Memoirs of Kitty Siam Ch. 36

I contacted Sheba over our private link and instructed her to prepare the ship for departure. I dressed quickly in my tight white Drax flight suit as I headed out the door. As I made my way to the hangar deck I used my tablet to file a generic flight plan that listed my mission as Exploration of the Northern Pole's Magnetic Field. The station was badly undermanned and the crew that was now running the station were greatly over worked and did not really look carefully at my flight plan but since the mission was listed as "exploration", and Galora Explorer One was an exploration ship I was given permission to depart.

Once aboard Galora One I gave the ship a quick preflight check before departing the hangar bay. I set course as planned for the northern polar region, and in a few minutes I had the ship in a high polar orbit. I contacted Romanov Station and advised them of my position and informed them that I would be here for sometime taking readings of the Earth's magnetic field fluctuations over the next twenty-four Earth hours.

Before leaving the flight deck I accessed the science module and configured the scanners to look for anomalies in the Earth's magnetic field. I was not really looking for anything in particular. I just wanted the scanning beams to appear active so that it looked to anyone passing by that I was actually doing what I said I would be doing.

I made my way to the habitat module and entered the bunkroom. I slipped out of my flight suit with the aid of my wardrobe device, then settled down on my bunk and made myself comfortable. Even though I was extremely tired I was not able to fall asleep right away. I tried playing various types of soothing music, but that did not work. I just could not put the events of this mission out of my mind and even though I was far from the station, I could still see the faces of the dead crewmembers floating about the station.

As I tossed and turned in my bunk I suddenly felt Sheba making a connection to my internal data port. Once the connection was made I heard her voice telling me to relax. Sheba explained to me that she was going to attempt a relaxation routine that a previous pilot of this vessel used to enjoy. The next thing I knew my data port was connected to the ship, and a sensory connection was made to the external living skin covering the ship's hull. With in milliseconds my skin began to tingle as the connection allowed me to feel what the skin of the ship was feeling.

It felt as if a billion tiny sparks of energy were caressing my skin from every angle. The combination of the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field caressing my body at the same time took my mind away from everything that was bothering me. The sensations were intense at first then lessened gradually and soon it began to feel as if my body was receiving the gentle caress of a lover's touch. Sheba began to modulate my connection to the ship's living skin and as I began to relax, she dialed back the intensity of the connection that I shared with the ship. Within minutes I found myself drifting off to sleep while being softly caressed by the vacuum of space. Once I was asleep, Sheba severed the link between the skin of the ship and my data port.

Once again I found myself in feline form walking a narrow poorly paved path side by side with light brown jungle cat as before. We were walking slowly, cautiously as the black mist that was released overhead began to drizzle down around us. Off in the distance several more of the black missiles crashed to the ground without deploying their payloads causing panic to break out amongst the humans gathered around an immense stone structure before us. They too were feeling the black mist coming in contact with their skin. The mist seemed to have no effect on my traveling companion or myself but the humans were screaming loudly as the mist coated their clothing and exposed skin.

As we heard their howls of pain my companion and I quickened our pace and soon we both broke into a full run toward the humans. Her curiosity was as active as mine as we raced to see get a close up view. The humans now were huddled around under what little shelter the stone columns and dilapidated roof could provide but there was no really safe place for them to hide from the mist. The closer we got, the more we could see and what we did see was deeply disturbing. The humans were beginning to slowly break out in thick dark sores that oozed thick black pus when they broke open. Those unlucky enough to have come in direct contact with the mist seemed to be suffering the most. I knew now that the missiles that had passed overhead and exploded were the carriers of this deadly disease. Those that had been spared the pain of contact with the mist would inhale the deadly plague spores that were multiplying in the mist. Over the next day or so the humans still left alive would begin to show signs and symptoms similar to those that had been directly exposed to the mist.

