My Star (7 page)

Jack shakes hands with a crew member from the station, who takes us through a maze of narrow halls to a large storage room. We stack everything up nicely, and when the station guy starts leading everyone back out through the narrow halls, I fall behind. As I exit the storage room into the hall, Captain Alvah and Lorenson have just passed the others in the hall, and are walking further into the spaceship in the opposite direction of us. I feel my curiosity accelerate like crazy, and I know I’ve got to follow them. When the others turn the next corner, I stay behind. I turn around and walk back past the storage room in the same direction as the captain and Lorenson. I pass a few doors and suddenly a door opens in front of me, and the captain steps out the door next to another guy from the station, who’s wearing a white coat like a doctor. I freeze and don’t even try to hide—there’s no time. They turn away from me, head down the hall, and don’t notice me. I can’t believe my luck. I make sure I don’t move a muscle until they’re gone. Then I quietly open the door they just came through. Behind the door there’s a small entrance hall and another door. A couple of white coats are hanging on a rack on the wall, and protective slip-on shoes are standing in a row on the floor underneath. I can hear noises from behind the second door. I slip in a white coat and a pair of the white shoes, and open the door. I step out onto a narrow railing that runs all along the wall of a massive hall, two to three stories tall. In the middle of the hall a huge thing is floating in the air. It looks like some sort of spaceship. It’s kinda round and has very organic-looking curves in the hull. It’s not suspended by anything, and just hangs there in the air, all still, as if it’s weightless. The strangest thing about it is that it has no real color, and seems translucent. Along one side of the hall there’s a wide horizontal window into what looks like a control room or lab... or possibly both. The window is at the top level that I’m on, and looking out over the hall from the wall furthest away from me. I can see a couple of white coated people moving around in there, but they’re so far away, that I wouldn’t be able to recognize any of them. A door opens below me on the ground floor of the hall, and one of the white coated people from the station crosses the floor of the hall, and finally exits through a door in the furthest corner. I find a staircase that takes me to the ground floor, and approach the translucent vessel. There’s a fence on the floor around the ship. I skip the fence and walk under the hovering vessel. It’s just close enough to the ground for me to be able to touch it. The surface is smooth and hard, but not hard as steel, more like the way that wood is hard. There’s no visible doors or windows and I’m curious about how to enter the vessel. I’m presuming that it indeed is a vessel—perhaps even an ET vessel, but of course I could be mistaken. As I’m exploring the lower surface with my hands, trying to find cracks that would reveal an entrance, the surface starts to respond ever so slightly to my touch. I’m wondering if I’m playing myself a mind trick. The lowest point of the vessel is so low that I have to bend a little to go under it, and strangely that part seems to become softer under my touch—almost as soft as skin.

“Find anything of interest, Miss Hunter?”

My heart stops. My body is nailed to the floor. I don’t dare turn around.

EIGHT

captivity

I’m pretty sure that’s the voice of Captain Alvah. I’m caught red handed and now my ship goes down.

“This is peculiar. What is it?” I try a ‘childish curiosity’-approach, turn around and smile innocently, as if I don’t know that I might be doing something wrong.

“What’s your game?” The captain sounds calm.

“Sorry. I got lost looking for a toilet.” I’m trying an excuse. His calmness disturbs me. I wish he’d get angry, and that way show lack of control, but he’s not. He’s calm, unsurprised, and completely in control. I’m sure he can kill me in a heartbeat without a second thought, if he sees fit.

The captain’s face reveals vague signs of amusement over my lame attempt at an excuse. Like a cat playing with a mouse, he knows he’s got the upper hand, and just enjoys to see me squirm and squeal.

“I think we’ve found our ‘volunteer’.” Captain Alvah is addressing his space station companion in the white coat.

“I see... Interesting.” The man sounds strangely intrigued.

“This way!” The captain orders me abruptly to follow.

