Outworldly

by Jai Yadav

  “So, what happened?” Niko repeated.

  Hans looked at Emmanuel, telepathically telling him to start. That of course, failed. Probably because none of them had telepathic powers to start with. They had come here now, silence wasn’t an option.

  Everyone knew what was coming. Dread settled, Hans could hear Niko’s heartbeats.

  After a moment Emmanuel realized what to do, he straightened up and started morphing.

  A combination of realization and shock passed through Niko. Thinking quickly, Hans did the same as Emmanuel. He took off his skin and became a blob, trying to stretch as wide as he could, so Niko wouldn’t intimidate him.

  “I- Wow, nice way of confronting me,” Niko said, not even a bit fazed after his initial shock.

  “You knew?” Emmanuel asked.

  “Of course I knew! I’ve been taught this stuff.” Niko threw his hands up. “It is not like you guys were any subtle about it. Each day Hans would go into his room I could hear a whirring sound. Emmanuel was growing stumps in the middle of the day! I could even see Emmanuel the rat when he came up to snoop on me earlier. You guys need to learn subtlety.”

  “You were the one dropping wings everywhere! I’ve already seen like tons of those, you’re way worse than us.” Hans said.

  “I was doing that on purpose, so that you guys would come and face me. And maybe I’m worse than Hans, but Emmanuel- you need to work on your stuff.”

  Emmanuel rolled his eyes and became human again. Hans followed suit.

  “What did you mean when you said you’ve been taught this stuff?” Emmanuel questioned.

  “I’m surprised you guys didn’t recognize my species. Rangoons are like the most famous people in the galaxy, after Caparians, of course.” He sat down while explaining. “We’re kind of an embassy, you could say. I’ve been sent to see if Earth is in a stage to start relations with the other worlds. What about you two?”

  They told him their pale and not as cool stories unlike him. Well, at least Hans could brag he lived here his whole life. Emmanuel had nothing on him.

  “I know I have seen your people, somewhere… These years on Earth must have made me slow.”

  “I’ve never been out of this planet- I don’t remember anything, don’t blame me,” Hans said defensively. “I came here without memories or whatever.”

  “Like you don’t know how you got here or where are you from?”

  Hans put on a smile and shook his head.

  “You look kinda scary dude,” Emmanuel hastily tried to change the topic.

  Hans blurred away from what the two of them were saying. He was thinking about Vinny. Was there a chance she was a human or was she one of them too? At this point, he wouldn’t be shocked if any of the two was true. Three aliens were living in a single apartment, how many more were there on this planet? Or was this just a pure seemingly impossible coincidence?

  Niko broke his train of thought, “I know what you’re thinking about Vinny.”

  Hans moved and looked at him with eyes as big as saucers, “You can read minds?”

  “Nah, I thought the same thing when I realized about the both of you. I think she is one too. If she is, she is a sly one. Or else she is a human, which seems unlikely considering the circumstances.”

  “So you have no idea.”

  Emmanuel just sighed as he rolled his eyes.

  “We need to figure out a way to find out. Else we will live in fear for a long time.” Hans said.

  “I mean- you could slip in her room and check,” Niko muttered.

  “No!” Emmanuel snapped.

  Everyone stared at him, gaping at the sudden outburst. Emmanuel suddenly looked down as both of them were taken aback.

  “Sorry,” Emmanuel muttered, “I just mean, that has been done too much. Let’s have some decency, innit? We don’t even know if she’s a human or not, yet.”

  “That is true, you guys always showed signs.” Niko spoke, “She hasn’t, at least, not yet.”

  “What signs did I show again?” Hans asked defensively, he was pretty sure he had been really careful.

  “I just told you- do you not listen? Weird slobbering and whirring sounds came from your room.” Hans perked his eyebrows in confusion as to how he would hear any of it, but his confusion was resolved by Niko himself when he said, “It's an advantage of having like- oh one of the sharpest ears in the galaxy.”

