Forbidden Freedom

February 6/2033

It took a lot of work to get where I am now. Twice as much work as any other member of the team had to go through. I don’t hold a grudge. If I really think about it, I have to admit that I have enjoyed the struggle. It was long and difficult, but I made it and that’s what counts.
I am an astronaut. Wow, I love it. It had been my dream ever since I looked up at the skies. I knew that I belonged up there, and through out all these years I still know that this flight is my destiny, I feel it deep down in my heart. Some times it all seems like a dream to me, but it’s not… It really is not. In merely six months I’ll be weightless, looking at earth from far up above.
The first day of mission oriented training is tomorrow. It’s going to be a general orientation and introduction day. I get to meet the rest of the selected members of the team. I have looked through their profiles, but I really haven’t dealt with them. It’s going to be interesting.
Actually, looking at the team, I am still amazed that I was chosen for this mission. There are five of us. Forgetting the fact that I am the only female, there’s also the fact that I am the first Egyptian to make it into the space program… You know, just this simple fact goes down in the history books as a first, but I have a feeling that this is not going to be the only first for me!
Anyway, sure, they say that the WSA is open for all races to try and join, but they made it extremely difficult for all except Americans to make it in. In fact, since the WSA’s inception in the year 2012 there has only been seven non-American astronauts, including my Canadian team member and I.
I think the US in recent years have come under heavy political criticism which forced them to change some of their policies and decrease their interference in the WSA and other World Wide Agencies. And that is definitely good for me. It opened a world of opportunities for me that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. Of course, nothing was easy, but at least I was treated fairly and not discriminated against. I was given the chance to show what I am really capable of… and boy did I show them!  I blew them away. No one expected me to get this far and I enjoyed proving them wrong every step of the way. It was great.
In spite of all my accomplishments thus far, what to come will be by far the single greatest accomplishment of my life. The mission. We will be the first team to man a new breed of space crafts that will allow human kind to reach and explore farther in our galaxy than was ever thought possible. Our names are going to be imprinted in history, like Neil Armstrong. It’s exhilarating.

Better get some sleep now. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Over and out 
February 7th, 2033
WSA base, Conference Room Orlando

Nermeen Foad was the first to make it to Orlando, one of the many conference rooms in the World Space Agency (WSA) base in Huston, Texas. The building was originally NASA’s head quarters before it was torn down to be replaced by the impressive WSA building.
Orlando was one of the smaller rooms. In fact it only had six seats arranged neatly around a circular table. The meeting room was big enough to accommodate exactly the number of people expected. Nermeen took a seat and leaned forward on the table. She could see her reflection on its shiny black surface.
I look nervous, she thought. I am nervous, excited. This is what I have been working for, for the pas twenty years. Yet I feel that this is only the beginning of my hard work.
She sat back in her chair and instinctively reached for the golden cross hanging from her necklace. For some reason that brought her some comfort and ease.
The digital clock embedded in the far wall across from where Nermeen was sitting indicated that it was six fifteen in the morning. The meeting was scheduled to start at six thirty. Fifteen minutes seemed like such a long time to wait. She got up and walked to the only window in the room looking over a sports field in the middle of the WSA building complex. The view brought back memories of the early mornings she would come and run her daily laps. Her average was sixty laps, which translated into just over an hour of running. This was of course followed by four hours of other types of exercises. Breakfast was served at 9:00am. By that time she had worked out quite an appetite. Nermeen lived by that routine since she was accepted in the space program a year ago.
In this year she was evaluated to see if she would be fit for this mission. It was the most strenuous year in her life. She felt she was under observation twenty-four-seven. Her guard never came down. She dealt with every situation as if it was a test of her character. However, all that paid off. Out of the fifty astronauts considered for this mission, she was one of the five chosen, and that felt damn good.
“Hi,” some one said.
Nermeen was completely enveloped in her thoughts that the sudden interruption startled her. She turned around to face the new comer. He was six feet, three inches tall, towering over her, his blond hair cut short. The white and blue WSA uniform accentuated his well-built body, as she was sure it emphasized her feminine shape. On the left shoulder of the WSA uniforms was a picture of the globe with the letters ‘W’, ‘S’ and ‘A’ orbiting it, the WSA’s symbol. On the right shoulder was the flag of the country the astronaut belonged to. He had the American flag, while she had the Egyptian one.
