Hunter, Prey
By Sapphire
Disclaimer in part 1
Chapter 4 – Making ContactHunter had been to many different worlds and lived in over a dozen hosts of different races. Most of his blendings had been temporary arrangements, for one special assignment or another. He was what the inhabitants of Earth would probably call a special agent, somebody who worked on various projects in government funded law enforcement. If a project required him to join with another being that was fine with him, if not, that was okay, too.
He spent the first couple on days in the human body learning about all the specifics of this race. Though similar to several species he had inhabited before, there were always some differences one had to deal with. He also had to make sure to evade the human's immune system, without overwhelming said system. Though he was perfectly capable of performing all functions of an immune system, working probably way better than it would have normally as he was more aware of what he was doing, he had to think ahead to the time when he left the human's body. If he took too much control now, there would be long-term consequences later.
During that time, he also established connections to the 'outside' world. He connected with the human's eyes and optic nerve, which gave him sight, and with the inner ear, for sound. He sent feelers along most of the nervous system and even established a link with the taste and smelling centre.
Even though Hunter rued every day he spent learning the language, he knew that his prey was in no better position. He also had to learn first before he could do something. He actually believed he had here some advantage, as he had had contact with more races than his prey, and thus he should be able to adapt faster than him.
So, using the eyes and the ears of the host, he started to collect data.
He had been somewhat surprised when he had found out that the human – John – had left the planet on the second day, to move into a space station. From what little he had detected during his approach to the planet, he had assumed that habitation in space was still extremely rare with only a few hundred people out of several billions spending any prolonged time in orbit. But not only did John obviously plan to spend some time in the space station, he handled it as if it was just a normal occurrence to him.
The space station was also surprisingly sophisticated, with a primitive but functional artificial gravity system and an extremely complex communication setup.
John's job seemed to be to monitor all kinds of communication all over the planet. Automatic filters sorted the incoming data, though for the first couple of days hunter wasn't sure what John were looking for. The huge amount of data worked in his advantage however, as it gave him plenty of material to learn from. He had been confused at first when he had realized that there was more than one language spoken, but soon one language had risen as the predominant one and so he had concentrated on learning 'English'.
Then, about a week after they had arrived on Thunderbird 5, as the space station was named, Hunter decided he had learned enough of the human's language to communicate with his host. It was time to make contact with John.
oooooo
John stepped out of the shower, towelling his hair. During the last refit of Thunderbird 5 two months ago, they had finally installed a real shower on board, and John thought this was a great improvement. Of course, he knew that the water was recycled multiple times. It was a necessity in a place as limited on resources as up here. Thunderbird 3 could only bring so much up on a trip, and water was one consumable that could be used many times over if one just took good care of it. John just tried not to dwell too deeply on where the water had been before he used it for his shower.
He was looking forward to his breakfast. This morning he had decided to push himself on the treadmill, wanting to see what time he was really capable of. He couldn't believe it when he had finished his five miles and saw that he had run them in less than twenty minutes. That was only one minute higher than the current world record. If he hadn't checked out the gravity platings himself the other day, he would have suspected that the station's gravity was too low, but every test he had run had proven that he had exactly one G, nothing more and nothing less.
He felt good. On his last stay on the island he actually had managed to gain a couple of pounds for a change. Grandma was always after him to eat more, that he was too thin, but usually no matter how much he stuffed himself – and with Grandma's cooking stuffing oneself was easy – nothing stuck.
He got himself a cup of coffee and dove into the freezer in the search for something edible. If he remembered correctly, there should still be a couple of Grandma's delicious cinnamon rolls. Three minutes in the microwave and breakfast would be ready for him.
He popped the gooey treats into the oven, set the timer and waited for the rolls to defrost.
As he was waiting, he was looking at a blank space of wall. Suddenly a word appeared in his field of vision.
JOHN
What?
He blinked, but the word was still there. He looked to the left and right, but his name seemed to follow the movement of his eyes.
DO NOT BE AFRAID
His name had disappeared to be replaced with the next text.
"What the heck …?"
I WANT TO TALK TO YOU
"Who …? What …?"
John spun around.
"Where are you?"
I AM INSIDE
"Inside where?"
INSIDE YOU
He put his hands up to his chest, patting himself down. "What is this?"
YOU CANNOT SEE ME
John began to breathe hard.
"Who are you?"
I AM HUNTER
"Hunter? Is that a name or a profession?"
I AM HUNTER
The text had disappeared for a moment, only to reappear again with the same words. John was confused.
What the heck was this? Where did this text come from? How was this done?
Suddenly, he had an idea.
"Gordon, if this is one of your tricks …"
NO TRICK
Gordon was the resident trickster in the family. Plastic spiders in shoes, birthday presents that exploded, prank calls. If there was a joke to be played, Gordon was the one to do it. He must have somehow managed to bring a projector on the station and some kind of two-way communication system.
Only, Gordon hadn't been on the station for over half a year. And if there were a projector, John would know about it. Nothing got onto Thunderbird 5 without his knowledge.
