Science really does cause problems (with Midnight Lass)

[Reddy]

So close. Two decades worth of dreams, since he was born he felt like, and this was finally ready. Before the blonde haired young man was a gleaming pile of technological mess. Wires, power couplings, sparking coils to sap away the heat. All this plus a massive array of lights, computer chips and more were all compounded around of all things a solid steel box. Almost like a coffin except it was standing upright. Samuel's idea had been to purchase a telephone booth to better emulate that of his own favorite traveler, but the wooden structure of it had been a fire hazard.

No more waiting. Pressing his round framed glasses further back upon his nose. Samuel, a college student working on his second doctorates at the age of twenty-one threw a heavy metal switch. The machine hummed and then whined. A loud, metallic, scraping whine. And then... nothing. Silence as the machine powered down. "No! You stupid piece of junk! Make the mannequin vanish at least!" He shouted, pleading for his teleporter to work. Furiously he threw the switch again over and over until it powered up with a flickering of lights. All the lights. The sudden surge had drained a few city blocks of all their power for a few moments, and then, against all odds, the machine began to glow.

Laughter. Joyous, frustrated, maniacal laughter belted out from his lungs. It was working! But where would the mannequin go? What would it replace? His theory was that one thing of matter had to be replaced with another, so having stuck a fairly large plus sized mannequin inside he should at least fet dirt right? He was aiming for the Mojave desert.

 

[Midnight Lass]

Mila could have almost been mistaken for any eighteen year old teenager living in an upper middle class neighborhood in North America. Her mother was a physician with a thriving, private practice, while her father was a well respected corporate lawyer. Being the oldest of the professional couple's three children, Mila had been enrolled in every course that her parents though would help develop their child's many skills, actual and imagined. By the age of eighteen,, Mila was accomplished in the style of mainstream martial arts whose studios had popped up just outside of many middle class and upper middle class neighborhoods. She played a sport which ensured fitness without risking serious injury, did dance and acrobatics, thrived academically, and went to musicals and museum openings with other children whose parents were in the same socioeconomic stratus as her own.

Yes, Mila could have been mistaken for any teenager who had grown up in a North American gated community, except for one thing.

Mila wasn't human.

Mila had grown up on a world quite similar to Earth, though it was at least a thousand light years away. Not that she thought about other planets a lot. That was something her youngest brother did. He was the real science fiction and fantasy geek. Mila had other things to think about. Like music and boys. Martial arts and boys. Dancing and boys.

Did I mention boys?

Not that Mila inew a lot about boys. Nothing at all, in fact. Her parents were the classical helicopter parents, constantly hovering over her, and having scheduled all of her free time, they didn't think Mila had time for boys, at least not in this stage of her life.

It didn't stop Mila thinking about boys, though.

At the moment, Mila was home alone in her bedroom, playing and dancing to a song with suggestive lyrics that her parents definitely wouldn't have approved, and wearing sleepwear her parents definitely wouldn't approve of, consisting of a top that barely covered her top and a forbidden near G-string that her mother would have gone berserk over,if she knew her daughter owned on

The singer Mila was listening to had just apologized once again for arousing her paramour when Mila froze. There was a glowing light coming from somewhere, making her room brighter and brighter. At first, Mila thought her parents had returned early, and the light was from their automobile, shing through her window.

Then Mila realized she was the source of the light. Startled, she looked down and saw the a light was emanating from her.

Mila didn't have time to panic, though. One instance, she was glowing in her bedroom. The next, she was gone.

Mila closed her eyes when the light got too bright. And then the light vanished.

When she looked around, she saw herself in some large metal box, looking out at another person.

Well, she didn't know if that was another person. He was dressed like another person. But it looked like the person had been in a really bad accident. He didn't have any fur on him at all, except on the top of his head. And no tail!

Mila's brain couldn't come up with any reason why she should be standing in front of such a person, unless...

Was the glow some kind of accident to her? Was she in a burn ward of some kind.

Mila looked down at her own body, but it looked fine. And she didn't feel as if she was in any pain.

"Satse em iek?" she asked, in a near frightened tone.

 

[Reddy]

It was working! Finally, after spending two years building this prototype he was finally able to make something move! "Ahahaha! Suck it robotics club! I knew this was better than building a death machine." Samuel laughed at the insanity of the situatuon. Sure the murder bot for the competition would have been a fun side experiment and would be a better qualification for a full time position at a research facility than a failed teleporter. But it didn't fail! Global acclaim, money, fame! It was all within his grasp.

If only he could have continued watching, having to turn his human eyes away from the bright light that erupted from the coffin like box. The whirring turned into a whistle and the young man covered his ears with his hand and turned away completely. He nearly screamed out of fear, thinking that this might be the end of him. But then it was over, the lights faded faster than they came and with a few heavy clunks and hissing, the machine stopped completely. His teleporter was dead as a doornail now, no sparks, no lights. Nothing. Except there was something in the metal box.

