by Cara Wylde
“Most of them are from our home planet. Some we got from the other ships, but personally, I’m not a huge fan of them. Our chef likes to combine things and experiment with new ingredients. Sometimes, the result is acceptable. Other times, it’s a disaster.”
“Do you have anything from my planet?”
“Let me think…” Shirin walked between two rows of aqua blue and turquoise herbs. “This one here. I don’t know what it’s called.”
Allie stood up and ran to her side. It was easy to identify the plant. It was the greenest herb in the entire room. She plucked a leaf and smelled it.
“Eww…. Seriously?! Arugula? Awful!”
She held it up with two fingers, her face twisted in disgust.
Shirin grabbed it and munched it in a heartbeat. “I see nothing wrong with it,” she said thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t mind finding this in my salads.”
“Gross.”
“What? Why? Is it some sort of herb only animals eat? Like… what are they called? Pigs? Err… cows? Horses?”
“No, humans eat it alright. But I don’t. Not ever. If I have to eat blue veggies for the rest of my life to avoid arugula, I will.”
Shirin shrugged and ate another juicy leaf. “I like it.”
“Good for you.” She moved away from the offending herb. “So, the Unxendi exchange resources with other races?”
“In some circumstances, yes. We’re open to learning about their culture, traditions and lifestyle, and trying the technology they use, but the truth is these things rarely work the same for different races. It’s because we already have everything we need and the system you used to call on Earth… what?… resource exchange? Well, it’s not something that applies to us. Also, we don’t have what you call money, and we don’t trade things. Everything is readily available to us on our home planets, and when we’re out here, in space, on missions, we can find most things on the habitable planets we come across every few days.”
“Interesting,” Allie whispered. “I can’t even imagine a world without money and the need to buy and sell things…”
“It’s okay. It takes time. Humans operated on the idea that there’s not enough for everyone and they had to work hard to get what they needed, when Old Earth was, in fact, one of the richest planets in that area.”
“Are you saying it’s wrong?”
“Not wrong. It’s just a concept which isn’t true. You’d have eventually grown out of it, given time.”
“Time… If only we had had time,” Allie noted bitterly.
Shirin averted her gaze, mentally slapping herself for having brought up the topic.
“I’m sorry.”
Just as Allie wanted to say it was fine and there was no point in feeling bad about carrying out an order given by her superiors, her vision went blurry and everything around her started spinning. She fell to the floor, hands stretched out in front of her to lessen the impact. It only lasted a couple of seconds, but it had been enough to make Allie feel nauseated and slightly sick.
“I think I’m going to throw up,” she moaned.
Shirin laughed and patted her on the back.
“Deep breaths. That’s it. Just take a couple of deep breaths, and you’ll be fine.”
Allie did as she was told, then let Shirin help her back up to her feet.
“What happened?”
“We just dropped out of hyperspace. Thanks to you, I lost track of time and forgot there was a stop scheduled for today.”
“A stop? Like a stop on a planet?”
“Yes. We have to restock our water supply. Between Old Earth and the Council, Lyra is the best planet for that. Do you think you can find your way back to your room? I should have been on the Bridge by now.”
For a second, Alison wanted to say she would be fine and Shirin could go back to her duties. Instead, the words coming out of her mouth were: “Can I please come with you?”
Shirin cocked an eyebrow and studied her carefully before making a decision.
“I don’t see why not.”
Allie couldn’t believe her ears! She jumped in excitement, then groaned and grabbed her stomach.
“Only if you promise you won’t be sick,” Shirin added.
“Promise, promise! Cross my heart and… ugh!” She took a deep breath. “I’m fine.”
“Right. That means we’re walking.”
As she followed Shirin to the Bridge, Allie felt the Kidem ripple from her shoulders, where it had slept all this time, to wrap itself around her slightly disturbed stomach. She struggled to match the Second Officer’s quick pace.
