Beyond (7 page)

"It's a pulverized form of vegetation.
Made from a stalk.
It's quite—" Raja searched for a word, "—delicious."

The utensil Aimee was provided with resembled a spoon, but it looped around three of her fingers like a set of rings. It was a heck of a lot easier to hold than chop sticks, but a little overkill compared to a fork. She tasted the creamy white substance and smiled up at Raja. "It tastes like cereal."

"What is cereal?"

"It's—"

Raja held up a finger. "Wait." She reached over and hauled a floating computer over. She nudged it in Aimee's direction and nodded. "Tell JOH. Then we all can know." She rose and approached the wall. "I will be back shortly."

With Raja gone, Aimee was less timid. She tapped the dark screen and the silly
blue face appeared, smiling and sparkling with its gaping black mouth. "Hello Aimeeeeeeeee."

Aimee felt the ee's would have rolled on forever had she not cleared her throat and interrupted. "Hello, JOH."

"You pronounce my name funny." JOH observed with a celluloid accent.

"You pronounce
my
name funny," she countered.

JOH's black mouth stretched thin, but in seconds it curved back into place. "Are you going to teach me about Earth now?"

"I will, but first Raja told me you would explain what this food is."

"Sumpum."
JOH clicked and smacked crystal lips.

"Besides the Sumpum."

Black eyes sliced sideways onto the right-side of his orb.
Was he actually looking at her plate?

"Crup."

Crap?

"Which one is the crap, I mean, crup?"

"The pulverized keela stalk.
The—" His animated face literally frowned in concentration.

"Keela," Aimee repeated. "It is good. I told Raja that it tastes like cereal. What we call oatmeal. If you could put a little maple syrup in it, it would be perfect."

"Ote-meel.
Tell me about ote-meel and seer-hup."

Aimee told JOH about her favorite breakfast. She told JOH about her favorite dinner. She told him about life on Earth. She told him about college, and war, and baseball...and she found that he was a cordial listener. He injected questions, but he was not obnoxious. Being able to talk about home so freely took a slight edge off the debilitating fear of being here. Describing her house to JOH made it seem not so far away.

Aimee hesitated and looked up at the
windows
and quickly rushed to each one to turn off the screens. She pivoted back towards JOH and nearly collided with him as he floated in her wake. She grabbed his frame and hoisted it up in the air so that now his face hovered even with hers.

"Now it's my turn," she whispered. "Tell me where I am."

JOH's eyes widened.
"The Horus."

"I know that." She grew impatient, fearing Raja would return and interrupt. "What is the Horus? Where is it in relationship to my planet? Who are the people on this ship? Where do they come from?
When can I go back home?"

JOH's mouth opened and closed several times. "I asked you one question, Aimeeeeeeee."

Could computers pout?

"I must re-sort
your questions into a chronological sequence in order to answer them adequately. What are the people on this ship? Where do they come
from? What is the Horus? Where is it in relationship to my planet?
When can I go back home?"
JOH paused and his smile returned. "May I proceed in this order?"

Using the strange utensil, Aimee shoved in a mouthful of crup as she nodded. “Please.”

“You call yourself, human.” JOH began. “You think that your race is exclusive to your planet. What you call human, we call
mecaws
.”

“Mecaws?”
She tested out the word. “I had wondered why everyone looked human and not like a big green squid or something.”

“They look
mecaw
, not human.”

Aimee nearly laughed at his
indignance.

“Okay, so
mecaws
are not exclusive to Earth. Where else can you find them?”

JOH snorted. “Where
can’t
you find them is the more appropriate question. They may differ from planet to planet. Some have different compositions—blood, you call it. But they all look pretty similar.
To me at least.”

“Of course, there are planets with big green squids on them too," he was quick to add. "I don’t know what a big green squid is, but I imagine you have encountered other terrestrial beings then."

JOH did not wait for her affirmation. He continued.

"The
mecaws
on this ship come from a planet called Anthum." JOH's face dissolved as another orb filled the screen. It was a green planet resplendent with dark patches of water and wispy white swirls, so achingly similar to Earth. Another image flashed of a temple with columns of black marble and stairs of the same ore. A waterfall trickled down the center of the stairway, and exotic
plant life
flanked the water. At the top of the temple, a globe of the same coloring was suspended by golden streamers, like a giant marbleized piñata.

Another picture appeared. A family stood in a courtyard lined with trees. Sun beams poured through the branches to score the attractive faces of a man, woman, and female toddler. The females were dressed in white gowns and the man wore a white body suit illuminated by the wayward rays.

"Anthum," JOH filled the frame, shattering the serene scene. "It still looks like that. The buildings stand tall, but there are no people left to inhabit them."

"Why?" Aimee frowned.

"Wait, I'm calculating a time translation." The way JOH's face crinkled, it looked more like he had gas. "About thirty rotations of your planet ago the citizens of Anthum became ill. A disease spread quickly. Scientists determined that it originated from a plant used in their diet, but by that time the illness had already adapted into a contagion.
There was an island region of the planet that had yet to fall ill, but it was a matter of time before the plague reached their shores. The island inhabited many of our scientists and exploration masters. Work was underway to build a craft capable of spending endless rotations in space for exploration. It became a race to complete that ship in hopes of getting the island's dwellers into space before the disease could claim them too."

