Musemuggers Challenge #100 The Unknown - Part Six

[erastes]

The Unknown
Part Six- based on Picture 7 (used to prompt to mean "home") 

Word Count: 569



I sat there and stared as my jaw dropped.  The man smiled his soft smile and didn't react, didn't push.  I broke eventually and started to talk, to question, to demand, to talk in a constant stream on chat until he put a hand up in an imprecation to stop me.  It was clear he had caught little, if anything of what I had said.

There was a long silence as I caught my breath, and he poured himself another drink.  Then, as the silence grew, he said, "single thing."

I caught my breath, and caught what he was asking.  "Where am I?" I said, my fingers trembling as I picked up the miracle cup and sipped the liquid to steady my voice."

"Here.  You are here," he said.  That wasn't very useful.

"This is not my home."  I said.  I wanted to ask about the suns, but what would I say?  Where did the extra sun came from?  It was obvious that the extra sun belonged to this world as surely as I did not.  "I am not from here."

The man nodded and smiled.  Evidently whatever I had said made more sense than I realised.  "Where is your here?"

"I don't know." I said, watching him closely.  Something wasn't right.

"Talk about your here."  His mouth seemed wrong, and for a moment I couldn't quite work it out.  "Talk. Please."  Then I saw it.   It was like the jokes Almp used to play on me, standing behind a chewing Gi'obi and pretending to be the voice of the dumb beast.  This was like that.  The man's mouth was moving a lot more than his simple words were saying, out of time with the movements.  It made my skin creep and I didn't understand what was happening.  Was I descending into madness after all?  Was this some dream  - why would this man know my language?  It made no sense at all.

I must have showed my panic, because he turned and pointed to the blue ball and said something but it just came out in his language.  He pointed to the ball, then to his mouth, then leaned across and touched my ears, and I understood; as much as I could, at least.  The blue ball was somehow translating what he said.  I didn't like it, it seemed too much like magic to me.

"Talk." He said again, and hesitatingly, because it felt stupid to be talking in my own tongue not knowing if I was being heard or not, I told the man of my home – my 'here' as he called it.  How the land was flat, and the sky hung huge over the land.  How the land was covered with water for the most part.  How the mists of the seasons changed with the weather, but never really went away.  How the Odlera birds came each ebb and stayed to fish and raise their families in our fields, helping to fertilise the ground.  I spoke of Almp and the years we'd been working together, and how I missed him.  There were tears in my eyes when I finished with the news about the one sun, as the loss of my home hit me hard after days and days of repression.  He sat and watched me and his eyes were like the heavens, fathomless and he seemed less kindly than he had after I finished speaking.

TBC

Comments

[rosie-red73.livejournal.com]

Awwwww! Poor baby! And why do I have ominous music playing in my head about this new guy? *clings*

I LOVE how you've got the mouth not matching up with the sound. One of the things that really bugged me about star trek was how the universal translators worked, like yeah, they also create a holographic image of the mouth so... so... yeah. Star trek logic *headdesk*

[underlucius.livejournal.com]

*beams*

Thank you! Yes *stabs the universal translator* they had every opportunity in Enterprise to address that, it wouldn't have been difficult.

*is glad you are geek*

V. happy you are still reading!

[underlucius.livejournal.com]

I agree. Very lax of them.

I don't know how they explain it in StarGate - now that really annoys me! No-one even seems surprised that the foriengers speak their language.

[rosie-red73.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha yes, quite right too *g* There was one episode in Next Generation (which was one of my favourites), where they had this first contact with a race and the universal translators didn't work because these people spoke entirely in metaphor relating to their own history. It could translate the words they were speaking but not the meaning behind it so the lovely Picard had to try and figure it all out whilst stuck on a deserted planet (apart from the obligatory monster) with this cute little alien guy. EXCELLENT episode.

I've screwed it now, haven't I? My true geekdom is out *headdesk*

[rosie-red73.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not much of a stargate buff, but I think only the races who are supremely advanced can speak it and they've studied earth for years. All the rest conveniently seem to speak ancient Egyptian or something like that, which Daniel happens to be fluent in. Lucky co-incidence. Or something...

[underlucius.livejournal.com]

It's OK - you are safe in Geek Central with us.

Eumenides knows Doctor Who like the back of her hand, and I'm probably the World's Geekiest Pratchett fan, as well as ST, ST:TNG, STV, ST:DS9, and of course (we are not worthy) Babylon Five...

[rosie-red73.livejournal.com]

Hahaha thank god for that! My ex was a Dr Who geek, he made me memorise the actors names of like second cyberman to the left and such and then he used to do spot tests *headdesk* He even made me watch some moronic kids programme religiously because one of the companions was the presenter.

TNG was my big obsession, mainly because of TEH PICARD who is still number one on my list. I enjoyed a brief flirtation with DS9 and Voyager, but I lost interest without TEH PICARD *bows down to his baldliness*

[rosie-red73.livejournal.com]

I'm like the opposite of that. I watched TNG religiously, plus the videos over and over and over again *g* I've watched all the other series but never with the same... shall we say 'vigour' (lust for Picard). I even had action figures, which I refused to keep in the original packaging because I wanted to play with them (I was about 20 at the time *facepalm*)

[rosie-red73.livejournal.com]

*snicker* Ex BOYFRIEND, I must stress. And yes, he was. He didn't go normal until he finally admitted he was gay about a year after I left him (happens to me a lot, much to the endless amusement of my family).

I'm a little rusty, but I would probably say the old style Wheel in space or The Tomb of the Cybermen. And I remember that Peter Hawkins did the voices *shudders*

[rosie-red73.livejournal.com]

I know haha. Riker was only used in my extensive fantasy life to make Picard jealous. Ahhhhh the mary-sue possibilities...

[rosie-red73.livejournal.com]

I consider it a VERY lucky escape *g*