Queen of the Stars

by Haley R Lawson

  “Yes, it is. The glasses bother me sometimes, so I had my computer set to it. Just give me one second to type in your names and I will bring up what I can.”

  He started typing and Conner said, “Alex you aren’t going to find anyone. I was the sole… Atri. Where is he?”

  “It says he’s in the royal hospital.”

  I said, “Conner is he your brother?”

  “I have to go find him.”

  I was worried that his brother was in the royal hospital. That meant he could’ve been in a coma, which in my mind was worse than losing him the first time. I said, “I’m coming with you.”

  Alex said, “Rose do you want these now or…”

  “I can wait. Conner needs me. Thank you, Alex.”

  Conner and I speed walked to the hospital holding hands. He said, “My brother is alive… That changes… Why didn’t Charlie tell me?”

  “He probably didn’t know. Conner, I don’t want you to get your hopes up. If he’s in the hospital, there’s a reason for that.”

  “I know. I know he’s not going to be the man I left on my planet, but he’s my brother and some part of him is living. I need to be there for him.”

  I agreed. We passed Skyler in the hallway. She was obviously upset with me and said, “What did you do? Why did you let him leave me?”

  “Sky it had nothing to do with me.”

  “You must’ve said something. He was in love with you. Did you pick Conner? He shouldn’t even be a royal. We captured his planet. Charlie just felt bad for him.”

  Conner let go of my hand and I said, “Sky, I am in the middle of something important. Talk to Ella. She knows why your brother left.”

  She stormed off crying, but Conner went after her. She tripped down the hall. He picked her up and said, “Charlie is my best friend. I miss him too. He loves you more than anything in the world. He wouldn’t leave because of something a girl said. You know that. I know you must be incredibly upset. This is the first-time you guys have been separated. I bet he would like to hear from you. You should call him. I have to go. Call Charlie and go spend time with your beautiful nephew. It will get easier I promise.”

  She hugged him and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

  “It’s okay. I know. I’ve said my fair share of things I didn’t mean when my brother disappointed me. You’ll be okay Sky.”

  She went towards Ella’s room and Conner and I went on towards our quest. I said, “You are an amazing person. You just postponed a reunion with your brother to help Sky about missing hers.”

  He said “I know how she feels. She needed a hug.”

  I hugged him. “You do too.”

  He held me for a minute. “We all do. Thank you for coming with me.”

  “Let’s go find him!”

  We got to the hospital and started at the front desk. Conner gave his brother’s name and the nurse said, “I’m sorry. We don’t have anyone by that name.” Conner pulled something from his pocket and said, “Is there a file with this symbol on it?”

  “We have a man with a tattoo of that symbol in the psychiatric unit. He’s dangerous and hasn’t had visitors before. Who are you?”

  “I’m his brother. Can you tell me where he is?”

  The woman told him the floor and room, but added, “I wouldn’t go in with him if I were you.”

  Conner said, “I can handle him. Thank you.”

  We went to the psychiatric unit. Conner’s attitude changed. It was less hopeful. We got to the room and a doctor took all of the contents of Conner’s pockets. He went to take his watch, but Conner said, “I promise he will not be harmed nor cause harm with this.”

  “You don’t know this patient.”

  “He’s my brother. I can handle it. Thank you.”

  “You have to take it off if you want to go in there.” Conner took the watch off and handed me his contacts.

  “You are the alien who was loose the other day. They said they caught that!”

  “Sir, things aren’t always as they seem. We are all kind of aliens. I am still the same man you were just speaking with only a different color. If my watch was harmful, why does he have a necklace on?”

  “It’s indestructible and monitors his vitals.”

  “And makes him look human. Am I allowed in or are you putting us on quarantine?”

  “No, it’s okay. I trust you.”

