Page 1 of My Alien Bughead
Chapter 1
Lucía
“Fire it up!” Iyell from the top of my lungs, hoping that Xilee in the control room can hear me over the deafening sounds of the smelter. I needn’t have worried though, his hearing is impeccable and so, within seconds, the engine next to me is roaring to life, adding its smooth rumbles to the mechanical symphony of sounds surrounding me.
Leaning over the engine block, I listen carefully for any unwanted sounds as my hand hovers over the emergency shutdown button. There’s no screeching, no grinding, andthankfully, no more rattling sounds to be heard. All I hear is the soft, smooth purr of the beautiful machine I’ve just fixed.
Sure, “beautiful” is a relative term, one that very few people would assign to a massive blast furnace but to me, all engines are beautiful. Certainly more beautiful than most people.
“Lucía!” Xilee’s shrill screech pierces through the room, “why the fuck are you leaning over an engine while it’s running?! Are you crazy?!”
I roll my eyes at Xilee’s extreme caution. I’m not crazy, nor am I being reckless. After three years of working around heavy machinery, I know damn well how to stay alive and safe. “Don’t worry, Xilee. I was just checking that everything’s running smoothly.”
“Well, it won’t run smoothly if you fall inside and the gears get stuck on your bones,” Xilee grumbles, his face slowly losing the grayish tone of fear and returning to its normal light blue color. “Don’t scare me like that again, stupid human.”
“Stupid, huh?” I chuckle, not offended in the slightest. If I had a galactic unit for every time someone called me stupid, I’d be a fucking billionaire. It’s never bothered me and coming from Xilee, it bothers me even less because I know he doesn’t mean it.
I pull out a crumpled metal object from the pocket of my engine sludge covered coveralls. The gears have mangled it beyond recognition, almost. Xilee’s face pales again as I wave the mangled tool in front of his face. “I’m the stupid one here?” I tease good-naturedly. “Really? Not the person who dropped their fucking oxl wrench into the engine, halting any and all use of this furnace for two whole days? For the second time this month, no less! How does that even happen?”
“Er,” Xilee clears his throat, his eyes seeking refuge anywhere other than on my knowing ones. “That’s not mine.”
I snort out a laugh. “You Karetelans are terrible liars. Your forehead literally turns white when you lie,amigo. You’d suckat playing poker. Look, I don’t care how it happened. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again and I won’t tell Arnik about it, alright?”
Xilee’s skin ripples to dark blue as he sighs in relief. “Thank you, Lucía. So, is it working now? Can I feed ore into it or do you need to look at that mechanism too?”
“It should be good, unless you’ve dropped any more objects inside?” I tease. “Still, if you had, it’s probably melted through them by now.”
“Good, good.” He wipes the sweat from his forehead, as do I. With three other blast furnaces running in this one cavernous room, it’s hotter than Satan’s asshole in here. Once Xilee fires up this one, the heat in here will become nearly unbearable to most species, including me. “I need to get back on schedule. Ore stockpiles are overflowing since the miners have been bringing in triple or even quadruple the usual loads. We’re falling behind majorly,” he sighs.
I don’t add any comment because I think I know why there is suddenly such an influx in raw ore intake after years of steady trickle. I also know why Arnik is keeping it quiet. Xilee probably suspects the same as I do but he also knows to keep his mouth shut about it. The more people who know about it, the bigger the danger and Alevvo station isn’t equipped to defend itself against a gold rush crazed crowd.
Not that we’re mining gold here.
Gold is pretty and somewhat valuable but nothing compared to the weapons-grade crylonite our smelter produces. That’s the shit that keeps the galaxy going and unless I’m wrong, we just found an exceptionally rich vein in one of the asteroids surrounding the station.
“Don’t worry,” I say as I slam the engine hood back into place. “This baby is as good as new.” I tap the hood just like my uncle always does. Of course, he fixes cars in his garage back onEarth. I fix monstrous furnaces, hover carts, and alien toilets on a space station hundreds of light years away from Earth, but the principle remains.
Xilee doesn’t waste time. Before I’ve finished packing up my tools, a load of ore rumbles into the furnace and the smothering heat of the smelter increases tenfold. I peek into the control room as I leave, waving to Xilee. “Be nice to my baby,” I warn before finally leaving the oppressive heat, heading down the short tunnel connecting it to the station’s railway.
The further I get from the smelter, the colder it gets. The temperature difference between the smelter and the station’s atmosphere always comes as a shock to me, no matter how many times I make this trip.
Waiting for the train to arrive, I fidget and tug on my coveralls, hating how the fabric sticks to my sweaty skin. Right now, nothing in the galaxy could be more appealing than a long, hot shower. When the comm mounted on my wrist beeps with an incoming message, I consider ignoring it.
“Dammit,” I mutter to myself as I read the message. It looks like the shower will have to wait.
The Alevvo asteroid is the biggest rock in this asteroid belt, but it’s still just a tiny rock floating through space, so the underground train doesn’t take long to whizz me from the industrial zone to the residential district, the heart of the Alevvo mining station.
Weaving my way through the small marketplace, I return several greetings. With a little under three hundred people on the station, we’re a tight-knit community. Everyone knows everyone else and everyone is in everyone else’s business. I both hate and love it.
Ringing the doorbell in front of Arnik’s office, I stand and wait. Even though the comfy sofa in the reception area is far frompristine, I refrain from sitting down and just lean against the wall on my least filthy shoulder.
As soon as the door whooshes open, I march in, hoping to get whatever Arnik wants over with quickly so I can head home for that much needed shower.
“There’s my favorite human!” Arnik greets me with a bright smile. Like most aliens on the station, except for the snake-like Kahszi, his appearance is mostly humanoid.
It was surprising and, to be completely honest, a little disappointing to discover that most intelligent life in the galaxy looks pretty much the same. Two arms, two legs, one head and the usual accessories. Sure, some aliens have beaks and feathers, some have tails or, as in the case of Arnik, horns. There’s also a variety of colors but, all things considered, I’d expected things to be a little more exotic. Like tentacles and stuff. At least they all have cocks, so I guess it’s not all bad.
“I’m the only human you know, Arnik. Doesn’t that also make me your least favorite human?”
