Picture of the beautiful alien, Azka'rah (all credits go to LAS-T - http://las-t.deviantart.com/). Just imagine him with long hair, and the marking on both sides of his face, not just one.
Hello, I hope you all are enjoying the summer (though I'm not a big fun of it) thoroughly! I can't wait for this weekend to come because that's when my 18 days long vacation starts, and I will finally have some time to myself and time to write some more.
This chapter was so hard to write! Not because I wasn't in the mood, but because I had to research the subject and somehow change it into something at least a little bit believable. I think I succeeded! And I enjoyed writing it so much! Anyway, we are talking about an alien planet, a completely different world, so everything is possible there!
Enjoy the reading!
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There is a new word used there, the Compreah, read it as [kompria]. I'm not going to add it to the dictionary as it's not a translation of an actual English word but only a name for a specific device!
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Corey couldn't believe what the doctor made him to do. He was staring at the small rounded device on the table next to him, his eyes wide, breath unsteady and hands trembling. Just remembering his speech about how the process of implanting the device in his windpipe didn't hurt and it was done in a blink of an eye, made him nervous all over again. He hated speaking in front of people, and even though this was indirect, he still knew there were a lot of them listening to him.
"I hope that was all? I'm not saying any other word. I'm done here. I want to go!" Corey couldn't believe he was saying it but he was ready to leave the ship and get to his new home for now. His bloodshot eyes and unhealthily colored skin said it all. He was too tired to function normally. And his mental state wasn't at its best either.
The doctor looked at him and smiled, motioning for the second alien to come closer. When he did just that, the little guy held out his hand and opened his fist, a small bluish cube in it. The square object was partially transparent so Corey could see there was something inside of it, making him nervous because it looked like there was some kind of worm wriggling around. It was a light shade of white and its insides were shining with soft blue glow.
The alien said something in his language, shoving the hand with the cube closer to Corey as if he wanted him to take it. Shaking his head, Rey leaned against the chair he was sitting in and tried to get as far away from the hand as possible. He didn't like the way it looked like. It remained him of a parasite from that one anime his cousin was watching long time ago, and he definitely didn't want to have anything like that in his hands.
"I have no idea what you are saying, but I'm not taking that. It will probably bite its way inside of my hand and do something with my body or DNA. I'm not going to risk that!" he said, his voice several octaves higher than usual. Just the imagination of it made him sweat and tremble in fear.
"It is nothing like that. It will indeed bury itself to your body, your nape to be exact, but it is not any kind of an organism that would change you in any way. This Compreah is a specially modified device that will help you understand our language. It will take some time, the device has to find its way to your forebrain, connect with it and transfer all the needed information to it. It should take several weeks, but from our previous experiences, it always takes maximum of one month. During the transmission of the information, the Compreah will copy the tissue surrounding it and slowly change itself into the exact same thing, so it will become part of your brain. After that, the Compreah will naturally disintegrate and change into dead brain cells. It is not harmful in any way and it will help you understand everyone out there. Although every Nezda'rahian you met so far could talk in English, we were taught to speak like that because we were chosen to interact with you. Others on the planet will not understand you, and you will not understand them, which could lead to many misunderstandings. I am sure you would not want to risk it. From the things I read about your planet, you should know what a misunderstanding can do," the doctor said, kindly smiling at him, taking the cube from the boy next to her.
"Take it please." She took a hold of Corey's hand and put the cube in it.
Corey was so shocked from all the information he got from the alien doctor, he wasn't able to react for some time. When he finally snapped out of it, ready to throw the cube away as far from him as possible, it was too late. The cube was lying on his hand, empty, and the worm-like-thing was slithering its way up his arm, slowly getting closer and closer to his head. He jumped up, desperately trying to shake the device off of him, but it wouldn't let go. It looked like it was somehow stuck to his skin even though it was moving, and he felt so much fear he thought he would pass out. His eyes filled with fresh tears, soon followed by choked sobs. The only thing he could do was watch the thing climbing up his arm, and his soul was filled with hopelessness. He was sure he would faint and wake up different.
Pictures of all the alien movies and books that had a similar concept of invasion were running through his mind, and his panic was rising more and more. He didn't want to lose himself. He didn't want to wake up to find out he is a prisoner in his body without being able to control it.
