Across a Sea of Stars

by Michael E. Gonzales

  "Tattie Bogle—do not live an—empty life—or in death—you shall find—unending emptiness."

  "I can't—"

  "Silence!" the voice boomed. "Open your—mind to us—Tattie Bogle—open—your—mind—your mind—to us!" The voice faded, and was gone.

  As Tattie descended the steps in front of the temple, she paused and looked back on the structure. "You have your peace. Now go, and I will seek my own."

  ○O○

  The light hurt his eyes. As his senses came back to him, he discovered a ringing in his ears. His body hurt in several places. He tried to sit up, but it was impossible. He tried to speak, but could not. His vision was blurred but he seemed to be in a bed, and all around him were monitors. The room began to spin, and oblivion was his again.

  He forced his eyes open. He was in a very dark, cold place. He sat up and swung his feet over the edge of his bed and looked around; nothing, not the least amount of light. Am I blind?

  But he wasn’t—for from his right, now came something new. At first, it was just a black spot in the dark, but as it grew nearer, he began to see a shape…roughly human, a torso, head, two arms. He heard a whispered sound. He heard it again, a bit louder this time. "Cristóbal Salazar."

  "Yes, who's there?"

  Suddenly, his dream began to spin and fall away from him. His eyes fluttered and he was looking in the faces of three people in scrubs. "The epinephrine is working, Doctor."

  "Yes. Captain Salazar, can you hear me?"

  Cris nodded.

  "Note the positive recognition there. Captain, can you see me clearly?"

  Cris nodded again.

  "Excellent. I take it you cannot yet speak?"

  To which Cris shook his head.

  The other face now spoke. "Will we have to go in, Doctor?"

  "No, I believe this is psychosomatic. What he needs is rest. Go to sleep Captain. I'll check on you tomorrow."

  They were gone. Cris tried to get a look at himself to determine the state of his injuries. It appeared his left arm was in a cast and—what was that sound? he asked himself. There, he heard it again.

  The world went dark again. When Cris opened his eyes, he was sitting on the forest floor. In his hand, he held the bladder of Geldneth Nordthok. Tattie slept in front of him, she lay in the fetal position, her head on his lap. He noticed all around them the smoking remains of the probe the Rapna dropped. He was back at the field on the road where he’d shot and destroyed the enemy drone. Tattie was sleeping and mumbling. He clearly heard her say, "Am Eka."

  So—that's where I first heard that.

  He began to stroke her hair and the forest vanished. They were running down the dirt path in the Valley holding hands. Tattie was laughing, but Cris did not feel the warmth. Suddenly, he knew why: this was a dream, it was not real, and Tattie was not really here. He stopped running and her hand slid out of his. She stopped and turned around. "Cris?" She looked at him, and she looked so hurt. "You said you would come back to me—I continue to allow you to lie to me, I do not know why."

  Cris jerked from his sleep to a sitting position in his bed. There was a doctor and a nurse in the room. The doctor was quick to rush to him and she took hold of his shoulders. "Easy there, Captain, you've suffered a very nasty concussion, and not your first, either. Can you tell me who you are?"

  "Bawie, ezan naze Cris Salazar Naguse gezonia," Cris said.

  "What?"

  "Naze Cris Salazar Naguse gezonia."

  "Nurse, stay with the Captain a moment." The doctor then bolted out of the room.

  "O'Kay est earado Kom ela?" Cris asked.

  "Just sit still a second, Captain." The nurse was clearly worried.

  Two more doctors returned with the original, accompanied by a security guard.

  The eldest doctor spoke first. "Captain, are you feeling all right?"

  "Emo, eko frayman em cord."

  The doctor straightened up and pulled his glasses off.

  "By God, that sounded like Latin."

  The other doctors all agreed, it did somewhat sound like Latin. It was the nurse who asked, "Well, then, what did he say?"

  "He said ... he has a hole in his heart."

  "Doctor, I personally checked this man's scans. He has no hole in his—"

  "Doctor, I think he's speaking metaphorically."

  The female doctor turned to Cris and asked, "Where did you learn to speak Latin?"

