He pulled back fractionally as if he had felt the same thing but never took his eyes off her. Someone behind him said something, and he answered without turning. Finally, he shifted his gaze and offered words to those behind him. Around him, everyone relaxed. The guns disappeared and smiles emerged.
“Welcome to our world of Alysia,” the loudspeaker grated out with a strange accent.
“They speak English!” Tate exclaimed.
Naomi countered, “They must have a translator.”
Lisi started unfastening her suit. “Let’s get out of these godforsaken suits and meet our new friends,” she ordered. Around her, the team began to shed the bulky suits and catch their breath.
Overhead, their new friends stared in amazement and disbelief at what emerged.
Chapter 43
A New Home
Three aliens exited the observation room to join them. They wore bulky, white quarantine suits and carried equipment. One dragged a portable cart of electronics. He gestured her team toward a series of chairs.
The crowd behind the glass observation pane thinned out. Pressing a button on a piece of equipment, the person by the cart spoke into a microphone that appeared to translate his words to English.
“Hello. My name is Icabar.” He paused and eyed them in expectation.
Tate stepped forward and thumped his chest. “I am Tate Chattam, the communications officer.” He touched his mouth and ears. Turning to Lisi, he pointed. “Captain Elise Fujeint.”
Naomi’s eyes widened at the comment, but she remained silent and let him speak. Merek and Sergei stood poised, ready for trouble.
With a nod, Icabar pushed the button again. “We want to welcome you to our world, but there are precautions we must take first.”
Tate put up his hand and gestured. “A conference.”
Icabar tapped a different button, heard the words, and nodded. He stood back and crossed his arms. Next to him the two suited forms shifted back.
Tate gestured for his team to huddle.
Sergei and Merek formed up. Turning his palms up, Merek said, “They’ll want us to go through decontamination. I know I would if aliens came to my world.”
Naomi nodded.
“That’s a dangerous risk,” Merek warned. “The chemicals might kill us.”
Tate threw a glance over his shoulder. “What do I tell him, Lisi?”
Lisi raised an eyebrow. “What, come all this way, past asteroids, black holes, death, disease, and ship uprisings to say that a little chemical sprinkle is going to stop us? Grow a pair, guys.”
Naomi smirked. “The fleet depends on us. I agree. They’ll want decontamination and probably a period of time in isolation. I’d want the same.”
“I’ll just have to sit around,” Tate grumbled.
Gazing at the white-suited Icabar, Lisi said, “He looks like a fellow communicator to me. So, you two will have time to gab. He’ll want to find out all he can about us. We want to find out about them. I’d guess by the looks of things, you two might have a lot to discuss. You were created for this, Tate. Trust me, you won’t be bored.”
Merek laughed. “You love to talk, Tate, but you may have met your match. Even when he isn’t talking to us, he’s jabbering to someone on his headset.”
They survived decontamination and while waiting in isolation, Icabar proved to be eager to learn all about them. Of course, Tate had a few questions of his own, as did her whole team. They notified Elise on The New Found Hope, of their step-by-step progress, and she updated the rest of the fleet.
Finally, they’d found a place where they could survive …if the local natives would let them. And it appeared they might.
***
On board her ship, Elise felt a sense of achievement, of completion. “Job well done, Lisi,” she said with a satisfied tone. She would soon relinquish the captaincy to her clone and just concentrate on being commander. She would soon step out onto an exciting new world, one she’d never seen before. She had come so far and now she was only steps away.
That’s when her body began to shake. She tried to stand up and tell someone on the bridge, but the words wouldn’t form and her arms flailed in all directions out of control. Past a rising haze of mental confusion, she heard Jazz shout, “Commander!”
Someone else cried, “She’s in trouble.”
“Call John! Call John!”
Through a blur, his face appeared overhead. He lifted her up and held her in his arms Then, he sat them both in the captain’s chair, holding her in his lap. “Elise, what’s wrong?”
The bridge erupted into chaos with everyone yelling and crying.
She tried, but couldn’t form the words. With terrified eyes, she stared back.
He lifted an eyelid, checked a pulse, and yelled something. He leaned into her and whispered, “I’ll fix it. I’ll fix it. You’re having a stroke, but don’t worry.”
“Kwant flix thisss,” she struggled to tell him.
His face crumpled. Tears brimmed as he struggled to remain calm. She felt the wet salt splash on her face.
At her side, a hand felt for hers. She heard Carter’s voice say, “I’m here, Elise. I’m here for you. I love you.” His hand felt warm and comforting.
