Chapter 14: A Moment to Breathe
It took Paulie’s obviously drug-addled brain a moment to realise what the off-white alien had said to him.
“Your.. health, lab?” He asked tiredly, as if the question would really serve to clear up any of the mess he had suddenly awoken into.
The creature spoke again and he noticed for the first time that the chittering alien speech was different from the others he had heard. He could not place exactly what it was about them, but something about the duigong standing in front of him was.. Odd. He narrowed his eyes.
Paulie turned his head slightly and finally realised what was so offputting about this particular creature. He noticed for the first time that the alien was uncovered. Not nude, they were some manner of insectoid and their carapaced body was never without its natural covering. Beyond that, the thing wore a long off-white vest covered in pockets, pouches and belts of all make and description. Upon their shoulders, or where the shoulders would have been on a man, their vest bore the universal blue symbol of medicine.
Paulie took the second of dead air between the conversation to scope out this unique specimen even farther. This was the first time he had a chance to observe a member of their kind without their usual molding cloaks of rotting fabrics. Their body was long, almost snake-like though obviously armoured in thick bone white plates of heavy chitin. From the underside of their long and segmented body grew five pairs of subby legs, these ending in almost hoof-like feet that tapped upon the duracrete flooring of this new place he was in.
The clean looking creature’s mouthparts wriggled in a most unsettling manner as they lifted two arms and spoke. “I must apologise, I have yet to introduce myself to you. You may call me ministrator Dross’kellio, or if that becomes too burdensome upon the tongue.. a simple ministrator Dross will do fine.”
Jakiikii sat on the edge of his cot as Paulie nodded as best he could. “Oh. Well, nice to meet you then.. sir? Ma’am?” He hated to admit it, but he could not tell. And he had no way of knowing if their kind even had distinguishable features to begin with.
They seemed to make a low scraping sound. Like somebody cutting thick leather with a dull knife. “Oh, you mammals and your strange ways. I am a female of my species if it pleases you to know, though I am not concerned with the manner of your perception. As long as you call me by my proper name, no offense of either kind will be given nor taken.” Paulie would have shrugged if he was able, but he still felt as though there were lead weights in his bones and could not move so much as a finger.
Jakiikii reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder, another rested on his chest as she clasped another pair together on her lap. “I know you had to immobilise him so the quickheal would work properly. But how long do we need to stay here? They need us up on the surface!” Paulie could hear the stress in her voice and longed to comfort her. But as she had pointed out, he was nearly totally immobilised.
Paulie took the time to observe his surroundings in more detail. The walls and ceiling were that same off-white as the duigong’s shell. But now that he looked closer he could tell they were not in the sewers anymore. In fact, he sniffed, they seemed to have been washed off. Or at the very least disinfected to some degree. He was not wearing his greatcoat and his armour had been removed it seemed.
He could not tell much else from his position.
“It is well that you met Fess when you did. Had you let his wounds fester in the underhive tunnels it is likely his condition could have worsened beyond my capability to heal.” The insectoid doctor seemed to think hard. “Though you are possessed of a remarkably strong immune system I must say.” They muttered, his ears only just managing to pick it up.
Jakiikii nodded her head, one hand gripping his shoulder tighter. “Yes. I was not able to save him on my own.” Two of her eyes glanced over her shoulder at him and she spoke again, softer this time. “I would not have been able to save you on my own, Paulie.” Her eyes closed as she leaned her head on him again but he just chuckled.
She glanced at him, the pink of her eyes even more vibrant with the glistening film of tears across them. “What. Why are you laughing?”
Paulie would have shaken his head if he was able, so instead he just blinked a few times. “I don’t know. I just, the entire situation is so ridiculous. I mean.. we only wanted to go on a walk. And look where we ended up?”
She sucked in a larger breath and then seemed to smile a little. “Yeah, I guess so. I am just happy you are alright.” She buried her head in his chest again and he longed to stroke her neck and shoulders soothingly. But at that moment he was unable to do so. Stuck on the table feeling the wounds of his flesh as the alien woman he loved stood watch by his side.
They remained that way for several hours. Paulie drifted off to sleep on more than one occasion during that time. But despite his fears of the mind parasite, his dreams were dark and silent. He was not accosted nor was he otherwise overly burdened by the cackling madness of the thing which resided deep in his grey matter. A small part of him felt relieved, a larger part was at once suspicious of the cause.
The duigong doctor continued to shuffle around the room in that time. Humming low and alien tunes to herself as she did so. He caught a glimpse of the alien sorting through large beakers of strange liquids at one point, the containers labeled in some language with which he was not familiar. It didn’t look like the same lines of falling characters that seemed to be most commonly used by the denizens of the Intercession, and when he chanced to ask about them the alien doctor just gave him an unreadable look. Those five compound eyes on an entirely expressionless face gave nothing away.
