Oh my...

So, the Summer passed, without me updating this story..

My sincerest apologies for neglecting this story for so long! It has just been very very hectic in my life and then my cat chewed my laptop's charger cord and it took some time to find a replacement for it...But I'm hoping that things will start to ease up a little, well my cat will continue to be a crazy demon but everything else might just ease up...

I do hope you're all still with me here... This story is still in its' early stages and even if I've not been able to update, I've had time to plan the storyline and everything! If only I'd have the superpower to write super fast or even somehow download this stuff out of my brain...

Anyway, so, this next chapter, I've literally been writing it for a couple of months...doing the usual routine, writing, editing, writing some more, and then starting all over again... But in the end, I was able to finish it and I do hope you'll all like it!

And to Styx83: it was revealed in the earlier chapters that Throttle is already with Carbine but do not worry I don't hold it against you for not remembering that. It has taken me so long to always update I'm amazed anyone can remember anything at all, me included...

But now, let's continue with the show or story... Initially, I wanted to put two or three parts together here to this chapter but...since it would've taken another week or so with my crazy-ass schedule and I wanted to give you guys something to read here...It's only this one scene, one long scene...

Thank you EVERYBODY!

Please enjoy and comment if you please!

-SpaceFlora

The Story of Rebellion and Hope

10.

Evelyn rubbed her palms together anxiously. As she was standing next to the crew's kitchen table, she could feel a single sweat drop slowly sliding down her neck and continuing its' way down her spine. She tried to steady her breathing but it had been a challenge to do this whole breathing in and out activity normally ever since she had found out that their mission had suddenly and very unexpectantly turned from a science mission to a survival game and that had been the second they all had learned that this planet they used to think was pretty much dead was actually very much alive. And even if she was hoping that the two aliens they had encountered would remain as the only living beings on this planet...She knew that it would not be the case, life did not work that way, she knew that much although she had started to question everything she had ever learned in her time spent in the Universities. This all felt like a dream, or a nightmare to be exact but she had been pinching herself so much her arms were slightly bruised to prove that unfortunately, it was all real.

The tall blonde biologist swallowed and closed her eyes for a second, blowing air out quietly through her mouth, feeling her heart racing in her chest as she opened her eyes again. But all things considered, she was very proud of herself at the moment, for the fact that she still stayed collected and hadn't lost her mind. Because this all was very head-spinning. And maybe more than just head-spinning, this all was actually quite nauseating in a weird way, like everything around her had twisted into unrecognizable blubber. But she still stayed calm, at least from the outer perspective...Inside she felt her brain becoming mushy, like liquid... her mind didn't really work at the moment and she couldn't make any sensible thoughts. But nonetheless, she stayed relatively calm. All that time spent in the Space Acadamy preparing for all things unexpected clearly had not gone to waste here. And this truly was something none of them had been expecting. To tell the truth, they all had been hoping to find life. But their hopes had been to find life at the molecular level and even that had been a distant dream. They most certainly had not expected to find life in the size of a fully grown human...

Eve took a deep breath again as her eyes were scanning what was now there in front of her eyes, on their kitchen table. In lack of a better examining table suitable for test subjects this size they had tied the other alien, the ginger-furred one, on their kitchen table, and it now lied there on its' back. The other one, the white-furred one, had been left to lie on the tent floor, also tied up. The aliens were still in a non-responsive state, for which Eve thanked all the gods known to her human species, but even if not moving, the creatures were still very much alive as they were visibly still breathing in and out. Evelyn had always been fighting for human rights and rallied against the death penalty but right now... She actually might have preferred if these weird creatures would be dead instead of alive. Funny, how your core values could change when finding oneself in the predicament. Her eyes darted briefly on the other alien, the one lying there on the floor a little further away from them all and she scrunched her nose a bit in bewilderment as she thought she could actually hear the creature snore inside the helmet. Whatever happened to her normal life?

