Spaceportation

Scrapped Part 13

The "Time Chamber" is wrecked. Broken glass on the floor. Machine parts scattered. Feces in the corner and yellow goo on the ceiling. I walked in there the morning after Ms. Goodnite came. All night, we had to help assemble her quarters. Heather and Ming began setting up equipment for our return trip. Today though....I need help. In the case that was broken was a woman. She had dirty grimey hair from her head to well past her toes. Her nails could be used as yard sticks.Her gray eyes darted across her eyes in confusion. Her skin was covered in the same yellow goo.

I left to get Sylvia and Carl. When they saw the mess and the woman, they tried speaking with her. She appeared to have recognized the English language. Carl believes she is a feral child. Sylvia spoke in a gentle voice. Carl then used his knowledge from preparing to raise an infant to help. I supported the feral woman as she walked to Sylvia. Sylvia used my house to freshen up the unknown woman. Carl brought some clothes that Heather said we could use to clothe the woman's body. Some of the other women got wind of this and brought their beauty supplies to help Sylvia. I could not use my bowl house for hours!

All this disrupted the progress for heading back. The men here began gossiping. I rarely interacted with these guys. Orion is a nerdy African American. He introduced himself as the "Engineer Podcast Expert". Orion believes the woman I found is the first sign of intelligent life on this planet. Blake is a Vietnamese man who used to make various creative bread recipes. He is responsible for kale buns. Nothing says good bread then feet smelling pastries.Blake suspects this woman is a stowaway from the recent black bowl arrival. Heather put her idea in the mix too. She thinks someone here was pregnant and was testing the equipment for raising live animals for meat by using their embryo. None of this explains the strange yellow goo?

Inside the bowl, Monica and Sylvia were holding the dirty woman's arms. Jane, a woman used to cleaning up elderly at the nearby retirement home on Earth, scrubbed the dirt, grime,goo,and "mud" from the strange girl. The dirty woman was so filthy, her hair could not be cut using scissors. After her skin was cleaner, Jane cut the unknown woman's hair. It was now a blackish-red color, wet, and around two feet long. Jane repeated the system to trim the unknown woman's nails, eye brows, and second scrubbing. The unknown woman went from kicking, punching, and howling to just grunting. Sylvia thought she should show the woman how she looks now ... I do not think she recognized herself.

"Sylvia? Monica? I am going to just give her the skirt and jacket that Heather gave us. I do not think I can put a shirt on her."

"I think that is a fashion style choice anyway," agreed Sylvia.

"I can button a few buttons just so it does not fly open. Do we need to do this everyday?" Monica

Inquired seeing how difficult cleaning the unknown women was.

"I think we should give her a name. It appears like she has no recognition of word meanings. I want to call her Ashley. What do you think?" Jane suggests.

Both Monica and Sylvia just sort of nodded. Like a small child, the women attempted to teach the new woman her name or at least temporary one. She sort of made a connection after a while. Monica suggested walking around inside the bowl to help give strength to her legs. Helping Ashley made Monica homesick. She felt like she was raising a new child. Replacing her current daughter. Monica winced as tears fell from her eyes. As if she understood, Ashley looked at Monica and tried to form the sounds she just heard.

Outside the bowl, I was working with Heather to help the new girl differently. My work has hit a dead end since I have no access to a working time accelerator. Heather was putting together a way to help the new girl's development. Using a few parts from the broken time accelerator, Heather made an elastic headband that uses a computer's memory to transfer knowledge into the brain. The band has tubes of steroids to help boost the underdeveloped muscles. Overnight the process should have done enough to talk and walk as if she was recovering from a leg injury at her age.