She Came From Outer Space Chapter 7
Lola's 'arms' were holding Lily close to the pod. Together, the pair were looking through the data-pad. Lily was finding it harder and harder to come up with reasons to leave the research lab. Only when her data-pad had an emergency pop-up did she do so.
“It's my turn.”
“No, it's my turn!”
Lily laughed.
“You're laughing. I... feel it.”
Lily looked up behind her at Lola, taking in the red woman’s face.
“What is laughter? You didn't answer my question.”
“Oh, right. I told you, it's hard to explain without an example. Laughter is... well, I laughed because what happened there was funny. I found it funny that we are... we're arguing like...”
“What are we arguing like?”
“Well, when people like each other, on Earth, they form... bonds. People who have bonds like that are... well... they act the way we just did with each other. Familiarly.”
“Oh. I see. Friends. Are we... friends, Lily?”
“Y... yeah. F-friends...” Lily mused, and tensed a little under those gloved arms.
Lola held her a little tighter. “I'm happy we're friends.”
“So, you don't remember... anything before I found you, Lola?”
“I remember... some things. I was cold. Cold for a long time. And alone. I didn't... like being cold. Or alone.” Her tone was suddenly quite sullen, speaking almost distantly. Lola thought back on how long it had been. Locked away in that golden shell, unable to feel anything, unable to touch anything…
She flexed the thick glove her slime currently filled.
Lily felt another dagger of guilt rip into her. Lola wasn't doing it on purpose, of course, she wasn’t trying to make her feel bad, but it made her feel like the worst piece of shit to keep her locked in that pod.
“You were in that golden ball for... a long time.”
“Yes...” Lola said, sounding almost bitter, “but now I'm not. I'm not cold. I'm not alone.”
“You will never be alone ever again,” Lily said, resting against the 'arms', “I can promise you that Lola.”
The grin on Lola's face widened at that idea. Never alone again. Not just Lily. More humans. Lots of humans to know. That sounded just... delightful.
“Lily, there was something else on your data pad that I noticed. People laugh for other reasons. Not just when something funny happens, right?”
“Uh... well,” Lily began, before laughing, “there you go! Sometimes we laugh when... well, when we're a little...”
“Nervous?” Lola finished for her.
“Yeah.”
“Why are you nervous, Lily? Is there something you're hiding from me?”
“What? No, well... I don't think so…”
Then she saw the whiteboard, with their data set upon it that seemed like it had been written so long ago. They spoke to each other so casually now it seemed as if Lily had known Lola… all her life.
“There is another reason people laugh, Lily... when they're tickled.”
At that, the hands of the gloves scribbled gently against Lily's sides, tracing against her thin, velour suit.
“Hahahaha! Stop!” Lily squealed, clamping her arms to her sides and finding herself wriggling in mid-air, floating helplessly.
Lola's smile broadened.
Never alone again...
---
“Lola, I've been meaning to ask, do you... do you eat?”
“Eat?”
“Consume things... uhhh, intake nourishment... food... nutrients...” Lily began her usual method when they reached a roadblock in communication, simply listing everything she could think of until something clicked.
“Oh, not really. Not anything... you would consider food.”
“But you do eat something?”
“I feed off of interactions.”
“Ah, I think we're misunderstanding each other, Lola. I know, our language has a lot of words that are the same but mean different things in different contexts-”
“No, I know what you mean Lily. I gain sustenance from interacting. It fuels me.”
“You... you do? How does that... work?” Lily stumbled, as always when she got an answer from Lola, the answer was so alien it was difficult to even know how to frame it in her notes. She tapped away frantically, trying to put it together.
“I was designed to interact with beings. A long, long time ago, I think. It's hard to remember. I don't think many of my memories survived the... journey.”
Lily looked up, taking one of Lola's hands in sympathy. Whenever Lola brought up how long she had been, it tore her apart. Knowing she literally fed off of being around others – somehow – just made the implications of that so much worse.
“You weren't designed to be on your own, huh,” Lily mused, typing with one hand, the other holding the glove.
“No. Where memory fails me, instinct is telling me what I forgot. I feel a deep, powerful drive to interact. To talk. To... touch.”
Another dagger ripped into Lily, and she squeezed the glove.
“I promise, Lily, we won't keep you in that pod a second longer than we have to.”
“Lily, I've been thinking...”
Lily found Lola's increasingly 'human' speech patterns a little unnerving, even after days together. Like now, this was something new. Usually Lola never held anything back, but she seemed to sense the topic was going to be uncomfortable.
“You're ‘couching’ your words, Lola. That's something humans do when they're worried about talking about something.”
Lola smiled sheepishly. “Yes.”
Lily couldn't help but smile. This girl was... so affective. Maybe she really had gone insane, maybe she had been up here alone too long, but... Lily was feeling herself growing very close to the girl in that pod. She wanted to… be close to the girl… in that pod.
