“OK. We will see. Now let’s get some rest. We know before they get the reply from flight control, we are safe,” said Asuak.

  “I will keep listening,” said Lusie.

  “Let’s take turns. You get some rest as well. I will take the first round,” said Asuak.

  “OK.” Lusie said and gave the pen like thing to Asuak.

  “Everyone, get some rest. I will watch it.”

  Asuak’s crew lay down on the blankets and fell into sleep right away.

  Asuak wasn’t sure it was night time, but it was peaceful and quiet. It reminded him of the nights he spent with his wife at the backyard of their house. The sky was full of stars and they just sat there next to each other. No word was needed. He felt like his life was fulfilled and he had the entire universe.

  “Jason, Jason.” It was Lily’s voice coming out of the pen.

  Asuak quickly held the pen to his ear.

  “Jason, wake up, wake up please. You have no idea what you missed. We finally got the answer to the long-lasting question. We are not alone in the universe. We are not alone. I am happy, but half of the crew is afraid and they don’t want to help aliens. I know if you were there, you would help them. That is why I want to help them. You know I always follow you, no matter where it leads to. I love you.”

  “We have sent the message to flight control and it will probably take several days for them to think about it. Before I sent out the message, I was thinking to ask them to give me the access code to the mainframe, but I didn’t do so. I don’t want to take any side. Let’s see what flight control says. But I know what you will do. You are the guy who always listens to your own heart. You are crazy. You know that? Remember how you fought with flight control to get me onboard? Yea, I know. You made it look like they chose me based on my expertise, but I know you helped. I mean, I didn’t know at that moment. I found out later. People talked. You know how much I want to be part of this mission and you just did it. Oh, I love you.”

  “Anyway, what other news? Let me see. Lisa dropped one oxygen tank, a small one, thank God. Roy talked about cutting his beard. He was probably joking. You know how much he likes them. Jim took a look at the main antenna and it was bad. We can’t fix it here, so we are using the backup antenna right now. It works fine. You know that actually reminds me something. The flight control probably will ask us to return to Earth after we send those aliens off the ship.”

  “Dr. Akio said you would wake up in several days. I hope you will have the chance to see and talk to those aliens in person. Oh, man, aren’t they ugly? They are blue. Remember the movie Avatar, that kind of blue. But they are not that big. They are much shorter than a normal human. They have long arms and big hands with four fingers. Their heads are like American footballs and they are big. That means they are smart. Their technologies are out of our imagination. You can tell that just from their spacesuits. Before I actually met them, I was thinking maybe we could steal some technologies from them. Then I understand even if we had them, we would be far away from understanding them. When you realize this, you just feel so overmatched. Feel like we are primitive. I am quite sure they are not the only one out there. They are just the first one to us. You and I are the first humans who encountered them. We are the first. Isn’t that great? Alright, I need to get some rest. I will talk to you tomorrow.”

  “They are not so different from us.” Asuak thought and snickered.

  Later Uyeet got up and relieved Asuak.

  When Asuak woke up, it was morning and he saw his crew setting up breakfast.

  “Who brought breakfast?” Asuak asked while stretching himself.

  “The guy they call Dr. Akio,” said Lusie.

  “This is what they eat?!” Meiwiq complained as he pointed at a cup of macaroni and cheese.

  “Did you try it?” Fawous asked.

  “No, they look more like poison to me.” Meiwiq said with a start.

  “They look like poop to me,” said Aeitu.

  Lusie took a spoon and said, “Apparently they use this kind of thing to eat. I still prefer to use my hand.”

  “Let’s try to fit in, OK?” Asuak said and took over the spoon which was too small for his hand. He scooped up a spoon of macaroni and clumsily delivered it to his mouth. While he was chewing, everyone was gazing at him.

  Asuak swallowed and said, “Bland. Not much flavor. It’s like chewing on Teiwqsi.”

  “I like Teiwqsi.” Keiwh said and quickly gave it a try.

  “Commander, the food may not be compatible with our body.” Aeitu said with caution.

  “There is only one way to find out. Besides, I am hungry.” Asuak said and got another spoon of macaroni.

  “It does taste like Teiwqsi.” Keiwh said happily.

  Others quickly pick up their spoons and started eating.

  “Anything to report?” Asuak asked Lusie.

  Lusie quickly swallowed what he had and said, “No, they are having breakfast right now. Talking about our looks and they don’t like the way we look.”

  “You see now we have something in common: I don’t like their looks either.” Asuak joked.

  Everyone smiled.

  “What is the plan for today?” Lusie asked.

  “I am going to talk to Commander Lily and see whether Aeitu can get a chance to check on their Jason. Based on what I heard last night, Jason seems more likely to help us.”

  “Don’t hold your breath though,” said Lusie.

  “Can we check out this ship?” Teirs asked.

  “Well, I think we should stay in this compartment. Remember half of their crew is hostile to us. We don’t want to offer them any chance for a fight,” said Asuak.

  “Especially Teirs and Teors, you two are good at fighting.” Lusie said and grimaced at the twin.

  “Alright.” They replied simultaneously.

