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The Tourist Guide Chapter 4 Written by MTT3

<<<Note: If not mentioned differently, all persons of that story are talking German. I just wrote that story in English to provide it to a wider audience.>>>

---Present Time---

Where was he? Was he alone? No, he could hear people talking, but they seemed so far away, and their voices...they sounded different to anything he had heard, like somebody was playing off a tape way to slow.

Thomas tried to focus. 'No.' he thought. 'That is not right.'

Who was he listening to at all? What has happened? Who were these people?

Then he somehow realized...it were not the people that were talking slow, it were his thought which were so slow.

'Damn it.' He couldn't remember how he got here, where he was, what has happened, he only knew there were people near him and he needed to talk to them. He had been through this so often yet, he knew he was sleeping and wanted to wake up. He was just at the brink of waking up but he couldn't. His muscles were numb, his thoughts so slow.

'Focus, you idiot. FOCUS!'

He tried to focus on something, anything. His left arm...he tried to move it. Nothing else, not his legs his other arm, not even his eyes. He put all his thoughts into the muscles of his arms, from the muscles in his shoulder over his upper arm, over his elbow, his lower arm, through every knuckle of his hand.

Suddenly his arm pushed to the side, all the signals from his brain received at once, letting his arms swing to the side uncontrollably.

He hit something, something hard and cold. He heard again a sound like a tape was played off to slow, the sound of...was it crashing glass...stretching into the length forever. 'Ouch, that hurt.'

After a few more moments, Thomas could feel that he could move his arm again, if only slowly. But not only his arm, also his legs, his other arm. He was regaining the feeling in his body again, but oh, so slowly.

When he was sure he was able to control his body again and wouldn't smash anything again, he slowly opened his eyes, but closed them again. The light was way to bright for him. He slowed down his breath and tried to remember.

'Okay, where am I, and where is...'

All of a sudden...he his memory returned. The disappearance of everybody, his long journey all around the world and how he finally found this base with that certain technology.

He brought his hands to his face, he felt like he wanted to cry but he was not able to do so. He let himself fall back into the cushion. He looked up. He realized now that he was lying in a bed and two electrodes of an ECG where attacked to his chest.

'Okay, it seems that either number three or four of all possibilities that could have happened, had happened.' He sighed and looked around. He was still in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, obviously in the sick bay of the base.

"Hello? Hello....anybody there?" he asked huskily. He coughed, still having some of that blue liquid in his lungs that kept him alive for...well for how long at all? He didn't know how long he had been in that capsule, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousand years? He brought his hands to his face and covered a muffled sigh. Again he would have to adapt to a total new environment.

"Hello. How...how are you feeling?"

Thomas winced at the sudden question. Somehow he didn't expect it, although he heard people talking in the next room.

But it was not an ordinary person. He looked at the person that was now standing in the door frame and was watching him. Some sort of lizard, totally grass green, walking on two legs with digitigraded feet with claws, a long tail with a tail end that were pointing upwards and along her back and the lower part of the head were a great number of small spines, but not along her tail. She, (for some reason Thomas was sure that according to her voice the lizard was female) was carrying her tail calmly behind her, not wagging or anything, only slightly shaking. Thomas assumed that the person was pretty nervous.

And so was he. From one moment to the other he was stunned. Although he had expected it when he entered the capsule, such a situation was nothing you can prepare yourself. Thomas was sitting straight as a pole in the bed, and examined the person once more.

She was wearing a gray uniform, long trousers that reached till their ankles, but she wasn't wearing any boots and a jacket of the same gray color, together with gray and white colored armband with a white circle with black sign in it, Thomas was not able to identify right now. He was yet having problems to focus his eyes.

While Thomas was still watching her, both not saying a single word, when suddenly the little headache Thomas had since he woke up, got worse, so bad that he arched forward involuntarily, holding his head tightly.

Istras quickly moved to the human's side, carefully avoiding the pieces of the shattered pitcher. She still kept a small distance between them, since she didn't know how the human would react to her vicinity.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, and was tempted to touch him again on his shoulder.

