Helia was always an early riser. He woke up every morning at six in the morning to watch the sunrise as he meditated and did his morning yoga. He would then eat a bowl of oatmeal with loads of berries and bananas before grabbing his towel and his clothes for the day before heading to shower to prepare himself for the day.
Timmy, however, while a punctual person, was not really a morning person. Unlike Helia, Timmy did his best work at night. It was actually quite nice how the arrangement between the two roommates worked out. Helia could have his alone time in the morning to prepare himself for the day as Timmy slept and Timmy could work in private without interruptions as Helia slept.
This morning was no different. Helia did his morning meditation and yoga, he ate his fruit packed oatmeal, and he stripped down and made his way to the bathroom to shower all while Timmy slept.
Helia hummed to himself as he made his way into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. He flicked on the light switch to find that the electricity was still out but there was still enough natural light streaming from the small window above the toilet to cast some light into the small bathroom. Helia placed his towel on the edge of the sink and took down his long, dark hair from the ponytail and ran a brush through it.
He had gotten back late from Flora's and didn't have time to brush his hair before bed. He barely had enough time to do anything last night as he went straight to his bedroom and fell asleep. So, Helia ran the brush through his hair, getting rid of any tangles that might have appeared throughout the day and as he slept. Satisfied with the state of his hair, Helia made his way over to the shower and pulled back the curtain only to jump back when he saw woman with pink-purple hair sleeping inside of the empty bathtub.
Helia quickly grabbed the towel on the edge of the sink and wrapped it around his waist. The woman did not budge despite Helia's startled gasp. What was a woman doing in the bathtub? She was wearing a metallic purple jumpsuit, like something that he would see women wearing when he went to those comic conventions with Timmy in the summer. Was she here because of Timmy? That sly dog, Helia thought to himself as a smirk appeared across his face, "playing video games with the boys" sure…
But then Helia's smirk dropped. If this woman was a "friend" of Timmy's, then what was she doing in the bathtub? Wouldn't she be with Timmy in his bed? Was she?...
Helia held out a hand to make sure that the woman was still breathing. Feeling her breath on his hand, Helia backed away and let out a sigh of relief. Not that he thought that Timmy would ever do something like that, but those people are usually the people that you least suspect, right? Noting that she was still alive and appeared to be unharmed, Helia was still left with many questions. He had to wake up Timmy.
Storming out of the bathroom, the towel still wrapped around his waist, Helia made his way down the short hall and without knocking, entered Timmy's room. Timmy was sleeping soundly as Helia barged into his room. Standing at the edge of his bed, Helia reached out and began shaking Timmy in an effort to wake him.
With a grumble, Timmy slowly began to wake.
"What?" Timmy groaned as he turned his body away from Helia, "Leave me alone. It is a Sunday, and it is too early."
"Timmy, wake up." Helia hissed through his teeth as he commanded Timmy to wake up.
"How many times do I have to tell you, mom?" Timmy mumbled, "I don't go to mass anymore."
"Timmy!" Helia shouted as he jostled him again, "Wake up!"
Timmy's eyes shot open, and he sprung into a seated position hearing the urgency of the voice that had ordered him awake. Was it not Sunday? Had he overslept? Why was Helia looking at him like that? Was there something wrong?
"What…what is it? What is going on?" Timmy asked as he tried to stay somewhat calm.
"I think that I should be asking you that, Timmy."
"Wait, why are you in a towel. I've already told you that I'm not really into men. I thought I told you that already. I know you and Flora are open about-"
"That is not why I am in here, Timmy!" Helia exclaimed, "I so happen to be in a towel because I was about to take my morning shower when I open the curtain to find a woman in our bathtub!"
"A what?" Timmy's eyebrows shot up.
"I said that there is a woman in our bathtub." Helia folded his arms across his chest, "Would you care to explain to me why a woman is in our bathtub?"
Timmy ran his hand over his face, still too sleepy for this question. What the Hell was Helia talking about.
"Helia, I don't understand what you are talking about. I know that you say that those mushrooms that Flora has helps your art but honestly, it just makes you super paranoid. I think that you need to-"
"Timmy," Helia sighed, "I don't care that you had fun last night. Honestly, I am glad to see that you found someone as…unique…as you are. But why is she in the bathtub?"
"Helia, I didn't have anyone over last night." Timmy shook his head as he looked up at Helia. It had been a while since Timmy had even been on a date much less had any sort of intimate contact with a woman. If he had entertained someone last night, Timmy would have remembered.
"Just…just come with me." Helia said as he motioned with his head for Timmy to follow him.
