Lost and Found: A Space Opera (closed for jc199123)

[RedDeeDee]

For the umpteenth time, Jane decided that she didn't like her face.

Not that there was really anything wrong with it, per se. She just always felt like it didn't live up to the promise of the rest of her body.

Not that Midshipman Jane Derek, Fourth Year, had gone out of her way to create a "smoking hot" body, as she had overheard one of her male classmates describe it. She had just honed what genetics had given her. A taut, sleek form, average height, curves that were pronounced without being overabundant, silky red hair that reached to the middle of her back but was disciplined enough not to get constantly get in her way. Fair skin that didn't suffer from exposure to the sun as so many of her fellow redheads did.

And then her face. A cute face with green eyes that could hold a wide range of emotions. But just cute.

She pushed her self-pity out of her mind and focused on the control board in front of her. It didn't matter what her looks were, she didn't have time for romance anyway. She wasn't allowing herself any time for romance. She had been the first person from her colony to make it into the Star Republic's elite Fleet Academy, and she had hit the ground running the moment she got to the Academy. She had excelled at everything that she put her mind to do, to the point that some of her jealous classmates had begun grumbling and calling her "Mary Jane", though she had not idea what the cultural reference to that nickname was. Couple that to the fact that she either was oblivious or ignored the romantic overtures directed at her, and it was easy to see why Jane was so isolated. No matter. Jane had ambitions and, for the foreseeable future, romance wasn't part of the plan.

The one thing that Jane was disappointed about was that she hadn't got to meet an alien yet. It wasn't surprising. So far, humans hadn't encountered another space-faring race. There were intelligent aliens out there, but their technology hadn't gotten to the point where they could leave their planetary systems. So far, only humans had gone out to the stars.

Right now, Jane was flying a one person vessel. It was a simple mission, really. She was part of a mapping mission, and the area she and her little vessel was mapping was well traveled. Nothing new here. It was just an opportunity for her superiors to see Midshipman Derek at work.

Or that was what it was supposed to be. But even the most traveled parts of space can hold a surprise. One second, her vessel's computer is sending an automatic update message to the mothership, the next...

The next second, Jane just disappeared. It would be approximately five minutes before the mother ship's computer told its human masters that Jane's little ship had disappeared. It would be another five minutes before someone came to investigate. By then, anything that could have helped someone solve the mystery of Jane's disappearance had disappeared as well.

-----​

One second Jane was monitoring her board and obsessing (again) on her 'only cute' face, the next her world went beserk. Her screen had been filled with a background of star patterns, overlayed by a navigational grid. The next, she found herself in a planetary atmosphere, heading down. And not gliding either.

Jane didn't even flinch. Her hands immediately flew across the the controls of her ship, trying to make a vessel respond to what her sensors said was an Earth-like atmosphere when said vessel was never supposed to be in anything but vacuum. To give Jane due credit, she did admirably, but she could only do so much with what she had. The last thing she remembered was crashing into foliage before blacking out.

 

[jc199123]

Pulgoy is a tentacle alien (his body is basically like an octopus.) He has 16 tentacles four of them serve as mouths for him and one also serves as his penis. He has blue green skin that is smooth to the touch. His eyes are on the main part of his body where his organs are at. His race is able to levitate off the ground when they travel as well as breathe under water. His race could absorb oxygen through their skin when they swim. His race also has the ability to pick up on other languages with ease and even after a while talk them as well as be able to tell the condition of any species by either scanning their brain with their tentacles or run one of them over the affected area or areas but they hardly ever scanned the body of any race because it could cause the alien that they are helping pain because they have to physically touch the area.

Pulgoy’s planet is the mirror image of earth the only difference is the species that I lives on it and the fact the planet is covered in trees. Pulgoy lives on an island surrounded by water and he lives in a house with three rooms in it on the beach on the south side of the island. Though the planet had intelligent life on it they live simple though they do have technological advancements like humans but still no space travel... Pulgoy’s species doesn’t date or marry but they tend to stay with one partner till one or both of them die. Pulgoy never found that one female that he had a connection with that he is willing to mate for life with. He is the inquisitive type and likes to explore when he can. He also loves to help anyone or animal in distress.