  Asuak quickly finished his macaroni and walked to the intercom on the wall. He studied it for several seconds and then pressed a button labeled Bridge.

  “Bridge. This is Roy.”

  “Hey, Roy, this is Asuak calling from medical bay.”

  “Oh, you have figured out how to use the intercom. Great! How was breakfast?”

  “It was great. Thank you. Roy, you know where Commander Lily is? I want to have a word with her.”

  “She will be here in a minute. Why don’t you come and join us?”

  “Perfect. I will be there.”

  “You know where the bridge is?”

  “I can find it out.”

  “See you then.”

  Asuak nodded at his crew and then headed out.

  Twenty-five years on the deck and the last ten of those years as Commander, Asuak had set foot on all kinds of spaceships, many of which were from other species. He could tell right away that human was still at the early stage of space exploration which featured linear shape spacecraft. He also had a good sense of spaceship structure. For him, it was more like a feeling and he just knew where he was going. As a result, he found the bridge without any trouble.

  When Asuak walked into the bridge, Lily welcomed him with a warm smile.

  “Morning, Commander Lily... and Roy.”

  “Morning, Commander Asuak, how was your first night?” Lily asked kindly.

  “Very good. Thanks.”

  “So what happened to your ship?” Roy asked.

  “Someone fired a missile at my ship. In order to dodge it, we busted out of the dark matter tunnel and my ship lost most of its skin. Because of that, it started to disintegrate.”

  “When you say skin, you mean hull?”

  “No, I mean skin. My ship was half organic and half metal, so it could repair itself as long as the damage below certain threshold. Unfortunately, this time it was so bad that we had to abandon it.”

  “You said someone fired a missile? So there are others like you?” Lily asked.

  “Not exactly. There are more advanced species and there are less advanced species and we don’t get along well all the time,” said Asuak.

  “I wonder why they never get in touch with human.” Lily smiled to herself.

  “You know, it may not be a bad thing.” Asuak said with a grin.

  “Maybe. Roy said you wanted to talk to me.”

  “I will leave in a second.” Roy said while standing up.

  “No, no.” Asuak smiled and motioned Roy to stay. “I have a medic among my crew and I wonder whether he can be of any help. Maybe he can take a look at your Commander.”

  “Actually, that is a good idea.” Lily said happily.

  “Very good idea.” Roy added.

  “OK, then I will go to get him,” said Asuak.

  “Roy, go with Asuak and we will meet at Jason’s cabin.”

  Several minutes later, Asuak, Aeitu, Lily, Dr. Akio and Roy converged at Jason’s cabin, cramped next to each other on one side. Jason was lying on the bed on the other side.

  Aeitu opened a small container, the size of a matchbox, and a tiny robot bird flew out. It circled over Jason’s head for several seconds and then beams of light shot out of its eyes, forming a 3D-brain image. They could see every vein and how blood network interact with neurons.

  “Amazing!” Dr. Akio marveled.

  “Is this live?” Roy asked in surprise.

  “Yes and based on the image, we can see that at the back of his head, a blood clot is suppressing several nerves in the wake-promoting system,” said Aeitu.

  “Can you fix it?” Lily asked eagerly.

  “I have some medicine, but I am not sure how it will work on human. He is recovering anyway. You can tell from the area surrounding the blood clot.” Asuak said as he pointed at the 3D-brain where a fading red ring circles a dark spot.

  “How long?” Lily asked quickly.

  “Two or three days.”

  “Just like what I told you, Commander Lily.” Dr. Akio said proudly.

  “Good, good.” Lily let out a relief sigh.

  “OK, I guess we are done here, can we move out? I am sweating.” Asuak said in a happy tone.

  “Right. I am sweating as well.” Roy said tiredly.

  Aeitu retrieved the robot bird and they left the compartment. Lily walked Asuak and Aeitu to the medical bay.

  “Aeitu, thank you for your help.” Lily said sincerely.

  “You are very welcome, Commander Lily.”

  “When Jason wakes up, you can just call me Lily.”

  “I am looking forward to that.” Asuak joked.

  Lily smiled and said, “I need to take care of some other stuff. Later I can show you around the ship.”

  “Perfect. Thanks.”

  “See you later.” Lily said and turned away.

  Asuak patted Aeitu’s shoulder and they walked into the medical bay. The moment they saw the crew, they could feel something was not right.

  “What happened?” Asuak asked.

  “We met some of their hostile crew.” Lusie said in a bitter tone.

  “Anyone injured?”

  “No, but we did manage to stop a fight.” Lusie said as he glanced at the twin.

  “This will happen sooner or later.” Teirs said grudgingly.

  “You know their names?” Asuak asked.

  “Lock and Jim.” Uyeet said.

  “As long as nobody is injured...I wish I can get the access code right now,” said Asuak.

  “Speaking of that, I think I can help.” Aeitu said with a sly smile.

  “Tell me.”

  Aeitu went to search in his bag and came back with a container holding two worm-like creatures in it.

  “These are Asating!” Lusie said in surprise.

  “I just learned that human brain is divided into two hemispheres. That is perfect for Asating. I can plant it into their Commander Jason’s brain and after several days we will be able to harvest it and get the code.”

