Embarkment 2577 (2 page)

I didn’t say anything, and a small frown
formed on his forehead. He finally turned his attention away from me. “Ima
dear, would you get us some tea?”

The cat woman surprised me with bending
forward to kiss the friendly giant on the cheek. “Of course, love.”

Both she and Anya disappeared off into
an adjacent room, and a smile tugged at Blake’s mouth. “I hope they’re not
giving you a hard time. I do understand both my crew and this ship must seem…
unusual to you.”

It was my cue to speak, but I didn’t
have anything to say, so I just nodded.

“I’m quite interested in history, and
there’s so much I’d like to know about your time. So much about it has been
lost. Maybe you can tell me some when you feel stronger.”

There it was again: my time. I wanted to
ask about it, but didn’t get around to it.

“The transition will be difficult for
you I’m sure, but everyone on this ship will do their best to help you. We all
owe you for what you did for Adam.”

Adam… Wasn’t this enough to drive a
woman crazy? My mouth finally moved. “What ship? What crew? What time? And who
is this Adam everyone keeps talking about? Where the hell am I?”

At that moment, Ima came back into the
room, holding two mugs with steaming tea, and she and Captain Jones exchanged a
glance. She shrugged softly. “It appears our new friend here has a little bout
of amnesia. I expect her memories will return with time.”

If I had been the Captain, I would wonder
why she didn’t tell him this at once, but he seemed used to the way things were.
“I see.”

His blue eyes weren’t laughing any
longer; they seemed to look right through me, evaluating me. I couldn’t help
but wonder if I was passing the test. Up until now, I’d been dying to know what
was going on. Now, when the information appeared within reach, it frightened
me.

I cleared my throat, but my voice still
revealed more of my anxieties than I cared for. “Please, I really need to know.”

Blake looked at his mug, and Ima made a
soothing gesture, “Have some tea, dear.”

I didn’t want any tea. I wanted to know
where I was and what happened to me, but I obeyed anyway. The little sip I
intended to take turned into a gulp. It was good, and I was thirsty.

“Adam is a valued part of my crew. He’s
third in command on this ship, and he is an artificial life form. An android. I
suppose you would be familiar with the concept from the movies of your time?”

I’d seen Star Trek and I Robot. The
concept of an artificial man made of metal or plastic was much less disturbing
than the expression “my time.”

Blake misinterpreted my frown. “He was
investigating a space anomaly, and somehow got pulled into it. I’m sure he can
tell you the story much better than I can, but in short, you saved him. You
gave your life for him, in your world, in your time, and he decided to bring
you back here so you could live. You were dead when you arrived. He put you in
a cryochamber in the shuttle. Ima reconstructed many of your organs, and
brought you back to life.”

There it was again. My time. The words
made me want to scream. Androids and cryochambers. My first thought had been
right; this was complete nonsense, and he was clearly just a figment of my
imagination. Androids, pffft. He could just as well have told me there were
flying pigs.

Why couldn’t I dream up something
friendlier? Something easier to relate to? A day on the beach would be nice, or
why not a nice restaurant? I took another gulp of tea, and then the mug was
mysteriously empty. I couldn’t remember drinking it all.

“By your way of counting, it is the
year 2577. The ship has a crew of 1017 people including you, and we are all
sorts of life forms from all over the galaxy. The Earth is still out there, but
now it’s part of a confederacy of systems. The human race is one of 88 member species.”

I wanted to hop off the bed and pace
around the room, but faced with insanity like this, my legs might not carry me.
“Twenty-five seventy-seven? Suuure it is.”

Blake said nothing, and I took the
opportunity to ramble on. “I’m on a spaceship, almost…” I had to count on my
fingers, even though the numbers were easy. “…600 years into the future?
Great. Just great.”

He wouldn’t meet my eyes, and his
silence made me wonder if it could all be true. I tried to imagine everything
and everyone I knew as gone. Nothing. Not even a tingle of pain. The concept
was too big to grasp.

My house was gone. I would never see my
car again. My mom had been dead for 600 years, without knowing what happened to
me. These thoughts made my heart race and I gasped for air.

“Are you okay?” Blake sounded honestly
concerned, and I forced myself to nod. If I really missed six hundred years I
would surely have time to think about it later. “Sure. I’m fine. Peachy. I’m on
the Starship Enterprise under Jean-Luc Picard, waiting for Data the android to
arrive.”

Ima looked mystified, but Blake got it
and patted me on the shoulder with an amused grin. “Sort of. But the name of
this ship is the Bell, after Taco Bell, and Adam doesn’t look much like your
Data.”

“What?”

I wasn’t exactly a science fiction aficionado,
but I’d seen my fair share of movies and TV shows. I wouldn’t have lifted an
eyebrow if he told me the ship’s name really was Enterprise, or why not the
Star, the Pegasus, the Defiant, or even the Heart of Gold. Surely, not even
my
weird imagination would name a starship Taco Bell?

“Alright. Just after your time, well, it
would have been your time if you hadn’t died, the Earth plunged into a deep
recession. It was an economic depression previously unheard of, and even though
this was the birth of society as
we
know it, it was a difficult time for
the people living through it. You should probably be happy you missed it.”

This man made less and less sense the
longer I talked to him, and all the doomsday words sure didn’t explain the name
of the ship.

“Millions of humans found consolation in
drugs. Crime was at an all-time high, and in short, society was on the brink of
collapse. To everyone’s surprise, it turned out a few humans were actually
aliens. These people hadn’t known it themselves, and they looked every bit as
human as you and I. They were born by human parents even, but had strands of
alien DNA implanted in them, and when this was activated, they regained hidden
memories.”

He paused and gave my shoulder a squeeze.
“For all we know, you could be one of them.”

