Masterclass on Alien Wrangling

Hikyaku was still exploring her dreams, basking in sunlight. She saw the same bird she once helped, once the size of her arm, now grown to half her size. The bird had grown feathers of vibrant colors, like stardust painted on its body. She gave the chick a gentle head pat.

‘Thank you-’ Before she could complete her sentence, a blaring squawk woke her up.

“BWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKK!”

The sound was so loud that it could’ve rivaled an explosion with the decibels it reached. Hikyaku was now wide awake.

“Good morning, I hope old coot didn’t give you too bad of a scare.” Leviticus states.

“What the hell was that ungodly noise!?” Her reaction spiked to annoyance.

“Big Old Kevin.”

“Who?”

Leviticus points behind her, showing a humongous rooster past the bubble they were in. Sitting in the fields and looking up to the sky majestically.

“Old Kevin waddles around the planet every couple months before settling back here for a few weeks.”

“...” Hikyaku nodded, her mood for the day was already ruined.

“I’ll be heading out to see the members of the villages soon.” Leviticus waved at her before returning to his farmstead.

She noticed Ako by the hillside, his tendrils twisted and contorted to form a human-like body. He was sitting down, still continuing to process information on the planet.

“We’re leaving the planet, c’mon Ako.”

“...” Ako was silent.

“I said we are leaving now.”

“...”

After a few attempts at dragging him away, Hikyaku gave up.

“Omne still wants data from here?” She asked.

“...Yes. It will take me a while to finish conducting my analysis. Though it takes time, my tendrils can split from their 8 to 64 to even 4096 microfibers. Each can spread thinly over miles, stretching to nano lengths.”

“Wonderful, will that make things go by faster?” Hikyaku was hopeful he could finish up soon.

“Be patient.”

She left him to his solitude. Leviticus’ fellow workers came running from outside the bubble.

“Leviticus, don’t head out yet! The queen of the Lilliputians was taken by the Brobdingnagian!”

“Oh no, this is gonna spark a bad interaction with both species. I won’t be able to send the message yet.” Leviticus claimed.

Hikyaku knew it was none of her business, as such she distanced herself from the conversation-that is until Leviticus had an idea.

“Hikyaku?”

“Yes?”

“You are a good pilot, no?”

“That’s very debatable.”

“Can you please-”

“No.”

“Please, we need someone to bait the Brobdingnagian so that me and the boys can save the Lilliputian queen.”

“I’m not good at being the bait-”

“It’s ok! We can help!” More villagers join up in arms to help the cause.

‘What have I gotten myself into?’

Everyone looked at her with pleading eyes of desperation. She was reminded of the woman and her child back in Ferriguard.

“URGH. Fine, I'll help.” She temporarily swallowed her pessimism.

“Thank you.” Leviticus gave her a thumbs up.

“So, what even is a Brobadababoe and Lipipipupu?” Hikyaku asked.

“Well we can show you when we get there.” The group gathered their gear and respiratory masks before heading out.

‘I’m going to regret this.’ Hikyaku tagged along in her bio-suit.

Journeying out to the river basin, Leviticus’ men gathered around a grass field. The group had gathered a bunch of hover-bikes and sail-gliders for the mission. Hikyaku drove her star-ship over, popping out of the cockpit and awaiting what breathtaking creatures she was going to see. A low toned growl shook the grass, even displacing some water.

“Hikyaku! That right there is a Brobdingnagian!” Leviticus called out.

She turned to look, it was a mole the size of a house. The creature had teeth protruding past its upper and lower lips. All the while it had a spiked tail like a dinosaur.

“Sweet mother of…” Hikyaku was regretting her decision to come here.

Wrapped in its claws was a shiny eel. One of the farmers pointed to the eel,

“That’s the queen Lilliputian! Without her the species won’t have a stable leader!”

Rumbling can be felt, but it didn’t come from the beast in front of them. The farmers knew what was to come.

“The Lilliputians are gonna try to attack!” One of the men called out.

“Well then we must act fast! One of you, take the sail glider and guide the Lilliputian through a stable path. Hikyaku you follow beside them in your ship, the more flyers there are the more likely it’ll be that they’ll be at your command! When the time is right, me and the other boy’s will yank the queen from the beast’s hands using a grapple-gun.” Leviticus commands everyone, jumping on his hover-bike.

The team heads out in their formation. Thousands of flying-eels zip through the skies. Some divebomb on the giant mole. Hikyaku and the farmers attempted to draw attention to the eels. The size of her ship didn’t work, nor did the noise of the engine, in guiding them away. Running out of options, she turned to her emergency flare button.

‘Do I?’ She looked at the situation before acting.

Leviticus was drawing out the mole, but the onslaught of the Lilliputians was making it difficult to do so-even going as far as knocking the gliders back to the ground.

