The Bonding (12 page)

That thought brought Ron and Oliver to
mind. She needed to give them a proper space burial. She tapped Tarku on the
arm. “Tarku, I need to take care of my friends. I need to send them on their
way.”

His expression was blank. She knew he
didn’t understand what she said. She gestured for him to come with her and
said, “Sija.”

He understood that and followed her to
the elevator. The door opened and they stepped inside. As the door closed,
Janet said “Hwla,” and the elevator went to the third deck. Tarku was impressed
that she knew how to command the elevator. She was learning very quickly. She
led him down the corridor to the room containing Ron and Oliver’s bodies. Janet
walked over to the pods and stood between them.

“I want to see them one more time,
please,” and motioned for Tarku to open the lids. He showed her how, and they
slowly rose, exposing the bodies. She held Ron one last time. “I love you,” she
whispered in his ear and kissed his lips. Tarku was touched by her emotions.
She turned to Oliver and repeated her motions, but kissed him twice, once on
the forehead and then on the lips.

“This one is from Pippa.” She turned back
to Ron, pulled up his sleeve and removed his watch. She put it on her wrist.
This way, she would have something of his as a keepsake and would know what
time it was back home. She pushed the buttons and the lids closed. She looked
back at Tarku, laid a hand on each pod and gave the same motion of taking off
that he had given her on the flight deck. He understood and nodded.

He moved next to her and pushed another
button on the console of each pod. They both levitated above the tables. He
walked across the room and the pods followed, never more than four feet behind.
At the other end of the room was a panel, next to a small door. Tarku pushed a
button and the door slid open, exposing a long tube. Janet understood as soon
as she saw it. This was a jettison tube. He positioned both pods inside and
closed the door. He pointed to a red button and motioned for Janet to push it.
He felt that she should send them on their final journey.

She walked over to the panel and reached
out with her hand. It was shaking so much that she had to steady it with the
other hand. She put her quivering finger on the button and looked back at
Tarku. Tears streamed down her cheeks. He nodded to her and she looked up to
God. “I give their bodies to you, Lord. I know you already have their souls.
Please take care of them.” She closed her eyes and pushed the button. There was
a small hissing noise as the pods shot out into space, silently floating next
to each other.

Tarku came to her and wrapped his huge,
but gentle arms around her. It was wonderful that she could feel so comforted
by this large alien.

“Sija, Janet,” he said, and he led her
out of the room. It was time for them to learn each other’s languages. He was
tired of the frustration of not knowing how to talk with her, and he also
thought that this would get her mind occupied, so she wouldn’t think about Ron
and Oliver.

He took her to the second deck, to his
room, which was somewhat larger than hers and very comfortably furnished. At
one side of the room was a cabinet with various personal items inside. He took
out a pair of dark glasses that resembled sunglasses, but also had a small
earpiece at the end of each support arm. He showed her how to put on the
glasses and earpieces and adjust them to her head. He also pointed out four
tiny buttons, which controlled the functions. These were not glasses at all,
but small monitors for watching videos. He pulled out a tiny one-half inch
square object resembling a flat crystal and inserted it into a small slot on
the side. The buttons were the same as a DVD player. One was the play button
and the others were forward, reverse, and stop/eject. She put them on and he
took her finger and placed it on the play button. To her amazement, a three
dimensional view of a language course appeared. She was thrilled. “This is
great, Tarku!”

He gave her a small container filled with
the tiny disks. Each one was labeled, but right now, she didn’t know what they
said. These were a combination of movies and educational programs from his home
planet, along with language courses for many other planets. His plan was to
teach her his language, and then she could teach him hers.

He took her back to her room, which was
next to his, and motioned that he was going to go to sleep. Up until now, she
had been so enthralled with all of the wonderful things she was experiencing,
that sleep never crossed her mind. She came up to him and gave him a hug, then
smiled as she looked up into his caring eyes. “Thank you, Tarku. Thank you for saving
my life and taking care of me.”

Although he didn’t understand her words,
he understood her expressions. He nodded and left the room, pausing at the door
to look back. They smiled at each other and he disappeared into the corridor.
He felt confident that she could find her way around the ship if needed, and he
would be right next door.

She quickly cleaned up and got ready for
bed. She sat on the bed with her legs crossed, anxious to try the glasses. She
studied them for a moment, looking at the tiny flat crystal that contained the
video.

This is amazing that they can put so much
information into such a tiny thing, she thought. She put on the glasses, pushed
the little button and watched as the program began. It was quite interesting.
She laid her head on the pillow, and crawled under the covers as she watched.
Before long, exhaustion finally overwhelmed her and she drifted off into a deep
sleep with the program still running.

For nearly twelve hours she remained in a
deep sleep. Tarku was getting concerned. His normal sleep time was only six. At
ten hours, he went to her room and called to her on the intercom. When she
didn’t respond, he entered and stood silently beside her bed, watching for a
moment as she slept. He leaned down, gently removed the glasses and set them on
the stand beside the bed. She looked very peaceful with her blanket pulled up
to her chest and her hands crossed together on top. Her breathing was soft and
steady and he knew she was all right. He smiled and quietly left the room.

This was her first night’s rest, since
her recovery, and she had dreamt that she was on Intrepid with Ron and Oliver
and everything was normal again. She thought she was sleeping in her own
quarters on the shuttle. When she opened her eyes and looked around the room
she was a little disoriented, but quickly remembered where she was. A tear
rolled down her cheek as reality returned and she thought about Ron and Oliver.
She missed them terribly. She missed everyone and wished that she were back
home. Her experience with Tarku was incredible, but she would trade it all to
have things back to the way they were.

