The Ship Finder: Young Adult Edition

by John Bluck

  Wilson drove his ATV to a side door about fifty feet from the emergency entrance. He got out of the electric vehicle and hurried back to the emergency doors.

  Head Nurse Helga Onstadt was smoking a cigarette outside. "I thought you were starting your sabbatical leave today, Doctor." After a two-week vacation, he was scheduled to fly to Sweden to visit the Karolinska Institute. That was the first leg of a trip to several countries during which he was to review new developments in human gene research.

  "I need to examine a patient in my office. He's a little weak and still in my car," said Wilson. "I’d like to borrow a wheelchair."

  "Sure, just bring it back when you're done. Need help?" she asked.

  "Thanks, but not now," Wilson said. "I have to decide if he needs to be admitted. He doesn't like publicity. Thanks for the loan."

  "No problem," Helga said.

  He started towards the automatic, double-wide emergency doors, which opened as he neared them. Just inside were several wheelchairs.

  Two other emergency room nurses glanced at Wilson as he seized a wheelchair. "Helga said I could borrow one," he said. "I have to move a patient to my office."

  The nurses glared at Wilson when he grabbed two blankets, a gown, and a box of latex gloves and put them in the wheelchair. After rolling the chair to his electric car, he tossed the blankets and other stuff in its front seat. He eased Raven, who was half awake, into the chair. Wilson put his tan, greasy cowboy hat on Raven's head to hide his face, draped a tan hospital blanket over him, and put the supplies he had grabbed in Raven's lap.

  Wilson shoved the wheelchair into his office, scraping the green entry door's paint. Then he helped the semi-conscious Raven onto an examination table and grabbed a portable chest pressure equalizer. He peeled the bandage from Raven's wound, inserted the equalizer's self-sealing tube into the hole in his chest, and switched on the mechanism's power.

  The device hissed, first releasing air from the chest cavity and alternately pumping air in to adjust the pressure inside Raven's chest to normal. The equalizer would stop pressure build-up in the airtight chest cavity, allowing the lungs to expand to normal size if one or both had collapsed. The right amount of air pressure inside the chest would also reduce the chance of a heart attack.

  Next, Wilson turned on his small, hand-held body scanner, which wirelessly sent a picture to his computer screen. Raven's interior was different from that of an earthling. Wilson felt a hot, blushing sensation when he realized that he was indeed examining an alien being.

  Raven had two hearts, one on each side of his chest, and two lungs, each longer than a human lung. One lung had suffered a minor collapse.

  His body hemmed in four kidneys; each was about half human size. There were fifteen ribs, and his brain was a bit bigger than a human's. His spine was thicker than an earthling's backbone while his spinal cord was an inch across at the neck.

  The ray had burned a hole into the chest cavity below Raven's right lung, almost to his spinal cord. But Raven was lucky. The ray had missed his lung and both his hearts. Wilson decided to let the affected lung heal itself, judging that it would expand on its own because the collapse was so minor.

  Raven opened his eyes, "Where am I?"

  "In my office."

  "How bad is my wound?"

  "You're hit near one lung. We need to sew up your injury at once. I'll call in my colleague, Dr. Ron Jamison, a pulmonary expert, to do the job and double check my diagnosis. Plus we have to deal with the infection on your chest."

  "No," Raven said. "You've got to go to my ship now and get special medicine that will heal me quickly."

  "We really need to close that wound first," Wilson said.

  Raven creased his brow. "Our medicine is more advanced than yours," he said. "We have a nano medicine cocktail for major injuries that I need to drink. Nano proteins and chemicals will go to the wound and fix it."

  Wilson recalled, A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. Scientists want to develop medicines and microscopic machines on that scale, but a breakthrough is a long way off.

  "Raven, if I don't act now, it could be serious. Where's your ship?"

  "Reach in the watch pocket of my jeans, and take out the silver disk," he said. "You'll need it to locate the ship." Wilson found the metal disk and lifted its hinged lid. The device was as large as a Swiss watch but heavier, a quarter inch thick with compass-like marks around its edge, and various colored buttons.

  "What is this?" Wilson asked.

