Chapter Text
The sharp ringing in my ear jolts me awake. I instantly take in my surrounding area. It looks like a prison cell, it mirrors the kind I’ve seen in cartoons of the old west, iron bars and all. The strangest part is how strange the bars look against the bright green, futuristic walls of the ship. Ship? How do I know it’s a ship? I breathe in and wince, I may have a fractured rib. I look down and see I have a plain gray jumper on. My knees are nearly up to my chest and I realize I am tucked in a corner, my head against the nearest wall. I reach out slowly against the wall and heft myself up, I stand bowlegged, struggling to carry my weight.
I lift my left foot and instantly crash back down into the corner I was in. The pain from falling grounds me even more and my anxiety shoots up. Where am I? What in the hell am I wearing? Suddenly I feel eyes and instantly shoot my gaze past the bars. There is a person, short, and more importantly an alien. They looked like someone mutated a Bearded Dragon and plastered its face on a humanoid body. Zarge. The word jumps out to me, their species name probably. 5’ 3’’, three-pronged clawed fingers with a seemingly out of place thumb and a strange yellow-green shade. The feathers along their back seem to be ornamental. I compartmentalize their features and the instant thoughts of fighting them horrify me. Why am I thinking of fighting them? I shake my head to clear it.
“ Hey ” I croak out, I clear my throat and try again.
“ Do you understand me ?”
They stare back at me with what seems to be suspicion. Maybe they don’t know English? Common. They should know that. The word jumps into my head. I struggle to remember it but eventually formulate a short sentence in my head. I notice a small pail filled with what I hope is water. I don’t much care if it is or not and take a big swig and gulp down the water. Some water escapes my mouth and dribbles down my tan chin. I cleared my throat again.
“Hello? Understand me?” I say roughly.
They nod, still not speaking.
The more I thought, the more I remembered.
“Where are we?” I ask.
“The FirstHeat, Zarge prisonship”
“I do not want to hurt you, who are you?”
“Moniz, who are you?” Their tail sways up and then settles suddenly like it just realized they were talking to a potential enemy and not a friend.
“I- uh…” A horrible realization sets in. I don’t remember my name.
“...I don’t know. What did they do to me?!” I clutch my head, fingers digging into my scalp.
“Woah, calm down. You must have been someone really dangerous to have been given an amnesiac.” Moniz tries to calm me with this information.
“Why do I remember everything else...like languages and history..but not my name..or past?”
The Zarg- Moniz looks almost proud as they explain.
“A perfected amnesiac that only makes you forget yourself, and the people you know but not anything else, otherwise you’d be useless to them and they’d have to train you from the beginning.”
They pause and think for a moment.
“But why keep you alive? Why use it? Maybe they think you’ll be useful to them once they break you.”
I frown.
“How do you know this?”
Moniz looks up in surprise.
“Oh! I used to work on one of my species finest science vessels, The Sunshot.”
I give them a confused look.
“Then..why are you in prison?”
They wave away an invisible pest.
“Insubordination, I didn't agree with the inhumane tests they were doing on some prisoners of war” They state nonchalantly.
"It didn't help that I was just a low-level intern" They finish with a mumble.
“I’m here for only 3 years, so it’s not too bad. It could have been worse.”
“3...you guys live till 200 don’t you? That would roughly make it about a year or so time for a human?”
"yes, I am the ripe young age of 59. Essentially a fully fledged adult." They state almost smugly.
I suddenly realize something.
“How..did they tell you?”
"Tell me what, Human? My..age?"
"No, how long you'd be here"
Moniz slowly walks closer to their cell bars and points upward. Above the cell is a panel with the number 3. I scoot closer to my bars, still too weak to walk. I ask them to tell me my sentence. They look surprised and tell me.
“17 years”
17?!
“That’s...crazy! I’ll be 37 by that time! Nearly half my life-time!” If I live to 70.
They shake their head.
“Calm down, there’s no point in yelling.” They say evenly.
I lean back against the prison wall again and breathe in deeply. I notice, again, the strangeness of the bars.
“Why these old iron bars? This ship looks advanced enough.”
“We’re lower level prisoners, weak physically, so they put us in here.”
My eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
“I...Humans may be fairly new-”
“26 years, 3 years on the council” Moniz interrupts.
“Yeah, that, but shouldn’t they know humans are physically stronger than your kind?”
Moniz shoots up at this thought.
“But...iron?” They ask quietly.
“I don’t remember much, but I do know since we were discovered new tech has been very in demand. We...have cybernetics already in a good chunk of our species...prototypes, sure, but still very effective.” I strained to remember.
I raise my arm to my face. Looking for any indication of metal or cybernetics.
“Only problem is, I don’t know if I have them or not”
“Why are you telling me this?” Moniz asks, very confused.
“Because I want you to help me escape.” I state.
“What?! Why?” Their shoulders shoot up in surprise and they stare at me as though I was crazy. Maybe I was.
I face Moniz and shakily stand against the iron bars. A weak show of resolve, but at least it was better than nothing.
“You know them, you’ve been wronged by them. Why go back? What will you get from it?” I try to reason with them.
“But..they’ll..kill me, brand me a rebel!” They nearly shout.
“How do you know they already haven’t?”
Moniz seems to pale, or as well as I can tell. They look down, hopefully deep in thought.
After a few moments of silence Moniz begins to pace in their cell. Their golden-orange tail swaying back and forth erratically.
After another minute of this, they finally stop, their tail stopping in mid-air as well.
“I...I’ll help” They eventually say, defeated.
I perk up at this unexpected news, not expecting it to be this easy.
“Before all that, I can’t keep calling you human.” Moniz says.
“Then give me a name, any” I say dismissively.
“...Mulit” They whisper.
“Mullet?!” I laugh.
Moniz glares at me.
“What?” They say, apparently offended at my laughter.
It was probably smart to NOT anger your only friend in an alien spaceship.
“Ha..Nothing.” I wave away the tension.
I then remember that we have to work together and I don't think I like 'mullet' as a name.
“I like it, truly, but maybe M as a nickname would be good.” I suggest.
They grumble an agreement. Better than nothing.
I feel a new wave of optimism fill me with some energy and I finally let go of the bars and stand as tall as I can.
“So, got an idea?” I ask.
Moniz looks down guiltily. This could be interesting.
“I..have been thinking about escaping, more fantasy than fiction but I do have an idea.” They take their right hand and rub the back of the left one, possibly for comfort. Good to know.
They sit down criss cross and think for a moment.
“First, you need to recover your strength, who knows how long you were fed the amnesiac before you were dumped here.” Moniz states, they stare at me with a tinge of worry. They breathe in slowly and continue.
“I’ve already been here a year so I know the guards schedule, we’re in a low security section of the prison so assuming you can uphold your end of breaking open the bars, we can escape on the only guard ship in this sector of the prison. They always cycle the guards so when the ship comes in next should be our best bet.” He finishes and searches my eyes for something, maybe disappointment or anger.
“Simple, but I like it. When’s the next time the ship comes by?”
Moniz frowns, or at least it seems like one. Uh oh, this does not bode well.
“A year, give or take.”
I pale. Fuck.
“Okay...then I guess I should get started” I turn and start slowly walking around my cell, every step more confident than the last. This is going to take forever.