Grabbing his glasses off of the bedside table, Timmy threw off his covers as left his bed and followed Helia to the bathroom.
"Helia, I am telling you that there is-"
It felt like a ton of bricks hit his chest as he looked down into the white tub to see the woman from the night before. It hadn't been a dream. It hadn't been part of his imagination; Helia could see her too. Last night had been real after all.
As Timmy locked eyes of the barrel of whatever the figure had been pointing at him, his hands shot up and he had dropped the flashlight. What the Hell was going on? Was this some prank that Riven had concocted with Brandon? No, none of them were crafty enough to come up with something like this. Had someone broken in? Well, he did leave the door unlocked as he went out to check the electrical box but for the most part, people kept to themselves in the apartment building. There had never been an instance of a break-in, well, except for now.
The flashlight hit the ground and quickly shut off leaving the only the lights of the city to brighten up the apartment building. Yet, Timmy could still see the figure in front of him and the weapon in its hand.
"State your name and identification number." The figure spoke.
"W…w…what?" Timmy stammered.
"Name and identification number."
The voice that came from beyond the helmet sounded distorted. Timmy squinted his eyes to see that there was a small speaker that had been attached to the helmet. That must be what it was speaking through. There was a harsh edge to the voice and Timmy was not surprised, he had a weapon pointed at him after all. What was going on?
"M...m…my name is T…T…Timothy Powers but my friends c…c…call me Timmy. My social security number is 555-55-3553. Can you please put that away?"
The figure held down the weapon and placed it in holster connected to where Timmy would imagine the hip would be. Maybe this was just a human intruder but for some reason, his head went to alien. Highly illogical but the brain went to weird places when frightened.
"Location?" the figure asked.
"Excuse me?"
"Location. What is my location? Where am I?"
"Um, you're in my apartment…" Timmy timidly replied though his nerves had calmed down after the figure had put away their weapon.
"No, planetary coordinates."
This had to be some prank.
"Seriously?" Timmy held his hands down and cocked his head to the side.
The figure reached up and grabbed the brim of their helmet and pushed down on a button on the side. Lifting their arms, the figure removed their helmet to reveal the most beautiful creature that Timmy had ever seen.
Assuming that this being was a woman, Timmy noted her porcelain skin and the small patch of light pink that stretched across her cheeks and nose. Her eyes were a bright blue, and her hair was short and a vibrant pink-purple. She had a delicate face and her lips appeared to be soft. She looked nothing like Timmy would have thought. There was no way that someone like her could hold a weapon in front of anyone's face or speak with such a commanding authority. Oh how wrong he was about that.
"I will not ask again," she spoke, "what are my planetary coordinates?"
"Planetary what? I mean, you are on Earth, in the city of Magix if that helps at all."
Timmy could play along.
The woman looked down at the ground and around her before letting out a frustrated huff.
"No no no no," the woman held her helmet down by her hip and began to pace the small living room, "the mission has been compromised."
"What?"
The woman shot her eyes up at Timmy before she dropped her helmet and whipped out her weapon and held it out in front of Timmy yet again. His eyes widened as his hands once again shot up.
"Woah woah woah!" Timmy exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, you cannot know that I have been here. Nobody on Earth can know."
"Please, if you want to rob me you don't have to create such an elaborate ruse, you can just rob me you know. Though I don't have much of value and Helia is a-"
The woman came closer to him, weapon still drawn.
"Please, I was so close to winning Doomsday Battalion IV with my friends and then I was supposed to get the next edition that came out later this month. I'm also a student and I can't die before I graduate and experience life out in the real world. My parents-"
"Have some dignity, human." The woman said as she pressed the weapon close to Timmy's head.
"I have money from a small startup game I made. I can give you that."
"I don't need nor want money. Earth money is worthless anyways. It is no accepted in the Federation."
"I…I…I" Timmy searched for something else to bargain with, "I won't tell anyone that you are here."
"Nobody can know that I have been here, and you seem to talk a lot. You are a liability that needs to be exterminated."
Timmy needed to think quick as he heard something power up inside of the weapon as the barrel sat on his temple. If he didn't think of something fast, he was going to die right here.
"I'll help you fix your ship or whatever it was that you came here in!" Timmy exclaimed as he felt the barrel of the weapon heat up against his head. But soon that heat dissipated and the pressure on his temple faded as the woman pulled back the weapon.
"You will help me fix my shuttle?" the woman asked.
"Anything. Whatever you want, I shall do."
