Kate
Finally, all is calm. I have no idea how much time has passed since I woke up. Everything moved so quickly and my adrenaline’s been in overdrive the whole time. Can you ever run out of adrenaline, I wonder? If you can, I must certainly be nearing the end of my supply.
Now that I’m not in fight or flight mode I’m able to really take in my surroundings. Alien rescuers included. They are all similar to one another. Except for one, he looks more like he evolved from a reptile. The others all look like horned gargoyles. They are super tall and super built and even look hard to the touch. They all have greyish skin tones aiding in their resemblance to the stone statues from Earth. They style their hair differently from one another, I notice.
I scan them and my eyes instinctively go to my hero. The gargoyle guy who killed my captors and carried me out of harm’s way through a barrage of gunfire. Well… hopefully he carried me out of harm’s way. I guess I don’t really know their intentions yet, I think to myself. In any case, he is different from the others. He has wings. Looking around, I suddenly realize that everybody is looking to my guy, the gargoyle in charge. The only thing is, he’s looking at me. Our eyes lock. Did he catch me checking him out… er, inspecting him… for… uh, alien… qualities?
“Dang, you guys could just like, get a room. We can wait,” the surly girl beside me says and I feel myself turn bright red, finally breaking the intense gaze of this alien-gargoyle dude.
He makes some crazy noises that must be his language and another dude jumps up and leaves the room. Soon after he’s back with a handful of blankets. They help us out of the seat belts, because we can’t figure them out for shit, and wrap the blankets around us. The guys bustle around helping all the women, but it seems I have a babysitter… or maybe the outer space version of a guardian angel. I haven’t decided yet. The blanket he puts around my shoulders is a super smooth, thin material, but it’s surprisingly warm.
Now that that piece of business is out of the way, all us Earthlings congregate towards each other. Looking at the room, I’m reminded of a middle school dance… all the boys on one side and all the girls on the other, everyone too shy to ask anyone to dance.
It seems the girls are beginning to realize that although everything has settled down, we are still in the presence of a bunch of aliens. I hear tears start again and those who aren’t crying are shifting on their feet. I think everyone in the room can feel the tension rising. I take a step forward and stand in front of the other women. I don’t really sense danger from these guys, but I still don’t want them freaking my girls out. I don’t remember what happened to me, and I don’t know what happened to them, but they woke up naked and frog boy back there clearly was going to try and rape me. So, I’m in super protective mode right now.
“Tell them to take us home,” surly nudges me.
“Okay, hand me my pocket alien dictionary.”
“Look Red, that one is paying attention to you…” she points at my hero, “...to say the least. Use it and get us the fuck home.” All the other girls are looking to me, eyes wide and welled with tears. I’ve got to be the strong one. It’s okay, I’m good at that. I take a deep breath and step toward my gargoyle. He matches my movement and steps closer to me.
“Um, hello…” I don’t know what the fuck to say. I look back and forth between groups. Everyone is looking at me expectantly, like I’m about to bridge some gap. “I’m Kate,” I say holding my hand to my chest over my blanket. “Kate” I say again.
“Kate,” the alien says fairly well. It sounds a little different coming from him. It’s like he makes the sounds deep in his throat and his teeth click a little when he says it. He places a hand over his chest. “Rennek,” he says in his throaty, growly voice.
“Rennek,” I repeat his name nodding--probably a little too enthusiastically.
He motions toward his friends. “Dax… Kellen… Bossan… Da’vi,” he pauses between each to make sure I am understanding him. I expect their names to be more like crazy clicks and things I can’t pronounce, but I’m pleased to find I can say all the alien names. I can’t do it all throaty like he does, but I can replicate the sounds fairly well in my opinion.
All alien eyes go to the women behind me. I turn and look at the other humans, I realize I don’t know their names yet.
“Allison,” a girl with long brown mermaid hair supplies. “Clark,” says the girl I gave my cami to. “April,” says the girl wearing my PJ shorts. “...Viv… Victoria,” sobs a mousy brunette with short hair says. Everyone is mostly staying back, but my surly friend steps forward and waves, “I’m Reagan,” she says.
“Eemmrayyshinn,” Rennek repeats. All us girls laugh.
