Jim sighed and looked around him. He was trapped in an escape pod, drifting through space, with two very dissimilar Ctar-Ctarls. His best friend, Aisha, was proving that she was equally cranky and rude to all races as she stared down their young Ctarl-Ctarl stowaway. Aisha would glance over at the girl and growl incoherent things under her breath. She was agitated and angry, more so then in previous occasions. It mostly had to do with being beaten by that strange and dangerous android named Jerome. Aisha had told him briefly about her fight with the metallic man and had gone into a rant about how he had caught her off guard and the next time she saw him, he was going to be melted down into a backscratcher. The loss had been a huge hit to Aisha’s pride and she was taking it out on the mysterious Ctarl-Ctarl that was with them.

Jim hadn’t caught her name yet, but whoever this young Ctarl-Ctarl was, she looked scared enough to pass out. She was nervously looking around her, expecting invisible enemies to attack her from every direction. She reminded Jim of a lost lamb, instead of a roaring tiger like most Ctarl-Ctarls. Jim felt a smile tug at his lips when he saw the girl look his way, she kind of reminded him of a younger, less scary Aisha. Their eye lock had not gone unnoticed by the other member of the escape pod. Aisha growled menacingly in the back of her throat at the girl and immediately she looked away in fear. Jim was further puzzled by the girl’s behavior, what kind of Ctarl-Ctarl is so timid? It was then he decided to find out.

“Hi, I’m Jim. What’s your name?” Jim took a step towards the girl with his hand outstretched for her to shake. It seemed like for a moment she wasn’t going to respond, but tenderly, she raised her hand to Jim's and took his hand in hers.

“I’m Connie, it’s nice to meet you sir.” She shook his hand lightly and retreated back to her corner of the pod. Jim stayed where he was standing and tried not to laugh. He had been called many things in life, but sir was not one of them. Shaking his head at the absurdity of being called sir, he decided to better get to know the strange alien girl. Anyone that called him sir, had to be an interesting person to get to know. Walking over to her, he plopped down next to her and tried to start a conversation.

“So, do you like computers?”



As minutes became hours, Jim slowly started breaking Connie out of her shell. Jim learned much from about her and was so interested in hearing how Ctarl-Ctarl childhood is so different then terran childhood. He noticed that during their conversation, certain topics were never mentioned, like family and why she was with Jerome. Jim learned much from his new friend; like that, he was the first person she had ever talked to. Apparently, she was shy because she’d spent most of her life around terrans and they never talked to her because of her race, Jim was appalled to hear about some of the things that were said to Connie, just because she was Ctarl-Ctarl.

“They were calling you a baby murder?” Jim said scarcely believing that people could be so cruel. If he hadn’t seen so many criminals in his life, he wouldn’t have been able to believe half the things Connie was telling him.

“And then they threw trash at me.” This was another tale of Connie’s miserable life. Her whole life she’d been around terrans and they ether feared or hated her. Connie didn’t know which she hated seeing more, the fear in their eyes or the hate.

“Well, you must be a really brave girl if you put up with bastards like that everyday,” Jim said reassuringly. He placed a hand on her shoulder for encouragement and smiled hard at her. Connie instantaneously blushed brightly and looked away. Having a terran so close and not smelling fear or hate off of them was something Connie was not something she ever expected to happen to her. Parents wouldn’t let her play with their children when she was growing up and no one would look at her unless to sneer. She had thought she would never find anyone to care for her or acknowledge her as a person, but here she was, talking with a terran.

“Thank you Jim,” she muttered softly while studying her feet. “I think you are really brave too. I would have never had the guts to break onto a spaceship to rescue a friend.”

“Probably because you don’t have any friends, tubby,” Aisha said from of in the other corner of the ship.

“AISHA!”

“What? It’s true, most Ctarl-Ctarl lose their baby fat when they turn five. She still has hers and then some,” Aisha retorted. Over the last hour, she’d had to watch her Jimmy talk with this sniveling brat that was probably on Jerome’s payroll. Aisha didn’t buy her sob story, if she was being teased so frequently, why not eat the stupid terrans to make them shut up; it was what she would do. And t wasn’t just her story that was bugging Aisha. She noticed that Connie had been getting very close to Jim; she even noticed the little tart brush her fingers over Jim’s thigh. It made her gut twist up to see this child getting close to Jim; he was her friend and no one else’s.

“It’s okay Jim,” Connie said, putting her hand on his shoulder this time. “I’m sure the old lady is bothered by the noise we’re making.”

“OLD LADY! I”LL SHOW YOU OLD LADY!” Aisha screamed, rolling back her sleeves, she prepared herself to lay a smack down on this brat. As she stomped towards her, the pod came to a screeching halt. The sudden loss of momentum sent Aisha tumbling to the floor.

“Ouch,” she grumbled once she regained her senses. Turning to the pod window, she peeked out to see what had stopped them. She paled at seeing what had them in a tractor beam.

“Fuck,” she growled at seeing the familiar shape of a Ctarl-Ctarl ship. She looked over to Jim who was still seated beside Connie. If they found Jim, then they would be in so much trouble. The Ctarl-Ctarl Empire wanted the boy and if they found him, then the last thing he would see would be a pair of jaws descending on him.

“We got trouble Jimmy, we’re being pulled in by a Ctarl-Ctarl ship and I for one do not like your odds if they find you onboard. Now would be one of those times to come up with a brilliant plan.” Jim remained silent s his prodigy brain went into overdrive to come up with a solution for his problem. He had already been in one Ctarl-Ctarl and that was one too many for him, he if got caught, he could change that to two Ctarl-Ctarl bellies he’s been on the other side of.

“Jim,” Connie said uncertainly beside him. “I may have an idea.”