Thirteen Tales From Another World
Eleventh Tale
The Tale of the Alien Experiment
Meanwhile on a tropical paradise.
“THAT GAME IS RIGGED!” Dr. Callyco huffed as he and Doctor. Cutie Pup left the café.
“You knew crane games were rigged before you even played it. You went on about how it was set to only have a winner after a set amount of plays.” Dr. Cutie Pup pointed out.
“Yes, but that was before I saw that fluffy dragon from a certain video game I love so much and couldn’t resist! It’s not fair for them to deny me access to that!” Dr. Callyco pouted.
“Well, can’t wait to see how you segue into the story from this.” Dr. Cutie Pup giggled.
“Oh right! The story!” Dr. Callyco paused for a moment. “Well… Basically… It’s a real trick, to come down from above and just pluck something up. But not impossible. And perhaps, somewhere out there are more advanced races who have mastered it. Maybe they could even snag people up off the face of the Earth?”
“So… Aliens?” Dr. Cutie Pup asked.
“Aliens.” Dr. Callyco nodded. “Tonight’s guest Kyle, though more commonly known as Kit, has had all kinds of magical adventures over the years. But tonight, he might find himself a little out of his element and out of his genre, as he discovers that we are not alone in the universe. Who knows how many countless alien worlds there are to visit? Just getting to space itself is like being in another universe what with the zero gravity and all the stars and-“
“Pretty sure space is in this universe.” Dr. Cutie Pup interrupted.
“The point is going to space still counts for the purposes of our theme!” Dr. Callyco huffed. “Anyway, I present you our eleventh tale. The Tale of the Alien Experiment.”
Thirteen Tales From Another World
Eleventh Tale
The Tale of the Alien Experiment
“Attention please.” A kindly, yet robotic sounding voice suddenly rang out from the heavens above Kit’s house. “Your departure has arrived. Please make sure you have secured all belongings and wait to be called. Please note, aluminum foil hats are not allowed aboard the craft due to the fact that they will microwave your brain while in the transportation beam. Please remove all foil hats at this time. We are not liable if your brain is microwaved for refusing to comply.”
“What?” Kit woke from his sleep. The sixteen-year-old roocoon was in his pajamas, a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt. In the darkened room he would have been hard for most people to make out with his brown fur and darker brown mask and stripes on his tail. He looked around in confusion, not 100% sure if he had actually heard the voice or if that had been a dream.
And then a bright light lit up directly outside Kit’s window. There was definitely something going on. Kit wasn’t one to shy away from the strange and mysterious. He grabbed his wand off the nightstand and ran to his window. As he opened his window and stuck his head out to get a good look around. And then he saw it. An actual flying saucer. As if right out of the sci-fi movies, it was a giant spinning disc that kept making a whirling noise as various bright lights blinked alongside its exterior. That was about as much of what Kit could make out. From here he could only see the bottom.
He figured there were two possibilities here. One, aliens were real, and he might be about to make first contact. There was no way to tell if the aliens would be malevolent or not yet so he couldn’t let his guard down. Although, the voice that had played sounded awfully polite. The other possibility was this was some kind of prank or joke. It’d take quite a bit of effort to pass off, but it wouldn’t be impossible to create an illusionary UFO to try and make him think he was being abducted. But… That didn’t really fall in line with the usual sense of humor he and his friends had. They tended to enjoy the type of pranks that ended up with someone going home as a griffin or a dragon at the end of the day.
This was probably really happening.
And to remove all doubt, at this moment a beam of light shot out from the bottom of the saucer, angled so that it struck and engulfed Kit completely where he stood. He slowly started to move through the air, right out his window and float upwards towards the saucer.
“Please keep all arms and legs inside the beam at all times.” The same voice continued. “Please avoid squirming, or any form of struggling as it may result in accident. No flash photography is permitted from this point. Thank you and enjoy your abduction.”
“Gah!” The sudden sensation of weightlessness caught Kit by surprise. His wand slipped from his hand as he floated out the window. He tried to stretch a hand back to grab it but it had fallen down into the yard. He ignored the voice and struggled, trying to see if he could at least work a spell to call the wand to his hand. But there wasn’t enough time. As his body rose closer to the flying saucer there was a flash of light and then he was somewhere else.
And also quite uncomfortable.
Kit was upside down bent at a weird angle inside some kind of tall glass tube. There were a lot of machines and more flashing lights around the room, but it was hard to make sense of it from his current vantage.
“Didn’t you listen to the warning?” An annoyed gruff voice spoke. “This is what happens when you struggle.”
