White Space

9

 It was a big rush. All of it. It was super exhausting too. Colin knew it was important, but at the same time, it was just... He was not ready for any of this. He eventually stumbled into the Doc's examination room and somehow forced the strange words out of his mouth. And, of course, she wouldn't believe him. Why would she not believe him when it was all true? He did see Yin in there. She was naked. No, he wasn't high. Why would she even say that? He wasn't some junkie!

 And so it was, that the Doc, looking very annoyed with him, let him lead her to the emergency airlock on one of the outer corridors where her jaw dropped. She looked even more dumbstruck than he must have before. And, he kind of felt like he was super fast to catch the ball on this one, too. So... He did well.

 Then, they were rushing her into the med-bay and prepared a bed for her and all that and did some tests and they all looked so... shocked. He didn't really understand. He was a bit agitated, understandably, so the Doc gave him something that made things calmer. Not him, no, he still felt weird and stressed, but the world didn't anymore. And that was a good feeling. He probably even fell asleep for a while. Or maybe not. It was hard to tell.

 And then there he was. Just him and her. Just the two of them, just the way it was meant to be. Being close to Yin alone made Colin's world a much nicer place, somehow. With her around, he felt like life was actually worth a used, rusted handful of damn. Even without her saying a word, with her warmth and scent, he felt a little normal. She was, in fact, heating up at quite an alarming rate. Doc Comtois told him that much, but according to her, it might just be part of her healing up from whatever was ailing her. Also, her odor was slightly off. It was one of those things that only he could tell about her, knowing her body and her scent so intimately as he did, but it did not seem important at all. Especially since she started moving her eyes again. At one point, she even smiled, or something. Yeah. It must have been a smile.

 It was all so miraculous. Colin had began talking to her about an hour ago. He had always liked speaking to Yin in his spare time, which was all the time. He had an insane amount of time on his hands, by absolutely no fault of his own. Even before he stopped working on any kind of research, Xenobiology was a perfect one-way street to have gotten into in college, but it wasn't like he'd had a choice. His parents practically forced him to do it. They said they just offered him a choice in a grave time of decision paralysis, but he had been a kid, for Christ's sake.

And he stuck with it ever since. It had always been, and still was, a field of science that had absolutely nothing to achieve yet. In fact, there have been entire careers spent in the field with nothing except for waiting for aliens to show up one day. It actually was a perfect way to spend one's tenured years somewhere. Thing is, Colin had never been good at waiting. He'd get distracted and depressed.

 With nothing else to do, then, he would spend hours upon hours talking to her about things he would do, all the plans he was making for the two of them when, hopefully very soon, they would get out of here and could start their own life somewhere. Together. That was the most important thing.

 After about two hours, he realized that he'd been in a loop, talking about sunny California, which Yin would never hear of, and so he dozed off again. But that was fine, he had been very exhausted these past few days. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at Yin's face. It was more flush with red than ever before. She was even whimpering a little. She must be having a bad dream, Colin thought.

 He put her hand back under the sheets. Somehow he kept finding her right hand above the blanket. We can't have that, Colin thought, and gently tucked it under the white bedsheet. He straightened the drool marked imprint his face had left and started thinking about what he'd been talking about before he fell asleep. As he was getting lost in his hazy thoughts again, he saw movement. Yin's face jerked to the right, towards Colin, and then went back, facing the ceiling again.

 Colin saw some movement behind her closed eyelids. Signs of REM, for sure. At least she's dreaming. That must be a good sign. Then he heard something weird. It was like the sound of something grinding stone, but tiny. It was coming from Yin's forehead. Now that was probably cause for alarm.

 He pushed his chair back and stood up. He knew he should be telling the Doc about it, but truth be told, he was not a big believer in his own senses the past few days. He needed to stop using so much stuff. Now, more than ever, he had to be strong, stronger than he'd ever been. He decided then. He'd do the right thing for once, for himself and for the both of them. Their future was at stake and he wouldn't let it just slip away into nothingness.

 The littlest stone grinder in Yin's head would not let up. He had to make sure there was actual trouble before he called the Doc. He wanted to help, but he didn't want to make things worse. He didn't want to look like a crazy person in front of the others; they were already suspicious of him for whatever reason. He needed to make sure. He went in close and, to his surprise; the sound was getting ever so slightly stronger. This had to mean it was real, hadn't it?

 He reached for her head with a trembling hand. It might have been fear, or it might have meant that he needed to medicate. Whatever it was, it wasn't helpful. He squeezed his left hand a few times to make it stop, but it wouldn't work. He touched her forehead; it was insanely hot. He smelled more different, too, now that he was close to her skin again. There was also movement. In the rhythm of the grinding sound, he saw movement in her temples. And her eyelids. Her eyelids were moving like crazy. He was not an expert in... Well, anything, really, that much he was willing to admit, but this didn't seem normal at all.

 He carefully touched her left eyelid with his trembling hand. He gently lifted the lid up to see if something was wrong with the eye. Maybe it was very bloodshot or there was some kind of discharge. Instead of these obviously disgusting expectations, he found the tiniest things moving around inside her eye socket. There was no blood anywhere, but what he saw wasn't an eyelid at all. It looked like... God; it looked like small crab legs were swirling around in there.

 He pressed the button to call the doc but slipped on the floor; the smell indicating his own urine down there, and fell back, hitting his head. He reached back as soon as he could move a few seconds later, his blurring vision conveying the spasmic, erratic movements of Yin's hand on the bed, her fingers jerking around, bending in all the wrong directions. Then his consciousness finally gave the wheel back to darkness once again. Not a moment too soon.