by R. E. Weber
‘Don’t stare,’ said Ruby. ‘It’s rude.’
‘I’m only looking,’ said Theo. ‘What’s wrong with...’
Theo stopped dead mid-sentence. The creature had stopped moving and was now staring directly at him, its tentacles suddenly rigid. Then it let out a guttural growl and spoke.
‘Two legged freak,’ it uttered, before it continued on to their right towards a lowlying table several meters away.
‘I told you not to stare,’ said Ruby. ‘Now you’ve offended it.’
‘Some people!’ whispered Theo, still peering at the creature out of the corner of his eye. ‘No manners.’
‘I’ve never seen one before,’ whispered Ruby. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s a Protah,’ said Theo. ‘Apparently they’re known for being bad tempered.’
‘I suppose that means you’re reading about them now on your companion, does it?’ said Ruby.
‘Yeh,’ said Theo. ‘Wanna know something else about them?’
‘Actually,’ said Ruby, ‘I think we should change the subject and stop staring. Remember, First Mentor said that some beings can tell when you’re using your companion. He might know you’re reading about him and get even more annoyed. You don’t want to offend him any more than you already have.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want to know about them?’ said Theo. ‘They’re quite interesting.’
‘Theo,’ said Ruby, raising her voice, ‘just drop it. I don’t want any trouble. I just want a nice evening.’
Theo stared across at Ruby and, seeing that she was quite angry, decided it was time for a tactical withdrawal. So he just smiled, mimed zipping up his mouth, and then looked away without saying another word.
As they both stared across the station core in silence, a large rectangular hole suddenly appeared on Theo’s side of the table. A flat circular disk, about eight to ten centimetres across, rose up through the hole and hovered about half a meter above the table. A tiny tube appeared from underneath and quickly sprayed a light brown substance all over the disk. Then an arc of blue light shot up through the hole and struck the disc, causing it to burst into flames, and the most amazing smell of barbecued food hit Theo’s nostrils. Seconds later, the flames vanished, leaving the disk smouldering lightly.
‘My Algae Bread, I presume,’ said Theo, staring at the disk.
‘I guess so,’ said Ruby. ‘Are you going to try it?’
Theo looked down into the hole and noticed that a small pair of tongs, with a row of tiny spikes around its ends, had appeared.
‘Guess this is my cutlery,’ said Theo, lifting up the tongs and flipping them open and closed a few times.
‘Go on,’ said Ruby, watching him expectantly.
Theo gently clasped the disk with the tongs, brought it up to his mouth and took a tiny bite out of one side. As soon as he bit into the hard outer crust, a whole range of flavours seemed to burst into life on his tongue. As he began to chew, he found that the bread underneath the crust, which was soft and foamy, just seemed to melt away into nothing. It tasted incredible. As he took a second larger bite, he found a well in the centre filled with a sharp, lightly spiced paste. As he chewed the bread, some of the paste dripped onto the table and – not wanting to waste any of it – he wiped it up with his finger and licked it clean. Once he’d finished chewing, he looked at the bread disk and then back at Ruby.
‘Wow, that’s something else. It’s like nothing I’ve ever tasted before,’ he said.
Suddenly, three pale green cubes, each about four centimetres across, appeared in front of Ruby.
‘Are you gonna try yours?’ said Theo.
Ruby looked at the food floating in front of her. Then she took one of the cubes in her tongs and took a tiny bite out of one corner. Theo watched Ruby chewing on the soft doughy substance, at first looking a little confused. Then her eyes lit up and she stared back at Theo.
‘Wow. I’ve never eaten anything like that. I can’t really describe it, it’s just…’
‘Amazing?’ said Theo.
‘You could say that,’ said Ruby. ‘I mean, I thought it would be nice. But not like this.’
‘Beats all the other that stuff we’ve been eating, doesn’t it?’
‘God yeh,’ said Ruby. ‘It’s like a million flavours all rolled into one. It makes you feel, well sort of…. wow.’
