Two days went by before I felt I could travel. It had been interesting trying to learn about Jarath and the way he did things. Frustrating didn’t even begin to describe how I felt about the language problem, especially when a quick trip to my ship could solve that problem almost instantly.

The lesson on how to use the toilet had been more than funny, with Jarath doing the motions with a red face and me trying to keep a straight face. It wasn’t as primitive as I’d feared. At least they used water to flush with. It wasn’t too different from what I was used to. Thankfully.

Until I could get to the translator chips, I had to resort to some crude sign language and trying to create little scenes and act out what I wanted to say. I was hopeless at it and wouldn’t be signing up for a career in mime any time soon.

Now that I thought I could actually walk the distance, the most important thing I needed to do was to get Jarath to help me find the ship.

I grabbed one of the small models of crude flying machines that he kept on a shelf in his living room. It would make my little scene easier to convey. I also grabbed two little bottles from his kitchen; one contained a white powdery substance and the other a brownish powder. He sprinkled them on our food sometimes.

I sat him down at the table and tried my best to play out my ship crashing with the flyer, pretending the brown bottle was me. I made it crash on the table, made the bottle stay with the ship for a short time, then made it stagger away. I grabbed the other bottle and tried to act out me bringing him to the ship.

Finally, I pulled the ship’s locator from my belt and held it out in front of me. I pretended to walk around looking lost, then slowly brought the locator to the flying machine. I hoped I’d made it clear enough.

He seemed to be putting it all together in his head. I pointed at the bottle of brown powder and pointed to me. Then I pointed at the white one and pointed to him. I followed up by making us walk up to the ship again.

I could see the moment he understood. It clicked in his brain and our eyes locked. He asked me a question, and I could only guess that he was asking me where the ship was. I wasn’t really sure. It had been dark and I was injured. And a little out of it, too.

I held up the locator again, hoping that he would understand that it was the key to getting there. I was fairly sure it was understanding I could see dawning in his eyes.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Walking was hard on the uneven ground. My leg still hadn’t recovered. Pain radiated from my hip to my knee and I wished that I’d been able to take the medi kit with me that night, but it was too heavy to carry, even if I hadn’t been injured. The frustrating thing was, my injuries would be almost non-existent now if I’d been able to keep up the treatments. I sighed. No point in worrying about that now.

The beeping sound increased in speed and pitch on the locator. We were heading in the right direction.

I inhaled deeply, loving the smell of the grass and the trees and the damp earth. I was so glad to be out of that house. I knew I had to keep out of sight — there was no blending in with these natives — but it had been getting to me.

We’d been walking through the woods for about half an hour and it seemed like we were still on his property, but I couldn’t be sure. As we followed the signal to our left, the trees thinned out and I worried that I might be seen. I pulled Jarath’s cloak tighter around me in case we ran into some local aliens. They would know right away that I wasn’t one of them. My hair and skin colour would give me away instantly.

I wondered if they were all as pale as Jarath, and if they looked as good as he did. Were they as well-built, or was he more of a rarity? What did the females look like? Were they all tall, or were there shorter ones? Were any of them as short as I was? If I laid low at Jarath’s house until I could be rescued, I wouldn’t be able to find out first-hand. I’d have to ask Jarath — once we could understand each other.

Where was the ship? I had to get some painkillers and I had to get off this rock.

The thought of going home made me feel warm inside, but when I thought of leaving Jarath, of never seeing him again, it felt like a hole had opened up in my chest. I frowned. Why would I feel like that about a stranger? An alien? It was weird. But he wasn’t such a stranger anymore. We’d been together for the last two days and although we spoke different languages, we still seemed to be able to communicate enough to get by. Kind of.

Jarath wore a cloak, too, so I wouldn’t look so out of place. Pity. I couldn’t watch his fluid movements as he flexed all those muscles.

I know. I was pitiful. He wasn’t even the same species. But he was eye candy. I couldn’t keep blaming my head injury now that it was on the mend, but I liked looking at him, and I liked him. He’d taken care of me and given me a safe place to stay, even though I was an alien on this planet.

The locator started to beep faster and the pitch changed drastically. My heart sped up to match. We were close. Really close. The surroundings didn’t look familiar. Nothing looked the same in the daylight.

We reached the top of an embankment and saw the mess I’d made when I’d hit the ground.

My stomach clenched. “Ah, hell.”

Laith was gonna kill me.

Jarath let out a string of words that were probably curses.

Trees were torn up by the roots. Some had been burned, some of them shattered. The earth was churned up into jagged mounds of dirt, rocks, and grass.

Now to find the ship amongst it all.

We walked around a fallen tree and over a mound of dirt. I turned to the right and the locator went crazy. I slowed down. It was right here.