"No," he cried out, his eyes looking widely around the room, searching for something that could destroy the device. He was even willing to cut his arm if it meant he would stop it.
But there was nothing. The table with the surgical instruments he saw when he came in the room was now empty, and there was nothing else even partially useful.
"Take it away! Take it the fuck away! I don't want to disappear! It's going to kill me! It's going to change me! You are all fucking liars! I knew you were going to do something to us!" he yelled, tears streaming down his cheeks, his whole face red. He started to run to the door that led back to the passenger's sitting area, ready to bang on the door so someone would hear him, but he was stopped by the alien male who caught him by his other arm.
"......" speaking up in the alien language again, Corey's anger got the best out of him, and he yanked his arm away as roughly as he could. The little guy squeaked, startled, and with fearful expression stepped away from him.
Normally, he would feel bad for hurting him, but he was so petrified of the situation he was thinking only about one thing and helping a person who was an enemy in his eyes was not it.
He looked at the device making its way up and new wave of sobs broke out of him. There was only one thing left to do. Turning to his last resort, Rey looked at the worm that was almost at his shoulder already, and started to claw at it with his nails. He knew almost immediately it was futile as the only thing he was scratching was his own arm, but he couldn't stop. It was his last desperate try at freeing himself from the terrible fate that was awaiting him for sure, so he couldn't think clearly. He started to think he would be willing to sacrifice his whole arm if he could get the thing away.
The hot feeling was surrounding his whole arm, and the blood dripping from it was started to flow in stronger and stronger streams. The tears in his eyes were so thick he saw everything blurred, and that was a reason why he didn't see the doctor coming. There was a pair of hands suddenly, stopping his useless attempt to claw his arm away, and pulling him toward he bed. He was pushed to lie down and because he was so surprised and shocked of the action, he wasn't fast enough to react to the restraining straps that were being bound around him, to keep him from harming himself even more.
Shaking violently, trying to get away from the straps, he almost didn't realize the alien was talking.
"I am going to make you fall asleep and treat the terrible wound you have on your arm. You are too stressed to be awake now. But do not worry, you will understand that there is nothing wrong with you after you wake up again," she said, voice strong, full of some kind of unrecognizable emotion. And it was the last thing Corey heard as she touched his head carefully, and he lost consciousness right after.
*****
Feeling somehow weary, Corey slowly opened his eyes, at first confused at why he was sleeping in the first place. He sat up, looking around confusedly, blinking several times to clear his eyesight of the remaining blurriness the sleep caused. It took him a while to remember what was going on, but when it all clicked, his heartbeat speeded up, sweat broke out on his forehead and back, and his hand started to shake.
Slowly raising his hand up to his neck, he touched his nape carefully, looking for something out of ordinary. But there was nothing. His nape seemed untouched, and there was nothing that made him feel different or used. His mind worked properly, his body moved as he was used to, and his head didn't hurt.
"I am glad to see you up so early. I was sure you would sleep for few more hours based on how much you were agitated. It took you just twenty minutes."
Corey's head snapped to his right, and when he saw the doctor smiling at him gently, he couldn't help but jump a little, trying to get away from her. When he shuffled his way towards the farther side of the bed, he hissed, hot sharp pain engulfing his left arm. He looked at it, surprised to see it all bandaged, some places on it brown from dried blood.
"What the-" he started, but stopped when he realized he hurt it himself.
"It is going to take some time to heal; you made a great job of hurting yourself," she came closer, sat in a chair right in front of the bed and smiled.
"I was able to stop you before you managed to destroy it even more. You do not have to worry; there will not be any scar left. It should be healed in next few days; our salves work faster than yours back on Earth."
Corey felt his eyes grow wide. He was surprised she took care of his wound, but he was still angry because of the Compreah thing. He acknowledged the fact it probably wasn't as harmful as he thought at first, but it didn't mean he was okay with it. There was a foreign thing inside of his brain, and it was able to move on its own. And who said it couldn't change him after some time? What if it wasn't a simple translator, but it would change his DNA in some way after it got connected as the alien called it?
He started to feel sick, his stomach churning. Just the imagination of something moving inside of his head was making him want to bang it against the wall to make it disappear.
