The Bonding (9 page)

“Wavvi, vehhva rot,” (Hello, little one),
he said. His voice was deep and mellow, but the strange accent startled her.

Her eyes began to focus on him and her
face expressed her surprise. She slightly gasped at the large alien standing
beside her. He smiled, reached his large hand over and gently patted her hand.

“Ko ul rietr hi fa neta.” (You are going
to be fine.)

She didn’t understand what he said, but
his smile and the gentle touch of his warm hand said it for him. She
immediately knew that he was here to help her. She sat up and looked around.

“Where am I?” she said slowly, as though
it would make him understand.

He did understand, but not because of
what she said. The look on her face, the quick scan of the strange room, and
that if he were in the same position that would be the first thing he would
ask.

He gazed around the
room,
spread his arms wide, and said slowly, “Hwez ez jk zweb.” (This is my ship.)

She shrugged, turned her palms up in a
questioning gesture and had a blank, half-smiling look on her face. He
understood her expression.

He took both of his hands, touched his
chest with his fingers and said, “Tarku Zivok,” and then pointed both hands to
her. She immediately realized that he had just said his name and wanted to know
hers.

She copied his motion, touching her
fingers to her chest and said, “Janet Shelby.”

He smiled and repeated, “Janet Shelby.”

She smiled and said, “Tarku Zivok.”

He was pleased that she understood and
even pronounced his name correctly. He extended a hand out to her. She looked
at his large hand with claws in place of fingernails and placed her hand in
his. She was surprised that, although it looked rough, his hand was much the
same as any human’s.

She slowly swung her legs over the side
of the bed and stood. She looked up at him and smiled, happy that she was quite
stable and not even slightly unbalanced or weak. The nourishment that he had
fed into her veins had quickly stabilized and replenished her weakened body. He
moved towards the door and motioned for her to come with him.

“Sija, Janet Shelby,” he said.

The one language that seemed to be
universal was body language. When either of them nodded, the other knew it
meant yes. When he extended a hand, she knew it was an invitation to come with
him. He even understood the questioning gesture she did earlier and the blank
look on her face. The door opened and she followed him into the corridor. She
had no idea that she was on a spacecraft. It was so large that she thought he
had taken her to his planet. She also noticed that there were no other beings
around. At the end of the corridor a door slid open to what resembled a round
elevator.

They stepped in and he said, “Fler!”
 
The door closed and within two seconds
opened again. They were on the ship’s bridge. She couldn’t believe that they
moved from one deck to another in two seconds and she didn’t even feel it move.
As they stepped out of the elevator, she was amazed at the sight before her,
and now realized that she was on board a spacecraft. There was a large chair,
surrounded with electronic consoles. Encircling the room like one continuous
window, were large monitors showing a panoramic view around the outside of the
spacecraft. Her attention was immediately drawn to one. She saw Intrepid, being
held by the purple beam of light, and quickly walked over to the monitor and
pointed.

“This is my ship! Where is it?”

He knew it was time for her to see Ron
and Oliver’s bodies. He motioned for her to come with him and they stepped into
the elevator again.

“Hwla!” he said, as the doors closed and
again reopened in two seconds. They were back on the same floor that they had
just come from, walking down the same corridor, only this time, stopping at a
different room; a room that was very cold. The lights automatically illuminated
when the door opened. The only things in the room were the two pods, one with
Ron’s body and the other with Oliver’s. Tarku didn’t say a word, but motioned
for her to wait as he walked over and pushed a button on the end of each pod.
The lids rose, exposing their bodies.

When Janet saw them she put her hands up
to her face and gasped, “Oh no!” Tears immediately filled her eyes. She ran
over to Ron and wrapped her arms around him.

“Oh God, Ron! No! No! Why God? Why?” she
asked, rocking him back and forth as tears streamed down her cheeks and fell
from her chin. She kissed his face and stroked his hair.

Tarku watched in silence. He could feel
her pain. He was no stranger to death. No matter how advanced his technology
and medicine, death could only be delayed, but not overcome.

Janet held Ron for nearly two minutes
before gently laying him back into the pod. She touched the blood stained area
on his blue coveralls and unzipped them to look at his chest. The jagged wound
explained his death, even if she didn’t know how it happened. She closed the
coveralls and gave him their last kiss, holding their lips together, wishing he
would awaken and put his arms around her. “I love you and I will never forget
you,” she whispered.

She turned to Oliver. “My dear, sweet
Oliver.” She cradled him in her arms, rocking him back and forth, kissing his
forehead, and holding him silently for a moment before gently laying him back
into the pod. She looked at his suit with no bloodstains, and wondered what had
taken his life.

“I will miss you so much. I always loved
the way you made me laugh.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks, bent down and
kissed his lips, then kissed them a second time and said, “This one is from
Pippa. I know she loves you, Oliver.”

She removed their dog tags, clenched them
tightly in her hand and kissed them before putting them in her pocket. She
turned and walked over to Tarku. The tears were running down her cheeks as she
looked up into his eyes.

“These were my friends,” she cried,
sniffing hard as one does when filled with overwhelming emotion. “And he was my
best friend,” she murmured, pointing to Ron.

Although Tarku was a large, intimidating
sight, he wrapped his arms around her, and she put her head into his chest and
cried. With a warm gentlness, he stroked her hair with his massive fingers. She
looked up at him and could see that he felt her pain. His eyes showed caring
and passion, and at this moment, this monstrous alien was her rock to lean on.
He looked down into her eyes and nodded. She understood that his nod meant
everything would be all right.

She went back to the pods, pushed the
buttons and closed the lids. She kissed her hand and touched each pod, then
walked over to Tarku. He put his massive arm around her, like a father
protecting and comforting his daughter, and they left the room.