Samuel froze in his place. What he stared at was not the expected pile of dirt and stone. But something... else. Vaguely humanoid in shape, it was covered in bright fur and had a feline looking face. "What in the reaches of...." he started to mutter before her own voice spoke out something unintelligible. Something alien.

Then it clicked. He had switched the mannequin with an alien.

Right then and there he screamed in fear. Expecting to be eaten or attacked, Samuel backpeddled quickly, stumbling over the raggedy cloth loveseat of his research department's basement. Dark, with a thick musty smell it was mostly full of failes experiments and storage in cardboard boxes and plastic totes. Except for the couch and his own experiment it looked like a standard basement with concrete floors and low hanging wooden beams only a foot above his own six foot three head.

Peeking over the top of the couch Samuel wielded a broomstick that shook in his trembling hands. It looked vaguely female, but it was an alien so maybe such a thing didn't work that way. "What are you?" He asked, trying to muster up his courage. Oh if he survived this, he could really rub it in their faces. Not only did he make a teleporter, but alternate life forms!

 

[Midnight Lass]

The hairless being in front of her made a noise of terror and leaped behind a delipidated piece of furniture. This made Mila assume a defensive posture from the martials arts she had been practicing since she was seven. On her home world, the posture might have been considered somewhat comical and, especially in the light of how delectable Mila would look to males of her own species, and how little clothing she was actually wearing, the sight of Mila would have been considered very arousing.

Especially to adolescent males of her species. But let's be honest. The adolescent male of any species would have been aroused by a light breeze.

To someone not of her species, she might seem like an overgrown wildcat, fangs bared, claws out, ready to rip them into shreds.

The sight of the hairless being in front of her wielding a cleaning tool, trembling, actually steadied her nerves. Steadied them enough, anyway, that she felt she could ask a few questions.

"Satse em iek?" she demanded. "Satse iv u-ik?"

 

[Reddy]

He wasn't dead! Yet anyways. Samuel was doing his best to maintain a positive outlook on this situation where he might be torn to shreads at any given moment. Looking over through his thick glasses the young man examined his life to this point. Despite what his blonde messy hair and well maintained, if now messed up grey button up and yellow sweater vest said, he was not popular in the slightest, even among his like minded individuals.

No, having lived a life where he had to scratch his way to the surface just to breath, Samuel had to make his way on his merits. Born to a poor family barely making it by with a father constantly out driving trucks and his mother working two dead end jobs to feed him and his five siblings. Samuel, being the second oldest had always kept his nose in books and studied harder than the rest. Eventually even getting into college when he was only fifteen, and having his first doctorates in robotics when he was twenty. Now twenty-one and having focused entirely on school and study. Samuel knew nothing else.

He had no real friends, at least he didn't think so. No activities besides splurging on science fiction television shows. And only fit as he was because of a mixture of genetics, having to run around and lift his own projects, and good old forgetting to eat.

But none of that helped him now as he began rising to his feet. Holding the broom handle in front of him like he saw in the movies, hoping it would help. But there was a problem. They didn't understand each other. "What?" He said quite a bit louder to the fur covered creature. "I don't understand. What are you? Are you going to hurt me?" Samuel wondered why he asked that. Why would anyone be honest to their victim?

 

[Midnight Lass]

Mila didn't know where she was, what was happening, or what this...this...creature was in front of her, but she knew she was tired of him waving a broom in her face. The next time it came close to her, she yanked it out of his hands, snapped it in two over her knee, and tossed the pieces to the side.

In a growl that would have been considered cute on her world but which could be perceived as threatening on this one, Mila demanded, "Nun isks salov im jak satse im e-ik jak satse iv u-ik, isks salov im, enob!"

 

[Reddy]

"Agh look, okay. I'm scared now. Happy?" Samuel snapped, raising his hands and then dropping them in disbelief. His only weapon. Broken in two, and yet she still didn't lunge at him. Her growling sent shivers along his entire back, those light colored hairs on his neck standing on end. Taking a moment to readjust his glasses, Samuel took a few slow, uneasy steps around the loveseat. "I-i-i told you. I don't know what you are saying." He says, shrugging to convey his message. Eventually, unless something stopped him, he'd collapse with his head in his hands on the furniture. For some reason he doubted that this, this thing, was going to hurt him.

 

[Midnight Lass]

Mila found the tension flowing from her as the creature in front of her --- for lack of a better word --- collapsed in front of her. Whatever it was, it was harmless, and possibly ignorant. Maybe it was a victim, just like her.

For a moment, Mila wished she had read some of those books her geek brother was always reading. She even wished he was here.

She sighed, shaking her head, as the poor, hairless, tailless creature pathetically cradled its head.

In a soothing tone, she knelt by the creature and told it, "Satse im e-ik, iks salov run im. Noit im la irid savop iv. Savop en iv uk?"

