Such is Life, Ceela V - Pt. 01

Part 1: Taken

Wren Lyatt had some shit luck. Not just recently, not this decade-- his whole damn life. His parents were killed during the first invasion while he was in grade 4. He was put in a foster home, beaten, and moved from one crappy set of parents to the next.

Then society started to fall into serious disarray. The first wave of the alien invasion was likely designed to create panic. Destabilize things. Most major cities around the world were targeted, and things never really got better.

When the second wave came in 2030, Wren had just turned 18. He was just on the verge of moving out on his own, when the familiar obelisks appeared in the sky above him on his way to school, he realized that finishing school was now the least of his worries.

The attack wasn't like last time. This time the smaller ships that filtered out of the larger ones were taking people instead of killing them.

A craft landed in the street he was on, as the landing gear demolished a convenience store nearby. People definitely died. A door opened, and a ramp slid out, stabbing into the pavement like a blade.

Wren was in shock, having never seen the invaders in person before. Two of them exited the ship, holding rifle-like weapons. They looked like they were made of coral, or crystal.

The alien soldiers carried themselves like mercenaries, but they were smooth and metallic looking, seemingly like androids. But it was a shell-- you could tell when they opened their visors.

Wren was looking at one when it did. Underneath it looked...spider-like. The other one pointed a weapon at Wren, and fired. He heard a sound but saw no weapon fire, however he lost all motor functions, collapsing to the ground in a heap.

One of the troopers picked him up, and threw him into the shuttle. Wren's skull met with the interior of the craft, and all went dark.

He woke up with a pounding agony in his left temple. He felt for blood, but his fingers were dry. He looked around.

The cell was dark except for a illuminated wall of energy in a trapezoidal shape. Some kind of door, maybe.

He approached it, held his hand close. No heat. He turned his hand around, and slowly edged his knuckle towards the surface.

Searing pain was instantaneously spread throughout his entire body. He fell back, screaming in shocked confusion at the hurt that flowed through every nerve.

Wren was having a shit life. But although he wouldn't know it for a little while, things were slowly turning around.

By then he remembered very little of his time since leaving Earth. Before meeting...her... everything seemed to hold little meaning.

The shuttle docked in the larger ship, and his cell opened. He was escorted by a shelled soldier, still reeling from the pain of the laser door.

Earth had never officially named the invaders. They were the only extra terrestrials that the public ever knew about at the time. Wren began thinking of them as Shells, after their carapace-like armor.

They never tried communicating with him. They just shoved him into a room with a few other people, maybe a dozen.

Wren tried to console a screaming woman but it was no use. The others were a little more calm, but he didn't know what to say. They were all in shock, and very scared.

There was a sudden deafening sound that seemed to come from everywhere, as everybody fell to the floor, clutching their hands against their ears.

Then it stopped. He didn't know what it meant, but his guess was they could have travelled quickly through space, or maybe a weapon was fired at Earth. No way to know.

Wren pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was dead. Maybe the sound just drained his phone's battery. That would have been funny if he wasn't so scared.

After a few hours, his group was led into another shuttle. That shuttle travelled a distance, but with no windows in anything since he was taken, he had no clue where he was.

A bright light poured into the shuttle as the door opened slowly. He and the others exited the shuttle, down the platform, into a strange room.

They walked cautiously into the brightly lit cube. It was about the size of a warehouse, and was bathed in purple light. There was a door at the end of the room, and there was movement outside.

Wren was at the front of his group, the first to advance towards the door. It slid open, like the one at the convenience store that was no more.

He stepped out into a massive, alien city. Aliens of countless shapes and sizes strolled around, like citizens of a metropolitan hub. A greenish blue sky loomed overhead.

There were things that looked humanoid, and things that were so abstract that Wren wasn't sure if they were a kind of technology.

Something bumped into him, knocking him to the ground. He looked up at something that had the face of a hornet's nest.

"Fuck out of the way," it said, somehow, and walked away on its three withered legs. It sounded like what a tree would sound like if it could talk.

The other people came outside beside him, looking around in bewilderment.

He felt no connection to them, even though they were the only humans around.

Wren Lyatt left them, to explore the city he would soon come to love. Where he would meet...her. Ceela.

