Chapter Text
“Hang on, I’m just going out a bit further.”
Space is dark, and cold. The most unforgiving and cruel of all frontiers. With the earth no more than a single peg in the lite-brite of celestial bodies around them, it’s easy to put into perspective the meaningless little quirks of earth. Nobody can hear you scream, truly, as there is nobody out there to listen.
It’s lonely. So terribly, awfully, cold and lonely. The stars don’t speak and the dust knows no love.
But one speck of life dances about the aimlessly drifting specks of dust that make the blackness their home. Attached by a thick rope to the hull of an immense, wandering station, a single human pokes about the emptiness surrounding his ultimately tiny form.
The man reaches out with his thick gloves, tamping just a speck of floating stone into the bottom of a glass. Sealing it shut, the little piece of nothingness floats between its glass container and the human’s palm. He drifts forward ever more towards a large body of the stars. Reaching out a hand, he examines the thing that joins him in the emptiness.
“Anyone there...? We’ve got a problem.”
...
“What is it?”
“Someone probably stuck it on a drone and launched it up here as part of some art project.”
“It’s too big to be stuck inside the ship. Let’s take some photos and get rid of it.”
A group surrounds a stone object, lugged in from the recesses of the dark and into the metal tin they call home. But, unlike the shards of darkness that drift about them endlessly, this mass holds a familiar shape. At least, familiar somewhat.
This thing, whatever the little creatures surrounding it could call it, bore a face strikingly similar to their own. With the head and mane of a human, it’s visage sits in a twisted mess of bone and rock, as if its body had melted about it, leaving nothing but an undeniably lovely face to distinguish it from any other ancient bit of rock in the darkness.
As the creatures babble amongst themselves- one is quiet. He stands, still in his suit and his heavy gloves, staring down the thing that he had rescued from the dark. And it seems to look back- eyes of sediment peering right into his own, like some sad victim of medusa.
He reaches out to touch it, just a brush with his bare hand as all the rest of them bicker and argue amongst themselves over the nature and origin of this mysterious thing they have found. But, he pulls back, catching his palm on one of the many barbs of this thing’s shape. A droplet of blood escapes his punctured flesh, resounding with an inaudible drop onto its frozen surface.
The screams that follow fall deaf on the nothing outside.
...
Things are broken. Priceless equipment, not essential to their survival, but difficult as hell to replace when every part is on a rock off in the distance. But those are unimportant- what is, however, is the destroyer of these instruments. Calmed from their initial terror, but not yet free of fear, all are gathered around once again- no longer a rock, but a living thing, just like they, emerged from the stone like a chick from an egg. And with the feathers that it sports about its arms in random patches, it may as well have been a bird.
The creature stands tall and firmly built, like a god with its horns and feathers and devilishly sanguine eyes. Perhaps those back home had more hellish things to worry about above them, rather than below. The wicked thing makes noises- sharp and unearthly despite its human face, its eyes and tongue lolling about at first until it is able to somewhat compose itself. No longer trapped by medusa’s curse, these eyes fall on those of the man who had inadvertantly restored its life. They draw near, creeping ever closer, dry sand pouring up from the thing’s throat as it pitifully tries to speak. But nothing comes, and touch seems to be the only way for the thing to express itself.
Esidisi freezes as this thing brushes against him. It’s terrifying, truly something out of a nightmare, until its warmth grazes his body. It smells familiar, like a home he’d never been to, and feels like the touch of a friend greeting him after a long time apart. A very long time in fact, as a brush turns into a latch. The others shriek and grab at their dazed coworker as he remains perfectly still, letting this odd thing hug him and pet at him, rubbing him with its head and getting bits of grit deep into his hair.
As well built and hardened of a man as he is, the cosmonaut can’t do anything but remain perfectly still, re-enacting a dozen horror film scenes over in his head as this chimera assaults him. But, slowly, it comes to light that this may not be an assault but... A hug? In fact, with each passing second, it becomes more and more like an embrace. The rest of his crew watch in stunned silence as their oddity-turned-terror seems to cuddle against him.