  “Even then, I don’t make any whirring sounds, Niko- and the slobbering is probably me putting on this suit. Your ears are going haywire.”

  “Maybe it was something else- Anyways, you’re a Tennubechian, right Hans?”

  A what? Hans thought, it sounded like a fungal species. He didn’t know what Niko was saying, yet he knew that this was supposed to be… important? Integral? Something along those lines. Shame and awkwardness washed over him. His face was getting redder by the minute.

  “He doesn’t know, he’s kinda stuck here and doesn’t remember anything,” Emmanuel swooped in to save Hans from his embarrassment. “I’m a Gravian by the way. Pretty sure you already knew it.”

  “I did, and Hans, I could teach you about your origin sometime. If you would like it. You have a pretty interesting history to say, at least.” His eyes gleamed.

  “That is true, everyone knows the whole universe knows about you Tennubechians. Huge legends.”

  “What did we do?” Hans said.

  “More stuff than I can count. I’ll tell you tomorrow, it’s been a long day now,” Niko patted his back.

  It was pretty clear that Niko wanted them out now. Emmanuel understood, as composed as Niko was acting, being sneaked into one’s room was not too good for said person. He took the cue and went out, Hans followed suit.

  “You said you were from an embassy right? How’s this planet doing?” Emmanuel asked.

  “Rather bleak, to be honest.” Niko frowned.

  Tennubechians

  Emmanuel and Vinny were out studying and Niko swooped in at that moment to teach Hans what he had promised. He was wearing khaki shorts and a baggy pink T-Shirt, which made him look like Uncle Roshi from Dragon ball. If Roshi wore hot pink shirts. Hans on the other hand was going for a black goth look, even trying to pull off a chain. It so did not suit him.

  They both were sitting opposite each other on the couches. Leather was not such a good option with old and greasy couches, Hans realized too late. The humid weather did not help at all either. The electricity was gone on top of that, so the fan and air conditioner weren’t working.

  Just the way Hans wanted to start a new day. Great .

  Niko on the other hand was stretched apart on the couch, feet on the table. He was certainly taking his time or just as awkward as Hans. He took a small bag of chips out of his pockets as if making them appear out of air.

  Tearing them open with his teeth he offered some to Hans, “Don’t be shy, I’ve got more.”

  Hans thanked him and took a few, crunching them down. Niko placed the pack on the table and stretched his back again.

  Finally, he started to speak, “The Tennubechians, are a handful to pronounce. Sixteen years ago they were the pinnacle of galactic civilization. Their military and infrastructure were pure perfection. They had the best architects and scientists in the whole world. They had figured out almost everything possible. From teleportation to light-speed travel, rumours even say that they also had made time travel real.

  “They lived five light-years away from Earth.”

  “Lived? You mean they relocated or what?” Hans asked.

  “We’ll get to that soon, you listen first.”

  Hans nodded as Niko continued, “Our civilizations were growing when yours was at its peak. You flourished, for a long time.” He got up and sighed as if trying to tell a wife that her husband died in a war.

  “Twelve years back- Earth years, mind you, the Caprians infiltrated Tennubechi, your planet. Consider them the colonizers of the whole goddamned galaxy. They were almost as advanced as you guys,
but much more feared and less… civilized. No one knows what they look like because they enslave each and every person on a planet, cutting off all communicating means and just giving enough to the people for survival. Terrorising planets, making slaves out of them. Barbarians. Tennubechi realized that they had infiltrators, and flushed them out. About five thousand Caprians were there, hiding.

  “But those infiltrators had done their damage. They got in, scouted, and transmitted everything. Tennubechi retaliated, but not all Caprian spies were gone yet. The day the discovered Caprians were killed, the very next day, five hundred different administrative leaders were killed. Tennubechi tried to retaliate, the planet was mobilized. They tried to get more support out of the planet, but all communications out of the planet were cut off before they could do anything. The barbarians had isolated them.

