The Color of Distance

by Amy Thomson

  “I’ll come with you,” Anitonen offered. “If they have any questions, I can answer them.”

  The two of them caught up with Wu, and got on the flyer with him. Once they were in the air, Anitonen looked out the window, utterly fascinated as they skimmed over the ocean toward the ship. Brilliant hot pink ripples of excitement flowed over her skin. The medical techs watched her, mouths agape.

  When the flyer landed, Dr. Wu was placed on a gurney and rushed to the ship’s medical wing. He was put into a second, hastily set up quarantine room. Juna and Anitonen donned suits for the trip from the airlock to quarantine.

  Dr. Baker came in a few minutes after they arrived. “Why isn’t this man on oxygen and a drug drip?” he demanded.

  “Because I don’t need it, Doctor,” Wu told him calmly. “Anitonen has healed me. I feel better than I have in years. No more shortness of breath, no angina.”

  “But—” the doctor began.

  “Do I look like a man suffering from a heart problem?” Wu asked.

  Dr. Baker shook his head. “Let me examine you,” he said, taking out his stethoscope.

  Anitonen watched alertly as the doctor examined Wu.

  “Amazing,” he announced. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that your heart was that of a twenty-year-old. Your pulse is strong, your blood pressure is low, your color and breathing are excellent. Are you sure it was a heart attack?”

  Juna stepped forward. “Dr. Baker, I helped monitor Anitonen when she healed Dr. Wu. It was definitely a heart attack. I felt it. I tasted it.”

  As soon as he was sure that Wu really was stabilized, Dr. Baker questioned Juna and Anitonen minutely about what they had done. Finally Anitonen put her hand on Juna’s leg.

  “I’m tired and hungry. Could we talk again later?”

  Juna realized that she, too, was lightheaded from hunger.

  “I’m sorry, Doctor, but we need to take Anitonen back. She’s tired, and she needs food and rest. So do I. Healing is very draining work.”

  Dr. Baker nodded. “I’d like to talk further with Anitonen about this some other time. She’s already suggested several interesting ideas worth researching. Perhaps you could bring her back tomorrow?”

  Juna translated his question.

  “I’d be glad to,” Anitonen replied. “I’ve learned a great deal today. Tell Dr. Wu to sleep as much as he can, and to eat a lot of protein. His body is not done repairing itself. He will need to rest and eat well for another three or four days. We can resume the negotiations when he’s fully recovered. Also, please thank Dr. Wu. I learned a great deal from him today.”

  “I should be thanking Anitonen,” Wu replied with an ironic smile, when Juna translated Anitonen’s words. He reached out and touched Anitonen on the shoulder, imitating the Tendu’s gesture, and said, “I owe you my life, and more. Thank you.”

  Juna escorted Anitonen back to shore, returned to her quarters, ate a huge meal, and fell asleep.

  She woke the next morning feeling better than she had in days. She lay in bed, looking up at the impersonal white ceiling of her room. The negotiations were called off until Wu was better. She should spend that time getting more of a handle on the politics aboard ship.

  She called for her security escort. Laurie was subdued and awed as she let Juna out of quarantine.

  “I hear you saved Dr. Wu’s life,” she said.

  Juna shook her head. “Anitonen did that. I merely helped.”

  They reached Dr. Wu’s room. He was lying in bed, attached to several monitors.

  “Juna!” he called out as she came in. He held up a wire-festooned arm. “It’s good to see you. They’re still running tests on me.”

  She took his hand. His grip was strong and firm.

  “How are you?” she asked.

  “I feel better than I’ve felt for years,” he told her. “The doctors are amazed. I’m amazed, and I was there. It feels like a miracle. Thank you for helping save my life.”

  Juna looked away, feeling distanced by his awe.

  One of the nurses came in. She looked at Juna as though she expected her to walk on water at any moment.

  Juna looked down, even more embarrassed. “I need to go, but I’m glad you’re feeling well. You haven’t had any allergic reactions?”

  Wu shook his head.

  “Good. I’ll be bringing Anitonen over around noon to give you a checkup.”

  “I’ll see you then,” Wu said.

