The Bonding (10 page)

The ship had three decks. They were
sitting in the galley, which was on the second deck with the living quarters
and a huge exercise room. The top deck was the bridge. The third and bottom
deck was almost entirely
cargo,
with the exception of
the probe launch area, the engine room and the medical bay. At one time, this
ship had a full crew, but Tarku had it
modified to be
completely automated
. He could run the entire ship himself from the
bridge, or various command consoles strategically located throughout the ship.

They had just finished eating when a
female voice came across the intercom system. Janet wondered who was making the
announcement, since she hadn’t seen anyone else.

“Eh ez hwa sijbohal.” (It is the
computer.) He saw her confused expression, and also knew that she didn’t
understand a thing he just said. So the body language came in again. He
motioned for her to follow him. “Sija!”

“Sija!” she repeated, nodding, as she
followed along. “That must mean come.”

The ship’s computer was informing Tarku
that they were approaching the planet for which he had set a course. When he
set a course, he also set the speed at which he wanted to travel. The autopilot
did everything from there, including slowing the ship from light speed and
warning him that the destination was approaching.

They hurried to the elevator and she
heard him give the same command as before. The doors closed and within two
seconds reopened at the bridge. On the forward monitors she saw that they were
approaching a planet. It was amazing to watch. Only about the size of a golf
ball, it quickly grew very large as the craft sped towards it. The speed of his
ship was fascinating to her, and she was only seeing the sublight speed. She
didn’t know that they had just traveled faster than light.

Behind and to each side of the Captain’s
chair were two other seats. He motioned for her to sit in either of these. He
sat in the Captain’s chair and immediately began touching things on the
console. He started talking in a language completely different from what he used
before. Another alien being, different from him, appeared on the center monitor
and began speaking. It was obvious that they knew each other. The tones of
their voices were friendly and they laughed and carried on like two old
classmates.

At one point, Tarku pointed back towards
Janet and she saw the alien look over at her. He nodded and made a comment, as
though in approval of something. For a moment she thought, “Oh my God! What if
he is planning on selling me into slavery.”

The monitor returned to the view of the
planet and there was a space station orbiting above it. Tarku went to the
monitor, pointed to the space station and looked back at Janet. “Ra rev zhib
hwal.” (We will stop there.)

Then he pointed to the planet. “Hwat ra
ri hwal.” (Then we go there), he said and smiled.

She smiled back, but couldn’t shake the
thought about the slavery. She wondered what she could do if that were true.
She had no idea where she was, couldn’t speak any of these languages and didn’t
know how to fly his spaceship. All of the controls were written in characters
completely alien to her.

“Please God, don’t let this be something
bad,” she silently prayed.

Moments later, they docked with the huge
space station. She had always thought that the space station orbiting the Earth
was big, but it was minuscule compared to this. It was an orbiting metropolis as
large as any city on Earth, literally extending for miles in all directions.
She carefully watched Tarku at the controls. He definitely knew what he was
doing. The ship locked onto the station and he looked back at Janet and smiled.

“Sija,” he said nodding. “Jaah jk nlatp.”
(Come! Meet my friend.)

She understood sija, but nothing else,
and followed along. The door to his ship opened and the alien from the monitor
was standing there to greet him. They both extended their right hands, and
touched them
back to back
instead of gripping in a
normal handshake. They spoke the language of this man, which was different from
Tarku’s.

The alien was nearly seven feet tall and
thin. His skin was reddish-brown and covered with light blue freckles. His
appearance was humanoid, but he had only a thumb and three fingers, with no
fingernails. Beautiful, short, red hair, neatly parted in the middle and combed
to each side covered his head. His clothing was loose, but well made. Golden
necklaces and bracelets adorned his body. He and Tarku talked for only a moment
when Tarku motioned towards Janet and said her name. She looked at Tarku with a
questioning expression.

