Host Held Hostage

Two worlds meet and it's not a friendly encounter. As everyone scrambles to piece together what has happen, our two characters finally meet.

                                     Inside the Escape pod, on uncharted planet

               Slowly and hazily Lycia wakes up with a severe pounding in her head, along with her antennas feeling like they’re swollen. For a few moments, she just lies there afraid that if she tries to get up, she’ll topple over.  She takes this moment to collect her thoughts and recall all of the events that led to her to this state. She remembers her mother sending her off to some outer rim colony for reasons not detailed to her. On the way, the ship was pulled out of Slip Space by a large band of Renuein pirates, that she eventually escaped from via the pod she is currently suffering in. The pod was set to uncharted space where she discovered a remote planet inhabited by primitive aliens, and while trying to prepare herself for an encounter with these aliens she somehow managed to knock herself unconscious.

             

  Lycia couldn’t actually believe that she knocked herself out, it did impress her that despite her best efforts to better her situation she only managed to worsen it. Her thoughts are dragged from her when blood slowly rolls into her vision, she squints not quite understanding where it’s coming from. It doesn’t take long for her to figure it out though. As the blood seeps into her eye, leaving a sharp stinging sensation. Slowly she reaches for her forehead wincing when she touches it.

               

Realizing that she is badly bleeding she painfully forces her body up feeling an immense amount of soreness. Crawling over to piece of metal she uses its reflection to look at herself. A small gash above her eyebrow which is still bleeding, she was correct in her assumption though, about her antennas as they are heavily swollen. Fortunately, that’s all she feels no broken bones, so she has that going for her. After a quick assessment on the rest of her body she determines that she is ok for the most part.

“That drone’s hard work, all in vain.” She mumbles to herself.

               

Pushing her feet under her standing up, she nearly topples back over. Despite all her shortcomings, Lycia feels as though she’s a lot stronger, it surprises and confuses her. As she ponders this she notices how quiet it is. A few more moments of silence are enough for her to realize that the hum of the engines has died out. Putting two and two together she decides to confirm is she has landed on the planet.

“Have we reached the planet?”  Lycia walks over to the navigation console still fumbling about trying to readjust to her new strength. The console remains silent however.

“Navigation have we arrived to the intended planet respond, now!” She is not in the mood for any of this. But regardless the machine doesn’t respond.

               

Upset by this misfortune she kicks the console, but given that she doesn’t know her own strength yet, she stubs her toe doing so. “Ok assuming that this is the planet, what now?” Lycia groans holding her foot while thinking out loud. Looking around the pod, which is now a wreck, she searches for the container that gave of her this head trauma.

               

She finds it with its lid opened, with one of the hinges broken and its contents scattered all over the floor. Most of materials are still intact, the exception being a few vials with contents that she doesn’t know.  But some of the more important materials have remained intact they’re just thrown about the pod carelessly.  She walks over and picks up some of the essentials like food rations and water placing it all into one neat pile. Along with the rations Lycia has found, there are other useful gadgets like the infamous pair of translation devices her brother mentioned, as well as some other useful items.

There among the scattered supplies is an A.H.M.B., also known as an Alien Holographic Mimicking Band.  It’s a wristband that scans alien life projecting an image onto the user that resembles the species scanned. She isn’t quite sure why Alyuans use them, their size is so great that usually most of their body would be cloaked to allow for proper mimicking. Not to mention that Alyuans are a proud race that enjoy showing the rest of the galaxy how great they truly are.

While staring at the band, she remembers something else Dremux had told her when going to other planets occupied by other races. He told her that it makes cooperation between Alyuans and other species much easier, most species are intimidated by Alyuans and do their best to avoid them regardless of how long the two species have known each other. So sometimes deceiving the species was the best form to work with them, which is just absolutely ridiculous in her mind. He’s an Alyuan, and the species he’s come into contacted with are living on an Alyuan controlled planets they should show some gratitude and be helpful.

Despite her own opinions, she places the band around her wrist, it snaps on her wrist perfectly with magnets that aren’t too loose nor too tight. Now all she needs to do is find one of these aliens, place the translation device onto it, then scan it letting her blend in more properly.  “I wonder how easy that will be.” She was thinking out loud again.

