Chapter Text
When the huge meteor appeared in front of the sun, Saoirse was interested for all of two days before dismissing it. They had better things to do! Like studying for their handful of AP classes and trying not to die during passing periods. Scientists assured everyone that it would miss Earth, and that was that.
Even if Florence insisted that it was aliens, or that her astronomy and aerospace teacher was freaking out over it.
Yeah, Saoirse got worried when people started saying that they saw parts of the huge space rock turn into high-tech metal, but it could’ve been propaganda or gossip. It was concerning, yet not concerning enough for the teenager to freak out about it. Maybe they should’ve. They certainly were freaking out when, all of a sudden, the power went out at school. It was during lunch and Saoirse was just trying to take a brief nap on their best friend’s shoulder when all of the lights turned off. Florence’s phone stopped mid-video, cutting off some silly audio. A chorus of teenage yells broke out across the school.
The teachers had no idea what was going on. They were panicking just as hard as the students, unsure of what to do once it was confirmed that it wasn’t some kid who tripped the power, it was the whole city. Saoirse heard two staff members whispering that they couldn’t even get in contact with the city, which wasn’t terrifying at all. The entire student body was corralled into the field, despite having no power on anything, they weren’t allowed to go home. Something about buses.
Then, a huge spaceship appeared in the sky. Saoirse wasn’t looking, but apparently, the meteor shifted into a spaceship as it approached Earth. It expelled dozens–no, millions of smaller ships, that Saoirse saw. There was a beat of silence before everyone on the field started screaming and running. Florence tugged on their sleeve, urging her friend to move, damn it as they stood there frozen. A ship was headed straight for them and by the time Saoirse had finally shaken out of their freeze response, it had landed in the school’s field and the surrounding forest.
Saoirse tried to book it only to be stymied by a hand on their head pulling them back.
They looked up, and they couldn’t tell if it was their voice or Florence’s that they heard screaming in terror.
- - -
“At least we got a corner,”
“We got kidnapped!” Florence cried, shaking Saoirse’s shoulder as the two sat in the spaceship's cargo bay, “Saoir, does that mean nothing to you?!”
They brought their legs up closer to their chest, backpack leaning next to them in the very cozy corner, “I’m trying not to think about it.”
“You saw that thing, right? It wasn’t just a figment of my imagination?”
Saoirse saw it, alright. The thing that herded them into the ship, a humanoid but decidedly not human figure that was double their height and full of tough muscle with sharp claws to boot. Even sharper teeth. And alien guns. Saoirse meekly nodded their head in confirmation.
“I was right! It was aliens,” she ran a hand through dyed blonde hair, “Didn’t think they’d want to take us, though… Where do you think they’re taking us? Oh god, please don’t let it be another planet.”
“I think the odds are it being another planet, Flor. Where else would they take us?”
“I don’t know! Maybe it’s some elaborate social scheme to give us a nice European vacation?”
They gave their friend a deadpan stare, “Yeah, explain the people in this bay that we’ve never seen before. The people speaking German over there? They definitely need a European vacation.”
Florence shook their shoulder again, making Saoirse a bit dizzy with the force of it, “Now is not the time for sarcasm! Don’t–”
The floor began to rumble beneath them. Saoirse was really glad they decided to sit down, even if it was due to their medical condition rather than any foresight into potential spaceship takeoff. With a yelp, Florence’s arms were suddenly around their shoulders. Saoirse tried to pat their friend’s back in what was hopefully a comforting gesture. Christ, they were already getting nauseous. It wasn’t helped by the subsequent upward feeling that made their stomach do flips. Saoirse pressed their free hand over their mouth. They still had their backpack, they told themself, they had water and snacks and their meds. When the ship suddenly started moving at unprecedented speeds, the people who had only been standing in front of them by a few inches fell back as well as forward. Someone landed on Saoirse’s shoes, someone knocked heads with Florence.
The speed of the ship picked up even more. Acid reflux rose in their throat.
Florence clung to them for– god, Saoirse didn’t know how long. It felt like forever, but five minutes could feel like ages the same way two hours could. When the ship finally steadied enough for them to move without every limb protesting, Saoirse very quickly shoved Flor off their shoulders and kicked the person in front of them forward.
Then promptly threw up.
- - -
Bonus points for managing to keep your backpack on you, Saoirse was able to semi-successfully clean up their vomit. Using the spare jacket they brought wasn’t ideal, however, the looks the people near them were giving Saoirse was enough to make them do anything to get the remnants of their breakfast out of sight. They were also able to drink some water after! Hopefully, the aliens didn’t take their bag. For one, it was cute and expensive as hell. Secondly, it had Saoirse’s shit in it. They had no idea where Florence’s messenger bag went, she seemed to mourn its disappearance.
