Chapter 23: One Hell of a Headache

Paulie awoke to a pounding headache, the likes of which he could not ever remember experiencing before. It felt almost like something had torn a hole in his brain. He jerked as he remembered flashes of his experience the night before, he suppressed them as he did to the faint screeching at the back of his mind.

Chuckling, Paulie shook his head sadly as he walked to the kitchen. He filled a glass of ice water and muttered, “I must be losing my mind.”

Whether he was or wasn’t, he didn’t know. But what he did know was that he had not dreamed the events of the night before. No, they had happened. What had happened? He remembered flashes from the strange vision he had seen after being exposed to the discombobulator. He shuddered at the sound of the voice that had echoed through his mind. And then the second time there had been no voice, as if it were a different being. But they were far too similar to be a mere coincidence.

He had to get to the bottom of it, maybe he should get a CT scan? Did these aliens even have CT scans? He walked to the kitchen and replaced the glass on the counter next to the sink, turning it upside down so it would stay clean. He needed to think, but he had other things that he needed first.

He stepped out into the room, the towel still wrapped around him as he slowly gathered his clothing. He only had a single pair of everything, he was going to need more if he expected to be able to walk around in public.

That stopped him dead in his tracks, a single sock hanging from his hand as he remembered what Mack had told him. He wanted him hidden completely, out of sight and mind indefinitely. Maybe it was because of the ongoing investigation, maybe it was something else. But he wasn’t really too sure as to what the detective’s motivations were. He was an alien after all.

For all Paulie knew the miriam just wanted to kill him and lay maggots in his rotting eye sockets or something..

Paulie felt bad for thinking it as soon as the thought entered his head. It had felt foreign, not something he would have thought himself. He grunted and turned an eye inwards, mentally slapping the cage containing the suppressed malignant intelligence that sat uncomfortably in the back of his mind. It squirmed, his head twitching as he felt something seem to move inside his skull.

“Eh, don’t even think about it.” he growled, and the movement stopped. He smiled grimly, it was on a tight leash at least. But still exceedingly dangerous it seemed. He was going to have to be careful. “Stupid parasite.” He muttered angrily as much to himself as to the thing living rent free in his grey matter.

He wasn’t going to make any progress talking to himself though, and so he walked into the bathroom and grabbed the small wrist communicator from where he had taken it off the night before. He dressed quickly before he clipped it on, the small screen seemingly lighting up as it detected he wore it. The falling lines of alien text meant little to him, but he remembered that Mack had set it up for verbal commands.

He turned the ‘commie’, as Mack had dubbed it, over with his wrist and located the small blue button on the side. He pressed it three times in quick succession, the device’s screen flashing first a pale green then a deep amber as a tone issued from it. It spoke in a tongue that he could not understand. Growls and gurgling barks that sounded altogether alien to him.

He shrugged, for whatever reason his parasite wasn’t translating the words to him. He paused at that, had he damaged or injured the parasite in their struggle? Was the jargon worm now defective, would he be forced to undergo a new implantation or something? He felt a little panic in his chest and turned off the device before the thought’s could overwhelm him.

He spent the next fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to use the weird machine in the corner again, only to give up in disgust as it seemed to flick between two screens and reset with a series of angry sounding noises.

“What the hell?” He grumbled and sat back onto the stool he had pulled up. He was just about to throw something at it when he heard a knock on the door.

He stood slowly, looking around for something to use as a weapon. His eyes alighted on the metal stool and he hefted it with one hand. In the lower gravity it weighed little, but still had enough inertia to cause some damage should the need arise.

Paulie crept to the door and called out in his best french accent, “Hello? Who is there, Tina, is that you?”

There was a short pause and then a deep husky voice replied in a confused tone. “Oh.. my apologies. I thought I was at the right door.” He chuckled as he recognised Jakiikii’s voice.

He unlocked the door, tossing the stool back into the room with a clatter as he opened the doorway wide and smiled. Jakiikii stood there, a large bag held in two of her arms as she partially lurched backwards.

“Ahh! Oh.. it is your room? But I thought.. wait, you changed your voice. That wasn’t funny, what if you had been in trouble or something?” She seemed to be a little put out, two hands going to her left hip as she stood in the doorway.

