Authors: Carla Parker
“What are they?” Rosy said. “Where should we go?”
“Well,” Elion said. “There is this planet, Zeen-8, which is a planet dedicated entirely to learning and the mind. They have the biggest library in the galaxy. It is the size of your England. And it is all physical books. The inhabitants will accept nothing less. And then there is this planet…” He pointed to another green light. “This is a planet that is just evolving, full of dangerous wildlife. Only researchers go there, or social experimenters.”
Rosy imagined Zeen-8, tried to imagine a library as big as a country, tried to imagine herself walking through vast halls filled with books. She saw fingers on the pages and a memory of her girlhood came to her. Mom, Dad, all her friends… long dead. But there was a hint of pleasure behind the pain: at least she had Elion.
He put his hand on her arm and said: “On Zeen-8 they perform marriage ceremonies between different species. They are vocal proponents of inter-species marriage.”
“What are you saying?” Rosy said.
Elion smiled. “I’m asking you to marry me.”
***
If you had told Rosy a year earlier that she would be standing in the biggest library in the galaxy with her alien husband beside her, she would have laughed in your face and called you crazy. But here she was, walking the halls of The Grand Library. She was, at first, worried that she wouldn’t be able to read the texts, but it turned out they had software that translated the text for her (through her goggles). She put on the goggles now and started reading a text written by a being much more intelligent and evolved than any human. The ideas were big and hard to understand, but Rosy found some solace anyway. She could come to grips with these ideas, with her husband beside her. She had found knowledge and love, and, soon, life.
Elion put his hand on her bump. “We will be late for the doctor,” he said, feeling the baby within her.
“What will it be, Elion?” she asked, nervous.
“It will be a beautiful Ka-human child,” he said. “It will be the most beautiful child ever to have lived.”
***
In later years, as she and Elion found a permanent place on Zeen-8, Rosy thought of Earth less and less. Their child was a girl and her name was Joanne, after Rosy’s mother. She was worried that the other children would tease her, but she needn’t have. The schools on Zeen-8 brought a whole new meaning to the phrase
cultural diversity
. There were species from all over the galaxy. This was a haven.
She spent so much time in the library that it was only natural she began working there. At first she only dealt with software issues for translation, at which she’d become proficient. And then she decided to write her own book. It turned out that abduction and slavery were not at all uncommon in the Known Galaxy. There were several books published on it already. Rosy decided to add her voice to the issue.
She was writing a chapter one day, overlooking a beautiful vista of rolling yellow and red hills, when Elion came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “How is it going?” he said.
She blinked twice, pausing the program, and took off her goggles. “It is going well,” she said. She turned and looked at her husband. Behind him, Joanne was crouching, a mischievous grin on her five-year-old face. “If I can help just one person, I will be happy.”
“I’m sure you will,” Elion said, and bent down to kiss her.
She vaguely remembered once being surprised by his height. Now it was as normal and everyday as the intricate programs with which she wrote her book. One thing was eternal, Rosy had discovered: words. Words changed across language and were used in different formats, but they always remained. Every culture that developed beyond prehistory had words, and eventually they wrote those words down.
Rosy was not sure if she was human anymore, but she didn’t care.
She was surrounded by love and lust and happiness and knowledge.
The last sentence of her book was:
It turned out alright in the end
.
THE END
The girl hung limp from the climbing harness. Her shattered helmet hung in pieces from its strap and blood from her head dripped down her pale face. Max moved the helicopter closer to the rock face, gauging the situation before they acted. Rescue specialist Trey Williams was already harnessed up, ready to be lowered to the more critical of the two climbers stranded on the sheer wall. The second climber was about 100 feet up, safe but unable to move from her spot. Her dangling friend was caught up in her rigging, so that her safety equipment was effectively holding them both. Moving the top climber was impossible while her friend hung from their tangled ropes. The young women had overestimated their climbing experience, and one climber was clinging to life because of their foolishness.
Max nodded to Trey and he began the descent towards the injured climber. Sydney Clark, the trauma flight nurse, manned the winch while Trey continued to drop closer to the helpless woman. She thought to herself how lucky they were that the air was so still today. The rescue was going to be complicated enough without the added danger of gusting winds. There wasn’t anywhere to set the gurney while they strapped the patient in, so Trey was going to have to perform a harnessed rescue. Once the woman was secured to his harness, he would have to cut the rope that secured her to her friend, and then try to stabilize her lifeless body as best as he could while the winch raised them both to the chopper. The last thing this rescue needed was more hurdles.
Trey reached the woman and felt for a pulse. He held hand his over his head with his thumb up and Sydney breathed a sigh of relief. The ranger had noticed the climbers on his rounds, long after they were already in danger. The blood on the rock wall suggested that they had been hanging there for awhile before anyone had noticed them. Time was of the essence and so much had passed already.
