A human male by the name of Roy C. Sullivan remains the only being (human or otherwise) to be struck by lightning seven times, and survive. For reference, these bolts of atmospheric electricity are made up of around 100 million volts, 20,000 amps and can reach temperatures of 30,000 kelvin, hotter than the surface of many stars.

-

Dr. Krill performed his rounds that morning, like he did every morning, except with an uncharacteristic absentmindedness. During the course of his entire career, had he never made a mistake, but during those first few hours on the rotation floor, he almost unhooked a patient's ventilator, and nearly stabbed another resident when startled by their sudden appearance.

With four independent cortical hemispheres, he still couldn't focus on his attention on the tasks at hand.

It was that human again, all of the humans. He couldn't stop thinking about them: fascination and fear combined into an unhealthy stew of obsession.

Everywhere he went, he was captivated -- or more correctly haunted -- by their eyes, how they stared at him from a depthless void, yet not lifeless or empty as the image had been which scared and puzzled him. He had to shake away the thought, though the feeling their eyes gave him was so visceral it was hard to forget. It was all probably just a product of his imagination—yet the Vrul were not well known for their imaginings.

It shouldn't have captured his attention like it did, but here they were.

And despite all that, here he was doing everything but the one thing he wanted to be doing.

Was it out of fear?

Maybe.

He had accomplished much since he had accompanied the humans, but he could not put it off any longer.

Dr. Krill entered the human's room with a modicum of agitation and apprehension. He wasn't exactly sure what he expected to see, but something inside made him fear he might be forced to confront the depthless, blackness of the image from his office once again.

Off to his side, he could just make out the silhouette of the human shifting and churning where it lay. He immediately responded by filtering his vision through a thermal overlay, before immediately scolding himself for it and shutting it back off. Not only was the human unbearably bright with shedding heat, but there was no reason for him to feel so paranoid.

Floating forward into the room, he forced himself to look at the human directly. From this distance, he couldn't resolve all of the features, but could see that the creature was baring its teeth at him. He froze where he stood, rooted to the ground by his own gut wrenching fear. It cemented him in place, burrowed into his skin and spread like an insidious disease up his limbs. Had they neglected to feed it, was its insatiable lust for sustenance and hunger becoming too great for it to bear; had its animal mind taken over its rational mind?

Was it going to attack him?

"Um..... hey doc ... are you ok?" The innocuous question startled him from his mania more forcibly than rationality of any kind could have managed, and he oscillated in confusion at the center of the room. The human sat up, powerful dorsal muscles holding him upright. His teeth weren't barred anymore as he leaned forward spine collapsing in a way that looked almost painful, nearly folded in half at the waist. He waved a hand in the air, "Hello, Earth to E.T is anyone home."

"What?"

The human exhaled a sudden burst of air, "Never mind, I'm just wondering if you're alright. For a second there, it looked like you were going to cut and run."

"I.... do not understand," Krill ventured, inching tentatively closer.

"Mother of Jupiter," the human trailed off lamely. "You look scared; are you ok?"

Oh, if that is what it had been trying to say all along it should have just gone and said it, though the fact that the human could sense his unease was cause for great concern. Could it smell his fear? Perhaps it could sense the chemical changes in his body.

"Do you often show your teeth?" he ventured, tentatively scooting a little closer.

The human blinked, "Show my teeth? I.... uh.... OH! Hmmm?" The human paused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. In the past few days, a light dusting of fur had erupted from the creature's skin stopping and starting in the strangest of places. As he rubbed, a strange scratching sound emanated from his hands.

"Like this?" spikes of bone passed into view glistening with a light coating of saliva glittering with the calming blue lights, now eerie under these circumstances.

Krill backed away.

The human waved a hand wildly, "Calm down doc, can you not smile on your planet?"

"Smile?"

The human did something strange with its single eye flashing the sclera at him momentarily as the iris rolled towards the top of the head, "Yeah, a smile. It is a way of greeting someone, a friendly gesture." he waited for the doctor to process the information. "Humans smile at each other to greet people we like, like friends, or to show that we are happy. I believe it arose to show non-threatening intentions. I am greeting you."

"Friends?" the Vrul ventured. He had only a fleeting understanding of the concept. He had heard a similar word used by the Tesraki and the Rundi and knew it had something to do with a close social bond.

"Yeah, friends. You saved my life, so friendship is the logical progression, don't you think?"

Krill just shook his head. It didn't seem particularly logical to him, but the human was strange, and much was still unknown about its behavior. To show amiability or harmlessness, the humans showed their bone protrusions -- interesting, in a backward way.

"Look, if you're worried about the teeth thing I'll stop, but so you know,the difference between good and bad expressions, I will give you a quick demonstration" The human paused and lowered his chin over the generally unprotected front of his neck. That was followed by his lips slow withdrawal across the slimy landscape of those bone protrusions. It was a similar expression to the one before it, but this one covered the neck, showed more teeth, and the way the brows cut across the eyes convinced the doctor that it would be quite prudent to make a hasty retreat.

