Chapter 5: I am Neon (SOTU)

Chapter 5

Dr. Makedi was a Leedei, member of an enigmatic species of psionic gifted beings home to the distant M-82 globular galaxy in the local group. The Leedei had been members of the Union for a very long time, ever since the Leedei discovered the famous Union bridge between the Milky way and the Andromeda Galaxy. They were technologically quite advanced and unsurpassed in Psionic based science and technology, if you did not consider the Narth of course, but then the Narth did not share their technology or knowledge with anyone.

Makma Makedi actually had never been to the traditional home galaxy of the Leedei or hade ever left the Milky way galaxy. While it was a Leedei, it had been born on Greenday planet, a garden world in a region of space the Union called the ‘Old neighborhood’. It traditionally and biologically of course identified as Leedei, but it considered itself first and foremost a Union citizen, as almost everyone, regardless of species especially in the ‘Old neighborhood’ did.

That the Leedei gender pronoun had no Union lingo equivalent, as the Leedei were one of the very few species that had more than two genders, was something it had to correct occasionally, as most non Leedei addressed him either as she or he. But that was not a real problem. True the Leedei were one of only three Union member species with more than one gender, but there were many with less than two and quite a few without any concept for gender in the first place.

Makma had just left sickbay where it received a prophylactic treatment against something called ‘motion sickness’. It had never heard of such a affliction before, but Dr. Patha Negis, the CMO of the Stormrider station had called and warned it about it.

A short GalNet consultation with MedCentral confirmed that Leedei were indeed very easily affected by uncontrolled, unseen motion. Makma had learned a fact about it’s own species and was quite fascinated to learn that this was the reason the Leedei never became ocean explorers on their home world, but then the Leedei home world had more land mass than water and you could reach every region of that globe on land.

The Leedei scientist was still contemplating what it had learned as it walked to the science cruisers hangar bay, when its psionic mind suddenly received something new. A strange feeling and thought pattern of something alien, the alien mind felt very large and strangely empty, but it was clearly not the mind of a dim, non sentient creature.

Makma was excited, his friend Chimeer was correct. There was something alive down there, something sentient to boot. The Leedei carefully blocked out the alien mind as it decided to give the yet unknown entity undivided attention, best to be done once he had arrived at Stormrider station and all the greetings and introductions were out of the way.

To Union medical science there were very little secrets left to Leedei physiology. Leedei medics had shared all their knowledge, this was the core reason why Makma had never really been sick, except for one time many years ago, when it had sampled some human food that was deemed safe for Leedei. Makma had learned that there was a rare genetic disposition that made some Leedei allergic to substances that were generally safe to be consumed.

The Leedei brushed this sudden memory of being sick away, all this talk about motion sickness must have triggered that almost forgotten episode of his early life. It was here to help it’s friend to find sentient life on a place where everyone said there was no life at all.

While Leedei had a basic human shape in appearance, meaning they had two arms, two legs and a head on a neck. They weren’t human at all, their hands had eight digits, and each of the very long fingers had eight joints. Their skeletons weren’t made of bone but rather a tough cartilage material, making their bodies very bendable, but comparable weak to humans. Leedei had no hair and their entire body was covered with two independent layers of skin. The outer layer was of a grayish color and covered everything including the face. Thus it appeared as if Leedei were wearing tight opaque stocking masks at all the time, with only darker outlines where the mouth and the eyes were, Scientists believed this second skin was an evolutionary answer to the three suns and the fact that it was never dark on their home planet and the often violent sand storms that raged over much of their home planets surface.

Makma had never experienced a Leedmuhrr sandstorm, but it still preferred ultraviolet light in over standard visible light, even though Makma could see in normal light, with much less sharpness and clarity however. Some Leedei opted to wear visual aid systems,but Makma never did.

To eat Leedei exposed a food intake orifice that was usually hidden under their neck collars and a skin flap, the mouth underneath the second skin flap was only for acoustic communication and breathing. Not that acoustic language had been a well developed aspect in Leedei society where everyone was psionically and telepathic gifted. Physical. acoustic language had been reintroduced into Leedei society after perhaps millions of years after they became Union members about fifteen hundred years ago. Being raised on a Union planet with a population consisting of many different species and becoming a scientist, Makma never had a problem expressing himself via its own voice and never needed a voice box wet-linked to its cortex to speak, like some Leedei especially those back on the home world still needed.

The dark shadow created by his mouth underneath the almost opaque second skin formed a smile as Makma was looking forward to see its Kilonian friend. Of course the Leedei also looked forward to meet Dr. Bloch. While Makma had never met her in person, Chimeer had told it so much about her.

A crew member of the Tamarkov, a human female from the looks of it waited for the Leedei at the massive airlock doors to the ship’s shuttle hangar. She wore the maroon colored uniform of the Union Explorer corps, a division of the Science Council and her bright red hair in a high riding pony tail.

“Your shuttle is almost here, Dr. Makedi. Did you find sickbay alright?”

