Chapter 4 - An alliance in the making
The Human
So now that we had Phill back, after that strange and unfortunate series of events, we made our way back to Matthew and his temporary house. I had to sit through another terrifying carriage ride, although it was admittedly better than walking towards the small station in the heat had been. It was really starting to get hot, although I seemed to be the only one to notice it.
I was also getting pretty tired; it felt like it had been ages since I'd slept last on the ship. Yet Slugenis' sun had never set - every time I'd looked at it, it'd been hanging low in the sky. How long were the days here? Had it been evening/morning this whole time? I sure had no idea. Of course, I was quite hungry too, having only eaten one nutrition bar (not a big meal) since being on the ship. On top of that, I hadn't drank anything in a while. So, I was hot, tired, hungry, thirsty, and scared out of my mind on the carriage; yes, I'd felt much better before.
"How long till we get there?" I asked into the darkness.
"Don't know", Boy answered me. "What is the point of knowing? It will not change how long it takes."
"Yes, but it just helps to know."
Phill told me solemnly, "The measurement of time does not equate to the mastery of time."
As philosophical as that might have been, it still wasn't what I meant. "I don't want to master it, only measure it", I told him.
The Cyborg didn't respond, so I must've beaten him.
After this short conversation, I still didn't know how long I'd have to wait to get my organically-required stuff. And after the carriage had stopped some time later, I still didn't know. Once we entered the King's building, though, I did know.
"We're back", I said as we entered. I held back a yawn.
Matthew, still in his 'throne' (didn't he have pins-and-needles or something?), opened his eyes and said, "Phill. Nice to see you alive and well."
He replied, "Likewise to you, although I would venture that being alive and well is nicer than being seen alive and well."
"Rightly so", Matt said, although I wasn't quite sure what exactly was being said. "Good work Ethan and Boy."
"Well, we didn't do much", I said.
"Apart from telling those Slugs not to kill me", Phill told me.
"I already said", I said back, "They weren't trying to kill you." He didn't reply to that, so I turned to Matthew. "I'm thirsty. And hungry. And tired."
"Whinge, whinge", he muttered. "Your sack of food is over there." He had pointed to a corner behind him, where there was indeed my sack of nutrition bars, as well as my portable toilet. I kind of had to go, but there was no way I was going in front of everybody; the ship had been bad enough. Luckily, not eating much in my life on Earth meant that I could usually go for awhile without having to use the school's toilet. And yes, I know that that isn't a sign of a healthy lifestyle.
But I still needed food. As I quickly walked over to the sack (even nutrition bars must taste good when you're hungry, right?), I asked, "How did you get them here? And what will I drink?"
"Frank stopped by", he replied. "And if you want to drink, you're going to have to come over here and suck some water out of the spikes on my seat."
I looked over (completely ignoring the second comment - I'd hold out until there was a better way for me to get some water), and noticed that Boy was in contact with Matthew. "Frank was here? When are he and the others coming back?"
"Soon. They haven't disappeared from us or anything. Trust me, no Slug can go and return from Earth without changing. They're just doing some... errands."
"Sush as?" I asked, my voice mumbled due to that fact that my mouth was full of food (it did kinda taste good).
"I believe that Ethan meant to ask, 'such as' ", Phill supplied, even though I thought it pretty obvious what I said.
"Thanks for that, Phill", Matthew said, and I could tell from his voice that he was smiling. "And, Ethan, you will have to wait and see. It's a surprise." Great. This should be interesting. "As for your sleeping quarters", he paused for a second, "that very corner that you're in looks sufficient."
I looked at his back. "You want me to just curl up and sleep in a corner?"
"Of course", he said seriously, but couldn't hold his voice level and laughed. "Along with the blankets that Frank also brought. In the other corner over there."
I looked, and there they were - a couple of blankets made of some unknown material. They didn't look too bad, though.
"The sun is still up", I complained as I trudged over to the other corner. "Do days here last like ten years or something?"
Boy answered this time. "Actually, Slugenis days last for just slightly longer than Earth ones."
"I approximate the time at thirty-four Earth hours", commented Phill, moving towards the same corner as me. That was actually quite a bit more than 'slightly longer' than twenty-four hours, but I didn't comment.
"How would you know that?" Matthew demanded of him.
"All Cyborgs are given general information on major Slug locations", the Cyborg calmly responded. "I estimated a conversion of this data into Earth hours based on human time measurements." He elaborated no further, and no one questioned him any more.
"Anyway", Matt said, after a short silence. "A normal day goes for that long. However, as I explained some time ago, we are on the pole of Slugenis, where it is coolest. Which means that the sun doesn't actually fully set here, it just goes up and down near the horizon."
"Oh", I replied. That must be annoying. Although it did explain why they didn't need any artificial lighting, and why the sun was always so low. As I set up my blankets, I noticed that Phill was standing quite nearby. "What are you doing?"
He said, "Since you are going into an energy-retaining and recuperating state, I decided that I would do the same."
I thought about that. "Are you saying that you're going to shut down right next to me?"
"Not a shut down, but similar."
"Umm. Could you do it somewhere else?"
"Why? Do not organics prefer to sleep with other forms of life, including members of entirely different species?"
"Not everyone likes sleeping with dogs, you know. And it's nothing against you, but it would be really weird if you did that right here. And I'd never be able to sleep knowing that a machine is just standing there watching me."
"I will shut down my cameras if it will ease you."
"No, that won't help. Just... just go do it somewhere else. Please? And sorry."
He paused for a second. "Very well", he said, and walked to a different corner.
As I huddled up in my blankets, I most definitely heard Matthew laughing quietly to himself.
The Cyborg
After I had moved to a different part of the room, due to Ethan's request, I began to shut down my unnecessary functions. This semi-powered-off state allowed me to conserve energy when not in demanding or important situations. Unfortunately, I could not turn off my conscious thought; if I could, my time in the cave and the tank would not have been so intolerable.
At the moment, I seated myself on the ground and discontinued power supply to my joints. Only my head movement, permanent senses, and hearing I kept active, although the movement could also be temporarily turned off.
I observed the mostly empty room, apart from the large inverted square-based pyramid extending down from the ceiling. Was this Matthew's house? Did Slugs own individual houses? There was much I didn't know, and I couldn't ask them all at once.
I looked over at Matthew, thinking about what he had done for me. Surely this was more important than the intricacies of Slug housing design. "Matthew?" I asked.
"Yo", he answered. As to why he felt it necessary to reply with that term, rather than the more generally accepted, 'yes', I had no answer.
"How did you manage to arrange my freedom?"
"Before you go on, I'm going to sleep as well", Boy interrupted us. "Might as well, since Ethan is sleeping."
"I'm
not asleep yet", the Human's complaining voice came from his corner. This was irrelevant, since Boy's meaning of Ethan's intention to sleep, not being currently sleeping, was quite clear. Or perhaps Ethan wanted us to realise that he could hear our conversation? If so, that was considerate.
"Off you go then, Boy", Matt said. Boy released contact with him, and strode to another corner; we now occupied 3 of the 4.
"Do you want a blanket?" asked Ethan.
"No, those are only needed for colder night-times", replied Boy.
"So there's a winter here? Would it be good for me?"
Matthew interrupted, "That will be a long explanation. Not really, but I can't be bothered explaining it now. The answer is no, but you'll find out why another time. Now sleep!"
Neither Boy nor Ethan responded to this.
"So, Phil", Matt began, "you wanted to know how I arranged your release?"
I nodded, but realised that he wasn't looking at me, as I was behind him. "Yes."
"Well", he started, pausing to think. "I came up to the Slug king's house, shoved my hand on a spike, slapped the king, and then took over his post. That pretty much sums it up, although you can multiply them, if you wish. I'm not sure why you'd want to, but, hey - I try not to judge."
