Author: Chu Tu
Volume: 1
Age Rating: Mature
Translator: Misty
Editor: My Nguyen

Synopsis

What does it mean to be human when bodies, species, memory, even time itself can be left behind?
Across oceans and stars, lives collide, separate, and find one another again in forms neither science nor language can fully contain. Here, love is not merely desire, but recognition: the moment one consciousness truly sees another. Against the vast indifference of the universe, mortality becomes not a weakness but a source of meaning.
We are brief, changing, fragile. Yet through memory, connection, and the act of witnessing, perhaps nothing we love is ever entirely lost.

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Preview

“Hello.”

Galvan looked up at the creature, his eyes widening.

“Hello,” the creature repeated its greeting. “This has been a pleasant exchange.”

Galvan lay on the ground, panting heavily, his hands digging into the soft ground as he tried to steady himself after the creature’s attack.

“What is your name, lowly organism?”

Galvan clenched his teeth against the urge to lunge at it and tear it into pieces. He could not beat it yet. He needed to find a weakness first.

Fortunately, the creature seemed like it wanted to talk rather than attack him.

“Or should I say… despicable human?”

Every sentence sounded like a taunt. Galvan pulled himself upright and tried to answer without provoking it further. “Looking at you, I’d say you’re the despicable one.”

“My appearance?” The creature waved its tentacles around. In the next moment, the top half of its body began to twist and contort, and suddenly, a face materialized. Even though its skin remained the same turquoise color, it had a nose, a mouth, and two eyes, as well as ears on either side. The similarity to Galvan’s own face was striking.

“Your kind only having been around for ten thousand years, I suppose I shouldn’t expect much from you humans in terms of taste.”

“Your kind”—Galvan sized up the creature—“may have been hanging around for tens of thousands of years, but if you can’t tell the difference between beauty and grotesqueness, you’ll always remain a beast.”

“Tens of thousands of years?” The creature smiled. “No one knows how long our kind has existed. In Earth units, I’ve lived for more than a hundred million years. In all that time, I’ve met only seventeen of my kind, and the oldest among us has lived for more than seven hundred million years.

“Do you understand, lowly human? This is the fundamental difference between us. Comparing me to you is akin to comparing yourself to an ant.”

Galvan had no answer to that, so he snapped, “Humans don’t talk to ants!”

The creature laughed. “There’s only you and me on this planet, isn’t there? It’s been a long time since I encountered a species as primitive as yours, so I decided to communicate with you.”

Galvan shouted, “You call what you did to me ‘communication’? That was assault, you perverted bastard!”

The creature answered calmly, “Do you imagine your method of communication is any more dignified to me? I lowered myself to speech because you could not understand anything more advanced, yet your body still responded only to crude physical stimulation.

“Every species takes pride in its own kind, but humans take that pride for superiority. You call yourselves civilized while remaining slaves to the same instincts as the animals you kill. You reproduce and seek pleasure through the same organs you use to excrete waste.

“You rejected every attempt at a deeper exchange. Physical stimulation was the only thing you responded to. It wasn’t until you transferred your genetic material to me that I felt any grateful pleasure from you at all.”

As the creature spoke, its appearance changed again. Its face, which once resembled Galvan’s, changed to a different one altogether.

Only then did Galvan understand: the creature had taken his sperm and was using the genetic information to assemble human faces.

His strength deserted him. His face went pale. He knew the creature’s logic was absurd, but for once, he had no answer.

He asked weakly, “How do you know our language?”

“I once mated with one of my kind who knew a little about humans. After touching you, I recognized your species and learned enough to use your language.”

“Forget it. I’m done talking to you.” Galvan slowly lay down and curled into himself. Since there was no sign of the battle or anyone coming to rescue them, for now, he needed to conserve his strength and wait.

The damp cold did little to bother an experienced soldier like Galvan. Drained by the earlier “communication,” he soon fell into a deep, almost unconscious sleep.

While Galvan was snoring away, the creature remained beside him in the same motionless state. The mist blocked their vision, and their surroundings were calm.

Shortly after, Galvan woke up due to the cold. He sat up and observed his surroundings. The mist had largely dissipated, but the sky was dark and gloomy, and the cold seemed much harsher than before.
The creature was right. They were alone on the planet.

