Chapter One

TONY JOHNSON
ODIN PATH

 

I was lying on the bed trying not to be sick when a ZeSha steps into my cabin; "The Great Lord will encounter you!"

 

I half fell off the bed, incapable of meeting a substitute teacher, much less the god/king, but I knew enough of their culture to stumble after the soldier.

 

If I hadn't gotten up immediately it would be one of their pantheon of 'Signs of Disrespect', and the ZeSha was required, by their Code, to kill me.

 

I dragged myself from the cabin, down the corridor to the hangar, my dizziness making the Odin seem to yaw as if we were on a turbulent sea.

 

Palla was right there, waiting. She wiggled her fingers in a giddy girl way. Certain things that might be cute or bland when done by a giggle girl, become contemptuous when she did them.

 

With every syllable of trepidation underlined, boldfaced, and set off in quotes, I climbed into the shuttle. She hopped in cheerfully, put a bag between us. I closed my eyes, ready for the torture.  No matter how many times I've done this, I can never adapt to going from space to a planet. Not the floating, not the pressure, not any of it.

 

We broke from orbit, down down, down, then onto the planet of Zechia. I really tried not to be sick, didn't work. Fortunately, the ZeSha opened the canopy, I fell out, puked on the ground, not in the flyer.

 

In about a minute I was capable of walking into Hope Hospital, beeing to the water cooler, gulping like a camel. I saw the ZeSha dismiss Palla with a finger, then beckon me to a flight of stairs. Up, down the corridor into a room marked; P.E.U.; Psychological Evaluation Unit, and leave me.

 

I flopped onto a seat, catching my breath, loving the fact I was on a planet. That it was Zechia didn't matter. It was a planet. I took deep breaths, my head between my knees, and in a relatively short time, able to actually sit like a person, and look around my environment.

 

I was in a standard waiting room. It was silent, a little stuffy. I stood, walked into the office. There was a sense that this unit had been taken from a ship and shoved in here.

 

I switched on the air con, which jumped into life, but opened the window to get the dusty air out. The room had not been used for years. The absence of life evident by it's lack. I don't know, maybe I'm too deep into metaphysics but when a room is used, maybe the DNA, the exhale of the bodies can paint even an empty cubbie alive.

 

I've been in clubs when no one was there, walking through the remnants of last night, my footfalls the only music, but they didn't have this hermetic desolation this Psychiatric Unit which had been taken, by the stamp, from the United Planets Ship Comfort.

 

Ships built in space have prefab units inserted into a frame. They can be taken out or inserted, as this one had been.

 

I gave the room a scan. A couch, a chair, meaningless prints on the walls, a fish tank with artificial fish, a set of 'moodies' which could scent the air, change the colour and intensity of the lights, supply background sounds, from music to the cadence of a shoreline.

 

To the left of the door I'd entered, was another to a private observation booth. Another door, at the top of the room, led to a small bathroom. I used it, scrubbed my face, feeling better by the second.

 

I returned to main room, checked the imagers, they were working. I flipped through the usual set. An empty turbulent sea, a desert, an explosion of flowers, a mountain, the usual 'triggers' we psychiatrists use to probe.  These toys gave some success with humans, more properly, the human psyche. Would they work with ZeSha? With a an alien culture?

 

I fooled with the lights, settled on medium bright and the fragrance, a very distant pine.

 

I had the monitors ready, the Thought Cap waiting, tried to calm myself.

 

ZeSha have no understand of psychoanalysis, would refuse to participate if they felt it a trick. Whatever modus I adopted could not seem intrusive, or having ulterior motive.

 

It was impossible. I was asked to do the impossible. Well, I did it before. Didn't I?

 

Over four years ago I found Sharon. Yup. Found one human on a planet of a billion. That's impossible, right? Yeah. So? I could do this.

 

I'd encountered Ki-ZerShaz, 'Daktoy', before. He was coated with suspicion. How to convince him?  I just have to show him I can do it. Show him, not a thousand or a hundred ZeSha. Just him.

 

Is it hopeless? Is it really hopeless? Or am I so drug wrenched and depressed I can't wrap my mind around it?

 

I can do this. Let me calm.

 

He is going to enter this room. It's like waiting for thunder, you can never really be prepared.

 

The door was an old fashioned latch kind, the patient had to make the effort to turn the handle, push the door, walk in. I wait.
I can do this.

 

Chapter Two

 ZECHIA

PALLA STAVO
ODIN

 

I suppose I was enjoying the Odin too much. I was summoned, grabbed my hurry case and in the hangar when Tony wobbled into view. I stifled a laugh. The most luxurious spot in the Universe, almost outside Zerk control, and instead of enjoying the benefits, the poor thing suffered space sickness.

 

I slipped into the shuttle, swinging the case around my shoulder, putting it between us, for Tony was known to have violent outbursts of vomit.  Luckily, when we landed, he was able to fall out of the flyer and empty his stomach on the ground so I could make it to the hospital reasonably unperturbed.

 

The air con was blessed as I hastened

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 13.04.2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-1171-0

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