Chapter Eleven

Oh, Sleeper

MARK

Three weeks went by after that night until anything remotely interesting happened. I mean sure there was exploring the ship and getting to know the crew and John's friends more, Paul seems like a decent guy to hang out with, but in the end, the whole time, there was not much to do, so uninteresting and quite frankly boring.

Today, still a month or so away from the next exit from hyperspace I stand alone in the front observation deck. The hangar is a few floors directly below where I am, and I could hear a prominent humming from my feet. And from the outside I could see a feint blue glow. It wasn't very powerful, but it still distracted me from the otherwise complete darkness compared to the Mothership's observation decks. I did, however, turn the lights off in the room to reduce strain on my eyes and allow for the true colors of the galaxy to shine brighter than imaginable.

The galaxy grew brighter and brighter in front of us each time we jump. Now, I can't even hold the galaxy in the palm of my hand. In fact, it stretches past the walls of the viewport, which was the length of the room, about twenty meters.

The colors of the sky were painted in yellow and faded to dark violet and blue near the edges of the galaxy. So much different from the dark starry skies of a Kharak night, and the sight could only be compared to that of the Great Nebula Kadesh herself. There was no way possible to describe either of them. Any description would not be worthy of the sight they both behold.

I spend hours here daily. It's not even one of the lesser used ones like the one from the Mothership. It's fairly popular when I'm not around. My guess is that people have respect for my privacy. It kind of makes you feel like a celebrity or something. Regardless of the reason, it's nice to have time. Nothing but time. It's how I describe my life in hyperspace.

It takes months to travel the distance between the two spiral arms, though in real space it would take hundreds of years. So really, this is no time at all compared to what our ancestors went through.

I admired the sight for a few more minutes before I heard the door open and close. I looked and saw Arazis. She's been avoiding me a lot lately. Usually we stand and admire the sky together. It all started three days after the jump from the ghost ship and when her people were made part of the fleet. We were in an observation area in the rear of the Mothership staring back at Kadesh. But lately this jump she wasn't the same towards me.

I turned back to the sky.

"All our friends want us to be in love." I said as straight forward as possible. I needed to say it eventually, so I decided just to get it over with.

ARAZIS

She had not expected that. She stood beside him leaning on the railing. Of course she knew it as much as he did. It was part of the reason she was avoiding him. "I know. But I can't right now." She said.

"I understand. I feel the same way. We have a job to do first." He said.

"Maybe when all this is over." She said.

"Well at least Saiin hasn't rubbed off on you. He's very pessimistic about the whole matter." He said.

"Usually he's like that. But not depressing to be around. Usually he's the funny one. He's always been pessimistic but he's never let it get to him like this." She said.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Mark said, "You don't need to avoid me anymore."

"I hope not. It's been impossible to avoid you all the time." She was glad that was now out of the way.

There was another long pause. This time the silence was broken by a couple of kids about the age of twelve poking their heads in talking to each other. They weren't doing much to try and stay quiet either. They were arguing whether or not she and Mark were going to kiss. She didn't know that this rumor spread to everyone around the ship. In all fairness, it wasn't really a rumor.

"Will you two get lost I'm trying to admire the beauty of the cosmos!" Mark said.

"More like hers!" one of them said closing the door.

He sighed and went back to the galaxy.

"Talk to your uncle lately?" she asked trying to start some small talk.

"Actually, yes as a matter of fact, but it wasn't a good conversation. He was diagnosed with a severe skin cancer. He said it was the radiation from the supernova. The doctors were baffled because he was the only one out of all the Porter crews that got it."

"What's cancer?" she asked embarrassed. She started reading up on many things Kushan, but this one she hadn't come across.

"It's a deadly illness. Has something to do with cells mutating and reproducing exponentially. I'm not a scientist so I can't tell you the exact details, but the doctors told him he has four months left to live."

"But that means . . ."

"He won't even get to see Hiigara. Such a cruel fate."

"I'm sorry I asked." She said.

"He didn't expect to live to see Hiigara to begin with. He's kind of pessimistic about this crusade too."

"Can he still pilot?"

"For now he can. But sooner or later he'll be in pretty rough shape. Jay and Brad are transferring to the Mothership after we drop out with him. They still don't know yet. So far, the doctors, John, me, and you are the only people who know. So keep it a secret. I can't imagine what it would be like if everyone felt pity for him. He would really hate that." He said.

"I feel bad for you. Now you have no more family. Not counting the farmers."

"I know. All my uncle can say about it is that at least he lived longer than Markus. They never got along. Hell they never remotely liked each other. I would say I hope he dies in battle like a warrior should, but that means I'd be losing two of my friends too and that's not something I want. Cancer, no matter what kind, is always one of the worst diseases. Because you can't do anything about it but watch as they slowly rot away."

"There's information on many diseases in the medical archives of Third. I might have stumbled across it at one point. But the truth is we have no treatments or doctors in the colonies. Our sleeper tubes regenerate us completely. So any mutated cells would have been killed and replaced overnight. It's a great investment. I think you Kushans should look into it."

"Sounds like a good idea."

