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.
Another week, another part to the story! A not-so-new discovery awaits Sheldon in that pod he found, but this one looks to be leading to something more. Shelley, meanwhile, is discovering more than she thought was ever possible.
On an aside, there is a painting I did a long time back of the scene where Sheldon opens the pod. This should help give an idea of how things look.
Sheldon looked to the animals in the tank when the lid opened and revealed another of them laying inside. “Someone you know?”
They replied with blank stares.
He coddled the creature, smaller than the others, and pulled it out. Its eyes were large for its head and its skin grey with a slight blue tint. “This one’s different, lighter than you two. A child? Maybe one of yours?” He stood up and slid it into the tank. The animals puffed and swam toward it, stretching their tentacles over their new friend.
He chuckled as he replaced the lid over the tank. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Young one?”
An unfamiliar voice roused her from her cower. Shelley opened her lids. A face looked down at her.
“You’re alright, though far from home.”
Shelley lifted herself from the sand and peered around. The world had become bright. The missing pilots, lost long ago when they took to the geyser, hovered over her.
“What is this place? I was in space, then...” She raised an arm to her head.
“We’re in a pocket of air in space. Not sure how.” One of them placed a tentacle on one of hers. “Give it some time, your eyes will adjust to the light.”
“How did you get up here?” The other stared at her with half-closed lids. “And what is your name?”
“Shelley.” She inflated her siphon and floated toward the fuzzy green and yellow balls of lights dancing in the horizon. “I took a probe. The lights, they… changed, and I had to see if my mother was with them.”
“Your mother? Why would she be with the lights?” The second scoffed. The first jabbed a tentacle into the other and inflated with a scowl.
“I’m Clamence.” The first puffed her chest then stretched an arm to the other astronaut. “And this is Sandy.”
“Everyone thinks you have been eaten.” Shelley drifted closer to the pocket’s wall. “By them.” She pointed at the lights.
Sandy huffed. “No surprise there.”
Shelley deflated. “You’ve been here all this time?” The two nodded. She twirled back. “What is this?” The see-through wall stopped her from floating further. Her skin sucked onto it as she pressed her tentacles against the barrier. She pulled them back.
Clamence let out a sigh. “We don’t know. There are four walls around us. We can’t get out of here, we’ve tried.”
“Not that we tried too hard.” Sandy laughed. “She feeds us well.”
Shelley twirled around. “She who?”
“The alien who captured us.” Clamence floated to her, placed a tentacle on her back, and guided Shelley to their multi-coloured shelter. “She’ll return soon to feed us. Sometimes the other alien comes and that one looks very different. Take it from us, you can’t get out without them catching you.”
“And there’s no air at all out there.” Sandy waved her tentacles above her head, not talking to anyone in particular.
“But what do they breathe then, if not air?” Shelley looked around at the white walls outside of the air pocket. She blinked her lids and her vision became clearer, spotting the lights and focusing on them. Their dancing came to a halt and the green and yellow contracted into several crisp balls floating above the deck of a gigantic boat. Flat whales in mid-flight were lined against the walls, smaller than the ones she’d seen, trapped in a frame with the sky and frozen in time, their eyes void of life.
“Space, I guess.” Sandy shrugged and followed her gaze. “Not what you imagined the lights would be?”
Shelley shook her head. “No.” An ache cramped her chest. Her mother’s memories hadn’t been taken by them after all. “Is this a space-house?”
Clamence laughed. “It is. You are smart, young one. But not smart enough if you thought it was a good idea to go to the geyser when your time for genesis is close.” She pointed to Shelley’s slightly bloated belly. “What if you birth in here? I’m much too old to look after babies.”
Sandy gave a nervous chuckle then gasped, inflating her siphon and floating deeper into the shelter. “She’s coming back!”
Shelley looked up at the great alien, larger than the whales on the white walls. Her skin was pale like coral with sand-like grass covering her head. She leaned over and stared at her. Dark craters shrunk and grew in the middle of her green eyes. Her mouth moved in strange ways and a sound vibrated from within.
The alien pressed one of her tentacles against the pocket’s wall. Shelley floated closer, pressing an arm against it as well. The alien’s mouth stretched sideways and she moved her tentacle up above her head. Shelley inflated and pushed from the sand, following after it. Another tentacle moved to the alien’s mouth and pointed. Shelley copied her gesture. How graceful her movement.
“Food.” Sheldon dropped a piece of raw fish into the tank. The new animal stared at him and moved its lipless mouth. The other two puffed and hurried to the fish, tearing it apart and dividing it into three. A soft echo emanated from them and the new animal floated to join the feast.
“Fascinating.” He sat and leaned forward. They ate with their tentacles as if they were hands, tidying up the small mess afterwards. The two older animals made echoes, floating closer to the new one. It tucked in the four tentacles hanging below its body and sat on the sand while the older two echoed continuously. Sheldon reached into the water.