Ruby took another bite of the food and chewed it slowly, savouring the amazing flavours. Then she looked back at Theo.
‘I think half the problem is that we’re trying to make copies of our food from Earth, out here. We should be embracing the new, not hanging onto the old.’
‘Amen to that,’ said Theo as he chewed on another piece of the amazing bread, accidentally spitting some of the crumbs at Ruby.
‘Oh Theo, I can’t take you anywhere, can I?’ said Ruby, flicking the crumbs from her Sari.
But Theo didn’t apologize. Instead, he just smiled as he thought back to a similar incident several weeks earlier. It seemed like a lifetime since the day back on Earth when he’d sat down to breakfast, with his auntie and Jules. But he knew Ruby was right. They were both hanging onto the past. And they had to try and let it go.
For several seconds, Theo’s thoughts continued to drift as he thought back to the world he had left behind. Then suddenly, he was shaken out of his daydream by a loud slurping noise, and without even looking, he knew that it was coming from the Protah. Unable to help himself, he stared at the creature, which was noisily sucking up its food through a long tube like tongue. Still, nobody else in the restaurant seemed remotely interested.
Then, as if sensing Theo’s eyes burning into the back of its head, the creature stopped drinking the liquid, withdrew its tongue, raised itself up on its four legs, and turned its head towards him.
‘Oh hell,’ Theo murmured to himself.
For several long seconds, Theo and the creature just stared at each other. Then the creature turned around fully and began to walk towards him. Theo didn’t need any species protocol lessons to know trouble was heading his way.
Slowly, the creature approached Theo, staring at him with its unblinking jet black eyes. Then, when it was about two meters away, it stopped and looked at him with its head cocked to one side. It reminded Theo a little of cat staring quizzically at a mouse it was about to eat.
‘The primate species I’ve been hearing all about,’ growled the creature. ‘Arrogant, primitive, and most of all, ugly.’
‘We don’t want any trouble,’ stuttered Ruby. ‘We’ve just come out for a quiet meal.’
Suddenly, the creature reared up onto its hind legs until its head was level with Theo’s. Then it glowered at him. Copying the creature, Theo rose from his seat until he was towering over it, and glared back into the creature’s black eyes. But what happened next, neither Theo nor Ruby expected.
Suddenly, there was a sickening cracking noise, almost as if its bones were being broken. Then, like a scene from a horror movie, the creature began to stretch upwards, its fat body thinning as it grew taller. The cracking noise continued until the creature stood as tall as Theo. Then it leaned towards him until their faces were no more than thirty centimetres apart.
‘What do you say, two legs?’ it growled.
Startled, Theo stared into the creature’s eyes. Then he swallowed and spoke.
‘Actually,’ he said, ‘I do want trouble.’
Ruby stared at Theo, open-mouthed. ‘What are you saying, Theo? Just apologize. Then we can go.’
‘Speak not, subordinate,’ said the creature, without even looking at Ruby.
‘No, you speak not slime ball,’ said Theo, his voice raised in anger. ‘And who are you calling a subordinate?’
The creature said nothing and growled at Theo, with its tentacled face so close to him that he could smell its warm, foul breath. The stench was so bad it almost made him sick. Then suddenly, its tongue appeared, snaked its way towards him, wrapped itself around his neck, and clamped itself onto
his spine at the top of his back. With one of its upper limbs, it pushed Theo up to the transparent wall, behind which was the huge open core of the station. Then, with its flat muscular hand on his chest, it held him fast.
‘LEAVE HIM ALONE, HE DOSEN’T MEAN IT,’ shouted Ruby. But the creature ignored her, pressing Theo even harder against the wall. Ruby looked around to find some help. She noticed that several of the other beings were looking at the disturbance out of the corner of their eyes. But whenever she caught their gaze, they looked away. ‘Somebody, please help,’ she pleaded. But none of them approached.
