Stranded in Space

by Rinelle Grey

  Turning back to Junie, she visually examined the woman for any signs of a fall, but there was no bruising or blood anywhere, and a fall big enough to cause this sort of an effect should be obvious. She needed to perform a few tests, and see if she could get to the bottom of this. “Thanks for your help, Kugah,” she said. “No knowing how long she would have been wandering around if you hadn’t brought her in.”

  She was about to turn around, but Kugah started typing on the tablet so she waited, curbing her impatience for the slow method of communication.

  “Kugah stay in case Amelie need help.”

  Amelie opened her mouth to say she’d be fine, then shut it again. Junie was compliant enough now, but if she became confused again, and tried to leave, then she might need assistance. And there wasn’t anyone else.

  “Okay,” she agreed. “Take a seat over there, out of the way.”

  Kugah nodded and sat down silently. He stayed quiet while Amelie worked, his eyes following her.

  His presence was strangely reassuring.

  Just to be sure she wasn’t dealing with something completely unexpected, Amelie took a few blood samples for testing. With the gas helping to relax her, and the increasing pressure of the contractions, Junie didn’t object. She probably barely felt the needle.

  As she tended to the woman’s needs, Amelie’s mind was running at a million miles an hour. What could explain Junie’s strange behaviour? What did this list of symptoms add up to?

  She stepped away from Junie for a moment to check the computer, where preliminary results from the blood test were beginning to show up. No signs of a virus.

  Amelie reached for her hand scanner and tried to be subtle as she moved it around Junie’s head. The woman was so deep in a contraction, she barely noticed.

  The brain scan showed no signs of injury.

  Amelie frowned. This didn’t make any sense. If Junie were thirty years older, she’d wouldn’t hesitate to call this dementia, most likely Alzheimer’s, but the age just didn’t fit. Nor did the sudden onset.

  Just like menopause in Folly didn’t fit.

  A cold chill ran up Amelie’s spine.

  She gave herself a shake. No need to jump to conclusions. Two cases with similar issues didn’t mean there was something sinister going on. There was nothing to say these cases were connected.

  Then Junie’s groans escalated into a wail, and Amelie had her hands full delivering a baby.

  Kugah watched from his chair across the room, but to Amelie’s relief, his help wasn’t required. Junie didn’t put up any resistance to her ministrations, and before long, Amelie had lifted up the tiny wailing infant, and checked and weighed her.

  Now that her labour was over and the pain gone, she turned down the nitrous, and the gas quickly left Junie’s system. Then she held out the baby to her. “Do you want to meet your daughter?”

  Junie stared at her. “I don’t have a daughter,” she said flatly.

  Amelie’s heart rate picked up. “Yes you do, she was just born,” she reminded the woman. “Here she is.” She held the baby out, hoping maternal instinct would kick in.

  Junie stared at it blankly. “I don’t have a baby. I’ve never been pregnant.”

  Not for the first time, Amelie wished she wasn’t the only doctor on board. She needed someone to discuss this case with, to bounce ideas off, or better yet, to hand this problem over to.

  But there was no one else. Just her.

  Oh sure, she could tell Tyris all about it, but he had no medical knowledge. He’d listen patiently, then tell her to do what she thought was best.

  She was on her own on this one.

  She left Junie, who was now staring blankly off into space, and cleaned and wrapped the baby, and placed her into a crib. She stared down at the infant, who fidgeted and fussed until she found her fist to suck on, and wondered what she was going to do.

  It was plain she couldn’t leave the baby in Junie’s care. Not until she’d sorted out what was wrong with her. Until then, her duty was clear. She’d have to care for the infant.

  She was perfectly capable of doing that. She knew all about babies, and how to take care of their needs.

  The hardest part was going to be keeping her distance and not getting too attached. Because Junie would be up and back to normal in no time.

  She’d better be.

  *****

  Once Amelie had settled Junie into a bed, the exhausted new mum went almost straight to sleep. Amelie watched her for a few moments, then turned to Kugah. “Thanks for your help. I think I’ll be all right now.”

