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Morning at the base began as usual. The sun was slowly rising over the horizon, the equipment beeped in its familiar way, signals were downloading. Nothing suggested that anything strange was about to happen. Routine had completely swallowed the scientist. For several months now, Kellin had been living in this godforsaken place: at the radio observatory that had become a kind of home to him.
6:00 AM. The delivery drone was supposed to arrive soon. He headed to the garage to receive another package. The door opened with a heavy groan, and beyond it, about a foot and a half off the ground, the machine hovered. The drone’s rotors thundered so loudly that it seemed the noise could raise the dead from their graves. At that moment, Kellin could think of only one thing: how not to attract the attention of the entities lurking nearby.
The astronomer quickly began unpacking the delivery. The scientist’s daily ration had been increased: by 2 discs, 1 packet of noodles, and... 5 packets of shrimp. The face of the supervisor who approved this decision was something one had to see. The phone in his pocket buzzed.
« Messenger. 1 unread notification. We coming. Today, 8:00 hour. Do not look. Do not wait. Sleep. »
It was them. Somehow, the seven-foot-tall cosmic cat-people had learned how to use the internet. And how to give him a warning before breaking into his home. Not always, of course—that would have been far too generous of them. But compared to the paranoia he had lived through during his first 48 days—this felt like a true blessing.
The phone buzzed again.
« Instagram. 1 unread notification. ariral_official_900 liked your photo. »
Best view in this place 📡🌅🥱
Besides messaging, the aliens had also learned how to use Instagram. It was from there that Kellin learned: what they looked like, how they behaved, what habits they had. A lot of useful information.
« ariral_official_900 added a photo. ariral_official_900 tagged you in a post. »
Dummy.
...
« Well, at least they didn't push me down. »
***
Kellin couldn't remember falling asleep, but he hadn't slept for long. He woke up without knowing why: either sleep had retreated on its own, or something simply wouldn't let him fully relax.
He could sense something.
7:00 AM. There was still a whole hour before the arirals were supposed to arrive. As he took off his old dirty clothes, he paused for a second, wondering if someone might be watching him. After a brief moment of thought, he decided to keep his underwear on.
« Just a precaution. »
Wearing nothing but a bathrobe, slippers, and holding a cup of coffee, he stepped out onto the balcony to see what was actually going on.
Down in the parking lot stood... a creature. Tall: around 7 to 8 feet, with arms, legs, a head, and long red hair. It was holding something in its hands. Strangely enough, Kel wasn't frightened by the sight. Perhaps after months of living here, he had simply grown used to strange things. Or perhaps it was because the creature didn't look hostile at all. In fact, it looked... suspiciously familiar.
He looked more closely at the object it was holding. It was... a pack of shrimp? Now everything fell into place! The creature standing not far from his base was none other than an ariral. A real one. Alive. And, for some reason, without camouflage.
Realising she'd been noticed, Argemia; yes, that was the name of the seven-foot-tall red-haired beast; raised her hand and swung the empty shrimp pack. She threw it straight at the human. The doctor deftly dodged the flying object and managed only a short: «Hey!» Argemia quietly giggled.
It was incredible. The beings that had hidden their presence so carefully all this time had simply decided to... show themselves? The whole situation looked extremely suspicious. But fascinating. Such large ears... The doctor greedily studied the alien with his eyes. His gaze caught everything: height, shoulder width and overall body size, the length of the arms, legs and neck, the size of the head, and the number of fingers. For the first time, the doctor noticed that they had six fingers. No way! A hand like that would probably be great for playing the guitar. The thought made him quietly snort.
Argemia stuck out her tongue, and it turned out to be... extraordinarily long. A good ten centimetres, perhaps even more. Another observation worth writing down. Kellin instinctively reached for the phone in his pocket, only to remember he was standing there in nothing but a bathrobe. In the middle of the Swiss Alps. Damn it!
Meanwhile, the alien lifeform was really getting carried away. She turned her back to the doctor, bent over, and started swishing her tail. The strange part was that she did all of it in complete silence, without making the slightest sound. What if she... Kellin wasn't a stupid man, and as a scientist, a hypothesis immediately formed in his mind.
« She doesn't know her camouflage is disabled. »
He had to act quickly if he didn't want to waste such an opportunity. The man shook his fist at the empty air, then deliberately looked away from the exact spot where Argemia was standing and pretended not to notice her at all. The ariral, meanwhile, seemed to notice absolutely nothing. After spending about a minute fooling around in every indecent way imaginable, she turned around and quietly tiptoed toward the base, careful not to make a sound. The hypothesis was confirmed! Now came the hardest part...
