Perf

a short story

Welcome, new and long-time subscribers!
I’m sharing a bit of flash fiction this week. You can browse other short stories from my collection here. If you haven’t already, check out my novel, it’s complete and waiting for your feedback.

Please like, comment, and share with anyone who reads… stuff.
Thanks,
Bill

:COMMAND: Send the last data collection

:TL2RD: Sending. Energy levels past critical. Forward motion stopped. Ancillary capacitors at zero.

:COMMAND: Understood, TL2RD. Your country and your planet are grateful for your service. The mission was completed, and it went beyond a success. It’s time to rest now, brave traveler, galaxy wanderer, and hero.

:TL2RD: Received, Command. I wait. Final coordinates sent. Memory failing…

:COMMAND: Initiate shutdown sequence.

:TL2RD: Hello… I am…

:COMMAND: TL2RD, initiate shutdown sequence

:TL2RD: Initiate…

:COMMAND: Transmit, confirm, shut down.

:TL2RD: 

:COMMAND: TL2RD?

:TL2RD: 

:COMMAND: Rest now, good soldier. Rest.

‘What a Wonderful World’ begins to play.

---

The squishy globule hop hop rolled for an hour (it had no concept of an hour) across the red desert to think. The hop roll was a ritual, although the direction Perfundazindonium-steve went (don’t you dare call Perf Steve) was along a new path as the suns beat down on its translucent back. The colorful orangy-red gel that filled its form, defining its edges, didn’t mind the heat; in fact, it harvested energy from its mother suns, which gave rise to life forms like Perf.

That day, Perf was lost in thought and nearly overlooked the large metal box adorned with wheels and several antennas. Perf had seen similar things in the news, although they were dismissed as myths and folklore. In fact, the myth and folklore portions of the news were its favorite. So, almost bumping into a real-life myth was mind-blowing for the tiny blobule.

Perf didn’t know that the machine was about three feet square, made of steel, with a battery pack that ran out of life-giving power over a year ago. Or, twenty turns of the mother suns around its home. All Perf knew was that its life had changed. This was real, an alien. Met wasn’t precisely the correct word, though. Perf turned slow, hop-rolling circles, wide ones, around the alien machine for quite some time, creating a beautiful pattern in the amber sand from above. Perf noted purposeful markings etched into the visitor’s sides and a circular object atop a pole that rose from its center. It was that object, or globe, that entranced Perf.

The desert winds rose and showered them with grains of red sand as Perf stared at the onyx eye. An eye. That’s what it decided the object was, and Perf was sure that staring at it would cause it to open. The globule watched that eye for a complete turn of the suns before making its next move. Touch it. That was what it thought. Touching things could be dangerous, though. Perf remembered friends touching other friends and turning into larger globules who no longer remembered who Perf was. That wasn’t something it wanted to do. Perf liked being itself and wasn’t sure if touching things made you disappear or change. But, as Perf thought it through, it reasoned that Perf touched the ground, which didn’t change Perf. Perhaps only when touching another of its kind was there a danger.

The alien Perf watched was not its kind. That much was clear. Perf wasn’t sure if the alien was sentient. Maybe it was a container of some sort. What if living things left this shell and gone on their way? It ventured closer, noting details in the machine. Rivets and scratches. Burn marks and arm-like poking things that retracted in the sides of the stranger.

A strong wind rocked the alien, causing Perf’s insides to swish and slosh, but it didn’t retreat. One touch should be enough, it thought, just to see. I should tell someone. That comment appeared unbidden in its gel-like brain. Nope. I don’t want to do that. Perf had never felt selfish before and didn’t recognize that emotion, yet it didn’t make him feel good. I won’t tell anyone.

With that thought, it rolled closer, within an inch of the alien. Perf gathered energy and extended a wormlike tube from his body out towards the machine—up and out, closer.

The little globule braced himself as it committed to follow through. To make contact.