“I…I…loovve yo bof,” was all she could manage. It was enough. It said what she wanted to say. And those were her last words.
***
Lisi received the news of Elise’s death just as they were released from isolation. She dropped into a chair, overtaken by grief. Yet despite her sorrow, there was a critical job she needed to do. The Captain, her mom, her clone, would expect it of her. So, she swallowed her pain as best she could and planned their next move. Step by step she made herself keep going. It’s what Elise would have done.
After word got out about the Commander’s death, glum silence reigned around her. Tears winked in many eyes. They all should have been happy and excited to finally be able to bring the fleet to a habitable world, but Elise’s death muted everything.
Their new friend, Icabar, explained that they were in the Democratic Union, part of a world called Alysia. Descriptions of the world sounded like Earth: blue skies, abundant water, green grass, brown dirt.
With his strong communication skills, Tate began to master their language, which he claimed strongly resembled the syntax of old Earth languages. He felt there was a mystery with a story as to why that was. Thereafter, he spent hours conversing with Icabar and, afterward, translated what they discussed.
A heavy weight fell on her shoulders as she tried to process Elise’s death and couldn’t. It felt like her mother and captain had just stepped away for a few moments on one of her emergency calls from Commander Reardon. The thought sent a wave of grief surging through her body, and she could barely breathe. At unexpected moments tears suddenly filled her eyes and her thoughts locked up. Eventually, the world would demand her attention again, and she would awake from her grief.
Icabar explained that a delegation wanted to meet them formally. For the meeting, she dressed in full captain’s uniform. In the future, she hoped to change to comfortable ship pants but, for now, she had a statement to make.
She swayed as she stood to greet the delegation come to take them over in a shuttle to another space station. It looked smaller and even more primitive, but the natives fully occupied the current station. Due to contamination concerns, they didn’t want them on the planet yet.
Merek’s hand shot out to steady her. His presence reassured her, and she smiled a wan smile at him in gratitude. Because of his care, she would get through this. She must get through this. They had a new world waiting for them.
Across the main reception area, a door opened. The man who had stood at the center when they first arrived strode toward her, leaving the rest of his group scrambling to keep up.
She shook off her terrible grief and put it away for later. She needed to step forward into this new future, and be ready for whatever it might bring.
The tall, v
ery human-looking alien walked up to her, and they faced each other as if they were the only two people in the entire universe.
Time paused.
He put out a hand. “Hello, I’m Richard Steele. Welcome to Alysia.”
She reached out to clasp his strong hand in her own delicate one as a tingling sensation rippled up her arm at his touch. She shivered. She remembered the sounds that made up words that Tate had told her to say. She had practiced long and hard to get them right.
“Hello, I’m Captain Elise Fujeint of the New Found Hope. We’re from the planet Earth in the Sol System. I have come a long, hard, way to find you.”
Thank you for reading the first book in the Terran Trilogy. I hope you liked it.
I know your time is valuable, but if you liked the story, I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews are the lifeblood of authors and readers alike. Please spread the word.
To find all about the planet Alysia, read the Alysian Series:
Book 1 is about the first time traveling clone sent back into Alysia’s medieval age to start it all in Caught in Time.
To learn all about Alysia’s fascinating inhabitants and follow clues of a riddle, read: A Dangerous Talent for Time.
To find out about the development of Alysia’s space program and how the crew got selected for their spaceship The Seeker, read Cosmic Entanglement.
If you want to go along on the adventures of Braden and his crew in space as they went through the stargate and battled aliens, read: Past the Event Horizon.
Richard’s experience building the space station and uncovering a secret alien genetic program is the story in Space Song.
To understand the impact of the alien crystals and learn of the arrivals of aliens that changed Alysia forever, read: Touching Crystal. (The Alysians’ viewpoint to the end of this story)
Unraveling the mystery of Kayse Kiare’s identity and the war between Terrans and Alysians is the story of Someone’s Clone.
For my blog on other science fiction/fantasy novels and all things science fiction, including the challenge of being an author and self publisher — go to http://www.scifibookreview.com
For a list of my books, check out Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/Sheron-Wood-McCartha
/e/B0045K0HD6
For more character descriptions, a map, book details, and news: http://www.AlysianUniverse.com
or Tweet me at http://www.Twitter.com/Sheronwriting
Thank you.
A World Too Far (Terran Trilogy Book 1) Page 27
