Wolfgang Riebe felt like he did nothing but sleep, eat, and go to the bathroom. He barely noticed the two American soldiers leaving Leah’s parents’ home to try to reach the base in Southern Italy that was their original destination. He barely noticed Leah in and out of the bedroom, checking on him and helping him stand up and move around.
He thought his head felt worse now, days after his injury, than it had when he was hurt in the truck crash. Leah told him he needed more rest.
He asked how they walked all the way from Pizzo del Sole to Leah’s home, and Leah told him they hadn’t. They’d hitched a ride once they got to a highway. Wolfgang then remembered lying in the back of a pickup truck, every bounce and curve on the road killing him.
At some point in time, someone came to the house and into his, Leah’s, room and shone a flashlight in each of his eyes. He didn’t understand a word the woman said. She spoke Swiss Italian during her entire visit. Leah said the woman, a paramedic, told her and her parents that Wolfgang just needed rest, and Leah reminded him of this repeatedly.
Eventually he knew he needed a shower. He smelled. Leah agreed to it, but only if she held him up. Wolfgang laughed at her.
“Never in my life,” he said in German.
They compromised on a bath, and Leah fussed over Wolfgang until he finally kicked her out of the bathroom, saying he wasn’t an invalid. He soaked in the tub until the water went cold, but it felt good. There’d be no more hot water. They only had power for an hour or two each day, just long enough for the hot water heater to warm up enough water for one person to take a bath or a shower.
He hollered for Leah when he was finished, but she didn’t answer. She had sulked when he kicked her out of the bathroom. He remembered his wife doing that. She would pout all evening and eventually he learned to leave her alone. She was always better by morning.
Perhaps Leah would be the same. She took so much care of him, worrying about him over all else, it seemed. She wouldn’t stay mad at him for long.
So he decided not to yell for her and he opened the drain to let the water out of the bathtub, which saved his life. As soon as he stood up he grew dizzy, slipped, and fell into the tub. If the the water hadn’t drained out, Leah told him the next day, he would have drowned. He remembered nothing other than being in the water.
The paramedic came over again. “A double concussion,” she decided, Leah translating for her, and said Wolfgang could do nothing without assistance for at least two weeks. There was no way to treat him if his brain hemorrhaged and he was lucky it hadn’t already. She could spare enough anti-inflammatory to last him a few days.
After she left, he complained, “I’m not a baby.”
“Then stop acting like one,” Leah replied.
Wolfgang pulled the down comforter up over his head until Leah laughed. He pulled it back down and laughed a little also.
“I’m sorry,” he said in German.
“You must let us help you get better,” she replied in English.
“I’m uncomfortable with help,” he said, also switching to English.
“Why?”
He shrugged.
“It cannot be shyness about your body. My father and I pulled your naked rear end out of the bathtub and I’ve changed your clothes several times since you have been hurt. I’ve seen all of you many times.”
“Rear end?” Wolfgang asked, not understanding. Leah stood and pointed to hers.
They both laughed until it hurt Wolfgang too much to laugh any longer.
“You rest now,” Leah said, patting the edges of his comforter down like a mother would for a young child.
“Yes, Mama,” he said and she giggled. She stood to leave and Wolfgang gave a half-hearted wave.
After she closed the door behind herself, Wolfgang felt a wave of nausea and closed his eyes to make it go away.
In the dark, in pain, lonely again with longing, Wolfgang had a terrible thought. He knew it was a terrible thought, but he didn’t care. His wife was gone. His daughter was gone. Everything was gone.
He wanted to be gone also.
He shouldn’t have left his family behind to go hiking, he told himself. He should have spent the Saturday with them. He should have spent every Saturday with them, not missing a second. At the time, he didn’t know how much he would miss every precious moment he had wasted being away from them.
Wolfgang now decided to join them.
He knew everyone wondered about suicide now and then, but also knew that few made the decision to actually do it. Now he just had to figure out a way that wasn’t messy and wouldn’t shock Leah too much.
Stanley hoped he didn’t look as sick as he felt as the Hrwang vessel superheated in the Earth’s atmosphere, the craft slowing as it descended, shaking and groaning under the load. The UNSA re-entry capsule had been a smoother ride.
The cockpit windows had been blanked. “Just bright light,” the Colonel explained when it happened.
Stanley’s seat rumbled.
He managed a smile, but it felt weak and an upward thrust of the vehicle caught him off guard. He knew a tumble would be deadly, the rest of the craft not as heat resistant as the bottom. If a side other than the bottom became directly exposed to the superheated, ionized gases the vessel fell through, it would overheat and probably break apart.
He held on.