Trey put a cervical collar on her neck and then began securing the woman’s harness to his. Her breathing was shallow, but her pulse was quite strong. He’d lay money this one was a fighter, but she was going to need to fight harder than ever to survive these injuries. Trey triple-checked the attachments and signaled Sydney to start bringing them up. The winch moved slowly as it brought them in, closer and achingly closer.
Sydney guided the rope as the wench pulled them steadily in the air. A harness rescue in this situation wasn’t ideal, but they really had no other choice. She did a brief visual check on the other climber, relieved that the woman still clung to the wall. She looked exhausted, even from Sydney’s vantage point. Once they got her friend secured, she would be a much easier rescue. Nothing was routine, but the hardest part was almost over.
Trey and the climber finally reached the chopper and Sydney snapped the safety onto Trey’s harness to pull him in, then they secured the climber to the stretcher. She moaned softly as they strapped her in.
“That’s a good sign,” Trey sounded relieved. They were all thinking the same thing when they’d first laid eyes on the situation, but none of them had been willing to put into words their fears that the woman was hanging there, dead. She wasn’t out of the woods yet though. The amount of force it took to crack a helmet like that was substantial. She likely had a severe brain injury that could still take her life.
Max guided the chopper away from the rock face and maneuvered into position to rescue the second climber. He didn’t want to blow her off the face of the wall with the wind created by the chopper. Max got into place and nodded to Trey. Once again, he was lowered to the climber.
He hung beside her for longer than he should, and Sydney realized the woman was arguing with him. She was terrified already, and Trey was asking her to let go of the wall and grab onto him. He’d already clipped a carabineer from his harness to hers, so she was safe to let go and grab onto him. After being stranded so long, the poor woman was too afraid to let go. She shook her head frantically as Trey spoke as calmly as he could, shouting to be heard over the chopper.
Sydney couldn’t believe what was happening. She needed to tend to the victim, but Trey needed her to man the winch until he brought in the second climber. This woman was wasting precious moments when she should already be safely
in
the chopper. Sydney was exasperated.
She was still shaking her head frantically as Trey reached into his pocket with one hand. He was up against her, his left hand wrapped around her waist to stabilize them both. All she had to do was let go and she’d be safe. Trey continued talking as he slowly pulled out his rescue knife. He raised the knife up to the final rope securing her to the wall. She was so intent on his words that she didn’t see what he was doing until he cut the rope. She felt the tension release and threw her arms around him.
Sydney let out the breath she’d been holding. There was an ambulance waiting for the second climber at the top of the fire road. The helicopter wasn’t equipped to seat so many people and it was just as safe to fly the short distance with them pulled about halfway to the chopper. The climber was about to get more adrenaline than she’d signed up for.
Sydney took a moment to attend to her patient. She moaned occasionally, but mostly lay motionless on the stretcher. Max was a seasoned rescue pilot and didn’t need her to guide him until they started lowering the two to the ground. Sydney quickly ran an IV and injected some morphine into the line. The climber relaxed slightly as the medicine started to do its work. Sydney checked her vitals once again and then moved to the winch to assist with the drop off.
The ambulance was parked in the clearing, the stretcher ready for the climber dangling below the chopper, clinging to Trey. Pinedale didn’t have a hospital, so from there, the ambulance would transport her 77 miles away to Jackson. Max set the two of them down gently and Trey unhooked from the rescue line. Sydney released the break on the winch and the rope was rolled back into the chopper. Trey would ride in the ambulance with the second climber while Sydney and Max flew the critical patient to Jackson. They would be there in minutes, which could mean the difference between life and death for this young lady.
Sydney continued attending to her patient. She was in bad, bad shape. The extra few minutes it took to get to the trauma hospital would likely be the most harrowing of this young woman’s life.
***
Max flew with the speed and smoothness of a seasoned pilot. Sydney often complimented him on his landings, which were almost imperceptible. She’d flown with several pilots in the years she’d been working with Care Flight Rescue out of their Jackson office, and he was the best. He landed on the helipad with the grace of a dainty butterfly. The trauma team was already in place on the roof, ready to unload the climber and take on her care. This would be the last time Sydney saw the woman, and she would likely never know what happened to her. It was just as well; so many of their patients were clinging to life when CFR was called in. Their prognoses were never good. CFR was their only hope and knowing their fate would make the burden unbearable for Sydney. She’d rather live under the delusion that every life she touched lived another day. She was a tender heart; one death would break her.
