from the room reflected from its shiny surface. The commander then pulled out a necklace and held it up to the light. ‘Is this yours?’
The boy placed it in his hand to look at it more closely. ‘I think so!’ he said and then quickly hung it around his neck, tucking it away under his uniform out of sight. He looked at the case for a moment then placed his hands around the metal object and traced a finger across its surface. ‘It feels familiar, but I’m not quite sure what it’s used for.’
‘We also have a wallet of disks, but Dr Magellan needs to run tests to see if any data can be retrieved. I’ll leave this with you. Perhaps you and I need to spend a bit of time together, there are a few things that need to be cleared up and I’d like to try and do it today. But first things first, I think I would like to join you in a bite to eat,’ Celestial helped himself to the last bowl of pasta that was on the table. ‘Italian, lovely.’
During the meal the Commander looked the patient up and down and congratulated the doctor on the medical care she had. ‘Excellent! He’s as good as new!’
The boy acknowledged the pink scar across his hand and rubbed it with his fingers. He then picked up another burger and continued to eat. The food was quite tasty; he ate the two-layered burger with fries and a milk shake until there was nothing left.
They all finished eating at the same time, the commander pattered his belly and made a gesture to say he had eaten far too much whilst Dr Palantine took the tray back to the food dispenser.
Celestial turned to face the boy and looked him in the eyes. ‘I would like you to come with me, I think you need to look through the cargo we found with you on the space ship. Maybe it will help you to remember who you are and where you were going.’
The boy looked thoughtfully at the commander and nodded in agreement. 'OK!’
‘Dr Magellan is expecting us. She’s excited because she’s never seen as many new alien species of plant and animal life before. One things for sure, whoever you are where-ever you’re from, you’ve travelled a long way and I’d like to find where from.’ He placed his hand on top of the boy’s head and ruffled his hair, in a playful manner. ‘Come on, let’s have a wander around the station and try to put a smile back on your face.’ Celestial tried to assure the boy that he was safe on the station.
The boy picked up his silver looking object and dropped it inside the bag; he couldn’t help but feel that something was missing. Moments later Dr Palantine approached him. ‘You will meet a lot of people around the station over the next few day’s, they will help you to feel better and try to find out your name and where you’re from. Don’t be alarmed by their questions,’ she said reassuringly.
The boy looked at the Doctor anxiously. ‘Are you coming with me?’
‘No, Sick people need me to help them, I have a lot of work to do here.’
The Commander held the boy by his shoulders. ‘Come on, lets have a walk down to the lab’s and see Dr Magellan, She’s been looking forward to meeting you.’
The boy pointed to the name Magellan on his uniform and asked. ‘Is this the lady we’re going to see?’
‘That's the one,’ Celestial said with a smile. ‘She’s got lots of things to show you.’
‘If you need anything you must come by to see me,’ Dr Palantine said emotionally as they walked down the quite hospital corridor.
‘I will,’ the boy said, as they waved goodbye.
As they walked through the hospital corridors opened up before them one after another the hospital green chevron pattern on the floor and the tunnel like passageways, led to sign’s positioned at intersections. The sign they followed was in lime green and weaved them through what was the artery that breathed life into the station. Suddenly as they rounded another corner the narrow corridor opened into a wide-open annex, which connected the stations zones together. They carried on walking across it and passed people on their way to work, others stood around talking to one another as robots carried out their daily tasks. Halfway across the annex he saw a sign above the entrance to another part of the station, it read. ‘Welcome to the ECO ZONE.’
The journey continued through an airlock, where the chevron pattern changed to a lime green colour. His eyes opened wide in amazement at the vast green open space, filled with all kinds of trees, flowers and plants. He looked into the distance and saw a waterfall feeding a slow running river that flowed into a lake through a valley thick with lush vegetation, and a multicoloured rainbow traced across paths that veered off in different directions. He breathed in the humid warm air and smelt the beautiful scent floating down from the flowers high up in the hills. As they continued walking along a path, he could feel beads of moisture forming on his forehead, so he wiped them away onto the fabric of his right forearm. On either side of him there were splashes of colour mixed into the green tones of shrubs and trees, amongst them he could hear the noise of tropical birds and the sound of crickets in the undergrowth. All of this was encased in a huge dome, which encircled the vast man made wonderland.
