Harmless Alien Acid

Spring cleaning was the order of the day at the Nimoy household. While cleaning out the basement, fifteen year old Pamela came across an old newspaper. Pamela always knew she was different from her classmates, with her pale green skin and dark green eyes. She also found salt water irritated her skin, so taking an ocean swim was never going to be a good time. What was a good time tended to be when she was surrounded by people. Something about taking in the air that they breathed, which made sense due to taking after her namalahi mother. On the distant planet of Salagua, she was told, her mother and father met under unfortunate circumstances. After they were settled, the two married and came back to Earth where they had her. That was all they would say on the matter.

Imagine her surprise when on the front page of the newspaper Pamela found what appeared to be a photograph depicting a younger version of her father with an open mouthed smile and four namalahi with uncertain looks on her faces; one of whom looked like her mother. The photograph was in colour, showing the full grandeur of each namalahi's solid green skin and dark green eyes. Their hair was orange, yellow, violet and white respectively with her father sporting his light skin and blonde hair. The photograph had the names of everyone underneath stating they were from left to right Monat, Urya, Carmine Nimoy, Abmisuko and Namanat. The article mentioned a human man surviving an execution by acid on the planet of Salagua. Having done so, the authorities were unsure of what to do.

Pamela looked at a finger she just then ran through her blonde-violet hair and decided this must have been the unfortunate circumstance her parents had mentioned. The cleaning she was supposed to do could wait. Wanting to get to the bottom of this mystery, Pamela carried the newspaper up out of the basement hoping to learn more.

“Mom?” Pamela called up the stairs, “Can you explain something to me?”

“Of course Honey.” Abmisuko Nimoy said. “What do you need me to tell you about?”

“This!” Pamela said with a determined expression on her face as she held the newspaper containing the front page story with both hands in front of her mother.

Confronted with a picture showing a younger version of herself, Abmisuko had a look of utter shock on her face. Looking from the front page story to her daughter's determined expression, she smiled and laughter came out of her mouth.

“Oh, is that all?” she asked the now confused looking Pamela. “I thought it was something more serious. Honestly surprised you never asked either of us to tell you more about how we met.”

“All you said about it was that they were unfortunate circumstances, without ever explaining what exactly they were.” replied an annoyed Pamela.

“At the time you were not old enough to have understood”, her mother said with a sigh, “but this gives me the perfect opportunity to show you just what happened.”

“Show me?” Pamela questioned raising an eyebrow. “How?”

Abmisuko picked up what looked like a remote control and held it close to her mouth.

“Salagua Public Execution Archive, Carmine Nimoy.” she says into the remote.

A nearby giant flat screen television fastened into the wall suddenly turned on and a video on pause could be seen. Pamela saw her mother smile and sit on a nearby couch, opening a hand next to her as if to offer a seat. Shrugging her shoulders, she accepted the seat next to her mother and faced the screen.

“Play video.” her mother said into the remote.

The video started to play and it showed a room where the camera was pointed at a downwards angle. Carmine Nimoy was shown wearing a pair of boxers behind a plastic screen with tiny holes near the height of his head. In front of the screen was a past version of Abmisuko wearing nothing at all along with two people wearing body covering protective gear. Underneath the screen where Carmine was being held a large vat of colourless liquid could be seen. An opening with a ladder down could be seen off to the side which likely was a way down to the vat of liquid. The Abmisuko in the video could be heard conversing in a language Pamela did not understand with the pair in protective gear.

“What language is that? And why are you naked?” Pamela wondered aloud.

“Namalahi. We had no need for clothes on my former home planet.” replied her present day mother.

In the video, the conversation appeared to end as the pair in protective gear nodded. They walked over to the ladder down and looked at Pamela's father after getting next to it. Past Abmisuko turned from them and towards the captive.

“Carmine Nimoy,” she began, “You have been sentenced to execution by being dropped into acid. Once you are dead, they will climb down and retrieve your shrivelled corpse.”

“This is all a huge mistake.” The past version of her father said in a grim tone. “I came to this planet hoping to study the namalahi and perhaps help you grow as a plant based species.”

“Yes, we have the report stating your reputation on Earth as a renowned florist. Supposedly due to the many unusual things you did with the plants you took care of.”

“I guess starting to do them first thing upon arrival was not the smart thing to do.”

Past Abmisuko rolled her eyes at this statement. “We do not appreciate being breathed hard on, even if your carbon rich breath is just the thing we like due to breathing out mostly oxygen.”

Past Carmine shrugged his shoulders at this retort. “Looks like I found that out the hard way.”