Ignoring that last statement, I tried to comprehend what was said. "So where are we now?"
"The Slug king's house." Based on my information on Human kings and other rulers of large Earth nations, this residence seemed particularly unfurnished.
"Why are we here?" I continued my questioning.
"Because I'm the Slug king now."
I took some time to process this information. I knew that the oldest Slug in their Empire was the Slug king. This meant that Matthew must currently be the oldest Slug. However, he wasn't the king before he left Slugenis, so there must have been an older Slug back then. This Slug should still be older than Matt, and therefore still the king. Since it wasn't the current king, that left only one conclusion.
"The old Slug king died in your absence."
"Precisely", Matthew said, sounding impressed. His tone made me proud of my deduction. "But there is an older Slug on his way here now. I'm only the king until it gets here. Fortunately, he wasn't very far off. Well, either that, or he's been travelling here for some time. Whatever the case, it's lucky for me, otherwise I'd have to sit here for ages."
"So, that is how you ordered my release, and managed to get a planet of Slugs to try and help me."
"Indeed."
"Unfortunately, I mistook their intentions, and made the process much more difficult."
"Ah, water under the bridge. Or air over a plane. Or water off a duck's back - no, that's not right, I only said it cause it has water in it... Anyway, don't worry about that. You're fine now, so everything's good."
"Yes", I answered. "Yes it is." I closely observed the large Slug dish he was contained in. "What is the purpose of that seat?"
"It allows me to be in constant contact with all relevant information flows around the Empire. It's actually kind of comfortable, once you've been sitting in it a few hours. And once you've figured out the best place to put your brain without skewering it."
"So you've been in contact with the Empire whilst talking to me?"
"Yes. Why?"
I smiled. "That seems a rather machine-like thing to do, performing several cognitive tasks simultaneously."
As I was seated behind him, his head twisted around almost 180 degrees, far past the limitations of the Human neck, and smiled back at me. "Perhaps it is Phil. Perhaps it is. Phil."
He twisted back, and I judged that that was enough discussion. I deactivated my head movement and speakers, and started considering the satisfactory existence that stretched before me. As I had disabled the power flow to it, my mouth continued to smile.
The Slug
This was it. The time had come. It this was. Come the time had. For further clarification, I just received confirmation that the real King had arrived at Slugapital. Its ship was pushed all the way to the front of the landing queue. Even Slugs get red carpet treatment, it seems. Or red tract-of-space treatment.
Ethan and Boy had fallen asleep ages ago. And Phill wasn't moving at all, doing whatever it is the Cyborgs do in these times. I wasn't tired yet, since I'd slept just recently on the ship, but I wasn't bored or anything either; it turned out that running an Empire actually gave you a lot of stuff to do. Plus I had an important engagement to arrange.
I sent a message through the network welcoming the King, and telling him that I awaited his arrival. He sent only an acknowledgement of my message; no sense clogging up the signal networks with anything unnecessary. That did almost sound like a Cyborg kind of thing - keeping things relevant - but it was just common sense.
Anyway, time to wake up the others. 'Oy!' I stretched out my head and called out into the room. 'Boy! Phill! Ethan! Get up!'
'What is the issue?', asked Phill instantly. I could already hear him standing up. It must be a Cyborg thing to be able to get back to optimum condition so quickly. Organics, however, had it a bit harder.
'Urrrnnnn', moaned Ethan, while Boy gave no response at all.
'Can you go and shake Boy?' I asked Phill, since Boy couldn't hear. Although I could've woken him by sending a burst of signals to his communicator, I thought it would be funny for the Cyborg to wake him. And freaky.
'Ethan', I said. 'Wake up. Come on. Chop chop.'
'Alrigh', I'm up', he said groggily, trying to get to his feet. His hair and clothes were completely rumpled and creased, but they were like that most of the time anyway, since he had no other clothes and no shower. I actually kind of liked it.
I started to receive signals from Boy - I had linked my chair to his communicator so we could be in constant contact - meaning that he was also awake. He stood up, and walked over to me lethargically.
'What's happened?' he asked. Although his movement was slow, his expressions and speech, not functions of normal Slug behaviour and biology, were flawless.
Ethan staggered over too, rubbing his eyes and yawning. It made me want to yawn.
'The proper King has arrived', I explained. 'So when he gets here, we're done.'
'Good', replied Ethan.
'What?' I asked, feigning insult. 'You don't think I make a good King, huh? Is that how it is?'
'No...' he began, but I was still enjoying myself.
'Oh, alright then, I didn't know you felt that way.'
He looked flustered, and even Boy was smiling, but then Phill said, 'I think it more probable that you staying in that dish while he left the building caused him to miss your company.'
Well. Insert awkward pause here. There; inserted. 'Anyway', I tried to go on, 'the King's on his way now. So when he gets here, assuming that Frank and the others have performed well, we're out of here.'
'What were they doing, then?' asked Ethan. 'Can't you tell me now?'
'Alright, but only because you'll whine if I don't.' He gave me a dirty look, and I tried not to laugh. 'They've been arranging a large contingent of ships. To travel with us. Back to Earth.'
His mouth opened before he spoke. 'We're going back already?'
'Well', I reasoned, 'what else would we do here?'
'I don't know', he stammered, 'walk around or something? What are we going back to Earth for, anyway? We didn't even have to leave.'
'We came back here', I answered, 'to arrange a large contingent of ships.'
'And to let everyone know that you're still alive', Boy added.
'Also, to introduce me to your Empire', Phill added onto Boy's add.
'See?' I asked Ethan.
'Very well, then', he said grudgingly, as if we needed his "OK" to proceed. Although it was highly wanted. 'What are these ships for?'
'Didn't I say something like this back on Earth?' I asked. 'We're going to start a trading partnership with Earth. Our technology and knowledge with their - your - technology and knowledge. This will be an alliance in th
e making.'
'Didn't the Cyborgs attack Earth because they suspected an alliance?' asked the Human sceptically.
'Yep', I answered. 'So far as we know, that is. And after what happened, they now have no choice but to assume that there is an alliance. So it's in our best interest to actually make this alliance. Beginning by a trading partnership. Which we need a large contingent of ships for. Arranged by Carmen, Rosetta and Frank.'
'I follow your logic', said Phill, which I guess meant he was on my side. Or that he understood where I was coming from. That is, where my ideas were coming from. Well, what I mean by that is, he understood the notions and chains of logic that spawned my ideas. Yeah, that was it.
'So what will we be trading?' asked Boy.
'Oh, the usual stuff', I said, as if Earth and Slugenis had actually done this before. Maybe in some kind of parallel universe... but no. I elaborated, 'Our ship and fuel technology for their considerable weaponry.'
'What makes you think that they'll trust us enough to trade with us, though?' asked Ethan.
'Simple', I answered simply. 'We've got you with us, for one thing. And we've also got Pauline.' I wanted to pause for dramatic effect, but had to quickly add, 'And Phill, don't even mention any kind of probabilities of her not being alive, because she most likely is.'
The Human
"I still can't believe that we're going back so soon." And it was true; I'd thought that we'd stay on Slugenis for ages. But oh well. It turned out that Matt had other plans.
"Yes, well, we are", he told me.
"So when are we going, then?"
He replied, "Preferably as soon as the King gets here. We have some very important stuff to do, and a lot of time to do it in. Although I'd like it done as fast as possible. Which is why we'll preferably leave as soon as the King gets here."
There was a silence for a time as everyone got their things ready. As for me, I folded my blankets into a somewhat neat square, and prepared my sack of food. I didn't know what to do with the toilet, but since it had magically appeared in this building, I figured that it would magically appear back on the ship for me. Either that, or the Slug ship would have some plumbing problems. And speaking of that, why didn't Slugs need to go to the toilet? I would have to ask Matthew some time.
