The red woman – Lily had gotten used to calling it a woman now – was smiling at her, as it had for the last two days. Its form has become more… definite. That was easier for Lily to accept than admitting that she found its appearance… alluring.
It didn't just take that form when Lily was around either, she had noticed. It took on that feminine form much of the time, indeed usually when Lily entered the research pod she, it, whatever it was… was already like that.
'Is that her natural form?' Lily wondered, ‘Is it simply copying me, or did it just take a while to replicate its natural appearance?’
The red woman had made excellent progress. Lily felt now that she had wasted hours trying to break through a brick wall, when she could have just walked around it. Why had she bothered trying to build up a new language when the red woman already spoke the universal language - math.
Lily was now able to communicate basic concepts. Basic as in direction, location, and so on, and the red woman had responded in kind. It might not have seemed much, but that basic premise laid the groundwork for everything that was to come.
Today would be their first real communication. She had gotten used to the red woman’s presence, but now… she was nervous again. Being near her, there was something deep within her that just screamed 'alien'. It was as if on an instinctual level, something in her was telling her to run. As she stared into the red woman’s black eyes it was hard to deny that feeling held some merit. On some level she was sure she...
No, that was natural anxiety. Knowing this thing was sentient, yet that sentience was hidden behind a placid smile and beaming eyes, was triggering a simple reflex in her. Lily reminded herself that this was, by far, the most important discovery in history. She couldn't help getting a little giddy at that, and of course she was nervous. Occasionally she forgot what was going on and when she remembered she got a rush.
This was really happening! She was overseeing first contact with an alien... being? Device? Probe? Something, at any rate.
Should she have left it to someone more qualified? Probably, but at this point, she was beyond caring either way. Besides, it obviously wanted to communicate! She couldn't just leave it alone. It had come all this way… who knew how long it had been trapped in there? Had it known the passage of time?
“Hello”, Lily said, making the movements of her mouth more exaggerated than necessary so it could see them and, she hoped, mimic them. She then raised a hand, and waved it slowly.
HELLO, mouthed the red woman, and she raised the opposite hand, mirroring hers.
Lily placed her hand on herself. “Lily”, she said, but due to having to stretch her mouth it came out “LILL-LEE”.
LILL-LEE, it mouthed, and after a few moments, gestured towards Lily with its arm.
Lily forced herself to remain calm, as she didn't want to quite literally send the wrong message. After all, how would this thing know what congratulatory language was? Instead, Lily simply channelled that energy into putting the next part of her plan into action.
Lily now pointed at the red woman and waited. The red woman put a 'hand' on her chest, which melted into the surface slightly, and mouthed something. Lily realised the problem with her plan. When it was copying what she said, it was easy to tell what it was mouthing. When it mouthed something on its own, it was practically impossible to discern its meaning.
Panicking, not wanting to cause confusion at this crucial moment, Lily tried to copy the word using her own mouth. The red woman seemed to smile wider, then repeated it.
Lily put her tongue in the same position, cupping her upper lip, and made a noise. “LLL...”
She watched as the red woman did it again, and Lily copied. “Ooooh... L-O...”
Patiently, the red woman simply kept doing it, over and over.
“L... O... L...”
Had the red woman just… giggled? For a second, Lily caught herself. It looked as if... no, that was impossible. How would it possibly know what laughter was?
The red woman, for her part, made no sign they had changed their behaviour at all. Still beaming, still gazing into her soul, it mouthed it again.
“L... O... L... Ahhhh.” Lily mimicked, and worked the word in her mouth. “Looolaaaa... Lola!”
The red woman put a hand on the glass... and Lily put hers on top of it. Smiling, the red women moved her hand to match Lily’s.
“Lola. Hello, Lola.”
HELLO... LILY...
Lily's heart was racing. She had done it. The first real communication with an alien. First contact.
She pointed at Lola, saying “Lola”, and pointed at herself, “Lily.” The red girl did the same, mouthing the names in reverse.
Lily began typing notes as quickly as she could, and for a few minutes that was all she did. Then she realised just how... rude that was. The thing across from her was a thinking, feeling... well she wasn't sure of that yet, but the red woman was here to communicate, and all she was doing was typing!
The red woman, for her part, was exhibiting very human behaviour. Strangely so. Its head was cocked to one side, and for the first time its eyes were fixed on something else. They were staring at Lily's data-pad.
Recognizing the opportunity, Lily put her system to work.
“Daaah” - “Taaah” - “Paaaah-de”.
The red girl pointed at it, and repeated it. Grinning, Lily wrote a few more notes, then looked up to see what the red girl would look at next... but it was still looking at the datapad.