They still hadn't removed the aliens' helmets... They had thought that they needed still to process the sole idea of life being out there. Everyone had already enough on their minds without the whole helmet issue. And maybe they all were a little frightened at the moment for what they would find behind that visor, underneath the hard protective headgear.

Evelyn's breath hitched as her head was getting crammed with all these thoughts and she only vaguely noticed that she had been rubbing more and more hand sanitizing gel to her hands, and now this little kitchen nook smelled like alcohol because of it. It hazily brought her wild party days to her mind. Unfortunately, this was not an innocent game of truth or dare. This was not her kissing a stranger on the lips... This was her preparing herself to do... Yeah, what the hell was she supposed to be doing here?

She let her eyes wander on the ginger-furred alien's fully clothed body. When she had started with her biology studies and when graduating with top grades and continuing to the doctoral level it had never ever occurred to her that one day she'll be in this situation. When she'd have the opportunity to be the first human ever to study an alien life form. And not just any alien life form, this wasn't a small molecule-sized bacteria or a fossilized plant...this was a huge furry thing that looked so scaringly human that just by looking at it, and if not concentrating on the tail now lying limply by the alien's side or the short fur that covered all the unclothed parts of the alien's body...one just might mistake it for one of them, one of the humans. And that was wild.

She could feel all the eyes on her back as the other crew members were standing so close behind her that she could feel their breathing against the sensitive skin on her neck. Apparently, they all were waiting for her to do her move, to do her job as a scientist, as a skilled biologist. Frankly, their confidence in her ability to work or even function right now was endearing and humbling. She applied even more hand sanitizer to her palms while trying to concentrate all her working brain cells to start from somewhere, to do anything at all. She would need to do something here... Anything. Maybe even touch the creature... She raised her trembling hands, trying to bring them closer to the still unidentified lifeform but just as she was to touch the alien she felt her heart bounce to her throat and she closed her eyes and turned around so quickly the others didn't see it coming and she nearly knocked them all over.

"I can't do this!"

All the others shared looks, filled with concern, confusion, and cluelessness. Evelyn changed her look to Noah who was the only one who didn't seem dumbfounded, his eyes concentrated on the alien currently occupying their kitchen table. He was looking like pondering something, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. How could this man always seem so zen? All Eve wanted to do was scream her lungs out, the only thing preventing her to do so was her dignity which was still working for some reason.

"Noah? I can't do this..." Evelyn then started again, her voice quieter and pleading but her inner fire wasn't far gone as she suddenly threw her arms in the air, not giving their Captain a chance to say anything in-between.

"I mean I don't even know what it is I am supposed to do here!"

Noah still didn't answer and that only left room for others to step in and Lucas was willing to share his thoughts.

"Just do your biology magic, Eve!" the shorter curly-haired man said as he was at the moment being patched up by the crew doctor who was sanitizing Lucas' head wound which fortunately had looked far worse than it actually was.

Even if Lucas had had a hint of an attempt to cheer up his fellow crew member it only made Evelyn narrow her eyes as she gave the geologist a glance.

"My biology magic?" She repeated.

"Yeah, you know... You have been cutting up toads and mice..." Lucas mumbled, clearly a little offended that his good intention to cheer up his colleague had not turned into a success.

"Yeah! Toads and mice! Not god damn humanoids! Not extraterrestrial beings!" Eve lashed out.

Zack the pilot cleared his throat as he was silently tapping the barrel of his handgun against his chin, thoughtfully. He and Noah still had their guns, loaded and ready in case the sleeping alien beauties should decide to wake up from whatever coma state they were in at the moment. They wanted to be prepared. Not only they had found out there was life in the Universe, but this life was also carrying deathly weapons and lots of them.

"Maybe...We should try to remove their helmets?" He suggested.

"NO!" Sophia shouted sitting on a stool as she didn't trust her legs to stop shaking any time soon.

"Hey, maybe they have like three eyes!" Isaac, the tall longhaired physicist suggested, suddenly getting a little excited and his near-clone Dylan nodded his head getting enthusiastic also.

