Grizz in Space

After Grizz had hurtled through space for awhile with Alyce in tow, he'd found himself in unsettled space with very little xerosene rocket fuel for his long-range thrusters.  Fortunately for him, “unsettled” was not the same as “uninhabited”.  There were auto-stations littering the frontiers.  Most of them were jettisoned into deep space by Earth megacorps as desperate cash grabs meant to gather new settlements around them, should the urge for colonization strike the Earthlings once more.  At the moment, though, they were mostly empty, kept operational via artificial intelligence.  A few had become home to outcasts, fugitives, and other such folks who had nowhere else to go otherwise.

Do you expect danger? Alyce asked directly into Grizz's mind.  They were seated in Grizz's pilot chair, while he heated up the remainder of Zel's Ratisian seaweed dumplings in the microwave.  They still seemed groggy and unsteady, so when Grizz turned the gravity back on, they were quick to claim the only seat in the ship.  The autopilot was on anyway, and it was guiding the ship to the nearest auto-station, nearer by now than Ratis or Rygor or anywhere else.

Grizz chuckled.  “Me, in danger?” he asked as he reclined against the nearby wall, hands behind his back.  “Ain't no one can touch me.”

Nicole did.

Grizz's cool-guy act was instantly lost, set adrift in a sea of sputtering and embarrassment.  “Look!” he finally managed to say.  “The point is, we'll be fine.  We're still pretty close to settled space, so odds are we won't even see anyone.”  At this range, the runaways would simply flee farther into unsettled space, and everyone else would probably go to Rygor or whatever was the closest planet at this point.  Grizz hadn't had a plan beyond “away”, and he had gotten himself lost, or he would have were it not for the myriad navigation signals coming from nearby planets and stations.

Alyce looked up at Grizz with their burning blue eyes.  You would be most happy to be alone with me?they asked.

“Well,” Grizz admitted with a laugh, “I guess so.”  Alyce seemed capricious and unpredictable to him, like most folks he'd met, but he didn't feel threatened by them or anything.  In fact, Grizz felt at ease speaking to Alyce, more so than Nicole or even Zel.  Plus, if the whole “if you go down, I do too” thing still applied, they wouldn't harm him anyway.

Do these auto-stations have gravity?

“Yep.”  If their destination station was Earth-made, it would have the equivalent of Earth gravity.

Alyce slowly raked their hands around the seat belt holding them in place. Then perhaps I can practice walking in peace.  

Before Grizz could even think of a reply to that, the auto-station loomed in view.  The waypoint marker began to move around on Grizz's HUD, shrinking away to simulate its voyage through space toward the nearest landing dock.  Grizz followed the arrow's lead and slowed for landing, tossing a dumpling into his mouth whole.

Before he could enter, though, Grizz would have to wait for the automated airlock.  Two large bulkhead doors creaked apart, one up and one down, a square-toothed maw stretching open.  As he waited and finished his meal, Alyce's fur stood on end, head to foot.  A wave of orange rippled from the tips of their ears down their fur; their tail fluffed out in a wave as the orange went through it.

Grizz looked away from the doors and gave Alyce his full attention.  “'sup?” he asked.

Someone else is here, Alyce replied.  They are distressed.

“Distressed?  Like, someone needs help?”  Grizz's fingers flexed.  He wasn't going to be able to use his giant arm in the space station, but with all the time he'd spent unable to afford weapons, he'd learned to make do with his own fists.

No.  They are paranoid, hiding, ready to attack.  Regardless of the answer. It was too late to change course.  Grizz needed to resupply, and he'd left himself nowhere else to do it.  The auto-station closed its jaws shut behind his ship as he drove inside.

“Welcome to Hard Corp Automation,” the automated loudspeakers greeted Grizz and Alyce.  “Place the bird in the designated place.”  Ahead, a display flickered atop the second door of the airlock system.  It was an ASCII map of the docking bay, a blueprint suggested by careful arrangement of brackets and pipes and other such keyboard characters.  In addition to showing a recommended path to Grizz's assigned parking space, it showed one other docking bay was occupied.

Grizz chuckled.  “That's auto-stations for ya,” he mused.  “The AI ain't no good at stringin' together a sentence.”

Are you distracting yourself on purpose?Alyce admonished Grizz in his mind.

“Kinda...!”  Grizz wanted to be loose and casual, so as not to alert whoever else was there.  He wanted them to know that he would rather not fight.  “I'm just here to get fuel...an' maybe a snack.  Ain't no need to chase down trouble, now, is there?”

