Prompt: You’re on a space ship with a bunch of your crewmates. You’re the only human, and apparently metaphors are a strictly human behavior. You’ve learned to cope with this, but today you’ve decided to speak in only figures of speech as a prank on the others.
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“How’s it hanging, Moe?”
The 7-foot tall, thin dark-skinned man from Klorn stepped out of his quarters and looked over at me. “Hello Sarah. How’s what hanging?”
I laughed and continued down the corridor, coffee mug in hand. This was going to be fun.
“Did you make coffee?” Moe said.
“You bet your britches I did!” I gulped down the last mouthful of the bitter but comforting beverage. The coffee they stock on spaceships is never very good, but it’s still a necessity.
I stepped into the kitchen, placing my “Aliens Shmaliens” mug in the sink. Moe followed behind me and walked up to the coffee machine, filling his earthenware mug. I sat down on a stool by a table nearby.
“Sometimes I just cannot understand you humans,” Moe said, shaking his head, brow furrowed.
“Why the long face?” I asked, smirking.
“Long face?” He frowned and rubbed his chin. “Are you calling me names now?”
“Ah, I’m just joshing you.” I waved my hand to indicate he should forget what I said. “Nevermind.”
After he gave me a puzzled look, Moe shook his head and turned to leave the kitchen. “It’s too early for this.” As he passed into the corridor, Orma turned to enter the kitchen and they nearly collided. Moe stumbled out of the way.
“Oops, sorry Moe!” Orma said. The gills on her neck fluttered open and closed in embarrassment. Moe shook his head again and left the room. Orma looked over at me. “Hi Sarah! Did you have a restful sleep?”
“I slept like a log!” I grinned.
“Like… a log? A log of wood? But wood does not sleep,” she said, cocking her head at me. “I suppose if you are smiling then it was a good sleep.” She went to the refrigerator and reached for the green juice she was always drinking. A ripple of pleasure went through her tentacle-hair after taking a sip directly from the jar. “Ah, that tastes good. I slept well. Are you ready for the mining mission? We are nearly at the moon called Thermyn. It could be dangerous. But that is the fun part.”
“Yep! I’m an eager beaver,” I lied, giving her my best grin.
“What is a beaver? You speak in strange riddles today.” She took another sip of juice. “It will be the first mission with us where you are not on the ship, we will both be scouts today. Are you not nervous?”
My stomach turned at the reminder. “I’m… well, I’ve got butterflies in my stomach for sure.”
“Butterflies? Those beautiful bugs from Earth? Why would you eat those? They are so pretty. And probably not very filling.”
“Not… literally.”
“Oh.” Orma nodded. “Good, I like butterflies.” She took another long drink from her juice, then put the cap back on and put the jar back in the refrigerator. “It is almost time to suit up. Do not forget to eat something, it will help with nerves.”
“Thanks,” I said. I really didn’t feel like eating anything. “See you in a jiffy.”
“In a what?”
“In a flash,” I smiled.
Orma laughed and looked at me like I was crazy. She waved and left the kitchen in the direction of her quarters.
—
Sooner than I would have liked, I heard the captain’s voice on the ship’s intercom. “We’re now approaching Thermyn! All hands on deck!”
My heart started racing at the thought of leaving the ship’s airlock. It would be the first time I stepped on an unknown planet, or moon, or really anything that wasn’t a training area. I was in my quarters and had been reading the mission briefing on my tablet over and over. I finally put it down. No need for my tablet in space.
I made my way to the meeting area on the main deck of the ship, where we usually met before starting a mission. Quite a few people had arrived already. I took a deep breath and stepped into the room.
“Sarah. Good.” Captain Yannik nodded at me.
My heart pounded at being called out in a room full of people, but no one seemed to notice. The captain scanned the room. His large, round eyes were attached to short antennae that stuck straight up from his forehead, which meant that he didn’t have to move his head to look at the whole room, he just moved his antennae. Usually it was unnerving to me, but anything to distract me from my nerves was welcome.
“I think we have everyone. As you read in the briefing, this should be a simple in-and-out mission. Our scans have detected precious metals on this moon that we desperately need, and our sensors have not picked up anything hostile. We need to scout the surface and extract some of the metals we need, to determine if this can become a mining outpost. Orma and Sarah, you’ll be our scouts. Moe and Syd, you’ll set up our small mining rig to extract the sample metals. Everyone else will stay on the ship, monitoring their progress and providing help where possible. Understood?”
A variety of movements and sounds of agreement filled the room.
“All right, let’s do it!” he said. The crew started filtering out of the room and I turned to follow, but Yannik said, “Sarah, a moment of your time?”
My heart started racing again, but I nodded and approached him. Did I forget something already? Orma spotted us and walked over as well, standing a respectful few paces away.
“This will be your first mission as a scout. Do you feel ready?”
“Fit as a fiddle! Let’s get this show on the road, sir.” I tried to smile, but in my current state I knew it was not convincing.
“You… do know what a scout does, yes? This is not a music performance.” The captain’s head tilted in a gesture that felt similar to narrowing his eyebrows, if he had any.
“Oh, certainly, sir,” I said.
Orma stepped closer to us from where she was standing and said, “If I may interrupt, please excuse Sarah. She is speaking in riddles today. I think it is her way of coping with her nerves.”
I felt my face grow hot immediately. I had no idea what to say in the face of such blunt truth. Part of me hated her for calling me out, but I knew it was just her personality.
Captain Yannik chuckled. “I see! Nerves are completely normal. It’s the actions you take that count. You’ve got great combat expertise, you just need to get used to space! You’ll do great.”
A wave of relief washed over me, a ton of bricks tumbled off my back. I took a deep breath and let it out. I had no idea how much tension I had been holding. I felt a gripping in my throat as if tears were just around the corner, and I fought off the feeling to avoid further embarrassment. “Thank you,” was all I could say.
Orma put her arm around my shoulder. “Let’s go, Sarah! Grab your gun and armor and it’s time to explore. This is my favorite part of the job.”
I nodded, a new flood of butterflies filling my stomach. As we walked out of earshot of the captain, I turned to Orma and said, “Thanks. I guess I needed to hear that. What was your first scouting mission like? Were you scared?”
“Oh absolutely. I hid in my quarters until someone came to get me. In comparison you are handling this very well.” She grinned. I grinned back.
We made our way to the lockers, geared up in our space-ready armor, and picked up our laser guns. I looked out the airlock. The planet outside was purple, mountainous, and full of strange plants.
This was it. Orma reached for the airlock controls and then looked at me. “Are you and your butterflies ready?”
I smiled. The butterflies hadn’t left my stomach, but I supposed they weren’t going to. I’d have to make peace with them. “Ready as I’ll ever be!” I said, finally feeling like I wasn’t trying to hide anything.
Orma cycled the airlock and we stepped into the unknown.