Part 2: Geo

Wren learned a few things on his first day. The fact that every alien lifeform in the city could communicate with each other was pure luck in that regard.

At first he was in shock, walking alone through an alien city, seeing lifeform after lifeform that he had to come to terms with. Some were beautiful, others were nightmare fuel.

His first attempt to communicate with something was an unexpected success. He found something that looked close to his own biology, and said hello.

The skinny, froggish thing said, "Hi," like it was a normal day. It had something like clothes wrapped around it's lower torso.

"What...where..." Wren didn't know how to proceed.

"Are you okay?" it asked politely.

"I...don't know," he said. "I just got here. I was...taken, my planet..."

"Oh, by the farm." It blinked at him.

"No, not from a farm. My planet--"

"No," it said, "the ones that took you. We call them The Farm. They invade, take people, drop the survivors in places like this."

"Survivors?"

The frog person answered all his questions, before growing weary and walking away. Earth was likely being drained of its resources, and the majority of the race was probably dead. Or maybe not.

No one opposed The Farm, the race of spider-like people who were also responsible for cities like Geo, the one he now resided in. The Farm were invaders, but also providers.

Geo provided universal translation between any sentient race, using a type of nanotech. Most concepts carried over enough that it was usually a seamless effect. Wren could still faintly hear the frog's real language under the translation which seemed to resonate from the frog itself.

The Farm had cities like Geo on countless planets throughout the known universe. They didn't genocide races-- they germinated them over vast distances.

Wren asked around, talking to various types of things, some of which seemed friendly, others were not as much.

He saw a structure that looked like a restaurant. He entered, and found a line up of various species putting their hands-- or appendages-- on a scanner.

Then they grabbed a bowl that appeared from a device. They consumed the contents.

Wren got in line. He was hungry, and feeling a little weak. He stood behind something made of gel. Something unseen stepped in the queue behind him.

Eventually his turn came, and he placed his hand on the scanner. A bowl presented itself, full of chunky, beige gruel. He took the bowl and walked to the seating area. There were tables of various shapes to accommodate the various shaped lifeforms.

Wren sat down at an empty table, looking around. He felt like he was in an alien prison. Nobody seemed friendly, but it was hard to determine with such bizarre faces.

"Hey," a feminine voice behind him said, "can I sit here?"

Wren turned. A tall, fuchsia colored alien stood next to him. It looked like a curvaceous woman with the face of a...gecko. It, or maybe she, had slanted reptilian eyes with gold irises. She had nostrils in place of a nose.

Wren thought she was not only aesthetically beautiful, but maybe even--

"Hello?" She waved at him.

"Sorry," he said, "Yes, please."

"Thanks," she said, seeming a little sassy. "You seem lost. Are you okay?"

Why did she sound like a hot girl? She looked like a giant, pink leopard gecko. She even had a tail.

"I am kinda lost," he said, "I just got here, like a couple hours ago. The Farm."

"Shit," she said, sitting right next to him. "I'm sorry. I've been there. Last year."

"Did...you know there were other...types of life? Out there? Before Geo?"

"Yeah," she said, "But it's not always common. Most races don't know about aliens until The Farm brings them to a city like Geo. But even still, getting taken from your home is pretty rough."

"Yeah," he said, "I'm still wrapping my head around this whole translation thing. You sound so human. But your lips move to your own language. It's like you're dubbed over."

She had a slender neck, and no hair. She was covered in speckled patterns. She wore a robe made of metallic cloth. He couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"Human? That's your race? I'm Agerian. My name is Ceela Vessa. Ceela works."

"I'm Wren." He put out his hand. She looked at it.

"Is this a greeting?" She looked up at him, as her irises dilated.

"Yeah, sorry. We...hold hands and--"

She grasped his hand with her four fingered hand. Her skin looked bumpy and rough, but she was as soft as velvet. Her forearm was twice the size of his.

"Hello, Wren." She smiled at him with her wide mouth. "Really nice to meet you."

Wren stared at her, feeling strange, confusing emotions.

"Yeah," he said. "Same."

