The alien creature sat, on its haunches, beside its father. Its legs, knees seemingly in the wrong location, were pulled up to her chest as she hugged them. Her eyes, circled by white fur behind those strange four lens glasses, stared at the body with alien, yet all too human sorrow.
Nona had said her name was Daium.
Chuck sat on the floor about ten feet away, left arm against some sort of carved statue (a tree trunk gradually forming into one of these creatures. Pretty, if a bit abstract and freaky). He had removed his coat, hat, and gloves, as had the others sitting around the room, the house warm despite the still broken open front doorway. Melinda wormed her way under his left arm, pressing close. It felt... good.
Looking at Daium, Chuck started to realize it was the monkey-like alien not being surprised by them, as they were by her, that was getting to him more than her actual appearance. Shouldn't this Daium be shocked by hairless creatures? Or was the fiction of this world as full of creatures like them as theirs was with humanoid apes? Did they have a sci-fi "Planet of the Humans"? Or, and this really got him thinking, was she just not surprised by ALIENS? God, what had they gotten themselves into...
The blackish furred creature reached out a shiny black hand. Her fingers trembled a bit as she, slowly, began to stroke the fur of her loved one. Voice high pitched but soft, she spoke. Nona, her entire body leaning forward in concentration, translated.
"They came last night... the... somethings, some sort of soldiers, maybe. Daium and her dad had been fleeing them, had come to this place to do their work in secret. They were found... her dad told her to hide, to not come out, as they didn't care about her. He... she heard them, heard it. Her father never told them what they wanted."
Closing her eyes, Daium pressed her hands together before her face, long fingers intertwined, pointing upwards.
"Pokok yang mempunyai benih tidak akan mati..."
"A tree that has seeds... never dies." Nona swallowed. "I'm sorry, guys, this... I'm getting weirded out by this entire thing." Daium opened her eyes, looking at the girl. Nona's shoulders slumped, eyes closing. "I'm sorry."
Anthony pushed himself to his feet and walked over. Chuck saw Daium's eyes follow him. Despite her obvious grief, those eyes showed... an awareness of the situation. A wariness. An intelligence they'd have to get used to quickly. THEY were the intruders, invaders, the ones out of their element. They needed this girl, and such help could only come willingly.
And they had to beware the price.
Squatting down next to the dark haired Malaysian, Anthony put a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes opened and raised themselves up, glistening with the start of tears.
"I want to go home..." It came out as a whisper. The others shot glances around the room. Chuck felt Melinda press even harder against him. His hand found itself cupping a breast, which he gently squeezed. Her soft hand came up to cover his.
"You're doing great," Anthony told Nona, smiling. "I know it's hard, but you're strong, and we need you. Without you, we couldn't talk to our new friend here."
"How do we know she's a friend?"
Anthony looked over at the creature. She had pushed herself away from the body, legs crossing on the floor in emulation of the humans. Her white chest, contrasting with her black (with a hint of grey) fur, reminded him of a cat he once had. The cat hadn't had a skirt and some sort of suspenders/bra setup, though, or beads hanging next to its ear. He looked back at Nona.
"I tend to trust anyone with a flowered skirt, at least until after the first date."
"THAT will get you in trouble," Tammy muttered loudly from the corner. Anthony ignored her but grinned. He cocked his head over at their host.
"I think it's time we introduced ourselves to her. Let's show her where we're from."
****
Daium looked across the snowy expanse at the distant rectangular form of the store.
Her head swiveled, checking the surrounding area. It went back to her house, then again to the building with "BELLS" written on the front in large, red letters. With an expression of clear puzzlement that transcended species, she reached both hands up and removed her glasses. Her four eyes squinted into the distance, then looked down at the lenses in her hand. Carefully, she spit on each lens, brought out a small thin green cloth from a pocket in her skirt, and cleaned her glasses. Satisfied they were clear, she put them on and looked again at the store.
"If," Melinda muttered, "she says 'You came in that? You're braver then I thought', I'm gonna scream."
"I'll make sure I translate it that way, then." Nona, coat on but unzipped, the temperature rather warm now, once again tried to put her mind in Malay mode. "Ya, kedai kami hanya muncul di sini. Bodoh, bukan?"
Daium looked at her, expression one of... of what? Worried confusion? She stood up strait, almost matching Nona in height, adjusting her glasses.
"Bawa saya ke sana. Selepas saya mendapat beberapa perkara pertama." She vanished back into the house.
Anthony cast her a questioning glance. Nona shrugged.
"She wants to go to the store. Maybe she needs to do some shopping."
