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"Ah, I see you are awake. Good. I think you will find the cloths over there on the wall very comfortable. Please, tell me, what is your name?"
Screaming in shock, Erika looks on the thing that just entered her room. It is a hideous creature; six feet tall, bulbous, and grey. What should have been arms actually looked more like clawed wings connected to its body with flaps of skin, almost like a bat. Instead of hair its head was covered by what could only be described as scales, though even that word lacked something.
Normally, Erika is one of those girls who always knows what's going on. She makes enemies rather easily and doesn't have many true friends, not that she needs many. Despite the C's she gets in school, she is the smartest one in her class. This subjects her to a lot of bad natured teasing from her classmates. Though even they grudgingly admit she is amazingly cute. None of that mattered now, though.
Bending down and offering his claw he again spoke, "My name is Alkaz, what is yours?"
To this, Erika's only response is to recoil further. What does this thing want with me? she thought to herself. Please, just go away.
Acquiescing to Erika's obvious discomfort with his presence, Alkaz speaks one final time, "Please, get dressed. As I said, I think you will like the cloths." With that he left Erika alone to consider her situation and get dressed.
What WAS that thing? I have never seen anything like that before. This can't be Earth, there's just no way. But how did he talk to me like that?
As she gets dressed, she looks around the room hoping to find out what kind of place this is. As Alkaz had promised, the cloths she found were comfortable, though tighter on her than what she was used to. The room is very well lit, despite the lack of lights anywhere in sight. There is very little on the walls, mostly hooks and some exotic looking jewelry. The bed is exactly like the one she has at home; same sheets, pillow, the quilt her grandmother made for her, and...
"CUTE!!!"
Clutching the bear, Erika thinks about what is going on. There is no way that guy could be real. Nothing could possibly be alive that looks that ugly. And it didn't even have a mouth, it couldn't have been talking. Let's see... The last thing I remember is going to bed. I know! It’s all a dream. All I have to do is play along and I will wake up in the morning.
Just then Sekal steps into the room to inspect their catch. "You're pathetic, you know that? Why don't you stand up for yourself and stop cringing like a pathetic freak behind that bear?" She quickly sets down some food and leaves the room saying only that Alkaz would return in an hour.
Dragging the bear along with her, Erika heads over to the food at the end of the bed. Eeew. That looks disgusting. How can I be expected to eat that?
~*~
"Hello there, how are you doing?" Alkaz asks stepping into the room.
The shock of seeing all these creatures is too much for Erika to cope with. It no longer mattered that anyone was near her, she could no longer hold back her tears.
"Please, don't cry. I don't know what to do for you when you cry. Please, don't cry." He comes closer to her and again extends his claw to her. "Please, stop crying." Despite her tears, Erika takes his claw as he gently sits down next to her. "Will you tell me your name now?" he asks, desperate to distract her from her tears.
Between sobs she is barely able to squeak out a quiet "Erika." She tries to raise her head to look at him but through her tears he is nothing but a blur. Another wave of tears overtakes her and she buries her head as deep as she can into the bear.
"Well then, Erika, will you please stop crying and tell me what's wrong?" Alkaz replied in his most pleasant voice.
No matter how bad the situation, it is very hard to cry forever. For Erika, she had never cried for so long in her life and something deep in her consciousness stirred and told her that it was time to face the world again; that she needed to find someone to trust. She wanted to speak. She wanted to say something meaningful. But when she opened her mouth she was only barely able to choke out, "I want my mommy."
Come on Erika, you can do better than that! You haven't said that since you were two and you're what now, TEN! Snap out of it!!
She opens her mouth to speak again but there is no voice behind it, only more tears. Not sure what to do to help her, Alkaz just sits there peacefully, gently stroking her hair. Erika may be the one sitting there crying, but Alkaz feels just as helpless.
~*~
They sit there for over an hour before Erika feels ready to make another attempt at conversation. The tears have mostly stopped and she is aware enough of the world again to realize Alkaz has been sitting quietly next to her the whole time. Not interfering, not criticizing, just letting her work out her problem on her own while staying there in case she felt ready to talk. Now she felt ready.
Still somewhat weak she asks Alkaz, "Who are you and where are my parents?" Way to go Erika, that's more like it. Stick it to him! That's the way.
"As I've said, my name is Alkaz. You have been brought to my planet because we need something you have. Your parents are safe back on Earth, don't worry about them. I see you haven't eaten since you got here. That food is really good even though I know it looks disgusting."
