Anna groggily muttered. “I’m not ill, just tired.” She sat up and nearly bounced off the bed. “What the...” Now, she not only felt uncoordinated, she also felt very light. “Is your ship gravity lighter than Earth’s gravity?”
Liso blinked. “Those things wrapped around you. What are they?” He pointed at Anna’s blankets.
“Blankets, they keep me warm when I sleep. It feels too chilly to sleep in here without them. The temperature felt fine when I moved around. But, I got chilled when I tried to go to sleep.”
“I still fail to understand. You feel too cold to sleep without them?” Liso shook his head. “Are you sure, you feel well?”
Anna laughed. “I am fine. Desvren seems to be hungry again though. I wondered, can I eat your food or will it make me sick?”
“We heal sickness. The sickness that resided inside of you no longer exists. The little slow deaths, the premature aging, we healed that. I don’t understand how humans stay alive. Their bodies continually die instead of living. We showed your body how to heal itself instead of slowly dying.”
“Now, I can’t understand you. Let me ask Desvren to explain it.” Anna reached for Desvren and first asked him about the gravity. The Golsidan home planet, Golria’s gravity equaled only point six two of Earth’s gravity. Shipboard gravity stayed set at eighty-five percent of Golria’s gravity. So, Anna felt light and uncoordinated. She’d need to do strenuous activity or an exercise regimen to prevent bone mass and muscle tone loss.
As for her cancer, it was gone. Desvren and the other two medics healed it out of her body when she first arrived. He couldn’t explain it, medic/healers naturally healed sickness and they also taught her how to heal herself. But, how much healer strength she’d develop remained unknown. With Des’s help, she’d live like a Golsidan to be over two hundred and healthy. Anna felt glad to be sitting down, because the next revelation shocked her even more.
You no longer qualify as old. We rejuvenated you back to your late teens or early twenties age-wise for your body. Also, we changed your brain chemistry.
Why? Anna asked shocked. Desvren reassured her.
We needed to take you back to when you reached full growth, but before your cells started to die in a profusion of small deaths. Human bodies age quickly. They begin to slowly die right after they finish maturing. Golsidans age differently; we begin to die once we reach over two hundred years of age.
Liso, Tava, and Des also decided to change Anna’s brain for two reasons. First, they wanted to make her brain more impact resistant, thickening the fluid around her brain into a shock absorbing gel. Most importantly though, they altered her memory centers slightly giving her the ability to experience learning trances which Golsidans used to pass on information, allowing Desvren to teach her through sleeping trances and giving her the ability to remember it instead of forgetting it again. That decided it for Anna. She’d already lived her human life. She stood to lose nothing and to gain everything, a new life with an alien race. Plus, she had Desvren.
So, Anna got her explanation and she understood it. She got Desvren some more food. He ate his plateful as she devoured three strawberry pop tarts. “When will you do these brain changes on me?” She asked.
Desvren laughed. “You can’t feel the difference. One more good sleep finishes it.”
“You already started it?”
“I started it thirty-five annuals ago. Otherwise, your subconscious mind would have remembered nothing of me, my visit, or that I planned to return for you.”
“Okay. Having you just show up would have been pretty scary, if I remembered nothing about you.”
“The first time, you hit me with a walking stick.” Anna’s mouth dropped open. Des smiled and nodded. “Many times, you hit me. I tried to get you to let go of the stick. I want to strengthen your braincase against impact because you broke that stick over my head. It hurt. But, it caused no permanent damage. A human head couldn’t have handled that. You seemed unafraid. I showed up on your doorstep and told you I needed to enter and talk to you. You called me a whacko and took the stick to me.”
“I… I… don’t remember doing that.” Anna felt torn between shock and laughter. Shock, that she’d done such a thing and not retained a memory of it. Laughter, at the images Des tossed at her. Mental pictures of him talking and ducking the stick, hopping, skipping around in circles, trying to avoid the stick, repeatedly asking her to please put the stick down. The last impression showed him standing stunned and cross-eyed, holding the broken stick in his hands.
