Alita 3
Alita's specimen looks too familiar for comfort
So far, according to a transcription of Alita’s voice log, she has settled into Earth orbit after a 10,000-year journey back to our time for research. She’s taken specimens to study more closely, but one of them troubles her.
If you’ve missed any of the story, you’ll find everything to this point at this link.
Aiee! No!
Ahh. Burning.
Blinding.
No, it's loud but nothing has changed. A dream.
The searing flash again, in my head. But I got through it, didn't I? Going backwards in time means that once I got past the flash, nothing further could happen, or it would already have happened. Oh, I can barely move. I should get out of this suit if I can. I have to look up protocol for Day 2. It's so noisy here, so unbelievably … oh, that's the alarm. Alarm! Up!
Machines still humming, no warnings, no flashing lights or codes. No leaks. Night time down below. A slumbering world below and on board.
I better put the light on a minute to check visuals. Everything good. The humans, immobile. The girl quiet, DNA scans complete. Metabolic scan complete. Psychic scan in progress.
The young man is in the same position. Feet slightly moving, must be dreaming. Legs fairly still. Clothing tight and revealing of sexual organ, fairly relaxed, not completely. Belly rising and falling smoothly, chest strong, chin grizzly from whiskers, eye. Eyes.
Did they just blink? They’re wide open. Staring at me. Glancing upward, back to me. Full iris visible. Pupil dilated. Totally awake and aware. This is not good. Enkios level as expected but it did not maintain subconscious state. He looks scared. Given that this has never happened to anyone of his time before, and probably never will again, he's right to be scared. I will make sure the two return safely. Maybe I can reassure him.
He is eyeing my suit. My suit is shiny, with over a thousand segments to allow movement. He sees all the sensory apertures allowing me to see, smell, feel, hear everything from outside the suit. I probably look like an alien from outer space. In a way, I am one, for him, anyway.
Air pressure and composition in the pod are stable. I can remove my suit. That may reassure the young man. Calling up Protocol Provisions for Day 2. Scrolling through. No mention of suit. Searching. Here. Suit may be removed once pressure and air composition are stable, as early as Hour 18, if scheduled activities allow at least 45 minutes for suit removal. Okay, not a problem.
This operation is complex. I can do it in half an hour. Disconnect all sensory and biological devices in the proper order, and without damaging any connectors. I have backup equipment for everything but I don't have a lot of time to spend repairing things if I want to return with as complete a data set as possible for my thesis. Already I have discoveries that will surprise our department.
It's funny how, under orders to dictate everything, I end up just talking to myself. Fortunately, I will be the only one to receive and listen to this flight log transmission.
The man is watching my every move. I suppose he has nothing else to do. He is smiling slightly. His eyebrows keep moving but I'm not sure why. He seems to alternate between fear, anger, wonder. Maybe pain? Possibly, but it shouldn't be. Once the human enters the shell, the web closes in gently with soft fabric, to immobilize. Maybe he wants to move.
I am half undressed. All externals are safely removed. Before extricating myself from the lower half of the suit, I will widen the young man's web, give him a little range of motion. Maybe that will relieve him.
Making my way to the shell controller, slowly releasing pressure on web. The young man is turning his head slightly, and his torso is shifting. He seems even to be nodding to me. His eyes have focused on my face but now wander down my body to my chest and to the bottom half of the suit.
I will return to my station to remove the lower portion of the suit. Releasing clasps, twists, padding, twisting my waist to release subcatch, unscrewing toe modules halfway, releasing ankle clips.
The man is staring at everything I do. I smile at him. Maybe that will calm him. He smiles back at me. It is a nice smile. He seems a pleasant man. I am lucky he is not a Porquen. If this man was like Porquen and woke up and wanted to make these hours difficult, I would have to restrain him in his web, up the Enkios dosage and put him to sleep. This young man is good company, even though he is inside his shell and will be returned in, let's see, 7.4 hours. It's less lonely to have someone to look at who can look back at me. This work is lonely.
My suit is being removed exactly as described in protocol. I do not need to describe it here again.
I am not lonely around my friends, my classmates, my professors, my parents. But sometimes, unpredictably, I feel lonely even in the middle of others, mostly when the others are not accessible. When my parents are preparing work, or my classmates are talking about a stroncast I haven't been in – and I don't go to all the new ones as they come out, so that happens a lot. They have to tell all the sights, sounds, smells, feels, and it means nothing if you haven't done it. Okay, I'm thinking of two nights before I left and could only really think of this journey and felt dark thoughts about it because my parents keep worrying even though they know they can do nothing and really should just be proud of me for being the next pilot and for being in line for a permanent position at the Institute. The latest stroncast, Sorogen, just came out, with the total feel of the battles, the flying, the underwater dive which Irgina said felt like she was going to pass out from drowning sensations, and the imitation direct relations – almost all of them want nothing to do with direct relations but they love experiencing it in the stroncasts, don’t they?
It felt very lonely on the outskirts of their conversation. Irgina going on about it. None of them have had direct relations, except maybe Porquen, but I shudder to think what it would be like with him. Not like Ranlen and me. No need to dwell on it. My head was full of training, focused on my mission. I knew I needed no one just then. I didn't need them to look at me and go off to the bar to talk about the Sorogen stroncast. Ranlen and I could have been happy.
He's still looking at me. It can't be comfortable for him. …
To be continued…