  "A homing device – a ship finder. It will lead you to my vessel. The device can summon the ship to come to this general vicinity, as well."

  "How does it work?" Wilson asked, hoping he could learn how to use it before Raven blacked out again.

  "Press the buttons in this order," Raven said in a weak voice. "Yellow, orange, red."

  "Okay," Wilson said, and he pushed the buttons.

  "The crew will know that I'm alive. But I need you to talk with them and lead a rescue team here."

  "Nothing's happened," Wilson said as he peered at the ship finder.

  "You won't see it do anything. The ship's cloaked nearby, between dimensions," he said. "I lost my regular communicator in the fight with the cyborg. Get some paper so you can write directions that you'll need to approach the ship."

  Wilson later learned that Raven carried a button-size TV camera and microphone clipped to his clothes so his crew could see what was going on as well as speak with him. But as he scrambled away in the first cyborg attack, bushes had ripped the button camera away. Worse yet, his emergency vial of nano medicine had fallen from his ripped pocket.

  Wilson walked to his dented, gray metal desk. As he jerked open the right top drawer, it screeched with a metal-on-metal sound. He snatched a sheet of white paper.

  "Push the orange button, then the white one," Raven said. "Then press the center red one, which is like a computer's enter key. Green arrows will point to the cloaked ship. They'll turn red when you're near it."

  Wilson quickly jotted down the directions. If there was a ship nearby, he would need to be careful. It could be defended with powerful weapons. He didn't want to die helping this man.

  Chapter 3 – The Strange Cloaked Ship

  Before he left for the ship, Wilson attached life monitors to Raven. They would set off an alarm in Wilson's wristwatch radio should the alien's condition worsen.

  Wilson's friend, Dr. Jamison, was at work in the hospital, and Wilson could call on him if Raven's monitors showed that he was in trouble.

  Wilson walked along a hospital hallway, headed for the rear entry. Its door opened onto a small, half-acre garden of trees, flowers, and shrubs. A path wound through this English garden, and park benches stood next to the pathway in shady spots. A dozen people were in the garden, most of them sitting on benches. One man read the news on his paper-thin electronic reader, while two young nurses sat nearby. They chatted and laughed, enjoying the sunshine. In the distance the western sky darkened as a potent, but slow moving mega storm approached.

  Nobody in the garden noticed when Wilson took the ship finder from his pocket. Just as Raven had coached him, Wilson held the device level, like a compass and started it. Small, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) flashed showing green arrows that pointed to the cloaked ship.

  Wilson walked at a normal pace in the direction that the arrows pointed. They flashed faster and turned red. The ship finder had led him around the back of a thick, green hedge at the rear border of the hospital property. Nobody was there.

  He pressed the large, red center button, as Raven had instructed, and what looked like a small garden shed suddenly appeared, popping into view like a mirage.

  Its door swung open. The glow from within the doorway was warm and seemed to invite Wilson in like sunshine on a spring day. There was foliage inside, ornate plants in what could be a foyer.

  He walked at a quick pace and went into the chamber. Through a second doorway farther in the craft he saw a bigger room where th
ere were cafeteria-like tables. Other items that caught Wilson's eye were a red cabinet, a big stainless steel refrigerator, and a restaurant-size stovetop and oven.

  The area was like the galley of a ship, although the entryway was small. The floor was circular, about thirty feet across. Wilson walked into the deserted, round room.

  Two crewmen wearing black helmets, combat boots, and olive drab uniforms stomped into the room from behind a panel. Wilson broke into a sweat when they pointed their ray guns at him.

  Part of the wall slid aside like an elevator door. From inside a beautiful young woman emerged, and she, too, pointed a ray pistol at Wilson. She appeared to be in her late twenties and had a soft, classical face. Her straight, shoulder length hair was light brown with blond highlights, and her eyes were vivid green with a touch of hazel. The tight flight suit that she wore emphasized her figure.

  "I'm a friend. Raven's wounded," Wilson said. "He sent me to get medicine. I'm Dr. Wilson, a physician."

