Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Silence. Darkness. Those were the only two words that could describe my senses. I couldn’t feel anything, hear anything, or see anything. There were only my internal thoughts drifting aimlessly in this void. Thoughts that were already shaky without any memories to act as reinforcement. Where was I? Who was I? How did I get here? Despite these serious questions, I felt calm. Maybe it was because of my lack of senses. If I couldn’t feel, hear, or see anything then what was there to worry about?

My mind drifted through this void for a length of time that lacked measurement. Was it for mere seconds or an eternity? However long it was, there was an end to it. Suddenly the isolated void was replaced with a blinding white light. It was painful to experience. Something that felt akin to being electrocuted. But the fact that I actually experienced some kind of feeling meant I was returning to my senses.

The first thing I noticed was my sight returning. The blinding light started out simple with different shades of grayscale morphing into more advanced shapes and colors. It was like watching somebody paint my vision for me in real time. Lines and edges swished through the air giving form to my environment. A floor appeared below me. Resting on top of that was a simple table. Walls moved in to contain everything. Bright, fluorescent lights dotted the ceiling above. Four colorful characters materialized across the table along with the rest of the room’s furnishings. And I watched it all appear without even moving my head.

But my vision didn’t return perfectly. It was a gradual process of removing the blur from my sight, starting close up. At first all I could clearly make out was the edge of the table in front of me. A few papers and clipboards were scattered about. It was starting to look like I was in some kind of office space. Blur kept being removed from my vision more and more. In fact, so much of it was removed that I was able to see my lower body. Part of my lower vision was blocked by something light green and fuzzy around my neck. I saw I was wearing a white coat with purple trim around the edges. Both of my arms were resting on my lap, but I couldn’t feel them at the moment.

Something wasn’t right however. My expanding vision was reaching out to the edges. Past what I remember being used to. I was able to clearly see the table, my lower body, and the ceiling all at once. And anything else that was beside me. It wasn’t like I was looking out of the side of my view, because everything had the same level of focus. This did not feel right. I tried blinking but couldn’t. At first I thought it was because my body was still locked up. But that wasn’t correct either because at that point the feeling in my hands came back. I instinctively brought one up to my face.

As my arm moved I noticed the four blobs sitting across from me shift around. My distant vision was still glossy at that moment. Whoever they were, they must have been startled by me moving. While lifting my arm, bites of sound crept in from those four individuals. Guess my hearing was returning at the same rate as everything else.

“...e okay?”

“Hold... him time.”

“Wha... something ba...”

“Better... up so...”

My hand was now in my front field of view. Except it didn’t look like the hand I remembered. It was dark gray, weirdly segmented, and only had four digits instead of five. Was this actually my hand? A simple test of flexing all four fingers proved soon. But I could have sworn I had five before.

Curious, I brought my hand closer to my eyes. Maybe my unfamiliar fingers could find my missing eyelids. The answer to that conundrum was soon revealed when I touched my eyes. No fleshy eyelids here. Instead, it felt like my eyes were hard lenses. Hard lenses that took up an extraordinary amount of my face. And I could not physically move my eyes at all. At the same time, I didn’t need to move my eyes. Everything I wanted to see was already in view. It was weird and scary. I was absolutely certain things weren’t right because humans didn’t have eyes or faces like this.

Returning at that moment was my voice due to me speaking out on impulse. “What’s with my face... and my hands—” I was interrupted by my own voice because it sounded wrong. It was too... squeaky. Pitched differently as well and instead of sounds coming from my mouth it felt like I was humming my words out loud.

“What’s with my voice?” My hand reached toward my neck to check if something else was wrong. Instead of touching flesh, it got lost in this weird, lime-green fluff. And I knew it couldn’t have been a beard because it was too low under my face. The fluff felt like extremely long fur that was a little bit prickly too. “What is this stuff on my neck? W-What’s wrong with me?”

Finally, my vision completely cleared up. I wasn’t in an office. It looked more like some kind of lab or research facility. Various machines and computers lined parts of the walls. Where there wasn’t a machine there was generally a table or counter top holding weird instruments and gadgets. More of the table revealed itself to have similar contraptions along with some soda cans and light snacks. Everything looked like a mess.

That’s when I could finally perceive who the people were sitting across from me. And they were definitely a colorful cast. People I had never seen before in my life. But the word “people” was a bit of a stretch. Being greeted by these kinds of people took me by surprise because half of them were beings that didn’t exist. At least from what I could remember.

On the far left was a tall, red scaled lizard person. A literal anthropomorphic lizard wearing some kind of outfit you’d see in a laboratory. Two large horns grew out from the top of their head and curled under their cheeks toward the front. Every few seconds a brighter red tongue would flick out from their snout. They almost looked out of it with their eyelids half closed. The mere presence of the humanoid lizard made me question if I was dreaming or not.

To the right of the lizard was a normal human male. Pale skin with blond hair cut short. The human was a few inches shorter than the lizard to his side. Nothing stood out from him, but considering his competition he would have been hard pressed to stand out. There was a look of dismay on his face. 

After him was something resembling a human woman. But instead of having normal skin she possessed a translucent blue outside layer. I could barely see through her transparent skin. An ample bosom along with some long and frizzy hair gave enough proof to verify her femininity. The hair in question however was just as blue and transparent as her skin. She was almost as tall as the human guy. The weirdest part about her was the uncanny valley effect her face gave off. It wasn’t as well defined as a human’s would have been. Way too smooth and round. I couldn’t make out what kind of emotion was going on behind her blank stare. She definitely shared a spot with the lizard on being the weirdest among these four.

Leading off the line of oddities was a very short man that was extremely hairy. He had a golden beard which branched out to both sideburns and almost reached down to his stomach. That, however, was a short distance to cover due to how small this man was. He was about the size of a midget but had different proportions. A better term for him would have been stocky, like a fantasy dwarf. His mouth was completely covered by his bushy mustache and beard combo. All I could see was his two eyes looking back at me with strong intent.

I stared at all four of them. Each wore the same white and purple lab coat, just like mine... “W-Who are you people? Where a-am I?” I still couldn’t get over how squeaky my voice was.

“Oh God, does he have amnesia?” the human asked out loud.

“Well that’sss a firssst,” the lizard replied. A somewhat hissing undertone followed his voice.

“This is bad! We’d better tell the RD about this,” the blue skinned lady bubbly said. She pulled out some phone sized device and started tapping on it.

“Hmph,” was all that came from the dwarf.

Amnesia. That word did not bode well with me, especially so due to my immediate surroundings. I didn’t know where I was, who or what these people were, or what exactly I was either. Panic was setting in and my breathing increased. I knew I was breathing because I felt my chest rise and fall like normal, but there was something odd about my mouth. The lack of feeling air brush against my lips did not help. 

I tried to remember who I was. Thankfully, there were definitely memories left within me. Growing up as a kid, various events that happened throughout school, college, and finally getting a job at some tech firm. And I definitely remembered it all happening as a human. But I froze up when I tried to recall my name. There was nothing there, not even the names of family members or friends. Only faces and experiences were all that were left inside my mind. I really did have some form of amnesia.

A weird vibrating feeling came from my back. I then realized there was something that felt like a cape draped over my back and the chair I was sitting on. Turning my head to investigate was a mistake. With my increased field of vision, seeing so much move at once made me dizzy fast. I quickly centered my head back. “What in the world is going on here?” I squeaked, placing my hands on the top of my head. That also proved to be a fatal mistake.

There wasn't any hair. Instead it was a fine film of fuzz similar to my neck fluff. In fact, my whole head was covered in fuzz. Save for my huge eyes. That wasn’t the only notable aspect about my alien head. Brushing the top of my dome I bumped two stalks protruding above my forehead. Disturbing them caused my sense of smell to come back in full force. I was assaulted by every scent in the room. The different flavors of soda and snacks on the table. The sterile atmosphere of all the machines around us. And even the unique scent of each of the four individuals across from me. It was almost too much to handle.

Slowly, I dragged my fingers along these stalks. Each was lined with finer strands that poked out in one direction like a comb. They were antennae, I was sure of it. And it wasn’t only smells they could pick up either. I could feel disturbances in the air caused by something moving. Like all the tiny motions that came from the four across from me chatting to one another. I had tuned them out at this point, but now it was impossible to ignore them. After noticing me fondling my antennae they all shut up and stared back.

I lowered my hands back down, grasping the arms of the chair I was seated in. “What... am I?”

The dwarf fellow was the first to speak up. “What dae ya mean ‘what am I?’ Yer—”

His thick accent was cut off by the blue lady tapping his shoulder. “Hold on. We have to be careful what we say here, especially if he has amnesia. We shouldn’t be so blunt about this else we might scare him.”

“Aww come on! It can’t be that bad,” the lizard said and leaned back in his chair. “I think Sssolisss isss messssing with usss.”

“Well, I think he really does have amnesia due to how he was feeling himself just now,” the human said. He put a hand on his chin and leaned forward toward me. “Does the name ‘Solis’ ring any bells?”

Solis? I was ninety-nine percent sure that wasn’t my name. But the fact that I couldn’t remember what my name was wasn’t helping either. “N-No. I just remember that I used to be human instead of... whatever this is,” I said and examined the eight digits across both of my hands. The fact that these people didn’t know what was going on either made me even more worried.

“Human? Bah! You’re far from human, buddy,” the lizardman said with a grating fit of laughter.

“Runs! What did I just say?” the blue lady said, turning to the lizard. She then looked back at me. “Sorry about that. I know things may feel strange at the moment but you need to stay calm. We’re here to help, okay? My name’s Linda. You seem to be suffering from some kind of amnesia after an unfortunate... accident while doing some research.”

I started to shake. On top of amnesia there was now the word “accident.” As I put together the facts I knew my mental state was degrading. I was in some kind of research facility and suffered from an accident. Did this accident turn me into something not human? If that was the case then the others probably would not have been acting so casual around me. “If... I’m not human then... what am I?”

The four traded glances at each other and conversed under a whisper. I could barely make out what they were saying. “He really doesn’t know what he is,” said the human.

“I reckon we be blunt with ‘em,” said the dwarf. The lizard nodded in response.

“Screw it! Might as well,” Linda said, throwing her arms up into the air. They all turned back at me before Linda nudged the human on the shoulder. “You tell him.”

“What? Why me?” he asked while Linda ignored his question. The human sighed. “Whatever. Listen, buddy. You are not a human. You’re a... moth person.”

The words “not a human” resonated within my mind. I started to feel sick to my stomach. What did he mean by moth person? That I was some kind of insect humanoid? The idea sounded like complete nonsense... until I remembered that a lizard man was sitting in the same room with me. “Oh,” I said, completely defeated by the fact.