  "Noan Latin, Hok este vetearium linguea."

  The older doctor translated. "He said he does not speak Latin, that he is speaking in the language of the ancient ones."

  "What does that mean?"

  "I wonder?" the doctor mumbled.

  Cris turned to the elder man and asked, "Doctor, mehi potes hink?"

  "I'm sorry my boy, but no. You must stay until you've regained your strength and some of your injuries heal."

  "Quo mode posume malem?"

  "How are you hurt?"

  Cris nodded his head yes.

  "You suffered a badly twisted left leg and a dislocated left knee. Your right shoulder was dislocated, you have two broken ribs, three broken fingers on your left hand, and you suffered a severe concussion, your third in five years. This worries me greatly, so I will be watching your recovery closely. Your sudden propensity to speak in tongues is a red flag." He held up his E-tablet. "I looked up your educational records here. You've never studied Latin, not even a little.” The doctor scratched the back of his head. "You obviously understand me, why do you not speak in English?"

  "Verba invenire possum," Cris said slowly.

  "He says he can't find the words," the doctor translated. "So where did you learn to speak this odd derivation of Latin?"

  "Este langem, Doctor."

  Again, the doctor removed his glasses to regard Cris.

  "What did he say, Doctor?" the other male doctor asked.

  "He said —it's a long story."

  ○O○

  Tattie, Tarnus, and Capek were flying slowly home aboard the Meerlow. Tattie was somber, of course.

  "That was a good thing you did there my un genite," Tarnus said. Tattie made no response, she was not even listening, she was looking down through a window. Suddenly, she shouted, "Capek, stop! Land here, please!"

  "What is it, Tattie?" Tarnus asked.

  "Land where, Tattie?" Capek asked.

  "There by that pond at the base of the hill, right there!"

  Moments later, the Meerlow sat softly down in the moss near the pond. When the door opened, Tattie burst out and ran toward the pond with all the speed the Geldneth are known for. When Tarnus and Capek arrived moments later, they discovered Tattie had removed her shoes and was playing with the water with the toes of her right foot.

  "Tarnus," she said without looking up, "it was here that Cris and I swam under the night sky. Here, we shared that first kiss that brought forth the light and the heat…it plunged us both into a dream world among the endless stars."

  "Then it was that light I saw like a beacon the night I set out tracking you."

  "Uncles, I wish to swim."

  Tarnus and Capek walked around the stones and up the hill. They sat and faced the direction of Galdo Heirya, permitting Tattie a little privacy.

  Tattie disrobed, placing the bladder of Geldneth Nordthok, which she took to carrying because it had been Cris's, on the top of her things. Then, she entered the water right where she and Cris had awakened that morning. In the water, she swam idly about. At one point, she dove down to see just how deep she and Cris had drifted; this she knew would worry Tarnus and Capek, so she returned quickly to the surface.

  Tattie exited the pool, gathered her clothes, but did not dress immediately. She found a soft spot under a tree. She lay down, then placed her hand on the trunk of the tree and whispered, "Thank you." She drifted off to sleep.

  At first, her dream was of Cris. They were in a beautiful field in a valley, holding hands, running and laughing, when suddenly storm clouds blotted out the s
un and left the world cold and dark. She turned to make some comment to Cris, but it was not Cris standing there, it was the phantom from Galdo Heirya. She stopped and stood straight, looking directly into the hood. The face, if it was a face, was without form. The entity was tall and just stood there looking down at Tattie.

  "What is it you want?" she asked of the vision.

  It responded low and quietly, "What is it you want?"

  "Nothing that is within your power. Why are you still here? Did I not provide what you wanted?"

  "Give us—the elixir."

  "What?" And in her hand was Cris's bladder of the elixir.

  "Give it to us."

  Tattie clutched it to her breast.

  "Give—it—to us," the vision demanded.

  Slowly, hesitantly, Tattie handed the leather container to the spirit. Its cold, desiccated hands closed about it and the vision started backing away.

  "Tattie! Tattie!" It was Tarnus's voice. "Surely, you are dry by now. Come my un genite, let's return to the city."

