Discord drabbles - crab-like alien meets researcher (sfw) (Patreon)

Wow, these drabbles keep getting longer and longer! Here's a cute and fluffy piece about a rather reclusive and rather large alien meeting a human researcher for the first time. 

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“Now, remember that the atmosphere isn’t toxic, but we still advise you to keep your suits on at all times,” the voice came over the comms. 

You rolled your eyes. As the biologist of the ship’s expedition, you knew the potential dangers of local flora and fauna well enough. You’d done enough scouting missions with the federation already anyway. This was your fourth planetary expedition in the name of science, and the members of your crew were all experienced too. 

M’ka, a quadrupedal being with skin like polished granite, grinned a wide, toothy smile at you. She didn’t need the same protective gear that you did; her stone-like ‘litho-biology’ made her virtually indestructible, except to extremely strong acids, but even then she was built like a warship. 

Three hours later though, and things had taken a definite turn for the worse. After falling down a ravine and becoming separated from everyone else, you found yourself in a cave with no radio and no way out. 

“Fuck.”

There was also a big hole in the front of your helmet. 

You had been about to take it off and empty the shards of the visor’s safety glass out onto the cave floor, when something shifted in the darkness behind you. 

You spun, drawing your weapon, as a colossal being began to walk towards you, clicking ominously. Something - you couldn’t have said what - made you hold your finger on the trigger without firing as it stepped out on armoured, articulated legs. It had a carapace like a crab, and was a dark blue the colour of the night sky back home, with bioluminescent dots pulsing along the rim of the shell. It was a crab-like being, but it was the size of a small caravan. 

It clacked its mandibles together and you took another step back out onto the small ledge. It was either being eaten by this alien or a tumble backwards into the abyss beyond, and you weren’t sure which you dreaded most. 

As your heel caught on the edge and you teetered, it suddenly shot forwards and grabbed you with both claws and set you back down at a safe distance before backing away, clicking again. 

Its black eyes - all four of them - were locked on your weapon and it held up its huge claws and backed further into the darkness. 

“Wait,” you breathed. “You’re… You’re not going to hurt me?” 

It clearly didn’t understand you, but at the sound of your voice, it drew itself up in surprise and then bobbed up and down enthusiastically. It was rather comical. 

“Ok,” you said slowly, as the adrenaline began to fade just a little. You set your weapon down on a nearby rock and moved just one pace forward, still within reach of it if necessary. 

It clicked a bit more and bobbed again, and you laughed softly. “Ok, buddy,” you said. “I’m trusting you.” 

You took off the helmet and set that beside the weapon, and the crab-like creature suddenly lurched forwards and inspected you - apparently horrified that you had removed a part of your anatomy. 

“It’s ok,” you said, knowing it couldn’t understand you anyway. “It’s just my space suit. Look -” and you handed the broken helmet to the alien. 

Carefully, and with extraordinary dexterity, it took the shattered helmet from you and turned it over in its claws before regarding you again. It tapped the very tip of one claw on the shattered visor and clicked a short burst of sound at you, a bit like a dolphin. 

“Yeah, it broke when I fell from up there,” you said, pointing up at the cliff where the ground had given way. 

It cocked its head again and then, without warning, picked you up by the waist, pinched your weapon delicately in its other claw and handed it to you, and then began to scale the cliff. 

When you emerged - a little winded and surprised - from the canyon in the grasp of a huge alien life form, the other members of your team prepared to fire, but you held up your hands and yelled at them not to. Remarkably, given the circumstances, they didn’t, and the creature set you down in their midst, backing away towards the canyon again.

M’ka rushed forwards to you, bounding like a lion. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, my helmet’s ruined, but thanks to my big new friend over here, I made it out of that mile-deep crevice ok.”

She looked your ‘big new friend’ up and down and it did that frankly adorable little bobbing thing again and she laughed.

“Decapodal,” she muttered, attempting to classify it. “Looks like those folks we affectionately called ‘coconut crabs’ back on Gentauros Minor last year… Wonder if they’re related…” And then she switched languages, using a very primitive and ancient language that was common in one form or another amongst a large number of arthropodal beings across the galaxy. You didn’t have a hope in hell of recreating it without mandibles or litho-biology like she had, but Big Friend seemed to understand her alright. 

They replied in a series of clacking rumbles and then M’ka began to laugh again. “They’re worried about your carapace,” she said. 

“My what?”

“Your dome,” she said, pointing at your helmet.

“Oh,” you said, looking at it. “Tell them it’s not part of me. I can get a new one back on the ship. And thank them too, will you?”