Nyk stroked Suki's hair and kissed her forehead. Her eyes slowly opened
again.
"Suki?" he said. He stroked her cheek. Her lips parted and she made soft
gasping sounds.
The attendant rushed to his side. "Quick, roll her over! She may be
about to vomit!" Nyk assisted her turning Suki onto her side and directed her
face downward. The attendant guided the end of the feeding tube.
Nyk walked to the side of the pallet and sat, looking directly into
Suki's face. Her eyes closed. He stroked away some hair and looked up. The
attendant shook her head.
He looked into Suki's face again. She was blinking. "Suki?" he said.
"Suki? Are you there? Is anybody home?" He stroked her hair. "Hi, stranger,"
he said.
"Stranger..." she mumbled.
"Suki, it's Nick."
"...Nick..." Her eyes opened and looked past him. "Nick... Hi,
stranger... sleep." She closed her eyes.
He continued to pet her hair. "Is this good or bad?" he asked the attendant.
"I don't know."
She stirred again. "Nick... hold me... hold me..."
Nyk put his arms around her, cradled her head and stroked her hair. She
opened her eyes and looked his way. "Nick."
"Yes, it's Nick," he said, his eyes filling.
"You came... Can't move..."
"Mi va xi medika ig," the attendant said and headed for the door.
"Ji. Zi dev Aahhn tien liveni dir," Nyk replied.
She blinked and squinted. "Nick... What's that language?" She began
flexing her fingers. "Hand's asleep."
Nyk helped her roll onto her back. She touched her face and fingered the
feeding tube. "Don't disturb that, for now," he said.
"...Feel awful ... can't feel legs."
The attendant returned. "Aahhn vavi liven."
"Lita lita litu gamben nesent midir't," Nyk said.
"Litu gambenu senten va tuje xin reven," the attendant replied.
"The feelings in your legs will return soon," he told her and squeezed
her hand. "Can you see?"
"Can't focus..."
"Can you remember anything?"
She nodded. "I remember it all..." She struggled to swallow. "I
remember... "
"It's all right," he said. "You don't have to tell me now."
"I want to ... tell you ... I remember... being called to Dr Larson's
office... told my services wouldn't be needed for... spring term..." She
closed her eyes. "I went to the lab to look for you, but you were gone..."
"I was at the union, waiting for you."
"Didn't think of that ... went home ... cried ... cried for ... long
time ... hit rock bottom ... no money ... no place to go ... no place to live
... water..."
"Lita akwa ard," Nyk said.
The attendant returned with a tumbler of water and a drinking tube. Nyk
slipped the tube between her lips. She took a long sip. "... wondered how many
times ... slapped down before ... made up my mind ... wrote a note to you, and
Mom ... found a razor blade ... got undressed and sat in the bathtub and cut
..." She felt her wrists. She leaned toward the tumbler and Nyk placed the
tube between her lips again. She sipped more and looked up at him. He thought
her eyes were beginning to focus.
"I'm beginning to feel my legs ... I felt the warmth of my blood ...
flowing over my skin. I was at peace ... closed my eyes ... leaned back ...
willed myself to death ... wasn't afraid." She touched his face. "Then, it
happened..."
"What happened?"
"It was an out-of-body experience ... I was floating, at the ceiling ...
saw myself in the bathtub ... covered with my own blood." Tears began to fill
her eyes. "I knew it was wrong. I tried to stand, to call 911. I must've
passed out. That's the last I remember." She pinched her cheek. "Am I alive?"
She looked around. "Where am I? What's that outfit you're wearing?"
"Suki, you're not in Wisconsin any more. But you're with me and you're
with friends. Yes, you're alive. I found you and you were dead or close to it.
I brought you to my home, because I thought my people's doctors might help
you."
"Your home? Your people?"
Aahhn walked in and looked at her. "Lita veke es!"
"Ji, lita veke es," Nyk said.
"What did he say?" Suki asked.
"He said you're awake."
"Mi niva lita ekzamin." Aahhn slipped an instrument from a kit hanging
from his xarpa. He pressed a transducer to her forehead and looked into her
eyes. "Lita vi trebone fet," he said. "Litu okulen tre malume es!"
"Xin tre bele es," Nyk replied.
Aahhn began manipulating a handheld vidisplay. "Mi va xi psykomedika
voka donat. Ky, mi va zi lidiri zipermes." He smiled and placed his hand on
her forehead. "Bon'taka, Sukiko, ky al Floran bon'ven."
"What is he saying?" she asked. "Where am I? What language is that? I've
been hearing it in the back of my mind."
"He said he's giving the... psychiatrist a call, and he'll leave us
alone to talk."
"Psychiatrist! No, Nick, I don't want to see a psychiatrist."
"It's routine with an attempted suicide. Please don't worry." Nyk
stroked her face. "That was Dr Kurso Aahhn, a good doctor and a good friend.
He also said welcome to Floran."
"To where?"
"You're on Floran. It's another planet."
"Another ... planet?"
"That's right -- Floran is in a star system about two hundred lightyears
from Earth."