“Sure, he gets your name right and mine gets butchered. Wonder why…” Reagan says sarcastically. “Rayyy Ginnn,” She says with heavier emphasis. It doesn’t help though, because now all these dudes are trying to master saying her name. It’s a cacophony of Rah-shin’s and Ray-chin’s. “Oh, never mind! What’s the point of this? Tell us something useful, like when we get to go home!” She shouts, exacerbated.
And I only feel a little butt hurt. I thought we were making good progress. I shake it off, step forward again and… here we go. “Hi… um, do you guys know any English? Can you understand me?”
The aliens look back and forth to one another. Rennek says something to us and then waits. He looks to his friends and begins to speak, motioning to his ear. The exchange goes back and forth for a minute until my guy approaches me again and lets loose a long string of words. But no matter how slow and deliberate he tries to speak, I’m just not getting it. I shrug. He then tries to pick me up. I squirm away.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa… I can walk!” I hold him at bay with my outstretched arms. Now it’s his turn to look butt hurt. One of the other gargoyle aliens laughs at him and Rennek shoots him a pissed look. The one who laughed waves to us and starts walking from the room. I think his name was Dax. He makes some encouraging sounds and continues to wave to us, so we slowly begin to follow him, staying close together as we do.
This guy sure is in an easy mood--despite the situation and all. He talks endlessly as he leads us down the tight corridors, laughing occasionally. He talks even though we can’t understand him and it’s actually pretty comforting. I lead the humans behind him and my guy, Rennek, presses his way between everyone until he is walking near me… and in the tight corridors of the spaceship everyone notices. Reagan scoffs. I try to pretend I’m oblivious, but I feel the heat creeping up my cheeks.
Following the guys through the labyrinth of the ship gives me a chance to take in their appearances without getting caught staring this time. I notice Dax wears his hair in a long braid while Rennek’s is shaggier and unruly. It looks like the mane of a lion--only black. It starts on his head near his, gulp, horns and runs down the center of his back. It’s so full, it is very much like lion’s mane, I think. I notice their tails sticking out from under the loincloth things they wear. It’s not a loincloth like tarzan had. It’s belted with holsters and the fabric is heavy and well-tailored. It covers their asses and their junk, but leaves their muscular thighs exposed.
These guys certainly don’t wear much. I guess I should be happy they thought to bring us blankets at all--they’re walking around bare chested, in nothing more than holsters and loincloths. They’re even barefoot. Of course, it must be hard to find shoes that fit velociraptor feet. Rennek’s tail sways as he walks, catching my attention again. This part of him reminds me of a lion too, but then I remember how solid it must be because Rennek used it to impale frogger back there on the bad guys’ spaceship.
We round a final corner and come to a set of doors that swish open as we near them. This room is much smaller than the… I don’t know… cockpit? What do they call the part of the ship where you drive, I wonder? Do you ‘drive’ a spaceship, or would it be ‘steer?’ Probably ‘pilot.’
I shake myself from my thoughts and take in this new place, and silently curse myself for not paying more attention to the path we just took. I should have left a trail of breadcrumbs or something, we still don’t know if we can really trust these guys yet.
This new room is definitely more sterile than the limited part of the ship I’ve seen thus far. It’s got a high metal table in the center and it’s lined with cupboards and drawers. There’s a computer monitor thing and a light that can extend down over the table. This is likely a medical bay for the ship. The easy-going guy, Dax, is still talking as he rifles through drawers and cupboards. He locates what he is looking for. He pulls out something like a price tag scanner and sets it on the table then pulls out three small plastic containers, about the size of a golf ball. He turns to Rennek and motions toward the containers and then to us. Rennek looks troubled. They don’t have enough for all of us, I take it. Rennek points at me. Dax nods, rips open one of the containers and loads it into the back of the price scanner. He hesitates… then talks for another moment in a much more serious tone to Rennek. Gulp.
Rennek approaches me, bending so we are eye to eye. It really emphasizes how tall he is. He must be over seven feet. He’s got about a foot and a half on my 5’7. He starts talking slowly in this calm, purring voice. It reminds me of a cross between a cat and someone talking to a cat. He motions to his mouth and my mouth. I stare at his mouth. Fangs. Wow, he’s got fangs. They aren’t crazy though. Not like a saber-toothed tiger. It’s a little more than what you’d expect from a vampire, I guess. But all in all, not bad or too scary, I’m thinking... and then I hear snickers bringing me back to reality and I realize his fanged mouth is smiling at me. I guess I zoned out staring at his mouth.
