Chapter 26: Wake Up Call

  The next two days passed in a blur for Paulie. They were full of long talks with Jakiikii, time spent learning more about their respective cultures and watching strange alien shows while sitting with her on the large bean-bag cushion. In that time he grew closer to her, but he still had a hard time thinking of her as a girlfriend rather than just a good friend. Then she would draw him into another kiss and his world would change just a little bit more in her six-armed embrace.

  Sitting on the large bean-bag-like cushion in Jakiikii’s room, she was hugging his wide chest with two arms and resting her angular head in the nape of his neck as they listened to yet another strange alien show. The television-like device in front of them played some alien historical action movie about something called the battle of Gellor Prime. It was action packed and violent, a good fit for a lazy morning.

  Jakiikii’s secondary arms sought out his hand again and she took it in her own, her long alien fingers wrapping around his hand tenderly as she seemed to explore his digits with boundless fascination.

  He chuckled at her softly. “What is it this time?”

  She looked up at him without moving her head, one of those petal-like eye stalks turning to glance up into his face. Her color changing skin paled slightly as she breathed in, her back vents flaring slightly as they were a little blocked by her position lying against him. “I was.. just thinking about you.”

  He smiled at the termaxxi again, turning his gaze from the small alien TV that was sitting against the drab white wall. Raising a single eyebrow, Paulie asked her, “Oh yeah? In what manner?” He might have added a bit of a prying to the comment, but he decided that she would tell him if she wanted to. And no amount of him pressing her would get her to talk if she decided not to. Something he had discovered quickly after meeting her.

  Jakiikii pushed herself up with a snort, her husky voice emanating from deep in her chest cavity as she turned to him and spoke. Her face remained somewhat impassive as she looked at him. “Well, I was thinking about you.” She hesitated, “And me. And what the future might hold.”

  Paulie nodded, he had been thinking about it increasingly too. He had strong feelings for her, stronger in fact than any he had ever felt for another before that he could recall.

  She continued on, “Well. My kind are a solitary race, for the most part. But we do form strong bonds with those that we trust and see as kin. And I just wanted to tell you that.. well, I think that you are the most compatible person I have ever met.” She flushed pale white for a moment as she said it, but to him it didn’t really sound like an embarrassing admission. More like a generous compliment.

  So he smiled and thanked her, giving her a small hug. “Aww, thanks Jakiikii. That’s really nice, I think you are very compatible too.” She flushed an even paler shade of white that slowly darkened but didn’t fully change back to her normally mottled tone.

  He felt a tickling along the corners of his mind and gave her a half smile. “I can feel that you know.”

  She chirped. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I just... When you..” She flushed again and he frowned.

  What had he just said? Did her admission and his nonchalant response have a deeper significance than a simple gesture of mutual goodwill?

  He was about to ask when her commie buzzed at her, his own chirped insistently from his wrist only a moment later. Answering them, they were both met with two separate faces, she had the pink skinned features of Sergeant Aril while his screen showed the snake-feline features of Officer Sasfren, her expression petals opened wide and displaying a mottling of orange and green.

  Both began speaking at the same time, the onrush of words and implications causing both of them to jump to their feet. Looking at each other they simply nodded their heads and he rushed to go and put on his shoes as Jakiikii got more details out of Sergeant Aril.

  “He’s awake?!” Paulie panted out as he and Jakiikii sprinted down the long carpeted hall towards the stairwell, the low gravity making him take long, bounding strides.

  Sasfren nodded her triangular head on the small device’s screen, her pupiless eyes staring inexorably into his own. “Yes, he awoke in the night but fell back into unconsciousness soon after. But the doctor said it was a good sign and told us not to disturb him until he reawoke.”

  Paulie was overjoyed, Mack was awake! He and Jakiikii tore down the stairs even as he grilled the maggastium for more information. Sasfren kept shaking her head, her expression petals flashing purple and red as she kept telling him that she would say no more over the link and to get their tails there ASAP. That was just what Paulie was planning to do.

  The link severed as they burst into the main lobby, the officer standing watch at the bottom of the stairs shouting as they both screamed past him at mach speed. Several patrons of the building scattered like bowling pins as both Paulie and Jakiikii simply vaulted over their heads like professional gymnasts, the low gravity of the moon doing little to slow or hamper their movements.

