Entry 17

The alien on the table looked about without a slightly puzzled expression on its face. It then sat up, looked at the lecturer, and said something, much to the delight of everyone in the room. The aliens watching all began to talk excitedly to each other while their eyes stayed firmly on the scene at the front.

I felt sympathy for alien that was on display. He and the lecturer seemed to be of the same species, both sort of lizard-like. They had yellow scales that glistened in the light, though I could have sworn the scales were not just glistening but glowing. They were fairly humanoid in shape, standing upright with two legs and two arms. However, their faces were distinctly inhuman with a lizard-like snout and eyes that were set on the sides of their faces sort of like bird’s eyes. The lecturer dressed in a robe that seemed to also be made of scales, which did not surprise me. Humans wear leather, which is cow skin. Why wouldn’t lizards where other lizard’s skin? The alien on display, however, wore a white one piece, sort of like a hospital gown combined with a pilot’s jumpsuit.

The lecturer continued to lecture instead of responding to whatever his specimen was saying. I could not read the expression of the alien on display, but I could imagine he felt very perplexed. The specimen continued to speak and even hesitantly reached out, touching the lecturer on the shoulder to get his attention. The lecturer ignored him, while those watching took avid notes.

Finally the lecturer turned back to the perplexed alien. The lecturer said a terse command and suddenly the alien on display stopped. His hand, which had been reaching to tap the lecturer again, fell uselessly to his side. He stared straight ahead, his eyes glazed over, as if seeing nothing. It was chillingly similar to how John had reacted to the blue anthropologist’s command. It was as if the lecturer had just turned him off.

“That’s what your brother is, Carlee.” Ven’s deep voice came out of nowhere and nearly made me have a heart attack. I jumped in the duct, making a loud noise as I came back down. Luckily the din in the lecture hall covered up any sounds I could make.

I turned and stared at the man who had attempted to rescue me. He was sprawled on his stomach in the duct behind me, his hands holding up his chin as he regarded me with his dreamy eyes. From where he sat he would be able to watch me and see through the vent. He might have been there for ages, but I had been so absorbed in the lecture and had not noticed.

Ven had a bandage wrapped around his arm where I had bitten him, yet he was not regarding me with anger. If anything he was sympathetic and too patient. It was as if he viewed me as an unruly child that he sympathized with and therefore was going to great lengths to make me understand.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded. “I don’t want your help.”

“You may not want it, but you need it,” he answered. “You are completely lost up here, wandering around. You’re just going to get yourself in trouble.” He was right, but his words still annoyed me. I did not like being viewed as a helpless little girl.

“How did you find me?” I asked. I had taken several unpredictable turns. Unless he had been following me all along, which I doubted since his arm was bandage, I did not see how he could possibly have tracked me down.

“Technology does amazing things,” he answered. “Carlee, why are you running from me? I’m here to help you. It’s my job, my mission.”

“I didn’t ask to be your mission,” I responded.

“No, you didn’t,” he agreed. “But I am part of the organization that believes the Society of Anthropologists is made up of a bunch of kidnappers. I was chosen for this mission because I am human, like you, though I have helped rescue several non-human captives. I was given a directive to find you, free you, and take you to the Human Colony. That’s my job, and I’m going to do it no matter how much you protest. Now tell me. Why are you running from me?”

“I have to save my brother,” I said, nearly in tears. I hated that my eyes were tearing up. I did not want to cry in front of this ridiculously good looking young man, but the idea that he was going to relentlessly keep me from finding my brother was very disturbing. “I just can’t leave him here. I have to rescue him.”

“Carlee,” Ven said in a too patient tone. “Look back into that room. Tell me what you see?” I looked back down. I did not want to obey, but it gave me a chance to get my tears under control.

Once my eyes cleared up, I saw the alien on display, the one who had been strangely turned off, had all of the skin on his neck peeled back. The lecturer was scanning it with his device while talking rapidly to his audience. That alien was alive. Surely he should be writhing in pain because of what they had done to his arm.

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“That anthropologist is one of the foremost experts on android technology,” Ven explained. “He is demonstrating and explaining the new vocal capabilities he has invented. His own species has one of the hardest speech patterns to emulate, and he has been working for years to create an android that could speak it. He has succeeded; therefore, several hours of the symposium have been dedicated to him. That thing he is scanning at the front of the room is an android, just like the android you think is your brother.”

Question Break Answers 3

So we had three questions this round. Woohoo! I love having contact with Earth. This and facebook are all that is keeping me sane.

So questions and answers!!!

Anonymous (a word I usually can't spell, thank you spell check) asks:

A couple questions actually:

1. You mentioned in the last post that you don't do well with water. Did you have a scarring incident in some point of your childhood or something?