Along with the A.H.M.B., she finds a small box with the words ‘support, on it. Opening it there are four small metallic balls in it. As well as a small screen that lit up when she opened the box. Words come from the side of the screen reading, “Hello passenger, if you’re reading this than you’re unfortunate enough to be on a planet that’s gravity differs from your own.” Lycia grumbles at the text, it is as though it was mocking her for being in the predicament, she is in. She continues reading regardless, “Despite your tragic luck, you do have some hope, in this box are magnetic supports. These supports should replicate the gravitational pull your home planet in order to prevent bone degeneration and muscle loss. Simply apply them to the backs of your hands as well your ankles. From there the support will clamp to your body, you’ll feel a small pinch, then they will activate. We recommend you be in a standing position when you apply them, otherwise you may find it disorientating to get up. And with that good luck with any future endeavors and goodbye.” She thought the ending is a bit odd given the type of situations people using these would find themselves in.

Applying the supports is rather easy, the pinch is a bit annoying, but they do seem to activate rather quickly. She feels the extra strength she had, swiftly taken from her. “It was nice while it lasted.” She thinks to herself.

 

Turning her attention back to the supplies she thinks that it is quite a lot for her to carry. For an average Alyuan it may not seem like much but she, despite her resentment to the fact, is significantly smaller than the average Alyuan. On top of that she has no means to carry what she has. She brushes her hands through her hair agitated by how complicated this has become.

With another sigh, she decides to take only what’s essential. Most of the planet is covered in water so she believes she’s should only take one container of it with her. She wasn’t sure what would be edible or not so she decides to bring a couple handfuls of rations, as well what medical supplies she could salvage. The last thing she needs is to catch some alien disease, though if these aliens are as isolated as it seems she shouldn’t worry to much about that. With a smaller pile of supplies she feels a bit more confident, but still feels like she’s forgetting something important.

“

The distress transmitter!” She shouts looking around the pod desperately trying to find the transmitter. Tossing debris around she searches for the device, without it no one would be able to find her.  She’d be stuck on this remote planet until she dies, that sudden realization in her head horrifies her. The thought of being left all alone in uncharted space, never getting to see her home Alyu again, nor her family, becoming lost and forgotten, left to rot without anyone to care for her. Tears build in her eyes, gently rolling down the sides of her face. She doesn’t want that. She wants to go home to do something meaningful with her life, something that would let everyone know her strength. To prove to everyone that her size isn’t a limitation, that she can do more than they think she can. She weeps in silence wiping away the waves of tears.

“No… I…I won’t die here. I won’t… I refuse to be forgotten!” Thinking to herself gritting her teeth while balling her hands into fist. Determined to get off of this planet one way or another, she prepares herself mentally to do whatever it takes. There has to be a way for her to get off of this planet she just needs to be creative. While she is thinking, the transmitter slides out of the overhead above her bonking her in the head. Rubbing her head, she feels like Alyu or some other unseen force is taking pleasure in making her life miserable.

               

Lycia rubs her head mentally scoffing at the notion that some divine brig was controlling her actions. Only the most hate filled sadist would be taking pleasure in all of the death and destruction she’s seen in the last few days. Though it would prove those manic monks who tried to persuade her to believe in Alyuism that Alyu, their deity, is an evil wretch.  Why would the almighty Alyu, the one who created their planet and people, the one who said they were destined to own all that they set their eyes on, decide that now is the time to bring some suffering to some mortals. She wouldn’t, why, because she is a bunch of religious nonsense. To think the mighty Alyuans, with their vast empire, would be just playthings to a wicked goddess is absolutely ludicrous. That’s why she likes to put her faith in science. Straight forward with answers just waiting to be found.

               

“Need to stay focused.” She says shaking herself to focus her current situation. Picking up the transmitter she studies it, though she nearly drops it not expecting it to be so heavy. Its additional weight has her rethinking the supplies she’s gathered, it might be hard to carry them with the transmitter. Doing one last visual sweep of the pod she tries to find anything that she could carry all of her items in. Frustrated Lycia is about to kick the broken container, but seeing how she’s stubbed one of her toes already reconsiders it.

               

Setting the transmitter next to her pile of supplies she sits down thinking on how she’s going to manage all of these things. While looking down on all her items notices of how dirty her dress has gotten; its gold and violet design are now tainted with reddish-brown and bluish-purple blood stains.  The smell hasn’t entirely washed off her skin either, the smell of the gore her senses endured still lingers. Unfortunately, this is her only piece of clothing she has otherwise she tear them off bother changing into something better burning the dress. “Hmm... That can work.” She hums as an idea comes to her.

