#80-8

Brian had thought it would be super cool to bring an alien into his home, but now that he was getting to know his new roommate better, he was starting think he shouldn’t trust himself when he was high. But what was he supposed to do, the poor guy was lost in New York, suffocating from all the CO2 in the city. The alien’s respirator was broken and his sensitive lungs couldn’t handle the downtown factory district. At first the guy was pretty cool. He found out his name was 80-8 (pronounced eighty-eight) because his subspecies was born and raised to fight, and to die, in the military, so they weren’t named, just given numbers. He had three eyes and used to be part of an illegal ship racing ring, where he had lost his voice box in a crash, which is why he communicated through a text to speech app and sign language. Compared to Brian 80 was short, (though most people were short compared to Brian, who was almost 7 feet tall) coming up a little below his shoulder. The alien was almost white, which made a generally pale Brian look tanner. He wore only a military grade flight jumpsuit, almost like the ones on earth, but with a foreign language and symbols on the patches. Brian thought it was strange, but he really had no room to talk considering he wore the same hoodie and beanie everywhere and couldn’t remember the last time he had washed them (which 80 thought was absurd, at least he had multiple suits he wore and washed on a rotation).

Brian remembered trying to decipher 80-8’s frantic sign language through the early morning haze, which is why he thought he must of seen wrong when 80 told him that earth was about to be invaded. “Uh.. you sure about that one 80? There doesn't seem to be any invasion happening to me” he replied sarcastically, gesturing out the window. He watches as his friend rolls all three of his eyes and then runs to haphazardly throw some pairs of jeans and tee shirts into a small suitcase Brian had for emergencies. “Hey 80… 80-8, dude, what the fuck” he shouted, scrambling out of bed to stop 80 from digging through his stuff. As soon as Brian grabs 80s shoulder, he drops everything he’s holding and turns to dramatically sign at him “I’ll explain on the ship, pack your stuff” “you’ll explain on the what now!” he yells after his strange roommate, but he’s already halfway across the house. Brian rolls his eyes and decides he has no choice and finishes throwing some extra pants in his suitcase. He slides on his shoes and and grabs his hoodie and beanie, then walks out into the living room where he sees 80-8 pacing. He’s put on his helmet and seems to be waiting on Brian. As soon as 80 sees him he runs forward, grabs his arms, and drags him out onto the balcony of their small two bedroom apartment.

At first he had thought 80-8 had had another one of those nightmares he seemed to have from time to time. But as soon as they were on their balcony 80, still holding tightly onto Brian’s arm, pulled out a small device that looked almost like a remote. After a few button presses they were both teleported onto a ship, foreign to Brian but not the alien. It’s as Brian is throwing up from the new experience that he realizes, 80-8 isn’t making any of this up. He is dead serious. He’s looking up from his pile of regurgitated pizza when he sees them. They were big and menacing, hovering just above Earth. He turns to 80-8 only to see that his roommate is already facing him. “so,” he signs “I suppose you want some answers.”

Brian didn’t reply to 80-8 as he turned away and staggered towards the windshield, staring at the alien ships poised to attack the unknowing planet. He felt everything around him begin spinning and for some reason he couldn't breathe anymore. He’s becoming detached from everything, and the only thing he can focus on is the inevitable demise of everyone he’s ever know. “Hey,” he hears 80-8’s text to speech come from everywhere around him (he’d later find out that this was the ship’s intercom system, which 80 mostly used to communicate with) “your going into shock, you need to sit down.” And, even though the mechanical voice was incapable of portraying any type of emotion, he could still feel the sincerity and caring coming from 80-8 as he maneuvered Brian to a sitting position. “You need to breathe, it’ll be okay. Stay here and calm down, let me know when you’re calm, I still need to explain.” 80 keeps a supportive hand on Brian’s back for a couple of minutes before leaving his side to set a course, trying to figure out how to find who he was looking for.