"Doc, it's just a demonstration. I'm not going to eat you...at least not yet..... kidding! Wow, doesn't your species have a sense of humor?" Krill's antenna hummed disapprovingly.

The human shook its large head, "I'll take that as a no. Promise, humans don't eat aliens."

The doctor wasn't sure if he believed that, but the human was smiling at him again, and he had to admit that the expression was significantly less distressing than he had originally supposed when compared to the second. So he made an executive decision and hesitantly approached to begin his examination. At first, he tried everything he could to avoid looking the human in the eye, though it wasn't lost on him that his decision wasn't practical considering the location of the human's wound. Still, he stalled for as long as feasible before finally forcing himself to perform the exam.

When he did, he found himself immediately overcome with a sense of relief, though he couldn't have said why. The eye appeared much the same as it had in the projected image, a delicately striated lattice of pigment in a striking Thallium green surrounding a contracting and expanding aperture of deep blackness. However, the inscrutable void he had experienced in his office was nowhere to be seen, and, as far as the doctor could tell, there was nothing visually different between the image and the real eye. Puzzling to say the least.

Rather than an actual physical change, it seemed to be the feelings the two evoked. Rather than staring into an endless abyss, he was filled with a sudden sense of life and warmth. There was nothing in the eye to indicate such feelings, but he was distinctly aware or assured that this creature was...alive, vibrant...and no matter how he tried to verbalize the feeling it gave him there was no way of explaining it. Of course the human was alive, but the depth of the consciousness was infinite.

Despite his relief, he was very displeased to find that the human's bandages had been tampered with and an unsterilized item had been brought in contact with the wound. He scolded the human for what must have been a good two cycles, but his warnings either could not seem to keep the creature's attention, or he simply didn't care.

Dr. Krill tried to fight down his fascination and keep his interaction with the human strictly professional, but the more he interacted the more the fascination grew until he simply couldn't contain himself and he heard himself, as if from a distance, interrupt the human and began asking his own questions. What planet housed their origins? How many sentient life forms inhabited their planet? What was the point of the fur on parts of their body? What was the reason for his coloring?

He stopped when he realized the human was smiling at him again. The delicate line of fur above the human's eye raised, a surprising feat of dexterity, the muscles in the face must have been so complex!

"I'm afraid those aren't questions I can answer doctor."

The doctor hummed in displeasure, "Why not?"

The smile didn't waver and it was well past any traditional greeting period Krill had ever heard of.

The human lifted its shoulders before slowly dropping them back, "I just can't because although I can give you impersonal and mechanical answers, there are just some things you have to see and experience for yourself."

"Experience it for myself?" the doctor wondered, "And how would I be expected to do that?"

The human sighed deeply, "I do have a suggestion, but I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in my idea. Never mind, you're not qualified as you have no experience with humans. Far above your skill level."

The doctor was sure the human was goading him and, if that was the case, he was infuriated to find that it was working! "I very much doubt that human," he found himself retorting with more indignation than he really intended, "as I have successfully performed surgery on you using an incomplete bio-map."

The human's smile grew bigger, more teeth, "You are correct doc. My ship's medical officer recently left under some unusual circumstances, and I have no one to look after my crew, so while we are in great need of a new medical officer, I am still not sure I would trust my human crew to your immature and amateur abilities."

He didn't know why that declaration bothered him so much, but it did, and upon hearing it, he clammed up even tighter than before.

He would not be goaded into a reaction by this creature. At least no more than he already had, so he regained his demeanor and finished examining the human in a strictly medical manner.

The human was significantly more active than he had been those first few days after his injury. He was also extremely talkative despite Krill's sudden shutdown, and most of what he said was complete prattle to Krill. Although, he had access to a complete translation algorithm of the human language, Krill noticed that the human used many words that didn't seem to exist in his own language, and when he did use words that Krill understood, he used them in ways that seemed contrary to their true meaning, which translated into complete nonsense.

Occasionally, the human would look at him as if waiting for a reaction only to flash another strange human expression: characterized by the sharp downturn at the corners of the mouth. The human wanted something but as with all Vrul, Krill expected and reacted to concrete communication. Bearing that in mind, the doctor tried to stay quiet, tried to stem the tide of questions flowing from his brain and towards his mouth so he could understand the human's unspoken request.

His efforts were futile, and he broke just as the human was opening his mouth spew another rambling and disjointed thought.

"Is your language truly based this heavily on metaphorical and colloquial communication, or is this simply a product of personal acquisition, and if that is the case do all humans understand this terminology? How does new vernacular spread and how does one come to understand it? I-"

The human was smiling at him again, and the expression was still so alien and unnerving to Krill that he broke off and stopped his line of questioning.

"They weren't kidding about your species being highly intelligent were they?"

"No," Krill's response wasn't egoistic or anything, it was just a statement of fact.

"That reminds me, I never got your name."

"Krill."

"Just one name? No family name?"

