Stranded in Space

by Rinelle Grey

  Impulsively, he walked across and opened the door. The corridor outside was empty. In the commotion last night, the humans must have forgotten to reassign a guard to his room. Kugah hesitated, but the need to see Amelie was great, so he ventured out into the corridor alone.

  He hadn’t walked more than a few steps down the corridor when he saw a young couple with a baby ahead of him. Kugah braced himself for their looks, be they fearful, angry or accusing. But they weren’t. They looked at him curiously and moved out of the way, but Kugah didn’t smell any fear coming from them.

  Kugah couldn’t help turning and watching them as he passed.

  Why? Why weren’t they afraid that he was walking the corridors alone? Had they heard that he’d helped Nerris out in the engine room? Did they actually believe he wasn’t a threat to them anymore?

  For some reason, instead of making him feel good, that thought sent a shiver of fear through him. Didn’t they know he was dangerous? He was certain their expressions would change quickly enough if he lost his temper again. And he couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t.

  That was the problem with anger. He had no control over it.

  The feeling of discomfort hung over him until he reached the med bay. He hesitated outside the door, but he didn’t really want to walk back to his room alone either. So he knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” Amelie called.

  Too late for doubts.

  Kugah stepped forwards and swiped his hand over the button.

  When he entered, med bay was empty. Apparently none of the injuries in yesterday’s wormhole failure had been serious. Kugah exhaled in relief.

  Amelie smiled when she saw him. “Hi, Kugah. Sorry I hadn’t gotten around to calling you for a chat today. Things have been a little hectic. How are you going?”

  She talked as though he would understand. He had always liked that about her.

  Now though, he did understand. A little anyway. “Kugah, kay. KaGeeGee, kay?”

  She stared at him, her eyes wide. “Are you asking if I’m okay?”

  The effort of making his limited vocal chords form even those few words had been intense, so Kugah just nodded.

  Amelie’s face registered disbelief, and a dose of suspicion. “How long have you been able to understand me?” she demanded.

  Far from upsetting him, her attitude relieved Kugah. Apparently, even if she trusted him, she was still suspicious of anything unexpected. He needed that.

  He wouldn’t feel comfortable with her trusting him when he couldn’t trust himself.

  “Kugah…” He wanted to say that he used the computer, but the words contained only a few sounds he could form, not enough to be understood. Instead, he walked across and tapped the screen on the wall. It came on immediately, so Kugah loaded up the ship schematics, and clicked on the label until the computer read it out.

  Amelie watched silently while he showed her. “You used the read aloud feature on the computer to learn our language?”

  Kugah nodded.

  Her brow wrinkled. “So why aren’t you talking then?”

  “Kugah, can’t.” He tapped his throat.

  Her expression cleared. “Of course. You can’t make the sounds. Well, that’s going to make communication difficult, isn’t it?”

  Kugah exhaled. She understood his problem at least, but he was doubtful of her being able to do anything about it.

  He underestimated her. She turned around and picked up the tablet. “Can you type?”

  Kugah stared at her, then down at the tablet. The top half of the screen was blank, and the bottom half was filled with the scribes that made up the human’s words. Scribes he could use to make the words.

  He took the tablet from her and tried. Yesterday in his room he hadn’t focused so much on what the words looked like, he’d been trying to learn how they sounded, so it was difficult. He touched the keys slowly, hoping they made the word he wanted. “Yess.” It wasn’t quite right.

  It must have been close enough, because the grin on Amelie’s face was almost as wide as his would have been if his face could smile. “Now we can actually talk.”

  Kugah’s blood warmed at the fact that she was as excited as he was. “Yes,” he typed.

  Then he had no idea what to say. When he’d been learning all he could about her language yesterday, he’d thought of so many things he wanted to tell her, and so many questions he’d wanted to ask, but now he suddenly couldn’t remember any of them.

  Chapter 10

  Excitement filled Amelie at all the possibilities. If she and Kugah could communicate—really communicate, there was so much she could learn about him. She started right at the beginning. “How did you come to crash on Semala?”

