Once upon a time, at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, there was a horrifying attraction called ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. Alien Encounter was so terrifying that it was only in operation from 1995-2003, and was replaced by a less-terrifying overlay called Stitch’s Great Escape, which was eventually closed down as well. The premise of Alien Encounter is that an alien technology company called X-S has created a teleportation device that can send Earthlings to another planet or send aliens down to Earth, but things take a turn for the worst and a carnivorous, dangerous, alien ends up in the teleportation room with all the Earthlings who have no way to escape.
During its brief run in Tomorrowland, Alien Encounter featured a pre-show before the main attraction where a robot named Simulated Intelligence Robotics (or SIR for short) proves how safe the teleportation device X-S created is by showcasing a brief demonstration where he teleports a cute, fluffy, little alien named Skippy from one side of the room to the other in a teleportation tube. Skippy is of the species “Fluthmugoon Cliffhugger” (scientific name “Skipicanthropus Moronicus”). Skippy protests but SIR teleports him anyway. Poor Skippy comes out on the other side burned, shaken-up, and almost mutated. Skippy is crying and miserable after this ordeal, but SIR yells at him, insisting that he’s not hurt, he just “has a healthy glow”. The SIR teleports Skippy again, this time leaving his molecules suspended in the air between teleportation tubes, for an indefinite amount of time.
I believe that poor little Skippy deserved better. Skippy is so cute and sweet and helpless that he deserves a happy ending. I researched the Alien Encounter attraction (it closed when I was 3) to be able to write this story. It's by no means a masterpiece, but at least it's sweet. So this story will attempt to do Skippy justice, and answer the question, “what if Skippy had managed to escape from X-S?”
The Fanfiction: Skippy’s Great Escape
I unlock the door to my husband and I’s townhouse and begin combing through today’s mail as I mosey my way to the couch. Bills, brochures, more bills, post-card from my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Susan, invitation to test a teleportation device… WAIT! Invitation to test a teleportation device? From a company called X-S? Now that catches my attention. I tear open the envelope and begin eagerly scanning the contents of the invitation.
The second my hands make contact with the letter inside the envelope, it begins to buzz and vibrate and almost glow. I nearly dropped it. I try to make sense of the blurry words on the page, but the blurring is getting worse and worse the longer I look. Just then, the paper morphs into a tiny screen, with a green alien creature staring back at me. It’s like a window has opened up to another planet right here in my living room! I’m too stunned to speak, but luckily the alien guy speaks first.
“Mrs. Bergeson?” He asks politely, “You are Mrs. Melody Bergeson, correct?”
I nod sheepishly, “My friends usually call me Mel.”
The Alien man replied, “Good! And if your husband is Mr. Maxwell Bergeson, known to most as Max, then we have the right couple!”
“Yes, Max is my husband,” I answer with a tremble in my voice, “I’m very confused and honestly a little scared-”
He interrupts, “I promise we aren’t meaning to scare you! We really do come in peace!”
“Okay that’s good to hear!” I say managing to calm myself down just a bit.
“Would you like some more information, Mel?”
“Yes, yes please,” I request.
The polite alien in the letter-screen-portal thing begins giving me the much needed context.
“So Mel, my name is Spinlok, and I work for X-S, a tech company on a far-off planet. We're trying to expand our trade to other planets. Earth is very similar in composition to our home planet of Zorfion. I’m assuming you’ve never heard of Zorfion have you?”
I shake my head, “No sir.”
“Anyways, we’ve made wonderful progress on our teleportation device and have determined that it is 100% safe for use! We just aren’t sure how… eh… comfortable it would be for earthlings to use as a means of transportation.”
“I take it, you're looking for test subjects?” I ask nervously.
He nods excitedly, “You read my mind! And you are just the test-subject we’re looking for!”
I swallow anxiously, “I am?”
“Yes!” He confirms, “You are a genetic rarity for humans and a personality rarity too! We’re trying to get as much diversity across the earthling population to confirm the comfort and safety of our teleportation technology.”
I thought about this for a minute. I’m relieved that they are trying to get variety because there are a lot of differences across the entire human genome. I guess I am a rarity between my red hair, green eyes, and heavier frame. But the personality rareness is what strikes me as odd. I didn’t realize my personality was so unique. The world is full of nerdy, quirky, caring, elementary school teachers right?
“My personality is a rarity?” I ask.
Spinlok’s eyes widen, “Yes you are, Mrs. Bergeson! Our scannings and observations of you indicate that you are in the top percentile for being caring and nurturing!”
I can feel my cheeks going rosy and my heart beating a little bit harder, “Wow… I… Thank you!”
“We’ve seen how much you care for your little earthling scholars, and how nurturing you are to your husband and your friends and your pets. We think you’d be a great test subject because you could easily sense where there might be problems with discomfort for other guests, and be able to gently offer feedback. Some of our team members who are X-S are a bit sensitive when it comes to their work,” He explains further.
I smile at him, “Well this is certainly quite the honor! When would the teleportation tests be? And could Max come with me?”
Spinlok gives me a bit of an uncertain look, “Actually the test would be this afternoon, in just a few minutes.”
“But Max isn’t even home yet and I don’t even know if I could get to the testing facility on such notice-”
He interrupts again, “Oh we’ve already arranged for transportation! Take a look into your backyard.”
Still holding the portal-letter, I make my way to the backdoor and peer out. I have to blink a couple times and rub my eyes to make sure I haven’t lost my mind. An honest to god spaceship is hovering our flower beds in the backyard. It’s not much bigger than a truck, but it looks way more futuristic and sleek. There’s even a little ladder leading up to it so I can just walk right on.
“Can the neighbors see this?” I shout to Spinlok through the letter-screen.
“No they cannot!” He reassures, “We’ve set it with a cloaking device so only you can see it.”
I rub my eyes one last time, “How is any of this possible?”
“I don’t mean to rush you, Mel, but we really must get moving if we are to make it to the demonstration on time. Would it be alright with you if we leave a note for your husband? Let him know you’ll be back later?” Spinlok asks.
I have to think about it for a minute. Max would love this and it feels wrong to rush off to some secret location in an alien spaceship for god’s sake without him. But also, would he believe me if I told him that we received a letter from an alien company? And they send a spaceship to our backyard? Maybe I could bring back something from my experience or talk the nice aliens at X-S into letting Max give it a try another time. So, I nod, and tell Spinlok I’m ready to go.
I was not ready to go. No amount of preparation could’ve ever had me ready to go. I can handle driving with my New Yorker mother on the highway into the city, I can handle Space Mountain at Disney World, and I can handle my third-graders spinning me around the merry-go-round on the playground as fast their little bodies can push me, but I cannot handle flying at close to light speed in loop-de-loops. I don’t know how long we were flying but it felt like a second and eternity at the same time. Thank god I strapped myself in tightly to my seat behind the pilot. He spends the whole ride telling me how exciting it is to meet an actual Earthling but I’m too disoriented and shaken-up to respond. We finally reach our destination and come to a sudden stop with an intense lurch forward. I think it’s supposed to be a wastebasket in the seat next to me. At least I hope it is because I lean over and lose my lunch with a splat. The pilot turns around and his smile turns to confusion and concern.