“I remember it well though.” Desvren smiled. “You possess a warrior’s heart. You don’t give in to fear. You fight.”
“I’m sorry. I ah...” Anna still felt unsure whether she should laugh or beg for forgiveness. “You stayed and talked to me after I broke a stick over your head.”
“Oh, yes. I refused to turn away after that. No, you proofed yourself able to handle anything that night. An alien showed up on your doorstep and you… Well, as your people say it. You kicked ass.” Desvren chuckled. “I didn’t want to leave after that.”
Now, that the shock was wearing off Anna’s lips twisted up into a smirk. “I really took a walking stick to you. Wait; was it the one with the metal wire handle wrap?” Desvren nodded. “I thought I lost that. I ended up making another one.”
“Yes. I needed to take it with me. You would have wondered about it being broken. I knew you wouldn’t remember most of our encounter. I wanted to avoid a broken stick reminding you of your initial reaction to me. I needed you to remember me fondly. The stick hangs in my personal cabin. I cherish it as my most prized possession.”
Anna broke out into a laugh. “Well, if I broke it over your head. I guess you earned the right to keep it.”
Des nodded. “Yes. Even the Phsatorae agreed I earned the right to keep the stick.”
“You told the Phsatorae that I broke a walking stick over your head.” No human male ever willingly admitted it when something like that happened to him.
Desvren nodded. “He seemed most pleased.”
“I think I need to learn more about you guys. You react differently than human males. What are you going to teach me first?”
“First tonight, I finish the brain changes. Tomorrow, when you sleep I’ll start teaching you about my people. Our ways, our traditions, the things we teach our children. Then, I plan to begin instructing you in the agri-farm trade. That way, you possess something constructive to do.”
Anna nodded. “Good, if I just sit around, all of this seems overwhelming, but working on something allows me to feel like I’m making progress.”
“We both still feel tired. Let’s go to sleep.”
Anna didn’t even contemplate arguing because she indeed felt tired once again.
The next day Desvren and Anna worked on unpacking the boxes. They seemed to have multiplied overnight. Then, she opened one completely filled with books. She looked over at Des.
Des smiled, walked over, and hugged her. “I didn’t want you to have to leave everything behind. I packed most of your clothes, your music box and music, and your books. I left a few of each behind for your brother. Golsidan society doesn’t have an alphabetic written language. We use symbols for our records keeping and for electronic keyboards on the processors. Our history, legends, and teachings get passed on mind to mind. I thought you might miss the written word. It represents a huge part of your culture.”
“Thank you, Desvren.” Anna felt choked up. “Maybe I can read to you sometime. I always liked sharing a good book.”
“I’d enjoy that. If you feel up to it, I would appreciate you coming with me and meeting a couple of my oldest friends.”
Anna nodded. “Okay, who are they?”
“Yerly and Kimbo, the oldest tai’twain pair to choose to come on this mission and they also hold positions as Satorae Elders.” Des took a deep breath. “They are dying.”
Anna’s eyes shot to Des’s. “Both of them?”
Des nodded. “It happens that way with most tai’twain pairs. Yerly sickened first. Kimbo used his healing abilities to heal him, again and again. Now, Kimbo has weakened and they both got sick.”
“Couldn’t someone else heal them?”
Des shook his head sadly. “A combination of their age and malnutrition causes it. Yerly has lived for two hundred and forty-seven years; Kimbo two hundred and forty-nine. At that age, healing causes great pain to the patient. The organs become so weak that they deteriorate quickly. Within two days of healing them, they revert to their previous weak condition. Plus, the malnutrition takes a long time to subside in the elderly. They absorb nutrients far less efficiently, especially concerning vitamins. It would take over an annual at double portions for them to regain their lost weight and vitality.”
“What about you and the others though? How long before you get back to normal?”