  Juna patted his hand and left. The medical techs were clustered at the door, watching her. They parted to let her through, like the sea parting for Moses.

  As she was leaving the medical wing, she ran into Patricia Tanguay. “How is he?” she asked Juna.

  “He’s fine. The doctors are busy running tests on him, and Anitonen will be coming in around noon to check on his progress and answer the doctors’ questions.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. The whole ship is abuzz about your saving Dr. Wu’s life.”

  “I’ve noticed,” Juna said. “Anitonen is the one who saved Dr. Wu. I only watched.”

  “Juna, I heard about what happened. You and an alien clasped the arms of a dying man, closed your eyes, and sat still for perhaps twenty minutes. When you were through, Dr. Wu was healthier than he had been for years. The doctors are amazed. You helped perform a miracle.”

  “It wasn’t a miracle,” Juna insisted. “Anitonen and the other Tendu do this sort of thing every day. It’s a little harder to work on a human because we’re new and strange to them, but it’s a skill that every single adult Tendu possesses.”

  “It’s still a miraculous skill.”

  Juna spent the rest of the morning visiting labs, answering questions, and making suggestions to various researchers. It was nice to be able to take part once again in the work that she loved. It also reminded the researchers of how valuable a resource she was. The morning passed quickly, and Juna was sorry to have to leave the labs to go pick up Anitonen.

  She entered the airlock, climbing out of her uncomfortable e-suit and into some light cotton clothing. Temporarily freed from the restrictions of quarantine, she opened the heavy outer door, and ran down the gangplank to the floating dock. Bruce was waiting for her in the boat. She smiled, and her step lightened. For once she was going to get to visit the forest without a gaggle of noisy humans trailing behind her.

  “Hey there, miracle worker!” he said as he helped her into the boat. “Oh please!” Juna said. “I’ve heard that all morning long!”

  “It’s all over the ship. The boat crew yesterday got an earful from the people they took back. So what really happened?”

  Juna shrugged. “Anitonen and I performed some Tendu first aid on Dr. Wu. We saved his life, but it was not a miracle. Anitonen just did what any Tendu does. All I did was monitor Anitonen in case anything went wrong.”

  “Can you do what Anitonen did?”

  Juna shook her head. “I’m not that good. I can only heal easy things like flesh wounds and simple fractures. I might have been able to stabilize Dr. Wu until the medics came, but I couldn’t have cleared his arteries or repaired his damaged heart.”

  “Anitonen did all that?” Bruce asked incredulously.

  “The doctors say that Dr. Wu has the heart of a twenty-year-old now,” she replied.

  “Well, tell him to give it back!” Bruce said with a grin.

  Juna laughed, relieved that he wasn’t treating her like some kind of saint. Bruce was one of the few who saw through her alien skin to her human self.

  “You’ve got a nice laugh,” he told her.

  Juna turned a deep brown and looked away. “Thank you.”

  The boat nosed onto the beach, and Juna leaped out to help pull it ashore.

  Anitonen was nowhere in sight.

  “Where is she?” Bruce asked.

  “I don’t know,” Juna said. “The Tendu have a very flexible concept of time. Why don’t we go up and see if we can find her?”

  “That would be
wonderful,” Bruce agreed. “I’ve never seen the jungle.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  Somewhere near the top of the cliff path, Juna took Bruce’s hand to help him over a rough spot. They remained hand in hand as they strolled through the cathedral-like forest. Bruce moved quietly, Juna noted with approval. They paused in a sun break created by a recently fallen tree. The upper branches of the downed tree were covered with bromeliads. The tree’s fall had carried the doomed bromeliads down into a zone that was too dark and moist for them to survive; they bloomed in a last brilliant rush to procreate before they died.

  Juna leaned against the tree’s massive flank. The noises of the jungle seemed very loud in the silence that hung between them. Bruce settled himself beside her, sliding one arm around her shoulder.

  “It’s beautiful,” he said, breaking the heavy silence.

  Juna nodded and looked up. “It’s even more beautiful up there. It’s like a whole separate world.”

  He followed her gaze into the canopy. “What’s it like?”