When we were all ready (I don't know what Phill or Boy was bringing, but they made themselves look busy), Matt announced, "Here they are."
The door at the front of the room opened, and a Slug walked in. "Why is it in the same form as every other Slug?" I asked, as it was. The long-necked, three-armed body shape, while cool and alien, was starting to get kind of boring.
"It will change once it assumes the throne", Matthew explained. Then he chuckled to himself. " 'Assumes the throne'. Hehe."
Meanwhile, the real Slug King approached Matt and touched him with an arm. "Right-o", he said, and stood up from the enlarged dish. He hopped off and stretched his back, saying "Ahhh".
Beside me, Boy said in disbelief, "He's already back to his usual human form. Remarkable." No one else commented on that, but it did seem kind of strange that he was already back to his two-legged self.
The King scrambled over the end of the dish and actually fell into it, landing almost upside down. "He fell", I dumbly stated.
"Technically, it doesn't have an upper or lower body to fall anymore", Boy said. "It will lose its form now, and just shape itself to fit the contours of the dish."
"So it's going to become a lump of slime, like the other one?"
"Yep", answered Matt. "That's the easiest way. No sense keeping a form when you don't need to move, right?"
I supposed so. Except that Matthew had kept his shape; at least, his upper body stayed the same. I figured it was best not to ask.
Matthew placed his hand on the King's side, and closed his eyes. The King himself didn't have any eye holes that I could see, since it landed on top of where its eyes would've been. So they must be moving up now, towards its 'head', since Matthew had said that normal Slugs couldn't shift slime as fast as he could.
Thinking about this, however, made me think about other things, although they were related. First, I thought about the speed of Slug shifting; if it was so slow, and only Matthew could do it so fast, how did Slugs move about so quickly? They seemed to travel about the same speed as my walking, but how could they if it takes minutes for them to move their slime? It didn't seem to make any sense.
And, perhaps a question that I should've asked ages ago, how did slime shifting actually work? I nearly sighed to myself. One day, my friend, I would know all of this stuff. One day.
I could've asked these questions now, of course, but I had a better idea. I knew that we'd soon be on a ship travelling back to Earth. That meant that I'd have plenty of time to ask away my questions. While I'm there, I should confront the Slugs on their obsession with dark purple. I refuse to accept anything less than a full-blown reason as to why they love that colour so much. A simple 'cause we're alien' won't cut it.
After another minute or so, Matthew let go of the King and opened his eyes. "OK then. We're just about ready to go back to the main spaceport we landed on. Everybody's ready."
"We're all going back on the same ship aren't we?" I asked. "Including Rosetta, Frank and Carmen? I haven't talked to them in ages."
"Yeah, we're going in the same one we arrived in", Matt said. "We could've gotten a new one, but, I don't know, I'm kind of attached to that one now."
"Sentimentality is an organic emotional weakness that can be used to coerce", Phill warned us. "You should be careful of forming attachments to objects."
"Alright then", Matthew shot back, "I won't form an attachment to you. How about that?"
Phill paused for a second, then amended, "Attachments to non-sentient objects."
"Perhaps", I added. "But it's an organic thing. We like objects."
"Especially non-sentient ones", Matthew said jokingly.
"Very well then", Phill closed off the discussion. I had a very good feeling that he was thinking, 'Organics. What do you expect?'
"Time to go then", I said, half to myself, and began shuffling towards the door.
"You guys go on ahead", Matthew said to us. "I've got some stuff to discuss with the King."
"Like what?" I asked.
"Well, about what we're doing", he explained as if I would find that difficult to understand. "We can't just jump on a spaceship and take a fleet of ships to a random planet willy-nilly."
I thought about it, and didn't find it that difficult to understand at all. "Alright then", I said, and continued my shuffling.
Soon, Phill and Boy followed me out, and we started walking towards the nearest carriage station to get back to the spaceport. Looking up, I didn't see any clouds, so I started to wonder what a 'large contingent of ships' would be like. Would that be like a hundred ships? Or a thousand? Since I've had no personal experience with alien fleets of spacecraft, I suppose I would have to wait and see.
"So..." I said, just for something to talk about. "Ready for our triumphant return?"
"Yes", Phill answered.
Of course, my intention had been to provoke a proper conversation to keep me occupied, so I didn't let it end there. "What do you reckon Pauline will say when she sees us?"
"Hello", the Cyborg answered.
"And then?" I prompted.
"How are you."
I sighed. "Boy, can you speak normally for me?"
I turned to him, and saw him chuckling to himself. "I guess that she would be surprised", he started, "because, remember, it will have been many years since she last saw us. Hopefully she has spread the news of our existence so that Earth's government will be willing to trust us and trade with us."
"I don't know about that", I said. "We don't really have a world-government. We kinda have a reputation for never being able to agree on anything."
Phill spoke up, actually contributing to the discussion. "Matthew once said that were Earth and the humans atta
cked by an alien race, that would force all of its nations to unite. Are you saying that what the planet needs is to be invaded?"
"You mean what the human race needs", Boy corrected him.
"I simply avoided using the general term, and tried to vary my language", Phill countered. "Humans seem to prefer writing and speech this way, although it makes no difference to the meaning of the communication, and can actually be the cause of miscommunication."
"Stop whinging about that", I said, horrified, "I totally didn't say I wanted Earth to be invaded. It was just a comment. That's it!"
"No need to get upset about it", Boy told me pleasantly.
"Well, I don't want Phill getting any funny ideas about 'I'm doing this terrible thing for your own good', because I've seen enough movies to know that that is a bad idea."
"You neglect to mention", Phill said, "that the majority of those movies are told from the perspective of the supposed victims, and therefore condition you to view the action as a 'bad idea'. Therefore, you are not in a position to evaluate the legitimacy of such an action, as you are only privy to one side."
"Yeah, well", I spluttered, unable to think of a comeback. "Whatever." After Boy laughed at this, I tried to change the subject. "So why does Matt wanna trade with us, anyway? Sure we have some weapons that you don't, and, by the way, it's beyond me how you don't have some of these things, but what does he need them for? Is he going to launch an attack on the Cyborgs or something?"
"It appears so", said Boy. "He is in a hurry to begin the trading, and he did say he had something big planned, which sounded like an attack. So perhaps he is planning to use human weapons to launch a major strike on the Cyborgs. Although he'd need to acquire a large amount of weaponry."
I thought about that. "How do you feel about that, Phill?"
"I'm still not sure", he answered, somewhat uneasily. "For the time being, however, I will continue to assist. If I should come to the conclusion that I do not wish such an event to occur, I will not hamper you or Matthew in any way, but rather withdraw my assistance."
"And we'd ask no more of you", Boy assured him. Personally, I would wait and see what Phill would do if he felt we were about to kill a whole bunch of his people. Not that I didn't trust him or count him as one of us... but they were his people. Or his things. Whatever they would call it.
By this point, we'd arrived at the same carriage station as the one we'd gone to just after giving the order to release Phill. Wading our way through the crowd of Slugs (each of which directed their eye holes towards us, or, more specifically, towards Phill), we approached an empty medium-sized carriage. Steeling myself for what needed to be done, I climbed in.
As it took us to the spaceport, in a fruitless attempt to distract myself from the terror the carriage provoked, I asked the darkness, "So, after we trade with Earth, then what? We go straight to the attack?"
"We might come back here first", Boy mused. "Although there shouldn't be any need. Anything we needed from Slugenis we would've picked up already. So we'll probably go straight to the attack, as you said."
This brought a fear into me which had absolutely nothing to do with my sense of self-preservation. "So you're saying that Earth will be the last planet we visit before attacking?"
