A/N: Here is the updated version of Chapter 2 for you all, with continuity fixes to make the chapter much smoother in the long run. Enjoy!
Wow everyone, thanks for the great feedback so early on in this story! It's great to have a group of followers this early on. I'll be working on the next few chapters and will hopefully get one out every week at most, we'll have to see. Everyone: feel free to review and say you like it or even leave criticism, it helps make the story better in the long run! Well that's it for now, enjoy Ch 2!
End A/N
"What the hell is that thing!?" George, the hospital security guard, screams out as he turns the corner into the treatment room. I'm simply too stunned to answer. While nurses and the guard speculate behind me, I try my best to examine the creature like I would anyone else. The best I could do was tell that it was breathing steadily, and that it had a heartbeat. I decided that it would be best to simply wait until it was awake, and see if there was any chance we could communicate.
As I turned back to talk our situation over with my team, I noticed George a bright shade of red, breathing heavily like he was hyperventilating. "Jesus George you're a security guard, man. Calm down, I don't want you to pass out." He mumbled something as he went to find a chair, leaving me with my team at the door of the alien's room. "I'm at a loss here everybody, what do we do?"
"We need to kill it before it kills us!" Angie suggests.
"You've got to be kidding, right? Why would we kill it? It's either too hurt to do anything or just doesn't care. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I say let's keep an eye on it, see what happens. Anyone disagree?" Some looked down to the floor, not willing to disagree, others shook their heads, ok with what I had offered. "Alright then. If it makes everyone feel better, we'll put it in soft restraints for now, just in case." With a couple satisfied nods from the nurses I turned back to the bed, moving in and setting up the set of cuffs.
As I put the restraints on my newest patient, I took a moment to look it over again. Aside from the 'paint' on its face, its off-white plated skin seemed very smooth, seeming to me like a sign of being younger, or just a characteristic of its kind. I also saw a darker grey 'skin' beneath the plates that surrounded the eye and made the eyelid, and thinner, darker plates on the back of its head. I couldn't help but notice that despite the gloves, its two-fingered hands looked like they could do some serious damage.
Remind me not to get on this thing's bad side… I thought as I tightened the last of the cuffs down. As I was turning to head back to my desk, I heard a slight, two-toned groan coming from the alien, and I whipped around to find it stirring in the bed, those mandible structures fluttering as its eyes opened barely a crack. As what seemed to be grogginess wore off, its eyes widened in shock before it tried to move from the bed, realizing it was held down and panicking. I think it was trying to speak, as I heard some clicking and growling mirrored by a higher pitched, resonant sound in the background. A two-toned voice? I was amazed, and I found my jaw had dropped, quickly snapping myself out of my trance and figuring out a way to go about this. All I managed to do, however, was jump up and leave the bedside as quickly as I could.
I went back to my small desk, giving the cluttered paperwork a shove and rested my elbows on the hardwood, my head in my hands as a headache began creeping its way through my temples. Here I was, the first human to ever come in contact with an honest to god alien, and I was at a loss. I racked my mind for any semblance of an idea, whether to call the White House and make it their problem or keep it here for observation.
I kept at my inner struggle for hours, only getting up to check on my other, human patient, still lying unconscious in another treatment room. Normally if I was stumped on anything, I would ask for advice from people that I knew had the same issue before, but this was completely different. No one on Earth had ever dealt with something of this magnitude before. Somehow, though, despite all the signals warning me of danger, I had a feeling that there was nothing wrong with this creature. Perhaps it was all of the sci-fi games and movies as a kid, working with aliens or watching them in a team with humans made me want to be a part of that environment, saving lives on some ship in deep space, with a wide range of crew besides me.
After just a few more minutes of quiet thought, I knew what I had to do. Screw it I told myself, standing up and straightening out my tailored white coat, most likely just to calm my nerves as I took the first few steps towards the creature's room. Everything around me seemed to slow down. My steps coming to a snail's pace, the sound of the lone heart monitor slowly losing its tempo. I wondered as slow, careful step after step clicked against the tile floor if I made the wrong choice, and if I should turn back before it was too late. I ignored my protests, though, and kept walking, eventually making it to the doorway. The alien saw me standing there, turning its head to stare me down, a raised brow… plate showed more confusion than any intent to hurt me. So, with one last set of steps forward, I went ahead with first contact.