The path passed by a farm, agricultural fields and other fields full of cattle, sheep, horses and chickens. Ducks swam in the water beneath the waterfall, which also contained fish that reflected gold and silver.
After a walk of about fifteen minutes they reached the labs, as they approached the lift doors a woman stepped out, ‘Hello I’m Dr Magellan,’ she said as she greeted them.
The boy couldn’t take his eyes off of her, she reminded him of someone close; he watched her move and for an instant had a vision of the woman holding a child, of his age in her arms he felt warm and good about this woman and was pleased to meet her.
Dr Magellan was the senior microbiologist on the station, she was in her early thirty’s, her hair was brown and was cut into a bob. Her eyes were big and brown and she had a distinctive mole on her right cheek. They greeted one another with a handshake and then she pushed her square framed glasses back up her nose, to improve her sight. ‘I’ve heard quite a bit about you. I hope you are feeling better now?' Celestial informed the doctor. ‘The boy’s got some sort of amnesia. He took quite a bump to the head. However Dr Palantine expects him to make a better recovery over time. We hope some of the things you brought back from the wreckage will jog his memory, perhaps then he will begin to piece his past together.’
‘I see.’ Doctor Magellan nodded. ‘Would you like to know a bit more about the ECO ZONE before we go down to the labs.’
The boy looked at her. ‘Where are all these living things from, aren’t they strange looking?’ He turned and pointed to the undergrowth.
She looked over into the distance, and turned the boy around so they were all facing the same direction, ‘The whole of this ECO ZONE’S plant and animal life has been brought here from Earth. That’s a planet in a nearby solar system with an abundance of life forms. Earth is my home and where all of the people you’ll meet are originally from. When these space stations were built further and further away from Earth, there was no way of transporting food effectively, so this self sustained environment was created to contain a large number of food species, from our home planet.’
The boy nodded with approval and pointed to a formation of ducks as they passed overhead before skimming the surface of the lake. ‘I like it!’
‘Looking at it through new eye’s must be wonderful,’ she said turning to Celestial smiling.
Dr Magellan turned to face the elevator and continued explaining, ‘This elevator shaft is landscaped to look like a cliff face of sandstone.’ she pointed to the rock formation. ‘If you look closely you can make out the windows of the offices, the labs are underground beneath our feet.’
The boy looked closely at the stones and indeed he could see the windows outlines. ‘They are extremely well hidden.’
The Doctor continued. ‘This stone was mined from moons nearby, then shipped here along with other raw materials from more planets we have surveyed on our travels. We analysed them and combine compounds to make the landscape you
see before you. This environment is now self sufficient, with the animals eating the vegetation, fruits and in turn create carbon dioxide, the plants absorb it along with co2 from the station and along with a little help from the sunlight,’ she pointed to the mass of solar lights shinning from the roof of the dome. ‘The lights produce oxygen, which is passed back into the life support. It then gets circulated for everyone to breath. But I wouldn’t expect you to understand that,’ she added seeing the boy frown.
The boy nodded and squinted as he looked above at the artificial sun. ‘I think I understand.’ He said.
‘Well I think that covers everything about the life support system on the station, shall we take a look around the labs?’ The Doctor led them into the elevator. The monitor changed to green and read ACCESS Dr Magellan. A few moments later they reached level 5. The doors opened and the lights to the lab came on sensing their movement in the scientific room. A sign read, Scientific Room Authorised Personnel Only.’
Dr Magellan spoke. ‘As you can see the labs are huge, there are lots of work spaces, microscopes and containment compartments,’ she demonstrated by pushing her hand within a glove to pick up a sample inside the boxed vacuum, she moved on to the far side of the lab and pointed toward the incubators and water