He could have sworn the Hrwang look relaxed, like this was just a Sunday drive. It was hard to tell, though. He wasn’t sure he read their expressions correctly. He simply tried to sit still like them and not give his fear away.
The vessel continued to shake and shudder.
Ionization blackout. That’s what they called what the Hrwang shuttle experienced right now. As if the fact they couldn’t contact anyone on Earth or in space during their descent was more important than the fact that they were a flaming fireball screaming through the atmosphere at ten to twenty times the speed of sound.
The vibration grew so much, Stanley thought his seat would shear free. The UNSA capsule had definitely been a smoother ride. He remembered being nervous, but it wasn’t like this. The Hrwang continued to sit impassively in their seats.
The amount of pressure on Stanley increased. He knew they could experience as much as four Gs. The thought of being on Earth suddenly frightened him. How long would it take him to get his ‘land legs’ back? He had been in low gravity a long time. He didn’t want the embarrassment of having to be carried out of the craft, of having to recover.
Some of the astronauts returning from Mars experienced bone fractures easily. He’d have to be careful.
Sweat dripped from his forehead. How long would this ride last? Like getting on a roller coaster with high school friends, not wanting to chicken out, but dreading the long climb up as the coaster pulled and jerked, towed by the chain attached to it, knowing the lurch and thrill of the ride as it topped the climb and sped down the other side. Once on, you couldn’t get off. All you could do was ride it out and brag afterwards how much fun it had been.
He needed to ride this out.
How long had it been? Some type of clock ticked down, but he couldn’t read the Hrwang numerals. It had been at least five minutes, maybe even eight. The UNSA capsule took twelve, so perhaps Stanley’s roller coaster ride would end soon.
The pressure increased, the weight of deceleration pressing him into his straps. It became difficult to breathe and his vision narrowed a little. He closed his eyes and focused on clenching the muscles in his body, particularly his legs, shoulders, and arms. He tried to hiccup, another tactic in dealing with high gravity pressure, but couldn’t remember how to make himself do it.
The pressure grew worse and Stanley clenched his muscles tighter.
“You sound like your dropping a pretty big load over there, Captain,” Irina said over his helmet intercom, chuckling. He thought he heard some
of the Hrwang laugh also. He immediately turned his helmet mike off with his tongue. He hated that woman so bad.
The shuddering lessened, the pressure relaxed, although Stanley felt momentarily like he was lurching forward over the peak of a roller coaster again, and the cockpit windows unblanked. The sky was blue. Stanley was back on Earth.
The spacecraft landed, although it was a soft landing, not a controlled crash like a capsule or a trip down a long runway like Earth shuttles. The vessel simply set down somewhere.
Stanley wanted to know where, was nervous about what would happen next, but felt too woozy to do anything about it. He just sat back in his seat, his eyes closed. One of the Hrwang opened his helmet for him.
“Welcome to Earth,” the man said with an accent.
“Thank you,” Stanley replied. He just wanted to throw up.
The others got up and began slowly moving around. None of them had worn EVA suits, like he and Irina. He contemplated that as he sat in full gravity, grateful to be on the Earth again but suddenly exhausted.
The Hrwang knew an EVA suit would be useless if their ship broke up on atmospheric entry. He and Irina had wasted their time putting them on. The Hrwang probably thought they were foolish.
His second-in-command got up on her feet, holding on to the walls around her, after about ten minutes. Stanley still didn’t think he could move.
One of the Hrwang opened the entryway, and the dim light filtering in suggested it was early in the day or late in the evening wherever they had landed.
“Where are we?” Irina asked. She could see out the doorway.
The Colonel consulted his tablet. His reply of, “The desert,” surprised Stanley. Didn’t the Lord Admiral say they were going to UN headquarters? He wondered if they had to be moved because of the war.
“I can see that,” Irina snapped. “What desert and why are we here? We’re supposed to be in New York.”
“My orders,” the Colonel replied. Stanley suddenly envisioned the man dumping him and Irina out in the desert, leaving them to die in the wilderness. Silly. If the Lord Admiral had wanted to kill him, he could have just sent him out an airlock, right? Stanley needed to trust the Hrwang more.
“You must recovery,” the Colonel said. “Time.”
“Where are we?” Irina insisted.
The Colonel read his tablet. “Maybe kneevayday or ihdayha or areegan. I apologize.”
The Hrwang sure knew how to say the word ‘apologize’. It must have been the first English thing they learned.
“Nevada? You mean we’re in the Nevada desert?” Irina said. She swayed in place, still gripping handholds in the wall, wanting to go outside and see for herself what was happening, but not quite ready to. Stanley still sat in his seat.
