Chapter 9, part 2

After sitting up and sipping some water Sierra was prepared to tell Shem what she had seen. “Can you just imagine and entire meadow filled with flowers of every color you can imagine. He told me that was my safe place. Never been there have I? This bloke’s not right in his head Shem. He said that they were the Creators and have watched our kind since birth. He was glad we had a second chance. Off his rocker he is.”

Shem checked Sierra’s head for any sign of trauma. He clearly thought she was reproducing a hallucination. He had a perplexed look on his face and then quickly looked around for Mark. Mark was now sitting at a table with Monica eating some sort of slop from a bowl. He didn’t seem to look worried. Shem turned his attention back to Sierra.

“Alright my dear, we are going to take you to the infirmary just so we can make sure you are okay. We don’t have a doctor but I’m sure we’ll find someone who wants to learn.” Shem motioned for Addison to help Sierra up.

“Actually Dr. Finch I was studying to become a forensic pathologist. I was in my first year of college at VCU. Long way to becoming a doctor but I’d like to have a crack at it if you don’t mind?” Sierra gazed at Shem with her big brown eyes.

“Sierra, that is hardly the path we’d want you to take now. I suppose you had to learn to work on the living before working on the dead. Alright, I’ll let you continue your studies but for now we’ll have to get someone to help.” Shem searched around for someone older. Someone the others would trust. His eyes moved toward Dana. Ahh Dana. PERFECT. She was a professor herself and had obviously seen the inside of a hospital too many times because of her injuries.

“Dana Church!” Shem yelled. “Would you come here please?”

Dana moved her new hovercraft chair forward. It had been a bit hard to maneuver but she knew that in due time she would get used it. She couldn’t imagine why Dr. Finch wanted her.

“Yes, sir,” Dana was now at looking up at Shem.

“Would you please follow Addison and Sierra to the infirmary? If it’s alright with you, I’d like you to start medical training along with Sierra here. She had begun studies in university and was going to become a doctor. I thought that since you are a University Professor you may lend her a hand in her studies as well as learn a thing or two to become a medic. What do you think?”

“Dr. Finch, I’m honored. Wow! But I am bound to this chair. Not sure I can be of much help otherwise.” Dana had retreated into her familiar role of worthlessness.

“Oh bullshit Dana. You can take a temperature or a blood pressure can’t you? Right, I thought so. Off you go.” Shem had seen a lot of people in his life triumph over their disabilities. He always expected the same out of everyone, disability or not. Dana looked at him in disbelief. She was not sure if she should be horrified at the way he talked to her or grateful that he didn’t see her as a cripple.

After watching the lift door close behind Sierra, Addison and Dana, Shem headed over to Mark. He needed to have some sort of security. But what kind of security. These aliens had already proven that they could come in at will.

“You need to stop thinking of us as aliens Shem.” Shem wisked around to see who was behind him. No one. Everyone was as they had been as he walked by them. Turning around Shem closed his eyes to gain perspective. It was lack of sleep, it had to be. Shem then opened his eyes and saw Mark staring at him from across the room. She then continued his walk toward Mark’s table. Stopping at the chair before him, Shem stared down at Mark.

“What’s up?” Mark still didn’t look phased by anything.

“Mark, I need you to help me with security. I don’t know how, but everyone here needs to know we can protect them.” Shem started to worry and was on the verge of an anxiety attack.

“Protect them against what? These quote unquote aliens? I’m not worried at all.” Mark was now playing with Shem’s head.

“They’re in my head Mark and I don’t like it.” Shem was getting angry now. His anxiety grew.

“Whoa don’t blow a gasket there doc. Listen, they have already breached our perimeter. If they had wanted to kill us, they would have done so, don’t you think?” Mark was now looking at Shem face to face as Shem had pulled out the chair and took a seat. “If we stay calm,” Mark pointed his finger at the rest of the room “they’ll stay calm.”

“I just don’t like them popping in here.” Shem felt out of control.

“We’ll announce our arrival next time Shem. Please do not worry.” There they were again, in his head.

“What the FUCK is going on? Mark, they are talking to me in my head.” Shem was out of control

“yeah, kinda cool huh?” Mark grinned at Shem..

“They spoke to you? Why didn’t you tell me that?” Shem felt like an idiot.

