Lt’dekttchetch glowered down at the bored-looking Corti. “And what exactly can I do for you?”
The Corti sighed, tracing the veins running across its distended forehead with a finger, a typical gesture of frustration or boredom among its species. “The same thing that the last three people I talked to could have done for me. There’s a failed experiment in this box that I want to get rid of, and the Rrrrtktktkp’ch in this backwater corner of space offer a significant stipend for locating sentient children with no caretakers, and getting them into the care system. Technically, it’s sentient, and a child, so I’m here to drop it off and get at least a little return on my investment.”
Lt’dekttchetch looked incredulously, and with more than a little concern at the seamless silvery cube, its surface broken only by tiny pinprick air holes. “There’s a child in there? Why would you keep a mere kid locked up like that?” Concern was rapidly becoming the more important of the two emotions.
The Corti pushed harder on its forehead “are you deaf? Are you all deaf? Because that would explain how hard this is. If you don’t want it, PLEASE tell me so I can get off this mud-ball, and throw the thing out during ascent to orbit. Yes there’s a kid in there. It’s even implanted with a translator and long-term innoculator. I filled out the papers. Myself, mind you. That was degrading. Then I showed up… wherever this pitiful excuse for a orphanage is. That was worse. Take it or don’t, I don’t care anymore. Either way, I’m leaving in a minute.”
“We’ll take any child, but-”
“FANTASTIC! Bye, morons!”
The Corti stomped out. Lt’dekttchetch signaled her assistant to get him to stop, but the Corti was having none of it, and actually walked straight underneath him, and out the door, mumbling about bioweapons, and destroyed science expeditions, and “liking his spinal cord where it was” leaving them both in somewhat stunned silence. Frankly, she had never seen a Corti act like that. The egotism was all there, The immorality was out in full force. But he seemed excessively terse, and very desperate to get it off his hands. Was he afraid of what was in the box? Was it really a child in there?
Her assistant, a eager vzk’tk was the first to move. “What kind of creature would lock a child up like this!” he exclaimed, pacing anxiously around the container “Help me get it out”, he said, feeling around the box for any sort of a seam, or fissure.
For a moment, she hesitated. The box was small, probably not much more than two meters on each side. But still, short sentients could probably fit inside at least somewhat comfortably. But it was made from something very dense, that much she could easily tell by the way it barely shifted when her assistant pushed against it, even under the influence of the hover pallet, which was making a low whirring, as it struggled to support the weight. Thin traces of circuitry were visible on the surface. It reminded her of a picture she had once seen of a Corti vault, only with the penetration detection systems on the outside. Why would they keep a child in something like this? She was sure it wasn’t cheap, either. She pressed her head to the side of the box. From the inside, she heard a slight noise. Barely audible through the dense material, a pitched whine. It almost sounded like… crying.
That was all the proof she needed that there was something in there that needed her help. She joined her assistant in searching for some sort of control panel. Within moments, they had found it. Pressing it, a wall of the container separated off, hovering on internal anti-gravity generators for moments, before falling, with little fanfare, to the ground, with a terrific crash. Lt’dekttchetch winced, as her suspicions about the weight of the material were confirmed as it put a deep dent into the floor of her office, and sent a chair flying, when its edge clipped it. They both peeked into the box. What greeted them was a pathetic sight.
The inside of the cage was a mess. A small bowl for water, and another that had clearly once been filled by nutrient balls before they had been scattered about, where they sat, dissolving slightly from the water splattered around the cage. There were several vague shapes thrown about. Perhaps some attempt at toys, if it weren’t for the fact that they were made out of some dense metal.
A small creature, a quadriform, huddled in the furthest corner from them. It was totally hairless, except for a large tuft of long, greasy strands on top of its head. Its limbs were slim, and its skin was a deathly pale. Rags of fabric hung to its body. Its face was streaked with grime, and its eyes and nostrils were red and swollen, and watered pitifully. Its glance burned bright with fear, and a spark of defiance. Lt’dekttchetch ducked down, trying to seem as unimposing as possible, but still towered over the little creature. She reached out with one of the more delicate of her two sets of arms. “Hello, little one. Can you understand me?”
As she reached out, the fear in the creature’s eyes turned to terror. It turned away, shielding its face with its arms, and its legs kicked furiously, as if it was trying to push itself through the back wall of the cage. Lt’dekttchetch took a breath. What had the Corti done to this innocent being to make it act like this? She backed up slightly, and dipped her head down, lying uncomfortably flat on the floor. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe now.” she said, keeping her voice low and calm.
The child hazarded a one-eyed glance at her. “You promise?” it managed.
