Lost in Translation

The Sorax turns their head towards him and Kevin feels pinned to the cave wall behind him. Panic overcomes him yet again, only this time it’s a kind of panic that keeps him rooted exactly where he’s sat, like a deer caught in headlights.

The enemy’s eyes are covered with a visor. Even though the Sorax are effectively blind, their eyes can still detect light and differentiate it from darkness. They use light-blocking vizors to protect themselves from the full impact sudden light can have on them, as they spend most of their lives underground.

Despite all this knowledge flooding Kevin’s mind, the instinctual alarm of not being able to see your opponent’s eyes overrides all of it. He is reduced to instinct and terror, quietly observing the figure in front of him in a meek attempt not to be noticed.

He flinches when the Sorax opens their mouth. Their teeth bear resemblance to human teeth, though the sharpness of the canines easily differentiates them. Nonetheless, in this moment they seem as inviting as shark jaws.

The spell of fight, flight or freeze is broken the moment the Sorax lifts themselves up from the ground and starts walking towards Kevin.

“Get the hell away from me!” Kevin shrieks. The Sorax flinches and brings a hand to their head. Kevin notices that they can only bring one arm up, while the other is swaying limp at their side.

Probably wounded from the blast.

This is his chance.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” He continues screaming at the top of his lungs. The Sorax have super sensitive hearing, Kevin hopes that his screaming can keep them disorientated.

Kevin sees them drop to the ground. The Sorax is clutching their head and trembling. If he wasn’t fighting for his life, Kevin would have felt bad for them.

Without stopping his screaming, he starts looking around for a weapon. His screeching is replaced with cheering and whooping when he spots his laser gun. It’s only a few meters away. He tries to scramble towards it, but his attempt is cut short by a sharp pain from his right leg. He can’t even spare a moment to look at his injuries.

Both he and the Sorax are injured, but Kevin still has an advantage, the gun.

God damn it! He’s so close, he just has to push himself a little more. Using his arms he crawls towards the laser gun. He digs his nails into the dirt and the muscles in his arms burn, but his life depends on that gun.

The gun is in his hands in just a few seconds, he hopes that it’s not too late.

He leans himself up the cavern wall and points at the Sorax. Finally, he stops screaming, though his silence comes from confusion. His enemy is laying on the ground, one arm up in the air. Are they giving up?

The Sorax’s mouth is open again and Kevin is hit by the realization of his own stupidity. They have been trying to talk to him the whole time. The Sorax’s high frequency language has successfully been translated by humans, and it just happens that Kevin has a translator on his helmet.

“Wait, do you want to talk? I have to lower my gun to turn on my translator. You’re not going to flip out on me, right?” Kevin manages a crazed smile.

The Sorax just grunts into the ground but keeps their arm in the air.

Good enough, I guess. With trembling hands Kevin lowers the gun, keeping his eyes locked on the alien in front of him. Quickly, he flips on the translator and scrambles to point his gun in front of him.

The Sorax opens their mouth yet again. Kevin doesn’t hear anything. As he starts spiraling how this was all a trap, his translator beeps to life.

“Finally! Are all human soldiers this stupid, or are you a special case?” Even though the voice coming from the headphones on his helmet is slightly robotic, it conveys annoyance easily.

“Hey! I’m not the-” Kevin starts, though when he sees the Sorax cringe, lowers his volume, “I’m not the one on the floor just because of a little screaming.”

“I could break all your limbs with just one functional arm.” The Sorax punctuates with a growl-like sound.

“Yeah, I would like to see you try. Not that I have a gun or anything.” Kevin chuckles. He feels himself relax, though now that the adrenalin is wearing off the pain in his leg is harder to ignore. “Anyways, why were you trying to get to me? You could’ve just chucked a rock at me or something.”

“Your human disposition doesn’t allow you to sense it, but there is a med pack to your right, about two [shHhH] away. I wanted to get to it to heal my arm.”

“Wait, do you mean two meters away?” Damn translator doesn’t work right. Kevin grumbles while lightly smacking his helmet, like that’s going to make the translator magically work.

“No. I mean an [shHhH] away.” The Sorax looks straight at Kevin. If it wasn’t for that vizor he imagines they would have an exasperated stare.

“Look buddy, my translator has no idea what in the hell that is. Would you mind explaining.” Kevin gives them a pointed look.

“I can’t believe how primitive you humans are with sound. We can fully understand your language with just a few months of practice, and you can’t manage it in ten years. Even with machines helping you.”

Kevin just keeps staring at them.

“It’s a unit of measurement. One [shHhH] is about an adult sorax’s height in length.”

“See, that wasn’t hard at all.” Kevin smiles, though he can hear his unlikely ally sigh in irritation. “Now, go get that med pack and we can both get healed up.”

There is a beat of silence, neither of them moves.

“You are closer to it though.” The Sorax states.

“Last time I checked, I’m the one with an injured leg. “, Kevin huffs and readies his gun at the Sorax, “Besides buddy, I don’t trust you. I’m not just gonna leave my gun just because you’re feeling a little lazy.”

“Fine,” the Sorax grunts and starts to get up, “but please keep quiet, so I can actually sense where I’m going.”

Kevin mimes a zipper going across his mouth with a key twist at the end just to punctuate how serious he is about keeping silent.

Maybe this will work out in the end. Kevin thinks as he watches the Sorax walk towards the med pack.