Souvenirs From Dead Worlds | ✓

Chapter 10

Upon further questioning Sam had been surprised to discover just how little Kias had understood about how he’d been brought to Sam’s world and just how many odd assumptions Kias had made. To help explain things a little better, Sam had taken Kias to the hanger to look at his shuttle. They couldn't go inside the shuttle because Sam wasn't on assignment, but showing him the outside of it up close had helped make explaining a little easier. By the end, though, he still wasn't sure Kias understood much of it.

 

The trip out to the hanger had also served the purpose of giving Sam some new words to teach Kias. Sam had already started teaching Kias the basics, like how to say hello and goodbye, yes and no, how to introduce himself and how to ask for food, drink, and to go to the bathroom. Now he was teaching Kias the names of a few things they hadn't had on Kias' world.

 

"That," Sam said, pointing to an aircraft the size of a very large building sitting some distance away outside of the hanger, "is the mothership."

 

Kias repeated the word to himself quietly a couple of times, and then asked, "What's it for?"

 

"A while back, we used to have cities on other worlds." Sam leant back against the hull of his shuttle, the cool metal a reassuring force against his back. "We don't anymore, but when we did, the motherships were used to transport people to them en masse. That one's been rusting out there for about fifteen years now."

 

Kias' eyes skimmed over the huge vessel, taking in the details that could be seen at this distance. "What happened to the cities?"

 

"The same thing that happened to your world."

 

"Could it happen here too?" Kias asked, suddenly looking worried.

 

"No," Sam assured him. "Hmm, how can I explain this... Okay, so there are invisible holes in worlds that people can travel through. Or, invisible until someone opens one up, anyway. That's how we got here, remember? It's also how the drones got into your world. This world is secure, though, because we've built... Well, think of them like doors. There were holes and we built doors in front of them so that we could keep them closed and locked when we weren't using them."

 

Kias frowned thoughtfully. "I think I actually understood that. A bit, anyway."

 

Sam grinned. "Maybe you learnt something from looking through my old physics books after all."

 

Kias' face scrunched up in confusion. "What's fizz-icks?"

 

"Nevermind."

 

#

 

"Want to watch a movie?" Sam asked after playing games on his tablet for hours at a time had started to get dull. Kias seemed to be far better at tolerating inactivity than Sam was, but Sam suspected Kias had tired of looking at the pictures in Sam's old textbooks long ago.

 

"I don't know what a movie is, Sam," Kias said tiredly without looking up from the textbook he couldn't even read. Sam had no idea what Kias thought the diagrams in it were supposed to represent.