Beyond the Stars (37 page)

“I … I don’t know what to say. I didn’t know.” Urit paused as if he could barely form the words and hesitantly lifted the bracelet with one of his fingers. He stared at it while remaining speechless. He looked heartbroken. I think he still fantasized about the possibility of us becoming a couple. At that moment, I wished I could give him more. He was a good man. After all he had done for me, his disappointment was killing me.

“Urit,” I pleaded for his understanding.

“Humph.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I guess I was wrong about him. You must really mean something to him. I never thought I’d see the day … oh, what am I saying? I’m glad for your happiness. If Gaelan gave you this, he surely has good intentions,” he kindly gestured, as he didn’t seem to want to say anything derogatory about Gaelan. He was a true gentleman and able to swallow his pride. I respected him even more knowing he was able to accept our relationship with grace.

“Thank you. You are a good friend,” I said gently. “As are you,” he agreed with a fragile smile.

“We’re all clean,” Zaric and Gaelan said together, sounding relieved while they came over to join us.

“Hmm, good. Let’s get this thing out,” Urit said after he cleared his throat. “Now, you might still feel this, but it will only be uncomfortable for a minute.” Urit laid his hand softly on my shoulder. “Here, Zaric, you hold this and give it to me when I ask for it.” Urit gave Zaric a thin pencil-like stick.

“What is this thing?” Zaric asked.

“It’s a cautery. It will stop the bleeding,” Urit explained.

“I’m going to lose blood? How much?” I hesitated. “You may. I’m just taking precautions to be safe.”

Urit clarified. “Gaelan, I want you to hold Samantha’s head very still. Sam, are you ready?”

“Sure, just get it over with,” I urged. Urit put the long scope back into my nose, turned the scope on suction, and yanked. It felt like he was going to pull out my sinuses. “Ahh,” I gasped. My eyes watered as I struggled to hold back my tears.

“Hold still,” Gaelan whispered in my ear. “You’re doing great.”

“Now, Zaric,” Urit directed as he reached for the cautery. It felt like an electric shock crossed my forehead. I nearly jumped off the table. I would have if it weren’t for Gaelan’s death grip on my head. “That’s it. We got it, Sam.” Urit exhaled in relief as he laid the scope down on a table with the tracer still attached to its end.

“Let me see it.” I sat up to see what he’d removed. It was a silver ball the size of a marble.

Urit stared at the tracer. “Well, that’s new. I’ve never seen one like that before. Probably more advanced.”

Zaric looked over Urit’s shoulder. “What should we do with it? Destroy it? I could only imagine the crew’s panic surrounding this news,” he surmised.

Gaelan pulled the metal ball off the scope and picked it up to study it at eye level. “No, I think maybe you should put it in me. Let the low-lives bring me aboard their ship. I would like to see who’s responsible,” he said angrily.

“Gaelan, please, no. I don’t want them taking
you
,” I cried.

“Fine, forget it … it was just an idea.” He exhaled in frustration.

“We could dump it.” Zaric smirked. “You know, shoot it off the ship and send them on a wild goose chase.”

“No, I don’t think that would be wise. It may draw some attention if we have an unscheduled dump,” Gaelan cautioned in a serious tone.

“We could just wait for them to retrieve it on their own,” I interjected quietly.

Gaelan looked at me while he thought. “No, it’s not safe. Someone might find it in the meantime. If we’re really going to keep quiet about this, we have to find a way to get rid of it. I don’t want anybody seeing it accidently,” he said with conviction.

“He’s right.” Zaric agreed adamantly. “We need to destroy it. We should dispose of the evidence.”

“Well, I could try to dissolve it in some acid, but that would be a waste,” Urit said, unconvinced about demolishing the object. “I mean, think of it … this is our only chance to study their latest technology. Perhaps we could develop a way to protect ourselves from them,” Urit proposed. I already knew what he was thinking. I could see the gears turning in his head. He was not someone to let a prime opportunity to learn something new pass him by.

“Urit, you can’t study it here. Someone might find it,” Gaelan scolded.

“No, I agree, not here—but we’ll be on Kataria tomorrow night. I can hide it until then. I would love to show it to my daughter, Nia. She is gifted when it comes to designing technological instruments. She could analyze it, break it down piece by piece, and uncover what makes it tick,” Urit explained to me proudly.

“She could really do that?” I asked.

“Oh yeah,” Zaric interjected. “Take Urit here for example. He’s a smart guy, right?” he said, putting his arm around Urit’s shoulders. Urit shrugged uncomfortably at his unwelcomed touch.

“Absolutely,” I agreed. Urit relaxed a little and smiled back at me.

“Well, take that and
multiply
it by a hundred,” he exaggerated.

“Wow,” I mouthed the words.

“Thank you, Zaric. That is really kind, but I can’t argue with you. She is truly amazing,” Urit said humbly.

“Okay, here. Just hide the thing before I change my mind.” Gaelan huffed and tossed the little ball in the air, making Urit jump to catch it before it hit the floor. “Where are you going to put it?”

“I have just the thing.” Urit opened his cabinet and retrieved a small jar from a shelf. He unscrewed the lid and dropped the metal tracer into a red, gelatinous liquid. “Hand me those tweezers, please, Sam.” Urit carefully pulled out the tracer with the tweezers and let the excess red liquid drip off the ball into the jar. The tracer was now covered with a red, rubberized material. It looked like a little toy bouncy ball.

“Great, you turned it into a toy,” Gaelan said sarcastically. “Is that your idea of hiding it? Here, kids, I got something new for you to play with.” Urit shot him an irritated glare.