Jarath kept walking and I grabbed his arm. “Whoah, there, Alien Boy. Take it easy. You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

He turned toward me with a puzzled look, so I thought I’d help him out. I moved forward until my hands made contact with the hull, then I knocked on it. His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. I was right. He hadn’t seen a cloaked ship before.

Before Jarath could close his mouth, I hit a button on the locator to decloak my Viper 8000 and saw the excitement and awe in his eyes.

It was only a small ship — just a two-person speeder — but it was a good one. It had seen better days — even before the crash — but it was reliable and it was mine.

My brother, Laith, would not be impressed to see what I’d done to it, but I couldn’t do anything about that now. And I wouldn’t be in this predicament if it wasn’t for my own stupidity.

I’d found a G-Class planet on my radar and wanted to see it up close. While I was preparing to join its orbit, a piece of space junk hit my starboard engine, causing it to burn at full capacity. I couldn’t shut it off so I cranked up the port engine to try to match it and level out before I lost all control. By the time I’d stopped spinning, I’d travelled too far into the planet’s atmosphere. I tried to pull up, but the engines cut out as the fuel tank reached empty.

I was going down, so I did what I could to slow my descent and change my trajectory so I could survive the landing.

I guess I’d done a pretty good job — I was alive. The Viper had skidded along and finally nose-dived into the ground and was sitting at an odd angle, but it was in one piece. Well, mostly one piece, if you didn’t count the engine parts and wing fragments scattered around the place.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I pressed my thumb to the lock beside the hatch and it opened upwards, then a small set of steps extended to the ground. I climbed into the ship, heading straight to the cockpit. I could have cried with relief when I saw that the homing beacon was still active and still sending a signal into space. I closed my eyes and held back the tears, hoping that Laith was on his way.

I went back to the hatch and called to Jarath. I couldn’t show him my baby and not let him get in and feel what it was like to sit in the pilot’s seat. His face lit up and he didn’t hesitate. Once he was sitting in the undamaged seat in the cockpit, I watched his face as he looked around him. His people had achieved flight — if his model flying machines were any indication — but they definitely were not equipped for space travel.

My eyes were drawn to the other seat — the one I was sitting in when I’d crashed. A shiver ran down my spine when I saw the piece of metal that had caused the gash on my leg and I realised how bad it could have been. How close I’d come to losing my life.

A sharp pain shot down the side of my head.

Okay, enough messing around. I needed the medi kit.

I pulled the kit out of its compartment behind Jarath’s seat and set it up on the small bench above it. All the things I’d need were there and were thankfully undamaged. I sighed. At last I could get some real relief.

Now for the embarrassing part. I needed to get at my leg.

I removed my cloak and threw it over the back of the seat. I’d opted to wear the clothes that Jarath had given me — one reason was to blend in, but the other was because my shipsuit was a one-piece. I would have to strip down almost completely just to get to my leg. At least this way, he’d only see my underpants.

I pulled my left leg out of my pants and grabbed some antiseptic spray. Jarath was trying not to look, but I didn’t have time for good manners; I used hand movements to convince him to watch me. I needed him to know how to do this so he could treat my head wound.

Next, I applied the muscle regeneration spray, followed by some Skin-Grow. The gash was already sealed, mostly, but the Skin-Grow would make sure the rest of the skin was sealed and would prevent scarring.

I waited for the sprays to dry, which was only a minute or two, then quickly pulled my pants back on.

Now for my head. The lump was gone, but the wound was healing sooo slowly. I put each spray bottle on the shelf in front of Jarath and sat down in the co-pilot’s seat.

There was no need for my trusty little torch: the lights in the cabin were bright enough. I pointed to each bottle in turn and he sprayed them onto my head. When he’d finished, I thanked him and smiled.

Oh, that dimple of his was going to be the death of me...

Focus!

Now for the translator chips. They were the next thing on my list but I didn’t know how to even start that conversation. I could think of no hand movements to convey the right meaning, but I had to think of something quickly.

I decided to start by injecting one into my head first.

I looked in the medi kit and I found the injector gun first, then I eventually found the chips in a little side compartment.

Jarath’s face had gone white. I had to admit the injector gun looked like a weapon. Poor thing must’ve thought I was gonna blast him now that I’d found my ship. I smiled, but that probably wouldn’t have made him feel at ease.

“It’s okay.” I gave him the thumbs-up sign that we’d worked out meant that something was good. “Good. Yes. Good.”

He watched cautiously as I loaded a chip into the gun. I’d never done this to myself before. I’d had one inserted a few years ago and had it removed after my missions were over. And I remembered that it hurt. A lot.

And after the two days of pain I’d had, more pain was the last thing I wanted.

But I had to do this.

