Free The Bonding by Tom Horneman Page B

a
different room; a room that was very cold. The lights automatically illuminated
when the door opened. The only things in the room were the two pods, one with
Ron’s body and the other with Oliver’s. Tarku didn’t say a word, but motioned
for her to wait as he walked over and pushed a button on the end of each pod.
The lids rose, exposing their bodies.
    When Janet saw them she put her hands up
to her face and gasped, “Oh no!” Tears immediately filled her eyes. She ran
over to Ron and wrapped her arms around him.
    “Oh God, Ron! No! No! Why God? Why?” she
asked, rocking him back and forth as tears streamed down her cheeks and fell
from her chin. She kissed his face and stroked his hair.
    Tarku watched in silence. He could feel
her pain. He was no stranger to death. No matter how advanced his technology
and medicine, death could only be delayed, but not overcome.
    Janet held Ron for nearly two minutes
before gently laying him back into the pod. She touched the blood stained area
on his blue coveralls and unzipped them to look at his chest. The jagged wound
explained his death, even if she didn’t know how it happened. She closed the
coveralls and gave him their last kiss, holding their lips together, wishing he
would awaken and put his arms around her. “I love you and I will never forget
you,” she whispered.
    She turned to Oliver. “My dear, sweet
Oliver.” She cradled him in her arms, rocking him back and forth, kissing his
forehead, and holding him silently for a moment before gently laying him back
into the pod. She looked at his suit with no bloodstains, and wondered what had
taken his life.
    “I will miss you so much. I always loved
the way you made me laugh.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks, bent down and
kissed his lips, then kissed them a second time and said, “This one is from
Pippa. I know she loves you, Oliver.”
    She removed their dog tags, clenched them
tightly in her hand and kissed them before putting them in her pocket. She
turned and walked over to Tarku. The tears were running down her cheeks as she
looked up into his eyes.
    “These were my friends,” she cried,
sniffing hard as one does when filled with overwhelming emotion. “And he was my
best friend,” she murmured, pointing to Ron.
    Although Tarku was a large, intimidating
sight, he wrapped his arms around her, and she put her head into his chest and
cried. With a warm gentlness, he stroked her hair with his massive fingers. She
looked up at him and could see that he felt her pain. His eyes showed caring
and passion, and at this moment, this monstrous alien was her rock to lean on.
He looked down into her eyes and nodded. She understood that his nod meant
everything would be all right.
    She went back to the pods, pushed the
buttons and closed the lids. She kissed her hand and touched each pod, then
walked over to Tarku. He put his massive arm around her, like a father
protecting and comforting his daughter, and they left the room.
    Chapter Six

 
    Tarku took her to the docking bay and
opened the outer door. She got a little nervous, thinking that all of the
oxygen would escape, until she saw the electronic field across the opening that
held the pressure inside. He showed her Intrepid on the monitor and motioned
that they should go to the ship so she could get her things. He went to the
cabinet with the spacesuits and picked out a smaller one for her. It was still
too large, but was designed to automatically fit the person wearing it. She put
it on and Tarku pushed a small button on the power pack. The suit began to
shrink to fit her body. He showed her how to put on the helmet and it also
shrank to fit her head. She was amazed at this technology.
    They entered the same craft that Tarku
had used earlier, and he took her back to Intrepid. He circled once so she
could see the damage to her ship. She shook her head in awe at the destruction
the meteoroid had caused.
    “Oh my God! I can’t believe I survived,”
she