The Next Thing I Knew (Heavenly) (14 page)

I spoke with Zhrii for a while.  Even with my knowledge of her language, there were a lot of language barriers to overcome.  My name sounded unnatural to her since I spoke it like a human would.  I had to transliterate it into Rrilk intonations before she slowly repeated it back to me.

It took even longer to explain what I was.  The Rrilk had no concept of an afterlife.  They believed that Trrsha, the name for their planet and also the name of the giant sea of green ooze that covered eighty percent of it, took the bodies of the dead and used it to populate the next generation of spawn.  She was extremely surprised to discover we humans had survived the wrath of Shaval.

So Shaval killed us?

Shaval takes without mercy or care.  Shaval kills and sends us to prepare the remains.

What do they want with Earth?

It is to be a place of nature and relaxation.

A nature preserve?

I believe so, yes.

Great.  I'll bet Greenpeace will be happy to hear that.

Zhrrii grew confused. 
Greenpeace?

Never mind.  Who is Shaval?

I do not know.

I sighed.  She wanted to help, but she couldn't.  She was somewhat in awe of me, I think, seeing as how Shaval hadn't killed us and that I'd taken over her body.  But since the closest thing the Rrilk had to a god was their planet, she didn't revere me the way a superstitious freak like Ms. Tate probably would have if she were an alien with tentacles.  I finally gave up on the Q&A and cut to the chase.

Your people must not continue the cleanup of our planet.

We must.  Shaval will come if we do not.

Wait, Shaval himself will put in an appearance?

It has happened before.  The Rrilk did not survive.

You guys were cleaning up another planet, stopped doing it, and Shaval came along and killed those responsible?

Shaval killed all, so it was said.

I felt a pang of fear rush through her. 
If you continue the cleanup, my people will be forced to take action.

Can you defeat Shaval?

I hesitated.  How could I answer that without knowing who or what Shaval was? 
Maybe.

Sadness coursed through Zhrrii. 
I feel for your people.  We abhor violence.  We only wish to live in harmony with Trrsha.  Even if Shaval kills me, I will help you.

Thank you, Zhrrii.  I want to help your people too.  But first we must know the enemy.

What is enemy?

I realized that the word "enemy" had come out in human speech.  I scanned my thoughts and realized the Rrilk had no such word in their vocabulary.  The closest was something that might equate to "adversary" but it meant "honorable competitor".

An enemy is like an adversary that defies the rules and has no love for the children of Trrsha.

That is Shaval.

The longer I communicated with Zhrrii, the more I realized how little humans had in common with her race.  The Rrilk had sports and leisure, but none of it involved violence of any sort.  They had natural adversaries, large non-sentient animals that lurked in the depths of Trrsha which enjoyed snacking on their kind, but Shaval was their only real enemy.  The only thing they hated.  After conversing with Zhrrii, I realized just how strong of a term "hate" was for them.  There was a special place in hell reserved for beings like Shaval, and I intended to send him there.  After explaining hell to Zhrrii, she agreed this was a suitable future place of habitation for Shaval.

Lucy, do you know why the Sst attacked us?

The only reason I was able to quell my immediate reaction to this question was because I'd been expecting it.  I didn't want her to feel my regret.  At the same time, I was afraid I'd lose her support if she knew I was responsible for the death of her mate.

I cannot say.

I felt her consider asking more, but she didn't.

When the other Rrilk started to awaken, I told Zhrrii I would leave her to explain my request to the other Rrilk.  Hopefully they'd enlist voluntarily.  I asked her what she would say and how she would prove her claim in case they didn't believe her story about me.  Hell, if someone tried to convince me that a ghost asked for help defeating an alien, I'd have thought they were crazy.  At least before I died, anyway.

Why would I tell them something that is not?
She asked.

It was then I realized another yawning gap between our species.  They had no real concept of lying.  They wouldn't tell somebody something that wasn't true.  If someone didn't know a fact, they wouldn't hazard a guess.  It ran counter to their nature.  This was why they'd taken so much time for Zhrrii's biomechanic to study the cause of the SSt's behavior.  I hadn't told Zhrrii I was responsible for that.  I'd lied to her.  What kind of screwed up universe is it when you realize your race is full of lying bastards and nightmarish-looking aliens have a better code of ethics?  I know looks aren't everything, but I'd totally misjudged the Rrilk by their scary book covers.

