Stellar date (Earth Time): 02-25-2914
A few more things became readily apparent over the next week.
One: whatever language Gilrack spoke only had spoken words for nouns and only nouns. Pronouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions, and an alarmingly small amount of conjunctions were all made in clicks, hisses, whistles, hums, growls, chirps, you name it. There were even a few words that included snaps of his fingers. Learning the names he had for parts of the body had put me into a false sense of security about his language, because now I struggled. A few 'words' I couldn't even make unless I had some snot on hand to sniff down as though preparing to hawk a logy. That's also how I managed to make a semblance of a purr, which delighted our resident alien a lot more than it delighted me. I felt disgusting on a third-grade-boy level. And if my sinuses and throat were dry, forget purrs, I couldn't make half the noises.
At least I could say his name perfectly fine. Gilrack. Sounded like an amphibious rock. But, hey, he doesn't have to know I'm judging his alien name. He probably thought my name sounded like, well, a logy. His version a logy, at least.
Second: The more Gilrack spoke, the more edgy Levi became. It got to the point where both Naomi and I had to pull him aside and remind him that the guy he seemed to be determined to piss off had claws, fangs, poison, wings, and about three feet of both height and width on him, not to mention probably two-hundred more pounds of muscle. And even if he carried around his rifle like it was his extra arm, it didn't guarantee anything if Gilrack decided he was done with us.
"Besides, he's a sweetheart," Naomi had waved around a pretty pendent he'd made for her as she said this. Its string had been made of carefully woven, long, satin smooth red and purple hair and spines that had been whittled down into various flower-like shapes beaded it.
Levi had glared at that necklace as though it were a personal insult and stomped off, which was how most of encounters involving our now resident alien eventually ended.
"Ugh, it's like he's a teenager again," Naomi had grumbled.
I had just nodded, unsettled by how much my friend seemed to have changed. Despite his past, I'd never seen him act aggressive until Gilrack had appeared. I saw more of the violent criminal I was told he had been then I'd ever wanted to see.
Third: Gilrack seemed dead set on learning English at an insane speed. Despite mine and Naomi's attempts to explain to him that he needed time to let the words we taught him settle, he either didn't understand or deliberately ignored us. If he wasn't following me around pointing and struggling to convey simple phrases or sentences, he was following Naomi around and doing the same thing.
Thankfully, Naomi didn't seem to mind his company. I wondered if the empty hole where Josh had once been didn't seem so vast when she had an eager porcupine demon asking "What this? What that?" in his smoke and lava voice. Yes, that's right, he caught on to the intricacies of 'this' and 'that' off the bat. Apparently, directions and placement were very important and ingrained into his own language. He caught on to prepositions faster than he did the nouns. Up, under, over, left, right, etc. He even seemed frustrated at some point by how vague ours were compared to his. He had a certain click for every degree of the circle. Like, so much for 'on your twelve'o clock.'
Fourth, and lastly, he seemed to become more humanlike by the day. Nothing in him physically changed, but he must have been watching us closely for he inevitably mimicked how we ate our food, our facial expressions, and even our gestures.
He didn't, however, move an inch from his concept of space. How we managed to function with only 'left, right, up, and down' was beyond him.
Never did he get closer than three feet from Naomi and Levi. When he had given her the necklace he had set it on the floor and then backed up quickly. Levi especially he gave a wide berth, though on the few occasions Levi managed to be especially confrontational the space seemed to shrink, as though being within reach of a blow was as much of a threat as the blow itself.
To me he was closest, though he had yet to touch me once. Sometimes it amazed me how close he could get without so much as grazing me. Talk about insane body control. No minute body shaking for the ouji board here.
Even so, he was cautious in how he approached me, watching me closely for any signs of refusal. The few times I told him to back off he did so as though I'd thrown a bomb at him. I tried not to overreact like he did, but it did make me worry that I'd offended him.
Levi hated this.
"He's practically mounting you," he'd seethed one day. The liquid in the poor relay fuse in his hand bubbled from the pressure.
It was another occasion of me needing to help Levi with a certain repair. Honestly, they should be sending over another technician, but then they should have sent a lot more than just the four of us seeing this planet had ALIENS.
"Oh, dear, is Lord Toes jealous?"
"I'm not in the mood, Jo."
"Neither am I. I'm sick and tired of being treated like a space hoe by you."
The bubbles in the glass fuse tube abruptly went still.
"I didn't, by any means—"
"Yes, you did," I said sharply, giving a particularly hard turn to the screwdriver. I was loosening the steel cover for the case that held the fuses, particularly of a few that needed to be replaced. Once loosened it would take both of us to lift. "All you seem to think I'm good for to this alien is sex. Has it ever occurred to you he just wants a friend? Hell, do you even know how small the likelihood is of him being attracted to me is? I look nothing like him! It's like accusing an elephant of wanting to hump a horse, and as you said he might not even be male."
I undid the last screw with an angry twist and then got my fingers around the metal handles. I looked at him pointedly.
Levi met my gaze head-on, even though I could see the apology twisting his mouth. It wouldn't come out without a fight.