“Scott MacGillvarly, mission commander,” he extended his hand.
“Nermeen Foad, mission doctor,” she shook his hand firmly. This was only a formality, as she was sure he knew her as she did him.
“Ah,” he smiled. “The infamous Miss Foad. I have heard and read a lot about you.”
“Hopefully good things.”
“Nothing but good. You whipped through a PhD in physics and then did your MD at Harvard all in six years. You impressed the hell out of every one including me. And let me tell you, I am not easily impressed.” He winked.
“Well thank you.”
“No need to thank me,” Scott said as he pulled out a chair and sat on it. “I am simply stating the facts. I am lucky to have you on this mission.”
“I’m glad to be on the mission, sir,” Nermeen replied as she in turn sat opposite of the mission commander.
“Call me Scott,” he smiled.
“Sure,” Nermeen smiled. “So what’s the schedule for today?”
“Quite busy,” he replied as he pulled out a shiny plastic sheet the size of an ordinary eight by eleven piece of paper. This, however, wasn’t an ordinary piece of paper. It was one of the new technologies used in the WSA
He slid it to Nermeen, who picked it up and as she touched it the paper-like sheet lit up as do computer screens. She could still see through it. However, displayed on it were their schedule and a few buttons that allowed her to scroll through the text. Besides being able to display both text and graphics, compu-sheets could be written on using specialized pens. Once the data on them was obsolete compu-sheets could be formatted and used over again. They could also be connected to a computer and data transferred to and from them directly.
Nermeen stopped at an item on their schedule.
“We’re actually going to see the ship?” She asked in anticipation.
She could hardly hide the excitement in her voice.
“Yeah,” Scott smiled. “We’re going to get familiar with the computer interface. Throughout the next six months we’re going to be trained by the designers on how to manage the ship.”
“Can’t wait,” she put down the compu-sheet. “How long do you estimate it’s going to take us to get up to speed on the details of the mission? You know the whole deal?”
“If we’re on schedule, six months!”
Nermeen raised her eye-browse. “Six months,” she repeated in surprise. “I thought we’re scheduled to fly in six months?”
“We’re on a tight schedule.”
“I’d say so.”
“Don’t worry though, we’re not going to go through with the mission unless each and everyone of us is one hundred percent ready.”
At this moment another team member walked in. He shook Scott’s hand and nodded a greeting to Nermeen as he took a seat beside the commander.
“Tyler Banks,” he said introducing himself. Nermeen could see the Canadian flag on the shoulder of his uniform. Tyler and her met quite a few times, first during the orientation held for all fifty astronauts who applied for this mission, and then several times at the cafeteria. They exchanged a short conversation, but her impression of him was uncertain. He was an extraordinarily quiet guy, this far she could tell. She heard, however, that he was a genius in aeronautical engineering. Rumors were flying around that he had participated in the design of the ship. These, however, were unsubstantiated rumors nonetheless and she never fully believed any information that didn’t originated from well-trusted sources. Of course, there was always the dilemma of what sources are well trusted.
Within the next five minutes the rest of the team arrived to Orlando conference room. The first to arrive was the twenty-seven year old Bill MacCay, a mechanical engineer and a United States ex-fighter pilot. Finally, Jonathan Dobson, a thirty-year-old American who had two PhDs, one in chemistry and one in micro-cellular biology.
Once everyone was settled in their seats, Scott MacGillvarly gave a quick introduction of himself and the rest of the team members.
“Now,” he smiled rubbing his hands together. “Let’s get down to business. Our mission as you all know is to test fly a new ship designed to travel faster than light,” Scott explained. “However, this flight is not simply to test the actual ship. No one has traveled faster than light before. We simply don’t know the effect of traveling at this tremendous speed on the human body. That’s why we have Dr. Nermeen Foad. She’s an accomplished doctor and she will monitor our vital signs throughout the flight, if anything goes out of whack, well, she has the authority to abort the mission. Lieutenant Bill MacCay and I are going to pilot the ship. Mr. Tyler Banks is our engineer. He knows more about the ship than any one of us. It’s obvious why we need him. If anything goes wrong, he’s there to save our lives. Finally, we’ll have several chemical and biological experiments running onboard, which Dr. Jonathan Dobson will monitor.” He paused as he took his breath. “Now, this is just a general introduction of how things are going to be. Unfortunately, matters are never this simple and that’s why we have the next six months to train for this mission. All of us are going to learn how to fly the ship incase of any unexpected accidents that might leave Bill and I incapacitated.”