“What was that?” he asked, staring at me like I’ve grown a second head.
I sputtered, “Motion sickness. That was motion sickness.”
“Are you quite alright?”
“I will be… Just get me out of this spaceship and get me a napkin and some water… and ground that won’t move or turn me upside down!” I beg.
He gently unbuckles my safety belt and helps me stand, then guides me to the ladder back down. I take my sweet time and delicate steps until I hit solid ground. I never thought I’d be so happy to be grounded! He motions for some other aliens to come closer. The pilot asks them to bring me water and something to wipe my mouth on. A split second later, a larger alien wearing what I assume is a guards uniform appears to my side with a glass of water and X-S labeled fabric napkins.
“Oh thank you so much,” I said gratefully, gingerly taking a few sips. The water is crisp and cool. They seem to have a pretty good understanding of what us Earthlings need to be comfortable. I do feel a lot better once I get the water in me and we’re not flying at near lightspeed.
They ushered me and about three-dozen other Earthlings into a foyer-type room where they have us look up at what seems to be a television screen. They weren’t kidding when they said they were seeking maximum variety across the human species. We all appear to be adults, but there seems to be adults from every walk of life. I don’t see any other chubby, green-eyed, redheads though. Some especially tall people, some especially short people, some people standing and others in wheelchairs, some people wearing full professional clothes, others looking like they’ve been working on a farm all day! All of us are looking up at different screens with languages posted above them. French, Japanese, Swahili, my eyes land on English after a bit of spying around. I follow along with the captions. It’s a lot of information to take in at once but I have a better idea of what X-S is about. Seems like any kind of tech field you can imagine, their scientists are the cream of the crop! Genetic engineering, planetary restructuring, techno surveillance, robotics, and hyperspatial transport. On screen, we’re introduced to a Mr. Clench, who seems very eager to be tapping the Earth market. Something about him gives me a shady vibe, but I shouldn’t be too quick to judge right?
Once we’re done being introduced to X-S, Mr. Clench, and the mission statements of the company, they send us down a short hallway into yet another room with no seating, only room to stand. On the far end of the room, I can make out two clear tubes with wires coming out of the top and bottom, and between the two tubes is a control table with a very serious looking robot between them. The serious-looking robot welcomes us in, but the shady vibe is only getting worse. The mechanical voice sounds dark and almost villainous, despite encouraging all us Earthlings not to be afraid and to step right up.
As the lights become a bit brighter, I notice that there’s a creature inside the tube on the right. This little one doesn’t look as human-like as the other aliens. It looks like a cross between Gonzo from the Muppets, ALF from that sitcom in the 80s, and maybe a moth with its six legs. My best estimate for its size is that it’s maybe a little bigger than a wild rabbit or large house-cat. I could easily scoop it up in my arms and give it a cuddle. It seems a little nervous and skittish, but it is incredibly cute! Makes me wonder what this little fluffer is doing inside what’s basically a giant test tube.
“Excuse me,” I said, motioning for the nice guard who brought me water to come closer to me, “Does this cutie have a name?”
The guard nods, “Oh that’s Skippy! He’s a Fluthmugoon Cliffhugger, scientific name Skipicanthropus Moronicus.”
I give Skippy a smile, and he looks down at me with the sweetest black eyes, but then he goes back to nervously shuddering, “He seems a little scared, is he alright?”
“I think the poor little thing is just nervous,” The guard replies with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
Our conversation is cut short by the robot behind the control panel at the front of the room. He introduces himself as SIR, which stands for Simulated Intelligence Robotics. He begins to launch into a spiel about how lucky we are to be the first to test this teleportation technology, and how we must be wondering what X-S can do for us. He’s not very far into his speech when Skippy squeals and catches his attention.
“What do you want, Skippy?” SIR snaps rudely.
Skippy squeals again and begins to tremble more, but SIR doesn’t care.
He just wags his finger at poor Skippy and barks, “No, you may not get out! You’re our lucky volunteer!”
I turn to the guard as SIR continues explaining how the teleportation technology works by separating and then reassembling molecules.
“Did Skippy know what he was signing up for? He doesn’t seem like he wants to be teleported,” I say pointing to him banging on the tubes.
The guard looks around nervously, checking to see if anyone is listening in on us, “Truthfully, Skippy didn’t sign up at all, they just snatched him from the cliffs on our planet to be a test subject. It’s kind of like how you Earthlings do testing on rats and rabbits for some of your products.”
My heartbreaks for poor Skippy. I don’t have much time to process how terrible it is that he got snatched up just to become a guinea pig, because SIR then pushes a button and Skippy gets sucked up into the top of the tube. His molecules are being pulled apart and shuffled around high above all our heads. He squeals in distress until the last of his molecules are suspended up in the air. SIR insists this process is “practically painless” but I don’t buy it and it seems like no one else does either. Then there’s a ding, almost like a timer on an oven going off, and swirling particles and smoke begin to reappear in the other tube across the room.
“And here’s the little Skipper now!” SIR announces proudly.
We hear Skippy’s whine before the smoke clears and we see just how banged up he is. He’s charred! His antennae are all bent out of shape and are smoking! His fluff is singed, almost clean off in some places. His eyes are red and wider than you’d expect them to be able to open. He’s shaking even worse now. He seems so disoriented and hurt. He whines to SIR again but the robot shows him no empathy.
“Oh shut up, Scruffy! You’re not burned! You just have a healthy glow!”
The guard and I meet eyes again, and I cry out in a whispered tone, “Oh my gosh they could’ve killed him!”
The guard shakes his head pitifully, “I bet they’re just relieved that the demonstration ‘worked’ in front of the new crop of testers.”
I want to yell out to that SIR-jerk to let Skippy out, and to get him some medical attention. SIR beats me to it though and beams Skippy’s molecules up into the space above our heads again. He’s already rambling into another explanation of the technology. Apparently on top of instantaneous teleportation, X-S Tech is capable of suspending the molecules in the air for as long as you’d like. I really hope that poor Skippy is not in pain as he floats around in microscopic pieces up there. I grimace at the thought of what ungodly mutilations he’ll have when they finally piece his molecules back together.
Then SIR begins ushering a bunch of unsure humans into the teleportation room, continuing to insist that this will be an amazing and harmless experience. Pretty much everyone follows but I can’t bring myself too. My feet stay planted on the ground in front of the teleportation tubes, and my eyes are glued to the ceiling, desperately trying to track Skippy’s molecules. The alien guard stands next to me. He looks more disappointed and frustrated with his peers then devastated. We share a look of exasperation. I think we both know that we’ve got to save Skippy.
As the last of the humans shuffle out of the pre-demonstration and into the teleportation room for the main event, he turns around on his wheels and waves for us to follow.
“Come on, Mrs. Bergeson,” He says impatiently, “We don’t want to start without you!”