At that point, something clicked in me. I knew that these four were trying to help but I couldn’t control what came next. Instead of taking anything seriously, I reverted back to my primal instincts. Probably due to the overwhelming dread caused by this situation. Fight or flight? There were four of them across the table and only one of me. So fighting was out of the question. All that left was flight, but how? I slowly turned my head to gather more information on my surroundings. To the left was a wall. To the right was a huge opening that led to other parts of whatever facility we were in. This opening was connected to a hallway which at the end that I could see had a square indent. Inside this indent was what appeared to be some kind of airlock painted in the same color scheme as our uniforms. It was split vertically down the middle with a few sharp angles making it look like two sets of teeth interlocking two halves. That had to be a way out. Now I just needed to figure out when.

As if right on cue, the two halves slid apart with a distinct sound of pneumatics working to open the airlock. Stepping through the opening was a human male with fair skin and black messy hair. They were also wearing a similar uniform as the rest of us but paid no mind to our situation. I took that as a sign to act on my plan. With the grace of a limp animal I stumbled out of my chair and bolted for the door. I noticed something was wrong with my legs as I clambered past the table. It felt like I was walking on my toes, but I didn’t have the time to stop and check. 

The other four had barely any time to react. By the time I made it to the airlock they were starting to get out of their chairs. A few yells shot out toward me as I ran through a small tunnel with lockers and showers lining the walls. Across from me was another open airlock leading to a bigger hallway. My brain didn’t question anything for the time being. Its only directive was to get me somewhere safe and secluded. Away from all the confusion.

Directly in front of me were large blue tinted windows covered by blinds on the other side. I looked to my left and saw the long hallway extend farther down past multiple doors and windows. The hallway was bustling with different humanoids going in and out of these side doors, but none of them seemed to care about me. At the end of the hallway it branched off into a T-shaped junction. My antennae picked up a plethora of smells from that direction and I turned to face the other way.

Looking to the right marked the end of plans, however. While the ceiling directly above me was maybe fifteen feet or higher, farther right past that led to a huge open space at least two floors tall. Multiple rows of metal seating surrounding a tranquil nature display in the middle. On the sides were a few vending machines and some kind of checkpoint looking area. But that wasn’t the main attraction this room had. Instead, covering the side farthest from me were a huge series of reinforced windows holding back the vast emptiness of space. Actual space, like outer-space space. Billions of multicolored stars twinkled against the looming black void.

I fully turned my body to face the only barrier between me and outer-space. Awestruck by the intimidating sight, I slowly lurched forward to the array of windows. I wasn’t on Earth within the depths of a research facility. No, instead I was stuck inside some kind of space station. One that slowly drifted through space as stars moved in and out of view. My enhanced eyesight caught it all at once. Crisp, clear, and equally terrifying as it was beautiful.

By the time I was halfway to the windows the other four rushed out into the hallway. “There he is!” I heard Linda say behind me as they stomped my way. But they stopped short after noticing the trance I was stuck in caused by the awesome sight of space.

“Uhh, buddy, you alright?” I heard the human ask a few feet away.

My unwieldy legs finally made it to the window’s edge. It was so clear this close up that I couldn’t see my own reflection. After placing a hand on the window which disappeared into the dark void beyond, I spoke up. “Space... Terrifying, vast and endless space. Uncountable stars no one could imagine reaching, teasing us with their soft glow... How am I here? In space?!”

Everyone was silent. The only noise that accompanied us was the ambiance playing from various fans and vents dotted around. I was defeated, broken. There was nowhere to run or hide because I was on a space station. On top of that, these altered senses I had kept picking up way too many sights, smells, and other feelings to keep up with. My legs started wobbling before I collapsed onto my hands and knees. I then proceeded to cry under the immense pressure of it all. Except it wasn’t actually crying because no tears were produced. All that came out of me was a droning buzz in a tone that resembled sadness. Pauses in my sobbing only came from brief moments when catching my breath.

I didn’t know who I was, where I was, or what I was. Hopelessness was all that passed through my mind in those awful minutes. And I couldn’t even close my eyes to look away from it all. My hands were too small to completely cover my view. Why did this happen to me? Would it even be possible to regain my original life back? Questions as dire as these bounced around inside my head. While I wallowed in my nonexistent tears I felt whatever was on my back start to rapidly vibrate again.

My antennae picked up changes in the air which alerted me to someone stepping forward. In the leftmost part of my vision I saw the human walking over. I didn’t do anything as he gently approached me and knelt down, resting a hand on my shoulder. “Hey. Everything’s going to be alright, okay? You’re safe here with us. Buzzing your head off isn’t going to make things better.”

The meaning behind his words transferred directly into my mind, but there was no active subconscious to process it. Only more buzzing and chittering noises emanating from my throat. Instead, I shoved my head underneath my arms and curled up into a ball the best I could. It helped suppress my senses but wasn’t enough.

The human did not like that one bit. “Alright, let’s get you back up onto your feet. Okay?” he asked and didn’t wait for an answer. Both of his arms looped under my shoulders and bumped into my mysterious back parts. In one swift motion he managed to get me up on my feet. “There’s a start. You feeling any better?”

It didn’t help. The onslaught of external feelings were back at full force and I continued to buzz out loud in confusion. I saw his face turn back to dismay along with the three others behind him looking on with concern. This was not working for any of us, and I had no clue what to do next.

Thankfully, the human did. “Guess we’re doing things the hard way. I’m so sorry for this,” he said before raising a hand.

WHAP!

The sound was almost deafening, save for a unified gasp which came from the other three. My screaming stopped, now replaced with a ringing that only I could hear. One that only I could feel as well. Pain. It radiated so much across the left side of my face that I didn’t feel anything else. Despite the horrendous anguish, it was... welcoming. A wave of nostalgia that I didn’t know I had washed over me. Pain still felt the same. In all of this chaos it was something I could rely on to never change.

That revelation was enough to snap me out of it. As masochistic as it sounded I was feeling more like myself after that. But to make sure I needed one more kick, literally. After a few seconds I turned my head to expose the right side of my face more. “Do that again,” I squeaked.

Distress turned into bewilderment as the human was surprised by my response. “Are you, uhh... sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, you asked for it,” he said and delivered another slap to the right side of my face.

It stung good. Almost too good this time. Compounding with the existing pain I flinched back from the assault and placed a hand on each side of my head. “Shit! That hurt more than I expected... but thanks,” I said while crouching over.

“No problem,” the human said. He then walked over to my side and helped me stand back up straight with an arm around my back. “Hmm, now that I think about it I probably should have splashed cold water on your face instead. Would have been much less painful. The name’s Carter, by the way.”

“Carter... Thanks again, Carter. And no, slapping me was probably the better choice,” I said as he led me away from the windows back to the others. Now that I had calmed down, whatever it was attached to my back stopped shaking. But that didn’t stop my legs from wobbling so much as we walked. Each step had an awkward spring to it that did not mimic walking with human legs at all. The spring they had made me think they were digitigrade. My toes felt like they were replaced with a few elongated claws. And instead of a heel there was one claw sticking out the back. The shoes I had on masked most of the strange feelings however.

The other three rushed over after witnessing the double whammy I received. “Carter, what the hell were you thinking?” Linda asked. There was not a happy look on her simple face.

“What? I got him back to his senses and that’s all that matters. Besides, I used to be a psychologist before coming here,” Carter said with a smug grin.

“If that’s how ya treat yer patients than I ain’t evah askin’ ya fer help,” the dwarf said, crossing his arms.

“Drastic times call for drastic measures. You all should know better than that,” Carter said to the others. “Come on, let’s get him back before—”

I heard the airlock to where we came from open. Stepping out of it to cut off Carter’s voice was a humanoid figure that instilled a tiny bit of fear back into me. They were, for all intents and purposes, a giant moth. Their head was covered in black fuzz with a few yellow highlights. Sprouting around their neck was a whole lot of fluffiness, contrasting with the bright purple shirt and brown pants they wore. Two long and thin antennae poked out from the top of their head in front of a purple beret. At first it looked like they were extremely wide. But as they got closer I realized it was a pair of triangular wings that followed behind them. These wings twitched with every step. Whoever this was, they were not happy, I guessed.

After the initial shock from seeing such an alien humanoid, I realized that must have been what I resembled. I slowly turned my head around and used my expanded vision to see that I also had two wings of my own. So that was the source of those weird feelings from before. They were as lime-green as the fluff on my neck was. I moved my left arm behind me to get a feel. After touching them once they involuntarily flapped on their own. It felt strange, but luckily not strange enough to scare me. This was going to take some time getting used to.

The angry moth finally reached us after stomping all the way over. We were now lined up facing them with the lizard to the left of me and Linda and the dwarf to the right. The moth stared at us. At least I think they were. With such a wide range of view they didn’t need to move their head to look each one of us in the eyes. It also meant that I couldn’t tell who they were most angry with.

“What is the meaning of all this?!” the moth squeaked at us in an angry tone. Or at least they tried to sound angry. The words had rage behind them but the sounds produced were too goofy to take seriously. “First you tell me there was an accident with the artifact. Then I catch you all rushing out of the department toward evac like the shuttle had been called!”

“We’re so sorry, sir!” Linda said and took a step forward. “The artifact, it—”

“Linda, not right now. Not around him,” Carter said, interrupting her as he shook me slightly. His arm released its hold on me and Carter walked up to the angry moth.

We all looked on while Carter took the moth to the side where they talked in private. They were too quiet for me to hear, but I definitely sensed everything else a bit too well. From various arm motions shared between both of them to the moth’s occasional wings flapping. I felt it all. These antennae were too powerful for their own good. I started messing with them in an attempt to reduce their effectiveness. But as long as they were exposed to air they wouldn’t stop sensing. Even curling them up didn’t help.

“Everything alright there, Sssol— I mean... buddy?” the lizardman asked after noticing my constant fiddling.

“Agh! I can’t get these antennae to stop working! They’re giving me sensory overload,” I said, crossing my arms in defeat. That’s when I realized that I was wearing a lab coat. But taking it off was another challenge. My wings were poking through a hole on the back of them. However, the method to properly take off my coat eluded me. I gave up my attempt to remove the coat after struggling for a few seconds.

Carter also picked up on my struggles and stopped whispering to the moth. “Sorry, but I need this for a second,” he said before yanking the purple beret off his fuzzy head. Then he started walking my way.

The moth squeaked in surprise, too shocked to retaliate against Carter’s actions. “What are you doing?!”

“’What are you thinking? What are you doing?’ Are those the only questions anyone can ask around here?” Carter asked out loud before stopping in front of me. He shoved my antennae under the beret and rested it on top of my head. “There. Does that help any?”