“What does that mean? Walking is not the only way?” She whined when her question was met with silence and a mysterious smile. “Shiriiiiiin…”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Allie was so excited about going on her first adventure with the Unxendi, that she practically bounced onto the Bridge. The wide grin died on her lips when Ark turned around from his post and threw her and Shirin an annoyed glare.
“Are you ready, Officer? What is she doing here?”
“She’s coming with us,” Shirin answered confidently.
Tense silence filled the air, and Alison’s blue eyes skipped between Ark, Shirin, and Thivo, who was somewhere in the background, watching the scene amusedly. Even though Shirin sounded so sure of herself, Ark didn’t look convinced.
“She can’t,” he deadpanned.
“Why noooot?” Allie whined and took a step toward him, her hands coming together at her chin in a gesture of plea. “Please, I want to come with you. There’s nothing to do on the ship. If Shirin hadn’t shown me around, I would’ve been bored out of my mind. I’ll stay out of your way, I pinky promise,” she finished with a cute smile and a bat of eyelashes. She could be adorable and seductive when she wanted to, but she made a note to herself not to exaggerate. Still, it didn’t mean she couldn’t take advantage of the fact that the Captain was infatuated with her.
Arkvar didn’t seem impressed. He sat back down in his chair and turned to his screens.
“Alison Page, you’re staying on The Hesperia. End of discussion.”
His voice was low and harsh. Allie felt his words like a cold shower. Her chin trembled slightly, and she did her best to control her emotions. It wasn’t that he had refused to let her join his team on the planet, but the way he had done it, by giving her an order… No one had ever given Allie orders! She didn’t know how to react. Anger and humiliation bubbled up in her chest, and she felt like she was close to either yelling at him, or bursting in tears of frustration. Any of those would have made her look bad, and she didn’t want the aliens on the Bridge to think she was a spoiled human princess. Shirin’s hand squeezing her arm softly calmed her down in an instant.
The Second Officer stepped between her and Ark, and made her point in a calm, determined voice:
“I don’t see why she can’t join us, Captain. I’m going anyway, and I can keep an eye on her. This is just a quick, short mission. We already know the location of the river, so the trip won’t take more than fifteen minutes tops.” She turned to wink at Allie. “In Terran time, that is.”
Alison nodded gratefully, then proceeded to stare at Ark’s strong, wide back. She’d have done anything to see his face. She wanted to go so badly that she was even willing to let her walls down just a tiny bit, enough to allow Ark to catch a glimpse of her thoughts and emotions. She took a couple of deep breaths and focused on the barriers she had instinctively built between her mind and the minds of everyone on The Hesperia. The only one who had access to her deepest self was Kimmy, but she felt like the Kidem was safe and would never betray her. So, it didn’t count.
When Ark stood up abruptly, Allie knew her little trick had worked. She could feel his mind probing hers, softly at first, then a bit more insistently. She focused her attention on him and only him, allowing his mind to perceive what she wanted to reveal, and nothing more. When he turned around, his determ
ination and stubbornness were gone. A smile was even tugging at the corners of his lips, and it was obvious to Allie that he was intentionally trying to hide it from those present on the Bridge. He didn’t want his people to see how much of an interest he had in her.
“All right, she can come with us.”
The fact that he talked as if she wasn’t in the room annoyed Alison to no end, but she kept her mouth shut and her thoughts in check.
“However,” he continued, “Now, I’ll have to accompany you on this mission. Thivo, the Bridge is yours for the next hour.”
“We won’t need an hour,” Shirin reminded him.
“Let’s just wait and see.” Ark motioned for them to follow him.
They took the elevator, and when the doors opened, Alison guessed they had reached some sort of transportation room. Even though, back on Old Earth, she hadn’t been a huge fan of science-fiction shows, she had seen enough Star Trek episodes to get a hang of how some super advanced things worked. She wanted to ask whether they also had a robot on board, but this was not the best time. After all, she didn’t want to risk saying something silly and making the Captain change his mind.