No.

Alyce's mental messages were to-the-point and devoid of the subtleties of typical speech.  With no inflection or body language to go by, it was hard to tell sometimes just how they felt about a given situation.  Grizz would have expected them to worry, given their difficulty walking, but he couldn't do much except shrug it off, same as everything else.

There was no way the mystery inhabitants of the auto-station wouldn't see Grizz and Alyce coming, though.  The blaring of the intercom and the clacking of the docking bay lights would see to that.  As Grizz brought his ship in for a landing, he kept an eye on the area.  No one came running to greet him, so he exited his ship, and motioned for Alyce to follow him.

The auto-station corridors were plain and sterile gray.  Between the diligence of the robot staff and the general lack of use, most auto-stations were clean.  Grizz saw no need to snoop around them, though.  There was a transaction terminal right there in the loading bay.

“Hello,” the AI voice greeted Grizz as he stepped up to the terminal.  It was a small screen and keyboard set directly into the wall, with a speaker nearby for the computer voice and a few pieces of opaque plastic along the sides to provide privacy.  “What do you want?”  Grizz couldn't help but chuckle; if Alyce wanted his financial credentials that badly, they would just read his mind to find them.  The plastic partition wouldn't block that.  “Ask a question or choose another option.”

Rather than risk putting his own speech through the AI's faulty parser, Grizz turned to the terminal screen.  This screen had also been done up in ASCII, which here displayed a few basic buttons.  The one he wanted was REFUEL, second from the left.  Despite the retro display, the screen itself was touch-controlled.  After Grizz tapped the REFUEL button, a new screen offered him various ship fuel types.  He selected the XEROSENE option, and for the first time in ages, he asked for his tank to be completely filled.

“Channel,” was the only instruction the AI gave next.  Fortunately, the text onscreen was perfectly understandable; it was time for Grizz to enter his banking credentials.

As he typed, though, another ripple of orange light flowed through Alyce's fur.  They're coming, they warned Grizz.

Grizz was glad for the heads-up; the auto-station voice was too loud to hear much else.  Fortunately, he finished up his business before anyone could show up.

“You are the savior.”  As the AI chimed its thanks, a small trapdoor near Grizz's ship popped open.  As soon as Grizz's eyes flicked to it, though, he could hear footsteps approaching.  Whoever was here was coming right for his landing bay.  There'd be no time to refuel and ward off an unknown assailant at the same time.

“Alyce,” Grizz began.  “Can you learn how to pump—“

No time.

True to Alyce's misgivings, a caped figure swirled around the corner, ray gun in hand.  “Freeze!” they demanded.  “One false move and I—hey, wait!”  The mystery attacker lowered their gun, revealing the face of the man who'd led the Cuprina Force members back in the nebula.  “You're the guy with the handship!”

“The wha...?” Grizz mumbled.  He was taken a little off-guard at being so recognized.  “...oh, yeah.  I am.”

“Yeah, you saved Leuco back there.”  The Cuprina leader raked his free hand through his hair.  “What makes you think you can just barge in like this?  This is our turf now!”

Grizz scoffed.  “Don't.”  Alyce drifted over to his side, staring down the bandit.  “Don't,” he also told Alyce.  “I'm gonna refuel an' I'm gonna leave.”

The Cuprina laughed.  “Just like that?  You're not even gonna say hi to Leuco and let 'em thank you?”  He raised his gun again, and got an even bigger laugh out of Grizz putting an arm in front of Alyce.  “Relax!  Your friend can come too!  Now come say hi to Leuco, or the two of you can go see the coroner instead, got it?”

“Damn, fine...!”  Grizz slowly approached the Cuprina, with his arm still in front of Alyce.  He wasn't trying to protect them; he was trying to protect the Cuprina from them.  “But I'm hookin' up this here fuel line first, see?”  The bandit nodded, and waited for Grizz to finish his refueling.  “So if we're sittin' down as friends, wouldn't it be friendly to tell me yer name?”

“Ask your mom,” the bandit replied.  “She'll tell you, Ithric's the best she ever had.”

Grizz let out a long sigh.  “Whatever.  I'm Grizz.  This here's Alyce.”  Alyce offered no greeting to Ithric, not even a gesture; they were wholly focused on walking, and braced themself against the smooth wall for support.  “They're...uh, they ain't feelin' well.”

I feel fine,Alyce protested into Grizz's mind.  The gravity here is more intense than on your ship, but I'll live. Ithric didn't seem to notice the telepathic message at all.  About as soon as Grizz noticed, he could hear Alyce giggle in his mind.  That's right!  I'm only contacting you!  Ithric would be pretty scared if I suddenly appeared in his mind, wouldn't he?