The humans were busy tending to their wounds and did not pay much attention to us as we ascended the thick stone stairway, and as we cleared the top step I began to recognize the layout of this structure. In its day it would have been very similar to the temple complex on Rontara but this temple was much older. This temple was built out of a stone that resembled granite where the temple on Rontara was built with polished marble. Knowing what I knew about the temple on Galora, I knew that there might be a chance to save some of the humans if I could get them to the medical facility under the temple.

I moved toward the center of the temple where the alter should have been. My traveling companion just circled the humans looking them over. The humans also took note of the panther and the puma moving around near them and though I think that normally we would have caused a panic, the humans were more concerned about the black rain than they were about us.

When I got to the alter area I could see that the alter was destroyed when the heavy stone roof collapsed. A few feet beyond the alter I could see the indentation in the temple's floor where the divining obelisk should have been. The floor was intact and perhaps the obelisk was still safe below the floor. I visually scanned the walls for a rectangular security pad that would read my DNA and activate the obelisk or open the passageway that led under the temple.

The walls were over grown with hanging vines but on a slightly damaged wall to the west I found what I was looking for. The device looked like a plain rectangle carved into the stone but I knew that inside the stone were a series of complicated electronics. I changed to human form and as I did I heard several humans gasp, and one of them called my name. I turned to look to see Commander Ellis huddled with the rest of the humans. He stared at my naked form for several seconds and I returned his gaze. The once proud squadron commander now had the appearance of a refugee as he did his best to look after his people. His uniform burned and tattered, and signs of the plague were beginning to form on the exposed skin of his hands and forearms.

There was so much that I wanted to say but I knew that talking now would be less important than getting these people out of this mist. I nodded to the Commander then turned and walked toward the wall. When I reached the wall I pulled the vines and vegetation away from the stone rectangle and tossed it aside. I pressed the palm of my hand against the flat surface inside the rectangle but nothing happened other than a slight tingle against the palm of my hand. I had expected some activity around the alter area after feeling the tingle of the scanner but there was nothing.

I pulled my hand back from the stone rectangle, brushed it off again with my fingers to ensure that I was making proper contact then I tried again. Once again I felt the tingle but nothing happened. I stood there in dumb silence and looked around the temple complex and again I expected something to happen, perhaps a delayed reaction in the parting of the stones but nothing happened at all.

Now I was close to panic when my thoughts of rescuing my shipmates turned to thoughts of watching them die before my eyes. As I looked over the stricken humans I watched my traveling companion circle them once again, then when she was closest to me, she too transformed into her human form.

She was tall and slender, her body looked to be an exact duplicate of mine right down to the hairless naughty bits. Her hair was long, straight and black and mirrored mine in style and length. Her features were definitely Earth human, and her complexion was similar to mine but her facial features were clearly Japanese.

She too was naked as I was and with a confident smile she walked toward me and pressed her right hand against the stone rectangle next to mine and whispered in an ancient Annu dialect, "To journey forward from here, it takes two."

Seconds after her hand made contact the obelisk extended from below the floor and began its scans of the humans and the two naked proto-humans standing with their hands pressed against the wall. After the initial scans, the pink beam from the obelisk was replaced by a blue beam that enveloped the each of the humans in turn, and as the light moved over them we could see the streaks of the black rain disappear from their skin, and a few moments after their cries of anguish ceased.

The blue beam turned from a narrow stream to a wide angled projection that enveloped all of the humans, and as the mist continued to rain down, we could see the black droplets turn to steam and evaporate as soon as it touched the bright blue light field. Once under the protection of the blue light field, the floor of the temple parted to expose a stone stairway that led down under the temple. Through the opening in the floor came a group of medical bots that moved among the humans assessing the level of their infection and the nature of their injuries.