Timmy let out the breath that he had been holding, about to pass out from the sheer relief that flooded his head. The woman had held down the weapon and her face carried an expression of confusion instead of the flat affect that she had when she questioned him and held the weapon to his head.
"Very well," the woman put the weapon back in the holster, "you shall help me fix my shuttle and then I shall leave this place."
"Great."
"And you shall be exterminated as so ordered by The Federation Code Article 7 Section 12."
Timmy's face dropped as he stared at the woman.
"Is there any way that I could not be exterminated?" Timmy asked.
"Negative. Beings on Earth are not to know of our existence."
"But you look so similar to the rest of us," Timmy squinted his eyes and suspiciously trailed his eyes up and down the woman, "or is this not your true form?"
"Do not be ridiculous, we look nothing alike."
Timmy raised an eyebrow above the red frames of his glasses, "Sure…"
"Earthlings are horrid creatures. Primitive, savage, aggressive, and not to mention ugly."
Timmy didn't know if he should take offense, he had never been insulted by an alien before. But he sure didn't like being called primitive, savage, aggressive, or ugly.
"Excuse me?" Timmy crossed his arms over his chest.
The woman ran a finger over the top of the lamp that was on the coffee table and rubbed the dust between her fingers, "Not to mention filthy and over emotional. Your planet is plagued with wars and corruption based on the most trivial matters that could be solved with the simplest upgrade in technology. The Federation never made contact with Earth because the Federation sees Earth as a hopeless rock filled with people who will soon die out because of their own hatred for one another and the planet that they call home."
"And your planet is even better?" Timmy asked, skeptical to what answer the woman might give.
"Of course," the woman replied, "Zenith is a founding planet within the Federation and is a leader in technology."
"Never heard of it."
"Of course you haven't," the woman said, the tone calm and indifferent in her voice, "Earthlings only care about themselves and the planets within its galactic zones."
"Exactly how far away is Zenon?"
"Zenith."
"Yeah…Zenith."
"840,309,851,395 lightyears away."
Timmy's eyes widened, "840 billion what?!"
"840,309,851,395 lightyears away."
"How in the world did you trav-"
"I told you, Zenith is the leader in technology. We developed hyperspeed space travel a few centuries ago while you all here on Earth were still figuring out ancient sewage advancements. Like the flushable toilet. My shuttle must not have been calibrated and I landed here on Earth instead of Eraklyon."
"The toilet is pretty mod…" Timmy huffed, "Whatever, I was supposed to check the electricity situation but now I am too freaked out and too tired, so I am going to bed. There are blankets in the closet by the main entrance, you should know where that is since you broke into my apartment. Make yourself comfortable."
"Tomorrow we start repairs." the woman commanded.
"Yeah, sure."
Timmy waved as he made his way into his room, too tired and worn out to spare a glance back at the woman. She was cold and was set on murdering him. Federation? Zenith? Eraklyon? Hyperspeed travel? He had heard enough nonsense for one night and was quite over it. He just wanted to sleep. He would deal with it all in the morning but as Timmy prepared himself for bed, he just hoped that in the morning he would wake up and it would all just be some giant nightmare.
Except it wasn't a nightmare. This was all real.
Timmy looked at the sleeping woman in the bathtub and aside from wondering why she was in the bathtub sleeping, his head was spinning with the realization that this woman really did threaten to kill him and told him that she was from another planet.
"So, care to explain?" Helia whispered as he pointed to the woman, "How did she get here?"
Timmy groaned as he remembered the blur from the night before, "Fell out of the sky."
Helia scoffed as he closed the curtain to the shower.
"Come on, Timmy," Helia leaned forward, "you don't have to be ashamed. We're friends and we tell each other everything. Did you go out last night with your cohort or something? Get too drunk and you don't remember?"
Oh, Timmy remembered all too well what happened the night before, and nothing that Helia was insinuating happened at all. Not in the slightest.
"Helia," Timmy placed a hand on Helia's shoulder as he looked into his eyes, "nothing happened and I can honestly say, I am not quite sure how she got in here."
"Hmm," Helia placed a finger on his chin, "I should probably talk to the landlord about security then. She looks harmless but one never knows who might sneak in here next."
Harmless? That woman? If only Helia knew about the number of times that she had tried to kill him last night. Still, she did look peaceful sleeping in the bathtub but still, Timmy knew the truth about the cold and ruthless woman in the tub.
Helia left the bathroom to get dressed, skipping his shower to call the landlord about the break-in situation and the power outage. Timmy was left in the bathroom with the woman from the night before. He pulled back the curtain again and she was still there sleeping soundly. He squeezed his eyes shut, "Wake up" he commanded to himself in a whisper and opened his eyes to see the woman still there.