  Kugah stared at her for a moment, then typed, “Amelie sure? Kugah can stay. Woman might wake up and be angry.”

  “She’s not angry,” Amelie reassured him. “Just confused. I have some sedatives ready, just in case she gets aggressive. I can handle it.”

  Kugah stood and came over to her, and Amelie was suddenly far too conscious of his closeness. She took a slow breath, trying to calm her racing heart. She could be normal around him, even after everything. She had to.

  Kugah held up the tablet to show her the words.

  “Amelie should be careful.”

  She should be careful, but not of Junie. What she needed to watch out for was the way her mind was so easily distracted by his closeness. She couldn’t help remembering how warm his armour was. Such a strange feeling, for something so hard and unforgiving to be pleasantly warm.

  She shook her head. Those were the last kind of thoughts she needed. She already had enough problems to solve with Junie and her baby.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said shortly. “And right now, I need to take care of this baby, then see if I can get some sleep before Junie wakes up.”

  Kugah looked uncertain. Amelie really wanted to take a step back, to get away from the conflict his closeness raised in her, but she didn’t want to hurt him. Regardless of her strange feelings, he was her friend.

  “Amelie send for Kugah if there are any problems?”

  Amelie felt her heart melt a little. For an alien warrior, he really was a sweetie.

  “If there’s anything I can’t handle, I’ll send for you, okay?”

  Kugah searched her eyes for a few moments, then nodded. “KaGeeGee, garegul,” he said.

  For some reason, the way he said her name, all guttural and mixed up, was endearing. As was his concern that she be careful.

  Not that she couldn’t handle herself. She had been grateful for Kugah’s presence during Junie’s labour, but that was because she might need an assistant if there were any problems, not because she couldn’t handle a civilian who was a little rowdy.

  But all that was too much to explain to Kugah. Instead, she just nodded. “I will be,” she told him.

  Even with that reassurance, Kugah stared at her one last time, before turning and walking out of med bay.

  Then Amelie was alone with a newly born infant, if you didn’t count her ill, sleeping mother.

  As if knowing the direction her thoughts were taking, the little girl set up a healthy wail.

  She was hungry.

  Amelie looked over at Junie, but she didn’t stir. There was still a possibility that when she woke up, she would be back to normal. That was what Amelie hoped for anyway.

  She stepped to the cupboard and pulled out a can of formula and began mixing it up. The baby continued to wail, her cries slowly getting louder and more intense. Surely she was going to wake her mother soon?

  Amelie hoped she would.

  She put the bottle of formula into a bowl of warm water to heat.

  “Can someone shut that noise?” Junie’s voice was annoyed. Amelie looked over to see her looking at her baby in what could only be described as disgust.

  Amelie tried to keep her voice calm and gentle, even though her annoyance spiked at the woman’s words. The comment was harsh, even if she didn’t remember that the baby was hers. “That ‘noise’ is your baby,” she told her firmly. “And she’s hungry.”

>   “I don’t have a baby,” Junie said immediately. “I’m a lawyer, and I don’t have time to have children, I told Mike that. Where is Mike? Where am I?”

  Amelie didn’t know the woman’s full story, but she’d gleaned from a few throwaway comments that Mike, her ex-husband, had left when she’d decided she’d rather risk further criminal charges than abort her baby. Apparently he’d been more sure he didn’t want kids than Junie had been.

  Junie, at least, must have changed her mind, since she’d joined the rebels to keep her baby.

  “You’re on board the Resolution,” she said gently. “Do you remember anything?”

  Junie looked confused. “The Resolution, that’s a spaceship, right?” She looked up at Amelie, her eyes dark and worried. “What’s wrong with me, Dr Benton? Why can’t I remember anything?”

  “I don’t know,” Amelie told her. “But we’re going to figure it out.”

  Junie bit her lip, and nodded. “I hope so.”

