Adaptation: book I

by Pepper Pace

  Carmella panicked and nailed the board back into place. She stared out the slit between the boards, eyes peeled to the partially hidden alien. What do you do when you are the only person left in the world and there is something lurking in your yard that scares the hell of you?

  Carmella dashed for her rifle. There could have been several more out there circling her house, ready to snatch her and take her to some alien world—or worse. She had hurt one of badly. Maybe she’d be punished. They wouldn’t take her, and this she swore. There was a wine cellar in her lower level, which also included a cement and steel bunker. She’d retreat there if it turned into a stand-off. Carmella peeked out the window into the darkening night. She could no longer see the Blob, but her body knew that danger was just outside her door.

  When total darkness fell, Carmella did not light any candles. She brought a chair closer to the window and peered through the boards out into the night. When the sun rose, she didn’t go outside to tend to her animals and barely tended to her own needs.

  Why was it here?

  ~***~

  It had been three days since the woman had come out of her house. Bilal was certain she had seen him, and he chastised himself for being careless. He had moved dangerously close to the house in an attempt to see inside. It was stupid. But she had put up the boards, and he could not see inside to get a sense of her.

  Unless … she was sick.

  He shuffled in consternation, his flesh rippling and changing from the camouflage of greens and browns to nearly black.

  ~***~

  That fateful night, he had been healing his own damage and hers as well. The wounds to her breast had been too much for him. It had taken nearly all of his strength, and he needed enough energy to make the long trek back to his pod. He’d done the best that he could, ashamed that he couldn’t completely remove all evidence of the injury. He certainly had the ability. Bilal’s tentacles shielded fine filaments that could join with objects for the purpose of exploration and understanding. He understood each cell and neuron and found its pattern. He could detect and repair any anomaly. His kind had long since eradicated human diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s, and AIDs. It was part of being processed on the mother ship before being reintegrated with humans on Earth 2.

  He had worried about her as he had carried her injured and bloodied body back to her home. She was in shock and was losing a great deal of blood. Despite this, he was curious about her. She had long dreadlocks and formed a tentacle for the purpose of examining her hair. Now that he was an adult, humans generally shied away from him unless they were his friends. He knew that humans didn’t like to be touched by Centaurians, and he understood. They didn’t like the feel of his cool, smooth flesh.

  But Centaurians had to touch. They didn’t see well with their eyes and saw with their sensors, which were confined within their tentacles. They could taste, see, hear, and sense things with the fine, sensitive filaments. Once exposed, the filaments didn’t have to be connected to an object to “observe.” But it was the preference of Centaurians. Humans called them touchy-feely. He found it interesting that humans considered that a bad thing.

  Bilal had placed her on her sofa and had connected a tentacle to several different areas of her body. She was a strong female, healthy despite her self-imposed exile. He found a vertebra that needed straightening. She probably had some pinching in her neck because of it. He didn’t have time for that, though. Bilal concentrated on her injuries, tackling the smaller ones first in case he ran out of “juice” and had to leave them unattended. He liked that particular human euphemism. “Juice” was a good interpretation for what he needed to use to facilitate the woman’s healing.

  He allowed his filaments to go beyond her injuries in order to collect “samples.” He stared at her dreadlocks and her brown skin while he should have been concentrating on his task. He could tell that she was right around forty Earth years old. She was tall and what humans called “shapely.” He determined that she had carried a child to term, and his flesh rippled. She lived alone because the house only had one human smell. He understood from Earth 2 that the loss of a child was the most devastating loss that humans had endured during the epidemic. Many humans never recovered from it even twenty years later. He wondered if the offspring she had lost had been a victim of the disease or had been taken to Earth 2. He thought it was the first. The most resistant humans joined with the Centaurians sometimes for the sake of their children.

  His body turned black. How could she live like this—alone?

