Chapter 26: Sharing is Caring

Paulie and Jakiikii stood only meters apart on that quiet rooftop, the chill air blowing between them as the sky slowly darkened above with the setting of the system’s reddish sun on the horizon. Far above them that great striped sphere of Trellan IX flickered and flashed, its planet-wide storms causing a multitude of powerful lightnings and auroras that carpeted its upper atmosphere in an ever shifting blanket of colorful plasmas.

He watched as she shifted slightly from foot to hooved foot, her nervousness obvious. He wanted to say something to ease her mind, but he had no idea what to say. With no clue as to what had been troubling her so, he had no verbal antidote to prescribe to alleviate her burden.

Finally, just as he was about to say ‘screw it’ and just start talking about random topics to alleviate the tension the termaxxi spoke. “I need to tell you something, something that I have never told another being not of my own kind before..” She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot again. Looking like a child who had just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

Paulie cocked his head. What on Earth or beyond could have gotten her into such a nervous state? He leaned back on the wall and crossed his arms, he guessed he was about to find out.

She took a step towards him and held up her arms imploringly. “Paulie.. I am a prisoner, and I need your help.”

That was not what he had been expecting. He wasn’t really sure what he had been expecting her to say, but certainly it had not been that.

He uncrossed his arms as he leaned forward, but she continued on unabated. “No, don’t say anything just yet. I need to give you the proper context. So you can understand just what you are getting into if you agree to help me.”

Paulie didn’t care what the problem was, in that moment he realised that he thought of the strange alien woman as his friend. And he would help her regardless of what she told him next.

“I couldn't say anything to you inside, your apartment is bugged.” That made Paulie jerk.

“What?! How do you know? Mack doesn't seem like the type..” He started to defend the man, but Jakiikii cut him off again by speaking up loudly.

Her husky feminine voice cut through his own, “No. I agree, I don’t see Mack as the kind of person to do that. Especially not to a witness. No, it’s probably somebody else, maybe the building owner. Maybe a third party. But I can see the spectral lines that the camera’s are emitting.” She pointed to her two lowest eyes.

He shook his head. He was getting a lot of information very quickly, so he decided to focus on the things that were the most important. Pointing at the termaxxi female, he asked her quickly, “What did you mean when you said you were a prisoner? Prisoner how?”

Now she took a step back. Seemingly debating something internally as she flashed a dull grey and brown. He couldn't tell if she was afraid or excited, but her eyes seemed to look through him as she answered him slowly.

“My people evolved on the world of Terminaxx, as you learned. And it was destroyed long ago by a terrible war. But what I was unable to tell you was why they were destroyed.. why I am a member of an endangered species.” She paused, her eyes seeming to dim slightly as they moistened. She didn’t cry, but he could tell from her posture that she was becoming emotional.

Paulie stood, arms at his sides as the shorter woman spoke again. Her voice wavered slightly but she shored herself up, her tone strengthening as she spoke. “No, we were not destroyed because we were too dangerous, or violent, or too zealous. No, none of those reasons.” She seemed to swell slightly as her strange lungs sucked in a tremendous breath.

“We were killed because we represented an anomaly in an ordered system. An anomaly just like another race we had only just learned of. One whose name I did not even know, but had been described to me in hushed whispers by my sire and dam.” She paused and looked away. Taking three long strides to lean on the edge of the wall beside him.

He saw her fists clench in rage as she prepared herself to speak. And a cold hand gripped his heart as he understood the meaning of her words before she even said it. “You are an apocalypser too.”

She lurched, head turning to look at him as her mouth opened incredulously to show just the tip of her long pink hollow tongue. “How long have you known?”

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Paulie looked out over the city, that grandiose expanse of bright alloy columns that rose sparkling in the gathering dusk. “I started to suspect it when I saw you save me and Mack in the alley that first night. Then he said a couple of things to me that didn’t make sense without additional context. He knows too?”

She nodded. “Yes, he does. He figured it out while trying to uncover other truths. Mack is..” She shook slightly, not from the cold he suspected. “He took me in when all other hopes seemed lost. Found me at my worst and I guess he pitied me. Gave me a purpose and a reason to exist. I was living off the land before, using my abilities to get into places I wasn’t supposed to. Seeing things I shouldn't.” She looked over at him with three of her eyes, the ones that were facing him. She wasn’t exactly crying, but her eyes were definitely mistier than usual.

He shrugged. “You had to do what you had to do. I don’t hold your past against you, Jakiikii.” She let out a whoosh of air, like he would have if had sighed heavily. He saw her seem to tremble slightly, the woman shivering as if she were cold or terrified.

She nodded slightly. “Why am I not surprised to hear you say that?” She leaned over, her back arching as she rested her head on her arms. “Me and my childhood friend, her name was Griilm, we lived in the shadows. Behind rotting warehouses and inside of dilapidated buildings. For decades this was the only life I ever knew.” She paused and Paulie leaned on the wall a step closer to her. “Mack doesn't know this part though..” She murmured quietly.

He wondered what her age was, he got the distinct impression from her comment that she may very well be older than he himself. She continued, disturbing his thoughts. “It was alright for a long time. I can remember the highs, and the lows.” She paused. Her voice changing pitch slightly as she said it.