  Another moment later and they were forced to skid to a stop, the two CenSec adjudicators stationed in front of the door having been warned of their impending arrival by the guard at the bottom of the stairs. The left one, one of those weird bee-like creatures that seemed to be covered in green spaghetti, raised several thin, carapace-covered arms in the universal signal to stop.

  “Oi! Halt I say!” It buzzed at them, the plates of its face grinding together like the legs of a cricket as it spoke with the vibrations produced. “You are not permitted to leave this facility!”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The other officer held a traumawand at a low ready, the sillio’an shifting uneasily on its tentacle legs as its strange face grimaced revealing blunt teeth. Its large, colorful frill flapping partially open in some manner of threatening display. Its numerous golden hoops and studded piercings jangled as it did so, lessening the effect of the display.

  Jakiikii let out an explosive breath, the vents on her lower abdomen flaring as she spat angrily, “Check again, we were called by Sergeant Aril telling us to come to Kehlkor General immediately. I believe the words she used were ‘without delay’.” Paulie gave her a sideways glance, she was bluffing a little. What the nerivith woman had actually said was to get there as soon as they could manage, but given the look on her face he wasn’t going to be the one to tell her that.

  The other officer finally caught up to them, the one who had been waiting at the bottom of the stairs. The pink furred vekegh waddled to them on slippered feet, its thick tail slapping against the ground in its consternation. Paulie glanced at it and then looked again more closely. He couldn't help the feeling that the alien looked strangely familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he might have seen them before.

  Turning his attention back to Jakiikii and the protesting guards, he tapped at his wrist-worn communicator and got Officer Sasfren’s impassive looking features.

  “Yes, what is it now? Are you on your way yet?” The maggastium asked annoyedly, her scaly lips pulling back into an annoyed scowl to reveal pearly teeth.

  He gestured to the lumpney, the alien’s stilt-like legs clicking on the hard tile flooring as they approached. “The hotel guards won't let us leave.”

  He heard her voice blast from the small speakers, her hissing chirps translated for him via the parasite lodged deep within his grey matter. “Oh for the love of..” Her tone changed, becoming at once more commanding and annoyed, “YOU! These two have immediate and official permission to leave, accompany them to Kehlkor General if you must. But get them here STAT!” And the link was aggressively and most thoroughly cut.

  He glanced at the green-spaghetti covered bee-on-stilts looking alien. “Well? Want me to call her back for additional convincing?”

  He suppressed a chuckle as the alien’s antenna drooped and they buzzed quickly, “No, nono.. I am convinced as to the validity of your claims. If you would please follow me?” They moved to the front door of the building and stepped through as it sighed open automatically, the lumpney putting some real pep in its step. Officer Sasfren seemed to be making a new name for herself as somebody not to be taken lightly. Paulie approved.

  Paulie nodded to Jakiikii and motioned for her to go ahead. She did, following the sillo’an officer as they grumbled and holstered their baton. It took them only a few hurried steps to get around the corner of the building and out of the sight of the general crowds, even then he received more than one startled glance from random passer-bys. The crowds of alien shoppers the thronged the streets seemed to offer them a sort of sensory overload cover though.

  The alley was dark, the sky a mere sliver of turquoise overhead as the barest hint of Trellan IX’s colorful aurora peeked from around the corner. In the back of the alley, near to a large trash receptacle, was a dark vehicle. One of the ground-car cruisers like the one that had dropped them off after the raid several days before. The strangely familiar looking vekegh opened the front passenger side and climbed in as the lumpney got into the driver's seat. The sillo’an made a grumpy noise and then gestured to the rear.

  “Get in.” It gurgled, its triangular head splitting as their large lipless mouth opened a little. It almost gave their face a sort of droopy, melting effect. As if they were supremely tired. Hell for all Paulie knew of the strange alien’s the officer could have been exhausted and he might never have known.

  He climbed into the rear and offered a helping hand to Jakiikii which she accepted with a small smile and a knowing look. He knew that she knew he had just wanted an excuse to be nearer to her, but who could blame him. Her bright eyes shone in the dim half-light of the waning gas giant above like diamonds made of fire. The almost pearl colored fur of her ruff seemed to shimmer slightly as she sidled up next to him in the back, much closer than was necessary for her mere comfort.