“I mean, no one has ever really told me the proper protocol for being abducted by aliens before.” Kit couldn’t help but give a little sass. Meanwhile, he curled down into a ball, trying to roll over and press his legs against the glass. After about a minute he was able to stand up properly and actually take in his surroundings.
The inside of the saucer was smaller than he expected. There was the tube he was in and two others that were currently empty. He could see a chair that had some kind of control console and a window in front of it. Probably the pilot’s seat. And there was a door with a big red button next to it. Other than that, the place was mostly barren.
As for his abductor. The alien creature was tall stringy thing. It took Kit a moment to realize that his body was covered with a series of hard plates like an exoskeleton and that it wasn’t armor or clothing. Then the thing had insectoid like eyes while its hands and feet had webbing like a duck.
“Now then, Experiment 1. I am your new master, Overlord Ra’ntau. With your help, and those like you, we will begin the greatest conquest this galaxy has ever seen! And you have the honor of being the first soldier of my bioengineered army that will rule this galaxy with an iron fist!” The alien seemed quite pleased with himself.
“I don’t see that happening.” Kit shook his head. “Look, meeting aliens is cool, but I have a strict policy against helping evil overlords.”
“How rude.” Ra’ntau huffed. “I would think you’d be honored to be the first I chose. I hand picked you after all.” Ra’ntau made a gesture and two holograms appeared in the air. One of them was the outline of a normal human. The other was clearly an outline of Kit. “You see, all beings have a morphic field.” A solid red outline appeared around the figure. “And they tend to stay static. An object will not change without outside force. However… Once the object has changed, the morphic field becomes weaker. The more times it changes the weaker it is.” A red outline appeared around Kit’s silhouette this time, but it was a blurry line that kept wavery around changing shapes and sizes. “You are someone who has changed forms so many times that your morphic field is completely destabilized. This means you’re easier to change than a normal person. You’re the ideal subject to undergo transformation.” He waved another hand and the holograms vanished.
“Uh huh…” Kit was looking at his surroundings as the guy talked. What he said made sense. Kit could lose track of how many species he had been at this point. Not to mention how many second childhoods he got to experience. He hadn’t thought about if his previous transformations had made the later ones easier, but at least he understood why he had been chosen now. Not that it mattered. He was already working on figuring out how to escape. First step, get out of the tube. There were two possible paths. One was a slit on the side of the tube. It was obviously a door, but it was stuck firmly in place. It needed to be unlocked. As for the second, there was a small drain at the bottom of the tube. If he could find a way to rip that out it might be possible to get out beneath the bottom. But, considering how small the spaceship was that could be a terrible idea that sent him plummeting to his doom. The door was the better option.
“Hey! Are you even paying attention to me?” Ra’ntau demanded. “I’m going to be your new boss going forward so you have to listen to what I say!”
“I really don’t see myself working for you. Sorry.” Kit shrugged. “So, you might as well go ahead and let me go home.”
“Not an option.” Ra’ntau crossed his arms.
“I mean, it kind off has to be an option. You got me onto the ship, surely you can get me off.” Kit insisted.
“No, it’s actually not an option, we’ve already left Earth.” Ra’ntau pointed towards the front of the ship. “As soon as you were secure, I set the auto-pilot to go back home. I found your planet by searching for exceptionally unstable morphic fields. In short, you. I can’t use you as a beacon to find your planet again if you’re not on it.”
“Doesn’t that thing have a navigator history or anything?” Kit asked. “Cause, there is absolutely no way I’m going to serve as your little minion.”
“Eh, we don’t get along now.” Ra’ntau shrugged. “But I’ll have plenty of time to convince you after we get back to my planet. I’m sure I’ll wear you down and eventually you’ll come to see me as your Overlord and caretaker.”
“Unlikely.” Kit made a face at Ra’ntau.
“Anyway, we have several hours before arrival, plenty of time to get this going. Experiment 1! Prepare for transformation!” Ra’ntau waved his hands around again and once more holograms appeared. This time the holograms looked like a bunch of levers, buttons and knobs. Ra’ntau reached out and manipulated them as if they were real. There was a hissing noise, and suddenly a purple liquid began to pour into Kit’s tube.
“H-hey!” Kit gave a shout. The tube was filling fast. In just a few seconds he was treading water, or whatever this was to stay afloat. “Are you trying to drown me!?” He couldn’t get anymore words in. The tube was nearly completely full. He took as deep a breath while he could as the container was completely filled.
