CHAPTER ELEVEN
MARIA COVALLOS
It was a relief to have someone helping me. Hekan was going to show me to a doctor, a healer. This was important for me. I did not want the commander to know that I wanted to be tested, if they could even test for such a thing. The spaceship seemed advanced, the space station seemed advanced, so I assumed that the alien race I was about to encounter on this planet called Kelon was also advanced, and that included in the ways of medicine. I could only hope.
I was nervous now that the time was coming, not only to find out if I had this virus but also to see this planet. So far I had been on an alien space station, an alien moon, various alien ships, and now I was going to be on a full-blown alien planet inhabited by these dragon shifting beings. It made me very anxious. I was going to see an entire new civilization; I was supposed to fit in. This was the entire reason that the commander had taken me from Earth, or so I initially thought. He brought me to his home planet in order to breed with me. But now I knew the truth. He had only used me as bait; I hated him for that.
“I know you don't want to speak to me. I deserve that. But we are approaching the village. We are landing at any second,” the commander said to me. I did not look at him; I simply nodded. Then he walked away from me. My stomach filled with anxiety. Here it is, I thought. This is it; I'm going to see this alien planet. The ship made a jolting move. I knew that it meant we had just touched the ground. I stood up and walked into the main area of the ship. The three aliens were working shutting down engines and other things that I did not understand. Then they came to the door and opened it. Hekan gave me a knowing look.
“We have no time to lose. I have the device; I'm going straight to the king. Commander, you are going straight to the water supply. Let us fly,” Ravinn said. I watched as they stepped out onto the ramp into the sunlight. Both the commander and Ravinn shifted into Dragon form. It was such an awesome sight. It took my breath away. They ran and jumped into the air and flew. I was completely captivated by it, and I watched the commander as he flew fast and hard. It was amazing to see him in action. My heart went out to him. I had to stop myself. I hated him; I had to remind myself.
“Maria, are you ready?” Hekan asked.
“Yes, I am,” I said as I took my eyes off of the commander as he flew out of sight. It was then that I finally got a look around at the surroundings. I gasped. It was absolutely stunning. I was not expecting such beauty. Even though we were in a landing port, I could tell that we were in a tropical Paradise. It took me by surprise.
"I did not know that anything this beautiful existed in the universe,” I said. Thoughts of paradises on Earth like Tahiti or the Caribbean came to mind.
"What is all of that? Those lines?” I asked as I noticed that there were different lines from one tree to another.
"Those are the bridges; some are rope bridges that link the huts of our homes,” Hekan answered.
"That is very high up in the trees!”
"Yes, we are dragons, remember? We fly,” he laughed.
"Oh, right,” I said, realizing they were aliens that flew daily and that lived high among the trees like it was normal. Directly in front of us was lush vegetation and I could see that it was close to a tropical jungle with tree trunks the size of the cars in thickness. They were so high, almost hundreds of feet. It was like tree house luxury homes with platforms built around them.
"This is stunning.”
A rush of air that was salty moved my hair. It was an ocean breeze, so clean. I breathed deep savoring the scent of flowers and sea.
"Come on. I will take you to the healer and then show you to a hut you can stay in,” he said.
"Yes, thank you. I am ready,” I said, finally pausing my awe of the place so that I could get on with the business of seeing this healer. There would be plenty of time to stare at the beauty of this place.
I followed Hekan out of the landing port and into a vast village.
"Holy crap,” I said, amazed by everything that I saw. It was like a fairy village, so magical and colorful.
"I cannot believe that this is where you all live.” My mouth was open as I stared and tripped over my feet as I was not watching where I was walking.
"Neither can I. I am thankful for it every day,” he said.
I guessed that I would be too. It was a very beautiful place.
“This is it,” he said, stopping at the base of a massive tree.
“What? This tree? Where? Where is the healer?” I asked. He tilted his head up. I followed his gaze. Up in the tree was a large platform and I could only assume that there was a hut on it.
“Up there? I cannot get up on that,” I said as I looked up.
"What? Why?” he said.
“I cannot fly,” I said.
“Right,” he said as he moved away from me. He shifted into dragon form. Then before I could protest, he picked me up and flew straight up the tree. I squealed. In seconds he set me down on a platform high in the tree.
“Jrarka! Are you here?”
“Yes, come in,” I heard a voice say. I followed Hekan inside the large hut.
There was a lot of natural light inside and a lot of various plants hanging from the walls to dry. A Draqua male stepped out into the main room.
“Hekan, it is good to see you. What can I do for you?” he said.
