Getting lost (Amoura)

Amoura had been down to the Supply Centre to get a reallocation of clothing – she had had nothing that fit her left in her room for when she awoke because, it seemed, no matter how evolved human intelligence was, it was completely unable to formulate an equation that could get everyone’s full growth right. Unless, of course, at nearly twenty years old she was going to grow another four inches. For the present, though, she had been given a basic wardrobe, some fabric, needles and thread, and a blessing to make whatever she wanted out of them as long as they weren’t extravagant or unnecessary. That done, she was now dressed in clothes that fit that were almost completely covered by a white lab coat. She had not really anticipated needing to wear one, but apparently it was a staple of anyone that worked in the Science Wing – even if they were only research.

After a couple of meetings with people who seemed to have discovered a little about where they actually were, Amoura felt ready to start researching who and what could be cohabiting with them. Armed with a clipboard, some very thin files, and a determination to solve at least one of the conundrums that had occurred to her in the first few moments after she had woken, Amoura headed to The Collection. She wasn’t really sure what to expect – Earth had long since stopped using paper to record things; it was bulky and easy to misplace or destroy, but there were still a number of leading volumes on intergalactic species that had been specially formulated into paper books just in case the system should ever crash. How many, she wasn’t entirely sure, but she certainly hadn’t been expecting what she came face to face with as the door swished open ahead of her. There were hundreds of thousands of the things, and Amoura had the immediate urge to just grab one off a shelf and start reading, but she had to be logical about this. The first order of business was to find out how much was on the computer system about this planet.

Heading for the bank of glowing lights, Amoura didn’t register a tipped over chair, or the creature below it. As such, she and all the work she had so far collected went flying. Landing with a thud, Amoura immediately sat up to discover what it was she had fallen over THIS time. Papers forgotten, Amoura had to blink and pinch herself to make sure she was seeing what her eyes told her she was. It was barely three hours since she had woken up, and already it seemed she was faced with a native of the planet that she still didn’t know the name of. Crawling forward slightly, she pushed the chair off the creature, unable to stop staring at it. Sense deserted her for a moment, and she spoke to him in English. ”I’m sorry. Are… Are you OK?” She had no reason to believe that he wasn’t meant to be there – for all she knew, there had been several reconnaissance missions and he was the product of one. Perhaps he was there for testing, or as a hostage, or an ambassador. Although what he could do as an ambassador when she was the first of the Linguistics Department to wake, she didn’t know.

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notes:
outfit: click here

Intellectually, Amoura had been prepared for the meeting of new species. Well, she had been in deep space since before she was a year old, so her only real contact had been with humans, dogs, and cats, so in essence many species were new to her, but these were ALIENS. The word had always entered her mind in CAPITALS – it was important, new, exciting! Of the many species she had been trained (in her cubicle using some sort of software plugged into her brain) to recognise, the vulpine features brought to mind no less than thirty. Although it was narrowed down from the thousands that it could have been, it was also equally possible that this creature was one that she hadn’t been briefed for – a completely new species! How exciting would that be?! Already grinning at the possibility, Amoura forgot that she was even meant to be injured.

As her mind caught up with her mouth, she slapped her forehead with her hand. Of course he wouldn’t be able to speak English. They were supposed to be the first humans on the planet, weren’t they? That was what one of the researchers had told her anyway – no signs of any other Earth colonies from their drones or searches so far. That brought back the question, though – what DID he speak? Just as she started cycling through the possible languages to try out on him, he spoke. For a second, Amoura thought he had spoken in one of the languages in which she was so well-versed, but then it clicked. He had spoken in the language that was native to her, he had spoken in English! Her mouth dropped open, and she just stared at the hand he offered to help her up.

”You…. You speak English?” She asked, barely managing to find her voice. Belatedly, she grabbed his hand (paw??) and pulled herself up from the undignified heap she had been in. ”Um, yeah, I’m… I’m fine. Apparently, I do that a lot.” She gestured at where they had just been laid. She was getting to find, more quickly than she would have liked, that she was no less clumsy in space than she was on Earth. She looked up at the considerably taller being. ”Kai? I’m Amoura. Friend sounds good.” She smiled, cocking her head to one side, considering him carefully. She was sure she had seen a picture of his species before, but she didn’t want to embarrass herself by being wrong. Slowly, she asked him a question. ”Why are you here?”

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notes:
outfit: click here

She was completely stumped. How was it possible that Kai could speak a language that had allegedly never been spoken in this area of the galaxy? Unless, of course, there WERE other colonies…. There was nothing else for it – Amoura needed to keep Kai with her until she could figure out which language it was he spoke so she could extract whatever information she could from him. As soon as she thought it, though, she felt bad. He seemed like a nice… guy? She shouldn’t be planning on using him as soon as she met him! She would just have to figure out another way to get that information without being horrible to the first sentient species she came across.