  Paulie placed an arm over her shoulder and she leaned into him with a small rumbling purr. The sound seeping into his chest, his bones. The feel of the alien woman pressed close to him was a cool balm for the anger and fear that simmered in his heart.

  He heard the sillo’an speaking, talking about remaining behind to keep its eyes on things. The lumpney nodded, it seemed to be the one in charge of their little three officer detail. After another moment to ensure that they were situated, the officer nodded their insectoid head and started the vehicle. It vibrated slightly and then was still. From what he had been able to glean from his limited experience of things, the vehicle was powered by some manner of microfusion reactor. Producing well in excess the energy it may have needed simply to drive.

  It was really quite fascinating, but he wasn’t sure when he might be able to ask specific questions about GGI technologies. From what he had seen, they tried to largely keep him in the dark on such things. It made a twisted sort of sense, he was technically still a rogue asset in their eyes. An intelligent human in a world that thought little of his kind, treated them as unthinking brutes. He tensed, he would see it change if it took him his whole life.

  He realised that his face must have been showing his anger as Jakiikii headbutted his chin gently and asked, “Hey, what’s wrong, Paulie?”

  He swallowed down the hatred with some difficulty. A slight cackling echoing through the back of his mind as he fought for the control he used to exhibit over himself so easily in the past. He grunted, “Nothing. I am worried about Mack is all.” It was true, but not the whole truth, and Jakiikii frowned. If she could tell he was obfuscating his real emotions then she didn’t comment on it. She likely understood the value of one’s own internal solace, her own unique abilities notwithstanding.

  The streets were crowded with shoppers and daily-goers. The wild variety of shapes and colors of aliens made his head swim a little until Jakiikii once more snuggled closer to him and began pointing out different alien species he had not seen before. She rattled them all off with such confidence, like she had spent a hundred years amongst them.

  He smirked at that, she had, he reminded himself. Her people lived incredibly long lives, longer than his own measly seventy-to-eighty potential years. She was already many years his senior, but that didn’t seem to bother her. He glanced down at her, the delight and strange new love he felt for this alien woman blossoming once more in his chest. She seemed to notice and slapped him on the chest gently with one of her six arms.

  “What?” She said, a small sigh escaping from her breathing slits.

  He shook his head, a grin splitting his face in spite of him trying to keep his cool. “Nothing.. you?

  She shook a fist at him. “Liar.”

  He shrugged. “You got me, I was thinking about how cute your little dangly chin-things are.”

  She seemed to look at her own chin and then reached up and poked the end of his nose, causing him to sniff and scrunch his face a bit. “Not as cute as this little beak of yours, what is it again?”

  He rubbed his nose and shook his head. “My nose, you know that.” He snickered, “You are such a goober sometimes, and I love that. I love you.” She smiled with her eyes, the small folds of skin that sat atop each flower-petal-like eyestalk wrinkled as she drew slightly closer.

  Her voice lowered conspiratorially as the ground car slowed, “I love you too, but please.. try and keep it a secret while we are in there with Mack.”

  He sat a little straighter as the CenSec officers that were their guards opened their doors and exited the car. “Wait, why?”

  She murmured hesitantly, “Because if he finds out so soon we would have to explain what happened, and I might have to tell him I lied. And I really don’t know if I could ever lie to him again, not now. Not after what happened.”

  It made sense, he nodded his head and wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her close as the door of the cruiser opened. Pressing his face close to her head he whispered to her, “I will do as you say. I would never ask you to lie for me, Jakiikii. Not to Mack, not to anybody. I understand why you want to do it this way.”

  She nodded her triangular head and blinked rapidly as her eyes moistened. Clinging to each other for just a second more, they parted and exited the car. Paulie turned his head to look at her once more briefly before he looked at the large structure ahead of them. Across a sea of other parked vehicles, one of the few places he had ever seen other cars and personal aerial vehicles, he saw a large edifice of marble and steel. It was the hospital, even the outside looked clean and clinical. He had been here once before, but this time the mood was decidedly different.

  He felt a hand snake its way into his own and he squeezed Jakiikii’s fingers gently as she stepped a bit closer to him. Looking towards the slightly intimidating building with a mild sense of foreboding, he spoke softly while nodding to the other officers. “Well, here goes nothing.”