Chapter 4
Authors note: Very short chapter this time, I've been quite busy for a while, what with bleeding SAT's coming up. Lots of revision, etc., which is why I haven't updated for so long. The bit about money, don't know where that came from. Don't even understand it myself! Enjoy!
The time that Einstein was experimented on went quickly, as he was very short tempered, and the times that he was playing a very enjoyable game he had challenged the Sergeant at when he had seen the Scientists experimenting on him playing it in their spare time, became much more. He talked while he and the Sergeant played the games, but being behind the glass (couldn't be too careful), he couldn't move very well, as the Sergeant moved the pieces to his instructions, and the Alien translator (aptly named by the Captain) was full of static, Alien hissing and wrongly translated words, even at the best of times. Einstein worked on this when the Sergeant and the Scientists slept, which was not often, as the station ran on a 28 hour day. He improved upon it, sometimes frying himself, and sometimes it was dangerous to try and attempt to experiment on him when he had the device in his hand, as he had cut the power off at least twice. The Scientists learned quickly, and seldom
disturbed him when he was working, but prepared experiments around the room for later. He eventually put down his latest achievement in the box, and was willing to be start the experiments.
The experiments themselves were slightly taxing for a human, but Einstein was an Alien (Author: hee, hee). He went about them with a will, but this wasn't hard as they were usually brain wave patterns, which involved him concentrating hard on pictures and producing different brain waves. It seemed that Aliens were happiest when eating, sleeping and working, and their colour for happy was red, contrasting to blue for humans. This made perfect sense, being that most Alien food had red blood, and the survival of the species depended on rejuvenated Aliens. There were some bendings of the original scheme set down by the Captain, but Einstein was happy to comply when the Sergeant was in the room. The one time that he had urgent business to attend to, which was to go to his cousins funeral, the Alien was frustrated and angry, and one of the technicians learnt not to stick an electrode on a pissed-off Alien, even with nearly an inch thickness of steel-reinforced glass between them.
He was led out the room without an arm, after another technician was brought in to clear up the glass and blood left behind. Einstein had swished his tail back and forth the whole time, licking his lips, Wallis heard later.
The technicians were easy to come by, so this caused little problems for the operation. For some bizarre reason, the Government wanted the Alien to become a school subject, with the pre-college graduates feeding it and conducting minor experiments, such as using the Alien translator, or monitoring EMP in the subjects brain. It appeared the Aliens were slightly telepathic, which explained their escapes when they were separated. The students, however, were about as keen as going to their lesson as being flushed out into space, as the Alien scared them deeply, grinning at them every time they tried to come near it. It put them off, and many pretended to be sick to miss lessons. Eventually, the Government realised that the students had deep etched fears, so dropped the program.
After the students left, there was much more leisure time available. Eventually, Einstein was trusted enough to be let out of his cage during the night, and, with the barrier of communication broken, he started beating the Sergeant at every game of chess.
It was during one of these games that the infantry of a platoon was changed forever. Einstein was beating Alex 17 games in a row, while eating his dinner - raw pig - and sticking his claws into a spare translator once in a while. Watching Einstein eat always made the Sergeant nauseous, but living in the same room as him made it pretty hard to avoid meals. He was made more nauseous by their conversation.
"So, Alex," they had gotten onto first name basis, "why are you called Sergeant, even though you are clearly a scientist?"
"Well, Albert, I used to be a soldier before I realised that Science was the career for me. I tried other jobs, but they were really only money making ones."
Einstein had heard of money, and had seen some of the technicians exchanging coins, so thought it was now time to ask about it. So he did.
"What's money? I don't understand it." Wallis laughed.
"Of course not! Hardly any humans understand it. I'll try, though. It's our currency, what we use instead of food."
"You eat money?"
"No, it's like - Okay, hypothetical situation here. Say you had an, umm, something like a rat. Not very tasty, huh? Oily and greasy. Say you met an Alien who liked rat, but hated pig. Now, you like pig, so you trade the rat for the pig. You enjoy your pig, he enjoys the rat. Now, you like the pig so much, that you get 4 rats for him to get 2 pigs, as it is very dangerous and hard to find pigs."
"It is?" Einstein had never really been a real Alien, which was lucky really, as if he had, he would have probably killed everyone by now. His idea of hunting was placing the plate in the corner and pouncing.
"Yes, it is, outside anyway. So anyway, you `pay' him the rats for the pig. But instead of rats, we use coins. That's how we get our food, see?"
Einstein nodded, then shook his head. "Nope, understood Nada." Wallis sighed, and just said, "It's complicated,". Einstein usually took this for "I don't know".
"Okay, next question," he asked, as he swiped Wallis' king off of the board. He licked his fingers, then motioned for Wallis to move. He did so, chuckling. "You've been waiting all day for this Q+A?"
"Yes," Einstein said, knowing from the experiments that Q+A stood for Question and Answer. Einstein moved, checking his King. Wallis chuckled.
"Well, then what is your question?" he said, moving a bishop in front of the King.
"How do you join the army?" he asked, as he `ate' the bishop with a rook. It took to the end of the game to explain how to join the Marine Corps, and by the end of it, Einstein's mind was made up.
"I have decided," he announced, checkmating Wallis' King and standing on his hind legs, looking more intimidating, "I want to join the Marines."