"My species does not have family units. One name is all that is needed." The human shifted in place, and Krill eyed him worried that the creature was going to try and get up.

"Got it, Spock." When Krill did not react, the human flashed his sclera. "Never mind, tell me doctor, have you been practicing medicine your whole life?"

"Yes."

"Really verbose, aren't you?" The human muttered crossing his arms and leaning back against his pillows. "So, it would be safe to say that you are an experienced doctor?"

With his examination finished, Krill floated back deflating a bit to retrieve some fresh bandages, re-inflating and returning to apply the dressing, "I am."

"How good are you? Good like chief of surgery for this hospital good or good like Dr. House is good?" Again, he had the feeling that there was something lost in translation, and the human sighed, "Note to self, stop using old pop culture references."

Dr. Krill ignored the breaks in translation but deciphered the meaning. "You still have your brain function, but if that is insufficient evidence to answer your question, I have been commissioned the universe's most skilled trauma surgeon for six consecutive cycles."

The next expression the human made was one that unnerved the doctor greatly. If he could have describe it using a word, he would have said it was...hungry, though why that word sprung to mind was beyond him. Whatever it was, it caused a feeling that could only be described as a thousand bugs crawling over his skin.

"The best trauma surgeon in the known universe eh.... bet the surgeries get a little boring around here. I mean, if you're as good as you say, things probably don't surprise you much anymore."

Dr. Krill glanced over at the human from where he stood next to the biohazard bin, but he didn't say anything so the human continued. "You're the best doctor in the known universe and you're stuck at this safe station with barely a procedure to perform. Mine was the first brain surgery you have ever performed. On my planet we've been doing brain surgery for a couple thousand years now. Every surgeon and their dog has performed brain surgery."

That definitely felt like bait of some kind, and he tried very, very hard not to take it; however, once again, his own infuriating curiosity betrayed him, "What do you mean, human?"

The human picked up his shoulders and they dropped them back into their original position. The expression on his face was infuriating, though once again, the doctor couldn't determine exactly why, "We were doing brain surgery successfully before we invented the radio."

Krill's four cortical hemispheres experienced a simultaneous short out, and he found himself preparing to correct the human of his nonsense, but was interrupted.

"Yeah, you heard me, but I mean you guys invented rocket science before brain surgery. I suppose you guys can't even transplant limbs or organs?"

Dr. Krill sputtered with confusion, and the human responded with a strange oscillating noise from the back of his throat and chest.

Krill stammered for a bit trying to find the proper words, "Transplant limbs, organs...human, now you are just fabricating medical procedures but to what end I cannot fathom."

"No doc, we routinely use body parts from recently deceased people to fix the broken parts of sick or injured people. Generally, we prefer only reattaching people's own limbs, but someone else's will do in a pinch." The 'smile' from earlier had grown even wider now. "But I'll stop talking, you're probably not interested. It's not the kind of surgery you're used to, human stuff you know, totally crazy, very dangerous. No non-human has never attempted the procedures that we do."

The human had to be lying. It was the only explanation. Of course, the procedures were theoretically possible, yes, but highly improbable. To be able to reattach a limb the patient had to survive unthinkable trauma and shock, keep from bleeding to death, undergo surgery quickly, and once that was over, they had to survive the extensive surgery, fight off infection and accept the new tissue and survive through the recovery period.

"You are exaggerating."

"Not exaggerating. Use logic doctor. I survived a screwdriver to the brain, and I have what five quarts of blood to loose. Humans are made to survive major injuries, but we can only do it when we have skilled doctors to bring us back."

"I have a feeling you are trying to say something to me but doing it very poorly." He was standing directly in front of the human now looking into his one, piercing, green eye. The pupil contracted and twitched down to look at Krill's face.

The human tapped his fingers against the bedframe, "Alright, how about I make myself perfectly clear: no games, no hints, no playing around. If you are half as good as you say you are, you are wasting your talent here. The number one trauma surgeon in the known universe, and you have never actually dealt with a major trauma greater than what, a broken leg? What would you give for a possible opportunity to re-attach limbs, stitch organs back together, cut us open and see what's on the inside.

The Vrul did not experience many emotions as their environment and civilization was so structured, predictable and rational.

"Go on."

"You're bored aren't you, doing the same thing here day after day after day."

Krill remained quiet; boredom was a word he did understand. It was when your intelligence or abilities weren't stimulated or challenged enough, when the job you had was below your capabilities to perform.

"I'll offer you a deal."

Krill waited.

"Join my crew. Travel the galaxy, and I promise you, you will never know boredom ever again."

Krill stared at the human.

The human stared back.

And then Krill turned around and walked out.

As the wall began to close behind him, he could just barely hear the human's muttering, "A simple no would have been fine."

The wall sealed behind him and Krill let his lateral antennae buzz in excitement.

Quit his job.

Join the human crew.

Wander the galaxy.

What a thought, what a trip, what an outrageous... idea.

What an... outrageous... idea