#aliensehumans

Like clockwork, each half hour of his waking time, Nik came to check on me. I wasn’t sure if it was due to trust issues or just to make sure I wasn’t dead yet. Except when I was asleep: then, he came every hour. Of course, had I been sleeping I wouldn’t have known, but apparently they weren’t the only ones that had trust issues and each time the door opened so did my eyes, only it was too dark for him to tell either I was actually asleep or not.

Thought his instructions were clear to keep me as uninformed as possible until after we had left Earth, how deductive I was impressed him a lot. For instance, it seemed that Zenks were horrible at keeping their emotions off their faces. It was pretty simple: the more obvious they were the emotion was strong. It was even easier that their facial and physical expressions were very similar to humans. The very creepy part was that they most of the time didn’t seem to have an emotion at all. Nik said it was their way to explain satisfaction. Other than that, I was the one creating the most emotion waves there were. For instance when I made a scene against their nutrition system and how I was having horrible sleep on their hard mats. Everyone present or passing by was shocked and/or terrified by me. Clearly, they weren’t as close to humans as they claimed: rare were the humans that would tolerate they gray tasteless goo or drink water with so much chlorine in it and that was when you didn’t count a so uncomfortable mat. They were more ordered than we were, more disciplined. It had its advantages, of course. But where was all the fun, the thrill, the challenge? If there was such a thing as outcasts Zenks, that’s where I end up for sure unless they accepted my cultural differences. Which consisted in most of who I was considering the distance between us in the universe until a few days ago and the lack of contact even now.

But I had to admit their emettor thingy in the ear was kind of cool. I for myself could only use it for two things: translation and giving information about the human species. Luckily for me, I was one of a kind in getting what I wanted and I had convinced their artificial intelligence of letting have a “notepad”. The principle was very simple: it used the impulses of my brain to communicate with me, talked in my ear and there was even an hologram/screen sort of projector that went before my right eye to give me other kind of information, maps, etc.

03h66.

I took a deep breath. Then another. Where was he? It was three hours since the sun had risen – that’s how they calculated the time in their 28 hours long days – meaning he had been up since at least two. Still, not one visit yet.

After a bit more procrastination, I painfully got up. If I opened the door, all my sweet heat would be done for. Thought we didn’t keep our temperatures at so different levels – me 23°, while they kept the whole ship around 17° – I was not mentally ready to walk barefoot on the frozen floor just yet. I opened the blind of my room, excepting too bright light, but it was blue and adjusted to my level of “normal”. I didn’t even have time to formulate a question in my head that the answer came to me: these lights were the equivalent to red light lighting up halfway through the ship. Emergency lights.

Though having all the knowledge right away was practical, it also made me absolutely awkward to have no privacy of thought. Yet, it was practical to know exactly what I had dreamed about. For instance, this time I was the Swan Lake Princess, at some details close. But that wasn’t the point.

“What is going on?” I couldn’t but wonder aloud.

You are not cleared for these informations.

They had quite the trust issues these aliens.

“If it were a mechanical break, failure or whatsoever, would you tell me?” There was a moment of silence before once again I had an answer:

Yes.

Then as exciting as this sounded, the only alternative I could see was space pirates?

“Are deliberately ignoring me or did you take me up on waiting for me to ask direct questions?” I asked, facing more silence.

Second choice.

“Nice. But direct silent questions count. So if it’s nothing mechanical, yet nothing worth of my knowledge, does it mean something happened to –”

I didn’t even notice I stopped talking at the second I saw them it seemed just natural. This time, I was very grateful that the AI gave me all the information. It had to be her, otherwise how I would have I known that these creatures had an unpronounceable name and that I might as well call them goblins, which with their small height, green skin and unappealing features seemed totally fit, that was if you didn’t count their bad attitude and horrible reputation. Apparently, they had a terrible sight, meaning they probably wouldn’t see me with so few light giving in my room. Only, they didn’t need to see me to know I was there: they relied on smell. Especially fear, whatever that smelled like, and as courageous as I tried to be the way they stopped to stare at me through the window made me realize I was probably wreaking of fear. I had to think of something, fast.

I try not to, but I updated this post. It's at the "°°°" if I'm correct. Enjoy :)

I tried to calm myself, in vain. As good as I was in a controlled environment, I was very absolutely terrible with unexpected events.