  He completed his task and withdrew from her body. He had felt as close to death as he ever had and wondered if he had finally gone too far. He thought about his parents and friends and wondered if he met his end on Earth would anyone truly care. Bilal hunkered into a ball and shivered knowing that if he retreated completely within himself and passed out, the human would likely awaken and cover him with kerosene and torch him. It would damage him in the way that a bullet really couldn’t. As long as his filaments retreated and coiled into a ball within the mass of his body, then he might survive being burned alive.

  Not wanting to take that chance, as soon as he could, Bilal sluggishly left the house. He didn’t know if he could make it back to his pod, but he had no choice. It took a day, but he made it, programmed the pod to return to the mother ship, retreated into himself, and lost consciousness.

  ~***~

  Upon awaking, Bilal had found himself surrounded by his four parents, their tentacles pressed into his body. His eyes focused on his First Mother. Her skin was mottled black and red because she was angry, yet a tentacle formed to caress his face. He formed a tentacle and intertwined it with hers. It was akin to a human hug and kiss.

  A First Mother’s bond was strongest because she had carried him. Bilal had two mothers and two fathers. Their DNA had been mixed in order to create him before he had been implanted into his mother. It was the most efficient way to coexist on a mother ship that traveled through space for years on end. The limited space meant that one family consisted of multiple parents. Offspring generally lived with their parents until it was time for them to reproduce and to form their own family units. Parents went through a great deal to negotiate the best match. Certain traits possessed by a Centaurian were more desirable than others. But that was not the only consideration. Social standing also factored in.

  Mina, his First Mother, had been highly desired despite her being much older than his other parents. She was a high-ranking official in the Centaurian hierarchy and was one of the few Centaurians who had only one mate like in the old days. Her first mating had occurred long before her new mates had been born, and unfortunately her original mate had died of old age. A short time later it was negotiated that she would join a newly formed family. When it was time to create a child, she had demanded to be First Mother. Perhaps that was why there was some animosity between Bilal’s mothers. His Second Mother, Baba, had argued that Mina had already given birth to a child and it was her turn. Mina had never bonded with the family because of her previous mating, and the fathers thought that if she bore the child then it would help her.

  It hadn’t, and once Bilal had become an adult, she moved into her own home.

  His First Mother had gone against tradition when she had formed her own separate house away from her partners, a luxury only now possible since the formation of Earth 2 and the extended living space afforded to them. She had then invited Bilal to live with her, which he had done happily. It had deepened the animosity with his Second Mother, who didn’t even like him. It shouldn’t have ever mattered, but it caused a huge scandal within the Centaurian community. Some tried to pass laws against it fearing the collapse of Centaurian family units, but it was more unpopular to pass such laws than to allow an unhappy partner to leave. Because Centaurians were so rooted in tradition, not many considered doing such a thing.

  Baba removed her tentacles from Bilal, and he gave her a weary look. Here it comes …

  “Chil
d, what have you done to yourself this time?”

  Child? He was an adult. His body formed into a ball, and he reached out a tentacle to communicate without words. “Mother-baba, I was attacked.”

  “Attacked?” his fathers asked, listening to his conversation through their own tentacle connection. “By what?”

  “Wolves.” He lied. Why was he lying? He prevented his skin from turning yellow in shame.

  “You were nearly dead, Bilal,” his Father-Tom spoke. Centaurians had selected simple names that were easy to form with their foreign mouths and tongues.

  “There were a lot of wolves Father-Tom. I dispatched them but not before I lost much strength.”

  “What if you had died?” Baba asked.

  Then you would no longer be ashamed of me, would you? Bilal thought. He reached out a tentacle to wrap around hers. “But I didn’t.”

  ~***~

  He rested with his First Mother and was thinking about the brown woman when his two best friends entered the set of rooms allocated to him. His rooms were “human-friendly.” He had chairs and couches and utensils for eating and drinking. He didn’t lie to his mother that the things were for when his friends visited him. He didn’t have to. His mother understood that he liked having manmade items around him.

