Beyond the Stars (19 page)

“Wow, that’s incredible … incredible and scary,” I mused.

I saw Gaelan and Urit look at each other and smirk. I witnessed a glimpse of their vast comprehension of the world in their gaze. They seemed amused by our primitive ways. I was stunned by their advanced technology. I wondered how they governed their advancements. Did they struggle with the conflicts of morality like we did? I remembered how I fought Jack when he wanted to let Leah and Jackson get learning systems implanted in their brains. I thought it was absolutely repulsive to mess with nature in that manner. I suddenly felt guilty, remembering my reluctance to give in. Here I was, having an alien language downloaded into my brain without
any
hesitation. I felt like such a hypocrite.

Urit released his grip and told me I was free to go. I stood up quickly before Gaelan could think of anything else I would need. I graciously thanked the medic and started walking towards the door. It opened before I could reach it, and to my surprise, in walked Noah! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I wasn’t alone. My lifelong friend came rushing through the door. I let out a sigh of relief.

“
Noah
,” I beamed. “What are
you
doing here?” I asked eagerly.

Noah smiled and strode up to me. “I was already aboard—working in engineering, when the emergency evacuation took place. I just found out you were a stow-away, too.”

I rushed to him and hugged him tightly. He put his arms around me and squeezed me back. My outlook on the trip suddenly improved. I knew someone on the ship! With Noah around, I felt far safer.

“I’m so glad that you’re here.” I clung on to his waist while verbalizing my relief.

“Me, too. Isn’t this great?” His eyes lit up with excitement.

“It figures … you would be happy about this, wouldn’t you?” I frowned.

“Sami, for someone so reluctant to travel into Space, I’m really surprised you’ve decided to go across the galaxy.” He stood staring at me in disbelief.

I smacked his arm. “Thanks for the reality check,” I muttered.

“Ouch,” he flinched.

“I’m sure you heard it wasn’t by choice,” I said solemnly. Memories flashed in my head as I remembered all the conversations that Jack, Noah, and I had about how I would never leave the Earth. Boy, was I ever mistaken.

“I know, Sami. It’s just funny that it’s you of
all
people.” He smirked as though he was suppressing laughter.

“Um, I know,” I agreed. I looked at Gaelan and noticed he had a worried look on his face. I didn’t want to make him feel guilty for bringing me aboard. He had been nothing but kind to me. “I guess I will just have to go with the flow,” I said quickly. I plastered a fake smile on my face. It seemed to be somewhat convincing. I saw Gaelan’s pursed lips relax.

CHAPTER 15

INDESCRIBABLE

Noah took the liberty of showing me all around the ship. He told me he’d been working closely with the Katarians and had their ship’s blueprints memorized. Leave it to Noah to adapt so quickly. Gaelan had some work to attend to and planned to meet Noah and me in a few hours for dinner. I found out that the Katarians had been sharing their engineering technology with us for some time now, in order to aid in our advancement. Noah told me he had been practically living on board while he was stationed on the Outer Space resort. He said he felt so relieved to finally be able to confide in me since he wasn’t allowed to mention a word of this when he was on Earth. He seemed to know everyone on board. I couldn’t believe that all of this was taking place. It felt like a veil had been lifted from my eyes. The only information I was privy to was what the SIG had shared with us prior to our departure. I knew that we had contact with a friendly alien species and that they would be docking their Spaceship at the Space resort now and again. I found it challenging enough just keeping
that
news a secret.

The ship was much bigger than I’d imagined. It was difficult to grasp just how large it was. It had three different levels. Everything was connected by ramped corridors. Noah showed me hidden slides spread out along the corridor walls and from all of the departments. They were each marked with a tiny gold star that I never would have noticed on my own. They allowed for quick movement about the ship in case of an emergency. He said they were not well marked in order to provide the crew sanctuary in case the ship was invaded by enemies.

My favorite level was the ground floor. It contained all of the ship’s recreation and resembled a food court at a mini-mall. It came complete with a gym, store, theater, sports club, café, and a circular park in the center with trees, grass, and a stream. Noah explained how the junglelike greenery produced fresh air for the ship. The ceiling above the park towered an amazing three stories in height. A waterfall equally high emptied into a pool below, which ran into a shallow stream. Its water trickled over round gray and beige stones, circling throughout the park. It functioned as a filter to clean and recycle water for reuse. The room was illuminated with a lighting system that mirrored artificial sunlight. The glistening white floors and walls surrounding the room were actually solar panels. Everything that was used had a built-in source of replenishment. I looked closer at the amazing mass of plants and noticed the Katarians were growing their own food, just like we had started doing on our Space retreat. Noah explained that the ground was slanted to collect the rainfall. My mouth fell open in disbelief when he told me how they made it rain on the little ecosystem.

Gaelan met us in the café for dinner. I had almost forgotten how attractive he was. He smiled at Noah and me as he walked towards us, accompanied by a beautiful woman.

“Well, Samantha—what do you think of our ship?” asked Gaelan.

“It’s amazing. Your people seemed to have thought of everything. I had no idea it was so big. I really could get lost.”

“I’m glad you like it,” he beamed.

“Hi, Azil, have a seat,” Noah greeted the woman at Gaelan’s side.

“Samantha, this is my sister, Azil,” Gaelan said. They each took a seat beside us.