“I’m not sure I should do this today,” I respond shakily.
SIR shakes his head, “And why not?”
The guard cuts in, “Oh Mrs. Bergeson got rather motion sick during her transport to the facility. She was just asking for another glass of water and some place to rest again.”
“Is that alright?” I ask as I fan myself and force out a sour-sounding burp, grateful my students taught me how to burp on command.
“Very well,” SIR huffs as he wheels into the trial chamber and pulls the heavy doors closed firmly behind him.
The guard and I wait to hear an echoing click as the airlock sets into place, then we both make a mad dash for the control panel.
“Do you know which button would send Skippy back down to a teleportation tube?” I ask frantically. I can’t understand any of the symbols on the keys and knobs.
“Okay this has a setting for ‘return to original location’ so I guess this one is our best hope,” The guard assumes as he turns the back to the setting we want with a ding.
We feel this electric, pulsing sensation, over us, and the air overhead seems to vibrate again. The teleportation tubes on either side of the room begin to light up in muted flashes. Finally the one on the right side of the room floods with smoke again. Skippy’s whines come through clearly, though I still wince at hearing his pathetic whimpering. The smoke begins to clear and there is a slightly charred, mildly mutated Skippy with his antennas all bent out of shape. He shoots us a pleading look but it seems like he isn’t trembling anymore. I approach the tube slowly, with my hands up trying to convey “it’s alright”.
“I want to help you,” I say in a gentle whisper, like how I comfort my 3rd graders when they hurt themselves.
At first, Skippy leans back and is wary of me. I don’t blame him after what he’s been through today. Then I gingerly place my hand on the tube and whisper again that I won’t hurt him, that he can trust me. Our eyes meet and I can tell that he’s starting to warm up to me. He places one of his furry little paws to meet mine on the glass casing. The guard fumbles through a few more controls and the tube slowly rises, allowing Skippy to hop out.
I hold out my arms, “Can you jump?”
Skippy nods and makes the leap into my hands. He’s got a heft to him I wasn't quite expecting. He also feels very warm, but I guess that’s to be expected after having his molecules blasted around the teleportation tubes. His nose is wet, and his antennas are ticklish! He reminds me of a puppy! An intergalactic, kind of insect-like, puppy. I hold him close and he nestles up. I think he’s beginning to warm up to me.
“Alright, how can we get out of here without being seen?” I ask the kind guard, holding Skippy close to my chest.
The guard has to think for a minute, “If I’m remembering the layout correctly, we can go out the doors we came in, then take the stairs down to the basement level. It’s usually pretty empty down there.”
We barely have time to move when the lights suddenly cut out, and a loud crash echoes from the demonstration room right behind us. Blood curdling screams are not far behind the crashing sound. From somewhere overhead speakers blair out “All X-S facilities are now on lockdown! Lockdown!” I can’t see much in the hectic darkness, but the guard pulls out what I assume is an alien flashlight. First he shines it at Skippy and I, and then he shines at the doors to the demonstration room, where some red, goopy liquid is beginning to flood under the doors.
“Oh man…” I choke out, terrified.
The guard stumbles his way to the entrance doors, opposite the ones to the demonstration room that are looking more and more like a horror-movie come to life. He pushes on the doors with his whole body but they don’t budge. I hold Skippy tighter and try to help the guard fumble with the locks but we can’t get it. We’re trapped in the teleportation tube room and no one knows we’re stuck.
“There’s got to be a ventilation system or something!” The guard yells out in a frustrated town.
Skippy whines and digs into my chest a little harder. The guard shines his light up towards the ceiling but he’s shaking too much to get a clear view. He frantically swipes the beam of the flashlight back and forth across the ceiling, looking for any way out. Then, Skippy taps his antenna into my shoulder and motions towards the back corner of the roof. There’s a vent! And if we can get the grate on the outside loose, I bet we can shimmy through!
“Skippy found a vent!” I whisper-yell to the guard, grabbing the flashlight from him and guiding the beam up to the back corner.
For a minute, I question if we’ll be able to reach up there. But the guard hands me the flashlight and instructs me to keep it pointed at the grate. He pushes a button on his belt-buckle and he shoots up in height. I guess X-S has the technology to make stilts built into their uniforms. I try to hold the beam of light steady as he pulls out what seems to be a swiss-army-knife-like tool from his uniform pocket, but between holding Skippy and hearing even more panicked screams from the demonstration room, there’s a lot of tremoring. The guard manages to unscrew the covering and he just tosses it down to the ground behind Skippy and I.
“Get Skippy up there!” I command as I lift Skippy up towards him.
The guard grabs him out of my arms and sets him down in the vent. Skippy sheepishly scurries a good distance into the vent then pauses. I hear him squeal again. I think he won’t go any further without us behind him. Then Guard reaches down to me to give me a boost up. I was expecting him to struggle with me considering I probably weigh as much as ten Skippys, but he doesn’t seem to be phased by it at all. It’s a bit of a squeeze for me into the opening of the vent though. There’s barely any wiggle room in here around my broad shoulders. I army-crawl towards the small, fluffy figure in the darkness in front of me.
“Do you need help getting up here?” I yell over my shoulder.
“I won’t fit!” He calls in response, “I’ve already tried!”
I begin to panic, “Well we can’t just leave you stranded!”
“I’ll find a way out! Take this!” He shouts and he tosses the flashlight into the vent. It crashes down in front of me and I’m able to grab it before it rolls out of reach.
“I don’t know where the vent system leads but I think if you crawl enough you’ll find a way out!”
I hear the sounds of the grate going back up and screws being whirred back in. Skippy and I shoot each other nervous looks, but we know there’s no going back now. So I hold the flashlight and shine it ahead of us. Skippy leads the way, scurrying along, occasionally turning back to make sure I’m still there. It doesn’t take long before I’m drenched in sweat and out of breath. On the bright side, we get the feeling that we’re getting far away from whatever nightmare is going on in the demonstration room because the sounds of terror and chaos are getting softer the further we go. We keep crawling for a good distance, I’m sure it couldn’t have been more than a city block in length but we’re both running out of steam. Suddenly, the vent system feels shaky and unstable, and Skippy and I share a look of fear and a gulp of panic as we feel the vent give out from underneath us.
We crash with a thud. The impact doesn’t hurt as much as I would expect it to, and I’m not seeing stars like I imagined I would be. Skippy lets out a more groan-like sound than the whimpering-whines he had earlier. I look around to see that we fell out of the vents into what seems to be a dumpster or massive storage unit. Instead of trash, though, the giant, metallic box is packed full of fabric, looks like T-shirts and mock uniforms with the X-S logo and dates for the teleportation test run. I guess they were planning on trying to advertise their teleportation system using methods Earthlings do, like with T-shirts from tourist spots. Thank goodness they had this stuff in here though, otherwise Skippy and I would’ve been battered and bruised. We look each other over, and neither of us seems hurt, thank god.
“Do you know where we are?” I ask him, looking around.
