Thursday, May 6, 2004

   It's hot in here
For some reason, it's really hot tonight....

The Friends finale is on. I just wanna' see how it all turns out.

Oh, and Rayne: "AP tests" are the finals of Advance Placement courses, whih count as college credit.

I have nothing to say...so...Sol...

XI

Simon was very groggy when he awoke. Man, he thought. I had the weirdest dream last night…aliens, and cat girls and me whipping Brooks…must’ve watched too much TV…

He checked his right arm, and sighed with relief; it was normal, in no way metallic. Sighing again, he rolled over…and almost screamed.

They were there! Rena and Von, right there! In his room! Rena was sitting in a chair of his, flipping through a comic book. Von sat in a corner, fiddling with a laser pointer. How the heck could they be there?

Friday night’s events came back to him slowly; he’d brought them back to his house to hide out, then sort of collapsed on the bed. Oh man…

Rena looked up, sensing his movements. “This character here is really insipid,” she said, gesturing at the comic book. “His costume looks absolutely nothing like an Earth-spider.”

“Yeah, don’t diss the classics,” Simon muttered. “Man, what time is it?”

Von looked up from the laser pointer. “By your standard of local time, it’s five thirty in the afternoon.”

“Aw, man. I can’t believe I slept through Saturday!”

Von cleared his throat. “Uh, actually, by your human system of days, it’s not Saturday, it’s Sunday.”

“What?! You’re telling me I slept through the entire weekend?”

“It’s a side-effect of the Sol system’s bonding to your organic system; initially, it causes extreme fatigue in the host.”

“The Sol system,” Simon muttered. “Wait…my arm…”

“You’ve reached the point where you can control the system,” Von explained. “The cybernetics are retreating as a result of your desire to hide them.”

Simon flexed his hand. “Come again?”

Rena sighed. “It is
responding to your thoughts; please try to keep up.”

Simon shot her a look, and then turned back to Von. “This is freaky…you mean it’s responding to my thoughts?”

The alien nodded. “Of course. It has a neural interface. It’s supposed to work with you; you shouldn’t be afraid of it.”

Simon smiled slightly, a bit relieved. “So, I won’t need a Michel Jackson glove after all…”

“What?”

“Forget it; when are you two leaving?”

Rena stood up. “We cannot,” she said simply. “If you’ll recall, our ship was rendered inoperative, or at least the engines were. We are stranded, and we have nowhere else to stay.”

Simon stood up as well, trying to appear tall. “Well, no offense, Kit Kat, but what if I don’t want you here?”

Rena had two inches on Simon, and stepped forward slightly to gain an authoritive stance. “I’m afraid you have no choice, Sol-being. I am
commandeering your living space in the name of the Felinon Republic, under the Emergency Statute. This is clearly an emergency situation, after all.”

Simon didn’t back down. “No offense, but I don’t care about your stupid statutes. You can’t stay here!”

“Why not?”

“Because….someone might find you! My aunt and uncle…”

“Your guardians have not approached within the thirty-six hours we have been here.”

Simon sighed, defeated. “How long are you gonna’ stay?”

Rena nodded slightly, glad that he was recognizing her authority in the situation. “While you were sleeping, we assembled a makeshift shelter from the wreckage our ship. It is not suitable for habitation, but there are various productive activities we will be partaking of when possible. We will only be here when it is necessary.”

“That’s nice to hear…” Simon muttered. “But…what about me? If Tybalt is still out there looking for me, what should I do?”

“Tybalt can’t find you,” Von said cheerfully. “He never got the tracking device. The odds of him finding you by random searches in your city are very slim.”

“You shall continue with your daily routine,” Rena said. “We can’t have any indication that anything is out of the ordinary, you understand.”

“Damn,” Simon sighed. “Thought I could skip school because of this…”

“A reminder,” Rena continued. “Do not tell anyone of our existence, or alert anyone of the Sol System.”

Simon laughed. “Like they’d believe me.”

He got a glass of water and went back to sleep.
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