  She still didn’t ask about her baby, and Amelie hesitated. Seeing the child and bonding with her could help the new mum, but she was a little concerned the woman might hurt the infant in her agitation.

  Then it seemed like the baby’s wails cut through Junie’s confusion. She stared over at her child, and her nose wrinkled. “Is that my baby?”

  Despite her misgivings, Amelie picked the child up and her crying stopped. She brought her across to Junie, though she kept hold of the baby. “Yes, it is. Do you want to see her?”

  Junie stared at the baby for a few minutes, then she shook her head. “That isn’t my baby,” she said firmly. “She has blue eyes, and mine are brown. So are Mike’s. She can’t be our child.”

  “It’s not unusual for a baby to be born with blue eyes. They could turn brown later,” Amelie assured her. “And either you, or Mike, or both of you, could have recessive genes for blue eyes.”

  “That’s not true,” Junie said firmly. “You’re just trying to trick me into taking a baby that isn’t mine. Why would you do something like that? What’s in it for you?”

  Amelie knew that arguing with the woman wouldn’t help. She truly believed the things she was saying, and logic couldn’t break through the short term memory loss. Junie had undergone such dramatic changes in the last year of her life, that telling her them must seem like a fantastical lie.

  “I’m sorry,” she said soothingly. “Why don’t you go back to sleep? You must be tired.”

  “I am tired,” Junie exclaimed. “Why am I tired? Did you do something to me to make me tired?” She tried to struggle to her feet, but the strain of wandering around the halls in labour for goodness knows how long, followed by childbirth, meant she didn’t have the energy to do so.

  Amelie put the baby back in her crib, ignoring the renewed cries and tried to gently push Junie back onto the bed. “You need to rest now, Junie,” she said firmly.

  “No. Let me go. I won’t be restrained here. You can’t abort my baby. I won’t let you!”

  “I’m not going to abort your baby,” Amelie said quietly, playing along with the delusion the woman was experiencing. “I want to help you. Your baby is sick, and you need to rest.”

  “She’s sick?” Junie’s hands spread out across her stomach. “What’s wrong?”

  Amelie fought the impulse to assure her that her baby was fine, and to show her the infant. That wasn’t going to help right now. “She just needs you to rest and she’ll be okay.”

  “No, you’re lying to me. If they find out, they’ll kill her.” Junie’s voice rose in a panic. She pushed Amelie away and tried to stand. Her feet became tangled in the sheet that fell off the bed, and she tripped and almost fell on Amelie.

  Amelie caught her, and lifted her bodily back onto the bed. “Lie down,” she said firmly. “You need to stay here.” With her other hand, she reached for the sedative she’d prepared earlier.

  “No! I won’t.”

  Junie shoved Amelie away and stepped towards the door. Amelie caught her from behind and slipped the needle into her arm, injecting the sedative in one swift movement.

  “What did you do to me?” Junie screamed. She fought like a wildcat in Amelie’s grip, and it took all her strength to hold her long enough for the sedative to take effect.

  When she finally slumped in Amelie’s arms, the doctor sighed in relief. She eased the woman back on the bed and stared at her sadly. She hoped she could figure out what was wrong. Junie didn’t deserve this. No one did. The woman should be smiling happily and enjoying her new baby.

  As the new mum’s face relaxed into sleep, Amelie got up and turned towards the baby. Her work wasn’t done yet.

  Picking up the infant, she checked on the temperature of the formula. Typically, it had gone cold in all that fuss. She sighed, tipped it down the sink and started again.

  “It’s okay,” she said softly to the baby. “We’ll sort your mummy out. And in the meantime, I’ll look after you, don’t worry.”

  She sang a soft lullaby to the baby, one her mother had sung to her as a child, and the little blue eyes stared up at her, so innocent and trusting. Amelie felt a tug at her heart. It would be so easy to pretend, just for a minute, that this little baby was hers.

  But she couldn’t. Not while the mother lay sedated in her med bay. She owed it to this baby to heal her mum, not try to be her mum.