This last bit took Nermeen by surprise. She had never expected to learn to fly a spacecraft at the speed of light, or however this ship managed to break the light barrier. She was a doctor not a pilot. Would she be able in six months to learn to operate such a complicated machine?
Apparently Scott saw the unsettled expression on her face and continued, “Don’t worry, flying the ship is not as complicated as you might expect, especially when you don’t have to worry about takeoff or landing. It’s not easy but you’ll still be able to learn how to fly it within the six months we have.” A pause. “So, any questions?”
There was a period of silence as they all took time to absorb the information just thrown at them. At last, Bill MacCay spoke up.
“Are we going to keep calling the ship, just the ship?” He asked. “Or are we gonna give it a name?”
Everyone smiled.
“I was going to keep it a secret until you guys get to see the ship,” Scott replied. “But since you asked, it’s called LimitC.”
“Ooh,” Bill nodded approvingly.
“LimitC,” Jonathan smiled. “I like it; sounds exciting.”
“Glad you all like the name,” Scott said. “Now, let’s move on to the first item on our schedule.”
They all got up and headed out of Orlando.

WSA, Docking Bay
February 11th, 18:00 hours

The five astronauts approached an enormous double hanger doors leading to the docking bay of the WSA. Scott MacGillvarly entered his security code at a computer terminal embedded in the wall beside the door. Immediately, the doors opened revealing what’s behind them. Everyone froze at the site that greeted their eyes. The only one that seemed unaffected by the whole situation was Scott. He moved inside the docking bay. Several steps in he realized that he was alone. Turning around he saw the rest of the team still standing at the doors.
“Pretty impressive, huh?” He smiled.
No one was listening. All their attention was focused on the swarm of technicians, scientists and engineers working feverishly around and on the ship. What amazed them the most, however, was the sleek design of LimitC. It was like no design they had ever seen before.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to pilot this thing, Nermeen thought. I’d love to be the doctor, that’s what I was aiming for and I accomplished that. But flying a space ship… I guess this is just icing on the cake!
Nermeen looked at her teammates.
“Come on guys,” she said. “Let’s admire her up close.”
“Amen to that,” Bill MacCay started behind Nermeen who caught up with Scott. “Can’t wait to fly you, baby.” He continued addressing the ship.
“Are we going to see it from the inside?” Nermeen asked Scott.
“You bet,” Scott smiled. “If you think its outer design is impressive, wait until you see the controls. Pure magic.”
The team circled around the ship, which was one hundred feet in length and stood almost forty feet high. They tried to stay out of the work crew’s way as they made their way to the belly of the ship, where a ladder was attached to a door that lead to the inside of the ship. Scott was the first to climb up, followed by Bill, Tyler, Jonathan and finally Nermeen.
Nermeen didn’t know what to expect. Pure Magic. That’s what Scott said. What could he possibly mean by pure magic? She tried to imagine what the controls would look like, how they would be operated. All the computer interfaces she had trained with during her previous year in the WSA were a mixture of the standard pressure sensitive panels and classical input devices such as voice recognition systems and keyboards. Why would LimitC be any different? Yet this ship was unlike any technology she had ever seen, so it shouldn’t be too surprising to find more advanced equipment on board. These speculations ran through her mind as she climbed up the ladder. A few more seconds and she would not have to guess at how the ship is run.
Her heard sank as she finally stepped off the ladder and into the ship. The air smelled different, a bit stale, maybe even metallic, and the noise of the working crew outside was reduced to an indiscernible hum. Amazing. Even though the door in the belly of the ship was still open, the loud noise of the work crew was hardly audible.
The floor Nermeen was standing on was metal. The walls were off white.
