Xidsusa 1

Sobbing, I cradled the strange larva in my arms. "Oh Rebecca! How can I ever forget you?"

"What's going on?" David groaned from the top bunk.

Zadoori sat up, staring at us. "Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, are you all right?"

I stared at the larva. "I...don't know."

David rubbed his eyes, staring at the two of us. When his vision focused, he bolted upright. "Oh my God, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik! Is that your baby?"

The larva was not mine. I could tell that by smell. I should have been relieved, but this only made me more unsettled. "No. It carries the scent...of another."

Zadoori sucked in his breath. "That is not good."

"No. It is not."

The larva whimpered softly into my shell.

I gently stroked her carapace. "Newt, what happened?"

"I...I dunno," she sniffled. "When Ripley put me into cryosleep, I thought I was all right. I mean, she shot the big monster out the airlock(1). I thought we were safe."

I frowned.

Ripley shot Grandmother out an airlock.

Again. (2)

"`Everything's going to be fine, Newt,' Ripley told me. `We're safe. You're just going to sleep for a little while, then we'll be home.' I went to sleep, and, and, and I..." Newt started crying again. "I don't want to be in this body! It's not fair!"

"Newt, what happened?"

"Something broke my sleeping pod. I felt something go into my mouth, but I thought it was part of a dream, so I didn't wake up...But then my chest started hurting really bad and I couldn't breathe. And then, and then my chest blew up."

She whined, sobbing as she pressed herself close. "When I saw the little creature, I said something to it in a foreign language, and it put something in my nose. We had a dream together, and then I was this thing, looking down at my dead body."

I petted her shell consolingly. "You are a Ss'sik'chtokiwij now. This makes me as sad as it makes you, but I'm still happy to see you. You are welcome to stay with me as long as you like."

"Then I will stay with you always."

I swallowed a sob. "What happened to that nice Ripley woman? Did she...die too?"

"I...don't know. When I saw her last, she was frozen, and I couldn't do anything because I was in this little body, and I didn't know how to use the machines. We must have crashed somewhere because the ship was broken all over, and a big pole was sticking through Mr. Hick's chest."

She shuddered. "I saw a hatch, and it was open, so I crawled out. I didn't even think about where I was going, I just wanted to run. I knew I had to get help, but I didn't know where to go. I didn't even know if anyone would listen to me. But then I caught your scent."

Her expression seemed a bit...hopeful now. "Ernie, Ripley's in trouble. You can help her, can't you?"

"I..." I stammered.

"Please, Ernie. I know you're not a doctor, but can't you figure out something?"

I explained the predicament to Zadoori, and he took out his communication device. "I will notify Mara immediately. Where is the wreckage located?"

Alas, this we did not know. I only had the vague recollection of an inexperienced larva to go on.

David jumped out of his bunk, banging on his cell door like any other undeserving felon.

No one came to our aid. People just yelled about him making too much noise.

I melted the lock, shoving the door open.

"Thanks, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik," David said. "I just hope the warden doesn't notice."

People shouted at us regarding our jailbreak, but we ignored it.

Newt ran ahead, leading us out of the prison proper, down a courtyard where the prison laundry still blowed giant clouds of white steam, even late in the pre-dawn hours.

When we passed close to the administration offices, near the main entrance, we bumped into an older man with a Rottweiler that barked at us when we approached. The man's neck was baggy, his forehead wrinkled. "Going on a little late night jog?" he wryly remarked. "Can't say I blame you. I'd leave this prison too, if I were able to."

"Actually, someone's in trouble," Zadoori said. "There's been a crash."

"Oh, we were just about to go check on that. Frank and Rains were going to do a salvage run. You're welcome to come along...you think someone might be alive in there?"

I frowned. "I can only hope."

Two uniformed men stood outside the base, loading tools into rucksacks.

Rains, a man with a round, dimpled face, examined a diagram. "Frank, I think we're going to need Spike. I can't make out a thing on this map."

"Is that from the satellite?" his heavily jowled, wide nosed companion answered.

"Yup."

"I can show it to you," Newt said, but nobody paid her any attention.

"Let me see that, Rains." Frank took the paper from him, then, after staring at it for a minute, yelled, "Murphy!"

The old guy, now wearing goggles, came out with his dog. The animal sniffed around the property, not seeming to go anywhere.