Half a dozen people were waiting for them, all dressed in red uniforms. Allie looked down at herself, wondering whether her outfit was appropriate for visiting a planet in outer space.
“Don’t worry,” Shirin whispered. “You look great.”
“Thank you, but… isn’t this dangerous? For a human, I mean.”
The Second Officer laughed, startling everyone.
“You’re thinking about this now?”
Alison blushed and made herself as small as possible. She had the distinct impression that the blue aliens were all silently laughing at her. The only reason why no one said anything was because their Captain was there.
“Everyone ready?” Ark asked.
They all nodded, and Allie did the same. When Arkvar stepped closer to her and looked her deep in the eyes, she let him hear some of her thoughts.
“You’re going to be fine,” he encouraged her telepathically. “I’ll take care of you. I promise.”
She thanked him, then cut off the connection between them.
“I’m sorry,” she explained, “It takes a lot of focus to give you access to only a small part of my mind. I’m still learning.”
He nodded, but didn’t even try to mask his disappointment.
“I understand. Usually, the Unxendi keep all channels open. We have nothing to hide from each other.”
“Is that so?” She smiled mischievously.
“Still, when it comes to matters of the heart, so to speak, we do close a channel or two.”
“Huh. This has nothing to do with any matter of the heart,” she mumbled grumpily. He was beating her at her own game. Not something she had expected.
“Are we going or what?” Shirin interrupted them. “I need my regular dose of fresh air.”
Alison made the Kidem wrap itself around her arms and shoulders, just in case she might be cold down there. She doubted she could manifest warmer clothes, except in the case when the planet happened to be habited and the aliens living there used clothes which were similar to what Allie knew. She glanced around the room.
“So, how do we do this? Do you have some sort of teleportation technology, or maybe a huge metal ring that creates a wormhole… like a stargate?”
A few chuckles filled the air, and she blushed when neither Ark, nor Shirin did anything to stop them
“What? This is my first time, okay? I learned everything I know about aliens and spaceships from Star Trek, SG-1, and Battlestar Galactica.”
“I don’t know anything about SG-1 or Battlestar Galactica,” Ark snickered, “but you can forget whatever you know. Trust me, you’re better off without that false information.”
“False? So, stargates don’t exist?”
“They do, but not the way you think.”
This was getting more and more confusing. Allie looked around the room again, but it was empty. Proper empty. Without thinking too much, she grabbed Shirin’s hand, making the blue-skinned woman jump in surprise. It didn’t help. Still empty. That could mean one thing: Shirin didn’t see it differently.
“Relax.” The Second Officer squeezed Allie’s fingers reassuringly. “There’s nothing to see.”
“No teleportation devices? Not even the tiniest piece of technology?” Bewilderment was painted all over Alison’s pretty features.
“No.” Ark crossed his hands behind his back and walked to the middle of the room. “This is the one chamber on The Hesperia which has no technology and no furniture whatsoever. We don’t need any of it in order to travel. On the contrary, we should be as far from it as possible.”
“I don’t understand.” Allie furrowed her brows. She let go of Shirin’s hand and wrapped her arms around herself. In reality, she wanted to pet Kimmy. The Kidem had become the one thing that made her feel safe in any circumstances.
Ark pointed to his own temple. “The stargate is here. No, in fact, it is all around you, in your personal field of energy.” He waved his hand, as if to draw a frame around himself, showing the delimitations of his personal space. “All you have to do is learn how to access it and use it, and then you’re free to travel pretty much wherever you want, as long as you can see that place in your mind’s eye.”
Alison’s sky-blue eyes filled with sadness.
“Oh, I see. Then, I can’t possibly come with you. This is much too advanced for me.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. It didn’t take you long to learn how to manifest everything you needed. Am I correct?”
“Y-yes…”
“This will be just as easy. Believe that you can do it, and you will.”