"As I said before you had a fit, everything is as it was before. It will not harm you in any way, and you will never even notice there is something there. It is specially made to feel like a part of your body. We have several devices like that; some of them even save our lives because they can act as a missing organ. But you will understand everything after you meet with the family you will be staying with. As you already know, they will tell you and give you all the information you will need. I really do not want to let you go injured, but they have been waiting for some time now, and I am sure you want to be away from here as soon as possible." She was smiling throughout the whole time she was talking, but there was something in her eyes Corey couldn't identify. She looked somehow uneasy, and his fear of the thing in his head multiplied. His face paled, and he felt cold all over. He knew he was right.
"What is it now? You are emitting negative emotions again. Did I say something wrong?" she asked, a genuine expression on her face. Corey wanted to believe her, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He was suspicious of them from the beginning, and all the actions that happened up until now just confirmed his suspicions.
"You are hiding something. I don't know what it is, but you are looking at me as if there was something wrong with me. Should there be some kind of reaction to either of the thing you put in me? Was I supposed to change or something like that? Tell me the truth!" His voice rising with each word, he was yelling at the end of his speech. He wanted to know what was going on. He was tired of all of this.
"I apologize. It is nothing like that. The people coming for you are important on our planet so I feel bad for letting you go to them with injuries. They are not bad people, but there are some rules, and I let you get hurt in front of my eyes. There are going to be consequences so I am a little bit nervous because of it." She smiled sadly at him, her eyes darkening a bit, turning from silver to darker shade of grey.
He was surprised to see her like this. It looked like she was really scared, and it definitely didn't make him feel better when he imagined he would have to go and live with the people she was afraid of.
"But do not mind it. They are definitely going to treat you well. I am just supposed to take care of my patients, as a main healer, so it is a big problem I let you get hurt. It just took me by surprise how desperate you were so I acted too late. I will accept whatever they decide is an appropriate punishment. It is my fault after all." She stood up, walking slowly towards the other door in the room.
"You should really get going. I have more than two hundred people I have to take care of and based on your reaction, there will be a lot of others who will react similarly. I will probably have to keep them tied to the chair because I do not want another incident like this. I knew this one would be more complicated, so I decided to do it after you assured all of the other humans in the ship. But it never occurred to me the reaction would be so drastic." Opening the door, she looked at Corey and waited for him to come to her.
It took a while, but he got up and slowly, with worries written all over his face, went for the door, and, with one last glance at the doctor, stepped out of it.
*****
A weird smell hit him, purple dimmed light blinding his eyes for a minute, making his head spin. He had to take few deep breaths as the air was somehow heavy, and it looked like there wasn't enough oxygen in it, but after he got used to it, he was able to breathe normally again. The device in his windpipe was there for a reason after all.
Looking around, not knowing what to expect, he was surprised to see he was outside the ship and there were many aliens around him. All of them were looking at him with wide, interested eyes, and he heard a lot of murmuring.
They all looked so beautifully it was almost ridiculous, and Corey couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. They were probably so vain and arrogant they didn't want to look at someone who had crooked teeth or dry skin. That was why the humans in the ship looked like they were cut out of a fashion magazine.
He shook his head, raising his eyes so he could look around to see the nature around there, when a tall figure stepped up to him. Shocked, he jerked a little, looking up at the person, gasping in another shock when he saw the alien.
The handsome man in front of him was so hot he was unable to speak or look away. His long platinum blonde hair, with few azure strands, was tied in a thick ponytail, few strands and tiny braids sticking out of it. There were several beads on each braid, colors going from blue to golden. It gave his already glowing appearance this sense of nobility. His blue eyes, color so clear as Caribbean Sea with a so typical white pupil in the middle of it, were staring right into his wide ones, making him unusually hot all over. There was a blue marking at the same place as on the other aliens as well, but this one was totally different, much richer with an addition of white color and some kind of protuberance at each side. It almost looked like there were horns ready to break free, but Corey didn't have enough time to inspect it as the velvety melodic voice sounded right in front of him.
"I am delighted to finally meet you, sir Corey Williams. My name is Azka'rah and you will be staying with me and my family at our residence."