Their jail was...weird. Yeah, weird was a good way to describe it. Weird based on my own preconceived ideas and knowledge of what jail was, anyway.
I was expecting something dirty and vile, maybe a space I’d have to share with rats or other unwanted rodents. Instead, it was pleasantly clean and upbeat. The cells had nice beds, private bathrooms, desks, and even floating televisions. Hell, even the doors to the cells were just regular doors with some fancy locks on them. On top of being surprised by the quality of the place, I was surprised by how familiar a lot of the objects looked. Yeah, their toilets and TVs were a little different than what I was used to. They were still clearly toilets and TVs. I felt like I understood Rebecca’s adjustment a little bit better. Of course, I never thought she was stupid or anything, but a lot of what I was seeing was just the evolution of what I had back home.
The officers tried to chat with me in the interrogation room they put me in. They started in their language, and I just smiled weakly and shook my head. It sounded like they tried to speak a different language, albeit broken and poorly. I laughed and shook my head again. They kept trying, the poor guys. The most I could do was think about what language it reminded me of most. The German-sounding one was obviously their native tongue, spoken with confidence and clarity. Their second attempt at speaking a language I might understand sounded almost like French, though I couldn’t judge it very well since they could barely speak it. I had no idea what the hell the third one was supposed to be.
“That’s how I spoke Spanish after my high school classes,” I said, still laughing. It was their turn to look at each other, confused.
After a while, they left the room, bringing me a remote for the floating TV in my cell. They didn’t even rebind my hands with their strange, magic-like cuffs made for their people’s slender wrists. I was free to wander around the featureless, grey, small room. Somehow, that wasn’t appealing, so I tried the TV that was provided. After taking about twenty years off my life trying to figure out the remote, I learned that anything on there was completely unwatchable anyway. Not unlike most of the television programs on Earth, though for entirely different reasons.
The door opened, slamming hard against the wall behind me. It had been the biggest sign of aggression I’d seen on the planet outside of the shooters. I scrambled back to my chair and sat like a good prisoner, back as straight as I could manage. I recognized that I was in a very delicate situation. Just because the cops had been cool with me didn’t mean I was out of hot water. Just because they weren’t bothered by the fact that I killed four people didn’t mean that everyone would be as accepting. There were a lot more people to win over than just a few members of a single police force.
The first one that walked in was McLeod-levels of intimidating. Lightning-blue skin, a pristine white outfit of someone who was in some kind of military, a sword hanging at the hip, and stern eyes told me they were not to be trifled with. Behind them was someone who looked a bit more like me. Tall, a little lanky, maybe a little lost, and very tired. Really, we could have been twins had it not been for their pink skin and lack of hair.
When they looked at me, their eyes widened in shock. They ran up to me and placed their hands on my face. Pushing my cheeks together, I was forced to do the fish face that the kids in kindergarten were fond of. They gently pinched and pulled at my face. Frowning, they pulled their own skin, apparently to their dissatisfaction. Maybe they thought I was wearing some kind of mask to disguise who I truly was.
The blue one barked something at the pink one, who stood up straight and tried to look serious. They put their hands around the back of my head and pulled me slowly toward their face. Right when I was terrified that my first kiss was going to be with an alien, we gently bumped foreheads, and memories not my own flooded my brain. I gasped at the sensation, one not quite physical. There were so many, and they moved so fast in my thoughts that I couldn’t keep up. In an instant, I was exhausted like I’d run a marathon. The excitement and adrenaline running through me perked me up just enough to ignore it.
Testing! Testing! Hello? Like the memories I’d just seen, the male’s voice in my head wasn’t my own and I scrambled back, terrified of what had just occurred. Aw yeah, the trance worked!
The pink-skinned person turned to the blue one and yelled something excitedly in their language I couldn’t understand. Blue looked somewhat relieved. He was still far from being happy, though. I wished I had names for them so I wouldn’t have to refer to them by just their skin color.
I can’t believe this is happening. Okay, so, this...wow, this is so cool.
When I realized the tone of voice in my head was the same as Pink, I narrowed my eyes at them. Are you using telepathy to talk to me? In English?
No. Well, not exactly. They stopped for a moment, puzzled. I can sort of mesh our minds together. I’m not speaking your language and you didn’t speak mine just now. Funny, I could understand you.
How does that work?
It’s a long story about how I got here and what my job is. The gist is that I make our minds one if you want to look at it simply. If you think something in your head, you think it in your own language, right? Well, I’m thinking in your head, using your brain. Since we’re effectively sharing our brains, that means we can share thoughts, feelings, and memories. Most importantly, it lets us communicate. Since we think in our own languages, our brains will default those thoughts to the language we know best.
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“Does it work for talking?” I asked, already feeling a headache coming on from his explanation.
“It can, but it’s just a touch harder.” The voice came out in their native tongue. My brain processed it as English instantly. He was right. Hearing his language and having my brain turn it into English was a little harder than just sharing our thoughts. “Oh, I’m Maggnerious, by the way. Son of a notorious criminal, I might add.”
“Yeah, I’m just going to call you Magnus, if that’s okay. I’m Ethan. Um, sorry about your criminal parent.” My brain had trouble translating his name into the only language I knew. I tried to sound it out in my head a few times, only coming away with moderate confidence I could successfully pronounce it.