Hikyaku bites the bullet and presses the button. The flares instantly got the site of all the Lilliputians, even the queen.

“Now that’s a damn good idea!” Leviticus was impressed by her decision, managing to grapple onto the queen and pull her out of the beast’s clutches.

“Be free!” He let the queen go, only to realize she was no longer the one they were paying heed to.

It seems the act of her shooting the flare made them view Hikyaku’s ship as a king to their species. Of course she wanted to have nothing to do with it.

‘So how am I supposed to get out of this mess?’ Looking around, she saw a familiar face: the gargantuan snake.

She then hatched an idea. Drawing near to the snake, with the eels in hot pursuit, she shot her ground anchor. It latched onto the snake’s side, to which she held on for the ride.

‘They’ll get blown away from the turbulence or claim this creature as their new leader. Either way I’ll be left alone.’

Sure enough, it worked. The Lilliputians lost track of her in the turbulent winds, restoring order in their hierarchy. Things were not looking so good for Hikyaku and her ship.

“Shoot, the anchor’s stuck in its flesh.” She tried retracting the tether.

Little by little the harpoon loosened from the snake’s thick flesh. The creature suddenly dipped down to absorb fresh water vapor. This retracted her anchor but in doing so, slingshot her high up into the atmosphere.

She ascended faster than she could decelerate. The only thing she could do was stabilize as it went up to the clouds. Eventually when her ship slowed down, she was greeted with an abstruse view.

‘This is the chrono-sphere.’ She realized where she was.

Above her was the black sea of space, sprinkled with stars. Up there, seconds, minutes, hours, days… even years meant nothing. It is a slow world, almost like it waits for us to take action. But looking down, it’s a different story. As minutes passed by, the whole planet shifted like a living painting. Days passed by. The clouds underneath her moved faster than her. Couple seconds of thunder in one region, then sunshine. Animals moving around the fields are akin to ants, at least in this scenario. It felt like she was some otherworldly entity, leaping through time as she watched the planet age. Minutes turned to almost an hour.

Eventually she managed to descend back through the chrono-sphere and back on land. Hikyaku made her way back to the bubble where Ako and them stayed. It didn’t look like nothing had changed. Nobody was around, this made her slightly concerned. One woman walked out of the house.

“Hey miss, where did everyone go?”

“...They all died a while back. Leviticus was waiting for you, a long time as well.”

“...”

“He told me to give you this.” She handed Ako over to Hikyaku.

He looked to be in hibernation mode.

“I see. My condolences-”

“And here I thought you’d curse me for pulling a stunt off like that, eh?” Leviticus burst through the door, surprising Hikyaku.

“Huh?”

“Got ya! You grumpy goofball! I waited a whole month for you!” He said smiling, the other villagers popped out from their doors.

“I’m done with my calibrations, Hikyaku, we are ready to go.” Ako woke up from his hibernation.

“...” Crowd quickly realized Hikyaku wasn’t as happy with the prank they pulled off.

Things turned awkward quickly.

“I’m sorry for the poor taste in jokes.” He apologized.

“None taken.”

“I… uh… I managed to send word of the collapse to everyone. Thank you for that, Hikyaku.” Leviticus stated while trying to keep his smile despite the embarrassment.

“I see. Well we should be heading out then-” Hikyaku was stopped by Leviticus.

“We shall not fear the end. As a matter of fact we are lucky to live 730 times more than those in the outside world. Life will end regardless, many of us thought about euthanasia down the line-to permanently cut dread future generations may feel. Knowing this, we will not go out with a bang. Rather we shall go out peacefully. It is the most humane way of dealing with this scenario.” He states with confidence.

“You won’t be there to see it. There’s no knowing what each generation deems suitable for a peaceful exit.” Ako mentions.

“But you all have many lifetimes to find that out.” Hikyaku added.

“Of course.”

Hikyaku patted him on the back before heading back to her ship.

“It was great researching this planet, I hope you live great lives.” Ako used his tendrils to wave back.

Hikyaku stopped and turned around.

“Thanks for taking me on that wrangling job, it was a fun time.” She waved back too, giving a slight smirk.

Saying their goodbyes, they ascended past the chrono-sphere and into space once again.

“That’s one more planet checked off, at least this time it was less chaotic.” Hikyaku says.

“I heard you became the pack leader of Lilliputians.”

“It was an eye opening experience. Speaking of which, what were you researching on that planet?”

“Due to the atmosphere, I found that the plants managed to adapt in such a way that their roots dig miles deep to sustain their fast paced life cycle. Animals grow to such immense sizes as a result of time contraction. For some reason Omne found it to be quite intriguing.”

“I guess she wishes to know the universe’s secrets one last time before fading into nothingness.”

“Truly.”

The two revved up for warp drive, their next big stop was the Ira System.