  Conner told me to just watch from the hall. His brother was just sitting in a padded room staring at the wall. Conner sat in front of him and tears streamed down his brothers face. He must’ve thought he was hallucinating because he turned towards the door and said something. He didn’t have a language device, but he was human looking. Conner tried talking to him, but he acted like he was seeing a ghost. Conner hugged him and his brother simply broke down. Conner just stayed there holding him.

  The doctor said, “Normally he chases people out of his room screaming in some other language. That man really is his brother, isn’t he?”

  I said, “He is. Is your patient stable enough to be discharged?”

  “Physically, yes. All of his levels are stable. He’s been a violent patient though and I can’t discharge him until I see him interact with someone else.”

  “I’ll go.”

  “I will get a trained nurse to go in. He needs his evening sedatives anyway. Wait, why are you in a medical uniform?”

  “I am an apprentice to a trauma doctor in the clinics. I can handle this. Just let me try.”

  The doctor asked if I had anything in my pockets. I handed him my royal pass and identification card. He said, “Why do you have a royal pass? Do I need to report you?”

  “It has my name on it, doesn’t it? I am a friend to Prince Alexander and an advisor on his council.”

  He just held my stuff and unlocked the door for me. Atri began screaming and got up. He was still crying, but now came towards me. I put my hands up and he still pushed me against the wall. Conner went to get between us, but I said, “Conner, it’s okay. Just talk to him.” Conner took out his translation device and said something in his language. Atri stopped pushing me and started crying more. I hugged him. Conner said something else and Atri left me to talk to Conner.

  I went back to the hall and the doctor said, “I didn’t mean for you to hug him. There has to be boundaries.”

  “He’s not my patient. I’m his brother’s friend. My shift ended hours ago. There is a reason he was afraid of my uniform. What do you do to your patients?”

  “It’s not my department. The attendings get impatient and I guess lose their tempers. I just check on them at night, but his file says he’s violent. I imagine it has something to do with the original doctors from this floor. They weren’t really good with bedside manners. We were moved up here after Prince Alexander took control.”

  “Where are the other doctors?”

  “I think they quit or something.”

  “Okay, thank you for your help. Can we take him with us?”

  “Sure, but I unfortunately don’t know how to get that off of him.”

  “It’s ok. We will figure it out.”

  He handed me Conner’s stuff and went on his way after unlocking the door. I handed Conner his watch. He asked me for a mirror before turning it on. The best I could find was from the women’s restroom. Security did not take fondly to me taking a mirror into a padded room, but they were all afraid of Atri and when they saw Conner they took off in the other direction. I put the mirror in front of me. Conner said something else in his language and flipped on his watch. I put the mirror down. I told Conner we had to go. I put the mirror back, but we took Atri’s charts with us. Neither Conner nor Atri had contacts in.

  We got to the front door of the hospital and Atri collapsed in pain as we went through it. His necklace had shocked him. I pulled him back inside and it stopped. The lockdown alarm went off. I took Conner and Atri to Tommy’s room. It was the only place I could think of. Tommy was sound asleep even through th
e lock down alarm. I put a blanket around Atri like a hood to cover his necklace.

  Conner’s language device wouldn’t click back on, so he had to write anything he wanted to say. He wrote down that Conner wasn’t his real name. I already knew that. I knew that none of my royal friends were using their real names because they weren’t using their native languages. I asked what his name was, and he said it, but wrote if it was too hard to pronounce, he would understand. It was hard to understand so pronouncing was going to be even harder.

  I said, “I will learn it. I promise, but for the sake of time, can I still call you Conner?” He agreed. Tommy woke up and saw Atri under the blanket and Conner’s eyes. He looked at me and I said, “Please don’t scream. I have this under control.”

  “I’m just hallucinating. Completely asleep… yep that’s it. I’m asleep.”

  Atri said something to Conner and Tommy put his blanket over his head. Atri got up and started walking away. Conner and I went after him, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying, and Conner left the notepad behind. We passed Jackson in the surgical waiting room and he said, “Do I want to know?” A security staff arrived and had Atri at gun point. He put his hands up and they tackled him to the ground, put him in a strait jacket and gave him a sedative. They took him back upstairs. Conner put his contacts back in as quickly as he could. His brother was taken back to the psychiatric ward. We couldn’t follow them because they closed down the halls behind him and they pulled us aside for questioning.