Informations about the species trying to break into my room were flooding through me, which didn’t help me at all concentrate.

They hate the light and the cold, due to their habit of living deep in caves close to the center of their planet. Instead of seeing their way through stuff, they smell and feel their way through stuff. And their skin is super sensible, though that doesn’t help me much except that it explains the crazy armors.

“You wouldn’t by any chance at all know there are how many of them?” I was able to choke out as I backed away from the door. It would break down any second.

I can make out a dozen of them, and two people that seem of your species, but considerably different.

Boys?

/Yes, that seems a logical explanation./

What the hell were they helping them for? The answer came to me naturally: Goblins tended to kidnap other species’ children when they were just or barely known at all to exploit them in their mischief. Those poor boys probably knew nothing of home.

“Any chance they’re speaking something else than Goblinish? Or anything not a alien at all?”

As she looked through live feed of the security cameras – because apparently it was one of the rare few things she had access to, nothing recorded, no database update or emergency whatsoever – whatever language they were using was only barely familiar to me. Like some distant memory I couldn’t catch. And then it stroke me: that was German.

°°°

When they finally broke down the door, I had the perfect plan: improvise to success or death. The AI said odds weren't in my favors, which was good news! If there were odds, it meant I wasn't dead yet. Perhaps I could live up to all the Humans are Weird stuff I had seen on Tumblr? How I missed being just there, in my room, on Earth, scrolling only better and better ideas and scenarios about the whole gag. Only, for me, it wasn't a gag anymore: it was real life.

There was one thing I had forgotten to ask: could the AI translate their language?

I had the answer right as they spoke: no. And to be honest, it didn't even sound like a language at all -- and I knew like twenty of them without counting I was plus or less learning Zenk. But somehow I knew exactly what they wanted: explanations.

At least, the AI could roughly translate my language to Zenk, which had a chance to be translated by what seemed to be some sort of older versions of the translators Zenks had.

Basically, I was able to shuffle out something that meant that Zenks wanted a specimen of my species before we destructed ourselves which they said was for the next few years but didn't trust or understand me enough yet to let me out of this hell hole. Which was mostly true: they wanted me as a specimen and barely understood or trusted me at all. And human race was, in my humble opinion, closing up on another round at killing each other. Maybe this time would be the one where we actually succeed at eradicating ourselves? Luckily, they seemed to buy it. I had probably more chance at getting to the humans if I sounded bitter about the Zenks and believed at some point of my planet's destruction. Humans, I knew how to manipulate. Boys as girls, though techniques varied a lot, were no match for me. The only one that ever lived couldn't possibily be one of the two boys I was about to manipulate without pity. I had to if I wanted to live.

The AI was almost convinced it could do the simple tasks I was requiring of it on my command.

After a minute of awkward chit-chat they decided to bring me to the humans, though I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. The only thing that was sure was that it was part of the plan.

Little bits of nothing, I know, but I find school is way harder to handle than I thought x) I’ll be back in not too much time!

I usually did not feel so terrible in new beds. What was wrong with this one? I had expected being lost a bit when I woke up, but not feeling so crappy due to such a terrible bed. And where the hell was I?

The room was dark. At least, darker than the corridor: did they have the sun in their goddamn corridor or what? I painfully got up and went to look by the window. If the room was some sort of sunny yellow, the corridor was a flat gray, pale. One deep breath. Another. What was this place? I must have been on meds because the two silhouettes coming looked very odd. Was that a second pair of arms?

That excluded the silhouettes looked rather normal. But as they came closer, and became only more and more clear, I realized it couldn’t be meds, because no hallucination could look so clear. It’s like there was a new continent and these were the humans we weren’t used to seeing, similar, but different. A new set of traits, and an extra pair of arms. I backed off from the window hoping they wouldn’t notice me: really I couldn’t imagine my heart surviving such an encounter. They stopped right before my door and talked a bit of a language I could not understand. I couldn’t even hear all the sounds they were making. They opened the door, which let more light in still, but they hadn’t seemed to notice me yet, standing closer and closer to my bed. Panic took me over when I saw one of the hands – the lower ones – go for the interruptor and I really wished I had hidden under the bed but it was too late to try and hide now.