” I do”
It surged towards her with blinding speed. In surprise, Lt’dekttchetch jerked her head upwards, trying to avoid the blur that the child had become. It was hopeless. She managed to get her head clear, but the child slammed into her breast with enough force to make her stumble. Arms locked around her neck, and squeezed with painful force. In surprise, she instinctively tried to rear for a kick. She couldn’t get off the ground. A urge to panic blossomed in her chest, as she realized that her tiny attacker was much heavier than she appeared. It took her a moment before she realized that the pitched whine had returned. She looked down, only to see the creature shivering from the deep sobs wracking through it, mumbling into Lt’dekttchetch’s breast, not a single word understandable, but all of them, no doubt trying to explain the horrible ordeal she had been through. She stroked the long strands of fur that cascaded down the child’s back, trying to return the vise-like hug with her strong manipulator arms. “Shhh….” she crooned, as deep sobs and the occasional gasp for breath filled the room.”Shh… it’s okay now. Shhh….”
The child, who Lt’dekttchetch now knew was named Alice, sat on the edge of the crate, one leg dangling off the side, the other curled to her chest, bent inwards at a seemingly impossible angle, her arms hugging it to her chest. It made Lt’dekttchetch wince just looking at it. Bending a limb like that didn’t seem like it should be possible without breaking at least three important bones, but Alice sat there, like it was the most natural thing in the world. But Lt’dekttchetch had other things to worry about. Despite the heartfelt moment they had shared, when Lt’dekttchetch had introduced her to Tk’kt, a male teacher, who often took responsibility for sports and exercise for the children, she had begun to act nervous again, following Tk’kt out of the office with obvious reluctance. Moments later, while Lt’dekttchetch was trying to figure out how to pair the hoverpallet for Alice’s box to her tablet so she could get it out of her office, Alice had come hurtling back in, at a quite impressive speed, literally bouncing off a wall with a smack, before diving back into her box.
While Lt’dekttchetch was still trying to find out if Alice was hurt by the impact (not in the slightest, miraculously), Tk’kt had shown up, gasping for air. It was time for midday class, and Tk’kt had decided to introduce Alice to the other children right away. Tk’kt had put her up in front of the class, and asked her to introduce herself, like any new arrival. She had stood there, frozen in abject terror for a few moments, before running the entire way from the classroom to the office. “If we ever… start a running… team. We’re putting her… on it” he panted.
“What’s wrong, Alice?” Lt’dekttchetch asked.
“Everybody was staring at me, and they were all bigger, and everybody started talking at once, and nobody looked human at all, and I didn’t know what to do!”
“Well, surely you’ve met at least a few people who aren’t, –human, was it?– before. I know that some of them might look strange at first, but they’re all really nice.”
“No, I haven’t! I was walking home from school, and that alien abducted me, then he poked me, and hurt me, and made me do things for him, and hurt things for him, and the only time he didn’t is when he locked me in the box. I tried to get away once, I really did, but when I got to a window, the only thing outside was stars, then he sent big bug things after me, and they caught me, and threw me in the box again for a long time!” Alice finally took a breath. “I’m scared, and I want to go home. I don’t want to stay at this place. I want to go home.”
So Alice was from a pre-spacefairing race. That made sense. It explained why the Corti was willing to abduct her, torture her somehow, then drop her at a orphanage. If they tried to pull that with any known sentient, not even they could worm their way out of the ensuing fallout. Lt’dekttchetch guessed that she couldn’t very well just look her planet up, and take her straight back, then. She sighed, and dipped her head closer to Alice’s level. “Alice, I’m going to try to find out where you live, so you can go home, but it might take a while, okay?” Alice’s brightened. “Oh, My dad made me memorize where I live, in case I got lost! I live at 8321 Keynes Street, in Sunnyvale, California! That’ll help, right?”
“Is California your planet?”
Alice scrunched up her face in apparent confusion “No, Earth is my planet. Why do you want to know that?”
Lt’dekttchetch sighed. A planet named ‘ground’, and the first thing out of her mouth is a local address. Definitely a pre-spacefairing race. She decided not to sugar coat it. “I think it might take me a while to find where you live”
“oh.” Alice managed.
“But don’t worry. We’ll find it, and you’ll be able to go back. I might ask to see you and ask more questions about your home, so that I know what to look for. You can stay here with us as long as you want. And if there’s anything we can do to make you more comfortable, please, just ask.” “Well, uh, there’s one thing. I feel really weird walking around. Like I’m floating. I think I’d be able to jump super high, but I keep feeling like I’m going to fall over. Can you fix that?”