Grizz nodded; Alyce had a point there.  He continued on ahead of them, and finally reached Ithric's side at the end of the corridor.  Ithric, in turn, had put away his ray gun, and stuck out the hand that had held it as a gesture of goodwill.

Grizz took Ithric's hand in his own and accepted the handshake.  “I was gonna let y'all be,” he explained, “but Nicole was the one callin' the shots back there.”  As the handshake concluded, Grizz added, “...uh, I'm glad Leuco got back to ya.”  He hadn't been sure if his pinky toss would even work, but it was nice to hear again that it had.

“Nicole,” Ithric repeated.  “Was that Nicole Ellery, the racecraft driver?”  He quickly shook his head.  “Nah, couldn't be.”  With a wave over his shoulder, he beckoned for Grizz and Alyce to follow him through the space station, toward the entry lounge.  Like most HartCorp setups, the auto-station opened up into a wide, well-lit entry room for travelers to sit and rest.  Perpendicular walkways carved through the area, beckoning toward elevators that in turn led to specialty stores.

Ithric's gang, however, was right there in the lobby.  A few other Cuprinas were seated at a round booth-like table adorned with food.  The group of humans seemed to be focused on a tall person with long, dark hair seated in the center; the Cuprinas were offering them food, but they silently refused.

“Yo!” Ithric greeted the crowd.  “Check it, Leuco!  The guy who saved your ass is here!”

The person in the center raised their head slowly, as if in a daze.  When they finally saw who had come to visit, they started screaming and trying to scrabble over the seat behind them.

“Whoa!” Ithric shouted.  He darted in to stay by Leuco's side.  

“What the fuck?” Grizz murmured.

Alyce bowed their head, and offered no insight.

Grizz turned back to Leuco instead.  They'd managed to clamber over the seat, and they were aiming a gun of their own over the backrest.  “Get back!” they demanded.  Despite their insistence, their hands were shaking.

Grizz, however, was undeterred.  He put his hands up and walked away at sort of an angle, so he could find his way to a chair.  “Some thanks...!” he scoffed as he landed in his seat.

Leuco paid no attention to Grizz.  They were still aiming their gun ahead, squarely at Alyce.  “I...I know what you are!”

Alyce still said nothing, nor did they move.

Even so, Leuco began to visibly cringe, as if in pain.  “No!  Shut up!”

“Hey, buddy,” Ithric cooed, “you wanna tell me what's up?”  Despite his confusion, his gun was also pointed at Alyce.

“I saw those eyes...in the nebula...”  Leuco squeezed their eyes shut completely at this point, overwhelmed by something.  “When I was floating out in space, I...I heard a voice in my head.  It wanted...it wanted to steal my body!”

“Alyce...?” Grizz gasped softly.

Hold on, Alyce asked of him.  His mind was racing with questions, and they'd apparently picked up on that.  I never did form a mouth...!  As soon as the thought touched Grizz's mind, Alyce bowed forward, and their snout split open with a sickening crack.  Everyone yelped in surprise as fur and bone ripped in half to accommodate Alyce's new mouth, and smoky black fluid dripped out.  A couple Cuprinas scrambled to the nearest elevator, leaving Ithric, Leuco, and one other guy behind.

“Aaaaaaaghghgh,”Alyce gurgled.  Two pointy tongues about the length of their arms burst out of their snout, sending more black fluid splattering on the floor in front of them.  The tongues swayed and shook as Alyce gathered them back into their mouth.  When they were done, they looked back up at the Cuprinas and giggled.  “There we go!”

There was no denying it.  The voice Alyce spoke in was the same one Grizz had been hearing in his mind, and in his dreams.  Leuco seemed to recognize the voice as well, because they shrieked again and fired a shot at Alyce.

In response, Alyce hummed a constant, wordless note.  Their tail briefly flared its brilliant orange as they slid sideways along the floor, pushed out of the shot's trajectory by unseen force.  “Can't you see?” they chided the panicking Cuprinas.  “I have my own body now, one far more powerful than any human's.”

Grizz was taken aback by Alyce's nonchalant response to Leuco's accusations.  They didn't fight these accusations that they'd somehow reached out through the blackness of the nebula to probe a dying human's mind.  “Alyce?” he called out to them.