It seems like we’re in a not-fully-set up gift shop of sorts. Like this would’ve been where they shuffled all the earthling test subjects after the teleportation trial. Counters with futuristic check-out machines, racks of clothes that are only partially set up, mannequins laid out but not dressed, and lots of X-S logos everywhere. I drag myself over to the edge of the storage unit thingy and hoist myself up and out. I give Skippy a hand getting down. He scurries around on the tile floor for a second, helping me look for a way out. I really hope the lockdown is lifted by now, because now we’re really toast if no one from X-S finds out that we’re stuck in here. As luck would have it, we find a push door behind the storage unit, and with a good heave on my part, it creaks open. Skippy and I rush out, seeing masses of Earthlings and X-S aliens making a mad-dash for their rockets and spaceships.
One of the guards sees Skippy and motions for other guards to chase him down. Skippy scrambles back towards me. I pick up and think “how am I going to break him out of here?” Then lightning strikes inside my brain. I grab an X-S backpack off one of the unfinished displays and quickly stuff Skippy in there, leaving a bit of breathing room as I pull the zipper shut. I think the guards believe they’ve just lost him in all the chaos. I race up to the aliens guiding earthlings onto the various spacecrafts.
“Where did you arrive from?” She asks me urgently.
“Virginia, near the historic triangle,” I answer directly.
She points me towards a ship a few rows down, “You’re our only guest from that area! Wait, why do you have that backpack?”
I swallow hard, “It… well in the chaos of trying to escape I think I found the gift shop… And it would be perfect to use back on Earth-”
“Oh forget it!” She huffs, “Just get on your transport, now!”
The loopy, light-speed fast ride home was nothing compared to the ride here and the scare they gave me with the teleportation mess. I have never been more relieved to be literally dropped into my backyard. Once I’m in the townhouse, I gently pull off my backpack and remove a shaken-up, but still in one piece Skippy.
“Oh thank goodness, you’re alright!” I sigh as I hug him close. He does a squeal that sounds somewhere between relieved and happy too.
Just then, I hear my husband gasp from behind us.
“What is that?!?” He shrieks.
I turn around with Skippy still in my arms, “An… An alien…”
Max just stands there, jaw on the ground, “A what?”
“I promise I can explain!” I spit out frantically, “And I swear he’s harmless!”
Max’s eyes roll back into his head. His body falls back and he hits the ground with a thump. He’s done this before. So I grab some pillows to prop up his legs with, get him a glass of cool water, and grab a cold compress to put on his forehead. It only takes a few minutes before he comes to, with both me and Skippy leaning over him.
“Mel, what happened?” He asks in a weak voice, his eyes still droopy.
“Do you promise you won’t faint again?” I ask firmly but with a hint of concern.
He takes a deep breath, “I’ll do my best.”
I slowly explain the story, about X-S reaching out to me, ending up at their facility, rescuing Skippy and nearly dying on the way. Max doesn’t believe me at first. He thinks I’m messing with him. He thinks Skippy is just a very realistic toy one of my students gifted me. Then Skippy does something I didn’t know he could do. He places a paw on my hand and on Max’s too, and in a dream-like state, I’m reliving this afternoon! Max is reliving it too because I can hear his screams and panicked questions.
“Oh my god!” He cries as Skippy removes his paws, “You’re lucky to be alive!”
I nod, “And now you see why I had to save Skippy!”
He shoots Skippy a sad look, “Are you okay little dude?”
Skippy nods too.
“And you named it?” He says to me, almost judgmentally.
I shake my head, “I didn’t name him! That was the name they called him at X-S!”
Skippy crawls into my lap and shoots Max a pleading look. He does that heart breaking whimper that drew my bleeding heart towards him in the first place. I can tell that he is getting to Max’s sensitive side too. We have always been a couple that cared about the little guy.
“We can’t send him back there, they’ll torture him even more,” I explain.
Max shakes his head, “You’re right, we can’t send him back. I just don’t know how we can take care of him. I mean, we don’t know what he eats or if he can even safely breathe earth air. And if he gets sick, we can’t just take him to a vet.”
He does raise quite a few good points. Skippy must understand what Max and I have been talking about, because he anxiously shakes his tail and twitches his antenna a bit. He knows we’re having to think about the logistics of letting him live here with us. It’s kind of amazing to me how much he understands even though he can’t verbally speak back to us. Then, Skippy scurries off towards the foyer, and begins excitedly hopping around the X-S flier I had dropped when the spaceship showed up hours ago.
“Skippy, hang on,” I say with a hint of confusion, “Do you recognize this flier?”
When I pick it back up, it starts buzzing again. I can see the screen coming back into view! Skippy and I rush back over to where Max is lying on the carpet and I hold out the flier like I’m getting ready to facetime again, with Max and Skippy both in view. The screen finally comes to a clear picture, and a very exhausted and frazzled Spinlock appears before us.
“Spinlok!” I shout excitedly.
“Mrs. Bergeson!” He shouts back. His eyes are wide as saucers and his exhaustion shifts to panic. “I… I didn’t realize you could still communicate with me using this channel!”
Max points at the alien on the screen aggressively, “You! You nearly got my wife killed!”
“I did no such thing!” Spinlok defends himself, and then he and Max start bickering back and forth, Max about how upset he is on my behalf and Spinlok insisting that what happened at X-S today wasn’t his fault.
I cut into the argument abruptly, “Hey!”
When I have both their attention again, I pull Skippy closer so Spinlok can clearly see him, “Look, I rescued Skippy from the teleportation tubes when all hell broke loose during the demonstration. Now if you want us to keep secret what happened at X-S today, you’re gonna tell Max and I how to keep Skippy happy and healthy here on Earth, got it?”
“That’s all you want?” He asks, clearly surprised.
“I’m not looking to extort an alien company, I just want Skippy to be safe and happy after you all used him like a test guinea pig against his will,” I say with a bite in my voice I don’t normally use.
Spinlok blinks frantically, “No problem! We’ll send you the grasses and leaves he would eat on the cliff tops on our home planet by spaceship every month! And if he ever needs medical attention, just reach me through the flier and I’ll send a med-ship. And make sure he gets a dish of water and a regular bath!”
“Thank you,” I say graciously.
“And you really do promise you won’t go public with the um… events of today?”
I hold up my right pinky, “I pinky-swear, and for earthling teachers that is the highest order of promise.”
Max cuts in, “She really does mean that! I’ve known her for six years and she’s never broken a pinky promise!”
“Oh thank goodness,” Spinlok sighs, “Thank you! We’ll have that first ship of food in a couple hours. Oh phew…”
Then the screen goes black.
Skippy bounces into my lap again and nearly knocks me over. He nudges my cheeks with his snout over and over again. Then he tackles Max and gives him the same affection. Today has been the craziest day of my life, and I probably could’ve died, but it was so worth it. I feel we just adopted a new puppy! And like we already have a bond you can’t break. Imagine the look on my students’ faces when I come into school on Monday morning and our new class pet is Skippy, a real-life alien, and a very snuggly one at that. I bet Skippy will love coming to school with me to kids who will spoil him, and then coming home each night to a safe place where he isn’t a test subject to nightmare experiments. This little Fluthmugoon Cliffhugger deserves it.