I left Zhrrii to do her work.  She was exhausted from staying up the entire sleep period but told me it was of no concern.  She would do as I asked.

Anil found me moments later.  I could tell from his expression that he knew I'd done something reckless.  I filled him in on my encounter with Zhrrii right down to the last detail.  His eyes widened and his forehead crinkled in concern.  Then a broad grin split his face.  He looked almost proud.

"I have tried initiating contact with my host but haven't been able to," Anil said.

"I can do something you can't?  Amazing."

"You are a bit reckless."

"No I'm not.  I'm, uh, cautiously expedient."

"And you're good at making up BS."  He smiled and clapped me on the shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah.  Let's see how the other Rrilk take her message.  It isn't that they won't believe her, but they may not understand her."

Anil nodded.  "True.  There are vast differences in our cultures."

"Don't get me started."  I was still feeling pretty crappy that members of a noble race like hers might put their lives on the line for us.

Anil contacted the others in our team and we assembled in the holograph room where Zhrrii had assembled her people.  Kyle sidled up to me with a curious look.

"I don't have time to explain everything," I told him.  "But we might have a new ally."

"For serious?"

"Totally," I said and nudged him in the ribs.

Since merging with the Rrilk, our team could understand the Rrilk language without needing to tap into a host.  I guess we'd unconsciously adapted our hearing abilities or something.  I noticed with a shock that one of the girls in our group, Lydia, had two tentacles sprouting from her ribs.

Kyle caught me gawking and grimaced.  "No limits."

"How's she gonna explain that one to her boyfriend?"

"Maybe he's into freaky stuff."

I shuddered.

While we waited on Zhrrii to begin I counted the members of our group.  We had twenty-three.  Harb wasn't among them.

"Why didn't Harb ever join us?"

"He's probably sulking somewhere."

"He's still part of the team, right?"

"He doesn't like Anil.  He said his methods are too slow and he's got his own 'disciples'"

"Disciples?  Are you kidding me?  What's wrong with that kid?"

"He's got a chip on his shoulder big as a mountain.  Life wasn't fair to him, so he figures people should worship him in death."

"How many 'disciples'," I said with air quotes, "does he have?"

"Maybe ten.  And I wasn't calling them 'disciples' to be funny.  That's what he calls them."

Zhrrii started to speak so we hushed and listened.

She got straight to the point.  No flowery speeches, no hyperbole, just a simple explanation that she had spoken with a dead human and they wanted our help.  What took the longest was explaining how humans still existed even after death.  It wasn't that her people didn't believe her, but they had trouble understanding her.  Anil's host, Phiirr, spoke up.

"I think I understand.  I have been visited by strange dreams of this planet and its people for many sleeps now.  Perhaps one of these humans has also interfaced with me."

Other Rrilk spoke up, acknowledging similar experiences.  The ones who had not been possessed still seemed confused, but went along with the explanations.

"These humans will help us defeat Shaval?" Phiirr asked.

"Lucy says they can," Zhrrii said, struggling with my name.  "What do you say?"

"I am frightened," Phiirr said.  "But if Shaval can be stopped from hurting our people, then we must help the humans."

A majority agreed.  The few dissenters consisted of those who hadn't hosted a human and thought perhaps their leaders might need more rest and less pressure.  I could tell they were all scared, but my heart swelled with hope and a little bit of pride.  I, Lucy Morgan, social retard, had somehow bridged the gap between humans and aliens.  Now it was time to kick some ass.  Or wait to have our asses kicked, as the case might be.  For all I knew, Shaval was a giant radioactive robot that might never set foot on the planet.  Hell, if Shaval made billions of humans drop dead, he might not need to even come here.

But why would a giant robot need or want a nature preserve?  Zhrrii said different planets had different plans.  I had dreaded to ask her how many planets she'd help convert but she told me that Earth was the only one so far that had contained sentient life.  The others had no sentient species but were able to support carbon-based life.  Her crew had been responsible for surveying the planets and preserving their natural beauty. 

The Sst and other harvesting bugs were used to organically convert materials into energy.  The Rrilk didn't understand all the mechanics of the energy conversion, but knew the Sst and the centipedes came from some planet Shaval had conquered.  One energy cube could power one of the massive ships they'd arrived in for centuries if need be.

After creating a few thousand energy cubes, the Rrilk would be done with a planet and move on to the next.  They had different directives on Earth.  They were to clean up all debris left by the former dominant species.  Humans.