Amoura laughed as Kai explained, in very few words, what he had been doing. ”Hiding?” She asked, confused. That wasn’t conducive to her theory that he was onboard for a reason known to the crew. For the moment, though, she wasn’t worried. He didn’t seem to be harmful or dangerous, and he was certainly friendly. Now all she had to do was pray that he wasn’t a spy for whatever species were out there, or that if he was, that all it was was curiosity about the interlopers, and nothing any more aggressive. ”Under a chair isn’t a great hiding place.” She laughed, pointing at the chair just in case he didn’t understand all of what she said.

The rest of his comment shed a tiny bit of light on his origins, but one word wasn’t much to help her on her way. She deduced, judging by the context of the word, that the foreign word was equivalent to the English word ‘much’. Quickly running through as many of the languages as she could, nothing seemed to match. That was entirely possible, though, as the language course she had had cycled through her mind during the journey only included those ever encountered by the humans of Earth eighteen years ago. ”That word…” She repeated it as closely as she could to what she remembered. ”In my language… It’s ‘much’, or ‘a lot’.” She smiled, happy to be able to teach someone something, no matter how small.

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notes:
outfit: click here

It was amazing how easily Kai seemed to pick up new words. That must have meant, then, that this species, whatever they were (and Amoura still hadn’t pinned this down), they were either as intelligent, or more so than humans. That, in itself, was a fact that could be dangerous if it wasn’t circulated to the crew. They could find themselves outwitted, trapped, or worse if they underestimated who or what were out there. She vowed to watch him closely whilst he was still on the ship, and certainly not to tell him too much that could be harmful if it got out. She kept a bright smile on her face, though, and nodded as Kai pointed to the chair and repeated the word. ”Yes, that’s a chair. And this…” She pointed to the glowing screen that was showing a logo of the Hyperion rotating continuously. ”Is a computer. We use it to find out information.”

Kai’s proposition widened Amoura’s smile even more than she thought possible. If he was able to negotiate, that was another indication that perhaps they weren’t far removed from humans in the ways of thought processes and behaviours. She nodded emphatically, only just managing to refrain from jumping up and down and clapping her hands. Apparently this vestige of childhood had stayed with her all the way from Earth. ”I can help you! I can teach you English if you teach me…” She stopped, hesitated for a second – there was no file on whatever these creatures were; she had no name for them, much less what they spoke. ”Erm… If you teach me your language.” She completed, lamely.

Following Kai’s arm, Amoura nodded. ”Outside – that’s outside.” She informed him, moving the conversation back to his offer. ”But yes, telling us this, about food and places; that would be amazing!” She grinned, awestruck at the fact that he was willing to volunteer the information. The only problem was, though, that if he was hiding, it was pretty apparent that the people that should have known he was here didn’t know anything of the sort. So how was she meant to document the information if he wasn’t even supposed to exist on board the ship? No matter. She would deal with that later. Right now, she needed to establish a good relationship with Kai so they even had access to the information. ”This room? Oh, it’s… A library. It’s for… Reading and learning.” She was painfully aware that she wasn’t doing her profession justice – it was just difficult when it was a language that no-one had ever encountered. She pulled a book off a nearby shelf and opened it, showing it to Kai. ”This is a book. It’s… Just words – speaking – that has been written down.” Not wanting to overload him with information, she collected the papers she had thrown around the floor and sat on one of the nearby chairs. She pulled out another for Kai to sit on, hoping that he wasn’t going to leave.

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notes:
outfit: click here

There had been nothing on the tapes about teaching new species the English language. Hell, she hadn’t even KNOWN English when she had left Earth. Well, obviously she had understood it, but she had still been at the age where, despite being the child of two scientists, many words had not yet been introduced to her, and even those that had didn’t necessarily have any meaning attached to them. The last time she had been awake, properly awake, she had used the language, the same one she was using now with such ease, indiscriminately, not caring whether the words that came out of her mouth meant anything to the other people or if they even were words. But she was a Linguist, that much she knew for certain. With a capital L. It had, somehow, been ingrained into her that this was her role, and of anyone, didn’t it make her the most qualified to teach the indigenous species?

With this in mind, she tried again. Taking the book off Kai, she pointed to one of the words. ”These individual pictures…” She pointed to a letter, then continued,”Make a bigger picture that makes a word. That word can be said out loud or just in your head.” For emphasis, she tapped her forehead, trying to think of a better way to explain it. The only problem was that she knew nothing about his species or his culture, so could draw no parallels. She smiled as Kai tried to force the book to talk, and shook her head. ”No, these don’t talk out loud for you – they’re just pictures.” Unsure how much further to go, she closed the book and put it on the table beside them.