During its brief run in Tomorrowland, Alien Encounter featured a pre-show before the main attraction where a robot named Simulated Intelligence Robotics (or SIR for short) proves how safe the teleportation device X-S created is by showcasing a brief demonstration where he teleports a cute, fluffy, little alien named Skippy from one side of the room to the other in a teleportation tube. Skippy is of the species “Fluthmugoon Cliffhugger” (scientific name “Skipicanthropus Moronicus”). Skippy protests but SIR teleports him anyway. Poor Skippy comes out on the other side burned, shaken-up, and almost mutated. Skippy is crying and miserable after this ordeal, but SIR yells at him, insisting that he’s not hurt, he just “has a healthy glow”. The SIR teleports Skippy again, this time leaving his molecules suspended in the air between teleportation tubes, for an indefinite amount of time.
I believe that poor little Skippy deserved better. Skippy is so cute and sweet and helpless that he deserves a happy ending. I researched the Alien Encounter attraction (it closed when I was 3) to be able to write this story. It's by no means a masterpiece, but at least it's sweet. So this story will attempt to do Skippy justice, and answer the question, “what if Skippy had managed to escape from X-S?”
The Fanfiction: Skippy’s Great Escape
I unlock the door to my husband and I’s townhouse and begin combing through today’s mail as I mosey my way to the couch. Bills, brochures, more bills, post-card from my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Susan, invitation to test a teleportation device… WAIT! Invitation to test a teleportation device? From a company called X-S? Now that catches my attention. I tear open the envelope and begin eagerly scanning the contents of the invitation.
The second my hands make contact with the letter inside the envelope, it begins to buzz and vibrate and almost glow. I nearly dropped it. I try to make sense of the blurry words on the page, but the blurring is getting worse and worse the longer I look. Just then, the paper morphs into a tiny screen, with a green alien creature staring back at me. It’s like a window has opened up to another planet right here in my living room! I’m too stunned to speak, but luckily the alien guy speaks first.
“Mrs. Bergeson?” He asks politely, “You are Mrs. Melody Bergeson, correct?”
I nod sheepishly, “My friends usually call me Mel.”
The Alien man replied, “Good! And if your husband is Mr. Maxwell Bergeson, known to most as Max, then we have the right couple!”
“Yes, Max is my husband,” I answer with a tremble in my voice, “I’m very confused and honestly a little scared-”
He interrupts, “I promise we aren’t meaning to scare you! We really do come in peace!”
“Okay that’s good to hear!” I say managing to calm myself down just a bit.
“Would you like some more information, Mel?”
“Yes, yes please,” I request.
The polite alien in the letter-screen-portal thing begins giving me the much needed context.
“So Mel, my name is Spinlok, and I work for X-S, a tech company on a far-off planet. We're trying to expand our trade to other planets. Earth is very similar in composition to our home planet of Zorfion. I’m assuming you’ve never heard of Zorfion have you?”
I shake my head, “No sir.”
“Anyways, we’ve made wonderful progress on our teleportation device and have determined that it is 100% safe for use! We just aren’t sure how… eh… comfortable it would be for earthlings to use as a means of transportation.”
“I take it, you're looking for test subjects?” I ask nervously.
He nods excitedly, “You read my mind! And you are just the test-subject we’re looking for!”
I swallow anxiously, “I am?”
“Yes!” He confirms, “You are a genetic rarity for humans and a personality rarity too! We’re trying to get as much diversity across the earthling population to confirm the comfort and safety of our teleportation technology.”
I thought about this for a minute. I’m relieved that they are trying to get variety because there are a lot of differences across the entire human genome. I guess I am a rarity between my red hair, green eyes, and heavier frame. But the personality rareness is what strikes me as odd. I didn’t realize my personality was so unique. The world is full of nerdy, quirky, caring, elementary school teachers right?
“My personality is a rarity?” I ask.
Spinlok’s eyes widen, “Yes you are, Mrs. Bergeson! Our scannings and observations of you indicate that you are in the top percentile for being caring and nurturing!”
I can feel my cheeks going rosy and my heart beating a little bit harder, “Wow… I… Thank you!”
“We’ve seen how much you care for your little earthling scholars, and how nurturing you are to your husband and your friends and your pets. We think you’d be a great test subject because you could easily sense where there might be problems with discomfort for other guests, and be able to gently offer feedback. Some of our team members who are X-S are a bit sensitive when it comes to their work,” He explains further.
I smile at him, “Well this is certainly quite the honor! When would the teleportation tests be? And could Max come with me?”
Spinlok gives me a bit of an uncertain look, “Actually the test would be this afternoon, in just a few minutes.”
“But Max isn’t even home yet and I don’t even know if I could get to the testing facility on such notice-”
He interrupts again, “Oh we’ve already arranged for transportation! Take a look into your backyard.”
Still holding the portal-letter, I make my way to the backdoor and peer out. I have to blink a couple times and rub my eyes to make sure I haven’t lost my mind. An honest to god spaceship is hovering our flower beds in the backyard. It’s not much bigger than a truck, but it looks way more futuristic and sleek. There’s even a little ladder leading up to it so I can just walk right on.
“Can the neighbors see this?” I shout to Spinlok through the letter-screen.
“No they cannot!” He reassures, “We’ve set it with a cloaking device so only you can see it.”
I rub my eyes one last time, “How is any of this possible?”
“I don’t mean to rush you, Mel, but we really must get moving if we are to make it to the demonstration on time. Would it be alright with you if we leave a note for your husband? Let him know you’ll be back later?” Spinlok asks.
I have to think about it for a minute. Max would love this and it feels wrong to rush off to some secret location in an alien spaceship for god’s sake without him. But also, would he believe me if I told him that we received a letter from an alien company? And they send a spaceship to our backyard? Maybe I could bring back something from my experience or talk the nice aliens at X-S into letting Max give it a try another time. So, I nod, and tell Spinlok I’m ready to go.
I was not ready to go. No amount of preparation could’ve ever had me ready to go. I can handle driving with my New Yorker mother on the highway into the city, I can handle Space Mountain at Disney World, and I can handle my third-graders spinning me around the merry-go-round on the playground as fast their little bodies can push me, but I cannot handle flying at close to light speed in loop-de-loops. I don’t know how long we were flying but it felt like a second and eternity at the same time. Thank god I strapped myself in tightly to my seat behind the pilot. He spends the whole ride telling me how exciting it is to meet an actual Earthling but I’m too disoriented and shaken-up to respond. We finally reach our destination and come to a sudden stop with an intense lurch forward. I think it’s supposed to be a wastebasket in the seat next to me. At least I hope it is because I lean over and lose my lunch with a splat. The pilot turns around and his smile turns to confusion and concern.
“What was that?” he asked, staring at me like I’ve grown a second head.
