"Six?" asked Apple as the three colleagues sat around a large, oval table which was normally shared by many more people when detailing important information. The office was absolutely empty, giving it an eerie feel especially when the lights were off. All of the lights, now, were off save for one which illuminated the three women sitting at the table.
"Six." replied Peach as she was going through an incredibly thick folder. "Over the course of humanity there have only been five actual government confirmed interactions with alien life. Roswell was the first recently recorded, and after that came four more. Most of the subjects were dead on retrieval, possibly dying because of inability to adapt to the conditions of earth, the air, or through their crash landing which was majority of the time very much a disaster area. Subject four was so broken up it took us weeks to stitch it back together and even now we're unsure as to whether we're right or not."
"But this, this is unheard of." Grape said as she glanced over the photographs laid out on the table in front of them. They were of the blue baby, always in a white, sterile and unfeeling room. He stood out like a sore thumb; skin that vibrant blue and those green eyes of his taking in everything around him. "We've never had a survivor, and it being so young opens a window of possibilities for research. That brain... just think of how its body operates in conjunction with it."
"Are you thinking telepathic abilities?" Apple asked.
"Consider the frontal lobes. They're enormous, and going by our readings this child is only just now beginning to use its brain. Unlike us, it might actually use all of its gray matter. The possibilities, they're literally endless."
Grape lifted one photo, where the child was looking straight at the video camera with a distinct look of annoyance on its face.
Apple didn't like the photo, the child was almost too aware of its surroundings. Did it actually know what was happening to it? That this was... wrong? Impossible, she told herself with a shake of her head. It was just a baby, it had no view of right or wrong yet.
"So its codename is Six. Whenever discussing in open areas, which we shouldn't be doing anyway, we are to refer to it as Six."
"Six." agreed the other two.
Looking down at the photographs they studied how the baby took in its surroundings. It was already adept at sitting up and moving around the confines of the incubation chamber, even smart enough to try and push is hands through the large circles where people would normally handle Six while wearing translucent gloves. Another photograph showed it popping off the sensors attached to its head and actually examining the suction cup before pulling it off and investigating the wires. Surely, those privy to the information, knew that there was intelligent life out there in the universe and they had one.
Education for Six was done easily enough. Once fitted with some white clothing the baby was introduced to his tutor, one of the most gifted intellectuals working for the government. His name, naturally, would go unrecorded but his codename was simply School; for it was what he did best, and what he was going to be doing for the remainder of his time in this facility. The man was all, incredibly thin, and had a pencil lined moustache on his upper lip. The hair was slicked back and graying at its roots, the remaining black putting up a brave fight against the onslaught of age.
Six was, at first, unsure of how to react to this strange tall man suddenly entering his living environment.
"Good day, Six." School greeted, and despite his intimidating presentation his voice was surprisingly warm and welcoming. That alone was vastly different to the indifferent voices Six was used to that he heard through doors, or over speakers.
"Guud dhh." Six seemed to greet back, which alarmed those watching on monitors. Normally Six was silent, unspeaking, not even gurgling or giggling in glee at things plus given his age the idea alone that he could communicate through words was striking.
This shock was obvious on School's face, but he seamlessly eased it into a warm smile. "My name is School, and I'm going to be your teacher of all the things you need to know. First up, we're going to have color identification. Moving on from that we're going to learn the numbers, alphabet and then writing. This course will last the entire year, but we're certain you'll make us all very proud." he went on to explain, to which Six slowly nodded his head, taking all of this in.
Six nodded his head again, and clapped his hands together in an almost eager, looking forward to the chance of education. The flash cards were presented, and after School had given him the name of said color the baby would repeat it in garbled speech which was very quickly improving. This sent more shock waves through the scientists watching on monitors, all cameras focused on the blue skinned baby as its mouth muscles and vocal chords seemed to advance before their very eyes as more words were being introduced to the child.
School had never experienced this before. While he had started his career as a grade school teacher, human children took at least a year to learn basic reading, writing, and correct pronunciation of words. His face began to line with shock, wonder, and apprehension.
