Adam Brodie and the monster from the dark planet

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

As Adam stepped out of his room he almost walked into Captain Trinity who was waiting outside the doorway. Trinity held out a gloved hand. Adam turned and went back into the room, picked up the pieces of paper on which he had written his five hundred words and came back out, then delivered them into the hand of Trinity, who promptly vanished.

Adam was getting the hang of the beehive and asked for Matron and a series of brightly lit arrows on the corridor walls directed him to Matron's surgery, and entered Matron's domain. She turned as he entered. She was still wearing the long white gown and her wings unfurled slightly.

"Adam Brodie. And what brings you here?"

"You know me?"

"I know everyone here. Particularly you as you're Jake Brodies' brother."

Adam rolled his eyes and then he told her about Malcolm and his parasites, how he woke up feeling itchy and could not stop scratching. Matron led him to a seat.

"Sit here."

Adam did as he was told.

At Adam's side holographic panels appeared, each holding a different creepy crawly. Matron peered at the panels.

"My word, you are infested, and not just with fleas. Also lice, bed bugs and ticks. You also have Lyme disease."

"Is that bad?"

"It's not good. You caught it from one of the ticks biting you. No matter, I will inject you with a combination cure for Lyme disease and a medicine that will kill the parasites drinking your blood."

Matron deftly put a capsule into a silver coloured pen like object. She put the sharp end against Adam's neck and Adam heard a slight hiss, and the skin touched by the pen went cold for an instant. Matron took the device away.

Adam looked around at the surgery. The room was gleaming white and though there were no windows the walls glowed with a soft white light. There were instrument panels with coloured lights winking on and off, and diagrams on view screens, and a number of empty beds and there was an overall gentle hum and the odd chirrup from a machine. The room smelt sweet and pleasant.

"Do you like living aboard the Star-ship Enterprise?"

"What's the Star-ship Enterprise?" said Matron.

"Star Trek, it's...uh...a television show. I was making a joke."

"On my world we don't have television."

Adam raised a hand off the arm rest of the seat and discovered it was stuck to the arm rest by sticky mucus. He pulled it free.

"I haven't yet cleared all the mucus left by the previous student who dropped by for medical treatment. There are places where it lies patiently waiting for such as yourself to get stuck to. Worry not, it's harmless. Adam, I will have a word with Master Malcolm Hood about his personal hygiene. I can't have him spreading Lyme disease. Before you go, you can clean the slime from you in the basin over there."

Standing up, Adam secretly tried to snag a feather from Matron's wing. She swatted his hand away.

"Many have tried to pluck a feather from my wings as a souvenir," she said. "All have failed."