  Tattie dressed, then stopped and looked about. "Tarnus," she called up the hill, "did either of you come down to retrieve the Geldneth Nordthok?"

  "No, my dear, we did not."

  Before long, Tattie had Tarnus and Capek looking for the bladder without any luck; at last, Tattie was forced to give up the search. The loss of Cris's bladder of Geldneth Nordthok only deepened her depression.

  Tarnus was upset that now he had nothing with which to soothe her troubled mind.

  ○O○

  Cris sat in a wheelchair in debriefing with Major Selina, his left leg in a brace. His right shoulder had chemical heating pads strapped to it, his torso was wrapped to protect his injured ribs, and his left hand was in a pneumatic cast. He had minor cuts and contusions all over his body, and his face was bruised, cut, and swollen.

  Once he had fully come to his senses, he regained his ability to speak English; thus was he now being debriefed.

  Major Selina was unscathed by the ordeal she and Cris had survived. "Cris," she began, "I want to thank you for saving my life back there."

  "Yours is a life worth saving."

  "Yeah, well. I managed to set down fairly easy. You, on the other hand—I thought for sure you were dead, Cris."

  "That would have been merciful." Cris said. In the last few hours, the realization that he was marooned on this side of the galaxy, a hundred and fifty million light years from Tattie, had caught up with him. Every passing second seemed an eternity, now.

  "Cris," the major went on, "as you can imagine there are a thousand and one questions we have for you. I hope you're up to talking."

  "I am. Go on."

  She looked up at a small silver cylinder on the ceiling near the corner and said, "Ava, as you know, is recording everything."

  "Yeah, I know. Go on," Cris said.

  "In your last communication before your disappearance, which was broken and distorted, you said you were being sucked into the Hohmann Crater. We conducted long-range surveys and found no trace of you or your Eagle. Tell me what happened to you, Cris."

  He looked up into her eyes, and lingered there too long. "Something wrong, Cris?" the major asked at last.

  "I just noticed—you have green eyes."

  "They're blue. Captain, I need you to focus. You've been gone close to two months. What we want to know is—gone where?"

  Cris began to relate the story to her at 08:00 Lima. It was 22:30 when he finished.

  Major Selina pushed back from the table, extended her legs outward and rubbed her face. "Wow—ah, Cris that is one hell of a story. Can you prove any of it?"

  Cris smiled a moment. "You have my Rapna?"

  "Yeah, or what's left of it. The lab coats are going over it, and have so far all agreed on one thing: it ain't from 'round here. Neither was that uniform you were wearing."

  "No—they're both from Nazer."

  "Cris, I don't think we can do anything except believe you."

  "Thanks," Cris whispered, then rubbed his face with both hands.

  ○O○

  Major Selina sat up in her chair and scooted back up to the table. She looked up at the cylinder again. "Ava, stop recording please." She looked at her hands a moment, then into Cris's eyes. "Off the record now, Cris, tell me about Tattie."

  "What more can I tell you? She is Geldneth, strong, courageous, possessed of great speed and stealth. She is a great hunter in her clan; she joined me before I even understood I was going to war, even though I think she knew it."

  "Why do you think she did that? Join you, when the dangers were known to her? She knew that this Mal guy had a price on your head, but she joined you, nonetheless."

  "It was back in the cave that first night. She looked into me and saw—the possibilities. She said we were two shards of the same stone. She threw her lot in with me, and eventually—I threw mine in with her."

  "You are in love with her, aren't you?"

  Cris lowered his eyes toward the tabletop and was silent a moment. "Kathy—I love her beyond measure, beyond the stars, beyond the bounds of reality. She is my life force, without her, there can be no life."

  Major Selina was visibly moved by Cris's statement and shocked to hear the defeated tone and finality in his voice.

  "Cris, you're still alive—where there is life, there is hope."

  Cris looked up at her. "Do you really believe that?"

  "Yes."

  "Kathy—one hundred fifty million light years, it took me the better part of forty hours to get to the Moon from Earth, a mere three hundred and eighty-four thousand kilometers…where do you see hope?" Cris craned his neck and held his side as he clenched his teeth against the pain in his ribs.