It was uncomfortable with how much it bent my antennae, but the beret successfully blocked all external sensations. “Y-Yes, thank you,” I squeaked back.

“Great! Best we get going then,” Carter said to me before returning to my side. “RD, I’m going to show Mr. Amnesia around. Maybe that’ll help jog his memory. We won’t take too long, I promise!”

The moth stood with a furious stance, wings flapping like an angry wasp ready to sting. A subtle chittering sound came from him for a few seconds before he relaxed. “Alright. I’m trusting you on this. Everyone else, back to work!”

The other three grumbled among themselves while they followed the moth back to the door. Linda turned her head around a little farther than what was normal and looked at us. “Good luck you two.”

“Thanks, Linda. And RD, I swear I won’t lose your hat again!” Carter yelled out. The moth stood there tapping his foot and flapping his wings as he held the door open for the others. I noticed that when he turned around there was a dark yellow pattern between his wings which creepily resembled a skull. Once he stepped through the doors closed and it was only the two of us.

“So, how about we get a drink at the bar first? Nothing like a shot of whiskey to get the brain pumping,” Carter said as he proceeded to lead me down the hallway.

“There’s a bar here?” I asked. Then I realized I still didn’t know where “here” was. “Uhh, Carter. Where are we?” Hearing my voice squeak and chitter from my throat instead of a proper mouth felt abnormal. Not to mention the voice itself didn’t match the voice I had heard all my life. It was a blessing that I could still speak proper English, let alone be in a place where English was the dominant language.

He put a hand on his forehead. “Ah! Right. You don’t remember. We’re currently situated in outpost NT13-Box, owned and operated by good ol’ Nanotrasen. But everyone just calls it Space Station 13.”

The end of his sentence stung for some reason. I didn’t know if it was because of the unlucky number thirteen or something else. A shiver overcame me thinking about it and I pushed the thought away. As we walked down the hallway there was more activity the further we got. People of various shapes and sizes were walking between all the doors lining the hallway. It was definitely a busy space station and way more roomier than what I expected.

Now that I wasn’t suffering from sensory overload anymore I was able to focus better. Which meant noticing how itchy I felt. There was a slight prickly feeling all over my body. The same feeling after getting a haircut and all the stray clippings get stuck in your clothes. I pulled down a sleeve to see my fuzzy, lime-green arm. It was covered in the same kind of fur as my head and neck fluff. I only hoped that I didn’t have to get all this fuzz groomed on occasion.

That was when I felt how hard my black, glossy hands and fingers were. If I was an insect person then did that mean I had an exoskeleton now? I curled my fingers into fists. It did not invoke a feeling of soft flesh pressing against more flesh. There was still a sense of touch to them, but instead it felt like bending plastic. The sensation made me realize how hard my body’s surface felt. As if a gigantic plastic shell made up my entire being. I uncurled my fingers and wiggled my eight digits some more. Lacking a pinky finger on each hand wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Thankfully, these hands weren’t void of opposable thumbs for me to use. Losing those definitely would have made things worse.

We passed by some windows on our right exposing us to what looked like an elaborate hydroponics farm. Must have been a big space station if they grew their own crops. Inside I saw a human dressed in a green and blue jumpsuit wearing an apron messing with some tomatoes. On the other side of the room there was a suspiciously tall and bushy plant standing beside a basin. I almost jumped when the plant moved. It turned around and I saw that it too was dressed in the same outfit as the human. Was it a plant person doing some gardening? I didn’t have time to ask before we completely passed hydroponics.

Adjacent to their grow operations was a busy and messy kitchen. The wall turned into an open counter top that gave us a direct look inside. Chefs ran about the place cooking food on a variety of appliances. Lining the half wall between us were various fresh meals ready to go. While passing by I caught a few people taking meals without any hesitation. The service here must have been amazing if you could grab food for free. Thankfully, the beret blocked out most of the smells coming from the open kitchen. Otherwise I probably would not have been able to resist gobbling down some comfort food.

The large neon sign with the words “Maltese Falcon” marked our destination. Carter guided me in and I was met with a quaint little bar with a fitting atmosphere to boot. To the left of us was an assortment of tables populated by a few crew members talking over some drinks. Far back in front of us was a tiny stage area where a musician was playing smooth jazz on a grand piano. Finishing off the sights to our right was a stereotypical bar lined with red bar stools.

I had another small scare when I saw the bartender. It was a humanoid spider person covered in blue hairs with white highlights at the joints. The snazzy black vest over a white dress shirt gave it a prestige look that belonged in a past era. Six arms were all at work cleaning glassware at the same time. The spider’s multiple beady red eyes greeted us in silence as we stepped forward on the wood flooring.

We took a seat in front of the spider bartender before Carter spoke up. “Bartender! A shot of whiskey for the two of us, please!”

The spider gave us a nod and went to work at the drink stations behind the bar. Its multiple arms worked in unison to pour our drinks in almost a split second. Before I could even comprehend what happened two clear shot glasses filled with a rusty liquid were placed in front of Carter and I.

“Thank you, bartender,” Carter said and picked up his glass.

“T-Thanks,” was all I could muster before grabbing my shot. The feeling of my hard fingers around the glass was alien to say the least. On the liquid’s surface was a poor reflection of myself. I wanted to see what I truly looked like but it was too hard to make out.

“Bottoms up,” Carter said to me before downing his shot in one go. “Whoo! That’s the stuff. Come on, don’t be shy.”

It was still a bit too weird seeing Carter’s smiling face perfectly to my right while also looking at the shot of whiskey in my hands. Strangeness aside, I copied Carter’s actions and cocked my head back to down the shot in one go. Instead of feeling the sweet taste of liquor down my throat I splashed it all over my face. For whatever reason my mouth didn’t open when I attempted the swig.

Carter was unable to contain his laughter. “Ahaha! I thought you said you didn’t need to be splashed?”

I sat there with whiskey dripping all over the lower part of my face. While Carter continued to laugh I noticed the bartender staring directly at me. “Uhh, s-sorry,” I squeaked at him. The clacking mandibles underneath those eight scary eyes did not help me feel any less scared or embarrassed. Thankfully, without a second to spare, the bartender threw me a clean rag while pouring another drink. After wiping my face dry a fresh shot slid across the bar.

“Did you forget how to drink as well?” Carter said under a chuckle.

“No! I mean... I guess? This body is so weird,” I replied and began to prod around the fur covering where a mouth should have been located. There was a mouth, but it was hidden away under two mandibles that covered my mouth horizontally. After trying to force out various mouth movements I found one which slid my mandibles to the side. It felt weird, like my entire mouth was opening sideways. Next was to figure out how to drink with no lips.

“Alright, clearly you need some help. If I remember right moths drink with a... Oh, what’s the word?” Carter was lost in thought for a moment as his hand rested on his chin. Eventually he snapped his fingers. “Proboscis! That’s it! You should have one of those instead of a tongue. Just lap up your drink, or something like that.”

I sat agape trying to get a feel for this supposed proboscis. It didn’t take long to figure out because soon a thin, translucent member was poking out of my mouth. This was probably the least weird thing about my anatomy due to how similar it was with a regular tongue. Only my proboscis was less flexible.

I followed Carter’s words and began lapping up the shot of whiskey. All it took was a couple of laps to consume the whole shot. Liquid easily clung to my proboscis while I reeled it in to drink. The weirdness was overwhelmed by the burning comfort of the hard liquor running down my throat. I felt at ease as the whiskey did its magic, wondering how well I could hold my drink in this alien body.

Carter rested his arms on the bar and glanced my way. “Man, you really don’t know a thing around here, do you? You don’t even know how your own body works.”

I made sure to fully turn my face toward Carter before responding. “Yeah, ha. I remember feeling like... nothing floating in darkness. Then there was a bright light before I found myself sitting in front of you guys.”

“What else do you remember?” he asked.

It took all my mental strength to retrieve past memories. I could remember growing up, all the important people I’ve ever met, and even those embarrassing moments that stick with someone forever. But for the life of me I couldn’t remember any names. “It’s almost annoying to think about. I can remember stuff all the way back to my childhood, but no names. But I am certain I used to be human because I clearly remember my own face.”

“Do you remember anything leading up to appearing here?”

“I was—” The question made me pause and I turned my head back to stare at the empty shot glass. The more I thought about it the more faded my memories were. That was the only “gap” in my memory from what I could tell. “No, not really. I remember getting a new job at some experimental technology firm. They hired me due to my computer engineering degree, that I remember. But there’s a few months after that which elude me.”

“Fascinating,” Carter mumbled to himself. He then clasped his hands together. “Alright, this is going to be tough but the faster you get over it the better. What reality are you experiencing now?”

Indeed, that was an imposing question. What I experienced in the past has nothing to do with my current situation. Were these memories I had actually real, or somehow implanted into me? How could I be sure these memories weren’t fabricated in some way? And that I was trying to believe I was someone else. But the memories were so vivid. They felt too real to be fake. I got lost in my thoughts thinking it over.

Noticing the fluttering feeling from my wings brought me back to reality. The reality that I was currently experiencing. With what felt like a sigh I spoke back up. “I’m a talking moth being served whiskey by a spider bartender onboard a space station who knows where out in deep space.”

Carter gave me a pat on the back. “See! That wasn’t too hard now, was it? I know things must feel really strange for you at the moment, and trust me when I say you’re going to experience stranger. But the faster you get used to it the easier it’ll all be. We’ll figure out what caused this to happen to you, and you can be damn sure we’ll try to fix it.”

“It’s still a lot to take in,” I said, eyeing the bartender who continuously polished dirty glasses until they were sparkling clean. The spidery limbs poking out from its sides and its monstrous face left an uneasy feeling in my gut.

“For now, just try to think of it as playing a role in a stage play,” Carter said after turning his stool to completely face me. “You’ve been given a role by the theater director, and he doesn’t really care if you ad-lib a few lines. All he cares about is that you give it your best shot.”

“A role...” I mumbled to myself. Right then and there it dawned on me. I couldn’t see it through all the chaos from earlier, but I didn’t “appear” out of thin air. I took over the body of somebody else. That’s why I was wearing these clothes. And why everyone else was trying to call me Solis. I turned to Carter and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Who was I? Before all this?”

He was a little shocked by my actions and let out an uneasy laugh. “What do you mean? I don’t know your own past.”

“No! Not the past for me that’s currently in this body. I mean the... previous owner of this body.” It was tough to say, and probably the weirdest thing anyone had said since I got here.

“Oh,” was all Carter could say in response. The silence following that made both of us notice the other bar patrons giving us strange looks as I firmly held Carter. He sighed and moved my arm off his right shoulder before turning back to the bar. “You were, or technically still are, Solis Evergreen. A scientist aboard Space Station 13. You can check the id on your shirt to see for yourself.”