Putting my hands up in front of me, to seem less threatening, I spoke calmly (albeit slightly shakily), "It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm trying to help you." Seeing the creature tilt its head in confusion, but somewhat relax, I could tell I at least helped it realize I'm not going to hurt it. I quickly came up with another idea, with hope it would work. Pointing to myself, I spoke slowly. "Cole" Repeating it again, with even more clarity, "Cooollleee". I pointed at it, raising an eyebrow, hoping it would get my message.
Pointing its thumb as best as it can at itself I hear it 'speak' again, this time more intelligible to me. "Visia. Visia." Well at least I know its name… that's a start. Suddenly, with a flick of its fingers, a bright orange glove appeared over her left arm, with a circular dial that she spun with her fingers.
"What the hell is that? I know you can't understand me but you're scaring the shit out of me!" I started backing away from the bed, trying to escape whatever it had in store for me, but I noticed the alien continue its work, before another short burst of that squawking language. I had it at that point. Count me out. I didn't want to be in the blast radius when that holographic wrist watch did its worst, so for the second time that day I bolted back to my desk, a single bead of sweat from my rush of adrenaline rolling down my forehead.
I almost just got zapped! Gah! I tried taking seep breaths to calm myself down, to no avail as my mind flooded with what-ifs about my failed attempt at talking to the thing. Sure, we exchanged what seemed to be its name with mine, but for all I know that could have been an alien death threat or curse! I'm not normally someone so shy or awkward to new situations, but this was getting to be too much for me.
Another hour ticked by, another internal battle, but yet again I felt one side of me pulling towards the fact that it could have been a fluke, just a harmless alien smartphone for all I know. So, I figured I'd give the thing the benefit of the doubt and try my hand at now second contact.
I walked the long walk yet again, the same instincts telling me not to, and my subconscious pushing me onwards. The second time that day, I found myself at the door of the visitor from the stars, her gaze meeting mine again, before it made another sound. Wait, was that a chuckle? Is it laughing at me? I couldn't shake the feeling that this alien was laughing at me, probably for high tailing it out of its room only an hour ago. The orange 'watch' appeared again, and it went back to work on the dial, and I subconsciously took a step back, but this time with its free hand the alien gestured to the side of the bed, almost an invitation to stand near it. For whatever reason, I understood that it wasn't trying to hurt me, so I walked back up to the bedside, taking off my long white coat before sitting next to it. "Alright, you seem to have gotten me to stay. I just wish I knew that the heck you're up to there."
Its mandibles seemed to simply flutter once at my little monologue, intent on working with the dial, before I went on. "I mean, you can't blame me, man. I was having a slow night, nothing out of the ordinary. I mean, sure I wanted to quit, but don't you think this much excitement's a little bit much? I just don't know what to do, man." I let the days problems flow out to what seemed to me like a captive audience, before it made its noises again.
At first it was simply squawking, but with a few more spins and clicks of that glove it started morphing into something… familiar. And then all of a sudden, clear as day, it spoke. "Well, you can stop calling me 'man', I'm a female you idiot!" she clarified, with a chuckle as her mandibles spread wide. Needless no say, I was shocked. One minute all of this two-toned clicking, the next plain English! I was amazed. All I could do was stare wide-eyed jaw down to the floor as she laughed at my expression. "Yes, I can speak, my Omni-Tool has an adaptive translator. Now come on and get me out of these horrible cuffs, I'd like to be able to move a little!"
"O-ok… um… y-yeah I can d-do that…" I squeaked out as I stepped up and quickly undid her restraints. She quickly grabbed her wrist, massaging it some before sitting up on the edge of the bed, looking over to me.
"I appreciate it. And I'd say that a thank you is in order for you pulling me out of that wreck, by the way. I don't know what happened, one minute my scout ship is fine, and the next I lose power and plummet to this rock." She looked down at her claw-like feet before looking back up at me. "So, what are you exactly? It was my job to find out more about your species anyway, might as well get it straight from the source since my original plan fell apart quite literally… Plus, all we really have on you is a database of your languages we pulled from your network, hence how I could get my translator working so quickly. Not hard by the way, you all should work on your security."
I registered the humor, and a part of me figured that her humor was a lot like my own, but I was just too shocked to do more than give simple answers. Getting back my composure and able to clearly talk, I answered, "Well, we call ourselves… Humans. Details aside… we're mammals… uh… are very culturally and community based… and are somewhat intelligent… but we haven't been able to crack much of space travel yet…" I held a hand up to the back of my neck, rubbing it nervously. I was still cautious of our newcomer. "I think that… well… after the scares you gave me… I should at least be able to ask what you are, too." I reasoned.