Thinking back on this day, I would have loved seeing their faces when they saw me standing there, but the light was way too birght and my first reflex was to hide my eyes. Looking slightly to the cracks, but barely, I could see a universal look of horror on both the faces of the things in front of me, mouths wide opened but not a sound was made. Somehow, their horrification gave me courage. I took the pillow, the only thing that could serve of weapon in this dull room, and was ready for explanations.

I can say right away my posts are never going to be the same lenght, but I can also promise I'll do my best so that the smaller are the posts the more often I'll post! I hope you enjoy and forgive ~

Amenda was very beautiful, in her exotic way. Even though her skin wasn’t as tanned as when she first arrived, you could tell. Plus she had quite the accent that she didn’t seem able to lose even after all these years spent in Canada. After living here and there around the country, she finally settled for Toronto, and while she was used to getting used to new environments, moving in with her terrified me at least as much as I was excited. Of course, she would help me adapt. At first. Because while she is very patient with Tommy, her little brother, I doubt she will ever be so patient with me.

“Tu m'écoutes?” (You’re listening?) she asked me in French with that tenacious latino accent of hers.

“Ouais, scuse, tu disais?” (Yeah, sorry, you were saying?) I replied on edge, as if she has attacked me. Of course, to anyone who didn’t know her, it sounded like it, but she was just exasperated: we were both from me moving in.

She rolled her eyes but didn’t mention that I didn’t even try to sound credible: she knew how absent minded I was. “C'est quoi ça?” (What’s this?) Amenda demanded, holding some sort of pendant in the air.

“Montre moi.” (Show me.) I had never seen anything like it before, but it seems like Amenda had gotten it from one of my boxes. “C'est peut-être à Maman?” (Maybe it’s Mom’s?) I looked at it only a bit longer before moving on: there seemed to be no words or way to describe it. Abstract art, perhaps?

***

Far, far away in a foreign ship, a light that had never opened before started blinking on the command dashboard. The Apprentice Commander called out for the actual Commander.

“What is it, Apprentice Nikdosz?” (I will eventually try to make an alien language, until then it’s Zenk) the commander asked as he entered.

“This light, Captain. I don’t recall you telling me what it meant, yet you did not say it was not important.” (Zenk)

Apprentice Commander Nikdosz felt a rush of uncertainty. The captain looked very tired, his eyes seeming unabled to focus while he seemed to be trying very hard. Plus, he didn’t seem to have his habitual aura that imposed respect wherever he went. Perhaps it had not been a good idea to call him. Now he risked his whole carrier over a stupid light.

“You did well calling me,” (Zenk) the captain said after a moment of staring.

“Captain, if you don’t mind me asking, what does it mean?”

Again, the captain stared a while more before answering: “It means we finally found him. We’re changing direction, young Nikdosz. This will be a good training for you.”

The apprentice executed the captain’s orders without one more question. He changed direction to the new destination the commander put on the map as he very attentively took note of what the captain did. But the aporentice couldn’t help but wonder if by “he” the captain meant the one time one of their own was lost, disappeared, left not accounted for.

So, I thought it would be better to have a mise en contexte, which is basically an introduction, a way to put you guys in context a bit, so you’d understand better a or at least have a a theory on how our heroine will get on an alien ship! Also prefer having the translation or it just being written in English with with language it is? (When I can of course) Anyways, this is just so you know a few names and characteristics of the principal characters, give me a feedback it’ll make it easier for me to adjust :) I will also be taking suggestions here : @aliensehumans . I should be back shortly with another part!

I had a terrible headache, probably from dehydration. Of course, water wasn't missing on their ships, but I still couldn't bring myself to drink water with so much chlorine in it no matter what their crazy alien science told them. Yes, alien. Well, "Zenks", as they called themselves. Not what I would imagine as a species name, but what did I know? I didn't even know there was an actual thing as aliens, extra-terrestrial life, before they convinced me we were indeed in space going to their homeland. Apparently, I was one of them. Did I look like an alien with an extra pair of arms? No, I very much did not. I was sequestrated to my room, now, of course, because once I proved I was very much human, the whole crew ended up panicking and were unable to work under the pressure of me being anywhere near them. There was only one of them that kept visiting me now and then. It was the Apprentice Commander, if I understood well.