  I explained Atri was Conner’s brother and had been released. The security guy said, “I want to hear his side of the story.” Conner’s contact had ripped in my pocket and was hanging from his eye.

  I said, “He doesn’t speak English.”

  “I speak Spanish. What’s wrong with his eye?”

  “He hurt it. That’s why we are here.”

  “You told me you were here for his brother. Now you are here because he hurt his eye?”

  “He hurt his eye while we were here.”

  Jackson stepped in and said, “I can treat his eye.”

  The man pulled the contact out and pushed Conner to the ground. He handcuffed him, pointed a gun at him, and said, “That won’t be necessary. He’s one of them. There are aliens on this ship. That’s why it doesn’t speak English. Check the girl. I think it hypnotized her.”

  Conner said something and I pretended to faint. Jackson wasn’t as ready to catch me as I figured he might be. He bent down and shook me. I ‘woke up’ and said, “What happened? Where am I?”

  The security guard said, “Can you handle her? I need to take him to security,”

  “I’ve got her. What are you going to do with him?”

  “Lock him up and wait until I can see Prince Alexander in the morning.”

  “Aren’t you afraid to handle him alone?”

  “I’ve got a gun and buddies. I will be fine.”

  The man left and Jackson said, “Are you okay? What just happened?”

  “Conner found his brother. He thought he was the sole survivor from his planet. A doctor discharged him but couldn’t get the necklace off. It set off the alarm and shocked him when we tried to leave. Some people upstairs may have seen Conner without the watch. Is Tucker still in surgery?”

  “No, he’s sleeping in recovery. I was waiting for you to come visit. I will go get Alex. You go keep an eye on Conner’s brother.”

  “Ask Alex to bring two language translators and an air converter with him.”

  Jackson agreed. I went up to Atri. The doctor was in his room undoing the straight jacket. He told the security guys he had released him but one of them said, “He was with an alien and might even be one himself. He is not leaving and besides we don’t know how to deactivate the necklace thing.”

  One of the guards saw me and said, “Don’t let her near him. She was hypnotized by the other one with eyes like that.” The men left.

  Atri had been kicked and thrown around. He was just lying on the floor bleeding from his lip. The doctor said, “Is your friend okay?”

  “They have him locked up. Thank you for being understanding. Can I go in there with him?”

  “Sure, just leave any dangerous items out here please. He’s been sedated so he’s probably not going to respond, but you can clean his lip up for me.”

  I went in with a wet piece of gauze and sat in front of Atri. Tears were running down his face and he kept pulling at the necklace. I gently grabbed his hand and just rubbed it for a few seconds. It took everything he had just to sit up, but I helped him. I cleaned off his lip. I didn’t know how to communicate with him.

  A security guard came back with a tool and said, “We need to remove that so we can take him with us.”

  I said, “He needs to be monitored.”

  “Back up. You are not even supposed to be in here.”

  Another security officer grabbed me and pulled me back. The man hit the necklace and cut Atri’s neck, but nothing else happened.

  “Stop it, you are killing him.”

  The man with the tools said, “Good, pull her out of here and restrain her!”

  The man pulled me out and handcuffed me to the door. It had a wheel lock. He went in and helped his friend beat Atri. I yelled for them to stop, but they wouldn’t. Jackson came running in and pulled them off. They fought him to the ground and pulled a gun. They took turns beating Jackson and Atri. The men left when they felt Atri was dead. They left me attached to the door. I dropped my weight and the chain on the handcuffs broke. I ran to Atri first. The necklace had pulled out from his neck, so it was no longer exchanging air for him. I tried to stick it back in, but it wasn’t working. He was suffocating. I ran down the hall and got an oxygen tank. I ran to Atri, but I had no idea what his level needed to be. He was so scared. I put it on Alex’s level which was not right, but closer.

