Chapter Text
There wasn't anybody in the small common room when Soap entered. Three days since parking the ship on the orbital station of Elnilil O-1 and everyone had found their routine, even Ghost. Soap felt lighter every time he caught the human clearly appreciating the view from the various bridges and balconies that made up the collection of rooms on this parcel.
Gaz had doors installed in Ghost's bedroom complete with biolocks and the wiring that came with it. The Nefit called for the job hadn't looked pleased but had done it without taking any shortcuts. Soap hadn't found a single thing to reproach him. Honestly, he'd have gladly installed everything himself if not for the restrictive rules applied to them as visitors. Nefits worked on Nefit builds and Soap wasn't allowed to tinker with anything. Not even as a joke. The consequences weren't worth it.
He'd taken out his drawing tablet today to quell idle hands. Separating the two case halves, the opaque hologram buzzed to life between them, blank and ready to be used. Next, he took the pens from their casing. He probably wouldn't need the slimmer ones today. Battle paints were meant to be seen from afar.
Soap propped the casings against his folded knees as he reclined on the couch. For once, he didn't have to debate the colours. His first stroke was thick and black even as he thumbed the sensors to slowly thin the line.
Ghost strode in with only the faint shuffling of the vines at the entrance to announce his presence. They'd taken to trying to chat before the others arrived in lieu of their usual vocabulary lesson and Ghost seemed satisfied with just that. Maybe he wanted a break. It sure seemed like it. Today however he hovered over the back of the couch and Soap's shoulder.
Soap allowed his tail to twitch once before he got a hold of himself.
“What?” he asked, looking up. He might not finish this today.
True to his thought, Ghost barrelled on.
“Give me this,” he gestured at his tablet.”Word?” he tacked on as an afterthought.
“Tablet. Drawing tablet. And this is a pen. Pen.”
Soap used the time Ghost took to familiarise with the new words to contemplate his next action. He could give Ghost the tablet after opening a new, blank file and locking everything down but the most basic functions. Not that there were a lot on this to begin with since Soap used his com for everything else. He just needed something with a bigger and more tangible screen to draw on.
But so far, Ghost hadn't given anything back if he had a use for it, and this was something Soap would rather not lose. Still... Ghost was waiting. He could transfer all the data from the pad to his com. He had a spare tablet. It would be quick.
“Alright. Wait one,” Soap let his crest droop slightly as he connected his com to the port on one of the casings.
The transfer done, he handed Ghost the tablet and a pen, not sure what he was expecting. Ghost trying to draw like he'd seen him do? He sure scribbled something over Soap's head. An uncomfortable feeling came and didn't leave when Ghost flipped the tablet so Soap could see what he'd done.
“This is word,” he tapped the scribble with the pen. “Give me you word.”
Soap was speechless. He stared at the writing without moving a muscle, that feeling now in full force.
“You good?” Ghost wrinkled his eyefur.
Soap had done it again. Not only did he overlook a much easier way to pass on information – drawing some of the things he'd tried to communicate would have worked just fine – he'd underestimated Ghost. And he knew why.
“Soap?” Ghost tapped more insistently on the tablet. “The word.”
“Um, yes. Sorry. Here?”
Ghost handed the tablet back. Soap had already purged everything from the device besides the drawing app. He needed more. Ghost let him plug his com into the tablet again and kept his position hovering over his shoulder as Soap downloaded a Common alphabet manual and the most updated dictionary of the language while silently berating himself. Of course humans knew how to write! Just because they didn't have their level of technology, he'd put Ghost way too low on that scale. He could have at least tried to figure it out before writing this off. Ha.
The data transfer took seconds yet it felt a lot longer.
“Come, sit here,” Soap waved Ghost to the couch. “I will show you how to use it.”
There went Soap's easy morning, and he had nobody to blame but himself even as a part of him was wondering why Laswell hadn't intervened. Surely she'd have had an inkling way before Soap had to be rudely shaken by the truth. He'd tunnel visioned, hard. Focused only on the one solution they'd found to work. Great. Not only was he doubting Laswell, he'd most likely disappointed Price when the man wasn't even there.
Ghost tried his best to commit to memory the alien alphabet Soap was explaining. It was easy enough in theory, being entirely phonetical, but his own attention was chipped away by his Soap's mood. There seemed to be a cloud hanging over Soap and where he normally took every chance to show Ghost new things, he was subdued. Not that Ghost needed a lot of explaining, but it took him a few tries to understand how to switch tabs and register his own notes to the device. Another thing he was quickly grateful for being the images illustrating every word he selected in the dictionary. This was going to speed things up considerably and without needing help for every single thing.
His teacher's mood was so obvious that Gaz took over the impromptu lesson when he came in and Soap disappeared somewhere.
Not Ghost's problem.