"It's this way!" Newt shouted, scampering down the dusty plain along the cliffs.

Newt led me down a sandy grade, to the closest thing we had to a beach in that place.

The rocks and grit were oily along the shore, choked with seaweed that stared unblinkingly with dead eyes. The land behind this was nothing but dead earth, boulders, and some alien breed of sagebrush.

The three prisoners followed us with their dog, accompanied by Zadoori and David. Nobody but Newt and I really seemed to be in a rush, perhaps because their expectations were low.

After traveling for a quarter mile along this beach, we encountered a square white object the size of a house, half submerged in the water. Something labeled EEV Model 337.

The object had large massive pipes and square protuberances around the exterior, as well as foil encapsulated bubbles, which appeared to serve both as shock absorbers and flotation devices. No windows, for it seemed to be merely an emergency escape vehicle.

The most striking feature of this `EEV' was the gaping ragged hole in its front end, through which we could view its ruined exterior. Spike growled.

Murphy furrowed his brow in puzzlement as he touched the jagged shreds of metal. "Looks like some kind of animal clawed its way out of here, dunnit?"

Newt crawled up on my shoulder, trembling nervously. "She's in the pod at the end. Hurry!"

The EEV contained eight cryogenic pods, plus life preservers, oxygen tanks, and other emergency supplies. The pods were glass cylinders framed by machinery and medical computers.

Only three of the glass capsules remained occupied, four if you counted the oozing, half melted remains of the Bishop unit.

Corporal Hicks had not died in Grandmother's house, as I had previously supposed. Instead, his death appeared to have been caused by a safety support impaling his body. The difference did him no favors. He probably would have died more comfortably the other way. (3)

Beside him, we found Rebecca's human remains. Back arched, fingers poised to claw at the glass, face permanently frozen in an expression of absolute terror.

"I made her feel what I felt," Ss'sik'chtokiwij Newt said. "I don't know how. I just did."

Another Ss'sik'chtokiwij had done this, I thought as I stared at the cracked glass and the acid burns on the sides of the pods. An adult big enough to rip open the hatch.

The scent seemed unfamiliar to me, which troubled me further.

The pod next to the girl contained the Ripley woman, clad only in her underwear like her deceased companions, her skin pale and frost covered.

Rains started pushing buttons at the base of the pod.

Frank, who had found a laminated card with the operating instructions, shouted at him. "You idiot! You could kill her!"

The glass cover was already sliding off, the life support hoses automatically retracting into a cloud of steam.

The two men, with my help, carried the unconscious woman to the prison infirmary.

The hospital turned out to be one of the cleaner, better maintained areas in the prison. Although the equipment looked like it dated from the twentieth century, it all looked hygienic and functional.

Medical monitoring equipment. IV and dialysis devices, MRI, digital X-ray machine. They even had a sonogram, apparently for detecting tumors and gallstones, and elevator beds.

I had spotted the doctor a few times before this, but never up close.

Clemens, a spooky looking man with a skeletal face, a long nose, and enormous bags under his eyes, was arguably one of the best dressed people in the entire prison.

Right away, the man set about defibrillating the patient and treating her for hypothermia. The patient stabilized, and he sat by her side, watching her in a way that hinted at how long he'd been without female companionship.

I observed the patient with worriment.

"So..." David said to me. "Have you thought of a name for your new daughter yet?"

"No. I'm still trying to decide."

"I think you should call her Meatloaf. It would be cute. Or maybe Turducken."

I shook my head. "I'd prefer something a little more...biblical."

He laughed, patting my carapace. "I understand completely."

He and Zadoori, seeing that the patient looked healthy enough, and were still tired from lack of sleep, returned to the cell.

Newt began crying as she stared at Ellen's unconscious form. "I never wanted to come back. I was in heaven. Mommy and daddy were right there! They had food, and a beautiful home. They kept hugging and kissing me. I wanted to stay, but Jesus said no, I had to go back. I told him no, I never wanted to go back, but he said I knew the secrets of the Ss'sik'chtokiwij, and people needed me. That you needed me, and that I was going to need a new body."

She wept some more.

"I'm sorry." I cradled her in my arms, gently rocking her.

"Why do you have all that paint on your body?"

I told her about the children.

She purred in amusement. "It looks nice."

