Beyond the Stars by C.S. Wilde

Author:C.S. Wilde [Wilde, C.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C.S. Wilde
Published: 2017-05-04T05:00:00+00:00

17

-Miriam-

The Medi-tez resembles a white, bulky pen marker with two needles at the bottom. Usually medical tools look like a round orb, but this is one of the older models. Its pair of metal stingers puncture my fingers with the speed and precision of a sewing machine, peeling out rotting skin and muscle before injecting new tissue in the gaps. Then the Medi-tez coats the wounds in microscopic layers of skin patches.

Sol’ut-eh handles the tool with the ease of an experienced tattoo artist. She peers at my wounds from behind a big magnifying glass supported by a flexible pole attached to the table. Bright lights outline the round lens, shedding light over my wounds. From behind the glass, Sol’ut-eh’s piercing blue eyes look gigantic.

I feel no pain, just a light pressure squeezing my fingers as she goes along. One milligram of whisar anesthetics has been enough to help me withstand the procedure.

“Has frostbite damaged your tongue?” Sol’ut-eh asks without paying any attention to me.

The tool sheds layers of black skin and muscle as it works on my index finger, exposing raw flesh and the tip of a bone, but soon it injects muscles and tissue into the gaps, and then it coats the wound with new skin grafts.

Sol’ut-eh has already fixed my toes and the tip of my nose, so my fingers are what’s left.

“I don’t have much to say,” I answer with a sore voice that sounds like it hasn’t been used in years.

My entire body turned into a giant ice crystal, and I took a stroll in an atmosphere that should’ve exploded my lungs from inside before freezing me to death. Such a deep, molecular transformation is unheard of, and I not only went through it, but came back in one piece. Almost. I watch Sol’ut-eh and the needles forming new skin and muscle over the tips of my fingers. By the stars, I forgot about James and me, I forgot about everything. I lost myself in pure wonder as I gazed into the jaw-dropping beauty of the universe. It’s hard to explain how wonderful it was, and how terrifying it all became at the end.

I shift in my seat and Sol’ut-eh sends me a chiding look, so I try to focus on the space around me. The medical station is a squared room with white walls and floor. A metal closet stands at the opposite end, near the small porthole that shows the storming weather outside. A gurney with a hole in the middle rests under the porthole. Our “operating” table, a metallic square not much bigger than a garden table back on Earth, is located much closer to the door.

“How many whisars live in this base?” I ask.

Sol’ut-eh shrugs. “Fifty-three.”

“Isn’t this medical station too small for the population of the base?” I glance at the lonely gurney.

She raises her brow, but her attention never leaves the tool or my fingers. “We’re cautious creatures.” This with a hint of a smile.

Sol’ut-eh is a sensible rebel, which is unheard of.

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