Travelling: Chapter 3
Emotions sometimes almost made it through, but they were always frozen before they could reach me. I realized how very painful emotions had really made my life, but I did miss them a little. The place I had put my mind seemed to be locked from the outside. Now that I was in, I would never get out, and I was trapped. For now, I was ok with it, but any chances of me leaving were reliant on others.
The days passed in a blur. The kangaroo I was put with stayed with me for a few of them before he had to leave again. The bear showed up multiple times over the days and less frequently after the kangaroo left. It was 5 days before he just stopped showing up at all. I didn't care one bit, didn't have any remorse, nothing. It was actually quite strange to view life without any conflicting emotions. By the ninth day I was moved into my own living quarters. There was a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. Bland and empty, just like my mind.
Without emotion, my mind seemed to run entirely off of logic. I learned how to get books off of the computer in the living room. All I ever read was language, math, and science books, and I quickly grew past the human standards for intellectual. Within a few days, I was speaking their language fluently; a week, on par with most of their mathematicians; a month, memorized their scientific breakthroughs.
In all that time, I had only grown colder inside. The cold was growing uncomfortable, and I was quickly growing tired of it, but there was no way out. I had made a split second decision, and now I was paying the price. Everyone had stopped visiting me a few weeks ago, so I decided to wander through the halls.
I was walking through a particularly long hall when I came to a corner. While turning something smacked into me from behind and I toppled over, falling onto the ground. Anger flared up, but froze along with all of the other emotions. I just picked myself up and turned around.
A teenaged wolf with golden eyes had run into me, and farther down the hall was, surprisingly, Silvin.
"Hey! Sorry about running into you. You okay?" the wolf asked.
I stared at him for a moment then just turned around and kept walking down the hall.
"Sorry!"
"Hey wait!" Silvin called after me.
I stopped and turned around. Silvin was staring at me with an emotion in his eyes I couldn't understand.
"Yes?" I responded quietly.
"Wanna play?"
"I suppose so. I currently have nothing better to do. What are you playing?"
"Uhhhhh... tag."
"Wonderful."
"You're it!" The wolf screamed and ran down the hall.
I looked after him in surprise. He was fast. Silvin shot past me, and I turned to follow him when
WHAM! Someone bowled out of the corridor next to me and I was slammed into the wall. I cried out in surprise and turned to look at the perpetrator of the bowling over. The first wold I had met, whos name I could not seem to recall, was standing over me.
"Dear god! Are you alright?! I had no intention of hitting you!"
It was strange, but I actually felt...humor. I jumped back to my feet and shot off down the hall, a small laugh escaping my throat.
"No problem! I got to go! Playing tag with Silvin and his friend."
Strangely enough, I was happy.
-
After the game of tag, I returned back to my quarters. Going a month and half without feeling emotions, and then having all of them dumped on me again, was mentally exhausting. After a quick shower I walked out of the bathroom into the main room, and noticed that it was bland. The only furniture was a couch and a coffee table, and a glass plate in the wall that could show images. I was curious as to what I was doing on this ship so I wandered over to the computer installed into the table.
Now what was the name of the ship...? Ah yes Aurora. I quickly typed aurora into the console, and hit search. The shipboard computer held a lot of information, but only briefly skimmed over most things. According to the report, Aurora was a colonization ship.
After a little more research, I was finally able to figure out why I was here. A little while ago, the Eclipse, and advanced scout ship designed to find other races, discovered our planet. The aliens sent a delegation to our planet, and the world leaders were offered the option of joining the Union, an organization of all the species known to exist. After a few weeks of discussion among themselves, there was a unanimous decision to join the Union, but the world leaders decided not to broach the subject with the citizens of their country for a while.
So we could slowly integrate with the new society, the aliens offered us a deal. They would take a number of humans to a newly discovered hospitable planet, and the 2 races would claim it as their own. The planet would be shared, and the aliens would also learn what to do, and not to do, around humans. Humans vice versa.
Then the aliens would send their race to our planet, and depending on how hostile a reaction received, would decide what to do further. For the first wave of colonists, a lottery was run, and random humans of every nationality were chosen. All were mostly intelligent, flexible families, so they could easily adapt. Me and my father were chosen, and my father was informed on short notice. The colonization ship would leave shortly after we were told, so my father felt rushed.
According to the reports, I was the only orphan.
-
My research project lasted long into the night, but I couldn't seem to find the energy to pick myself up and go to bed. I couldn't even fall asleep on the couch, and it was rather irksome. And then a question hit me: Why did my eyes change? I typed the rephrased question into the computer, asking if my transformation had ever occurred before but the only thing the computer said was not enough information.
_ _ Question after question came up with the same answer, until finally I just gave up, and shut the console down. I forced myself to my feet, and finally noticed that I had a headache. I looked around for some ibuprofen, or something similar, but there was nothing in my rooms. The pain in my head only grew worse, and eventually I decided some cold water would help. It didn't.
I just went to bed, and dimmed the lights, hoping that the pain would abate. Once again, it didn't. It only grew worse, and I began to worry. Maybe it's some kind of relapse of what happened in the teleporter. I crawled out of bed, and reached for the com. System button on the bed stand, but a sudden burst of pain through me to the floor writhing in apparent agony. My brain grew fuzzy, and I tried to reach the button, but to no avail. I was claimed again by the black waves of unconsciousness.
-
Silvin was angry. Aaron had blown him off! They were supposed to meet in the same place today that they had played in yesterday, but he was a no show. He was marching through the halls, just waiting for someone to approach him so they could feel his wrath.
Aaron's door was locked, so Silvin jabbed the door bell. No answer. _ Something was wrong._ Silvin jabbed the door bell again, and when there was no answer, typed in the medical emergency code on the keypad outside the door.
The door slid open silently, and Silvin walked in.
"Aaron!"
No answer. Maybe he was sleeping? He trotted over to the bedroom door, and opened it, and there he was. Unless humans had a tendency to sleep on the floor, in an uncomfortable position, and having a hand stretched out halfway to the comm. system, something was definitely wrong.
-
"Aaron?"
I opened my eyes, or at least tried to, I think I did, but the lights must have been out, and it was pitch black.
"Why are the lights turned off?"
"Aaron... the lights aren't off."
"What? But... its dark, and..."
Sudden realization hit me, and I was devastated.
I was blind.