One Less Day of Dying Young

                One Less Day of Dying Young


     “NO,” shouts Commander Zanzar as he suddenly stops at
the end of a long corridor that he has been running down. He
stops just as a floating examining table came hovering by
him with a young girl who looks to be about ten on it.

     Tierrea has her head cocked away from Zanzar so he
can’t see that her eyes are closed. All he can see is that
wires and thin metal tubes are connecting her to the edges
of that floating table. Running next to her table are two
Health Helpers on both sides of her. Head of Health Nowiani
is running in front of them. Zanzar joins them from behind
as they head for the end of that corridor.

     The entrance at the end of that corridor slides open as
Nowiani gets near it. It closes just after Tierrea and her
Health Helpers go through it. Zanzar runs into that closing
entrance. Now he is looking at what is going on in there as
Nowiani and the others start checking out Tierrea.

     Not too long after that, Nowiani comes back out to talk
to Zanzar. “How is my daughter? What is wrong with her? Is
she going to die? She’s way too young to die. After all,
she’s only one hundred and fifty.”

                             ##

     Shuttle Six-Three is heading for Deep Space Traveler
Six when it suddenly stops just before it gets there.
Slowly, they start to move under it where four circular
connections are at. Those connections are in a row in
the center of it. Shuttle Six-Three connects to the
third one in that row.

     Once they are connected, Shuttle six-three Controller
Kianon gets out of his chair in Control Central. And heads
down a long corridor that goes from he used to be to Power
Control. He stops about halfway there. That’s where the
circular connection is at. Only it is extended slightly from
the upper part of that shuttle.

     Kianon taps his name on his shoulder. “We have just
connected. Where are you at?”

     The voice of Nowiani can be heard all around Kianon.
“We have a big problem with Tierrea. Whatever she has, it
has gotten even worse after we stopped just now. It’s going
to take us a little longer to calm her down before we can
take her to Health.”

                             ##

     “I can’t slow us down any more than we already are,”
says Kianon sitting behind the control panel in front of him
in Control Central. “We are almost floating as it is.”

     Suddenly, the image of Nowiani appears on the large
monitor above the control panel. Tierrea can be seen behind
Nowiani as she moves around as she speaks. “If floating will
get Tierrea back to Health alive, then floating it will be.”

     “It doesn’t help Tierrea by getting there as fast as we
can if she’s dead when we get there,” continues Nowiani. “I
know it will take us another day or two to get us back to
Health. But if she has any chance at all to live through
this that’s what we will do.”

     “I don’t like it,” says Kianon. “But I will try to slow
us down even more.”

     After a few taps on the buttons on his control panel,
Kianon starts glancing at the six small monitors on both
sides of the large one. All six are showing the same thing.
The Space around them. And it does appear that Space has
slowed down. Not a lot. But it has some.

                             ##

     “Come in Deep Space Traveler Six. Shuttle Six-Three to
Deep Space Traveler Six,” says Kianon.

     Kianon pushes a few buttons on the control panel in
front of him. Then he looks up at the large monitor above
those buttons to see Nowiani appear on it. “I have been
trying to contact Deep Space Traveler Six. But I haven’t
been able to do it.”

     “It’s probably the storm that we have gone through for
the last few days,” says Nowiani. “It must have done some
damage to our Communications.”

     “What should I do?” Kianon asked.

     Nowiani glances back at Tierrea behind her. “Continue
trying to contact Deep Space Traveler Six. But Tierrea is
our main concern right now. The sooner we get her back to
Health the better.”

     After pushing a few more buttons, the image of Nowiani
disappears and the view of Yaick returns. Kianon looks up at
the large monitor to watch as their shuttle leaves Yaick and
heads into Space. They barely get into Space when Nowiani
re-appears on that monitor.

     “STOP,” shouts Nowiani. “I don’t know what’s going on
yet with Tierrea. But as soon as we left Yaick she started
reacting to it.”

                             ##

     Nowiani runs out of a large opening inside of a small
mountain and heads for Shuttle Six-Three that is near her.
Right behind her are two Health Helpers on both sides of
Tierrea who is laying on a floating examining table. About
twenty others are running behind them, including Kianon.

     All of them are looking around at the damage that the
storm has caused as they head for Shuttle Six-Three. When
they get there, Nowiani and her Health Helpers stop. The
twenty others go around them to start clearing up the storm
damage from their shuttle.

     Once the damage is cleared off an entrance, Nowiani
pushes a button on the side of it and it slides opens. She
turns to face her Health Helpers first. “Take Tierrea to
Health. And get her ready to leave here as quick as you can
do it.”

     Nowiani looks at Kianon next. “Kianon, get us ready to
leave here.”

     As Nowiani runs into their spaceship right behind the
others, she speaks to the twenty others still trying to
remove the damages there. “Contact me when you are done
cleaning all of this off our shuttle. The sooner with leave
here the better for Tierrea.”