  “It is extremely painful for the host,” said Meiwiq.

  “He is in coma anyway.” Aeitu said casually.

  “How did you get those bugs?” Keiwh asked.

  “When we are traveling to different planets, I just--” Aeitu babbled.

  “And you sell them. That is smuggling!” Uyeet said angrily.

  “Sometimes I sell them, but not all the time. These two are from--”

  “Aeitu, we don’t need to know the detail. After we go home, I need to have a serious conversation with you. You hear?” Asuak said harshly.

  “Yes, Commander.” Aeitu nodded.

  “What about his plan?” Lusie asked.

  Asuak threw Lusie a cold face and said, “Let’s have some faith in our human friends. Did we hear anything important?”

  “Nothing. One of them mentioned flight control was thinking as well,” said Meiwiq.

  “Commander, this is not a good sign. If their flight control wanted to help us, they would send over the access code. They are delaying it. We have been onboard for about a day.” Lusie said in a heavy tone.

  “I know.” Asuak nodded at Lusie.

  The day went on without any surprise. It was bland and boring. Bertha brought in the lunch and chatted for a while. Roy delivered the dinner and told several of his adult jokes which were well received.

  On the third day Asuak and his crew came aboard the human spaceship, Asuak could feel the growing impatience and tension among his crew. He didn’t blame them. Sometimes he also wanted to let off some steam, but as the Commander he had to keep it together.

  At the dinner time on the third day, Lusie suddenly dropped his spoon and said, “Commander, I think they got the instructions from flight control.”

  Asuak threw away his plate and said, “Put it on speaker.”

  Everyone was listening carefully.

  “I actually didn’t expect that.”

  “What did you expect? Roy.”

  “Jim, when you talk to me like this, I feel very offended. Even since they got onboard, you act like a monkey on wire.”

  “We are all nervous. OK?”

  “Now you are happy. Right, Lock? What flight control ordered is exactly what you want, isn’t it?”

  “I think that is a very reasonable decision.”

  “They are not here and they have no idea what is going on. They don’t know how we feel.”

  “We did send video message and text message, so they know how we feel.”

  “What I mean is they didn’t interact with those aliens like we do. Different people have different reactions. Be more frank with all of you, I think they are making a mistake.”

  “How did you come to this conclusion?”

  “You really don’t know? If a stranger comes to your house asking for help, will you shoot him?”

  “In US, you actually better have a gun with you when that situation rises.”

  “And what do we get for helping them?”

  “Lisa, we are not business man.”

  “I guess we are on a romantic trip.”

  “Let’s not get personal.”

  “Bertha, you feel the decision made by flight control is a mistake.”

  “Lock, we all met the situation we needed others’ help, no matter how strong we are.”

  “We don’t even know they really need help or not. This is probably some scheme.”

  “We talked about this. You think they travelled billions of light years just to ram into us.”

  “I always believe accident is not accidental.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It is fate.”

  “I am surprised to hear this from a doctor.”

  “I trust in fate from time to time.”

  “This is not going anywhere. We have a four versus four again. Commander Lily, what do you think?”

  “We should wait until Jason wakes up. He can make the call.”

  “We have received the order from flight control. You are only saying this, because you know Jason will help them.”

  “I am quite sure he will disobey the order.”

  “Because that is the right thing to do.”

  “Let’s not talk in circle, please.”

  “Lily, I care Jason as much as you do. Think about it. After Jason helps them, what will happen when we go home? We will all end up at court martial because of mutiny. You and Jason are getting married. Do you want to spend the rest of your life in jail? Any of you want to do that?”

  A long silence.

  “We will carry out the order.”

  “Lily, we--”

  “I am the Commander and I am giving you an order. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Commander, I understand.”

  “Now let’s talk about how we are going to do this.”

  “First we need to put them down and then we head back to Earth.”

  “Dr. Akio, we have tranquilizers, right?”

  “In the medical bay.”

  “That is great.”

  “You need to go there and get the tranquilizers.”

  “I can try. We also have sedatives in medical bay.”

  “Bring all of them.”

  “We don’t even know whether it works on them or not?”

  “We need to try one first.”

  “We can start with their Commander.”

  “I will ask Asuak to come to bridge. There we can take him out, either by tranquilizer or by force.”

  “The rest?”

  “If tranquilizer is not working, we have to do it by force. They don’t look very strong.”

  “I can beat two at one time.”

  “OK, how long will it take for us to go home?”

  “We have the round trip fuel for Jupiter and now we only used one fifth of it. If we burned them all, we can get back in three weeks. That is what flight control suggested anyway.”

  “During that time, if we can’t keep them under, we can lock them up.”

  “OK, let’s do this. Roy, you go with Dr. Akio and get all we need from medical bay.”

  “I will go with them.”

  “No, too many will raise suspicion. They are smart. Remember this.”

  “OK.”

  “Commander, when should we go?”

  “Right now, they are having dinners. Wait two hours, before they go to sleep.”

  “Got it.”

  “Now let’s go to work. Find some knives and anything we can use to fight.”

  “Roger.”

  The sounds of movements and footsteps flooded in.

 

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