  The woman listened through an earpiece wired to a box that looked like a small radio strapped to her upper left arm. She spoke into the device in a strange language. Then a feminine computer voice said, "I'm Lena Lavelle, Dr. Wilson. Thank you for coming. Where's Dr. Raven?" She shifted her gun to point at the floor, and the crewmen also lowered their weapons.

  Wilson breathed more slowly and relaxed. "He's in my office at the hospital, just past the garden outside," Wilson said. "He needs treatment soon because I think he may have a severe skin infection besides a gunshot wound."

  Lena heard the translation of Wilson's words through the earpiece. "I'll get the medicine," she said. "We'll go with you."

  She walked to the red cabinet, unlocked it, and took out a small vial, which was full of a dark, ink-like fluid. She also grabbed a soda-sized bottle of clear liquid. She put both in her purse.

  "How many of you will go with me to the hospital?" Wilson asked, afraid that the aliens would startle onlookers.

  "Two soldiers will go with us. The enemy is near, and we need to protect Dr. Raven," Lena said via the computer voice.

  "Your uniforms will attract attention," Wilson said.

  Her flight suit was blue with strange symbols on it. Insignia, each a red circle with a crosshair, were on the left breast and upper right arm of her outfit.

  Lena unzipped her flight suit and stepped out of it. She wore a vibrant green mini skirt and a pale green, lacey blouse, showy, but in fashion on Earth. They contrasted well with her pink skin. Yet, she would have been striking in any type of garment.

  She said something in her alien language to the two soldiers, and they went behind a divider and came back in a minute, dressed in repairmen's overalls.

  The soldiers, Lena, and Wilson stepped out of the odd craft. Lena pushed its metal entry door shut, and it latched with a smooth, metallic click like a heavy, well-made bank vault. She took a ship finder from her dress pocket, pushed its buttons, and instantly the garden shed illusion vanished. Wilson was stunned.

  The group walked around the hedge and then along the path to the hospital's west entrance. While they moved along, Lena put her weapon and the ship finder into her brown leather purse.

  As Wilson and the aliens walked across the hospital lobby, young men turned their heads to look at Lena in her day-glow mini skirt. Soon, the group had gone past the lobby and followed a hallway that led to Wilson's office.

  He opened his door, and Lena Lavelle entered first. He glanced at her slender waist and feminine hips. She might be an extraterrestrial, but she's good looking, he thought.

  Raven looked at his visitors, sat up on the examination table, and propped his weight on his left elbow. "Hello," he said in English.

  "Hi, Richard," Lena said. "I have the medicine." She opened her handbag, took the vial out, and handed it to him.

  "Thank you," he said. He smiled and looked relieved, though pain still showed on his face. "Have you detected the enemy nearby?"

  "Not yet," Lena replied. "But we're using all the ship's scanners and backup systems to alert us of any signs of the cyborgs."

  "Good," Raven said. "Then we have at least some time to let the medicine work."

  Before Wilson could ask about the dose that Raven would need, the wounded alien opened the vial and drank most of its contents. Some of the inky liquid dripped from his mouth, so he licked his lower lip. Then he gently pulled the pressure equalizer from his entry wound and poured the rest of the dark medicine into the injury.

  "We need to put the equalizer back in," Wilson said. He picked it up from the exam table and was about to clean it with alcohol.

  "We don't need it now," said Raven. "But if you want, Lena can take it with us when we go back to the ship."

  "We must make sure your lung doesn't fully collapse," said Wilson. "I'll have to insert the equalizer again if you feel short of breath."

  "I'm okay now," said Raven.

  Wilson cleaned the device and put it and a new adhesive collar in a sterile plastic bag. "Could you carry this?" Wilson asked Lena.

  "Yes," she said, and she took the bag and stuffed it into her purse. She also fished out the bottle of syrupy liquid that she had carried from the ship. Lena gave Raven the bottle, and he unscrewed its cap, snapping its seal with a pop. He drank the thick fluid like he would gulp a soda.

  "What's that?" Wilson asked.

  "Nutrients that will speed recovery. My body needs raw materials to make repairs."

  "How long will it take to work?" Wilson asked. It will take weeks at best, he thought.