After the vote had passed, Zhrrii communicated with the thousands of other crew leaders scattered around the globe.  She explained her experience and that she and her crew would help the humans.  The other crew leaders acted a lot like the members of Zhrrii's crew that hadn't been possessed.  They weren't really skeptical of her claim, they simply didn't understand it.

Kyle and I immediately saw this would be a problem.

"What did you tell them about the Sst?" Kyle asked me.

"Nothing.  I killed her mate, Kyle.  She'll hate me if I tell her."

"You have to tell her, Luce.  That will convince the other crews we exist and can hurt them.  Unpleasant as that is, it's reality."

"How will that prove anything?"

"They take everything literally.  If she points to us as the reason, then they'll understand that more incidents like that could happen."

I tapped into Zhrrii as the other crew leaders voted.

Zhrrii, I have to tell you something very unpleasant.  I don't want you to hate me.

Tell me, Lucy.

I'm the one who made the Sst attack.  I'm responsible for the death of your mate. 

A shudder ran through Zhrrii.  She drew in a hard breath.

I'm so sorry, Zhrrii.  I thought your people were responsible for our deaths.

Another shudder ran through Zhrrii.  Her mind pulled away from me, retreated as if down a dark hole for safety.  I tried to speak to her again but she refused to engage me.  I withdrew from her.  My sense of elation crashed and burned.  Misery fell on my shoulders.  With one fell swoop I'd managed to destroy our chances of an alliance.

"That well, huh?" Kyle said.

"I think I ruined our last chance."

"Damn it," Kyle said.  "You know what this means."

"I failed."

"You didn't fail.  Shit, none of us have a clue what we're doing.  At least you had the balls to take over the Sst and do something.  You saved thousands of lives."

The votes from the other Rrilk crews came in.  One other crew voted to help.  By an overwhelming margin, we'd lost the vote.  We were doomed.

Okay, maybe "doomed" was a pretty melodramatic word.  But that's how I felt.  It sucks going from hero to zero within the space of a few seconds.  Zhrrii hated me now and I'd probably lost the support of her crew.  I did find it odd that every other crew but one voted negatively.  What had made the difference with them?

One of the crew leaders spoke up.

"We cannot understand this concept, Zhrrii.  How would this not lead to our painful deaths by Shaval?"

Zhrrii made the Rrilk equivalent of a nod, which is to say she twitched one of her forward tentacles.  I expected her to say nothing.  After what I'd told her she probably held me in the same regard as Shaval.

"I have something to add," she said.  "I was just told by one of the humans that they were responsible for the Sst attack."

Alarm spread through the holographic faces of the other crew leaders.  The same one who'd spoken did so again.

"They are like Shaval?  They wish our deaths?"

"No.  She told me it was not intentional.  She thought we were the ones who killed her kind."

"Never could we," he replied.  Other crew leaders chimed in with their own assent.

"They can make the other Sst malfunction as well?"

"Yes."

"They do have power."  His tentacles twitched as he mulled this fact.  "Is it enough to defeat Shaval?"

"Shaval kills.  Even if humans do not have more power, we should help.  Earth is their Trrsha," Zhrrii said.

"We will vote again," the other crew leader said.

This time the votes returned unanimous.  Tears of relief streamed down my face.  People shouted and high-fived each other.  Anil grinned at me. 

"We did it, Luce," Kyle said as he picked me up and spun me around.  "I can't believe we did it."

I looked across the room.  Bethany was there, hugging Chris and jumping with glee.  Chris was smiling too.  His eyes locked with mine.  He nodded.  I wanted so much to believe that all was forgiven.  That he would leave Bethany, walk across the room to me, and kiss me.  But he didn't.  He turned away after a few seconds and talked to someone else.

Kyle put his arm around my shoulder.  "One battle at a time, kiddo."

I whimpered piteously and looked away from Chris.

"I swear if you don't celebrate with the rest of us I'm gonna kick your ass."

I mustered a weak laugh.  "Guess I'm getting good at feeling sorry for myself."

"Oh you've always been good at that.  I think it's about time you grew out of it."

"You're one to talk, nerd boy."

He laughed and turned to greet Anil as he walked over to us.

"Good job, Lucy," Anil said.  "I've constructed something for you to commemorate the moment."  He pulled a small marble statue from behind his back that depicted me shaking tentacles with a Rrilk.

I took it and laughed.

"That is so cool," Kyle said.  "Man, I wish I could make stuff like that."

