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The first impression Sergeant Jade Harley got of the alien captive was of someone who’d been utterly defeated.
The lights in the interrogation pod - large reinforced glass cells that could be moved around the facility and made Jade think of the little capsules in vending machines - were dimmed in deference to the nocturnal alien, but it remained slumped with its eyes shut against the rear wall, huge orange horns propping its head up. It didn't react to the hiss of the lab doors opening, or the click of boots on the lab floor. Its body lay limp, adorned in the chocolate-brown armour of its caste. Jade felt a stab of pity at seeing something so resigned to helplessness.
Behind her, Doctor Lalonde said "I hope you realise what you are doing."
Doctor Lalonde frightened Jade a little, because Rose was pretty bad and she didn't have a PhD like her mom did. But she turned to face the older woman anyway, staring from behind her large glasses.
"With all due respect, ma'am," and she meant it, "I think I have a right to see my captive and make sure he is unhurt."
"We've already done that." Doctor Lalonde looked down at the young soldier, clad in the dull camo casuals of off-duty soldiers. "Whatever excuse you come up with, I can already tell that you are morbidly curious about the alien you sedated with scraps from my daugher's medical kit. This is especially considering your role as a sniper – a fact that irritates you because you, out of all of your squad, most want to see the Alternian race close to."
The scientist smirked. "After all, you have managed to be present in at least half of the interrogations we have conducted thus far."
Ugh. It was like that. Lalondes got in your head. Bunking with Rose was bad enough. Jade resisted the urge to mouth off.
"Look," she said slowly, "I just think that if I were held prisoner, very far from home and amongst strange people after watching my friends get killed around me... I would want somebody to talk to. Somebody who wouldn't want to poke and prod me to try and find out what secrets I had. Sombody who was... a friend."
There was an icy pause.
"Agreed." Doctor Lalonde suddenly turned, lab coat and pencil-gray skirt twirling with the motion, and strode towards the end of the lab. Jade blinked, and then followed, silently cheering her fortune.
In front of the glass cell was a horseshoe of three desks, groaning under stacks of paperwork and computer towers. Doctor Lalone swept a space clear with one hand, pulled up an office chair and pointed to a microphone standing in the middle desk. Jade spared a glance at the troll in the cell, but it hadn't moved. The grey skin seemed paler than she remembered. Couldn't it - he- hear them?
"Command are idiots if they think we are going to lose our subject," Lalonde said as Jade sat down. "This is our first and perhaps only chance to learn as much as possible, fraternizing be damned. You know some Alternian. I've seen you practicing in the mirror when you think nobody is watching. He is too scared to tell us anything for fear of exposing his friends to danger. I need you to get his trust. There is a two-way system in the cell - he can hear and speak to you, and you can hear him. Be his friend, Harley. That is an order."
Jade swallowed, mouth suddenly dry.
"Yes, ma'am."
She tapped the microphone with one finger, wondering what to say. "Take me to your leader?" She didn't even know how to say that. She felt like somebody ought to be there, recording this for the history books. 2024 - Jade Harley talks to an alien. Her picture in a school textbook. One hand went to the microphone's base and flicked the power switch.
At the pop of electronics turning on, the alien's eyes snapped open. Large and acid-yellow, they darted back and forth before settling on Jade and Doctor Lalonde. The troll scrambled to its feet, the spiderweb of silver cybernetics on its legs whirring faintly. Jade giggled - out of fear or in humor, she had no idea - and leaned close to the microphone.
"Molkoss!"
Her Troll was bad. It was scraped together from previous eavesdropped interrogations, and she didn't have the time Doctor Lalonde had to perfect it. Nevertheless, the alien jerked, eyes widened in surprise as it recognised the greeting.
The two stared awkwardly at each other. The troll didn't answer back, lips parted slightly to show fangs. Was that a smile, or fear? Jade swallowed and, eyes darting, leaned back to the microphone.
"Ter et kurelix hu?" Fuck. She forgot to roll the r. They always rolled the r.
The troll blinked.
"T-Tavros." The voice was tinny through the speakers, but it sounded soft, nearly Spanish with a slightly rolled r. "Ju al kurelix Tavros Nitram."
