Star Missions - Book One - Part III

Chapter 20 - Diagnosis

That was the pain that hurt the most.

One of the men leaned over the operating table. Belter started to turn his head to face him until his vision flashed white, and a wave of dizziness washed over him. He did manage to hear the person's instructions.

"Mr. Belter, we are going to give you something to help you sleep. Please count down from ten."

Belter tried to nod his assent, but he didn't think his head moved. With a scratchy and barely audible voice, he started, "Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

The sweet peace of blackness enveloped him, and Belter relished it for a long time. Then he realized even though he couldn't see or feel anything the doctors were doing to his body, Victor did not feel as if he had fallen asleep. He no longer felt pain but was transported to another place and another time. An image formed in front of him.

He was standing in the cockpit of a ship, an older ship that was familiar to him. He was gazing out from the main viewport, something he had done many times before. What he saw brought back memories.

"Where are we going this time?" was the first thing he heard.

He recognized the voice. It made him jump a little, and he turned to his left to see Jeremiah Eanex sitting at the controls. "What?" Belter asked, as much to himself as what had to be some kind of apparition.

"What are the coordinates?" Eanex asked. "We're still mapping the asteroid belt's characteristics, aren't we?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Belter said, slipping into the reality in which he found himself. He remembered the event. He was transported back in time. Belter felt as if he was living it all over again, and at the same time, an observer. "I was just a little out of it."

He realized he was back in his role as young astronaut Victor Belter. He was working for TRM (Terra Resource Management) at the time. He and Jeremiah, his military pilot, had worked together for close to eight months, and the day he was re-living now was the most memorable.

"I've already inputted the coordinates, Jeremiah. You just need to take us there." He looked out at the rocky surface of what he knew was Luna below them. He remembered what he was thinking and then repeated the lines as he had over twenty-five years ago. "If we don't find water soon, conditions on Terra will get even worse."

To Belter, this was no longer a dream. The ship stopped accelerating. Belter turned to Eanex. "Did the boosters just cut out? We're not up to full speed, and we haven't even left Luna space. What's the problem?"

"I don't know," Eanex said, his voice calm and collected as it always was. "I'm clearing out the ignitors, and I'll try again."

Belter looked ahead and thought he saw a faint ripple in the space in front of him but decided it was just a trick of his eyes.

"Victor," Eanex said, "something is happening."

Belter consciously knew what it was, but unconsciously he still felt the same sense of awe he'd felt when it happened for real.

In the blink of an eye, the stars changed. The well-known constellations that were visible from Terra then were replaced by the alien ones of the Strolla system. Belter was transfixed, overcome by the same emotions of wonder, adventure, and fear he remembered from so many years ago, even though he knew where they were and what had happened. Re-living it couldn't take the magic out of discovering an entirely new star system. It was marvelous.

He and Jeremiah took in the view for quite a while. Then Belter himself finally broke the awed silence, "Where are we?"

***

"Mr. Belter."

The voice mingled with Eanex's but seemed to come from the depths of space itself.

"Mr. Belter."

When he heard it again, the pristine view of planets and stars began to fade. The smiling face of Dr. Balloch gradually replaced it.

"You seem to have had quite the dream," the doctor said.

Belter tried to nod, but just as before his surgery, he could tell if his head was moving. "I was a dream—" His sentence was cut off by a coughing fit. His throat was dry and protesting for being used for speech.

A woman in the purple uniform of Novacorps brought him a glass of water that he sipped slowly through a straw. His throat now hydrated, he tried speaking again.

"I was dreaming," pause, "about the day Jeremiah and I," another pause, "discovered Angel's Gate. That was twenty-five years ago, but it felt like I was really there."

"Mhmm," Balloch said as he brought an IV tree over to Belter's bed. "Well, the operation went well. We stopped the internal bleeding and didn't find anything we weren't expecting. All you need to do now is rest."

The idea of rest sounded good. Victor felt better when he was dreaming. He was finally able to remember happier times.

"We'll be moving you to the Nova Station med lab tonight to have the doctors there take a better look at your eye."

It was difficult for Belter to turn his head, so he didn't bother trying. But he picked up a new figure in his peripheral vision. A Novacorps member, possibly the same woman who had given him the water, was standing behind Dr. Balloch.

"This is Sue," Balloch said, and Belter guessed that he indicated the woman, though he couldn't see clearly. "She will make sure your trip goes smoothly."

Sue waved at him, and Belter tried to manage a welcoming half-smile. He was not in any mood to have visitors and was embarrassed that someone he did not know saw him the way he was. Besides, expressing any happiness without his family was impossible. It made him feel insufferably rude, but it was all he could manage. Yet, she didn't seem to be bothered by it.

Dr. Balloch began fiddling with the IV tree. "I'm going to give you something to help you sleep and heal."

Belter decided he liked the sound of that. But there was one thing he had to know before he embraced the comfort of medically induced dreams. "How is the search for survivors going?" He meant to leave the question at that, but before he could stop himself, the more specific question that he wanted to ask came out. "Any news from my family?" He did not expect a definite answer, but he had to ask. Yet, he didn't want to hear any confirmation of their fate either. He suddenly wished the drugs would knock him out before the doctor could answer his question.

"They are still searching," was all Dr. Balloch said, effectively telling Belter nothing and everything all at once. "Try and get some rest."

Then a thick fog enveloped Belter and, though it didn't feel like he was falling asleep, he knew the drugs had done their job.