"Yeah, or slime coming from their mouths!"

"Jesus Christ! Stop it! I don't care if they'd end up being Care Bears! Can't we just throw them out?!" Sophia raised her exasperated voice and turned to Noah who had been listening to all this, his arms crossed over his chest, still quiet.

"Why on Earth we brought them inside, Noah?!"

Now, as everyone turned their looks towards their Captain, the man let out a sigh, ready to open his mouth.

"Because, believe it or not, it might've been the safest thing to do."

Sophia snorted but her shoulders slumped and she covered her face and began to sob behind her palms, all this being too much. If there was a thing that would be the definition of "too much", this was it. As the first cries filled the room Isaac and Dylan immediately looked ashamed of their earlier rising enthusiasm and they hurried to console this older woman who always gave the two a rough time but they've come to see her as a sort of a mother figure. And anyway, nerds stuck together.

Eve clearly saw this sudden emotional crash as a sign that Sophia had ended her turn to share her opinions on the matter and she changed the subject back to her own dilemma.

"Noah, this is not my field of expertise...It's so human-like... Jeremiah's the doctor here, he should do this! He should take over..." Eve pointed at Jeremiah who was currently rolling gauze around Lucas' head and Noah turned his attention on the doctor as well.

"Doc?"

"Not my expertise either...I'm a human doctor."

"Well, I study animals and plants! This creature wears clothes! I don't study beings that wear combat boots and bandoliers!" Eve raised her voice and gave a look at the alien lying there on the table.

"And this one's still alive and breathing, I'm not cutting up living things, so...I don't know what it is that you want me to do here...Give them a blanket and a comfy pillow?"

"Yeah, that's actually my worry... Why are they still alive...?" Sophia suddenly entered the conversation again, her voice shaky and thick from sobbing. She met everyones' eyes and she shook her head in great disbelief.

"Why didn't we just...kill them? I mean...Aren't you afraid they'll wake up...? What if they will wake up?!" She looked everyone like not believing they had just dragged two aliens into their tent and if that wasn't enough, these two aliens were still breathing and maybe it was just a question of time when they would wake up and Sophia was quite positive that she didn't want to be here when that happened. And after everyone else heard this teary testimony they also started to question this whole "bring the living aliens inside" plan.

Noah saw everyone turning their questioning eyes on him again and he studied each one of his crew members, to give him enough time to actually go through the plan again, and he was quite sure he had had a plan but even he had now started to see all the problems that might come with the said plan. Nonetheless, he was still sure that this had been the best choice of all the bad choices they had faced. But he still wanted his crew to work as a team. He didn't want to come across as a Captain who just barked orders. Everyone had a vote...

"You would rather have them...dead?" He then asked everyone but when looking at Sophia the forty-year-old physicist only looked away shaking her head again, not comprehending any of this while sitting on a stool, her whole body shaking with fear and adrenaline. Too bad they weren't allowed to have alcohol in this mission, this matter really would have needed something strong...

"Well, I might be with Sophia here..." Zack the pilot then answered after a little pondering.

"I don't see a reason to keep them alive...We all saw how much they were packing, the number of guns and ammo and explosives they carried...They're dangerous. Noone carries that much firepower without the intention to kill. And they already attacked Lucas..."

"Yeah, they sneaked up on me...!" Lucas muttered pressing the part on his head where the wound was now securely underneath the gauze.

"...who knows what could have happened to Lucas if Noah hadn't been there to taze them..." Zack continued.

"But if they're only tazed...Why aren't they waking up...?" Isaac wondered still having his arms around Sophia and caringly stroking her back.

"Maybe they're reacting on electricity differently..." Jeremiah offered a possible answer to that mystery.

Eve sighed and looked at the other alien, the white one still lying there on the floor tied up with a rope. From where Eve was standing, it seemed that if standing up the alien was as tall as Noah but still lacking a couple of inches to reach the heights of Dylan and Isaac, and Eve was giving a silent prayer that that was the biggest aliens grew on this red planet. While thinking, as clearly her brain slowly started to work again, she suddenly realized something.

