Time: 1947
Place: Outside Roswell, New Mexico, USA, Earth "We shouldn't be here," Trx's second eyes twitched nervously. "Parental group said we're not supposed to go here." Jvn stopped studying the forbidden blue planet staring balefully at them through the view screen and rolled all three sets of eyes. Why parental group insisted that they bring their younger-clutch sibling along Jvn would never understand. It was so un-gfk. "So, you're strafing ionosphere, zoob?" Flk's voice came through the comm. "I've done that a thousand times." "Zoob, you've done it twice! And got scared the first time," Sdw protested from the third ship. "Zoob, not gfk!" Flk shot back. "Settle, zoobs." Jvn cut through the chatter. "I'm not doing that egg stuff. I'm strafing planetary crust." "Zoob!" "You can't do that, zoob, are you ynrf?" "No. I have it all calc'ed out. Someone should take Trx, though." Jvn eyed their unwanted passenger with their lowest set of obs. "This isn't a thing for an egg." "No!" Trx wailed. "Parental group said to stay with you. I'm not allowed to be in another ship. I'll tell!" "You heard the little zoob." Flk sounded far too smug. "Either do it with the sib onboard or admit you're making excuses." Jvn glared at their sib. "All right. The egg comes with me. Put on your transpace web, Trx." "Zoob, are you sure?" Sdw asked softly. "Come on, Flk, don't goad. Jvn, you don't have to prove you're gfk to us. What if you crash and the planetary apex predators catch you? I hear they eat everything." Flk cleared their throat over comm. "Yeah, they're insane. I hear they use transports that rely on continuous small explosions for propulsion. And that they kill things they don't even want to eat. I read somewhere that they don't even have parental groups. Look, zoob, I didn't mean it. Don't do this." "I'm going in." Jvn adjusted their own webbing. "I know what I’m doing." "Zoob," Sdw whispered and the terror in their voice sent chills up Jvn's spine. Too bad. They were doing this. No one else in their clutch-year ever had. They concentrated on the readouts and did not think about ugly, bipedal predators with brains of violence storms down there. Jvn checked their flight path once more and began the careful circling for a gravity well dive. "Keep the channels open, zoob!" Flk yelled over the whine of the solar boosters. "You're the most gfk!" Atmospheric entry wasn't fun—Jvn had taken it too fast—but the dampeners took most of the stress. Clutchling rounds were forgiving ships, made specifically for younger pilots. There was the arid portion of the planet they were aiming for. Recorders on, they dove for the surface. The plan was to kick up a small cloud of dust and zip away. The proximity alarms barely had time to ping before they were hit, the ship spinning out of control. Trx was shrieking, which was terribly distracting, until the ground hit the view screen with a solid whump. After a moment's silence, Trx sniffled, "Are we dead?" Jvn took a few breaths to be sure. "No. No, we're not. Hush." Something had come out of nowhere and smacked them into the sand. A missile of some sort, Jvn guessed. They'd been spotted and they had to get away. Jvn's tentacles flew over the control surfaces but nothing responded. "Undo your webbing, Trx. Hurry. We have to get out." Jvn's third left tentacle didn't feel right but there was no time to assess. They hurried through unhooking their webbing and turned to help Trx, who seemed to be making things worse. They popped the cracked canopy and lifted Trx out so they could set up the decoys. Poor Trx was whimpering and shaking. Sib comfort would have to wait. The decoys were flat when Jvn pulled them from behind the panel though they expanded into solid, convincing shapes with a few drops of water. Bipedal, gray-green, with large heads and a single set of huge black eyes, these were the shapes that parental group said would convince predators that the ship's inhabitants were dead. Something about more familiar, analogous shapes. Right now, Jvn didn't care. They glided out of the ship and gathered Trx up in their front tentacles as their eyes desperately searched this terrible, dry place for cover. The predators would come. "Trx, hush. Be gfk, little zoob. We can't let the predators know we're here." There. A rock formation. It wasn't large but they might be able to squeeze in under that little shelf and hide. Just until someone came for them. It wouldn't be long with the distress beacon sending. "Psst. Hey, clutchling," a strange dry voice whispered from the rocks. "Who…who's there?" Jvn