The Fifth Finger: Short Story

The Fifth Finger: A Short Story

“I am a man; I consider nothing human alien to me.”
-Terence

Jake O’Brian felt odd.
What an impossible frontier space felt like. What incredible boundaries he was crossing, what amazingly inexcusable barriers he was breaking! He found himself flying through the celestial bodies and all of this while still in his pajamas.
Yeah, the novelty only lasts so long before you find yourself equating this to a long car ride, but with a kitchen. Jake was clinging onto a metal bar to prevent himself from floating away from the window.
“Kristie.” Jake beckoned out to nowhere with a very bored face. “When do you think we’ll find a planet with people that actually like us?”
He didn’t hear anything.
“Kristie?”
And a burly voice came floating behind him.
“Kristie’s in the john.” Sid answered back. Jake rolled his eyes, just thinking to himself. He didn’t think anything in particular, just thought.
“Adventuring isn’t like you thought it’d be, is it, Jake?” And Sid’s ability to read other people never ceased to surprise him.
“I never thought that we’d be so far away from home that to even plan on being back would take years.”
“No one does, kid. You ain’t the first. You regretting’ it?”
“Not really. I’m as miserable here as I was back home.”
When you decide to start adventuring, you forget homesickness, you forget loneliness. Those things don’t matter yet. Not until you’ve been doing it for years and the idea of getting back home is an adventure in and of itself and you finds yourself looking for some haven where everything is better. That mystical planet “Olympia” and its Gods and men who can thrust lightning bolts from their hands. Where the food is good and the wine is better. Heaven, if you were able to travel there.
And then the one thing happened that you secretly wanted.
A hatch opened and Richard flew out of it. Richard, the tired old captain. He trusts the auto-pilot far too much.
“Kristie? Where’s Kristie?”
“She’s in the john.” Sid answered quickly. You had to admire his candor.
Richard shouted a few choice expletives and started searching for her. Jake found himself worried, excited, confused. If something interesting was happening, he wanted to be a part of it. He was the mechanic, but he did serve a term in the army. Jake could handle a little action.
“What’s going on, Rick?”
“We’re being boarded. We’re receiving a hostile signal; I think we’re dealing with pirates.”
“Oh God.”
Jake took out a weapon, drawing and loading it. Jake was quick with his fourth arm. He pushed himself off the wall and took toward the hatch and it opened, sensing his presence. He got to the entrance/boarding door of the spaceship “Fifth Finger”.
He wasn’t the only one there. Richard, Sid and the rest of the gang, Trish, Al, John… except Kristie.
Everyone had pistols ready. Real bullets could not be used because they would only ricochet and kill everyone in the room or blast a hole in the ship and start sucking. They had to use lasers. Not as effective but they hurt.
The red light above the door was now green and the pirates were boarding. The hatch started to open. Everyone was shocked as much as anyone could be shocked.
They were pink. They were fleshy. Men of two arms, men of strong physique and men of fine structure. These were the Gods of which they’d been shown. These were not Aluquecians. These were the “Romans” of which they’d heard tales of. They’d reached Olympia. The Romans boarded with no weapons, only their hands. Jake hadn’t practiced Roman tongue for a long time; the idea of reaching Olympia was so far away. He saw everybody bow to these holy figures… and for one reason or another, Jake didn’t feel like bowing.
The Romans spoke the tongue we all expected them to. “Rod?” He called to a fellow Roman. “What is going on here? Could these possibly be…” and a Roman called back to him. “Ted… these are aliens.”
They all just looked upon us Aluquecians. “Aliens” they called us. They seemed surprised to have people worshipping them. Jake just looked at them all, not bowing as it seemed he should but watching. He knew that these men were not Gods. Jake just floated towards them and stared one in the eye… the Roman showed fear, something no God should ever possess. He held out his hand to shake.
“Hail, Roman.”
Jake said to the man, the fleshy man with “hair” and his hair was a fiery orange. The man didn’t know how to react; he seemed confused by the term “Roman.”
The man took his hand, retracting for a second; his hand seemed to be dry but then took it again. He then pointed to himself with one of five fingers and said “Human.” He then pointed to Jake. Unaware of what to say, Jake was silent. The man pointed to himself again, repeating the term “Human” and then pointed to Jake. He started to get the idea and he pointed to himself and said “Jake.”