Get in the capsule, baby
We are blasting off.
Eep opp ork ah ah! (whooooo)
Well now, I took my baby for a ride in space
and met a little man with a funny face.
He taught us both to wail this way,
and nobody digs a word we say.

Eep-Opp-Ork-Ah! ~ Violent Femmes

👽👽👽

Sol Epoch 01.01.02.20 ( I.S.C.) 

Charm sat still on the foggy floor with her back against the wall, for what seemed like forever. Trying to parse through the bizarre message, from what she assumed was sent by the Alien Space Bats. But what the hell did any of that actually mean? And why was the weird overly-affected English accent the one talking? Did all Alien Space bats talk like that, or did they learn to talk this way from watching TV? Or was this the local lingo in whatever ring of hell she had fallen into?   

Charm came up with a thousand more questions, none of which had any actual answers. But one thing she was absolutely sure of was that this entire situation was wrong. She was supposed to be at a youth leadership conference on the Athena cruise ship, somewhere off the coast of Florida. She was not supposed to be here ...where ever the hell here was, with Alien Space Bats. 

Unless this is some sort of very strange psychological Standford Experiment, to see how American Teenagers would react to an actual alien abduction scenario?  Conspiracy theorists still think that the CIA still does all kinds of MKUltra type experiments was LSD? And I have definitely been drugged and hallucinating blue alien bat baby things? So ...yeah, that could totally be a thing.        

Which under the circumstances this theory sounded almost reasonable to her. Save for the fact that somewhere in her highly intelligent head, she knew that this was wrong. That there was more to this sense of innate internal not-rightness, that she was feeling. There was something unnaturally wrong with the sense of slipping sideways down feeling. 

She lost her logic string, when the tall blonde boy slightly stirred and then suddenly sprang straight up into the air. Literally catapulting three feet of the floor, he landed roughly balanced on the balls of his feet with his knees bent. His arms flailed out in an attempt to balance himself, but to no avail.

A single heartbeat passed, then the boy groaned in agony, his hands slammed up to the sides of his head. She watched as his eyes rolled up into his skull. He sank down to one knee, his body spasmed sharply once and he summarily pitched forward. Ramming face-first into the floor, where he promptly passed back into unconsciousness.

Charm winced at the painful-looking impact. Ouch! Oh, he's definitely gonna feel that when he wakes up. Or then again maybe not?  Charm eyes suddenly narrowed, as her febrile mind began to churn facts. She sorted out the available details, making quick connections and ultimately drawing conclusions. Thus the mystery of the soft pillowlike floor is explained? 

So it would seem that place was designed for just that kind of seizure and collapse. Which means whoever built this place had in mind this specific use. So that people were supposed to wake up in here and not hurt themselves? It's warm, not cold, dare I say almost pleasant save for the humidity? The glowing blue light seems to be dim and diffused through the fog. So I can see just enough to orientate, but not so bright as to hurt your eyes? 

She thought heard the blonde boy beginning to groan awake again. Charm looked over at the blonde boy, who was beginning to show signs of life once more. She watched on with distant interest as he stirred awake for the second time. This time he opened his eyes very slowly and scowled up into the fog. Instead of jumping up, he slowly braced himself and rolled over onto his side. She could hear him heaving, shallow ragged breaths.

 Gee, where have I seen that before? Charm thought mordantly. Oh yeah, that was me about an hour ago. Been there, done that. I wonder why no else besides him is waking up yet? Maybe whatever we have been dosed with affects different people differently?

Charm glance around the floor again at the sprawled out bodies. But none of the other bodies around her we showing any signs of waking up.

Oh, I know! Let's analyze that for a while instead of screaming our bloody head off at the insanity of coming face to blubber with an upside-down blueberry baby bat alien. Naw, let's just watch the nearly naked Norse boy for a while instead? Jeez Charm, ogle much ya slattern? Although the blonde boy is kind of cute, so no sense in beating ourselves up too much?

After several minutes of lying still on his side, obviously having a hard time breathing the heavy air. Charm watched in silence as he grimaced and slowly rolled back over on his stomach. Where he pushed himself up to his knees with his head hanging down. She was sorely tempted to address to the waking boy. But decided that it would be hard enough for him to suppress the obvious vertigo, without carrying on a conversation. 

So Charm watch in silence as the boy hunched over his hands sunk deep into the spongy floor, clearly struggling to remain conscious. Charm had to admit she was impressed by the stubborn display. 

He's certainly a lot tougher than I was at this point. Well, at least I am not alone anymore? So at least that's a good thing ...I think?

The trembling boy was finally able to lift his head and look around. Almost immediately his eery green eyes were looking right into her. Charm instinctively crossed her arms over her chest, unconsciously aware of her shrouded state.

