Beyond the Stars (18 page)

“That’s right, Tyden,” he said, sounding grateful. “I forgot. Who has an extra bed?” Gaelan asked. He looked around at the crew members surrounding him, searching for a savior in the predicament. No one volunteered. I saw them shake their heads and shrug their shoulders as if they couldn’t be of any help. “Fine,” Gaelan said sharply. “She can have my bed. I’ll sleep in my study.” He turned back to me and reached out his hand. I took hold of it and let him pull me to my feet. “Come on, Samantha. Let’s get you to the medic,” he said, sounding upset by the apparent lack of cooperation from his crewmates.

As we left the room, I could hear the crew’s voices murmuring behind us. It seemed they shared my belief that I shouldn’t be here. “Why can’t you just take me back?” I asked curiously.

“We choose our actions to meet the majority’s needs,” Gaelan explained as we walked. “You are only one person. We have to do what’s best for the mission.”

“I wish I could have told Leah and Jackson where I was going. I hope they made it off the station in time,” I said nervously.

“Yes, everyone’s fine. The fire was a false alarm. There was some smoke in the café’s kitchen that set off a smoke detector. Your station’s commander decided to use the alarm for a practice evacuation. I already had you off the ship before they had announced it was just a drill. They were bringing the shuttles back right before we left communication range.”

“How do you
know
that?” I conveyed my confusion.

“We contacted your station’s command center to check on the damages and to inform them of our plans to gather supplies. I told them that you were aboard our ship. Jackson and Leah will be notified.”

“Thank you. I didn’t know.” I couldn’t believe I had missed the whole exchange. “I don’t get it, how in the world did your ship get there so fast?” Maybe it was the bump on my head, but I was really disoriented.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I didn’t see it. You know,
all of this
, when I arrived at the resort. When did it get there?”

“Oh.” He smirked with a small chuckle. “It was there—you just couldn’t see it. That’s because we cloaked it.”

“You cloaked it? You made it
invisible?
”

“Yes, we wanted to keep it out of view from your satellites and telescopes,” he said flatly. He smiled at me with satisfaction that they had the ability to render their large craft completely invisible. I couldn’t help but be impressed. Optical camouflage for a vessel this big would require holographic imagery far beyond our current level of technology. We walked to the medic’s office. The corridor was long and dimly lit. It looked like we were walking into a nightclub.

“Why is it so dark?” I asked, fearful of every corner we rounded. I didn’t want to run into anything else and really appear to be a klutz.

“The corridors are a nonessential part of the ship. We have to utilize our resources very carefully.”

The place felt like a maze. I was going to need a map so I wouldn’t get lost. We arrived at the medic in a few more turns. We stepped into what appeared to be a doctor’s office, hospital, and lab in one. There were four windowed partitioned rooms with empty beds lining the left wall. The room where we stood was large and furnished with an operating table complete with overhead lights hanging down above it. Lighted tables covered with beakers filled with colored solutions were randomly scattered throughout the room. A man quickly approached us as we entered. He was dressed in a navy blue uniform. He looked to be in his forties but moved around like a child on a sugar high. He spoke in their native language to Gaelan. His words meant nothing to me.

Gaelan replied, “Urit, this is Samantha Bennett. Samantha, this is Urit Lapinmaki, our ship’s medic.” He paused for us to nod hello. “She will be joining us on our journey home. Could you look at her head before you get her prepared for the trip?”

Urit raised his eyebrows and gave Gaelan a suspicious look. “Have a seat,” Urit said, now speaking perfect English as he motioned for me to sit on the examination table. He picked up a thin, eight-by-eight-inch flat pane of glass or plastic. He slid his hand across the side, making the panel light up a deep violet. He brought it over to me, held it about an inch from my face, and looked through it. I looked up at the lighted object and was surprised to find that I could not see through it. I could only see the purple glow. I felt nothing. Maybe this was some sort of X-ray machine. Urit lowered the device and said, “You have a slight concussion.” He tapped the side of the glass device again, causing it to glow aqua before he brought it back above the lump on my forehead. This time I felt a potent cooling sensation rapidly penetrating my skin. It felt like I had a huge ice pack draping over my entire cranium.