2. How would you describe John? Is he like the terminator from Terminator 2 that can learn and adapt, perhaps having grown into some level of consciousness? Or is he more like Sonny from "I, Robot" (the movie) where he always seemed human to you? Or is he more like Data from Star Trek, the machine striving to be man yet always somewhat falling short (even if barely noticeable)?

Anonymous,

I wouldn't say a scarring event...let's just say that bodies of water and myself never really got along. There is a list of events that cause me to dislike water: 1) Getting thrown into the pool by one of my foster parent's friends before I could swim, 2) an evil and mean swim instructor when I was younger, 3) going swimming with a friend who apparently couldn't swim and tried to drown me to keep her head above the water, 4) fun fun middle school pool parties (yes that was sarcasm). The list could go on. It just seems like every time I'm around a body of water, something bad happens. So was there one particularly scarring experience? No. Any one of those events is definitely recoverable. However, all of them added onto each other makes for an aversion to water.

How would I describe John? Well, I would describe him as my brother. It is my firm belief that he is as cognizant as you or I (man, cognizant - totally an SAT word). Many people exist on both sides of the camp on this matter, however. Ven, for one, thinks androids are just machines as he expressed earlier. I believe John is as human as I am. So he's definitely not like a terminator - a machine that kind of, sort of gets a grasp of human feelings. I don't know anything about Sonny from "I, Robot" the movie because John would not let me watch it (he said that Asimov is rolling in his grave somewhere because of that movie). I wouldn't compare him to Data either, because John will tell you he's an android, like Data, but John isn't striving to be human. He knows what he is, and he's ok with that. And he's basically completely human. Everyone believed he was the entire time he lived on Earth. He was one of the most popular and well liked kids in our school. Therefore, if I had to compare John to a fictional android/robot, I would compare him to Asimov's R. Daneel Olivaw, but more like Daneel is in the Foundation Series, not the Robot Series. He's completely cool with who he is, he's indistinguishable from a human, and he's secretly running the entire human race. Ok, that last one was not a true comparison. John isn't secretly running the entire human race. But like Daneel, I would say John makes a better human than most humans do. Wow, that made me thing of Stephen Byerley in "I, Robot" the book. Maybe I should compare John to him? Either way you get the idea.

That answer was a little long, but it's a question I have thought of myself and have thought a bit about.

Next Adrianne asks:

So what was the deal with the waterfall? Maybe I didn't read well enough.

Also, how do you pronounce your last name? Is it like Ear-heart or Air-heart? Just wondering.

The waterfall is what powers the zoo complex, according to Ven. John confirms this. I imagine it might work sort of like a dam, except I don't really know how dams work other than they provide power. If you need more info I'll ask John for a wikipedia-like answer. But if that's all you wanted to know, there it is.

And my last name is totally pronounced Air-heart. People who pronounce Ear-hart really annoy me. Air-heart just sounds sooo much cooler than Ear-heart, which makes it seem like I love ears or something. Not that I dislike ears. I just don't heart them.

Entry 16

If you’ve ever had to escape from someone in an area you’re unfamiliar with, then you will be able to know exactly how I was feeling. At first I was exhilarated to escape Ven, and my only goal was to put as much space between him and me as I could. I scuttled through the ductwork as fast as I could, not paying attention to the twists and turns I took. Then I slowed down, realizing I had no idea where I was. I had been so busy trying to get away from Ven that I had not considered where I was going. I was completely lost within the ductwork. I had run away from the man who wanted to help me and into the heart of the enemy.

And I had no idea where John was.

I stopped in the ductwork, figuring that unless Ven had some sort of psychic connection to me or some alien device I could not fathom he had no way to find me. I could not recall the twists and turns I had taken to get to this point and therefore had no idea at all where I was.

Hopelessness began to set in on me. I had bitten my one ally. Surely I could have done something more to convince him to help me look for John. Then he could have used his technology to help me find John. However, I was on my own, because I had made him an enemy by taking a chunk out of his arm.

John was stuck somewhere in this hive of alien anthropologists, and I was completely at a loss to help him. My big brother was in the hands of the enemy, with only his useless little sister to find him.

If the scenario was reversed, John would tear this place apart to find me. He would fight every anthropologist until they revealed where they would keeping me. He would then free me and take me to safety with little harm to myself. He would do everything he could, and here I was doing nothing.

John needed me, and I was doing nothing. It was simply not acceptable. If John would do anything for me, then I would have to do anything for him. In this scenario, I would have to be the protector of my brother who needed me.

