“Green,” I say, then wave my hand over like I’m touching blades of grass “like grass, then…” and I wave my hand hello. “Wave. Shoot, this isn’t working. Skeets, show her the green wave, please” He replays the video, and she is seriously frightened. She screeches and Ted coughs.
“How’s he doing, Skeets?”
“His condition has worsened within the hour. His levels are falling, and his pulse is not as strong as yesterday.”
Yesterday. Gone in a minute. We must be in deep space to be losing time like this. Why isn’t Ted getting better? I don’t understand it. This girl is all kinds of mysterious. I don’t remember seeing her during the battle at all. Where did she come from?
“Please, what is your name? Can you tell us your name?”
God this jelly ball is more cramped than I’d like. I feel the bottom of it and it’s so squishy I feel like I’m in one of those mystery bowls that you reach into for science fair as a kid. It’s a little too squishy. Doesn’t feel like this thing should be able to hold us. Wait a second…I start tracing with my finger in the gunk, like I’m drawing in the sand. It works. I spell out S O S as big as I can on the bottom then look at Skeets.
“That’s just stupid. Who’s going to see that?” Skeets wisely retorts.
“Oh, great idea, hello! Strange girl, can you write your name?” She looks at me like I just said the strangest thing ever. Wouldn’t be a first. I get closer to show her and her sash starts falling. Um, there’s nothing on under it. She doesn’t seem to mind.
“Okay, this is…great but we shouldn’t get all pervy and weird in the slime bubble.” I help put her sash back on her shoulder and as soon as I make contact with her skin, I feel weak. I feel sick. I pull away quickly and the feeling goes away.
“Whoa, that was weird. Touching her makes me feel weird and skin crawly like I do when Batman looks at me. It’s like she’s…” and then I notice. Her feet are touching Ted. I motion for her to move them, and she does, thankfully.
“Skeets, check Teddy’s levels again.”
“Right away, sir.”
I cross my fingers.
“He’s leveling out again. His condition seems to bounce between grave and promising. Very peculiar.”
“Yeah, bounces like he’s in a bubble. Hard to shift around when there’s a living leech in here with us. When I touched her, she seemed to be sapping energy away from me; actually, not just energy but I felt…. just weaker than I did when she wasn’t. Skeets, when she falls asleep again, and let’s hope she does, we need a blood sample.”
“Of course, sir.”
She’s writing her name in the slime. Oh wow. She’s actually doing it.
“Is that your name?” She spelled out “R-u”
“Ru? Your name is Ru?”
She looks confused again but nods in the affirmative. Okay, Ru it is.
“Ru, where do you come from? Where do you come from- your home?”
That word seemed to get some recognition from her. She is nodding again. And she’s pointing down. Back down.
“Earth? Is Earth your home?”
“Sir, I hate to interrupt but have you thought of trying to time jump and find out where we are of what’s happening on Earth?”
“Sure, I’ve thought about it, but I can’t leave Ted. Besides, I may not be able to get back here; I don’t know where here is still. Hold on, Skeets, do you hear something?”
“Yes, sir. Decibel level has picked up considerably outside the sphere. I’m picking up a hail of residuals in the area around us, above us. Hundreds of thousands of objects, each four inches in diameter and… sir, they are alive.”
I stand up as Ted coughs again; Ru is back writing in the slime, and I witness the objects around us.
“Skeets, those are stars.”
“Sir, stars are merely plasma, held by gravity made up of the nuclear reaction of hydrogen and helium. These could not be stars.”
“Not stars, starfish. The ocean kind. But these aren’t from the ocean. These are the Starro kind. The take over your mind and destroy civilization kind. Skeets, I may be going out on a limb here, but I think we’re about to be invaded.”
bobombblast 