“Just a minute please,” Urit assured me after I fidgeted when the coldness started to burn. He removed the device about forty-five seconds later. “Now, how does that feel?” he asked arrogantly.

I reached up and touched my head. The bump was completely gone. My head felt extremely cold. I gasped in amazement. “Better.” I paused. “I mean, totally better,” I replied in shock. I looked up at Gaelan by my side. He was smiling at me as if he was entertained by my response.

“Now, Samantha, your hand,” instructed the medic coldly. The medic pulled out a penlike device from his pocket and pricked me in the finger.

“Ouch! You really cut to the chase!” I said. Urit was studying the reading on his pen and looked up at me with a face of confusion.

“No, there is no cut or
chase
,” he replied defensively.

“Urit, it is just a saying. The people from Earth use them often,” Gaelan explained.

“Don’t you have sayings that that stand for something else? You know, metaphors?” I asked.

“No, we say
only
what we mean,” Urit snapped back. Gaelan smirked at me, appearing amused by Urit’s misunderstanding. I could tell that Gaelan must have spent more time on Earth than Urit had. Urit then got up and retrieved a three-inch cylinder from another table. This looked too much like a syringe. He pushed up my shirt sleeve without saying a word and hastily turned my arm while he held the device to a vein on my arm. Yes, it was a syringe all right, and the thing was going to my draw blood. I cringed and turned my head away to avoid watching.

“Go ahead, just get it over with,” I conformed. I felt a prickling sensation. It was like my arm was being flicked with a rubber band. In seconds, it was over. “That’s it?” I cried while I traced my arm, unable to locate the puncture hole. “Why didn’t you tell me it was so easy?”

“I am not sure what you were expecting, so I didn’t want to tell you the wrong thing,” explained Urit. I heard a quiet beep. He turned the device and appeared to be reading the test results. “Hmm …you like to keep my job interesting, don’t you, Gaelan?” he murmured.

“When can you have it ready?” inquired Gaelan in a serious tone.

“It’s going to take at least three weeks—maybe more,” Urit said. “Then, it will require another week to cool before I can safely inject it. Her DNA has limited exposure. She hardly has a trace of resistance built up,” moaned Urit, sounding upset. “I will have to give her a dose of generic immunity for now.” He seemed displeased with this option.

“Immunity? From
what?
” I shuddered. Gaelan looked at me kindly.

“We have to protect you from any organisms you may not have encountered on Earth, as well as any excessive cosmic and electromagnetic radiation you will encounter on our trip,” explained Gaelan.

“Okay, give me whatever you can,” I pleaded. My imagination soared. I pictured chickenpox for some reason. I always found anything that caused pus or skin lesions absolutely disgusting. I didn’t even want to know what could happen to me out here. Ignorance was bliss. I was more than willing to do whatever was necessary to avoid getting sick with some bizarre alien virus.

Urit retrieved another device. “I can only give you a broad dose of immunity right now,” he said through pursed lips. “I don’t have enough time to tailor your personal vaccine since we are already underway. It won’t fully protect you. I wish I’d had more notice. It’s going to take me at least four weeks to get your vaccine to mature,” he repeated sourly. “I will have to get started right away, as if I have nothing better to do,” he mumbled under his breath. He tinkered with his electronic gadget before he looked me in the eyes with a vacant expression. “I will re-dose you as soon as it’s ready. I must warn you—you might not feel quite like yourself for a bit. You may become gravely ill. Without the proper immunity, something that is completely benign to us may be lethal to you. The vaccine is absolutely vital for you to endure this trip,” he said plainly. He scared me. He took notice of my widening eyes and nervously looked at me after he realized the bluntness of his remark. “Of course, everyone is different. You might be perfect,” he said in a suddenly changed tone, probably to provide me artificial reassurance.

