His shoulder was being shaken “Lieutenant Taylor, wake up Lieutenant.” He opened his eyes squinting against the light. A smiling nurse stood over him. “Hello Sir how are you?”
“I… I don’t know, where am I?”
“In the Royal Naval Hospital of course.” Tristan’s chest tightened.
“What on Earth?”
The nurse laughed. “Yes of course on Earth. Where did you think you were?”
Tristan took a shuddering breath. “But I have been away for over four years.”
She shook her head one eyebrow raised. “No, you have been here about two weeks.” She tucked in his sheets. “Would you like your bed raised a little? There is someone here to see you.”
Tristan nodded not daring to speak as the tightness in his chest made it difficult to breathe.
The nurse raised the head of the bed so Tristan was sitting up. “Thank you.” The words came out little better than a squeak. This isn’t happening it can't be real. He gripped the edge of his bed knuckles white.
“Tristan Darling.” A pretty brown haired woman walked into the room.
His jaw dropped to his chest. “Sarah!”
“Yes of course Tristan who did you expect?”
“Well… I… I don’t know what to expect. Have I been away for four years?”
Sarah frowned, “no, of course not you have been unconscious for a couple of weeks since they removed that damn implant from your head.”
“They have?”
“Yes” she nodded and sat down on the chair next to his bed. She lent forward and took his hand. “My dear you do look rather shocked, is everything all right?”
“But I have a… umm wife and three-year old daughter!”
Sarah’s eyebrows lifted to her hairline “Really that’s news to me. When did that happen?”
“After you walked out on me four years ago.”
A smile danced across her face. “That was just over two weeks ago. I got to the end of the road and realised I had forgotten my make up case. I turned back and found you on the lounge floor foaming at the mouth. I called an ambulance, and they brought you here.”
Tristan ran a shaking hand through his short cropped hair. “What about Aesia, Da’ren, and the rest?”
The nurse who had walked out of the room when Sarah arrived walked back in at that moment. “Aesia was the sister on duty when you were brought in. Dr. Daren Jones removed your implant.”
Tristan’s shoulders slumped. “It was so real.”
“The doctors think your implant moved and caused you to fit as well as giving you hallucinations.” Sarah squeezed his hand. “So don’t worry, I forgive your having an imaginary wife and daughter. Now that thing is out of your head perhaps we can do something about the wife and daughter part…” Her voice trailed off and her face flushed. “Oh that sort of slipped out.” She giggled.
Tristan looked sideways at her. “What about the permanent connection I have to Aesia, she is in here.” He tapped the side of his head.
“Well I’m sure Sister Aesia would be flattered, but she is a fifty-year old married woman Lieutenant Taylor.” The nurse smiled at him and patted his knee
“What’s your name Nurse?” Panic like a rising tide starting in the pit of his guts made his voice tremble.
“Staff Nurse Cassi, you know that Lieutenant.”
“I’m sorry but I have had enough of this.” He yanked his hand from Sarah’s grip swung his legs round and started to stand. “I’m getting out of here.”
“Now, now Lieutenant you can’t do that yet you’re not ready.” There was a sharp jab on his arm, and everything went black.
His eyes flickered open the room was almost dark. He turned his head; Sarah sat on the same chair asleep. He pulled himself up to a sitting position, the lighting increased as he did so. Sarah roused “Tristan?”
“Yes?”
“They sedated you as you started to get violent.”
“Violent?”
“Yes you started shouting about your imaginary people. Have you calmed down now?”
“Yes I think so. I’m sorry about that Sarah, but they were so real.”
“That’s all right Tristan no harm done.”
“When can we get out of here?”
“A few more days yet, they want to keep you under observation for a while. After all, you have had a major operation on your head.” Sarah stood and held out her hand. “The doctors have told me you will suffer bouts of intense pain and further hallucinations for a while, but it is part of the healing process and not to worry.”
She looked towards a pair of closed full-length curtains in the middle of the wall opposite to the door. “Your room has a balcony why not come outside with me. It is a beautiful night you can show me the stars and where you think you have been.”
Tristan raised his eyebrows. “You want to see the stars?”
“Yes now you’re home you can show me the night sky.”
Tristan frowned “Home? I’m not home I’m in a hospital.”
“Yes, Tristan; of course, but come on, show me your stars.”
“My stars Sarah, what are you talking about? You are a city girl, when have you been interested in the stars.”
“You will show me your night sky Tristan, now!” Her glare could have stripped paint.
“Sarah?”
“I can’t go deeper, it will destroy what we are looking for.” The voice of Nurse Cassi came from nowhere; no one else was in the room.
Sweat prickled his brow. “Why do you want me to remember the night sky from my planet.” He wiped the sweat with a trembling hand. “Because you aren’t Sarah at all are you?”
Sarah lent forward her eyes searching his face. “Are you starting to hallucinate?”
A bright light exploded in his head. He fell back against the pillow his hands pressed against the sides of his face. Pain racked his whole body. “Argh No…” His tortured mind sent out a powerful telepathic scream. The pain ceased, he curled up into a tight ball and welcomed the blackness when it came.
Vague shapes and sounds assailed his senses. There was a color, beautiful sky blue, streaked with turquoise and green. He wanted to stay with that color, it had meaning, it meant something. There was warm pressure on his shoulder and a soft voice calling him.
“Tristan, Tristan, wake up.”
He just wanted to see the blue. He opened his eyes. The blue was in front of him. Two wonderful eyes looking back at him. His heart jumped in his chest. “Aesia?”
She smiled. “Yes, how are you feeling?”
“I don’t know, I thought I was dead.”
“No my love, you are not dead. The survivors took you onto their ship, and Cassiopeia thinks they subjected you to a mind probe. For it to work they would need to have switched off the dampening field. Your mind violently rejected the probe. The feedback overloaded their systems and they dropped out of Star Drive into normal space. As soon as that happened Cassiopeia pulled you out.” She took his hands in hers stroking them with her thumbs. “You were in a very bad way, but she has healed you.”
His memories were coming back to him. “You survived, Aesia.” Relief flooded through his body.
“Yes, Cassiopeia healed me too.” She smiled. “And we are going to have a son.” She kissed his forehead.
Her presence in his mind warm and comforting. He squeezed her hand. “And Mylia, is it safe?”
She nodded, “Yes your sabotage worked. An explosion destroyed the asteroid.”
He sighed. “And the peace, is it holding?”
She brushed his cheek with gentle fingers, leaving a tingling trail on his skin. “Yes, everything is fine. You must rest now.”
Tristan sighed “Is this real - are you real?”
She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. “Why what did they do to you?”
“They made me believe I was back on Earth, that all this, and you were nothing but a hallucination.” He paused for a moment “I think they were trying to find Earth.”
Her eyes crinkled, and a smile played on the edge of her lips. “A hallucination eh?” She lent forward taking his face in her hands and kissed him on the mouth. Her hair fell round them like a silken curtain. As their kiss deepened his arms went round her waist pulling her down to him... After a while, she pulled her head back slightly breaking the kiss. Breathless she sighed. “Did that seem real to you?”
Tristan smiled. “Well if it isn’t real I don’t care, it’s a hallucination I’m happy to be in.”