“My shirt?” I asked before pulling my lab coat apart. Right on my chest almost blocked by my neck fluff was a small id card like Carter said. I slid it out of the clear pocket it was in and gave it a good look. The profile image plastered on it was not of the best quality, but it was my first peek at what I truly looked like. A giant lime-green moth with dark green eyes. Beside the image was all the info I needed. Solis Evergreen, Scientist. There were a few other tidbits of info like my blood type and age, which appeared to be twenty-eight. Internally I let out a sigh of relief after reading that my gender was still male. I dared not to question what things would have been like now if that got changed.

“That’s your role. Until we figure out how to fix it you’re stuck here as Solis,” Carter said. He then furrowed his brow before asking me another question. “Uhh, the other Solis isn’t... trapped in there, is he?”

“Trapped? What do— oooh,” I replied. “No, I don’t feel or hear him inside my head if that’s what you meant.”

“Yeah. Damn, that’s concerning,” he mumbled to himself.

I paused for a second. This was not my body, I had taken it over somehow. Did I “kill” the consciousness of the real Solis? The thought made me physically tremble. “Oh God. Carter, I didn’t mean to—”

“Shhh. It’s okay.” Carter put a hand on my shoulder with a somber look on his face. “This wasn’t your fault. Don’t even think for a second that you personally caused this. It was an accident, plain and simple. Terrible to think about but we have to move on. Besides, we don’t entirely know what happened to your brain. Perhaps the real Solis is locked away somewhere. Like I said, we’ll figure this out. That’s what us scientists do. But for the time being if anyone asks, just act like you have amnesia.”

“Okay.” His words of encouragement managed to keep the worst thoughts away for the moment. “Wait, if I’m now Solis then that means I have to deal with all his friends and—”

“Hey! If it isn’t Carter and Solis!” yelled a voice from the bar’s entrance. Stepping in was a pale looking human guy in a gray jumpsuit with purple sleeves. He was wearing a dark purple cap and bright yellow galoshes. Situated around his vest was a brighter purple belt filled to the brim with cleaning supplies. No doubt he was a janitor for the station.

“Yo, Roger! How’s it going?” Carter replied back. It was a blessing that he said Roger’s name first. As the janitor walked over Carter leaned toward my head and began to whisper. “Remember what I said. Play your role.”

I gave Carter a slight nod as Roger sat down. There was a big smile on his face while he talked. “How come you two didn’t tell me you were going on break so early?”

Carter stayed silent, giving me the green light to speak up instead. All that came out at first was a low buzzing noise. I shook my head and tried again. “We, uhh... took a break now because...” I trailed off, trying to come up with a proper excuse. “Because of an accident. Science accident, yeah...” I resisted the urge to punch myself in the face for saying that.

“Oh, another accident? Need me to clean up anything?” Roger eagerly asked. At that moment the bartender passed Roger a shot which he promptly downed.

“No, it wasn’t anything messy,” Carter said. “Just something that really shook us all up.”

“Ah, I see. I’m sure it’s nothing a few drinks can drown out,” Roger said with a chuckle.

I was shot a smug look by Carter, making me buzz some more. My turn to speak again. “Uhh, yeah. It was not pleasant.” Between this Roger guy’s cheerfulness and Carter’s silence I didn’t know who was more annoying. But I knew that the janitor was only being friendly and didn’t know the real story. Carter, on the other hand, I’d have to get back at some point for putting me on the spot so much. Following Roger’s words of advice, I turned back to the bartender. “Another shot, please.”

The spider complied and placed another drink before me. I took my time lapping it up so that hopefully somebody else would start talking. If only I had eyebrows to give Carter the meanest look ever.

Roger suddenly placed a hand over his right ear. After looking on with unease for a few seconds he spoke back up. “Sorry fellas, but I gotta go. Sounds like somebody made a nasty mess in medbay. I’ll catch you guys later.”

“Don’t have too much fun out there,” Carter said with a wave as Roger walked off.

“See ya...” I buzzed to myself. Saved by the bell, I guessed. After seeing Roger touch his ear like that I noticed Carter had a discrete purple device attached to his right ear. “Do we have headsets here? Where’s mine then?” I asked, patting both sides of my head to find nothing. I was surprised at myself for only realizing then that I lacked external ears. But I couldn’t notice anything drastically different about my hearing capabilities. That was probably why I didn’t question it earlier.

“Yep. There’s a station-wide radio network for all crew members. And each department has their own private channel. But we took yours off when we found you unconscious after the accident. Nobody likes being woken up by somebody screaming over the radio. You can get a new one when we get back.”

“Wait, you found me unconscious? You haven’t talked about what exactly happened to me yet. Or I guess to Solis. Whatever happened that triggered me appearing in this body.”

Carter sighed. “I don’t expect you to understand it right now, but Solis was experimenting with a new artifact we found. He triggered something and the artifact shocked him. Then he fell unconscious. It all happened so fast we didn’t know what was going on. So we sat him down and were talking about what to do next. Before we knew it you woke up in his place. This all happened in under a minute.”

“Artifact. Like some kind of... alien artifact?” I asked. The word alien was beginning to lose its luster the more time I spent here, however.

“Bingo,” Carter said, snapping his fingers. “We get all sorts of alien artifacts to research. Although I’ve never seen one do something quite like this before. But that’s what the science team is all about. Uncovering mysteries like this one and solving them. Then exploiting them, if possible.”

“Sounds like a lot. You sure I should be helping with stuff like this? It might be out of my league.”

“Nonsense! It’s a lot easier than it sounds, trust me,” Carter said and scratched the back of his head. “Besides, it would look weird if one of our trusted scientists were suddenly demoted to assistant. Right now, it’s only us in the science department that knows about your situation. And we should probably keep it that way for the time being. Don’t want to cause any unnecessary panic.”

“Right, right...” I squeaked. Alien artifacts, uncovering mysteries. What else was waiting for me onboard this space station? I suddenly hiccuped, which sounded like an even higher pitched squeak. I’m sure that if I was able to blush I would have been because it felt embarrassing.

“Sounds like you’ve had enough to drink. Come on, I need to give you a tour of the station,” Carter said and hopped off of the stool.

I complied and followed him out of the bar. At first I questioned if we should have tipped the bartender upon leaving. But thinking back on it I remember that Roger promptly left before us without tipping. Free food and free drinks. This station was getting slightly better by the minute.

Leaving the bar, I noticed that directly across from it was a bigger opening leading into what was medical. The huge green crosses on the walls beside the windows gave it away. It reminded me of a hospital with its white tiled floor and medical personnel moving around. As some airlocks opened in the back I caught a glimpse of Roger mopping the floor.

Carter dragged me to the hallway’s junction and we made a turn to the right. Continuing on I noticed a pair of dark blue airlocks on our left which looked somewhat important. I was about to ask when Carter interrupted me, pointing toward the gray airlocks ahead of us. “This leads to the living quarters. Or dorms, whatever you want to call it.”

We passed through into a large open space with lots of doors lining the walls. In the middle of it all were various benches and tables where people mingled about. Some were getting dressed for work while others relaxed. In front of us was another hallway with airlocks on both sides that turned farther down. Far off to our right I saw some glass airlocks that lead to what looked like an indoor pool. But nobody was using it at the time.

“This is where all our personal sleeping quarters are. I’m sure you know why we have these. Can’t let people sleep inside their departments all the time,” Carter said as he scanned across the doors lining our left.

“Wow, there’s a ton of rooms here,” I said, watching all kinds of people move around the place. It still took me by surprise seeing non-humans casually walking about, but from what I could tell humans held the majority. A lizard and a human were having a smoke together in one corner. Sitting on a bench was a white moth person in a yellow jumpsuit putting on some work boots. At a table across from them were three humans and another translucent colored being like Linda all conversing over some papers. They were red instead of blue like Linda. While we walked around a plant person which looked like a miniature weeping willow passed by wearing a dark yellow shirt and cargo shorts.

After seeing all these various humanoids I finally had the opportunity to ask what was going on. “Hey, Carter. How many different kinds of people work here? I mean like... species. Or races?”

“Good question,” Carter said. We parked ourselves beside a wall to not get in anyone’s way. “First off there’s humans, which probably make up fifty percent of the station’s population. Then the other half is somewhat split between everyone else. Moth people, like yourself. Lizards. Arachnids. Diona, which are those plant looking people. Dwarves, the shorter humans. And then finally slime people.”

“Oh, is Linda a slime person then?” I asked.

“Yep, I’m guessing wherever you came from didn’t have all these kinds of species.”

I nodded. “I definitely remember being on Earth before this. With only humans walking around.”

“Earth? Shit, you’re a long way from home now,” Carter said with a laugh.

“Speaking of, where’s Solis’ room?” I looked at all the airlocks beside us. Each one had a three digit number tagged above it. The ones we stood beside were all in the hundreds. Were there really that many people living onboard?

“You mean your room,” Carter said. I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not with the smug look he held. “Uhh, I’m not sure.”

“Great, so how do we find that out?” I asked.

Carter stood silent for a moment with his hand on his chin. “I know! We can ask the AI.” I wanted to ask what he meant by that, but before I could he pressed a button on his headset and spoke up. “AI, which room in the dorms belongs to Solis Evergreen?”

There were about three seconds of silence before a blue humanoid lady materialized in front of us. I stepped back in shock from her sudden appearance while Carter acted like it was perfectly fine. “What the hell?!” I squeaked out.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you,” said the blue lady behind a few layers of static. Her form occasionally flickered in the air. Some kind of large disk with lights installed into the floor was the source of her holographic projection.

I settled down a bit after she apologized. “Ah, AI. For artificial intelligence. Just like in the movies.” Turning to Carter I saw he was hiding a grin underneath his hand. “You could have warned me.”

“Yeah but where’s the fun in that?” Carter asked.

“I saw what happened to you in science,” said the AI. “You must feel very confused about everything due to your loss of memory.”

“Tell me about it,” I squeaked to myself. “Wait, you saw what happened?”

“Yes. I’m connected to all of the station’s cameras,” she replied and lifted her palm up in the direction of a blinking security camera above us. “I can see everything that happens inside the station.”

“Everywhere? All the time?” I asked. The idea of being under constant surveillance irked me somewhat. And especially by a robot.

“Not everywhere. Only where cameras are installed. So I can’t see inside private places like your living quarters or restrooms,” the AI said. “You can call me Siren, or just AI. Whichever you’re more comfortable with.”

“Speaking of living quarters,” Carter said, leaning his back against the wall. “What room is Solis here assigned to?”