  Kugah stared at her for a minute, then bent over the tablet. He typed slowly and laboriously. “Left home planet. Scientists running me away.”

  Amelie’s nose wrinkled. That didn’t sound good, and it wasn’t quite what she had imagined. She’d thought he might be on Semala searching for alien life. “The scientists were running you away? Do you mean they chased you away?”

  Kugah shook his head. He bent over the tablet again. “Me running away.”

  “You were running away,” Amelie repeated. She stared at him. “Why?”

  A thousand possibilities filled her mind. Had he done something against the law on his planet? A moment’s concern that they might be unknowingly harbouring a criminal hit her, and then she almost laughed. She and everyone else on this ship were running away from the law on their own planet.

  A few years ago, she never would have imagined a reason for anyone to run away from their own home. How much things had changed.

  Kugah held the tablet with his answer on out to her.

  “Scientists make me weapon. Kugah not like fighting.”

  Amelie stared at him.

  Having a method of communication was actually frustrating her more. His answers gave her half glimpses into his fascinating past, but his typing speed, as well as his grasp of their language, still made communication difficult.

  “The scientists made a weapon for you and wanted you to fight?” she guessed.

  Kugah shook his head. He pointed to the word ‘me’ in his sentence.

  For a moment, Amelie couldn’t figure out why that word was significant. Then she read it in the context of the sentence. “They turned you into a weapon?” She couldn’t keep the horror out of her voice.

  The idea was so crazy, Amelie couldn’t really take in what it meant. Nothing on Urslat even compared. Not to this. The thought of being physically changed into something else, to be dehumanised to that degree, sent a shiver through her.

  How awful must that feel? She looked up, staring into his eyes.

  Kugah nodded. His eyes met hers, their expressionless depths suddenly taking on a whole new meaning. “How? You mean, with genetic engineering? What were you like before?”

  Too many questions. How could he answer them all?

  He nodded again. “Gegetic generring. Kugah…” he broke off, and typed on the tablet. “Very different.”

  His face didn’t show any change, but Aimee wasn’t fooled into thinking he didn’t feel anything. The two words staring back at her from the tablet extruded sadness. Pity welled up in her.

  And sympathy. Both of them were running from a government who didn’t have the right priorities.

  She put a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Kugah.”

  The words were inadequate, but they were all she had.

  Kugah nodded slowly. “Amelie not like that,” he typed. “Not like scientists on Kugah’s world.”

  Being compared to the scientists who had done this to him, even in the negative, horrified her. “Definitely not,” she said firmly. “I’m a doctor. My job is to heal people.”

  “Amelie heal Kugah?”

  Was she imagining things, or did the expression in his eyes look hopeful. She hated to let him down, but there was nothing she could do. “I’m sorry, Kugah. We
only know the very basics of genetic engineering. I can’t help make you the way you were.”

  Kugah nodded, as though he already knew. “Not Amelie’s fault,” he typed. Then he typed his own question. “Why Amelie running away?”

  Amelie sighed. Was it that obvious? She struggled to explain that, even though she could just talk and didn’t have to type. “The people on my planet don’t always do the right thing either,” she began. “We have an overpopulation problem, and they banned a lot of people from having kids. Of course, they had them anyway, some by accident, and some deliberately.”

  Kugah listened intently. Did he understand what she was saying?

  “As a doctor, they wanted me to… kill those unborn babies. I couldn’t do it.” Her voice shook, and she had to pause to take a deep breath to calm herself. Even now, so far away from that moment, the thought sent adrenaline flooding through her.

  Kugah reached out and put a hand on her arm. His fingers were surprisingly gentle, given the hard armour on them. “KaGeeGee good,” he said.

  It wasn’t that she needed anyone else’s approval for her actions. She’d done what was right in her heart and she knew she would do the same again if she had to. However, it was nice to hear that someone else, particularly someone who came from a completely different world, could appreciate her choice.

  “I just did what felt right,” she said dismissively. “Anyway, Tyris’s wife, Marlee, had one of these illegal babies, so when they decided to leave the Colonies, I came with them. They needed a doctor anyway, with all these babies.”