I made my mind up to do whatever it took to find John, just as he would do for me. However, it was much easier said than done. I stared at the gray ductwork, wondering which direction I should go. Where would a group of anthropologists hide my brother? Where would they hide an android?

I had no idea how these alien anthropologists’ minds would work or where they might store my brother as they picked his brain for information. So I decided it would be best just to pick a direction and try to find an exit from the ductwork. It might be easy to hide in ductwork, but it was impossible to know where I was going.

Going right was my first inclination, so I decided to go left. My gut instinct and John’s were never the same. If I wanted to go right, he would want to go left. So I did what I thought he would do. I crawled through the ductwork in the general direction of what had been my left.

If you have ever crawled through ductwork or perhaps seen it, you can imagine it’s quite monotonous. It almost felt like I was going nowhere, since the duct walls offered no relief from the gray color.

Suddenly ahead I saw a light. The light came from the floor of the ductwork ahead. I could also hear strange sounds. ‘Strange sounds’ is perhaps a much too light description. What I heard was an awful din.

I crept forward carefully, remembering all the times in movies people fell through ducts onto the heads of people they were hiding from. I would do John no good if I got myself captured.

After a bit of time, I reached the duct and was able to look down. It looked like a lecture hall. Rows upon rows of aliens in all shapes, colors, and sizes that I could not begin to describe all watched as one alien stood at the front. The alien at the front was speaking in a language I could not possibly begin to understand while the onlookers all chatted endlessly. Any of my teachers on Earth would have had a cow if their studies behaved in such away, but clearly things were different among the Society of Anthropologists.

Though the onlookers talked, they all watched avidly as the alien demonstrated something on a table at the front of the room. The alien held some sort of device in one of hands. If I had to guess what he was doing with a strange alien technology I did not recognize while using a language I could not understand, I would say he was scanning what looked like another alien on the table.

It did not surprise me that a group of anthropologists would be studying an alien. Doctors practice on cadavers. Why wouldn’t alien anthropologists study what looked like a dead alien? Surely it gave them important information about anatomy that they could use to understand the culture. I totally understood that. If they had been grave robbing human graves to study us, I was cool with that. It wasn’t like the dead people were using their bodies. Was it a little disrespectful? Sure, but it was the lesser of evils. Rather they kidnap unneeded bodies than kidnap innocent people, like say me.

Suddenly the room actually got sort of quiet, and not the ridiculous ruckus that would have horrified any Earth teacher. All eyes, and other visual orifices, turned to the body at the front of the room.

The lecturer fiddled with something on the device as everyone watched breathlessly. He finally did something that emitted a strange pulse. Immediately the eyes of the alien on the table opened and looked about. It was alive.

Question Break 3

Man, I totally forgot today was July 4th until Google reminded me. We don't really follow the Earth calendar out here in space. I hope you guys are having an excellent July 4th, celebrating American Independence with fireworks and hotdogs. Meanwhile I'll be in space with my android brother and a guy who doesn't know what America is.

So you guys should know the drill by now. It is another summary/question day. If you guys have questions then I will answer them.

Here is the summary:

For several weeks, I had been living in a hologram designed to make me feel I was on Earth.

I was rescued by a hot guy of about twenty who says his name is Ven Barker. He has the deepest voice I have ever heard from such a lean man, though he is quite tall.
Ven refuses to go back for John because he’s just an android. He obviously holds little respect for androids.

I bit Ven and escaped to go find John.

I have no idea where John is or how to find him.

So as I mentioned before you can comment here and ask questions. Also if you have questions in the middle of the week or just thoughts, feel free to comment on any of the other posts. And you can always talk to me on facebook.

It’s nice to have contact with Earth, you know? It’s lonely out here in space with just John and Ven for company.

So feel free to give me a holler anytime.

Have an excellent July 4th!

Entry 15

I crawled through, remaining on my hands and knees on the platform. I stared at the metallic platform for a moment before looking up. The waterfall was even closer now. Looking at the tons of water flowing by me, fear gripped my heart. I could swim, but I did not much like it. Being close to a huge waterfall was not my idea of fun.

Suddenly a strong hand gripped my shoulder. “Take it easy, Carlee,” Ven said. “Let me help you up.” I nodded.

Ven may not have looked like an action hero, but his lean figure disguised his strength. He pulled me to my feet easily, as if I weighed nothing. It made me wonder if he was an android too. John’s strength was ridiculous. He could move me like I was a doll.

“You look pale. Are you alright?” Ven’s question was not exactly laced with concern for me. I think he just wanted to know if he had to keep a grip on me to keep me from falling over the edge.

“I don’t really like water,” I answered, “but I’m fine. Where do we go from here?”