"Six, what color is this?" he asked, holding up a card to the child.
"Purple." Six replied clearly, picking at one of his ears with a finger.
"And this?" School went on to another, orange.
"Orange." the baby reported, and continued to get every color right, and even seemed to grasp that when two colors mixed it became something else; something School had not even mentioned before. He suddenly giggled, and touched his own face. "Blue!"
"Yes that's correct, Six. You are blue."
"White." the baby tugged at his clothes, before pointing to School's hair. "Gray!"
"Not entirely."
"Gray." Six giggled in glee.
"If you'll just excuse me Six I need to go and speak to some people. I won't be long, here. I'll leave you these." he set the cards in front of the baby and rushed from the room, leaving Six to pick up the cards and examine them as if he were a college professor going over a thesis.
"He learned in ten minutes what normally takes a normal child at least a months worth of classes!" School said to his superior, a woman known as Rose. She was a board woman, European by birth, but had become an American from a young age so whatever accent she may have had was lost to the ages. She looked at the screen before her of the baby who was now laying the cards out in front of him.
"It's amazing. How quickly he grasps information... move onto numbers next." she said, looking at School. "We'll see how long it takes him to learn basic numeric capabilities."
"Sir, Ma'am! Look!" an intern, who had sutures along his face, said as he pointed to the screen as one of the cameras closed in on Six's activities.
Leaning forward, they could only watch as Six lay out the cards before him in alphabetical order. How he knew this, nobody knew. School hadn't started him on letters, or the alphabet, so how could he know the alphabet already?
"...my god." Rose whispered. "Teach him. Quickly. We need an I.Q test to establish just how intelligent the subject is."
"R-right away." School mumbled before leaving the room quickly, grabbing the charts he would need to teach numbers and letters.
The child was gifted, that much was certain. For it wasn't seven days until the young Six knew all of his colors, the multiplication table, the alphabet, as well as reading and writing. He was always monitored though, especially when given writing instruments. Six simply ate books of a reading average normally suited for high school students. His brain was obviously hungry for knowledge, and acted as a sponge for everything the child heard or saw was stored away for reference at a later date. They established early on he even possessed photographic memory, being able to recite text from a book he had read days previous.
But there wasn't only education that the child was going through. There were the physical tests, such as how sensitive was his skin, taste, sight, smell, hearing; and if he possessed any further abilities yet untapped. Those tests included subjecting the child to all manner of chemicals, trace amounts of drugs, and other stimuli. It wasn't pretty, and Six quickly learned to dread these kinds of tests, and had taken to lashing out at the doctors when they came to retrieve him. Many of them ended up sustaining bite marks and scratches from the baby who was stronger than they had anticipated.
The tests, despite Six's pleas for mercy, went on.
It was soon deducted the child was hypersensitive. His skin, much like a humans, could pick up vibrations from miles away. His hearing was above average, and his taste amazing for he could find trace amounts of food hidden within other foods. This meant they couldn't drug him in his food, which left the only option being to grab him and inject him when they were testing the more biological structure of the child. Six found himself having x-rays almost every day, especially of his brain. The electrical charge of his brain had tripled since his classes with School began, and this fascinated his doctors.
School had long since gotten used to seeing Six start his classes with bandages to parts of his body. Skin scrapings were always taken, as was blood tests. His head as well seemed to have bandages on, though for what reason he did not have clearance to know and he dare not ask the child for every time he entered the little alien's room he was being watched.
It had now been several years, and my how they had flown by in the confines of the room. Six, now appearing around the average child age of eight, lay in his bed reading another one of his books. All of them, naturally, were selected for him and after reading them he was to write out a report on what he thought of the practices listed within the book and how he would improve upon them. Through this tactic, the doctors had already advanced technologically quicker then they had in years. The boy just had a natural grasp of machines, already creating a small basic computer which fit in the palm of his hand.