               

Ripping the bottom of her dress, allowing her legs to breathe fresh air, she takes the torn cloth tearing it into two so she could very crudely attempt to make a bag out of it as well as a bandage for her cut. The bandage wasn’t too hard she simply tied the cloth around her head which actually did a good job at stopping the bleeding. Though now she was worried about getting an infection after using a dirty cloth to bandage an open wound.  As for her attempts to make a bag, they were less fruitful, taking her three attempts before it could actually hold everything she gathered. She ties the sack around a metal rod laying on the pod’s tattered floor placing all but the translation devices in her makeshift sack just in case she encounters one of these aliens. It would be difficult to attach the device if she has to rummage through her items. She attached one of the two translators to her head, which isn’t a pleasant experience, but nonetheless necessary. “Well, let’s get this over with.”  She sighs opening the pod doors.

                                 ___________________________________________________________

             

                                Alki Beach, Seattle. Post UFO Crash

               

Richard’s feels something very hot on his back, like he’s been standing close to a large fire, and jaw feels extremely swollen. Like someone ran right into it in full football gear at full speed, “Really that’s the first thought that comes to my mind? Ugh… what the hell just happened? Did I just get knocked out?” Richard mumbles to himself getting on his hands and knees. reaching up rubbing his jaw, it wasn’t as swollen as it felt but that could have something to do with all the blood dripping off his beard.

“Yeah, that ain’t good.”  He tries to get up but a jolt of pain shocked though his body toppling him over again.

              

A crowd had gathered not too far from him but they were keeping their distance, “Fair enough something did just slam into the beach.” He thinks looking at whatever crashed beside him. Still he thought that someone would come over and help him up, but no they just let lay there alone on the beach next to God knows what. Remembering that Sara was with him when this all happened, he calls out for her, “Sara?! Sara, where are you?!” Richard looks where he thought he tossed her but she is not there, either kept running or someone was able to get her away from the crash. If it was the latter, it hurt to think that she’d just leave him on the beach, but it’s not as though she could’ve dragged him away even if she tried.

               

He tries getting up one more time, bracing himself for the pain, that’s when he could hear the sirens coming. Thinking that maybe he should wait for them to put him in an ambulance and take him to the hospital and fix him up he decides to lay a little longer. He thinks about how worried his mom would be for him and after that how she would continuously be overly cautious about how he’d exerted himself. His mind ponders about how much the medical bills would cost, the amount of drama that would ensue from it makes his head hurt. He does see a bright side to all this though, now he has an excuse to no longer play football, sure people would still ask but he can now say, “You remember when that thing crashed at Alki? Well I was unfortunate enough to be beneath it when landed, so that’s why I don’t play anymore.” He feels a small bit of relief in that thought.

               

That relief quickly is squandered when he hears the crowd screaming, lifting his head he sees them all fleeing from the beach.  His eyes quickly shift his over his shoulder to see a tall blue figure looming over him. Ignoring the pain he felt earlier Richard tries get to his feet, adrenaline and fear pumping through his body. The figure stops him though, grabbing his hair, forcefully yanking his head back shouting at him in a language he couldn’t comprehend. He tries to pry his assailant’s grip but its skin was all wet making it hard to get a good grip.

               Something cold is placed against his head followed by a sudden sharp pain that penetrates into his skull.  Following that he feels like there’s somethings moving around underneath his skull across the surface of his brain. He jolts gasping for breath when what feels like a needle shoots into the back of his brain. Richard has no idea what this thing is doing to him but he is definitely not going to let it continue. Releasing the figures wrist and raising his hand further up, probably confusing the being because he felt its grip loosen, slams his elbow as hard as he possibly could into the being’s gut.

               

Whatever this thing is it certainly felt that because it immediately lets go of his hair and hunches over holding its gut. Richard follows up it attack by thrusting all his weight into the figure’s shins, causing the being to fall onto its back. At this point, Richard’s anger emerges once more, and for once he puts it to good used positioning himself on top of the being’s abdomen and throws one of the hardest punches he had ever thrown. The punch connected to the top left side of the figure’s head, but instead of feeling just skull it felt like there is something meaty and boney as well. Before he could throw another punch, the figure grabs his arm and holds it in place, taking ahold of his other arm as well.

