A Study of Hummus


Published
4 years, 3 months ago
Updated
4 years, 3 months ago
Stats
13 12710

Chapter 8
Published 4 years, 3 months ago
1171

It's slice of life trying-to-be-harder sci fi, ok?

Theme Lighter Light Dark Darker Reset
Text Serif Sans Serif Reset
Text Size Reset

Lit Up


Usually, the halls of the ship were brightly lit. Now they were dim,  as if night had finally come to the station. People were staying home...  or, the goo aliens were only out of their apartments as much as their  shifts required. Asteroid mining operations had been temporarily  suspended - not that Alice knew any of the details there.

She had  been in her room, or with Ken'di the whole time. It was hard to even  look at Lainyng, after the whole "Chime of Peace" ordeal.

It was like everyone was holding their breath.

Well, Ken'di was playing with a pair of swords a lot, but that didn't mean she wasn't on edge.

"I don't know why you won't let me. You'll be fine, I'll let you recover after, honest."  She had pushed racks of dusty clothes against the walls of her store -  and was currently leaning on a pair of blades that looked like they  should be carried by a ninja.

"I don't care if I'm not an actual  human anymore. I don't care if it's a 'temporary incapacitation' thing.  You are not cutting me in half, and that's final."

"Thirds? I'm pretty sure-"

"NO."

"Well who the f-"

There was a loud rap on the entrance, "Silence Audit. Everyone out."

The  two turned to the entrance. The person coming in was of a  purpleish-hue, in a rather severe long dress. One that looked like it'd  make her some ambassador on a tv show. Some device Alice didn't  recognize was in her right hand, but the thing in her left hand was  definately an antenna of some sort. Like they used to have on the old tv  at home.

"Does the purple mean-" Alice started.

"Out!"

Ken'di put down the swords and quickly pulled Alice into the dimly lit hall. "Dokon said out, we're going."

"Who..."

Ken'di  leaned against the wall. "Oh, she's usually on the... the telephone  back home. Guess she got roped in after the chime. Do they not give you  the daily briefs?"

"What daily..."

"OH. They don't translate those, do they."

Alice still didn't know what Ken'di was talking about, "No?"

"I'm sure we can find someone to set you up. Oh-"

The purple woman had emerged.

"Did you find something?"

"I don't know what you were doing with the swords, but we were picking up harmonics. Keep one in the sheath."

"Man. Seriously? Even if I'm putting out-"

"Sheath. I'm letting you keep one out. Unless you prefer I confiscate both."

"Fine, fine, I'll put the other one back in my room. Does that solve your emergency?"

"I'll let you know."

"Ok.  Dokon, this is Alice. Alice, Dokon." She grabbed a scabbard, "Could you  please catch her up on what's going on? Apparently she doesn't get the  daily briefs."

"Ah... the one with the meltdown. Sure, I have some time. Walk with me?"

~

Dokon slowly lead Alice between the many rooms along the outer torus, keeping most of her attention on the device her hand.

"Let's start with what you do know."

"Well, My name is Alice Jenkins, but the real Alice is still on Earth, attending-"

"Yes, yes, direct human studies. The Chime. What do you know about the Chime."

"Oh.  It's like this ... really powerful radio signal sent out hundreds of  years ago. And then again every... gross. Isn't that just a number,  though? 144?"

"Well... ok, what comes after 'nine'?"

"Ten?"

"In an base-a system, yes. In a Base ten... oh. Yeah that's a bit confusing, isn't it. Um. What comes after 'b'"?

"In the alphabet? C."

"So you could say we have a Base C counting system. Or... Base Twelve? does that sound right?"

Alice looked at her a little hopelessly.

"Ok, we're comfortable with a gross - Twelve twelves - like you're comfortable with... Ten tens."

"A hundred?"

"Yes."

"So you made up numbers."

"No. Ok, math isn't my thing? But you just don't have enough numbers. Can we leave it at that?"

"...for now."

"But when we say a gross, we mean the time it takes Iu'husid to go around our star a gross times. Usually."

"So. 144 years."

"I  don't... ok. All your planets that a different about of time to go  around your star, right? The 4th one takes almost twice the time to  orbit than Earth. So a year is different there."

"It's called Mars."

"But you get my point? It's not a 'years'," Dokon was trying. Hard.

"But it was a very long time ago, right? Before you were born, right?"

"Yes. I wasn't even born the last time the Chime of Peace was sounded."

"Then did they sound it again?"

"NO. Our ship goes faster than light. We... we pulled ahead of the wave, and it hit us. Does that make sense."

"Like. Surfing-wave? On the ocean?"

"Sure?"

"Ok. Got it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, we tried to ride the wave and that big shake-up before the ceremony was a wipeout."

"Ok... when you do that on a wave..." Dokon paused, "how do you ride a wave?"

"On a surfbord."

"And how big is it compared to the wave?"

"Oh, a good wave, it puny.... oh. OH. NO."

"Oh?"

"THE WAVE HIT EARTH DIDN'T IT?"

"Ok, yes, yes, it did, and a lot of humans are panicked right now."

"Oh man. We probably didn't even have radios when the last one hit. Shit."

"As  far as we can tell, nobody got hurt directly from the event. And  they're only beginning to peace together were the chime came from."

"I... can you put me on the radio? I'll tell them it's ok. I'll like, be-"

"NO.  Thank you, but no. Earth hasn't settled down enough to meet other  species yet. We decided that 'years' ago. And Earth politics haven't  really improved while we've been here."

"I mean, yes, but-"

"We  are trying to be very quiet right now so we don't draw any attention.  If nobody knows we're here, nobody will try and take advantage of the  situation. And after a while, things go back to normal. Do you  understand?"

Alice had visions of big red buttons being hit and missles flying... somewhere, "Ok... ok. And your job is..."

"Is to make sure we don't accidentally draw attention to ourselves. For now."

Alice nodded.

"If I need you for anything, I'll ask, ok?"

Alice  nodded again. She was thinking. She had just offered to be an  ambassador. It was a little silly, when she apparently wasn't even  getting their newspaper.

Suddenly, Dokon had finished her rounds, and they were back at Ken'di's bootleg Hot Topic.

 "I  think we have got the situation explained," Dokon gave a little bow to  Ken'di, who gave a bit of a salute back, "Alice, come see me on the  command deck some time, if they'll let you."

Alice absentmindedly waved - and gave Ken'di a quick peck on the cheek.

"So... you know about Earth and Silence and all that?"

"Yeah. But. You said we could find someone who could translate the news?"