  “A valiant effort was put up by the Tennubechians, at a point, it was almost a stalemate. But the Caprians couldn’t let the universe know about them except in the form of whispers, they had expected a huge retaliation from the planet and had a sort of a game-changer for that, a big gun if you would.”

  He munched on some more chips, sighed, and went into the kitchen to get some water. Leaving Hans on the edge of his couch- he didn’t feel uncomfortable anymore, the weather got colder. He knew something disastrous was going to happen, he knew what it was and yet didn’t want to hear it or think about it.

  Niko came back, a glass of water in his hand. His brow was scrunched up, throat parched even as he was drinking water.

  He sat down and continued, “You need to understand the Caprians to understand this. They aren’t parasites, nor are they organisms who leech off people. They are hunters, preying on planets. If they can’t get something under their control, they don’t think it deserves a place in this world. It doesn’t deserve anything. At all.

  “They took out a literal big gun when stuff got hard. It protruded from the mothership which was their home more than their planets. First, after the spies were done, they set a kind of energy net which encompassed the whole planet… disintegrating each organic life form on it.” He composed himself for a second then continued.

  “The net moved down, passing through the crust and kind of grasping the planet’s outer core.” He made a ball with his hands. “The core cooled down in some days. Then came the drones, billions of them, big as aeroplanes of Earth, hovering over the surface. They sent some kind of waves or vibrations- whatever you would like to call them. So strong that the planet just- shattered. Ka-Boom,” He splayed out his fingers. “Just like that.”

  Hans shivered so badly that he almost fell. He could feel his head trying to explode. His eyes were bugging out, threatening to fall out of his head. He tried to breathe and began to claw at his disguise.

  “Help!” he gasped out. Niko rushed towards him. Niko frantically tried to pull his head apart, but it only hurt Hans more.

  “Waist- Comes off from there!” Hans screamed.

  Niko put his hands on Hans’ waist and pulled as hard as he could, grunting from effort as Hans gave out and sighed from relief. The brown liquid named Hans now lay down on the floor like a deflated balloon.

  Niko pulled him up on the couch as Hans trembled in his hands.

  “It's alright, you’re fine,” Niko said, “I’m here.”

  “No one is alive?” Hans trembled, “My family?”

  Niko shook his head, “As far as I know you’re the only one who got out.”

  Hans’s head was pounding, thumping against his gooey skin. He could barely breathe, his skin pumping oxygen to him. His whole life he had felt gloom, joy, curiosity, and everything. But today he was experiencing something new, it wasn’t sadness, nor was it anger. He wasn’t even sure if he was feeling anything or not. He felt like throwing up but his stomach was empty. He curled up into a literal ball, groaning.

  His family, gone. The ones he was searching for his whole life, gone.

  Everything he was trying to work towards, gone. Who was he? An orphan with no home?

  Once when he was just aimless and sleeping on the streets, an old man told him a story, about a man who was walking in the desert, he needed water so bad that if he wouldn’t get it soon, he would perish. Another wanderer said that a well lay about a mile ahead, the man did not know if he would survive till then but he trudged on, he had no choice. He kept going, he crawled and staggered but didn’t stop. He found a well, it was nothing special, made out of rocks and sand like a normal well. To that man it was nothing less than heaven, his eyes lit up as he saw the well. There was no pulley mechanism, but he did not care for it. He would jump, he needed the water. He staggered to his little heaven made of sand. As he propped himself up the well, his dreams shattered along with his life. It was empty. He started laughing maniacally in bursts until soon his last laugh was taken away by death.

  Hans felt like the man, the well was what he was searching for was his origin, the wanderer was Niko.

  “I need chips,” Hans muttered. Niko obliged and gave chips to him, well put chips in his skin- or was it membrane? Whatever it was, Niko did as he said.

  Hans tried to breathe calmly, he couldn’t afford another panic attack. His body was squeezing up more by the second, hurting him more and more.