“But I can’t visualize the planet. I don’t know what it looks like.”
“That’s the last thing you should concern yourself with. This time, at least.” He closed the space between them and extended his right hand. “I will guide you.”
Allie stared at his opened hand for a long moment. The skin of his palm was a paler shade of blue, and looked like it would be smooth and warm to the touch. Ark’s hands were the hands of someone who had never done any kind of labor, someone who had always worked with the brilliance of his mind.
She gulped. Why was she so reluctant to take his hand? It didn’t mean anything. She had been holding Shirin’s hand all day, and that hadn’t given her blue friend any sort of power over her. So, why was she so afraid of touching Ark?
Her hesitation only lasted a moment, but to Allie it seemed like forever. Her glance moved from his hand to his eyes, then back to his hand. For some reason she couldn’t explain, she felt like the decision she made now would change the course of her life without any chance of ever going back. It was strange, really. Her life had already been changed beyond anything she could have ever imagined, and without as much as the smallest opportunity for her to have a say in it. What would taking Ark’s hand mean, then? Would it mean she was finally accepting the situation as real?
Suddenly, Alison realized everything that had happened up to this very moment had felt like a long, weird, and enchanting dream. A part of her kept reminding her this was her life now, and she’d better take it seriously, but there was also that other part of her which wasn’t quite capable of adapting to the madness of it all. For the first time, she wondered why she hadn’t really cried or suffered over losing her old life, her family, friends… damn it! The entire planet Earth! The only explanation she could muster was that she hadn’t yet processed it, and thus her confused mind couldn’t quite grasp the tragedy that it actually was. Sure, Ark’s story about how the people of Earth weren’t actually dead and they would eventually reincarnate in a much better place had put her at ease. But it sometimes felt strange even to her that she had accepted his story so easily. She hoped it was all true, and while her heart ached for the ones who had been lost, her rational mind did its b
est to grab on to the belief that everything was for the best, and everyone would be fine in the end. If she was to be honest with herself, Allie knew that every time her worries came to the surface, she ignored them and buried them deep down. If she let those worries and unanswered questions take a hold of her, she knew she’d immediately drown in feelings of guilt, helplessness, and shame for being the only one who had been saved. She knew her thoughts and emotions would soon spin out of control and she’d wonder over and over why her. What sort of greater force had decided to keep her alive when everybody else had been doomed to die? She didn’t want to go there. Not now, at least. Now she had to focus on the things at hand, she had to take one step at a time, adapt and re-adapt in order to make sense of her new life and do her best to survive.
“Alison?”
Ark’s warm voice snapped her out of her trance. She took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and took his hand. When he wrapped his fingers around hers, she almost regretted her gesture. She felt like warmth was pouring out of every cell of his body and entering hers through their intertwined fingers. It shook her right to the core. There were no words to explain it, but she suddenly felt like Ark had gained some sort of power over her. He wasn’t probing her mind, he wasn’t trying to communicate with her telepathically, but he had certainly entered her field of energy like no one had ever done it before.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
She nodded, wondering whether he could feel what she was feeling. Maybe, it was all in her head and nothing was real. After all, they were just holding hands, and not even for a romantic purpose.
“Ready, then?”
“As ready as I can ever be, I guess.”
“Good, now close your eyes and follow my voice. This will be easy if you decide right now that it can be easy.” He squeezed her hand. “As long as you hold on to me, my abilities will help you tap into yours. All the latent powers within you will be enhanced, so don’t be afraid to use them. Now, focus all your attention on your Third Eye. Look long and hard into the darkness behind your eyelids, and concentrate on a single spot in front of you. Remember that you’re not trying to tap into something that is outside of you, but into something that has always been within you. Now, imagine that starting from the point you chose to focus on, the darkness is beginning to dissipate, making way to a circle of light which grows bigger and bigger with every ounce of awareness you put into it. The circle is growing and growing, and its light is golden and warm.”
