He grabbed the empty glass from next to his bed, and rushed to the sink to fill it up, only to slip. The glass dropped from his hand, fell and broke.Damn.When he picked up the pieces to put them in the bin, he cut himself. Not badly, though it stung. He went back to get Joe’s bowl to fill that instead and accidentally smeared some blood on the base of the plastic container. When he came back with the bowl and a wet tissue, there was no trace of the blood.
“Did you lick up that blood? Ugh. That’s not nice.” And more than a bit worrying.
Kaden put the bowl down and this time Joe put a…finger into it and sucked up half of the water. Not a finger then, unless he ate and drank through his finger. He didn’t seem interested in the apple or the piece of cheese.No teeth?But then how had he eaten the cheese sandwich? He shouldn’t encourage Joe to want his blood, but he knew from Harris’ waffling that blood agar was used to grow difficult pathogens.
He thought about it, then squeezed his cut finger over the container and wiped it on the base. There wasn’t much blood, but Joe slid over it and when he moved back, it was as if nothing had been there. Joe stretched all of himself out, then up like a strip of ribbon as if he was reaching towards Kaden.
“More?”
Yeah, that was a nod.I can give him a bit more, right?Kaden went to get his razor. Joe had returned to a ball shape, but when Kaden came close to the container, he stretched out a tendril and moved it back and forth. Waving?Kaden was touched by how hard he was trying to communicate.
Before he could change his mind, Kaden nicked his finger on the blade, biting his lip against the sting of pain, and put his hand next to Joe. Blood trickled out and Joe flowed over him. The pain disappeared and Kaden felt a tingling sensation. How much should he let him have? What if he didn’t stop? What if he couldn’t drag him off? What if Joe kept sucking until he’d turned him into a dry husk?Oh God.
But as panic surged, Joe rippled away and Kaden pulled his hand back. He gasped when he looked at his finger. The cut had gone, which was…impossible.He examined his finger carefully.What the hell?Vampiric microbes? A host carrying vampiric microbes?Had it infected him? Was he a vampire now? Pointless telling himself there was no such thing. There was no such thing as Joe, but here he was in front of him.
Kaden slumped on his chair. This was why he should have done as Harris told him and not touched. Joe stretched up the side of the container and put two tendrils on either side to hold onto the top.Just like hands.
Could I be imagining this?
“I don’t know how to help you,” Kaden whispered. “You seem to understand me, but can you write? Type maybe?”
He opened his laptop and switched it on. Joe slithered down the side of the container onto the desk. Kaden opened a blank document and tapped inHello.A finger typedHelloback, and Kaden whooped. But after he’d typedWhat else do you like to eat?and Joe copied it word for word, he realised his celebration was premature. Unless he found a way to communicate, therewas no way Joe could get back to where he’d come from. Maybe not even then.
Wherehadhe come from? The lab or somewhere else? Had some accidental mix of microbes created life? Kaden gulped. Maybe he was an alien?Or was this a trick? How likely were any of those scenarios?
He googledman-made organismand began to read. A few years ago, scientists had created the world’s first living organism with a fully synthetic DNA code. The lab-made microbe was similar to a strain of bacteria usually found in soil and the human gut, but had a smaller set of genetic instructions. Okay…but that seemed a huge step to Joe.
Was he brand new life or from another planet? Or maybe from this planet and a new discovery?Did I discover him? And the lab missed it?
As far as alien life was concerned, he and Harris sometimes talked about whether there was life on other planets and they sat on opposite sides of the fence. Harris was convinced that if there was life out there, it would have been in contact by now. Whereas Kaden thought that with so many planets and stars that could and couldn’t be seen, surely life of some form existed in the vastness of space.
Was Joe from a distant planet?
As for this being a trick… He just couldn’t see how that was possible. Who would do it? And why? To get Harris into trouble? To test how honest Kaden was? But to make something react when it was just a gooey ball—to count, answer yes and no? Not possible.
Final option, Joe was from this world: from a deep cave, a jungle, the poles. But then how did he get into Lixian Biotech? Was Lixian more than it appeared? Kaden had looked everywhere he could in the building. He’d neither heard nor seen any animals.
There was only one conclusion that felt right, yet at the same time scarily wrong.
“Are you from another planet?” Kaden whispered and held out his shaking hand.
One tendril touched his middle finger.Yes? Oh my God!Kaden felt as if he’d just been jolted by electricity. For a long moment, he couldn’t speak or move. The implications were too much to take in.
He had so many questions. Where are you from? How did you get here? Are there many of you? But he couldn’t ask anything unless it required a yes or no answer.
“Do you mean us harm?”
Two touches.No.But then Joe touched him again.Yes?Kaden swallowed hard. Then Joe tapped twice. Kaden was confused. “No, yes, no. What does that mean?”
Except how was Joe supposed to answer? And how would Kaden know if it was the truth?
“Will you hurt me or any other humans?”
That got a no.
“But others might want to?”
That got a yes.
