Page 11 of Orange Lake
“An excellent observation,” he exclaimed, looking delighted at me like I’m his pupil. “Yes, it only works on blood. But it can be used with different consoles for medical purposes.”
I leaned back further when he placed the blue sals near me. Zirc tightened his long arm around me as if to reassure me it was okay.
Just then, the blue sals turned slightly green.
“What’s that?”
Crix has a certain glint in his eye. “That is what I want to know. What we all want to know. All of our sals’ colors do not change when near or in contact with us or any other species. Until you.”
I looked up at him with wide eyes.
“In fact,” he reached inside his robes and took out the two other crystals. “They all react to you.”
Now every crystal has a green tint to them.
He was looking at me as if I know the answer. I shook my head sideways. “No, I don’t know.”
“Where exactly do you come from?” Though he asked in a mild tone, I suddenly realized if this is the part where they torture me for information. And suddenly, Zirc’s arm felt like a manacle instead of a safe harbor.
Zirc must have felt my unease because he said, “We just want to know Brin. No need to panic. We want to know if exposure to the sals cause you any harm. You did not wake up when we used mrogs. And besides, we are among friends.”
He seems to trust this guy.
“Mrogs are special sals, Brynn,” Crix explained seeing I have more questions than answers. “When mrogs are used on a vehicle, it can travel great distances. More like a leap. So yesterday, what you could have travelled in a vehicle for three days, you reached this distance in less than 15 minutes.”
The way he explained it, it’s like putting A1 fuel in jet planes so that it can fly and travel faster than sound waves. Yet, this mrog is capable of beyond that. Like being in a warped time. I could just imagine the stress of my body being dislocated like that. I used to be a science geek but my career landed me to more clerical jobs. Still, I watch movies and read books so I know these things can only be found in fiction. These are things Earth will covet, nations will try to steal or plunder to be the top dog of the planet. Most likely, it works that way in this planet as well.
“We got concerned you’re not waking up.”
“I probably just fainted or stressed about what happened.”
“These kind of things do not happen in your world?”
“No,” I said shaking my head. Then thought out loud. “Maybe in my world’s past these things kind of happened but never do we have these kinds ofsals. What we have are fossil fuels.”
Crix looked taken aback. Zirc stiffened behind her.
Crix looked briefly at Zirc. “I think you need more medication Brynn,” he said gravely. “We used to have fossil fuels in the past. But that almost destroyed our planet. I gather you also use coal or crude oil to make plastic?”
I nod. “Yes, it’s very useful to us.”
He shook his head. “Brynn, you are more sick than I thought. Let me run more diagnostics on your body. No wonder you get fatigued or faint easily. Or why you require a longer period of rests. Our body, even if we look stronger than you, cannot survive in a polluted planet for too long. We want to only use natural resources that can sustain us without damaging our planet. We do not want to be slaves again to other predators in the galaxy. It is good that our forefathers discovered these sals. It doesn’t run out and is our biggest export to other planets.”
It still doesn’t explain why they have an almost backward technology. But for sals to last forever, that defies science. Everything is finite. Still, something was bugging me.
“Can you also run some tests on my blood to see what the abductors did to me?”
Crix’s cheeks started to get a tinge of red, more dark purple. So, they do blush. But I wonder why he would do so.
“Ah, that,” Crix nod. He was looking sideways now, not directly looking at me. “We did some tests. Yes, we did. We caught chemical compounds that induces you to go into heat. But we found some intriguing aspects to your blood.”
Zirc said not to trust anyone I have iron blood. This guy is probably their local version of a doctor or healer.
“Intriguing?” I thought of course I’m intriguing. I’m probably the first human female they’ve encountered.
“Yes. I flushed it out of your system. And a good thing that I did. With what you’ve told me about your planet’s situation and how you could be exposed to the negative effects of fossil fuel, your heart might not be able to sustain it. Probably why you also collapsed and slept longer. So your body can recuperate.”
True, that was the most peaceful sleep I got since I landed on this planet.