whispered. It couldn't be a predator. They didn't speak any civilized language, did they? "Hurry. Over this way. There's a little cave," the voice went on. "I'll hide you." Jvn glided cautiously toward the voice. Fighting something of wouldn't be possible with Trsk clinging so tightly. Not that Jvn had anything to fight with. "Who are you?" "My name is Shax. And no, before you catch sight of me and ask, I'm not human." A hand with fingers appeared out of a shadowed crevice, waving them forward. "Come on. You're not safe out there. They're coming." Jvn shuddered. Hands were gross. But they didn't have much choice. Some races had hands, they told themselves firmly. That didn't make them bad. They reached the shade of the outcropping much to their relief. The solar heat here was terrible. How stupid was it to try a touch and go where there was no water? They rounded the corner and gasped reflexively. The being before them was hideous. Bipedal, two other appendages that looked so wrong, only two eyes—just like the ugly decoys in the ship. Parental groups had been right about the shape of life forms here. It did have cute horns, which helped Jvn not to run screaming. "We crashed," Jvn blurted out, their tentacles whitening in embarrassment. What a dumb thing to say. It knows that. "Is the egg sib all right?" The alien's phrasing was strange but understandable. "Mostly scared." Jvn hurried into the rock crevice where it was cool and, thank hklfrn, damp. "Why can we understand you?" The alien did a disturbing thing with its mouth that showed far too many of its sharp white teeth. "I've met enough of you over the centuries to have learned." Jvn averted all their eyes. The alien, Shx, was just too hard to look at. "Won't the predators see us here?" "No. I have us hidden. Here comes the first one." A horrid, loud transport coughed and snarled its way toward the ship. One of the hideous predators got out, looked at the crash site, then thundered off again. Not too much later, more predators came and swarmed the area. They seemed to be measuring and making some sort of primitive visual record of the crash, if Jvn had to guess. The predators were loud and frightening and moved with frightening speed over the dry landscape. Finally, they dragged the decoys out of the ship, threw ugly gray-green coverings over everything, brought even larger, louder transports and carted everything away. "Parental group will be mad," Trx said in a small voice. "They just gave you that ship." "We need to get back to parental group for them to be mad," Jvn reminded them and regretted it when Trx started whimpering again. "Shh, little zoob. Sorry." "You'll be all right," Shx reassured them. "I'm sure they're already on their way." Sure enough, soon after planetary night fell, the drop ship zipped in through the atmosphere and settled with a soft whoosh near Jvn's crash marks. They tucked a sleeping Trx up close and hurried as fast as tentacles could manage across the hard ground. Parental group was angry, of course, all seven of them dark umber with strong emotions but outwardly, they expressed relief. Shx and parental group exchanged words about adolescent impulsiveness and Jvn wanted to hide behind their tentacles. "You were lucky to meet the Shx instead of the violent aliens here," oldest parental scolded as they hurried into the safety of the ship. "There will be no more free flight with your friends for at least four dcbn's." "But—" "We could say five." Jvn subsided, knowing they were being lenient out of relief. Four dcbn's wasn't that long. **** "So." Verin drank from his hip flask as they watched the ship zip away from Earth. "You gonna tell the humans what they captured?" Shax laughed. It was always interesting to see the tentacle aliens. He had no idea what they called themselves since he'd never asked. "No. What fun would that be? Let them think that they have real dead space creatures instead of what amounts to fancy blowup dolls." He took a sip when Verin offered the flask as they stood watching the now-empty sky. "Besides, this will be hilarious," Shax finally broke the silence. "What will, genius?" "Watching the humans believe that's what space creatures look like for who knows how long now. This is going to be great."
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About The Brimstone Journals
Extra treats for our Brimstone readers, Brimstone Journals will post every Tuesday. Short scenes from characters' lives before, after or during the stories. About the Author
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