[Kie]

We gazed at each other, the alien and me. I suppose it thought we were the aliens. I wondered if they had ever encountered another space-faring race before.

Ben broke the spell. "Kie, I am going to lift this panel. Try to pull him out. Or her out. Or whatever."

I held my hands up as I knelt by the alien's head, hoping it understood that we were trying to help. Ben grunted as he lifted. The panel did not move. He cleared some wiring and support beams away, then shifted his stance for better leverage. With another grunt, he tried again. This time it moved. I grasped the alien under the arms. The blue-green scales that made up its skin were slick on top but rough on the edges, not unlike a fish. The alien sang a high pitch note and shades of dark greens wafted across its face as I pulled it free. I hoped I was not causing it pain.

I shook my head. "What do we do now?"

"You're taking medical classes, aren't you? Here is your patient." Ben pointed at the alien.

I narrowed my eyes. "They neglected to include alien physiology in the training."

He put a hand on my shoulder. "We will do what we can. I wonder if it is thirsty?"

I removed a bottle of water from my pack and flipped open the lid. The alien watched from the floor, the slots on the side of its neck gently pulsing open and closed. The color on its face lightened. Perhaps the pain was easing?

I poured some of the water on my palm and let it overflow, falling onto the alien's hand. "Water?"

It put a wet finger to a small opening on its face, presumably a mouth. It sang two notes, nearly an octave apart. I mimicked the sounds. Shades of dark blue flashed across its face. It sang the notes again and I repeated them. Did I just learn my first word of an alien language? The word for water?

I placed the water bottle in the alien's hand. It seemed to struggle to sit up, so Ben helped, gently lifting at the shoulders then propping his backpack behind it. The alien lifted the bottle and soon drained the contents.

The alien pointed toward the opposite wall. It must want something. It made a lower rumbling sound as my hand traced several objects attached to the wall. When I touched a particular box it sang a mid-pitch whistle and flexed its fingers. I mimicked the sound. I may have learned the word for 'yes'.

It took a moment for Ben and me to detach it from the wall and open it. The contents included plastic-wrapped cloth, round vials, sealed tubes, and devices I did not recognize. A first aid kit, I surmised.

At the alien's direction, I dabbed gobs of a paste on its external wounds where the scales were missing. It twitched and green shades flashed across its face. That may be a facial expression for pain. The paste dried to a hard but flexible covering. Next, I gave it a small vial of a greenish liquid and a small device with a pointed tip. The alien fixed the vial to the device and slid the pointed tip under a scale on its leg. The vial emptied. I think it just gave itself a shot. Within a few minutes, the alien's breathing slowed and eyes closed, apparently having fallen asleep.

A cold wind wafted through the room. Ben turned to me. "The storm is coming. We best leave while we still can."

Ben rigged up a sort of sled from a thin mattress and what must be blankets taken from one of the other rooms. I wrapped our patient with one of the thin blankets as best I could.

We set off with Ben in the lead pulling the makeshift sled. He looped lengths of synthetic fabric fastened to corners of the mattress over his shoulders like reins. I carried the alien first aid kit. Windblown ice crystals swirled and stung my face. The only sounds were the wind and crunch of our footsteps as we retraced our path back to the flier, stopping sometimes to check on the sleeping alien. The air became colder and the wind swifter as the cloud bank overtook us. It began to snow. As the visibility decreased and our previous footprints began to disappear, I feared that we would lose our way. Dragging the extra load must have been taxing on Ben. Small smiles of encouragement as he looked back gave me a feeling of confidence.

Cold and spent, we finally reached the flier. As gently as we could, we squeezed the alien through the winged doors without causing more injury. It took a bit of awkward maneuvering to fit its tall frame across the back seats. I felt new appreciation for Ben's flying skills as the swirling winds buffeted us all the way back to our cabin.

*****

We gazed at the sleeping alien on my bunk, its feet hanging over the end. Blankets covered its chest and upper arms that my too-short sleeping bag could not. It seemed comfortable.

I looked up at Ben. "We don't know what gender our alien is, or even if they have genders. It feels demeaning to refer to it as 'it'. We need to come up with a name."

Ben put a hand to his chin. "Hmm. Bob is already taken, how about Bubba?"

I grimaced. "That is worse than 'it'."

"Umm, Toots?"

"No."

"Bucky?"

"No."

"Doodlebug?"

