Two worlds meet and have to work around language barriers. Time is against them and one will have to choose when, not if, to let go.
Hello, there!
It's been a while since I last posted, or been on Hive generally. Life. You know how it goes: distraction, stress, fatigue, all from work and it leaves you without energy for anything else. I'm so pent up with creative frustration that I might burst. But I'm slowly getting caught up and releasing that frustration, and finally I get some time and opportunity to return to Hive!
And what better way than to share one of my favourite stories. I wrote this a while back and revised it again now, thinking I had to share it. It was inspired by a story I read in Compelling SF magazine long back when that has stuck with me all these years, and it churned in my head until I made my own story with the same sensation.
Also, aliens. Because why not?
Lights waltzed across the sky, swaying back and forth with each other in a nightly ritual that Shelley watched each night from her window. Marvellous wonders she couldn’t figure out. They spread their scents when a current passed, some like meat and others like dirt. Their glows caressed the city buildings, decorating them in abstract graffiti that ebbed and flowed with greens and yellows. She couldn’t have been the reason they were here, like her mother used to say, used to believe. She had to be wrong.
“Why did you leave me?” Shelley stared at the lights, hoping they had taken her mother’s memories to them and kept her alive, her prayer and her lullaby for the nights she couldn’t sleep. Such nights were becoming more frequent. Her body changing into adulthood didn’t help with the storm of thoughts and wishes in her mind, keeping her alert. Her genesis period would start soon and only the lights would be her comfort during that time.
The waves rippled across the dark sky in between them where a whale flew over the city, casting a deep shadow, singing its song of travels. She listened to it as she always did, deciphering the language. This one had come from the frozen sky to the east. The lights painted its slick body in moving geometric tattoos as it passed by, a similar pattern to those scattered over Shelley’s grey tentacle.
She inflated her siphon, drifted to the bed, and lay down where she stared at the dancing sky until her lids were heavy. One of the lights flickered, if only for a second. She perked up and floated to the window again, all hope for sleep gone. Another flickered, for longer this time. Then another and another. Was it her mother calling to her?
She scanned the sleeping city and its barren streets, then looked to the launch geyser, still active in its old age. Shelley inflated and drifted down from the window, floating through the gaps between buildings toward the geyser mountain. A few cylindrical probes rested at the foot of it, open and waiting for the next mission. Waiting for her. Dragging a probe with one of her four legs, she floated up the mountain. The city felt peaceful from this height. She crawled into the probe before the next launch spout burst.
Minutes seemed like hours in the cramped space. This wasn’t a good idea. The last two pilots to go up in the burst never returned. She reached for the latch as the mountain started to shake and it was too late to turn back now. She activated the hoisting button and the probe shook as its foot smacked the ground. It leaned forward, sliding into the geyser. Blue and white bubbles swarmed past the small window, up toward the sky that became more opaque the higher the probe raced.
She pressed a tentacle against the window, trying to touch the lights.
A thump pushed her back into the chair. The probe stopped shaking and the bubbles turned into a white mist. Waves dissolved into a still and dark sky. Small, blinking white dots were scattered in every direction. The lights were gone. The geyser had shot her into space.
The probe turned and pointed down, the force of the plummet pinning her to the back of the seat. Below, the sky’s waves glistened. A whale surfaced from under them, threading into space, blew out a mist, then dove back down into the sky. Its shadow disappeared under a large, floating house where strange, giant alien creatures walked its decks without protection or breathing equipment. The probe plunged closer toward it. One of the aliens looked up and held its tentacles together. Shelley shut her lids and raised her arms to shield her head.
“Another one, doc?” Jane peered over Sheldon’s shoulder at the metallic cylinder in his palms.
“Yeah, the tenth one so far this year.” Sheldon turned around. “Wonder if this one’s empty like the last.”
“Better open it close to the tank, in case you find your third pet for this month.” Jane patted his back and returned to the large crossbow then cranked the lever. “Are you ever going to report this to the university?”
“Not sure.” He shrugged. “I guess I should, considering, but I don’t have anything to report yet. We still have no idea where they’re coming from.”
“You could always order a probe from the station to dive in, take a look at the reef a few metres away. They probably spout from there,” Jane said as she fastened the bow of the harpoon launcher and removed sample tissue from the barbs of the dart.
“With their backlog? Still waiting on one I’d asked for before I came.” Sheldon’s laugh trembled. “I don’t think that’s going to happen”
“I knew they were behind, but not that badly so. Huh, maybe my signature could up the time. I’d have to log the data under my name, however.” Jane wrote the tracking number of the whale on the container, then dropped the tissue sample in.
“About that...”
“Your discovery, academic credit and all, I know.” Jane started down the steps below the deck. Sheldon followed.
“You’d think the planetary scouts would have mentioned other smart animals before we researched here.” He walked toward his quarters.
Jane laughed. “Yeah, right. Profits are more important than letting just anybody discover small creatures who build little pods and risking some group from stopping the mining. Which, I guess could be thought of as just as important.” She rubbed the back of the pen against her head, messing up her neat ponytail.
Sheldon mumbled an agreement, not really listening to what she said, and closed his door. He set the pod on the table beside a large tank of water, decorated with plastic foliage and a fish castle. The two animals inside puffed themselves up and swam toward the corner, pressing their tentacles against the glass. He smiled at them as he pried open the pod with a screwdriver. Water streamed out, onto the table and his legs.
