It was slow-moving in the ‘ducts’, although Beau hesitated to call them as such.

There were too many things bout it that made his gut twist, it was body heat warm, cramped enough the pleather feeling walls slid against his skin and dark enough to multiply the creepy as hell factor by about a billion.

Even though he was at the helm of their expedition, their progress was slowed due to the irregular placements of the snotball cameras. They sat in the bottom of the shaft, and sat in the concave clear covers open-faced, he made the mistake of pushing his entire left arm through one before and was now covered in alien fluids. It tasted like ass.

Beau had been trying to keep track of how far he and Ryo had been travelling, but he had lost count somewhere around the first camera crushing incident. They had to have gone at least a few clicks and with no end in sight their ‘prison’ must have been huge.

“You holding up okay Ryo?” he called over his shoulder.

“Hai,” came the teenage groan in reply.

“That’s good, cause this is some real bullshit. Bet you’d never figure you’d ever had to crawl down some janky-ass, alien spaceship.”

“No…” the reply was annoyed this time, but Beau didn’t feel like staying quiet, there was only so much he could hold in without it causing problems later.

“I’d always thought I’d be on the ground, fighting the ‘good fight’ as it were, not that an alien invasion was the first thing on my mind. Figured someone would have pushed the red button before aliens…” Beau wiped the sweat from his brow “what were you doing before your life was up-ended?”

Ryo groaned louder, stopping his crawl to answer his question.

“Camping,” was the answer.

“Heh, you too? Jesus its a small world, Me and a couple of buddies were just sitting around a campfire talking about the not-so-good old days. Next thing we know, our dogs were barking like crazy and a bright light blinded me…” Beau stopped and took a breather, his limbs were starting to complain about the cramped conditions laying down flat and stretching. “You in school Ryo?”

“Yes,” Sugawara lied.

“That’s good, you should stick with it, what are you studying?”

There was another long pause as the boy tried to remember the right words, finally setting on

“Science,” with a grunt.

“Good, that’s going to come in handy, you handle the brains, I’ll keep a hold on the brawn!”

Beau replied, catching himself getting louder. Why was he shouting? The last thing they needed was to be heard.

He held his breath, and listened.

There was a humming, just loud enough he couldn’t ignore it, a creepy, wet, pulsating noise.

It swelled and levelled with the rhythm of a laboured heart, the soldier followed the noise with his fingers, he felt it in the veins that ran alongside the walls.

The objective to find the escape was becoming an increasingly urgent priority.

They had no choice but to keep move forward, but at a slower pace than he would have liked, Ryo was sounding a little out of breath.

“I wanted to go to school,” Beau breathed quietly, reigning himself in, “to become a veterinarian, get outta Smallville but life didn’t turn out that way, plans rarely make it out the other end intact.”

Beau fought the urge to shout, to lash out, to turn the alien taser on the wall’s themselves and cut their way out.

Objective list.

Keep moving forward.

Keep civilian on side.

Stay alive.

“You wanna tell me about yourself, Ryo?”

“... no,”

“Alright, we’ll just listen to the creepy pulsing alien tube then,” he snapped, the dark and claustrophobic environment getting to him. “I ain’t tryna rub you the wrong way man, just trying to get to know you,” Beau peered back over his shoulder, correcting the harshness in his voice, “you’re doing pretty good actually, I know grown men who would have turned into jello if they were in your position.”

“...” Ryo didn’t respond. Whether that was a translation problem he didn’t know.

Beau stopped in his tracks.

A small, glowing light bobbed from side to side, growing closer.

Ryo’s hand touched Beau’s foot, nearly knocking into him from behind.

“Down,” Beau whispered and he dropped flat on his stomach, reaching for the alien taser and aiming it at the light, in case it decided to be hostile.

They lay absolutely still, breathing shallow as the light grew closer, beau could hear a quiet, but distinct whistle echo down the tubes.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw it was being held by a long black arm, a mass of tentacles coiled around a bioluminescent orb.

To the soldier, it could only be described as a black octopus wearing a tool belt, and it was happily whistling as it inspected the tube. It didn’t even seem to notice them at first, slinking over to an open camera in the floor, spraying it with some sort of bottle that it wore around its ‘waist’.

The alien black octopus purred and tapped the goopy camera with a free tentacle, dripping the contents of another bottle of fluid over its surface.

Beau waited, taser ready, but the alien just whistled and purred to itself.

Then it noticed them.

“Hold still,” he whispered back to Ryo as the curious little creature approached.

It looked over them both with its single, big eye, shining the light on them both.

Beau saw the resemblance instantly, now he knew what the cameras were made of.