Brian stays with his head in his hands for awhile, trying to forget what he saw, trying to convince himself he’s having a nightmare, but after sitting there for a bit he realizes that this isn’t going to go away. 80-8’s approaching footsteps pulls him out of his thoughts. His friend stands in front of him and then kneels down to eye level, which is something he doesn't do often, and signs slowly. “Are you okay?” He gives a weak nod in response. “Are you ready for me to explain everything?” Brian nods again, a little more sure of his answer this time. 80-8 nods and turns back to the command console to type into the text to speech app. “The way Earth’s atmosphere works, you barely send and receive transmissions out in space. Unless you calculate for the resistant atmosphere and send out stronger signals nothing will get out or in. It’s really hard to tell if signals aren’t being received especially with the equipment they probably have on that ship, so unless you know the atmosphere is interfering there’s no way of knowing if someone’s getting your message or not.” The mechanical voice pauses and 80 gestures to Brian, as if asking if he has any questions. “What does that have to do with anything?” Brian asks “I’ll get to that” 80 signs in response. “Okay...how does all that stuff with the ampnoshpere work” Brian asks. There's an awkward silence as 80 types in his response, then the computer spits out “fuck if I know, I’m not a scientist.” Brian nods, silently telling 80 to go back to his explanation.

“The Erugalathi, the race of aliens in that ship, have been sending messages out warning Earth of their plans to take over. They want to invade and rule earth, its part of a bet i think, and since Earth hasn't gotten any messages or responded they’re gonna move on with their plan. I know this because I’ve been building a device that can pick up theses messages outside the atmosphere, by intercepting them on the ship and then broadcasting them down to me.” 80-8 concludes. “So… So their not gonna kill us?” “not immediately.” Before Brian can respond 80-8 has turned around to the command center and is beginning to fire up the motors. “The Erugalathi are stupid but they aren’t too stupid. They won’t noticeably attack. Basically they’ll attack by infecting, adding more people to their forces on earth but not making it noticeable that they’re aliens. Then they’ll take over by climbing the ladder of authority somehow. Its pretty smart now that I think about it… Smarter than normal.” 80-8, who was previously in thought shrugs and begins typing stuff out again. “Whatever, we’ll figure it out later, right now we need to find some people to help us stop them.” Brian is about to say something, ask a question in fact, but before he can say anything the ship lurches forward, taking off towards an indistinguishable direction. Brian is slammed backwards into his chair by the force of the inertia, and this is where we find them now, heading off towards the planet of Hasneon.

80-8 turns to look at Brian passed out in the chair and sighs. ‘Just drag him into space ya, that’ll be good for his health’ he berates himself, as he stands up to pace around the ship. ‘He didn’t even know you had a ship, how did you forget to tell him you had a ship?’ It actually wasn’t that hard between learning the english language, then sign language, then getting settled in on earth. He honestly hadn’t had much time to expand on his life before coming to Earth. The story that he had crashed was really just a cover up, it wasn’t entirely false, but it also wasn’t the real reason he was on Earth. He could tell something fucky was happening, something that needed to be stopped. So he decided he needed to investigate, he blamed it on his need to do good. It was plesent meeting a human that actually believed in the existence of aliens, however he wasn’t sure if Brian was in his right mind when he had picked him up. He was thankful however, the months spent in Brian’s apartment were some of the best months he had lived. 80 shakes himself out of though and moves back to the command board of the ship, it would be a real shame if he got the two of them killed and screwed over earth, the planet they were trying to save.

The course was set, the engines dying down to a cruising speed, all that was left for 80 to do was sit back and wait for them to reach their destination. He leans back and props his feet up on the dash and puts his hands behind his head. Almost falling asleep before his companion jolts up and then promptly falls onto the floor. The alien snorts then reaches down to help his friend up. Brian thanks his friend, but isn’t able to say much more as the computer dings and then flashes a message alerting the passengers that the ship was low on gas. 80 pushes himself out of the chair and types something in on computer and the ship starts to head towards a nearby planet. 80 presses a button on the command console and a drawer pops out of nowhere. He reaches inside and pulls out what looks like the keyboard of a slider phone. He begins typing on it and a big blue translucent screen pops up behind him. Brian jumps back, not prepared for the screen to appear. “Jesus Eight, warn me next time” he clutches his heart. The word ‘Sorry’ appears on the screen. ‘I’m gonna use this to communicate to people, it translates to most languages, so get used to it popping up like that. On this planet we’re about to land on, I’m gonna let you out of the ship to kinda get used to being on different planets.’ “Sweet” ‘don’t talk to anyone, don’t leave from the side of the ship okay?’ “O.. okay?” ‘There’s a lot of dangerous people on this planet, there’s no telling what you could get into’ 80-8 puts the keyboard away and moves to land the ship. The door on the side of the ship slides open and he steps out.