“Right, his room is number 212,” Siren replied with a smile.

“Thank you, AI,” Carter said. It looked like he was about to dismiss the hologram before a different thought crossed his mind. “Also, can you refrain from mentioning Solis’ condition to anyone else on the station. At least until the RD approves so?”

“My digital lips are sealed,” the AI said, performing a zipping motion across her mouth. She then turned to me. “And if you need help with anything, don't be afraid to ask.”

“Okay... Thanks,” I said. And just like that her hologram disappeared. The thought of being monitored by an AI was not going to rest easy with me for a while. Hopefully I would get over it soon, there was already too much to stress about. Like remembering my room number for later as I followed Carter out of the dorms.

I then recalled something important. When I first woke up I saw Linda using some kind of small device similar to a smartphone. Maybe I had one too with a note keeping function. “Hey, Carter. Are we all issued personal phones? I need a way to take notes so I’m not too lost. I think Linda was using one earlier.”

“A phone... Oh! You mean a PDA?” Carter asked, stopping us right outside the airlocks to the dorms. “Yeah, you should still have yours on you. Have you checked your pockets?”

It was at that moment that I realized I had never dug through my pockets. Luckily, the first one I tried, which was my left pant pocket, held a plastic device of similar color scheme to our outfits. It was flat and square with a few buttons located on the front and sides. A powered off screen took up most of the device’s real estate. It was somewhat heavy too. Way more than your average smartphone.

“Wow, this thing looks ancient!” I said while examining the device. It reminded me of first generation PDAs that never caught on before actual smartphones did.

“Ancient? Buddy, this is top of the line stuff,” Carter said with an alarmed look. “You said you were from Earth, right? What year do you remember it being?”

“It was... sometime around 2050. Remembering the exact date is a bit fuzzy but I do remember that being the year,” I replied. Thinking about the year made me shudder for a moment, like I had just been hit by a truck. Space stations this elaborate didn’t exist then. Nor did the introduction of alien species or space travel for that matter. “Carter, what year is it?”

“2565,” Carter replied with a disturbed look on his face. He was as shocked as I was over this revelation.

“Did I... time travel here?” I asked. The thought was crazy, but crazy was becoming more and more of the norm around here.

Carter loosened up and put on a smile. “Listen, I’m not going to question that right now. I don’t even think I have the mental capacity to begin theorizing about time travel. Besides, if it makes you feel better that’s probably the least crazy aspect to this whole ordeal.”

I let out what felt like a laugh, but instead produced another squeak. “Works for me,” I said and looked back down at the PDA. “How do I turn this thing on?”

“Press the red button on top,” Carter said. 

I complied, still not used to the hard feeling of my exoskeleton fingers pressing against anything. After a short beep the screen lit up and I was met with a prompt for a pass code. Four spots for digits flashed at me. “Damn it. I need a code to unlock it.”

“That’s a shame,” Carter replied, shaking his head. “Guess we’ll have to get you a new one at the HoP— I mean, Head of Personnel’s office. Good thing that was our next stop anyways.”

Only a few steps away from the entrance to the dorms were we met with another crossroads. The hallway continued on ahead of us and to our right. Right at the center of this junction built into the floor were the letters “Space Station 13” in a dull gray plaque. It looked like it had seen better days because the letters were scuffed up with a few cracks here and there.

What really stood out at this junction was to our left. The entire wall was almost taken up by two layers of heavy duty windows with an air gap between. On the other side was a sizable room filled with large computer consoles and other important devices. Among the consoles were two well dressed crew members having a conversation.

“Down the hallway to our right is the security department. And on our left is the station’s bridge,” Carter said before stopping. “Looks like the Captain and Head of Security are throwing some choice words at each other.”

Inside on the right stood a human male who was undoubtedly the Captain due to his outfit. It looked exactly like a blue collared jacket adorned with various medals that a navy captain would wear. Yellow highlights made him stand out even more than usual, and atop his head was a bicorn hat with the same color scheme. Strapped to his waist was a scabbard holding some kind of saber. Whether it was a replica only for show or actually real I could not tell. That was probably something I did not want to find out.

Directly in front of the Captain was a tall lizard person with green scales wearing an intimidating black trench coat. They were at least half a foot taller than the captain. On top of their head was a black beret with a golden emblem. Awkwardly situated on his snout right in front of his eyes were black sunglasses. They must have been special glasses because it wasn’t that bright inside the station.

Carter was right about their actions. Or at the very least, the Captain’s actions. He was greatly expressing himself by throwing his arms around and pointing at the lizard as he spoke. Despite the lizard’s massive frame, the Captain was not scared by him one bit. All the lizard did in response was flick his tongue out from time to time and mouth single words. Neither could be heard between the layers of windows. After some time the Captain caught wind of us watching and pressed a button on a nearby console. Industrial shutters slammed shut between the windows, blocking them from the outside world.

“Wow, I wonder what the HoS did that got the Captain so riled up,” Carter said. “But it’s none of our business. Let’s keep moving.”

Right as we were about to reach a corner that turned left I heard the stomping sounds coming our way. Carter placed a hand on my chest and quickly moved us to the side. The stomping was getting louder and a singular squeaking sound soon followed. “What’s going on?” I asked, doing my best to whisper with this chirpy voice.

“I don’t know, but it’s definitely security,” Carter said as he continued to look forward.

We anxiously waited for the source of these sounds to show themselves. Other people walking about also had the right idea to step aside. Pretty soon we got our answer. Two burly individuals stepped out of the corner. One was human and the other a moth. They wore red jumpsuits covered by black heavy-duty armor vests that took up most of their upper torso. Both had on helmets similar in style to the vests with sunglasses underneath. The moth’s sunglasses didn’t cover much of their bulbous eyes, however. The two also had black utility belts with a baton strapped to the side and wore menacing jackboots. 

Restrained in handcuffs and being dragged along by the two guards was none other than a clown. An actual clown, like one straight out of a circus. He was human and wore a white clown mask with a bright red ball for a nose and two comically long bushes of orange hair jutting out from the sides. The rest of his outfit consisted of a red and white striped long sleeve shirt underneath an enormous pair of red overalls. Finishing his look were two lengthy shoes that made honking sounds with each step.

I was appalled by the sight. Why was there a clown onboard the station? Why was he being detained by security? If I was a human then my jaw would have been touching the ground. As the guards passed us by, the clown struggled to escape their grasp. I swore that every movement the clown made was accompanied by a honking noise. There was so much to ask about what I saw that I was stunned. Only one question managed to surface. “Carter... why is there a clown on this space station?”

He had a grim look on his face. “Sometimes there are mysteries that even us scientists can’t solve.” Without another word we continued on with the tour.

Thinking about what I had witnessed boggled my mind. I honestly did not know what was stranger: my current predicament or the fact that a clown was onboard a high tech space station. Was it here for entertainment purposes? If so, seeing it get dragged away in handcuffs was not helpful in the slightest. Maybe it was a weird skit they were pulling off. It wasn’t making me laugh if that was the case.

Carter stopped us in the middle of the hallway right between two bustling points of interest. Each had their own line of people waiting in different queues. “On the right here is cargo. This is where all our orders come in and where you can sell stuff too. If you need to buy something or get materials this is the place. You’ll probably be coming here a lot.”

To the left of the cargo reception desk were two airlocks with windows. As Carter finished speaking the airlocks opened to let through a human guy dragging along a metal crate. He was wearing a dark yellow cap and the same shirt and cargo shorts I saw a plant person wearing earlier. The man locked eyes with Carter. “Sup, Carter.”

“Hello, Reece,” Carter said with a smirk on his face. He then bumped my shoulder. “Of course, getting your package after ordering is a whole other story. They’re supposed to deliver to our departments but that rarely happens. Lazy bastards.”

“Fuck you!” Reece said as he dragged the crate past.

“Maybe if you did your damn job I wouldn’t be complaining so much!” Carter replied.

The cargo technician threw us the bird before turning around a corner. “I’m guessing you two don’t get along that well,” I said.

“Nah, we’re best pals,” Carter replied. He then turned our attention to the other busy line. “And here’s the line to the Head of Personnel! Or HoP for short. The HoP manages all crew related business and the like. So if you got a complaint about somebody or the station, tell the HoP about it.”

“Interesting. Basically the station’s HR department, huh?” I chirped as we got in line. There were all kinds of people waiting in line. Some with a more irritated look on their faces than others. Assuming they had a somewhat human face to begin with. Trying to tell how some people like moths and arachnids were feeling from facial cues was impossible at the moment.

After seeing something peculiar out of the corner of my eyes, I turned around and was met with another baffling sight. Standing right behind me was a mime. I thought I had seen everything after encountering the clown. Now there was a mime to contend with.

The mime was a human male with his face painted white. Black highlights surrounded his eyes. A maroon beret clashed with a long sleeved black and white striped shirt. Contrasting the clown, not a single thing this mime did had any sound associated with it. Even his steps were silent. He gave me a wave upon turning around and starting performing various mime tricks. Struggling to pull an invisible rope. Locking himself in an invisible cube. And even pretending to sit down and have a meal. The last trick really spooked me because he managed to stay in a position that looked like he was seated in an invisible chair for about a minute.

All I could do was watch as the queue line progressed. Right before it was our turn the mime beckoned me over. I was about to ask Carter why there was a mime but turning around I saw he was preoccupied with his PDA. Not wanting to bother him I stayed silent and stepped towards the mime. Except that after taking one step I bumped into a hard invisible surface.

“What the hell?” I asked, pressing against the invisible wall between the mime and I. He pointed at me and silently laughed. No matter how hard I tried I was met with an equal force. It must have been some kind of force field tech at play, repurposed for magic tricks like this. That would explain how the mime was sitting down earlier.

Carter caught wind of my struggles and looked at the mime. “Hey, quit messing with him. Today’s not a good day.”

The mime pouted at Carter and turned his head. After silently snapping his fingers the invisible force I was pressing against dissipated and I stumbled forward. I stood up and looked at the mime. He wasn’t giving me any more attention with his arms crossed. First a clown, now a mime with force field powers. What would this station throw at me next?

Right as I stepped back over to Carter’s side a female voice spoke up from behind the counter. “Next!” Sitting on the other side was a human lady with tan skin wearing a blue button up dress shirt. She had long golden hair underneath a blue cap with red outlines that reminded me of a postman’s hat. 

The lady typed on a large computer terminal for a second before turning in her chair toward us. Upon seeing Carter a frown covered her face. “Ugh. What do you want, Carter?”

“Hiiiii Kim,” Carter said, grinning as wide as possible. “I don’t need anything but my buddy Solis here needs a new PDA.”

“Oh, what happened?” Kim asked as she turned to face me. Her mood lightened up a little, probably because she wasn’t dealing with Carter.