              

He struggles to break free, but whatever this thing is, it’s just as strong, if not stronger than him. As the struggle ensues something bewildering happens, the being speaks once again in the foreign language, but this time he understood it. “You big dumb savage get off of me!” The thing shouts, its voice now sounds like an angry woman. Richard relents and is taken back by this, “What the hell?” is what he wants to say but only the word ‘hell’ came out the rest as the same nonsense this thing spoke.

 The strangeness of his voice scares him, falling into his back, he crawls backwards trying to escape his own voice. The blue being gets a good kick at him before giving him a mean scowl. Now trembling, Richard barely manages to ask the question, “Wha-what… what di-… WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!” But before any answer can be given a bunch of armed soldiers come rushing at them encircling them. They have their M4 assault rifles trained on both them, red dots from their laser sight aimed across their bodies.

“Please! Please help me! This thing, it put something in my brain! Please you gotta help me I’m begging ya!” Richard begs with tears forming, but it all comes out as the foreign language as before.

              

The soldiers clearly don’t understand what he is saying and shout at him to stay back very assertively. Richard keeps his arm up repeating his pleas over and over again until being interrupted, “They can’t understand you, you imbecile. The device I attached to our heads allows you to speak my language so I can understand what you’re saying.” He turns his head getting his first good look at his assailant, it was entirely blue, like baby bluish, even its hair was a darker blue. The eyes of this thing gives him the creeps; they two are a darker blue that fades to white as it nears to what he thinks are the pupils. Its hair is long, going down to its upper back. It has on a gold and violet dress that hugs her body which makes him think it’s a female.

               

What really catches his attention is the face, she had eyebrows and eyelashes to match her hair, but it doesn’t have a nose. Its face just protrudes where one would be but there’s no nostrils. Speaking of things that are missing, he can’t find any ears on it either. What he does find is a pair of antennas popping out of the corners of her forehead that burrowed themselves into its hair. She reminds him of those old aliens that you’d see in those Sci-Fi comics and movies or something like that. Except in those you usually don’t see the alien jam something into someone’s brain…usually.

“Hey!” the alien yells at him again. “Are you even listening to me? Who are these people and what do they want?”

“I feel like I can be asking you the same questions. But I got a better question, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!” Richard screams still uncomfortable with not having any control over his speech. The soldiers look at him cautiously only making the words ‘hell’ out from his outburst, he is no longer giving his attention to them resting his arms and fiercely pointing at the thing before him. “Great I managed to choose one of the stupidest of you savages.” “What did you say?!” “Are you deaf too, I clearly just said what I did. But if you really need me to remind you, I put a device that latched to the communication portion of your brain.” “Yeah, no s**t!” The two go back and forth their conversation getting more aggressive by the moment.

               With it the two getting more and more aggressive with each other, the soldiers intervene grabbing the two and trying to separate them. Richard is taken back by the forcefulness of the soldiers, but knowing better he does not struggle stepping back. The alien is not at as well behaved as he is though, throwing punches at the first soldier to grab it laying him out on his back. Three more move in to take hold of it two in front and one sneaking behind the alien. While the two got her attention the third soldier pounces it, putting it in a full-nelson. The alien made it clear that it did not like this and squirms around trying to throw the soldier off, but the other two step in keeping it still. Despite there being three of them they still struggle, it head-butts one of the soldiers giving him a bloody nose. The soldier must’ve been sick of her because he pulls out his sidearm ordering it to stay still, which it does but keeps screaming.

 “Now wait one-minute soldier.” A nicely dressed man in a black suit orders as he waltzes over. His presence steals everyone’s attention defusing the situation. “This is a first contact scenario we don’t want to make a rude impression.”

“Who the hell are you supposed to be?” the soldier angrily asks.

               

The man rolls his eyes and reaches into his pocket pulling out a badge that says FBI on it shoving it in the soldier’s face. The soldier groans withdrawing his weapon from the alien’s face backing away. The agent steps forward in front of the alien, which has calmed down, but angrily stares back at him, its white pupils looking him in the eyes. He orders the soldier to release it which they hesitantly do, the alien jerking loose as soon as the weaken their hold.

“Hello there, my name is Isaac Santiago, I am the agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the nation the United States of America.”  Agent Santiago introduces himself.

