I took it and clicked the stylus from its base and wrote a simple message. “Hello, how are you?” I wanted to write in Ohem’s language and I did, as if I’d always known it. The glyphs were the same as the ones spread all over the ship.
I handed the large tablet back to Ohem with shaky hands. He stared at the writing before handing it to the doctor. Ohem wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him. I soaked up his support. It was a lot of new information to process. Just one bomb after another. Aliens are real. I’m also an alien. I’m not only an alien, but a super alien with super tech from an evil galaxy conquering species.
My super alien tech is light years in the future even while they themselves are from thousands of years in the past and they’ve been lurking in my body and those of my kind all this time. I needed a drink.
“What else can they do?” Sam asked the doctor. Her eyes flitted around the room, anywhere but Dr. Ghix’s face. I made a mental note to tease her about it later.
Dr. Ghix looked at the monitor and then back at us. “I don’t know. Any Rijitera history, as you know, has been wiped out. I’ll keep researching the samples and get back to you with any results I find.” Ohem chuffed and stood, pulling me to my feet with him and gave the doctor a little bow. “Thank you, Dr. Ghix. We will check in again later with you for more tests. For now, I have to get them into their rooms so we can all rest. It has been a very stressful month for all of us,” he said. It was the understatement of the century.
Dr. Ghix smiled at all of us. “Of course. Rest up well! We have much to do.”
We said our goodbyes and filed out of the room. It had been an insane day. So much had happened in only a short time that it was like I was trapped in the Matrix and had only now woken up. I was going to need so much sleep to process all this. They had better have blankets on our beds, heated gel mattresses or not, a girl needed a good blanket to snuggle when dealing with stress.
Chapter 13
Rema was waiting for us in the hallway when we came out. I hadn’t even noticed that he’d stayed behind. I was definitely too tired to function. He nodded his head at us and took up his place at the rear of our little pack.
“We can trust Ghix. He has helped me research my family’s archives in the past,” Ohem said, while we walked out of the med bay and down the corridor, back to the teleportation elevator. I only nodded. The doctor had that trustworthy puppy dog feel to him. I hadn’t been worried.
“Does this teleport us to places?” I asked, instead of commenting on the good doctor when the tube doors closed.
“No. It’s a type of portal,” Rema answered me. His voice was deep and smooth, like a college philosophy professor. He looked like he’d be a professor. All sharp angles and serious nature. Patty was going to have to bring some fun into his life.
“How do you contain it?” Sam asked.
He looked down at her and smiled. “It uses a magnetic field to stabilize the tube.”
They continued their physics discussion out of the portal and into a short hallway that ended with a big, plain metal door. We walked through the door, and Sam’s voice trailed off. She gaped at the room we’d arrived in.
It was an opulent living room, with soft blue marble like floors and various lava rock couches and chairs placed around a massive cylindrical fireplace made of black glass, built like a center support column between the floor and the mirrored ceiling. Black fur rugs lay strewn under couches and around the floor for added warmth.
The whole sidewall past the seating area was one solid window that curved out into space. There were three curved back couches placed along the window so you could stare out into the void in comfort. A bar stretched the entire length of the right wall. Colorful glass containers of various sizes and shapes shone from shelves above the bar. The reflective black walls showed our shocked faces and Ohem’s laughing yellow eyes.
“These are my private quarters. This is the social area. If you follow me, I will show you the rest.”
We trailed after Ohem as he led us past the bar and down a short hallway with curved walls into a circular library filled to the brim with books or scrolls and more couches. There was another column shaped fireplace in the center of the room with another window for a back wall. I didn’t like seeing out into space. It was creepy. Judging by the looks of wonder from the other ladies, only I felt that way. Only having glass separating me from the cold vacuum of space was kind of freaking me out.
Two more curved hallways forked off from the library and Ohem led us through the one to the left first, into a dining room. A long black table that came to sharp points at both ends dominated the room. There were tall black chairs lining the table, enough for forty people at least. Yellow lines and dots glowed on the table’s surface and a multi-colored glass chandelier hung above it. The entire room was windows. It gave the impression you were standing in open space. It was a horrible room and I hated it with a fiery passion.
Ohem looked at my face and placed a hand on my back to steer me around into the library again and through the right hallway. They really had a thing for black shiny walls or the color black in general. There were bright pops of color here and there, but the overall look was sleek, modern, and very black.
This hallway was long with doors on either side, spaced out from each other by twenty feet. Ohem stopped at the first door on his right and it slid open, revealing a bedroom. It had another curved window that served as its back wall. A large oval bed against the left wall with a sitting area against the window, complete with two couches and a coffee table, and a small desk directly across from the bed. There was a black door next to the desk.
“This will be your room, Callie. That door leads to the bathing chamber. The pool is voice activated. I had drying cloths, soaps, and more clothing delivered. There are more female things in the storage units. If you are missing anything, there is a comms unit on the desk, ask for Lilien and she will bring you anything you require,” Ohem said, he stepped back so Callie could go in and explore.
She paused by the bed and touched her hand to it and then covered her mouth to muffle the ragged sob that had escaped her. She was getting emotional over the bed. I didn’t blame her. I was so damn tired.
“I will show the other’s to their rooms. A meal will be brought to you in thirty minutes. Get some rest,” he said. “The doors lock automatically when you are inside. Say ‘open’ when you want out and it will unlock for you.”
Callie turned in a circle and collapsed on the bed. It had black velvet type blankets and actual pillows. “Oh God, guys. It’s so comfy.” She sat up and gave us a water smile. “See you in the morning! I’m gonna wash until I’m red and raw,” she said and practically skipped to the bathroom. The door opened automatically, and she disappeared inside. We heard an excited squeal before her bedroom door closed behind us.
Ohem showed Sam and Patty to identical rooms further down the hall and they both gave me tight hugs before closing themselves inside.
We continued down the hall to a dead end at a black door that Ohem led me through. It was his room. A seating area with another fireplace was the first thing we stepped into, the space was inviting and warm, Ohem had colors in here. Orange and red lava rock couches and deep blue pillows with white furs on the floors.
Ohem walked right past that and up a short flight of stairs to another set of doors. We passed through them into his bedroom. The massive bed took up most of the space, the room was done in shades of red clay and cream. He didn’t stop to let me admire his floral artwork on the walls or his knickknacks spread over floating shelves, instead he pulled me into a bathing chamber the size of my entire house back home. It had a pool made of gray stone in the center, steam rising off the water. It was humid and warm.
He turned to me, his armor retracting into the torque, and started undressing me. I lifted my arms and legs at the appropriate time and when he had me naked; he scooped me up into his arms and used the stone steps to walk into the water. He placed me on my feet when we were in the center of the pool and reached for some glass bottles that lined one side on stone shelves.
