Chapter Text
“A human?” Rh’ex questioned, “How did they get there?”
“We do not know,” the older yautja replied, “We cannot speak the language to ask. You are the only human expert in the region. Come retrieve this human and see what you can learn.”
“I shall,” Rh’ex agreed, before shutting off the communication.
A real live human, Rh’ex mused.
He and his shipmates flew to the colony. The human was being contained by a small group of locals, including the one he spoke to earlier.
When the human came into view, he saw that they were sitting on a small box, their body hunched down. Surrounded by normal sized yautja, they looked tiny. Their arms seemed so skinny, and their hands clenching the sides of the box looked so delicate.
The human glanced upward briefly as Rh’ex and his shipmates entered, but then their eyes returned to looking at the floor. Then the human did a double take. Their eyes widened as they appraised Rh’ex’s appearance, looking him up and down. Then they met Rh’ex’s eyes and their pale skin flushed red before they looked down again.
“They were found wandering the countryside,” the elder yautja explained, “Our best guess is that they stowed away on one of our ships, but no ship has come here from Earth in quite a while. Hopefully you can find more answers.”
Rh’ex gave a nod and moved towards the human.
“Come,” he said in English, working hard to form his mouth around the alien words.
The human looked up at him in surprise. Understandably so, Rh’ex acknowledged. None of the local yautja spoke English, though ones with biohelmets could understand it with a translator, so that was likely the first time the human heard their language from a yautja.
“Come,” Rh’ex repeated.
The human nodded and slipped off the box to stand, looking at Rh’ex expectantly. Not wanting to risk the human fleeing, Rh’ex wrapped his hand around the human’s upper arm, his fingers easily encompassing the limb plus some, and gently led the human away.
He was careful to not apply too much pressure with his grip. The human’s arm looked like it could snap if he didn’t hold them gently. Rh’ex was familiar with humans, but that human looked so much smaller and more delicate than most he had seen up close. Certainly nothing like Lex!
Rh’ex brought the human to where the ship was docked and as they got closer, the human started to pull back a little. Rh’ex looked back at them, tilting his head in slight confusing. The human had been cooperating. What changed?
The human looked at the ship with wide, fearful eyes. They had already looked afraid, but not nearly to the degree of fear with which they looked at the space ship. Rh’ex was still learning human expressions, but their eye movements were not so dissimilar from yautja they he couldn’t identify fear such as that.
“Come,” Rh’ex said again, giving the slightest tug on the human’s arm.
“Where are you taking me?” the human asked, speaking for the first time in Rh’ex’s presence.
Rh’ex heard the English words, but his mask also translated as best it could.
“Ship,” Rh’ex said simply, gesturing at the vehicle with his free hand, “Come.”
He didn’t want to force the delicate human. He was extremely scared of breaking them if he drug them onto the ship or carried them.
“Are… are we going into space?” they asked.
Rh’ex needed his translator to figure out what meaning of ‘space’ they meant. English used the same words for so many things.
“Yes,” he confirmed.
The human pulled slightly against Rh’ex’s grip, forcing him to tighten his hold regardless of how much he wanted to be gentle. He hoped the human would cooperate so he didn’t have to use force. But if he had to, he had to.
“Where are we going on the ship?” they asked, their voice shaking.
He let out a series of harsh, irritated clicks that caused the human to wince at the sound. He instantly felt badly for scaring them and frowned deeply behind his mask.
Softening his voice as much as he could, he said, “Come. No harm. Questions.”
The human looked at him skeptically for a few long moments before nodding and ceasing to pull against his grip. Rh’ex let out a breath of relief and continued to guide the human towards the ship. Rh’ex could feel the tension in the human’s body as they followed him up the ramp, but they didn’t fight it.
“Finally got your human pet, Rh’ex?” one of his shipmates teased.
Rh’ex clicked, annoyed, which caused the human to flinch again. He quickly quieted.
He brought the human into the medical bay of the ship, while his shipmates began to pilot the craft. The human froze in the hallway as the ship lurched into the air. It was a subtle movement, but Rh’ex could see it terrified the human.
Compelled to sooth them, Rh’ex said in a gentle voice, “Safe. No danger.”
The human looked up at Rh’ex, a strange expression on their face that Rh’ex couldn’t read. They just looked at him for several long moments before nodding. Rh’ex brought them into the medical bay, hoping to get some valuable information about human biology before he had to give the human up. He did not know what the elders would want to do with the human once he had answers to their strange appearance on a yautja settlement, but he would not pass up the chance to study a living specimen.
Rh’ex closed the door after they entered, putting in a lock code so they could not escape the room, and then released his grip on the human. He expected the human to move away from him quickly once freed, but they did not move an inch. They just looked up at him, waiting for instructions.
