THE HEALING HEART

by Zelda Clemens

The rest of the drive went by in a daze, and Aileen’s thoughts were lost admiring how good of a deal she got with the Dodge. Sure, she had a rattle to her, but the transmission was fluid with every jerk of the stick shift Aileen made. Her house was far out into the country, the only house for miles, acres all around it. Aileen had always thought it strange that when they went to the grocery store, they always had to buy enough supplies for the whole month, because the closest store was an hour away. In LA, Aileen had little to no reason to leave her apartment other than class.

  The fields in Luckey were barren in the wintertime, and as Aileen looked ahead to her house, she could see blinking lights blurred in the distance. Flashes of red came from the duo of vehicles parked outside the house. Is my father okay? Aileen thought. She kept her foot steady on the pedal until she realized that the vehicles were both paramedics.

  *****

  The truck increased speed, and when Aileen finally reached the house, she left the vehicle running in the yard, hopped out, and ran for the front door. There were no paramedics outside, and as she entered the house, there was one woman about her age standing at the foot of the wood-paneled stairwell.

  “Are you Mr. Miroki’s daughter?” the paramedic asked.

  “Yes, I am,” Aileen answered. “Where is he?” She looked around frantically, not letting herself think the worst of the worst quite yet.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Miroki, but your father is gone,” she said, her face tightening inward. “I’m afraid he suffered a heart attack about an hour ago. He called 911, but when the operator answered, there was no response.”

  This can’t be happening, Aileen thought. I was finally finished with school, finally ready to be his daughter again. She closed her eyes, her face hot with the need to create tears. The paramedic reached out and put her hand on Aileen’s shoulder.

  “We’ve already taken him into the ambulance,” the paramedic said. “They were just upstairs making sure there was no other possible cause of death.”

  “What do you mean, ‘other cause of death’?” Aileen asked. “Like drugs, or something?”

  “No, Miss Miroki,” the paramedic responded, “Your father had something that a lot of people want. He was building something, and as soon as the public found out, strange things started happening around here.”

  Aileen had no clue what the woman was talking about. The garage? Aileen brushed past the woman and headed through the kitchen, past the laundry, and into the giant garage. The walls were stacked, top to bottom, with various metal and mechanical gadgets and equipment. There were shelves upon shelves of spare parts, specialty tools, and instruments. In the center of the room there was an enormous blue mass covered up with a ratty tarp.

  “Miss Miroki?” the paramedic called from the garage doorway. “We’re about to take the body—I mean, your father, away now. I just thought you would like to know.”

  Aileen’s head was spinning, and her heart beat furiously in her chest. Everything was happening so fast. She had never known that her body was capable of becoming so numb so quickly.

  “That’s fine, thank you,” Aileen, said, unable to turn around and face the paramedic. “Is there anything you need from me?”

  “Well,” the woman said awkwardly. “We need you to identify the body.”

  Aileen’s eyes closed hard and she exhaled. Of course I do, she thought, turning away from the blue tarp to face the inevitable.

  ***

  After the paramedics pulled away from the house, Aileen stood there for a moment gazing into the endless whiteness of the fields. Somehow the loss of her father felt expected, like her life had led up to such an obvious trial of pain. If she had learned anything studying astrophysics, it was that the Law of Derivation of Tidal Force did not buy into the notion of a soul ascending to heaven. Aileen glanced up to the sky as it faded to pink, said a silent goodbye to her father, and went inside the house.

  The door closed behind her and at last everything felt final. Tears streamed down Aileen’s face and she threw her weight against the door, her fingernails scraping at the wood. She couldn’t escape the thoughts of guilt. What if she had driven faster? Would he have still had a heart attack if he had seen her? The questions were unanswerable, and Aileen’s obsessive need to answer them festered within her.

  She stood up and made a beeline for the garage, knocking over a vase in her wake. The cool air hit her face as the door swung open, and she jumped back at the sight of a man standing on the far side of the mass under the tarp.

  “Hello, Aileen,” the man said, stepping toward her, his hands clasped behind his back. He was a mid-sized man with short brown hair, wearing a black suit and glasses that reflected Aileen’s image back at her.