The alien squeaked, and a single tentacle reached out.

Instinctually, Beau returned the gesture, offering his hand for it to inspect.

The creature took it gladly, it purred as it coiled the slinky arm around Beau’s fingers.

It tickled.

Beau then moved forward, gently stroking the creatures head.

The alien really liked that, pressing itself into the pets and whittling loudly in return.

Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep!

A timer on the alien’s belt sounded off, a string of happy whistles before it promptly turned around to scuttle back down the path it came from carrying the light with it.

“What happen?” Ryo asked.

“I.. I don’t know.” The soldier wasn’t quite sure how to answer. By all rights he should have skewered the walking seafood, but his gut told him otherwise. “There’s a way out, we just need to keep moving,”

With newfound vigour, Beau began crawling forward.

-*-

It wasn’t much longer before the light at the end of the tunnel metaphorically and literally manifested.

Bright light poured in and the anxiety inside them melted away.

The shaft opening up enough that the humans could stand for the first time in hours.

Their feet touched down onto cold, white tiles, their fleshy prison had come to an end.

“Oh thank god.”

Their eyes adjusted to the light of their new environment and they observed the disparity between them. it was huge and open compared to the tunnels, alight with fluorescent harshness.

Behind them was a wall of tunnels, with more little alien octopuses moving in and out of them scaling the walls like gravity wasn’t a thing.

“Whoa..” Ryo breathed, staring up towards the light.

Beau turned from the living tunnel system to the new room before them and it was no more familiar.

Rows and rows of box-like apartments, stacked on top of each other in a never-ending sprawl, Each one just the right size for the alien squids.

“You think they live here?” Beau suggested, looking for any dangers in their surroundings, more guards or cameras. “Or they prisoners like us?”

Sugawara walked over to one of the habitats, there must have been hundreds, thousands of the things, each one with its own nest-like bed, water and food pipes just as in their prison cell. Only these guys appeared to be able to come and go as they please. He saw more personal items in each one, baubles he had no hope of identifying, some sort of glowing orb of light and a tool belt sat to one side. If they were prisoners, they were treated marginally better than they had been.

For the most part, the squid aliens themselves were curious, but treated the humans as though they were in the way rather than the escapee’s they actually were.

Happy to go about their business and even walk around the pair of humans if they stood in their direct path. For whatever reason, these aliens were unconcerned with the entirely new species roaming around their living quarters.

“Oh hey little guy..” The American whispered. Sugawara watched as the alien from the tunnels came up to the man’s knee, pawing with five of its numerous legs.

Beau’s voice seemed softer in this new environment, treating the alien like an animal rather than the potential threat it should have been.

Sugawara frowned incredulously.

“Leave!” he snapped, hoping to scare off the creature and knock some sense into the older man.

Beau shot Sugawara a mean glare, the kind that froze him to the stop.

“Cut that out,” the menacing growl was quiet enough the alien didn’t notice, but Sugawara felt the scorn.

The soldier crouched down to pet the squid.

It was inky black like the cameras, shiny but not slimy, and it seemed to enjoyed being petted.

“They aren’t the same as the bugs,” Beau warned his companion, “no sense making enemies where we don’t need to,”

Sugawara grit his teeth and hissed a curse.

The purrs and coo’s the creature produced caused a few other squids to start approaching Beau, looking for the source of the others enjoyment.

“Hey hey, one at a time,” Beau responded, but the aliens clearly didn’t understand. They began climbing over each other to try and touch the human, never malicious, just curious.

The youth turned his back, leaving beau to figure out his predicament alone, while he did some reconnaissance and went deeper into the complex.

Sugawara walked through the apartment complex, fuming under his breath.

Nobody talked to him like that, if they were not stuck in the hell they were now Beau would have regretted even trying to threaten him.

‘Who does he think he is? I’m not a fucking child!” he seethed under his breath, they were surrounded by the enemy and he was acting as though they were at a petting zoo.

As Suga walked the halls he found little gathering spots where the creatures munched on the kibble bits, or sat around a glowing ball whistling to each other. They were completely ignorant of the storm brewing in his mind, lost in whatever passed for entertainment in this sterile environment.

He turned a corner and a bright light drew his eye to the centre of the complex, flashing and blazing with glory stood a giant pale blue bug, duelling another with taser swords.

Sugawara stood gobsmacked as he watched the scene unfold, the warriors were in no rush to arrest him, they danced meters above the actual ground to the entertainment of the squid.

An amphitheatre several steps deep, sitting more than a hundred of the aliens as they all watched a holographic ‘play’ in the middle.

