literature

AV- ME1- Small Talk

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Literature Text

     Johnathan sat on his bed, reading on his computer, still dressed as he had been upon boarding, only having kicked off his sneakers.  Two adjoining rooms had proved difficult to come by, or at least get to, and Johnathan's sense of mental mapping told him that the Captain had led them roundabout, with some switchback even, to arrive finally at the rooms they would be staying in.  Perhaps the silence had amused the cyberneticly-enhanced man.  But it had not amused Johnathan, who was quite set on spending the rest of the day not talking to or seeing anyone.
     A soft knock on the door to the hallway brought Johnathan's eyes from the holo-screen, and he frowned slightly.  Dr. Madison was in his own room.  Or, even if he had gone out, he would have returned to it before approaching him.
     He decided to pretend he was not in, turning his eyes back to the words on the screen.
     The door opened anyway.
     "Oh!  You are here," a voice like a late-spring morning sounded from the doorway.
     "Indeed," Johnathan affirmed, closing his computer with a click and looking up with a polite smile.  "How may I help you?"  It took a concentrated effort not to gape, because the creature which stood on the threshold was singularly beautiful.  He had never met a Zelian in person, and no words of description or pictures could possibly have prepared him to meet one face to face.  The individual traits and features he knew they had.  The combined whole was breathtaking, and he found himself wondering how the translucence and visual texture of their skin might be duplicated synthetically.
     The Zelian's six red eyes crinkled with mirth, and a laugh, like the chiming of tiny silver bells, sounded.  He knew that sound, but he couldn't quite put a finger on where he had heard it before.  "Are you always this formal?" she asked, stepping, uninvited, into the room, and seating herself at the foot of his bed, her long legs tucked elegantly side by side, and her tail curled neatly around her ankles as she folded her hands in her lap.
     Again, concentrated effort, not to quirk an eyebrow and frown.  His smile remained quite firmly in place.  "Most of the time, yes."
     "You seem to have settled in nicely," she stated, determined, it seemed, to make small talk.  Her head turned on its long graceful neck to consider his trunk in the corner, clothes already hung, the small box on the bedside table, and the computer in his hand.
     "Yes, quite comfortably," he agreed, wondering if she had a point in being here, and how he might best encourage her to get to it and then leave.
     Her eyes smiled at him directly then.  "I make you uncomfortable, don't I?  Being here."
     Her directness caught him off guard, and he blinked.  "I do wonder what it is that has brought you to see me."
     "Hmm, not you specifically," she mused.  "I wanted to get to know about all the contestants, if I could.  I have never seen so many humans in one place before."
     "It is surprising," Johnathan allowed.  "Perhaps our other stops, being further from Earth, will add yet more variety to our number."
     Still she regarded him, her strange featureless face impossible to read.  "What is it like?"
     "I beg your pardon?"
     "Being human.  So new to the universe."  She lifted her feet then onto the bed, her arms crossed about her knees and her tail twined all about her and twitching distractingly where the twin tips settled beside her hip.
     "I am not one to say," Johnathan stated.  "We have been a space-faring race for as long as I have been alive, certainly.  And much of my business is conducted with the myriad races of the known universe.  I prefer to spend my private time, just so, in private."
     "Well that sounds lonely."  Again, her bluntness startled him, as did the slight laugh with which she said this.
     "Different people thrive upon different things," he dismissed, calling his computer up again, hoping that if he subtly ignored her, she would take the hints and leave.
     "So, what do you 'thrive upon'?" she wondered, getting up and stretching herself out, arms and wings glimmering, her very bioluminescence brightening the room.
     This time he did raise an eyebrow.  "That is a private matter."
     She hadn't even waited to hear his response, her delighted "Ooh, what's this?" cutting across the tail end of his statement.  That very delight sent a jolt of alarm shooting through him even as he turned quickly to see what it was she held.
     It was a small box made of hardwood mahogany, inlayed with natural mother of pearl in a tracery of knot work across the top and around the sides.  "Pretty," she cooed, turning the box over in her hands, watching her own blue glow reflect back across the shining inlay.  There was a feint rattle from within the box as she moved it, something loose inside tumbling.
     With an inelegant scramble, he clamored across the bed and snatched the box from her hands, automatically pulling it protectively close against his chest, his computer falling unheeded to the covers.  She moved with a similar haste, backing away from him once the object left her grasp, then stopped to just observe how very different he was in that moment from the controlled politeness of before.
     "This is very important," he stated then, the tension easing into merely polite stiffness.  "I would appreciate it not be played with."
     "What is in it?" she wondered.
     "My reason for being here."  His voice sounded dead, as he said this.  So conflictingly full it became empty.  Then, after a short tense silence, "If you would please excuse me."
     With a nod of her small head, the Zelian intoned softly, "I'm sorry."  When that, and her continued presence, received no response, she turned and left, closing the door behind her.
     Johnathan just sat a while longer, looking down at the wooden box held in his lap without actually seeing it.  Then he lifted it again, stating with a frown as he addressed the decorated surface and its contents.  "I should not have brought you."
My entry into the October Mini-event for Astrum Venatus ^_^

Crystal-rex is still looking for contestants, and the new audition date is in December. So those of you who procrastinated can do so a bit more ^^, but enter!

Johnathan is mine.
True and the Star Games belong to Crystal-rex :iconcrystal-rex:

I had not intended to write a part two, but there is one anyway ^^, to be found here [link]
© 2009 - 2024 MegamiJadeheart
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TheAbsurdum's avatar
I'll make sure procastination won't get in the way.