"I'm sorry but... Somebody needs to say this... If this planet is filled with other beings just like these, all armed to the teeth... We really don't stand a chance here... We need to send an emergency message to HQ, asap!"

"Charley's on it. She has been doing that ever since we came back in again..." Noah answered and they all looked to the other side of the tent where Charley was sitting on her bed and having a bigger version of a laptop perched on her knees while furiously typing something.

"Anything? You got the connection working, Charley?" Noah raised his voice but the female engineer only shook her head while scratching her scalp underneath her big auburn bun hanging loosely on the back of her head.

"No... But the planets are just starting to align so that the connection can be a little unpredictable from now on as the distance will be greater and Sun is coming there in the way..."

"Great." Sophia sniveled as this comment made her shoulders slump even more. She clearly had abandoned, if not all, then close to all hope.

Zack shook his head, and unlike Sophia's quivering figure, his current expression and habitus showed that the primordial instinct to survive had started to rise inside of him and the shock and fear were no longer to be read on his face, only determination.

"An emergency call won't do anything. If this planet is full of hostile gun-carrying aliens then the emergency call won't do a thing, it won't help us. We need to have a strategy against these beings, a strategy for the possible attack!" Zack turned to Noah who was still, even all things considered, calm but of course, he had served in the Army and had been fighting in a couple of Wars, far-away from home, just like Zack had. They had been in stressful and life-threatening situations before, they knew how to handle their emotions and stress levels maybe better than an Average Joe would. And even if this clearly wasn't anything they've ever experienced either, the humans were a very adaptive species.

"And we will make a plan. We still try to contact the HQ, though. And from my perspective us having these two aliens here now can actually be a useful thing...And maybe having them alive could be even more useful." Noah turned to Zack.

"How?" Zack and Charley asked together as Charley had carried the heavy laptop to the part of the tent that was populated with the other crew members as well as their tent's now very small portion of alien life. She had to walk over the white furry creature still lying motionlessly on the floor and she was carefully examining it while she hopped over, not wanting it to wake up and grab her leg or … something. She felt chills go down her spine while watching this big alien with a toned body underneath all that fur that was white in color but was covered with dust, making it look dirty. And she didn't say it out loud, but the alien smelled, it had a funny odor that made a weird tingling sensation inside her nose. It was weird but she couldn't really say was the smell bad or not. It was just very different. Yes, there were some bad "fragrances" in the whole mix, probably because the alien looked like it had not seen a shower in ages, or cleaned himself with whatever technic the aliens used on this dry, basically water-free planet, but weirdly enough the ginger-furred one didn't really smell that much as she walked closer to the kitchen/examination table and the strong smell coming from the white alien stayed a little behind.

Noah didn't answer the "how would the living aliens turn useful?" question. He wasn't ready to share all his ideas and thoughts that had popped into his head while pondering all the different scenarios, maybe also because he wasn't sure if his ideas were any good still... Time would maybe tell. And anyway, there were still too many other questions unanswered here. And that's all they had right now, questions and not a single answer. Well, if not taking into account the question "Is there life out there?" to which, the answer was "Yup." But as for the other questions, he really started to want to have some answers, some data, some facts. He turned to Eve again.

"If you would base Earth biology onto the creature right now... What would you say you'd have there in front of you."

"Well, I would need to do studies, take blood samples, look for the DNA..." Eve sighed, still not being able to touch the alien or do anything to it, not even to pull off one single strand of hair.

"Yes, but just by looking at it. Just play that it's a species from Earth. Let's start from somewhere. Science is stating conclusions, hypotheses, facts that can change and be modified as the knowledge on things gets deeper and better...There's always a starting point, the first hypothesis...Tell us your first impression, based on your knowledge of biology. What do we have here?"

