Chapter 12: ‘Humanity’ (2345 words)

After a disoriented journey home, a sickened Vievel collapsed in front of his friend, Ria, and woke up in his bed. What he wasn't expecting to be sitting at the foot of his bed, was the human, Calito.

Vievel sat up in bed, displacing the blankets slung over his feet with the sudden motion. They fell into a bundle at the base of his bed, beside Calito, the human who had somehow tricked his way onto the Aaelfir ship; Vievel couldn’t decide whether to scream for help or to ignore the human and hope he was dreaming. His head leaning both ways simultaneously, Vievel grabbed the remainder of his blankets and pulled them over his head.

“Kid, you okay?”

Nope, still there. Vievel let the thick fabric-weave blankets slip from his head and fall into his lap. The room was small, no bigger than a deep storage cabinet, or the bed itself, and the human sitting beside him took up a great deal of the space. He was still dressed in the same clothes he’d been wearing in the amethyst cell when the two of them had been aboard the Dwurkn ship; dark linen trousers, with a series of bandages and wrappings tightly coiled from around his lower abdomen all the way up to his right shoulder.

“How’d you get the blood out?” Vievel asked. The wrappings were almost the same; save for they were clean.

“Wished it real hard,” Calito said, a wry smile on his lips. His patchwork brown long-coat was slung around his shoulders, but neither of his arms were inside it. Instead, he was wearing it like a cloak of sorts, to shield his bare skin from the ever-present slight chill of the starship. The human looked directly at Vievel, showing off his ragged facial scar, bright yellow right-eye, and left-side eye-patch.

“Mind if I smoke?” Calito said. He produced a twice-wrapped roll-up from his pocket, the cigarette brimming with whatever green-leaf humans smoked. He moved to light it without waiting for Vievel’s approval.

“Actually-” Vievel held a hand up to stay Calito from lighting the roll-up. “-my bunk, the quarters keep a record of particles and the air composition so-” he said. It wasn’t one of his favourite safety features of the Ulmadr quarters, but it was extremely helpful in early detection of breaches.

“Best not,” Calito said. “Gotcha”. He closed his hand around the roll-up. When he opened it again the cigarette was gone.

Where did it-

“One-second kid”. Calito’s single eye had glazed over, an eerie glassy film obscuring his pupil. Vievel leant forward for a moment and then turned around, looking for whatever the human was looking at. His stare passed right through Vievel, as though he was fixating on something he couldn’t see.

“Done,” Calito said.

“Done?” Vievel was about to question the human further until a light erupted in the palm of Calito’s hand. The human brought his thumb and forefinger together and the cigarette, the same cigarette, formed out of the nothing between them. At first slowly, a few particles collecting together as a golden light pulsed dully around them, and then suddenly, with the entire cigarette bursting to life before Vievel’s eyes.

“Good looking out,” Calito said. “I shoulda thought to think of that”. He chuckled. “Air records, what a world”.

“Andlátta!” Vievel swore. “What did you-how did you-”

“Easy kid, save the babbling.” Calito put the roll-up to his lips and drew in heavily. “Just my nanobytes,” he said, breathing out.

Just nanobytes. All the while Vievel had known humans had a physical advantage over the Aælfir, but he’d at least thought his people had a technological advantage, hard-won from their salvaging. Now he saw the truth of it. They were like dust to the humans. It was at that moment Vievel decided, damn everything else; he had to tell his father what had happened. The safety of everyone he knew was at stake. He’d brought a monster into his house.

“C-cool trick,” Vievel stammered. “Nanobots you say?”

“Nanobytes,” Calito said, holding his cigarette close to his chest. “Bots and bits are just a part of the swarm, the byte is the swarm itself”. As Vievel held his breath Calito nodded at his roll-up. “Don’t worry, air filter ain’t going to record anything but what it’s expecting for now. I fixed it”.

“You fixed it?” Vievel swung his legs off his bed. Calito nodded in response. A polite lyrical tone rung out above the two of them.

“Lord Ulmadr, the system is telling me you’re awake, is that correct my lord?” A crackling voice over the intercom addressed Vievel with deference. Panicking, Vievel twisted towards the door, waiting to see if the servant outside was about to enter his room, hoping that courtesy would win out over concern.