"Damnit, that was not mentioned in the manual." he groaned. "No, I'm fine, just some terrible headaches all of a sudden. Guess that is from that Cryo-chamber...you don't have any Aspirin?" Thomas asked hoarsely.

"Aspirin?" Istras didn't know what the word means.

"Never...never mind." He sighed. "What...what is your name?" When the headache diminished a bit, he looked at the lizard-creature again. She seemed quite small, not much taller than a young teenager.

Istras took a deep breath, as if she was trying to get more confidence with more air in her lungs. She moved her tongue inside her maw, preparing herself to use all the words she had learned so well.

"My...I am..." Damn it, why must she stumble over the first words now.

"Istras. My name is Istras Tulakon."

A first smile appeared on Thomas' face. He offered Istras a hand.

"It is nice to...meet you Istras. My name is..."

"Thomas Jenninger, I know. We have been following your clues now for quite some time now."

She smiled at him, and took his hand, shaking it slightly in an attempt to ease the situation for the both of them. It was an interesting act, this universal gesture humans seemed to use to greet each other, no matter of gender or age. It was just now that she realized that she didn't use the other gesture she had seen on the videos. Well, maybe another time.

"Really? So...all the clues I left behind were still intact? How much time has passed since I entered the capsule?"

"We...we still have problems understanding the human concept of measuring time. I mean...what the signs mean, humans use to show how much time has passed."

Tom's head was still hurting a bit, but not as hard as a few minutes ago.

"Well...I guess we have a lot of time now to figure that out." He folded the bed-sheet back, only to realize that, except for some gray briefs, he wasn't wearing anything. He folded the bed-sheets back quickly, his cheeks turning red in embarrassment.

"Erm...you don't have seen any of my clothes I left behind?" Now he pulled up the bedsheets a little bit, trying to cover his stomach and chest a little bit. That wasn't how he had expected the first contact to happen.

But before one of the two could say anything, they both heard loud barking as well as some other voices shouting. Without warning the dog the lizards have found outside the base, bolted into the room.

Before any of them could react the dog has crossed the room and jumped onto the bed, right on Thomas' lap where he started to lick all over the human's face.

"Rex? Is that really you? But how...?" The young man was barely able to stop the dog from licking and lapping all over his face.

"Ugh...Rex, come on. Yeah, I am happy too to see you again. But...hey..." - another lick over his lips - "...Rex, out now! "

He pushed the dog a little bit away from himself, trying to figure out what just happened.

"Rex...that can not be...how on Earth can you still be alive?"

He looked at Istras, who was as stunned as Thomas. Then the human saw two other lizards with the same uniform, standing in the door frame, another one standing behind them, all of obviously surprised by the events that just happened.

"You know that...dog?" Istras asked Thomas. She hoped she was right about the scientific naming of that creature.

"Yeah, of course. He had been my companion for several years now. But how...? Okay, let's do it this way - give me some time to wash myself and look for some clothing and then we can figure out how long I've been in the cryo-capsule. Okay?"

He looked into the face of the female lizard, trying to figure out what she was thinking, but it was quite difficult, since it seemed that the lizards didn't have as much facial expression as humans. And he didn't knew what the movement of her tail meant, so he just waited for an answer of any of the lizards.

"Well, if you...would like to. We will leave you alone here in this room if you want. We...will just wait outside in the dining room."

Thomas petted the dog, trying to calm him down. The dog was still so excited that he was finally able to be together with his master again.

"Yeah...that would be great. It...won't take long."

"Just take you all the you need. There is no need to hurry."

Thomas just nodded, and watched the three lizards leaving the room. Before Istras left the room she looked back over her shoulder, looking at the young man and his dog. The dog was nuzzling Thomas on his neck, while he petted the dog.

He looked at the lizards, leaving the room. Despite the odd situation, he was surprised how well all of them seemed to handle it.

When the lizards where out of sight and the door closed, Thomas escaped a deep sigh. He looked at Rex, who panted happily at Tom. The dog pressed his snout into his hand, showing his affection.