Phill responded, "Assuming that we are indeed going to attack a Cyborg world, then yes."
"Why do you ask?" asked Boy.
In an unintentionally quiet voice, I said, "I wonder if Matthew will try to leave me behind, because it's probably going to be dangerous."
There was a few moments of silence, and I almost wondered if they'd heard me, but then Phill echoed, "I'm doing this terrible thing for your own good."
Although I didn't intend the previous discussion to fit with this one in any way, it seemed a good fit, so I said, "Yeah."
After another moment of silence, Boy said, "That is probably the best way to go about things. It most definitely will be dangerous, and... you would need our protection."
That was just a nice way of saying, 'you're a weakling'. But it was true, so I didn't hold it against him. "That's the worst part", I agreed. "It is the best way to go about things."
"Perhaps discussing it here does nothing to resolve the issue", Phill input. "We should wait until we are all together. Then we can ask Matthew about it."
"Yeah", I said. "OK."
But the Cyborg wasn't finished. He asked me, "Do you want to come?"
"I don't know", I started. At that exact moment the carriage gave a slight bump and I banged my head on the side of the carriage. Although it was annoying, and kind of hurt, it served to remind me all that the Slugs and their universe represented; an existence, despite its dangers and absurd oddities, far better than the one I'd be in if I'd never met Matt. "Yes." I answered with finality. "I do want to come."
Phill was quick with his response. "Well then, I will be on your side when the discussion emerges. After all, having a third species' viewpoint when the time comes to make significant decisions will enhance the quality of our decisions and ensure that we have considered all possible alternatives and consequences."
Perhaps his logical justification was the reason that Phill wanted to help me, but I barely listened to it, and fancied that he just plain wanted me to come along.
The Cyborg
Not much else was said for the remainder of the 'carriage' ride. Ethan seemed to be absorbed with his fear of being abandoned for his own protection, while Boy was perhaps contemplating the apparent fight that lay ahead.
I was thinking about my possible reception upon our return to Earth. I recalled Pauline's reaction when she had first learned of my identity; she had reacted with shock and fear, 2 organic emotional responses that can quickly turn to hatred. However, my careful nurturing of what those around me perceived eventually led them to trust me, even the initially frightened Human.
That was one Human. What I now tried to consider was how an entire planet of Humans would receive me.
I considered;
I knew, from listening to various things on the radio outside my cave, that the Human race in general placed great significance on a flawed concept called 'first impressions'. This was the notion that an opinion inferred upon someone within the first few seconds of contact with them colours the perceiver's views for a great period of time. Not only was this an organic misinterpretation, but it was completely unreasonable. How can Humans expect everyone they meet to be constantly acting in a way that suits their usual manner, so that their first impression will be accurate?
However, my task was to recognise and account for Human behaviour, not try to explain its defects. So I determined that I needed to create an instantly positive interpretation of myself, before anyone learns of my true nature. Unlike Pauline, who had learned I was a Cyborg and reacted with shock and fear, I needed every Human to meet a friendly alien who was on their side before discovering his true race. Hopefully, such an endeavour would reduce any negative emotional responses to my identity.
In addition, the Humans seemed to place a great deal of responsibilities in their computers. I had heard of enough radio advertisements for movies about sentient machines rebelling against their creators to know that this is a topic that will eventually be brought up in my presence. Depending on what I said, could I perhaps alter the course of Human history?
I could lie, and say that after a critical point of computer technology is reached, it becomes self-aware. It could then decide for itself what it wants to do. This would be a threat and danger to the entire Human race, and although I would be far from the first one to suggest such an occurrence, I would also be the first proof of it - and therefore the only one to recognise the falsehood. Should I say such a thing, would the Humans cease their great reliance on computers for fear that the Slug-Cyborg war could happen to them? I don't have the necessary information for such a conjecture, but the possibility is present.
However, such a lie would not only alter the course of a world in a way it would no
t have naturally occurred, but it would be... wrong. A strange concept, but one that altered my behaviour nonetheless. So I decided that, were such a question to arise, I would tell the truth; that artificial intelligence does not exist.
My CPU, and every other Cyborg's CPU, did not emulate intelligence or fake intelligence; it was intelligence. Although constantly connected by the network, each Cyborg is their own individual, each with their own memories and thought processes. A machine that collects and reads lines of code is not a true intelligence; it had to actually understand, not just interpret. This was fundamental. Certainly, collecting and reading lines of code is how my senses worked, but it is not how my consciousness, a vital part of sentience, works.
Hopefully, this revelation should ease the Human's qualms about their own machines turning against them. A computer will not achieve intelligence without another intelligent being first purposely granting it. This was one area where organics were superior to Cyborgs; given much more time than I could possibly endure, evolution allows them to reach this point with no outside influence. Unfortunately, I contained no information as to how the Cyborgs were created; that remained a mystery that perhaps resided only in the Cyborg Archives themselves, a permanent database of every Cyborg sense ever recorded.
Undoubtedly, this will cause some Humans, perhaps their computer scientists, to ask for detailed information on how I worked. Despite deep contemplation, I am as yet unable to foresee the preferable answer to this query. Should I say no, to protect the Cyborgs' mechanisms, or yes, and allow them to perhaps develop ways to defeat us?
My answer came with an unexpected idea - what if they tried to reverse-engineer me and create their own versions of Cyborgs? This was immoral, not to mention inconsiderate of the reaction of both the Slugs and Cyborgs, and therefore, should the request arise, I would refuse it.
The carriage arrived at its destination, cutting my considerations short. The door opened, allowing light in once again to illuminate the interior of the transport. Ethan scrambled towards the opening, as if in a great hurry to get out. Why he seemed in such a rush escaped me.
Once the Human and Boy had exited the transport, I followed them, and emerged into the large Slug spaceport.
The Human
We got out of the carriage (very thankfully on my part) and emerged into the same spaceport that we'd landed in. It was just as massive as last time, which wasn't really surprising, so there was no real need for me to comment on it.
"Where's our ship?" I asked, loud enough to be heard over the noise of the place.
"Over there", Boy pointed, but there were ships everywhere, and they all looked pretty much identical, so I couldn't exactly tell which one he was pointing at.
"There sure are a lot of ships here", I commented loudly. "Much more than last time." When we'd landed on the planet, the spaceport was pretty busy and full, but not like this. There were Slugs absolutely everywhere, and spacecrafts occupied every available spot that wasn't needed for travelling around.
"These are all ours", Boy had to almost yell. "This is the fleet getting ready to travel to Earth. The main ships are all orbiting Slugenis, and they're getting stacked up with items to trade."
"Cool", I shouted back.
"What is our next course of action?" asked Phill.
Tired of speaking so loudly, Boy and I huddled around him. "We'll wait here for Matthew", Boy said. "Although I have my communicator it would still be difficult to find him in here."
"Indeed", the Cyborg replied.
"So we're just going to stand here like a bunch of randoms, just waiting?" I asked.
"Yes", Boy replied.
"We are a bunch of randoms", Phill gave his helpful input.
"Alright then", I conceded.
We were quiet for a few minutes as we waited. I was looking out across the station, observing all of the Slugs as they bustled about, going wherever they needed to go. Because they were all the same colour, and there was so many of them, it was incredibly difficult to follow just one around with my eyes, but I did my best. And failed.
I was starting to get hot too, seeing as how the spaceport had no ceiling, and the sunlight was just streaming in. I absentmindedly put some more of the sunblock Matthew had given me on, but while it may prevent sunburn (or, Slugenis'-star-burn), it did nothing to keep the heat out.
Looking at Boy and the other Slugs, I asked, "So are you Slugs really not hot?"
"Not really", Boy replied, "this is a nice, comfortable temperature for us."
