“Yeah, it’s not just you,” I agreed.
The Gray-Green, who seemed to be the medic, was busy having a discussion with our guide. They finished, and our guide gestured for me to step forward.
“It has been decided that it is only necessary for the humans to undergo the process. It will be sufficient to facilitate communication between your species.”
The medic pointed to an exam table. “Sit. A helmet will descend, so please do not be alarmed. It will make everything dark for you, which is necessary for the procedure.”
“Why? Why does it need to be dark?” Fred blurted out.
“To prevent eye damage,” was the only reply we got.
I swallowed, pulled my hand from Gree-Gree’s, and sat where indicated. I felt a moment of panic as what looked like an atomic era space helmet attached to a bunch of wires and hoses descended from an opening in the ceiling just as he’d promised. The medic placed it over my head, and the clear visor went dark. I fought down a sense of panic.
I can breathe. I can breathe. I can breathe.
I felt Gree-Gree’s hands take mine, and it proved to be exactly what I needed to slow my breathing. Gree-Gree was safety. He wouldn’t let me come to harm. I was his, and he was mine, and he’d tear this fucking thing off of my head if he saw I was in distress. I knew it deep within my bones. I knew it, and this was exactly why I was so certain that he would stand with me to explain to his chief why we should work together to advance for the betterment of us all.
“You’ll feel a sensation as if small insects are crawling over your skin. Do not fear. It is merely the nanites being dispensed. They will enter your bloodstream and travel to your brain, where they will integrate into your language center. You may see flashes of light and experience mild discomfort, but please do not panic. It will all be over very quickly.”
He wasn’t kidding. The feeling of ants crawling all over my scalp had already started. I couldn't help myself. I whimpered, remembering the year I was seven, when we’d gone to stay with my mother’s brother and his wife right after my birthday. They’d rented a mobile home somewhere in rural Georgia - to be honest, I had never been clear where. We were just there for a two week visit as my dad had been assured by my uncle that he could find work at some military base an hour away from where they lived. It hadn’t panned out and we ended up going back out west. That wasn't what I remembered most about that visit, though. No, that honor rested with the fire ants whose home I accidentally sat on when I went out into the field next to their yard to play with my action figures. One moment, I was running around, zooming my superheroes around in the air, then I was on the ground, ready to drink the juice box I’d taken out with me. And then, there were ants. So many ants, and I was screaming, running back to the trailer.
Unlike then, there were no stings. Just the feeling of them crawling over me, across my eyelids, into my nose. An intense itching began, and I began to wish I had some of that Benadryl my aunt had dosed me with that day to counteract those bites.
My eyes had been doing that small light show thing that happens when you close your eyes. Only this time the streaks and spots grew brighter, and the colors all merged until there was only a single bright, greenish-yellow one. My eyes began to itch and burn at the same time, and tears streaked down my face. I bit back a cry, swallowing any further whimpers, concentrating only on Gree-Gree’s hands holding mine. This was for us. Even if the head cheeses decided to not help me with my ideas, I’d have Gree-Gree and the life we would build together. Hopefully, that meant some indoor plumbing and maybe upgrades to the inside lighting and stoves, but if I had to eke out an existence in a medieval village without any mod cons at all, I would choose to do it with Gree-Gree, every time.
My head began to fill with static, and I was thrown back to my early childhood again. My brain was still holding onto that trip to my aunt and uncle’s, apparently, so now, I was seven and riding in the piece of shit car that my dad babied along that long drive. This time, I recalled my mother telling my dad that it was pointless to try to find a radio station and him just laughing, saying that he bet he could find something on the A.M. radio band, as no doubt some local station out here, wherever that was, in the nothing but cornfields as far as the eye could see for what felt like forever. There’d been nothing but static, but suddenly then, just as now, the odd word could be made out through it.
“Rah-bee…okay…pppp…please…Rah-bee…”
The voice sounded urgent, panicked, nearly. It was growly, with a gravelly edge to it. Wait, was that…yes, it was! I recognized that voice.
“Gree-Gree,” I managed to gasp out. “I…you…” I sucked in a breath before continuing, “I can understand you. You’re speaking English!”
33
GRIGHRI
“I understand you! You’re speaking eenglush!” my Rah-bee said excitedly.
“Negative,” the Sky God healer replied in my stead. “You are speaking his language.” He then switched to the Sky God language, and Rah-bee replied, again, seeming to stumble over the words at first, as if searching for them before he spoke.
The Sky God healer hummed in what sounded like a pleased manner, then tapped his fingers on a table with lit up symbols on it, the same table where he’d tapped some of those symbols right before the helmet came down from the ceiling. This time, it seemed to make the helmet release with a faint hiss and began to rise back up from whence it came. Rah-bee’s face was revealed, his eyes blinking rapidly and watering.
“Tooh bhuriet!” he yelped, blinking furiously.
“Rah-bee,” I told him soothingly, releasing his hands to wipe his eyes dry for him. “Can you see? Are you alright?” I was very afraid that he had traded his sight for our words. If he had, could the Sky God healer fix that as well, without taking the words or anything else away?
He smiled weakly at me. “Yeah,” he replied, his hands grasping my wrists. I…I think so. There was a bunch of ahntz, well, it felt like there were but not really, and then stahtik, and now I can understand you and wow…I really am speaking yehtee now!”
“Mhee nekst!” Sahm called out, surging forward.
Rah-bee laughed, then dropped his hands as he looked past me at her. “Ohkae, ohkae, leyt mee git dowhn beefohr yu buhm ruhsh mee fohr mie seet.” He refocused on me, changing language this time with ease. “Let me up. Sahm wants her turn.”
I stepped back to allow him to place his feet on the floor. He stumbled, and my hand shot out to steady him.
“There may be some dizziness for a short while. It shall pass,” The healer informed us.
“Thanks for the advance warning,” my Rah-bee told him, his tone snarky.