Aimee leaned forward, rapt by the tale. "They got away? That ship was the Horus?"

JOH smiled. "Yes. Initially there was great sadness over the loss of their planet.
Their people.
Then there was panic. What if someone contaminated had made it on board? Scientists created the suit that you are wearing to monitor the internal organs of the Anthumians. If the disease is present, your organs will light up with a red glow rather than the yellow shade of normal failure."

Aimee glanced down at her abdomen. It remained blissfully silver.

"Currently, the Horus travels the galaxies in search of a cure for the disease so that the Anthumians can return home. We retrieve plant life from every planet in a quest for an antidote."

"But you retrieve more than just plants," she interrupted. "You pick up people."

JOH's mouth thinned. "You were a mistake, Aimee. Some children of the original scientists fancy themselves experts in the craft. These rogue offspring may be as dangerous to us as the disease itself."

The ominous ring of that statement left Aimee feeling anxious. She was alone. Far from home on a ship that could harbor a plague that destroyed an entire race.

"You are safe, Aimee." JOH read her expression.

How interesting that a computer could read a face and offer empathy.

"There were two more questions," she reminded.

"In terms that you would use, the Horus is about 6,790 light years away from your planet, and heading away from it at a very swift pace."

"Why are you heading
away
?" Aimee gulped. "Why can't you go back if you move so fast?"

"Rotations, Aimee. Everything in space moves in rotations. You can't go against it. We reach Earth's galaxy every five rotations of your planet. That isn't long at all."

"Five years is very long!"

"Years.
Right.
You call them
years
." JOH blinked and added the word to his databank.

"So that is the answer to my last question," she added feebly. "I can't go home for another five years?"

Maybe there was some legitimacy to what JOH was saying, but she didn't buy it. If they could make vessels like the Horus, they could fly her back home...now.

"Aimee, your planet has already completed half a quarter rotation."

Her jaw dropped. "What? I've only been here a couple of days."

"Days."
He tested the word out. "Time as you know it works different in space."

A quarter rotation.
Ninety days. Her parents must have assumed she was dead by now. Her friends had moved on. College had started.

She had missed her eighteenth birthday.

Aimee lifted her hands to her face and started to cry.

Unable to take anymore, Aimee shoved JOH away. After a period of self-wallowing, she began to pace and narrowed her eyes at the black windows. When activated, they revealed only the interior of the ship, and she wanted to see outside. Claustrophobia wrapped around her throat and squeezed. Within this narrow white chamber she could not get a proper grasp of her plight.
She needed to get out.

Aimee rose and stepped up to the section of the wall that Raja had passed through. Lifting her hand, she waved it over her head.
Nothing.
She tried to emulate Raja’s casual flick of the wrist.
Nothing.
She took a step to her left and repeated the motion, and then to her right. Frustrated, she threw both her hands in the air and crisscrossed them back and forth.
Nothing.

Aimee stuck her tongue out at the wall.

It opened.

With her head down, she shouldered past the aide that most likely opened the door from the outside.

Within the Bio Ward, she retraced her steps down the aisle of beds, conscious of the inquisitive glances of both patients and physicians. Raja was nowhere to be found so Aimee darted to the area she recalled the horizontal elevator being located. Rather than draw attention by flapping her hands frantically at the wall, she was relieved to arrive just as a couple stepped through. They cast a brief glimpse at her, but continued on. With the exception of her dark hair, in her silver-skinned suit she could walk unnoticed amongst them.

Longing for her sneakers as the soles of her boots slipped on the slick marble surface, Aimee cast one final glimpse in each direction. She jogged a few steps and darted into the open compartment.

The wall sealed, securing her inside the ten square-foot space. Icy fingers of claustrophobia clutched her.
Think, Aimee
.
She stared at the panel of lights uncertain which sequence prompted the vessel into action.
What had Chara touched? Aimee had watched her, but was so too overwhelmed to focus on the details.

She wouldn't make that mistake again.

Deep breath
.

If 90 days had passed already, she should be starting her Engineering Fundamentals class at NC State any day now. This circuitry panel would serve as a preliminary exam. If she could master these alien electronics, surely she could pass the class.

It was not heat-activated, nor was it triggered by a simple swipe of the hand as other facets of the ship. Logic dictated that randomly pressing buttons could
result in unpleasant, if not deadly repercussions.
A bank of illuminated controls.
Three sets of three.
Each set consisting of blue, purple, and green lights. Though she was completely boxed in, she knew that three sides of this compartment contained windows somehow triggered to open on demand. The other wall faced the interior of the ship. With brazen confidence she pressed the three blue buttons and the external walls dropped. The tableau made her stumble backwards. The last time she had gazed out these windows the view was occupied by the body of the Koron’s ship.

Now, eternal night hugged her like a black satin sheet.

Focus.

The green buttons beckoned.
Green means go
.

It couldn't be that simple.

She pressed the vibrant emerald switch on the top row and an overhead light cast a stark glare against the black backdrop. She pressed the knob directly beneath it and tripped a few steps as the cabin revved into motion. There was nothing in the black pocket of space outside to indicate in what direction she was traveling, but she felt the velocity. Before the chamber journeyed too far she chanced tapping the bottom green button. The elevator slowed. Tapping the third blue switch drew the walls back into place, concealing the view. With a sense of empowerment, she pressed the last purple button and the transport halted.