That irritating grin of his was growing. I glared at him. "Get serious, Ben."

"Maybe we should ask our new friend when it, or whomever, wakes up."

"We don't know its language."

"On the alien ship, it seemed like you had already gotten a start with that. The language seemed like, well, song. Think about it, Kie. You might become the first human ever to learn an alien language."

That did sound appealing. "Do you think I could?"

Ben put a hand on my shoulder. "In all of Paradise, you are the one most likely to succeed."

His compliment left me with a warm feeling.

Ben pulled out two ration packs marked 'Dinner - serve hot' and slid them into the warmer. I sat down at the table. He held the portable biochemical analyzer taken from another case against his leg. He scraped some of the dried alien blood smeared on his pants into the sample cup. With a push of a button, the device went to its task. He placed it on the table.

I sighed. "You know, doing this analysis at the table is not very good lab hygiene."

He shrugged. "If you're worried about exposure to alien microorganisms, it's too late for that. We were exposed the moment we stepped into that spaceship. If there is anything harmful, I hope our universal inoculations cover it."

"Yes. But I am also worried about what our microbes might do to our guest."

The warmer dinged and Ben took out the packs. He folded back a flap, smelled it, and shrugged. "I feel I should apologize first, but dinner is served." A smirk came to his face. "If you eat all your dinner and promise to be good, I will give you a piece of chocolate for dessert."

For chocolate, I would always be good.

He was right to apologize for dinner. Still, it did satisfy my hunger. True to his word, we shared a dark chocolate bar.

A tone announced the results of the analysis. Ben sat down beside me and placed his viewer between us. "Hmm, interesting. The alien blood is copper-based, hence the color. There are analogs of this in Earth biology. There are various sugar compounds, amino acids, and some proteins. Not unlike ours."

My eyes widened. "This is unexpected. The alien has DNA. What is the probability of independent evolution of DNA based life? This is... extraordinary."

Ben nodded his head toward the alien. "An exobiologist's dream is sleeping over there. It seems that DNA is not exclusive to Earth."

We spent the next half hour pouring over details of the analysis results. I very much wanted to report our discoveries, but the satellite communications were still down.

A shiver came over me as I heard the wind howl outside. "It's getting cool in here."

He nodded with tight lips. "And I think it will get colder tonight. This shelter was not designed for cold weather occupancy."

"And I gave my sleeping bag to the alien. Do we have some more blankets?" I groaned as I took a drink.

Ben shook his head. "Not enough. You can share my sleeping bag tonight."

He shouldn't have said that while I was drinking. I spewed water all over the table. Did he just ask me to sleep with him?

He raised his hands defensively. "I promise again to be a gentleman. Sleeping together will be literally that." He made air quote motions with his fingers. "Besides, I'm not so bad. I get good reviews."

I huffed. "I wouldn't know."

Actually, I do know. From conversations I overheard, he does get good reviews, except from some of the women who fell for him and then had their hearts broken. The latest was Andrea, who warned me about him. I'm not going to make her mistake.

I broke my mind out of that train of thought. "Okay, fine. Just for warmth."

His sleeping bag was large enough to be comfortable, but snug enough that some sort of body contact was unavoidable. I turned my back to him while he laid facing me. I was cold and he was like a warm furnace. I inched closer to get some more of that warmth. I held my breath as he draped an arm across my shoulders and pulled me even closer.

I should have pushed his arm off of me, but it felt so... good. A part of me wanted more, to release him from a gentleman's promise. But that path would only lead to heartache. This desire was worse than my craving for chocolate.

Behind that flippant charm, he does have a good heart, one not so self-centered. Our personalities were so different, though. Why would he want someone like me anyway?

I willed the negative thoughts away, instead, going over the events of this day. To say it was historic was a gross understatement. If only the satellites were not down...

A thought hit me that made me jerk upright.

He noticed my alarm. "What is it?"

"What if..." I paused to slow my breathing. "What if the appearance of the alien spaceship here and the loss of satellite communications were not coincidental? What if there are more aliens and they are not friendly?"

In the silence, I heard faint sounds from the alien as it slept. Air moved in and out of the slots on its neck, making gentle whooshing sounds as they opened and closed. This alien did not seem at all threatening.

Ben laid quiet for a moment before responding. "Damn..."

He held me tighter as if to protect me. I did feel safe so close to him.