Maria feels weightless and grateful for the restraints that hold her in her chair. She can see the quick descent through the window, the black of distant space, and then the encroaching of the atmosphere of the planet Oin that reminds her very much of Earth. There is a haze of what she presumes to be fire, and she assumes that it encompasses the ship completely. Soon they are in a blue sky and the fiery haze subsides.
“I’ve got some control,” Whadgaf, who is in control of the ship, yells over the noises that ripping through the atmosphere of a planet creates. “We will crash land, but we will survive. Brace yourselves!”
Maria wants impact. The feeling of free fall is nauseating and at least she could feel solid on something instead of hovering in inconsistency.
They descend for a while and then Whadgaf kicks the last of the ship’s boosters to cushion the impact, but it is just enough to keep the floor of the ship from shattering. Everything around them seems to fall away, including the seats and their restraints, and Maria tumbles to the ship floor along with the rest of the crew. When she regains her composure, she is wowed by the view of Oin from the ground. They have landed on a small continent that is hardly a solid landmass, but clusters of islands around the largest. The continent is heavily populated by wild species, but is basically uncharted by the dominant sentient population of the planet known as Ointites. Whadgaf had put them down on a small island and they stand in a breeze that gently moves the water and the vegetation around them. Maria has never seen the rainforests on Earth firsthand, but the thick vegetation reminds her of just that; densely packed forests on small islands that are separated by gaps of water. They all drop the helmets and armour of their spacesuits, except for Maria. She stares through the clear helmet of her suit and she sees that the crew are all similar to the Mind Snatchers they had encountered before, but not as scary. They are average human height, though their heads and eyes are bigger. Maria likes their eyes, they all seem so kind.
“You can breathe easily here human,” Whadgaf says to Maria.
“I don’t know how to take off the helmet,” Maria admits, slightly ashamed. The armor and helmet of her suit had engaged intuitively as a response to the extreme turbulence she had experienced as the ship descended.
“Tap there,” Whadgaf touches the nape of Maria’s neck, “and squeeze here,” then she puts her hand into Maria’s armpit and presses against her rib. The helmet disappears and the suit looks like it had on Eakran’s ship. “You are excited, panicked. The suit responds according to your vitals. The IP-issue spacesuit is impressive.”
Maria nods. It is all so surreal. The bird woman, Whadgaf, is moving her beak and Maria hears a robotic English translation in her ears. It’s so seamless that Maria doesn’t know that they aren’t speaking the same language. She isn’t sure what language Whadgaf is speaking. She wonders what sounds her beak can manage.
She looks around at the others with them.
“I am obviously not a native of this planet,” Whadgaf says. “I am Hafjeris of Hafjeran, of the family Jiris. I have been on Oin for a while now. I have friends here. I thought about a life as a nurse as many of this planet pursue, but it seems I am more warrior than healer. We are a division of the Oin Independent Militia, sworn to protect the Universal Infirmary against any threat. We are allied with the Interstellar Panel and receive supplies from them, though the planet Oin has no official representative to the IP, and no recognized military.”
“So you’re IP soldiers?” Maria asks.
“Basically,” Whadgaf says. “And we are stranded on this beautiful island until another division tracks us, which could be a while. I think I’ll fly and bring back help. You all could follow in your suits but they might give out before we find help.”
“Communication to command is out,” an Ointite member of the crew says. “The IP will come looking for the human though. We just have to wait.”
There is commotion above them, the wind stirs and they hear a spacecraft that makes a high-pitched whirring sound. Maria is filled with dread as the rock-shaped ship of the dreadful Ointites who had shot them out of space lands on an island that is close, but separated by water.
“Unless that happens,” Whadgaf says with her eyes trained on the ship and the Ointites who issue from it. She counts ten, there are five in her crew excluding Maria, so seven total.
“Ready for hostile engagement,” she says to her crew and Maria is excited to finally pull her weapon that is still secure at her waist. It feels like the hilt of a sword in her hands, and it looks like a small police baton, until it begins to change and morph like the metal of the interior of Eakran’s ship. When it is done after about a minute, and some of the Ointites with her stare with jealousy as they wield impressive photon blasters that are not as sophisticated as her weapon, Maria’s arm is encased in metal and it appears to hold a large weapon with a barrel like a shotgun and a thick bayonet attached to the top. It is impressive and Maria stands ready for their impending fight.