“Yes-yes, I’m up. I’m okay, no need to come in”. He twisted back toward Calito. The human was gone. Even the wisps of smoke from his cigarette, which had lingered on the air only seconds before, had vanished.

I’m going mad.

“The Lady Riandra is still present and requesting to see you Lord Ulmadr, are you able to visit with her?”

“Y-yes, of course,” Vievel stammered. Where had Calito gone? Had he not felt the human with his foot he would’ve been able to dismiss the man as a hallucination. He pressed a hand to his head: he wasn’t warm, didn’t have a headache, his vision was clear. He hadn’t felt this right and regular since before he’d boarded the Dwurkn frigate.

The door to his bunk-room hissed mechanically and drew itself up, revealing Ria and one of Vievel’s attendants, Phylli, standing behind it. Phylli, an Aelfi possessed of considerable musculature and long jet black hair was fussing with Ria’s dress, attempting to pin one of the errant ribbons back into place. Ria wore her displeasure at the attendant’s fussing plain on her face, but Phylli didn’t respond to it. Either she didn’t notice, or she was too consumed with her task to care.

“I’m alright,” Ria murmured towards Phylli, her voice so quiet that it was almost a whisper by the time it reached Vievel’s ears. The attendant didn’t stop working, the ribbon falling once again instead of remaining fixed to Ria’s capelet.

“The pin is worn my lady, perhaps if we-” Phylli started

“Phylli?” Vievel spoke up. She stopped speaking as Vievel croakily continued, sporting his best impression of a sickened voice. “Ria is quite alright. Could you leave us so we can talk in private?” The Aelfi nodded at the request, gingerly smirking at something. Whatever the reason, the smile vanished before Vievel could comment on it.

“Anything you need my lord, just press the call button-”

“Yes of course-”

“Anything at all, extra rations, clean sheets-”

“Phylli-” Vievel rubbed his temple. “Please”. The Aelfi attendant curtsied slightly and turned away, walking down the corridor as Ria stepped across the bunk-room’s threshold.

“She’s something else,” Ria murmured. The door closed behind her, and immediately Vievel was again reminded of how small the room was. With Calito he’d felt threatened, trapped; with Ria a wave of self-consciousness wrapped around him, tangling itself around his arms and his feet. One wrong step and he’d trip straight over it.

“How are you feeling? Are you okay?” she asked. He wanted to tell her everything, but fear stayed his tongue.

Is Calito still here? Still listening? Vievel stepped back sluggishly, making a show of how tired he was. He shifted along his bunk, sitting where the human had been a few moments ago.

“I’m okay, I just don’t feel great,” Vievel lied.

I need to get her out of here. He had to figure out where Calito had gone.

“I really need to rest,” he said, hoping that she would take the heavy-handed hint.

“Oh well I won’t keep you for long, it’s just-” Ria’s hand moved across her chest and gripped her opposite elbow, tugging her arms together in an accidental embrace. “Have you heard about Halycen?” she whispered.

“No?” Everything else had happened so quickly he’d forgotten about his cousin. A welt of shame rose upon the surface of his mind, sitting painfully. She stepped a little closer to Vievel. His eyes fell across her waist for a moment before he adjusted them upwards again, and he shifted back on the bed as far as he could go. It wasn’t far.

“She snuck aboard the Dwurkn frigate!” She exclaimed once she was close enough to do so quietly. “-and she got caught!” A split-second silence hung between them before Vievel realised Ria was waiting for him to respond.

“Oh, wow! Really?” To his own ear, his reply sounded flat and unconvincing, but she didn’t seem to notice. How had Halycen’s exploits become known so quickly? Without giving Ria an opportunity to respond, Vievel continued. “Is she okay? What happened?”

“Well there was a ranger and-” she stopped, looking over Vievel for a moment. “The whole story can wait. Halycen’s fine, she didn’t tell me what trouble she got into, only that it wasn’t bad.” Ria shook her head. “She’s so…” She didn’t finish the thought, instead holding up her wrist, her netcomm, with the display a vivid blue, strapped to it. “Hallie wants to meet in a few hours, are you up for that?”

“Yeah,” Vievel murmured. Already he had stopped worrying about Halycen, the barest acknowledgement that she was okay enough to sate his conscience.

