Doc laughed with his deep voice and paused just a little longer to make Adrian squirm. “Anyway, as I was saying before you threatened me, I ran the DNA test, and it’s confirmed. My patient, here, is none other than …”
Doc had to stop. As he spoke, his voice cracked as emotion crept in. He cleared his throat and continued in a solemn tone, “Adrian, he’s Jake … your son.”
The tears began to roll from Adrian’s eyes. He jumped up and hugged Doc, getting blood all over his surgical gown. “I can’t believe it. How did they get here and why?”
“I don’t know,” said Doc, pushing Adrian away. “I should have known it was your son when the special ops unit brought him in.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Adrian, as he moved a little closer in order to get a better look at the son he had missed for twenty-five years.
“Well, look at him. He’s just as ugly as you are.”
Adrian turned around and laughed, giving Doc a little shove. “This is a miracle. Is he going to be okay?”
“Yes, he’s going to be just fine. He was lucky. The plasma blast, for some reason, didn’t penetrate his stomach, but he came in with a three-and-a-half-inch diameter hole in his flesh and muscle. He also lost a lot of blood. We managed to find a match in our minuscule supply of blood and gave him a transfusion.”
Adrian looked at the wound that Jake had suffered. “How did you manage to cover the wound so well?”
Doc walked across the room and pulled a drape away to reveal the exposed body of one of Adrian’s soldiers. The soldier had a three-and-half-inch diameter hole cut into his stomach. “This is Lieutenant Comoasa.”
“No, not Como. He was such a good leader and had such potential. How did he die?”
Doc, saddened by the death of the young officer they had all gotten to know quite well, walked over to Lieutenant Comoasa’s body and turned him on his side. “Kylee told me that as they were loading Jake and his friend into the medical transport, Como was shot in the back of the head by a wounded Gnol.”
Adrian shook and bowed his head. “I think I should be the one to tell his father, and he should be honored with a proper military burial.”
“I agree,” said Doc as he laid the lieutenant’s body back down gently and covered him with a sheet. “Anyway, Como wasn’t going to make it, and Jake was in critical condition. As soon as they arrived at the base, I decided to graft a piece of Como’s skin and muscle into Jake’s missing flesh and muscle.”
“Wow, you can do that?”
Doc gave Adrian an annoyed look. “Hey, I can do a lot of things you can’t do, SIR.”
Adrian ignored Doc’s sarcasm and walked back to Jake, who was sleeping soundly. He gently brushed the left side of Jake’s head with his gloved hand. “I still can’t believe it. I never thought I would see him again. I have thought about him every day for nearly twenty-five years. And, look … we are finally reunited again on another planet. There’s definitely someone watching out for us, Doc.”
“You can say that again,” said Doc as he moved to the right side of Adrian. “Listen, Adrian, the nurses will be in here soon to take Jake to his recovery room. I think we should let him rest. I definitely need some rest too. That procedure took nearly thirteen hours, and I’m exhausted. I need to get some sleep before I figure out how to help his friend.”
Adrian looked up at Doc. “How is his friend doing? What was on his name badge again? Skip, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, I think so. He’s in critical condition right now. He lost way too much blood even to be alive, but he’s still fighting. His left leg from just above the knee down was missing when he came in, and he had a broken rib in his left side that slightly punctured his lung. I fixed that already, but I’ve got to do some more research to figure out how I’m going to fix his leg. I had to remove the rest of his left leg because of infection.”
Adrian gave Doc a puzzled look. “What do you mean more research? How are you going to fix his leg?”
Doc smiled and said, “Oh, that’s a surprise. Sean and I have been working on something that I think will amaze you.”
**********
Jake slowly sensed his body and mind coming out of unconsciousness. The last thing he remembered was looking at the gaping, bloody hole in his stomach and then passing out in the snow. He opened his eyes slowly and tried to sit up. He couldn’t pull himself up and felt sharp pains shoot throughout his stomach. He then felt two hands on his shoulders, forcing him to lie back down, and a familiar voice said, “Careful, son. It’s going to take some time to train the new muscles before you can move very much.”
