The IBIF Chronicals

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Tybalt nodded thoughtfully. "I will." he confirmed about telling him what One said. One wasn't exactly his superior, but he didn't say so. Everyone was under the impression that One was everyone's superior, and thats how it should stay.

Tybalt left the room then. He went off to find Gerhard first before he took a nap. All of that talking and thinking and questioning had him tired after 48 hours of not sleeping. Perhaps longer, but Tybalt didn't care to think about how long it might have been. Instead he spent some time with Gerhard and then went to his room, settling down to sleep, although for how long Tybalt was uncertain nor did he care.
 
H-30 spent most of his time lying "asleep" after that. The memories refused to leave his mind, and felt considerably weaker, specially when his favourite woman was off to sleep too, and he was left with no one who felt sympathy for him.

At a moment, the routine of dull colours and photos of death people and catastrophes shown on the televisions was interrupted by a spark of multiple colours. He walked up to the screen that was now full of colours. He had a hard time reading the human's language for now, but luckily the news stayed long enough so he could decipher the title letter by letter. "S-a-m-e-s-e-x-m-a-r-r-i-a-g-e." He was wondering what sex and marriage was, when the news suddenly shifted to show something depressing again.

He walked away from the screen and lied down again. The people shown in TV seemed euphoric. "Sex and marriage must be good things." He thought. He curled up, holding to the happy sensation that the announcement left him with. The scientists didn't pay too much attention to him nor tried new things. They seemed to be waiting for Tybalt to give them instructions, or to at least tell them he wasn't interested in H-30 anymore so they could act freely.
 
Tybalt came back several hours later. He had not spoken with One yet, but he had submitted the report. It was likely that One would contact him later about it, and he would ask about the book then. For now, Tybalt had brought back with him a dictionary.

Without saying anything, he pushed the book through the slot. For humans, the dictionary would be a dry read. Incredibly dry. But for H-30, he thought that he might like it. He had meant for someone else to get it, but he'd ended up just getting it himself. "This will probably answer a lot of questions."
 
H-30 perked up when he sensed Tybalt approaching. It was the only signal of activity he had showed that day. He grabbed the dictionary given to him through the slot. 'I think in a situation like this it's appropriate to say "thanks", so... Thank you."

He opened the dictionary. The words inside seemed to follow a certain order. In each part of the book, the words started with the same letter. Following that same order were the second letters of every word, for each starter letter. It made it easy to look for words. He browsed through the pages, until he found the familiar curve that was the 'S' letter. It took him a while of fiddling with the dictionary and repeating the word over and over in his mind in order to know what letter was supposed to follow, until he found what he was looking for.

"Stomach. Noun. Anatomy. Zoology. A sack-like enlargement of the alimentary canal, as in humans and certain animals, forming an organ for storing, diluting, and digesting food." he read out loud, going over each word very slowly, but managing to do it in the end. That definition had sparked lots of new questions. He sat down and started looking for words, completely captured by the lecture.
 
Tybalt moved behind one of the computer screens, sitting down next to a scientist and observing H-30 over the screen. It was at that time that Tybalt felt particularly let down that they hadn't managed to capture any brain signals from H-30. He would have liked to see the read outs now that he had a book, and such an informative one such as that. Perhaps he should have asked One if H-30 could have the dictionary too, but he convinced himself that that wasn't needed. He could hardly ask questions or receive answers when H-30 didn't even know what a throat was. No. This would be better for the game Tybalt had created.

For a long while, Tybalt said nothing. He just watched H-30. At one point he requested of someone to get him a cappuccino, and when that came he sipped on the hot liquid. His honey-colored eyes barely left H-30 at all. Even if they didn't have machine read outs, Tybalt was watching. Watching, and logging away information about H-30.
 
Despite being such a dense lecture for humans, H-30 was really excited about it, even if it wasn't showing on his face. He was happy to have such a source of information, and over time he even managed to block out the sounds coming from the televisions in order to concentrate. He wasn't strong enough to be able to escape if so many humans would hunt him down, but for the first time in weeks, he felt fine.

At a moment, he noticed Tybalt staring at him. He turned around, so he was facing Tybalt, but the man could only see the book's cover. He overestimated the limits of human sight, and thought Tybalt would be able to read what he was reading from where he was sitting, and he didn't want that. There wasn't much body language to be seen in him. After all, the little body language he used, he did it on purpose, and even for himself it still was hard to understand.