Today was like any other day or at least it started out like a normal day Pulgoy and went out for an early morning swim. After a few hours of swimming he went out into the jungle part of the island to explore some more of the island. He loved his life on the island he was the only one there unlike on some of the main lands where he would have to compete for food as well as water and space. For an unknown reason Pulgoy was compelled to look up to the sky and he seen a burning mass headed for the planet and after a few minutes of watching the mass it looked like it was heading for his island. He hurried to a cave so that if it does hit the island he could take cover then see what it was later on when everything calmed down. When the object finally hit the island he heard a loud noise and felt the ground shake under his resting body. He waited a little longer so that if anything was thrown into the air it would have time to come down and he wouldn’t get impaled by it.

When he finally came out of the cave he could see smoke coming from the jungle to the north east of the cave. He hurried over to the smoke to see what had hit the island. When he got there he sees what looked like a ship. He didn’t know where it came from but he knew what it was because he had seen one before when some alien life forms landed on the planet before. He continued to move towards it to see if there was anything inside of it. He could feel the heat coming off of the burning wreckage it was almost too hot for him but he made it to what looked like a door and opened it. He explored the inside the best he could due to the heat and some of the ship was either trashed to where the door will not open or something he didn’t know what. He made it to a room that had an alien in it in a weird suit. He drags the alien’s body out of the ship so that he could see if it was ok or not. When he got it away from the ship he saw that it was asleep or dead so he drags it through the jungle to his home so that he could take care of it. He removes a contraption that was around its head. After he removed the helmet he scanned its brain to see if it was ok and he found out it was a female a weird looking female but a female none the less. He also found out besides some bruising she was alright just knocked out from the crash. He took her to an extra room that had a bed just big enough for her to rest in. He waited for her to wake up so he could examine her while she was awake.

 

[RedDeeDee]

The last thing Jane remembered was her screen filled with green, and then nothing.

Well, not completely nothing. She dreamed. She dreamed of being lifted, or floating, or something. She dreamed of taking her helmet off, or having it removed. Of hearing a tiny alarm go off before another one said that it was okay to take the helmet off.

She had a lot of dreams that agreed and contradicted themselves, that sped up and doubled back, and then all the dreams suddenly stopped.

Jane snapped awake, sitting up.

She felt disoriented for more than a few seconds, as her eyes blurrily took in everything around her. As soon as her eyes did focus, though, they immediately focused on the alien in the room with her.

The odd thing was that Jane didn't feel any negative emotions of any kind. She had no idea where she was, how she got there, or what could possibly happen next. But none of that mattered. Everything gave way to overwhelming curiosity about the alien in the room with her.

It was odd in a lot of ways. It had at least a dozen...tentacles, for lack of a better word. At least. But none of them seemed to be supporting the alien. It just..floated, again for lack of a better word.

She didn't recognize what kind of alien it was in front of her, but that didn't surprise her. Intelligent alien races weren't uncommon, but the only ones humans encountered didn't have the technology to leave their home systems on their own.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious about staring silently at the alien, Jane patted down her body and found the universal translator was missing. It must be back in my ship, she thought, then wondered where exactly her ship was. And where was she, for that matter.

"I don't suppose you speak English, do you?" Jane asked the alien hesitantly, not expecting an answer.

 

[jc199123]

Pulgoy could only wait for the woman to wake up seeing how he could sense any horrible injuries for his scan of her brain. He seen that she was tossing and turning in her unconscious state so he did another brain scan to see if there had been an injury that was either hidden till now or it hadn’t started bothering the body till now. The scan showed the same thing as before no injuries except for bruising.

He was startled when she flung herself up from the bed but soon recovered and stared back at the woman who was staring at him. He didn’t know what she was going to do seeing how she was waking up in a strange place but he couldn’t sense her getting ready to do him any harm to him.

Pulgoy could also sense that she wasn’t scared when she was stared at him but quizzical about him. “She must have never seen an alien in her life.” He thought to himself but of course he had never seen a human in person before either.

He just hovered there while she stared at him and he stared at her. She finally broke the silence in the room try to say something in her native language but he couldn’t understand him. Hovered there not saying a word because it wouldn’t have done any good to seeing how she probably wouldn’t have understood him either. He floated there for a second before he had gotten an idea he had a translator that is perfect for this exact situation so he slowly turns around and hovers away to another room where all of his stuff is at and fishes it out of a container that has the stuff he barely uses.

He affixes it, the device looks like a collar, to himself just under his eyes and went back into the room and said to her in his native language “please say something in your native language again so this device can try to pick up the language.” The device is able to send the audible translated message through his ears and when he talks the collar translates what he was saying after he finishes speaking so that the person or thin the wearer is talking to will not get confused but it will only do that once it has determined the language the non-wearer is using.

