Diggers: The Sharp Edge of the Universe (14 page)

“We’re at the ‘L’s,” Mikayla fumed. “Finn, we don’t know what any of these things are. Can we please go look at something else?”

“No.” Finn read the next slide.
“Lundorian.
What do you think it is?”

Reggie and Mikayla didn’t respond. He’d been asking the same questions for hours.

Lyncinial.
Maxim Major. Maxim Minor.
Meeker.
Mildrune.

“Milky Way,” Finn voiced. “Hey, they have a slide named after our solar system.”

“Wait,” Mikayla looked up.
“Milky Way.
Why would they have a slide named Milky Way? Unless…” Mikayla scrambled into the navigational seat. “ELAINA! Scan the Milky Way slide for any imperfections…or holes.”

The elation Finn always felt when he looked at microscope slides sank into his stomach.

“There is one hole at the uppermost edge of the slide specimen, Ms. Mikayla Fishborne,” ELAINA informed her.

“How big is it?” Mikayla asked. “I mean, could our DUMP fit into it?”

The silence while ELAINA rescanned the hole for dimensions pounded in Finn’s ears.

“Yes, Ms. Mikayla Fishborne.”

After a long moment, Finn found his voice. “We just found the place where we entered this world.”

“We’re trash,” Reggie said.

Finn gave Mikayla a pointed glare. "Good thing I like to
save
the slides
other
people consider trash."

Mikayla ignored Finn and paced in tight circles.
“Holy space dust!
We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to save our galaxy…save
Vortex
! Our parents!
All those beings!”

Finn felt her desperation, but they hadn’t even seen an alien yet. Besides, they had no way of communicating with the massive creatures. What if they didn’t have ears, like the Fugorians on Zed Titus? It had taken years—and many near-wars—to find a way to communicate with them because
Vortex
wasn’t in the business of establishing first contact with a new species.

“There aren’t any aliens around here,” Finn said, “and who knows how long it’ll be before we see one.”

“I think we should start thinking of ways to communicate with aliens this big so we'll be ready when one does show up,” Mikayla said. “We’re a piece of dust to them, so it’s not like we can just yell ‘
Hey
!
Hello
!’ and they’d hear us.”

“Need a plan,” Reggie nodded.

“Well, the DUMP has an amplifier and a blow horn to ward off unwanted animals and stuff at dig sites. Maybe when an alien comes, we can find an ear hole, if they have one, and use the blow horn.”

“Might work,” Reggie said.

“I don’t—” The rest of Mikayla’s words were drowned out by Reggie and Finn’s screams. “What’s happening?”

Finn gripped the navigational panel before he almost flew out of the seat and joined Mikayla and Reggie in a tangled mess at the back of the DUMP.

The altered view shook and teetered. “I think I see a hand!”

A massive, translucent, fleshy finger reflecting light similar to a prism—only in pastel pinks, blues, and yellows—shoved a slide into the “K’s” and the DUMP was sandwiched between the Milky Way and Miseria Tempe.

Reggie dragged himself back to the controls and forced the DUMP out from between the two slides.

“I definitely saw a finger.” Finn couldn’t contain his excitement and relief. “Let’s back away from the alien as far as we can and see if we can get a full look at it! Everyone needs to be on the lookout for holes that would probably be ears, most likely on the head.”

Mikayla scrambled back onto her feet and, for some mysterious reason, gave Finn the dirtiest look she could muster. “It’s
not
going to work
—this…blow
horn…thingy.”

Finn sat back and laced his fingers behind his head. “You have a better idea? Okay, let’s hear it.”

“I-I don’t exactly know right now, but I’m working on a few ideas,” Mikayla said.

“Well, while you’re ‘working’ on ideas, we’ll try my idea,” Finn said.

He swiveled around. “Whoa! That's one shiny alien!”

A humanoid sat on a tall chair at the table, sorting through lab slides. It had four fingers instead of five, and it glistened like wet human skin. Its eyes were drawn to the sides of its head, similar to an Earth lizard, but they were massive and round, more like the shape of owl eyes. The pupils took up most of the eyes, which made Finn wonder how much natural light this world received. It blinked with horizontal eyelids and its nose looked very long and arched. It had long, flowing arms just like its legs. The being’s torso was not exactly thin, and didn’t really have a shape. No hips or chest to help determine if it was a male or female.

If Finn had to find one word to describe the species, he’d say it looked very—aerodynamic.

“Looks like a fish,” Reggie said.

“
There’s holes
next to the eyes.” Mikayla pointed at the screen. “Let’s go see if they might be ear holes.”

ELAINA navigated over to the hole and landed them at the edge of what seemed like a huge cavern.

They stared into the blackness for a while until Reggie finally said, “Might as well give it a try.”

Finn grabbed a pair of ear protectors for everyone, and Reggie readied the loudspeaker. They’d decided to start with the universal language of music because it had lots of different levels and hopefully wouldn’t offend the humanoid.

Reggie booted the loudspeaker, and the blaring noise shook the DUMP and caused it to vibrate and bounce all over the place.

Reggie stopped the music and then backed far enough away to see the alien’s reaction.

Nothing.

“Geesh,” Mikayla said. “It didn’t even make it scratch its ear.”

“Let’s try it again,” Finn said.

They circled the head and tried the other ear, this time letting the music go on for at least ten minutes.

“IT FEELS LIKE WE’RE INSIDE AN AMPLIFIER! THIS ISN’T GOING TO WORK! WE NEED TO THINK OF ANOTHER WAY!” Mikayla’s screams were lost within the music the moment they left her mouth.

Finn watched Mikayla’s mouth move and felt an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. For once, he couldn’t hear what she was saying.