"I'm just trying to protect you," he said.
"I could bench press you, Levi, you're the one who needs protecting from your own stupidity."
He scowled, even as he took hold of the fuse covers other handle. "A bit of an exaggeration to say you could bench press me. I'm taller than you."
I just snorted and heaved. It was something I'd always loved to rub in Levi's face, the fact that I had more brawn than him without trying. And since I did try by working out every day (it was recommended and important for anyone who lived in space to exercise even more than they would on Earth to preserve bone density and that schmuck), I could probably crush his skull like a watermelon between my thighs, because heaven forbid my swol caveman genetics should do anything physical in halves. I could have made bank as a body builder in another life.
It was gross. And made Levi's projected feminist fears on me even more annoying. If only I was feminine enough to have to worry about being raped. Anything male would rather rape a rock than me. Would probably be softer too. The rock, that is.
...Got a little dark there. I am in no way implying I wanted to be raped.
Fat lot of good that did me.
We finished the repair in silence. Levi made an awkward, half-done attempt at making conversation with me, but I was too put off to reciprocate. Instead, I ended up back in the observatory globe. I hadn't spent nearly as much time there as I was used to since I had been busy tending to the eager beaver which was Gilrack, so there was a definite need in me to get out my paints and easel. Maybe I could even do some minor calculations while I painted too.
I'd just set up a new canvas with my paints and thinner at the ready when the devil himself magically appeared beside me, only the huff of his breath the only warning of his presence.
"What's that?" he asked.
I sighed and just stopped myself from knocking over the easel with how hard I face planted on my canvas.
"I'm painting," I said bluntly and tried my best to ignore him as I got started penciling out the vague shape I wanted my nebulous cloud to be. I had a vague idea of what I wanted, something earthy displayed in stars and gas, with all the colors of the mountains and prairies I hadn't seen in so long.
I probably shouldn't have been surprised that he sensed my irritation, for he settled down on his haunches like a big dog and watched quietly. At some point I even forgot he was even there and fell into the lull which was the soft background noise of the station and the quiet expanse above me.
Space had always been beautiful to me. Open, vast, a swirl of colors, a lack of people. But I'd had that beauty on Earth too in the open plains and on top of mountains. I'd been fond of hiking back home, especially in the early mornings when few were out and the sky was gray. Only thing I hiked now were stairs. But I'd been so eager to leave humanity behind I'd never considered how much I'd miss Earth, even after only a few months of being here.
Naomi had missed the ocean the most, so I'd painted her that. Josh had been the forests, predictably enough. I'd painted that too. Levi missed the cities. That had been harder, but I managed. I was no Picasso. But they all thanked me the same. Levi had even stared longer with his eyebrows high.
I thought of the golden ratio as I curved my brush with a nebulous framing where'd I eventually finish with wildflowers.
I'd just gotten into the annoying flecks which would be grass when the hiss of the door opened behind me. There was quiet before I heard Levi give a displeased grunt. I jumped when Gilrack responded with a short, low growl.
"Oh my god, if you're going to fight, go away."
"I'm reminding you to eat dinner," said Levi.
"I could do without dinner."
"You aren't fat. You need to eat."
"I'm busy."
"You're painting. It will still be here when you get back."
"No one asked for a mom, Levi."
"True. That's Naomi. Mush." He'd crossed the space and now stood next to my easel. He put a hand on the top in threat. He'd pushed down my easel before when I'd been in one of my more stubborn moods. He'd gotten that way ever since Naomi had diagnosed me with a proneness to hypoglycemia, which, what the crap, so what if I get the shakes and nauseous after skipping a meal? It wouldn't kill me.
But I did recognize how ridiculous I was being and inevitably sighed and put a plastic film over my paints.
"Gilrack, are you hungry?"
"No," said Gilrack.
Another thing we'd gotten used to. Gilrack didn't have to eat as often as us. Once every two days was enough for him, but when he did eat he ate.
Levi's expression was unnaturally still, as it always went when he stopped himself from reacting to something.
"What's on the menu?" I asked as we fell into step towards the door. Gilrack's claws very lightly clicked behind us.
"Meatloaf and flan."
"Goodie." I hated the station's meatloaf, but Naomi loved it. That's why they added on the flan for me.
"It's cute how you grumble," he said with a roll of his eyes.
"Don't call me cute. It gives me hives."
He snorted and held open the door for me.
"It wouldn't kill you to take me seriously for once."
"It just might," I said.
The low blood sugar must have kicked in more than I gave it credit, for my toes dragged too late on one of the steps down and I found myself pitching forward, the railing suddenly too far away to catch myself.
It happened within a blink: Levi caught me and Gilrack let loose a loud bark of fury.
Next thing I knew I was wrapped in the arms of goliath with my view blocked by red wings and strands of purple hair.
It was the most I'd ever felt of Gilrack, even when I'd half carried him to the infirmary, and his heat made my forehead instantly bead out with sweat.
"Uh..." I said intelligently.
"Let. Her. Go." Came Levi, all ice and quiet thunder.
Gilrack's answer came just as low and cold.
"You. No. Touch."
So much for a quiet evening.