The two were bored. Really bored. When you put two people with ADHD in a cramped spaceship where they can barely move and don’t particularly want to move, but their minds are screaming at them to do something, it wasn’t fun. Florence had to have been braiding and re-braiding Saoirse’s hair for the past twenty minutes as they finally gave in and pulled out the book they had in their bag.
“Why do you think they abducted us?”
“I seriously just got out my book. You couldn’t have started a conversation ten minutes ago?”
Florence pulled their hair, “Shut up! My mind first went to using us as food.”
“Optimistic,” Saoirse muttered, playing with the tassel of their bookmark, “I don’t know, maybe reproduction. Isn’t that how a lot of sci-fi stories go? Alien race is dying out, so they need humans to help repopulate.”
“Those are the sci-fi stories for monster fuckers. What if they saw how bad our planet’s doing and wanted to save us?”
They begrudgingly handed Flor a hair tie from their bag, “Solid theory, but why kidnap us? Surely they’d have some sort of tech to communicate with us and, y’know, actually offer instead of assuming.”
Florence shrugged, motioning for Saoirse to move over so she could braid the other section of their hair.
The conversation lulled and continued to do so for the next while. Florence got tired of messing with her friend’s hair and decided to take a nap, instead, leaning on Saoirse’s shoulder as they half-heartedly read their book. A slow-burn arranged marriage in a medieval world wasn’t so interesting, now. Princesses and knights couldn’t adequately distract their mind from wandering to their current situation.
It hadn’t fully sunk in, yet. It was like any form of grief or serious situation, it took a while to register. Saoirse was sure that when they realized that, oh shit, they’d been abducted by aliens and were likely going to be on an alien planet god knows how far from Earth, they’d break down in snot and tears. It was so uncertain, and that was what was driving Saoirse insane. They had no clue what would happen. They never handled change or uncertainty well, least of all in stressful situations. Since they had gotten onto this ship and other people started getting shoved in, Saoirse had been vaguely overstimulated. Too many people, too much noise, too many different smells, too much everything. They couldn’t afford to have a meltdown, though. With their bra digging uncomfortably into their chest, their Doc Martens rubbing against their heel with pressure, the waistline of their skirt making them twice as nauseous. Everything was too much.
Yet, Saoirse was simultaneously feeling guilty that they weren’t feeling more.
Florence was extremely worried about her younger siblings, her parents, her other friends, but… Saoirse couldn’t find themselves caring one way or another. Their father had passed away a few years back, and their mother was on an international business trip. Even if their mom got kidnapped too, or worse, Saoirse didn’t feel much of anything about it. Their only close friend was Flor, and yeah, they were worried about their other friends and hoped they were safe, but it wasn’t pressing.
Maybe they should also take a nap.
That sounded like a good idea.
- - -
Saoirse woke up to Florence violently shaking them. When they groggily came to, they realized that the ship was no longer rumbling.
“..Did we land?”
Florence nodded, looking pale. They pulled their best friend close for a hug that couldn’t have lasted longer than ten minutes before the huge doors of the ship opened with a loud metal sound. Humans began running for it, tripping and shoving each other to get out. Florence pushed herself up to lend a hand to Saoirse, who took it after grabbing their backpack and slinging it over their arm. Hand in hand, the two followed the crowd out of the spaceship.
The first thing that hit them was how much easier it was to breathe. It could’ve been the result of sitting in a closed space with recycled air for hours, but the oxygen (Saoirse assumed it was oxygen, this planet could’ve had new elements that were an acceptable substitute) felt lighter. Second was the sickly-looking yellow sky. With how easy it felt to breathe, Saoirse doubted it was from pollutants, but had a hard time separating the association of yellow skies from anything else. Too many orangey-yellow skies from wildfires. They weren’t able to get a good look at the ground as Florence was determined to keep walking, yet were able to make other observations. There was a building ahead of them that was large, square, and very plain. The ship they had just got out of was so large that they couldn’t see the ends of it, it was divulging humans from multiple entrance points. Saoirse lagged behind and Florence tugged their hand harder, shooting them a look they could only describe as on the verge of tears.
They were near the edge of the crowd the moment that Saoirse abruptly dug their heels into the ground, causing Florence to nearly trip. Their head was turned, focused on a yell they heard. It came again, the sound of someone shouting for help. They immediately made a step forward to find the source only for Florence to yank them back.
“Flor–”
“No.”
Saoirse floundered, they knew Florence heard the yell and that she would be the person to go after it, “We can’t just leave someone in danger.”
