Artificial Heart

3

Prisha's voice echoed around the ship. She clapped a hand to her mouth.

The figure turned. His visor showed nothing. His body language showed even less. Was he angry? Was he annoyed? Prisha tried not to cringe. She tried to stand with confidence but wobbled on her feet, still oddly fuzzy-headed and faint. She lifted her chin instead. She had to get something out of this. He couldn't just drop her back and that was it.

'You are tired,' he said. Reaching under the console to his right, he pulled out something that looked like a tray. Then he flipped it open, revealing a second seat. Directly beside him.

'Th-thank you,' she said, sitting down on it awkwardly.

They were so close their hips were almost touching. He smelled strange—metallic, plastic, like the rest of the ship, and yet heat radiated from him. His hand was close enough she could reach out and touch it. Despite the warmth of the space blanket, the hair stood up on her arms.

'I am extraterrestrial,' he said in his echoey monotone voice. 'As you would call me. Part-organic. Not humanoid. From an eco-base subset, 26.69 light years away approximate. I am a satellite drone arrived to collect data after receiving your intel.'

Prisha stared as she tried to remember. 26.69. 26.69. Eco-base subset. What the fuck did that mean?

'That's a lot to remember,' she said. Important. She needed to write it down. She wished she had a pen. She pulled off the "space" blanket and started searching her pockets as though one should miraculously appear in her hiking clothes. 'Do you have a pen?'

His visor stared at her blankly.

She paused. 'Receiving intel? You mean ... you mean we contacted you?'

'You sent messages. We retrieved them.'

Sent messages? Prisha pursed her mouth. 'Do we ... do we know about you?'

'No.'

'What did the messages say?'

'There have been millions of messages.' He turned towards the window. 'We have almost arrived.'

'Already?' Prisha's heart fluttered. 'I can't ... I can't stay a bit longer?'

He turned his head.

He turned back.

Prisha continued to sit beside him quietly, watching as the sky turned from black to a deep twilight blue. The stars dimmed. Most vanished. Then there were oceans and mountains and land. They were moving fast. It all rushed past her like a dream.

Prisha didn't realise she was gripping onto the back of his seat until her hand started to ache. She felt nothing of the sheer velocity at which they were moving. She glanced down at the controls but could make nothing of the lights and buttons and levers. He tapped a screen.

'We can't see you?'

'Only when I want to be seen.'

The forest blossomed into being. Trees rose up on either side as he settled the ship, as easily as though he were parking a car.

Prisha turned with a start at a dull clank. A door was opening. No. It was the ramp lowering. Prisha's heart sank. She didn't move.

'You may go,' he said.

Prisha couldn't speak, the words stuck to the roof of her mouth.

'Go.'

Finally, Prisha stood. Her legs seemed barely able to carry her weight as she wobbled over. She stopped and turned. 'I'll come back,' she said. 'I'll come back. Same day. Same time. Right here.'