"Wow." Thomas sighed and let him fall back into the pillow. "What a weird day." A day he didn't even knew yet how long it had lasted.

---

Outside the sick bay the four lizards were walking towards the cafeteria.

"Why did you let that dog escape ?" Orrlanovs asked Tiskan, the guard. He did it more harshly then he would have done normally, quarreling was something that was normally avoided within the Sz'sirona-culture. But now he couldn't help but feel angry.

"I am sorry, but...I didn't watch the dog for just some seconds, and he bit the leash into bits and he escaped. I didn't expect this to happen."

"Well, maybe it isn't that bad after all, since Tomas knows the dog. I am sorry for yelling at you."

He looked at Istras who was now sitting at one of the big tables of the cafeteria.

"What do you think Istras, how did he process the first-contact with us?"

At first she didn't react at all, she just stared into the nothingness for a few more seconds, then she took the small bottle with flavored water from her belt and drank all of it in just a few gulps. Obviously the meeting with the human had her worn out more than anyone of them expected.

"Sorry, this was just...I don't know." she murmured. "I was just so different how I expected it to happen."

Orrlanovs moved a bit closer and stroke over her spines on her back a few times to cool her down and sooth her nerves.

"It is all good Istras. Even if you would have prepared for every situation you imagined, there are still the unimagined ones. It is impossible to prepare for everything. You did really good."

She let out a purr at the stroking, that sounded similar like a creature she had seen here on Earth, a dove she think it was called. She looked at Orrlanovs, who just stopped stroking.

"Thanks. I just hope that the next meeting when he is done with washing himself will go more smoothly."

"So do I, Istras, so do I."

She leaned back now, trying to figure out the impossible possibilities she could face now when she will meet the human for a second time.

---

The warm water was rolled off his skin, which was still a bit sticky from all the liquid chemicals that let him survive for some time now.

Thomas had found a small shower cabin in the back of the infirmary (he couldn't recall all the rooms in the base so he was surprised to find that shower here) and was now washing away the sticky stuff.

Damn, that stuff was everywhere, at places where he would have preferred it wouldn't go. But that was how those capsules work, every cell of the body had to be sated with these chemicals, to prevent freezing otherwise the tissues of the human body would be damaged.

But how good it felt. Thomas was surprised that the base still had enough power to supply the electric heater of the shower, but well...the base was built to withstand a direct nuclear hit so it was clear that even after a few thousand years, it was still functional.

He rubbed with the plastic sponge over his body, trying to remove really every stain of the blue liquid from his body.

Rex was waiting outside, though he could hear him, trotting around, while waiting for his master to be finished with cleaning himself.

How much time may have gone by? He don't know, but he guessed that it couldn't be much more than five years, since Rex was still alive. He had noticed that the fur of the dog was felted on some parts, and he had also lost quite some weight, since the last time he had seen him.

It had been a tough decision for Tom. Leaving his beloved comrade outside the massive doors of the Cheyenne Mountain complex. But he thought it would be the best decision back than.

Now he regretted it, leaving him on his own, unable to tell if the dog would even be able to survive on his own. All these thoughts and many more were going through his mind while the hot water was running down his body.

His body...his muscles and even his blood felt so weird. Thomas knew that in the manual it was mentioned that without the proper medication, he would need some time, maybe some days or even weeks before he would be able to fully use his musculo-skeletal system. Until then he could have problems holding things, and may also drop things.

Even the blood in his veins felt odd. He looked at his wrist, checking the veins there. The colour of his blood looked much brighter. Involuntarily he touched the two wounds at his neck, where the two tubes connected him to the machinery. Since his blood was for a great part artificial now, it will take about two weeks before this stuff was gone and his blood was all natural again.

Thomas started rubbing his skin with the sponge again, removing the last spots of cryo-chemicals.

His heart was now pounding faster, since the moment he would meet all these lizards and make a real contact with them, and not just for a couple of minutes.

He turned the shower off and went out of the shower and started drying off himself. He had to snicker as Rex was strolling around him, yipping and barking happily. He didn't stop throughout Tom putting on some cloths and drying his hair.

