Starsnatcher - Trapped In An Alien World [COMPLETE]

Chapter 2d (Bonus Chapter)

Day 20

It was quite nice here, actually.

When I entered it, the bell's wall was transparent, but over time, the light faded from it. Its wall material was intelligent and changed its composition in 24-hour cycles. Okay, 20-hour cycles at first, but the guards corrected it when told.

Their guesses about the right oxygen mix were more accurate, although the atmosphere was still tiring in the long run.

As for food, the bushes, as it turned out, were genetically engineered to give me fruits that, while sour, still had the right chirality for not killing me when I ate them. Unfortunately, the guards didn't listen to my demands to make them more palatable.

The black box had a hole in it, thus serving as my trash bin for the rests of the sour fruits. Through the hole, I could see that everything I threw inside it got dissolved and then rearranged into something new.

A nanofactory, as one of the guards had told me. Nanobots are fun things. They can manipulate matter on a molecular scale. The silicon atoms in the sand become computer chips that way; carbon atoms in fruit can become diamonds. However, their small size also makes them sensitive to wind and temperature, meaning that they require a safe environment like this box to operate. There ain't no free nanoswarms like in the movies.

The box was truly fascinating. Forced by compulsion as strong as stimming, I had to touch it. Its surface was as smooth as that of an expensive car. I filled my hand with sand and dribbled the grains through the hole to see them dissolve.

When I did this, a guard gave me a warning message not to do this.

The guard had iron on their tentacle surface and had the approximate snowman-shape of Helix, given that their head segment wasn't as small as Crick's. At the same time, its shape was longer and more asymmetrical than that of its peers to make more room for the implants. Given that it was obviously a cyborg, I called them "Sye", named after the first syllable of "Cyborg".

Sye didn't make eye contact. They sent a brief message and trusted me to obey. I liked Sye. A loyal citizen who patiently explained the rules that I had to follow. And unlike with Crick or Mr. Graves, I understood those rules.

A small hole materialized in the wall. Sye stuck a fruit into a transparent box that itself was part of the wall. It was a second airlock, so to speak, and I was allowed to take the fruit after thirty seconds. It was rounder than the other and sweeter, almost like an apple.

Sye even gave me medications against PTSD whenever a sand dune triggered uncomfortable memories about dune maws. Truly a good guard. I'd have loved to ask them to fly me home, but there were other guards around.

And then, Helix finally came back. Helix was quiet but in a professional sense. Maybe they wanted to tear me down, maybe they had a harsh day or maybe they couldn't wait to talk to me; I couldn't tell from their mental voice.

Helix didn't feel like entering my home, nor did they want others to listen to our conversation. For this reason, a robot carried a wire inside that I could plug in my head. Like that, we could have our conversation in our private ethereal white void plane. Almost as if someone had laid out a white green screen around us.

"How is your new home?" Helix asked.

I had to choose between being polite and being honest. There was a lot I could have said about possible improvement, but for that, I'd have needed to accept that I was stuck here. Ultimately, I picked a compromise between politeness and honesty.

"I'm sure you've put a lot of effort into this," I transmitted. "Is there any particular reason why we're doing this right now?"

"There is. I want to ask you about your abduction from your home planet, now that your shock about our initial meeting has worn off and you feel safe."