“I and those under one hundred and forty will recuperate our energy level in a couple of weeks at full portions. The weight will take a couple of months to regain. Those older need longer to recover. Yerly and Kimbo are beyond help and they know it. They just wish to pass comfortably.” Des shrugged. “A healer always stays with them, blocking their pain. Soon, they’ll slip into a sleep and never awaken again. Liso informed them that you came on board and they want to meet you. They powerfully supported this mission.”
“Please bring me to them.” As Anna followed Des out to the hall, she realized in this case her true age helped her. She’d lived long enough to have set bedside vigils to the dying. Death wasn’t a stranger to her. She’d also witnessed people in enough pain to realize that death sometimes offered a welcome release. Something Des said clicked in her mind and made her startle.
He stopped and turned to her. “What?” He gently asked.
“If you can’t heal the elderly, how did you heal me?”
Des smiled widely. “Humans age differently than Golsidans. We stay healthy until our cells degrade. It becomes impossible to heal organs worn down like a threadbare rug, their very fibers degraded and dissolved by time and use. You patch one spot only to have another spot tear. Humans, on the other hand, age through little deaths. Injuries, disease, or even toxic air, water, and food, cause little portions of them to die. The rest remains healthy. But, it carries a heavier workload with each little death.” Des took her hand and resumed walking.
“So, I wasn’t worn out. I just needed to have some bad spots patched?”
“Yes, but, in all actuality, we choose not to patch you.” Anna startled again and Des chuckled. “You see, Golsidans possess a natural healing ability. We heal damage instead of merely patching over it. When we incur an injury, our bodies reabsorb the damaged tissue and use the healthy cells as a blue print to recreate the harmed portion. So, we sustain births not deaths at the cellular level. Human nuclei divide to fill injuries. This weakens them. We simply start over by building fresh biological units. It takes more energy. But, the healings remain stronger for longer periods. Plus, the youth and vitality of the new cells keeps us young compared to humans of the same age. We simply taught you to heal like a Golsidan.”
“You call that simple?”
“It seems simple to us.” Des smiled.
“What about the cancer?”
“That posed more difficultly for us. Diseases always prove to be harder than injuries to heal. Golsidans get illnesses also. A Golsidan removes such an affliction from his body by absorbing every contaminated part, and then healing the injuries the dissolution makes. If a condition gets discovered early, a Golsidan can heal himself of it. The more advanced cases need other healers to help because, it takes more energy than one healer alone possesses. Every single diseased cell needs to be taken in. Just one left behind causes the illness to return. Your cancer had advanced to the point where I needed Liso and Tava to help me, heal you.” They stopped in front of a door. “Are you sure, you want to meet Yerly and Kimbo? In their current condition, they’d understand if you choose not to.”
Anna cocked her head at Des. “They traveled thousands of light years to come here to the Earth’s moon. I can at least walk down a hall and cover the rest of the distance.” Anna hit the door release as Des broke out laughing.
Tava meet them with a smile and led them into a bedroom. On the bed, lay the two most emancipated figures Anna had ever seen. The only way to describe them was sunken. Their muscles had shriveled onto their bones, their skin drawn back wrinkled and creased into their muscles, and their very bones seemed to sag under even that frail weight. Their Isadi Suits lay billowed out around them on all sides. A silent and grim testimonial to the size they used to be. As Anna approached the bed, she shuddered as her mind reckoned the fact that they once easily matched Des’s size.
Anna clutched Des’s hand in a vice-grip hold. Her voice barely squeaked above a whisper as she managed a shaky. “Hello.”
Both of their eyes snapped open and spun to pinpoint on her. Feeble hands crawled across the bedspread until they clasped onto one another. Their faces broke out into wide grins that showed pale gums rimmed with blood.
“I am Yerly and this is Kimbo. We feel honored to meet you. For a long time, we wished for a human to join us.” Even though, he spoke softly and at a carefully measured pace Yerly stopped speaking to gasp for air. Tava placed a hand on his shoulder.
Kimbo’s voice echoed low within his chest in a hollow, raspy sound. Anna strained to hear him. “We feel optimism for the future. Seeing you here proves that our hope isn’t false.” They both turned and looked into each other’s eyes.