“True enough.” Pamela's mother said with a sigh. “Are there any last words you care to say before you are dropped down?”

Past Carmine Nimoy looked down at the vat of colourless liquid, then looked back at Past Abmisuko with a curious expression. “One question: What elements make up the acid?”

The video version of Abmisuko looked to the pair in protective gear and spoke to them in the namalahi language. They looked at each other, seeming to hesitate, then one of them turned to Abmisuko and spoke in namalahi as well. Nodding in seemingly having received her query, she turned back to the Carmine Nimoy in the video.

“The acid is made up of hydrogen, oxygen, sodium and chlorine.”

A confused expression came across Pamela's face just then. “Wait, isn't that-”

“Hush, Darling, Hush.”, her present mother quickly muttered.

Her past father's expression turned from a look of curiosity to that of joy.

“I thought so. When we're done here, my little bell flower, we should get to know each other better.”

With that, past Carmine Nimoy covered his nose with his right hand and nodded to indicate he was finished speaking. A confused past Abmisuko studied him for a moment, seemingly in an attempt to puzzle out the change in one doomed to die. She then shrugged her shoulders and faced a spot not in the camera's view. Abmisuko nodded towards it and the floor underneath the human captive suddenly opened up causing him to fall rapidly down into the colourless acid below. His body made a loud splashing sound and he went under the acid showing how deep the vat was.

A few seconds later, past Carmine Nimoy's head popped up out of the liquid and appeared to be none the worse for wear. His face could just be made out and it appeared as though he was laughing. Past Abmisuko looked at the seemingly unharmed Carmine Nimoy with complete shock. She then turned her head up towards the pair in protective gear and spoke in namalahi in an aghast manner. One of them walked over to where the young Nimoy could be seen. They pulled their head back in surprise and motioned for the other to come take a look. The other one obliged and also pulled their head back in bewilderment.

It was at this point past Carmine Nimoy swam from the middle of the vat of liquid and pulled himself out of it from the side. After getting out, he shook his whole body in an attempt to get as much of it as he could off of him. Past Abmisuko and the pair in protective gear watched as he casually walked out of sight from the vat towards the direction of the ladder. A few moments later the past Carmine Nimoy appeared at the opening of the ladder and climbed up into the room.

“You don't know much about humans, do you?” asked a smiling Carmine.

The pair in protective gear hurried over to him and started checking over his entire body in an attempt to figure out how he was fine. Past Abmisuko stared at him in amazement.

“This should not be possible.” she finally managed to say. “The acid should have been making your body shrivel up into a misshapen mess.”

“It might be acid to you, but to me it's just salt water.”

Past Abmisuko had a curious expression on her face, seemingly unfamiliar with this term.

“Is there salt water as you call it on Earth?”

“Oceans of it, and a lot of humans swim in it for fun.”

The Abmisuko in the video walked towards Carmine with exasperation on her face. And stopped right in front of him.

“Fun? How is swimming in this acid fun?”

“Because to us it's just like regular water but with salt in it. It can be hard getting the salt off though.”

Past Abmisuko blinked three times and spoke in the namahali language. When she finished the pair in protective gear stopped checking past Carmine, swung their heads towards her, then swung them back at him. He nodded at them seemingly in assurance that she related their conversation into words they could understand. One of the two looked at past Abmisuko and spoke in namalahi. Whatever they said, the other nodded seemingly in agreement. The pair now started to pull past Carmine Nimoy with them towards where Abmisuko had looked and nodded earlier.

“Woah, hey, where we going?” A surprised Nimoy asked.

“They want to take you away to a laboratory.” replied Abmisuko as she walked beside him. “Your apparent immunity to salt water as you call it makes them want to perform a series of tests to see just how immune.”

Past Carmine Nimoy smiled at her. “If that's all, then they can lead the way. I hope we get to know each other better afterwards, my little bell flower.”

With that, Carmine breathed hard at Abmisuko then marched towards the direction the pair in protective gear were pulling him, both of who walked a little faster in front of him to lead the way. Abmisuko turned to face the camera and had a smile on her face as Carmine Nimoy was being led away. She suddenly got a hold of herself and faced the direction they were going.

“The name is Abmisuko!” she loudly stammered as the trio moved just out of frame.

“See you soon, my little Abmisuko.” Carmine can be heard saying from off-screen.

Past Abmisuko placed her hands on the sides of her head and looked up while making a sound of utter frustration. This was where the video ended.

