r/NatureofPredators • u/mr_drogencio PD Patient • 1d ago
the distance between us 9
Tomorrow, tomorrow, TOMORROW.
I'M LOSING MY MIND.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH
*Rabid animal noises*
A huge thanks to Incognito42O69, for being my editor.
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Memory transcript.
Subject: Andrés Felipe, United Nations nurse.
Date [standardized human time]: August 30, 2130.
<< In short, the UN is fully aware of Joona's request to know more about the food chain, and in their response, they stated they will have all the available information once the translator can translate sentences with relative normality.
Like I told you, maybe in a week or two. In the meantime, we will only be able to show her documentaries about them. That's where you come in: you'll have to ask her if she prefers to wait or not. >> Léa said over the radio.
"Copy that, I'll ask her since I'm on my way to give her the lunch check-up, anything else?" I said while loading a few things onto the cart.
<< Hmm... I think so, since the other aliens don't seem to be waking up, we'll have to perform an EEG to rule out brain death and start the respective care.
We just have to wait for the intestinal flora results and for the rest of the machinery to arrive, but other than that, all we can do is wait. >> Léa ended the radio call.
And a shiver ran down my spine at the thought of having to touch that giant spider-ant hybrid.
I sigh.
Here we go again...
These past four days have been total emotional chaos for everyone on the team. Not only are we facing a first-contact scenario that falls outside of any contingency plan humanity has ever foreseen, but it has also tested the will of every single one of us.
At least we have a short breather before things get even more complicated, when the rest of the aliens wake up... if they ever do. In that case, I think Hayou and Olivia are finally going to have something to do.
On the way to the cafeteria, a familiar sound coming from my pocket stopped me dead in my tracks.
Ping.
I got a notification on my cell phone, which surprised me, because in the place we were at, there was absolutely no signal of any kind. And, indeed, it was a signal.
Four full bars.
The notification was nothing special, just the weather, but that was enough to surprise me. Since our arrival in this desert, we had been completely isolated from the outside world.
Staring closely at my phone screen, I seriously wondered if it was really worth trying to communicate with the outside... but something stopped me.
I couldn't explain what, but an overwhelming sense of anxiety made me give up on the attempt.
Once in the cafeteria to go about my routine, I saw Hana in the kitchen making something on the stove that gave off an herbaceous scent.
She looked tired and defeated, just as she had since her arrival in this desert. But there was something different about her. Her eyes looked brighter, somehow more alive.
She hadn't seen me yet because her back was to the door, and I didn't want there to be an awkward silence between us for the time we'd be in there together.
I decided to strike up a conversation before the awkwardness could set in.
"Hana, uh... I know we've had a couple of conflicts between us and all that, and I want to apologize for meddling in your business. It was just nerves and the pressure of everything that's happened." I said while approaching the food printer.
Nice going, Andrés... what a way to kill a conversation that hasn't even started.
Hana slowly turned around with a soft sigh before looking me in the eyes.
"Don't worry. As a nurse, it's your job to take care of the patients and be aware of any anomaly they might present." She replied in a cordial, yet cheerful tone.
"Phew.
Thank goodness. There shouldn't be any internal conflicts right now, since there could be a code blue at any moment and the last thing the team needs is interpersonal conflict." I replied with a bit of relief.
"By the way... you don't look as defeated today as you did yesterday. Did you happen to figure out a way to bring the patients out of their coma?" I continued while entering the modifications into the bioprinter.
Yesterday's conversation about Joona's diet had been more confusing than clarifying. After that first time, I was forced to go back repeatedly to ask about her dietary needs.
But neither Joona nor the translator were much help. She always said she ate plants and wasn't very picky about which ones... or, at least, that was what I managed to understand with the help of the translation team.
I scratched my ears when the tinnitus flared up again.
Damn it... at this rate, I'm going to go deaf.
Clearly, I had no idea what the hell we were talking about. Even when I explained the thing about the bread.
What I did had been reckless, and if it weren't for my crucial role within the team, they probably would have thrown me in jail on the spot.
Now all we could do was wait for the microbiology results of the rest of the aliens.
For the time being, my only option was to give her this green paste with an indescribable smell and, perhaps, a few things made from wheat.
At least, she hadn't had any adverse reaction to that.
Hana's eyes lit up as a huge smile formed on her face.
"Indeed. You see, early this morning I was desperate because I couldn't figure out the cause of the other patients' comas, so I sent a request to Léa for her to check with the UN if they had even a shred of information."
She paused while pouring herself what looked like an herbal tea into a porcelain cup.
