Map The Stars Between Us

Chapter 5- Lottie

She wasn't sure what she was expecting as she stumbled into the ship after Bax. If she was honest she'd expected something much more, well more. The cabin looked like the cockpit of a plane like any other here on earth. She'd been in one once when she was younger. Her and her family, before it had gotten to be too bad, had taken a plane to Florida for vacation. The pilots had let her come in and look at all the dials and instruments and she'd been fascinated and beauty and complexity that was laid out in front of her. She'd been in awe that the pilots got to sit in front of all that technological beauty. Now that she was staring at the controls of an alien spaceship she was struck with that same awe.

Bax was standing in the middle of the controls and she watched as he pressed a yellow button and almost gasped as the windshield of the ship lit up. That wasn't something that looked familiar from when she was a kid. She watched as symbols ran the length of the window like the glass was a computer screen and she guessed that was exactly what it was. She stood and watched as Bax's hands flew across the panels and dials before he paused and grimaced slightly. Lottie figured something was wrong with the ship and waited as he continued to click and shift things on the dash. Eventually, after what felt like a good thirty minutes she watched his face transform into that same smile that he'd had when they'd exchanged names. He hit a green button that was next to the large, yellow one he'd pressed at the beginning and stepped back slightly to view the screen better. She was about to walk forward to get a closer look when the ship did something she wasn't expecting. It spoke, with the same consistent growling that she'd learned to expect from Bax. She practically jumped out of her skin.

Lottie was so motionless that she didn't even breathe. She was behind Bax still and she watched as he began to speak with his ship as if it was another person. Her mind was like a loose cannon shooting off in every direction but what stuck with her the most was the fact that it seemed the ship was intelligent; the interface was an artificial intelligence. The fact in itself wouldn't have scared her so much but if the ship could still work at that level of function it took to actively interact with the pilot then the ship was most likely intact enough to fly away, with her still on it.

She looked between Bax and the control panel and started to back away towards the doorway in which she'd come in. As much as she figured Bax wouldn't hurt her, as he seemed to have a rather nice countenance and a great sense of patience, he was still an alien and she had no attention of leaving her planet with him.

She'd made it, at best, 2 feet towards the exit when her foot caught on something hard and metal and she started to fall backwards onto her ass. Lottie was getting really tired of her current ability of falling over anything, she thought as she went down and landed with a groan on the cool flooring.

Bax must have heard the commotion she'd made as she'd fallen as he swung around and stared at her collapsed form in a look that spoke of the surprise people feel when their deep concentration has been broken. She tried to smile at him but her back hurt, she was deeply embarrassed and frantic to leave if he was trying to go off-planet with her on board. He must have sensed her panic because he turned slightly said something to the ship before looking back at her and kneeling near her sprawled legs, which were splayed rather unlady-like in front of her. He was looking at her rather expectantly as if waiting for her to speak so she decided to go along. Even if he didn't understand a thing she was saying without a lot of gestures and repetition on her part she figured that there was no hard in trying to communicate.

"I didn't mean to sneak onto your ship without your permission, assuming I was welcome. I really didn't, it was just that you got up so abruptly and I figured you were rather nice and didn't seem like the mean green alien things from the movies. I'm sorry that I fell again and broke your concentration with whatever you were doing with your obviously intelligent ship. I know it spoke! Which is crazy buster as human's are years away from something quite as functional in the AI front. I mean wow. I was just about to leave but I fell. I'm sorry but I do not plan on going anywhere with you. No matter how nice you are. I have no plans to leave this planet, so I'm just gunna leave I hope that's okay with you?" Lottie said in one long ranting breath. She'd gasped for air a few times before she was done but she was so nervous there was no way she would have been able to get it all out any slower. She looked at him for a second and saw his eyes were scrunched once again, like they'd been the first time she'd tried to talk to him but, this time there seemed to be twinkle of amusement in them. He stood up and she scrambled back a little. He gave a grimace and she paused, watching as he looked towards the computer and said something to it again in his rough-sounding language that still reminded her of a grumbling lion.

Lottie figured that if she didn't get out now she'd be too late so she started to scramble to her feet to run out the hatch which still stood open at her left side when something stopped her and it wasn't Bax. The computer, which had been previously conversing in the garbled growls and whines that she'd begun to associate directly with Bax started to sound less coarse and much more familiar. She was so startled that she'd turned around before she'd realized it. In front of her Bax was grinning, his long teeth pushing into his bottom lip and leaving little indents in the soft looking flesh. She opened her mouth to say something but al she got out was "What!?" before her jaw hit the floor.

"Welcome human." The ship said in a voice that resembled hers in ways she didn't even want to contemplate.