“I... uhh, need a new PDA because...” My voice trailed off into buzzing again. I hated that Carter always put me on the spot, but it was probably for my own good. A simple excuse was all I needed. “I locked myself out of it after changing the passcode. And the reason I changed it was because... somebody who shouldn’t have been looking saw me enter it. So I changed it just to be safe, but then... I didn’t use it for a while after that and forgot the code.”

Kim stared at me for a second. I hoped my bluff was enough to convince her and that I didn’t look too suspicious, but then I remembered that I was a moth. I didn’t have any facial ticks to give away telling a lie like some people had. Then again, maybe said ticks were displayed elsewhere that I didn’t know about yet. Thankfully, my reasoning was good enough for Kim. “Sure thing. I’ll just need to—”

At that moment a bright orange blur came out of nowhere behind Kim and jumped into her lap. It was a small corgi yapping away and attempted to lick her face. “Hey! Ian, stop it!” Kim said as she restrained the hyperactive dog. After receiving a few slobbery kisses from Ian she stood up with the dog in her arms. “Ian, what did I tell you about messing with mama when she’s busy?”

Ian barked loudly with his stub for a tail wagging as fast a possible.

“Bah! You never listen, do you?” Kim asked and poked the dog’s nose. “Alright, back to your bed now. And you stay there until I’m done.”

Seeing such an adorable little thing on this station filled my heart with some much needed joy. A few memories from the dog my family had when I was young resurfaced. So many hours of my childhood were spent playing with that energetic terrier. It was a shame that I couldn’t remember his name.

Kim put little Ian down on a well-cushioned pet bed in the corner before returning to her desk. “Sorry about that. Now what did you need help with again?”

“I need a new PDA because I forgot the passcode to mine,” I said.

“Well, if you still have it I can do a factory reset instead,” Kim replied and held her hand out. “No need to give you a brand new one.”

“Sure,” I said and handed over my PDA.

She took the device and plugged it into her computer with a very old-school serial cable. “This will wipe everything saved on it. Are you okay with that?” she asked.

“Yeah, not like there’s anything on it I can remember,” I said, making another squeaking sound instead of a chuckle.

“Oooookay,” Kim said and typed something on a gigantic keyboard built into her terminal. The PDA made a few beeps before she unplugged it and handed it back. “That should do it. It’ll prompt for a new code when you turn it back on. Try not to forget it this time.”

“Thanks,” I said. With the PDA in hand Carter and I exited the line. I turned it on and indeed was met with a prompt like she said. After some careful thinking I entered the code 1313. A loading icon spun for a few seconds before showing the PDA’s home screen.

“Thirteen thirteen? Man, talk about unoriginal,” Carter said as he watched over my back.

“Hey! Don’t peek at my code,” I said and held the PDA to my chest to cover its screen. “Wasn’t that the whole reason we were here?” I thought I was being smug back at Carter but my lack of human facial features meant there was no smirk to display my real intent.

He still caught on however and let out a laugh. “Easy, I won’t tell anyone. Not my business to be peeking through other people’s devices.”

“So, uhh, what all can this thing do?” I asked and held the PDA back out for both of us to see.

“Lots of neat stuff!” Carter replied and began listing off all the features. The few that stood out for me were the crew manifest, messenger, and note keeping programs. I entered my room number in the PDA’s notes as my first course of action. After a quick check to make sure the messenger program was working by sending a text to Carter we continued on with the tour.

More left turns lead into more hallways. The monotony of it all was starting to feel somewhat normal. Although Carter wasn’t pointing out every single thing we passed by. There were plenty of airlocks that he gave no attention to. Especially these dark gray ones that had a singular yellow stripe. At one door we passed I saw a sketchy looking fellow wearing a gray jumpsuit and gas mask. They stared at me holding a blue toolbox ominously before stepping through into a poorly lit tunnel. Maybe Carter had a good reason to not talk about those places.

“And down that hallway is engineering,” Carter said, pointing right while we stood near another T-shaped junction. “They do what all engineers do. You know, station maintenance and whatnot. And make sure nothing bad happens to our power supply.”

“What powers the station, solar panels?” I asked as we headed straight through the junction.

“That’s part of it, but we also have a few other more experimental engines so to say,” Carter replied while twirling his hand in the air. “I don’t feel like going over it all. We really need to get back to the RD now.”

“What does RD stand for anyway? Is that the angry moth you took the beret from?” I asked.

“Research Director. And yes, you’re correct. He’s our boss, so you better listen to what he says. His name is Relton—” Carter stopped in his tracks, placing a hand over his headset.

“Relton... what?” My question was only met with Carter holding a finger up to me. Something important must have been going on over the station’s radio.

Suddenly the lights in the hallway flickered slightly. I swore that I also heard a faint bang go off in the distance. With a frown on his face that spelled out worry I knew Carter was just as confused as I was. “Is everything alright?” I asked Carter.

He looked away for a second before wiping the frown off his face. “Ah, it’s nothing. Just reports of a substation blowing somewhere. I bet a rat chewed on some wires again.”

“Should we be worried?” I asked. The fact that there were rats onboard a space station made me lose a tiny bit of faith in this place.

“Nah, it’s fine. Happens all the time—” He put his hand back on his headset. “No, wait. It’s not fine, because it was the substation to the grav gen. You might want to hold onto something.”

I looked around but couldn’t find anything worth holding onto like he said. “What do you mean? Also, what’s the grav gen— whoa!” A complete feeling of weightlessness overtook me as I began to float upward. Unfortunately, I was in the process of taking a step toward Carter when the loss of gravity happened. This meant I began slowly rotating forward through the air. Suffice to say, it was not a pleasant experience. Especially since I had no eyelids to block out my constantly spinning vision. I covered my eyes the best I could with my arms. “Oh. Gravity generator. I... urk, see now.” My stomach definitely did not like this constant motion.

Carter had braced himself against a wall. “Ah, nothing like experiencing zero-g for the first time. Am I right?”

“Very... funny,” I squeaked. “Should we be concerned that gravity is out? Or does this happen often?”

“More often than you’d think. Just another thing to get used to,” Carter said.

At that point I had bumped into the ceiling with my back. The impact managed to stop my constant flipping, but now I was slowly floating downwards. It also knocked the beret off my head. At first I thought the extra senses from my exposed antennae would make things worse. But, doing my best to ignore my returned sense of smell, they proved rather useful. I now had a better sense of what direction I was moving in with the air brushing against them. However, that didn’t matter much when I had no control over my movement. “A little help, please?” I asked Carter.

“You got all the help you need with those wings of yours,” Carter replied.

Wings. I had totally forgotten about them. With one flutter of my wings I managed to propel myself forward with a burst of speed. But forward meant straight into the floor due to my orientation. The feeling of my hard exoskeleton colliding with the steel floor was not pleasant. “Oof! Man, how do I control these things?”

“Don’t ask me, I’m only human,” Carter said before pointing at the purple beret floating off. “Don’t lose that hat either. The RD has yelled at me enough today.”

Catching the beret turned into the perfect opportunity for practicing flying in zero-g. I flapped one wing slightly to rotate myself before flapping it in the opposite direction to stop my rotation. That was easy enough, now I had to fly straight to the beret. Flapping both wings at the same time ever so slightly produced enough force to slowly begin moving toward my objective. Once I grabbed hold of the hat I flapped them again but in reverse. With enough adjustments I managed to halt any forward movement.

“Haha, got it!” I said, holding the hat tightly between my arms as I continued flying about. I had got the hang of it pretty quickly, all things considered. My antennae really helped speed up the process due to the information they fed me. It was almost like moths were made for flying in no gravity. And the experience itself was exhilarating. Zooming about the hallway made me feel genuine happiness, something I had been lacking ever since arriving here.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to last. My beginner’s flying practice was cut short when I flew right into somebody walking past a corner. The wider range of vision my eyes had couldn’t have prepared me for an accident like that. The unfortunate fellow was almost knocked to the ground while I bounced off of them. A few tools they were holding went flying in random directions. Dazed from the impact, I drifted away for a second before stabilizing myself. Whoever it was I bumped into, they were not happy.

“What the hell, man?!” said a human male in a yellow jumpsuit with a hardhat on. With a getup like that he must have been an engineer on his way to fix the gravity problem. Somehow he was walking perfectly fine across the floor in zero-g. Probably due to the high-tech work boots he wore. As he stepped around to gather his tools, lights on the boots changed colors. Green lights were shown when planted on the ground and changed to red when he lifted his feet. They must have been advanced magnetic boots for zero gravity environments.

“S-Sorry, I’m not used to this,” I said softly. In the background I heard Carter chuckling at me.

“Watch where you’re going next time, fucking moth,” the disgruntled engineer said.

A white moth then poked their head around the corner. They looked at the engineer then back to me before flying over. It was the same white moth I had seen earlier in the dorms with the yellow jumpsuit. They flew to my side and put a hand on my shoulder before facing the engineer. “Don’t listen to him, he’s just jealous of our superior flying abilities.”

The engineer threw his hands into the air. “Come on! That scientist was the one that crashed into me! And now you’re siding with them?!”

“And now you’re siding with them— shut up,” the moth said, doing their best to mimic the engineer’s voice. They made a weird chittering sound then spoke back up to me. “Sorry about that. Sebastian over there can be a little... xenophobic sometimes.”

“Hey, I have plenty of alien friends!” Sebastian said. “Now stop messing around. We gotta get gravity fixed!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” the moth said toward Sebastian. “But do work on your flying. You don’t want to make all us moths look bad.”

“Right...” I replied under a squeak. Looking at their jumpsuit I saw an id card which read Aries Plenium.

Aries gave me a pat on the back and fluttered away. I could hear him mocking Sebastian as he flew past the other engineer. “Last one to grav gen is a dirty shoe!”

Sebastian growled, stomping down the hallway into the direction that Aries went. I really didn’t know what to think about that encounter. All I could do now was listen to that moth and be more careful with my flying abilities. Turning around, I flew back over to Carter who stayed in one spot the whole time.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah. Guess I got a little carried away there flying,” I said, crossing my arms as I drifted in the air. “But man is it so much fun.”

“Better enjoy it while you can because they’re bound to get gravity fixed any second now,” Carter said and started dragging himself across the wall. “Let’s get going. We’ve wasted too much time here.”

I slowly flew through the middle of the hallway while Carter scooted along the wall. We still had a little ways to go so I made sure to savor the moment. Instead of flying back and forth through the hallway I flipped and twirled in the air. At this point I was no longer suffering from sensory overload. Feeling the breeze against my antennae and all the little hairs on my face was now a soothing experience. I was put into a trance by it, basking in the bliss given to me by this alien body. Things were feeling great, almost too great.