It pulls back, and Esidisi is met with the fleshy visage of his assailant. Stunningly beautiful, smokey-eyed and square jawed, with messied hair that clings and juts out in a horrible mess. All attached to bits of scraggly feathers and horns, a chimera of a being that had wrapped itself about him. An abomination, but incredibly human-looking to those who were.
The two peer at one another, wordless, sharing an unspoken conversation. Esidisi finds his face being grabbed, and then, the thing... Squeaks. A shrill whistle rises from its throat- and then it calls again, trilling brokenly. It squeezes his cheeks together, and the human finds himself growing tired of it all. He pushes away at the creature, and in the zero gravity, it reels back and away from him.
It looks hurt, Esidisi notices as the thing finds its balance once again. But- at this point, the security team begins to descend upon the being. It shrieks with its whistley throat, thrashing them off and against the walls in a flurry of black feathers. Dazed, it falls over, unable to balance itself in the lack of gravity. However, those working to capture it are all too accustomed to the environment. An electric lock is placed about its wrists and ankles, and the thing looks exhausted just from the scuffle.
“Esidisi.”
A hand falls on the soldier’s shoulder. He is broken from a haze, turning to the hand’s owner.
“That thing, whatever it is, touched you. You’ll need to be taken to the medbay immediately.”
“...Good idea.”
...
The sound is the most horrid thing the crew have ever heard. The thing they had brought onto the ship howls in a corner, surrounded by frayed wires and shards of glass. The shrill screams echo through every wall and crack the glass about them even further.
“Someone has to get a blood sample from that thing!” A group corners the beast, pockets stuffed with needles and vials in an attempt to collect any sort of genetic information. That was, given this thing had genes or blood as they knew them.
A door opens behind them- and the cornered being’s eyes flick up to it. And, just a moment later, so do those of those surrounding it. Tucking his access chip back into his pocket, Esidisi enters the room. He approaches the semicircle around their prey, who all but cowers in the corner from them.
“Who allowed you in here? This isn’t your post, go back to-”
“Somebody give me a needle and a vial. I’ll get some blood from that thing.” Esidisi opens his hand. The others gawk at him, and he knits his brow together. “Did I stutter? Needle, now!”
No less than five syringes are thrust at him. With a huff, the foreboding soldier plucks one from a hand to his right, and a container to his left. He parts the bodies before him, and looks to the thing curled up on the floor.
“...Do you remember me from earlier?” The human asks. His crewmates watch quietly, unused to such a gentle voice from a man so feared amongst their ranks. Esidisi approaches the thing that had invaded their vessel, slowly, watching its eyes ficker up and down his form. “Do you like me?”
It nods its head.
An audible gasp resounds around him. The hairs on the back of Esidisi’s neck stand on end.
“Do you understand me?”
The creature gawks at him for a second, and looks around. The human hums. “Do you understand me a little bit?”
He gains another nod.
“Alright,” The soldier gulps, and shows the syringe to him. “I need just a tiny bit of your blood so we can figure out what the hell you are. Okay?” He asks, crouching down all the way to the intruder’s eye level.
It seems to understand the request- and its eyes widen. Then- it holds out its arm. In a flash of light, a slim curve of metal juts from its arm. Those behind him take cover- and while he does begin to sweat, Esidisi holds his ground.
The creature takes the blade to his wrist- then slits it open. Red blood drips up, then out. Esidisi’s jaw drops open as it is offered to him, beckoning silently to be taken. Breaking away from his trance, he snaps up the vial and unscrews the cap to hold beneath the thing’s wound. Just a couple of drops are enough, and he quickly reseals the container. However, the wrist beckons again, and a faint whistle comes from its owners throat.
Esidisi thinks for a moment, and his eyes flicker from those of the beast to its wound. “I don’t have anything to bandage you up with.” He explains. Then, he reaches out to wrap his hand over its wound. “It might help if I put some pressure on it.”
He squeezes, firmly, but still with gentle intention. The creature waits, and then places his other hand atop his own. Simply laying it there, it grins, and then- a familiar noise emanates from its throat. The creature laughs, low and still with a clamor in its throat. It’s eerily human compared to every other bestial sound that it has made- and the human flock watch in silence as one of their own has his hand stroked and chuckled at.
The question for all concerned is, however- why Esidisi? Only this creature seemed to know.