  He slowly exhaled and inhaled, trying to get his breath under control. A few minutes later the panic passed. He got up and put on his disguise again. His head was still hurting and his skin throbbed.

  He tried to get up but fell on the couch back again, whimpering like a wounded dog. He didn’t know what to think. What was supposed to be natural right now?

  He held out his hand, so Niko could help him get up. He slowly trotted towards his room, keeping one hand around Niko. Niko was surprisingly strong for a man of his stature, they slowly grunted, and Niko placed Hans on his bed.

  “Take your time, it’s gonna pass,” Niko reassured him.

  “I won’t be getting out for some time. Close the door behind you. Will you? Thank you.”

  After Niko left, he exhaled and gave up. He wailed silently, mourning for his family he had just discovered.

  Sleep took him, his disguise fell off as Hans dreamt for the first time in his life.

  Sweet Dreams Aren’t Made Of These

  He was viewing a planet from its atmosphere, observing silently. He could hear screams even though he was hundreds of miles away from its surface. Buildings towered so high up that they were visible from space. People cried out in vain.

  A huge ship, almost as big as the planet appeared by Hans. A loud whirr blew his ears up. He tried to turn to it, but the dream wouldn’t let him. He attempted to turn away too, not wanting to see the destruction of his home. A huge green net encompassing energy encircled the planet, tears rimming his eyes again. A huge collective scream shook the planet, being silenced just as quickly. The silence shook his heart as the net moved mercilessly inward, disappearing as it went inside the crust.

  Time passed, maybe even weeks and the ship went away. Tears glistened on his face as Hans was forced to watch as the horror unfolded before his eyes.

  The planet cooled down slowly, turning blue and becoming ice. The enormous buildings collapsed into meaningless rubble. The monstrous ship came back, whirring again, much louder this time. Huge drones came out this time, slowly covering the icy husk of a planet from each direction.

  No sound came this time — just some movement from those drones — as the planet shattered like an iceberg exploding. The rubble missed Hans, he wished it hadn’t, the drones rushed away to their origin and the ship rushed away.

  The most sickening part? Cheers. He could hear cheers and roars coming from the ship as if they had constructed a monument.

  ***

  Gasping, the Tennubechian woke up, his heart exploding. He wiped his tears on his bedsheet- the pillow, and it was already blue with tears and snot. He decided to take off his disguise, it didn’t help him sleep anyway. He then went to lock the door from the inside un
til he realized he still wasn’t able to walk properly. Somehow he slithered and locked it. He jumped on his bed and sleep took him away. His nightmares decided not to end yet.

  ***

  This time Hans couldn’t see anything much, just a smooth white metal in front of him. He could hear two people talking outside in his native tongue.

  “This is our only pod, but it’s just a prototype. I can engineer it in five minutes. It is going to be completely invisible with our camouflage capabilities merged with it.” The first voice said.

  “But,” The second person said, crying, “How will he survive there?”

  “He will, he has your genes after all. Earth is a class three civilization, he can live there easily.”

  “Make it quick.” Her sobs twisting Hans’s heart

  Realization dawned on Hans as he realized who it was, ‘your genes’ the first voice had said.

  He wailed out, telling his parents to take him back. His voice was muted as he heard the pod starting up.

  “Farewell son, survive.” His father said as he was swept away against his will.

  Darkness surrounded him.

  ***

  He was now seeing everything from outside the pod. He could only see it as an apparition, invisible. It rushed ahead swiftly and silently. The familiar drones came again, surrounding his planet. Hans couldn’t bear to see this again, so he tried to close his eyes but the cruel dream didn’t let him. His blank eyes were kept open as he witnessed those abominations destroyed his home again.

  Darkness again.

  ***

  Now he was moving briskly, following the pod. It was driving by itself, dodging rocks and manoeuvring whenever required.

  Although Hans couldn’t see the inside of the pod he knew it would take about twelve years to reach Terra, else known as Earth.