Eve let out a sigh and first, she felt ridiculous to use Earth science on these creatures that mocked their knowledge of science in the first place. But then she got the gist of it what Noah was trying to do here. In order to gain knowledge, to learn things, they needed to start from somewhere, there needed to be the first hypothesis, no matter if it ended up being wrong in the future.

"Well..." Eve started as she turned to the ginger furred alien again and studied it with her look and now, after still a bit of hesitation, she carefully touched the alien's arm, like being afraid it would break, or worse, wake up the alien. But the creature stayed still, only its' stomach was rising and lowering with its' breath.

"Since we do have two samples here, we can compare them...and based on...biology on Earth... as this one's seemingly smaller in-built compared to the white one... As this one is shorter...and lacking in muscle mass...I would say that...what we do have here are actually a female and a male..." Eve then stopped talking and quickly darted her eyes on Noah, like being suddenly scared that what she had said didn't make any sense but Noah only nodded.

"Good. Let's start from there. We might have a male and a female here..."

Eve cleared her throat and turned to the alien again but before she could continue the tall blonde Isaac raised his voice.

"...yeah, and it's a female based on the fact that it got boobs!"

Eve closed her eyes in irritation. Yes, she like everyone else in present had seen that the ginger-furred alien had breasts and while lying there on the table, its' two firm but not too big breasts were threatening to spring up from the moderately giving neckline of its' camouflage top.

"Yes. This one seems to have...breasts that may indicate the females here do in fact nurse and lactate...That could indicate that they are mammals, although even on Earth we have monotremes such as platypus that nurses but still lay eggs..."

Eve took a deep breath and continued to study the alien.

"So, there just might be a chance that these are mammals..." She then after a little hesitation took the alien's hand to her's and study it, feeling its' warmth radiating against her skin. She blinked a few times, being a little overwhelmed a few seconds before she cleared her throat and continued.

"Their body temperature is higher than ours..." She absent-mindedly continued while moving gently the aliens' lean fingers until stopping at the thumb and she slid her finger on its' fine fur and carefully rolled the thumb around in its' place before placing the hand back on the table. She suddenly felt like a headache was creeping in and she pressed the bridge of her nose.

"The Universe surely is fucking with us right now..."

"What?" Everyone got closer like wanting in on the secret.

"They have opposable thumbs!" Eve raised her voice turning to her crewmates.

"These creatures whatever the fuck they are, seem to be closer to us than the god damn chimpanzee! If there's a God then he's surely having a good fucking laugh right now!" Eve raised her voice.

"It's a miracle." Noah stated in a low voice.

"It's more than a miracle, it's a fucking absurd joke, that's what it is..." Eve shook her head, muttering.

Charley had been listening to all this and while the connection was still dead and she thought it would be dead a while longer she placed the machine on the side table and stepped closer to the alien and the others. Her steps were cautious like being careful not to make noise and wake up these creatures but she cleared her throat.

"So...Should we maybe...take off the helmets now?"

"No!" Sophia restated her previous answer to that question.

"C'mon, Soph! Ain't you at least a bit curious to find out what's underneath that helmet?" Dylan asked carefully as he himself like everyone else were curious to find that out but not really sure whether that would be a good idea...One can say a lot about humans but they sure were curious ones. And sometimes the curiosity might turn to their downfall even..."Curiosity killed the cat" and all that...

"No! I don't wanna know what's under the helmet, to be honest!" Sophia answered

"Do you think it'll be...you know...safe to take off the helmets?" Charley then rethought her own suggestion.

"I think it's a bit too late to think about safety after you already dragged two living aliens into our tent..." Sophia muttered.

"No...I mean...safe for them?" Charley's voice was silent since it didn't feel quite right to say it aloud. Their space crew's safety was the main priority of course, at this point it felt weird to even mention or have a concern over the aliens' wellbeing. The auburn-haired engineer felt the silent tension around her and she jumped to clarify what she meant.

"It just occurred to me that maybe they can't even breathe oxygen? The air out there has like no oxygen at all..."

