IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
JOURNEY TO THE LIGHT
By; Speaker Gerald Polley
All rights reserved.
Chapter 40
Carol came out of her daze. Her husband was by
her. She looked around. "Where's my baby?" she asked.
"Bit of a problem," her husband answered. "Just rest
a few moments then we'll show you. Nothing to worry about, everything's
under control."
"Easy for you to say!" Carol muttered.
The doctor came back. "Well! Let's put you on a gurney and take you to see your son."
They got her comfortable and wheeled her down the
hall into a room that was softly lit. "Here he is!" the doctor
piped. "Nice and comfy!"
Carol saw her son floating in a liquid. His umbilical cord went up to the placenta.
"An artificial womb?" Carol asked.
"Yes!" the doctor answered. "He simply wasn't
viable. This equipment is exactly like ours. He'll be just fine in
there two or three months, then we can take him out. We'll know when
he's ready. That jolt you took on that ship just speeded things
up and had them come too soon. But we've got everything under
control. Now, let's take you back to your own bed where you'll be
comfortable, your body will heal those incisions up, and everything
will be just fine."
"Er, I think we're going to need an extra bed,"
Carol put in. "If I'm not going to be able to leave the room
somebody's going to need some place where he can fulfill his duties the
most marvelous way he fulfills them."
Everybody laughed. The ship's commander bowed
her head. "Hey, you!" Carol moaned, "Head up! Not your fault the idiots
messed up your world and you had to run for your lives. None of
that! You're perfectly welcome here."
The girl smiled. "Thank you Mother!" she managed.
"Don't you forget it!" Carol teased.
The winged being suddenly came in. "Wow!" he
remarked, "I can't believe how similar these ships are! But this
one's got something ours doesn't, a transfer engine. It's sealed
just like ours. But I think it's got more fuel than ours had. We
should be able to do quite a bit with it. I think it will
transfer.." He stopped talking and looked around. All the
reptilian girls were on their knees with their hands together in
prayer.
"Girls! Girls!" Carol snapped, "This is not
appropriate! It is not allowed. We are not gods. We are
just beings."
"Quetzalcoatl is a god!" the girls' commander
answered. "We recognize him. He is part of our heritage. It is said he
would come back in our darkest hour and lead us to our destiny. The
wisdom of our fathers to send us here is unquestionable."
"Speaking of their fathers," the winged being
continued as they rose, "the genetic material that they brought with
them is broken down, totally useless for implantation. I think it
should be dumped. A hard thing to be done, but it might carry
what destroyed these people."
"No," Carol shook her head, "what destroyed these
people was that they broke the continuity of life. This material
broke down because it had no souls in it, no souls could bond with it."
Her commander came back. "By the time you get to
your quarters," he announced, "there'll be another bed. I was
thinking, ma'am, maybe we should delay our departure until we get
people switched around and it's decided who's gonna go."
"Agreed!" Carol snapped. "I'm very, very tired! Can we work on this later?"
"Absolutely!" everybody said in almost perfect unison.
They got Carol back to her quarters. As they
were coming in the children were watching something and Carol was put
near the viewer so she could see what it was. A man was running
through the forest firing a weapon in all directions. It ran out of
ammo. Suddenly a winged being descended on him, grabbed the
weapon and threw it away. "You know," the winged being remarked,
ripping off the man's coat, "you're really too warmly dressed for
around here. Let's get rid of all this insulation."
He flipped the man over, held him up, and removed
the galoshes that covered his shoes. "Don't need them!" the winged
being snapped. He pulled off the wind resistant pants and threw
them away.
"Why are you doing this?" the man screamed, "She was nothing! She had no right to mess with me!"
"She didn't?" the winged being snapped, "She was
performing her duties. She had a perfect right to stop you. You
know, you really smell! You need a bath!"
He dragged the man over to a stream. High snowbanks
were on both sides of it. The winged being threw the man into the
water then went down and grabbed him as he tried to fight to his feet,
and held him as the water flowed over him. "Let me go!" the man
cried, "Let me go!"
"Knuckle!" Carol snapped. "Turn that off! Now!"
Startled Knuckle quickly obeyed. "Why, mother?" her daughter asked.
"It's too much!" Carol explained.
"But he's always just!" her daughter argued.
"True!" Carol answered, "but sometimes even when
you're just it can be too much. It's not for children. I'm
sorry. I just can't have you watching it. Please understand."
"Yes, mother!" the girl sighed.
They took her into the bedroom and made her
comfortable. "Quetzalcoatl was known in this world?" the girl's
commander asked.
Carol smiled. "Oh, yes!" she managed. "He was
very well known in this world. Bad people called him a total and
complete ass, and that was their kindest descriptions. Now, two
things. Pull the curtain when you're do it, and take off your
communicator. I'm going to sleep, and I don't want to be woke up."
The girl bowed. "Yes, madam!" she answered.
Carol slept well. For four days they'd only
let her get up to go to the bathroom. She was getting bed weary.
They swapped things around. Some of the girls that were pilots
became marshals and would be staying. Some people that had meant
to start the colony insisted on going. They finally got it
all straightened out. And one afternoon Carol stood on the
bridge of the girls' ship. Her own ship was to her right.
The carrier to her left. "You sure they're close enough?" she
asked the winged being.
"Oh, yes!" he answered. "No problem. We're ready any time you are!"
Carol looked out ahead of her. She was still
getting over the shock that her son had turned reptilian. They
never thought of using their own fluid, and the stem cells took
over. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter at all.
"All right!" she said. "Let's find out what's out there! Do whatever it is you're gonna do!"
The winged being pulled a lever and wherever they
were going they were on their way! They were really on their way!