“Jrarka, this is Maria. She is a human female that has just arrived. She requested to see a healer,” Hekan said introducing us.
“Hello, Maria. Welcome to our beautiful planet. What is it that I can help you with?” he asked.
“I am wondering if it is possible to have me tested. You see, I think I may have recently been exposed to some sort of virus,” I said.
Hekan looked at me. His eyes grew wide. I could see a bit of panic in them.
“You cannot tell the commander, Hekan. You have to keep this between us.”
“I understand, but why do you think you have the virus. You are talking about the virus, the one from Ephane?” Hekan asked.
“Yes, precisely.” I looked at the healer and began to explain. “I was captured by the opposition. They put me to sleep. I was asleep for many hours, and I think they did some sort of experiments on me. But I do not know what. However, there is talk of a virus that the opposition has. This virus will render human females unable to produce offspring. I do not know if they gave it to me or not while I was asleep. Is it possible to test me to see?”
Jrarka looked at Hekan very concerned.
“It is true, Jrarka. But do not go speaking about this to anyone. Ravinn is telling the king about it this very moment. He has a file with the virus formula and information. That is all that we have,” Hekan said.
Jrarka sighed. He scratched his head as he was thinking.
“It will be difficult for me to test you for something if I am not entirely sure what it is made up of. I will need to see the virus recipe to know for sure. But for now, I can test your blood for any foreign properties. That will show if you have something invading your body, but it does not mean that it will necessarily be the virus. It could be anything that humans suffer from. But we will start there,” he said to me, motioning for me to sit down on a bench.
“Thank you; I greatly appreciate this. I must ask you to keep this between us. I do not want to be the new human female on this unusual planet that is already infected, at least not until I know for sure.”
“My confidentiality is part of my position. You have nothing to worry about. But at some point, I may have to speak to the king about this, but the king will keep it between us as well. He would not want to create panic among the villagers here.”
“Good, that is good to know. What do I need to do?” I asked.
“Push up your sleeve on that dress. I will prepare a blood extraction device,” Jrarka said.
After my time with the healer, Hekan showed me to a hut that I could call my own for the time being. He led me across several rope bridges through the trees, and I was very nervous at first, but I eventually found my footing on them.
"Here we are. Your very own hut for now,” Hekan said. We were on a platform that wrapped around another massive tree, but this one was different. At the end of the platform was a cute little hut with a thatched palm roof. It looked very tropical, like a resort bungalow.
"This? I can live here?” I asked.
Hekan led the way and walked in front of me along the platform to the door of the hut. He opened the door and then stepped inside. I followed him.
"This is your home. Everything you need is here. There is food and drink,” he said.
"Incredible,” I stepped inside. It looked like a luxury beach hut of a five-star hotel. The vaulted ceiling was very high, and a white concrete-like material speckled the wall. Extremely large windows gave me a glorious view of big trees, and beyond that, there was the crystal-clear water of the ocean beyond it.
“Is that? There’s a beach?” I said running to the window.
“Yes, we are water dragons. We spend a lot of time in the water. This planet is mostly water, with various islands,” Hekan said.
“Beautiful!” I said. Then I turned my attention back to the hut.
Lush furnishings decorated the round interior. A large bed with mosquito netting in a soft blue hanging from the ceiling over it looked very inviting. I saw a bathroom area with a large tub and could already imagine myself taking a hot bath. I ran over to it and ran the water. I could not believe it. It must take a very grand engineering to get water high in these trees. I could feel that it was turning hot too.
"I can see that you are already wanting to make yourself at home. I will leave you to it. Get some rest," Hekan said as he walked to the door.
"Wait. Remember what I said: you must keep it between us,” I said.
“Your secret is safe with me,” he said with a smile and then left.
I ran back over to the tub and felt the water. The tub was filling fast. I was very excited to be able to take a bath. I was feeling a little less tense about the situation with Ephane and the possible experiments that he did on me now that I had spoken to a healer and I knew that he was studying my blood. I would soon have answers, I hoped. All I could do now is wait. It gave me a sense of relief and this hot bath was going to be the best bath that I had ever had. I still felt like I had chlorine in my hair from swimming in the pool in Joshua Tree. That seemed so very long ago. I pulled off the sheer dress and my yellow bikini underneath it. But what would I wear afterward? I thought. I opened a large box that was like a trunk at the foot of the tub. There were many folded colorful cloths. “This will have to do,” I said. I pulled out one to dry myself with and one to wrap around me like a towel when I was done and laid them beside the tub. Then I stepped into the tub and sank deep into the hot water. I exhaled in release. This was just what I needed.