Alyce took a slow, staggering step toward the Cuprinas, then looked back to Grizz with their burning blue eyes.  “Yes?” they cheered back at him, while their body hunched toward the Cuprinas.  While Alyce's tail wagged at the sound of Grizz's voice, torn flesh and bone chips dangled from their snout.

“Uh...”  Grizz didn't want to say anything that might offend Alyce.  This was a side of them he hadn't seen yet.  As they dodged another of Leuco's ray gun shots, without even looking at Leuco, he couldn't help but wonder how differently the scenario might have gone without all the tables and chairs in their way.  “...you're not gonna kill these guys...are you...?”

“No,” Alyce answered.  “Not unless they keep shooting at me.”  On the one hand, hearing Alyce's ultimatum without context and their promise to kill did scare Grizz.  On the other hand, they'd already been shot at twice.  Alyce seemed to have even more restraint than Grizz did; after two shots, he'd have at least done something.  They'd made it to a chair, and leaned upon it for support.  “You said before, Grizz...we would refuel and leave.  If these humans let us, that's what we'll do.”

“Okay,” Ithric acquiesced.  He lowered his ray gun and looked over to Leuco.  “C'mon, put the gun away.”

“No!” Leuco snapped.  They didn't fire another shot, but they also didn't take their aim off of Alyce.

“Dude.”  Ithric shifted in his seat to turn more fully to Leuco.  “He was starting to refuel when I found him.  I bet it's done by now.”

Leuco shook their head.  “You don't understand.  This is what Super C told us about...”  They stopped to ensure their aim on Alyce was square.  “...about the darkness with a mind of its own.”

Grizz had a hard time believing Leuco.  They were talking about a monster of darkness, but Alyce seemed to him to be neither.  The fact that their skull had been fused into a single piece, and that they'd just split it open to form a mouth to speak with, was kinda freaky, but he didn't want to be rude and make too much of a fuss about it.  He'd seen other life forms out there do some pretty strange stuff too, and he was sure there were some human habits that the rest of the galaxy side-eyed.

“So,” Grizz scoffed, rising to his feet, “Alyce has got a mind of their own, is that it?”  With a laugh, he answered his own dangling question.  “So do I.  So do you.  What's it to ya?”

Leuco growled at Grizz's argument.  They still had their gun at the ready, but they weren't shooting anymore.

“C'mon, Leuco!” Ithric barked.  “Put the gun away!  It's not even working!”

Leuco's hands began to shake once again, but Ithric's logic ultimately won.  Ithric and the other Cuprina goon heaved sighs of relief as Leuco lowered their ray gun.  They still had it in their hands, but their aim had relented.  “You're right,” Leuco told Ithric, before turning to Alyce.  “I can't stop you either way, monster.”

“Dude, that's not—“

“Ithric was always the better fighter, and if he can't stop you...”  Leuco stared down at the gun in their hand for an uncomfortably long time.

In the silence, Ithric came over and patted Leuco's shoulder.  They flinched, but otherwise did nothing about it.  “Okay,” Ithric cooed, albeit in a low tone clearly implying his loss of patience.  “You're taking everything way too personally.  How's about we—“

“Hey!” Leuco interrupted.  “No!  Don't invalidate my feelings on this!  I was the one who almost died out there, not you!”

Ithric leaned toward Grizz, put a hand up near his mouth, and quietly said, “Guess now's not a good time.”  Then he stood back upright and returned to his usual boisterous tone.  “Well, it was nice meeting you both!  We're gonna go find our homies and maybe talk this out in the old shoe store, aren't we, Leuco?”

“...okay.”  Leuco pushed themself away from their cover and walked with surprising speed toward the nearest elevator.  Grizz and Ithric watched them leave; Ithric patted the remaining goon on the shoulder and motioned for him to follow Leuco, but the auto-station was otherwise silent.

As soon as the elevator doors closed, though, Ithric turned back to Grizz.  “Sorry, dudes,” he said.  “They're not usually like that.  But then...they usually don't do any piloting, either.  Then they got wrecked and...”  Ithric's gaze shifted toward Alyce.  “...all the rest.”

Alyce had gone through all that trouble to form a mouth, and yet when Leuco had mentioned the darkness, they'd gone very quiet.  “What did happen out there, exactly?” Grizz asked.

Alyce didn't reply.

“Dammit!”  Grizz turned back to Ithric and offered him an awkward chuckle.  “Yeah, guess we should go.”  With one last wave, Grizz hurried back toward his ship.  He could hear Alyce's talons clacking against the floor behind him, and turned to face them in the corridor.  “Alyce, c'mon, what happened out there?”