Her voice grew pained, the expression of her eyes drooping and the shallow pits to the sides of her head tightened. “Then the unthinkable happened. We got captured, Griilm and I. I guess we stole from the wrong people, snooped in the wrong place, I d-don't know.. I still don’t know who was responsible, but I-I..” She tucked her eye-petals tightly to the sides of her head as she shook it slowly and buried it in her arms. “They took-k her. They took her from me, and I never saw her again! I d-didn’t.. I couldn't..” She seemed to cry openly now, not sobbing as he might have. Instead it was a strange constant whistling gurgle as her one directional lungs pulsed in time with the powerful emotions that were tearing at her.

Paulie was at a loss. On one hand he was there to help his friend, on the other he had only known her for a few days and the entire situation felt a little abrupt to him. Was she really so starved for companionship that he was her only outlet for the apparent trauma that she had kept hidden inside.

Paulie felt a pang of sympathy pierce the normally hardened walls of his mind, but not only sympathy. He felt a strange sense of kinship with this alien. As if he alone in the universe could truly understand her struggles in a way that was both meaningful and helpful. He knew personally all too well the way that such secrets could eat one up inside, festering like a gangrenous wound and poisoning the very soul. He muttered to himself, “Aww screw it.”

He stepped to her side and wrapped a sympathetic arm around her shoulder. He felt her tense and for a brief moment he was afraid he may have overstepped, committed some unspeakable taboo. But it lasted less than a heartbeat as the termaxxi coughed slightly and then wrapped all six arms around his chest and buried her face in his shoulder.

Paulie wasn’t a psychiatrist. He was not a doctor, had no medical training and didn’t know how to deal with the trauma of others. But he had his humanity, and right then, in that moment.. he didn’t see an alien. He saw a friend in desperate need of kinship and so he did the only thing he could think of. Paulie hugged her back and patted her back gently. Making sure not to cover up the breathing vents situated just below and to the sides of her uppermost shoulder blades.

He spoke softly, trying to do his best to help. “I understand, you lost somebody close to you. I understand.. it hurts.” He felt a tear forming in his own eye as he thought of the ones he had lost. He wanted to tell her something that might make her feel better, but he couldn't bring himself to. Instead he started talking about his own life.

As she clung to him he nodded his head and spoke softly. “I had a rough childhood too. My parents.. were not kind. My father used to beat me when he got home from work, called me pitiful and a mistake. My mother.. she never hurt me, but never loved me either. She never acknowledged me, between the drugs and the alcohol I am not all that sure she ever really saw anything at all. Much less the small worthless scarecrow that often scurried to her when father was angry.” He paused, a frown deepening on his face as he saw flashes of near forgotten memories. Pain and darkness, the feeling of confinement and the sensation of hunger. He shuddered.

He felt Jakiikii shift slightly and looked down. Two of her eyes had risen to look up at him and her gurgling cries had eased slightly. He continued speaking, realising that maybe just the act of talking to her like she was a person was helping to calm her.

He jerked his head to the side and screwed his eyes shut as the emotions tore at him. “He beat her too. But I don’t think she really cared, not at the end. And when he hit her for the last time and turned to me I couldn't think of anything but escape. I ran.. Jakiikii.” He looked down at her. “I abandoned my own mother, and I ran like a coward. I was just a child. But what could I do? And that shame lives with me every day. Maybe I could have done more, but by then it was too late.”

Paulie felt her grip on him loosen, the slushice sat forgotten on the wall behind him as he tried to comfort a grieving friend. “I was taken by the state and placed into foster care. I jumped around for a while, but nothing ever felt right. Nothing felt like home, you know?” He asked her, hoping that she had calmed enough to respond.

He smiled at her as she lifted her head from where she had been hiding it and nodded. “Yes. I know that feeling well.”

He nodded again, giving her back another series of small gentle pats. He could feel the slight cushioning of her fur through the thick fabric of the bodysuit. He ignored it and continued talking. “Well, I was an angry kid. Got into a lot of fights. Teachers said that I had wrathful tendencies and was a bad apple, but I didn’t care what they said. I didn’t care that the other kids were afraid of me, hated me, shunned me. No, I was all I ever needed.. but not at all I had ever wanted.”

She pushed away from him, her two middle arms still resting lightly against his chest as the alien woman looked up at him. He gave her a half smile. “A friend.”

He saw her nod, a flash of that pale white washing over her exposed skin as he said it. “Me too.”

He wanted to say more, but there really wasn’t all that much more that needed to be said. He frowned slightly as he looked down at his toes, a little afraid he may have said too much. He had never really talked to anyone like this before, not since his great aunt Margret had died anyways.

She drew back a step as he thought dark thoughts and jabbed a fist into his shoulder, making him grin slightly in spite of himself. “Well, sorry for breaking down on you like that, Paulie. I just.. I guess I needed to talk to somebody.”

Paulie smiled and gave her a nod. He placed a hand on her shoulder, “Well. You have one, and if you ever need to talk then you know where you can find me. Thanks for trusting me. I feel like this was good for both of us.”

Her eyes flicked around as she picked up her discarded cup and cleared her voice. “Yeah. I think so too.”