IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
JOURNEY TO THE LIGHT
By; Speaker Gerald Polley
All rights reserved.
Chapter 27
Carol spent a great deal of time going back and
forth between the asteroid, it was now being called the asteroid ship,
and their ship. One day as she was arriving her doctor was
leaving and seemed very amused. She thought to speak with him but
knew her next exam was only a few days away and decided to put it
off. When the exam came she found the hospital was far less
busy. She was taken into a room, the nurse took scans, looking at
her kind of amused, and then departed. A few minutes later her
doctor came in. But he was all golden. "Oh no!" Carol
sighed.
"Oh dear!" her doctor moaned, "I offend you?"
"Oh, no!" Carol managed, "No, no no no!" It's just he's gotta stop doing this!"
"Why? It seemed a very convenient solution for
the problem!" the doctor answered, "We now have four doctors. Everyone
is pleased. I am just as capable as my original and will live
exactly the same time, forgoing any unexpected accidents. I have
an exact copy of his DNA. I have all of his memories, of course
now I will add to them. Every experience I have after this will be
different from the ones he's having. Mary, the other
doctor, and him hardly speak to each other. But her counterpart
and I are getting on very close terms. However, we will inform
the commander of the other ship that you disapprove of him making any
more like us."
Carol sighed. "Well, I suppose when we leave
he's going to want some of us to stay behind and make more
copies. Well, let's get me out of here. Everything that's
happening on the surface is really amazing everyone! The children
spotted green spots the other day, and we're extremely curious as to
how anything could have survived the solar winds this long, and, the
extreme cold! I'm planning on going down and having a look.
There's enough air and it's warm enough in the afternoon that we won't
even need suits!"
"Oh!" the doctor sighed, "How I wish I had the time
to take part in that! What an adventure! Well, blood tests look
excellent. Your breast has healed fine, and the baby is developing
right on schedule. Wish every patient was as good as you! Don't
see any reason to keep you any longer. Have enjoyed our conversation."
Carol smiled. The doctor left, she got dressed
and took off. When she got back to the observation room her
husband was there. "Trouble?" she asked.
"Well, not exactly!" her husband answered, "We've
got a report on the girl that tried to kill you. It's absolutely
insane, beyond anything we could imagine! Apparently she killed
16 to 20 other girls before moving on. She's left a trail of
death wherever she goes, single families, women's groups, the same
pattern. She'd make friends, get alone with them somewhere,
drug them, and suffocate them. Sometimes she'd attack prostitutes on
the street with the little toy she attacked you with. And she
doesn't seem to be working alone! In one case she struck a
nursing home with over 300 patients! They were all found dead in
the morning. Many of them were killed in her way, suffocated, but
others were killed with very unpleasant procedures. They estimate from
the time it took to kill each victim and the amount of time they had,
there were nine or ten of them. But it makes no sense! They
are putting out no demands, not promoting any cause, they're simply
killing without rhyme or reason! One psychopath is
understandable, ten of them working together, it simply makes no sense!"
Carol stared at her husband. "There's got to be something!" she argued, "Some common denominator!"
"They did find some blood," her husband explained, "It was
very odd. Apparently there were four men and three women.
But the men had no female chromosomes and the women had no men's.
That's impossible! Every child inherits some female chromosomes
from their mother, and some from their father. No one is totally
without any chromosomes from the opposite sex. It just doesn't
happen!"
Carol's eyes widened. "What if they didn't
have a mother and father? What if they had two fathers and two mothers?"
Her husband looked at her in bewilderment. "That can't
happen!" he argued. "It's physically impossible!"
"Still," Carol insisted, "send a message back to
Earth with the suggestion. Just humor me. I'm sure somebody else has
thought of it. Maybe somebody's playing God."
"If they are," her husband managed, a look of
absolute horror on his face, "they've created monsters! Your
friend got into a convent, killed all the nuns! She left a
note. It said 'My God, stop me! I can't stop! They
were so nice, so wonderfully nice. In the name of God, stop me!'"
Carol sighed. "I hope somebody does!" she managed, "And quickly! 300 people in one night?"
Her husband nodded. "And there's suspicion
that they were killing others in the area before they struck the
nursing home. We may never know the total count."
Carol went back to her readings. They wanted to
select just the right place to land, where there seemed to be a variety
of plants. But what her husband had said played on her, weighed
on her terribly. She kept thinking "300 people in one
night! A whole convent! Why? In the name of God,
why?"
She fought to let it go. The next day they all
loaded up. She didn't want to think about that nightmare.
She wanted to think about what was below. Others had to deal with
the nightmare.