She got out of bed and looked at her
watch. It was a relief to have a sense of time again. There was a digital clock
in the room, which earlier had made no sense to her. But now, as she looked at
it, she knew the meaning of the symbols. She still didn’t know how to tell the
time, but she knew what each number was. She walked over and picked up the
video glasses. “Amazing! Simply amazing,” she said and set them back on the
nightstand.

She went to the bathroom to freshen up.
Tarku had demonstrated how to operate everything. It was almost identical to
the wet room on board the Poltan space station. The shower was similar to her
state of the art shower on board Intrepid. She stood in it naked, spread her
arms and legs, closed her eyes and pushed one button. For twenty seconds a very
fine mist of cleaning solution covered her entire body. Then the walls
illuminated with a blue light and immediately evaporated the solution, leaving
her body fresh and clean. The entire showering process took less than one
minute. To clean her teeth, she pushed a button next to the sink and a small
container of pink fluid appeared. She swished it around in her mouth for about
fifteen seconds and spit it out. Somehow, it dissolved all food particles
without hurting the enamel on her teeth, and left her mouth feeling clean and
refreshed. The sink also glowed with the same blue light and evaporated the
discarded solution. “Wow! Wouldn’t it be neat to bring some of this technology
back to Earth.” She shook her head. “I have to stop thinking about the Earth so
much. All it does is depresses me.” She looked up and stared at herself in the
mirror. “I wonder if I’ll ever see home again?”

She dressed and went to look for Tarku.
His room was next to hers, so that was the first stop. She pushed the intercom
button.

“Tarku?” she said quietly, thinking that
he may still be asleep, but there was no answer. She said it again a little
louder this time; still no answer.

She was getting hungry and thought about
checking the galley first. As the door opened, the lights illuminated, which
was an indication that he wasn’t there. She poked her head in to give a quick
look anyway.

“I bet he’s on the bridge,” she muttered.
“I’ll eat later.” She walked to the end of the corridor, entered the elevator
and commanded it to the bridge, as she had heard Tarku do. The doors closed and
opened two seconds later. When they opened, the sound of loud music was
everywhere, similar to rock music from Earth, but obviously in Tarku’s
language.

Cautiously she stepped from the elevator.
She saw Tarku’s hands flailing around in the air and his captain’s seat
bouncing to the beat of the music. It was a catchy tune with a lively rhythm.
She laughed to herself as she watched Tarku jamming, and walked a little closer
to see
better
. He started singing along, still unaware
of her presence. She covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. She was
thrilled to see this brute of an alien acting like an Earth teenager. He got up
from the chair and started dancing and singing, completely oblivious to her.
She slightly cringed when he hit one of the high notes. His singing left a bit
to be desired. He bounced and wiggled to the music, then spun around towards
her. An expression of shock swept over his face, and he nearly tripped over his
own feet when he saw her standing there. The look of shock quickly turned to
embarrassment. He blushed as he scrambled to shut off the music.

“Janet!” he exclaimed, clearing his
throat and looking around the room, as though searching for a place to hide.

She smiled and walked over to him. “Play
it again,” she said, and she began to sing and dance. He smiled, reached down
and turned on the music. She moved around to the rhythm and he nodded at her
acceptance of his fun. She danced over to him. He was still a little
embarrassed and wasn’t sure if he should start singing and dancing again. She
moved next to him, grabbed both of his hands and started dancing. He moved his
hands and arms, but not his body, so she bumped him a couple of times with her
butt. That finally got him going and he began dancing with her. She hummed to
the melody, so he finally let loose and began singing.

When the song ended she shook his hands
back and forth. “That was really fun, Tarku.”

He didn’t know what she said, but he knew
what the words meant. Her expression and body language said it all. Another
song began to play and they danced and sang again. She liked to hear him laugh
and he was glad to see her having a good time and getting her mind off of what
had happened.

At the end of that song, she motioned
that she was hungry. “Can we get something to eat?”

He nodded, shut off the music and led her
to the galley. She watched as he prepared a dinner that resembled spaghetti,
but tasted totally different. Some of the foods tasted much like those on
Earth, even though she had no idea what she was eating.

After eating, he motioned to her as
though he was putting on glasses and earpieces, and then pointed to her. She
shook her head.

“Not yet, but I’ll do that now.”

She walked over to him and looked up into
his big eyes. “Hwuts ko nil hwu naap.” (Thank you for the food,) she said
perfectly in his language, and dropped her jaw in amazement. She couldn’t
believe what had just come out of her mouth.

He smiled. “Ko ul ravsij.” (You are
welcome.) “And I see the glasses are working fine.”

There was still an expression of
bewilderment on her face. She understood exactly what he said. It was as though
something inside her brain just clicked, and his language came alive in her
head. “I can not believe that I understand what you’re saying. And even more, I
can’t believe that I am speaking your language so clearly.”

“Go! Learn more,” he said, motioning for
her to leave. “Soon you will know it all.”

She beamed with excitement now and
hurried back to her room. Tarku stood in the galley doorway smiling, and
watched her disappear down the corridor.

“I knew she was smart,” he said to
himself.

In her room, she grabbed the glasses,
fluffed up her pillow and sat on the bed with her legs crossed, leaning against
the pillow, as though she was going to watch a movie on TV. She pushed the
small button on the glasses and the language course began. The way it was
designed, it actually drew her mind into it and made her feel like she was part
of the program. She was glued to every word, especially now. She wanted so
desperately to talk with Tarku. There were a million questions to ask.

If anyone had walked into her room at
that moment, they would have thought that
she was hypnotized
by the glasses
. She sat as though in a trance, like a blind person with
dark glasses, staring across the room, not moving a muscle. She didn’t know
that the program was subliminally implanting the information into her brain.
She would remember everything she saw and heard. She was so enthralled with the
program that four hours passed like only minutes.