly wanted to see more human stuff, and Jasmine was going to show him regardless of his answer. The phone booted up with a bright animation of her service provider, then settled on a background picture of a sandy beach. White sand, blue skies and a deep blue ocean stretched as far as the eye could see. It made a nice contrast with the colourful app buttons.
Jasmine tapped into her library and brought up a selfie.
“There we go, look how long my hair was!”
There wasn’t a staggering difference between the photos, Xant noted, but Jasmine’s mane was indeed much longer, the brown hair sat neatly above her shoulders, held back by the sunglasses in the photo. But there was something in the photo that was different.
“Why is that tooth not in line with the rest?”
“Because it’s a stupid tooth,” Jasmine replied, “and not worth the two grand it would cost to fix it.” She shrugged and pressed her finger to the offending tooth. “It’s always been this--” she ran her finger over her teeth, but she couldn’t find the bump where her incisor stuck out. “Huh. That’s a little weird, did you fix it for me when I was under?”
“I didn’t know it was possible to do such a thing.”
There was an uncomfortable pause.
“Stasis pods often have restorative chems, perhaps that could affect it?”
“Maybe…” Jasmine shifted the photo to another, a group shot of her and her friends at a campsite on the beach.
“This is where we were abducted. We were just packing up to go back home.”
Xant looked over the picture. It was small, but the fidelity matched many of their own equipment. Painted in colour rather than UV, the scene was limited in depth, but otherwise very detailed. The campsite was littered with more unidentifiable objects, colourful chairs, a crude firepit, makeshift hab-tents and high tech objects scattered on tables for contrast.
Jasmine flicked through more pictures, stopping on close-ups of her friends.
“This is Chamkov, we worked together at the restaurant. He’s a line cook like me, but was going to be head chef when we opened our B&B. He liked to grow veggies and stuff. He would have absolutely wet himself if he had seen your hydroponics lab.” A tall, thin human with black hair and blue eyes, he had metal studs in his ears and a curiously uniform pattern across his left pectoral. Xant wondered if such a design could even be natural and once again pondered the effects of ‘natural’ gene-splicing.
“Katie was my best friend growing up. She was the one who helped me on my way to becoming a chef.” Jasmine smiled fondly at the picture. “She had a degree in tourism and it was her idea to start the business.” Katie had pastel pink hair, with eyeshadow and nails to match. Dark olive skin and obsidian eyes gave her quite the striking appearance.
“And that’s Warren.” Jasmine sighed, looking at the photo. “In all honesty, I had a crush on him. He was an engineer in the army, got out after his last tour and helped us to invest. He just wanted to sit on the beach and fish.” She laughed. “It was going to be an adventure for all of us...”
Xant studied the picture of ‘Warren’, getting a glimpse of what a ‘military grade’ human looked like. He was larger, muscular, but not obviously so, if Jasmine had not said anything he would not have been able to make the distinction. Perhaps he was more like the engineer’s assistants than the engine lord himself? Or perhaps humans were not as physically diverse as he expected.
Jasmine continued her virtual tour, swiping through photos in her gallery, showing off the Australian countryside. Long swaths of empty, red dirt land, with sparse scatterings of plant and animal life. The settlements were small, filled with rugged vehicles and people.
Jasmine pointed out the locations that her friends were looking at for their establishment, many of them isolated along a tarmac road.
Then the small rim settlements made way for cities of steel and glass, sparkling in the sunlight.
“There she is, ye old isolated capital,” Jasmine stated sarcastically, but Xant marvelled at the silhouette.
The rising towers lit up the night sky with colourful lights and a single white moon cast its visage over the river. It was beautiful and simplistic, easily rivalling GC architecture from the newly settled planets. The scenery soon gave way to human revelry, more bright colours, more coloured drinks.
“Do humans drink coloured liquids all the time?” he asked.
“It’s an Australian tradition to drink whenever possible. Holiday? Drink. Party? Drink. Tuesday? Drink!” She laughed playfully, taking another sip to make her point. “Commiserating and remembering? Drink.”
City life soon gave way to more intimate photos, more selfies and other people.
“That’s my mum and dad…” Jasmine’s voice grew softer as pictures of the pair embracing her came onto the screen. “Mum was in real estate, and she loved to garden.” The human swiped through until she found a picture of a house with a giant, creeping plant out front. “See that? That’s jasmine, my mum’s favourite flower, and my name, of course.
“Dad wanted her to cut it down. He tried a couple of times, but the thing grew back like a weed. ‘Jasmine, if you’re half as determined and tough (persistent) as that damn creeper I’d be proud.’ He worked in accounting but he always wanted to be a musician.”
There were other photos in the mix: more human food (a lot of food, actually), her and Chamkov in formal, white uniforms, a party at Katie’s house where she pointed out several other friends. Then it stopped on another couple of humans that had not appeared so far. Jasmine lingered on the photo longer than the others.
“That’s my brother Daniel and his fiancée, Vanessa.” Her heart sank a little, and she took another drink.
“You never mentioned him before.”
“No, he died before the abduction. Car crash, slippery roads, wrapped himself around a tree. It took me a long time to get over it. I dropped out of uni and everything, mum didn’t get out of bed for days, dad sat and watched TV for longer and I…” Jasmine looked guiltily at the whisky and put it down out of her reach. “But Katie, Chamkov and Warren helped bring me out of it. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have such great friends.”
Xant thought over his connections with his own siblings. He had not spoken to any of them in nearly a [decade] since his departure from the inner planets. It wasn’t even as though they had been close to begin with, despite being literally mind-linked. Rynard had even less of a clue. He’d come out of a vat, his model mass-produced and referred to by numbers unless they lived long enough to get a name.
To have such an emotional connection to anyone was quite outside their knowledge or experience.
“I hope we were there to help you as much as they were,” Xant comforted her, a hand on her shoulder.
“Oh god, Xant, if it weren’t for you two and the dogs… Let’s just say I wouldn’t have been nearly as sane or co-operative,” she replied, half-serious.
“Jasmine, you know you don’t have to be the ‘only’ human,” Xant touched on the uncomfortable subject, “We could always make more when you’re ready, pass on all the knowledge of your home to them.”
Jasmine shifted uneasily and pulled herself from Xant’s hand, lying back on the sunbed.
“I’m not ready for that conversation,” she replied. “I don’t know how I’d feel raising a bunch of my own clones.”
“They wouldn’t be exact copies of you, we can alter their appearances if that is the--”
“That’s not it. It’s complicated.” Jasmine sighed, and returned to the window of her phone, before snickering under her breath. “Do you guys want to see what happens when you mix humans and gravity?”
Jasmine turned the phone around and showed the aliens a video of gymnasts jumping on a trampoline, one by one performing twisting somersaults in the air, when one fell out of sync and smashed face-first into the mat with wildly flapping arms.
Xant and Rynard both bellowed in gut bursting laughter. She felt the familiar splashing water at her heels from Xant, but Rynard’s laugh was like a boom, in both freq and volume.
“Look at its wiggling arms!” the captain guffawed.
Slapstick humour was apparently universal. Jasmine smirked.
"Do you want to see some more?"
The aliens nodded their heads as they crowded around to watch humans fall over and crash cars on the tiny screen.
-*-