Jack Strong and the Red Giant

Chapter Three: First Contact

Jack crashed to his knees and fell over, his right cheek bouncing off the floor.

Something was on top of him, holding him down.

He could feel its hot breath on the back of his neck and what felt like sharp claws digging between his shoulder blades, ripping and tearing at his skin.

He flapped and flailed, grasping nothing but air. Eventually, he managed to grab what felt like tough dry leather, and wrenched-off whatever was holding him down.

Jack gasped.

Facing him was a pair of big, black eyes surrounded by a pale, grey head, and a mouthful of sharp, white teeth.

He barely had time to breathe when the creature attacked him again, its dagger-like claws jabbing at his eyes as its small nose sucked in his scent. Within moments it was on top of him again, its gleaming fangs locked in an angry grimace as it tried to strangle him.

Then he heard laughter.

He turned around instantly. They both did.

The first thing he noticed was how red the girl was. She had bright red hair and eyes, crimson lips and she was even dressed in red, wearing a tight-fitting red suit that stretched all the way from her neck to her feet. Her skin was light pink. Like a rose, he thought.

"Is that how you practice first contact on your planets?" she chuckled.

Jack laid there quietly not knowing what to say as the thing on top of him glared at her with its tar-like eyes.

Then it opened its mouth, snarling back at her, "No, of course not. I was just protecting myself. I thought that he was going to attack me."

"No I wasn't," said Jack, not quite believing what he was hearing. "He attacked me, I did nothing to him, I swear."

"I don't care, you can believe what you like," the grey boy said, as he thrust him once more to the floor.

Then he got to his feet and walked towards the red girl. "Where did you learn my language?" he demanded, the dark green veins in his skin almost popping out of his forehead.

"What do you mean? I was going to ask you the same thing. Where did you learn Rennish?"

"Very amusing," he said, "stop messing around and tell me where you learnt Asvari. Your accent is perfect."

"Look," she continued, "if you want to believe that I'm speaking Asvari or Astar or whatever you want to call it then fine, but you might want to ask your friend over there how he can understand the both of us too!"

"He's NOT my friend!" he spat, glaring at Jack who was still in a heap on the floor. "I ... What language are you speaking?"

"What do you mean?" asked Jack, a little flustered.

"L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E!" he spelled out sarcastically. "What language are you speaking?"

"English, of course!" said Jack, getting to his feet.

"See, I told you!" said the red girl, her cheeks glowing purple.

"But how? It doesn't make sense," he said.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you. We aren't speaking each other's' languages, but we are hearing them! Somehow in this spaceship we are able to understand what other people say."

"But that's impossible," said Jack. "How?"

"I don't know how," said the red girl. "All I know is that it is happening. Perhaps there's something on board the spaceship that makes it possible. Maybe it's the spaceship itself, or maybe our brains have been re-programmed in some way."