When several of the black mist spewing missiles roared over head, a squad of maintenance bots bearing littered emerged from the opening in the floor and began transporting the seriously wounded to the medical bay below. My traveling companion and I began escorting the walking wounded below, and as soon as my bare feet made contact with the floor of the complex at the bottom of the stone steps, I felt the AI unit of the complex establish connection to my internal data port and issue a prerecorded greeting in an ancient form of the Annu language, "Welcome to Anora Prime."

Once the connection was established I sent out a wireless request for the visitors guide to the complex, and what I received was the standard tourist package complete with planetary data, personnel roster, and a detailed map of the complex. A quick scan of the personnel roster told me that there was no one assigned here, and by the looks of the place, it had been a very long time since anyone was here.

At the same time I connected to the complex, a second wireless connection was made with my new traveling companion, and as she noticed the connection between us activate, she privately introduced herself as Neko.

I turned and smiled and was about to send my name to her, but before I could send, "My name is Kitty", it felt as if my thoughts were hijacked and I electronically blurted out, "My name is Maew."

After our wireless introduction we moved closer together and hugged each other tightly as if we had each found our long lost sister, but as our naked bodies pressed tightly together, my physical form back on Galora One was being shaken back to consciousness by Lieutenant Jarro and two medical technicians, their bodies encased in encounter suits. As I sat up the trio began wrapping me in a radiation resistant blanket and were urging me to cooperate while they assisted me in donning an encounter suit.

I did not hear any decompression or radiation alarms sounding, and I was still breathing so I knew that there was still an oxygen atmosphere aboard the ship so I fought the best I could to keep my naked body from being stuffed into an ancient Annu space suit. I guess I struggled long enough and hard enough that they gave up and when I had a minute to collect my thoughts I send a request to Sheba and asked if the ship was in some sort of trouble, to which she replied, "No."

Once my unwanted guests backed off I dragged myself from the bed and dressed myself in my white flight suit then began to question the Lieutenant as to what was going on and why.

Jarro dismissed the medical techs and instructed them to return to return to the station on the scout ship that brought the three of them to Galora One. Once they were gone he removed his helmet and encounter suit, then dressed himself the old fashioned way in his flight suit. Once we were both fully clothed he began to brief me on how one of the science vessels in Earth orbit detected a collimated Epsilon particle burst emanating from the planet below. From the scans that they took, all indications pointed to the pulse striking Galora One directly in the habitation module. Since the KC did not have a lot of experience with Epsilon particles and their effects on Earth humans, they came right away to investigate and check on my physical condition.

It took me a few minutes and half a cup of coffee to come to my senses after being so rudely awakened from a really intense dream. After finishing my coffee I ushered Jarro to the science lab and activated the main view screen. I brought Sheba into the mix since she was monitoring the sensor array that was scanning the Earth's magnetic field.

Jarro provided the time frame for the Epsilon particle bombardment and I backed up the scanner logs to that point and sure enough there was a ten second Epsilon particle pulse that originated from the planet's surface. I tried to focus in on the origin of the pulse but it was a narrow beam transmission and was of such a short duration that the point of origin cold not be determined.

This got me to thinking so my next step was to step through Galora One's sensor logs from the day that we first arrived in Earth's orbit. I advanced through the logs beginning at the point where we received the automated warning about Earth being quarantined. Jarro was becoming impatient as I manually advanced through the logs and then there it was, an Epsilon particle burst of the same strength and duration coming from Earth's surface and impacting the ship's habitation module. This pulse would have been close to the time where I had cried myself to sleep in my bunk after discovering the plague on Earth.

Jarro had no idea what I was rambling on about as I sat there talking to myself and pouring over the numbers and the scan results but it was clear to me that the dream-like experiences that I had endured were not dreams created by my mind. To me it was a real possibility that what I had experienced was a communication sent to me, but by whom and from where was a mystery that I was determined to solve. I believed that someone, somewhere was trying to tell me something, or show me something that that the answer to all of this would be found on Earth. I knew then that I had to find a way past the planetary quarantine and investigate the source of those two transmissions personally.