“I’ve called my ship to meet us here,” Ven answered, letting go of me. I leaned against the wall, far away from the edge. “We are standing on the outside of the northern edge of the Society’s zoo complex. This waterfall powers the complex. My ship will come to the edge and we will get in. Then we will get you to safety.”

“Wait, what about John?” I demanded, glaring up at the tall man. “I won’t leave without my brother.” Sympathy suddenly touched the man’s face.

“You have no brother, Carlee,” Ven said. “You may not have been made aware of this, but the thing you thought was your brother was no more than an android.” I frowned, perplexed.

“I know. John told me he was an android,” I responded. “But we still have to go get him. I’m sure the Society has him somewhere. After all, he’s the one they really want, isn’t he? They put him on Earth to study our culture. They want the information inside him, so they must be holding him somewhere.”

“I’m sure they are,” Ven said, looking at me oddly. “But I will not risk our lives to find your android.”

“He’s my brother,” I responded, shocked by his words. “We can’t just leave him. We have to rescue him.”

“Carlee,” Ven said firmly, his gaze locked on mine. “I know you must have feelings for your android, because you surely must not have realized beforehand what it was, but you have no brother. It is just an android, a machine, an automaton. It is not human. There is no John Earhart. There is only you. I will not risk human lives to save an android.”

I could not believe what I was hearing. I knew John was an android, John had told me so himself, but he was still my brother. John and I had grown up together. He was all I had, my only family. It did not matter to me if he was an android or an alien or a human. He was all I had, and I would not leave him behind.

“No,” I said firmly. “John is my brother. I will not leave him. You may do what you like but I will be going back for him.” I moved as if to go back through the opening, but Ven reached out and stopped me.

“Carlee, I can’t let you do that,” he said. “I was sent here to rescue you. I can’t let you just go. It is too dangerous. You will come with me, and I will take you to the Earthling colony.”

“Not without John,” I responded. I used my arm that he was not holding to sink my nails into his flesh. I had often used my nails to fight back with John when I had been irritated with John when we were younger. Ven grabbed my hand and pulled my nails out of him, wincing.

“That hurt,” he said. “I don’t appreciate that, Carlee.”

“Then you will appreciate this less,” I snapped. I then leaned forward and sunk me teeth into his lower arm.

I don’t know if you have ever bitten anyone, but I never had before. It was a strange experience, but I did not hesitate to bite him hard. The metallic taste of his blood filled my mouth. It was disgusting and made me wish I had not bitten him at all. However, it had the desired effect.

Ven cursed and let go of me.

I escaped back into the ductwork and scurried away. I had no idea where I was going or what was going to happen, but I knew I was not leaving without my brother, android or not.

Entry 14

A zoo. Suddenly everything made sense. John was an android. We had been beamed into a holodeck, the music camp, when the alien had come. John and the alien had had a heated argument about me presumably. The alien had then knocked me out. I could have been unconscious for days while they had finished the journey to the headquarters. Then, since they were anthropologists and fascinated by other cultures, they had put me in a holodeck to simulate my native planet. They could observe me in my own culture.

I certainly did not want to be a specimen in a zoo.

“I believe you,” I said back to the man, “but we can’t leave without John. Don’t we have time to wait for him to get here or are you planning to come back for him?”

“John is just a hologram,” the man responded. “Your android is not here.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. I was not going to escape without John, but it made sense that the John in the hologram was not the real John. After all, he had said he was not an android. The real John, the android John, had said he could not lie to me. He would not have been able to pretend to be a human.

“Yes,” the man answered. “Now crawl.”

I crawled into the duct and heard the man clatter in after me. I was not sure where I was going, but anytime we came to a split in the ductwork, he would direct me which way to turn.

“We need to get out of the ductwork soon,” his deep, action hero-like voice rumbled. “At the fork coming up, I need you to move into the right fork so I can get ahead of you in the left fork. Then I need you to follow me. Do you understand?” He acted like I was five instead of fifteen.

“Yes, I understand,” I answered, unable to keep all of the acid out of my voice. I then did as asked and let the man pass me.

“What did you say your name was again?” I asked as I followed behind him.

“Ven Barker,” the man answered. “You may call me Ven.”

“You can call me, Carlee,” I said. “So are they keeping John in another zoo area? Are we going to get him now?”

“The Society of Anthropologists does not study androids,” Ven responded. “They do not need to put him in a zoo. An android has no native environment.” Before I could ask where John was being kept, Ven came to a halt in the ductwork. I barely had time to stop before colliding with his long legs.

I heard a sound as if Ven was loosening another panel. I figured this must be where we drop out of the ductwork into a hall or popped into a room through a wall like in every other episode of Star Trek.

