An Uncertain Future (11.3)

Rivi opened her eyes and placed a hand on the edge of the patient's cot to steady herself. The world around her seemed to be spinning, with her at its center. Feeling slightly nauseated, she shook her groggy head and the world soon steadied itself. She looked up at the cot and the patient lying there to discover that there were five healers of different species looking at her in shock.

Rivi frowned and looked up at Dan who was also 'coming to'. He watched absently as the Gront patient laying on the cot in front of him slowly awoke. The blisters and boils on his face slowly disappeared and the Gront sat up as if nothing were wrong. Dan continued staring blankly at the cot.

"How do you feel?" One of the Aunantet healers asked.

"I feel fine ... Thanks!" The Gront replied as he jumped off the cot and ran happily out of the tent.

"Dan?" Rivi queried, still watching him.

Dan blinked his eyes and turned to look at her. A smile spread across his face.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine ... I best get back to work," He replied with a laugh.

"Go ahead, you! Just don't scare me like that again," Rivi exclaimed, laughing, pushing him playfully on the shoulder.

She shook her head as he laughed. Still feeling a bit dazed, she walked out of the healers tent and stumbled over the blackened ground of the Gront's home world. A cloudy sky cast dark shadows over everything. Rivi found a short rock wall nearby and sat down, trying to figure out what just happened. Rivi looked up and saw the comp amalgamator from the desk coming over to her.

"Hey ... how are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling ... confused ... your name is Etok, right," Rivi stated, querying the Aunantet's personal computer - finding out also that Etok was only a year older than she was.

"Yeah ... how did you do... whatever you did in there?" Etok asked, looking at Rivi questioningly.

"I don't know... I'm not a healer so I didn't think I'd be able to help much in the first place. I just thought I'd go and at least stand with him ... it just seemed like to right thing for me to do, as his friend. But then ... I don't know... it just happened. I was able to help him just like he was able to help me with a computer virus a few years ago."

"Rivinaig, things like that don't just 'happen'," Etok protested. "comp amalgamators can't join with healers and certainly not in the middle of a healing. Furthermore, it is very rare for a healer to be able to join with a comp amalgamator while they are working with their computer, much less enter the Amalgamator's mind to help them with a computer virus."

"Look, I can't explain it," Rivi admitted, looking up at Etok. "I just know what happened."

"The two of you must be pretty close friends to be able to help each other like that," Etok said as she sat down beside Rivi.

"We've been friends for about three years. We've gone through a lot together. Something like this is nothing compared to the Aruk."

Rivi thought the name seemed to trigger something in Etok.

"You were one of the children captured from Earth," Etok stated, "You must know quite a bit about the Aruk."

"Yeah, in a manner of speaking," Rivi chuckled dryly.

"I was with one of the first groups that came to Planet Gronter's aid. Besides the virus, the other thing the locals were excited about was some type of object that fell to the surface a few days before we came. I didn't have much to do at the time and, being curious, I went up the volcano to take a look."

The mountain the children were talking about, Rivi thought to herself.

"Did you find anything?"

"I found what seemed to be a spacecraft. There weren't any doors though, and whatever circuitry was inside was just about destroyed. I think the heat from the volcano melted the circuits."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Rivi asked politely, not quite seeing the Aunantet's point.

"Because the little information I was able to get said that it had been sent from Atrig."

"Atrig ... Oh, I remember ... it is a mostly desert planet near the center of the galaxy. Let me guess, the Aruk decided to begin building a new base there?" Rivi suggested.

"Nope ... Built," Etok replied. "From what I have been able to find out from others, it's been there for quite a while."

Rivi stared back at her in surprise. It had only been a year and a half since Dan had rescued her, Ankh, and Anit from one of the Aruk bases, and then succeeded in destroying it. Rivi and Dan had been searching for the few others they thought might still be out there, but they never imagined that the Aruk had built bases that far into the galaxy already.

"Why would they want to build it on Atrig - plants can't grow there. They'd have to import all of their food," Etok stated.

"Strategic reasons," Rivi said as a chill of understanding sped up her spine. "Atrig is near the center of our entire galaxy. This is the crouch before the pounce ... I've got to go find Dan."

Rivi stood and headed back into the healer's tent. After passing rows and rows of cots, Rivi finally found Dan. She waited patiently until he was finished healing the Gront on the cot in front of him. She took his arm and led him out of the healer's tent.

"What's wrong, Rivi?" Dan asked as they left the cool interior of the healer's tent and stepped out into the heat of planet Gronter.

"We need to go talk to Ankh."

#

Rivi and Dan arrived on Planet Aun just as the sun was creeping into the sky over the capital city, Emab. They checked for Ankh at the Earth Embassy where the ongoing search for the missing children continued, but they didn't find him. Rivi and Dan took a short walk around the corner to try to find Ankh and Enuet at their home. Whereas most other Aunantet homes were made out of materials that allowed the building to be built in many bizarre forms while maintaining their structural integrity, Ankh and Enuet's home had only one story above ground. Nevertheless, the rest of its qualities were very typical of an Aun home; a flat roof and circular windows set into square walls that bowed outward.

Sort of like box that has been filled close to bursting, Dan thought, trying to compare the image of the building to something he already knew.

At the very moment that Rivi and Dan walked up to the house, Ankh happened to be up on the roof, standing and thinking, among a particularly crispy bunch of leaves. As soon as Rivi and Dan approached the bottom of the stairs along the side of Ankh's house he gave a single sweep of his hand over the dry leaves on the roof and sent them down upon the two teens.

"Ahh!" Rivi yelled as the pile of leaves descended and smashed upon them, coming to rest in drifts around their feet.