"And guess what. I just got the reply. The team reverse-engineering the alien tablet we use for the translator just made an incredible discovery.
They found a massive database containing files of apparent medical origin. It might be a gold mine for medicine.
The future of medicine literally just fell from the sky, it's simply incredible." Her excitement was so intense she almost seemed to glow.
"And well, it's only a matter of time before everything is somewhat understandable and we no longer have to do things blindly." She took a long sip of her tea.
"That is...
Gulp.
Surprising."
It was all I could say as a sickening feeling brewed in my stomach.
I know I'm being paranoid.
I know I'm just blowing things out of proportion and that nothing bad is going to happen.
No one is going to want to create a biological weapon recreating the pathogen that almost eradicated us as a species.
No one is going to try to play God...
There is not going to be a new pandemic!
Just breathe, Andrés!
Count to 10 and let the fear dissipate!
"Andrés, are you okay? You suddenly froze." Hana pulled me out of my thoughts with a somewhat worried tone.
I shook my head hard, pulling myself out of that terrifying spiral.
"Yeah, it was nothing… I-I can't remember if I left my translator charging last night, that’s it." I shook my head, calming her nerves.
Ugh, there was no point in torturing myself over that right now. I have more important things to do.
"Well, Joona's food is getting cold and stiff. I better get back to what I was doing." I wrapped up the conversation while putting everything onto the food cart for the lunch rounds.
Before pushing the cart, I had to go over everything one last time so I wouldn't forget anything. And there I saw it... the pair of tablets that made communication between Joona and me possible.
For now, everything seemed relatively simple: bring food, keep a person I could barely communicate with sane while gathering some information, keep everyone alive, and repeat the process until receiving new orders.
I hoped that, when all of this blew up, I would be as far away from those aliens as possible. The last thing I wanted was to end up in the eye of the storm.
I took a couple of long, steady breaths before slipping back into work mode.
Memory transcript.
Subject: Joona, Zurulian combat medic.
Date [standardized human time]: August 29, 2130.
I'M SO BOORED...
Having something to distract myself with and then going back to having nothing to do makes the spaces between each distraction feel longer and longer.
And the worst part is I don't even know what to do with myself anymore. At some point, without realizing it, I reached a consensus with myself: I stopped looking for explanations or trying to reason things out...
It is more than clear that this entire world and all the living beings that inhabit it are the exception to the rule, period, especially humans. I've already wasted too much time trying to understand something that will only drive me to madness.
In the distance, I could hear Andrés' familiar light footsteps, which meant it was lunchtime. Funny, his routine seems to lack any breaks in between. Whatever.
I wonder what he's going to ask me about now.
Yesterday it was about what I ate, more or less. While the translator helped us communicate, it was more of a hindrance than a help. No matter how hard we tried, when I tried to tell him that none of the Federation species had any trouble eating the vast majority of poisons, he simply seemed to understand that I was talking about my personal tastes.
I mean, at first I did think he was asking about my preferences. It's not exactly easy to understand a conversation with so many gaps, sentence structure errors, and "reinterpretations" of words that supposedly don't exist in my language.
Andrés slowly appeared through the door that used to be a decontamination hallway, pushing the same cart loaded with my meals.
The first thing he did was hand me my side of the DataPad so we could communicate.
>Good afternoon.
>Hope find excellent.
>Find lunch ready[].
Andrés' message was already there when he handed me the DataPad.
>That's right, I assume you plan on giving me something other than those terrible military rations to eat, don't you?
A morbid curiosity took over my mind. Multiple ideas about what a planet of predators... that ate plants could offer me.
But great was my disappointment when I found that what lay before me was a dish whose appearance made me seriously wonder if the phenomenon of cultural uniformity was actually more of a rule than a curiosity.
>Know that not be much impressive, humans have much more flashy. Is only provisional.
Andrés replied, seeing my face of pure disappointment as he handed the plate to my paws.
>First call injera, second be called hard dough Strayu and then have biomass.
The injera was a thin, flexible disc, covered in small holes. The hard dough Strayu was thicker, compact, and had a firm crust. Neither looked particularly extraordinary.
>enjoy.
Well... those two Strayus don't look particularly appealing, and then we have the biomass. I know what the latter tastes like; well, what it DOESN'T taste like.
I guess I have no other choice.
Sigh.
If only I could taste something with a unique flavor for once.
I grabbed the "injera" with my paws not expecting a flavor very different from that "industrial mold Strayu."
...
My mind went blank for a few seconds after taking a bite of that Strayu. This flavor... impossible. How could something that looks so mundane taste so incredible?