This doesn’t seem like much, Nermeen thought as she looked around. Nice choice of colors, but nothing else. The room is empty, except… What’s that?
She moved towards what looked like a door. It could hardly be distinguishable from the rest of the wall. Her eyes scanned the wall beside the door searching for some sort of a button or a locking device. Hardly distinguishable from the wall, she recognized a small button having the same off white color as the wall.
Should I? Nermeen hesitated for a second. Oh, what the hell? Might as well.
She pressed the button.
Immediately the door slid down wards disappearing some how into the floor. Five pressure suits were hanging neatly in the closet just revealed. By this time the rest of the team members were standing behind Nermeen looking at what she has discovered.
“What are the space suits for?” Nermeen asked.
“Just in case of an emergency,” Scott said. “Follow me, this is just the pressurization room.”
Nermeen hit the button again and the door closed hiding the suits behind it. She turned on her heals and followed Scott, who ran his hand in front of a small sensor and another door opposite to the closet opened showing a ladder leading upwards.
I bet the cool stuff is up there, Nermeen thought as she was waiting for the rest of the crew to climb up. She followed after the last of them was up. Once on the second level of LimitC the scene completely changed. The command deck had a triangular shape. A view port made of a thick transparent material formed the head of the command deck. Two control panels for the pilots faced the view port. Three other control panels for the other members of the team were located behind the pilots’. Each panel, to Nermeen, looked like a standard set of controls that she was used to. Where was the magic in that?
“This looks like a very nice design,” she spoke her mind. “But I wouldn’t call it magical, advanced, yes. Magical, no.”
“To the naked eye it might appear normal, but in reality, it’s a completely other story!” Scott pointed out.
“Okay, hold on a second,” Bill said as he reached for his pocket, pulled out his sunglasses, put them on and looked around. “Nop, nothing. Everything still looks the same.”
They all smiled.
“I’m glad I have a comic on my team,” Scott gave Bill a light tap on the shoulder.
“And I’m glad to entertain,” Scott replied.
“So really, what’s so special about the computer interface?” Jonathan asked.
“This,” Scott walked to the control panel designated for the master pilot and tapped a sequence of commands on a pad located at the far left of the station. A small compartment beside the pad opened. There, in the compartment, was a device shaped as an arc; one flat end of the device fit on the left temple, while the arc fit snuggly around the back of the head, bringing the other end in touch with the right temple. Scott put it on.
“This is what it’s all about,” he said.
“Cool, advanced headphones,” Bill teased.
“Nop,” Scott smiled a mysterious smile.
Abruptly all the controls came to life. The lights came on full power and there was a sequence of beeps as the main computer booted. The view port glowed light green and data statistics were displayed beside each object that could be seen on the view port, people, walls, cars, anything.
“Wow,” Tyler spoke up for the first time. “You can control the ship through those?” He pointed to the device Scott wore.
“Yeap,” Scott’s smile widened. He was obviously enjoying the fact that the crew was not expecting such magical equipment. “I can do anything with the ship through those. I can even fly it with this.”
“I don’t imagine that I can give it a try,” Bill winked at his crewmates.
“Oh no,” Scott said as he gave another thought command and the controls shut down. Even though they were expecting something like this to happen they couldn’t help but be startled. They were accustomed to command being carried out physically or even through voice commands, but never through one simple thought.
Scott took off the device, put it back into the compartment and locked it.
“You can’t use this, even if you tried,” he explained. “Each device only responds to a particular brain wave signature. A brain wave signature is like a fingerprint, it’s unique. The CIDs use them to determine the identity of the user. Besides, it’ll take you guys a while to learn how to use the CIDs. It requires exceptional control over your mind. Something that’ll take you about six months to learn.”
“Sorry, CID?” Jonathan asked. “What does it stand for?”
“Cortical Interface Device,” Scott replied.
“Will each one have one of these?” Jonathan pointed at the compartment where the CID was.
“Yeah. Each one already has one custom built to match your brain wave signatures. Pretty impressive huh?”
“Very,” Nermeen said. “So does it give you better control over the ship?”