But the psychologists that Six saw every few weeks were concerned. The child, while no doubts brilliant, was not meshing well with people. Outside of school, Six just had no real friends. Even School couldn't really be seen as a friend, for Six only knew him as an educator. They talked at lengths for hours over things that would normally make no sense to normal seven year olds, but as everyone knew Six was not any ordinary seven year old.
They claimed he needed interaction with children, he needed to socialize. This, naturally, was put down straight away. Six was an alien, a highly advanced race! What good would it give for him to play with other children? They would be of no interest to him, with their laughter, games, and diseases they carried. Plus, Six was an alien. How could you mask that? Imagine a child reacting to a blue child, and how that would affect Six? While that sounded tempting, they knew better. Exposing a normal child to Six would have strong reactions, and they didn't feel like paying off a child's parents to allow them to subject their 'little angel' to an alien and the possible mental scarring that would be the end result.
Sighing to himself, Six shut the book and sat up on his bed and placed it besides him. The book had been on thermo nuclear dynamics and the benefits of atom merging; mediocre by his standards and incredibly boring. Looking around his room, Six took in the bareness of it all. While he was allowed books and paper to write on, it was all piled neatly in its place. A small book case across the room held books that one would find in a library, written by men with long difficult to pronounce names. There were no toys, no board games, no plushy friends for the seven year old to relax with.
Narrowing his eyes, Six put his hands to his head. Today they had already extracted some of his cranial fluid to do testing and the small hole in his head ached terribly, but he was thankful for the bandage covering it. His blood was corrosive, they had discovered from an early age. While it wasn't as acidic as the Alien in a popular movie franchise, it still did damage to flesh and other material if it came in contact. So a new bandage had been made, normally the basis of the material was used on space crafts, to prevent the blood doing damage to anyone or anything.
"Hnn..." he sighed, shutting his eyes now and remembered.
His memory was amazing, that much was well known throughout the facility. If he wanted to, he could still remember the day he first met School and how he had laughed at his gray hair, despite School saying it was black. But lately, Six had been getting a strong inkling that something had been missing, like a part of him that was meant to be here wasn't. It was a feeling he couldn't really explain, or want to, at least in the presence of the doctors. They might think him sick, and take him to the tiled room where the bad things happened.
Shuddering, Six forced his eyes open and walked across the room to grab his paper and pencil, ready to write his report and review on the book but something gave him pause once he sat down. It was that feeling again. So taking a deep breath Six shut his eyes and remembered.
All around him was chaos, the screams of the people, the crumbling of buildings, it was raining death and destruction. How old was he? At least a week, maybe more. He remembered a woman pulling him from his crib and racing with him through a large building. The noise was deafening, of sirens blaring, and the madness and pandemonium happening around him. Yet the woman holding him was oddly calm as she ran, she wasn't screaming.
Was this his mother? She had eyes like him, green, large serene. Then she handed him to a man, blue skinned like him and wearing white just like the woman. They were rushing him somewhere, somewhere important. Suddenly he was in an enclosed space full of soft material, and buttons and screens.
"Here is your Minion." his mother explained, and handed him something. It was a ball, but it held something inside. A fish? A brown eyed fish. It smiles at him, and there's a spark there that Six hadn't thought about until today. "He will take care of you." his mother goes on to say, to which the little fish turns in the orb to stare out at the world they were leaving.
"And here is your binky." his father adds, and pressed the teething apparatus into the baby's mouth. "You are destined for-" his last words are cut off by a hatch shutting, and the two faded into white.
"Minion." Six said to himself, and began to draw upon the paper where he was supposed to be writing. The image of a little fish quickly filled the page, large kind eyes, tiny fins and little dangly bits under its body. Glowing tiny orbs atop the head travelled along the length of the body to a tiny tail. Holding the picture privately close, positioned so the cameras in the room couldn't see, Six stared at the drawing.