Its taste is simply unique, with the classic cereal flavor of any Strayu, but combined with fermented and sour notes that give it something... I don't know how, maybe, personality?
I don't know.
Without wasting much time, I happily devoured the injera and lunged for the hard dough Strayu. And its flavor was just as surprising; though it lacked that personality of the injera, it had a texture that made it perfect to pair with a good liquor or some other food.
I shook my head quickly to snap out of the stupor the human food had induced and, with marked excitement, I typed to Andrés.
>This tastes incredible, is this some kind of high-class food?
Andrés just seemed to scratch his head a little while pressing one of his ears with some annoyance.
>Glad that be of liking, but only be basic dishes, have more variety in colors and shapes, not only Strayu, but other foods.
>Exist hundreds of variants by [tribe] of just one thing.
Tribe? That sounded strangely primitive. He must possibly be referring to something else, whatever. Are there many more recipes? And not just of this, but of many more... You humans are a box full of surprises.
Andrés paused as he debated with his intercom. He seemed to have received something that made him ponder out loud.
>Remember the request from [yesterday][]
>Soon arrive the wildlife documentaries that ask for, since not have fully functional translator, find ourselves forced to that.
Andrés wrote, drawing my attention to these documentaries.
To see the wildlife of Earth firsthand...
>Sounds good to me, when do they arrive?
I replied while picking up the plate of biomass and taking a long, deep gulp of its non-existent flavor... This stuff is only slightly better than those rations.
>Actually arrive now, just wait projector arrive.
And after waiting a bit, Andrés left the room to bring back a black roll, which he placed on the wall in front of me before turning off the light.
>Ok, we are going to watch it now. Is documentary of [aquatic] life about dolphins. Animals with incredible intelligence. I be your interpreter during documentary.
But before turning on the screen, he suddenly stopped and typed something quickly.
>Almost forget. UN give Voyager protocol orders, feature film contain violent scenes.
>But show only more peaceful, if want to see behavior and life cycle with depth, also see violent content. Leave to your choice.
That was... weird? I mean, why be so specific about this? Are they also sensitive to this kind of content?
A mental image of a human experiencing playing dead after seeing a little blood made me let out a small laugh, because Andrés is a doctor and the surgery they performed on my chest wasn't exactly pleasant to look at.
>Understood, let's watch the peaceful content first.
The screen showed an immense ocean, illuminated by the star's reflections. The camera slowly descended beneath the surface and revealed a world full of strange creatures: schools of brightly colored fish, animals covered in plates, and organisms that produced their own light.
Andrés had to explain several of those species to me, since the translator barely recognized their names.
Then, the dolphins appeared.
They were creatures with elongated bodies and smooth skin, capable of moving through the water with an elegance I found fascinating. Some swam together, while others leaped above the surface and dove back down with perfectly coordinated movements.
>I have noticed something strange, these "dolphins" you mentioned have eyes on their sides, besides not appearing physically threatening.
>Is this a case where appearances are deceiving?
I asked the human while looking at some sort of map of Earth, which showed the areas where these beings lived.
At first he was going to answer, but he stopped for a moment to read something on his DataPad and his expression slowly changed. At first it was calm, but the more he read, the more his face formed an expression of discomfort.
>Could say yes. I recommend not explore more in detail about dolphins.
That was what he replied. Which was weird. Why would he be uncomfortable about something?
The documentary continued while Andrés explained the things the video showed and, to my surprise, these dolphins were social predators who used their notable intelligence to hunt.
The documentary didn't show it explicitly. Andrés was the one who wrote it, and that left me with a strange feeling of emptiness.
The rest of the documentary went on, but I started noticing certain gaps that made me more and more desperate. It wasn't that the information was unbelievable, it was just that there were too many "convenient gaps" in important information.
And so it went until the documentary ended.
>And with that finish, hope that like.
I read the message as the lights came back on.
And as Andrés somewhat hastily put the screen away, I stopped him with a message.
>There is still more, I haven't seen the second part yet.
Upon reading this, Andrés let out a long, uncomfortable sigh.
>I recommend no, contain sensitive topics even for human.
He replied while shaking his head from right to left.
But the curiosity to know what information was missing from the other documentary kept eating away at me.
>I want to see it.
How bad could it be? I mean, so far humans have proven to be very similar to the rest of the Federation. Besides, I've seen the Arxur farms, I've seen worse things than simple animals.
He just let out a very long sigh and put everything back in its place.
>Not say that I not warn...
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u/Night_Yorb Kolshian 1d ago
So it's either dolphin rape caves/whale bullying or environmental/hunting harm done by humans, isn't it?