My Friend is an Alien (niklas and friends)

by Niklas Edlund

  Jahv, meanwhile, was paying very close attention to the navigational console and trying desperately to look like he knew what he was doing more than he really did. He and Keyro had assembled this shuttle from proved design parameters, and checked out all the specifications, so in theory, it should be a fully safe and operational spacecraft. But flying the thing was a different matter. Jahv was not an experienced pilot. He'd trained on a number of simulator devices, which were more than just games, and he had done well, but his mind couldn't help but remind him that this was the real thing, and if he messed up, he and his friends were space dust, and those left behind on Earth would have a lot of explaining to do.

  An experienced pilot would not find this flight a challenging one. Straight shot out and back from one planet to another along precise coordinates was what would be called, in Earth slang, a "milk run". But Jahv was finding that all of the space-survival lessons he'd had pumped into his head from the instant he could understand language at once giving him a certain measure of confidence that he was capable of making this flight safely, and making him paranoid over everything that could go wrong. But he did notice Niklas staring at him, with a big silly grin on his face. Jahv returned the smile and Niklas' face reddened somewhat.

  Niklas didn't visit the tent-dome quite as often as Keith or Davy or Martin did, but his visits were becoming more frequent, and he seemed to enjoy spending time especially with Jahv, and seemed to like being as physically close as possible. Jahv didn't entirely understand this. It wasn't rude behavior, but it did strike Jahv as peculiar. It had taken Keyro, after his arrival, and after witnessing this a few times, to finally explain it.

  It had been one evening when Jahv and Keyro were discussing their new friends. "Niklas is the one that mystefies me," Jahv had commented. "The others are a little more obvious. Both Davy and Keith are, in their own way, lonely. Davy has few friends in the immediate area, and Keith comes out here to escape his home situation, much as we left ours. Martin comes out here because for him, it is a safe adventure for an otherwise timid boy. But Niklas seems at once the most well-adjusted of the lot and yet the most mysterious. I can't figure him out."

  "I can't figure out why you keep using those big words." said Keyro. "You put out much more static and people around here will start getting interference on their radios." The two alien boys, when on their own, of course, spoke their native language, which sounded like static to anyone else. "You don't have to impress me with your vocabulary, and I think Mom and Dad always figured you were just showing off."

  Jahv huffed. "Mom and Dad probably never heard much of a word I said."

  "Anyway, Niklas is easy to figure out, if you have the right perspective." said Keyro.

  "Which would be —?" asked Jahv, genuinely curious.

  "Mine." replied Keyro. "Niklas wants a big brother. We've heard him mention a younger sister a few times, but I think he'd rather have a big brother than be one."

  "But he and I are of nearly identical age." countered Jahv.

  "You also act a lot older most of the time." said Keyro. "Niklas is picking up on that. And I suspect he's probably not sure how old either one of us are. Basically, we look the same as they do, so they figure us for kids. But they're probably smart enough to consider the possibility that we might not be that close in age to them."

  "But we are." said Jahv. "We figured it out one night. This world has a rotational period that is only 0.025 % different than ours. And we age at nearly the same rate."

  "They don't know that." countered Keyro. "Look at it this way, big brother. You know how upset our parents would get whenever we'd just hug each other."

  "They didn't like it." admitted Jahv. "Said we'd picked up bad habits from other worlds."

  Keyro nodded. "These kids seem a lot more open. And they're sure a lot more fun to be around. You should open up a bit more yourself. And you might find a really good friend in Niklas if you do."

  Unfortunately, to date, there hadn't been that many opportunities to really test that theory, although Jahv certainly intended to do so, but not while flying a shuttle. That didn't mean that he couldn't enjoy the boy's company, however.

  And Niklas was now talking to him. "What's your world like, Jahv?" Niklas asked.

  Jahv recalled that Niklas had not been along on the holocron expedition recently. "Boring, frankly. There's some areas, mostly nature reserves. But we're not a people who do much with design, or art, or decoration. Everything is designed to be functional and not much else."