Amoura fell silent as Kai offered something else, and she puzzled over the terminology for a moment. Once it clicked into place, her smile blossomed again and she nodded emphatically. If he meant what she thought she did, she could be well on her way to understanding the language of one of the native species – what they were she didn’t know, but that was for the Biologists to find out, right? – and having it in physical copy for everyone to see. An English-to-whatever-he-was dictionary, and she had only been awake for about six hours! Thinking a little more on the proposal, she tapped her bottom lip with the pen she was fiddling with. ”Speaking words first, then written ones.” She decided, putting her finger to her mouth on the first word, and indicating the book when she said ‘written’. There couldn’t possibly be a downside to this…. Could there?
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notes:
outfit: click here

An instinctive urge (from what memory, she couldn’t be sure) to ‘aww’ and hug Kai until he perked up welled inside Amoura as she saw his ear droop in what she could only assume was sadness. His facial features, being covered with hair and only marginally as manipulative (in terms of musculature structure) as a human’s, didn’t portray much, but she couldn’t miss the disappointment in the fox’s eyes when the book was removed from him. She quelled the urge, although with some difficulty, and returned the book to him, all while trying to explain what it was in terms that he might be able to grasp.

”Erm…” She paused for a second as she scooted her chair over to sit next to him, opening the book but letting it stay in his hands. Using her fingers, she blocked out one word from the rest of the page to use as an example. ”Each group of pictures make a different picture which is a sound in our language.” She started, slowly, glancing up at the vulpine eyes to see if any hint of recognition or understanding glistened there. She indicated a single letter of the word, and informed him,”This is called a ‘letter’. When it is put with other letters, it makes a word.” Expanding her fingers to the full length of the word again, she sounded out each of the individual letters. ”P… L… A… N… T… That spells ‘plant’.” Then, with a surge of brilliance that at the same time made her question her stupidity, she brought one of the computer monitors to life, and pulled the first picture of flora she could find. ”Plant.” She reasserted, pointing to the word in the book, and at the picture. Surely this could be an effective teaching method?

Almost an hour later, and Amoura had completely lost track of the time. Her initial plan had been to gather a few volumes, then get something to eat, take it back to her room, and try to acquaint herself with wherever she was and whatever it was she could be asked to do in the foreseeable future. This, however, as many of her plans, had not come to fruition, and her stomach protested loudly, stopping her in the middle of a sentence. ”I’m hungry.” Stating the obvious was rather a habit of hers, she had found, and it seemed that it could enter conversation with anyone about the strangest of things. ”Are you hungry?” She asked Kai, wondering at the same time what it was that he ate. Hopefully nothing raw and meaty, otherwise there might be questions from the kitchens.
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notes:
outfit: click here

There wasn’t really a precedent for this sort of thing… At least, Amoura didn’t think there was. Whatever it was that made her sure that she was a Linguist as soon as she had woken up, it wasn’t telling her that she shouldn’t be fraternising with the planet’s inhabitants or teaching them to understand her. That, however, could have been an oversight on the part of whoever designed the whole project, or perhaps it had uploaded incorrectly or incompletely due to the crash. There was no knowing, really, apart from using her own instinct and, true to her sociable nature, she had no bad feelings about this relationship. She marvelled as Kai related yet another complete sentence – how long had he been here, learning? Surely she couldn’t be the only person to have seen him if he already knew some English? – and she took his hand readily, if a little distractedly.

Thoughts whirred around her brain, but precious few answers occurred to her. Deciding to err, for once, on the side of caution, Amoura detached herself gently from Kai before they had taken more than a few steps. Turning to face him, she adopted as serious a face as she could. ”Who else knows you are here?” She asked, trying to find out the most important of the information first. After all, if he was meant to be down in the Science labs, she didn’t want him parading up and down the ship like one of the crew. Equally, although she didn’t like to think about this situation, if he wasn’t meant to be on the ship at all, she DEFINITELY couldn’t let him roam around – especially to the kitchens, where she deduced most people would be after having nothing but intravenous nourishment for eighteen years.

If the worst case scenario did turn out to be true, she decided, she would just… Find him something to wear and hope people didn’t look to closely? No, that was stupid. She gave her head a little shake and ran through the options. There weren’t many. Eject him, despite his curious and friendly disposition, and willingness to help? Surely not. Keep him hidden in the library? Unfeasible – someone could easily come across him, as, in fact, she had done not so long ago. She couldn’t keep him locked away like some sort of animal in a spare cupboard – the maintenance guys frequented all the store rooms on a regular basis and a bed in a corner would arouse suspicion seeing as beds were all assigned and filled. He could hardly stay in her room when there was at least one other person awake to share that with her – she had yet to find out who it was, and who were in the other two pods. That left one place; her office. It was the only place she had to herself and, by some small act of mercy, it wasn’t too far from where they were now. But it wasn’t going to come to that, she told herself, smiling brightly up at Kai. He was sweet, surely the first thing he’d done was come and volunteer to help! ”It’s just that I don’t want to get you into trouble…” She added, patting his arm worriedly.
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notes:
outfit: click here