  “I heard you got your ass handed to you by a pack of wolves,” Lawrence said with a broad smile.

  Bilal stretched out on his bed, elongated, and came to a standing position. “And hi to you, too. Yes, I’m fine, thank you very much.”

  His other friend, Raj, rubbed his body until it formed a tentacle that intertwined with his arm in pleasure. “Are you okay, little buddy?”

  Lawrence came over and rubbed him until another tentacle formed to wrap around his arm as well. “I’m fucking with you, Bilal. You are okay, aren’t you?”

  He regarded his two friends. They didn’t mind when he touched them in this way. They didn’t think it was like a snake wrapping around their bodies. He could see in their facial expressions and postures that they cared about him.

  “I’m fine.” He released them.

  Lawrence went to get something to eat from Bilal’s cabinet. “Did you find anything interesting down there this time?” he asked while examining a piece of fruit that had seen better days.

  Bilal’s body began to ripple, and Raj cocked his head. “What’s wrong?”

  “I did find something interesting.”

  Lawrence bit into the fruit and studied his friend. Lawrence was twenty, had blue eyes and blond hair, and was strong and sturdy. Raj watched Bilal curiously as well. He was smaller with a compact yet toned body. He was forty and had the golden brown skin and slanted eyes of an Asian. He was Korean but had lived his life in America before the end of days.

  “Well, show us,” Lawrence said while chomping away. “You always find some good shit. Tell us what you found, and we’ll explain it to you.”

  “I can’t. I left her on earth.”

  “Her?” Raj asked.

  “A woman. One last human woman.”

  “Fuck … me …” Lawrence said.

  ~***~

  Bilal watched the silent house and worried. Maybe she had killed herself. Humans did that kind of thing when they were afraid or confused.

  Bilal had shuffled back and forth before cursing to himself. He had to go inside, and that had not been his intention. He wanted to watch, that’s all, to make sure she was okay. Okay, no, that wasn’t it. He was curious. He wanted to indulge his curiosity. He liked looking at pictures and roaming through dead towns for a semblance of the life humans had once lived. And now here was a human right before his eyes. How could he not indulge his curiosity?

  He lifted a tentacle and raised it, searching the air for any signs or sounds. Bilal turned swiftly. A wolf was coming up on him, stalking him, and he’d been so preoccupied that he hadn’t realized it. It was only one wolf, but it was a big healthy one.

  Bilal withdrew his stinger just as the wolf leaped and went for him with lethal teeth bared.

  Chapter 7

  ~Wolf and the Alien~

  Teeth sank into Bilal’s flesh, piercing the protective outer skin but not enough to cause his fluid to escape. There was pain, but it wasn’t bad. He had no bones, tendons, or muscles, and bites could do little damage. If the beast managed to take a chunk of flesh, however, that could be a problem. Bilal wrapped a tentacle around the beast’s neck and speared its underbelly at the same time he flung it through the air.

  The wolf came down on all fours with a pained yelp, but he scurried for Bilal. Wolves generally retreated in the face of the strange alien with flesh that gave instead of ripped and a stinger that could stab. This wolf was different. Bilal raised his stinger again, and this time it was filled with poison.

  “No! Wolf, no!”

  Wolf spared his mother the briefest look before leaping at the alien. Bilal was surprised at the human’s sudden appearance. She had darted out the door and was running across the yard toward them screaming at the top of her lungs.

  In the brief moment that Bilal dropped his attention, the wolf sank its teeth into his flesh, this time shaking his head back and forth and tearing out a great hunk of flesh. Bilal sank his stinger repeatedly into the beast, and the human was finally upon them, slapping him and screaming until he released the limp beast.

  Bilal watched in confusion as she gathered the wolf into her arms and rocked his lifeless body. “You killed my baby! Wolf!”