If he wanted to keep the act going, Kel would have to ignore every prank the alien girl pulled. No matter how eccentric, ridiculous, or, on the contrary, dangerous they might be.
He stepped back into the living quarters and took an enormous gulp of coffee. His breathing was finally under control. Now he would need to maintain nothing less than cosmic self-control! The first test was waiting just outside the door to his compartment.
As he opened the door, he saw... her. She was standing against the wall on the left. Her face wasn't visible, but her silhouette was perfectly clear. What was even easier to notice, however, was the ariral's outstretched leg sticking right under the doorway. She was trying to trip him.
«I can see you, you know!»—He wanted to shout it so badly. But he had to hold on. For science. If the scientific method demanded it, then it had to be done. Even if he had to sacrifice himself.
Bam!
Sprawled across the stairs, covered all over in coffee and dirt, with one slipper lost somewhere in another dimension—lay Kel. Argemia, barely holding back her laughter, headed somewhere deeper into the corridor and disappeared around the corner. Now it was clear why he kept falling over at the base!
Quickly putting on his old clothes and grabbing his phone, the human went down the stairs—to the first floor. It was quite expected to find Argemia there: she was still doing all kinds of stupid things. A plan formed in his head. To make things easier, he should pretend to be looking at his phone and noticing nothing around him. But it became clear very quickly that this was a rather bad plan. The alien’s attention immediately shifted to the phone. Right beside him, Kel distinctly felt... her gaze. Argemia was looking at the screen together with him. He urgently needed to find some way out of this.
The scientist couldn't think of anything better than opening Instagram. Instagram automatically opened Argemia’s profile. Damn it! She was watching closely to see what Kel would do next. The human began frantically switching through the tabs: photos, bio, followers. He stopped at following. The profile clearly showed that among all the accounts Argemia followed... there was only him.
It was unknown what drove the human at that moment, but Kellin quickly went back one page and, with a deft movement of his finger, followed the ariral back. Surprisingly, it worked. The cat-woman instantly lost interest in the scientist and began energetically jumping around the room, experiencing some kind of emotion.
« I don't understand emotions. This will need to be documented. »
And now, the laboratory. A rather loud crash suddenly came from behind him, causing Kel to instinctively turn around and meet Argemia’s gaze. Well, there it was: the experiment was over. The human had been exposed.
The enormous six-foot-six-inch-tall ariral had stepped onto a pile of rubbish, which was what caused the noise. Kellin tried to seize the initiative: he lowered his gaze, walked right up to the rubbish, and began sorting through the items. But Argemia seemed to have already understood. She froze and did nothing else. After standing there dumbly for about a minute, she slowly walked around the scientist in a circle and positioned herself right beside the observatory control panel.
Kellin slowly approached and, trying not to look at the alien—sat down at the controls. What would happen now? Would she run away? Smack him on the back of the head? Run into the forest and never come back? Demand 5 times more shrimp than usual? He didn't know.
But the “almost ordinary” work began. Catching signals, decoding data, downloading data packages. Nothing difficult. Even a little boring.
Meanwhile, the ariral tried every possible way to “test” the human. She waved her hands right in front of his face, stood by the window near the computer, tried to frighten him with sudden movements. Nothing worked. Kellin stubbornly maintained control. In the end, Argemia gave up and was forced to leave the room. The door slammed shut, and Kel mentally made a note in his head: «Success».
***
Nothing else worth noting happened throughout the day. Argemia came in a few more times: Kel made a frightened face and ran to the door. She watched him from the side while he downloaded signals—and he didn't turn his head. But he saw everything through his peripheral vision.
« Such big green eyes... »
Once, the scientist even managed to photograph the alien—while she was sitting on the floor and playing with cockroaches.
Evening was already approaching. Argemia went out once again. This time, the scientist followed her. It turned out she was heading for the kitchen. The human did not go inside, only watched as the alien creature came out carrying an enormous box of shrimp.
Strangely, she paid no attention to him at all. Although before that, she had tried every possible way to provoke him. Argemia walked past the human, past the laboratory, past the registration station, through the main exit—straight into the forest.
Kellin looked out through the main door. But there was already no trace of the alien. The scientist ran into the kitchen to check whether anything else had disappeared. And found a note.
« Know. You saw me. »
From there, there could only be guesses. What was it? A statement of fact? A threat? Hurt feelings? How would this affect him? His reputation, his relationship with the arirals. The experiment was over, but with what result—Kel did not know. The phone buzzed.
« Instagram. 2 unread notifications. ariral_official_900 added a photo. ariral_official_900 tagged you in a post. »
Dummy. Very dumb. But ours.