“Hello, Azil. It’s nice to meet you.” I was deeply relieved to hear that she wasn’t his wife or girlfriend. She was stunning as well. She had long brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a perfect body.

“Welcome aboard, Samantha. I will help you get whatever you need. I can only imagine how terrible it must be to travel without any preparation,” she said graciously.

“
Thank you
. I’d really appreciate that.” I certainly didn’t want to wear the same clothes for the next few weeks. I only had my small handbag with me when I evacuated the station. It had a few essentials, but no clothing. It was almost comical how quickly all of my carefully orchestrated packing had become instantly irrelevant.

“Gaelan, I discovered that you had Sami fitted with a language translator. Why did you have to do that?” asked Noah.

“Noah, she needed it to function on board. I assure you that it was absolutely necessary,” defended Gaelan.

“Yeah, but now we can’t talk about her,” teased Noah as he kneed me under the table.

I kicked him back. “Thanks a lot, Noah. Some friend you are.” We sneered at one another. Gaelan and Azil laughed at our childish squabble. The night flew by. We talked about how well SIG downplayed their relationship with the Katarians. I admitted that I had no idea that Gaelan and some of the other engineers working at SIG were actually from Kataria. He didn’t confess anything to me that day we met in engineering. Their secrecy was so well-guarded that I was still in shock. How could they be aliens? They looked just like everybody else. I must say, I agreed with SIG in keeping the Katarians anonymity while they worked on Earth. It was probably the only way to protect them and gain their trust. I could only imagine how bad the paparazzi would hound them if they were aware of their presence on Earth. The public might have panicked. The Katarians would be at risk for being harmed. It was so much easier to work in peace and avoid any undue mayhem.

It was getting late, and Noah said he was retiring for the night. I was hoping that I could share a room with him, until he told me he had a suite with three other men from engineering. Azil wasn’t a viable option either. She shared her room with her husband, Zaric. I felt uncomfortable walking to Gaelan’s room—feeling like I would be a major imposition. We entered his room and, to my surprise, it resembled an efficiency apartment. A queen-sized bed lying low to the ground dominated the center floor. Behind it sat a wall of shiny white cabinet doors, functioning dually as a headboard. To the right, there was a white wooden desk and chair facing the entrance of the room. There was a bathroom off the left side and a doorway straight ahead, opening into a study. I walked around, checking out the place, and entered the study. Gaelan followed. The room had a long, velvety brown sofa, one matching chair, and calming tiny spotlights that indirectly lit up the room. The sofa faced outward to an entire wall of curved glass windows that started three feet from the floor and continued to the ceiling. I looked out through the glass but could only see my reflection against the black sky. I turned to watch Gaelan while he reached back and dimmed the lights in the room.

“I want to show you something,” he said smugly after he turned off the lights. “Look,” he murmured. He laid his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face the wall of glass.

“
Oh
,” I gasped. “It’s phenomenal!” The blackened window was suddenly aglow with colorful clusters of stars and nebulae. “I can’t believe all this is out here, just lighting up the sky.” I was at a loss for words. I gazed out at what looked like millions of bright, colorful lights. It was the first time I wondered how fast we were moving. I couldn’t feel any movement, but it was clear that the stars were slowly gliding past the window.

“You look stunned.”

I shrugged. “No, I was just thinking.”

“About what? How far you are from home? How you wished I never brought you aboard?” he said, grinning.

“Yes—I mean, no,” I stammered.
Was that a trick question?
“Actually, I was wondering how fast we were going. Are we traveling at the speed of light or faster?”

“No, we are actually traveling very slow right now. We are preparing for maximum acceleration. After we gather up enough energy for the surge propulsion, we have to activate it. We are still processing the harvested fuel. It takes time to remove the impurities.”

“What do you mean, gather up energy? You don’t mean you
use
energy from the surrounding universe? Do you?” The concept was something we had been researching for years. We could really learn a lot from the Katarians.

“It’s hard to explain, but it’s the most efficient way. Actually, it’s the
only
way we’ve been able to cover vast distances. We collect our fuel. Otherwise, we would be too heavy, blow ourselves up, or run out of fuel before we got home.”

“How does it work?”

“The universe is full of fuel-floating interstellar clouds. They are plentiful and could supply all of our energy needs for billions of years. The deposits occur randomly throughout Space.”

“I’ve heard of them. You’re talking about pockets of ethyl alcohol.”

“Yes, precisely,” he said, sounding surprised that I’d heard of them. “We also collect hydrogen for our fusion reactor as well.”

“Free fuel …
ingenious
,” I said—completely enthralled by their discovery in being able to harvest it.

“Yes, all we have to do is collect it, filter out the contaminants, and heat the particles until they vibrate at high speeds for our jet propulsion. Does that make sense?”

“I suppose so, but I still don’t understand how you can travel so far.”

“We shorten the trip. We take shortcuts,” he said smoothly. He gently brushed my hair away from my face. I jumped slightly by his soft gesture.

“You take a shortcut, sure. Why not? Sounds easy enough.” I bit my lip. I knew I was about to become completely lost. I’d never felt so technologically inferior in my life.

“We cast a navigating beam to our desired location. It gathers up the surrounding space like a drawstring before it propels us to the end of our mark. Imagine folding up a sheet of paper; you sort of jump over to the other side before you release it. Therefore, you can skip all the space in between. Then the whole process repeats just like a surfer gliding over to the next wave.”