“Now, we will rest in peace.” Yerly whispered.
Kimbo’s nod barely moved his head. Together, they spoke. “The mission, the journey, the future more than equals the cost.” Their eyes closed and they slept with their hands still entwined.
Anna barely managed to hold back her tears, as she turned to Des. “Des, are they okay?” She asked shakily.
Des pulled her gently into his arms. “They sleep peacefully. None of us thought they would last this long. They desperately wished to meet you.” Des rubbed her back gently. “How many people get to see their wish for the future realized, before they die? You being here made their dream come true. They rest happily.”
Des led her back to their room with his arm wrapped around her. They went straight to bed. “Des, the malnutrition is killing Yerly and Kimbo. Isn’t it?”
“Yes, their age makes them very susceptible to it.” Des said. “Kimbo and Yerly are the worst off. The weakest of the other elderly has months before they get beyond recovery.”
Anna sighed and curled up as close to Desvren as possible. Months remained to try to improve things. Des planned to mind her agri-farm. Now, she possessed a reason besides boredom to want to harvest. She snuggled her cheek up against Des’s neck and tumbled into sleep.
CHAPTER 3
Welcome to the Garden
Anna woke up in the morning feeling energetic and refreshed. When she looked at the digital clock, twelve after one, she knew that the Golsidans called this early morning the warm and it was a good time to harvest. She knew where the gardens grew inside the ship, what plants they held in them, and even the non-food uses for those plants.
Anna lay there in total shock. Wow! Mind to mind trance learning rocked. If school learning happened this easily, being a straight A student wouldn’t pose any problems. She leaned over and touched her forehead to Desvren’s. He still slept deeply. The teaching took a lot out of the instructor. I’m going to the gardens, she sent. I’ll put some fruit on the bedside table for you. Anna went and ordered some unripe greal which possessed the most vitamins and some gesar which happened to be Desvren’s favorite fruit. She left the plate on the bedside table, brushed a kiss on Desvren’s cheek, and headed out the door.
Anna tried to move slowly because, she found herself bouncing in the low gravity. The closest garden grew in East 1. It took her a while to find a backpack basket and picking nets in the very back o
f the storage cubicle. The harvest knifes hung prominently at eye height on the door. Anna hefted one and realized it possessed the perfect balance needed for throwing.
An image popped into her mind, takosund! A hugely oversized snake-like creature with four pairs of gripping arms and four nerve nodes, the constrictor reptiles always posed a danger and often with age turned into deadly predators. Each nerve node needed to be severed to immobilize the takosund. Anna stood frozen in fear with the knife gripped in her shaking hand. Takosund roamed freely in the central garden, a placement bestowed on them when the Ladreti Khwa set out on its maiden voyage many decades ago. The takosund, renkumon, tasmewu, and mewu set loose in the ship’s central garden produced the only source of edible meat available to the crew. Takosund preyed on the smaller game and Golsidans hunted the takosund. But the Ladreti Khwa only carried a skeleton crew. The hunts happened infrequently. The takosund now severely overpopulated the garden. Since, the species never stopped growing, they years ago achieved great size, making them very deadly.
A mental overview of the garden design broke the fears grip on Anna. The garden she planned entering lay on the outside ring. The ksenio tanks formed a barrier between this garden and the jungle center where takosund lived. The walkways over those tanks contained an electrical field woven throughout them, preventing the takosund from crossing them. Of course, you also needed to remember not to drag anything across the walkway or you got zapped. The field had an on/off switch and a power gauge. Anna walked over to the nearest control panel and called up information. Yes, the electrical field operated at full power in this garden.
Anna let out the breath that her lungs clung to fearfully. Gardening she could handle. She wanted to harvest the food. Bring in enough of it and partial rations would disappear into a thing of the past. Dealing with oversized snakes, takosund required thought and time, but harvesting she felt ready to do now. She went back to the storage closet and strapped on two knives and a harvesting machete. She put on the backpack and tied the picking nets to her belt. She walked over to the garden doors.
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 4