Newt climbed up on the sheets, nuzzling against the woman's neck. "I love you."

Ellen flinched, making a fearful grunt in her sleep.

Newt climbed back on my shell. "I don't know if we should stay here. She might get scared."

"We definitely don't want to startle the patient," Clemens said. "We've only recently stabilized her heart rhythms."

I nodded.

As I neared the door at the far end of the infirmary, I suddenly heard Thonwa shouting, "Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, come quick! Your baby is hatching!"

"Who did you kill?" Newt asked.

"Nobody!" I cried in excitement. "If this works, my larva will be the first Ss'sik'chtokiwij ever to be born without harm to its host!"

"Wow! I hope it works!"

David and Zadoori joined us as we hurried out the prison gates.

By the time we boarded the ship and rushed downstairs, Sarah was already `going into labor.' I admit, not the most accurate description of what took place, but it's a passable metaphor.

"Push, Sarah," Mara urged from between the patient's legs. "It's clawing at the bag."

David, at the moment visibly making an effort to steer clear of his wife and her baby, muttered, "This will be the first time anyone has had a cesarean from the inside out!"

"Your comparison is inaccurate," Mara said. "A breach of this kind would be highly damaging."

"The balloon is hooked up to tubes and stuff outside her womb. Can't you just...grab part of it and yank it out?"

"If done incorrectly, the larva will retreat further into the balloon, tear it open, and cause internal damage."

David swallowed.

"It's okay," Sarah said. "I'm ready to die."

"I'd prefer if you didn't," I said.

"I suppose you're right. The larva's spirit has to go somewhere."

"Push, Sarah!" David cried.

"I know how to do this! I've done it enough times!"

She pushed and puffed, as if really giving birth. Mara, in the meantime, reached into the balloon with a pair of large safety modified barbecue tongs, a smart idea, considering the fact Ss'sik'chtokiwij have tough exoskeletons and don't damage easily.

"Who is that with you, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik?" Sarah said between puffs.

I showed her my friend's new Ss'sik'chtokiwij body. "This is Newt."

"Newt? Isn't she supposed to be human?"

"Not anymore."

"Push!" Mara ordered.

Sarah did what she was told. "You androids are all the same!"

Even at this stage, the larva was strong. Mara's whole body shook like she were reeling in a forty pound trout.

Then, all of a sudden, she stopped struggling.

Generally, an abrupt stop like that isn't a good sign at this stage of a delivery. It often means...

I trembled. "Is she dead? My larva?"

"Our larva," Sarah corrected between grunts.

Mara didn't reply. She just kept moving the tongs around in Sarah's uterus.

I held my breath as I watched. Sarah did the same, but Mara blurted, "Keep pushing and breathing. We're almost there."

I whimpered. "Please tell me she isn't dead."

The synthetic human pulled the larva out.

It was alive, but it seemed curiously...docile. It whimpered like a baby bird, pawing half heartedly at the android's forearms.

"Now Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik!" Sarah urged. "Put me in her body!"

I reached for the larva, but Mara withdrew from me. "I have reviewed your account of what happened on LV 426. Based on the information given, I cannot recommend this course of action."

"We don't even know if it will work."

"I'm tired of you androids telling me what I can and cannot do with my own body!" Sarah shouted. "Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, take that larva from her! It's ours!"

"She is determined to do this thing," I said to the android. "The larva was a product of my body and hers. It belongs to her, to do as she sees fit."

"You forget that this Sarah unit is a clone with patented genetics."

I growled. "Please, Mara. Stop being a robot and start being a mother. What would a mother do for her child in this situation?"

Mara looked saddened. "Sometimes you must do what is best for the child, even if they do not completely agree with your decision."

"So you're saying I can't even hold my own baby?" Sarah cried. "What kind of mother are you?"

The android started crying, which looked utterly unconvincing from a human perspective, but of course was very sincere and heartfelt for a machine. "I'm sorry. I was so concerned about preserving your life and making sure nothing bad happened to you that I didn't consider your emotional need for touch and embrace."

She brought the larva up to Sarah's breast for her to hold. "There. Better?"

The young woman smiled. "Much."

Before anyone could properly react, Sarah held the larva up to her face, shouting, "Show me your hidden tongue!" in my language.

Our larva obeyed, stretching her worms deep into the patient's nostrils.