Jake turned his head groggily to the left and looked up to see where the familiar voice was coming from. Sitting at his bedside was a familiar-looking man. The man’s hair was thinning a little at the top, and his brown hair had gray streaks throughout, but he still looked relatively young. The man had piercing blue eyes that had such a familiarity to them. Behind him stood two women, a young man, and a teenage girl.
The older woman was attractive. She had auburn hair and beautiful brown eyes. She was dressed in green military fatigues, much like the man sitting at Jake’s bedside. To the older woman’s immediate left was a beautiful blond, blue-eyed woman. Jake figured that she was in her twenties. Her blond hair was pulled up into a bun and covered with a black military beret. She was also dressed in green military fatigues. In fact, everyone was dressed the same except for the young teenage girl.
“Jake, how are you feeling, son?”
Jake suddenly snapped out of the trance he was in and tried to figure out who these people were and where he was. “What? Oh … I’m feeling okay. My stomach just hurts. Where am I?”
“We’ll get to that later, but first, let’s get some introductions out of the way.”
Before Jake could respond, he suddenly remembered Skip. He tried to sit up from instinct, but he couldn’t.
“Careful, son. What’s wrong?”
“There was someone with me. His name is Skip. Where is he?”
Jake felt the man place his hands on his shoulders to comfort him. “It’s okay, Jake. Skip is in surgery right now. Doc will take good care of him.”
Relieved, Jake relaxed a little and focused more on the people that were in his room. “Who are you? And … where am I?” he asked.
The familiar man smiled at him and said, “Jake … look at me carefully. You know who I am.”
Jake took a long good look at the man and looked deep into his blue eyes. The man just continued to smile. Suddenly, it hit Jake like a lightning bolt. “Dad!”
Instinctively, he tried to sit up and hug his father, but he couldn’t. He didn’t need to. Adrian leaned down, hugged Jake, and whispered in his ear, “Jake, it’s me. It’s your dad.”
Jake squeezed his father and began to sob. He could feel his father’s tears on his ear. He knew that his dad had missed him just as much as he had missed his father.
After what seemed like an hour of hugging and sobbing, the woman with auburn hair walked next to Adrian, placed both of her hands on the back of his shoulders, and said with a slight accent, “Well … aren’t you going to introduce Jake to the rest of the family?”
Adrian sat up and wiped the tears from his face.
Jake looked at the three ladies in the room and the young man and said, “The rest of the family?”
Adrian, still wiping the tears away, looked at his family in the room, then back at Jake, and smiled. “Yes … the rest of the family.” He waved for them to stand around Jake’s bed. The woman with auburn hair stood next to Adrian, who was still sitting; the blond woman next to her. The young man walked around to the other side of the bed, as well as the teenage girl. All of them gave Jake warm smiles.
Jake felt a little uncomfortable, being in a vulnerable condition and everyone in the room a stranger on another world. Even his own father was a stranger. Nonetheless, here he was, being introduced to a brand new family.
Adrian pointed to the woma
n standing next to him. “This is Anyta, my wife.”
Jake looked surprised.
Anyta leaned down, gently kissed Jake’s cheek, and said, “I am so happy to meet you, Jake.”
Jake smiled as he looked into the warm brown eyes of his stepmother. There was something familiar about her, reminding him of his mother and aunt. “I’m glad to meet you too … uh … Mom.”
Adrian pointed at the blond woman standing next to Anyta. “This is Kylee, your sister. She was also in charge of the special ops team that rescued you and the slaves.”
Jake smiled warmly at his new sister. Kylee reached down and grabbed his hand. She spoke in perfect English. “Dad has told us so much about you, Jake. I’ve always dreamed of meeting you … big brother.”
Adrian also added, “Kylee has proven to be a great leader in our cause. She’s been elevated to captain and commands great respect from her troops in her squadron.”