  Niklas frowned at that, but then grinned again as he asked another question. "Isn't it just a little weird to run around naked most of the time when most everyone else is dressed?"

  Jahv shrugged. "Not if that's what you were brought up to think of as normal. Besides, it's convenient."

  "Convenient?" asked Niklas.

  "Sure, you can pee anywhere you have to on a moment's notice." replied Jahv.

  Niklas gave the green-skinned youngster an expression of combined alarm and skepticism. "Yes, I'm kidding." snickered Jahv. "Sorry, I guess I still have to work on my sense of humor."

  "No, that's okay." said Niklas. "Just made for a weird image."

  A short while later, the stars returned to their normal appearance, and there was a new planet slowly growing in size through the front window.

  The world looked somewhat like Earth, but it was clear that it had less land mass, and the configuration of the continents was different. The oceans had a greenish tinge to them. There were more but thinner clouds, and the color of the continents was greener than Earth's.

  "Ohhhh, wow." said Niklas in a quiet voice.

  "This is incredible!" said Davy, somewhat louder. "That's really a whole 'nother world in a whole 'nother star system! It's really out there! We're really here! Look at that!"

  Either Keith was also sufficiently impressed, or he was deciding to remain silent for the sake of his two friends' enjoyment.

  "I'm homing in on the distress signal." reported Jahv, directing the shuttle to approach the planet. Calculating a proper orbit was actually what would take the greatest amount of time on their trip, except for the time spent in hyperwarp. Entering a proper orbit of a previously unknown world, Jahv explained, was always a precision maneuver, and landing on such a world even trickier. But before too long, they were rumbling through the atmosphere of the eerie new world. Jahv was used to this sort of thing. Niklas, Davy, and even Keith had their noses pressed to the windows, taking in everything, amazed. The green was clearly jungle. The entire planet seemed to be jungle, where there was land. The sky was pale green.

  "Good." said Jahv, more to himself than anything. "A clearing ahead, and within half a mile of the distress signal."

  Jahv brought the shuttle down for a landing and opened the hatch. He grabbed his ever-present backpack and motioned to the others. "This is unreal." whispered Davy. "We're actually on another world, that no one on Earth even knows about!"

  Jahv was waving a scanner device around. "Distress beacon is about half a mile in that direction." he said, pointing towards a dense jungle. "Life readings are complex. Having trouble focusing on anything sentient. Perhaps once we have a better handle on whatever animal life exists here, we can do some fine-tuning."

  "Assuming anyone's here." remarked Keith. "That distress beacon could just be all that's left of something."

  "True, but I'd like to make sure if we can." replied Jahv. "Let's go."

  The group headed towards the jungle, and were suddenly stopped when a huge grouping of round, fan-like flowers shot up from the tall grass.

  "Yeek!" sputtered Niklas, startled, as were the others.

  "Mobile plants." remarked Keith. "This is weird."

  Jahv was hastily running his sensor near them. "They've reacted to our presence, but there's no indication of toxins in them. If they're capable of doing anything, it won't harm us. They do seem to be equipped to spray some sort of.

  Before he could finish, the group of plants s
hot a fine blue cloud of pollen at the four youngsters. "If this is the local version of poison oak —!" snapped Keith.

  "No, it's not toxic to either you guys or to me." said Jahv. "But it does seem to have reactive properties with certain organic strains of.

  "Hey!" yelped Davy. "My suit is dissolving!"

  "Mine, too!" added Niklas.

  Jahv looked down and noticed that he was practically naked except for his boots, as well, which were made from a different, non-organic material.

  Keith was almost laughing. "Boy, all of a sudden I'm really glad I kept my underwear on."

  Within seconds, except for Keith's underwear, all the four boys were wearing were their boots. "What do we do now?" asked Niklas.

  "I don't think there's much we CAN do." said Jahv. "These plants seem to be plentiful, and react to the presence of what they obviously consider a threat. While they can't harm us, they can clearly dissolve certain plant-based organics, which our uniforms were made out of."