Urit quickly bolted across the room, opened what seemed like a cooler, and took out a handful of syringe devices. He came back to my side and laid the pile of cylinders on a nearby table. He grabbed my arm and turned it to eye up a new site. Before I could register his plan to inject me, he started shooting the syringes into the back of my arm with record speed. Snap! Snap! Snap! “Just a minute,” he said when I attempted to pull my arm away from him because he was twisting it uncomfortably far. Snap! Snap! Snap! He continued injecting me, going through the entire stack. This approach to medicine was quite different from what I was used to. I guess informed consent wasn’t something that was part of their regular routine. I rubbed the injection sites to assess for damages after the assault. My arm was sore to touch. I sat there stunned when I finally registered what he had said.

“
Four
weeks!” I blurted out. I became flustered. “What do you mean—four weeks? How far are we going? How long will we be gone?” I shouted.

“It will seem longer to us, but you will only miss a couple of days in your time,” replied Gaelan in a soothing voice. “I will explain it to you later,” he said, leaving no room for discussion. My mind began to race just contemplating the trip. Where in the world were we going? How fast were we traveling?

“Urit, you will also need to fit her with a language translator,” he said like a demand rather than a request.

Urit shrugged. “I don’t think that would be necessary, Gaelan. She will only be aboard for a short time.”

“Yes, but Samantha will need to communicate with us,” he argued.

“But mission protocol….” Urit gave him an angry glare. He seemed to be afraid of repercussions from his superiors.

“I assure you that it would be well within the guidelines. There would be no harm done,” Gaelan said with a smile. “Samantha will frustrate everyone onboard if they can’t communicate with her. Her understanding is crucial,” he insisted. He spoke as though I was no longer present. I didn’t mind his advocacy. A translator sounded good to me. I’d already had a taste of not understanding the Katarians. I would get extremely paranoid and wonder if the crew was talking about me if I couldn’t understand them. I watched Urit while he paced impatiently around the room as he thought.

“She could become endangered if she could not understand the overhead announcements in an emergency,” Gaelan stated boldly.

Urit crossed his arms. “Fine,” he conceded. “Have it your way. You always did find a way to make the rules work for you. It’s great to have you back aboard, old friend. Life is never dull when you’re around,” Urit said amiably. Gaelan grinned, knowing he had won the argument.

Urit opened a cabinet and removed some supplies. He emptied a white envelope of powder and poured it into a small silver bowl. He took out another syringe, squirted it into the bowl, and aspirated the contents before returning to my side.

“This will be hot,” he warned. I looked at him with surprise. Had he already adjusted his bedside manner to what he thought I expected? I must say, these aliens were amazing when it came to noticing the small things. He parted my hair above my left ear to expose my scalp and injected a burning hot liquid into the roots of my hair. It felt like I was being scorched with a curling iron.

“
Ahh
,” I screamed. “What is that stuff?”

“Please, Samantha—this will just take a minute,” he reassured me. I looked over at Urit’s hand. He lifted up what looked like a dime-sized metal battery. He took the object and pushed it firmly to the hot solution on my scalp while he cradled my head snuggly against his other arm. It hurt. I thought he was going to push it right through my skull. I felt smothered by his tight hold but remained still in order to be a good patient. Although I was trying very hard to be brave, I felt a tear run down my cheek and winced in pain.

Gaelan ducked down under Urit’s arms to see my face. “We’re fitting you with a language translator, Samantha,” explained Gaelan, trying to ease my distress. “It will train your brain to interpret our language. It’s a bit uncomfortable, but you will only have to wear it for a week.”

“Why will I need it for only a week?” I asked.

“Your brain will be done mapping the new pathways by then.”

“How do I activate it?”

Gaelan looked at me curiously. “What do you mean? It is activated. You will be able to understand everyone aboard, even when we take it off. We use our
brains
to store new information, unlike your neural implants. There is no need to add any electronic hardware if you use the right neural interface. Your own brain has more than enough room. Your body is equipped with limitless inner intelligence. It has more cells than there are stars in the galaxy, all in perfect communication with one another,” Gaelan explained.