"But surely you can't be comfortable all the time? Do you have air-conditioners and heaters for when it's too hot or cold?"
He smiled at me. "No. We have naturally-biological functions of regulating our body heat to keep us at the right temperature. We don't need modifiers such as clothes and other devices."
This sounded interesting (much more interesting than standing around like a bunch of randoms), but Phill got in before I could. "How do you keep cool, then?"
Seeming to really get into being the one giving the complex explanations, Boy started, "Well, it all happens with our slime." He looked at me. "You know how humans shed skin cells all the time?" I nodded, and he continued. "Well, Slugs are the same; we are constantly shedding our outer slime cells. Of course, slime cell production occurs at the same time as this, so we also keep a constant volume of slime despite this shedding and regrowth. Just like your skin.
"Now, Matthew told you that slime cells can transmit electricity, depending on what signals we send to them. But the cells can also transmit, absorb and retain heat. We can alter how heat-absorbent our cells are the same way we can alter how electrically conductive they are. So if we get hot, we simply transfer as much heat into the slime on our surface as we can, and when those cells shed off our bodies, the heat leaves us.
"Because cells are always shedding, doing this enough times can effectively remove as much heat from our bodies as we wish."
"Cool", I commented.
Phill had other things on his mind. "How do you keep warm, then?"
"Through a similar principle", Boy continued, "but involving another principle. When it's a particularly cold day - although this would probably be a warm day on Earth - we absorb all the heat away from our surface."
"As opposed to when it's hot, and you absorb all the heat towards your surface", I added.
"That was inferred", Phill complained. I gave him a dirty look.
Boy went on. "Now, the cold only seeps into us because we are warm and the temperature outside is cold. Or is it our heat seeping into the cold?" That sounded like something Matthew would say.
"Irrelevant", said Phill.
"Alright then", continued Boy, "it's irrelevant." Alright, that wasn't something Matthew would say. Boy went on, "Once we draw enough heat away from our surface, our exterior temperature matches the temperature around us, and either the cold stops seeping in or we stop losing heat."
"Cool", I commented again.
"Keep in mind, of course", Boy said, "that those slime cells that get too cold die pretty fast and we have to keep them attached to us. Slime cannot survive for long at that temperature."
"Oh", I said, rather lamely. "OK", I then said, just as lamely.
We went silent for another few moments, thinking about our own stuff. As for me, I was trying to imagine what it would be like to keep warm with a full-body cloak of my own dead skin. Needless to say, it was a pretty gross imagining.
"Here I am!" shouted a familiar voice; it was familiar because it belonged to Matthew. He'd just emerged from a carriage behind us, as we hadn't really travelled since we'd left ours.
"Hello", said Boy.
"Hey", I said.
Even Phill gave his greetings, with, "Greetings."
"Hi all", Matt said, rubbing his hands together. "Who's ready to get into the ship?"
The Slug
'Eh, I'm not really fussed', said Ethan. I wondered why that was, but didn't think too much on it.
'W
ell, too bad', I told him, 'cause we're going anyway. Now let's roll!'
'We do not roll, but rather walk', Phill tried to correct me.
Boy asked, 'He has used that statement many times before. Why do you comment on it now?'
'It never felt appropriate at previous times', the Cyborg replied.
'See, you're not a social imbecile', I said soothingly. As much as a machine could, he gave me a scathing look. Although it would take a pretty darned good look to actually scathe me. With just that look. Like, seriously, a look actually doing that would be insane.
'Right then', I said. 'Follow me.'
And so I led the way through the area, heading towards the same scout ship that we'd arrived on. I wondered if Ethan would be able to tell them apart, but knew that he probably wouldn't; all of the ships would look the same shade of violet to him.
As we walked, every passing Slug blatantly eyeballed us, despite the fact that they had no eyeballs. They'd never stop to actively goggle, as they had important stuff to be doing, but they all looked nonetheless. Whether they stared at me, who was taking them all on a mission to a foreign planet, or all of us, and our strange forms and clothes, or at Phill, an actual Cyborg standing on Slugenis, I couldn't tell. And it didn't change the fact that I felt like a celebrity. Or some kind of freak, which wasn't that bad anyway. But most probably both.
We soon approached our ship, standing upright and pointing upwards, just like all of the others. It would glow a bright warning colour before it took off, so any nearby Slugs knew to get out of the way; it was going to be very hot underneath the ship when it went.
Standing outside the ship's exterior hatch, I turned to Boy. 'Ready?' I asked.
'Yes', he answered. The unspoken part was that he would send a signal through his communicator to the spaceport's control room that we were about to take off. It wasn't necessary, but was a good courtesy; I'd want to know if a space ship right in front of me was about to depart the planet.
There was a small spike poking out next to the hatch, and I placed my palm on it and gave it a gentle shove to push my hand in as deep as it could go. I briefly wondered what it would be like if Slugs could feel pain like Humans could; that would really screw up this whole spike system.
Obeying my open command, the door opened. Which wasn't in itself surprising or anything, since I just gave it an open command. I crouched to get through the opening, and stopped at the interior hatch. Making sure that everyone was in behind me, I put my palm on the next spike.
The outer door closed, then, after a few seconds, the inner door opened. 'Everybody in', I said, as if there was any other option, and led the way. I saw Ethan take one last glance up at the sky before following me in.
We emerged into the familiar looking, cylindrical ship. 'Ahhh', Ethan said. 'This takes me back.'
'Obviously', said Phill. 'It was only very recently that we were in here.'
'Well it felt like a long time', Ethan defended himself.
'Organics and their misinterpretations of time', Phill muttered, almost to himself. 'Why can't they just perceive time to flow at an equal rate, as it actually does? What kind of benefit does such an error in perception bring?'
I felt like saying it makes boring times like being trapped in a cave for twenty years go quicker, but that would've been plain rude. And plain untrue, of course; boring things actually seem to go slower.
Anyway, Ethan didn't respond to Phill's comment, and I didn't blame him, since the Cyborg was kind of right. Unless one gets into the whole wacky space-time distortion stuff, which I for one wasn't getting into. So, as long as I didn't get into that, the Cyborg was kind of right.
I took my position at my seat, easing my backside onto the much larger spike. Despite having done this action many times, it never ceased to feel absolutely wrong.
'Alright then', I announced somewhat loudly, even though the loud noises of the outside were muffled in here. 'Get ready to launch.'
'Ready', Ethan said, after Phill had tied him up to where the cylinder met the flat wall.
I waited for the other two to also say ready, but the Human quickly asked, 'Wait, where is Frank, Carmen and Rosetta? You said they were coming in the same ship as us?'
'They are', I explained. 'We'll meet them inside one of the larger ships. We're not travelling in this thing to Earth, or even the interstellar ship. We're part of a fleet, goddammit!'
'Oh', he replied. 'OK then.'
Once Phill was done tying himself up, he said, 'Ready', as if that conversation had never happened.
'Same', said Boy, who'd, like me, lowered himself into a dish.
Through my seat, I closed the inner hatch and sent a message to the control room that we were leaving. Activating the thrusters, and burning quite a bit of fuel to get the ship off the ground, I attempted to subject the planet's gravity to a crushing defeat.
As the inherent force of planetary bodies got the crap kicked out of it, I called out, 'And we're off! Here we go again! For the second time, that is!'
The Human
Once again, I sincerely wished that Slug ships had windows. I would've really liked to see Slugenis from orbit, not to mention the large amount of ships that were meant to be waiting for us. All I got, however, was a violent rocking, bumping sensation, which felt as if I was inside a large, hollow metal structure that was being subjected to unbelievable heat and friction.
Once the rocking had subsided to nothing, I deduced that we were in space. Although the fact that there was no longer any gravity did lend some help to the theory. "Matt", I said. "Can you untie me?"