Will a few hours be enough to track down Calito?

“Alright, well I’ll leave you be for now. We’re going to meet at Felder’s corner,” she said, mentioning the name of a childhood hangout. Ria placed a hand gently on Vievel’s shoulder.

“I’m glad you’re okay, you worried me”. Vievel didn’t respond. Hundreds of different replies bandied themselves about his head, but none seemed the right combination of words. She made to leave, stepping toward the door. “Hopefully I can sneak out before Phylli notices me and I have to deal with her again-” she laughed as she pressed a green wall-mounted button. The bunk-room door sprung open a moment later.

“Th-thanks for coming to check on me,” Vievel said suddenly, the words tumbling out. Ria turned back and smiled.

“Of course, you’re my friend”. Vievel nodded, feeling a familiar heaviness in his stomach. She murmured a second farewell but the words washed over him. Ria disappeared around the corner of his bunk-room door and Vievel sighed heavily, hoping to relieve the weight inside him. It lingered as he watched the door close behind her.

“You like her”. Vievel shot up, standing immediately as he turned. Calito was sitting on his bed, again, in exactly the same spot he had been before his disappearance.

“You!” Vievel gasped. “Where did you-” Calito’s words struck him suddenly. “-I, n-no I don’t. She’s a friend”. He drew in a deep breath, focusing all his effort on not flushing red or twitching, unsure as to what could have given him away.

“Uhuh”. Calito brought his cigarette back to his lips. The smoke hung thick on the air in the small room, clouding his face.

“Where did you go?” Vievel asked. Calito didn’t seem bothered by his disappearance, but he was aware he’d been gone.

“Away”.

“Away? What do you mean ‘away’?” Vievel stepped back toward the door, wondering if he should just run, run and hope for the best.

“Just away”.

“You disappeared. Vanished in front of my eyes”.

“I was still here. You were still here, weren’t you?”

Vievel’s temple throbbed, a sharp pain beginning to birth itself through his skull as painfully as possible. The human rubbed his palms together gleefully, apparently delighted as Vievel brought a hand to his head to massage the new ache.

“Stop talking in riddles”. Vievel snapped at the human. “Please,” he added, a split-second later. It was perhaps a moment too late. The human frowned, standing up from the bed. In the small bunk-room, he dominated the space.

“What do you remember of before, of the cell?” The human stubbed the runtish remains of his cigarette out, using his arm as an ashtray. He didn’t flinch. Vievel’s mind’s eye immediately snapped back to the image of the gigantic cavern.

“Not that one, the one just now,” Calito said. Vievel’s eyes snapped toward the man.

“What?”

“Not the one you were just thinking of. Forget the cave”.

He can-

“You kn-know what I was thinking?” Nothing, no story or fable of humanity, had prepared him for this. Vievel swallowed. He looked up at Calito, feeling an ache his neck as he took stock of the man. Against the human, he was inconsequential, tiny. He’d never been tall, nor strong, amongst his peers, but he doubted even the best of them would’ve felt any different at that moment.

Perhaps sensing his fear, Calito spoke gently.

“Calm down,” he said. He paused for a moment, mulling something over, and his posture drooped. The human brought his finger and thumb together, as he had when he’d summoned the cigarette. “Copy that,” he said. Vievel watched the human’s movements, bringing his hand together in the same shape.

“Now what?” Vievel said.

Why? What by Ganymede are you doing? What he wanted to ask, and what he did, were worlds apart.

“Think about something you want, but something you’ve already got. A possession of yours. If it’s nearby, that’ll help.” The human grinned, the same wide smarmy grin that he seemed to enjoy wheeling out. Despite his misgivings, Vievel knew exactly what he wanted at that moment. “Picture it,” Calito said, without waiting for Vievel to reply.

There was a buzzing noise first of all. His ears rung with a low whining, a shrill sound which peaked quickly and then faded rapidly until it was firmly rooted in the background. On the floor beside him, his knapsack was suddenly illuminated, a muted amber light radiating out from the inside. A few seconds later the light dulled, appearing suddenly again in the palm of his hand as particles began to swirl and swim around in the air. Vievel could only watch in astonishment as the bottle of Skulla from his knapsack slowly materialised in front of his eyes. Calito just smiled at him.

“Welcome to humanity kid”.