Part 3: Ceela

Wren and Ceela had lunch together. His food looked like shit but it was created with his nutritional needs in mind. It tasted pretty good too. Like...the superfood to beat all others. She lapped hers up with a peach colored tongue.

Ceela was very kind to him. He wasn't sure if he was giving off lost puppy vibes, or if there was something in him she found interesting.

They talked about the city, and Wren asked her many questions. How things like money and jobs worked, if there was crime. Every new question raised another round, so he gave up interrogating her after a while.

The main takeaway was they weren't prisoners but they gained more freedoms the more they contributed to Geo's society. Staples of life were free but you had to work for anything beyond that.

"I don't know where I'm going to sleep tonight," he said absently. He didn't mean it as a question for Ceela.

"Stay with me," she said sweetly. "Until you find a place. I live alone. There's homeless shelters but they're not ideal."

"I..." He didn't want to intrude, but he wanted to spend more time with her. "Yeah, if you don't mind."

"It'll be fun," she said, standing up, "You can tell me about your planet."

He stood as well. She must have been a full foot and a half taller than him, and he was six feet tall. Her body had more mass than he realized at first. She was pretty chubby, as far as alien gecko women went.

They walked a few blocks, talking about his experience so far. They stood in line for a transit shuttle. After a few minutes one landed, looking like giant subway car. They boarded, and it took off soundlessly into the air.

She watched him as he relished in the experience. He couldn't believe how wondrous everything was. Earth might be gone, and he didn't really care. Geo was so much better. It was fantastic.

The bus thing was full of strange lifeforms. He kept noticing new types, as the shuttle flew over bridges and buildings. He was also registering the more common races. There were frog people, rock people, and about a hundred other types. He even saw a couple gecko looking types on the bus.

Ceela wasn't a giant anthropomorphic gecko, though that was how he first saw her. Her biology was way more nuanced. Her tail was pudgy but prehensile, and it twirled around like a cat at times.

Her dress was beautiful, but he wondered why she wore it. Half the races had no clothes. He figured the other half had parts to hide. He wondered what Ceela's might look like.

They got off at a platform, high above the ground floor they first departed from. She escorted him to a building that looked like an apartment. The architecture was pretty uniform in Geo, but it wasn't soulless. It felt dynamic, and stylish.

He followed her inside her domicile lobby, and they rode an elevator up several floors until they reached her level. It was like he never left Earth. Except for all the aliens.

He watched her saunter down the cylindrical hallway, staring at her swirling tail. Her hips swayed. His mind swayed and swirled as well: he had to remind himself that she was an alien. She sounded female, but that didn't mean anything.

"This is me," she said, and opened her sliding door.

They walked inside. Her place was pretty small, but she had a few rooms. She had big windows, and a patio. It was weirdly familiar.

"So, the tour: comm room, clean room, and my room."

She pointed to each door, which were currently open.

"The functions for each are entertainment, waste, and sleep, respectively."

Wren saw something like a TV in the first. The second had a shower and a something that might have been a toilet. The last was the largest room. It was dimly lit and its contents were hard to determine.

"We can sit out here for a while?" She waved her large arm towards a comfortable looking piece of sloped furniture.

He took a seat, she did too. Quite close to him. She had no scent. She slumped to her side and stretched out a bit. The sounds of the city made for a comforting background noise.

"So, you're all alone here?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, "I sort of bailed on my fellow humans. I didn't know them. Now I feel bad."

"They'll be okay," she said. "New races are annoying to some, but they're treated like toddlers. No offense!" She smiled wide. Her lips looked perpetually wet. Like lip gloss, if the gloss also coated the inside of her big mouth.

"None taken," he said. He did worry she was just helping out someone helpless, instead of hanging with a new friend.

"Hey, Wren," she put her soft palm on his leg. "Not the reason I invited you. I think you're really nice, not a sympathy case."

"Thanks," he said, looking deeply into her gold eyes. Each iris had widened, likely because it was dimmer in this living room space. Her put his hand on top of hers.

She looked down at his little hand.

"Wren." Her expression was hard to determine. He wished he hadn't placed his hand on her soft skin. For one, he might be crossing a line, for many reasons. For two, the sensation was arousing him.

"Sorry," he said. He went to move his hand. She placed her other hand on top of his.