I braced myself. I had to make this look easy and not too painful while Jarath watched me. I kept telling him that it was alright as I turned it toward my head and placed the tip behind my ear.

Jarath’s face was a mask of horror and he leapt out of his seat. I kept smiling and before he could pull the thing out of my hand, I pulled the trigger. The clicking sound was horrible and the pain was worse. It hurt a lot for something so small, but it would be worth it.

I smiled up at Jarath and he looked like he wanted to kill someone. “It’s okay. I wish you could understand me already. I’m okay.” I gave him the thumbs-up sign again and reached for a painkiller spray and sprayed it behind my ear. I followed it up with the antiseptic and the Skin-Grow. It would heal up in no time.

Jarath didn’t look convinced. He was talking, but it still sounded like gibberish. I had to wait until the chip started to do its thing. It would work things out soon enough.

I showed him how small the injury was and kept reassuring him.

Then it happened. His words changed to something I could understand. “...You do that to yourself? I can’t understand you. I thought you were treating your injuries, not giving yourself new ones.”

I felt my eyes go wide. It was so wonderful to be able to understand him at last! I couldn’t help smiling at him and he stopped talking. How could I tell him I understood?

I opened and closed my hand as if it was a talking mouth then touched his lips. I brought it across to the spot where the chip was, making my hand talk the whole time, then pointed to my ear. I had no idea how else to tell him.

He frowned. “What are you trying to tell me?” Then his eyebrows went up. “Are you trying to say... that you understand me?”

I nodded vigorously and put my thumbs up for added emphasis.

“Really? You can understand?”

I nodded again.

“Because of that thing you stuck in your head?”

I nodded.

“That’s amazing!”

I reloaded the injector gun and pointed at him. “Your turn.”

“You want to do that to me?”

I nodded and put my thumbs up. “Yes.” I could see his hesitation, but I think he wanted to be able to understand me as much as I’d wanted to understand him.

He nodded slowly. “Okay.”

I motioned for him to sit back down in the seat. He turned his head and leaned forward so that I could reach. I lined the gun up carefully and pulled the trigger, cringing at the loud clicking sound.

Jarath swore under his breath. I didn’t blame him. There are so many blood vessels and nerve endings on the head that it wouldn’t matter where you injected the chip, it would still hurt like a bitch.

I followed up with the sprays from the medi kit, then flinched as I remembered he was an alien. What if these medications did more harm than good? I cursed myself for being so stupid and hoped that he’d be okay; there wasn’t much I could do about it now. Even if I washed them off, they would’ve already penetrated the skin.

His frown lines disappeared, so he was probably feeling some pain relief. That was a good sign, wasn’t it?

I kept talking to him while we waited for the chip in his head to communicate with mine and download the vocabulary for his language that mine had already built. Both chips were already programmed with every word in my native language, as well as every other known language in the universe.

His eyes lit up. “I can understand you! I can’t believe it! This is amazing!”

Finally. “Yes. It is.”

His smile was infectious. “This is just so unbelievable!”

“It is one of the reasons I wanted to come to the ship.”

That dimple looked like it was here to stay. “There is so much I’ve been dying to ask you!”

Well, me too.

We talked for a while and I found out that he lived alone — which is what I’d suspected. We were still on his property, and that the town nearby was called Carnavon. All members of his race were as pale as he was and I definitely would not pass for a local.

“Well, there are some races in other countries that are darker in skin tone than me, but there’s no one on the planet who looks like you. No offence.”

“None taken. What about height? Are you tall compared to your race?”

“Nah, I’m just average.”

So I would be a little tall in comparison.

I let him ask me about the Viper and where I was from. I couldn’t really explain where exactly in the Universe I was from because of his limited knowledge of any solar systems or galaxies outside of his, but I did the best I could.

I started getting restless. We had to go. I’d left the ship visible for too long. It was too easy to see, even with its nose in the dirt. I found a bag and shoved all of the sprays I’d need from the medi kit into it, plus a few extra things. I replaced the spare translator chips and the injector gun and closed up the kit.

After putting my cloak on and my hood up, we climbed out, closed up, cloaked and headed back to Jarath’s house.

We talked on the way and I couldn’t help feeling elated. Things would be so much easier now. There was no barrier between us and it felt freeing. Like I’d been locked up and gagged and now I’d been let out.

As we approached his house, I couldn’t help thinking about my poor ship. There was nothing I could do to fix it. Laith was the expert, anyway. It needed a bucket-load of work done — if it was even salvageable.

I didn’t know what I was going to do if Laith couldn’t find me.

I couldn’t let anyone here see me. I looked too different. My skin was too dark. My hair was too dark. My eyes weren’t the same. I’d have to hide out in Jarath’s house for now. Luckily, I liked the scenery — him being the scenery.