“I apologize. Maybe...ihdayha?”
“Let me see that.” Irina reached out for the tablet.
The Colonel held it up so she could see it, but he didn’t hand it to her. Stanley could see the map on it marking their location. Alien markings dotted the image.
“So you’re saying we’re in the middle of nowhere?” Irina accused.
“I don’t know where nowhere is,” the Colonel replied.
“I don’t believe this,” Irina said to no one. “What games are you up to?”
“No game. Rest. This ship, like a hotel. Sleep. Eat. Rest. Until you can...” the Colonel walked his fingers over the tablet.
Stanley finally got it. They were here to recover.
“It’s okay, Commander. We can get our land legs under us before we head to the UN. It’s actually a good plan.”
“Yes,” the Colonel said, pointing at Stanley in an exaggerated manner. “Good plan.”
“When did you learn to speak English, moron?”
“Irina!” Stanley yelled.
“Four days. I be awake four days.” The Colonel either didn’t understand the insult or ignored it.
“So you haven’t slept in four days. Who cares? How. Long. Ago. Did. You. Learn. English?” Irina asked slowly, emphasizing each word.
“No.” The Colonel consulted his tablet. He began to be frustrated. He finally spoke something into the tablet, then held it up for Stanley and Irina. It began speaking in unaccented English.
“I was awoken from long sleep four days ago. That’s when I began to learn your language.”
“Four days? You’ve only been learning four days? My apologies, Mr. Hrwang. You’re a genius.” She looked at Stanley. “I don’t believe a word of it.”
“What’s long sleep?” Stanley asked the Hrwang officer.
He spoke into his tablet and then played the response for them. “Human hibernation used to cross interstellar space.”
“How long did you sleep for?”
“Two and a half years.”
“Two and a half years? You have got to be kidding me,” Irina exclaimed.
“The massive ships,” Stanley said. “They’re filled with sleeping Hrwang?”
“Yes,” the Colonel nodded. “We are awaking them now.”
“How many?” Stanley asked. Irina was beside herself again, useless in this sort of discussion. He ignored her as best he could.
The Colonel shrugged. “Many.”
“Ask your little device to translate. How many?”
The Colonel pushed a button on his tablet and it spoke to him in the alien tongue. “I can’t say,” he said finally.
“Can’t or won’t?” It was Irina.
“Can’t. Many ships. I sleep. Don’t count.”
“Great,” Irina cried, slamming herself back down into her seat. Stanley closed his eyes and leaned back. He felt dizzy before, but now he felt dizzy for another reason. It wasn’t the gravity or the after effects of the re-entry. It was fear.
How many soldiers had the Hrwang sent to Earth?
“Why did it take two and a half years?” Irina asked the Second Colonel Grenadier of the Hrwang. Her voice woke Stanley up. His head hurt and he had to go to the bathroom. Time to get out of the EVA suit. He must have slept a little, which was good. Sleep aided recovery.
“Sorry?” the Colonel replied. Stanley looked over at the man. He had changed into a fresh, crisp, black uniform. Had the Hrwang provided clothes for them? Did he want to wear Hrwang clothing? What did an Ambassador wear?
“Two and a half years. You said you were in hibernation for two and a half years. Why so long? Your ship brought us from Mars to Earth like that.” Irina snapped her fingers in the air.
The Colonel scrolled on his tablet for a few seconds, reading. Stanley realized it must be helping translate Irina’s words.
“This planet. Fourth planet. Very close. Like this.” The Colonel held his finger and thumb close together. “Between stars. Very far. Like this.” He held his hands up in the air, as far as he could. “Between my world, you call Hrwang, and your world, you call Earth. Very, very, very far.”
“Then how did you find us?”
One of the Hrwang soldiers bent his head near the Colonel and they spoke together in their language for a few minutes. Stanley saw Irina grow impatient.
“I apologize,” the Colonel said. “He ask what to cook for dinner.”
Stanley realized he not only needed to go to the bathroom, he was hungry. He hadn’t eaten since a couple of hours before they left the Hrwang spaceship and he didn’t know how long he’d been asleep for. As soon as he thought of food, his stomach growled.
“What did you tell him?” he asked.
The Colonel spoke into his tablet, then turned it so Stanley and Irina could see. It looked a little like spaghetti. “Okay?” he asked.
“It’s fine,” Stanley replied.
“If we’re so far away, how did you find Earth?” Irina repeated. “The galaxy’s a big place.??
?
“Little spaceships. No humans.”
“Drones?”
He consulted his tablet. “Yes, drones,” he answered, looking up. “Drones fly all over galaxy. They listen. When hear radio waves, they return.” He grinned and nodded his head up and down.