The alien extended his hand, palm down
and slightly bowed to her. He said something that she assumed was a greeting
and heard him also say her name. She extended her hand, also palm down, and was
going to place it on top of his, but Tarku gently turned it over, palm up and
placed it on top of the alien’s, as he smiled and nodded to her. This eased her
slightly. She didn’t feel that a slave trader would treat her with this type of
greeting.

“Nice to meet you,” she said cordially.

The alien didn’t know what she said, but
also assumed that it was a greeting and returned the smile. This was all so
astounding to Janet. Only a few weeks ago, she was circling the moon, and now,
she was millions, possibly billions, or even trillions of miles from Earth,
standing here with two highly intelligent alien life forms.

When the alien first spoke to her, he
said his name, but Janet didn’t know that. She thought it was simply part of
the greeting. She kept hearing Tarku say Kinal and realized that this was his
name.

Kinal led them to a control room where
there were many people. Most resembled Kinal, but there were others that looked
totally different. One woman had the same features as Tarku. She was tall,
probably about six feet four inches, and very athletically structured. On
Earth, she would have been considered to have a knockout body. Long, straight,
black hair, like Tarku’s, streamed down to the middle of her back. She had the
same teardrop shaped eyes with blue cat eye pupils; not green like Tarku’s. To
Janet, she seemed quite beautiful, and Janet caught herself staring.

Tarku walked over to her and extended his
hand, palm down, as he slightly bowed. “Wavvi, Jema,” he said.

She extended her hand and placed it palm
up on top of his. “Wavvi, Tarku,” she replied. “Eh ez riip hi za
ko
uruet.” (Hello, Tarku. It is good to see you again.)

He leaned to her and they touched cheeks.
She reached up and stroked his hair with her other hand as they stayed cheek to
cheek for a few seconds.

Janet thought this may be a girl friend
or lover of his, and watched what was obviously a sentimental moment. She was
touched by the gentleness and respect each displayed for the other.

They broke the embrace and Tarku motioned
to Janet to come closer and said, “Jema, hwez ez Janet Shelby. E niotp wal
pujumap zweb plenhetr
et
zbuza.” (Jema, this is Janet
Shelby. I found her damaged ship drifting in space.)

Jema extended her right hand with the
palm sideways, the way the two men extended theirs to each other. “Wavvi, Janet
Shelby,” Jema said, and warmly smiled.

Janet had figured out that wavvi meant
hello and that Jema was the woman’s name, and returned the greeting, extending
her hand and touching back to back with Jema’s. “Wavvi, Jema. It is very nice
to meet you.”

Jema, like Tarku, knew at least a hundred
languages, but did not understand what Janet said, except for wavvi. She knew
it was a greeting and was pleased with Janet’s appearance and manners. Janet
didn’t know, but Jema also considered her to be a beautiful alien.

Jema looked at Tarku. “Ko taav hi haahzw
wal iol vutoura.” (You need to teach her our language.)

“E uj, utp zwa ez dalk zjulh,” (I am, and
she is very smart), he replied.

“E sut hav.” (I can tell.) Jema pointed
to a monitor showing his spacecraft on the docking pad with Janet’s ship below,
still being held by the purple beam. “Ruh ufirh wal zweb?” (What about her
ship?), Jema inquired.

“E uj rietr hi zav eh hi Kinal.” (I am
going to sell it to Kinal), Tarku said. “I do not know where her planet is and
I can not keep it with me. She has no use for it now. It is junk.”

“Has Kinal offered you a good price for
it?” Jema asked.

“Yes! I sent him pictures from my ship
and he was quite excited.”

“Have you told
her
that you are
going to sell her ship?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow.

He shrugged. “I don’t know how.”

“Then I will tell her,” she said, and
moved past him to Janet. “Janet Shelby, viis.” (
look
),
she said, as she pointed to Intrepid on the monitor. Janet saw her ship and had
no idea that Tarku had brought it along. In her mind, it was still drifting in
space.