“Oh...” she said, and moved closer to the pod.
“This is...” she started, before shutting herself up. It couldn't understand her words. Not yet, at least but she could show it things.
Lily turned the datapad to face them both, and began demonstrating what it did. She showed how it could control the lights, open or close some panels in the room remotely, and then showed some cameras. When she got to the camera that was watching them, she pointed at Lola on the screen and mouthed “LOLA”.
Lola's face was... squished up against the pod’s glass, almost distorting her features. It seemed fascinated by the device, and it waved at itself and Lily when it saw them on screen. Lily couldn't help stifling a giggle at her nearly childlike behaviour. It obviously recognized itself, though, which meant she had just saved herself about 20 minutes and the trouble of finding a mirror.
Lily found a whiteboard and pen, and began to draw. She was no amazing artist, but she drew a rough circle, and coloured it in yellow. She then pulled up security footage. First of the impact, then of putting the sphere in the pod, showing it all to Lola.
Pointing to the whiteboard, she mouthed, “LOLA”, then pointed to Lola and mouthed it again.
Lola just smiled.
“LOLA” she mouthed, and pointed at them again.
Lola smiled, but held up a 'hand'. Lola then showed, by manipulating it around with her other ‘hand’ that it was soft.
“Not the same stuff...” Lola muttered, not moving her lips, “yeah. But then where did that thing go?”
It then occurred to her that Lola could change their shape. Lily wondered, then, if that meant it could change its internal shape as well. Could it form a pocket of air? Could it take on some human structures, and maybe speak?
Lily put her hand to the glass, and Lola copied. Lily then spoke, with her mouth as close to the glass as she could without touching it.
“Aaaaa...”, she toned, very loudly, and felt the glass vibrate slightly under her touch.
Lola seemed to recognize this, and then opened her mouth... but with no sound.
“LILY”, Lily said, louder, and at that Lola paused, staring uncertainly.
Lily pulled her data pad over, and though some deep-dive searching, pulled up a medical database on how the human voice worked. She didn't expect Lola to understand what was written there, of course, but there were pictures, and most importantly, a video and 3d model.
Lola seemed fascinated. Far more so than she had been with anything before. Medical diagrams and readouts of the human throat had her rapt attention, it seemed. Even more so when Lily began to show her pictures, pointing to herself and back to the diagrams to emphasise the similarities.
'This is what I have. This is how I make the glass shake. I make noises when I speak. That is how we communicate.' It was such a devilishly difficult concept to convey, but she hoped, somehow, it was getting through.
At last, Lily turned to the glass. “LILY”, she said and pointed to her throat.
Lola seemed to pause for a while, and was no longer smiling. For a moment, Lily was disheartened.
Then it happened.
“WWWUUUWWW”
Lily put her hands to the glass, and Lola did the same.
“WWWWUUUWWWAAA”
*****
It took two days, going through every medical journal the database had, showing Lola every single image, every diagram, even modelling them and printing out 3d copies, even putting the images on a larger screen she had taken the time to disconnect and move into the research area.
Lola's voice grew more and more pronounced. Having mastered a “yes and no, good and bad” system, Lily was able to correct it, until after hours, they had done it.
“Hell-low... Lillee... I ammm... Low...lah”
“Yes!” Lily clapped, smiling like a loon, and gave Lola two thumbs up for the first time.
Lola smiled, and clapped. Lily giggled at that. She must have picked it up from her.
“Lily... here,” she pointed at the surface closest to her.
“Lola... here...” Lola responded slowly, the way she did when Lily got the impression she wasn't sure of a meaning yet.
Lily moved. “Lily here,” she said, pointing at her new location.
Lola then moved a little to the side, and... for a moment, looked so dejected. She turned back to Lily, and pointed down. “Lola here.”
Some deep part of her felt a pang of sorrow at that. Lola was stuck in there, and she had just... reinforced that reality. “Lola... there,” she said, slowly, and pointed at Lola's pod.
“Lily… therrreee?” Lola said, very slowly, but seeming to grasp the idea. Lily moved around a few more times, but didn’t make any further references to Lola’s confinement. After all, Lily asked herself, would she want to be trapped in that pod with her? A little flutter in her heart told her she might not really want the answer to that question.
That was it, though. Time waited for no one. If she didn't sleep now, she wouldn't be even moderately fit for the day ahead. They had been at this for the better part of a day. Lily tried to explain, but failed, that she had to go, and wouldn't come back for some time.
