CHAPTER 30

SHIP OF ICARUS

WE NEED A NAME

The Ship of Icarus floated just on top of the water. Out in front of him was a beach with some of the blackest sand he’d ever seen.

It was just before morning, still dark out in the sky, nothing in the air except the sound of the ocean waves hitting the beach.

He continued moving along the top of the water, his new body perfectly built for swimming. He dove underneath a wave and kicked his powerful legs, propelling forward.

A few moments later he reached the edge of the beach, where it was shallow enough to stand. He poked his head up above the water slightly, checking to make sure the coast was clear.

Icarus reached out and grabbed his hand. “It looks safe to exit the water.”

The Atua aliens were affectionate. It wasn’t uncommon for them to walk in pairs or even small groups all holding hands—in the same way that humans did. Ship and Icarus built a physical connection in each of their hands. It meant they could communicate with each other as if they were speaking out loud while holding hands. It meant as long as they were holding hands, they could have a private conversation that no one else could listen to.

This also eliminated the risk of someone detecting signals constantly traveling between them—it wasn’t worth the risk of getting caught.

Ship followed Icarus as they both began walking up onto the beach.

The sand clung to Ship’s webbed feet—the feet of his new body. He shook it off.

Ship opened a small pouch located underneath his chest; he pulled out a bag. All Atua had a somewhat large flap of skin, similar to a kangaroo’s pouch. But unlike a kangaroo, this double layer of skin was right where their chest was.

Ship opened the bag and pulled out a towel. He wiped himself down and then pulled out a green-and-white jumpsuit—at least it looked like a jumpsuit. This was the sports uniform for one of the local teams. Wearing your team colors or tops with pictures of celebrities on them was all the rage on this planet. So, they’d selected this to blend in.

Ship looked over at Icarus, who was in what could only be described as a backwards sweater and some very tight shorts. But this time, rather than being the local team colors, it was a brown outfit with the image of the captain of the team. Again, this was a common outfit among these people.

They nodded at each other and made their way off the beach and toward the city.

The Atua legs weren’t suited to long-distance travel. They weren’t as bad as if they were penguins back on Earth, but still, their short legs meant traveling long distances by foot was slow-going.

Atua evolved to travel quite long distances on their bellies. They didn’t move like that anymore.

It took them a bit of walking before they reached the first street corner. The Atua did have cars, or car equivalents. But that wasn’t what caught Ship’s eye.

Looking at the footpath, Ship realized just how different from humans these creatures were. There wasn’t a clear way for them to walk down the street. Instead, all the footpaths had these gutters of sorts that blew a strong amount of air out of them.

Icarus reached out and grabbed Ship’s hand so they could communicate in private. “We have to ride this thing,” Icarus said.

Ship shrugged as he watched Icarus climb into the small gutter. It was called a chuk-tok, and this was the primary means of travel. They were designed so the Atua floated in place over the jets of air.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Icarus shot off down the gutter, and Ship had to scramble into it to follow behind.

The Atua had thick coats, which meant Ship didn’t even feel the wind passing over him. The ears of the Atua could close in on themselves, meaning it wasn’t noisy at all. The Atua could navigate these gutters easily without their eyes open. They had large organs on the top of their heads that produced an effect like a combination of magnetism and echolocation. Turnoffs and signs were easily identified through unique magnetic fields and sound resonance.

Ship let go of the sides and quickly moved downward. It wasn’t that hard to move down the stream of air, catching up to Icarus. The aerodynamic nature of the Atua body was well suited for this.

Ship could see their desire to be birds again coming through. Much like their sports, this was an effort to make them feel like they were flying. Moving down the stream felt much like gliding.

Ship used his new sensors to feel out the city. Ship noticed the beauty in everything around him. There wasn’t an analogy for what he was experiencing. There was almost a music in his mind as he moved through the city. Buildings, landmarks, even sculptures, all gave off a unique and distinct signal to these new sensors he was using.

Humans’ most-used sense was sight, and so things in the human world were designed to look good based on the eye sensor. There was no other way to describe what he was experiencing but to call it magical. It was a truly alien experience; everything was giving off a new and interesting signal in his mind’s eye.

Ship followed Icarus as they traveled a loop around a block. Ship got the feeling Icarus was enjoying this and wanted to play around a little longer. They looped around one block in particular three times before Icarus jumped off at one of the exits.

Ship and Icarus had watched a number of television shows that demoed the travel via this tubelike network. Atua could enter and exit at any point along the line. But dismounting at any point required a bit of technique and, in Ship’s case, a lot of luck. Ship opted to race past where Icarus got off and exit from a small ramp specifically designed for disembarking.

Ship landed on the ground a good ten meters away from Icarus. He looked back in time to see Icarus pulling himself off the ground—he obviously hadn’t exited the alien transport gracefully.

Ship ran back up the street to catch up to Icarus.

“Did you hear the song playing as we moved down that tube?” Icarus asked. “Each block had a different tune to it; I could hear it in my mind. Somehow, I knew exactly where I was at all times.”

“Seeing the city through these new eyes was something else.”

Icarus didn’t respond. He was staring over Ship’s shoulder, his mouth wide open in amazement. The look was unmistakably human. He was in awe of whatever was over Ship’s shoulder.

Before Ship turned around, he made a mental note to create a script that translated human gestures and mannerisms into alien ones. He was almost confident that expression would mean something completely different to the aliens here.

Ship swiveled to see what Icarus was looking at and understood why his friend had looked so in shock. Both Icarus and Ship had stayed away from watching too many videos of the alien architecture or culture, opting to rely on Lex to provide them with the minimum they needed to know. Even Ship, who’d consumed more of the alien television than Icarus, wasn’t ready for what he saw.

It was the complete opposite of a human city. Everything looked natural, not in the sense that they were looking out into a forest, but as if the buildings were grown, or most likely printed, out of metal.

On Earth, all the buildings were square or curved, made out of mass-produced uniform material. There was always a sense of symmetry in human designs. This was the complete opposite; every supporting beam, window, and building frame was unique. All the pieces twisted and bent in different directions.

It wasn’t an ugly mess either. It was beautiful. It was different. It was alien.

There were skyscrapers, too, massive towers that stretched as far as they could see, but not the uniform versions you’d get on Earth. The poles that made up the tower twisted and grew thicker in random parts.

Ship remembered learning about a design process called evolved structures, which had a similar design language to what he was looking at. It involved asking an algorithm to redesign a shape so that it could be printed using the least amount of material. It resulted in these structures that looked like bone. They looked organic, as if nature had designed them.

And this was exactly what Ship was looking at. The colors were bold and vibrant, too. Ship couldn’t see a dull grey or concrete color anywhere. Somehow it all just worked. The bright colors made for a beautiful-looking city.

Ship grabbed Icarus’s hand. “There’s someone coming.”

There were three aliens heading toward them. They’d just exited the air canal, which was the name Ship had decided best described the wind-transport thing.

The aliens were looking at the two of them. Ship froze. He wasn’t sure what to expect. He felt like it was glaringly obvious he was from another planet.

He watched the eyes of the approaching aliens. They were studying him and Icarus. Then Ship saw an object in one of their hands. Was it a gun? Ship thought and began to full-on freak out.