"Practice your meditation and you'll be doing it in no time."

I left the two of them and went back to Zhrrii.  She was still talking to the other crew leaders.  They agreed that keeping the work stoppage in place would make Shaval come.  They were deathly afraid of that happening especially since none of them knew what to expect.  I tapped into Zhrrii.

Ask them if any Rrilk has ever seen Shaval.

She hesitated.  I felt her fear and sadness, but no hate seemed to be directed at me.  If anything, I sensed terrible regret and shame.  She asked the other crew leaders my question.  One of them said no living Rrilk claimed to have encountered Shaval.  Those who supposedly had were dead.

The computers on the ships automatically notified Shaval of their progress, or in this case, the lack thereof.  Their communications travelled faster than the speed of light and there were communication relays a few hundred light years away.  Otherwise, the Rrilk had no idea where Shaval was or how long he would take to arrive.  It would be a tortuous wait.

* * * * *

Weeks passed.  I continued to interface with Zhrrii and the others kept practicing as well.  Soon we could all take physical control of our hosts.  The Rrilk didn't object.  They found it fascinating and enlightening.  Those who had no human counterparts asked for their own.  Kyle managed to scrounge up more volunteers after assuring them Anil's method was totally safe.  Several volunteers quit, however, unable to stomach touching the Rrilk even though we told them how kind and gentle they were.  The only ones left were some of the nerdiest people I'd seen.  The kind who dressed up like Star Trek characters or participated in role-playing games as wizards and goblins.

On the other hand, they were unswervingly dedicated.  Soon Zhrrii's entire crew had human counterparts.

But we had other problems.  Zhrrii told me that another crew in India was having severe problems and that it was human related.  Another group was possessing the Rrilk there but they were not communicating as I had.  Instead they would take control of the Rrilk with no warning, flood their minds with terrible images, and make them do humiliating things.  I had a feeling Harb was behind this.  He'd ignored our group and Anil's teachings and stuck to his method of possession.  I had no choice but to talk with him.

I called him, but he ignored me.  I asked Anil to accompany me to India so we could talk sense into Harb.  Anil told me he'd tried to speak with Harb several times when he'd started teaching us, but Harb had responded only with anger and jealousy.

"What should I do?"

Anil shrugged.  "Take Kyle.  Tell him we're all friends, all allies.  Maybe he'll listen to you."

Kyle and I arrived in India a few minutes later.  I wasn't surprised to see that the Rrilk crew in question was camped just outside Dharavi, Harb's former stomping grounds when he'd been alive.  We found him and his group inside the cube.  A Rrilk jerked spasmodically in front of them, dancing to Indian music.  Harb was laughing and clapping his hands.  I felt sick.  Kyle made a disgusted noise.  Other Rrilk gazed at their possessed comrade.  From my time with Zhrrii I could interpret body language from her kind.  These Rrilk were horrified.

"Harb, what are you doing?"

His head snapped left to face me.  His eyes widened then narrowed.  "How did you find me?"

"The Rrilk told us."

"Who?"

I pointed at the clustered Rrilk crew.  "That's what they call themselves.  Don't you speak their language yet?  It only took us a matter of minutes to exchange that info during our first merge."

He sniggered.  "Oh, I very much doubt that.  These creatures are impossible to understand."

"You're hurting them and you seem to be enjoying it."

"What's not to enjoy?  They killed us and now we're having our fun."  Harb's group consisted of six boys no older than himself.  Half were Indian, the others white, Hispanic, and black.  A young Indian girl emerged from the possessed Rrilk, a smile on her face.  The group of children spread out around me and Kyle.  They glared at us, the innocence of their young faces twisted with malice.

"These aliens aren't the ones who killed us.  We've enlisted their help."

"You lie."  Harb's voice was hard.  Just as it had been when he'd accused me of lying to him about Nick.

"No.  We want you to join us.  We've found an easier way to merge with them."

"You steal my work and call it your own.  You're a bunch of thieves."

This was going nowhere.  One of the Indian kids punched Kyle in the back.  Kyle spun and glowered at him.

"You little brat."

I restrained Kyle's fist as he drew it back.  "Not now."  I turned back to Harb.  Somehow I had to convince him to stop this.  "We need you, Harb.  Without you, none of our advances would have been possible.  Your method was the foundation for everything."

His glare softened but only slightly.  "I knew you would remember me, Lucy.  I'd thought Anil had corrupted you."