The whole thing was so strange that I was almost able to continue ignoring the exhaustion I was feeling. Pretty sure they weren’t going to kill me, I rested my head against the table. The cold metal did a little bit to soothe the headache I had. It wasn’t quite enough to get rid of it completely. I needed some sleep. Well, I needed to be home. Then, when I was safe in my own home, I needed to get some sleep in my own damn bed.
“I can’t believe I’m talking to an alien, this is so cool!” Magnus slammed his hands on the table, apparently thinking that the alien in front of him getting some damn rest wasn’t important. “Ethan. Ethan. Eeeethaaaan.”
I was so used to my name being a regular, normal name, that hearing someone try to sound it out and enunciate everything properly was weird. It was almost like having a baby try to say its first coherent word. Hey, at least he tried, and he didn’t butcher it as badly as he could have. I didn’t trust that I had a decent enough handle on his name to try and speak it out loud.
“Hey, how did you do this?” I pointed toward our foreheads. “How did you do this brain connection thing? Some kind of technology?”
“I don’t know, how did you create four javelins that you used to kill those moggodrackin?” He gave me a smug, knowing smile. Unfortunately for Magnus, I wasn’t in on any of his jokes, and I wasn’t in the mood to smile either.
“The who now?” I rubbed my temples, instantly wincing at the pressure I put my recently formed, mannequin-created bruises under. “Look, I just got here. I don’t even know how I got here. I’m glad that you guys don’t want to kill me, and I’m thrilled that your first interaction with a human has been a good one, but can I please do this tomorrow? It’s been a very long, very upsetting day.”
“You’re the first human to ever meet an alien race, aren’t you?” His face fell. I remembered that I was essentially opening my heart and mind to communicate with Magnus, so he was feeling everything I was. “That’s a really big deal. That makes you the most significant person of your race to ever live. Not a single other human has ever been able to say they’ve done what you’ve done.”
I appreciated him trying to make me feel better. I wasn’t lying about how long and upsetting my day had been. It didn’t do much to make me feel better. “I’m the first human who also killed four aliens while being trapped on an unknown planet. Who knows what the hell I just got myself into, let alone the people back on Earth? I sure don’t know.”
“Well, on behalf of the pjulsen, I thank you for what you did.” He did a strange pulling gesture with both of his hands toward his chest, probably some way of saying thanks through body language. “You saved a lot of innocent lives. A lot of innocent lives of a species you had no obligation to protect.”
I went red and looked to the side, struggling to handle his sincere thanks. “So, do you have powers like me, then? Does everyone have them?”
“Absolutely not.” My head jolted to look at the other person in the room. Blue said the first thing that I could understand, stepping forward toward the table. It sure was handy that the translation thing from Magnus worked when I heard others talk. I was starting to realize that the pjulsen voices were like human voices. The males tended to have deeper ones, based on my interaction with an officer I was guessing was female. Realizing he had forgotten his manners, Blue stood rigid and offered me his hand with the palm facing down.
“Uh, nice to meet you,” I said, grabbing his hand from the bottom and giving it a shake. One of Magnus’ memories had been of that greeting. I was thrilled I managed to pick it out instead of committing a horrible social faux pas.
“You can’t expect him to know how to greet people here like that, even with my trance working.” Magnus actually rolled his eyes, something I was elated to learn our people had in common. “I’m sorry, this is Svesoner. He’s our planet’s Great Defender.”
The title seemed a little lame and like something out of a fantasy book, but Magnus seemed to hold it in high regard, so I wasn’t going to be the one to step on any toes. In response to how he greeted me, I stuck my hand out like I would if I were greeting someone back on Earth. Noticeably confused, he gently tapped his blue palm up against mine.
“Well, it looks like we’re both bad at our greetings. I’m just lucky I had a little cheat sheet to help with mine.” I laughed, something the pjulsen matched nicely, making me feel a little more at home. Magnus turned to the Great Defender to translate nearly as fast as the words left my mouth. “Do you mind if I call you Sven? Your names are a bit hard for me, and those nicknames would be more familiar.”
“You protected my people tonight, Ethan. I owe you a lot more than that. Call me whatever you want.” He pulled up a chair and sat across from me. I looked up at the markings on his head, which were in the shape of swirls, almost like waves. I wanted to ask him if they were tattoos. “I know you’re tired, but you’ve just put yourself in a war between two people on a scale that you likely haven’t dealt with before. If you can manage it, please, let me give you a brief history of our conflict. It’s important to understand the severity of what happened here tonight.”
I wasn’t thrilled with it. I hadn’t been telling any lies about how tired I was, and I knew he saw it. He didn’t have to be an expert in human biology to tell when one needed to put their head down on a soft pillow, shut their eyes, and drift off to a blissful eight hours of sleep. Instead of eight, I figured I was getting close to needing around eighty. Between the Sentinels, the Sphere, the new planet, killing people on the new planet, being arrested, and having to share my brain with someone, I was officially too cooked to want to hear the lore of a whole new species.
I was also too cooked to protest, so I settled for sighing and leaning back in my chair. “I’m not going anywhere. Sure, why not? The only thing I’d like in return is a real bed to sleep in after we’re done.”
When Magnus wrapped up translating, Sven nodded. “Absolutely. I don’t think the pjulsen would approve of anything less than that for their new hero, even if they don’t know who that hero is just yet.”