“Not you human,” Whadgaf says as one of her arms is covered in a similar weapon that is slightly larger. Where Maria’s is silver with black accents, Whadgaf’s is navy blue with yellow accents.
“Stay here,” Whadgaf says and then takes flight. Her crew follows her with the boosters in their suits, and Maria watches as the dreadful Ointites engage them in the air.
Whadgaf is stunning in the air over the ocean and islands of Oin. Maria watches her zip past the shots from enemy blasters and then engage two of them in hand to hand combat that sends them both crashing to the sand next to their ship. They try to attack in tandem when Whadgaf lands, but her weapon transforms into a long staff that she uses to keep them from getting too close. She swings it effortlessly and smacks her assailants loud enough for the sound to carry to Maria who is practically jumping and cheering Whadgaf on in her fight.
Her crew is not faring so well and when one of them falls into the ocean and is pursued by two of the dreadful Ointites, Maria runs to the edge of the island where the water laps at the coast. She doesn’t know how to activate her suit boosters but she aims the weapon on her arm at the dreadful Ointites and shoots one out of the sky before they make it to the water where the member of Whadgaf’s crew had landed. The other dreadful Ointite spots Maria and then flies toward her while firing lasers. Maria fires her weapon that issues a ball of laser energy that seems to absorb her enemy’s fire. When the Ointite arrives at Maria’s location, it suddenly falls dead, and then Whadgaf and a member of her crew descend to land in front of her.
“We used their ship to make contact with the IP, let’s go. Remember,” Whadgaf says, “the suit is very intuitive. Whatever you want it to do, think it like a command, it has sensors that can read you. Let’s go.”
They all fly to the ship of the Mind Snatchers and join their crew inside where they communicate with Eakran and others with him. Maria is happy to see that he and Giovanni are safe, and her eyes widen at the sight of the alien with them that looks like a giant moose with elaborate horns.
“Good to see you safe Maria!” Eakran says when he sees her. “We shouldn’t have split up like that. Whadgaf and her crew will bring you here to the IP headquarters on their way to recover James. There were rumors of a body floating away from the destruction of our ship. I don’t know why he wasn’t included in the escape pod, but we will recover his body. He’s survived death before, I am optimistic he is alive. Representative Prab here is a trusted friend and he believes the plot against me was orchestrated by some Representatives of the IP for reasons that aren’t clear.”
“Hello Maria,” the large moose says while smiling and waving. “Thank you all for your service and I am ashamed to admit that Eakran is right. There is something happening here at the IP, something political, and we will unravel it. Meanwhile, we have reported all of the Earthlings lost except for Eakran’s security man, Giovanni, so whoever is behind all this will concentrate their efforts on us. You all are tasked with finding the Earthling…”
“I’m going with them,” Maria interrupts. “Darker is my closest friend.”
“We are not on Earth, Maria,” Eakran says empathetically. “You are not safe.”
“None of us are. I’m going. Where is Alia?”
Eakran falls silent and he looks grimly at Giovanni, then forward.
“Alia isn’t with us at the moment. She’s headed to a planet called Eel.”
“So she can do space missions but I can’t? I’m going. Whadgaf is that ok?” She looks to the woman with the impressive wings.
“You saved one of us. You are brave, Earthling. With training you will not be a liability, and since everyone thinks you lost, we can disguise you. She will come with us, Representative, I personally guarantee her safety.”
“We should be together,” Eakran groans. “But fine. I want regular updates, and when you find Darker, report here immediately.”
They discuss the trajectory Darker had taken as the rock-shaped ship takes them to the Infirmary Center, the largest of the branches of the Universal Infirmary in the universe and headquarters of the entire operation.
The ship doesn’t allow for many views outside, but Maria sits next to Whadgaf to watch the landscapes of Oin underneath them. It is a strange feeling to see what could be her home planet, but to know that it is different and populated by beings who are definitely not human.
They land in the open air and Maria emerges onto the Infirmary Center campus. She can see the buildings in the distance, like she is at Columbia University in New York, and they make their way inside of the building closest to their landing sight.
