Page 14 of Meteor Storm

“I need to learn your words,” I said. Everything I said seemed to make her more timid, so I tapped my fingers to my chest. “Thilar. My name is Thilar.”

She adjusted her weight to one leg as if she was relaxing a bit.

“Thatsyer naym?” She thought for a moment before pointing a finger at herself. “Penny. M’naym is Penny.”

I repeated her words in my head, memorizing them and then said them back. “M’name is Thilar.”

Her eyes lit up a bit when she heard words she could understand. “Y’lurn fast.”

“Lurn fast,” I mimicked, nodding.

Penny

“M’name is Thilar,” he spoke to me.

I blinked at the sound of familiar words, but the slow way he said them made it seem like he was only copying me. Perhaps he didn’t understand what the words meant. Perhaps he was trying to learn.

“You learn fast,” I said.

“Lurn fast,” he nodded.

He gestured with his hand as if asking me to continue. I wasn’t sure what use it was if he couldn’t understand, but if I was being honest with myself, I was in desperate need of a listening ear. Even if that ear couldn’t process anything I was saying.

“I would ask how you ended up here, but I can’t understand you,” I began, my back sliding down the wall until I was sitting on the floor again. He watched me when I talked, his eyes following the motion of my mouth. I swallowed nervously. “If you spoke my language, I’d ask what you are, too. I’m human. I’m from Earth.” I copied him and tapped my hand to my chest. “Human.” Then I pointed at the ceiling, hoping he understood that I was indicating space. “From Earth.”

He was so focused on my lips, and when he nodded, I was beginning to think my rambling was exactly what he wanted.

“Human,” he repeated, pointing a finger at the middle of his chest. “Monrian.”

“Monrian? Is that what you are?”

I searched my memories for the name. I didn’t have my Buddy on me, but I wished I did. Every human that worked on the Nexus had one. It was a companion. A small wrist cuff packed full of so much information. Communications. Logs. It even had a tracker. It likely wouldn’t have worked wherever we were, but it would have been worth a try.

“I might have heard the name. But humans have only interacted with the valerians since we built the Nexus.”

“Valerians,” he said, his accent twisting the word into what sounded like two words with an emphasis on the “e.”

I nodded. “Most of them know more than one human language. They said they’ve been watching Earth for a while. They learn so much faster than we do. Which… I’m hoping is what you’re doing with the way you’re staring like that.”

He nodded again. “Learning.”

“Ok… well…” I cleared my throat, trying to think of more to say. “We know of the gek’tal, but only because they’re trouble. I think they’re the ones that attacked the cargo ship I was on. Which is why I’m here.” I gestured around us, wondering if it might make it easier if I was more emotive. “In this cell.” I felt ridiculous doing it, but he seemed confident that he was accomplishing something by listening to me. “I,” I pointed at myself. “Am here.” I pointed at the cell around us. “With you.” I pointed at him.

What the hell was I doing?

“I was on a ship. At least, that’s the last thing I remember before I was here.”

I pulled the blankets around me tighter, folding my legs beneath them. Looking up at my strange cellmate—Thilar—I truly realized, perhaps for the first time, that I was lost. I was likely presumed dead. Everyone on that ship was probably gone. For all I knew, the attack on the cargo ship led to an attack on the Nexus and no one was even there to wonder about me.

I hadn’t panicked in a long time. It was a silly reaction that had no purpose, but when my heart started racing and my skin started to get hot, even in that frigid cell, I knew I was about to lose it. I tried to remember my breathing exercises. In the dome, when I was out of my mind worried about the game, it helped. In the silence of that still cell, it wasn’t doing anything. It was like the adrenaline was finally wearing off and I was realizing the real hell I was in. In action, I could solve problems and think. In silence, I had nothing but my own fear to contend with and it was loud.

Pressing a hand to my chest, I tried taking long, slow breaths, closing my eyes and leaning my head back against the cold wall. It wasn’t helping. Counting wasn’t helping, either. Every time I tried, I remembered some big, gray alien was watching me. I remembered all the other strange aliens staring as they tried to force him on me. I saw that ape-like monster clawing at me while people cheered. I felt the lingering burn from the many times that spiked asshole shocked me and the worry I felt when my body had stopped working for a few panic-inducing seconds. Would we be thrust into another game soon? Was getting fucked by an alien inevitable? Was it that or death? And which one would be better?

What. The fuck. Was happening?

I heard someone whimpering nearby. I wondered if perhaps there was another human locked in that place until I realized it was me. Hot tears stung my eyes. I couldn’t breathe. I was trembling and only half of it was because that cell was an ice box.

So much for not letting the stress get to me.