"You mean, taking the helmets could kill them?" Eve wondered her eyes glued on the alien on the kitchen table.

"Who cares if they die?!" Sophia raised her voice and the high-pitched outburst rang in everyone's ears.

"Well..." Noah had his strong arms still crossed over his chest, looking at the ginger-furred alien before turning his attention on the white one.

"We could try to take the helmet off...We can try with this one and, well... We would still have the other one..." Noah talked in a cryptic way but it dawned on all what was his point here.

"You mean it's okay if the other one croaks since we've got aliens to spare at the moment?" Eve raised her eyebrow, suddenly her old values popping back in again. Okay, maybe she didn't want them to wake up but... just to kill them intentionally...it didn't sound right for her.

Noah shrugged his shoulders and gave the others a look, wanting others to voice their opinions as well.

"That's a bit cold-hearted, bro..." Isaac pondered.

"Yeah, dude, not cool..." Dylan shook his head, agreeing with his clone.

Noah gave the others a look.

"So, we all agree then that we want them alive?" His look traveled from Zack who was with absent-minded gestures checking the gun's safety, before he turned his look on the others, stopping on Sophia who only shook her head and turned it away.

"Okay, let's have a vote." Noah then suddenly said, clapping his hands and making everyone jump.

"All in favor of removing the helmet?" He asked and quietly and a bit cautiously some hands started to be raised. Charley, Zack, Eve, and the metal twins raised their hands. Noah gave Lucas and Jeremiah a look and the shorter curly-headed Lucas shrugged his shoulders and raised his hand and so did their doctor. All eyes turned to Sophia who just stared at them at the moment.

"Soph?" Noah asked carefully and almost gently. Sophia let her look run around the room, in every fellow scientist before it landed on the alien currently sprawling on the table. She let out a sigh.

"Fine. Take off their helmets. What's the worst that could happen? They wake up and kill us?" Sophia muttered and everyone changed wary looks again. Damn, she made a lot of good points today...

"Zack, let's keep the guns ready...Just in case..." Noah's voice got more silent by the end of the sentence, he didn't want to scare the others but of course, it was good to be prepared, for everything. He then nodded at Eve who nodded back and turned back to the ginger-furred alien and with so careful and slow motion, it felt to take forever, her hands approached the alien's helmet. She could see their reflection via the dark visor. Just when she was to place her hands on both sides of the slightly weirdly shaped helmet, she swallowed and she could swear she heard the others do the same behind her.

After taking a deep breath she finally felt the cold and hard surface of the helmet against the skin of her palms and she gathered all the determination she could to press her palms against the helmet to be able to grab it and pull it off. And when she was doing just that, the helmet started to slide off and after just a couple of seconds, the helmet was off and the alien's head dropped from the helmet against the table with a small thud and Eve was quite sure she had never experienced such a deep silence that followed the revelation of the alien's head.

The alien had big round ears, a snout, and two big buck teeth. It had its' long ginger-colored hair tied into a bun and from that bun protruded two red appendages which indicated that they were in fact attached to its' skull, or growing out of its' skull to be more precise. It still had two eyes instead of three, though, and those were still closed.

It took a few minutes but Charley was the first to come out of her bewilderment and she cleared her throat and swallowed but her throat felt very dry and it turned her voice into a silent squeak.

"So...It's ...a rodent?"

Lucas raised his brow and he took a deep inhale but then turned to the tall blonde woman who was currently in some kind of a stupor, blinking her eyes and staring at the creature.

"Well, what d'ya know, Eve...This is in your field of expertise, anyway...Because that sure does look like a damn mouse to me!"

The tent remained silent after that remark again but if they would not have been so amazed or baffled or horrified or shocked at the moment...They might have heard that the snoring coming from the white-furred alien's direction, had suddenly stopped...

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Phew!

Thanks for reading and until next time! I can promise there will be more alien action in the next one!

Feel free to review and thanks again!

-SpaceFlora