  “It’s a lot cooler, there’s more wind. Even the big branches sway in the wind.” She shook her head, remembering. “I was too scared at first to notice much, but now there’s so much up there to look at, I don’t have time to be scared. I’ll miss it when I go.”

  “You sound like you don’t want to leave.”

  “I’ve come to love this planet. There’s the forest, the Tendu, and the freedom of the life that I’ve found here. And then there’s Moki. I wish I could tear myself in two and leave one part here with him.”

  “His people will look after him.”

  Juna’s eyes welled with tears. “He won’t accept another sitik. If I go, he’ll probably die.”

  “I’m sorry,” Bruce said. “I wish there was something I could do.”

  Juna shrugged and looked away. “The hardest part is living in that damned suit. You know,” she said, looking up at Bruce through the glare of his faceplate, “Dr. Wu was the first human being I’ve touched in four years.”

  Bruce drew her closer. She leaned against him. Suddenly she was weeping, all the loneliness and isolation of the last four years pouring out of her.

  Bruce held her, patting her back as she cried herself out. Her cheek stuck to the slick plastic of his e-suit. She felt a small, cool hand on her thigh. It was Moki, ochre with concern. She rippled reassurance at him and drew him close. Moki’s hand clasped her arm, and he linked with her. His small, observant presence blended with the secure warmth of Brace’s arms.

  At last she broke the link with Moki and pulled away from Bruce. She wiped her eyes. “Thank you,” she said, feeling suddenly awkward.

  “Any time,” he replied with an affectionate squeeze of her shoulder.

  “God, I hope not,” Juna said with a shaky laugh. “If I cried like that all the time, I’d melt away like a sugar cube in a rainstorm.”

  She glanced down at her wrist chronometer. “We should go find Ani-tonen. The others will be wondering where we are.”

  “Anitonen’s waiting at the top of the cliff path,” Moki told her. “She was talking with Lalito and the village council until almost noon.”

  Bruce scooped Moki up and set him on his shoulder. Moki rippled with laughter. “Let’s go, then,” Bruce said, taking Juna’s hand.

  They walked together through the forest, hand in hand. Moki rested one of his long arms on Juna’s head. It was a good moment, bridging the best of both worlds, and Juna was sorry to reach the edge of the forest.

  Anitonen swung down from the trees, greeting them cheerfully. Bruce said hello to Anitonen, set Moki down, and then went on ahead to get the boat ready.

  “Bruce makes you happy,” Moki said as they were crossing the beach, hand in hand. “I’m glad. Will you be mating soon?”

  Juna blushed brown. “I don’t think so,” she told him. “It’s different with my people, Moki.”

  “He arouses you, though. I felt it in the link.”

  Juna looked out at the distant ship. “Moki, I’ve been away from my people for a long time,” she said. “I’m easily aroused, but I don’t mate with strangers. I don’t know Bruce well enough. Besides, there’s the quarantine.”

  “Anitonen says you won’t make anyone sick,” Moki told her.

  “But they don’t believe her,” Juna said, gesturing at the ship with her chin.

  “Do you believe her?” Moki asked.

  Juna shrugged. “I’m afraid to be wrong. It could kill someone, or make them very sick. I’d lose what little trust they have in me if I broke quarantine without permission.”

  Moki looked out toward the ship for a long time, his colors fading to a deep, cloudy grey.

  “You need your people,” he admitted, turning back to her. “I need you.”

  Juna looked down at the sand, shrugging helplessly. They reached the boat. Bruce handed Anitonen and Juna in and shoved off. Juna helped him into the boat and watched as he started the motor. When she looked back at the beach, Moki had vanished into the forest.

  Juna watched as Anitonen broke her link with Dr. Wu, unclasping his arms carefully to avoid disturbing any of the wires taped to his body.

  “He’s recovering very well,” Anitonen told her. “His heart muscle should be completely regenerated in a couple of days. I’ve also cleaned out more of his circulatory system.”

  Juna translated this for Dr. Wu and the assembled medical personnel.

  “I feel stronger and more alert,” Wu confirmed.

  The doctors clustered around the readout of their tests.

  “Look at this!” one of them said. “There’s a double line here, as though there were two readings instead of one.”

  “What is this?” Anitonen asked. “Please explain.”