I SAVED YOUR LIFE IN THE WATER
What?
I WENT INSIDE OF YOU
Once again John looked down on himself. What was this? Was he possessed by a ghost?
"You are inside of me?"
YES
"What are you?"
There was a momentary delay before the next message appeared
I AM FROM ANOTHER PLANET
A short while ago, John and Alan had watched a series of old movies. In those movies, an alien queen had laid her eggs inside the bodies of some people. When the eggs were ready to hatch, the aliens had broken out of the chest cavity of their victims, killing them. Very bloody and gory – naturally Alan had loved it.
Once again he patted himself down. No abnormal bulges so far.
"You're an alien?"
YES
"What do you want?"
I NEED YOUR HELP
I need your help. If the alien knew it or not, he had just said – or rather somehow projected – the magic words. John and his brothers lived to help those who needed them. They didn't make a difference if the person who needed their help was rich or poor; if he was a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or Atheist; if he was white, black, red or yellow. So, why should they make a difference if he was invisible or had tentacles instead of arms?
On the other hand, he or International Rescue wouldn't just run off on some crazy, alien rescue mission just because John saw some words on the wall after a hard workout in the morning.
"What kind of help?" he asked carefully.
ONE OF MY KIND IS ON YOUR PLANET
HE WILL HARM OTHERS
"And you aren't harming me?"
NO
The two letters popped up so fast, that John got the impression that the being inside of him was somehow insulted. As if to push the point further, more words showed up.
I WILL NOT HARM YOU
"So, what are you doing inside of me?"
If he really had an alien being inside of him – something John wasn't one hundred percent convinced of yet, but he tried to keep an open mind – it was a valid question.
I SAVED YOUR LIFE IN THE WATER, the alien repeated the sentence he had written earlier.
"The explosion?" John ventured. He had to admit that he had wondered how he had come out of the whole escapade relatively unscathed. He had put it down to Gordon imagining the situation worse than it actually had been. But what if …
THE SHIP EXPLODED
IT BELONGED TO THE OTHER
YOU GOT HURT
I WENT INSIDE OF YOU TO SAVE YOU
So, it had been a space ship after all. But it had been so small. On the other hand, if the alien was small enough to reside inside a human body, he couldn't be very big.
Now John's curiosity was piqued.
"Where are you from? What star?"
John's one passion besides International Rescue was astronomy. He could spend hours in the small astrodome of Thunderbirds 5, watching the stars, trying to see further and further into the universe. This was one of the reasons why he didn't mind spending so much time away from home. Here, way above the atmosphere of Earth, the stars were clearer than anyplace else. He had even written several books on the topic, which were all well received among the astronomic community.
He had loved the stars longer than he could remember. Some of his fondest childhood memories were those of camping trips with the whole family, where he and his father spent half the night stargazing together and his dad had thought him the constellations.
I DO NOT KNOW YOUR NAME FOR IT
MAYBE LATER I CAN SHOW YOU
Right. As interested as John was, there were more important things right now.
"Okay, let's assume for the moment I believe that you are an alien and that you are inside of me. How can I trust you?"
I SAVED YOUR LIFE IN THE WATER
"Yes. Yes. Yes. We've been there before. If it's true, then thank you. But what are you still doing inside of me? Why did you not leave?"
I NEED YOUR HELP
John had the impression that the alien had only a limit vocabulary.
He sighed. "How can I help you?"
I NEED A HOST
I WILL NOT HARM YOU
"Whoa! What do you mean with 'host'? Are you eating me from inside, or what?" The image from that blasted science fiction movie popped up once again in John's mind.
I HEAL YOU
I PROTECT YOU
YOU PROTECT ME
WE GAIN BOTH
John stopped and thought. What the alien was describing was a symbiosis. Two different beings living together, both gaining from the other, nobody gets harmed. There were a million examples of this in nature.
He suddenly remembered the time he had run this morning on the treadmill. Normally, after a full out run for five miles like this, he shouldn't be able to stand up, really, let alone move as if it had been nothing.
"You make me stronger? Faster?"
I PROTECT YOU FROM YOURSELF
Hmmm, the normal consequences of a work out like the one this morning would be muscle cramps at the least. If the alien was able to stop them that would in turn mean he would be able to push his body further than normal and to hell with the consequences.
And there was another thought. He had gained almost four pounds while he was on the island. What if those four pounds were not, as he had thought, the result of Grandma's good cooking, but because he had unwittingly picked up a hitchhiker? What if he had originally been injured more severely in that explosion and the alien had indeed saved his life?
It all made sense, in a crazy, twisted kind of way.
John plopped back down on the single chair in the kitchen, stunned.
He had an alien living inside of him.
And that alien was talking to him.
And he wanted his help.
The alarm on the microwave went off with a ping, but John couldn't move. He had something else to digest first.
Tbc
So, John and Hunter are now talking. Good thing. But the other alien is somewhere down on Earth, pretty much out of reach for them. And before they can do anything, a rescue comes up (doesn't it always?).
Next chapter: Rescue in China