Irina slumped back in her chair. Stanley knew this was an important piece of information, but there was nothing he could do with it now. He might as well simply take care of his needs.
After more questioning, they learned the Hrwang had indeed provided clothes, but the only thing they had available was black uniforms. Stanley found the toilet exactly like the ones they had on the main spaceship, designed for use in zero gravity, although it was easier to use on Earth than it had been in space.
Irina used it after him and tried to change into her uniform inside the tiny compartment. Stanley chuckled as they heard her bump walls and curse loudly several times. He changed in front of the Hrwang.
When he was done, the Second Colonel Grenadier chuckled.
“What’s funny?” Stanley asked.
“You are human, like me.”
Stanley looked at him quizzically.
“I know all people in Universe are human,” the colonel said. “But I think, like a kid, aliens have tails or horns or something.”
“That’s what my world thinks, also. Aliens were supposed to be little, green men, or something. Lizards inside human skin.”
The Colonel laughed. “Little and green. I like that.” He closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat.
Dinner looked and tasted a lot like spaghetti, although Stanley didn’t care for some of the spice the alien used to flavor the sauce. The soldier served a clear, warm drink with the meal that Stanley thought was some kind of tea. He drank it and it felt refreshing.
With a full stomach and some rest behind him, he wanted to walk around. Irina did also.
A soldier stayed near each of them. Stanley’s soldier held his hands out like he was escorting a toddler walking for the first time. It annoyed Stanley, but he knew if he pitched face forward from dizziness, the man would be there to catch him.
They stepped out of the small vessel, Stanley’s escort first, then Stanley, then Irina and her escort, and walked on Earth. Stanley had been away for months, although not quite the full two years of Beagle’s planned mission, and though gravity made him feel like a slug, it felt good to be back on terra firma.
The sun glowed on the horizon, the clouds overhead turning a bright orange. Stanley admired the sunset for a few minutes. He hadn’t seen one of those in a long time. Irina jumped up and down next to him, waving her arms around, stretching and jogging in place. He clumsily copied her example a little.
The exercise felt good, but the damage caused by long periods of time in low and zero gravity soon became evident. His muscles were weak, he was quickly out of breath, and after a while he had a headache. He should have exercised more while in space instead of pulling so many twenty hour shifts.
“I’m done,” he announced.
“I’m not,” Irina said.
“Knock yourself out, Commander,” he said and turned to the Hrwang craft. His escort followed him wordlessly.
Inside the shuttle, the Hrwang Colonel looked like he was dozing in his seat.
“How long do we stay here?” Stanley asked. He didn’t care if he woke the man up. These men were here to serve him, right?
The Colonel mumbled something in the Hrwang language. He opened his eyes sleepily. “I apologize. Say again.”
“How long do we stay here?”
“Dark soon. Dark dangerous. We go when light.”
“So, we leave in the morning. Where do we sleep?”
The Colonel shook his head.
“Sleep?” Stanley said. “You said this is like a hotel. Where’s the bed?”
The Colonel chuckled and pointed to Stanley’s seat. “Soldier’s bed.” He closed his eyes with a grin on his face.
Stanley spent the most uncomfortable night of his life on board the Hrwang craft. Irina stretched out on the floor, using part of her EVA suit as a pillow. Stanley eventually followed her example and slept a little, the ground more comfortable than the seat. The Hrwang rotated guard and, when not on duty, seemed to have no trouble falling asleep in their seats. The Colonel slept all night.
In the morning, one of the soldiers served a meal of reconstituted eggs and more of the tea. Everyone used the bathroom, jogged around outside a bit, then the Colonel asked Stanley, calling him Ambassador, if he were ready.
He said he was, but he honestly didn’t know what he was ready for. What should he say to the first person he met. Should he ask for whoever was in charge? “Take me to your leader.” He chuckled inwardly.
But he didn’t need to waste time with underlings. He was Earth’s Ambassador and he needed to act the part. Just like when he had yelled at Irina and she had obeyed. He needed to tell people at the UN what to do, and he needed to talk with the people in charge, not secretaries or assistants.
Before stepping on board the craft, he took one last look at the desert place where they had landed. The Hrwang were smart, giving them some time to recover and get accustomed to Earth’s gravity again. Although he slept poorly, Stanley felt better now than he had the evening before. The desert hideaway, some place in the middle of nowhere, had been a good refuge.
The sun, hidden behind clouds, didn’t provide as much heat for a July day as Stanley might have expected in the desert. It always cooled in the desert at night, but it should have been hotter by now.
Oh well. Time to go.
Stanley went inside.
29