“Actually, that’s precisely what I am going to do … give it to my kids,” Urit defended as he walked over to his aquarium full of lab mice and dropped the ball into their cage. “Here you go, my little friends. I got you a new toy. You’ll keep this safe for me, won’t you?” He talked baby talk to the furry critters. Gaelan and Zaric looked at each other and chuckled under their breath by his cutesy display of affection towards his pet mice. I thought his solution was brilliant. I thanked Urit for removing the tracer before the three of us left.

“Do you think he’ll keep quiet?” I asked Gaelan and Zaric. I wanted to determine if we could trust Urit to keep the news about the tracer a secret.

Gaelan smirked. “Don’t worry, the man’s a vault. Besides, I think he would do just about anything for
you.
”

“You think so?” I acted unsure of what he was insinuating.

“I’ve never seen him act that way with anyone else before,” Gaelan explained casually while we walked through the corridor.

Zaric nodded in agreement. “It’s true. Wow! You said he was different. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

“I know. Like I was telling you before, he’s been super nice. He’s a changed man.” Gaelan held up his hands in disbelief.

“Yeah, I mean normally he hates to be bothered, and … and he’s even
gentle
,” Zaric said, sounding surprised.

“Oh, please, Urit’s a great guy. He’s always been very kind,” I defended him.

“Yeah,
right
,” Zaric muttered. “If that was me or Gaelan in there, he would have been like,
come here
.” He grabbed Gaelan’s hair and yanked his head back in a headlock while he snarled to make his teeth look like fangs. Gaelan joined the act and pretended to grimace in pain. “Stay still,” he demanded firmly while he pretended to forcefully pull out a tracer from Gaelan’s nose. “There,” he said sharply. “I got it. Now off with you,” he teased as he jerked Gaelan’s head away forcefully.

“
Ahhh
… that hurt,” Gaelan moaned and covered his face with his hands, continuing to act out the skit.

“No, that didn’t hurt me at all. Now go. Leave me,” he sneered like a mad scientist, “I need to return to my laboratory. My mice children are waiting for me,” Zaric mocked.

“Stop it.” I laughed at their humorous charade. “He’s sweet. He’s not like that.” I tried to defend him.

“Yeah, to you,
Sam
,” Gaelan teased. “I’ll do
anything
for my new playmate, Sam.”

“You’re just jealous,” I jested.

“Yep, of course I am,” Gaelan conceded.

Zaric smiled. “Actually, we should be thanking you. You’ve changed him for the better. Now going to the hospital is safer for everyone.”

“Good night, Zaric. Thank you,” I said gratefully. We returned to our quarters and went straight to bed. Neither one of us wanted to talk about the Dreons kidnapping me. Besides being dead tired, I think we both wanted nothing more than to forget about it.

CHAPTER 24

KATARIA

Gaelan reluctantly left me to report to duty the next morning. I assured him that I would be fine. Despite my reassurances, he repeatedly called me on the ship’s communicator every two hours. I asked him if the Dreon ship was still around. He happily reported that they were nowhere in sight.

I spent most of the day looking out the study’s large window as the ship approached Kataria. I stared in disbelief as the planet appeared to grow in size the closer we got. The blue, glowing planet suspended in the black sky looked so much like Earth. I had to remind myself that I was not going home. To my surprise, the ship did not land directly on Kataria as we did on Decca. This time, we docked onto their orbiting Space station, called Spaceport. I almost had a heart attack when a man dressed in a blue Space suit appeared outside my window. He was the Spacecraft’s window washer in a sense. He sprayed down the entire hull of the ship with a bubbly foam, which appeared to dry on contact. Gaelan had told me how the ship had to be cultured and cleaned after every trip as a precaution. They worried about possible contamination from unknown organisms. He explained that they once discovered a microbe on their hull days after landing. The strange organism was so hearty it had managed to survive the heat of re-entry and disintegrated the grass and soil beneath the ship’s landing pad. He told me it created a sink hole that was over ten feet deep and thirty feet wide before they could identify the cause. Luckily, they managed to wipe it out before it spread.

Spaceport was gigantic. It housed roughly ten thousand and functioned so independently, it had almost become its own planet. I wondered how long it took to build. Gaelan told me I should go explore while he completed his shift, but I decided not to. I would have to go alone and didn’t want to encounter anymore unknowns.

“Sami, Gaelan, hello—it’s me, Azil.” Azil was knocking outside our door later that evening.

“Hello, Azil. Are you ready for this or what?” Gaelan moaned and invited her in. She hugged a small pile of clothing and accessories with her left arm.

“Oh, Gaelan, it’s not going to be
that
bad. Just try and have some fun. You’ll be fine,” Azil reassured him, nudging his shoulder with her free hand.

“Sami,” Azil shrilled as she walked past him. “I’m so glad that you’re okay. Zaric told me that you had a busy night. I would have checked on you earlier, but I just found out.” She hugged me delicately.

“Thanks, I’m fine,” I reassured her.

“So much for it not leaving the room,” Gaelan mumbled.

Azil scoffed. “Please, brother, like you can keep a secret from me. I’m usually the first person you confide in. Besides, there are no secrets in this family.”

“Well, Miss Nosey-pants, just remember, I know where you live,” he joked.

“Funny.” She shrugged before she quickly snapped back, “Hey, you have no room to judge. I heard that you wanted to blow up their ship.” She walked up to him and waited for an answer. I couldn’t tell if she was upset by his comment or merely teasing him.

“I considered it.” Gaelan rubbed his forehead.

“What stopped you?” she said curiously.

He crossed his arms defensively. “The lucky bastards brought her back unharmed.”