“Gambit, can’t you move any faster?”

No, I can’t.

This alien woman had been nagging me for 4 hours. After I came to, She made sure I hit the ground running. I’ve been carrying her on my back to….

Who knows where? She gave me directions, and I went. She contained all the power in this dynamic. I had no impact on the inner workings of her alien mind.

At least she was a benevolent dictator. A couple of hours ago I couldn’t find anything to eat. Like a mama bird, she crushed the titanium-plated alien food with her bare hands and gave me the bits to swallow. She told me the pill would allow me to digest it.

“Gambit! Faster!!”

I was running at my full speed. I didn’t know what was in that food, but it sure packed a lot of energy.

“I’m sorry ma’am, but I can’t,” I said with a hint of passive-aggression.

As I said, she held the complete advantage in this scenario. If she wanted to, she could push herself 2 feet away from me. Probably in a matter of seconds. That would eliminate me from the Universe Shanty quite instantaneously. My emerald button was with wherever that metallic alien had been sent to, and I sure as hell did not want to meet him.

What an unfavorable outcome.

Not only that, but I had lost all forms of communication with Muhammud. He had given me a communicator at the beginning of the shanty, and within the first day, I lost it. This alien girl seemed to know a lot about the world, at least comparatively to me. I needed her knowledge if I was ever going to survive.

“Gambit, would you be a darling and run a little faster?” She said in a tranquil voice. “Come on, I’m trying to be nicer. But you’re quite slow”

I snapped.

“I can’t run faster! This is the fastest you’re getting! If you want something faster find someone else!”

Wait, no.

I messed up big time. I had resorted to my usual angry catchphrase of “find someone better”. Problem was I didn’t want her to find someone better. I wanted her with me.

She started to say something. This was it, I was going to lose her in a couple of hours. This wasn’t the fastest time I’ve lost a girl.

“Sorry, but I’d have to decline that offer.” She said regally.

I stopped in my tracks and looked back at her face with tears in my eyes.

“Thank you, ma’am. You’re a goddess y’know!”

She looked at me with a face of disgust.

“You just told me to leave. Now you are happy when I stay. My god, Gambit, your species is so primitive.”

She let herself off my back and fell to the floor. Not so elegantly. It’s hard to be elegant when everything below your torso was missing.

I knew being a Gambit species allowed me to heal fast, but I never thought the difference would be this apparent. My cuts from the fight had healed in a matter of seconds. My left arm grew back within half an hour.

“Well Gambit, we should rest for the time being. Maybe this would increase your speed.”

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I plopped my butt down on the ground right next to her. I couldn’t leave her 2 feet radius. I stared at the scenery around me. Somebody who loved nature would probably appreciate and describe the view better. The short answer of what I saw was far less poetic:

Alien Trees.

I looked at my left arm. It was crazy to think that it had grown back within a matter of minutes. The new left arm felt just like the old, better even. My old left arm had some scars from when I fell off a bike when I was little. Looked like the Hawaiian islands. When I was younger I took pride in that. They called me Mr.Tropical in grade school. My new arm was a little too perfect. The Hawaiian scars were completely gone. It flexed easier and smoother. This squeaky clean new arm threw my body’s equilibrium off. I was used to my right arm being dominant, but now, using my left arm somehow felt more right. No pun intended.

“Are you going to say anything?” A feminine voice said

Oh right. That girl was still here.

I had a tendency to drift off into my thoughts. My head was a safe space for me. A space in which no one can enter. It’s just you. Quite tranquil actually. Nobody can truly get insid–

A loud voice cut off my stream of thought.

“Gambit, It’s rude to not answer someone where I’m from”

I quickly replied, with a slight aggravation in my voice. “Why do you keep calling me Gambit? My name is José,”

Her face contorted. She turned her torso to face me.

“Gambit, the pill can do a lot of things; It allows your ears to understand languages, tones, and dialects. It even converts alien facial expressions to ones of your native species. Only thing it can’t do are names.” She plastered a smile on her face.

“Whatever name you just told me sounded like a random bunch of disgusting garbles. To say an alien’s name, or to legitimately use another species facial expressions would take years of study in that species culture.” She said it so matter-of-factly. Slightly aggravating.

I looked at her with an “obviously pretending to be interested” face. “

Then what am I suppose to call you?”

Her face lit up. She continued with her info dump:

“That’s why we use codenames. In communication, we name ourselves words that can translate across species. That’s why you’re Gambit. As for me, call me anything you’d like.”

“Well if your gonna call me by my species name, I’ll do the same. Nice to meet you Stable.”

I expected this to bug her, but her facial expression nor tone of voice had changed at all. She gave me a very “meh” look.

“Not the best codename I’ve had, but not the worst.”

Silence.

For at least a minute we sat there not saying anything to each other.

Please fall asleep.

“Gambit, you are very bad at this talking thing.” Stable looked at me concernedly. “Do people on your planet not converse.”

Quite the contrary. People on planet Earth talked a lot. So much. I hated how nobody could seem to st–

“Do the people on your planet also take so long to respond.”

Stable continued, “You are not giving me much material to work with here. If we are going to be partners, we should get to be a little more familiar. My people would describe this moment as awkward.”

I didn’t respond. I didn’t really have anything casual to bring up in this scenario.

Stable continued on a bit more flustered. “Sorry, maybe you don’t have the word awkward on your planet. It a feeling that feels kinda like whe–”

I couldn’t watch her die like this anymore. “Stable, I know what awkward means.”

She posed a question to me, “Then why have you not said anything yet”

“Well Stable, there’s not much to say is there?” I rubbed the bridge of my nose.

Silence.

Stable tried her best to continue the conversation. “Must be nice having legs, huh?” She was staring at my lower half.

I instantly retaliated in a stern voice.

“Stable there is nothing even remotely interesting about legs! See? There’s nothing to talk about.”

Stable was a bit flustered “Don’t you want to know about the weapon I gave you? The bow staff? Why it was so powerful? Or even why I chose to stick with you?”

I instantly had a reply.

“Not really.”

Stable got a little more flustered, a little aggravation could be found in her voice, “You don’t have even a little bit of intrigue? From the looks of it, you’re completely new to this part of the universe. Your head has to be flooding with questions.”

“Yeah Stable it definitely is.” I looked up at the setting sun. “Stable, I have millions of questions, but worrying about them now won’t change the results.”

I brought my legs closer together.

“Stable, the bow staff is powerful, and you’ll stand by me. All that matters now are the outcomes of these unknown questions. I’ll ask you the questions when I need to.”

I looked at Stable so we could make eye contact.

“Stable, for now, let’s get some rest.”

For once Stable didn’t give me a look of disgust, but rather a smile.

“I never knew you could be so eloquent, Gambit. A pleasure, it is to be your partner.”

Like an off switch was flipped in her brain, Stable instantly fell asleep.

I spread out back my legs and let out a huge sigh of relief.

Finally, she went to sleep.

I buttoned up the fly of my Mickey Mouse pajamas.

That was a close one!

I thought she would never go to sleep. I tried my hardest to deviate her attention from my lower half in that conversation.

I hope she hadn’t noticed.