"Yuck. Do you have anything more appetizing to eat? And what do you mean about me being special? I'm not really."
"Trust me, you will love it. I'm going to arrange for you to have a tour of the neighborhood. In the meantime I want you to eat that. You need to keep your strength up."
As Alkaz leaves to set up the tour Erika glances one more time at the hand sitting on the bed. That is definitely the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life. But if I don't eat it I may never get out of here. I guess I'll eat it. I really want to get out of here. Eeew.
After some time Alkaz returns saying, "Ah good. I see you've eaten. Are you ready to go on that tour I promised?"
"Yeah! I mean... I guess so. I really wanna go home though."
"I know, I'm sorry. Let's go."
As Erika stepped outside she was presented with a scene unlike anything she had ever seen before. Buildings towered into the air as far as the eye could see and beautiful crystal formations sprung up from the ground like trees.
"Still think this is such a bad place?" Alkaz asks, sighing inwardly, knowing what lay ahead.
Come on Erika, don't let a pretty landscape make you forget where you came from. Keep pressing him for a trip home. "Wow!" is all she can think of to say.
"Let's keep walking. You'll see plenty more along the way."
As they walked Erika could not help but notice the harmony that existed. Everything so serene, the buildings blending beautifully, and the crystal trees everywhere. The only word she could think of to describe it was 'perfect'.
"We're going to stop here for a little bit. Go on inside, I'll meet you in a minute."
Erika steps through the door expecting to see more beautiful architecture inside. What she sees instead instantly horrifies her.
"She's..."
"An android. A robot girl to keep you company on my world. I thought it might make things a little easier for you; you know, give you a friend. If you don't want it I'll have it destroyed."
"NO! She's very pretty. Thanks! Does she have a name?"
"Nope. You can call her anything you want. You can rub her earblade to turn her on."
The android boots with the various bells and chimes associated with numerous test programs being run. Erika is assured that this is normal the first time an android is turned on and would only happen again in case of reset.
"Hello. You must be Erika, I've been given a lot of information about you. Umm... do I have a name?"
"I'm going to call you Ping because of all the pinging noises you made when I turned you on."
"I like that name."
In order to get everything back on track, Alkaz reluctantly breaks up their first meeting, "Glad to hear you too are getting along so well. Come on girls, let's head back. You should get some rest before tomorrow."
"But I'm not tired," Erika whines.
"We have a busy day tomorrow and you should sleep. You two can talk on the way back. Let's go."
~*~
Early in the morning Numal comes into Erika's room to make sure she is ready for the day. "Get up you little freak! How dare you sleep so long!"
Slowly, Erika rolls out of bed and wakes up Ping. She quickly dresses then she and Ping head out to the common area. She was expecting Sekal and Numal to be staring angrily at her, what she found was infinitely worse. Standing in front of her were five beasts that could only be described as a hellish cross between a dog, a lizard, and a fish. Each beast's master held a blade and looked almost as vicious as the beasts did.
Numal was the only one to speak, "Gentlemen, the rules are known. The girl and her robot may use any means necessary to avoid capture. Do what you want with the bot but the girl is not to be killed. Non-lethal wounds are, of course, allowed. First to bring her captive to me will win. Ready? Begin!"
With that, Erika and Ping found themselves instantly under attack from all five creatures at once. Instinctively, Ping shouts, "Erika! Run!" Ping's cry was unnecessary, however, as Erika was already sprinting away as fast as she could.
Hoping to divert the beasts from Erika, Ping runs straight toward them before veering off at the last instant. She knew her frame had been constructed from high quality materials that should be sufficient to let her withstand more damage than Erika could. Her speed was also astonishing, considering she had been designed for frolicking, not fighting. Despite it all her earblades told the story. Printed on the small display screen behind her left ear was a short status display which read simply: "Threatcon Level 3".
After a short distance, Ping realizes she has drawn most of the attack away from Erika. At this point she spins around and grabs the first beast to reach her. Pitching it strongly at the others, they fall down in a heap giving her time to work. While the beasts stand, Ping grabs a nearby crystal tree and breaks off all but the central branch. She aims the point of the crystal at the beasts and prepares for them to attack.
Meanwhile, Erika is having a great deal of difficult fighting off the lone beast still tracking her. Running almost at random, she is slowly losing ground on the beast. In fact, she would have been overtaken long ago had the beast been less sensitive to the rocks which she threw at it. Unfortunately for her, the beasts will not stop for something as simple as being pelted by rocks. Only serious injury or death is enough to stop such determined creatures.