This was his friend. This was who was missing. Who had always been missing. But where was he? Could he ask? Should he ask? If he wasn't here with him now, then where? Touching the drawing with his fingers, Six felt his eyes grow hot and stingy. How could he possibly forget his fish? His mother had said he would look after him... but nobody looked after him here. All the faces he saw were different from when he first got here, they were all cold, and mean with the needles and the probing and the scanning…
"Oh Minion." Six whispered and felt like he could cry, when something cold and steely suddenly lifted in his mind. These people were all about research. Minion had been a tiny fish, what would they have done to him? Monitor him, like they were to him. But had they kept him alive? Would they have a reason to? Had they killed his fish? That idea alone exploded a multitude of emotions in Six he normally didn't feel, and it was dizzying. His head felt light, and painful, as if he was being injected into his head by multiple needles.
The door to his room, feeling suddenly like a cell, and in walked the doctor who brought him his meals. The tray was white and plastic, the plate attached to the tray, and it had the usual stuff. Vegetables, some fruit in a bowl, cooked meat and a plastic glass of water.
"Dinner, Six." he said as he set the tray down on the table in front of Six. This man, to Six, was known simply as Ace.
"What happened to Minion?" Six asked straight away.
The man stood, raising an eyebrow. "Minion? Who is that?"
"Minion." Six repeated. "I arrived with a fish. Where is he?"
"A fish." Ace paused in thought, "I'm sorry Six. I don't know what you're talking about."
"Find out." Six ordered, tiny fists clenched and on his table. He grabbed the drawing, ripped it off the stationary paper and held it up to the man. "He looked like this, and it's to scale. He arrived in the pod with me. I want to see him."
Taking the drawing Ace looked at the fish before looking back to Six. Never before had Six been so... demanding. Normally he was quite content in his existence, except when it was time for medical examinations then they all had to be careful with him in what they said, and approached him. "All right... I'll see." he said, and left the room.
Out in the halls he made his way down the fairly empty corridors. Lights illuminated his way, and there were portraits hanging on the walls of past officers and presidents. Naturally there were fire alarms and the like, but there had never been a fire in this organization in all its years of operation. He approached another long hallway and made a left, walking for another minute before pushing the door open.
Two men, one wearing a red tie, the other a black one, were sitting behind desks opposite each other. Black Tie was reading, while Red Tie was drinking a cup of coffee. Both of them glanced up at the same time as the new arrival entered the room.
"He wants to know." Ace said, and held up the drawing of the fish.
Red Tie's eyes gleamed, as Black Tie smiled almost pleasantly. "Does he now?"
"He called him Minion, and wants to see him."
Black and Red Tie looked to each other, and Black clicked his tongue as Red Tie got to his feet and walked Ace. "Hrm, well that might be difficult. After its termination the fish was pretty much taken apart. The technology of that antenna was beyond our wildest dreams, researching that alone have advanced our own technology ten fold. The rest of the fish though, not as fascinating..." he walked through to another room which was full of specimen jars. Inside every one was some part of an animal, or a whole animal, along with the name (both normal and scientific) posted on its front so you knew just what you were looking at, or what part of that something you were looking at was. It was quite disgusting.
"Yes I'm well aware of that. Satellite has advanced thanks to many things discovered here." Ace rolled his eyes. He hated how some departments felt that they were more beneficial to the world then another. These guys certainly gave off that feel.
Red Tie frowned at him, before opening a cupboard. He pulled something out and set it on an operating table inside the compact room. It was the fish. Though it had been stuffed, and left in protective fluid inside the very same ball it had arrived on earth in. It had fake eyes, naturally, but it was the fish that Six had drawn. Ace made a face of disgust.
"Ugly little thing isn't he?" he asked.
"But the brain was amazing. That antennae had little nerve roots going to absolutely every part of its brain! It was amazing. Nanotechnology unlike any we had seen before." Red Tie gushed.
"So... what do I tell him?" Ace asked.
"The truth." Black Tie said, having followed the two into the room. "There is no point in lying to him. The fish is dead."
"So I should tell this seven year old kid that you killed his fish, and cut him open?"