"Hmph, I guess you can, Mr. Entitled. I'm a Turian, we're somewhat avian and reptilian, based on a military hierarchy and from a planet with very high radiation levels, hence the plates." She gestured to her face at that. "So, what's your full name, C… Cole?" Damn she was confident, must have been trained for a long time or she was very cocky, maybe both.
"Don't worry you pronounced it right. And it's Cole Hartford. Doctor Hartford, really if we get technical. W-what's yours?" I say somewhat meekly.
"Visia Caltion. Lieutenant, really, if we get technical" She answered, mocking me slightly with one of her wide-mandible grins. "Now something's bugging me, Doctor. What in the name of the spirits is that stuff on your head?"
"What, my hair?" I pointed to it, and after she gave a nod I explained. "Hair is almost like a long string of cells, it helps to keep us warm, but nowadays it's more of a decorative thing. It can be different colors, too. Mine's blonde, or a yellowish color, but it can be any number of colors. What's the deal with the paint? It's interesting and all, but I don't get why you'd need it."
"It's not just paint, it's my clan marking. It's almost like a showing of who my family is, what I'm a part of, my social status. It's very important to Turians." She did one of her smiles, closing her eyes as if looking into a past memory before looking me in the eye, "I don't suppose you'd mind helping me get my supplies from my ship, would you?"
"I-I guess, it's not busy here otherwise. Just be prepared, you might get some odd looks from my coworkers… I think most of them are more scared of you than I am…" I say nervously, still managing to smirk, though, as she hops off the bed, strolling almost casually out the door and into the ER hallway. I notice more than a few sideways glances from my staff before we make it outside the ambulance bay where her ship still rests. "You're just lucky we're in the middle of nowhere, otherwise you might be in the hands of the government or CIA, and by then you'd be more than screwed. Hell… I even thought about handing you over. Shit… don't kill me for saying that please…"
"Well, just don't get on my bad side, and I pretty much guarantee I won't..." She replied, grinning again before turning, intent of scavenging through the remnants of her ship. Taking a few bags from her as she hands them out, she finally pulls out a long, almost oval shape from the wreck before clipping it on the back of her armor. "My rifle, just in case" At the mention of a rifle I take a couple steps backwards. She steps out into the cool night again. "That should be everything I need for now. As much food as I have, spare clothes, other necessities."
"We do have food you know, that wouldn't be a prob…" I started to say before I was harshly cut off.
"Yes, it would, if you don't want me dead I suggest I eat my own food. I'm Dextro-Amino acid based, your food would make me go into anaphylactic shock." She gave me a calm, icy stare, before smiling again, "So I'll be keeping all of this…" She picks up her duffels worth of food and moves back into the hospital, me following a few steps behind, as a precaution. I swear she's almost bipolar I thought.
"Well we have your food figured out for at least a while… but I can't have you staying in the hospital for as long you'll be here. I don't know where else you could really go but give me a day or two to find out if I actually trust you and maybe… maybe you could stay with me. That way you wouldn't get caught until someone comes to get you" I rub my chin thoughtfully, thinking through our situation as she drops her belongings on the bed.
"Oh, I pwomise mister!" Her tone that of a child as she jokes with me again before turning serious, "But, in all honesty, I'd really appreciate the help. And, if it makes you feel better someone's apt to notice I stopped reporting in, so it wouldn't be long before I get picked up anyway." She sits in the other chair in the room, a little bit uncomfortably given her armor, but she makes it work nonetheless.
"Alright then. I'm off shift officially for the night, but I really can't just leave you here alone with unfamiliar people. Plus, the doc coming in after me shouldn't mind you being here. She's more of a Sci-Fi nut than I am." She nods, grabbing her bags again and setting them off to the side of the room. I have her stay in the room, while quickly meeting with my nurses, "If anyone tells someone about this, I swear I will ruin their career. I don't want to do that to you guys, you're basically family, but God help me I will" With that last 'threat', I turn and walk into Visia's room, helping her get her room set up and less cluttered with medical equipment. After some tricky logistics getting all of the different monitors and pumps into a storage room, I take a seat next to the bed while she settles in for some rest.
A/N: Hello again! Hope the rewrite was more up to snuff. Plus, this rewrite helped me tack on nearly 1000 more words, so, nice! R&R and can't wait to hear from you all!