He wondered if the lizards outside would wonder what he was doing. He assumed that they didn't knew what a hair-dryer was, since they don't have any hair, that was at least what he assumed. He hadn't been able to see them properly, because of that headache he had.

When he was nearly finished dressing a few minutes later, he looked into the mirror. Should he maybe cute his hair a little bit? Was this a stain on the collar of this white shirt?

He sighed, holding the washbasin in front of him. He shouldn't worry so much. After all, these people had been looking for him all over the planet it seemed, so it wouldn't matter that much how he was looking.

Finally he was all dressed up and as ready as somebody who is about to meet an alien species from another planet. He put his T-shirt into the trousers and smoothed the sweater, trying to get out some of the folds of the sweater from years of just lying around.

For a last time he looked into the mirror, trying to spot anything that might look weird or such.

"Come on, man. You can do it. You already talked to one of them. They seem like pretty nice people so, just talk them them, nothing more, nothing less." he told his reflection. He had lost count how often he had talked with reflection in the past years to encourage himself.

"You will make it, buddy."

---

Meanwhile in the cafeteria the four lizards were still waiting, Istras was walking up and down while Orrlanovs, Shricktas and Tiskan were sitting at a table chatting with each other.

<<"Istras, calm down now. If you will continue walking around like this, you will fall into the room below us. It just makes you even more nervous.">>

<<"Sorry, I cannot help. I am just so nervous. What if I do something wrong, what if I have learned or interpreted something wrong from their transmissions? What...">>

<<"Istras, relax.">> Orrlanovs made a slow, waving motion with his tail, which just meant 'Calm down'.

"Good day."

The sudden comment let them all startle, being to occupied with their chat to notice the human entering the room. Orrlanovs nearly fell off his chair because of the surprise.

"Sorry, shouldn't have entered the room so silently."

While he walked towards them, he had one hand behind his head, making some sort of scratching move. Istras has seen that behavior on some of the transmissions. She was sure that humans used this to show embarrassment.

Security-commander Orrlanovs stood up and walked to the human and prepared for the greeting ritual he had learned, but he waited for the human to start the greeting ritual.

To his surprise Thomas Jenniger, instead of raising his arm to greet him, hold his hand in front of him. Orrlanovs had learned that ritual too, that humans gripped each others right hand and shook it several times.

The brown lizard with the dark green stripes swallowed hard, looking at the offered hand in front of him for a second before he took the hand into his clawed hand. The human's hand nearly enclosed his entire hand.

Thomas gentle squeezes the lizards, since he didn't knew how strong they were. He was surprised how warm the lizard was, for some reason he didn't expect them to be warm-blooded. Maybe, he thought to himself, I'm just biased. It was a weird but also interesting feeling. Warm, a smooth roughness, small claws at the tips of their fingers...the first handshake of a human with somebody from another planet.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mister...?"

"Orrlanovs." the lizard said, while shaking the human's hand. "Orrlanovs Trallan is my name and it is a pleasure for me too to finally meet you. We've been looking now for quite some time now."

"Yeah, Istras told about it." He looked at her and smiled, which she replied too, though somewhat shyly.

"Before we start anything...I would like to check how long I've been in that capsule, if you wouldn't mind."

"No, not at all. Lead the way Mister Jenninger."

Thomas smirked at that comment. These aliens had truly studied human culture, knowing how to address to him in the right way.

The three lizards followed the human, walking behind him. Istras was walking behind Orrlanovs and Tiskan, still somewhat shocked by the events.

<<Istras, come on. You've been talking with him without problems when you have been together in sick-bay. Why are you hiding now?>>

Thomas looked back over his shoulder, noticing that the lizards started to speak in their own language, he assumed. It contained a lot of clicking and hissing sounds, but also some guttural noises. He was wondering if a human could pronounce any words of that language at all.

The last few rooms before the control room he crossed with nearly running, so eager was Thomas to find out how long he had been in cold-sleep.