  “This is the neural readout,” Dr. Baker said, after he explained what the graph told them. He pointed to a pair of green lines. “There appears to be a double reading, but then it merges again.”

  “Yes,” Anitonen said, once Juna had translated Dr. Baker’s words, “that is where I linked with him. The line merges as I come into harmony with Dr. Wu.”

  “And this?” Dr. Baker asked, pointing to another readout, “Why does the heart suddenly slow and then gradually speed up?”

  “I was testing it, seeing how the regeneration was proceeding. His heart is much stronger now.”

  The questions continued. Soon Juna found it impossible to translate the technical terms that each side was using.

  “Tell them that it would be much easier if I could show them,” Anitonen said, holding her suited arms out as though asking for allu-a.

  “But the rules—” Juna said.

  “I can’t answer any more of their questions with talk,” Anitonen responded.

  “She said that she can’t tell you anything else, but that she can show you,” Juna told the doctors. “She’s offering to link with you.”

  Anitonen nudged her. “Tell them I am too tired to do any healing, but I will show them their body from my viewpoint, and show them what I did to Dr. Wu. I can also show them what my body looks like so they will understand my people better.”

  Juna translated this. The doctors conferred among themselves for a few moments.

  “This is—ahm—rather unusual,” Dr. Baker said. “We should consult with the Alien Contact team.”

  “You’ve got the head of the team right here. Why not ask him?” Juna suggested.

  “If one of you is willing to volunteer for this, I have no objections to having you link with Anitonen,” Dr. Wu told them. “Allu-a is an amazing experience.”

  “She wouldn’t alter my body in any way?” Dr. Baker asked.

  Juna relayed the question to Anitonen.

  “No, I promise not to do anything.”

  “Can we trust her?” Baker asked Juna.

  “Dr. Baker, Anitonen is an enkar. Her life would be forfeit if she broke her word,” Juna explained. “I’ve known her for more than four years, and she has always ke
pt her promises, even before she became an enkar.”

  “I see.” He looked appraisingly at Anitonen. “Very well then. I volunteer to link with Anitonen. What do I do?”

  Juna guided him to a seat. “Sit down and roll up your sleeves,”

  Anitonen touched her shoulder. “Will you monitor us? Your presence will reassure him.”

  Juna pulled a third chair into the circle. “Anitonen said that I should monitor you. Will you allow me to break quarantine?”

  Dr. Baker leaned back and looked over at Dr. Wu. “Well?” he asked.

  “I’m still alive after touching her,” Wu pointed out.

  Baker hesitated for a moment longer, thinking it over. “All right,” he said. “Go ahead.”

  Juna undid her gloves and pushed her sleeves back past her elbows. Anitonen did the same.

  “Hold out your arms like this,” Juna told him, resting her arms on her thighs, palms up.

  He did so. Juna grasped his warm, human arm as Anitonen grasped her other arm, her skin cold and moist and suddenly alien. She felt Baker flinch a bit as Anitonen touched him.

  “Are you ready?” Juna asked.

  Baker swallowed nervously. “Go ahead,” he told her.

  Juna nodded at Anitonen and they plunged into the link.

  She felt Baker’s mingled fear and curiosity as she entered the link. Anitonen moved to enfold him in reassurance. His fear ebbed swiftly. Juna was impressed; it had taken her a long time to get over her fear.

  She watched as Anitonen gently began showing Baker his own life rhythms. First, the steady beat of his heart, and the salty metallic taste of his blood. She showed him how the taste differed between the oxygen-rich blood leaving his lungs and the depleted venous blood returning to the lungs. Then they traced his last couple of meals through his digestive system. Anitonen let him experience the irregular, sharp taste of his nerves, transmitting sensation and instructions back and forth between the brain and the rest of his body. Juna could feel the doctor’s excitement rising as Anitonen showed him more and more of his body.

  Then, as they were exploring his bladder, Juna felt something odd. A tiny cluster of cells in the lining of his bladder was out of harmony. Juna could feel Anitonen waver, tempted to repair the problem; then she moved on. Shortly after that, Juna noticed that Anitonen was tiring, and gently broke the link.