“Yes, go on. I’m listening,” I say flushed, waving him along.
He smiles again, a cocky smile and I can’t help but reciprocate, he is motioning to our mouths and ears as he talks and points to the price scanner and the side of his head.
I turn to the other girls, “Do you think it’s a way for us to communicate?”
“What do you think, Sherlock?” Reagan says. She’s pushed her way to the front next to me.
“Yeah, and if we’re wrong are you still going to be such a smart ass?” I ask her.
“Until the day I die and that thing might kill us, so it might be your lucky day” she tells me smiling. I suddenly realize I like this girl. Her casual approach to all this craziness is somehow grounding. It makes me feel like I’m here with an old friend.
“Yeah, I’m little Miss Lucky today.”
“Well, go ahead. Looks like you’re the guinea pig,” she nudges me forward.
“Wait!” Comes a panicked voice. “It could be anything. It might render you unconscious, it could be poison, it could be a roofie, it might be a communication device that isn’t compatible with us and their good intentions could kill you…” the girl with short brown hair is saying, I can’t remember her name. April and Clark take a step back and are shaking their heads in the universal ‘fuck no’ gesture.
“Whoa, chill.” I hold my hands up to calm them down. I eye the gargoyles, they are waiting patiently. “Let’s try to be objective,” I say. “I agree with…
“Vivian,” she reminds me.
“I thought you said it was Victoria?” Reagan asks, lifting an eyebrow.
“No, it’s definitely Vivian,” she confirms.
“I agree with Vivian, it does seem like these guys have good intentions,” I emphasize this small point from her mini-tirade, both to calm everyone down and because I’m starting to believe it. “We won’t know what that is, or more importantly, what’s going on if we don’t have a little faith in these guys. Plus, look around,” I wave my hands around at the ship surrounding us, “this is all pretty advanced… they must know what they’re doing, right?” All the girls nod at this. “If anyone else has a better suggestion, I’m all ears?” I’m met with silence. “So, I’ll be the guinea pig and if something goes wrong, intentionally or not--you’ll all know.”
“Yeah, but there won’t be shit we can do about it,” Reagan says.
“That’s right.” We eye the guys and all scoot a little closer to each other. “They’re giving us a choice right now. Let’s just trust them until they give us a reason not to, because the alternative does us no good.”
“Oh… this is a bad idea,” Vivian says and she wrings her hands.
“It’ll be fine, I’m sure,” April reassures me and gives a tight smile. I smile back and nod. I really do appreciate the encouragement, because I’m actually pretty terrified.
“You got this Red,” Reagan tells me, slapping my back.
I turn around and step toward the gargoyles, “Okay, I’m ready.” Rennek nods to Dax.
Then Rennek picks me up and sets me on the table. I sit perched in the edge. Everyone is staring at me, waiting, like I’m supposed to do something.
“Seh saghuli,” he says and nods his head. I stare.
“Lay down, stupid.” Reagan says.
“Oh,” I laugh. “Okay, okay, okay…” but I’m talking mainly to myself. I’m super freaked out. Just a few short hours ago I was nearly raped and now I’m putting myself in this vulnerable position. Deep breaths, I think to myself.
Dax, takes a cap off the end of the price scanner. Now, with the lid off, I can see the end is a pyramid shaped blade. “Oh! No, no, no, no!” I pop up. Reagan and Rennek rush to my side. Rennek is murmuring things in a soothing voice. Reagan grabs my hand and puts on her casual face.
“It’s cool,” she smiles “it just looks strange, but all this stuff looks strange. Like you said, check these guys out. They’re crazy advanced. You’ll be fine.” She says it casually, but her grip on my hand is tight. I nod and try not to cry, because for some reason, I want to be strong for the others. I lay back down. Rennek says a few more soothing words and I look into his black eyes. Dax finds a position on the side of my head, near my ear. He is still for the briefest moment, then I hear a loud crack and feel a pain so deep and intense I have nothing to compare it to. It’s like a wave of fire. Or lava. This is what lava feels like and I feel it in every cell in my body. Then everything goes black.