There’s not doubt in my mind that the captain finds me annoying and completely expendable. I can’t escape the feeling that I’m about to be executed. I follow them through narrow halls into a huge room that looks like some kind of test lab. In the middle of the room, there’s a cage of triple layered glass surrounding a heavy table with a human-like creature lying on it. As we get closer, the creature appears lifeless, and is held down by a web of metal wires. It looks somewhat humanoid, but still other-worldly. I am sure it’s an Extra-Terrestrial Being.

A woman from the station, wearing a full body suit, hands us each a similar body suit to wear.

“No, not for her.” The captain takes my suit and gives it back. “Only oxygen.”

The woman pulls a small bottle with a mouthpiece out of the suit, and hands the bottle to me. She puts the mouthpiece properly on me, and opens the nozzle of the bottle.

“Now you go in there unprotected, and release the ETB from the restraints.” Captain Alvah sounds almost cheerful.

I really don’t like that man.

“Turn off the current.” He’s addressing another station guy in full body suit sitting behind what appears to be a control board.

I suppose the wire web holding the ETB down is electric. I approach the double door entrance of the glass cage, and the woman lets me through the first door. Once it’s closed behind me, a shock wave of little laser sharp lights are washing over me and seems to analyze my body from top to bottom. Then the second door is released, and I enter the glass cage. There’s not a sound in the cage, and the ETB appears to be dead. It’s got two arms, two legs and a head similar to humans—only everything is still just different. The legs and arms are unusually long and slim, the torso relatively small, the head somewhat bigger, and I’m pretty sure that the ETB is almost twice my height, although it’s hard to say exactly since the creature is lying down. The skin of the body is smooth without hair, and has a colorless and translucent look, similar to the vessel I just touched. The face looks withered and tense, and has a nose, a mouth and two closed eyes—appearing very human-like. The skin of the face and hands is different—it has a pale color, and looks like old parchment about to dissolve. The hands are huge, and look like they can snap my legs like twigs.

“Hello?” I don’t know what to do with myself.

I don’t feel threatened as such—except for the fact that the captain has put me here, and seems to think he’s putting me in harms way. I approach the table, and quickly touch the electric wire web. It’s not on. I touch the torso of the ETB, and it feels very smooth, soft and organic. The ETB doesn’t move.

“Hello, are you alive?” I try again.

Nothing. I can’t even feel breath around the nostrils of the ETB I bend down under the table, and try to figure out how to remove the web. There’s a release handle by the head of the table, so I crawl there, and pull it. The edges of the web releases from the table, and now hang down around the table. I start pulling the web off, and notice that the web has cut into the skin of the ETB. Barbaric!

Barely alive... It’s finally coming to an end.
A voice in my head sounds like the voice I encountered with the light.

“Are you dying?” I look at the face of the ETB for signs of life.

You can hear me?
The ETB opens both eyes.

My heart skips a beat, and I wonder if this is it for me.

It looks at me with big mesmerizing eyes. The eyes are bright blue and have an aquatic and glassy depth to them. The ETB moves slowly and looks weary.

“Yes.”

Not many can hear me. Not many want to.

“I’m from Earth. I’ve just arrived on Apollo 56.” I’m surprised at how urgent it feels for me to introduce myself.

Try to speak to me internally... like I am to you, so others can’t hear.

I wonder for a moment if this is the same light-voice I spoke to before.

“Are you telepathic?”

No. Try.

I give it a shot, and imagine my words coming out of my mouth, but don’t actually give it sound or form it with my lips—like I did when I spoke to the light.
I believe I’m on a mission to find traces of energy resources and aliens in space. And I suppose you fall into that category.
I wait to see if my words are received.

Not necessary to look more. Just share what you already have.

It works. The ETB can hear me speaking to it in my mind.

The light said something similar, but I don’t know of any hidden intel.
I don’t know if it’s smart of me to be open and honest with this creature, but somehow the conversation feels intimate and safe.

You’ve spoken to others?
The ETB looks at me very attentively.

I’ve spoken to a light two times. I’m not sure whether it was the same light.
I catch myself shaking my head to emphasize the point. I better not give any physical indications that this conversation is taking place, so I’ll refrain from further gesticulation.

