I wrote this vignette based off the first novel I ever attempted to write: Sagittarius. I was an undergraduate when I embarked on writing a space opera in the vein of Asimov’s classic Foundation series. The book, not the Apple+ “adaptation.” Set 200 years into the future when humanity develops a new FTL drive. It propels their ships beyond the 11-light year radius of its settlements. Like in Babylon 5 humanity quickly encountered a race they did not expect. That meeting immediately drew them into an interstellar war over the remains of a vast empire. This vignette is the start of the third act in the novel, which I think I stopped working on somewhere in 1999. It reached a grand total of 46,000 words before I moved on and wrote “Inquefish,” my first traditionally published work which appears in my collection “Dreams of a Freezing Ocean: Volume 1“
Of course it was a bit derivative, and thus never finished. However, I did borrow some names and settings and applied them to other works. Including the ubiquitous “Kevin” who, like The Professor, is always in one of my stories somewhere. There were some Battlestar Galactica elements in the setting as well. Interestingly, I wrote those a decade before the amazing 2004 reimagining of the series.
Previously, this vignette appeared alongside “Inquefish” in my collection “Dreams of a Freezing Ocean: Volume 1” as it is here. It sets the tone for my style of fiction. I plan to revisit the novel eventually because 46,000 words is a shame to only be shown as a vignette.
A rush of light filled Kevin’s vision. For the first time in three years, his eyes were open and the flooding brilliance overpowered his optic nerves.
Behind the glare, his mind raced with images. Scenes of strange gray humans, and tall, thin aliens with enormous obsidian eyes. He felt the pain and anguish of three years of a bloody and costly war. He could hear the death screams of thousands of combatants. He felt the joy of victory and the crushing loss of defeat. He saw the alien he met on Rebecca’s Planet raise his blaster, and fire over and over until the scenes faded back to white.
“Hello?” A soft female voice said to him. Instantly he recognized it.
“Hello. It’s good to hear from you again,” he replied. “Your name is Amy isn’t it?”
“Yes Kevin, you know that,” the voice responded pleasantly, as if she knew he was teasing her.
“Where are you?” he thought.
“Earth, back at my parent's house. You must be close by.”
“I don’t know where I am yet.”
An image of the young woman he saw on the fast transport to Earth flashed through his mind, followed by the titanic globe of the planet as he saw through the observation window.
“I guess we aren’t alone after all,” she said with mixed relief and fear.
“No.”
The image of the alien and the blaster flashed through his mind again.
Kevin felt footsteps walking towards him. Another distinct voice, male this time, called out to him in his mind.
“Hello?”
“Hello,” Amy responded. “It’s okay, Kevin, you have a guest, I’ll attend to our new friend.”
The two voices disappeared from his mind. An emotion of gratitude filled him, and then a separate feeling of trepidation. He felt a new presence. Then a second.
Finally, the first presence came near, and he focused on it. With his eyes still too overloaded to see, he imagined a hospital room with a single door. On the other side of the door Alyssa, his wife, stood. She knocked quietly.
“Come,” he called out in his mind.
A moment later he heard the physical sound of a knock on his door. The same knock he heard in his head.
“Come,” he called out again.
A pause, and then another knock, more pleading this time.
“Come in!” He called out. Why wasn’t she listening?
Blurry shapes came to his eyes, blue-grey amorphous patches held motionless against a white background.
He imagined the room again and matched the patches to the bed and flowers scattered about him. The door opened and he saw Alyssa enter the room with a woman he knew to be his doctor.
There were no new patches in his vision, but they were becoming more distinct. He willed himself to see clearer and in an instant, he had complete sight. Exactly like the room he had imagined.
He heard the door open and Alyssa and his doctor walked in, just as he saw in him mind a moment ago.
Alyssa flew to his bedside and threw her arms around him. He smelled her skin and inhaled as deeply as he could. He felt her strong arms squeeze his atrophied form and savored the feel of her flesh on his. He shut out the universe to feel her.Then, in his mind, he saw her pull away from him with a concerned look on her face.
“Can you hear me?” She asked.
A moment later she pulled away from him, physically this time, and asked, “Can you hear me?”
“Yes. I can hear you,” he thought.
Alyssa winced like she had been stung by a bee. She threw her hand up to her temple and pressed, squinting hard. The doctor made a similar gesture. Alyssa staggered back, her face twisted with fear.
“I can hear you. What’s wrong?” He thought with desperation.
Alyssa and the doctor dropped to their knees, screaming in pain.
“What’s wrong with her?” his mind raced.
Alyssa screamed again. The doctor was clawing her way to the bed, grabbing the bedpost and trying to stand.
In his mind, Kevin saw a crowd of staff enter the room and drop in pain.
The next moment he heard the door open and five nurses came rushing in.
“Help them! Something is wrong!” Kevin thought with rising fear.
The nurses collapsed, writhing in agony.
Like a shot, he sat upright in bed, forcing his muscles to function as though he had not been lying in a coma for the last three years. Desperation rushed through him.
“I’m killing them,” He thought as a nurse stopped moving completely.
“You’re right, stop thinking about them and physically speak,” a third, unfamiliar voice spoke in his mind.
“I understand.”
“I’m fine,” Kevin spoke aloud in measured, soft tones.
Alyssa, still squinting and in pain, struggled up to the bed.
He looked down at her and smiled, half of his face still limp so that the smile ended at his nose.
“I’m sorry sweetheart. I’ve missed you so much,” he slurred out.
Alyssa smiled back, blood trickling from her ears, and then collapsed on the bed.