 

[RedDeeDee]

Jane looked at the hovering creature as it left the room. How is it doing that, she wondered. Some type of telekinesis? Maybe a...I don't know, a gizzard that collects anti-gravity mineral, she thought?

Now you're just being ridiculous, Jane snickered mentally at herself as the creature returned into the room, gesturing at a device on its...neck? It said something unintelligible, but Jane got the gist. It was a translation device, like the one she thought she had on her person. She nodded, then began reciting historical facts and documents so that the device would have a lot to work with.

"When in the course of human events. Soldiers of my Old Guard, I bid you farewell. I now quit altogether public affairs and I lay down my burden. England never did do justice to Ireland -- she never did. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Is that enough?" she asked the alien as she unclipped a small device from her jumpsuit. It was a medical device that read various sensors on her jumpsuit. "Not to worry, it's benign," she told the alien, not knowing if it's translation device had kicked in yet or not. She read the output from the device and gave a sigh of relieve. She had a green break on her left wrist, and her right knee was going to require major reconstructive surgery when she got back. If she got back, she grimly reminded herself. She had no idea where she was, though something about the tentacled creature hovering nearby made her think things could have been a lot worse.

But the medical scanner told her she hadn't suffered any internal injuries, which was good. Lots of bruising though. Jane winced as she sat up in the bed and, when she gingerly tried to put weight on that right knee, pain shot through her body.

"Yep, I'm definitely not going anywhere. So can you understand me yet?" she asked the alien.

 

[jc199123]

Pulgoy could only listen to what the strange words the woman was saying hoping that the translation device could translate her language so he could talk to her. It took a little while but the device was able to translate what she was saying to him. He starts to talk in his native language before this machine translated it and sent the message through the speakers “Yes I can understand what you are saying now… I am sorry that you have to hear my native language before you hear what your native language but the device was built to translate first then speak giving me enough time to finish my sentence so you won’t be hearing two different voices at once and confuse you.”

He hovered over to her and put his tentacles on her shoulders and said “Please lay back down so I can finish my diagnostics on you and send for the treatments.” He hoped that she wouldn’t be hard headed and not let him help her she was in pain when she tried to stand on her own. He wanted to do another brain scan to see if he could find anything while she was awake so that her brain will be more active and tell him more.

“Please trust me if I can figure out what treatments you will need I can have you up and walking around in no time our tech can even do major surgeries without having you cut open but I need you to relax first and lay back down for now so that if your body wont stiffen up from some hidden injury.” He said to her wanting very badly not to see her hurting and so that he could send a message to the nearest doctor on the planet so he could send the equipment for in-home care for whatever was wrong as well as the instructions on how to use the device.

 

[RedDeeDee]

In any other situation, Jane (and for that matter, any reasonable sentient being) would have been alarmed at an unknown alien talking about performing any type of medical procedure on them. Jane found herself mildly amused, as well as having her curiosity piqued. So many questions she wanted to answer.

For example, she could feel pressure on her shoulder from where the alien's...limb?...tentacle?...was pressing against her, but it was just floating in the air. Simple physics said it had to be bracing against something to make an even mild push against her body. She'd really like to know more about the other's physiology.

"No offense, but have you actually ever seen or heard of a being like me?" Jane said with a chuckle. "I'd really rather not be the first human subject of your people's medical procedures." Jane gently brushed the tentacle off as she remained seated. She gingerly moved the knee around, wincing once in awhile.

"This I just need to put a splint to," she said, lifting her left arm carefully. "I've hurt it worst playing..." she paused, trying to think how to describe lacrosse. "Anyway, I've hurt it worse and continued playing a rigorous recreational athletic event. This, though..." she frowned at the knee. "That's going to require at least two sessions with an orthopedic surgeon and his bone knitter. For now, all I can do is immobilize it. Say, there's a medical kit including a first aid computer in my vessel. If you could get that, maybe you can integrate it with..." Jane paused, as an unexpected thought came to her mind.

"You're in my head, aren't you? Psionics!" Again, there was no sense of alarm from Jane, but just curiosity and fascination. "Is that natural with your race? Or just with a few? I've been tested before. Well, everyone who goes through the Academy has, and I've got 'latent potential', is what they call it. Especially with mental blocking and shielding. Here, tell me what I'm visualizing." Jane formed an image in her mind, and then pictured a stone wall around the image, one that she threw her will into, to make her mind as impenetrable as she could.