H-30 was starting to form an idea of how the human body worked. He wished he could open up a person to see his body, or at least a corpse, but felt like asking for a corpse was too much. And from reading so many words, he finally understood something else. First, what translation is. Then, a certain definition.

He walked up to the cage's wall, facing Tybalt. His hand went to touch the glass, and he turned the index finger of his right hand into a crystal-like claw. He pressed his claw against the glass, and an awful screech made its way into everyone's ears as he dug his finger in the glass and started dragging it across. He didn't stop, no matter how much the scientists complained about the noise, or how the guards aimed his weapons at him, thinking this was an escape attempt. It took him a while, but he managed to write a set of words. He wrote them for himself, so from Tybalt's point of view, the words were mirrored, but it didn't take a genius to be able to read them.

"My name is Concrete."
 
Tybalt cringed with the rest of them when H-30's claw began to scratch against the glass. He covered his ears, but at the same time shouted to the guards to not fire. He looked at H-30 afterwards. "Stop it H-30!" He ordered the alien next, after he had ordered the guards. "H-30!" He tried again, but it wasn't long before H-30 had stopped on his own, finished with what he was writing. Tybalt frowned, glancing at the words and then shaking his head.

"Concrete?" He repeated with a frown. "Why Concrete?" He asked, rubbing at his ears as if that would lessen the ringing in them. He hated loud noises. That had been way too loud. "And don't do that! Your ruining the glass, and if I wasn't here you might have been killed." Hopefully by throwing in the killing bit, H-30 wouldn't do that again and listen to him. He rubbed at his ear again and then dropped his hands. Concrete. What kind of name was Concrete?
 
'Why? The sound is delightful.' H-30 replied calmly, tilting his head. He opened up the dictionary, on the page where the definition of concrete was. 'It isn't exactly "Concrete". My creators named me after a material they knew from a couple of planets, where their inhabitants used said material for making their... Their houses. I've read the meanings of everything that goes into concrete, and the material sounds really similar so... I think "Concrete" is an appropriate t--translation.'

He went back to the center of the cage, sitting down to keep reading the dictionary. 'My creators never explained to me why they named me after that material, and I lack the experience to suppose a reason on my own.'
 
Tybalt shook his head. The sound was not delightful, but he didn't argue with H-30. Concrete. Whatever. Tybalt did not miss the fact that he'd said creators. "You're not born?" He asked. "You're created?" He supposed that the words might get lost in translation, but he was going to clarify that anyway.

Even with the alien's explanation on why he had chosen Concrete as a name, it was still weird. He supposed some humans named their children after objects, but it wasn't incredibly common. He did not move up to the glass, he stayed where he was. That seemed to be fine since Concrete moved back to the center anyway. The guards had basically calmed down by then, putting away their weapons and going back to their original placements.
 
"Born?" H-30 repeated out loud. Already used to going back and forth in the dictionary, he quickly looked up the word. The first definition was "Brought into existence; created." which meant exactly what he referred to before. Then the second definition caught his eye. "Brought into life by birth."

He turned a couple of pages, and found the word he was looking for. "Birth: The emergence and separation of offspring from the body of the mother."

Ignoring the fact that he didn't know what "mother" meant, he quickly went to look for another word. He hoped Tybalt wouldn't get too impatient, but this was better than asking to have every word explained to him. "Offspring: The organism or organisms resulting from sexual or asexual reproduction."

Those words sounded familiar. He went again to the section of the letter S. He was growing to like that letter in particular. The curve looked very elegant. "Sexual: Relating to, involving, or characteristic of sex or sexuality, or the sex organs and their functions." Sex. There the good thing was mentioned again.

'It says here that being "born" involves these so called "sex organs".' He finally spoke. 'We have no such things, so I'll have to say no, I'm not born. I'm created.' he said, for the first time surpassing the language barrier.
 
Tybalt was patient. He was in a better mood than he was in yesterday, and his patience was extended as a result. Some of the other scientists were getting upset and impatient, but Tybalt remained quiet as H-30 figured out things for himself. Tybalt had the feeling that that dictionary would be one thing H-30 would not give up any time soon. He waited until finally, H-30 spoke. So they weren't born... maybe, if push came to shove, they could stop this creation process instead.

Tybalt nodded a little. He was keeping all options open. "So how are you created?" He asked.
 
H-30 perked up at the next question. He didn't want to keep answering questions without getting anything in return. And the way the scientists got angry at him each time he took too much time to answer was unnerving.