“We’re in danger! I’m not risking our lives to help some stranger,” she was definitely about to cry, “We are following the masses and going where the aliens want us to go. I’m not getting separated.”
In the beat of silence that came after there were no audible yells. They sighed, about to speak again when something shoved them forward. Looking over their shoulder made them feel sick. The thing had to be at least ten feet tall. With dark red skin and brown sclera that held slit-like pupils – or irises, Saoirse couldn’t tell. Their teeth were far too sharp when their lipless mouth curled up slightly in a snarl. Florence quickly pulled Saoirse forward again to keep walking to wherever they were being herded to.
The rest of their walking and waiting was spent in tense silence. It took a while for all the humans to filter through peacefully and even longer for them to get to the big building. Worse than waiting in line at an amusement park, largely because everyone around them was even more tense and this many people in one place was an accident waiting to happen. Saoirse had already seen three fights break out, though they were swiftly handled by the scary-as-fuck aliens.
It didn’t become a whole lot clearer upon entering the building.
First off, all Saoirse and Florence could see was yet another crowd of humans. Not very helpful. It took around five minutes for them to get close enough to the front to see what was going on, and that’s what was helpful. Saoirse saw people being lured into entrances one or two at a time by the aliens, then there was another array of entrances that people were being filtered through. They couldn’t see past that, though. Saoirse swallowed.
(They thought it looked like the process farms used to separate sheep, with the gates and such. Saoirse had no idea what it was called.)
They could clearly see that Florence didn’t want to go forward, from the look on her face to the tight grip she had on their hand. There wasn’t much of a choice, unfortunately. A scuffle broke out between an older-looking man and an alien when the extraterrestrial tried to grab him, resulting in yells and concerned looks. No one moved to help. Saoirse swallowed again. The two finally got up to the front, Florence pulling her friend in after her hastily when the gate closed. The alien manning the station looked vaguely amused and didn’t do anything, it pressed a button and one of the transparent doors in front of them opened. Saoirse continued to be tugged along, noting that despite the walls being what they could only describe as clear they couldn’t see through them. Whatever path the alien directed them to go down was long and winding, like a maze. Soon, there was a person or two behind them, but nobody had the guts to say or do anything more than a strained wave.
They entered an area where aliens were examining the humans. Hands-on. Saoirse bumped into Florence with how she suddenly stopped, getting shot a sheepish look from over her shoulder. Their hands were getting sweaty having been intertwined for so long. Florence, being the leader of a mini pack of five, – they noticed that all of them appeared to be teenagers or young adults – was made to enter the area first. An alien immediately went to pick up Florence by the waist, only to be stymied by her being connected to Saoirse. The pair was roughly torn apart and Florence let out a heart-breaking wail at that.
Far more gently, Saoirse was grabbed by the arm and taken a few steps in the opposite direction of Florence. The alien that grabbed them was a dark pink, looking at them with yellow eyes (sclera, their mind corrected) as it hoisted the teen up onto a metal table. It rumbled and clicked something, Saoirse thought it looked curious.
Then it tried to slip the backpack off Saoirse’s shoulders.
“No! That’s mine!” they fruitlessly made a grab for their bag of belongings, unable to reach it as the alien successfully got it off and moved to put it somewhere else.
Saoirse sighed when they watched the alien put it on some sort of shelf about ten feet away. They were not going to get that back, considering the table they were sitting on had to be at least five feet above the ground. The alien came back, humming a tune Saoirse could barely hear over the sounds of other alien language and human yells. It grabbed – gently, again – their arms and held them up, bending them before setting them down and repeating the same process with their legs. A light that Saoirse was very much not expecting flashed them in the eyes, the alien said something that they thought was an apology. They took the next flash in their face a lot better. It pried open Saoirse’s mouth (they had to resist the urge to bite down on its finger, being aggressive would not get them back to Flor) and poked around at their teeth and tongue before stopping when they gagged. Being in such close proximity to the thing gave them a moment to further take in its appearance. It had small spikes that were the same material as its flesh dotted on its cheeks and head, it didn’t appear to have any hair. Its clothes were flowy, formal, and light gray. Saoirse would call it a long-sleeved and long-legged romper but with some very distinct changes.
The alien examined their hair but didn’t touch the braids Florence had previously put in. Finally, it pressed on some points of Saoirse’s torso and neck before being satisfied. It wrote something down then lowered the table, it crouched down and pointed, saying something. The clawed hand was pointed at another open door or gate thing. Saoirse guessed that it wanted them to go that way, so they did.
Just as they reached the exit point, they were hugged from behind.
“Saoir!” Florence was crying at this point, and was without her top for some reason. Saoirse quickly undid their cardigan to offer it to her.