This was real.
Timmy sighed and made a move to close the shower curtain but was stopped when he felt something grab his arm and pull him down into the bathtub.
"What the Hell!" Timmy exclaimed as he rubbed his arm, sure to have a bruise on it from it hitting the edge of the tub as he fell forward. He looked up and saw the woman from the night before, hovering above him, her hands pinning down his shoulders. She relaxed as she saw that it was Timmy beneath her.
"Oh, it's you, Earth man."
"Yeah, it's me." Timmy groaned, "And my name is Timmy, remember? Can you please get off of me?"
The woman rose up but her legs still straddled Timmy and as a result, his face turned a bright red.
"Your face has turned an odd color."
Timmy cleared his throat, "Can you please get all the way off of me."
The woman backed away and sat in the corner of the bathtub. Timmy sat up and adjusted his glasses on his face. Sitting in the corner of the bathtub and no weapon in her hand or on her hip, Timmy noticed that the woman seemed so much smaller and a lot less threatening. But that didn't mean that he trusted her. She said that she had to exterminate him before she left and that certainly did not make him feel at ease.
"You did not tell me that there was another Earthling here," the woman said.
"He doesn't know who or what you are," Timmy spoke quickly, Helia's safety coming to mind. Would she exterminate Helia too? He should have kicked her out last night or something.
"He has seen me."
Timmy sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, "You are not going to harm any of my friends, understand? We will tell them that you are a friend from my cohort."
"Cohort?" the woman tilted her head to the side.
"Group of classmates."
"You are a scholar?" the woman asked.
Timmy looked off to the side as he thought about the question, "Scholar makes me seem a lot smarter than I am. I'm just a student. But I think the question that should be asked is why you are in the bathtub."
"It was the most comfortable."
"Comfortable? How-" Timmy closed his eyes remembering that he was talking to an actual alien who intended to kill him, all logic and rationale had left his life last night. "Fine. Just remember that you are a friend from my classes, you got drunk last night, and snuck in here when I was out checking the electrical box."
"But I didn't."
"Lie." Timmy urged, starting to become more and more frustrated.
"But as a Federation mem-"
"You will tell my friends what I told you because you are not going to exterminate my friends."
The woman looked up at him, "The people of Earth are also liars."
"Sure, add that to the list if you must." Timmy rolled his eyes, "Now let's get out of this bathtub and figure out what we need to get you off of this planet and back where you need to go."
Timmy rose up and stepped out of the tub, the woman following shortly after. He stormed out of the bathroom with the woman following close behind. Making his way to the kitchen, Timmy made a beeline for the coffee maker and began to brew himself a pot of coffee. He was not awake enough to truly deal with any of this.
"Well good morning."
Timmy felt his heart begin to race as he heard Helia's voice. He didn't dare turn around in fear of what might happen if the woman did not tell Helia what he told her to tell him.
"You gave me quite a fright when I went to take my shower this morning." Helia chuckled.
"I am part of Timmy's cohort. I got drunk last night. I came up here when Timmy was checking the electrical box."
Could she sound any more robotic? Did she not know how to sound natural? Then again, was this natural for her home planet? But they had relatively normal conversations, well, as natural a conversation one could have with a being from another planet.
"I see," Helia's voice rose at the end, questioning the woman's statement in his head, "I'm Helia."
Timmy turned his head to see Helia standing in front of the woman, thankfully fully dressed, with his hand outstretched. She stared at his hand, not sure what to do with it.
"My name is Tecna." The woman replied. "My identification number is-"
"Sorry, Helia," Timmy interrupted, "Tecna is still a little out of it, it seems. She's also a germaphobe."
"She slept in a bathroom…"
"Well, it comes and goes."
Helia looked between Tecna and Timmy, "I'm heading out for work, don't get into any trouble. Timmy a word."
Timmy followed Helia into the small living room where Helia leaned in to whisper to Timmy.
"Timmy, I am telling you this again because you are a terrible liar and she is even worse, but you do not need to lie to me about if you brought home a special friend. You know that I support-"
"Helia, if I slept with her, she would have been in my bed! She is just a girl from class. I didn't recognize her since we sit on the opposite sides of the lecture hall so she had to jog my memory. She came over drunk and I let her in. It was late at night and I totally forgot that she was here when I woke up this morning. I gave her blankets to sleep on the couch and she wound up in the bathtub."