  “Who the hell are you?” Aileen pressed, “and how did you get in here?”

  “Please, calm down,” said the man in the suit. “I understand you’re one of the brightest minds in the country, if not the world. My name is Agent Roger Hendricks, and I am with the EIT. I entered this garage through the back door, and there are two more of my men waiting outside.”

  The information put Aileen into a defensive shock, but the man’s slow, steady breathing kept her from acting on instinct. “Do not be alarmed, Aileen,” Agent Hendricks continued. “I’m here because my organization and Earth are in need of your help.”

  Aileen laughed, nearly outraged at his joke. “I don’t appreciate your sense of humor,” she said. “You’re trespassing on my father’s property, Mr. whoever-you-are, and I’d like you to leave. Don’t make me call the police.”

  “You’re wrong about one thing,” Agent Hendricks said. “I’m not trespassing on your father’s property. I’m trespassing on your property, technically. All of this belongs to you now, which is partially what I’m here to discuss.” He smiled, walked closer to her, and then examined all of the odd machinery around the garage.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Aileen said. “Sure, maybe my father left everything to me, but that doesn’t explain why you’re here. I’ve never heard of the EIT.” She inched slowly back toward the door, not fully trusting the man.

  “I understand your fear, Aileen,” Agent Hendricks said. “Please, do not be afraid of me or the organization. The EIT is the Exchange of Intergalactic Technology. We develop and produce the most powerful technologies across the galaxy, and since you are the heir to Lieutenant Miroki, I need to speak with you about one of his projects in particular.”

  Aileen stood with her eyes wide. She ran her fingers through her hair. This guy is a hired actor, right? she thought. I’ve got to be on some kind of hidden camera show.

  “No, you’re not on a hidden camera show, Aileen,” Agent Hendricks said.

  Aileen felt a claustrophobic panic encompass her. She must have been trapped in some kind of comatose dream. She was convinced of it. There was no way in the real world a mysterious man in a suit would be able to read her mind.

  “The processing time varies for every person,” Agent Hendricks went on, circling the mass under the tarp. “I heard you were gifted, I expected you to comprehend all this a little quicker. I believe that under this tarp is a very important machine. Your father developed it years ago and has been keeping it safe. He was a brilliant man, well respected, and it is a shame to see him go. This machine, however,” he reached out and put his fingers to the crinkled tarp, “this machine is what will determine the future of mankind.”

  *****

  Agent Hendricks explained in detail the logistics of the machine, the operation, and the machine itself. Aileen wished she could forget all the information that had just been force-fed to her but, as it turned out, even though intergalactic travel was possible, time travel was still not. After all the tension had built up, the only thing left to do was uncloak the machine beneath the tarp.

  With a slow, rustling pull, Agent Hendricks revealed the nose of the gigantic machine—a chrome, protruding arrowhead of a cockpit. The more he pulled the tarp, the more it became
apparent that hidden beneath it lie some kind of ship. It was enormous, the size of a naval vessel, maybe larger. The sleek design bore the signature of her father’s delicate craftsmanship, two turbines on either side and one fin on the back. Simple, yet effective.

  “He called it the Tower Cadet,” Agent Hendricks said. “It was his life’s work, and if this ship runs, then our people will survive.” He told her about the need to flee Earth to find an alternate home planet, and that her dedicated father planned to test the ship himself. “The coordinates in the ship’s navigational system are already set for the desert planet Woes Ëan. All it needs is a pilot.”

  Aileen took a seat on a nearby crate and dropped her head into her hands. All these years she had been studying astrophysics, and while her father pretended to be a run-of-the-mill mechanic, he was actually developing the world’s first interplanetary transport. While the world seemed bent on destroying her, Aileen also believed that this was her calling all along.

  “If my dad designed it,” she said, drying her eyes. “I can fly it.”

  Agent Hendricks smiled, and pressed his fingers to his temples. “And that, Aileen, is why my crew is here to help you.” The back of the garage door opened, revealing two figures bathed in shadow. On the right, Aileen noticed the figure’s eyes glowing blue in the darkness. The figure on the left’s eyes did not emit any glow, though it stood four feet taller than its counterpart. When they stepped into the light of the garage, what Aileen saw would weigh on her mind for the 90 billion kilometers in front of her. She couldn’t decide what troubled her more—that she was attracted to the two figures in front of her, or that they weren’t human.