"Niky, hey," I said, without taking the pillow from the upper half of my face.

"I already told you that's not my name --"

"It's not like I had any ease pronouncing your name," I interrupted, having a little more difficulty with "pronuncing", "plus, nicknames means we're good."

There was a moment of silence, where he was probably trying to make sure he'd remember that information.

"How did you know it was me, anyway?" he asked, seemingly amazed.

"You're the only one I've seen since my big coming out," I said. "I doubt that'll change anytime soon."

"I hum, I come bearing news," he said after a while of awkward silence. I couldn't help but think he had picked up impressively quick on English as it didn't seem to resemble at all his native language, but it was probably also because of that translation device thing he had. Apparently, they had raised the medias, which permitted them to update their translators alot and also gave them a base of our culture and stuff like that.

"News?" I repeated. What kind of news were worth telling me?

"Hum, well, can you please take off the pillow from your face, first? I promise I do not have four arms."

That was something else: either there were only some of them who had four arms or they could like retract them or something, because since the first night I had not seen one alien with two pairs of arms.

"I don't care the number of arms you have, but your light is giving me a bigger headache than the chlorine in your water. Please don't make me go blind before I die of dehydration."

"But this is normal light!" he argued.

"I gave you my conditions." And hopefully, he would agree: it was kind of alot now always covering my face due to too much light. I didn't even think it was possible up until now.

"Fine, the light is lower," he conceded after a while. I took the pillow from my eyes. Finally! Some normal light. "Why do you want so much the light to be halfway through?"

"How close from your sun are you?" I said rethoratically. "This is how much light I get from my sun on very sunny days."

He made an "oh" face. Luckily for me, these aliens were very expressive in their faces, which seemed to be equivalent to human expressions, thought except from Nik. Nik probably was the weird kid aboard this ship.

"Yeah," I agreed before he could explain his face. "I'm guessing I'm not as lucky to have some chlorine free water, eh?"

"Water isn't good for your --"

"No, water is perfectly fine by me without chlorine Honey," I interrupted him again.

"About that," he said, trailing off and not picking up. That seemed pretty unusual from the few I had seen and what Nik had told me reluctantly. It seemed the more I knew the more troublesome it would be.

"What?" I asked, a bit annoyed by the sudden change of attitude. "I thought it was impolite not to be crystal clear?"

"Yes, you're right, I'm very sorry. It's just -- I find there is no good way to tell you this."

"Tell me what? You know the more you wait the worse it'll be --" I started arguing to convince him to spit it out.

"Yourejusthalfhuman," he spat all at once. I wasn't even sure that was English.

"Was that even English?"

Yes, clearly, barely eating of their horrible grey goo and not drinking at all of their pure chlorine juice definitely did not aid my mood.

"You're... Well not as human as you thought."

"...I can I not be not be as human as I thought I was?" I asked, more troubled at this point. This made no sense?? Or was it just me?? Probably just me considering there was just us both in the room, which wasn't to please me.

"You're human, yes, that was correct for you to fight for. But the fact that you activated the beacon brought up a lot of questions so we checked with your DNA --"

"That's illegal without my approval," I pointlessly tried to cut off.

"-- and you're half Zenk. Probably that your father is, well, the one that got away, if you want."

I stayed silent. I almost broke down laughing facing Nik's dismay: he seemed to have no filter at all so staring at my cold face must've been troubling for him. But if I started laughing, nervosity would keep me going until I cried into a nervous breakdown I wouldn't survive.

"Sure," I was able to choke out. "Doesn't tell me either you have water free chlorine? I could really use some."

"That's all you have to say!?" he claimed in apparent horrification. If only he knew.

