When I finally came to, I was in pretty bad shape. The excellent news was that I wasn’t dead. The less excellent news was that my body hurt so much I kind of wished I was. My doctor, Dr. Shonne, was by my side, writing something down on her holoscreen when my eyes opened. When I groaned, she flinched and jumped back. She looked surprised that I was awake already. Hey, if I could have stayed asleep another couple of years, no one would have heard a word of complaint come out of my mouth.
“Relax! You’ve taken a beating.” She placed a hand on my left shoulder to prevent me from sitting up. I looked down and saw I had tubes sticking out of various parts of my body. All that advancement and I still had to be on an IV that stuck directly into my arm. If that wasn’t disappointing, I didn’t know what was. If humanity could ever make it to the level of advancement the pjulsen achieved, I hoped they would be able to just teleport fluids into a body without having to jab it first.
“Sorry, I have a nasty habit of startling women by waking up in a hospital bed.” My mouth felt like a pigeon had made its home there, and my voice didn’t sound much better. Dr. Shonne looked concerned, so I tried to laugh to lighten the mood a little. “I made one of my friends cry on Earth because she thought she killed me.”
“Well, you didn’t die, but you did your best to try.” She pointed to my right arm, which had a nasty, green-tinted scar. The sight of it made my stomach turn and sent unpleasant chills running down my spine. I could still feel how much that wound had hurt when I got it. “Heavy Green is serious stuff. If your friend hadn’t gotten you here when he did, you wouldn’t have made it. It took four days to drain the poison from your body.”
“What!?” I bolted up in my hospital bed. Like the poison that was drained from my body, I felt the color drain from my face and the room started spinning.
“You idiot! What did I just tell you?” She gently guided my head back to the pillow, where the room finally started to settle down again. “You said you have a habit of scaring women when in the hospital. I can see that. How did they put up with you?”
Though there was obvious concern on my doctor’s face, I appreciated her noble attempts to keep everything light by poking fun at me. “I hope I get to ask them.” I winced when I asked it. I hadn’t been thinking and didn’t mean to drop something so awkward. Dr. Shonne’s features tightened for a second before softening.
“I’m sorry, Ethan.” She checked something on her holoscreen. I guessed it was my chart, or maybe how much potassium it would take to finish the poison’s job. “It took longer to drain the poison from you because we wanted to make sure we didn’t kill you. Your body responded wonderfully to our treatment. We stitched up your arm, and with a little bit of healing magic, we got that patched up nicely. You have some bruised ribs and some more bone bruises in your left arm, but other than that, you’re healthy.”
Part of that concerned me. “What’s your ‘healing magic’?”
“I’m kidding around with you. It’s a drug that helps stimulate a pjulsen’s natural healing process. Since your body took to the rest of our medicine so well, we gave that a try too. In small doses, of course. Don’t think we just pumped you full of drugs to see if it might work on a human. Turns out it was the right call. The poison does leave a nasty scar where it enters the skin, so you’ll be stuck with that. Don’t worry, it’ll lose its green color in a few days.”
“Did...” I had trouble forming the question, fearing the possible answer. “Did Sven make it?”
“Duh,” she said, looking at me like I might need to be examined for some brain damage on top of busted-up ribs. “He’s the best of the best. Magnus brought you here after you took down that mech suit. Sven made short work of the rest of the moggs there. They’ve been, uh, thoroughly interrogating them while you’ve been unconscious.”
It was either that or the IV I was staring at that made my blood run cold. I thought it was weirder that my doctor knew that. “Did they tell you that?”
“They’ve been worried sick about you. Sven said he owes you another debt. Magnus said that the little girl you found in the alleyway would have died without you. She was reunited with her parents, by the way, so great job there. She didn’t have a scratch on her adorable little head. They wanted me to fill you in on everything so you wouldn’t be out of the loop.”