               

The alien continues to give him a look like it was demeaning him, but Santiago couldn’t figure out why. The alien let out a sigh and points at its antennas, which doesn’t clear up much. The alien sighs again, but this time it speaks while pointing, each word says being long and exaggerated. The agent realizes what is happening and turns to Richard. “Can you still understand us?”  Richard tries to say yes but it didn’t come out as English, he groans and just nods his head. 

“Ok now I want you to translate what I’m saying, word for word, understand?” he asks Richard who nods again.

“Ask it who it is?”  The agent questions which Richard translates. The alien glares at Richard giving him a brief answer. The agent looks at Richard who shrugs his shoulders as well as shakes his head. “Ok, then ask it why its here.” Santiago requests once more which is again translated. The alien gives Santiago and Richard both the same annoyed look that it had did before then speaks again briefly before pointing at the object she came out of. Santiago turns to Richard, who was about to say something but groans remembering he can’t speak English. Instead he raises his hand, balling it into a fist and makes loud crashing noises smashing his fist into his open palm.

“*sigh* We know it crashed, we want to know why.” The agent complains becoming more agitated by how slow this is all going.

               

Again, Richard speaks and instead of insulting their intelligence the alien gives them another short, but serious answer. The FBI agent realizes it was something serious by the change of expression the young man translating has. He turns to Richard waiting for a response, Richard stutters desperately wanting to say something but knew he couldn’t. He then demonstrating by swinging a powerful punch at one of the soldiers, who didn’t take to kind to it, stopping himself before connecting. No one knew what he was trying to say though, he groans in frustration repeating the action over and over again and again.

“It was in a fight?” a soldier asked which Richard gives a vigorous nod to. Santiago is about to go into further depth with that answer, but he takes a good glance behind him and sees the crowd of people getting more and more restless. “I’m sorry to cut this ‘conversation’ shout but, the crowd is getting a bit antsy so we’re going to need to move this to a more secure area.” The agent says snapping his fingers. The soldiers grab the two once more the alien fighting them once again while the march them towards one of the Hummers. It’s only when the alien spouts something out directly meant for Richard to hear does, he freaks out and uses all of his strength to break free of the soldiers’ grasp and dashes toward the alien.

The soldiers dash over to him weapons at the ready telling not to resist. Richard keeps his arms out making distance between him and them and is frantically trying to explain something to no avail. Agent Santiago sighs as he watches the soldiers control the man, so he walks over to Richard placing an overly firm grip on his shoulder, “Kid we do not have the time for this, so you either get in the damn vehicle or I’ll make you.”

Richard’s voice is now trembling, he keeps trying to say what he has to say but of course no one can understand him. He then points to the alien then back to himself and the device on his head consistently, he then ends it with the sound of an explosion after pointing at the device. “My god it’s a bomb.” Santiago gravely says ordering the soldiers to get the crowd as far away from them as possible. The sound soldiers and cops shouting boom through the air, but is quickly drowned out by the frantic shuffling and mummers of the crowd. After a few moments, a group of SWAT E.O.D.  guys show up and isolate Richard while one moves in, but Richard motions with his finger by slightly moving it and follows it up with another explosion sound.

“It’s motion censored!” the EOD guy calls out.

               

Santiago turns to the alien looking at it sternly, which for a moment appears to break its resilience. Santiago turns his attention to Richard stomping over to him, remaining behind the perimeter the EOD team had set up. He stares at Richard who kept pointing to the alien the bomb and himself, all the while fruitlessly trying to say the words he wants to say. After observing his actions, the agent deduces what the young man is trying to tell him

“It’s a proximity explosive, if he gets too far from the alien it’ll go off.” Santiago informs the EOD squad who are still extremely tense.

Santiago pushes through the safe zone, despite the E.O.D.s reluctance’s, straight toward Richard reaching his coat pockets pulling out a set of handcuffs. “Give me your wrist.” He orders Richard very sternly yanking at his limb cuffing his wrist very tightly. He precedes to drag the large young man towards the alien snatching its wrist which gets a shriek out of it. The two looks at their bonded wrists than angrily at each other, their glares are cut should however, when a soldier shove them with their weapon ordering them to move. Richard and the alien give one last scowl to one another, Richard nudges his head at the Humvee waiting for them. With an angry sigh the alien moves to the car dragging him the whole way, “We’re done here people, secure the area and report anything that pops up!” Santiago shouts as gets into the same car as the pair. Sirens fill the air as the armored convoy clears out.

Author's Note

Any review helps thanks a lot for reading