“Do not be frightened, Carlee,” Ven instructed me as he pulled a panel off of the side of the ductwork. When the panel was free, I heard a sound like rushing water. I had been to Niagra Falls once. The sound was very similar.

“We are going to exit onto a platform on the side of the complex,” Ven continued. “There is plenty of room, do not be frightened but do not be stupid either. Stay close to the wall and do not wander away from me.” I nodded and then realized he could not see me nod. I stated that I understood and did not admit that at his warning I was suddenly feeling nervous.

Ven crawled through the opening, disappearing from my sight. I crawled up to the opening and glanced through.

I found myself staring directly into a massive waterfall, the water falling violently not even six feet away.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered as I stared at the sheets of water falling. I crawled closer to the opening and looked through. To my relief, connected to the wall was a platform that was three feet in width, more than enough room to stand.

I mustered my bravery and crawled through the opening.

Entry 13

Now I don’t consider myself a nerd. John has a friend who feels insulted if you call her anything besides a nerd. She is captain of the school’s Quiz Bowl Team, president of the Latin Club, Captain of the Woodwind Section of the Marching Band, and president of the Science National Honor Society. She wishes she was one of the Doctor’s companions, thinks she’s a Jedi, openly covets the job of Geordi LaForge, and wishes she could grow up to be half the woman Samantha Carter is. I think she has every line in Star Wars memorized. She is one of John’s good friends and together they have waged a campaign to make me very science fiction literate. It was through their acts of kindness (aka making me watch Star Wars several times in a row) that I recognized the line that had just been uttered to me. And it was my friend’s influence that led me to respond as I did.

“Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” I asked. The man frowned in confusion, probably since he was quite tall.

“I am not a stormtrooper,” the man responded, the word sounding awkward as if he had never heard it before. Was it possible that an American could exist without knowing about George Lucas’ white armored soldiers of evil? And didn’t Hitler call some of his forces stormtroopers? A man certainly could not live to be twenty and not know about World War II. “I am part of the Anti-Anthropologist movement. I am here to rescue you from the Society.”

“Carrie,” I called to my friend. She was standing beside me looking puzzled. “Do you see this person here?”

“Yes,” Carrie said. She studied the man with confusion. “Are you a substitute teacher?” The man did not even glance at her. His eyes stayed firm on me.

“Carlee Earhart, we must go,” the man said. “I do not know how much time we will have before the Anthropologists will realize we’re here. They’re in symposium so they should be distracted, but part of the symposium may be to come look at the newly captured Earthling.”

“No,” I stepped away from him, reality suddenly clashing with my delusions. Was I sick again? Had I passed out in French class? “Stay away from me.”

“I know how real this seems,” the man said, grabbing me firmly by the upper arm. His grip was strong. I would not be able to escape him. For a delusion he felt very real. In fact he felt more real than my friend Carrie who was standing beside me. “Undoubtedly this is exactly like your home, but this is not your home. You are not on Earth. You are on a planet called Lixel, in the Andromeda galaxy, the headquarters of the Society of Anthropologists.”

“No,” I responded, shaking my head and trying to pull away. His grip was too strong. “That’s just a delusion. I was sick that’s all. There is no Society of Anthropologists, no aliens, no androids.”

“I don’t have time to argue,” the man said. “You will come with me, Carlee Earhart, whether you like it or not.” He then began to drag me towards one of the nearby walls. I struggled and looked about wildly for help.

“Carrie,” I cried to my friend. “Get John. Go get John.” My friend nodded and raced away to find my big brother.

“Your holographic friends will not be able to help you,” the man said. “I’m not part of the program. They can’t touch me. They can only touch you because you’re brain waves are programmed into it.”

“You’re crazy,” I responded. The man ignored me, continuing to pull me towards a wall covered in lockers.

He stopped at the wall, maintained his tight grip on my arm, and used his free hand to pry at one of the lockers. I wanted to tell him he was stupid to think it would open without using the combination, but I kept my peace. The longer the man took to do whatever it was he thought he was doing, the more time John had to rescue me. John would never let someone accost me like this. As soon as Carrie found him, he would come to my rescue.

Suddenly a two foot by two foot section of lockers ceased to be lockers. Instead the man pulled back a hinged section of metallic panel, revealing some sort of duct.

“Crawl through,” the man said, shoving me ahead of him. My upper body lurched forward into the duct. The metal walls felt real, more real than my desk and textbooks.

“No, I need to know more,” I protested, not crawling in as he had directed but not pulling out either. It felt too real to be a delusion.

“You are a specimen in a zoo,” the man said. “And if you ever want to be free again you will crawl through that duct.”