Max tended to the chopper as Sydney restocked the supplies and disposed of the waste. Every rescue ended the same, with the two of them spending over an hour restocking, servicing, and checking the equipment and the chopper. Rescues were never scheduled so they were always ready to go at a moment’s notice. Neither of them had scheduled days off, they came when called and stayed nearby during the peak rescue season during the summer. The Wyoming wilderness was a popular destination for summer-time adventurers. The tiny town of Pinedale filled with tourists every summer as thousands of people like the two climbers came here to find adventure, and some got much more than they bargained for. Having a chopper and rescue crew located so close to the Wind River Range had cut the emergency response times substantially. In a town of only 1900 residents, the CFR substation brought in much-needed jobs.
Sydney finished her task and went to help Max finish on his end. She was a hard worker and a firm believer that working together made everyone’s job easier and faster. Max smiled at her and handed her the window scrubber. She laughed; he always had her wash the windows. He smiled at her mischievously and winked. They worked in comfortable silence until everything was finished, then headed into the station to change. Sydney’s scrubs were covered in blood and dirt from working in the tight space with the climber. She headed for the locker room and a much needed shower.
The hot water sluiced over her tan skin and down her slender body. She shook her long hair down and began soaping it up with the fragrant shampoo she kept at the station. The good thing about working with mostly men; her shower supplies were where she left them and she had the entire ladies’ shower area to herself. She hummed softly to herself as the fragrant steam and rough spray washed away the tension of the day. Her work was hard, but the rewards were so many. Despite the rewards, there were times at night that she couldn’t shake the images of the people they helped. The climber dangling next to a rock wall covered in blood was going to be a tough one to erase from her memory.
Sydney brushed the tangles out of her hair and quickly dressed. She was always so hungry after a rescue. At 5’2” and barely 100 pounds, Sydney was tinier than most flight nurses. Rescue efforts were exhausting for her, both emotionally and physically. She dressed in her street clothes – wrangler jeans and tennis shoes – and headed out the door.
Max sat in the common room of the station, reading a magazine but slyly watching the hallway for Sydney to exit. The girl was quick and left for home before he could catch her. He’d been trying to strike up a conversation outside of the chopper for weeks. This time, she wasn’t going to slip away before he invited her out after work. He was drawn to her as he hadn’t been to a woman in so long. She was feisty, but she was also brave and a hard-worker, which he loved about her. Not to mention the fact that she looked like a fairy; her hair was long and nearly white-blond, her skin was tan and her pert little nose rested below the greenest eyes he’d ever seen. She might be half his age, but Max was certain he’d seen the twinkle of interest in her eyes as they worked together after each rescue. Unless he was way off the mark, Sydney was as interested in him as he was in her.
Sydney finally walked into the hallway and saw him sitting there. She smiled and started to say goodbye when he interrupted her, “Let’s grab a bite to eat. I know you’re famished.”
Sydney stopped. Had she heard him right? She looked behind her to see if he was talking to someone else. Max threw back his head and laughed. All that beauty and the girl had no clue he was interested in her. This was going to be more fun than he’d originally thought.
“Sydney, would you join me for lunch?”
She was unprepared for his offer. She struggled to find a way to say no without coming off wrong. They worked together. If she offended him now by saying no the wrong way, she could get stuck with one of the
other
pilots back in Jackson. Or worse: Ambulance duty. Sydney blew her bangs out of her eyes and sighed.
“Sure.”
Max smiled. It wasn’t exactly a resounding yes, but it would do for now. She led the way to the parking lot and he followed her in his car to the favorite hangout of first responders, Big Pine Café. He wasn’t surprised; he’d seen her there several times and knew she favored the place. He hurried to park, then met her in front of the restaurant to open the door for her. Sydney walked through the door and straight to her favorite table by the window. Max would have preferred a little privacy, but he wasn’t a fool. This wasn’t a date for Sydney. He wanted to eat, she wanted to eat, so logically, they should eat together. Max smiled to himself. What a charming little imp she was. He was going to enjoy chasing this one.
They ordered their food and fell into easy conversation. Sydney was bright and friendly, a great conversationalist. Max watched her lips are she spoked, the words caressing his skin like the finest silk. She had a beautiful voice and her face lit up when she talked about things she was passionate about. It wasn’t long before she was talking about her horse, Concerto.
“I’ve had him since I was 12. He’s moved all over the country with me. I even took him to college. When I’m not working at CFR, I’m riding him on the trails and in the hills. He’s the best horse ever.”
Max listened intently to everything she had to say. Sydney wasn’t very open at work, and he was determined to learn everything he could about her. Trey had mentioned that he’d tried to talk to her on more than one occasion, but she was oblivious. She did her job and she went home. She was a consummate professional who was always prepared to do her job, but never lingered. Sydney continued to talk and Max hung on to her every word.
Their food came and they dug in with gusto. They spoke here and there, but mostly enjoyed the quiet company and good food. Max realized that he was starving and couldn’t remember if he’d eaten breakfast this morning as he rushed out the door.