****
The girl returned not with empty shopping bags, but with a large, filled, backpack and a wooden case with a handle. She had changed into the equivalent of a hooded snowsuit, with gloves on both her hands and feet. The suit was white, made from some sort of quilted cloth. If it wasn't for her face, and the pink backpack, she'd almost vanish in the snow. She walked up next to Nona, looking at her expectantly. Anthony laughed.
"Well, I guess that means it's time to go home. We can have lunch there."
"Let's hurry," Alicia said, "I have to go to the bathroom!"
****
Nona, walking next to Daium, soon found them trailing the others as they retraced their footsteps. Part of this was due to the furry girl's shorter stride, her legs a bit bent and bowed when standing upright. Spectacled Monkeys tended to prefer being on all fours, or in trees, and Nona could see this creature probably would prefer to do that if the snow wasn't so high. More so, though, it seemed Daium just wanted to get her alone. They'd only been walking for a few minutes when she started talking.
"You are... Nona, right?"
"Um, yeah. Nona."
"Hmm... does your species have jantina?"
"Um, what?"
"Jantina. Male, female..."
"Oh, yes, sorry! My Malay is VERY bad. I don't use it much. Yes, we have male and female."
Daium looked her up and down, eyes speculative.
"Which are you?"
Nona returned a look that required no translation. Daium's eyes widened, and she reached out a gloved hand to gently touch Nona's shoulder. Only the fact she couldn't feel it through her winter coat kept Nona from reacting.
"I am sorry if I offended! You all dress the same, except the one who leads!"
Nona shook her head, clearing it.
"Sorry. I'm not offended. It... we are far from home, and tired. We don't want to be here." She took a deep breath. "Yes, I'm female. Almost adult. We have to dress this way at work. Human females tend to have long hair on their heads, and breasts like yours." Daium nodded in understanding. Nona looked ahead, and began pointing to the others. "That is Anthony. Adult male. Our sort of leader, as he was our leader at our job. Next is Hannah, adult female. Tammy, female, adult. Chuck, male, almost adult. Melinda, female..."
"Female?" Her voice was so shocked, Nona couldn't help a laugh from bursting out. Daium's eyes then widened. "Oh! That is why she was sitting against that Chuck! They are mated!"
Now it was Nona's turn to look shocked. Chuck and Melinda, actually together? She glanced at their backs. Damn it, their hands were joined, weren't they. You'd think she'd be more observant about such things. Her companion, she noted, certainly was.
"So, where was I... yes, Melinda, female, not quite adult. Justin, male, almost adult, and Alicia, female, almost adult." Daium nodded.
"I am female, adult... maybe. Sometimes. Father said I was, but..." she shrugged, the movement looking weird on her.
"Why were they after you?"
Daium didn't reply. The alien kept her eyes on the growing form of the supermarket ahead of them. So, Nona thought, information was only flowing in one direction. That would have to change...
****
Anthony stopped them in front of the glass doors, pulling out his cell phone to check the time. A bit after noon. Once everyone's batteries ran dead, there'd be no way to tell time. He was almost looking forward to that.
Alicia was bouncing up and down.
"Come on! I have to go!" A couple others nodded in agreement, getting a chuckle from him. Anthony looked over at Nona and Daium.
"OK, we're here. Daium, there's no power at the moment, so it's going to be cold, and a bit dark. After we do some human stuff, we'll sit down and, while we eat, exchange information with each other. OK?"
Nona conveyed the message the best she could. The creature cocked her head a bit, reaching up to adjust her glasses, then nodded at him. Good. That settled that. For now. With a smile at their new friend, he turned and unlocked the front door and led them in.
Once through the foyer, Alicia, Melinda, and Tammy made a mad dash towards the back of the store and the restrooms. They only made it twenty feet before remembering to come back for flashlights. Laughing, Chuck grabbed a second flashlight and followed. Anthony turned to Hannah.
"Could you come upstairs for a moment?"
****
Once in the manager's office, he took a seat and swung the office chair around towards Hannah. Chuckling, she set herself into Lenny's chair. They looked at each other.
"So," Anthony asked, stretching his legs, "what do you think?"
Hannah let her body go limp, head falling backwards.
"Oh, God, I don't know..." Her chair began swiveling back and forth. "Does any of this make sense to you?"
"Not even a little." He grinned. She liked that grin. Always had, ever since getting the job. Hannah had always had a thing for guys in mustaches, so combining that with Anthony's sense of humor...
Which still didn't explain last night. She closed her eyes.
"What do we do?"
"We keep safe, and try to get home."
"Keep telling me that last part. Please."