  *****

  Aileen, Bearyan, and Raegnor were set to land on Woes Ëan in less than 48 hours. The first 72 hours with extraterrestrials went a lot differently than Aileen imagined. Bearyan was nine feet tall with pale white skin and a long, lion-like mane. Aileen couldn’t tell if it was a long hair and beard combo, or actually a mane—because Bearyan also had slightly pointed teeth and nails. His white hair was thick, and the few times she caught him sleeping in the cockpit it took everything for her not to reach out and pet him.

  Raegnor was the one with crazy blue glowing eyes. He looked like an ordinary man, save the neon-bright eyes, foot-long tongue, and tail. At first glance Aileen thought he was a Caucasian man—but up close she could see that his skin was actually a series of miniscule, stone-hard scales. His tongue wasn’t always hanging out—it only stretched to a foot long when he wanted it to, which was mainly during meals. As for the tail, Aileen thought it was kind of like hanging out with someone who had a third arm. To her surprise, the tail was not lizard-like, but more feline in nature. She had never seen anything that had scales, fur, and hair.

  The first hours in the ship were the most awkward, simply because the two extraterrestrials refused to stop poking fun at Aileen’s intergalactic naiveté. Around Bearyan and Raegnor, Aileen felt more like a little sister than their pilot. After the twelfth or so ‘take me to your leader’ joke, she set the Tower Cadet on autopilot and locked herself in her bunk and counted the minutes until their arrival upon the desert sands of Woes Ëan.

  It wasn’t Aileen’s fault that the people of Earth were severely undereducated in terms of extraterrestrial forms of life. For having learned all this new information in less than a day, she considered it a miracle her head hadn’t explodee. The way Agent Hendricks explained the true nature of the universe just made sense. He had said that the human race wasn’t ready for the information, that it would create fear, which would lead to a world war. Aileen learned that for centuries, men like her father and other hard working citizens were secretly assisting in outer space missions by designing machines with alien technology.

  Minutes after the Tower Cadet hovered over the Earth, Bearyan and Raegnor popped open bottles of a purple liquid they called fizzure, which sounded to Aileen a lot like whiskey. While sweat dripped off her brow from the pressure of the initial launch, her crew treated the occasion like it was New Year’s Eve 1999.

  From her bunk, Aileen could not drown out the ruckus of Bearyan and Raegnor yammering. With Raegnor on his second bottle of fizzure and Bearyan on his ninth, the two friends grew louder with every mile of space they traveled. They had prepared only thirty bottles for the entire trip. Were they planning on making a pit stop at some point?

  Their voices bellowed with laughter over a strange continuous plethora of sounds that Aileen couldn’t make out. It sounded like radio static and beeps but with dubstep bass, and she thought she heard animal noises being played backwards. She unlocked her bunk, climbed down, and walked briskly to the cockpit. Aileen was going to show these guys that she was commandeering this ship and this mission, and that no tomfoolery would be accepted. There hadn’t even been a free moment for her to properly mourn her father. It was her ship now, and they would travel by her rules.

  When Aileen entered the cockpit, Raegnor and Bearyan didn’t even notice her standing in the doorway. The god-awful noise blared from a device hanging on the wall to her left. It’s music, she thought, whatever the hell this noise is—to them it’s music. She pressed the red button on the device, instantly ceasing the garble.

  “What in the void?” Bearyan growled, turning around with his bushy white eyebrows arched and his gigantic hand pressed firm over his heart. Was that where his heart was? Aileen wondered. Raegnor nearly fell out of the pilot’s chair with laughter at Bearyan’s fear.

  “I didn’t mean to frighten you, Bearyan,” Aileen said with a calm smile. “I need to speak to both of you. You are being quite loud. I understand that this is our first night on the mission, but I need you to keep quiet. There is a lot weighing on my mind right now and I need to rest.”