I sputtered, “Motion sickness. That was motion sickness.”
“Are you quite alright?”
“I will be… Just get me out of this spaceship and get me a napkin and some water… and ground that won’t move or turn me upside down!” I beg.
He gently unbuckles my safety belt and helps me stand, then guides me to the ladder back down. I take my sweet time and delicate steps until I hit solid ground. I never thought I’d be so happy to be grounded! He motions for some other aliens to come closer. The pilot asks them to bring me water and something to wipe my mouth on. A split second later, a larger alien wearing what I assume is a guards uniform appears to my side with a glass of water and X-S labeled fabric napkins.
“Oh thank you so much,” I said gratefully, gingerly taking a few sips. The water is crisp and cool. They seem to have a pretty good understanding of what us Earthlings need to be comfortable. I do feel a lot better once I get the water in me and we’re not flying at near lightspeed.
They ushered me and about three-dozen other Earthlings into a foyer-type room where they have us look up at what seems to be a television screen. They weren’t kidding when they said they were seeking maximum variety across the human species. We all appear to be adults, but there seems to be adults from every walk of life. I don’t see any other chubby, green-eyed, redheads though. Some especially tall people, some especially short people, some people standing and others in wheelchairs, some people wearing full professional clothes, others looking like they’ve been working on a farm all day! All of us are looking up at different screens with languages posted above them. French, Japanese, Swahili, my eyes land on English after a bit of spying around. I follow along with the captions. It’s a lot of information to take in at once but I have a better idea of what X-S is about. Seems like any kind of tech field you can imagine, their scientists are the cream of the crop! Genetic engineering, planetary restructuring, techno surveillance, robotics, and hyperspatial transport. On screen, we’re introduced to a Mr. Clench, who seems very eager to be tapping the Earth market. Something about him gives me a shady vibe, but I shouldn’t be too quick to judge right?
Once we’re done being introduced to X-S, Mr. Clench, and the mission statements of the company, they send us down a short hallway into yet another room with no seating, only room to stand. On the far end of the room, I can make out two clear tubes with wires coming out of the top and bottom, and between the two tubes is a control table with a very serious looking robot between them. The serious-looking robot welcomes us in, but the shady vibe is only getting worse. The mechanical voice sounds dark and almost villainous, despite encouraging all us Earthlings not to be afraid and to step right up.
As the lights become a bit brighter, I notice that there’s a creature inside the tube on the right. This little one doesn’t look as human-like as the other aliens. It looks like a cross between Gonzo from the Muppets, ALF from that sitcom in the 80s, and maybe a moth with its six legs. My best estimate for its size is that it’s maybe a little bigger than a wild rabbit or large house-cat. I could easily scoop it up in my arms and give it a cuddle. It seems a little nervous and skittish, but it is incredibly cute! Makes me wonder what this little fluffer is doing inside what’s basically a giant test tube.
“Excuse me,” I said, motioning for the nice guard who brought me water to come closer to me, “Does this cutie have a name?”
The guard nods, “Oh that’s Skippy! He’s a Fluthmugoon Cliffhugger, scientific name Skipicanthropus Moronicus.”
I give Skippy a smile, and he looks down at me with the sweetest black eyes, but then he goes back to nervously shuddering, “He seems a little scared, is he alright?”
“I think the poor little thing is just nervous,” The guard replies with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
Our conversation is cut short by the robot behind the control panel at the front of the room. He introduces himself as SIR, which stands for Simulated Intelligence Robotics. He begins to launch into a spiel about how lucky we are to be the first to test this teleportation technology, and how we must be wondering what X-S can do for us. He’s not very far into his speech when Skippy squeals and catches his attention.
“What do you want, Skippy?” SIR snaps rudely.
Skippy squeals again and begins to tremble more, but SIR doesn’t care.
He just wags his finger at poor Skippy and barks, “No, you may not get out! You’re our lucky volunteer!”
I turn to the guard as SIR continues explaining how the teleportation technology works by separating and then reassembling molecules.
“Did Skippy know what he was signing up for? He doesn’t seem like he wants to be teleported,” I say pointing to him banging on the tubes.
The guard looks around nervously, checking to see if anyone is listening in on us, “Truthfully, Skippy didn’t sign up at all, they just snatched him from the cliffs on our planet to be a test subject. It’s kind of like how you Earthlings do testing on rats and rabbits for some of your products.”
My heartbreaks for poor Skippy. I don’t have much time to process how terrible it is that he got snatched up just to become a guinea pig, because SIR then pushes a button and Skippy gets sucked up into the top of the tube. His molecules are being pulled apart and shuffled around high above all our heads. He squeals in distress until the last of his molecules are suspended up in the air. SIR insists this process is “practically painless” but I don’t buy it and it seems like no one else does either. Then there’s a ding, almost like a timer on an oven going off, and swirling particles and smoke begin to reappear in the other tube across the room.
“And here’s the little Skipper now!” SIR announces proudly.
We hear Skippy’s whine before the smoke clears and we see just how banged up he is. He’s charred! His antennae are all bent out of shape and are smoking! His fluff is singed, almost clean off in some places. His eyes are red and wider than you’d expect them to be able to open. He’s shaking even worse now. He seems so disoriented and hurt. He whines to SIR again but the robot shows him no empathy.
“Oh shut up, Scruffy! You’re not burned! You just have a healthy glow!”
The guard and I meet eyes again, and I cry out in a whispered tone, “Oh my gosh they could’ve killed him!”
The guard shakes his head pitifully, “I bet they’re just relieved that the demonstration ‘worked’ in front of the new crop of testers.”
I want to yell out to that SIR-jerk to let Skippy out, and to get him some medical attention. SIR beats me to it though and beams Skippy’s molecules up into the space above our heads again. He’s already rambling into another explanation of the technology. Apparently on top of instantaneous teleportation, X-S Tech is capable of suspending the molecules in the air for as long as you’d like. I really hope that poor Skippy is not in pain as he floats around in microscopic pieces up there. I grimace at the thought of what ungodly mutilations he’ll have when they finally piece his molecules back together.
Then SIR begins ushering a bunch of unsure humans into the teleportation room, continuing to insist that this will be an amazing and harmless experience. Pretty much everyone follows but I can’t bring myself too. My feet stay planted on the ground in front of the teleportation tubes, and my eyes are glued to the ceiling, desperately trying to track Skippy’s molecules. The alien guard stands next to me. He looks more disappointed and frustrated with his peers then devastated. We share a look of exasperation. I think we both know that we’ve got to save Skippy.
As the last of the humans shuffle out of the pre-demonstration and into the teleportation room for the main event, he turns around on his wheels and waves for us to follow.
“Come on, Mrs. Bergeson,” He says impatiently, “We don’t want to start without you!”
“I’m not sure I should do this today,” I respond shakily.
SIR shakes his head, “And why not?”
The guard cuts in, “Oh Mrs. Bergeson got rather motion sick during her transport to the facility. She was just asking for another glass of water and some place to rest again.”