  "Good thing my shorts aren't cotton." remarked Keith, finding it difficult to keep a straight face.

  "I can replicate new uniforms once we head back, but it'd be wasteful to attempt to replace them now." said Jahv. "These plants would just do it again."

  Davy shrugged. "Oh, well, it's an isolated planet, with maybe only a handful of survivors here besides us. Let's hope they're not too picky about clothing."

  "Let's hope there aren't any nastier specimens of plant life around here." said Niklas.

  "Hey, guys, what do we call these plants?" asked Keith. "How about stripper plants?"

  "Keep it up, Keith, and I'll throw your shorts into a tree." said Davy. "With or without you, I'll decide later."

  "Let's keep going." said Jahv.

  Fortunately, none of the plants in the jungle the boys had to make their way through seemed especially harsh. No thorns, burrs, or sharp-edged leaves to tear into skin. Even the bark of trees seemed soft to the touch. Roughly half an hour later, the group found the distress beacon Jahv had detected.

  It was about two feet high, with a dish about four feet in diameter and a coil of glowing blue wire running in a spiral pattern throughout the dish. Nearby, perhaps twenty yards or so, was a fair pile of wreckage of a vessel somewhat larger than the one the boys had arrived in. It was difficult to be certain. "Nasty." remarked Keith.

  "But someone survived." said Davy. "This distress beacon didn't set itself up."

  Jahv seemed stunned. "I don't believe this. The shuttle, this equipment — it's Dorrian!"

  "Someone you know?" asked Niklas.

  Jahv shook his head. "Dorrians are — were — a race, like Keyro and I are Botarans."

  "'Were'?" asked Davy.

  Jahv paused to explain. "A number of years ago, a race called the Soluans — huge, lizard-like beings — warriors and conquerors, although more nasty than effective — invaded the Dorrian homeworld. The Dorrians fought back — a little too well."

  "How do you mean?" asked Keith.

  "They defeated the Soluan fleet and sent them packing, but the Soluans detonated a terrible device over the planet. An atmospheric incendiary bomb. It's banned by any reasonably civilized race in the galaxy." explained Jahv.

  "What does it do?" asked Niklas. It certainly sounded unpleasant.

  "It causes a chemical change within the atmosphere of any world. Literally ignites the atmosphere. Once started, there's no known way to stop it. It burns the world to the ground, turns it into ash. Only a handful of Dorrians managed to escape. A lot of those were offworld to begin with." said Jahv grimly. "Out of seven billion known Dorrians, it is estimated that only a few thousand remain, scattered across the stars."

  Everyone was silent for a long moment. Finally Keith spoke, "Well, it looks like some of them ended up scattered here, and maybe survived. Like Davy said, that thing didn't set itself up."

  "What were these Dorrians like?" asked Niklas.

  "They were an elegant people." replied Jahv. "They were builders. Architects and designers, mostly, with a good level of technology. Everything they did had an element of ornate decoration to it. Everything. Look at the legs on the distress beacon."

  The other boys looked more closely. Indeed, the three small legs of the distress beacon were elegantly curved and sculpted, and seemed to be made out of a mottled copper-like metal.

  "They were a quiet and peaceful people." continued Jahv. "And they wore the most amazingly ornate robes. Dorrian fabric sold for high prices on other worlds. The Soluans made themselves pariahs of the galaxy by attacking and destroying them. Not that anyone was that fond of them to begin with."

  "But obviously these Dorrians could fight." said Keith. "You said they defeated the Soluans before they dropped this bomb."

  Jahv nodded. "They could fight very well, but it took a lot to anger them. An invasion would suffice, though."

  Jahv scanned the wreckage. "According to decay readings, this shuttle has been here for approximately three to four years, possibly slightly longer. Difficult to tell through the nearby plant life, which of course has its own decay rate."

  Niklas sighed. "Then whoever survived could be dead by now. Or far away."

