He was tall, and appeared to be human, by the shape. He had two legs, two arms and a round head. Funny, his white spacesuit made him look like one of those inflated characters that float by in a parade, but the legs and arms were moving with purpose. She wasn't laughing, she knew there had to be an alien like the one she had seen on the spaceship inside that suit.
She figured it was a he when he spoke.
"Hello Suki. How are you?"
He spoke English in a singsong manner. "Fine," she answered. She waited, wary about the reason he had come.
"I must apologize," he said. "I should have been here yesterday to greet you, but there was mix up."
She stared at him.
"It looks like you are adapting well. I saw you found the instruction manual. Do you have questions?"
"Of course I have questions," she said blurted out. "I have a lot of questions. Like, how do you know my name? Where am I? What is going to happen to me? How long will I be here?"
He swayed. "I know your name because I will be overseeing your welfare."
"That doesn't answer my question as to how you know my name. And what about the other questions?"
"Do you have questions about the manual?"
"I don't have questions about the manual. My questions are about important things."
"The manual is very important. It will help you survive here."
"But why was I brought here?"
"There is plenty of food and you should not starve."
"Why can't you answer any of my questions?"
"And you are not answering mine. Obviously we are at an impasse."
Impasse was the right word to use and his command of the English language surprised her. "I guess so."
"If you need anything, related to the instruction manual, call me. And have a good day." He turned around and walked away.
That was that. They were just not going to tell her anything more. Maybe this was all part of a test. She wondered if she had passed or failed.
Several days went by and now she was studying the instruction manual seriously. She almost didn't have any more carrots, having splurged on those early on and she had no idea how to get seeds from the remaining few carrots. The book did not provide answers to this.
She studied the ferny tops of the carrots and could not see anything that looked like a seed. Maybe the aliens would bring more carrots once they were gone. She was going to have the same problem with the radishes, the lettuce and who knew what else?
Why would such an advanced group of aliens leave her to fend for herself in such an arcane fashion? Was it some sort of test of survival?
The whole conversation she had heard between the aliens was starting to feel like a dream. Maybe they had abandoned her, with her dwindling vegetables and the fish. Yes, she had seen fish in the lake, but they were nothing like fish on Earth. She didn't even know if they were edible.
She was talking out loud now. At first she tried singing. Somehow the songs made her feel better and then she started to talk. She talked to the vegetables, those crazy looking fish and to herself.
She had also started to keep track of the days by digging lines into one of the walls in the cabin with a knife. Her mother would be appalled if she saw her do something like that.
Her poor mother was probably worried, having no news from her. Suki usually called several times a week. Anyways, she had no idea how many days had actually gone by? A day on this planet might be quite different than that on Earth.
At night she had seen a large white moon crossed the sky and before it set, a small yellow moon followed. During the day she had studied the progress of the orange sun and there was only one of those. She usually ate breakfast when the sun was about 30 degrees above the horizon, lunch when it was directly above her and dinner at 15 degrees above the opposite horizon. Who knew how many Earth hours that was, but she was hungry at those times.
She still had a watch and it seemed to be running all right, but the times did not make any sense anymore and she took it off. The lines on the wall were a better measurement of time and by them she knew she had been gone four planet days. Of course that did not include the time spent traveling through space when she was unconscious. She could have left Earth months ago, as far as she knew, or worse, years.
Besides her mother, would anyone outside of work notice that she was gone? She thought of her life back on Earth. She had not had enough time in New York City to make any friends there.
Yeah, who was she kidding, she didn't even have many friends back home in Santa Clara, California, where she had lived most of her life. It wasn't that she loved being alone, although she didn't mind that, but that her interests had always been different. She was also very 'self-sufficient' her mother told her.
Meanwhile the self-sufficiency was working, she thought as she took out the roasted vegetables from the tiny oven. At least the aliens had supplied her a cabin with a kitchen, bedroom, a bathroom and all kinds of conveniences. Much of her bathroom supplies had made the trip.
There were solar panels on the roof and some sort of electrical storage that provide for her electricity needs at night. It was like renting a fully furnished apartment, but she was paying no rent, she smiled and then caught herself. She was going to go crazy.
The worse thing was that if she was gone for a long period of time, the few friends she had, would probably forget her. Her mother would be the only one who cared and hopefully she was still alive. She started to despair. She felt so alone.
Chapter 5
The meeting had already started as Ickcy made his way to a seat. The Manager was listening to Szcky give his weekly progress. Szcky was always a bit long winded and finally he finished his report. The Manager thanked him and wished him well in his new job.
"As you know, Szcky will be leaving us today. He has been transferred to the energy sector." The Manager sounded envious. The energy sector was flush with cash. "Okay, who is next? Ickcy, I think you just returned from a visit to the Planet Humex. What is the status on your Subjects?"
Ickcy started his report. All his Subjects were doing well, as they had been for quite some time. He always took care of them.