  “Amelie like babies?” Kugah typed.

  Amelie bit back a sigh. Why did she feel that question was so relevant? “Yes,” she admitted. Then she rushed to cover it up. “Everyone likes babies. We’re evolutionarily designed to. We wouldn’t last long as a species if we didn’t.”

  She winced. She was rambling. She didn’t want to discuss this with Kugah. She didn’t want to discuss it with anyone. “Why did your world need a weapon?” she asked instead, turning the conversation back on him.

  Kugah wrote a short sentence on the tablet. “Gokak like to fight.”

  It just raised more questions. Who were the Gokak? Was that the name of Kugah’s people? And the simple sentiment, of them liking to fight, sent shivers up Amelie’s spine. “Fight with who?”

  It clearly wasn’t them. So that meant it was either among themselves, or there was another race of aliens in the galaxy that they hadn’t discovered. Either option was disconcerting.

  Kugah’s answer didn’t really clarify anything. “Everyone.”

  Amelie wasn’t sure she wanted to know. “How far away are they?” she asked instead.

  “Long way. Amelie not fear them. Not yet.”

  She suspected he was trying to reassure her, but it didn’t work. “Not yet?” she squeaked.

  “Amelie not on human planets with other humans,” Kugah typed.

  “Does that mean they’re planning on attacking the Colonies?” How could he seem so calm about it?

  “You not part of Colonies.”

  “I may not be, but billions of other people are,” Amelie said flatly. “If your people are going to attack them, then we need to warn them.”

  If they would listen.

  “Are your people planning to attack the Colonies?” she demanded again. If they were, perhaps they could still contact one of the outer plants, and they could send a message through to Urslat.

  But she knew they were out of communications range, even without asking Nerris. So even if they did find out that aliens were going to attack, they had no way of warning the billions of people in the Colonies.

  The thought made her sick.

  Kugah’s typing was painfully slow. Amelie stared over his shoulder at his explanation.

  “Not that Kugah knows. They seem scared of humans.”

  Scared? Of humans?

  That made no sense. “Are they all like you?” she asked.

  “No, Kugah people not like this. Others are like this. Gokak. Not Kugah’s people.”

  Amelie frowned. Apparently Kugah wasn’t a Gokak. “Go..kak?” she sounded out the word. “Who, or what, are they?”

  “Gokak.” Kugah repeated the word, his pronunciation sounding more like a growl. The sound was ominous. Then he picked up the tablet again.

  “Gokak aliens who invaded Kugah’s world. They fight everyone. Conquer everyone. Kugah’s people, Sofana, not like that.” Kugah typed. “Sofana gentle. Good. Kugah Sofana, not Gokak. Was.”

  His words were almost desperate, and the way he looked at her when she read them told her that he was searching for forgiveness. For understanding.

  She couldn’t imagine what that must be like, a gentle, peaceful race, enslaved by aliens and turned into fighting machines.

  “What you look like on the outside isn’t who you are,” she said softly, putting a hand on his arm. “Just because you have armour and weapons doesn’t mean you have to fight.”

  Kugah nodded, but Amelie suspected he didn’t believe her. She’d have to think about that later. Right now, she had more pressing concerns.

  “Kugah,” she said carefully. “I’m going to have to tell Tyris about this. You know that, right? If there is any chance the Gokak might attack my people, we need to warn them as soon as we can.”

  Kugah looked at her solemnly for a moment, then nodded. He bent over the tablet for a moment, then held it up to her. “Kugah not attack humans.”

  Amelie put a hand on his arm. “I know that, Kugah. I didn’t think you would. I trust you.”

  It was strange, but she did. Somewhere in the last few days, she’d stopped seeing the huge, black, armoured alien as any sort of threat.

  She should be worried about that, especially in the light of the information he’d shared with her today. But she wasn’t.

  “Kugah Amelie’s friend,” Kugah typed.

  Amelie smiled when she read the words. Yes, that’s exactly how she felt. “I’m your friend too, Kugah.”