"Two ... hundred ... lightyears?" She smiled. "And, you're an alien...
that explains a lot..."
"You're not dreaming, Suki. You're alive and you're awake. You're in a
hospital on my homeworld."
She pulled away from Nyk, looked at him and at the treatment room. The
walls were lined with shelves loaded with equipment, instruments, syringes,
catheters and bottles of chemicals. On one side of the pallet stood a device
with a reservoir containing a dark green fluid. Attached to it was a coiled-up
length of tubing terminating in a heavy-gauge needle. On the other side was a
cart holding the helmet-like neural inducer, tethered to its control equipment
by an umbilicus of wires. Vidisplays flashed readings in Floran characters.
Announcements in Lingwafloran came over the P.A. system and attendants and
staff chatted in the corridor. "Oh, my God!" she gasped. "What do you want of
me?" She gasped again, clutched the hem of the drape and held it under her
chin. "What are you going to do to me?"
"We're going to heal you. Then, I'll return you to Earth." An attendant
entered and began to hold an instrument to Suki's forehead. She recoiled and
shielded her face with her hands. "It's all right. No one's going to harm you.
These people are trying to help."
"People? You all look so ... human."
"We are human -- we originated on Earth. You and I are the same
species." Suki put her hands down. The attendant recorded the reading on a
portable vidisplay, smiled and headed for the door. "That wasn't so bad, was
it? These are doctors and nurses who want to make you well."
"You originated on Earth? How?"
"My past begins in your future. Two hundred years from now, a starship
named the Floran will depart with the intent of forming Earth's first
interstellar colony on a planet orbiting a neighbor star. Something went wrong
-- something will go wrong -- and the explorers will be hurled backward in
time. The colony was formed, but on a different world than intended. Five
thousand Earth years have elapsed since the Floran and her company of a
thousand colonists emerged from the warp jump accident. The seed they planted
has grown into a great, interstellar polity, a hegemony with a population
exceeding twenty-four billion, inhabiting a dozen planets. I am a citizen of
that hegemony."
"Twenty-four ... billion?"
"Twenty-four billion men, women and children who work and play, love and
hate and birth and die very much as on your world."
"Then, why were you on Earth?"
"In order to survive, we need contact with our planet of origin. We need
genetic samples to keep our food and fiber crops healthy. So, a few of us walk
the surface of your world, covertly and benignly, to gather those samples. I
am an exobotanist, a specialist in Earth plants."
"The cultures in the lab!" She eyed him. "Do you collect ... other
genetic samples?"
"Do you mean human genes? No, Suki -- that is something we will not do.
I'm sorry I couldn't divulge this to you before now. I didn't want to deceive
you -- but would you have believed me?"
She shook her head. "No way, Nick. I'd have thought you were
delusional."
"Do you believe me now? I never deceived you about this: I do care for
you, and I do cherish you as a friend. Do you trust me?"
"I think I do."
"Florans can't approach Earth overtly, because any knowledge of us could
alter the outcome of that mission, two hundred years in your future but five
thousand years in our past. Altering that mission could result in our
civilization simply ceasing to exist. We are absolutely forbidden to reveal
our true nature to the Earth population. Can you understand why?"
"Yes, I ... I think so."
"Trust me, Suki. We mean no harm to your world or people. I love Earth,
and I love its marvelous diversity of life and people and cultures. We
couldn't harm you if we wanted. We have no weapons. During the past five
thousand years we have eliminated disease, poverty, war, and hunger. We have
no racial differences, national jealousies, or religious strife. We're lovers,
not fighters. We hope, one day, to make contact with your world -- to extend
our hands in friendship, and to open our arms and embrace our cousins and
progenitors. That can't happen in my lifetime." He extended his arm. "But I
can offer my hand to you. Do you still accept me as your friend?"
She looked up at him and smiled. "Of course, Nick."
Nyk took her hand and sat beside her again. "I took an enormous risk
bringing you here, but not doing so would've been disastrous. I had to save
you -- and I knew of no other way. You must promise me you'll never reveal
what you know of our world to another Earth person. Now, promise me -- it's a
matter of life and death to me and countless others."
"I ... I promise. Why so important to save me?"
"It's because you're a crucial figure in the events leading up to the
founding of our world. Remember, your future is my past."
"How could I be crucial? What possible role could I play?"
"I mustn't describe it further, so please don't press me. I was sure
your only hope for survival was treatment by our doctors. You lost nearly
ninety percent of your blood. They've replaced it with a synthetic. Look at
your hands."
She held up the back of her hand. "My skin's grey."
"Yes, and you'll have green urine until your body displaces the
synthetic with your own blood. You must remain here while you convalesce, for
a few days at least. Then, I'll take you home to Earth and face the
consequences with my boss."
"Oh, Nick, it's too much to process."
"You might as well call me by my real name. Call me Nykkyo. Nick's the
Earth name I use while I'm there. You can call me Nykkyo on Earth, when we're
alone together."
"Nykkyo Kane?"
"Close enough."