Jake looked questioningly at his father. “Cause?”
Adrian smiled. “We’ll get to that later, son. But first, let me introduce you to everyone else.” Adrian pointed to the young man standing to the right of Jake’s bed. “This young man is your little brother, Bantyr. He’s in basic training right now. He’s also not a bad pilot himself.”
Jake looked at Bantyr and examined his new brother. He had dark brown hair that was cut in the typical military style and chocolate brown eyes.
Bantyr smiled and shook Jake’s hand. “It’s good to meet you, Jake.”
Jake smiled back, pulled Bantyr in close as he winced in pain, and hugged him. “Don’t be so formal, little brother. Give your big brother a hug.”
After the hug, Bantyr pulled back and smiled shyly. Jake turned to his father and said, “He almost looks like Adam.”
Adrian gave Jake a questioning look. “Adam?"
“We can get to that later, but first, who is this beautiful young lady standing next to Bantyr?”
“This is your baby sister, Jake. Her name is Lexis.”
Lexis leaned down and gently kissed Jake on the cheek, her long, blond hair brushing across his face. “I am so glad to meet you,” she said as she reached into her dress pocket and pulled out a half torn picture. Jake looked at the picture and instantly recognized it as himself when he was about four years of age. Lexis continued. “Dad always talked about you. So, I asked if I could have the only picture he had of you.”
Jake took the picture and looked at it carefully. As he looked at the picture, a flood of emotions swept through him. He remembered the time he had spent with his father before he disappeared. He began to weep as memories flashed through his mind, and here he was now on a strange planet reunited with his father and his new family.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the room as everyone cried with Jake. Jake finally stopped the flood of tears in the room. “I have so many questions for all of you. But first, why is everyone in this room dressed like a green beret, except for Lexis?”
Adrian laughed. “Like I said earlier, we’ll get into that later. I want you to rehabilitate that stomach first. Doc said that when he was finished with your friend, Skip, he would stimulate your new stomach muscles with a new medical program that he and Sean had developed. It’s designed to help your muscles regain full strength within days as compared to months with normal physical therapy.”
Jake nodded, but he wanted answers now. “But, Dad, I want to know everything that has happened to you.”
“I also want to know everything that has happened with you too, Jake. But like I said, I want you and Skip healthy to hear everything. You two have traveled thousands of light years through space and landed right in the middle of a war.”
**********
An hour after speaking with his son, Adrian pushed open the cold steel door that led to the small room dedicated for religious services in the rebel base. The small room could only hold a maximum of one hundred people, but it was wired for sound so that thousands of other people inhabiting the underground base could listen to the weekly meetings.
In the twenty-five years since Adrian crashed landed on this planet, he had not only become their military leader, but their spiritual leader as well because the peoples of both worlds shared one common Deity – Jesus Christ.
After entering the room, he walked to the back and knelt before a Terrestrian artist’s rendition of the Savior. As soon as his knees hit the floor, he burst into tears. He could hardly control his sobbing as he prayed. He thanked his Father for Jake and for Jake’s journey to this new world. He continued to pray and sob, thanking the Lord for everything he was blessed with and to help him with the burden he faced to free the Terrestrian people.
When he finished, he heard someone’s feet shuffle. He quickly turned around.
“Sorry, Adrian. I knew you would be in here.”
Adrian smiled and walked toward Sean Gibson, the computer specialist from the original Mars mission. Sean, dressed in the same military clothing, leaned against the bench in the first row. Sean was now thoroughly bald but still had the same spectacles he had worn twenty plus years ago.
“It’s okay, Sean,” Adrian said. “I needed to come in here and thank our Father in Heaven for all of our blessings.”
Sean just nodded.
Adrian continued, “Anyway, what did you need?”
Sean stood straight up and walked closer toward Adrian. “I just wanted to know how Jake was doing and whether you had told him or not?”
Adrian bowed and shook his head. “Jake is fine. But I couldn’t bring myself to tell him yet.”