So Alice was from a high-gravity world. That would help in the search for her home. High-gravity worlds were more common than low-gravity ones, but most of the ones that might have any life at all were deathworlds. There just weren’t many places where sentient life could take root on massive planets. “Sure. Follow me, and we’ll get you a weighted vest. That’ll help.” Lt’dekttchetch said, guiding her towards the orphanage’s machine shop, as Tk’kt taged along.
The orphanage was equipped to make clothes, furniture, and actually, a great deal of the supplies required, thanks to a small machine shop, which was mostly just the room that housed a industrial-grade fabricator. They were lucky to get it. It had been provided to them for free as part of a short-lived government program, which had met a prompt end when it was realized that the machines were often worth more than all the other assets of the recipient organizations put together. The thing could make almost anything: it had a AI smart enough that she had to do little more than tell it what she wanted, and it would design something to fit. It even had a built-in scanning system. “Okay, Alice. This machine will make you a nice, snug vest. You just have to stand on that platform, and follow the instructions.”
The machine clearly made Alice nervous, and she followed the path of the scanning arm with a wary gaze, but everything went well enough. The machine asked her to push on various parts in various positions to get a fix on her strength, then asked her to clear the build area, and got to work. The first thing that Lt’dekttchetch noticed, was that the fabricator had switched to metallic cartridges. She was momentarily confused. Why would a weighted vest need something as dense as metal? If a weighted vest’s mass wasn’t spread out, it could cause pressure sores, or even actually cut the poor user. Generally the only material used in weighted vests were high-density plastics. By the time the machine finished, she was flabbergasted. It HAD spread out the weight of the vest, in that it had put equally ridiculous amounts of it on every part of the vest, which at this point, looked more like combat armor for some mercenary than any assistive device she had ever seen. It was a dull metallic grey, made of layers of woven metal fibers, thickening in places to solid plates, which were often covered with what the computer told her was actual impact ceramic, used instead of the “corrosion-resistant iron alloy” that the rest of the vest was made up of to provide “Warmth, as well as breathability”. Somehow. A strangely out of place pink zipper ran up the middle of the vest.
She blinked at the specifics. What had gone wrong to trigger such a malfunction? That “vest” was too heavy for her to even lift, much less a little thing like Alice. Would they have to throw out the machine? She tabbed through the data. Ah, there was the problem. The machine had miscalculated Alice’s strength, somehow. These numbers were way too large. She must have not properly followed the measuring instructions. Well that was a easy fix. They’d just have to find a way to get the “vest” off the build-plane without breaking anybody’s back in the- “Zzzzip!”
Lt’dekttchetch peeked around the console. Where Alice stood, wearing the vest, with a smile on her face. “Thanks! This feels way better! And it looks super cool!”
Lt’dekttchetch found herself at a momentary loss for words. When she returned to her senses, her first thought was to prevent Alice from taking another step, before the additional weight drove her spinal cord through her pelvis. Unfortunately, that moment of hesitation was all Alice needed to casually jump off the platform. The platform was a good half, or even three quarters Alice’s height off the ground. While a fall of that distance was long, few species would be at risk of anything more than little bit of knee pain from taking it. However, Alice was wearing a weighted vest. A vest that would have taken one or two strong Locayl, creatures easily three times her height, and somewhat known for their strength, to even lift.
It would not be unreasonable for this impact to shatter every bone in Alice’s legs on impact. It would not have been unreasonable for her bones to remain intact, but be driven up through her torso by the immense force. If she had the reflexes to bend her legs, and spread the impact, she might get away with a handful of compound fractures. But most surprising of all was what actually happened. Alice bounced. She jumped off the ledge, landing on her feet, and absorbing the titanic impact into her legs, storing it in muscles that did not tear despite the undoubtedly enormous strain, stretched across bones that were not snapped in half despite the stress, channeling it into the first of a series of excited hops. “What else can this machine make, huh? Do I have to go meet the class? Can’t I just stay here and learn about this?”
It took a moment for Lt’dekttchetch to realize that was directed at her. Her thoughts had wandered to the question of what exactly Alice was, and how good of a idea it was to allow a being that could casually walk around in weight sufficient to fold most other creatures in half loose in her orphanage, even if it did happen to act a whole lot like her other charges. With more than a little effort, she pushed those thoughts out of mind. Alice was a child. A scared child, light-years from home, clearly victim to some horrible Corti experiments. Probably something related to bioweapons or whatever the one that dropped her off had been mumbling about when it left. What sort of person could call themselves a caretaker of children, if they would turn away a child so in need of care as Alice?