“Sit,” Rh’ex said, gesturing at the exam table in the middle of the room.
The human nodded and slowly moved to the table. When they neared it, though, Rh’ex saw an immediate issue. It was yautja sized and the human was much smaller. They struggled to climb up on it for several moments. Rh’ex suppressed clicks of amusement.
“Wait,” Rh’ex said and the human ceased instantly. Rh’ex carefully put his hands on the human’s waist and lifted them onto the table.
The human’s gasp made Rh’ex think he had hurt them, but it seemed to be a reaction of surprise rather than pain, as they seemed fine when Rh’ex let go. They steadied themself on the table and then looked at Rh’ex expectantly.
“Lay back,” he instructed and the human nodded and obeyed, though fearfully, moving to lay on the table.
Rh’ex was amazed at the human’s willingness to cooperate. It made him wonder how much experience with yautja the human had. He would soon know, but he had to do some things first. He set the scanner over the table to start running. It would make a full body scan of the human while he could work on something else.
The human let out a small gasp of surprise as the scanner turned on, running lights over their body, but settled quickly. They closed their eyes and took deep, slow breaths.
Rh’ex moved away a bit to start working with his gauntlet computer. He needed some guidance for how to ask the human the questions about how they got to the yautja settlement and what they knew of yautja. He was able to use the translator, plus his knowledge of English, to work out questions he hoped would be understandable to the human.
When the scan finished and Rh’ex approached again.
“Questions,” he stated.
“Uh… may I sit up now?” the human asked.
Rh’ex nodded and the human carefully moved into a sitting position, facing him.
Double checking the wording he had chosen, he said carefully “How did you get here?”
The human took a deep breath and said, “That’s difficult to explain.”
Rh’ex frowned. He had not counted on that response.
“Explain,” he ordered.
“I don’t think I’m capable of explaining,” the human stated, their words slow and clear.
Rh’ex clicked in irritation, causing the human to flinch. He instantly silenced himself, not wanting to scare the human further. He typed a few things into the gauntlet to form new responses.
“Why can you not explain?” he asked.
“I’m worried about the language barrier,” they said, their voice shaking a bit, “It’s… complicated. I don’t know how to explain in a way that wouldn’t be more confusing.”
Rh’ex’s mandibles twitched, offended that the human questioned his ability to understand English. Then again… he knew there were concepts that were more difficult to understand without the full cultural context. There were many human phrases that he did not comprehend the meaning of yet, but he was working on that. In the scheme of things, he had not been formally studying humans for that long. His mentor had seven hundred years of experience behind her, but Rh’ex was just barely two hundred years old. Much of that was spent fascinated by humans, but only the last seventy five years were spent under his mentor’s guidance, learning about human culture and biology.
“I’m sorry,” the human interrupted his thoughts to say.
Rh’ex used his translator to form another question.
“What type of ship brought you to the planet?” he asked. If they wouldn’t answer a general question, maybe more specific ones would get somewhere.
The human frowned and didn’t respond.
“What type of ship brought you to the planet?” Rh’ex asked again, trying to speak slower and more clearly.
“It’s complicated to explain,” the human said, their voice quiet.
Rh’ex suppressed clicks of irritation, instead taking a moment to form another question.
“Because of the language barrier?” he asked.
The human nodded.
That was an easily remedied problem, at least. Rh’ex tapped buttons on his gauntlet to send a message to his shipmates flying the craft. A short trip to visit a friend and all mysteries would be solved.
And in the meantime, there were things to be learned from the human besides their mysterious appearance on a yautja colony. Rh’ex moved to a console and pulled up the results of the scan he preformed on the human.
He looked over it curiously, excited to see how a living human body functioned.
“My name is Avery,” the human spoke up nervously.
He didn’t turn to look at the human, but paused and considered, his eyes still on the results of the scan.
“I am Rh’ex,” he responded after a few moments.
“It’s… nice to meet you, Rh’ex,” they offered.
He didn’t reply. Rh’ex pressed a few buttons on the console, cycling through various images from the scan.
“Are there more tests you want to run?” the human asked.
That had him curious. He turned to face Avery.
“Yes,” he said.
They took a deep, but shaky breath and nodded. “What do you want me to do?”
Rh’ex picked up a small, handheld scanner as he returned to the human’s side, next to the exam table.
“No movement,” he ordered and began to move the scanner slowly around them.
The human held their breath and kept as still as possible. Rh’ex didn’t need them to stay that still, but he didn’t know how to explain such.
When the scan was done, he gave a nod and said “Good.”
Avery let out the breath they were holding and looked up at him expectantly.