 

[jc199123]

Pulgoy could understand her hesitation but he knew if she would let him get the medical equipment from one of the hospitals on the main land she would be happier than managing the pain till she is found. He decides to let that thought settle a little bit before he pushed it any farther.

He couldn’t help but to laugh when she asked if he was inside of her head. He lifted up the four tentacles that housed his mouths and began to speak again so she could see the holes move like her mouth. “No I’m not in your head the device can pick up even the quietest speech and translate it then it sends it through speakers on the device… It is basically a two way translator it picks up your language and feeds it through a set of speakers in the collar near my ears and when I speak it translates it then sends it out through external speakers in the language you understand.” While he was talking he points to the speakers he is talking about. ” We do have some of our race that is able to do what you are speaking of but they have to touch you to be able to do such a thing. Everyone in my race can determine medical conditions by placing two tentacles on each side of your head. I personally haven’t seen anything like you but we have had visitors like you before a long time ago way before I was born. They left some technology here that they used for their medical procedures so we can improve on it and help anyone that looked like them or any species that happens to crash land on our planet.”

He starts to think if he could state all the facts about the machine he was going to bring in he could get her to maybe let him do it now that she knows that she wasn’t the only one of her kind to land here. “Before you totally rule out our medical help please listen to what I’m about to say… The machine I want to bring in does all of the procedure by itself I’m just there to monitor you and it mainly you… If you let me do this I can have you back up and walking around feely in a week to two weeks. The machine has a programmable chemical in it that absorbs into your body and fixes the problem by promoting cell growth. All you have to do is lay in a tub of the chemical with your head exposed so I can scan it for any signs of distress. I will submerge you in it once a day.” He said to her pleading his case so that she can move around and not just be lying there going crazy.

“The only drawback for you will be that you cannot wear this in it because the programmable chemicals will eat it thinking that it is harmful to you.” He says pulling on the sleeve of the suit she was wearing. “But that should be nothing to regain use of that leg and anything else that is wrong in a matter of a week or two.” He finishes letting her process the information he just given her.

 

[RedDeeDee]

Jane rolled her eyes, then stopped, realizing that the alien before her wouldn't understand the gesture. "I'm very well aware of the algorithm that governs a translation device. By in my head, I meant what you just explained, that you can place two of your tentacles on my head to monitor my brain and, by extension, how my body is healing? That is fascinating." Jane paused, and actually blushed, realizing she sounded like a fictional spacefaring character from the distant past.

"Now, you're saying this technology is from past visitors to your planet? Aliens who looked like me. But they haven't been here since long before you were born?" Jane wondered if there had been humans here before, who had got pulled here in the same mysterious manner she had. If they had left, then it meant she wasn't necessarily stuck here herself. "Have you had other alien visitors, ones who didn't look like me?" So far, humanity had found itself alone among the stars. Finding another alien race that had made it to the stars would be a momentous discovery.

Jane could tell the alien was more concerned about her recovery than in discussing his races' history, so she decided to humor him. "Sure, absolutely, order the equipment, and I'll take a look at it and see if I'll let you use it on me. And in the interim, I'd like to get supplies from my ship."

 

[jc199123]

Pulgoy went to his computer and began the process for ordering the machine he needed for her making sure that he specified that it was for her species use. He made sure to get the biggest one that he could fit in the house and not take up too much space. After he sent the info to the hospital so that they could deliver the machine he turns to her and says “I’m sorry but I cannot let you go out there right now you may end up making whatever injury you have worse by going out there thus extending your recovery time even it’s natural or by the machine… you stay he and rest and I will get the items you are wanting from the ship. If you at least let me do this for you then we can talk about whatever you want to talk about regarding my race.” He knew she wanted to talk about his race but right now he wanted to start making her feel better or at least make her more comfortable before they started to talk about thing.

He left the room and went to his room to retrieve a single frequency communicator. He takes the communicator back to her and says “you can reach me on this I had the other communicator that this one is pair with attached to my translator. He hands her the communicator and points to a button and says “This is the only button on it push it to talk and release to listen.” He didn’t know if the woman would let him go without her but he really didn’t want her walking through the jungle right now with her leg hurt. Plus she may end up feeling more pain by the time they got to the ship and he would have to carry her back as well as the stuff she wanted. He also hoped the promise of talking about his race would entice her to say in the house.