Without any warning, gravity turned back on and I fell face first into the hard floor. My tranquil moment was now replaced with agonizing pain. Unlike before when I got slapped, this pain was not welcoming at all. Having such a hard exoskeleton made the pain from the impact traverse through my entire body all at once. I laid there on the floor motionless. All I could do was let out a constant high pitched buzz to express my anguish.

“Shit shit shit! Solis, are you okay?!” Carter asked as he rushed to my side. He helped me get back up onto my wobbly feet. “I told you multiple times to get down before gravity was turned on. Did you not hear me?”

My vision was now slightly blurry due to bruising my eyes from the fall. The pain would not stop, making it hard to focus. I let out a few more seconds of buzzing before speaking up. “S-S-Sorry. I got too... distracted.”

“Man, your face is messed up. Good thing the medbay is close by,” Carter said and slid his arm under my shoulder for support. Before we started walking Carter put his free hand up to his headset. “RD, Carter here. Solis, uhh... hurt himself when gravity turned back on. He definitely needs treatment... Yes... Uh-huh. I’m taking him to the medbay right now.”

The two of us then hobbled our way down the rest of the hallway. I caught a few glimpses of people gasping at my injuries as we headed to medical. It was probably a good thing that I couldn’t see how bad I looked. All of that joyous time spent flying around mere moments ago was now ruined. Instead it was replaced by overwhelming pain in my face. Right as I had gained control of my newfound senses it was all taken away from me in an instant. What rotten luck I’ve had so far.

“Here we are,” Carter said as we passed through the glass airlocks. I had to piece the scene together from what I saw earlier due to my blurry vision. Medical’s lobby area was painted in white with blue outlines along the edges of the walls. In front of us was a wide receptionists desk with something bright pink and yellow working on a computer. To our right were two counters with what appeared to be a pharmacy behind it. And on the left was a red colored door leading to some kind of security checkpoint. 

A constant ringing in my head made it hard to listen to myself. “Uhh, now what?” I asked, seeing Carter smile to my side.

“Just go up and ask to see a doctor. It’s simple, really,” Carter said, snatching the RD’s beret out of my hands before pushing me forward.

I stumbled to the front desk and planted both hands on the edge of the counter. Being this close allowed me to identify the person behind the desk as another moth. They were extremely fuzzy with vibrant pink and yellow colors. Two orange antennae with wide combs on both sides poked out in front of a blue nurse’s hat. The rest of their uniform seemed to be a simple white medical coat and pants. A sharp contrast to the vibrant neck fluff underneath their black compound eyes.

Stepping up to the counter shocked the nurse. They must have been too occupied with their computer monitor to notice my approach. “Oh my gosh! What happened?!” they asked in a squeaky voice that was somehow even higher pitched than mine.

“I... fell. When gravity turned back on,” I said, rubbing one of my eyes.

“You poor thing. I’ll get you set up with a doctor right away,” they said and started typing on their computer.

While waiting I managed to get a better look at the id card attached to their coat. Rosy Angelwing, Nurse. Beside the picture was confirmation that she was indeed a female moth. The name definitely suited her. If my vision wasn’t pulsating in pain so much I could have seen how cute she really looked.

I froze. Why did that thought cross my mind? I was supposed to be a human, not a moth. A fervor flowed throughout my body, followed by my wings vibrating some. Did I just think she was pretty for a moth? Sure, bugs could be cute. But seeing her filled me with something more, like how one felt when seeing an attractive woman pass by. I placed both of my hands on the side of my head. What was happening to me?

“Sir! Your name, please,” Rosy chirped at me.

Her piercing voice brought me out of my trance. “It’s... Solis.”

Rosy typed the name but stayed silent with her hands on the keyboard. As if waiting for me to say more. “Solis...?”

“Ah! Sorry! It’s Solis... umm.” All those feelings I had for her drained completely. Now it was time for embarrassment to take the stage because I couldn’t remember what my new last name was. It might as well have been Embarrassment at this point. With a squeaky sigh I pulled out my id card and gave it a look. “Solis Evergreen.”

“Thanks. I hope that your fall wasn't too bad. Sounds like you’re already forgetting things,” Rosy said and finished typing.

“Yeah, haha. I’d be a shame if I forgot who I was.” The irony of it all stung almost as bad as the pain I currently felt.

“A doctor should be with you shortly—” She was interrupted by glass airlocks to the side of the front desk opening. Out stepped a human female with fair skin and black hair tied up in a bun. She was wearing the same outfit as Rosy, minus the hat.

“Solis Evergreen?” she asked while looking down at her PDA. The moment she glanced at me she too recoiled from the sight. “Rosy, you didn’t tell me he was this hurt!”

“Because you didn’t give me a chance to finish the report!” Rosy replied with a small flutter.

The doctor waved her off. “Whatever, just come on in.”

I complied and followed the doctor through the airlocks. On the other side was a scene that looked almost identical to a hospital. Multiple screening rooms lined the wall in front of us, and medical personnel were busy around the clock tending to whatever patients were already here. The doctor made our trip short by leading me into the very first room ahead of us. I promptly sat down on the examination bed and the doctor walked up to my side. With how fast she was moving around I couldn’t get a read on her id.

“Alright, let’s see how bad this really is,” the doctor said and put her PDA up to my face. A small light beside what looked like a camera lens blinked while she slowly moved the PDA around my head. There must have been some advanced health analyzer tech built into it. After getting a full scan the PDA beeped. “Oh good. It’s not as bad as it looks. Nothing a bit of bicaridine can’t fix.”

“Bicaridine? What’s—” I stopped myself from continuing, remembering what Carter told me. I was playing a role, one that should have known the common names for medicine around here. Especially so since I was a scientist. “Right, bicaridine. The good stuff.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow at me before walking over to grab said medicine off a counter. That was a close call. I had to be careful with what I said around here. But I was sure if I messed up now I could easily play it off due to hitting my head. Maybe I wasn’t so unlucky after all.

My eyes widened, or would have if I were still human, when I saw the doctor preparing a needle with some dark yellow liquid. “Uhh, you’re giving me a shot? Just for this?” I also realized that my antennae stiffened up completely straight upon seeing the needle.

“Well, yeah. It’s not like I can give you a pill,” she replied and stepped beside my shoulder. I instinctively slid my arm out of my lab coat, but before I could expose my arm fully the doctor injected the needle through my shirt sleeve. My upper arm stung with pain as one would expect from such an impromptu injection. It also didn’t help that the needle penetrating my hard exoskeleton made it feel like something cracked.

“Ow!” I squeaked. My wings flapped until the stinging sensation went away. Almost immediately I could feel the pain in my face subsiding. “Wow, that stuff works fast. Thanks...”

“Don’t mention it,” she said in a harsh tone. Before I even had a chance to put my coat on she was already dragging me back out into the lobby.

At that point my vision had returned to normal and the pain was completely gone. That bicaridine stuff must have been some really advanced pain medicine. I looked to my right to see Rosy peeking over her monitor.

“You’re looking better already!” she said with a thumbs up.

I wanted to say thanks but her compliment hit hard, not only making my stomach flutter but also my wings. All that came out instead was rapid chittering. One of Rosy’ antennae drooped downward as she reclined back. Was that the same as somebody raising an eyebrow at me?

The thought dissipated when I noticed Carter talking to somebody at the counter of the pharmacy. It looked like he was making small talk with whoever was on the other side to pass the time. After seeing me he smugly pointed at somebody across the counter then came over to my side. “You feeling better now? You definitely look better.”

“Yeah, I feel great,” I said. “The doctor gave me bicaridine for it. What’s in that stuff?”

“Hell if I know, but it’s an important name to remember,” Carter said as he guided us out of medical and back into the hallway. “We use it to treat bruises and the like.”

It only took a few steps before my sense of smell kicked in. Now that I was no longer wrought with pain, the savory aromas from the kitchen almost fried my brain. My stomach growling was also a sure sign that I needed food pronto. “Think we have time to stop for a snack? I’m starving.”

“Sure thing. I could use some grub myself,” Carter said, guiding us to the buffet of food open to the public.

There were so many options on display I didn’t know what to pick. Almost any kind of food you could think of was up for grabs. Pizzas, hamburgers, soups and salads, deep-fried... whatever. If you named it, they probably had it. After watching Carter grab a plain burger I went up to try some of their pizza. But Carter stopped me before I even had a chance to take a slice.

“Whoa, buddy. I probably should have told you this earlier but moths can’t eat regular food,” he said, already taking a bite out of his hamburger.

“What? Then what do they— I mean, what can I eat?” I asked. I felt my antennae droop slightly, disappointed at the fact.

“Follow me,” Carter said with a mouthful. The two of us made the short trip over to botany which I saw had a direct connection to the kitchen. Carter tapped on the glass by the front counter and a yellow lizard slid the window open. After clearing his throat Carter spoke up. “Yo, can I get a snack for my moth friend over here?”

The lizard nodded and walked to the back of the hydroponics farm. They messed around with a plant for a few seconds but I couldn’t see what it was. Too many basins full of other plants were in the way. Once completed, the lizard returned to the open window and handed Carter a white paper bag.

“Thanks a bunch!” Carter said as the lizard waved back. He then handed the bag over to me. “Bon appetit.”

I looked inside and was met with even more disappointment. It was a bunch of cotton bolls still connected to stems. “I’m supposed to eat this?” I asked as I pulled some bolls out.

“It’s either that or your clothes,” Carter replied. “Or other people’s clothes, but most don’t like it when a moth tries taking a bite out of their jacket.”

A low growling sound came from me. Cotton. I could only eat cotton. What kind of creature was I that could only eat stuff like this? Annoyed, but still hungry, I reluctantly munched on the fresh cotton. It was thankfully a simple process with this moth mouth of mine. All I had to do was latch on to the cotton with my mandibles, rip it off the stem, then spend a second tearing it apart before swallowing. There was absolutely no flavor to it at all, however. It might have filled my stomach, but my soul was still left empty.

The dietary revelation left me quite displeased, but there was nothing I could do about it now except tough it out. We continued on and soon found ourselves standing right outside the doors to the science department. At that moment I was flooded with the memories of my awakening here. Memories that prompted a question I needed to know the answer to. Before Carter opened the door I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Carter, can I ask you something?”

He turned around. “Sure, what is it?”

“I, uhh...” I started buzzing again, unsure how to phrase my question. After shaking my head I decided to be blunt about it. “Why are you helping me? I don’t mean that in a rude way, but... I remember seeing how you were just as confused as the others when I woke up. But once you saw me by the window you came over to help. Why?”