“Her parents are alive?” A huge weight was lifted off my chest. The deep breath I took hurt while also feeling like the first time I’d really been able to breathe in a long time. I did one good thing in that whole mess. “That’s...oh man, that’s such great news.”
“I’ll let them know you’re awake. They’ve been wanting to talk to you, but I wouldn’t let them disturb your recovery.” She ruffled my hair, more like a friend would than a doctor, and smiled. “Sorry, I’ve just wanted to touch your hair for so long now. It’s soft!”
She left to go get Sven and Magnus, leaving me to wonder if she knew I had to put hargon products in to make sure it didn’t get gross and nasty. I realized I understood her the whole time, so I figured Magnus was around and already knew I was awake. I wasn’t exactly subtle with my thoughts around him. I knew it would just be a matter of time before he bounded in, likely with Sven hot on his heels, so they could both make me uncomfortable with how I helped again. The pjulsen were appreciative and took that “debt” thing to a fault.
I looked down at the scar that made its home on my right arm. I hoped Dr. Shonne was right about the green fading away. Looking at the nasty scar on my skin made me want to gag. It couldn't be gone soon enough. I did think it was fitting that the ugly scar on my left arm finally had a brother. At least I sort of won my fight to get the second one. That made it feel more like a badge of honor than a painful reminder of being completely outclassed. I ran a hand over it, surprised it wasn’t as tender as I’d been expecting. No stitches either. They must’ve done a good job making sure I was taken care of when I was out.
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What the hell am I doing? I didn’t really have an answer for myself. I knew my goal was to get home. I couldn’t do that if I was getting killed by poison fighting another species’ war. I couldn’t do that if I was about to get killed by a gigantic suit of armor with a laser sword.
“You’re helping people!”
I jumped with a start at Magnus’ cheery voice. I clutched my sore ribs and shut my eyes with a groan, trying to fight off the wave of nausea that ran through me. Even my newly acquired scar flared up with soreness. Where was my doctor to shoo away the guy who was causing me physical pain?
“Sheesh, you’re in a bad way.”
“You should know, you carried me here,” I said through gritted teeth. “Where’s Sven?”
“He’s getting some snacks.” Magnus pulled up a chair and sat next to me. “Feels a bit different than the first time you woke up in a hospital bed, doesn't it?”
“You’re telling me.” I rubbed the area where the Savant had cut me. After the sudden flare of pain, it was tender to the touch, causing me to wince. “How’d everything go after I blacked out?”
“Sven handled everything after that. We got that little girl to safety.” His face turned solemn, his gaze heading straight to the white tile floor. “It was bad this time. Over four hundred people have been confirmed dead. Over a thousand confirmed people are confirmed to be missing. There had been reported sightings of a moggodrackin ship leaving the area shortly before we arrived.”
As good as he was at hiding them, not even Magnus could hide his emotions from bleeding through to me. I already felt guilty enough about not being able to stop the moggodrackin. “I’m sorry. If I didn’t get poisoned...”
“Stop that, you’ve done more for us than we can ever repay.”
“You say that, but it looks like there’s over a thousand people who won’t be coming home,” I said bitterly.
“Thinking like that is stupid.” His tone was gentle, but it still made me mad. “How are you possibly going to save all those people who were already dead or abducted before you even got there? You can’t let things like that stick with you. I promise you if you let things like that rule your life and how many lives you didn’t save becomes the metric on how you judge yourself, you’ll be miserable. Your life will spiral down.”
I took in what he said. I knew he was right, but I didn’t want it to show on my face too easily. I figured I’d earned just a little moping and feeling sorry for myself. I hated that I couldn’t save everyone, even with such a great power. I hated that I didn’t have that power when Mom and Dad were killed. I hated that every day, more kids ended up like me. Those kids weren’t always so lucky to have a sister who instantly gave up six years of her life to become a parent. It sickened me that I was so much more capable than the general population, and yet, it felt like I was hitting more stumbling blocks than I was getting wins.
“Here, check this out.” Magnus pulled out his holoscreen and played a video.