“It is the genesis of my life’s work. That is all I will say.” Ministrator Dross said cryptically. Paulie decided to let it go, if the large insectoid creature didn’t want to divulge the secret then who was he to pester the one to whom he owed his continued existence?
Instead he turned his attention back to Jakiikii who was fiddling with the boxy contraption that had been occupying her attention the last half hour or so. It was some manner of solid state communications equipment not unlike an old land line, but something was wrong with it. According to the doctor it had been malfunctioning for many months, and the undercity was a poor place to shop for replacement parts for complex electronic equipment.
She slapped a third arm down on the countertop in frustration as the radio fizzed and then cut out again. “Zalc! This is hopeless.” She turned her head towards him, several eyes fixating on Paulie’s face as he slowly shook his head. “We have been gone far too long. We need to know what is happening on the surface!”
He nodded slightly, his neck still stiff from the injuries and the paralysing anesthetics. He had regained a small measure of his mobility though, his body healing rapidly under the aggressively potent medicines with which he had been administered. Ministrator Dross had warned them that Paulie would still be weak from blood loss and needed to be careful. But his life was no longer directly in any danger. He had been given some sort of strange, bitter medicine to help him with the blood loss. He screwed up his nose, he could still taste the acrid fluid on his tongue.
It was with this taken into consideration that Paulie responded, slowly and deliberately. “We are safer down here where they can’t find us. There has got to be a way to make contact without having to crawl back though that sludge.” He glanced at the duigong as he said it, wincing slightly. “Uh, no offense ma’am.”
The alien clicked in apparent amusement. One of her arms waved in the air as she stepped sideways and around one of the many low tables scattered almost haphazardly around the room. “No offense was given, so none can be taken.”
‘Curse these damnably polite aliens.’ Paulie muttered to himself. Out loud he just nodded slightly and countered, “Well, I just wanted to be sure. It is seen as bad taste in my culture to point out flaws like that. It usually just leads to arguments and people getting upset.” He frowned slightly.
Jakiikii glanced at him, her face bearing an expression of concern. “Really? Then how do you ever get anything fixed if nobody wants to point out the problems with the system?”
Paulie chuckled for a moment before sobering. He grimaced as he thought about it. “Well. Usually we just.. don’t.”
“Do not what?” The ministrator asked now, shuffling closer on their multitude of short, stubby legs.
“I mean, usually we don’t get things done. Especially in government. I mean, it isn't all as bad as that..” He trailed off. Thinking about it more he frowned again as he shuffled his feet slightly. Sensation was returning quickly it seemed.
Jakiikii pressed the doctor, “From what I have heard of his world, there are many fragmented sub-factions called countries upon it. All of them vying for some manner of simple control over that one sphere they call Earth. It is a fundamentally brutal and violent way of life.”
Paulie wanted to refute her words, but she was right in a way. Not everything was so influenced by political, cultural and societal divides. But enough did exist to make it hard for him to tell her she was incorrect. So instead he just shrugged and closed his eyes briefly.
Dross’kellio seemed to buzz low and slow in their thorax. A sound unlike any he had heard before. After a moment of this they spoke, their voice steeped in heavy emotion. “I see. What a terrible plight.” And then they turned and moved across the room to mess once more with the various medical experiments they were working on.
Jakiikii leaned on his chest as he glanced at her.
“What was that?” He asked.
The termaxxi woman looked away, all six eyes roving over the walls, the tables, the floor. Anywhere but him. He prodded her verbally again and finally she shook her head. “Your planet is known to the GGI as an apocalypse class world, Paulie. Your people are seen as savages, little more than violent animals in certain parts of the Intercession.” He frowned.
“Yeah, but surely I prove those assumptions incorrect?” She looked at him and cocked her head slightly. “Don’t I?”
She smiled with her eyes. “You do to me. And that is all that should matter right now.” She leaned forward and hugged his chest again, but he was far from comforted by her words.
He swallowed. Maybe she was right, what had he really done since joining the greater galactic community but participating in violence and death? Well, sure there had been more than that, but every action he took seemed influenced by these immutable facts. Paulie closed his eyes again as he moved his arm slowly to rest on Jakiikii’s nearer shoulder. He was beginning to feel Jakiikii’s desire to get out from underground. The walls pressed close and the air felt heavy in his lungs.