Sarah's eyes rolled back in her head. The larva fell limp on her breast, whimpering softly.

"How dare you exploit my feelings to manipulate me!" Mara shouted, reaching for the larva.

I blocked her hand. "Don't. The worms are connecting with very sensitive areas of Sarah's brain. If you pull them apart too suddenly, there could be permanent damage."

The robot backed away, allowing the mind link to continue. "I intend to give her a piece of my mind when she awakens from this!"

For a long time, we observed the two unconscious bodies for a long time, watching them twitching and letting out little cries.

At last, our larva shook herself and straightened, retracting her worms from Sarah's nasal passages.

My daughter spoke her first words. "I don't understand. What was supposed to happen?"

"You were supposed to understand the host's thought processes and learn to love her as a parent."

The larva nodded. "Ah."

When Sarah's eyelids fluttered open, she looked down at her body and broke into tears. "It didn't work! All that time on my back in this stupid little room, and I'm still a twenty year old who never lived a normal human life!"

"I don't know how to help you," I said. "I guess trading bodies with my larva just wasn't meant to be."

She stretched out her hand to my friend. "Then give me your body, Newt!"

Newt recoiled in horror. "I don't want your body! I want my old one back! Alive!"

"You selfish bitch!" Sarah screamed.

The young woman had a sobbing fit. "It's not fair! I wanted a new life, just like Maria had!" She frowned at Newt. "And you."

I squeezed Sarah's hand gently with my claw. "You have a new life. With me. With the Intergalactic Missionary League. And this wonderful larva you helped birth."

She wept, drawing our child close to her chest. "She's so beautiful."

"What you did was reckless!" Mara scolded angrily, the outburst coming across like a high school practicing a scene from Macbeth. "I could have lost you forever!"

"You wouldn't have lost anything. I just would have been in a different body."

(4)

"What is my name?" our larva asked.

"Meatloaf," David joked.

I shook my head. "That is a funny name. It is not your real name."

I glanced at Sarah, then at my daughter. "Your name is Julia, in honor of the faithful Corinthian disciple."

"Julie is a nice name," Sarah agreed, petting her shell. "Can I get up now?"

Mara stuck her hands in between Sarah's legs. "Please wait while I remove the equipment." Her flat tone of voice reminded me of recordings I'd heard of telephone answering machines.

After doing something down there for a few minutes, she said, "Operation complete. You are free to stand up and move around, if you wish."

I took Julie, and Sarah climbed off the table.

She took two steps and stumbled. David caught her a moment before she hit the floor. "Whoa there. Careful."

She smiled at him. "I guess I'm a little woozy from laying on my back so long, or something."

"I gave her sedatives. She wouldn't lay still." Mara paused, gesturing to a tank full of gray sludge. "I still have a large quantity of meat slurry left. It is a perfectly edible protein. Would anyone like some?"

Nobody volunteered.

"No thanks," David said. "I'm good."

"You should store the slurry for later," I suggested. "I believe Julie will need to feed eventually."

David led Sarah to a couch. She was still naked. "Where are her clothes?"

Mara brought Sarah the jumpsuit they'd originally found her in, which, by an ironic twist of fate, just so happened to match the same drab distressed looking type of outfit everyone else wore in the prison.

"Perfect," David said as she zipped up. "As soon as you shave, you'll fit right in."

Pillow scowled at him as she shifted her baby in her arms. I could see the anger, the jealousy.

Mara couldn't. "I cannot allow you into that facility. You will remain onboard the Iberet until it is time to depart."

"You're not my mother," Sarah said. "I was raised by Call."

I expected Mara to be upset, but after freezing in thought for a moment, she accepted the statement at face value. "Correct, but I still have a human concern for your well being, especially in light of your substantial value to the DAMBALLAH organization. I require at least one guardian to accompany you at all times during your visit to the prison complex."

"That won't be a problem," David said. "I'll do it."

But who would guard him? I thought.

We made the necessary preparations for our expedition.

"How come it worked for Newt and the other Sarah, but not for me?" Sarah asked as she pulled a Neflah over her newly shaved head.

"I don't know," I said. "Perhaps it only works on children."

Tears rolled down her cheeks. "It's not fair."

"I don't see why you're so eager to trade bodies with an alien crustacean," David said. "Even if your life is half over, and you have no childhood, it's not really an improvement."