“Way better control,” Scott replied. “See the human brain is truly multitasking, if you train it to be. I can perform several operations at the same time if I wanted to and I wouldn’t be restricted by my physical limitations. Very powerful indeed. However, this is not the only way to control the ship. You can still do that through the standard controls you see. Tasks become more complicated though, and not to mention slower.”
Nermeen nodded. This was going to be an outstanding experience indeed. She’d be one of the few to handle the most advanced equipment ever built. Her name would go down in history. Her hard work was finally paying off.
“Alright people,” Scott clapped. “Let’s move on. Trust me you’ll see enough of this ship in the next six months.”
They headed out.
June 17th, 2033

Time flies. We’re scheduled to blast off on the tenth of the next month. The past five months have been exhausting. My average day is about fourteen hours long. But I think the team is coming together nicely. Beside learning the technical side, we’ve been getting along well, for the most part. There’s been a few problems, but nothing too crippling. Communication is the most important skill in a mission like ours, where any small misunderstanding could have devastating repercussions on the whole crew.
Speaking of misunderstandings… It’s true that we’re getting along well, but sometimes I still feel.. I don’t know exactly. I don’t want to sound paranoid, maybe its all my imagination. No, that’s not fair. I have to trust my judgment. Frankly, sometimes I don’t feel that my suggestions are taken seriously. Sure, Scott listens when I say something, but I don’t think he really cares. I get the feeling that he listens just so not to make me feel alienated, and I hate this. My suggestions are well though out.
Boy, now I feel so paranoid.
Come on, Nermeen, you’ve got to trust yourself. You have to have self-confidence. Sometimes, I wonder if he ignores my suggestions intentionally or if it’s simply a flaw in his personality. I would hate to think I’m being treated this way because I’m a woman or because I am Egyptian.
I remember I got to a point during university where I hated the fact that I was Egyptian. Opportunities were being torn out of my hands just because of that fact. I don’t want to even think about it.
No, this is not it. I made it this far and left all these setbacks behind me. Nothing can stop me from achieving my dreams now.
On to another topic.
Those CIDs, boy they’re something else. At first I couldn’t control them, but with time I got better. I’m still not as good as Scott, but by the time we launch I’ll be competent enough to use them to fly LimitC, which is a ton of fun by the way. When I first started I thought there’s no way I am going to pilot the ship, but now… Look at me Pa, I can fly, at the speed of light, actually faster.
At times I close my eyes and wonder what it would be like when we hit mark ‘c’. It took, I don’t know how many planes before we were able to break the sound barrier. Many pilots lost their lives attempting to make history. Now we’re approaching a mightier barrier. A barrier that was said could never be broken. The question is, is it going to remain so, or will my name go down in history, as one of the first to break the light barrier. Maybe everything is going to go smoothly, but there’s also the distinct possibility that the ship will explode. That’s not so good.
The ship was never tested. In theory everything should go smoothly. We’ve been running simulations for months, during which a few problems have crept up, but we’ve been successful in fixing all of them. Yet, I am forced to admit that these are just simulations…
You know what, this is my destiny. Whatever happens, I know I will have no regrets. It’s my dream. Life is not worth living if I am unable to accomplish my dreams.
Okay, I am not going to worry myself… So, what else?
Overall, I have to say, the training is going smoothly. Although, there have been a few surprises along the way, none mission related. Bill put the moves on me. He’s pretty good with flattery. He came over several times and asked me out for dinner. I was flattered, but we’re just too different. We come from completely two different cultures, different religions, well he has none. We can work together fine, but as far as a romantic relationship, certain things have to be common between my significant other and I for a relationship to develop. To some people this might sound backward and closed minded, but these are my beliefs that have carried me through some of the toughest times of my life, when things seemed to crumble around me…
Although, I know this will never work between us, it still feels good that someone is interested in me. It has been a long time since I let anyone close enough to me for him to even be interested. I have erected this barrier around me and closed everyone off. All I care about is work now. Who knows, maybe this barrier will be broken along with the speed of light.
Well, I got to get some rest, no doubt tomorrow is going to be another grueling day of training.
Good night.