Present Abmisuko was watching the end of the video with a wistful smile while Pamela Nimoy had a focused expression which then turned to her mother.

“I demand the epilogue.” the young partial namalahi sprout begged her mother.

Abmisuko looked to her daughter and nodded. “The tests were carried out, the picture you see on that front page story was taken, we did in fact get to know each other better and your father was given a brand new job which until then had not existed.”

Pamela looked away from her mother for a split second, then looked back.

“Was that before or after you got married?”

“When he was officially made Earth's ambassador to Salagua, your father needed an interpreter due to not knowing the namalahi language. After he got the hang of it my services were no longer needed. I told him about not wanting to leave his side and it just sort of happened.”

A nod from Pamela was a sign of how she understood. “So where did I come in?”

Abmisuko looked away from her daughter and sighed. “While working as an ambassador, Carmine Nimoy became an expert on namalahi biology. Procreation between humans and namalahi was theoretical at the time and you proved it was very much possible.”

Yelling could be heard just then and running into the room came two boys and a girl with the same light green skin and blonde violet hair as Pamela. She and Abmisuko watched them run around and then out to somewhere else in the house.

“So then how do you explain Victor, Oswald and Selina?” Pamela asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Attempts to discover if the theory was indeed... repeatable.” her mother replied with a chuckle.

“I never thought I'd get so much info from this one piece of history.” Pamela said while looking at the newspaper again.

Abmisuko was still holding the remote in her hand into which she spoke once more: “Earth's Salagua embassy, front office.”

On the television, the video they had watched suddenly winked out and was replaced by a message indicating a call was being sent to the Salagua embassy on Earth. A minute later, present Carmine Nimoy now wearing full clothing and a touch of grey hair appeared on the screen. He had a big smile on his face as he recognized the ones who called.

“To what do I owe to the pleasure of your call, my little bell flower?” He asked his wife.

“Pamela found the paper about how you survived your execution.” Abmisuko said to her husband as Pamela held the newspaper up in front of the screen. He laughed and looked away from it.

“Well, that takes me back. Was wondering where it went. Did you watch the video?”

“Just now.” Pamela replied. “Did namalahi really know that little about humans?”

Her father shrugged his shoulders and looked right at her. “Salagua was not a planet we travelled to all that much at the time. Your mother was one of the few who took it upon herself to learn our language on the off-chance something went wrong while a human was there and needed an in-between.”

“So, which of you is responsible for my middle name Primrose?” asked a smiling Pamela.

Carmine Nimoy and Abmisuko laughed at this question and her father raised a hand seemingly volunteering to answer her daughter's query.

“Actually, it was Eganla the Salagua ambassador to Earth who suggested it. You had blonde violet hair even when you were born, so he looked into the flowers with those colours and chose that one.”

“When can you come home from work, Dear?” Abmisuko Nimoy asked Carmine.

Pamela looked to her mother as if she asked something ridiculous. “Uh, Mom?”

“In about an hour, my little bell flower.” replied her father. “I'm in the middle of-”

Carmine Nimoy was interrupted by loud yelling from what sounded like three young children. A door opened and the two boys who had run by Pamela and Abmisuko earlier now ran into the room with the girl following after them. Pamela, Abmisuko and Carmine watched as the three ran around the room twice and then out of it, the last one closing the door. Carmine Nimoy looked up and shook his head.

“They really need to learn that Earth's Salaguian embassy is not to be disturbed during work hours.”

“Salaguian embassy?” Pamela asked while spreading her arms wide “Dad, this entire house along with the property surrounding it is the Salaguian embassy!”

“Be that as it may, Pamela Primrose Nimoy,” Abmisuko started with her admonishment “the room is officially the head office of the embassy and therefore should be treated as such.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” The half Salaguian said while looking upwards with a sigh.

Carmine Nimoy shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “You really should learn to speak namalahi so the next time we go to Salagua you can know what everyone is saying.”

“I'd rather not,” Pamela said while looking forward at her father “if only because you speak it to each other when you don't want me to know what you're saying.”

“She does have a point, Dear.” Abmisuko said to the present Carmine. “It comes in handy when we want to say something private in front everyone.” she finished while winking at the screen.

Carmine Nimoy now started to speak in a language Pamela did not understand. Abmisuko replied, indicating to her that they were speaking namalahi. From the way the two were acting, it became clear they were saying lovey-dovey things and perhaps stuff a teenage daughter would not want her parents talking about. With a disgusted sound, Pamela stood up and threw the newspaper onto the couch where she was sitting. She then left the room towards the basement where the offending item had been found.