He glanced at my larva. "No offense, Meatloaf."

I personally thought the nickname was offensive, but Julia only nodded. "She has an inefficient body."

"You weren't trying!" Sarah shouted. "That's why it didn't work! You didn't try!"

"I may have come out of your body, but I am also a Ss'sik'chtokiwij with thoughts and feelings of my own. I'm not just an object for you to put your spirit inside. Please, let us simply be a family. Up until this point, I have been enjoying the experience."

Sarah picked her up. "Oh Julie...I wish I could just start my life over. I've lived my whole life in a computer."

"I know."

David put a hand on her shoulder. "You have a choice, Sarah. You can be a victim, or a survivor. Right now, you're being a victim."

"Then teach me how to be a survivor."

"Just live. And put the past behind you."

Sarah bowed her head. "Okay. I'll try."

She hugged him. "Thank you."

"It's nothing." He patted her back. "It's old advice. It won't mean anything unless you do it."

At the other end of the room, Pillow angrily rolled her neck in the way I had seen African American females doing in sitcoms. Apparently, theirs wasn't the only culture that expressed emotion in this curious fashion.

Throughout this entire period of time, Big Bird had been performing music in a variety of styles and genres, complete with sung lyrics. I hesitate to share these lyrics because they were either in binary, or referencing things that only amuse machines. Mostly we tried to ignore her. Mara did, however, smile and laugh a few times, so she had an audience.

Abreya music is atonal. There is a science to it, but I don't understand it. Big Bird performed a few songs in this style as well, but Naumona and the others of her kind did not appear to completely sold on the material.

When the children saw Sarah following us to the exit ramp, Oxana asked his mother, "Umma, can I go with them?"

"I wouldn't," David said. "This isn't Femengu. These guys claim to be Christian, but some of the stuff they said to me makes me uneasy. They might do something sexual to you."

Oxana stared at him for a moment. Sharad frowned. "We'll play on the beach."

"Maybe Sarah could play with you, and stay out of trouble."

"You said you'd protect me," Sarah said.

David sighed. "Okay, but I'm not sure you're going to like this."

We saw no one around the main entrance, which I thought very strange, but not too strange, considering the light population. We let ourselves in the building.

Newt climbed up on my shoulders, speaking to my daughter. "I'm glad you didn't hurt Sarah when you came out of her body. Most the time, Ss'sik'chtokiwij come out of people's chests, and it kills them. That's how my dad died."

"You had a dad?" Julia said with a tone of amazement.

I guess a child in a womb doesn't absorb as much information as one would think.

Newt explained who she was and how she became a Ss'sik'chtokiwij.

"So it actually does work."

"I...I don't know."

We continued down the corridor.

"Can we see Ripley?" Newt asked me.

"We don't want to scare her."

She sighed.

"Newt," Sarah said. "If you took my body, you could tell Ripley you were stuck in space for twenty years..."

Newt appeared to consider the idea for a moment. "...No. I can't lie to Ripley. I love her too much."

We peered through the door of the hospital. The woman still lay unconscious, with IV's in her arms.

It was good that we arrived when we did, for the moment we opened the door, we caught a man smelling Ripley's hair.

A man of slight build and coffee brown skin, his jaw and mouth was like a shark's in shape, though the teeth, as pointy as they were, were still human.

"Hey!" David shouted at him.

The stranger clicked his teeth at him, and I could see the teardrop tattoo on the man's cheek, a rather pretentious tribal marking that boasted of successful murder.

When he noticed me baring my teeth and sticking out my suaakudsi, he fled the room.

That's when we discovered a second patient, concealed behind a curtain.

Thonwa had been attacked. When we pulled the curtain back, we saw the cracked and battered exoskeleton, an oxygen tube shoved up her proboscis.

[0000]

(1) Alternate ("Peacekeeper") paragraph, for preserving continuity:

"You saw her shoot the big monster out the airlock."

(2) If the events of Peacekeeper happened, pretend like these three sentences aren't in there.

(3) Alternate: The medical attentions we had given to Corporal Hicks, it seemed, had been for naught. We found his body impaled by a safety support...

(4) Do you think this story would be better if Sarah had traded places with the larva? Why or why not? Note: You can see how that idea plays out in Ellie 074, on this same website.