 

[Reddy]

Samuel felt pathetic. He was scared, had no way to communicate with this being, and didn't know where he was supposed to go from here on. There were just too many problems with this. And to his dismay, his wallowing even had the alien thing feeling bad for him. At least, that's what he thought.

"I still don't." He muttered while shaking his head. Still, it was a shame that they couldn't talk. Sitting up he looked at the thing wondering what the hell she was.

It was then he had an idea. Why not learn? But that would require some form of trust between them right? Samuel was more than a little hesitant to leave it here alone, but his small efficiency outside of the dorms was far away and he did not own a car. It was extremely lucky that his scholarship covered that building, otherwise this would have been an impossible venture.

A heavy clunk fell as part of the teleporter crashed and skittered across the floor. Taking an alien was mind bogglingly stupid, but so was leaving it behind. Hopefully hand signals worked in similar ways as he stood up slowly, waving for her to come closer. "We can't stay here." He spoke, searching around for something in the storage bins. Popping plastic lids off eventually Samuel found something that would work.

A large grey painter's sheet, to covering the supposed females with while they walked. Probably wouldn't be a great idea, but it was late and he found it better than leaving her here to be found later. Pointing to himself he spoke his name. "Sam-uel." He said slowly a few times. Might as well introduce the person most likely to be her lunch.

 

[Midnight Lass]

Mila spun around into a defensive position when something crashed behind her, then turned back toward the hairless creature. It still seemed pretty pathetic and harmless, and still pretty timid. It began motioning toward, and saying something indiscernible. Cautiously, she approached it as it began searching around various canisters.

Eventually the hairless creature pulled out a large gray sheet. What was it planning to do with that?

Whatever it was going to do, it decided it need to so something else. It began pointing to itself, and saying "Sam-uel" several times. What that its name.

Cautiously, Mila pointed a finger between her breasts and said. "Mi-la. Mi-la. Mila."

 

[Reddy]

"Mila." He repeated quickly. So at least they knew what to call each other judging by that. Or was her species named Mila and she thought his kind was named Samuel? That could be very awkward, but at least if they were willing to talk he didn't think he had to find some steak seasoning to rub on himself. Stepped closer, close enough that he was able to look down (if he was taller than her at his 6 foot height) and look at her more feline like features. It was haunting how similar she was to one of his cats, despite her fur being an off color.

Holding the tarp, he thought to show her what to do, throwing it around himself like a cloak. Now that he was less fearful he got his first good look at her, the barely covered chest and risk inducing panties she wore and turned a bright shade of red around his cheekbones as he looked away. "Mila, follow. Please." He asked, trying to remain calm as his heartbeat threatened to burst from his chest, handing her the tarp and taking a couple steps towards the stone stairway. Hopefully someone left their raincoat upstairs, otherwise he'd have nothing to cover her head with.

 

[Midnight Lass]

Wow, this creature....Samuel, Mila corrected herself...was much, much taller than her. He was at least five jolocs taler than her (a jolic being approximately two inches) taller than her.

Mila frowned as she watched the creature....Samuel, she forced herself to think, Samuel...as he placed the tarp around himself, and then handed her the tarp. As he did so, she noticed his skin turning red as he looked at her. Was he having an allergic reaction of some kind? To her? That was weird.

When Samuel handed her the tarp, he moved toward the stairs leading upwards, then motioned for her to follow.

"O-it le-ik?" she asked, wrapping the tarp around her first, before moving toward Samuel,

 

[Reddy]

His red tint would fade upon looking away. How could he have such a reaction to that, that thing! Samuel had of course been the one in the books for so long that he had never even gone on a date with a woman before, let alone anything further. Even just the sight of someone with shorts a little to tight or a skirt that brought thoughts of the secrets beneath were enough to bring a blush to the college student. But she wasn't even human! He shook away the idea, knowing that it was just his body reacting to the idea of a feminine shape. Yes, just a normal reaction that he would ignore forever.

Up the stairs he went, the wooden handrail guiding them up to a wood and glass door. Again she said something, and this time je turned around and held a finger to his lips shushing the alien. Going first, he found no rain coat, but someone had left behind a sweatshirt which would be good enough for now.

Samuel looked guilty stealing this, but being as late as it was, nobody would notice anyways if he returned it tomorrow. Giving it to Mila he mimed putting the sweatshirt on. They would have to find a way to communicate soon. But safety first.

 

[Midnight Lass]

Mila looked at the hairless one as it mimed for her to....don this garment?

Mila suddenly realized just how she was dressed...or more precisely, how she was not dressed. A warmth spread through her body at the thought, though it wasn't a warmth she could quite identify.

Very quickly, Mila pulled the sweater over her body, tugging it down until it reached down to her upper thighs. She gave the hairless being a nod, belatedly realizing it might not be able in properly interpret her nonverbal cues. Instead, she tried to gesture with her hands for the creature to lead, and she would follow.