  "What I poured on will totally seal the wound in a few minutes," Raven said. "Internal repairs will start when the nano proteins and chemicals reach my wound in twenty minutes. There are even some microscopic robots that will inject precise doses of medication into specific cells."

  "Microscopic robots?" Wilson asked. He had seen animation of "nanobots" in science TV shows that had forecast the future. Scientists on Earth had been at work for years trying to build crude microscopic machines.

  "There are billions of them in a vial of medicine. They are made of molecular-scale carbon nanotubes," Raven said. "Each robot has an atom for a computer, preset to fix wounds. Most nanobots self-destruct after they do their work, but some stay in the body. Robots already in my body made the blue-green fluid that began to seal my wound."

  "I'd like to see them with my microscope. Would you care if I recorded it on a memory cube?" Wilson asked. Raven's skin was already pinker, and Wilson was astounded that the alien was making an almost instant recovery.

  "We have microscopes on our ship. You are welcome to use them," Raven said. "Right now, I worry that the cyborgs might attack."

  As Raven spoke, Wilson wondered, Could the nano fluid work as fast as Raven said? Then Wilson recalled, On some July days in Illinois corn can grow five inches.

  "We should wait for the medicine to take full effect before you return to your ship," Wilson said.

  At that moment Lena's ship finder began to flash. "The cyborgs are near," she said. "We need to go." She opened her purse, took out her ray gun, and held it under her handbag.

  One soldier glanced at Lena and gave her a questioning look. She nodded and said something in her native Sunevian language. He took his ray gun from his pocket, turned it on, and replaced it his overalls. The second soldier did the same with his weapon.

  "She's right, Dr. Wilson," said Raven. "Cyborg soldiers will be here soon. They tracked your car as well as our ship."

  Before Wilson could stop him, Raven dangled his long legs over the side of the table and stood. Wilson grabbed the alien's arms. "How steady are you?"

  "I can walk. Do you have my pistol?"

  "Yes," Wilson said. He felt it in his pocket. The alien's weapon seemed like a good friend when he touched it.

  "I need it," said Raven. Wilson felt a strange loss as he handed over the ray gun.

  "An enemy ship is on the way," Lena said. She held up her ship finder as it flashed red like a fire engine
's warning lights.

  "Loan Wilson your extra pistol, Lena," Raven said.

  "Here," she said. As he grasped her small, spare ray gun, he felt stronger.

  "You'll need it, Wilson," said Raven. "Our foes know who you are. The cyborg took pictures when you fought him, and the enemy uses facial recognition. Come with us, and you can return later."

  "Okay," Wilson said, but he instantly asked himself why he had agreed so easily to go with the alien.

  A warning bell rang over the hospital's speaker system, and a computerized male voice boomed, "A mega storm is coming from the west with fifty mile an hour winds, heavy rain, and hail. Stay inside until further notice."

  Raven rushed to the office door, stood up straight, and seemed stronger. Wilson opened the door and led the way to the hospital's rear exit. When Raven saw the back doorway, he said, "Stop. We don't want to be easy targets."

  "You want to go out another way?" Wilson asked.

  "I want a place where light doesn't silhouette us."

  "Follow me," Wilson said. "The loading dock is down the next hallway." He guided everyone to the left into another hall. The group walked into the dock area, which had a huge electric-powered, roll-up metal door and a small steel door leading outside.

  Wilson switched off the overhead lights. "Let's go out the small doorway," he said. "We can follow the bushes to the walkway."

  Wilson took the loaned ray gun from his pocket and pressed the orange button in front of the trigger guard. The pistol purred like a small tiger. He was confident after his first ray combat, less than an hour before.

  Wilson pushed the panic bar of the small door, and it quietly swung open. He held the steel door against gusts of wind while the rest of the group rushed out.

  The sky was dark, and the air was cooler and smelled of the dampness that presaged a mega storm. Abruptly, the wind whistled and blew even harder. They leaned into strong gusts and struggled forward as the temperature dropped rapidly. Wilson guessed that it was about fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit, chilly for spring in Northern California. The strengthening wind whipped grass and flowers and pushed twigs along the brick pathway.