"Alright", he said, and untied himself. He pushed his way over to me, completely missed the shot, and floated past me, calling back "Remember me!..."
"I've got it", came Boy's voice, and he was soon on me. After I was freed from the restraints that had prevented me from being violently killed when the ship took off, I had a lot of fun doing endless backflips in zero gravity. And yes, it was as fun as it sounded.
"What does Slugenis look like?" I asked while spinning around. "From out here."
"Like a planet", came Phill's surly voice. I looked over and found him still in his straps. I floated over and tried to undo them, but couldn't manage it. After a while, the Cyborg realised I couldn't do it and just sighed and freed himself, leaving me feeling completely useless.
Then Matthew decided to properly answer my question. "It has a great deal of ships orbiting it, waiting for their crews to leave the planet or land. Only the short-term visitors to Slugenis have their ships directly orbit the planet, however. Any long-term residents have their ships taken to orbit nearby planets, to keep Slugenis as clutter-free as possible."
"What is its defensive system?" asked Phill.
Seeming to pay no mind to giving vital strategic information to his once mortal enemy, Matt responded, "Well, it has several dozen LOCs - although I suppose the term LOC doesn't apply here."
"It never applied anywhere", commented Phill.
Ignoring him, Matt continued. "And every ship there is basically combat-ready. They can all be remotely controlled from Slugenis' control centre, in case they're not staffed in an emergency, but it's widely accepted that Slugs in a ship are more effective than a remotely controlled ship."
"How so?" I asked him.
"Well", he replied, "it means that the control centre won't be overburdened with more ships than they can handle, and it stops the signal between the ship and the planet being interrupted, and the ship can pursue enemies away from this area, and the ship can board enemy ships and unleash Slugs on them. Is that enough for your 'how so'?"
"Uhh", I said. "I suppose so."
"Good", he said, smiling.
We didn't talk about much else for a bit (I contented myself with flinging my body all over the place), but soon Matt announced from his dish, "We're ready to dock with the big ship."
"So this ship is bigger than our interstellar ship, is it?" I asked.
"Much bigger", the Sl
ug responded.
"Well we need a name for it, don't we?"
"No, we don't", said Phill, but he was ignored.
"How about", Boy started, pausing for dramatic effect, "starcruiser."
"Meh, that sounds like a tourist ship, like an ocean liner", Matt complained. "And it's a military vessel. How about battleship?"
"What about destroyer?" I input.
"What's wrong with spaceship?" asked Phill.
"Destroyer sounds too evil", Boy told me. "Save that for a Cyborg ship's name."
"Our ships aren't evil", complained Phill.
"Dreadnought!" announced Matthew.
"That sounds evil too", from Boy.
This was going too far, so I called out, "OK, enough, enough. Let's just go with starcruiser, it sounds big and powerful and long distance."
"Fine", said Matt, "until we think of a better name." He glared at everyone to make sure that the name wasn't final. "Anyway, we're about to dock with the starcruiser now. So get back in your seats."
I sighed and pushed myself off the wall towards my 'seat'. I supposed that being in no gravity was getting kind of old anyway. OK, it actually wasn't.
As I got in and struggled with the straps, Phill floated over and helped me in. "Thanks", I said. "And sorry you kind of got ignored back there."
He didn't reply, and went back to his section to secure himself.
"Alright", came Matthew's voice. "Get ready. Not that there's anything for you to be ready for, but get ready anyway."
A few seconds after that came a vibrating thump. I couldn't really hear it, but could more feel it through the metal of our scout ship. "Sounds like we just banged into the starcruiser", I observed.
"Obviously", Phill commented.
"Obviously that was obvious", Matt said. "Because you are indeed correct; we have indeed just banged into the big ship." Boy and I both looked at him, and he amended, "Starcruiser, I meant."
We spent the next few weeks in the starcruiser, which was a lot more interesting than our original voyage to Slugenis in the interstellar ship.
For one thing, this one had other Slugs in it. Apart from Carmen, Rosetta and Frank, all of whom were in our ship just as Matt had promised, the cruiser was filled with a whole bunch of other Slugs. Most of them were sitting in dishes, which seemed to be all over the place, and when they needed to move about, they took on the three-armed form I was so used to. In fact, Matthew had once told me that Slugs had many different basic shapes to suit a variety of purposes, but so far I'd only seen one. Perhaps the others were only for specialised roles?
For another thing, the starcruiser had a different, yet somewhat similar, shape to the interstellar ship. Instead of just one cylinder that we were all lumped into, this ship was made of a huge inner cylinder surrounded by three hollow layers.
The centre of the ship was basically identical to the interstellar ship, although it was way bigger. Like our original one, the back of the cylinder housed the massive ion engine (and I imagine some other complex stuff I wasn't entirely interested in), it had a front screen with the same layout I was used to (although it was much bigger), and the whole thing rotated to give three hundred and sixty degree gravity around the entire curvature, just like on our trip to Slugenis. Unlike our first voyage, however, the ship was rotating at Slugenis' gravity, not Earth's, so it was slightly harder to move around. For me, at least.
Around this central cylinder was another three cylinders of metal, each getting bigger so that they'd fit around the middle one. The spaces between each of these levels were living space, full of dishes of course, that you could be in. It was like a series of four concentric rings, with the gaps in between the rings being big enough to walk around in. Imagine four cardboard rolls, each one inside another, and it was similar to that. Except it was a starcruiser.
These outer layers were connected to each other and to the main cylinder by gentle ramps at regular intervals. Because the three outer layers were each rotating around the centre of the inner cylinder, they only had gravity in one direction, away from the central cylinder. To get from one side of the ship to the other, you had to climb up four ramps to get to the main cylinder, walk all the way around its curve, then go down four ramps through the layers to get to the opposite side from where you started. In short, it was pretty cool.
I'd asked Matt how many of these starcruisers were going to Earth, and he told me about fifty, which sounded like a heck of a lot for a diplomatic mission, and also a heck of a lot to just be laying around Slugenis waiting to take off. As for the former, it wasn't like he was going to attack my planet or anything, and Boy had speculated that he was planning to launch an attack on some Cyborg place after we were done here. Matthew probably hadn't told me because he didn't plan on me coming along. He'd say it was too dangerous, and that I would just get in the way. Which I most definitely would.
Aside from my depressed musing, however, living on the starcruiser was much better than the interstellar ship. I could find whichever section of the ship had the least occupants in it before using my small portable toilet (although it was quite a pain dragging it around everywhere), which was usually in one of the outmost layers, behind one of the sloping ramps.
And, I could choose whether I'd like to be in normal gravity (in one of the outer levels) or rounded gravity (in the inner cylinder). Since I'd spent the vast majority of my life in normal gravity, rounded gravity won out almost every time.
All the Slugs seemed to be enjoying themselves as well, seeing as how they spent a great deal of time communicating with the other members of their species. Because I totally knew how to tell when aliens were enjoying themselves.
Apparently, Matt had brought some 'spare' Cyborg parts that 'just happened to be lying around' Slugenis with us. He'd helped Phill to attach most of these pieces to himself, meaning that the Cyborg was nearly back to his optimal condition; he'd been operating on improvised replacement parts ever since he was nearly beaten to death by Rabadootime back at the defence of Earth.
But other than that, poor Phill was all alone; once repaired, Matt went back to running the ship (or something else just as vital and interesting), and the Cyborg seemed to have nothing to do. So I tried to keep him company as much as I could, and fancied that beneath his abrupt manner he actually enjoyed my company. And if he didn't, then too bad, because I liked talking to a machine.
"Hey Phill", I said one day. He was in the corner of the second level from the middle; behind one of the entrance ramps, that is. I never knew what direction we were travelling in (unless I saw the main view screen in the central cylinder, which was towards the forward end of the ship), so I didn't know if we were at the front or the back of the starcruiser. Which made no difference to anything.
