Children's Control

12-06-2030

Early this morning, Alice takes me out of the chamber. She takes me to a small dining room. Once there, she gives me a small slice of bread, and nothing else. She tells me the reason why is because there's a very limited amount of food, but I don't think that's true. I rather think I only get this little food because the children just want to have all the food, and only give adults the bare minimum. I try to go to the onboard fridge, but Alice immediately scratches me on my legs.

After that, Alice pulls me into a hover car, which takes us both to a large hall. Inside, I see several octopods seemingly hanging out with each other. Alice tries to get the attention of one of the octopods, who comes to her and has a small conversation with her. She tries to understand everything, but she always seems to ask questions. This shows how obviously alien the planet Chentema Alpha really is. The octopod, named Quind, also doesn't understand everything Alice says, so what was intended as a small conversation took just over three hours, just trying to go around points of confusion.

Meanwhile, I can't understand anything the children say at all, though I suspect Alice just wants to make friends with Quind. She takes Quind to me, and he stands upright. He uses his beak to bite right in my leg. He also scratches my legs a lot with very sharp teeth on his eight tentacles. I try to ask him about his further identity, but I don't quite know what to say. Alice tells me Quind is a member of the Qui gender, one of about seven genders of his species. He also gives me a small card showing how all genders are compatible with each other. I give it to Alice, and Quind explains it to her.

Afterwards, Ben comes in and forces me to give several small envelopes from the spacecraft to Alice and himself. I don't know why he doesn't do that himself, but I do the task anyway,as I know what happens otherwise. I open one of the envelopes and find a letter I can't read at all. Alice then notices an open envelope between the closed ones, and even though I beg for mercy,saying I never lost a single envelope, Alice asks Quind to climb right to my head and push his tentacles right against me. I'd almost pass away, but I can at least remove the tentacles after five minutes. I do still have very large cuts, but Alice puts several bandages on my head.

Then, some other octopods come to talk to Alice. However, it seems like Quind is her favourite, and she's just asking if she could take him home. But then she actually makes good friendships with the other octopods. Then, it seems like she even asks if she could take more octopods home. However, some of them say no to even a small visit in their own spheres, and everything becomes a little confusing for me. However, I can be quite sure the octopods don't want to start a war with Earth, nor are the children interested in a war with the octopods.

During one conversation, Alice asks if one of the octopods, named Dani, can come closer. I don't see him* anywhere. Once he appears, he stands upright in front of Alice. She has a good look around his body. It looks a bit different compared to Quind, with longer, thinner tentacles. When I grab his tentacles, I don't feel anything that resembles the teeth of Qui octopods. Alice tells me Dani does have small stingers right at the tips of four of the eight tentacles, like other members of his gender, Daj. When I have a closer look, he also seems to have a larger head, and a small slot at the end of it. I don't know why that is. I give Dani back to Alice, who has a closer look.

She then releases Dani and says goodbye. She takes me right to a small hospital close to the meeting hall, where I have to have a look at a dead octopod, and tell Alice about what I see. I notice the same slot Dani had, which is the sure sign this is another Daj octopod. When I open him up, I notice what's behind the slot is something that looks like a very large belly. I cut the belly open, and inside is what looks like a living octopod. I try to take him out, but one of his tentacles is sort of attached to the inside of the belly. I don't know why initially, whether the inner octopod is an offspring, or he's just transported by the outer one.

After the autopsy, Alice takes me right back to the spacecraft. There, Quind and Dani come right after her, and even gently push against her, like a hug. Similarly, I try to find Izzy, but she's totally gone from the premise close to the spacecraft. I do find her close to the fence, but if I come close, I feel a small electric shock from inside my body. Alice then comes to take me to a wall, where Quind comes to push his teeth in me as deeply as he can. Afterwards, Alice only gives me a single glass of water. She puts me in my chamber and I quickly fall asleep.

* I always say 'him' or 'his' when talking about octopods, because they don't have distinctly 'male' or 'female' genders like most Earth animals and plants.