Heartache's Heroes

.01

Looking up Grimm stared hard eyed into the chin of a giant. He had never seen one up close and personal before. It was tough to admit but he found it to be a bit more intimidating than when he was looking at one through the scope of his MX57 blaster. A part of him wondered if this thing was actually the result of a human experiment gone awry. It's shoulders and chest were massive and it's skin was the red-orange of a sunburn gone nova. But it looked like a giant, and it smelled like a giant so, as the saying goes, it must be a giant.

Still, he made a note to have a little chat with Alistair, head of the Special Units R&D team just in case. It wasn't that he didn't condone experimenting on humans - - that was the party line foisted upon him by the tree huggers and bleeding hearts who stood outside the senate house carrying signs and singing songs - - no, he just didn't like mistakes. He had heard rumors that a few giants had been sent here some years back but it didn't make sense. Ichan prison was one of the original satellite prison facilities built for human containment. It wasn't equipt to contain aliens of this sort.

And that was part of the problem. His problem now.

"So let me get this right. You're saying- more or less, that you've been appointed to be my assistant."

The giant nodded.

The verbal exchange up to this point had all been one sided despite Grimm's efforts. The topic of conversation deduced through a series of grunts and vague hand gestures, like a game of charades for idiots.

"Just what kind of assistant did you have in mind?"

The giant stared.

Grimm's patience was wearing thin. "I can take care of myself."

The giant shook its head, a disturbing excuse for a smile plastering its face. There was something ominous in the gesture that caused Grimm to pause. "Can you read or even write?"

Nothing.

"Christ on a crutch! I don't got time for this. Go back to whoever appointed you and tell them I said thanks but no thanks." A chill ran through Grimm as he turned his back on the giant and walked to the other side of his new desk. It was huge as desks go, with a chair made of the same material that appeared to have been pulled from the outer shell of the satellite that made up the prison. Grimm shook his head. This was his new world, a possible breach in the satellite's structure and it went to the bottom of his to-do list.

When he turned back, the giant was still there. Grimm studied it a moment. It was hard to take his eyes away, like watching his own personal freak show. The Giant had a top knot so long it wrapped around his neck twice, the rest of his bald head pockmarked and bumpy. It brought to mind a snake slithering out of an overripe melon.

"Shoo fly."

The giant cocked its head as if to say, huh?

With a wave of his hand Grimm sat. It was no use. There were more important matters to be dealt with. "Keating!"

For a brief moment he had the unsettling notion that there would be no response but it was only a notion as the door hissed open and there was Keating. He would never admit it but he had grown attached to her, in a lost puppy sort of way.

She walked right past the giant as if he wasn't there. Somehow it didn't surprise Grimm. Stick a plaque on him, Buddha Gone Bad, and he was just one of the many intriguing curiosity found in the room.

"You know where we're going?"

"Theoretically, sir."

"Is theoretically going to get me there?"

"I hope so sir, seeing as I'll be going with. I don't relish the idea of an extended stroll through that wonderland out there."

"You've got the original footprint of this place don't ya?"

"Call me crazy sir, but from what little I've seen, I'm thinking the original footprint of Ichan Prison has been altered somewhat over the years by some of its more industrious residents."

He glanced over her shoulder, an idea coming to mind. "Have you met your new assistant?"

With a frown Keating turned to follow his gaze. Her surprise controlled, she extended her hand to the giant, causing Grimm to cringe. It was an uncommon gesture that marked her for an earthling but more to the point could be mistaken for something else. In Grimm's mind chances were fifty-fifty she'd pull back a stump.

"Nice to meet you. Leslie Keating's my name but thanks to him," she tipped her head in Grimm's direction, "Everyone calls me Keating."

Much to Grimm's relief the giant took her hand and gently shook.

"What's your name?"

He just looked at her, a bashful smile on his face. Grimm wasn't sure he didn't blush.

"Not big on words huh?" Keating said warm and friendly.

"Doesn't know any as far as I can tell." Grimm interrupted.

"Sure he does. He's just the quiet sort." She considered him a moment longer then turned back to Grimm. "What shall we call him?"

"You mean like a pet?" Grimm said.

"Giants have names too sir."

He was impressed that she knew what it was. He looked her new assistant over. "Shoo-fly. We'll call it Shoo-fly."

Keating raised an eyebrow.

"Because it hovers around like a fly and that's what we want it to do, Shoo."

Keating gave him a sour look but didn't protest.

"You guys figure out some way of communicating and maybe it can help us find our way."

"The assistant gets an assistant, I'm moving up in the world."

"Don't let it go to your head."