"Tavros," Jade repeated. It was... nice? She couldn't dwell on it too much. She could almost feel Doctor Lalonde raising an eyebrow behind her.
"Ju al kurelix... Jade Harley."
Tavros' brow furrowed. "Jaayud?"
"Jade."
"Jayd."
Jade giggled, unable to stop herself. Tavros' lips parted, and yep - that was a smile. God, this was insane. Doctor Lalonde's eyebrow must be in SPACE by now.
"Mul hu et hluxim..." she paused, and pulled back from the microphone. “What's the troll word for us? Our language?"
"They call us ‘hazgak’ in their propaganda posters," was the reply, "but we're officially termed ‘anglis.’"
Jade nodded, and turned her attention back to Tavros, pushing her slipping glasses back up her nose.
"Mul hu et hluxim anglis?"
Tavros frowned. "B... Bak. Ju al aosuix. Mul hu et hluxim Altrina?"
Jade knew what "Bak" meant - it was a no. Was he asking her if he spoke his language? He'd just used the same sentence, sort of...
"Bak."
Tavros hung his head. "Ju al aosuix."
Jade turned to Doctor Lalonde. "Why does he keep saying that?"
"It means he's sorry."
"What for?"
The scientist shrugged. "He apologises a lot. It might be part of his conditioning, or just that he's poor at socialising. We don't know at this point."
"Ter hu et dejim?"
Jade glanced at Tavros, then helplessly back at Doctor Lalonde.
"He's asking you what you do."
"Oh, uh..." Jade racked her brains, then leant back to the microphone. "Ju al devwaix Ulalu." That was their word for soldier, right? Now to remind him of the time she had been fighting in Mexico and found him screaming, trapped under the corpse of his horse, and how she had taken one look at his terror before slapping Rose's medkit out of her hands and grabbing the morphine –
"Ju al uloruix hu. Xia?"
Tavros nodded, his face flushing fudge. "Xia. J- Ju al elwaed hu devwaila c-charub. Hu et alouix."
Jade had no idea what he'd just said, but Lalonde's face turned red and she covered her hand with her mouth, stifling a laugh.
"Excuse me?"
Lalonde shook her head. "He… Oh, god. He thinks you're pretty. He thought you were an angel when you sedated him. Congratulations, Miss Harley. Captain Kirk would be proud."
Jade felt blood rush to her face. She opened her mouth, and closed it again.
John, her brother, had called her a goober as part of the "Team Goober" injoke they had. Dave preferred hip, fly, chill and other words that had become old in the Nineties. Rose had called her their rock, which was probably the best thing she'd get from the medic. Doctor English called her a "scamp." Nobody, not her squad mates or the base personnel, had called her pretty. And now an alien from another word with huge horns and crippled legs had called her an angel.
Tavros was brown all over, his head bowed but his eyes not leaving her face. He looked mortified.
"J-Ju al aosuix..." he whispered.
Jade shook her head. "Bak. Loj hu." Thank you. She meant it.
Tavros looked up in surprise, and then smiled. Jade decided he looked a lot nicer when he smiled, and felt herself smile back.
A rasp of papers made her look down, where Doctor Lalonde had just placed what appeared to be a list of phrases in Alternian. The scientist was smiling, and Jade couldn't tell if it was her usual sardonic manner or something genuine.
"I'll leave you two alone," she whispered, and had strode her way out of the room before Jade could raise her voice in protest. The lab doors clicked behind her like a coffin lid.
Jade stared at Tavros. Tavros stared back.
One for the history books. Jade smiled, and took a quick peek at the paper below her.
"Ah... Ter hu et dejim?"
When Doctor Lalonde returned, with Doctor English in tow, the two soldiers were laughing like children, trying to teach each other English and Troll words and phrases and howling in mirth when they got it wrong. Jade had left her seat and taken the microphone over, showing Tavros pictures and sketches as he pressed his hands and face to the glass. They stopped abruptly as their superiors entered, looking as if they’d been caught stealing. Both were blushing.
English turned to Lalonde, a smile under his bushy moustache, and said, “My word! Now if only all first contact scenarios went like that, eh?”