Beyond the Stars (17 page)

“Samantha Bennett,” replied Gaelan, remembering my name. His voice was smooth and familiar. I turned my eyes away from Kylie to look at the man sitting across the table from her. His eyes flashed up at me. “I believe we have already met.”

“Oh, yes, you’re right,” I quickly retrieved his image. “That day in engineering,” I said with a smile. “It’s nice to see you again.” I blushed and slid across the bench to sit down. I hadn’t forgotten Gaelan. He was the gorgeous man I had met two months ago in engineering when I visited Noah with Tess. Why is it that certain circumstances or people keep coming back into your life repeatedly when you least expect it? It’s as though someone is screaming, “Hey, will you stop and pay attention to me?”

Jackson grabbed Leah by the arm and pulled her towards him. “Hey, let’s not forget about this knucklehead. This is Leah, my older sister.”

“Sure, by what, five minutes? It’s nice to meet you both,” Leah corrected her brother and plopped herself down on the bench beside me. Twin humor was something they never grew tired of. Before we could order, a waitress brought over a tray of glasses and a large pitcher of beer.

“Jackson, you ordered beer? You’re only nineteen,” I scolded.

“That’s right, Mom. There’s no drinking age in Space.” He let out a wicked laugh and started to fill the glasses. “Besides, what am I going to do, steal the shuttle and go for a joy ride?” He and the others laughed.

“Funny,” I said, rolling my eyes. I decided not to lecture about the dangers of alcohol and the young brain. I grabbed one of the mugs and took a large gulp. It was probably the best beer I’d had in my life. I could really use a drink after my day. “So, did you guys meet any of the aliens yet?” I wanted to talk about the taboo topic. “Do they have antenna coming out of their heads? Are they furry like a yeti? Or
maybe
they have superpowers?” Everyone laughed. Their attention urged me on.

“Mom, please,” pleaded Jackson as he laughed.

“Do they walk on all fours? Do they have a tail or four eyes?” I continued while they all burst into laughter. “Are they giants or ridiculously small? Are they green?” I let myself get carried away.

Jackson held his side in pain. “Mom, come on, if you don’t stop I’m going to drop a lung,” he urged.

“I can’t help it. I mean, we’ve made contact with extraterrestrials and can’t even talk about it. This is the biggest news of our time. How can we pretend it hasn’t happened?”

“Mom, before you say anything more, I have to tell you something,” Jackson said with a chuckle and a strange look.

“What?” I held up my hands, feeling puzzled.

“Mom, Gaelan
is
from Kataria,” he muttered softly.

“What?
Oh—
” was all I was able to reply. I covered my mouth and looked across the table at the stunning man and bit my lip. His flat expression was unreadable. I was mortified. “I’m so sorry—I didn’t know.” I wanted to disappear. If I could have crawled under the table and hid, I would have. Why did I have to open my big mouth? I kicked Jackson’s foot under the table. He glared up at me and silently mouthed the word
Ouch!

“No problem. We asked the same things about
you,
” Gaelan said in a serious voice. A curious grin lit up his face as if he had found the whole thing amusing. He carefully studied my face. His clear, blue eyes went right through me. They pulled me in like a hypnotist’s voice. I gasped at his perfect features before I turned my eyes away. We all became quiet while we sat and drank our beer. Gaelan excused himself a few minutes later.

“Why didn’t you tell me
he
was a Katarian? You could have introduced him as such,” I said.

“I didn’t think of it. Besides, how was I to know that you would start bashing the poor aliens?” Jackson said, refuting blame.

“Mom, this is Gaelan. He is from Kataria. How hard is that?” I said sarcastically. He sneered at me.

“Hey, Mom, we should find Noah,” Leah interjected before we got into a nasty fight. She liked being the peacekeeper of the family.

“Yeah, that’s right. I didn’t get a chance. I was supposed to tell you that he’s planning to meet us later—after his shift at nineteen hundred hours. He’s challenged us to a game of Space relay racing.” Jackson joined in on his sister’s deliberate change of subject. They always worked well as a team.

“It was really funny, Sami. Noah almost passed out when Jackson told him you were coming up here today. He said he was sure you would have backed out by now,” Kylie chimed in cheerfully.

“Mom, if you would have seen the look on his face …
priceless,
” Jackson finished her sentence before they both started giggling about their inside joke.

Lunch went by without another mention of Gaelan. I think everyone wanted to forget my blunder, including me. Kylie was delightful. I could see why Jackson liked her. She was attractive, driven, and charismatic. Leah and Kylie chattered back and forth throughout our meal. They were in their own little world because they both specialized in agriculture and would be working together in the resort’s hydroponic food production center. After dinner, Jackson needed to return to work to check on some experiments and complete his shift. Kylie offered to show us the greenhouse, but I decided to pass on the offer to join them. I felt completely drained and wanted to lie down before the evening activities began, so I excused myself and walked back to my room. I looked at my watch.
How could it only be two o’clock in the afternoon?
The trip had disoriented my sense of time. The day seemed to be going on forever. Maybe I was suffering from sensory overload.

CHAPTER 14

PANIC

I walked down the long corridor to return to my room. I took time to admire every view outside of each of the windows along the way. Suddenly, an ear-piercing alarm and white flashing light boxes came to life, blinking every six feet along the passageway’s ceiling. A computerized female voice announced overhead, “Attention all crew and guests. This is an emergency. Please proceed to the nearest shuttle bay for mandatory evacuation. This is not a drill. Repeat, you must proceed to the nearest shuttle bay for immediate evacuation.”