They finished buttoning it around their friend, her bra was still visible but at least she wasn’t only wearing it now, “Why’d they take your shirt?”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled, “I was fidgeting a lot. Maybe they thought I was hiding something in it.” Florence latched onto Saoirse from a more comfortable angle, positioned with her arms around their waist in a way that they both could walk. Before they got the chance to, though, they were shoved.
Saoirse was getting lightheaded from all the swiveling their head was doing. An alien was the one who pushed them, this one a purplish-red color. It pointed at the gate that was only a few feet away from them.
“Byr, mirmaks,” it clicked and growled, “Byr frh.” It pointed again, more animatedly.
“I don’t like how they talk,” Flor sniffled.
They nodded, rubbing their friend’s back as they awkwardly shuffled through the gate. It didn’t close behind them, thankfully. There was a single alien in this room. It had a handful of floating boxes around them, boxes that Saoirse saw humans in after a moment. It turned to the pair and another person that had meandered in after them. The look on its face was kind, Saoirse thought. Two other aliens entered the room and took the floating.. carriers and exited again. They cautiously watched as it picked up another carrier and positioned it in front of them.
“Pora!” It said, tapping the top of the box enticingly.
“The fuck?” the guy behind them muttered.
Florence mumbled something into Saoirse’s shoulder, lifting her head after they sent her a questioning look, “Do we go in willingly or get manhandled into it?” Saoirse hummed as they watched the alien put out its hand and shook it, despite nothing being in its palm.
With a bit of a sigh, Saoirse shuffled themselves and Flor into the carrier, having to duck and crawl into it. The thing was spacious, but not very tall. Neither of them could stand up. They scooted back so that their backs were against the carrier’s wall and wrapped an arm around Florence’s waist as she intertwined their legs together. The new position gave Saoirse a good look at the dude that was behind them. He had shoulder-length hair that was in braids with beads decorating it, some stubble on his chin, and a super pissed-off look on his face.
The alien hit the top of the carrier again, “Prosh, prosh! Pora, mirmak, imrie ney gnn ta.”
“Stop fucking speaking at me in your weird-ass language!” the guy barked. It merely repeated some of what it had been saying. They heard the alien stand up and he yelped, frantically looking around for a second before he was tipped off balance and subsequently shoved face-first into the carrier right before the door shut. He whirled around, banging on the side of the carrier, “Let me out! I don’t wanna be stuck in here with two cryin’ girls!”
Saoirse huffed. They weren’t crying, or a girl. They had no reason to voice that, though. Watching the guy try and fail to get the alien’s attention via yelling was enough.
The carrier got picked up and after five minutes of no response from the alien carrying it, he gave up. With a grumpy look, he turned to the ‘two cryin’ girls’.
“What’re your names?”
“Saoirse. She’s Florence,” they did a little head gesture towards Flor, who was awake but still sniffling, “And you?”
“Se– Sar, what now?”
Saoirse repeated their name, slower, “You?”
He seemed to give up on that, too. With an explosive sigh, “Trent.”
Neither of them said anything after that. Saoirse was running their fingers through Flor’s short hair, trying to soothe the girl as she cried. Trent was looking out of the carrier with a distasteful expression. He was trying to get a look at where they were going, they thought, with the way he was leaning through the bars (or was trying to). They wanted to ask a question. Something, anything. They couldn’t, though. Trent looked so tense, so wound up that they couldn’t risk something while being in an enclosed space with an unknown man. Fortunately, they arrived at their destination soon enough.
Two doors opened, the carrier was set down and the door clacked open right as it began to shake gently, being tilted downward. Trent barreled out and face-planted to the floor, while Saoirse and Florence slid out behind him. They caught a glimpse of the alien leaving when they turned their head.
“Is this a fucking playpen?” Trent bit out through ground teeth.
“There are toys,” Florence said softly.
Saoirse took their eyes off the door and the glass fence and gate that stood about six feet high to look at whatever Trent was pissed about. The room had pastel yellow walls and carpeted white floors, inside were a series of tubes and some sort of mini jungle gym, the floor was littered with balls, weird cylinder things, and some cubes, there were semi-raised bowls in the corner. Not to mention the puppy-pad looking thing in the opposite corner.
And the other humans. Again, they looked to be teenagers to young adults. Two people were sitting in a pile of blankets, another was leaning against the wall next to the bowls, and one was peering out of a high window and balanced precariously on one of the tubes. Two women and two men. Trent immediately headed towards the man sitting near the bowls.
Florence and Saoirse stared at each other. Saoirse shrugged, which caused Florence to let out a small giggle.
They’d figure this out. Somehow. Together.