He put his nose back to the tablet. On the screen, circles with various lines drawn into them blended together. A circle with more or less lines was a different sound, but it was a struggle to differentiate them. He wondered briefly if that was how it felt to be dyslexic. Endless letters that all looked the same except for tiny differences. One more line than the rest, the same amount of lines crossing each other but on opposite sides of the circle... This was going to take a while.
Numbers weren't any better. Same problems, only with semi-circles instead of full ones. Oh, and individual letters when they were needed were semi-circles, but facing the other way. It seems like a huge oversight. If someone wrote them too close together, you had a full circle again and a completely different sound or meaning to your words. It just seemed needlessly complicated.
Once he had the writing system down, he lost himself into absorbing as much vocabulary as he could. Ghost kept notes on everything in the drawing app, writing down every word's equivalent in English, along with a count of the days. This morning, he'd hit thirty. A month, but he couldn't be sure of how long that was exactly. On this planet, the days seemed longer.
Soap, Gaz and Laswell helped him practice when he asked, but otherwise were content to leave him alone, something rendered easier with the addition of the locked doors. Added mats provided gravity to the room and Ghost had cranked it high. Maybe even higher than Earth with the feeling of heaviness that had dragged him down the first week, and the aliens avoided going in here as much as possible. Gaz had built a second bridge to Soap's room bypassing Ghost's.
The morning mist had yet to clear fully when Ghost walked out onto the balcony. It didn't seem to rain on this planet, but the humidity at night was enough to have water drip down the roof in the morning and hang in the air until the sun pierced the canopy.
Price and Nik hadn't come. He'd tried to ask but wasn't sure he'd understood the answer. “Sleeping at home” didn't seem right. Not for so long. Vacation maybe? He hadn't pushed.
While the routine of expanding his linguistic ability and the training regiment he never skipped on settled his need for stability, he also itched to move. Away from here, away from this small room that was starting to feel constricting.
Overhead, the sun continued its slow climb. Maybe Ghost could do that too. The trees and large vines were rarely far apart, always one within reach if you were willing to make the jump. Ghost rolled his shoulders. Balcony railing, branch on the left, two vines long enough to climb like a rope for at least ten meters, swing to the next branch. He couldn't see farther up, the thick leaves blocking the way, but he was sure he'd find something. Gaz was climbing and jumping all over the trees rather than using the bridges most of the time.
He took a few minutes to warm up and grabbed the first branch.
Ghost didn't know how tall these trees were, but he was sweating enough he couldn't use the vines anymore. Up here, they were slimmer anyway. No risk of snapping or slipping if he stuck to the branches.
The size of the branches he climbed had slowly slimmed yet they remained thick enough to hold his weight. The trees were simply that enormous. He shifted his feet and grabbed the next hold, palms stinging on the bark. He hauled himself up with a grunt, muscles straining. His hand twinged, reminding him the healed limb was still tender. He ignored it. If anything, this was the best workout he's had since getting kidnapped.
A big leaf blocked the view over him and he shook it slowly. He'd been surprised by critters lounging on these and would rather not get another faceful of squeaky, furry limbs. At least it hadn't been some poisonous bug, or a snake.
He paused to catch his breath – he needed to work on his cardio more – and looked down. The view was a mass of green leaves. The further he could see was maybe twenty meters down through a convenient gap. No proper sense of the distance he'd just climbed from looking at the ground and he had to rely on his rusty internal clock. An hour, maybe. At this speed he should have covered close to 200 meters.
Taller than any tree on Earth, that was for sure. And the specimen he was climbing wasn't standing out among its peers in any way. Just a tree. He shifted the big leaf away and squinted at the brightness. He hauled himself up as soon as his eyes adjusted.
In seconds, his head broke through the canopy. Endless sky and a proper horizon greeted him for the first time in months without some sort of barrier in between.
He lingered there for a while.
Eventually, he had to move. He'd gone up here for a reason. Making sure his perch was solid, he turned, scanning the canopy. Any hole into it might reveal what he was looking for, but really he was hoping for a river.
He found no such thing. His eyes fell on a behemoth of a tree instead. It stood easily twice as tall as the others and its leaves, even from such a distance, appeared different. Darker, more brown than green in spots. And if he wasn't wrong, he thought he'd seen something move in there... Animals? More aliens?
He would have been tempted to get closer if he could have made that distance in half a day, but in the thick jungle it would no doubt take much longer. Shame. He might ask Gaz about it. A tree so big looked like something important. At landmark at the very least.
Ghost found new handholds to turn completely around. Nothing creaked and he didn't fall. The swaying he could deal with.