'I want to play again.' he said without looking up from the dictionary. 'With you alone.' He added shyly. He knew Tybalt would probably communicate to everyone else the things he had said, but at least he wanted to play while being calm.
 
Tybalt thought about this a moment. He crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn't going to be a complete push over, although he didn't really have any issues with dismissing the scientists and guards mobbing the room. Mostly he didn't say yes right away just to show that he was in charge. "Why?" he asked. "Why do you want me alone?"
 
'It's not that I want you alone.' H-30 replied quickly. 'It's just that it doesn't feel good when everyone gets angry at me for taking so much time to reply. I think it was bad enough when I had to ask the meaning of almost every word, but now that I have this...' He pointed at the dictionary. '...even if now I'm able to figure out things on my own, people are even angrier. It's hard to read words in a language I've recently learnt how to read, you know? And I had to learn on my own, together with the meanings of words in order to be able to hold a conversation.'

He supposed since he was learning relatively fast, the humans never even considered that would be hard for him. But in fact, he considered it complicated, and the energy consumption from wandering around everyone's minds to gather knowledge often left him exhausted. He didn't add that he didn't mind his favorite woman staying. After all, he didn't want to give away the fact that he had a preferred one among the scientists.
 
Tybalt thought about this a moment. Tybalt generally took time to think about things before he said or did anything. It was in his nature, no matter what kind of day he was having. He decided to compromise, although recall it was more in H-30's favor. "Everyone can clear the room but you two." He motioned towards two guards, different from yesterday. They followed his orders, everyone but the two leaving. Those two stayed where they were.

"Alright." he said. "We can play again. How are you created?" He'd start off because he'd already asked the question, and his question wasn't going to change just because he got derailed.
 
H-30 was pleased to see everyone go. The guards tended to hear with interest, but since it wasn't their investigation, they didn't get angry when he didn't know how to answer something, so they wouldn't bother him. He turned around until he was facing Tybalt.

'You won't like my answer.' He warned, so Tybalt could prepare himself for the unpleasant, probably useless for him answer that was about to come. 'I was created by thought. My creators decided they wanted... I think offspring still could apply here... They wanted offspring, so they stayed together for sometime thinking of me, and then I was created. They took care of me for some time, and then... And then they abandoned me.' Those memories were sad, but weren't as bad. He understood the circumstances, and didn't hold a grudge against his creators. Did he wish the outcome of events had been different? Yes. But he wasn't strong enough to change that.
 
H-30 was right. He didn't like the answer. Why was it that everything H-30 said just made things more complicated? They were like some super race that was impossible to kill easily. Tybalt sighed and rubbed at his temples. He didn't come nearer to the glass yet, staying behind the computer screen and looking at H-30 from across the room. He shook his head. Was there ANYTHING that their organization could do? The IBIF hadn't run into anything nearly as problematic before as H-30's species. There were some tricky demons and hard to kill monsters, but nothing like this. "Fine." He sighed. "Ask your question..."
 
H-30 knew Tybalt wouldn't like his answer, but he was glad it was good enough to be granted permission to ask a question. He thought for a moment about what to ask. Then he pointed at one of the TV screens. 'Can you show me a video of a human being born?' He asked as if it was the most normal thing in the world. The dictionary had sparked up his curiosity even more, and he wanted to see humans' bodily functions in action.
 
Tybalt scratched at his chin. "I don't see any real concerns with this..." He decided. Tybalt jiggled the mouse for the computer in front of him. He could probably just pull from a database. He searched for one and then brought it up onto only one of the tv screens. He wasn't going to turn the news off on the other ones. Tybalt wouldn't risk the thing escaping just because he decided to shut off the news for a few moments. He was very much aware of what was and wasn't acting on H-30.
 
H-30 was delighted to hear Tybalt would show him the video. He watched it with avid interest. The first thing he noticed was the main human in the screen had a weird arrangement of flesh and hair between her legs, instead of the smooth surface he had between his. He wasn't grossed out at all, thinking it all looked very interesting, bordering on wonderful. He was getting mixed feelings from the video. The woman seemed in great pain, specially when another bundle of flesh started coming out from her insides, oozing out red liquid. But he also could sense an immense happiness and sense od accomplishment, specially at the end of the video. He went closer to the cage's wall when he finally saw the baby. 'That's a human? It's so tiny!' he commented in surprise.

Trying for the first time to use a new expression, he showed Tybalt a bright smile. 'Thanks for showing me this. I appreciate it.' He looked at the screen again, as the video came to an end. 'It's your turn.'
 
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