  She tried to stay aloof, as the baby sucked greedily on the bottle. But the little blue eyes haunted her, even once they closed in a peaceful sleep.

  Chapter 15

  Kugah stared at the computer, wondering what words he should type into the search to tell him the things he wanted to know.

  Well, it would probably help if he actually knew what he wanted. The only way he could think to describe it was that he wanted to make Amelie smile.

  Because when she smiled, he didn’t hate himself quite so much.

  What sort of things would she like? He didn’t know enough about humans to even start to guess.

  That was where he needed to start. “What do humans like?” he started to type into the keyboard. Then he paused, and erased the words. Amelie didn’t think of herself as a human. That was so much a part of her that it was transparent.

  He thought for a moment, then typed, “What do women like?”

  The helpful computer filled in several possible additions to his question. The first one was, ‘What do women like in bed?’

  Kugah stared at it. Like in bed? What was the computer talking about? What did anyone like in a bed, other than for it to be safe, warm, and comfortable? He was tempted to click on the question, just to figure out what it was talking about, but that would distract him from his actual question.

  Which was to find out how he could make Amelie happy.

  She’d acted completely normally today, when he’d brought the woman in to med bay, but she’d been too busy to really talk to him. And he wanted to talk to her. He wanted to sit and have long, deep, meaningful conversations.

  He didn’t want things to be awkward, like they had when she had come into his room.

  So he hit search on his original question.

  Hundreds of articles appeared in the search results, and not being able to know which was the best, Kugah started with the first one, titled ‘10 things women like in a man’. He was a man, so this article would surely help him to make Amelie smile.

  The first item on the list was ‘a sense of humour’. Kugah had to look that up in a separate window. Someone who said funny things or told jokes. He frowned. He wasn’t sure he could think of anything to joke about right now, the situation for everyone on the ship looked grim, but he could try.

  The next thing on the list was someone who listened. Kugah nodded. He could do that. He liked listening to Amelie.

  He read on down the list. Someone who helped around the house. Kugah frowned. They didn’t live in a house, but he did help around the ship. Amelie had been happy when he’d helped Nerris switch off the AWP. That point seemed reas
onable. He resolved to continue to be helpful.

  The next point on the list said that women liked a man who was intelligent. He considered that for a minute. Amelie was a clever woman, her important position on this ship would have told him that, even if he hadn’t already seen it in her.

  Was he intelligent enough for her? He thought so. But could she see it? The limited communication made it hard for him to really show it. The way she spoke to him though, as an equal, showed she didn’t doubt his understanding. Hopefully she could see it.

  Kugah stared at the list, but there were just more of the same kind of thing. Of course women liked people who were decent, good people. He didn’t need a computer to tell him that.

  This was pointless. All the stuff on this list was basic, and he fitted all the criteria without any concerns. And it still wasn’t enough. This wasn’t helping.

  A voice in his head suggested that perhaps not being a genetically engineered monster might help. Kugah ignored it. Amelie didn’t see him as a monster. She’d stood up for him in the mess hall and said he’d offered her kindness and friendship. That meant she wasn’t averse to him, didn’t it?

  He went back to try another search. As he stared blankly at the page, trying to figure out what to search for, the search opened up with its suggestions again. The ‘What women want in bed’ search caught his attention. Maybe this was something important, something he needed to know.

  Kugah clicked on it.

  The first article began by saying that many women were self-conscious when talking about what they wanted in bed. Kugah frowned. This bed thing must be something very serious. Then this article also had a list of the things women liked, beginning with oral sex.

  Kugah blinked. Since when did he ask about sex? And what did it have to do with beds?

  He scrolled down a little, and saw a picture of a man and a woman, skin touching skin, and their mouths joined. They were lying on a bed.

  Of course.

  If it wasn’t for his armour, he would have blushed. He should have realised sooner that ‘in bed’ was a euphemism for mating. His blood warmed, and Kugah shifted uncomfortably.