Free A Cold Black Wave by Timothy H. Scott Page B

survivors ... survived, you know, rebuilt.”
     
    “That’s impossible.”
     
    “And how would you know that?”
     
    “Because the distance we traveled was ...” He was going to stop there, but Leah had her arms crossed in frustration.  She was clearly getting tired of being kept in the dark, and Josh, in his wounded and humbled state, felt she at least earned his confidence.  He decided to continue, “It’s impossible because we were out there for over nine hundred years.  The Westbound had only been away from earth for twenty.”
     
    “But,” she stammered.  “The shuttle is smaller, the engine ...”
     
    “Even if they had sent us on a direct course for earth we would have reached it a long time ago.  Nine hundred years Leah.  We’re somewhere else.”
     
    The words sank in but as they did she thought out loud, “So why does everything look so similar?  The trees, grass, even the air is perfect!  What you’re suggesting, that we’re on a planet exactly like earth is even more impossible to believe.”
     
    Josh shrugged, “I don’t know.  It’s not quite the same.  Little things are different.  Imperceptible if you weren’t paying attention.  Insects, foliage ... they all have,” he winced, holding his stomach, “minor differences that didn’t exist on earth.”
     
    A nauseating feeling came over him and his face turned ghostly.  Leah moved to help him, “Ok, just relax.  Sit back.  Take it easy.  Here,” she grabbed a metal injector labeled with Paxeline on it and jammed it into his thigh.
     
    He winced and rolled to his side and said, “You seem pretty good with this medical stuff.”
     
    She smiled weakly to herself, keeping her head down so he wouldn’t notice.
     
    “Okay,” she finally said , motioning him to sit straight.  “ I need you upright to do this.  It’ll just take a minute.  Raise your arms a bit, perfect.”  He did as she suggested and she took one end of the bandages and had to lean close to his chest to grab it from behind his back as she pulled it around the front.  She felt embarrassed having to get so close to him like that as her head nearly pressed into the nape of his neck.
     
    As the bandage unraveled, it pulled at the skin as the blood had dried in some parts, causing some tender pain for Josh. “Ah!  Careful.”
     
    “Sorry,” she murmured.  Once the bandage was off she piled them aside and took a look at his wounds.  “Oh no,” she sighed.  “Look at this, there ’s already signs of infection.”  She picked through the kit and examined some small containers, holding them up to read the labeling.   “ Here.  Take these antibiotics.”
     
    “Really, are you sure?”
     
    “Positive.  Take ‘em.”  She ordered, shoving the pills at him.  He did and neither said another word as she cleaned his wounds with alcoholic swabs and wrapped him up in fresh bandages.  She caught him looking at her in that curious, dopey-eyed boy stare and she blushed, “Ok.  You’re all done, and you’re welcome.”
     
    “I didn’t say thank you.”
     
    “You still haven’t said it.  Properly.”
     
    “Thank you,” he said with a curt smile.
     
    “I don’t know,” she said, pulling her hair back and sitting on her haunches.  “The infection came too fast.  Whatever you were shot with must have been tainted with something.”
     
    “Guess we’ll find out if it kills me or not ...”
     
    She shook her head at him, and after she was finished she stood and started to put on her white snow pants and the rest of her gear.
     
    “Where are you going?” he asked, propping himself up further.
     
    “I’m going to go chop that thing up and move it.  Can’t stand sitting in here thinking that it’s right outside the door.”
     
    “No, don’t do that.  Not yet.  I need to study it.”
     
    “Are you crazy?  What if it comes back to life?”
     
    “It won’t.  It’s a machine.  Has a million moving parts on