Ping stands ready with the crystal beam directed threateningly at the four beasts. After their first encounter they have adopted a strategy of slowly creeping toward Ping in hopes that she will not realize what they are doing until they are practically on top of her. Suddenly on beast decides to charge in alone and is batted aside with ease, leaving a trail of blood as it falls away. As the remaining three beasts continue to creep in, Ping suddenly falls to the ground."
"Sorry Ping. I hope I didn't just screw something up."
"Your timing could have been better. Here, take this crystal and help me fend them off." Ping hands the crystal to Erika and she instantly drops it. "What's the problem?"
"It's too heavy. I can't hold it. We're gonna die, aren't we?" Tears come to her eyes.
"Don't wimp out now. Try to find something you can pick up and help me out here."
Erika grabs a piece of the shards Ping had discarded earlier and stands to face the beasts. In the time it took for them to get organized, the creatures had closed in significantly and Ping began whacking away with the crystal. Erika also begins stabbing at any beast that comes too close, not effective as an attack, but it makes her feel like she is helping.
~*~
After a while, time expires on the hunt. The beasts, once so viscious, calmly return to their masters knowing the game has ended and they have lost. Ping mutters a curse in Erika's direction before storming away in disgust.
Erika too, leaves the battlefield and returns to her room. She grabs the bear tightly and sits there shocked, sad, angry, all at once. For the second time in two days, she breaks down crying. My gosh, Erika. You're even letting ROBOTS get to you now? Snap out of it! You just need to learn how to fight a little better. As Erika cries, Alkaz stands hidden in a corner listening, not wanting to interfere. He also holds back Ping, seeing this will be a good lesson for her about humanity.
~*~ "Erika, wake up. You'll be late for school."
"Huh... Mommy!" Erika jumps out of bed and grabs her mother by the neck. "When the aliens abducted me I never thought I'd see you ever again. I'm so glad I'm back..."
"Whoah, slow down. You haven't gone anywhere."
"You mean it was all a bad dream?"
"Yeah. Now hurry up or you'll be late."
"Ok." But if it was all a dream, why are Ping and the bear still here?
The bear she came back with was one of her most beloved possessions for many years. The alien material it was made from helped it stay in excellent condition, thought Erika never subjected it to any significant abuse. As she moved out on her own for the first time, she put the bear up for sale. After a time, the bear was purchased by a woman who most who saw described her simply as 'red hot'. It is not known, but it is assumed the bear was given as a birthday gift to her daughter.
Ping never worked properly after being returned to earth. After a time she was thrown out as garbage after many years of disuse. Seeing it as a possible sex toy, a man picks up what looked like a life size doll and brought it home. It was only then that he realized the doll was, in fact, a fully functional android. He managed to hook it up to his computer and hack into her software. He sold his concept to Sony where she was reprogrammed to function as a dating sim accessory for the PS2. Unfortunately, the process of cracking her code resulted in transient instabilities in certain subroutines. Programmers are at a loss to resolve the difficulty as they do not understand the code well enough to figure out why it works at all.
Erika never told anyone about her experiences on the alien world.
Author's Notes:
The basis for this idea came from the topic idea I posted for the Second Forum Writers War. Though the topic was not selected, I wanted to explore it myself and began to write this story. The main character was originally named Kristen, in honor of an old friend of mine, until I realized that the girl I was writing seemed very much like Erika. When I realized this had turned into a fanfic I added Ping because I needed another character and Ping seemed to fit very well. The bear was also part of the story before it had turned into a fanfic and only became interesting in the epilogue anyway.
Please note that this is NOT meant as speculation that Erika is a former abductee. I do see a weak Erika as a definite possibility for her as a child until a point in her life where something bad happened to her. The situation with the aliens is meant as a metaphor for that life changing event, not a suggestion of what it might be. I can't remember any theories about Ping being alienware, though I would not be surprised to learn they existed long before this. I'm not sure what to make of it either, except to say that it seems to fit the evidence if done in this way, though the Erika factor is a bit of a stretch. As for the bear, no. Is it a gift from her mom? maybe. Was it made by ET? no. Is there an Erika connection? unlikely but not impossible.
For those out there that don't like storytelling through excessive dialogue, I know I managed to break that rule to extreme degrees here. 'Description, not speech' is definitely something I need to work on if I try this again. I should also apologize for the length, though I justify it by saying that this is more of a full blown story than the mini-fics that crop up from time to time.
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