“Is that alright?” I ask as I fan myself and force out a sour-sounding burp, grateful my students taught me how to burp on command.
“Very well,” SIR huffs as he wheels into the trial chamber and pulls the heavy doors closed firmly behind him.
The guard and I wait to hear an echoing click as the airlock sets into place, then we both make a mad dash for the control panel.
“Do you know which button would send Skippy back down to a teleportation tube?” I ask frantically. I can’t understand any of the symbols on the keys and knobs.
“Okay this has a setting for ‘return to original location’ so I guess this one is our best hope,” The guard assumes as he turns the back to the setting we want with a ding.
We feel this electric, pulsing sensation, over us, and the air overhead seems to vibrate again. The teleportation tubes on either side of the room begin to light up in muted flashes. Finally the one on the right side of the room floods with smoke again. Skippy’s whines come through clearly, though I still wince at hearing his pathetic whimpering. The smoke begins to clear and there is a slightly charred, mildly mutated Skippy with his antennas all bent out of shape. He shoots us a pleading look but it seems like he isn’t trembling anymore. I approach the tube slowly, with my hands up trying to convey “it’s alright”.
“I want to help you,” I say in a gentle whisper, like how I comfort my 3rd graders when they hurt themselves.
At first, Skippy leans back and is wary of me. I don’t blame him after what he’s been through today. Then I gingerly place my hand on the tube and whisper again that I won’t hurt him, that he can trust me. Our eyes meet and I can tell that he’s starting to warm up to me. He places one of his furry little paws to meet mine on the glass casing. The guard fumbles through a few more controls and the tube slowly rises, allowing Skippy to hop out.
I hold out my arms, “Can you jump?”
Skippy nods and makes the leap into my hands. He’s got a heft to him I wasn't quite expecting. He also feels very warm, but I guess that’s to be expected after having his molecules blasted around the teleportation tubes. His nose is wet, and his antennas are ticklish! He reminds me of a puppy! An intergalactic, kind of insect-like, puppy. I hold him close and he nestles up. I think he’s beginning to warm up to me.
“Alright, how can we get out of here without being seen?” I ask the kind guard, holding Skippy close to my chest.
The guard has to think for a minute, “If I’m remembering the layout correctly, we can go out the doors we came in, then take the stairs down to the basement level. It’s usually pretty empty down there.”
We barely have time to move when the lights suddenly cut out, and a loud crash echoes from the demonstration room right behind us. Blood curdling screams are not far behind the crashing sound. From somewhere overhead speakers blair out “All X-S facilities are now on lockdown! Lockdown!” I can’t see much in the hectic darkness, but the guard pulls out what I assume is an alien flashlight. First he shines it at Skippy and I, and then he shines at the doors to the demonstration room, where some red, goopy liquid is beginning to flood under the doors.
“Oh man…” I choke out, terrified.
The guard stumbles his way to the entrance doors, opposite the ones to the demonstration room that are looking more and more like a horror-movie come to life. He pushes on the doors with his whole body but they don’t budge. I hold Skippy tighter and try to help the guard fumble with the locks but we can’t get it. We’re trapped in the teleportation tube room and no one knows we’re stuck.
“There’s got to be a ventilation system or something!” The guard yells out in a frustrated town.
Skippy whines and digs into my chest a little harder. The guard shines his light up towards the ceiling but he’s shaking too much to get a clear view. He frantically swipes the beam of the flashlight back and forth across the ceiling, looking for any way out. Then, Skippy taps his antenna into my shoulder and motions towards the back corner of the roof. There’s a vent! And if we can get the grate on the outside loose, I bet we can shimmy through!
“Skippy found a vent!” I whisper-yell to the guard, grabbing the flashlight from him and guiding the beam up to the back corner.
For a minute, I question if we’ll be able to reach up there. But the guard hands me the flashlight and instructs me to keep it pointed at the grate. He pushes a button on his belt-buckle and he shoots up in height. I guess X-S has the technology to make stilts built into their uniforms. I try to hold the beam of light steady as he pulls out what seems to be a swiss-army-knife-like tool from his uniform pocket, but between holding Skippy and hearing even more panicked screams from the demonstration room, there’s a lot of tremoring. The guard manages to unscrew the covering and he just tosses it down to the ground behind Skippy and I.
“Get Skippy up there!” I command as I lift Skippy up towards him.
The guard grabs him out of my arms and sets him down in the vent. Skippy sheepishly scurries a good distance into the vent then pauses. I hear him squeal again. I think he won’t go any further without us behind him. Then Guard reaches down to me to give me a boost up. I was expecting him to struggle with me considering I probably weigh as much as ten Skippys, but he doesn’t seem to be phased by it at all. It’s a bit of a squeeze for me into the opening of the vent though. There’s barely any wiggle room in here around my broad shoulders. I army-crawl towards the small, fluffy figure in the darkness in front of me.
“Do you need help getting up here?” I yell over my shoulder.
“I won’t fit!” He calls in response, “I’ve already tried!”
I begin to panic, “Well we can’t just leave you stranded!”
“I’ll find a way out! Take this!” He shouts and he tosses the flashlight into the vent. It crashes down in front of me and I’m able to grab it before it rolls out of reach.
“I don’t know where the vent system leads but I think if you crawl enough you’ll find a way out!”
I hear the sounds of the grate going back up and screws being whirred back in. Skippy and I shoot each other nervous looks, but we know there’s no going back now. So I hold the flashlight and shine it ahead of us. Skippy leads the way, scurrying along, occasionally turning back to make sure I’m still there. It doesn’t take long before I’m drenched in sweat and out of breath. On the bright side, we get the feeling that we’re getting far away from whatever nightmare is going on in the demonstration room because the sounds of terror and chaos are getting softer the further we go. We keep crawling for a good distance, I’m sure it couldn’t have been more than a city block in length but we’re both running out of steam. Suddenly, the vent system feels shaky and unstable, and Skippy and I share a look of fear and a gulp of panic as we feel the vent give out from underneath us.
We crash with a thud. The impact doesn’t hurt as much as I would expect it to, and I’m not seeing stars like I imagined I would be. Skippy lets out a more groan-like sound than the whimpering-whines he had earlier. I look around to see that we fell out of the vents into what seems to be a dumpster or massive storage unit. Instead of trash, though, the giant, metallic box is packed full of fabric, looks like T-shirts and mock uniforms with the X-S logo and dates for the teleportation test run. I guess they were planning on trying to advertise their teleportation system using methods Earthlings do, like with T-shirts from tourist spots. Thank goodness they had this stuff in here though, otherwise Skippy and I would’ve been battered and bruised. We look each other over, and neither of us seems hurt, thank god.
“Do you know where we are?” I ask him, looking around.
