Jeannie was alone in an incredibly bright room. The light was somehow coming from everywhere, and there was a beautiful view of the outside world: concrete blocks, sand, every now and then a few stains from dried up oil spills. It was very different from what she was used to seeing.

Yet despite the view she couldn’t get her mind off of Frank: the way he had bowed down to the human named Jean and had left her alone. This was something she did not expect from him. Or anyone, for that matter.

She felt tiny footsteps approach her room from a few hundred meters away. Judging by the speed and size of the creature, it would take it around 10 minutes to reach the door. It was an amount of suspense Jeannie wouldn’t be able to deal with under normal circumstances: but right now there was too much going on in her mind, too much to process at once. She wondered whether humans usually walked or crawled. She had ruled out flying a while ago.

A human eventually did enter the room. Jeannie couldn’t figure out which one it was since they all smelled the same. It took off its box and showed its head for the second time. It was Jean. Jeannie could clearly identify him: he was wearing a pair of glasses with black, plastic frames; an antique which she had seen before in the forest. Those glasses were the only thing that helped her tell humans apart from one another. And it was the only way to actually remember them. So far she could only recall seeing a blue human and a metallic human. Neither of them had done anything interesting, but it was just so easy to remember them because of the glasses.

And now Jean, the black human, had made his appearance once again. He was also the only human whose name she knew.

Jeannie stood up from the corner where she was sitting and walked over to the human. He did not appear frightened.

“My name is Jeannie,” she beeped and felt a strange sensation pulse through her entire brain all the way to her abdomen.

The black human shot her a confused look.

“Who told you that?”

“What do you mean?” she replied. Now Jeannie was the confused one.

“I don’t let others name my animals for me. I made that clear a hundred times. So, who was it? Who decided to call you Jeannie?” he demanded to know.

“My parents, probably. I doubt it was the Grand Patrol.” She answered, not entirely sure what the human meant.

Jean thought for a few seconds and then shook his head. It was clear he wasn’t pleased at the thought of Jeannie having her own name.

“Aren’t you listening? Is that stupid device broken again? I am the one who names the animals working for me. Your name isn’t Jeannie: it’s Rocky.”

Jeannie’s wing twitched. The black human shot her a surprised look and instantly grabbed a small round device from his belt. It created the same red beam she saw earlier. It was aimed at her, but she didn’t feel anything apart from a ticklish, warm sensation where the red dot met her scales.

“Sir, with all due respect, I am a female. You can’t call me Rocky,” she replied.

Jean was a bit surprised by her response. He lowered the gun.

“You creatures aren’t genderless?”

Jeannie wasn’t sure what to reply to that. It was true that her gender couldn’t be read as long as her wings were covered in fabric, since no light was being reflected in them. But she had a hunch that standing up and taking her wingwear off was going to frighten the human and make him even more unpredictable.

“We do have genders. I am a female. And you?” Jeannie replied simply.

The black human just stared at her in confusion.

“Can’t you tell?” he asked.

“How am I supposed to know when you don’t have wings?” Jeannie replied.

The human stood speechless for a moment and then burst into laughter. It was the first time Jeannie saw human beings express such intense emotions, and the device wrapped around her antennae sent an incredibly strong signal through her entire body. It was very painful.

“I like this one. I hope you won’t leave too soon. Alright, Jeannie it is. To be honest, I don’t know any female names anyway. It might be easier this way.”

“No female names? Have you never met a female human being before?” Jeannie asked. This was truly intriguing: there was so little she knew about the human world.

“Never. Our government keeps a very strict male-to-female ratio. We can’t just multiply at random like animals do.”

There was an unusual emphasis on the world “animals” which Jeannie’s translator sent screeching through her entire back. She wasn’t quite sure what this human was trying to say.

“Why is that so important?” Jeanie asked.

“Why? Cause there’s not enough food,” Jean replied dryly and reached for something in the box he had carried in.” This is your ration for the week.”

He tossed her a tin can. Jeannie took a quick look at it and tried to pick it up, but the tips of her legs weren’t used to grabbing smooth objects. The can just rolled on the floor all the way under the desk in front of the large window.

Jean appeared annoyed by this.

“Anyway, let’s get down to why you are here,” he said and put his hand on the box.

Jeannie nodded.

“To look at paintings for you.”

“Yes. Sort of,” he replied and took out a stack of paintings from the box.” These are the last ones.”

Jeannie didn’t understand what that meant, but she nodded despite that.

“Take a good look at them. We think one of them has a secret message for the Resistance. Examine each section carefully and tell me the moment you find something.”

Jean put the stack of paintings in the middle of her desk. Jeannie tried to count how many there were. Her math skills weren’t that good, but she was absolutely sure there were less than 10 paintings there.

“Those are all of them?” she asked.

“Yes. The one before you already sorted out everything else. We just have these 5 paintings for you to look at. That doesn’t sound hard, now, does it?”

Jeannie took another look at the stack on the desk. Something wasn’t right here. How much time would she need to spend per painting? Was it really going to take her an entire week to sort through these five paintings?

She walked over to the desk and tried to sit down on the chair. It wasn’t especially comfortable, or maybe it was just that she wasn’t used to sitting on surfaces softer than wood. Jeannie reached for the first painting and balanced it between her claws. She could see the human standing right behind her. Jeannie felt his breath on her back. It was disgusting, but it showed one thing clearly: Jean was impatient. Jean wasn’t going to stand there all week. He was expecting to see results right now.

Jeannie did her best to place the first painting in front of her without scratching its edges. Her legs were a bit clumsy with paintings as well. She accidentally left a tiny scratch on the side, but nobody was going to notice it. Luck was clearly on her side: the painting was of a completely black night sky.