  The major had no answer for Cris, and she could see he was hurting in more places than just his ribs. As the hour was late, she ended the session. "Be sure you get a good night's rest. Tomorrow, the colonel and his staff will want to speak to you, and Washington is sending a team of experts up to give you the once over. The next months are going to be tough, I fear."

  "Yes, ma'am. Sleep well."

  ○O○

  A nurse had been assigned to Cris, a rather large man that Cris suspected was actually with security.

  The man assisted Cris back to his room; the same room in the BOQ he had occupied before.

  "Do you need any help getting in bed, sir?" his "nurse" asked.

  "No, thanks." The door closed behind Cris, and he was alone with his thoughts, his memories, that longing in the middle of his chest, that pain in his heart that radiated throughout his body.

  He wheeled his chair to the porthole-like window, got up on his one good leg and opened the curtain. It was night outside, and the lunar landscape was dark, but not as dark as his soul. There was some Earth glow that allowed him to see some details out there.

  He looked down, and could see a small crater seven or eight meters in diameter with a central mound. It reminded him of the plain of Dort and the hill of Kreneo upon which sat the fortress of Kurat Vara. He remembered the room Capek and Tarnus prepared for him and Tattie there. He remembered the night spent in her arms. He suddenly felt hollow, and very old. His injuries hurt him badly, but the pain in his heart was unbearable. He took the sleeping pill, went to bed, and waited for the oblivion of the chemically-induced sleep.

  ○O○

  Cris came to understand that Major Selina was right. The next two weeks were one torturous inquisition after another. There were a lot of questions about the military capabilities of the peoples of the other worlds; this continued, despite Cris's insistence they no longer possessed the ability to generate another wormhole, nor any desire to engage in acts of war.

  "Captain," said Major Gillespie of Military Intelligence, "they did it once, and they can do it again. You said this Cave Mall guy had another ship like the one we found on the Moon."

  "Yes, but many times larger."

  "Did it have the ability to generate a wormhole?"

  "I
don't know."

  "Don't you think it would be prudent for us to assume that it does, and that these people represent a potential threat to us?"

  "No, the ship is destroyed, and they are all peace-loving."

  "All accept this Cave Mall and his followers, so what if one of those boys decides to pick up where old Cave Mall left off? Might we need to defend ourselves against them?"

  "Interestingly, he was a Portigalweg; we'd call him a human being. So, he was more one of us than one of them."

  ○O○

  After the first week, Cris had grown quite tired of the endless cross-examinations, and so he became monosyllabic in his responses.

  "Yesterday, you told Captain Franklin that the escape pods were on the port side, but you told me just three hours ago that they were on the starboard, didn't you?"

  "Yes."

  "So, which is it, port or starboard?"

  "Yes."

  "Captain, you do not want me to annotate in my report that you are an unwilling participant."

  "Yes."

  "You do? Well, I can certainly—"

  "No." Cris rubbed his head.

  "Let's take a break," the major suggested. "One hour."

  At his request, Cris's guard wheeled him out into the hallway and down to the observation window at the end. Cris sat silently looking out the window. He noticed his own reflection in the window and refocused his eyes.

  Cris stared at his reflection for some time. Slowly, it began to change until he saw not his own reflection, but the face of Tattie. The image smiled, just as he remembered the smile, but there was neither warmth nor joy. He sat, quietly remembering…

  ○O○

  Cris fell asleep, his memories surrounding him, until he wasn’t sure if he was awake or dreaming, or somewhere in between.

  And then, Cris felt a presence…he was not alone. And, oddly, he knew this was very real. There was someone with him. "Who is that? Who's there?"

  A deep, distant, voice on the very edge of perception came back, "Come to me, Cris Salazar."

  "Come to you where? Who are you?"

  "Come—"

  "Where are you?"

  "Here—"

  In the darkness, a glowing form began to materialize, a torso, head and outstretched arms…the inverse of the shadow he'd seen before. He willed himself to move toward it; but he was not walking, it was more like floating, he felt free of his disabled body, he felt more like a wisp of cloud than a man.