ERIC

During the last few weeks he had begun some light reading on a portable electronic library he purchased from his pay from his latest job as a delivery person. He delivered whatever it may be, from letters to food orders. He enjoyed reading. He lived in a library in his youth so it was fairly obvious he would.

Triikor found it odd that he only read history books or non-fiction books. She said he should read less boring things like story books. His response to that was that he liked to know things. Fiction to him was mostly a fun pastime. His real passion was the information. The collective knowledge of thousands of years had been collecting in his mind since his childhood. Some would say he was addicted to it.

"That doesn't make sense though." She would say, "Wasn't that Khar-Halla book fiction to you before all of this?"

"Yes, but it was the only one of many that I've wanted to keep for the shear incredibility of its content. It's so real. And now I know it is. Now the green and blue paradise of our expulsion is just beyond the horizon. I've tried hundreds of times to picture it in my mind, and apparently Mark dreams of it all the time. I wish that was me."

"Hello! I've lived there Eric. Sheesh you're so lost in thought sometimes that you make no sense." She said. He lifted his head from the device.

"Oh yeah. Sorry about that." He said. "But don't you want to know things about the past? For instance, has it ever occurred to you why the Kushan and the Taiidan are essentially the same though from different planets? You said yourself you didn't come from Hiigara and we're aware of this. So why are we the same? And the Turanics look like some freak evolution of us, probably modified for their liquid environment."

"Well, it is something to think about. I don't bother trying to figure stuff that complicated out. There's no way to know the reasons for things like that."

"I guess you're right. No one can know everything I suppose. I guess I'll have a lot of fun in the Taiidan archives."

"Have you seen Saiin lately?" she asked. "I haven't even run into him in the halls."

"He told me he moved to one of the lower decks for time alone to think. I haven't seen him in two weeks either. Arazis is keeping in touch with him still but I'm starting to worry for him." He said.

It was true that Saiin was trying to distance himself from people as much as possible. But it wouldn't draw attention away from him as he would like.

SAIIN

He sat alone in his dark lonely room, with a rope. He started tying a knot in it and put it around his neck. Damn it what am I doing? This is the opposite of what I want. He thought taking off the rope. He wanted to live, but he couldn't take the wait. He was too tired, too lonely and too bored. He wasn't happy and cheery as he had once been on the Amun with his friends who had become his family.

He saw some familiar faces and they always tried to have a conversation, but nothing ever lasted. His fellow Kadeshi would go about their business trying to stay as busy as possible.

They too truly believed that the Kushan could get their home back from the great evil. Saiin wasn't optimistic in this regard, and he doubted anything would change his mind until he saw some real fighting, some real large scale battles against the enemy. Then he could see for himself if these people are truly as strong and united as they claim.

After hours of lying in his bed staring at the roof, unable to sleep or stay awake, he decided it was the best option.

He got up, wrote a note, left his room and walked to the rear sections of the ship, past the resourcing levels. He found where he needed to be.

"Is this cryo-deck?" he asked.

"It sure is son, why do you ask?" a man said.

"Is there any room for one more bored soul?" he asked.

"There sure is. It costs usually about three hundred credits a month, but I'll let you in for free seeing as you're a Kadeshi and all. I didn't agree with what we did either but it was just self-defense. All is fair in war right?" he said. He showed him to a bed that was hooked up with many sensors.

He didn't like having these people feel bad for him. They lost more. It didn't feel right. But since he didn't have any money, he was thanking his generosity anyway.

"Take off your shirt and pants and get inside. I'll give you something that'll preserve your cell structure so that we don't have anything going wrong when you wake up."

"Alright." He did as he was told and then he was injected with a blue fluid that made him queasy. He then saw the man attach some sensors to his body, and then close the top of the bed. And just like that, within five minutes, he had become a sleeper. It was better than the thoughts of suicide that sometimes ran through his mind. His last thought was of the first day he met Ara. Then he was asleep, in the longest sleep any Kadeshi he had known had ever been in.

ARAZIS

Walking along the halls of the lower decks, she came upon his door. She wanted to check up on him. She did this every few days to make sure he was doing fine.

She pressed the button and the door slid open, but the room was empty. She was about to turn and leave when she saw a note on the desk.

She walked over to it, and recognized it as Saiin's handwriting. She had only seen it four times ever in her life, as most Kadeshi living in ships don't have any use for paper. It is all electronic. This was a normal piece of paper with a short message on it.

I'm sorry I couldn't tell you in person, but my mind isn't what it used to be. I fear if I don't do something about it, I could endanger myself. Therefore, I have left to be put to sleep on the cryo-deck. I will be back when we exit hyperspace. I can't handle the boredom anymore. I'll make sure to try and cheer up afterwards.

Saiin

She put the note down on the table and sat in his chair. She didn't know what to make of it. Was she glad he was somewhere safe? Or was she going to miss him during the next month?

She decided it was only a month and she could see him back to normal when he woke up again.

She then saw part of a rope under his bed. She pulled it out, and it was the type of thing people used for suicide. She dropped it and quickly stood up in surprise. "Oh Saiin."