It was the little girl that I saw in the alleyway.
“Hi, Ethan...thank you for saving me! I, um, I hope you’re feeling better. Mommy and Daddy said you’re getting better at the hospital.” She smiled a toothy grin and waved at me. “My mom said that you’re a nice alien. It was so cool when you blew up that robot!”
She went on and on about how cool it was that I fought the robot, even though I got my butt kicked according to her. She wasn’t wrong. Even if it made the story sound less cool, I couldn’t help but smile at her exaggerated retelling of events. It was that thing only kids could do when you let them get on a role. After a couple of minutes, her smiling parents entered the video, picking up their daughter. They were all smiles and warm eyes.
“Thank you, Ethan. Because of you, our little girl still gets to come home to us.” Her mom looked like she was about to cry. With a shaky breath, she managed to carry on with the tired strength of a parent. “If there’s anything we can do to repay you, we’ll do it. A simple thanks isn’t enough. Please, let us know. We’re in your debt.”
Magnus closed the holoscreen. He was smiling for a second, but that quickly shifted to a frown. “Are you about to cry?”
“No, shut up,” I said around the lump in my throat. “Your stupid planet just gives me allergies is all, you dickhead. Probably all the pollution.”
He patted me on the back before turning serious. “I know it’s hard to deal with loss. You know that more than anyone. It’s hard to feel powerless. But if you didn’t stop that mech, it’s anyone’s guess what would have happened. As your friend, I just want you to feel proud of what you’ve done. You’ve selflessly put your body on the line to save humans and pjulsen. You’ve come a long way from the guy who could barely make a shield and was staring slack-jawed at a pretty girl in a swimsuit.”
My face went red and I punched his arm, feeling a little better even if the light punch hurt me more than it hurt him.
“I wasn’t staring,” I protested, remembering the event for both of us. Rosie was wonderful, but I just hadn’t connected with her quite as well as I did Lizzy. “I just hadn’t seen a girl that pretty before. Let alone one that pretty and nice to me.”
“I know she means a lot to you. They all do.” Magnus stood up and made sure no one was coming. “Sally found the trail. Don’t get your hopes up just yet, okay? A lot can go right or wrong. I wanted you to know that they’re one step closer. Turns out the Sphere that’s on Earth is named Ylees and was created about three thousand seven hundred years ago, give or take a few. We lost her about ten years after we sent her to space.”
“She’s a girl Sphere?” I asked.
“Yep.” Magnus shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter that much, right? It’s not like the Spheres can reproduce. You know, I wonder if they choose every aspect of their identity, or if they’re made with certain traits in mind. I’m glad I stick to journalism and messing with alien terrorists. Making life like that? Nah, count me out.”
That information didn’t really do much to help me. Still, it gave me something to think about in the hospital bed. Something a little nicer than being poisoned and nearly cut in half by a suit of armor. I tried to match the time up in my head, deciding it was believable that the Sphere was created and sent to Earth nearly four thousand years ago. Given our history of recorded mythologies, it seemed plausible that the Sphere could have given people powers around that time, and those Anomalies were associated with the powers of gods like Zeus and Athena. Or maybe something like Greek mythology was just entirely created by humanity without any outside influence. I didn’t know for sure.
It was insane to me that the pjulsen just casually created the Spheres when humanity was still figuring out the recorded history thing. If people saw the Sphere arrive on Earth, what did they think? Were there engravings on a stone tablet about it? Were there cave paintings showing an orb crashing down through the night sky? Ylees talked about how she needed help, and I could see why. Things just weren’t meant to live that long. How could they? I would lose my mind entirely if I had to live thousands of years.
Pushing aside going insane from living too long and what the Sphere was in human history, Magnus’ update was a good one, and it was a sliver of hope on a day I needed it more than others. I was sent here to get Ylees help, and we were on the right track. The hard part was getting to a planet that I couldn’t guide anyone to and no one knew exactly where it was.