  Kugah reached for the keys on the tablet, but before he could type anything, the door slid open. Amelie patted his arm, and rose to see who it was. Hopefully it wasn’t anyone who would make Kugah uncomfortable.

  But when she looked up, it was Folly and Kerit.

  Amelie smiled at them. “Were you looking for Kugah?” she asked.

  Kerit shook his head. Both he and Folly were looking rather uncomfortable. “Um, no, we wanted to talk to you actually, about a medical issue.”

  “Of course,” Amelie said immediately. “Kugah, you’ll have to come back later.”

  “That’s okay,” Kerit said quickly, “Kugah can stay. This won’t take long.”

  Amelie looked over at Folly, but though she bit her lip, she nodded too. “That’s fine.”

  “Come in and sit down then,” Amelie said, waving to the two chairs in front of her. “What’s up?”

  Kerit looked over at Folly, and she shook her head slightly.

  What was it? Amelie hoped it was nothing serious.

  “Folly missed her period,” Kerit said frankly. “We’re worried she might be pregnant.”

  Even though she could see that the thought concerned both of them, Amelie couldn’t help feeling relieved. She’d been worried it was something more serious.

  “Do you have any other symptoms?” she asked.

  Folly glanced over at Kerit, then back to Amelie. “I’ve been kind of grumpy, and snapping at Kerit a lot the last couple of days.”

  “I hadn’t noticed.” Kerit grinned.

  Folly glared at him, and he gave a small laugh, then tried to look serious. “Sorry, not the time for jokes. But I would be more concerned if you were being nice to me.”

  Folly punched him lightly on the arm. “How about the fact that I’ve burst into tears twice the last two days?”

  Kerit nodded, his face solemn. “That is unusual. And don’t forget the hot and cold thing.” He turned to Amelie. “She’s been asking me to turn t
he air conditioning up and down like a yo-yo.”

  “Any soreness or tenderness of your breasts?” Amelie asked.

  “Yeah, a little,” Folly said, nodding.

  “Right, let’s check that for you,” Amelie said briskly. “Folly, if you’d like to come with me. Kerit, you can wait with Kugah.”

  It took only a few minutes to take the necessary samples, then she returned Folly to Kerit, and ran the samples through the machines.

  Kerit and Kugah were communicating through the tablet, and Amelie watched in amusement. Kerit was as excited about it as she had been. And he was asking entirely different questions. “How long were you on Semala before we found you?”

  Amelie couldn’t see Kugah’s reply, but she wasn’t bothered. She’d look later.

  Folly sat down beside Kerit, her face nervous and drawn. For a moment, Amelie was worried Kerit was so busy communicating with Kugah, he wouldn’t respond to her, but he looked over at her and smiled, rubbing his hand on her knee. She moved a little closer to him.

  Chicken’s head peeked out of Folly’s pocket and stared up at her. Amelie was glad to see she was safe. She’d forgotten the little creature went missing in the drama yesterday. “Where did you find her?” she asked.

  Talking about Chicken seemed to relieve some of Folly’s stress. She patted the creature’s head, and gave a small smile. “She was hiding in Kugah’s ship, of all places. She was probably scrounging for shiny things in there, and when the whole ship started shaking, the dark hole seemed like the safest place around.”

  Amelie shook her head with a grin “Probably as safe as anywhere,” she agreed.

  Kerit was still talking to Kugah. “So did you know there were people on the planet, or did you think they’d all left?”

  The machine beeped, and Chicken’s head ducked back inside Folly’s pocket. Amelie looked over at the results. Both Kerit and Folly looked up at her immediately, and she was happy to be able to report the outcome to them. “No, you’re not pregnant, Folly.”

  Kerit looked relieved, but Folly only looked a little happier. “Then why did I miss my period?”

  “Well, you’ve probably been eating differently than you’re used to, not to mention living on a space ship instead of underground. Everybody reacts differently to stress, and some people stop menstruating. Unless it’s happening regularly, I wouldn’t be too bothered by it. It could just be a few days late. I can run a few more tests and see if anything obvious pops up. The results will take a couple of days though.”