One Week Before Launch

Nermeen Foad drove her car, a government issued electric Ford, to WSA head quarters. On the radio there was a news report of a demonstration taking place where she was headed. A group estimated to be around one hundred souls gathered in front of the WSA head quarters holding up signs that read, ‘No more government conspiracy’ and ‘tell us where our money is going’. This group claimed that they had proof that the US government was covering up the real reasons billions of dollars were being spent. On the other hand the government denied all allegations and presented proof and accounting documents showing which government funded projects were currently active and how much was being spent on each of them.
What a load of garbage, Nermeen thought. These conspiracy theories, you can never tell who’s telling the truth and who’s not. If there’s a secret it’s usually tangled up in a web of deceit and lies. Many factions are involved and sometimes they don’t know each other. The truth ends up diluted in a sea of events fictional and factual, in that order, that it finally becomes half truths and half lies. No one figures out what really happened. Even the sides involved wouldn’t recognize the truth even if bit them in the ass.
The report went on describing that what was happening in front of the WSA head quarters was also happening around the US, in front of FBI buildings, NSA buildings and even in front of the White House. The demonstrations were peaceful; however, the police and security were at the scenes in case of any signs of trouble.
Nermeen took a final turn and the WSA compound became visible straight ahead. Even from this distance she could see the civilians carrying out the demonstrations. As she approached the main gates a mob of people blocked her way. Up close they didn’t look so peaceful to Nermeen. They were yelling at her, making aggressive gestures. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, nor did she want to know. Fear gripped her heart when she felt the car rocking as the crowd closed around her. She realized that her presence was agitating them and soon they would start breaking the car’s windshield and who knows what they would do with her. However, before any of that happened, if it was going to happen at all, five security guards made their way through the crowd shoving them aside and carving a passage way through the mass of human bodies wide enough for her to drive through. Once she was inside, the gates locked leaving the angry demonstrators yelling and waving their signs.
She parked her car at her usual spot and started towards the training building. As Nermeen walked she thought of how her day was going to be like. Her schedule consisted of six demanding hours of simulated space walks. The training was conducted in a special anti-grav room. For the remainder of the day, which was another seven hours, the team would run through a disaster simulation. Basically, the worst case scenario aside from the ship exploding. A major engine failure and internal fire would force the team to evacuate the ship and commence outer hull repair while the fire extinguisher system put out the fire inside the ship, by basically venting the atmosphere and exposing the ship to vacuum. Any disaster worse that this would mean the destruction of the ship and loss of all life onboard, or irreparable engine damage leaving the crew stranded with no possibility of retrieval. Nermeen crossed her fingers hoping that none of these scenarios would occur a week from now.
“Hey Nermeen,” Bill appeared from nowhere startling Nermeen. “You’re early. It’s five thirty in the morning.”
“Early bird catches the worm,” Nermeen smiled as she continued on her way.
“Do you think it can in zero-g?”
“Sorry?”
“The bird, do you think it can catch the worm in zero-g?” Bill joked.
“If it tries hard enough!”
“So, how are you doing?” asked Bill as he strode in front of Nermeen facing her and walking backwards.
This unexpected move forced a smile to Nermeen’s lips. “I’m fine,” she said softly.
“You know, we’ve been working together for close to six months. We see each other every day and spend the better part of these days together, and after all this time, to my shock, I realize that I hardly know you, outside of work that is. So I wanted to ask you something.”
“As long as it’s reasonable.”
“Perfectly,” Bill replied. “Would you like to go out for dinner after work tonight. I know this great Egyptian restaurant.”
Nermeen slowed down.
“Hmm,” she scratched her chin as if in deep thought, exaggerating the gesture. “Is it déjà vu or did I hear that question before?”
In turn, Bill scratch his chin imitating her. “Must be déjà vu. I am not asking you out on a date, just dinner. Umm, a team building dinner. The more we’re in tune the safer the mission will be.”
“Alright, dinner,” Nermeen sighed jokingly. But deep down she was glad that Bill didn’t give up and that brought guilty feelings she thought she had gotten over years ago. “But just dinner,” she continued. “I stated my feelings clearly.”
Bill held up his hands. “Understood, Doctor. Just want to be friends.”
“Yeah, let’s get going buddy,” Nermeen tapped Bill on the shoulder and resumed to her destination at a fast pace.