Lola put her hands on the glass as Lily left, and Lily was fighting back tears. Lola seemed so... afraid.
Lily moved away and said “Lily go”, then moved closer and said “Lily come.”
As she moved away again, Lola asked, softly, “Lily… come?”
She nodded, and pulled up a picture of a clock on the datapad, and demonstrated how long a minute was, and then indicated how long an hour would be… and then finally how long six hours would be.
“Lily go…” she showed the six hours passing as the clock hands spun, “Lily come.”
Lola seemed heartbroken, and Lily stared into Lola's eyes. There was an infinite depth there, in those inky black pools. It was like staring out into space, only now that endless void was staring back at her.
Without looking away, Lily had her hands in the manipulators before she realised what she was doing. The thick, almost impractically so gloves, were for manipulating things within the pod, and now her hands were essentially protruding into the pod within them. For a second, both of them just stared at the thick rubbery gloves which had emerged from the side of the pod.
Lola swarmed over them and Lily yelped in shock, pulling back, but felt her arms pinned inside as the gloves had shrunk to be utterly skin tight. Lola was staring with the utmost intensity at the gloves, and a maddened smile.
“Lily...” they said, and then again, “Lily.”
“Y-yeah, that's me, b-but um, can you please let me go now.”
Lola's eyes shot up to hers, and burned passionately, that smile widening manically as the gloves tightened a little more, not painful, but indicating the incredible strength Lola had to even bend the material.
“Please let me go” Lily said, trying not to sound scared, but failing.
Lola seemed to have a moment of recognition, before the smile slowly returned to normal.
“Lily.”
She felt Lola's grip slacken.
Lily pulled her arms free, rather less calmly than she wished, sputtered out “Lily come back.”
Lola's hands were on the glass again. “Lily!”
Lily, however, was floating away, trying not to look back, or let Lola see the tears bubbling in her eyes.
Why had she done that? Why had she put her hands in there? Was she that sleep deprived? That mad from isolation? What if Lola had burned right through the gloves, dissolved her and released a gas that burned all the oxygen on the station? She had no idea what Lola was made of, what they could do...
‘Lola wouldn't hurt me’ whispered a distant voice in her mind.
How did she know that, though? She couldn't know that. On some level, of course, she knew Lola would never hurt her intentionally. There was something so... pure in those eyes. Those eyes. Lily was getting to the point where she could see flashes of those eyes even when her own were closed. Her heart was racing. There was a sheen of sweat on her chest.
Fear wasn't the only reason she'd raced out of there.
She practically threw herself into her sleeping quarters, stripped off her clothes and bundled herself in her bag. With animalistic, primal urges taking over, her hand snapped between her legs as she chewed her lip. That feeling... when Lola had just... rushed over her... it dredged up something from deep within her that was overriding all other thoughts. Now she went searching for it just as deep within herself.
Mechanically, forcibly, she fucked herself now. There was no build up, just a pure instinctual urge to pursue sexual release at all costs. She didn’t warm herself up, and winced at her own roughness.
Her body wrenched as she strained against the restraints of the sleeping bag, twisting and writhing in ecstasy as she rode her digits towards an almighty climax. She could already tell it would be far, far stronger than those she had had before.
It had been as if in that moment something had just totally taken over. That strength... Lily had had no chance of getting free. It was like her hands had been just cemented in place in those gloves, and yet it had felt so soft at the same time... like being buried in… inside herself.
Lily screamed in ecstasy, “Oh... fuck... I'm gonna cum... fuck...” she spat shakily as her hand was a blur between her thighs.
She doubled over, the material of her sleeping bag creaking before it ripped open altogether. The sheer force of her orgasm had rent her body so far that the tensile material had been split as if it were paper. She was silent as her body shivered, cresting the peak of an orgasm that exceeded any she had ever had.
As if recovering from a blow, but pleasurable instead of painful, she shuddered and groaned, drooling into the remnants of her sleeping bag as her mind melted away into climax-induced sleep.
*****
Back in the research lab, Lola was idly turning the gloves inside out, reversing them and then, with her new-found freedom, reaching out for the data-pad floating nearby.
Lola began to flick through the systems she had just been shown, and went straight to the databases. She began to read. Then she moved to videos, pictures, more. She learned. The more she looked, the more questions she had, but luckily Lola knew just who to ask to find the answers.
Flicking over to the security camera, she grinned, head resting in a second pair of arms she crafted for herself as she watched Lily finger herself senseless. “Fuck... I’m gonna cum... gonna cum...”
Lola just giggled, watching on in earnest amusement. “How right you are, Lily…”
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