                           ####

     Tierrea starts shaking all around her as she lays on a
floating examining table in a large opening on the side of a
small mountain. Her head, arms, legs, and body twisting and
turning all over the place. Tugging and pulling the wires
and tubes connecting her to that table.

     The four Health Helpers are trying to hold her down.
Reconnecting the wires and tubes that are being pulled from
Tierrea and the table she is on. While the helpers are doing
that, Nowiani goes to a bunch of small clear closed tubes
and selects one.

     Nowiani takes that tube and smashes it next to the side
of Tierrea’s head. Almost instantly the flat part of that
table turns red. And Tierrea starts calming down. “We need
to do something and fast.”

     “This is the third time that something like this has
happened,” continues Nowiani. “If it happens again, I don’t
think that Tierrea will live through it.”

     Just then Kianon comes running into that opening. “The
storm is finally over. But it looks like our shuttle has
been destroyed.”

     Nowiani sighs. “If that’s true, then Tierrea may not be
the only one who dies here.”

                             ##

     The side entrance to their shuttle slides open. And
Nowiani starts to peek her head out of it. But the storm is
so strong there she quickly pulls it back. “The storm is
still right over us. But it is getting better.”

     An energy bolt from that storm suddenly strikes the
ground not too far from them. The storm continues to send
those energy bolts to the ground as it very slowly starts to
move away from them. Nowiani glances just beyond where that
storm has come from to see another one that looks a lot
bigger and stronger than the first one. “We are right. There
is another storm not too far behind this one. If we don’t
leave now, we probably won’t be able to do it.”

     Just then ten others from that shuttle are on both
sides of a large fabric triangle come running out of it.
Four Health Helpers are underneath that triangle with
Tierrea. Nowiani is right behind Tierrea and the others as
they run for a large opening on the side of a small mountain
near them. Kianon stops just after he leaves their small
shuttle to push a button that closes it. Then he starts
running for that opening too.

                             ##

     Almost running, Nowiani leads a floating examining
table with Tierrea on it and four Health Helpers on both
sides of it as they head for their shuttle that they can now
see. Nowiani glances back behind her as she starts running
faster. But she’s not looking at anyone. She’s looking at a
storm that’s getting closer to them.

     “We need to get back to our shuttle as fast as we can,”
says Nowiani. “That storm is almost upon us.”

     “If we are lucky, we don’t have too long to get back
there and get Tierrea ready for us to leave before that
storm gets here. And I don’t think we will be able to do
that,” continues Nowiani.

     Nowiani starts running again. And the others are right
behind her. “The best that we can probably do for Tierrea is
to get her back to our shuttle and get her comfortable until
this storm goes by us.”

     “Once I know that Tierrea is safe from this storm, I
can check her out. And find out what is wrong with her,”
says Nowiani.

                             ##

     “We have just found Tierrea,” says Nowiani as she gets
face down to peek over the top of a small mountain. “It
looks like she has passed out. But other than that, Tierrea
appears to be okay.”

     Nowiani gets up. She taps her name on her clothing.
“Kianon, did you hear me.”

     “I heard you,” says the voice of Kianon all around her.
“And I have already sent your four Health Helpers with a
floating examining table to help you.”

     “Have you contacted Zanzar about what has happened with
Tierrea yet?” Nowiani asks.

     Even Kianon’s sigh can be heard by Nowiani and her four
helpers as they run toward her. “I have been trying to do
it. But I haven’t been able to contact him,” says Kianon.

     Nowiani looks behind her. “I’m not surprised about
that. It looks like we have a very big storm heading toward
us. There may even be two of them.”

     “I don’t think you will be able to do it. But you need
to continue trying to contact Zanzar,” says Nowiani. “Not
only because of Tierrea, but because we may not be returning
home for several more days. Depending on how bad this storm
or these storms are.”

                             ##

     Tierrea stops running through a thickly wooded area.
“Where is everyone? Why aren’t they trying to find me?”

     “I know why they are not doing it,” continues Tierrea.
“It’s because they want me to calm down after the fight
that I had with Nowiani and Kianon.”

     “They know that once I calm down that I will return to
where Shuttle Six-Three has landed.” Tierrea slowly looks
around her. “Only I have been running around here like a
wild human. And I don’t know where we landed anymore.”

     Tierrea stops looking when she comes to a large opening
between some trees. What she sees is a lot of Yaick. For as
far as she can see there is nothing but Yaick. “So, this is
why we are here. To check out this lifeless planet for the
possibility of a new home for us.”

     Leaning forward slightly, Tierrea looks over the top of
the mountain that she is on. Suddenly, Tierrea loses her
footing. And she starts sliding down that side of it. She
tosses and turns, both front and back of her, feet first as
well as her head until she finally stops about halfway down
it. Tierrea has only stopped because her clothing is caught
on something. But she doesn’t know that because she has
passed out.


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