"What about Subject #78?" asked The Manager. "I realize she was just assigned to you, but you visited her."
"Yes as you know she was assigned to me the day after she arrived and therefore no one greeted her the first day. She did not get the initial instructions." She was supposed to have been assigned to Szcky.
"I know. I know you were assigned to her late," said The Manager. "But how is she adapting?"
"She is angry as most Subjects are at first, but in this case I am not sure she will adapt."
"Why is that?"
"She is consuming the food supplied to her, but not making provisions for later."
"Well that is troubling. Where did we find this Subject?"
"New York City."
"Hmm, so her native environment was urban. Maybe she doesn't know how to grow food? We did have a problem once with another Subject that came from Los Angeles, another city."
"She knows how the vegetables grow and she is eating them rapidly, but she is not saving any for seeds and she is not fishing."
"Are you certain the instructions on how to fish are in her manual?"
"Yes."
"That is a puzzle," agreed The Manager.
"Well soon she will run out of vegetables and she will have to fish or starve," said Szcky.
Ickcy had to admit that his friend did not care as much for the Subjects as he did.
"Excuse me," said Mckcy, "but I have read that some people on Earth are vegetarians. That means they only eat vegetables."
"Is that a medical condition?" asked The Manager.
"No, I believe it is a choice," said Mckcy.
"Well, then she can easily choose to not be a vegetarian," said Szcky.
"That is true," said The Manager. The meeting concluded soon afterwards and he asked Ickcy and Mckcy to stay
.
"Now that Szcky is leaving, I have to assign his Subjects to both of you. We cannot hire anyone else. Here is the data on each of the Subjects." The Manager gave each of them an organic hard drive.
Of course, thought Ickcy. Cut the budgets and make the remaining employees work harder. He inserted the chip into his hand and the screen in front of him displayed the profiles. He had received three more people. He glanced at Mckcy's display and saw that she had two human profiles.
"Icky two of your new Subjects are in the Tropics Village and one is part of the Alone Project. He will fit well with your other alone Subjects. Mckcy you will have two more in a village."
"But didn't Szcky have six Subjects?" asked Ickcy.
"Yes, but Subject #5 is dying. We were supposed to send her back to Earth, but we don't have the budget now and the money can be used better for the living. I will oversee her until she dies."
It was kind of sad, thought Ickcy. Dying so far from one's home. At least Subject #5 lived in the Forest Village and would have other humans for companionship.
"Ickcy, I realize that now you will have Subjects on the other side of the world," said The Manger, "but at least all three are generally in the same region. Any more information is in the drive I gave you."
"Both of my subjects are in the Forest Village," said Mckcy.
"Yes, but Subject #30 is a special Subject and he will require extra attention," said The Manager. "I think you will be able to help with that, Mckcy. He is a young male, and has been in the Forest Village for about six months, but he was frozen for ten years before that."
"Oh, I heard about this case," said Mckcy.
"Wasn't that because the Experimenter that requested him did not want him anymore?" asked Ickcy.
"Yes, the Experimenter decided he needed an older Subject and wanted one that was female. Subject #30 was frozen until he was needed in the forest village," said The Manager.
"Did he have any side effects from thawing out?" asked Mckcy.
"I am sure all that information is there," repeated The Manager. "Both of you are very capable and it should be easy peasy for you."
They were dismissed shortly afterwards.
As they went to their work area, Mckcy walked with him. "More Subjects to oversee," she sighed. "Too bad yours will be scattered around the planet. That will make your job more difficult."
"We are just Overseers and it will be fine, at least we have jobs, even though I will have nine Subjects to care for."
"Nine Subjects?"
"Yes, it was easier when they were all on one side of the planet. How many Subjects do you have?"
"I only have six." She looked apologetic.
"Yeah, but apparently you have the problem Subject #30."
Chapter 6
On the seventh day, Suki shouted at the sky. "I have a question about the manual." Even if she was angry towards the aliens she needed them to survive.
She looked out at the forest and waited for a moment and then went back inside the cabin to find her watch. After fifteen minutes, she shouted again, just in case they had not heard her the first time.
She actually had started to worry about her food supply. Where was she supposed to get seeds for planting? She knew that vegetables would take some time to grow and she was going to run out.
The third time she shouted at the sky she started to wonder how closely they were monitoring her. Maybe there were other humans and they couldn't monitor them all at the same time. Maybe there were only a few of them doing the monitoring. That was an interesting idea. She kept track of the time and shouted again.
It was an hour and fifteen minutes before she saw the white suited alien heading her way. It had taken him a while to respond, she noted.
"You have a question about the manual?" It sounded like the alien that had come before.
"Yes, thank you for coming," she said automatically and realized she should not be thanking her captors, but she couldn't take it back.
"Oh, you are welcome," the alien sounded surprised at her thanks.
"Are you the same one who came before?"
"Yes. Don't I sound the same?"