Carter chuckled under a smile. “Because at that moment I instantly knew how bad things were for you. Remember, I used to be a therapist. I hate seeing people suffer, especially due to reasons completely out of their control.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” I said and scratched the back of my fuzzy head. “Well, I appreciate the help.”

“No problem,” Carter said and looked away for a second. “But I’d be lying if I said that was the only reason I helped.”

I crossed my arms. “Lying? I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Trust me, your well-being is still top priority but...” Carter clasped his hands together. “I thought helping you out would make me look better in the eyes of the RD. Technically, I’m not a real scientist. At least not yet. Right now I’m what’s called a research assistant, and I’m super close to getting a promotion. So helping you out also helps me out!”

I placed a hand on my forehead. Part of me wanted to be mad at Carter for using me as his personal stepping stone. But I couldn’t fault the guy for it, especially with how genuinely helpful he had been in the past hour or so. I let out a squeaky chuckle in response. “I see. Then let’s hope things go well for the both of us.”

“Precisely! Now come on, the RD is waiting,” Carter said and opened the airlock.

While passing through the decontamination hallway I was hit with flashbacks of my first few minutes here. They were extremely blurry and filled with dread. None were pleasant moments to reminisce about. Now that I was somewhat adjusted to my new home and new body, I was hoping to replace those memories with something less chaotic.

We stepped through the second airlock and I could finally take in the sights for what they were worth. The science department had a white and purple color scheme with purple trim along all the walls. Straight ahead was a long hallway with various doors and windows on each side. Directly to the right was a set of windows displaying what appeared to be some kind of mechanics bay. Inside somebody with a welding mask was hard at work welding a skeletal frame together. To our left was the opening that held the table I awoke at. The opening was actually connected to a smaller hallway that continued farther left. Much to my surprise the department was eerily quiet. Only electronic beeps and other mechanical noises were heard from machines dotted around the place. Nobody else was in sight.

“Is it normally this quiet around here?” I asked as we continued down the main department hallway.

“Kind of. The sound proofing in this place is pretty robust,” Carter said. “Everyone is probably in their labs hard at work right now, or on break.”

Down the hallway and to the left was another set of windows surrounding a blue airlock. It looked exactly like the doors from earlier that led into the station’s bridge. Inside I saw a tiny but well-kept office room with a fancy desk in the middle. Seated behind it was none other than the science department’s boss Relton. The moth was furiously typing away at a computer when he noticed our approach. I saw his dark wings flutter for a second before he waved at us.

Carter dusted off the purple beret in his hands then looked at me. “So... you ready to talk to the big moth?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” I replied.

“He’s going to expect a lot out of you, even in spite of your predicament,” Carter said. The lack of a smile behind his words meant that things were serious.

I shrugged at him. “Not like I have much of a choice. It’s like you said earlier, I was given a role to play. And if playing this role is the best way to help with figuring out what happened then I’m ready for it.”

“Good. Then let’s get this over with,” Carter said and opened the door. The serious tone of his quickly shifted to something more lighthearted as we walked up to Relton’s desk. “Evenin’ director!”

Relton produced a multitude of rapid chittering noises before replying. “Hello, Carter... and Solis. Are you finally done with the tour?”

“I showed him all the important bits.” Carter gave the moth a nod and placed the beret on the desk. “But it wasn’t the most comprehensive tour one might say.”

“As long as he knows where our department is and where to sleep then that’s all I care about,” Relton said. His antennae twitched for a second. “And speaking of... How are you feeling, Solis?”

I paused for a moment. The lack of head movement from Relton took me off guard. One more moth quirk to get used to. Thinking about it, I had probably done the same to others earlier without noticing. I raised a hand up to my face and coughed in preparation for my response. But another moth quirk arose and I let out a squeak instead. “I am feeling... fine. Thank you for asking.”

“I’m going to be brief about this,” Relton said before putting his beret back on. “We can’t afford to lose a scientist right now. I know you’re suffering from some advanced form of amnesia, Solis, but I still need you to help us with work around here. The more you help, the faster we can figure out your condition. Got it?”

“I understand, sir,” I replied, taking a deep breath. “And... I would also like to apologize for my little breakdown earlier. I made the situation worse than it actually was. It will not happen again, I promise.”  In the corner of my vision I saw Carter giving me a sneaky thumbs up.

“Hmph, I hope so,” Relton replied, still staring at the computer screen. “Carter, I’m going to need you to retrain Solis back up to a respectable level. That means double duty for you until then. Because of that... I’m finally giving you that promotion to scientist you’ve been looking for. Congratulations.”

“Yes!” Carter said, pumping his fist into the air. “I won’t let you down, sir!”

“Just like all the other times you’ve said that,” Relton said softly, producing a low buzzing sound. “Alright, that’s all I have. You two have about an hour before the next shift starts. Carter, I’ll send you the details in a bit on what needs to be done first.”

“Thank you, sir,” Carter said and promptly twirled around to head for the door.

I started to follow Carter out but Relton’s voice stopped me. “And Solis, I’m getting a brain scan scheduled for you so expect that sometime soon.”

“A brain scan?” I asked. My wings flapped from the slight anxiety those words gave me.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing painful. Just the first step we’ll need to take in figuring out what’s wrong with you.”

“Okay... Thanks,” I said and left the room.

Outside was Carter waiting for me. He stretched his arms over his head. “Well then. We got an hour to kill before work. How about we chill in the break room until then?”

“Sounds good to me,” I replied and followed Carter down the hall.

Not too far away from Relton’s office was the entrance to said break room. Stepping inside I was met with familiar faces seated around a table. Linda, the dwarf, and the lizard were all enjoying a meal together. Their heads turned when Carter and I walked in.

“Hey, they’re back!” Linda said. Her whole body jiggled whenever she waved at us. “How are you two doing? Did the tour go well?”

“I’m feeling great now that I got promoted!” Carter replied, causing the three to give him a short applause. He pulled me in with an arm wrapped around me. “All I gotta do is continue to help this guy out.”

Everyone’s eyes turned my way and another wave of anxiety overcame me. Despite how well I had gotten used to my new “role” I was desperate for some personal time. My antennae started twitching in an upward motion. “Uhh, yeah. Hello again. Sorry for causing quite the ordeal earlier.” I leaned my head toward Carter. “Hey. Is there like a washroom or something around here? I think I need to splash my face to get refreshed.”

“Yep, there’s a restroom right over there,” he said, pointing at a gray airlock on the opposite side of the room. It had a single green stripe painted down the middle.

“Thanks, I won’t be long,” I said and started walking over to the door.

“Take all the time you need, buddy. We’ll redo introductions when you get back,” Carter said behind me. Right before I entered the restroom I overheard him talking with the others. “He’s still a bit shaken up but I’m sure he’ll manage,” Carter said.

I pressed the only button on the airlock’s frame and its two halves split apart. Revealed to me was a somewhat decent looking restroom. It smelled the part too, unfortunately. To the left was a sink and mirror combo, and to the right a metal toilet awaited. A few metal cabinets filled the space between. If I didn’t know better I would have thought I was in a bog-standard restroom not onboard a space station. They must cut corners here wherever they could.

A few seconds after I stepped through the airlock closed shut. Examining the door’s panel revealed two buttons this time. The open button and a new lock button. I pressed the lock button and red lights at the top and bottom of the door lit up. A loud click from the door accompanied the lights turning on. Finally, I was by myself.

I took a deep breath, knowing what was coming next. Despite being in this moth body for so long, I never had the chance to see what I looked like. The mirror sat to my right almost out of view while I faced the door. I pulled out my id card from underneath my lab coat. The small picture of a lime-green moth was supposed to be me. But a single photo wasn’t enough to solidify the connection in my mind. Slowly, I turned and stepped over to present myself in front of the mirror. Having no eyelids ruined the surprise as I saw the moth pictured on my id slide into view.

I didn’t know what to think due to how bizarre it was. My reflection was right in front of me, but it wasn’t the me I had grown up with anymore. Instead, some gigantic alien moth wearing a lab coat gazed back at me with its bulbous compound eyes. I stood there motionless for what felt like an eternity. There was no need to look around because my bulbous green eyes saw everything at once. To look into a mirror and see something else felt so alien.

My wings fluttered. Seeing them move in the mirror freaked me out and I flinched. Following that was a cascade of bad feelings. My entire body felt itchy again and I started scratching. But there was nothing I could do to calm the feeling of a million hairs rubbing against my clothes. Underneath the layer of fur was my exoskeleton. Scratching made me aware of the rigidness of it all. As if I had a layer of dried hard skin that wouldn’t go away. And my antennae picked back up again, sensing the subtle changes of air my movement was causing. But I couldn’t stop. The more I scratched and moved the weirder I felt, creating a feedback loop of trying to fix things by scratching even more. I let out a scream to the best of my ability. All I heard however was a long winded buzz.

Amidst the chaos I managed to remember why I came in here. I quickly turned on the faucet and splashed a handful of water into my face. In an instant all the terrible feelings were flushed away and I could think clearly again. No more itchy feelings for me. Instead, I felt wet and cold. The fur on my face and part of my neck fluff was now soaking wet. Seeing myself in such an awful state made me chuckle. All I could think of then were the times I gave my pet dog a bath. If only my chuckling sounded normal and not like a dog’s squeaky toy.

I dried myself off with some towels and leaned forward at the mirror. My current situation might have been terrifying but there was still hope. Carter’s words echoed through my mind as I attempted to hype myself up. I was given a role to play, and playing this role was my best shot at fixing this whole ordeal. So what if I was a giant talking moth with wings and antennae and freaky eyes? So what if I was on a space station in the future? Those facts were not going to stop me anymore because I knew it was still me on the inside. I was still in control. Both of my hands might have been missing digits but they had yet to ignore my commands. This new body of mine meant new tools to learn. Tools I needed to not only get adjusted to but also exploit if I wanted to survive.

A rumbling feeling came from my center mass, taking me out of my motivational thoughts. It was lower than my stomach and a feeling I knew all too well. I turned around and stared at the toilet. Thank goodness it was a familiar sensation, otherwise I might have been in it deep to say things lightly. After successfully taking my lab coat off I saw that the only port for access this jumpsuit had was a zipper. A long zipper that reached all the way from my neck to my groin. There was no beating around the bush, I had to take the whole dang thing off if I wanted to go. I squeakily sighed and began unzipping.

However, once I had reached the zipper’s bottom a new sensation overcame me. One that made me freeze in terror. Things were different down there. And why wouldn’t it have been? I was in an alien body after all. But the revelation still took me by surprise. Too much surprise, especially so since I realized this was going to be my body for the indefinite future. After feeling and seeing how different it was down there I started to doubt my ability to play this role.