It is mostly as Leuco said,Alyce answered telepathically.  They were stranded in space.  I answered their cries for help, and I offered to suffuse them with my being to help them survive.  They would have retained full control of their own body and mind...a far cry from the utter domination their words implied.  Then, they tossed their gaze back down the corridor, after the Cuprinas.  “Well,” they hissed aloud, and pointedly so, “if they didn't want my help, a simple 'fuck you' would have sufficed!”  With that off their chest, they darted their head back toward Grizz, the flames of their eyes flickering rapidly.  They dipped back into telepathy to ask him, That is what you say, isn't it?  When you wish for someone to leave you alone?

Grizz shrugged.  That was certainly something he would say, at least.  “Yeah,” he mumbled, letting Alyce catch up to him in the corridor.  He was more focused on the fact that Alyce had actually showed some emotion in their words to the Cuprina Force quintet.  He sure didn't doubt their story; as they said, it lined up with Leuco's account well enough.  If their attempts to help resembled their attempts to speak, Grizz could understand how they might have frightened Leuco.

Alyce giggled aloud, then spoke to Grizz telepathically.  Your attempts to understand me are... Alyce paused when they reached the landing bay where Grizz's ship was parked.  ...I do not know how I feel about them.

“Uh, should I stop?”

“No!”

Alyce's answer had been both immediate and vocal.  The combination proved so startling to Grizz that he fumbled the fuel line, and dropped it to the metallic floor at his feet.  “...okay.”  If they felt that strongly about it, he could keep the curiosity going.  After all, it seemed to come easily to him.

A series of digital chimes played a short farewell song.  “Beautiful girl,” the AI babbled afterward.  The fuel line was mechanically withdrawn back into the station floor, and its little door closed behind it.

While that racket went off, Grizz leaned against his ship's airlock door and beckoned for Alyce to join him.  “C'mon!” he cheered to them.  Even after how things went with the Cuprinas, he could still shrug it off and force some pep until it became genuine again.  “Now that we're topped off, I'll ask ya again...ya got anywhere ya wanna go?”

No.

Grizz sighed.  “Well, ya probably seen it by now, but, uh...me neither.”  He figured he could spend the rest of his life cruising space aimlessly alone in his ship and be content.  There wasn't anything in particular he wanted to cruise toward, though.  He had no cultural connection to pursue like Zel, no career to drive him like Nicole had, and no pressing needs after his ship's long-range thruster had been fully refueled.  “Uh, how 'bout this...there anywhere I can go to understand you better, Alyce?”

Yes,Alyce replied, but I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell you where.  The moment they set foot in Grizz's ship, they bolted for his seat with a speed he hadn't seen from them outside of his dreams.

Grizz chuckled and let them have the chair.  After all, Alyce had been doing okay in the auto-station, but they had done a lot of hunching and leaning against walls in there too.  “Sure is a lotta shit ya ain't allowed to say.  How about why...?”  Grizz stood by his dashboard to face Alyce intently.  “If you're goin' star-trippin' with me, can I at least get a damn why outta ya?”

Yes.  Alyce slouched in the chair, and their ears drooped.  There are some things I must withhold from you...for our safety.

Grizz shook his head.  “Ya heard Nicole, right?  I'm an idiot, so tell me about it like one.”  He leaned a hand against the dash and added, “None of this cryptic shit.  Betcha I could get Ithric to tell me if you can't.”

The light blue of Alyce's eyes burned away in an orange tempest. Fuck you!  You think I like having to not answer your questions?  No, Grizz, this goes back millennia...  Alyce's ears twitched, and the orange glow faded from their body.  ...wait.  You said you're...an idiot, right?  And if this goes back so long...perhaps there are things I can tell you, things that will make no sense to you, such as what I am.  But you have to promise to keep these things to yourself, okay?

“Alyce...?” Grizz gasped, pushing himself away from the dashboard.  He didn't appreciate the insults, but if it got them to open up, even a little, he figured they would both feel better afterward.  “Yeah, promise.”  Grizz gestured to the empty ship and added, “I live alone.  I don't meet people much.  Your secrets are safe with me.”

They better be.  Alyce slowly blinked their eyes.  As their eyelids came back open, small puffs of black smoke rose from their eyes.  I am shotant.

Alyce sat in silence for awhile.  They seemed relaxed again, after having said that.  Grizz, meanwhile, had to brace himself against the dashboard.  He was having trouble holding in a laugh.  “Look, if you're waitin' for that to sink in, it ain't gonna.  I don't have a fuckin' clue what that means.”