“Evacuate ship. Evacuate ship.”
The computer repeated in its feminine voice, which seemed to have a slight Swedish accent. A simulated fire was raging in all corners of LimitC. The fire, had it been real, would have posed a fatal threat to the lives of the crew, who scrambled frantically, floating to their space suits. In record time of less than a minute and a half, they all had their suites on, which also provided limited protection against the fire. They entered the decompression bay at the belly of the ship and sealed the hatch.
“Grab a hold of something,” Scott ordered. “Decompression is going to be quick.”
All five of them secured their positions.
“Decompressing now,” Scott yelled, as he hit a button on a panel embedded in the wall beside the door they just sealed.
A clang followed as the oxygen seals opened letting the atmosphere out into the vacuum of space. The whole ship shook violently, accompanied by a frightening rumble as the air was released.
In a few seconds the silence of space dominated the moment.
“Is everyone okay?” Scott looked at his crew while moving towards the outer doors.
Everyone gave a quick confirmation.
“Let’s head out,” Scott gave a thought command through his CID and the outer bay door opened silently.
Scott pushed himself through the open doors, followed by the rest of his team. A cable connected all of their space suits to prevent any one of them from drifting away. Scott used the thrusters built in his space suit to propel him to the roof of the ship. He could see the air as it was being vented from oxygen seals all over the ship. He returned his concentration to the task at hand, and anchored the cable connecting him to the rest of his team securely to the roof of the ship.
“Alright,” he started. “We’ll commence repair of the ship. As you can see there are several hull punctures of different sizes caused by the meteor storm that just hit us. We have to seal them and make sure there is no damage to the fuel containers. We don’t want to give anyone a light show today. Did you bring out the repair equipment from the ship?”
There was a considerably long and awkward period of silence.
“Oops,” Bill finally said.
“Oops,” Scott repeated in controlled exasperation. “Is one word I don’t want to hear.”
“End Simulation,” Scott continued dryly.
The lights came on in the anti-grav room.
“Prepare to repeat the simulation,” he ordered.

“We repeated the simulation six times,” Bill sat in front of Nermeen in a Middle Eastern restaurant. They both looked completely exhausted. “Can you believe that? Six hours?”
“You know, this isn’t an Egyptian restaurant,” Nermeen said as she looked at her surroundings.
“Huh?” Bill genuinely looked surprised. “So what is it?”
“I don’t know, but it ain’t Egyptian. I can tell you that.”
“Six hours,” Bill repeated shaking his head.
“Well, if you didn’t forget the tools inside,” Nermeen teased.
“That was kinda embarrassing, huh?” Bill smiled shyly.
“Just a little,”
“Well, thanks. That makes me feel better!”
Nermeen shrugged giving him a friendly smile, “I’m just joking.”
“But that happened only once. Why did we have to repeat the freakin’ simulation six times?”
“If you haven’t noticed, our commander is a perfectionist,” Nermeen said.
Bill took a mouthful bite from his Shawerma sandwich, “Thanks for the insight.”
“No worries,” Nermeen winked at him.
Nermeen cut through her stake.
“We come to a Middle Eastern restaurant and you order western food,” Bill shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
His companion simply shrugged and continued chewing her food.
“I don’t mean to pry, but how come you never talk about anything personal?” Bill asked.
“I don’t?”
“See, this is exactly what I mean. You continually try to evade all conversations that could possibly reveal something about your person.”
“Bill, we’re being so straight forward today, aren’t we?”
“See, I would understand if you’re that way with me only. I might not be the type of person you’d like to open up to, but Nermeen for the past six months we’ve spent the majority of time together, and I don’t remember once you talking to anyone about anything but work. Why?”
Nermeen was staring at her food and continued to do so even after Bill finished. She quietly put her knife and fork down, picked up a napkin and wiped her mouth slowly.
“Listen, I’m sorry. I was out of line. It’s none of …” Bill started before Nermeen cut him off.
“No you’re quite right. There’s nothing to apologize for,” she finally looked up at Bill. “The truth is it’s hard for me to talk about my life. Maybe, it’s how I was brought up, or maybe it’s what happened in my past. I personally don’t know, and I can’t tell you something I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate that you actually care, but you’ll have to accept how I am now, and you never know, maybe I’ll change in the future.”