“Tarku jozh zav kol zweb.” (Tarku must
sell your ship), she said, and went through the motions of selling it. She
picked up an electronic pen, pointed to the Intrepid and pointed to the pen, so
Janet would know that she was pretending the pen was her ship. She then placed
it in Janet’s hand, then took Janet’s hand and handed it to Tarku, to represent
that she was giving the ship to him.
 
Finally, she took the pen from Tarku’s hand and pointed to Kinal, who
had been talking with someone else, and motioned that the pen would be given to
him. She then pulled some coins from her pocket, counted them out and gave them
to Tarku. Then she took half of them from Tarku and gave them to Janet.

Janet nodded and smiled. “I get it! You
want to sell my ship and give me half of the money and Tarku will keep the
other half.” Of course, neither Tarku nor Jema understood what Janet said, but
they did understand her smile and very obvious nod of approval. After all, the
ship was no good to her, and she had no way to get it back to Earth, and didn’t
know if she would ever see the Earth again.

Jema looked at Tarku with a smirk. “Ko
za! Ra rijat sut sijotesuta, ti juhhal rul ra ul nlig.” (You see! We women can
communicate, no matter where we are from.) Jema turned to Janet and smiled.
Janet didn’t know what Jema said to Tarku, but the look on her face and the nod
to Janet assured her that everything was okay.

Tarku motioned for Janet to wait with
Jema while he and Kinal completed the sale
of
 
Intrepid
. Jema picked up a cup
and gestured to Janet if she would like something to drink. Janet nodded and
Jema took her by the hand and led her to what resembled an alien version of a
soda machine. Jema put in two of the coins, touched a button, and a drink, in a
plastic container, appeared in a small opening on the machine. Jema opened it
and offered it to Janet. She took a small sip. It was very refreshing and cold.
Janet licked her lips and gave Jema a satisfied expression. Jema got another
for herself and they walked back to where Tarku and Kinal were.

Janet had ideas of what an alien
civilization would be like, but it was nothing like this. Everyone here was
simply doing
their
jobs, just as anyone on Earth
would. There were people talking with small earpieces and microphones, and
others typing things on consoles. When people walked by, they would glance at
her and smile, but no one acted as though she were any different from anyone
else. Janet returned the smiles and nodded.

About half way through her drink, Janet
realized that she had not relieved herself since Tarku revived her, and it was
beginning to be a pressing matter. She looked at Jema. How am I going to
explain to her that I have to pee? Judging from her appearance, I’d guess that
her body parts are very similar to mine. She tapped Jema on the arm and Jema
turned to look. “Jema, I need to use the restroom,” she said, as she put her
hand down between her legs and wiggled.

Jema smiled, “Uw! Rah liij. Sija rehw
ja
.” (Ah! Wet room. Come with me.) She took Janet’s hand
again and led her to the restroom. She pointed to the two doors, and again, it
amazed Janet how this civilization was so similar to her own. On the men’s room
was a picture of a man and a woman’s image was on the other. There were no
words, only the symbols. Jema pointed to both doors and said, “Rah liij.” (Wet
room.)

“Rah liij,” Janet repeated.

Jema pointed to herself and Janet, then
to the symbol of the woman and said, “Najuva”. Then she pointed to the male
symbol and said, “Juva.”

Janet repeated her actions and words.
Jema waved her hand in front of a sensor and the door slid open. It looked very
much like any other restroom. There were mirrors and sinks along one wall, and
stalls with toilets along the other. The sinks were different in that there
were small compartments in which you placed your hands and a blue light
illuminated to clean them without water.

The toilets looked similar to the ones on
Earth, but operated quite differently. As bodily waste fell into the bowl, a
concentrated microwave instantaneously turned it to a powder and sucked it
away. Then, similar to a bidet, a warm spray of water would rinse the genitals
and posterior, followed by the blue light. Janet thought it was funny that in a
civilization so advanced, some things simply stay the same.