The Bonding (8 page)

           
Outside
the shuttle, a large shadow began to eclipse the hull. A spaceship over five
times the size of Intrepid stopped and hovered directly over it. A small door
opened on the side of the huge craft and an unmanned probe zoomed out and began
circling Intrepid. At the breach in the hull, the probe entered and scanned the
interior with a broad, red beam of light, systematically covering every inch of
the cabin. It came to Ron’s frost covered body, his arms outstretched, his
mouth still open and his eyes, blankly looking out in an eternal stare of
death. The beam covered him from head to toe. Seconds later, it turned and
proceeded
forward, next to Oliver, actually circling his
body, the beam scanning every inch. The light narrowed on the floating globules
of frozen blood, and then it turned and approached the flight deck door. The
beam changed from red to green to blue as it hovered, scanning the door.
Completing the scan, it retreated from Intrepid and returned to the spaceship.

           
Moments
later, another larger door opened on the huge ship and a manned craft emerged.
It was much larger than the probe. It stopped at the opening in Intrepid’s hull
and fired a beam of energy, cutting the hole enough to allow it to enter. Once
inside, it maneuvered into position near the flight deck door. As it silently
hovered, its door opened, with a hiss of air coming out around the edges. A
large humanoid form emerged, wearing a space suit unlike anything our
astronauts wear, and carrying a bag-like object connected to two hoses and a small
canister. He stood nearly seven feet tall with broad shoulders and a physique
comparable to a body builder.

           
His
space suit was not bulky, but instead fit more contoured to his body. The
helmet appeared like a dull, green metal, fitting snug against his head, with a
dark viewing glass going completely across the eyes and slightly down to the
cheeks on either side of the nose, allowing an unobstructed field of vision.
The suit was made from the same type of dull, green metal and resembled a
fighter pilot’s flight suit, with internal flexible tubes for oxygen and
environmental control, running from the top to the bottom, down both sleeves
and legs, into his gloves and boots. His boots provided enough magnetism to
hold him to the floor, but still allow him to easily walk. A small, contoured
power pack, providing his life support, sat high on his shoulders, similar to a
football player’s padding.

Directly behind the alien floated a pod,
resembling a coffin. The being stopped at the flight deck door and the pod also
stopped. He reached for the button to open the door and pushed. Another hiss of
air rushed out, as the flight deck depressurized. He quickly entered and moved
directly to Commander Shelby, took the bag-like object and put it over her
head. He pushed a small button and the bag tightened around her neck and
inflated with oxygen. The alien unstrapped her from the seat and gently lifted
her as the top of the pod opened. He placed her body inside and the pod closed
and filled with a white fog. He returned to his craft with the pod following
behind. Once inside, the door closed and it silently turned and left Intrepid.

Inside the huge spacecraft, the alien
came out, the pod following directly behind, never more than four feet away.
The spacecraft had oxygen and artificial gravity, but the pod still floated
effortlessly. The alien walked to a cabinet at the wall and removed his helmet.
He carefully placed it inside and turned around to look at the pod.

He had a beastly, yet handsome appearance
with straight, dark, shoulder length hair, thick as a horse’s mane. Large,
intelligent eyes, like two teardrops lying on their side, with green, cat eye
pupils peered from within his high cheekbones. Thick eyebrows slanted upward
from the bridge of his medium sized nose. A strong, square chin bordered his
full lips. The tips of pointed ears barely protruded from under the thick mane
of hair. He nodded and smiled with even, gleaming, white teeth, as he looked
into the floating pod.

He removed the space suit and his massive,
muscular frame was exposed, with the exception of his genitals, which were
covered with what looked like underwear, similar to the jockey briefs that men
of Earth would wear. They covered a large bulge in his private sector -
undoubtedly a popular man with the alien ladies. His physique was nearly
identical to a human male, with the exception of his eyes and ears. And, in
place of finger and toenails, there were small pointed nails resembling claws.
His skin was light brown and freckled, but looked much like a humans’.

He placed the space suit into the cabinet and dressed in
more casual clothing, fitting loosely about his large frame, with boots
resembling work shoes. He closed the cabinet and walked towards the door in
long steps. The pod mysteriously floated behind, as though commanded through
some thought process, always remaining within four feet of him. The door
automatically opened as he and the pod approached, leaving the docking bay and
entering a long, curved corridor. Dull, green, metal walls, resembling the
material in his space suit, with vertical ribs rising from both sides of the
dark-green floor lined the brightly lit area.

Many rooms exited from the corridor, one
being a medical lab. He entered and moved next to a bed that was also used as an
examining table. When he stopped, the pod opened, as though receiving a silent
command, allowing the white fog to escape and exposing a clear bubble that had
formed around Janet.

A large console with monitors hung above
the examining table. He moved it over her body and a bright orange beam
projected down, covering her from head to toe. The bubble with her body lifted
from the pod, moved over and gently lowered onto the bed. A thin green beam,
within the orange beam appeared and covered her body from side to side, then
slowly moved over her from her head to her toes. The alien watched a monitor as
the beam systematically showed all of her muscles and blood vessels. With each
scan, more details of her inner body appeared. The next scan showed her organs,
nervous system and skeletal structure. On another monitor, he could view the
temperature imprints of each body part and detect all microorganisms and
bacteria that may be contagious. As the scan continued, he zeroed in on a high
temperature at the back of her skull. He was amazed that, for an alien
creature, most of her body organs and systems were nearly identical to his.

