Heart of Gold

Chapter Two - Making Friends

The rivet counting boredom that Sunny had hoped she wouldn't sink to did not take long to arrive, and when it hit, it hit with a vengeance. Sunny had never been able to counter boredom - she couldn't wait the half a minute it took for a video to buffer without checking her phone to keep her occupied. And so her thoughts turned once again to her roommate. He had been familiar enough with the plastic wrapped bars and water bottle, suggesting that wherever he was from, they were an advanced enough society, if somewhat comfortable too with nudity for Sunny's liking. Or maybe that was simply a trait reserved for Kilnor.

They were similar looking, too. Coming from completely different galaxies (Sunny refused to believe humans would have missed an alien species sharing the galaxy with them), Sunny would have expected an alien - she shuddered at the word - to look different. Green, she thought, possibly with tentacles - lots of tentacles.

But Kilnor looked, if not completely human, at least like the cousin of a human. His skin was a pale gold. Not the gold of a suntan, but the soft gold of old jewellery, shimmering slightly in the light. Brighter gold scales dotted his skin - swirling in thick elegant patterns over his chest, with thinner tendrils reaching up to decorate his face and limbs. If his skin shimmered, the scales fairly glittered, though Sunny had the sense that the scales were duller than they should have been. His hair was the same colour as his scales, and it hung in matte clumps around his face.

Either Kilnor didn't like bathing - or he'd been here a while. Sunny was betting on the latter, which was not something that boded well for her.

She shifted, an ache beginning to pulse in her lower back. Kilnor twitched in his corner, his eyes meeting hers with a faint look of disapproval. Sunny glared back. It wasn't her fault she'd been dumped in here, and she was way past the kindergarten stage of sitting on the floor with her legs crossed. Her conscious twanged slightly, and she remembered it was highly unlikely Kilnor had asked for this either, and her face softened.

Sorry, she mouthed instead, hoping he would understand the gesture. If he did, he didn't reply, tilting his head back to continue staring at the ceiling. Seeing him stretched out like that, Sunny had briefly given it a go earlier, wondering if there was some logical reason behind it, but after staring at the blank ceiling herself for minutes on end, had decided the position wasn't for her.

Now, she simply stared at him, her back and head leaning against the sheet of metal that made up the wall. Maybe, if she was lucky, he'd do something interesting. Unlikely, but it would be entertaining. Even as these thoughts flitted through her head, Sunny knew she should be concentrating on making her escape. But if she'd put the facts together correctly - and putting facts together had always been something Sunny excelled at - the slight vibration of the cage and the fact she was sharing said cage with an alien meant she was most likely on a spaceship. Even if she did escape, there was nowhere to escape too, except maybe the cockpit of this ship, which certainly wouldn't do her any good. Unless... the thought trailed off in her mind as her stare changed to speculative. She certainly couldn't pilot a spacecraft, but that wasn't to say her roommate wasn't capable.

So escape was a slim possibility. But first, they'd have to plan. And planning usually required the use of a shared language. And of course, all of this was dependant upon a wild hope that Kilnor could pilot this spacecraft.

With the thought of possible escape buoying her, Sunny got to her feet, trying not to blush as the movement left the entirety of her naked body exposed. Hands placed strategically, she inched across the room to sit down at Kilnor's side, immediately repositioning herself more modestly.

Sunny could feel his eyes on her and, she flushed, endeavouring not to think about certain other parts of his body on hers.

He didn't move until she spoke.