Paulie hesitated and then nodded. “Yeah, okay. You are right, sorry.. um, come on in.” he muttered, “Mind the mess.”

She seemed to smile, her dainty mouth crinkling slightly as her eyes roved all around the room. “What mess? You don’t own enough belongings to qualify as a mess, even should you throw them all upon the floor.”

Paulie nodded. “Yeah. that was actually what I wanted to talk to Mack about, but.. Oh hey wait?!” he stuttered as he realised he had been talking to Jakiikii the whole time and understanding her. “I can understand you still?”

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She stopped at the table, bag in hand. “Uh, yea? Should you not be?” Three of her orange petal-eyes turned back to what she was doing at the table as the others continued to either observe him or look around the room independently. Watching all six of her eyes and arms move at once almost made him feel a little sick.

He sat down heavily on the edge of the bed as Jakiikii finished unpacking. Before her on the table was an alien spread. Boxes, packages and other things less recognisable sat on the surface of the table and she turned to look at him triumphantly.

He nodded, “Yeah. Great? What is it?”

She scowled, mouth compressing to an even thinner line as she spoke. Her husky tenor filled the room as it emanated from her lower abdomen. “It’s groceries, you dummy. A little welcome to the neighborhood gift basket from me to you.” She nodded in a self satisfied manner, and Paulie grinned.

She had such a positive energy, he found it hard to stay annoyed at the alien woman. Even as her eyes lit upon his own and he found himself staring into those glowing orange orbs again. She seemed to pulse white and then broke eye contact, clearing her throat. He shook his own head and then winced as a jolt of pain shot through his head.

“Aughh.” he groaned as he leaned forwards, head in his hands as another spike of lingering pain lanced through the bowels of his mind.

In a flash he felt arms steadying him, two, three, five. He shook his head and looked up to see that the termaxxi had bounded to his side. Her arms lingering on him even as he looked up and nodded his thanks. She removed them slowly, lingering a little longer than was strictly necessary.

He nodded to her again, “Does your parasite ever give you headaches?”

Hey eye petals drooped and she shook her head. “Not to my knowledge. Why? Is yours?”

He hesitated, how much could he trust the alien? She had already saved his life on one occasion he could think of, and could have just let him die on another. No, she was trustworthy. He didn’t exactly have anyone else to trust himself to anyways and had to tell somebody.

He sucked in a long breath as she took a seat on the edge of the bedding near him. Her two longest arms resting on the bedding as her others rested on her suited knees. From his position beside her he could see her abdomen slits, the two almost gill-like openings fluttering slightly as she breathed out in a slow continuous stream.

Paulie nodded. “Yes. It hurt me.. a lot.” He looked up at the alien woman to gauge her reaction and was not surprised to see her face a mask of poorly concealed concern. Her two lower petal-eyes had drooped till they nearly seemed to press flat against the base of her neck. He swallowed audibly, “Last night. I was.. attacked.. by the parasite. Or something like it. A mental assault, but I managed to stand up against it somehow. I don’t know what happened!” He finished angrily as he cradled his head in his hands.

Jakiikii’s voice broke through the layer of horror that was swamping him again. “Maybe, it was a bad reaction to something else? I have never heard of a jargon worm so much as giving somebody a headache. Much less attacking their host.” She seemed a little taken aback. “A-are, you sure? That it happened?”

Paulie stood to his feet and stomped over to the nearby wall. The anger burning in his gut making him want to lash out at something, but he pushed it back down. It was more difficult than he would have normally expected, the negative emotion likely being shored up by his unwilling mental prisoner. He shoved harder, the sense of tension snapping like a rope as he finally wrestled control of his emotions back and sucked in a deep breath. He felt like he was struggling to think straight, to talk.

Paulie nodded silently and turned to face Jakiikii. She had not moved and still sat where he had left her a moment before, though her eyes still tracked him with a certain subtle wariness. Like a cat watching a bear. Ready to bolt or perhaps defend herself at a moment's notice.

She stood slowly, her arms held close to her body as she asked in a shaking voice. “Paulie, tell me what happened, exactly. Please, this is important.”