 

[RedDeeDee]

"No offense, but you wouldn't know what you were looking for, and if the ship is even half as damaged as I am, I couldn't tell you how or where to get to it," Jane answered. She actually felt a good deal of gratitude to the alien for trying to saver her a lot of pain and grief, but it wouldn't be right sending the alien to try to salvage equipment from a damaged spaceship. She suspected that with their natural abilities coupled with whatever technology was left behind, these aliens could potentially be the greatest healers humanity had ever encountered. But they weren't a spacefaring species, at least from what she could tell, and tinkering with a space drive, even accidentally, wasn't for the uninitiated.

"Let's see if this suit works as advertised," she murmured, looking at the medical readout. She made a few adjustments and the suit immobilized her arm and knee. She stood up on her good leg and gingerly tested the weight on her other leg.

"As long as we go slow," she told the alien, "And if you can give me something to help me hobble along, I should be fine."

 

[jc199123]

Pulgoy knew that he wasn’t going to get this woman to stay behind so he looked at her and said “Fine you can go with me but I am going to carry you there so you won’t hurt your leg. I have traversed the jungle more than you and if I didn’t hover like this I would have broken a tentacle a few times so I don’t want to make your injuries any worse than they are now.” He wraps her up in his tentacles. He didn’t give her time to protest before they were off to the jungle. He gracefully maneuvered with the woman in his tentacles through the jungle.

He reached the crashed ship and he let down the woman. He held one t her for a bit so he could catch her in case she stumbled. He said to her “Wait here I’m going to go find you something you can lean on while walking.” He soon hovered off looking around the ship for a piece of metal that he could give her to lean on. After a couple of minutes of searching he found a piece of pipe that split into two different pipes. He figured that this would be great she could use this to support herself with by putting her arm in where the pipe splits into to two smaller ones.

He grabbed a piece of large fallen and brittle bamboo stalk breaking it beneath the joint so that he could use it as a bucket of sorts so he could flush out any chemicals in the pipe. He flushes it out with water from the ocean water and pointing the end at the ship so the run off will land on it. He tests the pipe to make sure it can hold a lot of weight but trying to bend it with his tentacles.

He hurries back holding the pipe in his tentacles saying “I hope this will do it’s a metal pipe from your ship.” He hands her the pipe to try out and asks her “Do you want me to come in with you and help carry stuff?”

 

[RedDeeDee]

"That won't be necessary," she told the alien of the offer to carry her, though she had to admit that she was intrigued. Jane found herself balancing pride with intrigue on how exactly the alien's 'propulsion' worked. Some type of naturally occurring anti-gravity? Subconscious telekinesis? And if humans had been here before, why had she not heart any report of the planet? Just the little she had seen on what she assumed was an isolated outpost would keep an army of xenobiologists busy for decades.

Jane shook her head. Each question she pondered produced a dozen more. For now, she needed to scavenge what she could from her ship. And she was more than a little intrigued by the treatment program the alien had promised. When it was delivered, would she meet more of his kind?

And so Jane was not carried back to her ship, but made her slow, painful way back to the ship on her two decidedly not optimally performing legs. She almost regretted not taking the alien up on its offer of going to her ship alone. But that would be unfair to someone who had been so decent to her.

She smiled at the impromptu crutch he provided. It was definitely better than what she had used to get here.

"If I can get to it, the ship's medical kit will have something better. You're welcome to follow me, but I need you to stay right behind me. Do not, under any circumstances, try to get ahead of me. This time it's me who doesn't want my savior getting hurt," she said as gently to the alien as possible.

 

[jc199123]

“I will stay behind you I promise.” He said to her not wanting her to going alone in case something would happen to her and he would have to get her out again. “Do you think we will need to make some sort of device that we can drag behind us so we I can move the items you want?” he asked as they started into the ship.

Pulgoy was amazed when he entered the ship he wanted to g off and explore the ship but he couldn’t because he promised not to go ahead of the woman in front of him. He could see items that he could integrate it into some of the tech he had at the house. He couldn’t wait to explore around the ship when the woman he saved wasn’t there. He couldn’t tell by the wreckage but he didn’t think the ship was capable of flight so he wondered why she wouldn’t let him explore the ship while she looked for whatever she was looking for. He still just fallowed behind her keeping an eye on her so that she wouldn’t hurt herself more.

“What else besides the medical kit are you looking for?” he asks wondering if she was going to have to carry a lot of stuff to his house.