“What fun would that have been.” Mark started to laugh.

“Son of a bitch, don’t you ever do that to me again. We need to have trust here and if you pull shit like this and make me feel like an idiot,” Shem was now standing up.

“you’ll what doc? Lighten up. Control the things you can doc, control the things you can.” Mark went back to eating what appeared to be oatmeal.

Chapter 9, part 1

Sierra found herself face to face with what appeared to be the main male alien. She found his jet black hair intriguing and stood there looking at him wondering if it was naturally that black. Her raven hair was marred with a lighter color hair growing in. Her hair wasn’t naturally that black. She was face to face with an alien race and she stood there wondering if his hair color was natural. As if snapping to reality, Sierra then realized she wasn’t in the ship’s mess hall anymore. She was somewhere else. She was outside in an open field filled with wondrous meadow flowers she had only seen in picture books or in old films. There was every color of the rainbow in her eyesight. The sun blazed down on her face and she felt warm. The other aliens were gone and only this one stood before her.

“Where are we?” Sierra inquired as she couldn’t see the ship anywhere.

“We are here. Here is relative to where you would like to be. This meadow is your own doing. I simply took you to where you felt safe.” The main male alien anticipated her questions. Sierra was perplexed as she had never been in a meadow so how did it feel safe to her?

“Who are you?” Sierra’s next question was logical.

“We are Creators.” His answer was met with more confusion.

“Creators? What does that mean? Creators of what? This planet?” Sierra was thinking small.

“You have much to learn Sierra Dockson.” He knew her name. How did he know her name? “We have existed since the dawn of time. Since the birth of every living thing. We have watched your kind with great interest. We are glad to have a second chance with you.”

“What the heck? What do you mean second chance? You’re off your rocker, you are.” Sierra was not convinced. “How do you know my name? You must have scanned our computers or something.” Sierra grew afraid and as if she had only blinked her eyes, the world around her was familiar and everyone from the ship was staring at her in the mess hall.

“Okay that was just weird.” Sierra was now visibly shaken by the experience and searched for answers in the faces of those who had become familiar to her over the past few days. It was then that she fainted.

Rushing to her side, Addison was able to cushion some of the fall. The people sitting at the surrounding tables gasped in horror. No one understood why she fainted. She was there one second, gone the next and then reappeared another second later. Addison laid her head down gently on the floor and looked up for guidance.

“Anyone a doctor here?” The faces searched amongst themselves and shrugs were aplenty. “Come on? Didn’t we bring a doctor?” Addison looked directly at Shem.

“Addison, no I’m afraid we do not have a doctor on board. But we do have all the medical textbooks in the main computer. She’s just fainted, she’ll be fine. There is a med kit in the kitchen.” She pointed to where Addison had been only 15 minutes earlier.

“Oh yes I saw it. You,” He pointed to Miss Maggie and she seemed horrified that she was about to be ordered. “Go to the cabinet nearest the refrigerator and look inside. The top one. There is a first aid kit in there.” Maggie continued to look at him horrified. “Go on woman.” Maggie got up and went into the kitchen. Duke, who was still sitting there with his bowl of cereal, almost finished, chuckled to himself.

Sierra began to come around by the time Maggie arrived with the med kit. She seemed to take her sweet time doing the task she was ordered to do. Once giving it to Addison she sighed a heavy sigh as if to say that she knew she shouldn’t have bothered and that it was a complete waste of her time.

“Sierra, alright luv?” Addison felt a kinship to Sierra because they were both from the UK. They seemed to speak each other’s ‘language’.

“yeah, what just happened?” Sierra seemed confused that she was on the floor. “One second I’m here and then I was in a meadow with flowers. Oh, those aliens are nuts they are.” It was all coming back to her.

“Did they hurt you?” Shem’s voice was now heard towering over Sierra by her side.

“No. Not at all. But they went on about being the Creators or something stupid like that.” Sierra was still processing it all.

“Bless her heart, she’s lost her marbles.” Miss Maggie’s voice piped up. “My mother lost her marbles you know.” And she turned again to talk to the lady sitting beside her.

“SHUT UP!” Duke had had enough. Maggie wasn’t about to argue with him this time. But did get the last word in.

“Well, I never.” Maggie turned around to look at Sierra again.