"Hello, I am Charm Mannix." Charm said softly forcing a smile. "I know you must be dizzy, disoriented confused? But just hang in there, it does get better. But try to move as slowly as possible. Oh yeah, if the spins get really bad? Try closing your eyes and taking slow deep breaths seems to help? Or at least it did for me?"

"Thanks ...for ...the ...advice ...Charm?" He heaved out haggardly at her. 

"Jackson...Caine...you...can call...me Jax." Closing his eyes he struggled breathed deeply and asked slowly between breaths. "Where...am...I? Sorry...are...we?"

Charm thought about several possible answers to that particular question. But decided it was probably best to stick to the truth. 

"Truth is I don't know where we are. But I am pretty sure we are not on The Athena anymore. You were on The Athena, weren't you?"

"Ah-huh?" He breathed deeply before continuing, "Why do you think...we are not on...Athena anymore?"

"Oh, because it doesn't smell like the sea in here." Charm offered lamely, then correcting herself, "I can't smell any sea salt in the air anymore. The air is odorless, even though it is blue and glowing?"

She watched on as the boy scowled, then sniffed at the air before replying. "You're right...no salt."

"You said...this gets better?" She watched Jax wince, "When?"

"Sorry to say, but it kinda takes a while?" Charm saw that he was still shaking, but not as severe as when he first rolled over. "But whatever you do, don't try stand up for a while."

"Yeah," the boy smiled slightly, "already tried that... not good." Points awarded for being tough, but not too machoistic.

"Yeah, nice move by the way. I saw you jump up and then ...that must have hurt like hell?" Charm couldn't help grinning.

"Cool, "Jax grinned weakly. "Not only do I do something stupid. But I get to have... audience as well. That's just my luck. Always fail to make...a good...first impression."

"Don't worry about it, Jax. Jumping up didn't look too stupid, just the falling down part? Like I said, it was nice move, good form as well. Just seems to me that you paid the price for moving too fast too soon." She offered helpfully, trying to make him feel comfortable.

"Thanks" Jax opened one eye slowly, and looked directly at her. "Charm?"

"Yeah, Charm Mannix." She replied suddenly very happy to have someone to talk with.

"Nice to meet you, Charm Mannix?" Jax forced a smile. "Do you mind if I join you ...over by that wall?"

"You're more than welcome to join me. But only if you can make it over here on your own." She shrugged. "I am not really in any condition to help you at the moment."

"No sweat, be right there..." Jax grinned and hung his head and began to crawl towards her, "...maybe in an hour or so?"

"Sure Jax, take your time." Charm smiled and watched as the blonde boy began to slowly crawl over towards her, struggling with every forward movement.

Her first instinct was to try to help Jax to the wall, but she instinctively knew it would hurt his little male ego. This is not the place I need to have a bruised male ego to deal with. Besides I think it might be better for him to force himself physically, seemed to help me.

And when exactly did I become so cold and calculating? Hmmm, I noticed he hasn't mentioned waking up naked yet? So definitely not your typical teenage boy. Charm mentally snorted, Maybe he is too disorientated at the moment? But if he is anything like my idiot brother, he'll get around to it sooner or later.

And again can someone please explain to me, why I am not freaking out about this!?! Sitting here, just calmly analyzing the day away. Making some off observations about my surroundings, not screaming my head off! What is going on with me?

Gotta be drugs!

Quicker than Charm would have guessed the blonde boy crawled across the floor to the wall. Propped himself up against it, about an arms length away from Charm. A respectable distance under the circumstance, Charm noticed wryly. Close but not close enough that a scared female would feel threatened. So points for "style under awkward circumstances" awarded to Mr. Jackson Caine.

Jax started to reach out to shake her hand, but then drew it back. He must have noticed that I would have to expose myself to shake his hand. Ha! "expose myself" good one Charm! Like your not already sitting right next to him wearing nothing but a thin wet shroud that leaves so very little to the imagination. Points awarded again to Mr. Jackson Caine for 'consideration of modesty under awkward circumstances'.

"Hi?" He offered instead. "Gi'me...just a sec to try to get my head straight."

"Take your time, Jax", Charm shrugged, "I don't think I have anywhere to be for a while."

Charm watch as he pulled his legs up into his chest, covering himself as much as he could with his shroud. Jax turned his head towards her and resting his head on his knees and lowered his eerie eyes.

Now that Jax was closer Charm could see his facial features more clearly. She had spent a lifetime observing people, immediately noticed that he looked a lot less Norse and a lot more Irish, like her grandfather. Very sharp features, slim strong chin, slightly squared nose going straight into his forehead, but that brow bridge bone is all Viking stock. High cheekbones, a smattering of freckles and very green eyes. All in all, he's actually cuter than I first thought.