He studied the monitors for a few
moments,
then
touched the control screen. The orange
beam turned to green and the clear bubble surrounding her disappeared. He was
convinced that she had no contagious entities. When the bubble was gone, the
beam extinguished and he removed the oxygen bag from her head. He gently turned
her onto her stomach. Again, he lowered the scanner, selected something on the
control console and a pulsating beam of blue light focused on the back of her
head, directly over the concussion. He touched the screen again and a wrist
clamp encompassed each arm. A clear, snake-like probe, with a needle on the
end, lowered from the scanner and penetrated the skin of her left arm, allowing
a blue liquid to flow into her body for nourishment. He nodded as he looked at
the monitor.

“Hwuh zwovp pi eh jk vehhva uveat,” (That
should do it my little alien.) He gently laid his large hand on her back and
felt her breathe. The rhythm was strong and steady. He smiled at her, turned
and left the room.

His mission on Intrepid wasn’t finished
yet. He still needed to get Ron and Oliver. Enroute to the docking bay, he went
into one of the cargo holds. When he came out, two transport pods, similar to
the one he used for Janet, followed four feet behind, floating silently above
the floor. These were slightly different, in that they did not have life
support systems. He would need no protective bubbles around the corpses, since
he already knew the cause of their deaths. In the docking bay, he reentered his
small shuttlecraft with the two pods. The large, exterior door of the spaceship
opened, exposing the black, starlit universe through the transparent,
electronic force field that covered the opening. The craft turned and glided
across the bay. A slight glow emanated around the craft’s exterior as it
penetrated the electronic pressure shield.

It quickly traversed the small distance
between the two ships and reentered Intrepid. The alien floated out with the
two pods following, and went to Oliver first. He put Oliver’s body into one pod
and then proceeded to the back of the shuttle to get Ron. He had to pull Ron’s
frozen body off of the jagged piece of metal that had killed him. The alien
placed him in the other pod and returned to the craft.

On board his spaceship, the alien took
both transport pods to the cargo hold and placed them on stands in the center
of the room. Units, similar to the one over Janet’s bed in the medical lab,
lowered over each pod and an orange beam projected down to thaw their bodies.
This would allow the alien to position their bodies as though they were
sleeping. He knew that Janet would need to see them when the time was appropriate,
and he wanted to make them look as peaceful as possible. Within minutes he was
done and paused for a moment to look at them. He bowed his head and whispered a
prayer, then returned to the flight deck.

On the flight deck, he brought up a view
of Intrepid on one of the monitors. He touched the control console and a very
large beam of purple light projected from the bottom aft section of his ship
and covered Intrepid. He touched the console again and an invisible, electronic
shield surrounded both the alien spacecraft and Intrepid, like a huge bubble. A
second later they disappeared into the stars in a flash of light.

They traveled at an unbelievable thirty
thousand times the speed of light. The electronic shield surrounding the ships
actually put them into another dimension, similar to a ghost, allowing them to
pass directly through solid objects as they sped through space. He selected the
coordinates for the planet that he was originally enroute to when his sensors
picked up Intrepid drifting aimlessly. His technology was amazing and thousands
of years more advanced than Earth’s. To be able to see a small ship floating in
the vast universe, while traveling at such an unbelievable speed was
incredible.

With the ship’s autopilot in control, he
returned to the medical lab to check on Commander Shelby. He watched the
monitor for a moment and shut off the blue beam focused on the back of her
head. The orange beam again covered her entire body and the thin green beam
began another scan from head to toe. He carefully watched each monitor, noting
that the hot indication at the back of her head had disappeared and all of her
body functions looked okay. He smiled and nodded. “Dalk riip,” (Very Good.) He
touched the console and the beams extinguished, the snake-like probe needle
pulled out of her arm and retracted up into the scanner, and the wrist straps
loosened from her arms.

He slid his muscular arms under her and
again gently turned her onto her back. Her hair was across her face and he
moved it away with his finger. He stared at her, cocked his head to the side
and smiled,
then
lightly brushed the back of his
fingers against her cheeks. “Dalk zinh. Ruh setp id uveat ul
ko
,
hwuh ez iz johzw vesa ja?” (Very soft. What kind of alien are you who
is
so much like me?) “Rul pi ko sija nlig?” (Where do you
come from?)

He gently touched and caressed her small
hands. Laying one on top of his, he was amazed at how small and fragile they
were. He removed her boots and looked at her feet, again noticing her toe nails
as opposed to his claws. It was time to examine all of her body, so he unzipped
and removed her suit. She had on a bra and panties, which he also removed,
leaving her totally naked. Again he simply stood back and stared for a few
seconds, then reached down, touched and gently squeezed her breasts.

“Hwa najuvaz id jk rilvp wuda hwaza.”
(The females of my planet have these.)

He lifted each arm and closely examined
them. Going lower, to her legs, he lifted each one, bending it and setting it
down. He touched each toe of her foot, specifically looking at her toenails. He
spread her legs to look between them and nodded.

“E uj zalhuet kaz ul hwa najuva id kol
zbazay.” (I am certain you are the female of your species.)

He quickly dressed her and stepped back.
“Bvay nilred
ja
nil zaaetr ko tusap vehhva rot, foh E
wup hi stir ruh ko ral.” (Please forgive me for seeing you naked little one,
but I had to know what you were.)

On his planet, women were treated with
the greatest respect, for they were the ones who gave childbirth and did most
of the teaching. It would have been very disrespectful for him to undress a
woman without her knowledge and consent.

At that moment, she moved her arm from
her side to her stomach. He smiled. “Uw! Ra juk wuda zudap
ko
unhal uv.”
 
(Ah! We may have saved
you after all.)

Her arm moved again from her stomach to
her forehead, then gently down across her cheek to her chest. Her eyes began to
peek open, then squinted closed from the light. She moved both hands to her
eyes, rubbed them and tried to focus on the person standing beside the bed.
“Ron? Oliver?” she asked weakly.

He listened
carefully,
trying to detect what language she was speaking. He could speak over one
hundred languages from the various planets and the different groups from within
the planets, but he had never heard this one.