And Silent Were The Stars

-11-

Rebecca was on her way to the Medbay when the new bracelet on her left wrist lit up. She looked at the words on the minuscule screen and sped up.

When she entered the diagnostic's room, Doctor Dawson was already there. She greeted him and after returning the early morning hello, he said, "Our patient's up."

"How long has he been awake?" she asked, coming up to the large screen. The man on the other side of the mirror was sitting on the cot, his eyes staring into the emptiness, his arms in his lap, multiple tubes penetrating his skin.

"A couple of minutes," the doctor replied. Then Rebecca watched him change into the biosuit and soon he was on the other side of the glass pane. The patient, Vasily was it, looked at the newcomer with an estranged look and shifted on the cot.

Doctor Dawson walked up to the man. Rebecca heard his voice in the speakers.

"Hello, Vasily. My name is Frank Dawson. I am the chief medical officer aboard Syracusae, a class six harvester ship."

The man didn't seem to have heard anything of what the doctor had said. Dawson moved closer and took out a small flashlight out of the belt on the biosuit. He reached out and shined the light first into the patient's one eye, then into the other. The man kept still, allowing Dawson to slightly move his head.

"The reflexes are normal." Dawson spoke quieter and then added, addressing the man again, "Vasily, do you hear me?"

Rebecca saw the patient's eyes shift from one corner of the floor to another and she heard him speak, barely audible words coming from the speakers.

"Medical officer..." The man had a strong Slavic accent.

"Vasily," the man looked up at him. "We received a distress signal. From the colony." Dawson waited for the answer.

"Signal... Kolonia..." the man looked at him like a child seeing a strange apparition for the first time in his life, then his stare got lost on the tiles of the floor once again.

"Partial disorientation," the doctor noted. "Do you understand what I am saying?" he spoke slowly.

The man nodded hesitantly and then added, "Yes." He stared at the doctor for a second and then asked, "Where am I?"

"You are aboard Syracusae, a class six harvester vessel. Have you got any recollection of what happened?"

"Ya..." Vasily brought his hands to his temples and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Vasily, what happened back on the ground?"

"Golova..." he squeezed the eyelids together and bared the teeth.

"Vasily, I need you to help me. So I can help you." Dawson spoke calmly.

The man opened the eyes and looked at the doctor. "My head, it hurts."

"It's the sedation wearing off. The discomfort will pass soon. Do you remember how you got here?"

The man shook his head and stared at the floor again.

"What happened to the rest of the colonists?"

Vasily shook his head once again, slowly, his eyelids taking a part of a second too long to cover the eyes and then to open back up again when he blinked.

"What is the last thing you remember?"

"Ya ne... I don't remember."

"It's all right. You are safe now." Doctor's voice sounded reassuringly. Rebecca saw Vasily's hands grip into the mattress as he repeated the words over and over, "I don't remember. I don't remember..."

Doctor Dawson filled the glass from the water dispenser. Rebecca approached him and said, "What do you think?"

"Partial amnesia. Possibly caused by shock." He made a sip out of a paper cup shaped like a small pyramid.

"Do you think he might be lying?"

"We'll just have to find out. The Traveler has landed twenty minutes ago. I am expecting Arthur to report in the next half an hour. Let's hope it's going to be good news. For all we know, there was no way off the planet, not for a hundred and fifty-seven people to leave all at once."

"Do you think they're still there? All of them?"

The doctor kept silent and tilted his head back, finishing the remaining water and then crumpling the paper cup and throwing it into the bin.

"Do you think they might still be alive?"

"Alive..." he stretched, staring into the empty bin, only the small ball of paper at the bottom of it.

Rebecca held her arms one on top of the other and turned to face the large window. The man behind it was still sitting on the cot, an empty expression on his face.