"I'll get you home, Hannah. You'll see your daughter again."
"Liar..."
****
Justin and Nona watched as Daium slowly took in the large grocery store. Sunlight lit up most of it, at least to some degree. Up by the registers there was more than enough light to read. Daium walked up to register three, one hand hesitantly touching the metal side of the counter convertor belt. She seemed to frown.
"It looks like we're confusing her," Justin commented. Daium turned at the sound of his voice. He smiled, which got yet another confused expression from her in return. Considering something, he turned to Nona. "I need your translation skills." He began walking over to Daium without waiting for a reply.
"Daium." She turned from the gossip magazine she was contemplating as he approached. Still smiling, Justin brought out his iPod. "The store may not have power, but for now this does." He turned the touchscreen device on, holding it out to her in the palm of his hand.
Her eyes lit up. Gently, she took it from him, turning it this way and that. Adjusting her glasses, she leaned in towards the glass screen. Justin moved up next to her.
"Touch it like this." He reached in and hit the iBooks icon. A moment later, the screen changed to show his book library. She looked at him, startled, then removed her glove and moved her own finger over to hit one of the books. It opened. Her eyes darted up. Turning quickly, she looked at the cash register next to them, with its blank computer monitor, then down the row at the other eight. Head whipping around again, her eyes landed on the remaining flashlights. Handing the iPod back to a surprised Justin, she grabbed one of the smaller flashlights and quickly flipped the switch. Holding it so the light just missed her eyes, she looked in at the glowing bulb. Turning it in her hands, she spoke quickly. Nona shook her head.
"She's asking something about... source of...?"
"The batteries!" Justin grabbed another flashlight, unscrewed the top, and poured the two C batteries out onto the counter next to Daium. She picked up one of the cylinders, turning it over, looking at the markings, then dropping them and examining the connections inside the flashlight itself. After a moment she put it down, stepped back, and seemed to think. The two humans exchanged a glance. Soon, Daium's eyes refocused and turned to Justin.
"Di mana bekalan kuasa kedai anda?"
"Um... I'm sorry, the store what?" Nona shook her head, confused. "I mean, saya tidak faham."
"I know. She wants to see where we get our power." He regarded the snow suited creature for a moment, then smiled. His eyes... seemed to capture hers. Hesitantly, she picked up one of the batteries, and indicated with her other hand the whole of the store. He nodded. Grabbing a hand lantern, he walked around the register and motioned the two girls to follow.
****
Justin took them down the frozen aisle, through the swinging door and into the dark back room. Flipping the lantern on, he cast light around, giving the newcomer a good look at the space. A concrete floor and tall roof contained two loading bays, complete with power lifts, on the left hand side. The main room here had the walk in freezer and cooler, break room, and rest rooms. A long wide aisle ran the length of the store behind the meat department and bakery, divided into storage areas, one per grocery aisle.
"Welcome to where we work," he told Daium. Assuming there'd be no reply, he walked across to a small wooden room made of plywood and two by fours, with glass-less windows, next to a metal door. "That's the receiving office, if we need any keys they should be in there, and over here on the other side of the door..." His light flashed on wall mounted metal boxes. "... are the fuse boxes." Opening the first one, Justin lit the rows of switches, then the electrical diagram on the inside of the door. "Tell her this controls everything."
Nona repeated that in Malay. Daium, looking fascinated, walked over and stood next to Justin. Her snowsuit brushed against his jacket... and both paused for a moment. His eyes flicked over to her face, even with his, her eyes turning on him. He could feel... a blush coming.
"Now," he said, stepping away from the girl, amazed that he could even keep talking, "As for where our power comes from, or at least came from..." Pushing on the long handle, he opened the back door.
"There."
On the exterior brick wall, behind the fuse boxes, were grey metal boxes with clear plastic cylinders attached to some of them. Coming from their tops were thick black cables, traveling up to the roof, then flopping down to the ground. Justin picked one up, showing Daium the end.
"Whatever brought us here cut that."
Tentatively, she took the cable from him. With Nona holding open the door, Justin ducked back inside and quickly returned with some keys. He wasn't sure the store was supposed to have a copy of these, but that wasn't his problem. Opening the boxes, he was happy to see instructions and schematics for repairmen. He called Daium over.
Seeing the drawings, and the various connections and circuits, she let out a cry of joy. With one quick movement her pink backpack dropped into the snow, and wooden case was placed flat on a snow drift and opened. Inside... were electronic instruments.
Justin and Nona exchanged a glance. This wasn't some primitive monkey girl. This...
"Apakah nombor ini?"