Rh’ex was taken aback. He hadn’t counted on the human being so cooperative.
It was rare for yautja to have a human in their possession. Rh’ex’s clan found kidnapping humans from Earth to be distasteful, though some other clans had no such qualms. When Lex joined the clan, he hoped to have a chance to study her but Sk’arr put a stop to that idea before Rh’ex even had a chance to ask. He managed to spend time with Lex, which was helpful, but he could not ask the questions he wanted nor study her biology.
He had learned a bit through Sk’arr when Sk’arr needed help in certain areas of his relationship with Lex. But not nearly as much as he wanted to learn from the pair. Rh’ex hoped there would be some way he could keep Avery to study thoroughly. A live human would allow him to learn much more than a cadaver could ever teach him.
Rh’ex’s gauntlet gave him the alert that the ship arrived at its destination. Rh’ex felt saddened. Perhaps he should have told his shipmates to take longer to get there so he could properly study the human.
Regardless, he had a duty to preform.
“Come,” Rh’ex ordered the human.
The human carefully hopped down from the exam table and moved obediently to Rh’ex’s side, looking up at him with nervousness. Rh’ex took the human’s arm in his hand again and moved to the doorway, punching in the code to unlock the doors.
“Where are we going?” the human asked, frowning in confusion.
Rh’ex didn’t know how to word his answer, so he didn’t reply and instead just led the human through the ship. When Rh’ex opened the ship doors to exit, the human froze, refusing to move another step.
“Come,” Rh’ex said again, giving Avery’s arm a small tug.
“Where are we going?” they questioned again, their voice firm and demanding.
“Trouble with your human?” Se’rik teased as he passed, exiting the ship, clicks of laughter in his throat.
Avery flinched away from the yautja, pressing closer to Rh’ex.
“You need to hurry,” Ome’rai advised as she followed behind Se’rik, “There is not much time.”
Rh’ex nodded and looked down at the human who had inexplicably gotten as close to him as they could without touching him.
“Come,” Rh’ex said to the human, trying to put gentleness in his voice. “Safe.”
The human let out a breath and seemed to relax at his word. They nodded and allowed him to lead them off the ship, onto the space station.
Rh’ex clicked quietly under his helmet, tense and worried he had lied to the delicate human. Would they be safe? He didn’t know what the council would plan to do with them once answers were found.
As the pair walked through the station, many eyes followed them. The human noticed and seemed to be trying to keep their gaze directed at the floor, though they occasionally looked up to glance at the yautja. They kept close to Rh’ex’s side.
Finally arriving at their destination, Rh’ex pressed a button to open the door.
Avery gasped audibly as they stepped inside. Alexa and Sk’arr stood inside. Both were without their helmets.
Alexa addressed the human gently, “Hello. I’m Alexa Woods. You can call me Lex.”
“H-hi,” the human stuttered, “I’m Avery.”
“This is Sk’arr,” Lex introduced, gesturing to her mate, “I’m here to ask you a few questions. Is that alright?”
The human looked up at Rh’ex with fearful, helpless eyes.
“Safe,” Rh’ex assured them.
Avery took a deep breath and nodded before turning to Lex, “Sure.”
“Great,” Lex smiled, “Guys, a little privacy?”
Rh’ex gave an unhappy growl that caused Avery to flinch.
“Please, Rh’ex?” Alexa requested.
Rh’ex nodded and released the human’s arm. Sk’arr led the way out the door, with Rh’ex following reluctantly behind. The door slid shut behind them.
“Make yourself comfortable,” Lex encouraged Avery, gesturing at a chair that was human sized.
Hesitantly, Avery sat and Lex sat across from them.
“You’re… one of them?” Avery asked, seeming curious but fearful.
“I am. Sk’arr is my husband,” Lex confirmed.
“How long have you been here? With them?”
“Hmm,” she frowned, “Since two thousand six, but I honestly don’t know what Earth year it is right now. The last time I was on Earth was twenty eighteen. What year is it?”
“I… I don’t know,” they admitted.
“Oh?” Lex’s brows raised, “When were you last on Earth?”
“I don’t remember exactly,” Avery hedged, “It’s complicated.”
“Rh’ex said you wouldn’t tell him how you came to be on that planet,” Lex stated, “I hoped you’d tell me.”
“It’s… hard to explain.”
“Because of the language?” Alexa raised an eyebrow, “That’s what you told Rh’ex, right? English is my first language and I speak their languages fluently, so I can translate accurately.”
Avery fought back a groan, “Right. Well… Basically… there are portals that open and they lead to different places. I ended up on that planet because I accidently went through one.”