He knew the way, he could almost walk it blindly. But just almost, with the happy dog Rex walking before him and around his legs. He started one of the many computers in the control room, eagerly waiting for the computer to start.

The group of lizards were standing at his side, a few meters away from him and watching him closely, using one of the computers.

Thomas tipped a few codes he could recall from the first time when he entered the base. He got the codes when he raided Washington DC some years ago, combing through the White House and the Pentagon.

After browsing through several subsections of the computer program, he found the page, that controlled the cryo-capsule...and couldn't believe what he saw.

"SEVEN MONTHS? Just seven months? You must be kidding me!"

The group of lizards just stood there for a few moments, not sure what to say. Then Istras, still very nervous, stepped forward and started talking with him again, trying to hide her nervousness.

"Are...are seven months long?"

Thomas looked at her with a look that said 'What, are you kidding?' . But then he remembered, how Istras told him that they still have problems understanding the human calender.

"Well, apparently...no. At least not compared when you prepared yourself to stay in there for several hundred if not thousands of years. It is not even a year, I mean the time-span for Earth to circle around the sun. It would have been better if I would have stayed outside. I could have done so many things."

Istras thought about what he said. She couldn't understand why the human was so disappointed about things he couldn't change any more.

Before any of them could say a weird, gurgling noise echoed through the control-room. To Istras surprise, the human's face changed color to a light pink, especially below the eyes. She knew that humans did that to show embarrassment, but she didn't knew to what color, because all films had been mono-chromatic, and she also didn't know if humans did it intentionally or if it was just a normal body reaction, when being embarrassed.

"Sorry, it seems...that the cold-sleep left me quite a bit hungry." And again his face turned pink.

The lizards looked at each other, unsure what to do.

"Do you know if any of my food stocks are still useable?" Thomas asked them.

Istras just shook her muzzle, a gesture she had learned from many, many TV-transmissions.

"No, I am sorry, we didn't. We...simply didn't think about that yet." Her tail-tips were both bend backwards, the Sz'sirona gesture for embarrassment.

"Okay then. Sorry to cause you so much trouble, but...I really need something to eat now. So...if you don't mind...?" he nodded into the direction of the canteen.

"No, oh not at all. This is your planet at all."

"My planet? Well, if you see it that way..." he snickered at the thought. Throughout all the years he had been alone on Earth, he had never thought that he owned the planet now, he saw himself more as a manager of the remnants of the human civilization.

They all moved to the canteen, the lizards again behind the human. Thomas gestured to one of the longer tables, while he with a swift move he jumped over the counter of the canteen into the kitchen.

Istras watched with fascination how strong the human already was, despite the long time in cold-sleep. They have been here now for several months, and still haven't fully adapted to the stronger gravity. Humans must be way stronger than an average Sz'sirona.

While Shricktas and Orrlanovs discussed what to do next, Istras watched the human wandering through the big kitchen, that had once feed hundreds of people, when the planet was still inhabited by humans. She could see how he was looking into various cupboard and also something the crew of the expedition has named 'North-Pole-Cupboard' since they didn't knew how humans called this piece of furniture.

It was a weird discovery for them, since on their home planet, all conserved food was either dried, salted, smoked or just fresh from the fields and farms, that it was not necessary to freeze them. Not speaking that it was much more energy intensive to produce temperatures below the freezing point of water, since there planet was hotter than earth. They simply did never thought about this way of conserving food, even though they would have been able to produce such machines without problems.

The sudden 'Ding' of the elevator interrupted the chat of the male lizards and drew the attention to the Sriptak, the other guard, who just returned from the surface.

" Security-commander, I've been able to get in contact with our forward base in Colorado Springs and..."

Then he noticed the human behind the counter moving around pile of plates that have been standing in front of a cupboard.

The lizard grabbed the leather strap of the riffle that was hanging over his shoulder, straightened his spine and posture, like he had a iron pole attached to his back now, raised his arm to a forty-five degree and said the greeting he had learned back on his home-planet. It had taken him very long until he could pronounce it the right way, at least he hoped it was the right way and now he could prove it.

"Sieg Heil!"