Nona, propping the door open with a piece of wood, came out and looked.
"She wants to know what the numbers are."
"Don't tell her yet!"
"Wait, what?" Confused, she saw Justin pop back inside then return with a magic marker and a piece of cardboard. He lay the cardboard over on the snow, knelt down, and called Daium over.
"OK, Daium, time for you and I to start communicating!" He raised a closed fist. "Zero." He wrote a zero on the cardboard, then raised one finger. "One." As he wrote the one, Daium's eyes widened. Nodding happily, she moved to kneel next to him. With rapt attention, she saw Justin write up to the number ten. As he went on to eleven, she suddenly gave a gasp of understanding. Hand eagerly asking for the marker, she took it and wrote the number twelve, looking at Justin for confirmation. With a laugh, he nodded, putting a hand on her shoulder. Damn, she was smart! She did thirteen, fourteen... jumping up, she grabbed her new number decoder and went back to the boxes. Nona looked at Justin in disbelief.
"Um, how did you..."
"Oh, she's smart! All she needed to know was that we use a base ten system, and what our symbols are for zero to nine, and she can decode all our numbers. We can do that same with her stuff, naturally."
"Maybe you could..."
"Come on, you're smart. You're no Alicia..."
"Justin!"
Daium's call had both their heads whipping around to look at the four eyed girl. She had a small wooden oval object in her hand, with a glowing screen on its surface and various wires coming from the end. She was pointing at the diagram again.
"Cara yang melakukan perjalanan kilat semasa?"
Nona shook her head again.
"Which way does the what travel?"
"Probably the electrical current." Justin moved over to see where she was pointing. "Yup." Naturally, as he looked at the setup, Justin realized he himself had no idea. The multicolored wires were as confusing to him as it probably seemed to her. More so, maybe, as while he knew some stuff, and could probably find the ground, he'd never worked on anything like this.
A groan came from beside him, as Daium put her hand to her forehead. It was the universal expression of, "damn it, how could I be so stupid". She reversed some of the wires from her device that she had put into the mass of wires before her, then considered the result.
"Is there a party out here or something? You're letting all the cold out."
Chuck and Melinda looked out the receiving door, taking in the sight of the snowsuit clad alien playing with the power boxes. Behind them, Tammy and Alicia stayed inside but tried to angle for a better view.
With a cry of joy, Daium dropped her tool back into the wooden box and leapt over to Justin. She hugged him, tightly, then just as quickly jumped back. Her expression... Justin had no time to decode it before she began running away from them through the snow.
"Where the hell is she going?" Chuck asked, stepping out of the store.
"Don't ask me," Nona said, "it's to the point where they barely even need me translating."
As they watched, Daium stopped before an oddly shaped snowdrift and began digging. Chuck, seeing that was a hard thing to do with your bare hands, turned to Tammy.
"Toss me the snow shovel next to the door, would you?" Catching it, he walked out to the struggling alien. Getting her attention, he began digging. After a moment's hesitation, she smiled at him and began directing his efforts. Soon Tammy was over to help as well. Within a couple minutes, they were done.
It was a grey box, maybe three feet square and two feet high. There was a door on the top, with a black handle recessed into the metal. Daium opened the hatch... revealing what looked for all the world like a long, coiled garden hose. Swiftly, she grabbed the end and ran back to fallen power lines. Dropping to sit on the snowy ground next to her tool box, she removed her glove-like shoes and began connecting the cables with all four appendages.
The humans looked at her, stunned. Laughing, because he didn't know what else to do, Justin looked at Tammy. She hadn't bothered putting her hair up in her usual pony tail, so it fell down around her face. The result hardly looked like her, or at least the her Justin had been pining after. Those eyes, though...
"What?"
Her amused question shook him out of it. With a grin, something her expression showed was out of character, Justin motioned back through the open receiving door.
"Could you go get some duct tape? She might need it."
Tammy cocked her head at him, considering... then nodded and vanished back into the store. The remaining five teens watched their new friend work.
"If she does this," Alicia muttered, to nobody in particular, "I may stop thinking she's evil and dangerous."
"Oh, we can't have that," Melinda replied, pressing against Chuck's side. Alicia gave her a look of disgust.
"Stop throwing yourself at him, will you."
"Oh, bite me."
"Didn't know you were into that."
"Will you two shut up," Chuck softly scolded them, looking back. "We can schedule the bitch fights for after lunch."
"She started it," muttered Melinda. He ignored her
****
Tammy arrived a few minutes later, tape in hand and both Anthony and Hannah in tow.