With frustration in his voice, Sean said, “Adrian, you know he needs to know the truth.”
Adrian looked back into Sean’s eyes. “The truth, Sean. I don’t even know what the truth is. When I spoke to Jake, I felt impressed not to tell him yet. The spirit told me that he wasn’t ready.”
“I understand, Adrian. But sooner or later, he’s going to find out.”
Adrian nodded in agreement. “I know, but I just don’t think he’s ready to know why I am here …” He paused, turned, and looked into the eyes of his Redeemer in the painting on the wall. “… and most importantly, why he is here.”
**********
Five days later …
Skip sat up in his bed in a dimly lit room. The only light provided in the room was by a lamp that looked like it was made by a boy scout trying to earn a merit badge. The room was small. There was barely enough room for the bed that Skip was in and the other four people in the room. Jake sat in a small wooden rocking chair in the corner of the room. It was still hard for him to stand for long periods of time as his new stomach muscles were not yet at full strength.
A day earlier, Skip had awakened from the complicated surgery he had undergone. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in the strange temple with the hieroglyphs that he wanted desperately to learn more about.
When he had woken up, standing over him was a large, middle-aged black man with an exceptionally warm and inviting smile. The black man introduced himself as Doctor Charles Porter, or “Doc” as everyone else called him. Skip knew who Doc was the moment he told him his name. Doc explained to Skip what injuries he had and how they were mended.
Doc also explained that the reason he continued to feel pain in his side was because he had suffered a broken rib that punctured his lung. Doc had fixed his rib and told him that he would heal quickly from that injury. Skip was surprised when Doc told him to reach down and feel his left leg. Skip, at first, thought the man was crazy. Didn’t he know that he had lost his leg in the crash?
Nonetheless, Skip reached down and felt a leg where just days earlier there wasn’t one. He immediately began to cry when he felt a leg, and what astonished him even more, was the fact that the leg had feeling and was covered in what seemed like human skin.
Doc explained that just days earlier, in what Skip thought was a strange coincidence or some divine intervention, Doc and Sean Gibson had developed the technology to produce cyb
ernetic limbs, which would help so many of the rebel soldiers in their war against the Gnols. The cybernetic leg was made out of some kind of metal alloy that was only indigenous to this planet. Doc said that the metal was actually stronger than stainless steel or other metals found on Earth, and it didn’t rust. Skip couldn’t remember what Doc called it, but continued to be amazed at everything Doc and Sean had done for his new left leg.
Skip learned that smart processors were embedded throughout his new leg. At the top of the cybernetic leg, there was a master smart chip into which his nerves were miraculously threaded. The master chip then sent signals to the other smart chips that acted like a knee, a calf muscle, an ankle, and a foot. As a result, Skip could move his new leg just like his old one without even thinking about it. He also learned that the new leg was hollow so that it wasn’t too heavy for his body, and that the outside of the leg was covered with some sort of synthetic rubber that felt like real skin. He was even more astonished to learn that he could feel as a result of small sensors placed within the rubber that sent signals to his brain.
After learning about his new leg, Doc had Skip walk on it. He broke down in tears of joy because he could walk and run, just like he did before he lost his leg. He immediately hugged Doc after testing his leg. The big doctor hugged him back, and the two seemed to hit if off immediately. And now, here he was a day later, almost entirely back to one hundred percent, the same as Jake.
Skip scratched at the IV in his arm. Doc had told him that he had to continue to receive plasma to help replenish all of the blood he had lost. It was a miracle he was even alive.
Adrian broke the silence first. “I’m so glad to see you doing so well, Skip.”
Skip smiled. “It truly is a miracle. That doctor of yours is the best,” he said, looking at Doc.
Adrian returned his smile. “He is. Except he can have a little ego problem sometimes.”
Doc lightly punched Adrian in the shoulder. “Careful, General, or you’re going to find yourself without a limb, and I won’t replace it.”
Worlds Without End: The Mission (Book 1) Page 10