"Yes, but maybe all of you sound the same or maybe you are one entity sharing one giant brain."
"Eeeee, Eeeee," he shouted.
She jumped back frightened at the sound.
"Don't be alarmed," said the alien quickly. "That was a laugh and it didn't translate well."
"Oh."
"Having one shared brain would make my work much easier," said the alien. "So you had a question?"
"I have run out of carrots. I don't know how to grow more."
"The instructions should be in the manual."
"I didn't find any information there and I read the entire book." She handed him the manual.
The alien looked at it and referred to a screen on his wrist. "I apologize. It looks like some pages are missing in your binder. I will bring you another binder."
"Oh. What should I do meanwhile?"
"I cannot tell you. We leave that up to you."
"What is your name anyways?"
"I'll bring back the binder soon."
"Thanks. I guess I will not eat carrots ever again," she sighed. She had feared this was going to happen and had been getting ready to a life without carrots. "Can I call you again if I have questions?"
"Of course," he said. "That is why I am here. It does take me?" He looked pointed at her watch, "About fifteen of your minutes to get here."
"That is not too bad," she smiled slightly.
Ickcy felt sorry for her as he started to take the suit off. He pulled the helmet off his elongated head. His four long limbs untangled themselves from the arms of the suit and his two stocky legs were finally free of the long extension of the suit. The whole contraption had been designed to look human-ish and make the humans feel comfortable around them.
Subject #78 was an agreeable Subject, and he didn't want her to die. She was much younger than Subject #5 so that shouldn't happen.
Of course, accidents did sometimes happen, he thought of Subject #23. It was surprising that with over 140 humans on the planet, that had been the only accidental fatality.
It happened before he started working, but the story had been retold as a warning to all the Overseers. The Overseer of #23 had been fired. The lesson learned was that one had to supervise these humans constantly. They could become erratic and harm themselves.
He didn't think Subject #78 would become like that. She seemed nice. He was going to ask The Manager if they could supply her with carrots. It had not been her fault that she didn't know about the seeds.
Ickcy went to Publishers Section to see what had happened to the pages. When he arrived there was a note indicating that they were on break. It was mid afternoon, what kind of break was this, he wondered?
He waited for a few minutes and then wrote out a terse note indicating the gravity of the situation. He needed a new binder, or at least, the pages that were missing right away. They should also look at their processes to find why the pages had not been included in the first place.
He reread the last part of his note and decided to rewrite the note, without the second part. There was no need to antagonize the Publishers.
As he returned to his station, he marveled how they were always on break. He was definitely working in the wrong group.
The pages were delivered to him late that day. He added them to the binder making sure the various chapters about the seeds were included. As he read the instructions, he was shocked. It would take more than a year to get the seeds for carrots.
He turned the pages. What about radishes? The process there was also very tedious requiring many months for the radishes to go to seed.
The last page in the section was unreadable, Ickcy sighed. Ickcy had learned to read the human text, like the Publishers did, and he knew the shapes of the letters on that last page were out of shape. That meant he had to send another message to the Publisher
s.
Well Subject #78 needed her binder now and he was going to take it down immediately. He would add the extra page later when it was fixed. He just hoped this young human female would have the patience to wait for the seeds to sprout. He might have to encourage her a bit, but it was going to be tricky. She was part of the Alone Project and minimal interaction was required.
Of course, the Experimenters had to see that having a Subject die would not help the experiment.
Chapter 7
Days had gone by since Suki got the instructions about the seeds. She had put her newfound knowledge to work and was reserving some of the healthiest specimens of several of the vegetables for seeds.
It was a good feeling that she was able to be self-reliant in this respect. The only thing that she couldn't remember exactly was how she had left New York City and ended up on this planet.
That morning she had been working in the garden for several hours when she stood up to give her legs a break. She gazed out over the lake and he caught her eye. He happened to be looking in her direction at the same time. Her mouth fell open in amazement.
He was human. He was about her age, slightly taller with black hair. He did not look surprised at seeing her.
Suddenly she saw a couple of white suited aliens closing in on him. She hid behind the fence. She heard some shouting and then nothing. She peeked through the slats in the fence and saw they were dragging the man away.
There was someone else on the planet. She had suspected it and now she knew. But, why had she not seen anyone before? Maybe she wasn't supposed to see anyone and with that thought, she snuck out of the garden and walked in the opposite direction from the lake. Hopefully no one had noticed her.
She was gone for quite a while and then she returned to the cabin. She saw a white suit waiting for her.
"Hello," she said.
"Hello."
"Did you come to see my progress with the vegetables?"
The alien thought about it. "Yes. Are you understanding the instructions?"
"Yes. Come to the garden. I'll show you what I have done."
'There is no need for me to see that. I couldn't tell you if you were doing things right or wrong. Just follow the instructions."
"Oh."
"Where were you?"
"I went for a walk."
"Did you see anything unusual?"