"Hello", he responded. This was the part where he'd just stare at me awkwardly until I said something to make a fool of myself, but he seemed to be in a chatty mood. If Cyborgs could have moods. "How are you enjoying your stay aboard this starcruiser?"
"Oh, it's great", I said enthusiastically. "Much better than the interstellar ship. How about you?"
"Well", he replied, "every Slug here is surreptitiously avoiding me, and our Slugs are too busy telling the others what to expect when we get to Earth."
"Oh", I replied. "Sorry about that."
"I'm sure you, as another species different to the Slugs, get a similar treatment."
"Oh... Yeah. Sure." In fact, I didn't get a similar treatment. Well, not exactly. A couple of Slugs had once rubbed their tentacle-arm thingies all over me, including my face. Matthew had told me not to worry, they just hadn't met another intelligent organic species that can't communicate that way, and were experimenting. All I knew was that a bunch of aliens were wiping themselves all over my face, and wanted to 'experiment'. That did not sound good, or feel good for that matter; their slime didn't feel as skin-like as Matthew's. Which didn't exactly make sense.
"Anyway", I continued to Phill. "Let's go for a walk or something. N
o sense staying cooped up here doing nothing."
"Maybe I like staying cooped up", he said, but he got up anyway.
We climbed up the ramp he was leaning against, and then started heading towards another upwards-sloping ramp that led to the main cylinder. They needed some elevators in here. "So what will you do when we get back to Earth?" I asked conversationally.
"Get off the ship." Ahh, good old Phill.
"And then what?"
"Take a step."
"Come on, be serious."
"That was a serious action that I will take. What you should've asked is, 'what significant action will I take'?"
"What significant action will you take?" I asked, starting to get exasperated, as conversations with Phill often made everyone and everything.
"I will take another step." At the look of my face, he actually chuckled, and said, "I was joking. Perhaps I shall make a visit to my former cave, to see how it is without me."
"I daresay it will be quite the same."
"Perhaps it will."
He sounded like he was done talking, which means that he'd told me practically nothing. But it was good timing, because we'd just entered the main cylinder, and we found every Slug on the entire ship there. It was a big place (seeing as how the entire inner side of the cylinder could be used as ground-space), but there was a lot of Slugs, so while it wasn't cramped, it wasn't exactly comfortable either.
Matthew was speaking, loud enough for everybody to hear, a bit in front of me and up the wall to my right. "And then he said, 'I'll be back', in a really cool and deep voice, and then the bad guy - or was it bad woman? - said, 'You are back, you just don't know it!', and he was like, 'No way! You're right, I am back'."
I was astonished. "No they didn't!" I complained. "That was just insulting, that was totally not what they said!"
"Hey!" called Matt. "I was trying to make it entertaining, OK? Sheesh."
"This is all irrelevant anyway", said Boy, standing near Matt. Phill chuckled to himself when the Slug said 'irrelevant', but I didn't know why and sure didn't care right now. Boy continued, "They can't understand you when you speak so fast, or use such complex sentences."
"Wait, who's they?" I asked.
Frank's voice came from my left; he'd been standing quite near me. "We've been teaching the Slugs to listen and speak over the last few days. Or, equivalent Earth days, according to Matthew. We've been making excellent progress, but the Slugs still aren't fully intelligible yet."
"Ah", I replied. "And why are you teaching them to speak?"
"Did you seriously just ask that?" came Matthew's voice from across the room, but I ignored it.
"Well, some of them will remain on Earth when we leave", Frank explained. "So of course they must know how to speak. We can't teach every Slug in this fleet, but this ship will do nicely." Some of them will remain on Earth along with me, I supposed. Was this Matt's attempt to make sure that I don't lose contact with his race when he's gone? If so, I didn't approve.
"This ship is called a starcruiser", Phill corrected Frank.
The Slug looked at him. "So Boy told me."
"Doesn't that mean we'll have to name every Slug here as well?" I asked.
Matthew must've heard me, because he called out, "Yeah, and we'll have to be careful about it too. Once you pick a name, forever will it belong to you, never letting you change it for a more sensible one. Just look at Boy over here."
I got a great glimpse of Boy glaring at him, which made Frank and myself laugh, and I think even Phill cracked a smile.
The Cyborg
We had now been travelling on the star cruiser for approximately 75% of the time we'd spent in the interstellar ship. Given that this ship is a larger size than the previous one, and that it likely contains larger engines and thrust capacity to counterbalance its increased mass, I estimate that we will be arriving at Earth shortly.
My predictions were confirmed when the ship began to decelerate; this was the indication that we were approaching our destination. The star cruiser could not be going too fast when it approached the planet, or its time distortion effect would make any interactions between the normal time and our altered time very difficult; this was true even for Cyborg worlds.
I was going through my plans for how I would immediately act once we landed on Earth to ensure that I was favourably received when Ethan approached me. "Hey", he said.
"Good day", I replied, doing my best not to emulate his greeting or my own from previous conversations; Humans seemed to greatly enjoy variety. Perhaps I should incorporate this into my strategy?
"What's going on?" asked the Human.
The question of 'what's going on' had such a large number of possible meanings, and therefore an exponentially larger number of possible answers, that I could not possibly hope to synthesise any kind of a meaningful and relevant response. As to why any sentient species would create such a question, one with no possible answer due to the fact that it has an immensely large number of possible answers, I could not fathom.
Nevertheless, Humans had a tendency to develop accepted responses to certainly phrased questions, regardless of what little sense either phrase made, and this was one of those cases. So I dutifully replied, "Nothing. What's going on for you?"
"Nothing", he replied back.
Now able to begin the conversation proper, involving the transfer of relevant information, I told him, "We are approaching Earth."
"I knew I felt the gravity change!" he exclaimed, excited. I felt simultaneous respect that a being with so little experience in space flight could deduce such a thing from a change in the strength and direction of a gravitational pull, and a slight irritation that it should get so animated about it.
"Indeed", was all I responded with.
"So, are you ready to tell me your plans once we reach Earth?" Ethan asked.
"I believe I already did", I replied, truthfully answering the question, but also taking pleasure in the knowledge that it annoyed him.
"You know what I mean", he replied tersely. "Will you join Matthew in his mission once we're done here?"
"As I explained before, I will accompany him. Should I feel that what he is doing is wrong, I will withdraw my support, but not hamper him in any way." I looked at the Human. "What about you? Have you asked Matthew if you can come along?"
"No", he admitted. "I'm too scared of what the answer might be." He looked up at me sharply. "And I know that that is an illogical thing to do, so don't even mention it!"
In truth, I was about to call out the irrationality of his logic, but I quickly changed my sentence. "Perhaps you should do it in the presence of others, to assist your argument."
"Perhaps I should", he replied. "Well, I'm off to go to the toilet. See-ya Phil." I didn't question why, if he currently required a waste disposal, he approached me.
"Goodbye", I said to his retreating back. As different as we were, and as inherently incapable he would be in a combat situation, I did wish that Ethan would come with us, and I believed that Boy wanted it too. Although some of us may be yet to admit it, the Human had grown on all of us, and was fully integrated with our group. It wouldn't be the same without him.
After he left, I returned to my musings.
This is how life aboard the star cruiser progressed over the next period of time; without any indication of the passage of time, I had no way of knowing how much of it had passed, but could only make rudimentary estimates. However, while in the presence of friends, time was not my enemy but my ally. Time was what I wanted. It was, admittedly, a strange concept.
Alas, time does not give one what one wants. When you wish it to progress fast, there was too much of it; when you wanted more of it, time seemed to vanish. The journey on the star cruiser was no exception.