  “Oi, we’re sorry, ain’t we, Bear?” Raegnor said sarcastically, slapping Bearyan’s trunk of a shoulder. “It’s just been ages since we been off Earth together and we got a little preoccupied with the fizzure, is all.”

  “I can see that,” she said. “How much of that stuff have you two had?”

  “Not enough,” Bearyan chuckled, taking a swig. Watching him was like watching a regular sized person drink from a toy teacup.

  “Well, I’d call it enough,” Aileen said firmly. “You both should call it a night.”

  Raegnor rolled over again with laughter.

  “You’ll have to excuse him,” Bearyan said. “He’s had a little too much, and he gets too entitled when he drinks.”

  “Well maybe Raegnor should learn how to handle his fizzure a little more responsibly,” Aileen said, beaming at Raegnor.

  “Right, I’ll listen to you when the moons of Draithrlen hang over Ky9!” Raegnor emptied another bottle and threw it under the control panel where it landed, shattering.

  “You’d think they’d learn to manufacture this stuff a little more safely,” Bearyan said. “Listen, Captain. I’ll clean that mess up in the morning. And excuse my counterpart, here. It’s best to just ignore him, really.”

  When Bearyan stood up from the co-pilot chair he had to crouch about half his height, and still his back was against the ceiling of the cockpit. “I’m going to get some shut eye,” he grumbled, his mane grazing against Aileen as he passed the doorway. Would it be impolite to reach out and pet one little tuft?

  She resisted her urge and instead watched Bearyan slowly creep down the ship’s hallway, careful not to hit his head on stray pipes. With the co-pilot chair open, Aileen took a seat, and she felt the rush of heat left over from Bearyan. Sitting across from her, Raegnor reached over, hit the red button on the music device, leaned back in the chair and pressed a fresh bottle of fizzure to his mouth.

  Okay, so this one was more resistant than Bearyan. Still, she needed to gain his respect and show him who was boss. If the authoritative method wouldn’t work, she would try mimicry. “What’s that stuff taste like, anyway?” she asked, leaning back in her chair, trying to enjoy the scrambling noises.

  Taking his time wi
th one big gulp, Raegnor let out a raspy breath and said, “Grapes, bubblegum, motor oil, and tar.” Aileen expected a laugh but he was more serious than she’d ever seen him. “And it’s voiding delicious,” he continued, licking his lips. He extended the bottle out to her and said, “Like to try a bit, Captain?”

  While she could have lived without the smug intonation of her title, she took the bottle up from him, accepting the fact that if she were to gain his trust she would have to buddy up to him eventually. With the bottle inches beneath her nose, she got a strong hit of the tar and motor oil Raegnor spoke of.

  “Well, bottoms up,” she said, wrapping her lips around the mouth of the bottle. She swallowed the purple liquid in gulps. The effect was instantaneous—not only did the fizzure burn her tongue, cheeks and throat, but a sensation like fire singed her fingers and toes. It was like taking 151 to the face only tenfold. Releasing the bottle from her mouth, some of the purple liquid drizzled down her chin.

  “Easy, Ai,” he said. Nobody had ever called her ‘Ai’. She would have retorted but she was trying put out the fire burning in her veins from the fizzure.

  “Water,” she said, gasping. Raegnor reached under the control panel and fetched one from the cooler. She tore the cap off and poured the entirety of the bottle down her throat.

  “Ain’t no joke, is it?” Raegnor smiled.

  “No,” Aileen answered. “Ain’tno joke.” She handed the bottle back to him. Well, handed wouldn’t be the right word. He took the bottle with his tail, wrapping it around the nose and carrying to his own hand. Raegnor’s bright blue eyes sparked white after each pull from the fizzure bottle.

  Agent Hendricks failed to properly introduce her to the duo, who seemingly worked as a pair for decades. Would it be rude to ask personal questions about them? What even constituted ‘personal’ with extraterrestrials? They both wore clothes like humans did, they could both speak English (and several other languages) like humans did, and their had distinct personalities like humans did. Why was she so shy about the whole thing? Fuck it, she thought, I’m drunk, or wasted from whatever stuff is. Just ask.