Endosymbiosis

9. Mitochondria

He pulled me against his body and we fell on the floor of the ship.

The stranger leapt to his feet, and when he closed the door, the ship took off alone into the heavens. He almost stumbled from the momentum, but his feet were too used to it to let him fall. I, on the other hand, thought that I would never be able to get up again... So I just stayed there for a moment, lying on the icy ground an breathing while I still could... Until the stranger approached my face and whispered:

"Welcome to my world."

And I didn't know if he was talking about the ship or the danger.

Maybe I should get used to them both.

• • • ֍ • • •

The ship was shaped like a bullet and pierced the space with the same determination. Inside, the walls joined in a circle, and, as the vehicle spun around its axis, they all became ground. A division separated the environment into two areas, one through which I had entered, and the other one above - at the moment, still a mystery. Along the entire length of that part, there were benches full of wires, pipes, and cabinets that overflowed with metal parts and, wherever I looked, I saw prototype armor humans wouldn't fit in, dissected sunplates, books, colored notepapers, and many - many - empty cans of energy drinks.

When the stranger noticed my eyes wandering around the room, he hid the papers in his pockets and ran across the counters, pushing machines into the cabinets, turning book covers down and kicking cans into the shadows, out of my field of vision. Maybe he cared about the mess, or maybe he just didn't want me to find his hidden secrets. Still, he couldn't hide his scent, energetic, metallic, earthy, permeated in every inch of the air inside like a document of ownership. I wondered what else he wouldn't be able to hide.

"It's not always like that. I try to tidy things up..." He muttered. "But every time I organize my life, it ends up being... Temporary."

"You could try more times."

He sent me a piercing look and I shrugged.

The stranger opened a closet and threw me some clothes, a tank top and pants in different shades of beige leather, but all painted inside in blood red.

"Why are all your clothes made of leather?" I didn't contain my curiosity.

"They are from the confrontation of the belumniuns... Lots of leather in the streets."

I stared at that piece of death and shuddered. It was better than nothing, at least.

I noticed that, at the far end of the ship, there was a bed, lonely and too big, in front of a window with closed shutters.

"You can have the bed. I barely use it myself..." He offered, and then, as helpful as he was annoyed, he asked, "Anything else?"

"Apparently I was lucky enough to blackmail a good host."

"And, apparently, it's temporary." He opened a venomous little smile.

I squinted my eyes.

"You can leave me alone now."

He laughed. Perhaps because peace was just a concept in times like that.

"So long living with aliens and can't stand a single noxdiem with a human..." He purred and I rolled my eyes. "I'll be in the other part of the ship, if you want something other than peace."

And then he disappeared behind the division, leaving us both alone.

I collapsed onto the bed like I'd fallen off a cliff and, in the blink of an eye, I surrendered to the sleep that for so many nights I couldn't give in... But not before I'd put a scalpel under my pillow, just in case.