“Yes, of course. This is not my first trip on a space ship you know. Besides I am perfectly capable of reading the easy to understand pictograms or call myself a guide light, but thank you for asking.”

“No disrespect meant, Dr. Makedi. This is a science cruiser and we sometimes have scientist guests aboard that are brilliant in what they do, but are not always the most savvy travelers.”

“I apologize then.” Makma wondered about it’s somewhat edgy response to her friendly question, but dismissed the odd feeling that seemed to take hold of it as part of its discovery. The armored door halves split open and the female crew member and the Leedei could see a D20 type shuttle settle on a parking field that slowly rotated the shuttle so it would face the outer hangar doors, that were currently wide open, revealing the darkness of space and a large part of the big orange and bluish swirls covered planet below. While Makma knew there was an energy field, often called a membrane curtain, separating the hangar from the deadly conditions of deep space. To the Leedei it was always a little unsettling and downright frightful. Energy curtains could fail after all, not that it ever heard of an incident they actually had.

The rear ramp of the shuttle extended and the rear entry hatch swung open.

A tremor shook the Leedei’s body, for some reason the very sight of deep space made it feel cold. The woman with the bright red hair said to him.“Maybe you will catch a ride with us again, Dr. Makedi. I wish you a good time on Shirrocco planet and a safe trip home.”

Makma only wished to enter the Shuttle, he really felt cold now. The open hangar doors really seemed to let in some of the eternal coldness of space. Again its response was colored by uncharacteristic impatience. “Yes, yes. A good trip to you as well. Now let me board the shuttle or we end up sharing life stories in this freezing shuttle bay of yours.”

She blinked taken back and then said.“Of course, the shuttle is ready for you. We would have raised the ambient temperature of the shuttle bay if we knew you find it cold in here, not that the temperature differs from the rest of the interior.”

It didn’t even respond to her, almost storming up the short ramp right past a Blue that just approached the hatch from the other side. Without any ado Makma sat down in one of the passenger seats and snarled.“Please get us get down to the station. I am eager to speak to Chimmie about what I have discovered, and turn up the interior heat. It is freezing in here.”

Dr. Sudvahl touched the controls to close the hatch and retract the ramp.“At once Dr. Makedi. Your presence is indeed urgently anticipated. I am increasing the interior temperature, what temperatures are acceptable to a Leedei?”

“Just turn it up and get us going!”

The Blue was a little taken back, but he had met his share of self important and self absorbed beings, most recently the rather unfriendly Dr. Bloch, who to her defense suffered from a rare case of motion sickness on their trip down.

He returned to the pilot seat and moments later exchanged electronic protocol hand shakes with the science cruiser and a few words with the commanding officer and the D20 slipped through the briefly purple flickering energy membrane into space and he engaged the computronic to find the best approach trajectory to Stormrider base. This time he decided to let the computronic do the piloting and he only supervised it, not that the computronic would guarantee a perfectly smooth ride either.

he swiveled in his seat.” We are on our way now Dr. Makedi. We should be at the base in less than twenty standard minutes.”

The Leedei hardly heard the Blue and said.“Why is it so cold in here?”

“I have increased the ambient temperature to 42 degrees on the C scale. That is twice as much as the prevalent temperature aboard the science cruiser and the standard board temperature of all Union fleet vessels. If you let me know how warm you want it I can dial it up another ten degrees or so. Do Leedei normally travel in some type of environmental suit?”

The Leedei shook violently, the dark shadow that was created by its mouth behind the second skin became bigger, as if the Leedei was trying to scream.

The Blue realized this was not normal and he called the cruiser.“SR Shuttle, Dr. Sudvahl here. I believe I have a medical emergency. Dr. Makedi is no longer verbally responding and he had complained about ambient temperatures being too cold.”

“We are already committed to threshold speed and...” the communication link was interrupted for a short moment as the cruiser slipped into Quasi space and the GalNet system changed operation mode.“...just went translight. It will be faster if you take Dr. Makedi to Stormrider base. We have the base CMO in conference.”

The image switched and showed the Saran MD. She did not waste time on any pleasantries or questions.“Dr. Sudvahl open the emergency box and take the Auto-Doc. Attach it to the Leedei.”

He got up and broke the seal of the medical emergency first aid box one of which was attached to the back of each seat.

He took the device and attached it to the chest of the Leedei.

The lights on the side of the device blinked several times, the lights were supposed to go green but out of three one stayed red.

Patha Negis was still on and she said.“I am getting the telemetry of the AutoDoc. The Leedei is dying! Increase your approach speed and disregard safety protocols.”

But despite him giving the computronic emergency orders to fly faster, it still took 14 minutes before the shuttle, with over extended shields and smoking compensators settled down on the station’s hangar floor.

Dr. Sudvahl pressed the emergency hatch release, blowing all hatches out of their frames, not waiting for the normal opening cycle.

Med robots and the Saran medic rushed in.