The hologram was fascinating, the pair of bugs postured and flourished capes as they struck each other. A mass of screaming clicks and whistles substituted for words as the squids all bounced along to it.

To say it was surreal was the understatement of the fucking century.

The warriors thrust blades toward one another, shattering upon impact, a flash of light exaggerated the moment like a movie explosion.

Sugawara lifted his hand to shield his eyes and felt a tight grip on his shoulder.

‘What are you doing standing around?!’

Sugawara‘s head jerked in search of the voice.

The hand on his shoulder gone, but his heart raced like it used to.

That wasn’t good.

That wasn’t good at all.

He looked down at his hand and saw nothing.

It only get worse from here on out.

He’d have to be careful.

Sugawara backed away from the light dispaly, returning down the hall to find the American covered in the curious squids.

“Hey, Ryo! These guys are much friendlier than those other assholes,” Beau greeted him, seemingly forgotten their prior conflict. Sugawara sighed through his nose in response, unimpressed with the antics of a man nearly 15 years his senior.

One of the squids tore away from the pack and tried to get the younger man’s attention. With a snarl on his face Sugawara gently shoved it away with his foot, the squid blurted out a small squeak of surprise before it scuttled away.

He found a spot on the floor to sit down away from the other man’s line of sight while he pulled out the alien weapon from his hip in order to get a closer look. It was like a baton, weighted and solid in his hands, with a large wheel-like dial on the hilt where the blade should have been. The sword wasn’t not shaped for his hands but he did his best to find a grip, placing his thumb of the ‘wheel’ and moving it slowly as he had seen the hologram duelist do.

With every turn the ‘blade’ of the taser grew longer or shorter, explaining the sudden thrusting movements that they had been attacked with.

There were a few other buttons and dials, he pressed the one closest to his thumb and the entire blade was engulfed in the hum and crackle of electricity. He nearly dropped the thing then and there, pressing the button for the second time turned off the taser. He wasn’t as confident with touching the rest in case he electrocuted himself or it spontaneously self-destructed. For now, a giant metal spear with lightning damage was better than nothing. He turned back the dial so the blade slid neatly back inside its shaft and tucked it into his loin cloth before deciding to bring his findings to his companion’s attention.

Beau had since gotten the squids to an orderly sort of formation, those that tried to cut in front were harshly hissed at by their fellow squids. Some of them were bringing bits off food, dropping it at beaus lap, trying to barter for more pettings.

“Hey, the food is great and all,” he stated, biting into one of the offered up kibble bits, “But how about you get us some more of this huh?” he asked showing them his torn cloth lion cloth, “You’ll get some serious lovn’ if you get me some new threads,”

A few of them whistled and hurried off to god knows where, Beau’s lips curved, proud of himself for establishing contact, securing food and a means of trade.

He watched as the sulking teenager came back, having finished whatever business he had in the alien complex.

“Yo Ryo you find anything? A way out?” he asked.

The kid shook his head but pulled out the alien weapon and with a quick flick of the wrist and the flourish of his thumb, the taser sword crackled with lightning, scaring off any other would-be petters.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about...” Beau smirked, copying Sugawara’s movements exactly and soon had mastered his own taser sword. “So, we’re no longer unarmed, that’s was one less thing to worry about. I’m thinking these guys are the workers, keeping whatever it is in the tunnels running, might be the whole damn ship…” The soldier shared his thoughts.

Suga nodded.

“I count, uhh, one, two, zero, zero, zero.”

“One two?... wait, you mean 12,000? 12,000 what?”

Suga nodded his head, pointing to the apartment bock complexes.

“That’s a lot of maintenance workers…” Beau whistled, the ship must have been huge, “We need to find a way out of here,”

The few squids that had run off returned, this time carrying, some-fucking-how were lab coats, made from the same pleathery material as the walls of the tunnels.

“This just keeps getting better and better.” Beau half laughed.

The coat was too small for him but fit Ryo well enough, the kid even got to roll up his sleeves.

He would have to make do with an even larger loincloth, at least now there wasn’t as much of a breeze downstairs.

Beau looked at their options, they could keep wandering aimlessly down dark tunnels, away from the more dangerous aliens but without any way of knowing where they were they would just be wandering.

They could try walking the hallways, but they were two men, one not even trained against armed and dangerous enemy in their home territory under surveillance. Beaus joints protested but it wasn’t exactly a hard choice.

“So, we know that tunnel leads to our cell, armed guards and a dead end. You wanna pick our next route?”

The kid looked about as happy with their options as he was, shoulders slumped he pointed to another tunnel, higher up off the ground. Beau stared at it a moment, higher ground may not have been the worst idea.

“Alright then, going up,"