Red On Black

Chapter 2

Rehtaeh:

Her brothers' planet no longer needed her, she was being woken up. She was transported in an air ambulance to a space port and made ready for travel. She wore soft pajamas, they had dressed her in them upon taking her out of the Cryotube and placing her on a hospital bed, and then they covered her in a thin fuzzy blanket and rolled her away. She overheard a woman with fiery red hair tell her armed escort that someone had arranged for her to meet her re-habilitation officer in New-Mecca. He and the doctor in charge of her care were to make sure she reached her destination quietly. Because of her age, status and newfound wealth there were many criminals that would take advantage of her for various nefarious reasons. The woman told the guard that she was the ailing daughter of an Alliance Dignitary who was to be treated with the utmost respect and honor that was afforded to one in her position. The guard and the Doctor would only get paid once their charge made it safely to New Mecca.

Mac, short for MacKenzie was her armed guard, who would ensure her protection at all times, he was a big man, with thick red hair and bright green eyes. He was a serious sort, and took deep pride in his work, he was attentive and he was there to ensure her safety, whatever the personal cost. He pushed a large cart loaded with crates and boxes that were apparently her files and belongings,  up the loading ramp and into the ship.

She was placed under the care of a personal Doctor who would help her with the detoxification of her body and the side-effects that were sure to be revealed. The Doc was one of the two Doctors that had been overseeing her "care" for the past six years. May Abrams was a gentle woman with dark hair and almond colored skin; she had wide-set brown eyes and a wide contagious smile. The first and last Doc she would ever trust. Both the Guard and the Doctor were nice to her, but she was sure that it was only because they were being paid to be nice to her and ensure that she made it to her contact alive and well. At least they put up the front that they cared for her. It had been so long since she had had caring people around her.

They provided her with a small cargo room near the front of the passenger bay of a ship, just below the main cryobay. She was wheeled in after the initial boarding, just before takeoff, so there would be few witnesses to her arrival. The private room had just enough space for her bed and another cot so they could take turns sleeping, she was never left unattended. There were two large crates that had her file number on them, enough rations to keep them alive through the journey and an assortment of medical supplies that the doctor might need while she was going through withdrawals and the toxin purge. The Captain and crew set the trajectory of the ship and went into cryogenic pods for the majority of the flight, the ship creaked and groaned around them as it hurdled through space. The only people not in cryo were Doc May, MacKenzie and herself. Other than the three of them the ship was quiet. Always quiet. The gravity was turned off so everything was strapped down including her.

The transfer to the ship had been so quick that her body still had not 'unthawed' from the old cryogenic process. So for the first week on board she was tortured by tingling limbs and the cramps that clenched her up so tight that she felt as though she were a human pretzel. Her flesh felt as though it was being burned off of her body before it grew back. She gritted her teeth and tried to hold in the pain, but even though her throat was raw due to centuries of disuse, she would keen, and groan in distress. The pain was slow to go away, and it was quickly replaced by the return of various strange illnesses. All of which she had already endured in frozen state, but as her body began to eliminate the toxins she relived the horrible pain of each one. She had a tube through her nose that lead to her stomach so that she wouldn't need to eat, she had an IV line attached to her arm to make sure that she stayed hydrated and they kept her strapped down since she was constantly writhing with seizures and pain.

She would get violently ill one day and the next she was so strong she was tearing the straps that held her to the bed. Then she went deaf, she could hear nothing around her even though she could see the Doc and the guard talking. Then a few hours later her hearing would return and suddenly she was able to hear the noise from the rest of the ship, everything seemed so loud she screamed in pain as it shattered her nervous system with too much information. Finally she forced herself to focus on only one sound, a steady heartbeat above her. She could hear the others around it but that one was the strongest and steadiest. The heartbeat. From there she was able to analyze the other noises that she heard, focus on them and discard them as needed until finally she could tolerate the sounds. It was that heartbeat, that steady rhythm that carried her through the next challenges.