"Not so technical." Black Tie said gently, waving his hands in a calming manner. "Say the fish passed away early on after arriving. The details as to why do not need to be disclosed to the child."
"...jeeze this is like telling a kid there isn't a Santa Claus." Ace said, looking down at the fish.
"Well there isn't. What is the point in lying to children? Prepare them for reality. That's the best means." Red Tie replied before grabbing the orb and actually handing it to Ace. "Here, give it to him."
"What?" Ace asked, eyes widening.
"Ohh I like that idea!" Red Tie said, eyes lightning up. "We'll get to research and gauge his reaction to learning about morality and the death of his fish! Then, we take him back off of him!"
"Genius Red Tie, genius!" Black tie grinned and like a pair of excited children they ran off to get their papers and pens, leaving Ace holding the orb and feeling like he was holding a ticking time bomb. Just how were these men above him in this company? They were like sadistic school boys, torturing bugs just for fun.
He looked down at the poor little fish, and he hoped it hadn't suffered in its death. Why would they have killed an alien life form? Just because the fish was an aquatic being, something that Earth had more then enough of, and thus held no true intelligence or scientific value? He wouldn't understand, because it wasn't his job to do so. Sighing, Ace followed behind Red and Black Tie as they returned to Six's holding room. Naturally the two men went to the monitoring room, set to make notes and record what was about to take place.
Six was writing, trying to put his mind off of the ghastly subject, when the door to his room opened. Lifting his gaze Six saw that round orb and his face broke into a large smile which lasted for zero point two seconds before he realized something very disturbing. Ace watched the expression of the child and felt a knife in his heart twist in deeper with every passing second.
"...he died, shortly after arriving." he explained as he walked forward, unsure if he should offer the orb to the child or not. "I'm sorry, Six."
Was it possible to mourn someone you never knew? Six had only been with the fish for such a short period of time, would it really affect him? Ace wondered all these things, all the while that dagger in his heart dug further in. Six, who still sat in his seat, stared at the fish with wide eyes. He was suddenly up, and Ace realized just how quick on his feet the skinny child could be for the fish ball was in his hands one second and out of it the next.
Six held the orb to his chest and rushed to the sanctuary of his bed, and curled around the ball as if there was a magnet within it, drawing him in. He said nothing, and merely clutched at the glass.
"Six, you can't keep him." Ace said quietly, trying to keep his voice from shaking.
"No." Six said, holding the orb closer. "He's mine. He's my friend."
"He's a specimen, now Six. He can't stay with you." he moved closer to the boy, who moved further up the bed, eyes now locked on the man.
"NO!" Six shrieked, the small fish in the orb bouncing against the walls due to the movement. "YOU CAN'T! YOU TOOK HIM ONCE ALREADY!"
"Six I mean it! Do you want me to call the doctors in? Do you want the needles?" he hated threatening the child, who genuinely looked so heart broken and in pain at the idea of loosing his friend as soon as he got him back. "Because I'll have to. Now hand him over."
"No." Six echoed, voice dropping to a dangerous tone which startled Ace.
He ended up trying to pull the orb out of the child's hand, but to his shock Six lashed out and bit the back of his palm hard. His small white teeth dug into his flesh and blood began to pour out of his hand. Ace staggered back, shocked the child would act so violently towards him; but the look on Six's face wasn't that of apology, or sadness at having done what he did. No, he looked almost victorious.
But then he screamed, for more men rushed into the room, one with a needle all ready. Six fought against them, kicking his legs and waving his fists, but while he was trying to wriggle free the orb with Minion inside tumbled out of his grasp and rolled across the floor. Ace, shaking in shock, grabbed the orb in his good hand and left the room quickly. He hated this job. He hated how Six's screams would echo down all of the long, empty hallways. You could never escape the shrieks of the child, even once they had died into silence.
Inside the room, Six now lay flat on his chest, eyes wide and staring at the walls. The injection had done its job, calming him, easing his hearts, and he was now languid and easier to deal with.