It seems like we’re in a not-fully-set up gift shop of sorts. Like this would’ve been where they shuffled all the earthling test subjects after the teleportation trial. Counters with futuristic check-out machines, racks of clothes that are only partially set up, mannequins laid out but not dressed, and lots of X-S logos everywhere. I drag myself over to the edge of the storage unit thingy and hoist myself up and out. I give Skippy a hand getting down. He scurries around on the tile floor for a second, helping me look for a way out. I really hope the lockdown is lifted by now, because now we’re really toast if no one from X-S finds out that we’re stuck in here. As luck would have it, we find a push door behind the storage unit, and with a good heave on my part, it creaks open. Skippy and I rush out, seeing masses of Earthlings and X-S aliens making a mad-dash for their rockets and spaceships.
One of the guards sees Skippy and motions for other guards to chase him down. Skippy scrambles back towards me. I pick up and think “how am I going to break him out of here?” Then lightning strikes inside my brain. I grab an X-S backpack off one of the unfinished displays and quickly stuff Skippy in there, leaving a bit of breathing room as I pull the zipper shut. I think the guards believe they’ve just lost him in all the chaos. I race up to the aliens guiding earthlings onto the various spacecrafts.
“Where did you arrive from?” She asks me urgently.
“Virginia, near the historic triangle,” I answer directly.
She points me towards a ship a few rows down, “You’re our only guest from that area! Wait, why do you have that backpack?”
I swallow hard, “It… well in the chaos of trying to escape I think I found the gift shop… And it would be perfect to use back on Earth-”
“Oh forget it!” She huffs, “Just get on your transport, now!”
The loopy, light-speed fast ride home was nothing compared to the ride here and the scare they gave me with the teleportation mess. I have never been more relieved to be literally dropped into my backyard. Once I’m in the townhouse, I gently pull off my backpack and remove a shaken-up, but still in one piece Skippy.
“Oh thank goodness, you’re alright!” I sigh as I hug him close. He does a squeal that sounds somewhere between relieved and happy too.
Just then, I hear my husband gasp from behind us.
“What is that?!?” He shrieks.
I turn around with Skippy still in my arms, “An… An alien…”
Max just stands there, jaw on the ground, “A what?”
“I promise I can explain!” I spit out frantically, “And I swear he’s harmless!”
Max’s eyes roll back into his head. His body falls back and he hits the ground with a thump. He’s done this before. So I grab some pillows to prop up his legs with, get him a glass of cool water, and grab a cold compress to put on his forehead. It only takes a few minutes before he comes to, with both me and Skippy leaning over him.
“Mel, what happened?” He asks in a weak voice, his eyes still droopy.
“Do you promise you won’t faint again?” I ask firmly but with a hint of concern.
He takes a deep breath, “I’ll do my best.”
I slowly explain the story, about X-S reaching out to me, ending up at their facility, rescuing Skippy and nearly dying on the way. Max doesn’t believe me at first. He thinks I’m messing with him. He thinks Skippy is just a very realistic toy one of my students gifted me. Then Skippy does something I didn’t know he could do. He places a paw on my hand and on Max’s too, and in a dream-like state, I’m reliving this afternoon! Max is reliving it too because I can hear his screams and panicked questions.
“Oh my god!” He cries as Skippy removes his paws, “You’re lucky to be alive!”
I nod, “And now you see why I had to save Skippy!”
He shoots Skippy a sad look, “Are you okay little dude?”
Skippy nods too.
“And you named it?” He says to me, almost judgmentally.
I shake my head, “I didn’t name him! That was the name they called him at X-S!”
Skippy crawls into my lap and shoots Max a pleading look. He does that heart breaking whimper that drew my bleeding heart towards him in the first place. I can tell that he is getting to Max’s sensitive side too. We have always been a couple that cared about the little guy.
“We can’t send him back there, they’ll torture him even more,” I explain.
Max shakes his head, “You’re right, we can’t send him back. I just don’t know how we can take care of him. I mean, we don’t know what he eats or if he can even safely breathe earth air. And if he gets sick, we can’t just take him to a vet.”
He does raise quite a few good points. Skippy must understand what Max and I have been talking about, because he anxiously shakes his tail and twitches his antenna a bit. He knows we’re having to think about the logistics of letting him live here with us. It’s kind of amazing to me how much he understands even though he can’t verbally speak back to us. Then, Skippy scurries off towards the foyer, and begins excitedly hopping around the X-S flier I had dropped when the spaceship showed up hours ago.
“Skippy, hang on,” I say with a hint of confusion, “Do you recognize this flier?”
When I pick it back up, it starts buzzing again. I can see the screen coming back into view! Skippy and I rush back over to where Max is lying on the carpet and I hold out the flier like I’m getting ready to facetime again, with Max and Skippy both in view. The screen finally comes to a clear picture, and a very exhausted and frazzled Spinlock appears before us.
“Spinlok!” I shout excitedly.
“Mrs. Bergeson!” He shouts back. His eyes are wide as saucers and his exhaustion shifts to panic. “I… I didn’t realize you could still communicate with me using this channel!”
Max points at the alien on the screen aggressively, “You! You nearly got my wife killed!”
“I did no such thing!” Spinlok defends himself, and then he and Max start bickering back and forth, Max about how upset he is on my behalf and Spinlok insisting that what happened at X-S today wasn’t his fault.
I cut into the argument abruptly, “Hey!”
When I have both their attention again, I pull Skippy closer so Spinlok can clearly see him, “Look, I rescued Skippy from the teleportation tubes when all hell broke loose during the demonstration. Now if you want us to keep secret what happened at X-S today, you’re gonna tell Max and I how to keep Skippy happy and healthy here on Earth, got it?”
“That’s all you want?” He asks, clearly surprised.
“I’m not looking to extort an alien company, I just want Skippy to be safe and happy after you all used him like a test guinea pig against his will,” I say with a bite in my voice I don’t normally use.
Spinlok blinks frantically, “No problem! We’ll send you the grasses and leaves he would eat on the cliff tops on our home planet by spaceship every month! And if he ever needs medical attention, just reach me through the flier and I’ll send a med-ship. And make sure he gets a dish of water and a regular bath!”
“Thank you,” I say graciously.
“And you really do promise you won’t go public with the um… events of today?”
I hold up my right pinky, “I pinky-swear, and for earthling teachers that is the highest order of promise.”
Max cuts in, “She really does mean that! I’ve known her for six years and she’s never broken a pinky promise!”
“Oh thank goodness,” Spinlok sighs, “Thank you! We’ll have that first ship of food in a couple hours. Oh phew…”
Then the screen goes black.
Skippy bounces into my lap again and nearly knocks me over. He nudges my cheeks with his snout over and over again. Then he tackles Max and gives him the same affection. Today has been the craziest day of my life, and I probably could’ve died, but it was so worth it. I feel we just adopted a new puppy! And like we already have a bond you can’t break. Imagine the look on my students’ faces when I come into school on Monday morning and our new class pet is Skippy, a real-life alien, and a very snuggly one at that. I bet Skippy will love coming to school with me to kids who will spoil him, and then coming home each night to a safe place where he isn’t a test subject to nightmare experiments. This little Fluthmugoon Cliffhugger deserves it.