He sucked in a deep breath when his eyes fell on a hole in the canopy. Finally? It wasn't a river but... He couldn't see any reflection, even from a relatively short distance. Pretty small then. But if it was what he was hoping for, it would do just fine. He made sure he had the right direction in mind when he scrambled down, a new wind in his sails. This one he could reach easily on foot. He couldn't believe there might have been one so close this entire time.
Gaz called to him when Soap came out of his room. Had he been waiting for him? What was he doing perched on a branch and looking up into the canopy?
“Soap, come on!”
“I'm coming, I'm coming.”
He hurried slightly. Gaz sounded concerned.
“Look up.”
Was there some animal that had breached the perimeter? He'd thought the only predator species on this planet was well under control...
Soap's heart skipped a beat. That was a predator alright, just not the one he expected. What in the twelve galaxies was Ghost doing?
“Wha-”
“I think he's fine, he's coming down but... did you know he could climb like that?”
“No.”
“Mh.”
“Say it if you have something to say.”
“He keeps getting more and more terrifying. I thought I was safe if I climbed high enough.”
Soap bumped his tail into the back of Gaz's legs. Gaz slapped his own back but Soap had the space to dodge that Gaz didn't, perched like he was on a single branch.
“You don't think he's that bad anymore, do ye?”
His friend had relaxed a lot around Ghost. Soap had thought everything was going well.
“He's not. Doesn't make him less scary.”
“You're not making any sense.”
“He's not making any sense,” Gaz waved at Ghost.
The human was almost at their level, only a few branches up. Soap backed away, giving him ample space to land on the balcony. Gaz jumped from his perch to the railing.
Contrary to Gaz' graceful maneuver, Ghost all but let himself fall onto the wooden deck. Soap felt the dull thud into his throat, and Gaz jumped slightly. Ghost didn't waver for a second.
“Hey-” Soap started. He could have been a little more delicate.
Ghost turned his back to him. Soap spluttered and Gaz was only amused for the time it took him to realise Ghost had whirled on him.
“Um, yes?” To his credit, Gaz stood his ground.
“Water is this way?” Ghost pointed to their left.
“Water?” Gaz's tail twitched. “You know where to get water if you're thirsty. In the kitchen.”
“No. Big water this way. I walk to the water. Not to drink.”
Gaz was about to answer when he looked back at Soap.
“Did you tell him about the pond?”
“No, I didn't.”
“Laswell must have then.”
Ghost furrowed the fur over his eyes. They'd learned that meant he was generally unhappy with something.
“No, why Laswell? Laswell is not here,” Ghost interrupted.
“How do you know there's... big water over there?” Gaz asked.
“I climb,” he pointed a finger to the trees overhead.
“But...”
Even Soap didn't have to be an expert to know there was no way to see the pond unless he climbed to the very top. Alright. Gaz had a point. Ghost was still terrifying.
“Can we go to the pond? Pond is big water,” he pushed.
“I- I'm gonna get the bands.”
He left Gaz to deal with Ghost and fetched their bands. Soap had his in a pocket most of the time, but Ghost left his in his room and never wore it. He would have to if they wanted to leave the premises of the property.
This time, Soap had left his in the common room, in easy reach for everyone. Ghost's however, was behind a locked door. Soap considered using his override of the lock, but turned around instead. Besides, Ghost had cranked the gravity mats inside so high that getting anything in here was a slog. Literally.
Convincing Ghost to get the band wasted more time and Soap could see the human was getting agitated. Or was it frustration? Either way, it tugged at the worry he did his best to ignore. Ghost seemed fine. Healthy. The fur on his head was growing back, and he learned new words just as fast as before. There were no signs his mind was degrading. Until now. Who knew what else might be wrong where they couldn't see.
When Ghost came back, band attached to his belt instead of on his body, Soap didn't push. Ghost did.
“We go?”
“Yes, we're going,” Soap replied, glancing at Gaz.
The Nefit started walking towards the pond. It wasn't far, but in the thick vegetation of the jungle it would take some time. Gaz had detached his spear from his belt and extended the rod to its maximum length, using it to part leaves and vines just as much as protection. The Nefit's home planet was paradise compared to their previous stop, but it wasn't completely safe either.
It shouldn't have surprised Soap that Ghost noticed.
“There is dangerous animals here?”
“Yes, they're...” How was he going to explain this? “long animals with no legs. They look like vines. Same colour.”
Ghost looked around them, and if Soap hadn't seen him be nothing but a rock so far, he'd have thought him nervous. It didn't help his doubts.
“What name?”
“They're called silus.”
“Silus?”
“Aye. But they're rarely seen nowadays.”
“...seen?”
Ah, blast. He'd gotten used to Ghost understanding a lot more and used way too complex words.
“Not seen much.”
That got him a nod. Ghost fell back to the end of their three person line cutting a path through the jungle, and Soap had to work to keep his tail in check. If this continued, he was going to be too wound up to enjoy a swim.