“I’m not an alien.” This, at least, I
was sure of.

Ima broke her silence. “You’re not. Your
DNA is entirely human. You could have been.”

Blake flashed her a smile, and I could
have sworn the cat woman blushed. Her tail wagged slowly behind her.

“The planet had been under surveillance
for generations, and now times were so perilous for the human race they decided
to make themselves known in order to save us. With their contributions to technology,
society flourished. They also helped prepare us for meeting all the other alien
species that are out here. We have dozens of races on this ship alone.”

His story caught my attention, and made
me forget my own misery.

“It didn’t take long until the aliens
helped us invent the warp-drive that still powers our ships today. We’ve
developed it since then, of course, but it’s still the same basic principle.
You see, the ship doesn’t really move, but space moves around it, and thus it’s
possible to…”

Ima cut him off by clearing her throat,
and he blinked a couple of times. “Oh yes, I get carried away. The inventor
decided to name the first warp ship the Bell, to remind us both of everything
that was lost and of everything that went wrong, and since then, this has
always been the name of the pride of the human fleet.”

If all this happened in my mind, I must
be worse off than I thought. Maybe I
was
dying, and this was my feverish
mind’s way of coping?

“The Bell has two independent engines
for warp speeds, and of course the interplanetary gravity drive for travel
within solar systems. She could easily hold five times the number of people
currently here, and she is 2.5 kilometres long from bow to stern. I’m sure Adam
will take you sightseeing when you feel up to it. The promenade deck is quite
spectacular with its shops and restaurants. I’m happy with it now, but I was
opposed to it at first. There’s something wrong with the idea of a shopping
mall on a warship.”

The very thought of everything I would
have to learn to fit into a place like this made my head spin. I might have to
go to school with little kids to learn how to do the simplest of things.

Why did everyone expect this Adam to do
everything for me? Was it just because I allegedly saved him, or was there
something else going on?

All this thinking and wondering gave me
a headache and I rubbed my temples. Ima bent down to look into my eyes. “Maybe
you should lie down a little, sweetheart.”

I didn’t have time to answer; the doors
slid open once again, and everyone looked over in that direction. A man
entered, and the expression on his face was so neutral it seemed calculated.

He looked vaguely familiar, but I
couldn’t place him. Tall, but not as tall as the Captain. He had wide
shoulders, dark untidy hair, and I knew his eyes would be hazel. He kept his
back very straight. When he came close he took a relaxed pose with his hands on
his back. “Captain, Ima. Alex, it’s good to see you awake.”

This must be Adam.

Up until now, I hadn’t reflected on the
clothes Blake wore, but Adam’s looked the same. It must be a uniform. Black
fabric with a military fit, loose enough to be comfortable and practical. Both
had some form of rank insignia on the arms and collar. Definitely a uniform. Going
with the space-age theme, they were probably made from some magical form of
material that would be comfortable in all kinds of weather, mended all rips and
tears on its own, and acted as a space suit in a pinch…

I shrugged off the trace of recognition.
The way this day was going my mind probably shaped him after some actor from
TV. I couldn’t expect it to keep making new things up, could I? Even the most
vivid of imaginations needed fuel.

The explanation wasn’t perfect, but good
enough. I ignored him, and the gaze he kept fixed on my face. The empty cup of
tea was pretty; I liked its shade of blue. Maybe if I wanted it enough, it
would refill itself and give me not just a satisfying drink, but proof my
suspicions of having invented this world myself were true.

Anya disrupted my reverie through
sweeping into the room and filling it with her larger-than-life rock star aura.
“Adam, it’s good to see you. Alex, you wouldn’t believe all the time he’s spent
here with you while you were unconscious. He’s been reading your favourite
books to you.”

Disturbing news. I couldn’t imagine this
handsome but distant man who wore such a cold expression on his face staying by
my side, reading to me. Assuming all this happened in my head, it said things
about my subconscious I didn’t want to know.

He didn’t seem bothered by the
revelation; he just nodded and agreed, “Yes. My research shows the human brain
can register input even when a person isn’t visibly awake.”

It might be sweet that he bothered
spending time with an unconscious woman, but I found it unnerving.

Anya crossed her arms over her chest and
said in a casual voice, “Alex has a minor problem with her memory right now. We
think spending some time with you will help her regain it.”

The man nodded, still without showing
even a trace of emotion. When Blake said “android” I visualized a shiny
C3P0-like person, or Brent Spiner’s enactment of Data with pale skin and golden
eyes. This man looked perfectly human. Human, but cold.

He took a step closer. “Captain, if
Doctor Ima considers Alex strong enough, I suggest giving her one of the guest
quarters.”

He paused and tipped his head a little
to the side. A hint of a frown formed on his forehead. “Anything can happen in
sickbay at any time, and having some space of her own could be beneficial.”

Leaving the room? This very spot with
the people in it was all I knew of the world, and as peculiar as Ima and Anya
might seem, they were also safe. During the hour or so since I regained
consciousness, the girls who frightened me so at first had become my only
friends. Adam’s words implied going out to see other things, from the sound of
it alone with him, and I didn’t think I wanted that.

No one paid any attention to me, of
course. Blake nodded, “Very well. I leave this up to you, Adam. Alex, I’d like
to see you in a couple of days, when you feel stronger.”

Ima gave a slight shrug. “She’s in no
shape to go out for walks, but take it easy with her and she should be fine. I’ll
check in on her in the morning.”

Adam nodded. “Don’t worry, doctor. I
will carry her.”

I
wanted
to say I should stay
where I was for now. I certainly didn’t want to be carried anywhere. No words
crossed my lips, but Anya smiled and put a surprisingly solid holographic hand
on my shoulder. Maybe she really did sense people’s thoughts.