Helia shrugged, "She's pretty. Shame things didn't happen in a different way."
Pretty but murderous! There was no way that anything like Helia was talking about was ever going to happen. If only Helia knew that Timmy wanted nothing to do with Tecna.
"Well, I am off," Helia smiled, "have fun."
Timmy had never been more thankful to be alone again with…Tecna? What an odd name. As Helia left for the main door, Timmy made his way back into the kitchen where he grabbed a mug and filled it with coffee. Tecna was still standing in the same spot that he had left her and Timmy's fear of her was starting to turn into concern. She was just so…different. It was kind of endearing but deep down, Timmy knew that she was going to kill him so he was always on alert around her.
"Are you hungry?" Timmy asked.
Tecna turned to look at Timmy, "We must get started on the repairs."
"Only after I get something to eat. I'm going to make some eggs, do you want any?"
Tecna shook her head.
"Suit yourself."
Timmy pulled down a bowl from the cabinet and a fork from the drawer. He set them on the counter before opening the refrigerator and grabbing two eggs. Tecna watched as he turned on the stove and heated a pan, the blue fire flickering in her eyes. Timmy cracked the eggs into the bowl and stirred them before pouring the eggs onto the pan.
Noticing that Tecna was staring, Timmy turned his head back to Tecna as he scrambled the eggs.
"Are you sure that you don't want anything?"
"I told you, I am fine." Tecna replied as she turned her head away from Timmy. "I must get to my shuttle."
Timmy rolled his eyes, "We'll get to it. It's not going anywhere so let me eat and get dressed for the day!"
Tecna looked at Timmy, "Then I shall go out to look myself."
Timmy scooped the eggs onto his plate and placed them on the small island counter that Tecna had been standing beside.
"You are not going outside dressed like that."
Tecna looked down to examine her state of dress.
"What is unsightly about the way that I am dressed? It is the latest fashion in flight suits from Zenith and has been approved for wear by the Federation."
"You are not on Zenith anymore and people on Earth don't wear outfits like that unless they are going to some convention."
"You don't expect me to wear the clothes of Earth people. They are inefficient and ancient."
"Look," Timmy slammed his fork down onto the counter, growing more and more frustrated with the woman from Zenith, "nobody asked you to crash down to Earth. I can obviously see that you don't like being here and after last night when you threatened to kill me and then today with your demandingness, I don't like the fact that you are here either. But I promised to help you and help you I will. But you need to do things my way, the Earth way."
There was a silent pause as Timmy glared at Tecna but he was surprised to see that her expression remained unchanged.
"Negative. As the highest-ranking-"
"I can't deal with this right now." Timmy shoved the plate of eggs away from him and pushed himself away from Tecna, "I'm going to get ready for the day. Just…just do whatever you want."
Timmy walked out of the kitchen and to his bedroom where he slammed the door behind him and fell back onto his bed. He closed his eyes tightly one more time. "Wake up!" He yelled at himself one more time, hoping and praying that this was all some dream. He always found the idea of life beyond the delicate confines of Earth to be fascinating, but he never thought that aliens or whatever this Tecna woman was would be so damn annoying. Were they all like her?
Timmy took in a deep breath before opening his eyes and was met with the same white ceiling that he had been looking at right before he closed his eyes. He was awake and he had to deal with this woman. He rose to sit up on his bed and ran his hand through his auburn hair and then down his face, his glasses becoming skewed as he did so. He readjusted them on his face before mustering some sort of strength to get up and walk towards his dresser.
He pulled out a pair of blue jeans and a dark blue sweater. He stripped from his t-shirt and sweatpants before getting dressed for the day. He took a few more deep breaths as he looked at himself in the mirror, the question of "Why him?" constantly running through his mind. If only he hadn't been so determined to turn on the electricity. He wouldn't have left his apartment, the door would have been locked, and she wouldn't have gotten in. He was a stupid man with terrible luck.
But he was stuck with her, potentially for the rest of his life however long that would be. He couldn't let others face the same fate, he needed to make sure that she did not reveal herself to anyone else. She would become like a child, always needing to be under his supervision and care until the time came to let her go back home. He would try to convince her to let him live but just five minutes with her and he wanted to grab the weapon from her himself and just end it all.
No. She really wasn't that bad. Timmy took one final breath and opened the door to his room before making his way back to the kitchen. When he arrived, he saw Tecna standing by the plate of eggs on the counter, once half-full, now fully eaten. Timmy looked from the plate to Tecna who stood straight up like a soldier.
"Wha-"
"We shall do things the Earth way."