As that last thought crossed her mind she swallowed it down, hoping to hide it away with all the others that had begun to surface since Lola’s arrival.
“Lily, surely whoever designed me, logically, would have thought of the possibility of me spreading disease, or being incompatible with life forms.”
Lily nodded, appreciating her point.
“Well, maybe they did for their own species, but they couldn't possibly have known what humans would be made of. We don't even know if you wound up here by accident or...”
Lola whined softly, her hands against the glass. This was new, more mimicry of human behaviour, she noted. Some part of her, some nagging part, was still telling her to be wary. That this increased human-mimicry was, somehow, disturbing. As usual though it was crushed down by logic. This was undoubtedly a part of her programming... or design... was she a robot? An android? A sentient substance? Even now Lily had no idea.
“Surely if they could create something like me, so advanced your systems can't even study me... surely I must be safe.”
“Lola I'm sorry, I really am, but-”
“I know. The risk.” Lola finished for her, defeatedly. “We can't know for sure...”
“Right.”
“If only there was some way we could test it safely...” Lola said, looking through the datapad which Lily had decided to just let her have. It wasn't like they didn't have spares, especially with less than expected crew.
That was it. Other crew. There WERE other crew they could test on!
“Lola, I have an idea. We need to try something first though... wait, can you... are you…” She tried to frame the question in a way that wouldn’t sound inappropriate. It was so hard to gauge her relationship with Lola. She seemed very practical, though, logical.
“Lola, can you separate parts of yourself?”
Lola lifted her hand and a small blob of her red form separated from it, and once it was free, she re-absorbed it a few seconds later.
“Right, I have an idea. Look down at the pod's wall down here. I'll open a little port...”
“You're letting me out?” Lola gasped happily.
“No, sorry,” she said, another tinge of guilt washing over her for having gotten the girl’s hopes up, “but I can take a small sample of your... body... and run a test on another crew member.”
Lola seemed distant, cold even, for a moment. “Other crew?”
“Yes!” Lily said, not noticing, as Lola’s black eyes narrowed, dimming. “Well, no, not a human, but we have a small sample of living tissue as part of an experiment,” Lola explained, “actually until you turned up, that was supposed to be my private project up here. Testing to see how living tissue grows in zero gravity.”
“I think I understand,” Lola said, nodding. “It is… a part of you.”
She flicked through the datapad.
“Humans… cannot separate.”
Lily nodded, “Yes, but before I came up here, a long time ago, I began to grow a culture of cells. It’s, well… It is me. It’s my DNA. It’s a living sample of myself. Skin, muscle, nerves…”
Lola was nodding slowly, and had Lily been looking, would have seen a small drop of red slime drip from Lola’s open mouth.
“This port is designed to let us take air samples from the observation pod in these little ampules, see?” Lily held one up, and Lola kept nodding, “So if you uh... squirt a little of yourself into it, I can go test it and see what happens.”
“Great!” Lola asked, perhaps a little too eagerly, and paused. “Oh… when you open the port... will you be safe?”
“Well, it's air-tight, and designed to resist a vacuum. I don't know if it would handle high pressure as well, though...” Lola said, muttering the last part.
“I'll be careful,” Lola said, staring directly into Lily's eyes with a blank expression.
Lily inserted the ampule and hit a few buttons, and the system depressurized the port.
“Okay, when it opens y-”
The port opened, and Lola's form slammed into it.
“Lola stop!” Lily warned, loudly, watching the other side of the port in alarm.
Lola stopped and waited, before looking up. “I'm sorry, Lily, I think the... pressure pulled me in.”
Lily nervously peered at the red girl who was no longer meeting her gaze, and was instead staring intently at the port.
“Lola, that was...”
“Dangerous, yes. I didn't … expect it to be that strong. I'm sorry.” Lola shrank away, and Lily bit her lip.
She had warned her... did she even listen? Maybe she hadn't been clear enough. It almost seemed like she had done that on purpose, though… but then why did she look so dad?
“I'm sorry, Lily. There's some of me in there now. You can take it out. I understand if you are upset.”
Lily shook her head. There was no way... it must have been a mistake. Lola had learned a lot but she obviously knew very little about technology. Lily hadn't warned her about the pressure in a way Lola could have understood. That had to be it. It was her fault.
“It was my fault. Everything's fine,” Lily said, albeit a little strained.
Lola returned, and smiled.
“I'll be back soon, if you need me you know how to communicate with me on the datapad right?”
“Yes, I remember.” All smiles.
Lily depressurized the ampule port and, with a little trepidation, removed it.
“There I am!” Lola giggled, and waved to... herself. Lily smiled a little, and with a wave, left.
It had to have been an accident, Lily told herself again, hoping this time she would believe it.
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