This was a bad situation. With no wand and no ability to speak it’d be a real trick to work a spell that could get him out of this. For now, he couldn’t do anything but watch. And hope this Ra’ntau alien was smart enough to know that roocoons didn’t have gills.
The liquid began to bubble and then the transformation started. Kit’s pajamas were burnt away as if the liquid was acidic, but Kit himself was unharmed. However, the tube seemed to be getting bigger. As were his ears. They were already long, but now they were getting wider and rounder. His claws became relatively longer to his fingers and toes and much sharper. His tail kept its current length compared to his body, but curled up like a squirrel’s. His fur pattern changed. He couldn’t see it, but the mask of dark brown fur remained over his face. However, most of his fur became a solid dark golden color while his chest and stomach were light brown. Two fuzzy antennae each about curved and about three inches long pushed out of the top of his head and suddenly his mind was overwhelmed with information that he couldn’t process all at once.
There was a gurgling noise and then the liquid was drained from the tube dropping Kit back to the bottom of it. There was still, a strange sensation he was figuring out, but now that the fear of drowning was gone he was able to regain some of his senses and stand up. Though, he only stood about two feet tall now.
“Huh… I was expecting bigger…” Ra’ntau seemed disappointed. “And less… Cute. Well doesn’t matter.” He clapped his hands. “As long as you can fight and cause chaos on a massive scale you’ll do.”
“Roawr scry!” Kit tried to protest again that he was not going to be this guy’s minion. And it appeared he couldn’t talk. That was a problem. He wasn’t even sure with magic how he’d get all the way back to Earth right now, but in his current form the arcane arts were basically completely off the table for him. And what was this strange sensation he was experiencing. It was like information was coming from all over the place. He closed his eyes to try to steady himself.
He could still feel… Whatever it was. But with his eyes closed it was easier to focus on. In his mind he saw it take shape, yellow lines that ran throughout the entire ship. They flowed like a river… All of them came from someplace beneath the flooring, and all of them ended at some kind of box where they became small blue explosions. Kit opened his eyes. He looked to where all the boxes of blue explosions had been. Every single spot he had seen one there was some sort of electronic device. He closed his eyes again to picture it easier. Somehow, thanks to this transformation, he was able to feel the flow of electricity.
Ra’ntau was rambling about something. Kit was ignoring him as he was exploring this new sense and figuring out if it could be used. He opened his eyes again and looked at the tube he was in. Now that he understood what the sense was he could focus on the flowing electricity while his eyes were open. He could see where electricity flowed to the door on his tube. Was it an electronic lock? If that was the case if he had some way to cut the power he might be able to get out. But, how to do that from inside the tube?
He reached out in the direction of one of the yellow lines, to his surprise it moved straight into his hand. Suddenly, actual sparks jumped from the tube and flowed straight into Kit’s body. He should have been electrocuted, but instead he felt energized. Like he had just drunk several cups of coffee.
“Geeze! You scared me there!” Ra’ntau took a step back. “I thought you had just fried yourself. If you died the future experiments would have no confidence in me. Experiment 2 would be all ‘what happened to 1 master?’ and I’d have to evade the question and they’d all be scared of being converted.
“Groawarl rowl.” Kit stuck his tongue out at the alien. But, he had made a discovery. He could eat electricity. If he consumed the power to the door maybe it would unlock! He focused on it, and before he even reached out a hand the flow of electricity started to change. His antennae were twitching like crazy. Aha! Those were what let him sense and control electricity. He didn’t need to use his hands at all. He could just siphon all the power from the door straight into his body without even lifting a claw. Kit grinned. Ra’ntau wanted something that could cause chaos. He really should be careful what he wished for.
The electricity from the door sparked outward into Kit’s body. He felt great. And now his senses felt sharper. It was almost as if everything in the world had slowed down slightly allowing him to react to it quicker. It was a bit overstimulating.
The tube lost its power, there was a clicking noise. Before Ra’ntau even had time to react Kit leaped for where he had found the door. It swung open without any resistance. He was out of the cage. Of course, he still needed to deal with the evil overlord and figure out how to get back to Earth.
“H-hey!” Ra’ntau shouted. “What do you think you’re doing! Experiments can not leave the tubes until we arrive at home! Activate ship security measures!” He waved his arms frantically as more holograms of levers appeared. At that point a gun rose from the floor and started to fire small bursts of laser at Kit.