Authors note: Very short chapter this time, I've been quite busy for a while, what with bleeding SAT's coming up. Lots of revision, etc., which is why I haven't updated for so long. The bit about money, don't know where that came from. Don't even understand it myself! Enjoy!
The time that Einstein was experimented on went quickly, as he was very short tempered, and the times that he was playing a very enjoyable game he had challenged the Sergeant at when he had seen the Scientists experimenting on him playing it in their spare time, became much more. He talked while he and the Sergeant played the games, but being behind the glass (couldn't be too careful), he couldn't move very well, as the Sergeant moved the pieces to his instructions, and the Alien translator (aptly named by the Captain) was full of static, Alien hissing and wrongly translated words, even at the best of times. Einstein worked on this when the Sergeant and the Scientists slept, which was not often, as the station ran on a 28 hour day. He improved upon it, sometimes frying himself, and sometimes it was dangerous to try and attempt to experiment on him when he had the device in his hand, as he had cut the power off at least twice. The Scientists learned quickly, and seldom
disturbed him when he was working, but prepared experiments around the room for later. He eventually put down his latest achievement in the box, and was willing to be start the experiments.
The experiments themselves were slightly taxing for a human, but Einstein was an Alien (Author: hee, hee). He went about them with a will, but this wasn't hard as they were usually brain wave patterns, which involved him concentrating hard on pictures and producing different brain waves. It seemed that Aliens were happiest when eating, sleeping and working, and their colour for happy was red, contrasting to blue for humans. This made perfect sense, being that most Alien food had red blood, and the survival of the species depended on rejuvenated Aliens. There were some bendings of the original scheme set down by the Captain, but Einstein was happy to comply when the Sergeant was in the room. The one time that he had urgent business to attend to, which was to go to his cousins funeral, the Alien was frustrated and angry, and one of the technicians learnt not to stick an electrode on a pissed-off Alien, even with nearly an inch thickness of steel-reinforced glass between them.
He was led out the room without an arm, after another technician was brought in to clear up the glass and blood left behind. Einstein had swished his tail back and forth the whole time, licking his lips, Wallis heard later.
The technicians were easy to come by, so this caused little problems for the operation. For some bizarre reason, the Government wanted the Alien to become a school subject, with the pre-college graduates feeding it and conducting minor experiments, such as using the Alien translator, or monitoring EMP in the subjects brain. It appeared the Aliens were slightly telepathic, which explained their escapes when they were separated. The students, however, were about as keen as going to their lesson as being flushed out into space, as the Alien scared them deeply, grinning at them every time they tried to come near it. It put them off, and many pretended to be sick to miss lessons. Eventually, the Government realised that the students had deep etched fears, so dropped the program.
After the students left, there was much more leisure time available. Eventually, Einstein was trusted enough to be let out of his cage during the night, and, with the barrier of communication broken, he started beating the Sergeant at every game of chess.
It was during one of these games that the infantry of a platoon was changed forever. Einstein was beating Alex 17 games in a row, while eating his dinner - raw pig - and sticking his claws into a spare translator once in a while. Watching Einstein eat always made the Sergeant nauseous, but living in the same room as him made it pretty hard to avoid meals. He was made more nauseous by their conversation.
"So, Alex," they had gotten onto first name basis, "why are you called Sergeant, even though you are clearly a scientist?"
"Well, Albert, I used to be a soldier before I realised that Science was the career for me. I tried other jobs, but they were really only money making ones."
Einstein had heard of money, and had seen some of the technicians exchanging coins, so thought it was now time to ask about it. So he did.
"What's money? I don't understand it." Wallis laughed.
"Of course not! Hardly any humans understand it. I'll try, though. It's our currency, what we use instead of food."
"You eat money?"
"No, it's like - Okay, hypothetical situation here. Say you had an, umm, something like a rat. Not very tasty, huh? Oily and greasy. Say you met an Alien who liked rat, but hated pig. Now, you like pig, so you trade the rat for the pig. You enjoy your pig, he enjoys the rat. Now, you like the pig so much, that you get 4 rats for him to get 2 pigs, as it is very dangerous and hard to find pigs."
"It is?" Einstein had never really been a real Alien, which was lucky really, as if he had, he would have probably killed everyone by now. His idea of hunting was placing the plate in the corner and pouncing.
"Yes, it is, outside anyway. So anyway, you `pay' him the rats for the pig. But instead of rats, we use coins. That's how we get our food, see?"
Einstein nodded, then shook his head. "Nope, understood Nada." Wallis sighed, and just said, "It's complicated,". Einstein usually took this for "I don't know".
"Okay, next question," he asked, as he swiped Wallis' king off of the board. He licked his fingers, then motioned for Wallis to move. He did so, chuckling. "You've been waiting all day for this Q+A?"
"Yes," Einstein said, knowing from the experiments that Q+A stood for Question and Answer. Einstein moved, checking his King. Wallis chuckled.
"Well, then what is your question?" he said, moving a bishop in front of the King.
"How do you join the army?" he asked, as he `ate' the bishop with a rook. It took to the end of the game to explain how to join the Marine Corps, and by the end of it, Einstein's mind was made up.
"I have decided," he announced, checkmating Wallis' King and standing on his hind legs, looking more intimidating, "I want to join the Marines."