He was not where he expected, he doesn't know exactly what he was expecting but it wasn’t this. The streets are filthy with trash and lined with people of many different species begging for money or looking for jobs. Many of the street lights dont work, causing a disturbing darkness, sending a chill down Brian’s back, forcing him to walk closer to the alien. The two of them walk around the side of the ship, 80 holds up a hand halting him. He sighs and leans up against the ship, trying to pretend he knew where he was even though he was losing his shit. I was a lot harder to walk here than on Earth, the gravity not as strong, and everything was just overall overwhelming. There were neon lights everywhere and there was a lot of sounds to take in. People yelling, ships landing, and music playing loudly from various bars and clubs. He continues looking around, trying not to stare at the crew of eight eyed aliens standing outside of a general store. “Hey kid” he hears in his ear, he whips around to his left and right, baffled when he doesn't see someone. He hears a cackle and then, what looks to be a human woman, appears in front of him. She’s incredibly short, with medium length brown hair, the front of it pulled back into a ponytail. She wears a maroon club jacket with navy blue sleeves that are covered in patches. But he mostly takes notice in her visor, it looks like what Snake Eyes from G. I. Joe wore (He never watched it, but thought the character designs were cool). “Uhm” he thinks back to 80-8’s instructions “Oh did that party pooper 80-8 tell wittwe baby not to tawk to stwangews” she says, making a pouty face. “I uh. How did you know” she grins big and circles around him, checking him out. He gets a glance at a big embroidered place on her jacket that reads Revenant Star Division with a white star on a black circle background.

She completes her circle and and takes a few steps back “the only human to have the sense to leave Earth before the incoming attack?” she asks with a smirk. The question sends the human reeling, he had been distracting himself from thinking about it and he wasn’t really ready think on it yet. “Oh, poor kid. You’re going to have to learn not to have personal attachments. Everything comes to an end at some point.” She starts taking steps towards him as she talks with an evil grin, as Brian begins sinking towards the ground. However, before she can finish her speech a hand reaches out and grabs her arm. She laughs and turns around to face 80-8. “80! My old racing buddy!” She holds her arms out for a hug “how ya been” Instead of taking the hug, he reels back and punches her in the face. She ducks to the ground and sweeps his feet out from under him, lunging forward to grab at his throat. “Oh c’mon 80 I thought we were over this.” She taunts. He flips them over pinning her to the ground. “Oh don’t say that” She says at him, which confuses Brian, as 80 clearly didn’t say anything. She throws 80-8 off of her and stumbles up off the ground, taking an offensive stance. 80 rolls from the throw and stands up taking a similar stance. The begin to circle, waiting for the other to drop their guard. A crowd begins to form around the two, many of them chanting ‘Sol’ which Brian assums is the woman’s name. Sol lunges forward and throws a punch to the left and, as 80 dodges, punches him hard in the gut. He’s winded for a moment before lunging forward and pushing Sol hard in the throat. Brian hears Her gurgle then sees her lean forward and spit blood out on the ground. She growls and lunges forward and grabs 80 in a headlock. He makes a guttural scream and flips Sol over his shoulder throwing her on the ground.

Her back cracks as she hits the ground and she lays there for a few seconds staring at the ground. “Well hello to you too, fuckface” She grunts out, but 80-8 is already headed towards Brian to make sure he’s okay. Sol pushes herself off the ground and stabilizes herself, she begins taking steps towards the pair. The three eyed alien whips around and glares at her. “Relax I’m not going to hurt your pet project” he glares at her harder. “Oh come off it Mav its called immersion therapy, your not gonna be able to fight dope space fights with him if he’s all crying about..” She balls her fists and brings them to her eyes, mimicking a crying baby. “Oh boo hoo my planet may be taken over.” A sick grin spreads across her face and she straightens her back with a loud crack. “I’m here to help!” 80-8 digs in his pocket and whips out the keyboard. “Oh you don’t need that thing with me sweetheart.” She reaches out to grab it as 80 whips it out of her grasp, still typing on it ‘if you want to help, you can join my crew to save the earth’ She takes a moment to read it then snorts “Do you understand how cliche that sounds? Besides, who care about humans anyway. They’re gonna get destroyed one day. If not by someone else then by themselves.” 80 glares at her. “I have a business to run buddy” She gets defensive. “Yea the business of killing and stealing.” A short four eyes alien slinks up beside her and opens a panel on the ship “Okay look here Barney, it’s good money. Besides I’ve taken out quite a few people who needed to be taken out.” “Have you taken out yourself?” “Okay, well now Barney..”  