The lights work as one, although they’re all individual, like me—only younger. I’m several generations older than them, and left our world long before the Great Exploration started. My age is partly why my body is now coming to an end, and the treatment here has sped up the conclusion. 
The ETB tries to stretch it’s arms out, but stops with an instant expression of pain running across it’s face.

Is there anything I can do to help?
I feel instant compassion for the ETB

Are you different from the other humans on this station?

Well, I’m not in the know about what’s going on, and I’ve got no authority at all. I’m just writing the log on a visiting spaceship, and this is my first time in space. I believe the captain thought I would die or be seriously harmed here with you… Are you going to harm me?
I avoid saying ‘kill’ although that’s the word that’s really on my mind.

The ETB sits up and frees itself entirely from the wire web. Even though it’s only sitting, it’s already several heads taller than me. It moves with difficulty, and looks stiff from being tied up.

Is that oxygen?
The ETB looks at my oxygen mask.

Yes.
My heart beats faster.

The ETB reaches out for my oxygen tank, and I let it go. The ETB takes a couple of deep breaths of oxygen, and then returns it to me. It closes its eyes for a little while, and the color of the skin gradually becomes more vivid. I realize that the body isn’t naked, but covered by some kind of thin suit.

It looks straight at me with its aquatic blue eyes beaming with intelligence.
I only fought back when they wanted to cage me in and conduct tests on me. Even then I didn’t fight fiercely. I could have killed them all. But that’s not why I’ve come. In a sense, I’m a diplomat. I’ve come here in peace, to share knowledge about my world, my people, and our technology. But the people here aren’t open. The valuable knowledge we have passed on isn’t being used or shared, as we intended. I suppose the leaders of this world wish to keep the balance of power and knowledge the way it is. Keep the suppressed in suppression. Keep the poor in poverty. Keep the unenlightened in darkness. Keep the powerful in power.

I guess you’re right.
I’m thinking of Captain Alvah and his megalomaniac and homicidal tendencies. I wonder if he understands the game he’s supporting.

Can I trust you?

…I don’t know. I would like to think so... trust me with what?

The ETB gets on its feet. It’s at least twice as tall as I am. I feel tiny. Even when it’s moving stiffly around, it’s impressive and appears omnipotent. I’m nothing but a squishable piss-ant in comparison with this proud and intelligent creature. It looks like it could tear the glass cage apart like a cardboard box.

Do you trust me?
The voice sounds deeper and the ETB looks down at me.

Do I trust you? I think it’s a little early to say, but I sure trust you more than I trust Captain Alvah out there. He’d enjoy seeing me dead.

I suppose that’s good enough. I feel your vibration too—it’s generally positive. Will you take my light to my ship?

I’m happy to help you, but I’m not sure they’ll let me go anywhere near your ship.
I conclude that the vessel I encountered before is the ship in question—so indeed it was an ET Vessel.

Tell them I’ve told you how they can fly the ship, and that you’ll show them.

Yeah, that might do it. So what’s the ‘light’ you need me to take?

The light is my essence. As light, I can travel as fast as light, like the others do. But I don’t think my body will survive without the proper hibernation maintenance and careful supervision, so once it’s done, I’ll not be able to return to my body again, and never again be bound in this body. I’ll only exist as pure presence in the form of light.

I feel my mind dropping its jar in astonishment. This is hyper sci-fi technology like in a fantasy! Only it’s real. These ET Beings have found a way for their soul to stay alive even after death. The eternal and never dying soul.

Tell me what to do.

It’s simple...
The ETB instructs me step by step what it wants me to do to. Then it kneels down in front of me, so I’m looking straight into these beautiful aquatic and intelligent eyes full of kindness. Then shuts the eyes and open the mouth just enough for me to see a glimpse of a small ball of intense light hovering inside its mouth. Much to my surprise, it gently but firmly wraps its arms around me, and kisses me soft and long.