My heart sank. I had just left Leah and Jackson’s side less than ten minutes ago. There were only two exits off of the station, each at opposite ends. I’m not sure if I should go back to find them or go in the opposite direction to the closest shuttle. I looked up at the white lights and huffed in defiance when my eyes focused on the lighted arrows pointing
away
from the location of my kids. I stepped once in their direction, but jerked to a pause.
No, I’m sure they’d be gone by now.
I took in a deep breath and tried to remain calm. A man came running past me with no intention of slowing down.

“What’s going on?” I yelled after him.

“Fire,” he shouted over his shoulder without stopping. “Come on,” he demanded without breaking stride.

“
Fire!
” I gasped. Although I knew the resort had several fire extinguishing systems in place, my body reacted to the urgency of the situation. I saw no option but to comply. I turned and walked briskly down the corridor to the nearest exit highlighted by the blinking arrows. I pictured being trapped in the enclosed space. My rising anxiety made the walls seem like they were closing in on me. The claustrophobia was overwhelming! Before I knew it, I was running frantically. Adrenaline surged through my veins as panic set in. The walls and lights in the corridor became a blur when I flew past them. I had to get off this structure, I told myself. I sprinted around the last corner to get to the shuttle and slammed my body full force into a solid object. It was hard, large, and a very good hit. Everything went black….

I looked up. Ouch, my head hurt. My eyes were blurry, and the passing lights had halos around them. My body was being jostled. Was I being carried? Yes. I looked up to see a man’s face. It was Gaelan. He held me tightly in his arms as he ran. We entered a dark room. He turned in a rush and closed a door with the touch of a button. I saw him tap a light on what looked like a bulletin board on the wall and say, “All aboard—all clear for undocking.” Gaelan didn’t seem to notice my awakening. He carried me down a hall in a quick dash. We entered a large, well-lit room with people sitting at defined stations across the room. I squinted at the sudden brightness. Finally, he looked at me and saw I was awake. He sat me down in a chair. This was definitely not the shuttle. Maybe this was part of the station I hadn’t seen yet. The crew sat at lighted tables with holographic computer screens floating above them. It looked similar to our Space station command center, but then I noticed the writing was foreign. A huge star map outlining the galaxy was floating in the center of the room. People seemed to be studying it attentively but made little movement. It appeared as though they were operating the controls telepathically. Oh no—it couldn’t be. My body froze from the disorientation after I instantly realized I was sitting on the Katarian Spaceship! Although the aliens looked just like us, I felt a wave of fear surge through me from knowing I was surrounded by beings from another planet.

“Are you all right?” Gaelan asked, staring at me intently with a concerned expression.

“I’ll be fine,” I muttered.

“Good,” he said firmly. He took his hand, placed it under my chin, and tilted my head up for examination. “We’ll get that looked at in a moment, I promise. Just hang tight.”

I reached up and felt a giant goose egg on my upper right forehead. No wonder my head was throbbing. I heard the Katarians talking around me in their native language. I couldn’t make out a word. I tried to make out some of their actions. It seemed as though they were preparing to undock their ship from the Space station in order to follow the mandatory evacuation. I sat quietly and watched them work. After a minute, everyone seemed to pause from their duties. I noticed Gaelan and another man talking with serious looks on their faces. It seemed like they were arguing. I could tell by their nonverbal communication that their discussion somehow involved me. Gaelan gave me a quick, empathetic look. The stern black man he was fighting with motioned his hand to me and gnashed his teeth. He had a stiff, intimidating stance and looked upset by my presence. I sat helplessly. I considered asking what they were saying but didn’t want to provoke any hostility. Instead, I waited patiently for their instruction.

Gaelan walked over to me. “Samantha, we cleared the station,” he stated in a calming voice. “But we have a little problem.”

“What?” I asked curiously.

“It seems that everyone is in agreement to travel home now. We had promised we would gather some supplies for the expansion of the station.”

“Okay, that’s great. Just drop me off at the elevator terminal.”

He squatted down on his knees so that he could be at my eye level. “Well …” he paused. “That’s what I need to tell you. We are already underway,” he said, looking me directly in the eyes. I think he was trying to determine how much this would upset me.

“Really—no—you have to take me
back!
” I protested. My panic only irritated the man Gaelan had been talking with. He sighed and shot me an angry glare. He appeared to have zero tolerance when his orders were challenged.

“We can’t, not yet,” he said firmly.

“Oh,” was all I could respond. I was almost too afraid to speak. I sat motionless for a moment, trying to digest the news. How could we be underway already? We only left a few minutes ago.

“I know you didn’t sign up for this. It’s just that, when I ran into you, I couldn’t just leave you there
unconscious
. We’ll have you back in no time.”

“That was you?” I was shocked. I could have sworn I hit a wall. I wanted off this ship, but I got the impression that going back wasn’t a viable option. I thought carefully before I spoke. I was clearly outnumbered here.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t see you coming,” he apologized.

“Are you sure there’s room for me on board?” I quickly thought. Maybe this was a futile attempt, but it might have caused them to take me back.

“Plenty,” Gaelan reassured.

Just then, the man he had been arguing with joined in. “Actually, Gaelan, we
are
short on rooms. We cannot use the lower east deck until it’s been cleaned or for another three months. It’s still full of radiation,” he said, speaking perfect English. I guess he wanted me to understand him now.