"OK, what am I missing?" Anthony looked over the gathering as Tammy tossed the roll at Justin. The teen grabbed it, quickly found the edge and unrolled an inch of tape. Squatting down next to Daium, he showed it to her. Pausing in her activities, the creature tentatively touched both sides of the grey strip. Eyes widening, her face broke out into a smile as she nodded happily at the boy. Taking the tape, she set it down on her toolbox and went back to work.
"Well," Tammy told the manager, "once we figure it out, we'll tell you."
****
Hannah was about to suggest they go inside and eat some lunch when the creature, finished wrapping tape around the joined cables, leapt to her feet and ran barefoot to the strange metal box the hose came from. Reaching inside, she did something....
The entire store, inside and out, lit up.
"Oh-Kay," Anthony muttered. "One problem solved, twenty million to go."
****
The humans sat, winter gear discarded, around the second floor conference room table. Heat blared out of the vents, quickly making this small enclosed space rather toasty. Once they had checked to make sure everything was working, most of the lights and such were turned back off until needed. Only the freezers and coolers, and heating, were active in most of the store.
Well, that and the rechargers. Anthony, looking against the far wall, could only laugh at the eight iPods and cell phones plugged into a quickly set up power strip. God forbid what would have happened if they had kept going with no music!
While that important activity was going on, the kids themselves were eating the sandwiches made that morning, plus a bag of chips and a good allotment of caffeine filled coffee and pop. Chuck had gone through both his lunch and dinner sandwiches, and was eyeing Melinda's second salami, cheese, and tomato on rye. Laughing, she pushed it over to him, but not before grabbing half of it for herself. Everyone, even those who usually punished themselves diet wise, was hungry.
Daium, again wearing just her green skirt and suspender/bra, sat next to Justin. She had moved the chair so there was some room between the two, but Anthony noticed her eyes always going back to the brown skin teen's face. He wondered if Tammy should start feeling jealous.
Well, they could worry about the usual relationship drama later. Most of the food was gone, conversation was starting to pick up, so it was time to get to the important things. Anthony stood and, after grabbing a square cardboard box from against the wall, walked to the head of the table. Putting the box on the table and picking up a marker from the whiteboard on the wall behind him, he raised his hands.
"OK, everyone, quiet down. It's time we got to the important task of figuring out what the hell is going on."
"Should only take a minute," Chuck chimed in. Anthony ignored him.
"OK, now, Daium, we, humans, are from a planet called Earth." As Nona quietly translated next to her, Anthony reached into the box and pulled out a globe. It was an old globe, probably acquired as some sort of vender gift/bribe years ago, and had been used for various "international" food displays. According to its markings there was still a USSR, but that didn't matter for their purposes. Placing it near their wide eyed furry guest, he pointed to a spot near where Lakes Erie and Ontario meet. "We're from here."
He pushed it closer, Daium's hands slowly taking the globe and running over it. It was one of those fancy ones with raised mountains, and Anthony watched as her long black fingers traced out the Rockies. Her eyes came up to meet his, and he wondered if, until now, she had really believed their story. Moving over to the whiteboard, he drew a circle.
"This, is our sun. There are two small inner planets," which he drew, writing their names, "then the Earth and its moon. Then Mars, the gas giants, and... out to Pluto." It took him a moment to recall the correct order, but thankfully the old "Mary's Velvet Eyes Made John Stay Up Nights, Period" was still rattling around his head. He kept Pluto, just because, even though when that mnemonic device was written Pluto hadn't been discovered yet. Pointing back to the Earth, he looked at Daium. Her eyes were glued to his. "We, humans, have visited our Moon. We have also sent robots to all the other planets, but haven't yet gone ourselves. We have looked out into space, discovered endless stars and galaxies, planets... but have never found ANY life but that on our own planet."
Daium shot to her feet when Nona's translation got that far. She looked around at them, at the gathered humans. Her expression was one of total shock.
"Saya...anda ... anda tidak perlu ..."
Not even needing the translation, Anthony shook his head slowly.
"You are the first, Daium."
She looked down at the table, mind obviously whirling. After a moment, she straightened. One hand going up to adjust her glasses, she pushed the chair back and walked around the table to Anthony. Nona followed. Nodding to both girls, Anthony handed the market to Daium, then quickly showed how the eraser worked in case she needed it. When she nodded in understanding, he moved away and took his seat again.
Daium stood, looking them over. Her eyes seemed to fall on each human, seeing them for the first time. Turning to the board, she began to draw, speaking softly so only Nona could hear. The Malaysian turned to her friends.
"We are on the planet... Tanah."