"Don't be. That's not what I'm saying." She leaned in closer. Her eyes were so big. Her mouth was so close. She spoke quietly.

"This might surprise you," she said softly, "but I find you very attractive. That sounds strange, I'm sure. I'm the first alien you've had an extended conversation with. The concept of attraction across species is probably as weird on your planet is it was on mine."

"Well," he said slowly, "On mine, we're the only race. Well, that has our level of intelligence. Or the kind of intelligence that can build, and invent. Everything else is just an animal to us. And the two don't mix. Doing so is morally..."

"...Fucked up?" she said.

How did this translator situation work so damn well?

"Ageria was like that too. I knew there were other races out there, but we were the top of the food chain on our planet, intelligence-wise. When I first came to Geo, I was pretty shocked to see aliens in relationships with other aliens."

She leaned back a little, and looked away.

"Wren," she said, " I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. You just got here and I'm...being weird. I should have--"

"Ceela," he said, " I like you. I mean, I'm attracted to you, too. Well, both."

They stared at each other for a while. The first sun was setting. The second would soon follow.

Part 4: Night

"So," Ceela said, "You don't seem that weirded out."

"I am," Wren said, "but not because of you. Well..."

He thought about how quickly he felt an attraction to her. There were aspects to her that were visually stimulating. But there were subtle things he couldn't rationalize.

"...I was blown away the first time I saw you. This afternoon." He laughed. She smiled.

"I thought you were beautiful. I felt an attraction right away."

"Me too," she said. "You were walking down the street, and I had never seen your kind before. But even still, you seemed special. I followed you. I never eat at the free place, but I lined up behind you. I didn't know why."

"You were behind me?"

"Yeah," she said, tilting her head at him. "Embarrassing. I just wanted to talk to you. Gender is pretty wonky here. For some races, it doesn't apply. For others it means drastically different biological setups. Most races have two, for reproduction. Some have more, for reasons even I don't understand."

"Ours is for reproduction. But pleasure, too." He was hyper aware that his hand was pressed between hers, on his thigh.

"Mine too. I knew you were a male right away. Our males are smaller than the females, about your height. You might have seen a few today. I just thought you were a little cute then. Now..."

She squeezed his leg.

"When I was still on Ageria, I was nearly an adult, but I was still naive. Now I've been full grown for a year, but I've never been intimate with anyone before. Not even with my race."

Wren found it quite sweet. He was a basically a virgin as well.

"I'm the same. I was this close to moving out on my own, starting my independence when I ended up here."

Wren leaned in closer to her. She didn't shy away.

"Ceela...how do we?"

She smiled wide and giggled. Her own laugh hidden under her translation was like music to his ears.

"Right?" she said. "I don't know either. Maybe you should tell me what you would do. If I were like you."

"Well," he said slowly, "Never mind that. Right now I just want to feel you. Your skin is so soft."

He moved his free hand up to her neck, and traced his fingers over her bumpy skin. It was like cashmere, or silk. Things he never felt in real life. But he heard about them.

She closed her massive eyes, and tilted her neck against his hands.

"What do you like?" he asked her.

"Touching is a good start," she said sweetly. She removed her hands from his leg, and covered his hand that was stroking her neck with her own. She felt warm.

He was still intimidated by her size, and her alien biology. But both factors were incredibly thrilling to him all the same.

"Come with me," she said, and he followed her to her bedroom.

He followed her down the short hall, realizing he was very hard. This was so surreal. Her tail reached out and brushed against his groin.

"Hmm," she said. She said nothing further.

He followed her inside, and found a large, padded mattress that looked like a waterbed.

"Are clothes something you wear to hide your more...intimate areas?" She was smiling. Her eyes seemed luminescent in this dark room.

"Yeah," he said nervously. "You?"

She wordlessly removed her metallic dress by pulling it over her head. She stood before him, naked in the twilight of her room.

Even in the dark, the details of her body were clear. She had a pear shaped torso, and the dress had hidden her middle abdomen. There were a dozen ridges of smooth, pale flesh that seemed like they would be more sensitive. Near her waist, she had a protruding tummy, and the ridges carried on over and under it. He couldn't see what was hidden under there, between her legs.