  "Could." said Jahv. "Whoever set this up had to be trained to do so. And standard procedure is to stay reasonably near the device at all times, regardless of how long it takes. Also, the readings I've been taking on the way in show that most of the fruit on the nearby bushes and trees is not only edible, but highly nutritious. I'm actually amazed that no sentient native life exists here, but stranger things have happened."

  "You going to analyze this entire adventure through that gadget of yours, and keep throwing big words at us, or try looking around once in a while?" remarked Davy. "This is incredible! We're really exploring another world."

  Jahv smiled. "I'm sorry. It's how I was raised. I keep forgetting how unusual this is for you."

  "So what do we do?" asked Niklas.

  "Whoever placed the beacon here, if they're not nearby, should be carrying a beacon tracker. If anything deliberate is done to the distress beacon, such as shutting it off — in other words, something that could not happen by accident, it will set off the tracker. Hopefully they'll come to investigate." Jahv knelt down near the machine and switched it off. "Meanwhile, we can explore this wreckage for clues as to survivors."

  "If you guys would wait a second," said Keith, "I gotta pee."

  "Watch out which tree you choose." offered Davy. "They seem to have more personality here than on Earth."

  "So I'll whiz in the grass." muttered Keith, walking off a short distance and lowering his shorts. Seconds later, a sound vaguely resembling someone playing a harp — badly — emanated from where Keith was standing. "What the —!!!!" swore Keith, jumping back.

  Jahv pointed his scanner at the grass, but recalling Davy's admonition, put the device in his backpack and instead plucked a single blade of grass and held it up towards the sun. "Remarkable. These blades have tiny perforations in them that react with liquid and produce a musical tone. In a rainstorm, this place would sound like a concert!"

  Keith returned to the group moments later, swearing and without his shorts. "Decided to go along with the current dress code?" asked Davy.

  "Ah, shaddup." muttered Keith. He wasn't about to admit that he'd been so startled by the musical grass that he'd pulled his shorts up without completing his intended business and had soaked them. He had then removed the shorts, finished what he had to do, trying to keep it quiet, wiped his front with a dry section of the underwear, and tossed the shorts against the nearest tree. The tree had subsequently absorbed the shorts into its bark. That had been more than enough to get Keith to return to the group.

  "How long do you think it will take for someone to respond to you turning off the distress signal?" asked Davy.

  "Hard to say," answered Jahv. "Let's have a look at this wreckage meanwhile."

  The shuttle managed to retain some of its native elegance even though it was tr
ashed, ripped open in several places, and covered with local flora. The boys could see elegant sculpting both in the hull and what remained of the furniture inside. It was also a lot larger than how it had appeared from a distance.

  "I was going to say this thing might've been a family van," commented Davy, "but I'd say it's more like a mobile home."

  "This vessel was definitely intended for long-range travel in style." added Jahv. "Multiple rooms, personal furnishings."

  "Where's the cockpit?" asked Niklas.

  Jahv looked around. The scanner wouldn't do a whole lot of good at this point even if he used it. This sort of inspection had to be done personally. He tried to imagine the shuttle in its original condition, and turned towards where the cockpit, at the very front of the craft, should be.

  He found what he believed to be the cockpit door, hidden beneath a tangle of vines in a section of the shuttle that was nearly buried. This shuttle had come down hard and at a very nasty angle. Something told him to bring the scanner out again. He checked his readings and scowled. "Found the cockpit."

  The others joined him. "Can we get that open?" asked Keith.

  "Maybe, but I don't think we should." said Jahv.

  "Huh? Why not?" asked Keith.

  "Readings indicate decayed biomass." answered Jahv. Keith raised an eyebrow. "Bodies. Or what's left of them. Best guess — two adults."

  The boys were all silent for a long moment, and backed away from the sealed cockpit.

  "Somebody still had to set up that distress beacon." said Davy at length.

  "Let's keep looking around." said Jahv. "I'd like to find some indication of how this happened, and who did survive, at least long enough."