[ BLIND FAITH ]
“Elisa?”
Hearing another human’s name felt awkward. It had been so long since I had seen one, I almost began to believe I was the only one in existence, and that my life on Earth was a lie. Hearing the voice of someone else was like opening my eyes. I stared at the girl–Elisa–on the bed, and she frowned, and looked me bottom to top, before squinting as if she were confused about something. She shuffled around on the bed, I assume, getting comfortable.
“So, you’re the asshole who kidnapped this talking Raccoon?”
“Kidnapped?” Now it was MY turn to act confused. What had Claus told this girl? Whatever he told her, it certainly wasn’t anything shining Squiggles and me in a positive light. I took a deep breath in, then sighed.
“No, that alien in the other room, he’s Squiggles. He kidnapped me, and this guy,” I pointed at Claus, who flinched a little. “Belongs to the pirate group that shot this ship down while I was in stasis. Mind you, you were on the same ship, in a stasis pod, in the SAME room.” She opened her eyes in surprise, then fell back on her elbows.
“Oh…”
I looked to Claus, frowned, then turned to head out the room. Once I was in the doorway, I heard Elisa call out to me, with a hint of a tremor in her voice.
“….before you go… what’s your name?”
I turned, and stared at her, before grinning like a madman. I took a deep breath in, then began to psyche myself up. Don’t cry, don’t cry.
“…Daniels. Jack Daniels. Call me Jack.”
She took a second to process this, then beckoned me over with one hand. I walked over to her bed, passing Claus, who was giving the wall a thousand yard stare, and looked down at her on the bed. I guess I should describe what she looks like now. She was atleast a foot shorter than me, around, 5’2 (I’m 6’5). She was blonde, with emerald colored eyes. Kind of frail, as if she barely ever ate much. My guess, she was probably homeless, judging from the clothes (she likely wouldn’t have taken any but her own. I took mine, and that was just blue jeans, a grey MIT T-shirt, socks, underwear and sneakers.
She looked at me cautiously, then spoke again, still sounding a little fearful. “C-could you let me out of here?”
I stared down at her, then raised an eyebrow. “You’re not gonna shank me, right?”
She nodded yes. I gave a kind of crooked half-grin, then put my hand on the side of the bed. “If I do, can you watch over Claus?”
She looked confused. “Who–“
“The Raccoon. His name was too long, so I’ve decided to just call him Claus.” She nodded again at this, so I pressed the button that Squiggles pressed to lock them in, and her forcefield disappeared. With that, I turned and left, heading down the hall to the bridge and plopping myself down on a table. Sometimes blind faith is the best kind.
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When I fell asleep, I was greeted with an unusual black void. It was cold, and totally void of any color. I glanced around, noticing I could see my own body, perfectly illuminated, floating in absolute nothingness. The Abyss. Then, as if on queue, something bright and glowing appeared before me. A two dimensional square, like a hologram. On it, were words. It read “Translator Unit – Transmitter and Reciever Activated.” Below it, were a bunch of random items, like a list, with green bars that, I guess signalled a connection.
One caught my eye, and that was “Medical Syndicate – Cargo Research 04 – Communication Tower 4 (Online)”. I reached over toward the selection and pressed it, as if it were a touch based screen. Imagine in a sci-fi movie when the protagonist is standing infront of a bunch of interactable holograms. Just like that! Here I am, looking at holograms in dreamland and, back on Earth, touching a screen to select things doesn’t exist yet. The hologram paused, and then, a loading screen. Suddenly, another hologram box opened. “Connection Success! Searching for other connections!” There was a pause. Then, one came up, and only one. “Icepick Bridge”. So, being curious, I pressed that. Then, another pause and loading screen. Another hologram popped up.
It was like staring into a security camera. On the other side were aliens, bustling about with their lives on the bridge of a ship. I could see one alien in particular, right in front of the camera, who was staring at a command console. I watched it for a good long moment. It had orange, rough skin, no hair, and…. I think, five legs? It just worked away at the little console. Finally, another hologram shot into view. “Translator Detected. Connect?” Then, a yes, and a no. Being me, the one with the knack for exploration, I clicked yes, and another box came up. Three options. “Voice”, “Remote”, “Terminate”, and “Disconnect”. I started with “Voice”, tapping the little bit of the hologram. Then, dream me spoke.
“H-hello?”
The alien jolted in surprise, and looked around, as if someone had just called out to him. There was no way… I just had to test it. “C-can you hear me?” The alien was now swivelling around the room, trying to find who was talking. “Hello?”
“Who-who’s calling me?” He looked at the other aliens in the bridge, and the all looked at him.
“Nobody’s talking to you, Captain Jehnaglen.” With that, the alien let out a relieved sigh and sat back down at the console, returning to his work.
“No, I am.” I said. The alien nearly jumped out of his skin, and turned around. He looked, I guess, pissed.
“Okay, who’s doing that? Who’s talking right in my audio receptor?” I snickered, and then looked back at the hologram list. Three other options I haven’t tried. I selected Remote, and suddenly, there was a blinding flash as I felt my whole body tremor. What made this so odd is that this was a dream, right?
I opened my eyes. Woah. I was on the bridge of a ship… Definitely not dreaming. I was absolutely wide awake. In a moment of panic, I glanced down, and saw that I had rough, orange skin, and six legs. With that, I had no other choice but to scream in absolute terror because… I’m an alien!
The rest of the aliens on the bridge turned and looked at me, confused. I looked at them, then, spoke. “I’m-I’m fine, sorry.” The voice, actually, wasn’t mine. Was I mind controlling some poor alien? Probably. Then, I remembered what Squiggles said earlier. Something about my Translator being a weapon. Is this what he meant? I stumbled, not used to having six legs, toward the door to the hall. It felt so weird, as if my brain refused the sensory input from this body because it didn’t know how to process it, like when you sit on your hand for half an hour or rest your head on your arm during a movie.
“Where are you going?” Called out an alien next to me. I turned, looked them over, then began to apologize, motioning with my arms wildly.
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t–sorry.” I turned around and returned to the console, sitting down, internally freaking out. I used my… appendages to access the console, and found that this alien here was looking at an orbital view of the forests of Apollyon. I noticed some familiar patterns in the treeline, and, using the hologram console, panned over to a clearing with a crashed ship. The console chimed out. “Unrecognized Structure Detected – Cataloguing.” I desperately tried to get it to stop, pressing all the buttons on the hologram, but it was too late. Suddenly, four of the aliens next to me turned and looked at me.
“Jehnaglen, you found them? That’s–woah! We need to mount an infiltration immediately! Let’s punish those devolved idiots!” Uh oh. Oh no. I don’t like this dream. Back out, back out! Pause! Go back! Eject tape!
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Then, like that, I woke up. With a sigh of relief, I sat up and patted Ashes on the back. He was sleeping peacefully next to me. Good cat. I headed to the door, down the hall, and outside. It was morning, bright and early. I needed some fresh air. What an odd dream….!
That’s when I noticed the GIGANTIC mothership just below the clouds.
Shit.