"Maybe if you behave yourself you'll see the fish again." said one of the doctors, breaking the needle so it wouldn't hurt anyone else. "Once you can, get back to your homework."
Six found himself alone, head swimming, and heart aching, in his room once more. He breathed easily, despite the aches in his head and heart, and shut his eyes.
"Look at him, it's perfect." Red Tie said as he watched the large monitor up on the wall. "Is he crying? He's never cried."
"Negative." Black Tie replied, zooming the image with a button. "No tears."
"Damnit." Red Tie swore, rubbing at his nose. "What's he doing?"
"Whispering?" they adjusted the volumes, but found themselves incapable of over hearing what the child was saying. Was he simply mouthing the words? That was a possibility.
Despite the drugs in his system, Six's mind was a strong one, and even now it was racing at the speed of light. Ace had said that Minion had died naturally. Now, he highly doubted that. Minion had been healthy, young, his life ahead of him to spend it besides Six's side. He wouldn't have died. He was murdered. They had killed his friend. His only friend, before they had even been given a chance to be friends.
"Oh Minion... You've been locked away..." he mouthed the words against the bed sheets, "All these years, just like me... just like me... Why'd they do this to you...? What did you do... You were meant to stay with me..."
"I did, sir."
His green eyes opened, and he stared vacantly ahead. Inside the monitor room, Red and Black tie watched as the child seemed to focus on one spot in particular.
"What is he doing?" Red Tie asked, zooming in on the image again before attempting to fix the volume again. Yet still, there was no sound for them to hear besides the breathing of the alien child.
"I don't know. But it's fascinating." Black Tie replied, still making notes.
There, floating in the air before Six, was Minion. The little fish was transparent, see through, and gave off an eerie green glow which cast beautiful shapes and colors over the normally dismally bland white room. Six stared, transfixed, but he was not afraid, or confused as to how or why this was happening.
"I'm sorry I failed you, Sir." the little fish said sadly, floating closer to the alien. "But I'm here now. I'll never leave you alone again."
"You're dead..." Six said finally.
"I am Sir, but that doesn't mean I still can't stay with you." Minion replied, and smiled at him warmly, sweetly. A smile that Six had never truly experienced before. It made his hearts race, despite the medication. "I'll always be with you." the little fish replied, "Sleep now, sir. I'll keep watch."
Six continued to stare at the small fish, before his eyes finally began to slip shut both out of emotional exhaustion but the medication mixing in his blood stream. This felt... safe, nice, warm. He had never really felt any of these things before within these white walls, where all the tests and people came in to see him. The only times he had ventured out was when going to the tiled place, where he was always hurt. It had been his home, this room, his bed, his books and nothing else. But he had never realized how alone he had felt, now that he had seen Minion.
His friend was back now. And nothing was going to tear them apart again; both he and Minion would make sure of this.
"That's it for now." Black Tie said as he sat back in his seat, picking up his cup of coffee and took a slow sip. "Just like any child, I'm kind of disappointed."
"You and me both. I thought he'd handle it like an adult, not go crying about it." Red Tie snorted, as he made the final appraisal in his notes.
"I guess a kid is always a kid, no matter how high its I.Q is." Black Tie grumbled.
Red Tie was about to reply when, suddenly, two of the monitors suddenly flickered and short circuited. Both men stood up in surprise as a plumes of smoke began to lift into the air. They could smell the burning plastic ripe and invading their sense of smell.
"What the fuck!" swore Black Tie.
"Whoa. How old are these things?" Red Tie asked as he checked behind one of the monitors, to see the connector port all but melted in their place.
"I dunno, I thought we just had everything updated due to the sales of our technology." Black Tie just found the whole thing annoying. Technology was supposed to be improving, not blowing up like this!
"Well anyway. Lunch?" Red Tie grinned.
"Read my mind." Black Tie replied, and the two men left the monitoring room behind, making sure to lodge a complaint about the manufacturer of the screens which had died on them. Hopefully the warranty was still valid.