{"id":2840,"date":"2026-01-31T14:12:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2840"},"modified":"2026-01-31T14:12:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:12:30","slug":"elusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/31\/elusive\/","title":{"rendered":"Elusive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt: Include a huge twist, swerve, or reversal in your story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrin\u2019s feelers twitched in excited anticipation. Now that he had captured an \u201cElusive\u201d from the Juria spike of the galaxy, he had a chance to advance. Maybe he would be allowed to mature to a female and start his \u2026 her \u2026 own hive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He could already imagine getting the medal of science for dissecting, describing, and providing an in-depth study of the physiology of an Elusive, and the limited technology of its ship. If he could figure out where their home world was, it would be an easy colonization for the Grand Hive. Maybe that\u2019s where Andrin\u2019s own clutch would be laid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The automated systems had already dismantled the small ship. It used a crude warp technology \u2014 distorting space directly around the ship \u2014 that his own people had left behind more than two hundred generations ago. With the fold drive, his ship outpaced the Elusive\u2019s by more than a thousand-fold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was almost unbelievable to Andrin was how similar the atmosphere in the ship of the Elusive was to that within his own. At first, he thought the Elusive might asphyxiate in the higher pressure, lower oxygen concentration of his ship, but it seemed to be doing fine. If only his computer could figure out its language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it stopped making noise, Andrin walked to its cage, bent his feelers in a mockery of politeness, and spread his forelimb graspers. \u201cPlease, esteemed guest, continue to regale me with your tales while my computer examines your noises for any hint of intelligence.\u201d He followed it up with a clacking of his mandibles and threat gesture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than shrinking back from him, the Elusive moved to the front of the cage with a speed that stunned Andrin. It nearly grabbed one of his limbs that was too close to the cage. With that, it began making noise again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrin\u2019s computer began to catch a few words here and there. Most were inconsequential words, those bits of syntax that held sentences together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026 and then \u2026 but \u2026 a … from \u2026 with \u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t enough to determine what it was talking about, but the fact that it was talking was obvious. Andrin kept an eyestalk on the Elusive, trying to ascertain its mood, even if its speech was still impenetrable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He couldn\u2019t tell whether the Elusive was frightened, angry, stressed, tired or bored. Part of him hoped it was anything other than the last. Andrin had felt flashes of recognition of a predator at times from the Elusive. It had been watching him closely, but now it seemed not to care what he was doing. That was unnerving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrin did everything he could to speed up the translation process. He assigned half of the main computing cycles to assist the translator. It didn\u2019t seem to be helping, though. The longer the Elusive talked, the slower the completion bubble on the translator rose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He began to catalogue the parts and pieces from the captured Elusive ship. There was a strange mix of primitive, like the drive, hyper-primitive, like the heating coils that might have been used for warming the interior or cooking food or both, and the more up to date, like the FTL communications array that wouldn\u2019t be out of place in his own ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the primitive hardware was a piece that \u2014 obvious to Andrin \u2014 was the ship\u2019s computer. He had dismantled it and spread it across the workbench in no time at all. There was nothing that stood out to him, though, as the actual processor. Many of the pieces might have been some sort of processor, but there was nowhere to contain a quantum loop generator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Elusive had stopped talking. Andrin turned to face the cage, ready to make it start again. The sight of the translator shutting itself off stopped him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It touched a device behind its ear. When it spoke again, the device behind its ear repeated everything in a mechanical version of Andrin\u2019s language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, I have what I want, now I can talk to you. Your translation computer is horrible, by the way,\u201d it said. \u201cYour name is Andrin, and mine is Melody. Thank you for the ship and all the new tech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could\u2019ve translated at any time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course. I just had to wait until I got the all-clear from my ship\u2019s computer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe one over there on the bench in pieces?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all just interface hardware. The computer itself is contained in modules throughout the ship\u2019s frame and currently interfaced with your systems.\u201d She smiled. \u201cI should say, my<\/em> systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expression drove a wedge of icy fear through every joint of his carapace. Andrin shrank back and hit the emergency jump button. When nothing happened, he did it again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cage opened and Melody stepped out and stretched. \u201cIt\u2019ll be interesting to see how your artificial gravity works. We captured one from some squid-like things, but it requires being submerged in brine to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour systems are crude, primitive even. There\u2019s no way you\u2019ve taken control of my ship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhich is it?\u201d she asked. \u201cAre humans primitives, or are we the boogeyman Elusive that gets blamed for every ship lost in the Perseus arm \u2014 you call it Juria I think \u2014 of the galaxy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComputer, detain foreign life form,\u201d he called out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When nothing happened, Melody said, \u201cGo ahead, computer, do what he said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A series of moving force fields and shocks drove Andrin into the cage which closed behind him. Melody sighed. \u201cAgain, thanks for the ship and the new tech. Computer, take us home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fold drive activated and within the span of a few breaths the ship re-entered normal space in orbit above the Earth. \u201cWelcome to Earth, Andrin. I\u2019m afraid you\u2019re going to be here for a while until we decide whether letting you go is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you going to do with my ship?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy new ship?\u201d Melody asked. \u201cI\u2019m going to take it apart so the science guys can study it all. Then, if I manage to get it back together, I get to keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

prompt: Include a huge twist, swerve, or reversal in your story. available at Reedsy Andrin\u2019s feelers twitched in excited anticipation. Now that he had captured an \u201cElusive\u201d from the Juria spike of the galaxy, he …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208],"tags":[210,228,209],"class_list":["post-2840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trunk-stories","tag-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sxT7i-elusive","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2841,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions\/2841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}