Splunk

Kapp awoke with a gasp and a clatter.

He had been having a nightmare picturing Bristax as a Lobster Monster or Nokken as they had labeled themselves. She had turned to him with her brown hair now black, and green eyes now red. She shook the hair out of her face, then suddenly a falling sensation woke him up and he was on the ground.

On the ground? he thought, That can’t be right. He should be floating in zero gravity, yet there he lay nursing a bruised backside. He peered through the small window hatch of the escape pod and was shocked at what he saw.

Gazing out through the thick and hazy glass he was sure he was staring at a beach. He inspected the small monitor in the pod, and was surprised to find that the atmosphere was suitable for humans.

In the 200 years of space exploration since the quark drive had been invented and given humans the ability to travel out of their home solar system, only 10 suitable planets had been found and colonized. None of those 10 planets contained any sentient life forms, only animals and fauna not dissimilar to remote places on Earth. It made no sense that he somehow found himself on one of these rare planets. He had worked tirelessly with Bristax plotting their course and was sure that they were in an empty sector of space. Navigating unexplored space was perilous and took careful planning. They launched drones that traveled ahead and around them gathering data so they could continue forward safely.

Kapp reached for the red handle that would unseal the pod. He hesitated, picturing more of those Nokken monsters appearing from the water and killing him as easily as his 41 colleagues on the Alpha. If they wanted you dead, they would’ve finished you on the Alpha, he thought. Convincing himself, he pushed heavily downward on the handle.

There was a hiss as the door fell open, and the atmosphere moved in. The air was so humid Kapp could barely believe he could breathe. He felt as though hot spa water had been dumped into the escape pod, not breathable air. The heat and moisture made him sick as a stark contrast to the temperature controlled stale air from the pod.

Kapp was brought to his knees and had to close his eyes as he tried to get used to the climate and atmosphere. Breathing slowly he fought down nausea and began to adjust. His hair was stuck down on his head and felt heavy like it was full of moisture. Opening his eyes he peered down at the ground through the door of the pod. Standing there outside the door on the ivory colored sand was a small orange creature. It was the strangest thing Kapp had ever seen. It reminded him of a starfish from earth. Its 4 limbs extending from its small body had no feet or hands. They just ended in points in the sand. Its head was on the end of what looked like a fifth limb. It stared up at him with large yellow eyes above a long slit for a mouth, he couldn’t see any indication of a nose.

“What are you?” it said revealing rows of sharp looking teeth.

Kapp heard the voice in his brain and his ears just like he had the Nokken. Though it came across amused and slightly jovial, almost boyish. It’s voice didn’t assail his brain, but instead seemed almost inviting.

“Ahh!” he gasped involuntarily, shaken up with the day's events. “Can you understand me? How can I understand you?”

“You have brain?” It’s voice seemed to chitter with positive feelings.

“Yes, I have a brain.” Kapp said, not knowing if he should be insulted by this odd creature.

“I understand,’ it said like that was the end of it.

Kapp didn’t feel like that was a sufficient answer, but it also didn’t seem like he would get much more out of the little thing.

“Where am I?” Kapp asked unsure if he would get a full answer.

“Home Ship.”

Frustrated and confused, Kapp replied, “Sure, ummm…. Home Ship.”

Kapp stepped down from the pod into the soft sand and took stock of his surroundings. As he spun around he saw he was inside of a giant white dome. Light didn’t seem to emanate from one single source, but from the dome as a whole. He was standing on a sandy beach that stretched between inviting light blue water and a domed wall. There was about a quarter of a mile of sand between the water and the wall. The sand surrounded a large body of water, Kapp could barely see the domed wall across the water from him. He wasn’t sure what to make of his surroundings, he felt like he was in an upside down fish bowl.

“Well little guy er…. thing,” he began.

“Splunk.”

“Right. Splunk. Well Splunk, I have no idea how I got here.”

“From cave,” Splunk lifted one of its front limbs and pointed at the escape pod.

“Yes, but how did my ‘cave’ get here?”

“Cave fell from outside,” it responded impatiently.

Kapp tried to control his temper. This thing was barely answering his questions yet it was irritated with him, as if he was the dimwitted one in this conversation.

“You ‘Ahhh’,” it mimicked the way Kapp had gasped perfectly. “Follow Splunk ‘Ahhh’.”

“My name is Xander Kapp,” he said exasperated, “and I’m not sure I want to follow you anywhere.”