Hey a bit longer this time! I hope you guys enjoy still :) And well if any of you have any ideas for a pirate alien golbin like species, I'd really love that?? Until next time ;)

So I was thinking on rewriting it on Wattpad later, when I'd be a bit more advanced and have a bit more time. I'll tell you if I do or if I drop the project, but nothing's sure for now :)

It had been a little more than a year since I had first been taken aboard the Zenks’ ships. A lot of things had changed. I had. While I remained very much human, I was a lot more like them now then before, more than anyone else could. Without human vitamins to keep me, well, human, I had been through a few changes. What were the odds that stopping to take the human vitamins would reveal a second pair of arms? I don’t know which one of us was more surprised when it occured for the first time, in the middle of a battle: me or my instructors? It figured Zenks weren’t as good as humans to keep their emotions for themselves, but were excellent at finding the cracks in a poker face. It was only better that I was good enough in the middle of a battle at keeping my surprise for myself and looking assured, as if I planned it all along, that they didn’t realize I had no idea what I was doing until the fight was over. That was the major difference. Or at least, I recurrently had that dream, which weirded me out absolutely. When I talked about with Nik – of the possibility of growing another pair of arms – he said that perhaps it was an echo from my Zenk genes coming back up, but that it was unlikely that I would, considering how much human I was and that it would most likely be lethal if I did at this point.

The advantage since we had left Earth was simple: we had gotten to take some food from Earth for the journey, and apparently Zenks had similar fruits on their planet, which were simply delicious. Luckily for me, I didn’t consider “salty” all that delicious most of the time, because while before I could have some difficulties digesting it now it was assured that I wouldn’t, or barely, compared to average human being.

“Ah, there you are!” That was Nik. He had gotten so fluent in English he didn’t need the translator anymore, which sadly wasn’t my case. I was quite good with their language – apparently it was the most spread language in the galaxies – but at the second they talked a bit faster I was utterly lost. Especially since usually it meant passions, which had them fall to their native Zenk language, which I had learned nothing about.

“Yes, here I am,” I sighted. I had discovered this hidden window when there was machinery doing who knows what in this ship three days ago and I had adopted it as my new hiding spot until I was found. “What is it?”

Nik frowned, which was kind of weird. He had grown so… Human, since I first met him. He then took the stereotype position of a thinking human – a hand on a beard that would never grow, the three other hands on his hips, well one his ribs, but still. It was a funny sight everytime.

“Why do you always hide somewhere?” he asked. Very much more human, certainly, but not a human. Nobody on this goddamn ship was. Yet. They had chosen a larger ship so that we stock much more food and do larger expedition, but also stock much more people. I still hasn’t figured out how we were supposed not to get caught by our satellites with something so big. But then I thought they were flawless until last year when we passed without effort to do an emergency landing on Earth. On Earth, because I had gotten nastily stabbed during doing politics. There were two human boys onboard of the ship that accompanied the pirates a year ago. The Pirates had bought my story, when I spoke in a broken and probably terrible mistranslated “Commonish”, which was how I now called the general alien language, the international one: it was pretty common to all aliens, ish.

But the pirates had not appreciated their little boys’ reactions to my speaking in German, especially since they had basically no idea what were talking about. I could tell by looking at them boys that they were siblings, and that I only needed to win the younger’s heart to have them both onboard. Charles was now sixteen years old. He had stayed onboard on our stop to an Earth hospital, where Ethan, his older brother, had accompanied me. We had crossed roads with one of my exes, Jonathan, when we got out of the hospital. Since we had to leave one of the boys on Earth, for the ratios to arrive without loosing control over them, making sure of their trustworthiness. Or to know how much they weren’t to trust. Leaving the older brother was a much wiser choice.

But now, we were back for him. And a handful of humans that would gladly come along – of my picking – such as food recommended, et cetera.

In the Zenk Community, no one breaks the rules. Never. There's no point, so everything is impeccable always.

In the Zenk Community, it is punishable by the law to display any sort of affection at work. The most that is seen, between certified lovers and close family members, is holding hands for a moment with another, in a subtle manner.

Obviously, Zenks have a different need for luminosity than. Indeed, a normal light for a human equals very few light for the Zenks.

Zenks have four arms, the second pair, right under their ribs, can retract without trace, thought they usually do it only for political needs. For that, they are generally proportionally taller and larger than average humans so their second pair of arms fits under said ribs, at least partly.

Water has for Zenks nocive proprieties which theydull out with chlorine that is very good for them, their growth, immunity system, etc.

I felt like explaining my random differences I put with what average American human being has to deal with, because I personally would like to know little details and since I'm not sure I'll add them up later explicitly in the story I thought I'd make it clear right away! Also, if you do want to be updated about all I post about this project I'll reblog it all at @aliensehumans which is a topic exclusively for this now so you don't have to see the rest of my random shit :)