  I ran to a computer. The database was in the wrong language and I had no glasses. I just used the keyboard to translate. I found the letters closest to Conner’s royal symbol and then used the keyboard to type an o for oxygen and then typed out numbers so I could see which matched. I ran back to Atri. He wasn’t breathing at all. I turned the oxygen and did CPR. He gasped for air after a few seconds and seemed to be breathing okay. I checked on Jackson and he was also breathing but was in very rough shape. I ran to the supply room and got some gauze and other materials to treat Atri and Jackson. I secured the necklace over the hole in Atri’s neck. He wasn’t moving at all, but he was breathing. Jackson was still unconscious.

  I realized Jackson must not have been able to get Alex and that I needed Luke’s help. I ran to the royal quadrant, but the men had stolen my pass, so I had to go back for Jackson’s. Jackson was not in good shape at all. His breathing was labored. I realized he had internal bleeding and ran to get help. Security ordered no one to go down the hall where Jackson was so the doctor, I found wouldn’t come with me. I pulled Jackson down the hall by the top of his shirt and then the doctor treated him. I took Jackson’s royal pass and ran back to the royal hall, but they actually checked the name on the pass, and I was not allowed in. I told them to check the system, but on my appearance, they refused.

  I went back to Atri. I just made sure he was in a safe position and kept the oxygen at the right level. I fell asleep holding his hand and woke up when the security guard from Thursday’s lockdown came in and said, “Why do you have handcuffs on and why are you in here with a dead alien?”

  “He’s not dead. I am trying to make sure he stays that way. You coworkers left me attached to that door. Did they send you to clean up?”

  “Yes, actually they did. Why are you trying to save it?”

  “He was taken from his home planet just like we were. He may look alien to us, but to him, we are the alien ones. He’s just a little different. He’s not dangerous.”

  “Then why was he locked up in here?”

  “Aliens were poking and prodding him and yelling at him in some strange language. Wouldn’t yo
u be a little defensive if they did that to you?”

  He undid my handcuffs, not that they were really a problem. He said, “I did wonder where the other contaminated guy went the other day. He sacrificed himself for you, didn’t he?”

  “Kind of. He just turned his watch off. It makes them look like us so things like this don’t happen. Prince Alexander released him. He’s the one they have in custody right now.”

  “Why aren’t you saving him?”

  “Your friends took my royal pass and I can’t get to anyone who has the power to help him.”

  “Those guys are not my friends. Is that one going to be okay?”

  “I don’t know much about how to help him. I figured out the oxygen, but they were giving him sedatives and beating him. I have no idea…. Winston.”

  “Nope, it’s William.”

  “No, I thought of someone who can help me.”

  “I will stay here with him. I won’t hurt him. I promise.”

  “I trust you William. Thank you.”

  I ran towards the medical housing. Thankfully curfew was not in place anymore so I at least wouldn’t be in trouble for that. I reached Winston’s room and unfortunately woke his baby when I knocked. He came to the door and I said, “I need your help.” His wife took the baby and he came with me. We got back and William was changing the oxygen for Atri on a new tank. He said, “I am glad you are back. That tank ran out and I didn’t know for sure what I was doing. Is this okay?”

  I looked at it and it was the same as the old tank. Winston asked William to escort us to a CT scan machine. He worked on treating Atri. I went to look for Jackson. He was in the ICU. A clock said it was six am and the morning shift had just arrived.

  Chapter 29

  Just Another Monday

  The nurses wouldn’t allow me to visit Jackson, so I went to see Tommy. He was being discharged. He got dressed and went to leave. He said, “So, were you in my room with two… people last night or did I dream that?”

  “No, that really happened. Tommy, Jackson is in the ICU. He was attacked by security guards trying to protect me and my friend. If we don’t go to work, we will be in trouble, but I don’t want to leave him. You need to go. Keep your job.”