Kit leaped to the wall by instinct and dug his claws into it. He had gripped it so easily. He had to be pretty strong to go through metal like that. He could test how strong later. There was still a laser firing at him. He scrambled across the wall, and onto the ceiling. As long as he used all four limbs it was just as easy to walk on the ceiling as it was the floor. He was able to run all over the ship, going to the floor, walls, ceiling again. The laser continued to shoot after him and nearly shot Ra’ntau.
“Gah! Careful! That thing really hurts!” Ra’ntau whined.
“Groawr!” Kit rolled his eyes. As full of energy as he was it felt great to run around the ship, but he really should do something about the laser. Well, given his new abilities there was a pretty obvious solution. He reached out with his new senses and tugged at the electricity that flowed to the laser redirecting it to his body. He was starting to twitch a bit. He hadn’t felt this hyperactive since the very first time he had caffeine as a kid. He clung to the roof and looked down at Ra’ntau, sticking his tongue out to taunt him again. “Get down from there right this instant! Don’t make me get a broom!” Ra’ntau shook his fist.
“Groawrl.” Kit was pretty safe for now. Ra’ntau couldn’t reach him, but he still hadn’t figured out how to get home. A thought occurred to him. He was able to manipulate the electricity and absorb it into his body. Could he just manipulate the flow without eating it? Maybe he could take over the ship’s controls and try to fly the ship back. He reached out again, and rather than pull the electricity into him he threw it in random directions.
Suddenly, a ton of holograms appeared all over the ship. Some of them blared loud noises as they lit. Random objects turned on and off. The tube doors kept closing and opening.
“Gah! How are you doing that!?” Ra’ntau demanded. “Wait… The transformation. You may be small, but you can control electricity! Imagine what we could do with that! Shut down the entire power grid of a city. But don’t do it on my ship!”
“Groa aki gwaka!” Kit shouted at Ra’ntau as he dropped back down to the floor and the holograms disappeared. When was this guy going to catch a clue and realize Kit would never be his evil minion?
“Alright, I didn’t want to do this… But you’ve left me no choice but to use force.” Ra’ntau growled. “My exoskeleton weighs 500 of your Earth munus.”
“Ra?” Kit looked at the alien and tilted his head in confusion.
“Earth does use the munu system for measuring mass, right?” Ra’ntau asked.
“Graka.” Kit shook his head.
“Oh… Well… All you need to know is it’s very thick and very heavy! You can’t hurt me! But I bet I can knock you unconscious with a single punch!” Ra’ntau shouted as he let out a cry and charged straight tat Kit.
“Grrrrr.” Kit let lose a low growl, then right as Ra’ntau arrived directly in front of him, suddenly bright yellow lasers fired straight out of Kit’s eyes, hitting Ra’ntau, and carrying him all the way to the pilot’s seat where there was a small explosion destroying most of the console and all of the chair.
Kit blinked. He didn’t know he could do that! He also felt way less overstimulated now. Ah, he understood. All the electricity he had absorbed. He had discharged it in the form of that eyebeam.
“Ugggggh… My poor ship…” Ra’ntau’s exoskeleton must have been as tough as he claimed, as he was almost entirely unscratched as he slowly stood up. “I only had two more payments left on it! And… Wait, why are we going in the wrong direction! Oh no! You fool! We’re going in reverse! We’re going back to Earth!”
“Ra taaaa!” Kit jumped into the air. That sounded like good news to him. How to actually find Earth after he took control of the ship was a problem he was still working on. To think this thing just had a reverse option the entire time. And to think the alien had said they couldn’t go back.
“No! It’s not good!” Ra’ntau shouted. “The controls are busted, the clutch is stuck, there’s no way to control the ship. We’re going to crash into the planet full speed! The explosion will be heard around the entire globe! At least, the explosion will likely vaporize us quickly so we don’t suffer.” Ra’ntau looked at the door. “Or should I say… So you don’t suffer.” Ra’ntau ran for the door on the ship which opened as he disappeared into it. “Sorry Experiment 1, I really wanted it to work out. But I think we’re just drifting apart.”
The door closed, and a long silent minute without anything happening passed. Ra’ntau stared at Kit from the other side of a window in the door.
“Okay, that line would have worked much better had the escape pod actually launched.” Ra’ntau put a palm to his face. “Ok how do I get out of here and… Wait… The launch has to be initiated from the other side!” He pulled on the door. “And the pod doesn’t open from this side! I’m trapped.” He paused and looked through the window over at Kit. “Heeeeey, Experiment 1, I know we’ve had our differences… But for old time’s sake… Could you press that red button next to the escape pod so I can get out of here before we all die?”