Theo rolled his eyes around for a moment before staring back at the creature, which was still growling and drooling at him. ‘GET BACK TO YOUR SWAMP,’ he yelled, almost choking as he spoke.
The creature paused for a moment as if unsure how to respond. Then its tongue, which was wrapped around Theo’s neck, seemed to stiffen, and Theo convulsed as if he’d been electrocuted. Suddenly, his body seemed to go limp. His head, however, remained upright.
‘I know it was you and your kind,’ growled the creature. ‘GUILTY.’ It stuck its tentacled snout up to Theo’s ear and seemed to murmur something to him, which Ruby couldn’t make out. Then it pulled back its head and stared back at Theo as if expecting a response. But Ruby couldn’t believe what Theo did next.
It all happened in an instant and she didn’t have time to stop him. Theo seemed to muster his remaining strength and purse his lips. Then he spat hard into the creatures face.
‘NO,’ shouted Ruby.
She grabbed the creature by its leg and tried to pull it away from Theo, but it was pointless. The creature was far stronger than her and didn’t even flinch, almost as if it couldn’t even feel her feeble tugging.
‘LET HIM GO,’ screamed Ruby, ‘He doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t understand, he…’
The creature seemed to relax its hand from Theo’s chest and turned to look at Ruby as if about to attack. Then suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, two silver orbs appeared at either side of Theo and the creature.
‘Cease and desist your behaviour, Protah Haarrnn Toh,’ said one of the spheres in a clear, loud voice. The creature continued to hold Theo against the wall, barely reacting to the sphere. Then the second sphere swung round and positioned itself above the creature’s head, with a tiny spike only centimetres from the top of its skull.
‘Cease and desist now,’ repeated the sphere, ‘or you will be incapacitated.’
Slowly, the creature withdrew its tongue from around Theo’s neck and then removed its arm, letting Theo drop to the floor. It sunk back down, with the same sickening cracking noise, until it was on all fours. Then it turned and walked clumsily away, with one of the spheres following closely behind.
Holding his neck and coughing, Theo suddenly sat bolt upright, his paralysis having ceased. Then, almost as if nothing had happened, he jumped to his feet and looked back at the remaining sphere.
‘Theopolis James Logan, human,’ said the sphere. ‘One infringement will be assigned to you for provoking this disturbance.’
‘Hey, that’s not fair,’ said Ruby, ‘It wasn’t his fault’.
But the sphere didn’t respond. Instead, it just drifted away out of sight.
Theo watched until the sphere had gone. Then he brushed down his jacket, rubbed his neck again and looked back at Ruby.
‘Well that was fun, wasn’t it?’ he said, his voice raspy.
Ruby turned to Theo and, without saying a word, slapped him hard across his cheek.
‘Ouch,’ said Theo. ‘That really hurt. What was that for?’
‘WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU PLAYING AT?’ yelled Ruby.
Theo rubbed his hand down his red face and then looked back at her. ‘I WAS HANDLING IT,’ he shouted back angrily.
‘WHAT, BY SPITTING AT IT?’
‘Like I said,’ said Theo, lowering his voice. ‘I was handling it.’
‘Oh come on,’ said Ruby ‘We’re leaving’. Then without looking at Theo, she marched off towards the exit. As she walked out, she noticed that several Polisians, which before had shown no interest, were now staring at the pair of them with what looked like disgust.
‘Oh now you’re interested,’ said Ruby, glaring back at them as she stormed out, with a dazed looking Theo trailing a few meters behind.
*
Ruby didn’t say a word to Theo on the way back to their quarters that evening, and when they parted to go their separate ways, she didn’t even give him so much as a scowl. And so, for the second time since they had become friends, Ruby and Theo weren’t speaking to each other.