After a few deep breaths, Jax looked directly at her and said as casually as he could, "So Charm ...come here often?"

Charm snorted and rolled her eyes, at the ever tacky pickup line. The aforementioned points are all deducted, due to tacky pickup line penalty!

"Sorry, bad joke." Jax leaned back into the wall and shut his eyes, "Don't really know what to say to a strange cute girl. Especially, after waking up in a foggy room and obviously drugged?"

No strange is actually my idiot brother, Charm mentally snorted. But figured the joke would be lost on him. But Points re-awarded for calling me cute.

So she settled on, "Why do you think you were drugged?"

"Honestly?" Jax turned towards her and blinked open his eyes again. Points re-awarded for really pretty green eyes. "Because I don't normally wake up naked in a room full of bodies and I not remember how I got there. What about you?"

"No memory of how I got here, and none of my own clothes on save for this shroud thing? So gotta be drugs, of some sort. What about you? What's the last thing you can remember?"

"The last thing I can recall is... sitting down to dinner in that big stateroom dinner on the Athena, with all the other kids. A big screen came down from the stage, there was a video of a speech from President Branch. Something or other about the importance of being an envoy, or something? I remember being really pissed off at someone? But as I sit here now, I can't remember why I was so angry? Then I woke up here, wherever this is? All weak, shaky and confused." Jax looked up at the ethereal blue fog. "And something else I can't quite put my finger on?" 

"Pretty much the same thing for me." Charm nodded seriously, "I remember going to dinner. I talked to someone named Marian at my table. Then vaguely listening to that speech you mentioned and then...nothing until I woke up here?"

Oh, and add on to that, this is the worst hangover I have ever had. And I have a few real doozers drinking Indian desi daru. So the only logical conclusion I can come up with so far, is that I have been drugged?"

"Or... we are still being drugged?"Jax glared around at the ethereal blue fog frowning. "If that is possible."

"Oh, I would say that just about anything is possible here in the wierdy blue fog pyramid room." Charm replied a little too quickly.

"And why is that, specifically?" Jax asked frowning deeply.

"Because I think that it is a really good possibility that the people who did this to us?" Charm took a deep breath "Are quite possibly not actually people per se? In fact, I'm pretty sure that they aren't human. I saw one of them...and it was definitely not human." She watched as Jax searched her eyes, she assumed for signs of insane.

"You saw an alien in here?" He tried to suppress a smirk. 

"No, I saw an alien over there, on the other side of the glass wall watching us." She nodded over to the far glowing glass wall.

"You saw an alien?" He repeated slowly, much more seriously this time.

"That's what is said." Charm frowned out at the glowing fog. "But it's possible that could have been a hallucination? As I am pretty sure I've been drugged psychotropic of some kind, that metallic taste in my mouth. My brother would probably know for sure?" Thoughtfully adding for clarification. "He's done a lot of drugs."

"Would you mind elaborating on that a little more?" Jax asked cautiously. "Not the drugs, but the alien?"

"Well, a little while ago I stood up." Charm nodded towards the ceiling, "Which by the way, you can see better when you stand up. The fog is not so thick, more like a dense mist really? To the right is a wall like this one, to the left is a clear glass wall. They all meet at the ceiling to make a pyramid."

"But the glass wall is where the bluish glow is coming from." She informed him evenly of the events that led up to the sighting. "Which is what I think makes the fog the color it is."

"Anyways, while I was standing I saw..." She took a deep breath, "...a sort of purplish blueberry baby bat-faced-Alien. Or someone dressed up as an Alien-Space-Bat thing? It walked up to the clear wall and looked right back at me, with big round silver owl eyes. And he, she or it was having upside-down from the ceiling the whole time?"

Having actually said it out loud, it sounded incredibly stupid to her. But for some reason, Charm felt like a weight had been lifted off her. So she sat patiently waiting for the blonde boy to say something. But Jax sat quietly looking at her intensely, without saying anything he flicked out his hand as if to say, "And then what happened?" So Charm continued the harrowing tale to its conclusion. 

"Well, I thought I was hallucinating, right? So I just stood there looking at it, while it was looking at me. But then it looked away, down at this weird white thingy attached to its wrist. I think it was talking into it and then it looked up at me again. I swear, it nodded at me and then it just floated away upside down past the white wall. So I couldn't see it or him or her or it, anymore. And..." Charm frowned, "...and...sorry I didn't see it actually float. I could only see it from the waist down, because of the angle."

"Sorry, I tend to ramble when I am stressed." Charm sighed. "Anyways, I can't honestly say why ...but I don't really think it was a hallucination. Freakin' crazy, but I would swear on everything I hold sacred, that what I saw was real."