“Well. I guess I will have to work harder to prove people’s assumptions wrong then.” Paulie noted that when he said it her eyes remained fixed on him. She nodded her angular head a little but said nothing. He got the impression that she wanted to say more, but had restrained herself. It was fine. He wasn’t going to make a big deal of it right now. They had other more pressing matters to worry about besides the implications of a universe of presumptions.
Paulie’s limbs slowly regained their function over the next half hour or so, after a little while he managed to roll onto his side and with Jakiikii and the doctor’s help, he reached a sitting position. He was getting restless now. He knew that staying put was the better option for their own safety, but what if Aril and Sasfren still needed their help? Was Mack okay? What about Mursk and his guardsmen? He was worried, he found that he had a lot to worry about.
“Your neurology and biology are fascinating to me, I must admit.” The duigong chittered while passing some manner of electronic probe over Paulie’s body again for the third time in as many minutes. Their expressionless black eyes made no indication of the being’s emotions. But Paulie could tell from their general posture and their almost bird-like movements that belied their true feelings. They were excited by something they found.
Paulie shrugged slowly as he tugged at his shoulder with his other arm. He was still sore and battered, but his burns were already healing and his open wounds were closed well enough to travel. Well, without opening up and bleeding all down his side again at least.
He turned to the large insectoid alien, nodding to the lab-coat wearing alien he asked about their earlier comment, “How so?”
Paulie waggled his toes in his shoes in an attempt to get feeling to return as they responded. “Well, for one, your bone density and muscle mass are nearly off the charts I have available to measure such things. If this is correct I have to assume that even on your own world you were of moderately great strength and agility?”
Paulie shrugged again. One hand rubbed the back of his neck a little sheepishly as he was suddenly nervous. “Well, yeah, kinda. Maybe. I mean, I worked out and tried to keep myself as healthy as I could, between work and stuff.” He glanced at Jakiikii, but she seemed to be more occupied with something on her wrist device than the conversation happening next to her at the moment. So he turned back to the creature.
“Fascinating.” Was all the big bug said. Their tentacle-like mouthparts flexed as they held the small device up so they could scrutinise it more. The bug seemed to mutter something else to itself but it was lost in the faint background humming of the room's electronics.
Paulie scrunched his shoulders and then placed his hands on his knees before leaning forwards. He needed to move, he needed action. He glanced at Jakiikii, she seemed to dance slightly from foot to foot as if feeling the same. “Well, if you are done with your final examination then may I go? We need to get out of here and back up to the surface.” He was about to ask for directions when the alien interrupted him.
“Yes. I have completed my scans. You are well enough to travel. Though I must stress the importance of avoiding further conflict if at all possible, your body has already been taxed beyond the point of death in many species with which I am familiar. How you were able to take such punishment before succumbing to your injuries is little short of mind-fracturing to me, but it must be. If I had not scanned your body immediately upon your entry I may not have believed it myself.” The alien seemed to stop and take a deep breath of air before it waved two of its three centrally mounted arms at him and Jakiikii. “No matter. You are both very eager to be about your own important business I can see. I have instructed Fess to await you and guide you to the destination you seek. May safety follow you, great hunters.”
“And to you, we thank you for the service.” Jakiikii said in response.
Paulie nodded. “Yeah. Thanks ma’am. Ministrator Dross”
The large alien trotted off as he glanced at Jakiikii. “I guess that’s that.” She nodded her head once, the small sensory bulbs that dangled from her chin wagging with the motion.
“Yes.” He saw a tear in her nearest eye and reached out, patting her shoulder supportively.
“I am fine now Jakiikii, really I am. I am sorry that I scared you. I think I would have been a goner for sure if not for you.” He grunted as she punched him in the shoulder. A bit harder than usual, enough to hurt a little.
She grunted angrily, “Of course you would have. You would be lost without me.” She put on what he assumed passed for a brave face, her eyes scrunching up with determination. But he could see the pain through her mask. He reached out and pulled her protesting form into a bear hug and held her tightly until she stopped struggling and gripped him with all six arms, small cries whimpering from her. He frowned, holding back his own emotions, he would be strong for her. She needed to see he was okay, he would show her he was. They stayed that way for only a moment longer before breaking contact, his face now filled with a sense of determination.
Paulie nodded at her. “Ok.” He cleared his throat as emotion choked him up briefly. He shoved it back down deep with the darkness that rested on the corners of his consciousness. “We need to move out, let’s go.” She nodded, the alien woman following his confident steps before they stopped by the entrance to the room. He had been disarmed and now reapplied his weapon and battered armour plates. He grabbed his greatcoat, it was still filthy, but at least it wasn’t as foul as it had been before he noted with an experimental sniff.
Nodding to her quickly as he pulled it on, they exited the underground clinic together.