“This looks like a stimulating conversation,” a new voice said.

It was difficult for Kapp to pinpoint the direction of the voice. The way all of these aliens communicated echoed in his brain as much as it did his ears. This voice was full of confidence and had a feminine quality. He turned until he saw a light pastel purple head sticking out of the water.

The head had a white fin running along the top of it, and two more where its ears should have been. It had large dark blue eyes that seemed to be only pupils.

“Qualia here now, Xanderkapp will leave,” Splunk said in disappointment. It spoke Kapp’s first and last name as one word.

Qualia sprung from the water, performing a flip, she landed on her webbed feet next to Kapp.

Kapp was of average height for a human, standing near 5’10’’, Qualia was much taller. She must have been 6’7’’ at the tip of her head fin. At the base of her legs she had a long powerful looking tail which extended about three feet from her body and ended in two white fins protruding in each direction. Starting at the top of her neck and extending down her spine and tail was a ridge of black scales that stood a few inches off her body and ended in points. Her hands and feet had white webbing in between each digit. She wore a pristinely white breastplate that covered the front of her body but left her shoulders and arms exposed, and what could only be described as a white armored kilt that ended just over her knees. She was lean, and covered in rope like muscle. In her hand she carried an impressive looking white spear that was another foot taller than her.

“I was sent to fetch you, come with me,” Qualia said, gesturing with her oversized weapon. “We must not waste time.”

She looked at Splunk haughtily, performing a backflip she dove perfectly back into the water. Her head reemerging a split second later.

“Hurry!” She chided, and disappeared underneath the water.

Kapp was not a good swimmer. The navy of two hundred years ago may have been trained in water combat, and the like. The Navy of the 2200’s navigated ships in space. He had been at the top of his class in low gravity hand to hand combat, and was extremely confident in all of the skills he had obtained to navigate a ship in unexplored space. Swimming was completely out of his comfort zone.

“Splunk I breathe air not water,” he said, turning again to face the odd little creature.

“Air in water.”

“Right, but I do not have gills to separate the air from the water, I have lungs.”

“Gills?” Splunk asked, not understanding. “Splunk has lungs.”

Kapp took a moment to try and decipher what Splunk was saying. He hesitated at the edge of the water, trying to decide what his next move should be.

Splunk darted next to his foot, he was close to the size of Kapp’s size 11 boot.

“Follow Qualia?” Splunk asked.

“I can’t, she is under the water!” Kapp was at the end of his rope. He had been through hell, he didn’t understand where he was, and the only thing paying attention to him was this walking slow-witted starfish.

“Splunk help,” it said happily.

With that Splunk darted up Kapp’s leg. Before Kapp could do anything he felt Splunk bite down hard at the base of his neck.

Owww! he tried to scream, but he no longer had control of his mouth. His body lurched into the water awkwardly. The land dropped off suddenly and he was staring down through the water. His eyes didn’t sting from salt, and he could see deeply through the clear bright blue. He began to panic internally as water entered his mouth and nose, he had no control to stop it. His mind screamed that this was wrong. He shouldn’t be able to breathe, but he was. Against his own will he gulped huge breaths of the water.

The pain in his neck faded and he realized he could now move his limbs again. He immediately closed his mouth and swam to the surface. He had no need to gasp for breath as he breached the surface of the water. Trying to figure out what happened he began to swim back to the shore, when he noticed Splunk floating on top of the water between him and the beach.

“See?” it said, “Water has air.”

“Splunk, did you just control me?”

“Splunk helped!” Smiling disarmingly as it replied.

Its joy-filled answer did little to make Kapp feel better about the situation. Splunk had taken control of his body and forced him to breathe under the water. Kapp was furious, and still confused.

“Never ever do that again, I will control myself from now on.” He struggled to contain the rage in his voice.

Qualia’s finned head appeared next to him above that water.

“Why do you dawdle? The shoal awaits you,” she spoke as if used to being obeyed. “Come now!” she demanded, swimming downward.

Splunk skitterd through the water as if he was still on land. He climbed onto Kapp’s shoulder.

“Follow Qualia, breathe air,” he urged.

Not liking the situation, and resisting the urge to splat Splunk, Kapp dove down and followed. Shocked everytime he took a breath and didn’t drown.

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This is the second chapter in the book I am writing (I haven't decided fully on a title yet) please consider reading Chapter 1 "Massacre on Alpha"

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