Chapter 14 – The Redeemer
Once he had completed a full medical scan of his body and discovered that there had been no lasting damage from his encounter with the Protah, Theo lay back down on his bed and closed his eyes. But he couldn’t sleep. He felt sick to his stomach, knowing that, despite their promises to each other, he and Ruby had fallen out yet again. He was beginning to wonder if their friendship was doomed from the start, which in turn made him wonder how he could carry on with his new life without her. It wasn’t that he was without other friends, because there was Weng and now Cristos. But it wasn’t quite the same. It wasn’t really cool to discuss your feelings with other boys because you just didn’t do that sort of thing. But it was OK if your best mate was a girl because you could tell her anything. That was probably why he’d always found it easier to make friends with girls than boys. He could really talk to them. And after everything he’d been through, he’d learned that talking was sometimes the only thing that had kept him sane.
Then he thought back to all the times he’d fallen out with Jules, sometimes not speaking to her for days on end. His grandfather had always told him to ‘Never go to sleep on an argument’. But he’d always felt like it was just one of those sayings that adults came out with all the time, just to try and show you how worldly wise they were and how young and in-experienced you were. At the time, they’d been just words with no meaning, and he’d never really paid any attention to them. But now, out amongst the stars, their meaning had somehow struck home. Those words, spoken so long ago and so far away, seemed more important than ever.
But what was it that he’d done to upset Ruby so much? After all, she’d never slapped him before, indeed, as far as he knew, she’d never even come close. He began to replay the events of the evening back in his mind. He thought back to their arrival at the restaurant and how they had been led to their seat. Then they’d ordered their food and begun to chat. He remembered how engrossed he had been with the Protah when it had walked clumsily into the restaurant, and how, despite Ruby’s insistence to ignore the creature, he’d been unable to take his eyes off it. Was it perhaps that Ruby just liked to get all the attention? No, it couldn’t be that simple, and in any case it was hardly reason enough to slap him. Then he thought back to how the creature had approached him, goaded him into an argument and then pinned him up against the wall. He’d remembered Ruby shouting at the creature, begging it to leave him alone. She’d certainly been brave. After all, nobody else had come to help or had even shown much interest, which in itself seemed strange. Then he remembered how, somehow, he’d had the presence of mind – even with the creatures tongue around his neck and his body having gone limp – to search frantically on his Companion for something that he could do to get the beast to release him; and then how he’d found it buried in a description of Protah behaviour. Spitting.
It was only later, after the incident, that he’d read the description in full. He’d learned that the strange beast had evolved on a planet with much higher gravity than that of Earth, and that was why they were so heavily built. Their bodies were more than twice as heavy on their home planet and they needed all their strength just to walk on four legs. But on Polisium Prime, with its lower gravity, things were different. They could walk more easily, without having to drag their bodies along the ground, and were even able to rear up onto their hind legs with very littl
e effort. He’d also learnt that they had a kind of telescopic spine, which allowed them to stretch their bodies to almost double their length – unique amongst the sentient species of the Affinity. But being so heavily built, they probably didn’t know their own strength, and maybe that was why the creature had been so clumsy as it had walked through the restaurant, bumping and crashing into everything and everybody as it walked. And perhaps that was why nobody had tried to help them when it had attacked. It would be a bit like a man trying to wrestle a Gorilla; they wouldn’t have stood a chance. So all they’d done is wait for the security orbs to come to the rescue. But even the orbs had seemed to take their time. Why hadn’t they turned up at the first sign of trouble and stopped the creature attacking him in the first place?
But he’d learnt all that after the attack. It was what he’d learnt during the attack, which had caught his attention. It seemed that to any species not familiar with them, that the Protah might appear to be aggressive, bad tempered and argumentative. But what they expected in return was exactly the same. Apologising, grovelling and backing down wouldn’t do. Instead, you had to stand your ground and even push back. Yell at them, call them names and abuse them; anything else would be seen as a sign of weakness. And if all else failed, you could spit at them. And spitting to a Protah was a warning; a challenge, as ancient as their civilisation, that said if you do not back down now, I will attack. It was the point of no return. And to Theo, it was the only option he had left.