A taller alien limps up to the girl and slings an arm around her. The taller alien is red, wearing a crop top and short shorts. They have a cape on and antenna that their eyes sat on. “Oo” they coo. “Whats this Sol, you got an employer?” “No he’s not willing to pay for my services” Sol bites towards 80-8. “Oh that’s fine” The red one smiles, “I’ve been trying to get rid of you for a while anyway.” Sol whips around “What!” She shrieks. “80, her contract is yours now, congratulations!” She shoves Sol towards 80-8, who catches her as she stumbles forward. Sol rights herself and lunges at her former employer “You bitch!” She lunges toward her, whipping out something that looks like a switchblade. Two beefy single eyed aliens step out holding large weapons. Sol stops in her tracks, not willing to fight this fight. The leader of the pack throws a sack and a large rifle down on the floor. “Sorry Sol, you just had too many attachments. You asked too many questions and were not willing to take any job” The alien shrugs and walks away. Sol spits where the other was standing and then bends down and picks up her stuff. “Don’t look at me like that.” She says before turning to actually look at 80’s shit eating grin. “I’m not joining your fucking crew I’m gonna go freelance or something.” ‘I hold your contract’ 80-8 teases. “I don’t have a contract” She shouts “I’m not going with you.” ‘C’mon Sol, we could be crewmates again!’ He teases some more, wrapping an arm around her. She begins to walk away. ‘Saving the Earth could make you a hero!’ 80-8 types. Even though Sol’s back is to him she stops as if she noticed the message. She turns to look at him, considering it. ‘Free food and shelter?’ 80-8 offers. ‘We really could use your skills’ “Wow 80 for a hot second there I thought you actually liked me, can’t allow that to happen.” ‘Join us’ he types out, not acknowledging her sarcasm. “Fine” says dramaticly, sighing and throwing her head back “I have to make a stop first.” 80 fake winces ‘can we go to Hasneon and pick someone up first? We’re already so close.’ Sol nods waving her hand in the air in a ‘whatever’ motion.

They all crawl back into the ship, 80 hits the auto pilot button, then leaves Brian in the room with Sol. He’s considering fleeing the awkward situation, but instead decides to make it worse. “Uuuh, do you mind if I ask, what is the Revenant Star Division?” “What’s it to you kid?” she glares at him. “I, uh, I don’t know? It’s on your jacket. It seemed cool? I’m sorry.” He rambles, trying to redeem himself. She sighs and pulls her jacket off, revealing a white shirt with the sleeves cut off. Brian can’t help but notice a large scar on her right shoulder, it seems as though she got scratched by a bear. She shows the back of the jacket to Brian. “The Revenant Star Division. My first crew ever. We were the best goddamn group of pirates around, how I got into smuggling. It’s also where I got my name. La Petit Soleil. Our commander was a huge asshole at the time, he was addicted to funk. Got us into a lot of trouble.” She turns the jacket back around and looks at the emblem embroidered onto it “It was fun while it lasted.” She shrugs and pulls it back on before going to claim one of the rooms on the ship. Brian moves towards the back of the ship to where the dining room is in hopes to find 80-8. He thinks for a moment that 80 isn’t there until he spots the alien spread out on one of the couches set to the side of the room. He walks over and nudges 80. “How are you dude?” he asks, concerned. ‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen her I forgot how insufferable she was’ he signs angrily. “How did you two know each other before?” Brian slumps down on the couch with 80. ‘We raced together, we never got along to well, but she was still a pretty good wingman. She can fly a ship pretty well. We crashed one day though, and you already know that story’ he stops and holds a hand over his throat for a moment. ‘We raced together for a little after that, but I guess she just can’t stay one place for too long.’ 80-8 shrugs and raises from the couch. ‘We should be there any moment now I should go check on the command center.’ he sings, then motions Brian to follow.