"Anil is the first to admit that your method gave him ideas.  You probably would have thought of it yourself.  But nobody listens to you."

Harb nodded.  "It's always been like that.  The Indian beggar boy is all they see.  But you've seen more."  He took my hand and stroked it like a boyfriend might.  I barely restrained a cringe.  Even thinking about Harb, a kid, as my lover was skeezy.  No matter what, I wasn't going there.  Not even if it meant leaving Harb out of the group.

"Will you return with us?  Help us prepare to fight the real killer?"

"And who's that?"

"Someone the Rrilk call Shaval."

Harb rubbed his chin.  "I've heard that word in their minds."

"But you don't speak their language?"

He frowned.  "It's been hard with these monsters."

I sure as hell didn't want to get him on a negative train of thought again.  "Will you come with us?"

"I want Anil to come to me.  I want to hear from his own lips the apology I'm due."

That brat wanted an apology?  I was ready to kick his little ass.  But I couldn't provoke him.  Harb could wreck everything if we left him running amuck down here.  He could harm these poor Rrilk and cause us to lose our only ally.  I excused myself and walked outside.  Kyle followed, a grim expression on his face.

"This kid's a loose cannon, Luce.  Damn it, if he wasn't already dead, I'd kill him."

A horrible thought came to mind.  I could have the Rrilk destroy Harb's body.  He would be gone and his band of pre-pubescent disciples would disintegrate.  But if I did, that guilt would torment me forever.  Well, at least until Shaval came and annihilated us all.  I wasn't capable of murder, not even if the victim was technically dead.  And I didn't know where his body was anyway.

"We have to get him onboard.  That's all there is to it."

"Fine.  Tell Anil to come grovel before His Holy Greatness then."

Anil arrived after a short conversation in which I outlined Harb's demands.  He approached Harb and his merry band of rascals and apologized.  Harb's lips pursed and he tried to stare down his nose at Anil.  Hard to do with the height disparity.  I wanted to knock that smug look off his face.

Harb led Anil away from the group and spoke with him for a few minutes then Anil came to us alone.

"I will remain here for a while and teach them.  Harb does not want to come back with us."

"But we need you there," I said.  "Why can't they get instructions at our base?"

"There's no changing his mind and he must use proper technique or the Rrilk here will suffer.  Besides, Zhrrii's crew is well spoken for.  It's best that each person stay with one host rather than sharing one with many.  The side effects could be hazardous for the Rrilk."

That much was true.  I had tried changing to another host and had to start from square one.  Every individual was unique and took time to get used to.

Kyle and I returned to Atlanta.  I merged with Zhrrii and told her about our success with Harb.  She expressed her gratitude.  She didn't feel as distant from me as she had after my confession.  I still felt horrible about the death of her mate.  I was responsible.  He'd died having never been to Trrshaa.  My reckless actions had saved the spirits of dead humans from vanishing but at the cost of several Rrilk in her crew.  I wondered if they were now ghosts like us or if their beliefs about death changed their fates.

A klaxon sounded.

What's happening?
I asked.

Incoming communication.

I don't remember that alarm the last time one came in.

The origin is from off world.

Shaval?

Shaval.
  Her body trembled.

I released myself from her and told the others.  We along with the rest of the Rrilk crew clustered inside the holograph room.  A Rrilk symbol for "standby" flashed in the air above the console.  The communications engineer notified Zhrrii that the signal was being broadcast to every Rrilk cube on the planet.

Rrilk numerals replaced the flashing symbol and counted down to zero.  I half expected the ship to explode.  Shaval was a badass, no doubt, so he might just as soon lure the crews into their ships and detonate them for punishment.  Instead, another Rrilk symbol appeared.  This one said "Transmitting".

"Worker Zhrrii, your Sst suffered malfunction approximately one standard cycle ago," a somewhat robotic voice said in the Rrilk language.  "The computer reported the loss of four crewmembers, including former crew leader, Worker Dhrii.  You are now crew leader.  Explain why work has not recommenced."  The transmit symbol changed to one that said "respond".

Zhrrii's tentacles quivered.  Trying to come up with a cover story had been difficult since the Rrilk seemed incapable of lying.  Instead, we'd come up with a version of the truth they could tell.  Something that would hopefully lure Shaval in without him remotely killing them.

"The Sst suffered a malfunction which could happen again.  We cannot resume operations without risk to crews.  We ask for your help."