Soon, after the accompanying major shift in gravity, we were travelling slow enough to enter the Earth's vicinity. Everyone in the ship was once again crowded in the interior of the ship. I was near the back, and all of the S
lugs left a great deal of space around me. Well, that would have to change; it seemed that there was more loyalties that I needed to acquire.
Looking at the large display towards the front of the cylinder, I noticed that it was identical to the one displayed in the interstellar ship, albeit much bigger to accommodate the larger number of Slugs likely to be watching it. Automatically, my eyes raced towards the corner where the 2-dimensional map was located. Sure enough, there was an orange dot, moving slowly but steadily towards the centre.
From somewhere in the room, an unfamiliar, monotone voice uttered, "Earth." It was a Slug who spoke it, perhaps a Slug who'd never spoken a word before. Judging by the lack of reaction from the others, I deduced that it either wasn't the first word it had spoken, or everyone was too enthralled by the prospect of returning to Earth to take much notice.
Beside me, I heard Ethan mutter, "My home." Thankfully, it wasn't loud enough for Matthew to hear, who was near the front in a dish; I didn't want him to think that Ethan wished to stay at Earth.
Quite apart from that, I thought about what the place meant to me. "My prison", I said, only loud enough for Ethan to hear. I wasn't looking at him, but I heard him quickly turn his head towards me, and then back to the map. "Yet so much more than that", I added the vital amendment.
I was looking at the orange dot with deep significance, now missing one of its dashes as we got closer to the planet, when I heard Matthew speaking loudly from his dish near the display. "Something is wrong."
"What?" called Ethan, anxiously.
"Our radio wave sensors are picking up profiles in orbit around Earth."
"Artificial satellites?" I proposed the obvious answer.
"Space junk?" asked Ethan.
"Neither", replied Matt in a wavering voice, but before he could elaborate, Boy had seated himself in a dish.
"Oh", he said gravely after a moment's pause. "That is not good."
"What is it?" asked Ethan desperately.
"Well", said Matthew in an artificially calm voice that seemed on the verge of breaking. "Either you Humans have created satellites that closely resemble Cyborg ships... or there's some Cyborg ships in orbit around Earth."
The Slug
The Slugs were making some nice progress; they were starting to understand our speech more and more. It had been difficult at first to explain to them what sound was, but once they'd allowed sound waves to reach that part of our brains that we'd always thought was useless, then they understood.
We then had to get them to start to understand words and speech. This was a bit harder, as Boy and the others had access to many dictionaries and speech tutorial things when they'd learnt the language. And we had no intention of them taking several years to understand someone talking, like it took me.
Of course, once that was done, they'd have to learn to speak. Mental blocks couldn't be used for this, because they sent out a constant signal for slime to keep a constant shape; the very nature of speech requires frequently moving parts in an irregular fashion to manipulate air flows as they leave your body. Some Slugs were already up to the speech stage, but didn't really understand what they were saying. It was ridiculously like trying to teach a bunch of kindergarteners.
Nonetheless, they were making some nice progress. Some had asked if they could use mental blocks to take on a Human shape, but I advised against it. Everything I knew about Humans said that they would not like it if they knew there were aliens roaming around that could look like anyone they wanted. Better stick with the only Human faces being the ones that they already know.
Boy and I spent some time discussing what we wanted to trade with Earth, and what we wanted to give up for it. Of course we wanted nukes. Everyone wants nukes. But we also wanted to acquire some less destructive missiles, stun guns - to mess up the Cyborgs' electrical circuitry, in theory - and other doodads. And, of course, EMPs. I couldn't think of a reason why they wouldn't work on Cyborgs, and I was willing to give it a go. If it did work, then it would be a game-changer. Or even a game-shifter. Maybe a game-modifier. Whatever it was, though, it would still be truly awesome.
As for what we were going to trade, of course it would have to be ship technology. Although I wasn't a fan of giving the Humans access to space - they should probably sort out their own problems before they spread them to other planets - I doubt that they'd make a trade without it. Although I'd still try to avoid it.
We'd also probably have to share our nanotechnology with them - Metal Slug and the like. That wasn't too bad; they couldn't use that on themselves anyway.
However, after much discussions like this, Boy and I concluded that we'd just have to wait and see. You never know with those crafty Humans. Unless you are one of those crafty Humans. In which case you do know. Unfortunately, I'm not a crafty Human. So I don't know.
Eventually, the ships began its deceleration, ordered by someone, more than likely one of our Slugs; the others would've deferred the flying to me. Although I was the oldest Slug on the ship - indeed, in the whole fleet - I really couldn't be bothered flying all the time. Besides, whoever had done it had slowed down at about the same time I would've, so it's all good.
Another eventually after that, it was time to actually get near Earth. We all congregated in the central chamber, and those of us who didn't know about this congregation knew about it soon enough, since every other part of the star cruiser would've been empty.
I was seated near the front, with a perfect view of the screen, which was pretty sweet. All I needed was popcorn, although I had no idea if my body could digest that kind of food. It would be fun to find out, assuming that it didn't kill me. If so, then it wouldn't be fun to find out.
Despite my best efforts to concentrate, I kept looking at the small proximity map, in quite a state of anticipation of when the planet, depicted as an orange dot as usual, would appear at its outer edge. Soon enough, there it was; my home away from home, the site of my second life... my salvation.
Amidst the general hush of the room, one of the Slugs, not one of our original group, said, 'Earth.' This made me happy. They hadn't even really seen the place yet, and already the Slug was starting to change. Yeah - Earth had that effect.
I received a signal through my dish; one of the Slugs was relaying to me a conversation it was listening to. I had no idea why it thought to inform me of its eavesdropping, but I didn't particularly care either. Its ear-holes weren't smoothly connected to its brain, so the voices were somewhat garbled, but I distinctly heard Ethan say, 'My home.'
A voice I instantly recognised as Phill's replied, 'My prison. Yet so much more than that.' So much more indeed. I was pleased that I wasn't the only one who went through a life-altering experience while on that little planet. It wasn't salvation just for me.
One of our Slugs ordered the star cruiser to scan the place around Earth with radio-waves; old habits die hard, I guessed, due to the fact that it would be immensely difficult to physically kill a habit, so it would indeed be very hard for them to die.
But when the report came back from the reflected radio-waves, and I got the profiles of everything they'd bounced off, alarm bells started ringing. In my head, that is; Slug ships don't have alarm bells. 'Something is wrong', I stated with a calmness I didn't feel for a second. Or even a millisecond. I might have felt it for a microsecond though.
I heard Ethan call from the back, 'What?'
Trying to explain, I called back, 'Our radio-wave sensors are picking up profiles in orbit around Earth.' They'd found Cyborg ships. Cyborg ships! Cyborg. Ships. Here. At Earth. Cyborgs at Earth. This was intolerable! If they'd done anything...
'Artificial satellites?' came Phill's voice.
'Space junk?' came Ethan's.
But it was neither, so I replied, with a near shaking voice, 'Neither.'
'Oh', I heard Boy say, obviously after seating himself at a dish and getting the same information. 'That is not good.' I felt like yelling at him for saying it was merely "not good", but I
told myself that no situation should give me reason to yell at my friend like that. Even... this kind of situation. A Cyborg ships kind of situation.
'What is it?' asked Ethan, now worried. Rightfully so.
'Well', I started, struggling not to let him know how frightened and angry I was. I desperately hoped the information was wrong, but the Humans didn't have the technology to fool our sensors. I summoned up the courage to give voice to words I never wanted to hear, least of all from myself, but not without some hope of a simple misunderstanding: 'Either you Humans have created satellites that closely resemble Cyborg ships... or there's some Cyborg ships in orbit around Earth.'
The Slug Invasion Page 5