“Portals…”
“Portals. Doorways between places far away. You could be in Australia one minute and Canada the next. Or across the galaxy. Or in another galaxy. They’re no respecter of distance and they can appear anywhere at any time, whisking you away from home.”
“I know what portals are,” Alexa frowned, “The yauja are aware of them. They’re… really rare, though.”
Avery’s eyes widened, “Really? Oh, thank goodness… Most people don’t have a clue about them. I guess when you live so long and travel through space, you’re bound to run into one.”
“It sounds like you have a lot of experience with them.”
“Some. They’re random, but you know how supposedly it’s unlikely to be struck by lightning twice and yet a lot of people that get struck once end up having that happen multiple times? I think it’s like that. I’ve accidently gone through a few.”
“So you’ve been away from Earth for a while?”
“Quite a while,” Avery confirmed sadly.
“Where all have you been?”
“I… don’t know for sure.”
Lex nodded slowly, taking that all in.
“You don’t know how to control the portals at all?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Fair point,” Lex agreed wryly, “Thanks for being honest with me, Avery.”
Lex got to her feet.
“Do you know what’s gonna happen to me?” Avery asked worriedly, “With the yautja?”
“I don’t,” Lex admitted, “I’m sorry. Wait here while I talk to the boys.”
Avery slumped in their chair as Alexa left them alone in the room.
All the debates took longer than Rh’ex was comfortable, but the end result was a victory. Rh’ex retrieved Avery from where he left them, gently holding their arm as he led them from the room.
“What’s happening?” Avery asked.
Rh’ex didn’t respond. As they made their way through the ship, they passed Lex and Sk’arr. Avery looked at Lex questioningly, but Lex averted her gaze, looking weary. Sk’arr put a reassuring hand on Lex’s shoulder.
As they approached the ship in the hanger, Ome’rai stood leaning against it, waiting for the pair.
“Just make sure the human does not make a mess of my ship,” she ordered, though her tone was teasing.
The three of them entered the ship and Ome’rai went to the cockpit as Rh’ex brought Avery towards the living quarters. The ship wasn’t designed to imprison humans. There was no place to contain anyone. So Rh’ex decided it was best to use his sleeping quarters for the human.
Once inside, Rh’ex gestured to his bed and released the human’s arm.
“Sit,” he ordered.
Avery obeyed, watching him nervously.
Rh’ex got to work cleaning his quarters, removing anything the human could use as a weapon.
“What’s going to happen to me?” Avery asked.
Rh’ex paused. He worked on his gauntlet to form an explanation.
“I will keep you for research,” he said.
The human let out a long breath of relief, “You’re going to keep me?”
“Yes,” Rh’ex confirmed, confused by their reaction.
“For how long?”
Rh’ex was surprised by the question. He expected a plead for freedom.
“Forever,” he replied, hoping that word was accurate.
“Okay,” the human nodded. “Am I staying in here?”
“Yes,” Rh’ex said, becoming more befuddled by the minute. He continued to clean the room of all dangers.
He wished his mentor could give him advice on caring for a human, but she was away supervising a major hunt on Earth, which could not be interrupted. Rh’ex had been confident in his ability to care for a human when he asked the council for permission to keep Avery, but suddenly he was nervous.
Lex gave him some basic advice before they had to part ways, with Lex and Sk’arr going off on their own time sensitive mission, but Rh’ex was alone. His shipmates did not know nor care about humans and would not be any help to him.
With his quarters tidied up, Rh’ex felt the human would be safe in there. Next was to follow through on Lex’s advice, to show the human where and how to use the facilities to relieve themself.
“I think I understand the concept,” the human assured him, “Thanks.”
With that done, he gave the human some food Lex said would be easy and safe for them to eat, The human only ate a few bites before stopping.
“Enough?” Rh’ex questioned. He had seen Lex eat much more than that in one sitting.
“I’m not really hungry,” they said, “Well… actually eating hurts my stomach right now.”
Rh’ex tilted his head to the side, curious. “Why?”
“I’m really nervous and scared, which makes it hurt when I eat anything,” Avery explained, their words slow so Rh’ex could process it. “I probably won’t be able to eat much for the next few days, while I adjust to this. I’m fine, though.”
Rh’ex nodded his understanding.
“Sleep,” Rh’ex said, gesturing at the bed.
Avery opened their mouth, looking like they were going to argue, but then they just sighed and nodded. The human curled up in the bed, covering their head with the blanket. Rh’ex used that chance to remove his armor and mask. He had not wanted the human to see him without it, though he could not pin down why. Rh’ex gave Avery plenty of room between them on the bed as he laid down to get some rest as well. It had been a long and stressful cycle and he was beginning to feel weary.