Chapter Six

Tarku took her to the docking bay and
opened the outer door. She got a little nervous, thinking that all of the
oxygen would escape, until she saw the electronic field across the opening that
held the pressure inside. He showed her Intrepid on the monitor and motioned
that they should go to the ship so she could get her things. He went to the
cabinet with the spacesuits and picked out a smaller one for her. It was still
too large, but was designed to automatically fit the person wearing it. She put
it on and Tarku pushed a small button on the power pack. The suit began to
shrink to fit her body. He showed her how to put on the helmet and it also
shrank to fit her head. She was amazed at this technology.

They entered the same craft that Tarku
had used earlier, and he took her back to Intrepid. He circled once so she
could see the damage to her ship. She shook her head in awe at the destruction
the meteoroid had caused.

“Oh my God! I can’t believe I survived,”
she gasped.

Tarku knew what she said from the tone in
her voice. He would have said the same thing if he were in her position. He
maneuvered through the opening in the hull and stopped where he had before.

Once inside, she began looking around,
with Tarku following. She saw Ron’s seat, with the sharp, blood stained metal
penetrating it, and understood how he died. Oliver’s helmet, floating in the
cabin, indicated the cause of his death. It was good, because it gave her closure
on their deaths. She had no idea, nor would she ever know that Oliver died
saving her life.

She went to the flight deck and looked
around for anything she thought needed to be taken with her. All of the ship’s
logs were recorded electronically and sent back to Earth automatically, so
there was nothing to take. She looked at the battery switch and got excited. If
only she could use the radio one more time, just to say she was alive. Maybe,
just maybe, the message would make it to Earth. She pushed the button, but
nothing happened. She pushed it again, several times, but it was completely
dead. She sighed in despair.

They made their way past the galley and
down to the lower level, to her living quarters. She stepped in and saw a piece
of clothing floating in the weightlessness, and envisioned her and Ron making
love while floating in the air, with their clothes drifting around their naked
bodies. She smiled and shook her head. Tarku wondered what she was thinking
about.

She gathered her clothing and personal
items, then went to Oliver and Ron’s quarters and took the things she thought
would mean something to their families, if she ever saw them again. Tarku
silently followed. When she was done, they got back into the craft and she bid
farewell to Intrepid. She had no idea that they were traveling through space at
thirty thousand times the speed of light, protected by a huge, invisible
bubble. When they got back to his ship, she thought they were leaving Intrepid
behind.

Inside Tarku’s ship, he took her to the
second deck and showed her where she would be sleeping. It looked quite cozy
for a starship, and was larger than her quarters on Intrepid. She sat on the
bed and lightly bounced a couple of times.

She looked at Tarku and smiled. “This is
comfy.”

Tarku smiled and figured that she was
happy with the bed. There were beds on Intrepid, but you didn’t actually sleep
on them. You were more or less, strapped to them, so you didn’t float around
while sleeping. The artificial gravity on Tarku’s ship was amazing to her - one
of those, geez I wonder how that works things.

They went into the bathroom and Tarku
quickly showed her how everything worked. She put away her personal items and
Tarku motioned for her to come with him.

He took her to the galley and showed her
where to find food and drinks, and how to operate some of the equipment. He
made a sign for eating, by putting his fingers up to his mouth. The blue liquid
that had intravenously renourished her body didn’t fill that empty void in her
stomach, so she nodded and returned the gesture.

She watched as, in only minutes, he
prepared a delightful dinner that smelled delicious.

“Bvaz, zeh.” (Please, sit,) he said,
pointing to the seat.

“Okay.”

He put a plate of food and a set of
utensils in front of her, and sat across the table with his food. He started
eating and smiled. “Ummmm.”

She knew what that meant in any language
and took a mouthfull. “Wow, Tarku! This is really good.”

He could tell from the tone and her
expression that she liked it. “Riip, aah!” (Good, eat!)

She had no idea what she was eating, but
it was delicious and she was hungry, so it didn’t matter. She figured that if
it wasn’t moving around on her plate and he was eating it, so could she. There
were three different types of food: one was meat, one a vegetable and one
looked and tasted like pasta.

Tarku pointed to the meat and said,
“tunja.”

Janet pointed to it and repeated,
“tunja,” then added, “tastes like chicken,” and laughed.

Tarku looked confused. Janet said, “It’s
a joke on my world to say that it tastes like chicken, no matter what it really
tastes like.”

Tarku smiled, but was totally lost. He
pointed to the vegetable and said, “fluzeh.”

Janet stabbed a piece with her fork and
held it up. “Fluzeh. On my planet it would be zucchini. And this stuff would be
called pasta.”

“Pasta,” he repeated. He held up each
piece of dinnerware and pronounced the names.

Janet repeated the names, then said,
“knife, fork and spoon.” The similarities of their cultures were fascinating.
He had knives, forks, spoons, dishes, bowls and cups. She guessed it was
universal, throughout the galaxy.

They definitely needed to learn how to
communicate with each other. The body language was okay, but extremely limited.
Tarku had learned so many languages that he was confident he could quickly
learn hers, if she would teach him. He got out an electronic pad and pen and
began showing her his equivalent of the alphabet, pronouncing each symbol.

She wrote down the English alphabet and
pronounced each letter. They tried pronouncing the other’s letters and sounds
and laughed over the odd way some of them sounded. His laugh was bold and
hearty, and he enjoyed the way she giggled. Sometimes he made fun of her by
also doing her girlish giggle, which really sounded odd coming from such a large
being. It put her more at ease to see that he had a good sense of humor. As
powerful and menacing as he looked, she knew that he also had a quiet, gentle
side.