The creature shifted before saying, “Soon, this side of the planet will rotate away from the system’s star. Night will last two or three Earth days. The temperature will drop to around minus one hundred degrees Celsius, and the water vapor in the air will condense.”

Humans would not be able to survive in such temperatures, not to mention that Galvan’s clothes had already been shredded by the monster. The cold bit straight through Galvan’s bare skin. He got to his feet and headed for the wreck.

The creature let him go, trailing silently behind.

Galvan searched what remained of the cockpit. He still had fuel for a fire and a first aid kit with some basic emergency supplies. Since he was barely injured, only the alcohol was of use to him now. With the hull full of holes and the hatch gone, the wrecked, narrow cockpit would never keep him alive through the night.

He wondered if he should find a small cave. Or perhaps… he could stay in the monster’s fighter jet. It looked slightly larger and did not seem to have suffered too much damage during its descent here.

The planet would be falling into darkness any second now, so Galvan had to make the most of every second. After leaving the cockpit, he hunched his shoulders against the cold. Fortunately, he found some beef jerky, some chewing gum, and half a bar of chocolate that he had casually stashed in the storage cabinet. He packed them all into the first aid kit and slung it over his shoulder.

Galvan sprinted to the creature’s fighter, but the moment he opened the hatch, his hope died. The cockpit was nothing but deep grooves shaped for the creature’s tentacles, with no space for a human body. He could not pilot it either.

Was that why the creature did not stop him from entering?

Galvan climbed onto the cockpit to get a clearer view. As he scanned the landscape, he noticed a rugged stretch of ground in the distance. Terrain like that might hide a cave.

He leaped down and hurried in that direction.

The creature followed at his heels, apparently entertained by his frantic search for shelter.

After more than an hour of running, Galvan reached the spot and found only towering ice pillars split by deep crevices.

Was there truly nowhere to hide from the extreme cold?

The exertion had only made the cold bite harder. He wrapped his arms around himself, desperate to hold on to what little warmth he had. If not for the monster, he would not be naked and freezing on an alien world in the first place.

Was he going to die?

It was cold. Extremely cold.

As night took hold, half of the planet froze.

Galvan’s breath spilled out as mist and quickly sank toward the ground. The humid air was rapidly drying.

Was he going to die?

He looked up. The sky had cleared completely, and there was no sign of the battle anymore. Only fragments of wreckage drifted overhead at varying distances.

He was going to die.

All of a sudden, a warm and soft sensation enveloped him from behind. Before he had time to struggle, the creature had drawn him completely inside itself.

Only then did he realize it was not trying to kill him. It formed a hollow chamber within its body just large enough to hold him. Galvan found himself lifted off the ground, surrounded on all sides by soft, flexible walls. Galvan tapped one of them. In the cold, the creature’s skin no longer felt slick.

Then warmth began to gather around him. Little by little, the chill left his body until the space felt almost like spring. A moment later, the skin beneath him turned slippery again and sent him dropping onto his ass.

Even the air was being regulated. Each breath he exhaled was absorbed, while fresh oxygen flowed in through bubbles moving beneath the creature’s translucent skin.

Somehow, the monster had turned its own body into a small, warm shelter just to keep him alive.

“Hey…” Galvan tapped the monster again.

“Mm.” The spot that Galvan tapped suddenly transformed into a face, startling him.

He asked the creature, “Why are you saving me?”

“I learned from a companion’s memories that humans keep mice in cages and call them pets.”

“What?!” Galvan snapped, throwing a punch at its face.

Before the punch could land, the creature’s face caved inward around his hand, trapping it in a tight, sucking grip.

He quickly pulled free and wiped the sticky residue from his skin. The sensation reminded him of a teammate’s enormous tame bear, which had a habit of sucking on people’s hands. Except this felt almost teasing.

No. That was ridiculous. The creature was an alien. An enemy. There was no reason for such a touch to feel intimate.

Besides, this creature was not human. Surely it could not have thoughts or emotions that complex.

However, he needed the creature right now. Only with its help could he survive on this planet.

He would call a truce, just for now.

…

_{Proofreader: Miracle, Paula Dip}

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