All of the Ointites she encounters are incredibly nice to her and she thinks that Oin is a better version of the home she had left. They rest in dorms at the Infirmary Center for about a week before they start their long journey to find Darker.
– – –
“I have never seen an Earthling,” Whadgaf says. They are in pursuit of Darker, in an IP vessel that is designed for a crew of about twenty to move quickly through space without hyper-speed. “Before you of course. What is your home planet?”
“It’s called Earth,” Maria says as she reviews weapons inventory. In her time with Whadgaf, she has trained with standard blasters and various lengths of swords, though her weapon of choice is the stick that turned into everything she needed. She could use standard blasters, she could assemble them from their parts, and she kept them clean for the members of the crew to ensure their proper function.
They had tracked Darker using the signal in his suit that must have been damaged because it went offline much quicker than a suit should. They tracked him this way for what felt like months to Maria. They also used intel that they were able to gather from the ship of the Mind Snatchers they had confronted on Oin; they’d been able to send and receive messages to the Mind Snatchers command before they discovered what happened and destroyed the ship remotely. Whadgaf and her crew learned that Darker had survived and landed on the planet Vwrawl, where negotiations were being made to hand him over to the Mind Snatchers.
“Can you survive in the void of space?” Whadgaf asks.
“No,” Maria says. She checks the sight of the blaster and then adjusts it with a small tool.
“Then how is your friend Darker still alive?”
“That’s an IP question,” Maria says. “Some people on Earth brought him back to life after he died, they apparently had connections to the IP. Some technology that is not from Earth.”
“Nothing can come back after death,” Whadgaf says seriously. “Nothing in the universe.”
“He did, and we’re going to find him.”
Whadgaf likes Maria. She thinks the human has a lot of heart and she is so eager to learn everything she can about each new thing she encounters. But if what she says is true, then Whadgaf is not excited about meeting this man Darker, whose name in her native language is a word that can inspire fear.
When they make it to Vwrawl, they land in an icy place and members of Whadgaf’s crew set up sophisticated machinery with a tiny antenna that spins. Maria doesn’t like Vwrawl. It is a foggy place and it makes everything look eerie and spectral.
“They are returning to retrieve the human,” one of the crew members says.
“Then we should head out so we can intervene before they can leave with him,” Whadgaf says.
Their mission to retrieve Darker is successful. (See Oblivion – 5 – Above the Clouds) When they are back on the ship, Whadgaf sets the ship’s autopilot to Oin.
“He should get the best care the universe can offer him,” Whadgaf says as Maria worries about him. He is mostly silent and he stares off into nothing. He smiles at Maria when she smiles at him, but it is obvious that he wants to be alone with his thoughts.
“He is alive,” Whadgaf says, “be grateful for that. The nurses of the Infirmary Center will help to heal whatever is making you so concerned.”
Really, Whadgaf is eager to have her friend, Sevi Swite who is a Nurse of Universal Skill, examine the man Darker. She has been through a lot with Sevi and she trusts her to tell her how anything could survive the void of space and the incredible trauma that a body would experience as it crash landed on a planet without a vessel.
She calls Sevi when she is alone. “There is something I need you to see.”
“How is life in the militia?” Sevi asks enthusiastically. Her eyes are big and warm and the gray of her skin is smoky when she is happy, like the pigmentation swirls in cloud-like patches on a stark white background. It is the Ointite biological response to feelings of happiness. The two are friends and rarely see one another since Whadgaf joined the militia.
“I’ve been on a strange assignment. I’ll be back to Oin soon, can you examine a being for me? He’s an Earthling, are you familiar?”
Sevi shakes her head, “I can do some research. It will be good to see you. My niece asks about you, and will have her stadium observations soon. She would be so happy if you could make at least one.”
Part of advancing in distinctions as a nurse of the Universal Infirmary are the stadium observations where nurses perform surgeries or procedures before an audience that includes administrators who evaluate their performance. Whadgaf isn’t a fan of watching medical procedures, and Sevi’s niece, Yule, is studying neurosurgery.
“Of course,” Whadgaf says enthusiastically. It would be good to see Yule. “I’ll contact you when I’m back.”
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