Arick challenged me over a Jack and Coke to write a poem about aliens, so it's his fault, not mine.
It had been a long couple of light years. Broken telemovers, uncalibrated displacement units and that thing in cabin C. It wasn't just the long legs, creepy though that was. Zem had dealt with long legged creatures before. No, the real problem with this one was its mouth. Whatever species it was, it had a terrible habit of baring its teeth at him. They were flat, straight, kind of useless looking teeth. Every time they passed in the corridor, Zem walking in a normal fashion, the thing tottering along looking about to fall, he had to look at those teeth. It made no sense to him. Did the thing think he was food? Lord of the Galaxies, he hoped not.
Here they were at dinner, the last ceremonial dinner on the last leap of the trip. The thing was seated across from him, occasionally crossing or uncrossing those infernal long legs. It reached out with appendages every now and then to grab some morsel of dead flesh from the plate. Zem supposed that whatever the hell those things were, they were a probably a delicacy on its world. People liked to live pretty high in space, no matter what species they were. It followed each unappetizing bit with a sip from a crystal cup filled with some blood colored liquid. Damn, would this evening never end?
Zem wanted to get back to his cabin, where he could be alone and quiet, where he could think. He preferred to be alone with his thoughts. He had no trouble at all being happy in his own private, little world. He never wanted to attend dinners like this, but the company demanded it of him. Their reasoning seemed to be that scoring highest on the Space Authorization Test wasn't enough. A successful captain had to be comfortable with people, as well. Apparently that even included "people" like this thing.
The living nightmare across the table was saying something to him. He couldn't make it out, but he wasn't about to ask for clarification. The thing's high-pitched voice annoyed him and he certainly didn't want to move closer. The thing didn't really scare him; it was just foreign as hell and that made him vaguely uncomfortable. It had hair growing around its eyes, that flickered up and down. There it was, baring its teeth at him again; it smelled vaguely like wild flowers. He couldn't imagine a purpose for the twin fatty deposits propped up in front. Frightening or not, the thing was leaning forward. Damn, it was going to repeat the question, closer this time.
"So, how do you like the prom?"