“Let’s try using our language to say hello and let ELAINA translate it for us over the loudspeaker,” Finn said when Reggie stopped the music.

Still nothing.

Finn had seen the DUMP’s loudspeaker bring down an entire mountain once. It had shaken them all until they were nauseous. Yet this immense being couldn’t even feel it shaking in its ear.

After an hour of trying to contact the being, they flew over to the table and landed the DUMP.

Finn ripped his ear protection off. “Why didn’t it work?”

“Should’ve,” Reggie said.

“We’re a piece of dust to it. Our entire galaxy fits in a splotch on a microscope slide. It. Isn’t.
Going.
To.
Work.
What part of this do you not understand?” Mikayla groaned.

“Okay.
Fine.
We’ll try it your way,” Finn said. “So what’s your great idea?”

“We’ll need the spacesuits and something to use as a big needle.” Mikayla started digging out the space suits.

“What in the Milky Way are you going to do?” Finn asked.

“Well,” Mikayla shoved a spacesuit into Finn’s chest, “I’m either going to set up a neuro-transmitter in the alien’s ear that we control…”

“Or?”

“Or,” she began suiting up, “I’m going to kill it.”

Chapter 21: Freaked Out Alien

Mikayla stood at the bay door in a spacesuit, holding a long piece of metal pipe she'd found in the utility closet that Reggie had spent an hour grinding to a sharp point. Reggie and Finn had pulled the extra communication and transmitting devices from the DUMP’s backup system and wired them through the metal tube. Finn had attached the needle-like transmitter to a portable oxygen pack fuel cell.

“So you’re just going to skip out there and jam this massive needle into his ear?” Finn scoffed at Mikayla's
best
idea.

“Well, you and Reggie haven’t come up with anything better, and at least this transmitter and ELAINA can talk to each other,” Mikayla said through her face mask. “If I get the right spot, maybe the alien will be able to hear us too. Besides, it’s the size of a tiny sliver to the alien.”

Reggie, suited up and ready to assist Mikayla, just shrugged.
"Might work."

“Let’s get this over with,” Mikayla said when Finn couldn’t think of another argument.

Finn opened the bay door and watched as Mikayla and Reggie stepped out onto the edge of the alien’s ear. Reggie took the grappling hook he'd made out of rope and two air-powered sonic drills he'd taped together, and wedged it into the corner of the alien’s ear. He dropped the rope and it disappeared into the pitch-black ear hole.

“Well, here goes nothing.” Mikayla held out a hand to let Reggie help her onto the rope.

“Yep,” Reggie said. “Careful.”

Mikayla smiled, “You
be
careful too.”

Finn made a hacking sound and turned away from the main screen for a few moments so he could pretend to throw up.

“Wow,” Mikayla’s voice came over the Com. “It’s not as deep as I thought it would be. I should be able to land on the inner ear without running out of rope.”

Finn’s heart started to race with every description Mikayla gave.

“I’m here at the inner ear. Ha! I’m a poet and didn’t know it!” Mikayla giggled.

“What do you see?” Finn said, struggling to contain his frustration.

“Blackness and skin, just like any humanoid ear, genius.”
Mikayla matched Finn’s tone.

Girls were so annoying.

“Do.
You.
See. A. Place.
For.
The.
Probe,” Finn said slowly, hoping she wouldn’t mistake his irritation this time.

“Stop talking to me like a three-year-old, you…you…boy,” she yelled. Finn fell to his knees and ripped out his ear piece. Slowly, he stood and massaged his ear, trying without success to stop the ringing.

Finn took a very long, cleansing breath and tried again.

“Have you found a spot to stick the transmitter?” He forced calm into his voice.

“I think I’m standing on it.
Or in it.
Gross! This ear wax is up to my knees!” Mikayla had managed to get herself under control in those few seconds too. “Uh guys? Do you hear something else moving around in here with me?”

“Well, humans have billions of bacteria on us,” Finn said. “The alien bacteria might be the size of buildings and look like monsters, so you might want to hurry.”

Reggie, back inside, punched Finn in the arm.

“Ouch! What? It’s true.”

“Thanks for sharing.” Mikayla didn’t sound happy to have this new bit of information. “Well, here goes nothing.”

Finn readied himself for a yelp or for the alien to jump—any clues the alien had felt the massive needle get shoved in its ear, but the alien didn't move.

Back at the rope, Reggie pulled Mikayla out of the ear and they were in the DUMP and flying away in moments.

“Glad I didn’t see any monster bacteria.” Mikayla punched Finn in the arm.

“Stop hitting me,” Finn yelled, but Reggie and Mikayla just ignored him.

They’d all agreed it would be best to keep a good distance away from the alien during this first contact, just in case. They’d each seen enough first contacts go awry. They didn’t need to be told what catastrophes could happen.

They landed near the edge of the enormous table and Finn watched the alien hard at work analyzing slides. “So, do we try music first, or do we try ELAINA talking to it first?”

“Music,” Mikayla and Reggie said together.

Finn hit play on the navigational screen. The alien flew out of its seat and spun around screaming in a language they’d only heard ELAINA use.

“ELAINA, what’s it saying?” Finn felt his excitement turn into a knot of fright in his stomach the moment the alien began to completely freak out.

“Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly, the alien is saying that the devil, for lack of a better translation, is playing in his head.”

“That’s not good!” Mikayla said. “Quick, Finn, turn off the music.”

Finn pressed stop and the alien calmed down a little, but still searched for the source of the noise.

“It works,” Reggie said.

Finn stared at the jittery alien and then at Mikayla. “Looks like.”

Mikayla blushed and sat in the captain’s seat without looking at either of them. “Doubters,” she mumbled.

“Well, music didn’t work, so let’s give ELAINA a try,” Finn said.