“Gra?” Kit walked up to the door and looked at the button.
“Yes, that’s the one. Just go ahead and press it, and you can go down in history for bravely dying to save your overlord!” Ra’ntau spoke in a begging tone.
“Graaaawr!” Kit waved a hand dismissively and walked to the front of the ship. This got several shouts from Ra’ntau but he tuned them out. Right now, he had to figure out how to stop the ship from crashing.
There was a long handle that was currently on an R symbol. So that was the reverse. What kind of spaceship used a stick? Sadly, that was about the only thing that had survived of the controls. And Kit suspected it was going to take more than just changing gears to avoid a crash. What could he do? Even if the controls weren’t busted he wouldn’t know where to begin. Who knew how this thing was operated! He’d just be blindly pushing buttons.
Wait, he didn’t need buttons to operate a machine now. He could manipulate the electrical flow. He just had to reach out until he could outline the entire ship’s electrical system. From there could figure out a way to fly the ship by controlling its systems directly.
When he had first awoke, he had been overwhelmed with information and he began to understand why. He didn’t just perceive the electricity in the ship. He comprehended what it was being used for, what each machine’s function was. He began to identify systems. Life support, the holograms, tube operation. But, he couldn’t reach the thrusters. Somehow the connection to them had been severed but they were still going. If he couldn’t just turn the thrusters off, he had to find some other way to stop the ship. He continued to dig through the ship’s electrical system slowly gaining an understanding of the entire thing.
And then he found something promising. A system called ‘Emergency Break.’
Kit routed the power to the break and watched out the window. It was hard to tell with stars whipping by, but it looked like they were passing slightly slower. They were going too fast, there was no telling if the break would slow them down in time or not to avoid a crash. The break needed more power. Kit began to reroute everything on the ship with the exception of life support and artificial gravity to the emergency break. The ship slowed down enough for him to actually perceive what they were flying towards. And they were approaching Earth fast. While they were no longer going to crash into the planet at light speed or however fast the ship went, Kit was still fairly certain that the ship was going fast enough to kill them when it slammed into the ground. Well, only two systems left to draw power from. There was more than enough air to last until they landed on Earth. Hoping they did land and not crash.
Kit dug his claws into the floor as he disabled the life support and the artificial gravity and diverted their power to the break as well. With the artificial gravity off he could feel the ship rumbling and feared he might lose his grip. He could also hear a loud of banging and shouting coming from the escape pod.
He was giving the break all the power the ship had. If this wasn’t enough to stop the crash he didn’t have time to come up with a plan B! He continued to push the power into the break. They broke through the atmosphere. He could see his house! They flew straight at the ground! It was getting closer, closer, and then…
It stopped.
Roughly a foot off the ground the ship stopped moving and hovered in place. Kit had done it! He had made it home alive!
“Ahahahah! Another victory for Overlord Ra’ntau!” With the threat of imminent death gone, Ra’ntau had become his usual self. “Now, Experiment 1! Release me from this escape pod! We shall have to acquire parts and build a new ship and then head home.”
“Groawrl.” Kit walked up to the escape pod door and gave Ra’ntau an annoyed glare. Somehow this guy STILL thought he was going to be his minion.
“Come on Experiment 1!” Ra’ntau demanded. “After you let me out I’ll make you an officer so you’ll be able to command the other experiments after I create them.”
“Gra.” Kit reached up a hand and pressed the red button next to the door.
“Wait don’t do that not-“ That was the last Kit heard as the escape pod shot out of the ship and disappeared into the horizon. Well, that problem was solved for now.
The ship rumbled, and then suddenly fell to the ground and broke apart. That was right, Kit had been routing all power to the break. After he was safe he kind of just let things go back wherever and now the ship had fallen out of the sky. At least it was only a one foot fall. And with the ship having fallen apart Kit didn’t have to figure out where the exit was!
And hey! His wand he had dropped was in the grass right next to the ship. He grabbed that and then stuck it in his mouth as he climbed up the wall of his house and back through his bedroom window. That had certainly been a lot of excitement. He was going to be tired tomorrow. He decided to write a letter to his parents asking them to let him sleep in because of how late he’d been out. He also thought it a good idea to explain in the letter his current form and why there was a destroyed alien spaceship in the backyard.
They’d be shocked, but things would work out. For now, though Kit was exhausted. He wanted to test out more of what this form could do, especially when it came to the laser eyes, but right now he just needed sleep. He crawled up into his now giant bed, curled up against the pillow and quickly fell asleep. It had been a busy night.