Jax stared at her for a long time and then finally said, "What did you do after it left?"

Big Points awarded to Jax Caine for apparently believing the delusional crazy naked girl in the blue foggy alien abduction room.

"I figured that it might not be a good idea to stand out, by standing up first? So I sat back down in the fog and tried not to draw any attention to myself." She finished lamely.

Jax nodded silently and finally said, "That was probably smart. Especially seeing we have no idea what is going on here or what these Alien Space Bat want with us." 

The boy gets points for thinking I'm smart. Double Points awarded for actually taking the Blue Bat Aliens seriously.

"Thanks for saying that." She sighed. "Because then there was a really bizarre announcement, about using the waterfall as a toilet?"

"Waterfall toilet?" Jax blinked back.

"Yeah, the sound of falling water you keep hearing ...apparently is coming from over in the corner?" She waved over to the unseen far corner of the room. "Also that the water is apparently drinkable and at some point, we might get some food? But they don't want us eating off the floor...and yeah, more instructions will be forthcoming at periodical intervals. End communication."

"Sounds like we are dogs, drinking out of the toilet?" Jax snorted. 

 "So you don't think I am crazy? Or hallucinating the whole thing?"Charm asked cautiously, almost afraid fo the answer. 

"No, I don't think you're crazy," Jax minutely shook his head. "But hallucinating is a definite maybe?"

"I think we have pretty much established we have been given drugs of some sort, right? So we can't rule the possibility of hallucinating out. But... well here's what I think?" He paused to collect his thoughts. "First, you believe you saw an Alien? So let's just leave that alone for the moment." 

"Second, I think you are definitely right, were not on the Athena anymore. I lived by the ocean before, salt gets into everything and you can smell it everywhere. And I don't smell it in here at all. Third, I am way to rationally circumspect and thinking clearly, about all these things."

"I should be wiggin' out and very angry right now. But instead, I am calm and peacefully sitting here, unemotionally analyzing my situation. We don't know each other... but calm, peaceful and serene is not really my style of problem-solving." His eyes narrowed, "No, not by a long shot."

"I am usually the first to jump into a situation without thinking too much about it." He smiled sheepishly then frowned continuing." Which brings me to my next point. Before you said, I "jumped up". When I "jumped up" earlier... I wasn't really trying to jump up, per se. I was actually trying to just stand, albeit way to fast. But I ended flying up way faster and higher than I intended. I know that sounds kind of lame, but I don't normally feel this... light? I think that where ever we are, I can almost guarantee that the?e gravity is not the same as on Earth. 

"And lastly, ever since I woke up...the second time? He frowned down at his shroud. "I can't quite put my finger on it, but something feels off inside me. I keep feeling like something is gently pulling on my insides, like I am constantly sliding sideways down?"

Charm merely nodded along, and waited to make sure that Jax was finish speaking. 

"That slowly sliding to the left thing you are talking about? I definitely have that going on too." She confirmed her own suspicions. "And now that you said it, I noticed that something was weird about my weight. I couldn't put my finger on it before but your right, I do feel slightly lighter than normal. And like you said...I am way to calm about all of this."

"Okay then, based what you saw, and what we know so far? I know this sounds nuts...but I'm pretty sure we're are on an alien ship of some sort. And if that is true, then this may actually a far worse problem than we think it is" Charm was nodding in agreement, while Jax went on talking slowly as he thought his way through the deduction.

"Ships by their very definition are built to travel from place to place." Jax's eyes narrowed. "So it stands that alien ships travel to alien places? And alien places by their very nature would tend to be very far away places."

Charm sat with her back against the pillowy wall staring out into the blue fog, as the repercussions of Jax's analysis sank home. What is going to happen to me? Looking around at the still unmoving bodies in the fog. To all of us? Why is this happening to us? Where...

"..still live".

"Huh?" Charm looked back to Jax, "Sorry I didn't catch that last thing you said?"

"I said," Jax glaring ahead into the ethereal blue fog, "It could be worse and ... I still live?" 

"Ah-huh?" Charm noticed that Jax's voice had suddenly taken on much harder tone.

I still live, and I still think, the only thing I can't do is feel my normal range of emotions. Shock, check! Confusion, check! Disorientation, check! Memory lapse, double check! But no fear or anger, zero feelings of joy or sorrow, sadness or shame. No depression, remorse, anticipation, or anxiety? Almost like my basic emotions are tuned into some numb logical acceptance of all this? 

Oh, and I have to remind myself to be worried about my brother? For that matter, I have to remind myself to be worried about myself? That is definitely not normal, so whatever is affecting us ...is effected our most basic emotions. Is that right the right use of affect and effect? I should know that distinction ...why do I not know that?

👽👽👽

Chapter Count: 3300
Total Word Count: 7100