He shook his head, “I don’t know what happened, I just have flashes. A darkness, me in some manner of armour. A flaming sword and the sound of a presence that felt incalculably old whispering to me that I was a slave.” He stopped and looked at her. “I am sorry, that is all I can remember right now.”

She nodded. “Okay. That is okay. I will need to keep a closer eye on you though to make sure you don’t have some sort of seizure or attack.” He couldn't tell if his words had meant anything to her, he supposed she would tell him when she felt that he was ready to know if she had.

Paulie waved a hand at her. “Okay, that is fine. I like having you around anyway, Jakiikii.” He smiled slightly as he said it. She seemed to smile back, her eyes perking back up as she shifted slightly from foot to foot cutely. He nodded towards the table. “Are you going to tell me what you brought?”

She seemed to shake herself as she nodded. “Oh, yes. I apologise. I tried to get in touch with you, but I didn’t have your communicator address.” she pointed to the small electronic device on his wrist.

Paulie nodded as he recalled trying to use it earlier. “Oh, yea. I was supposed to ask you and Flurn for your numbers the last time you were here. But I forgot.” He shook his wrist and frowned, “It doesn't matter anyways, the damn thing is broken.”

Jakiikii hesitated then and joined him by the table, her slightly shorter frame causing her eyes to have to swivel up to look into his face. She maintained that eye contact with her two upper eyes even as three of her lower four turned to look at his wrist. She grabbed it and turned it over in her middle pair of hands while one of her lowest pair inspected the device.

She nodded and then pointed to a small pink crystal on the other side of the device that he had not noticed before. “Did you attune it?” He looked at her blankly. She sighed from the breathing gills on her abdomen and then muttered, “Of course you didn’t. You don’t even know what that means.” She stepped close to his side now and held up her own device, the small communication device situated on her right middle arm. “Watch.”

She tapped the wrist computer’s screen and then on a small blue button in the upper corner. Paulie copied her actions exactly and she gave him another smile. She navigated a series of scrolling text screens before the screen turned a solid pink and the small crystal on her own device lit up like a small shimmering light. He did it too and she growled in satisfaction as his own device did the same.

“Now you have it attuning. In order to finish you need to think about it, look at it hard and imagine that it is a part of you. This will convince your translator to attach itself to the psi-waves and should act as though it is a part of your own system.” He did as she asked.

At first he got nothing, then a pressure built at the bottom of his mind. A feeling of resistance, as if his subdued parasite was refusing the very thought of it. He got a feeling of strain, the sounds of glass breaking and then what felt like something trying to wriggle free from his grip. In response he bared his teeth and bore down on it mentally and it let out another pitiful squeak before submitting. There was a sense of anguish that was quickly overridden by his own sense of relief at having subdued the strange invasive presence again.

“Whew, alright. I think it’s good.” She was looking at him strangely but just gave a slight nod. “Okay, how do we know it worked.”

She shrugged all six arms. “I guess I need to call you. Here, this is my virtual address, do you know how to put it in?” He shook his head and she stepped even closer, close enough that they were almost touching. “Here, you go to the contact list and add new contact. Liiike that.. And done.” She stepped away slightly on her dainty tri-cloven hooves.

He nodded and then said, “I guess I could go into the bathroom and you could go into the kitchen. I will call you to see if it is working.”

She nodded and he turned to go, glancing back at the strange alien as he went. She seemed at once so knowledgeable and strong. He smiled to himself, it was good to have friends like her and Mack in such an unknown place. He entered the bathroom and closed the door, leaning against the sink he tapped the blue button on the side three times and was rewarded with a small chime.

Nodding his head he spoke clearly, “Call contact, Jakiikii.”

For a moment there was no response and he was afraid it hadn’t worked. But then the small device made a beeping noise and the screen resolved into a slightly shaky picture of Jakiikii’s smiling face. Her small lipless mouth turning upwards in a grin as he heard her voice resonate from the device.

“Oh, hello. Fancy seeing you here. Did it work?”

Paulie nodded, giving her a wide smile in return. “Yes. Yes it did.”