  Bilal shuddered. The wolf was hers. He wrapped a tentacle around the hysterical woman’s neck and pulled her free from the dead animal. She nearly went mad with fear and grief as she kicked and fought. Bilal formed three more tentacles to wrap around her to keep her still. She soon resembled a wild-eyed creature encased in a strange cocoon.

  “If you want this creature to live, then you will have to stop fighting me!” he snapped.

  After a moment, she quieted, her struggles lessening.

  Bilal dropped her unceremoniously and allowed all but two tentacles to retreat to his body. These remaining two attached to the animal.

  The poison would stop the wolf’s heart, but he could restart it as long as it hadn’t been too long without oxygen. His sensors entered the animal and sought the organ that pumped life throughout its body.

  Carmella watched with her hands pressed against her mouth. She was shaking and crouched near her baby. He was dead. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the alien’s tentacles begin to burrow into Wolf’s body. She thought about how the Blob had healed her. He could heal her Wolf, too. He had to.

  “Please,” she begged. She rocked on her heels and watched this hateful monster dig its dirty tentacles into her Wolf.

  But then Wolf kicked. Oh! His legs began a rapid running motion as he lay on his side.

  Carmella reached out and stroked his soft fur. “Please, baby boy,” she crooned. “Wolf, come back to me.”

  Bilal turned to her. “He lives.”

  She blinked at him. “You brought him back?”

  “Yes, but he will sleep for several hours.”

  Carmella focused on the area that must be the creature’s face. It had eyes, two holes where nostrils should have been, and a hollowed out mouth that seemed to float over a smooth, gelatinous mass of gray. It looked much like an octopus with wart-filled tentacles. She found it hideous to look at and was disturbed that it was not as tall as she was but definitely wider. Something this ugly should not be bigger than her.

  She pulled Wolf into her arms and tried to lift him, but the alien elongated its body and two tentacles appeared and wrapped around her wolf. She panicked until she saw him lift the hurt animal from the ground and cradle it carefully.

  “Where should I carry it?” the alien asked.

  Carmella pointed to the farmhouse.

  The alien shuffled off.

  Carmella was about to follow when she saw two eyes watching them from the woods. The she-bitch. She watched her man get attacked and did
nothing. It will be a cold day in hell before I let that good-for-nothing bitch back into my house!

  ~***~

  Bilal carried the wolf into the house and placed it on a couch the woman first covered with a blanket.

  She knelt beside the couch and buried her face into Wolf’s neck. She was still for a long time before she lifted her head and looked at Bilal. “He’ll be okay?”

  “Yes.”

  She watched him with suspicion. “Why did you come back?”

  Bilal expanded briefly as if sighing. “I’m … I wanted to make sure that you had healed properly.”

  Carmella touched her shoulder. “That’s it? You’re not going to try to take me?”

  She said “try to take me,” Bilal thought. I like this human’s spirit. “No.” He didn’t like the idea of her returning with him to the mother ship and Earth 2. Somehow, this place was right for her. It went against everything that he had been taught. Humans had to be cared for. If the Centaurians didn’t do it, then humans were destined to return to their old ways of war and violence.

  “You’re not going to take me?”

  Bilal regarded her silently.

  “You … stung Wolf and it killed him. I’m pretty sure he was dead. But you stung me, too, and it just put me to sleep.”

  Bilal seemed to sink into himself as he formed a smaller ball. It was his “relaxed” position. “We don’t generally poison living beings. It is against our way. We only want to share information, to help.”

  Carmella frowned. “Way to do that by ending the lives of seven billion humans. You need a pat on your fucking backs for that one.”

  He fought to keep his skin from coloring yellow. “It was not our intent. We had no idea that our ability to adapt would somehow invade your human cells and try to adapt within you.” He was quiet for a moment.

  Carmella glared at him. “Not your intent. Right.”

  “We are sorrier than you can ever know. We want to make things right. We realize that we have a debt to repay to mankind, and perhaps it can never be paid. But we will try.”