“Okay,” Bill nodded. “And I’m…”
Unexpectedly, a man in his late thirties grabbed a chair, spun it around and sat on it. His dark brown hair contrasted with his pale skin and his eyes bore the look of a man who doesn’t trust the company he just joined. Both Nermeen and Bill stared at him dumbfounded.
“Excuse me, but can’t you see we’re having a private conversation,” Bill said annoyed.
The man completely ignored Bill’s comment.
“You guys are astronauts, right?” he asked.
“Yes,” Nermeen replied slowly.
“You’re part of the team that will pilot this new space craft the WSA has been working on for the past decade?” The man continued.
Bill and Nermeen exchanged a puzzled expression. The event wasn’t publicized as of yet. Not many were expected to know about it. The WSA was waiting for the success of the test flight before publicly announcing the breaking news.
“How do you know about that?” The concern showed in Bill’s voice.
“It doesn’t matter how I know,” the man replied. “The question is, do you know what you’re doing? You’re participating in wasting important funds that could be used to save the hungry and the needy of this world.”
“What are you talking about?” Nermeen asked confused.
“This,” the man pulled a thick folder out of a brief case he had with him. He placed the folder on the table in between Bill and Nermeen. “Is what I am talking about.”
“And what’s this?” Bill bobbed his head towards the folder.
“Open it and see.”
“We don’t need to see anything, man,” he pushed the folder away. “Let’s go Nermeen. We don’t need to sit around and listen to this bullshit.”
He started to get up, but Nermeen held his hand gently stopping him.
“There’s no problem with keeping an open mind,” she pointed out.
“Listen to the lady,” the man smirked. “She’s smart.”
Bill fired him an annoyed look, but sat down reluctantly.
Nermeen opened the folder and scanned through its contents; page after page of budget calculations, with comments at the end of each section. She took the pages out and passed them to Bill, who seemed to grow more interested as he absorbed the information presented on the papers.
This can’t be true, Nermeen thought. According to this document way too much money is being spent on this project. I understand that running such a high tech program is costly, but this is ridiculous.
“This is definitely interesting, sir,” she spoke to the man. “But I am having some difficulty believing the accuracy of your sources.”
“I understand your skepticism, but I can assure you that these documents are legitimate.”
“I’m sure,” Bill cut in. “That the government can provide a number of other documents that are quite different from what you’ve shown us here.”
“The government will not admit that they are steeling people’s money,” the man started. “As you can see, from the document, other countries are not investing nearly as much money as the US is on this particular international project. Every wonder why?”
“I hate to be blunt,” Bill replied. “But the US is the most powerful nation in the world. Without them there wouldn’t be a project.”
“That’s what they’d like you to believe. But according to our sources, even if the US has the sole responsibility for this project, they wouldn’t need to spend more than a quarter of what they are spending now, with the support of six other countries.”
“Again, this is according to your sources,” Nermeen pointed out. “How can we trust that these sources of yours are legitimate?”
“I can’t tell you who my sources are, nor am I expecting you to believe me. All I am asking is to at least consider that what you have seen in this document could be true. We believe that everyone is entitled to the truth.” He paused. “I’m not expecting to change the world over night, or change how the game of power and control is played. But at least we hope to be a small step towards a better future, and knowledge and truth are the weapons we use to fight this battle.”
He collected the papers now scattered all over the table and put them back in the folder.
“Just a question,” Bill interrupted. “Who is ‘we’?”
“Thank you for your time,” he said then got up and left.
Effective speech, Nermeen thought. But no, I’m not going to let a con artist and some falsified documents get in the way of my dream. I don’t understand why he’s doing this anyway.
“Come on,” Bill said. “You don’t take this joker seriously, do you?”
“Huh?” Her attention focused once more on him. “No, no. But don’t you think just for the sake of completeness we should talk to some suits back at WSA.”
“You’ll be wasting your time.”
“You’re probably right, but other than just some time wasted, no harm will come.”
“It’s just his story is so far fetched. What could the government possibly be spending on that we’re not aware of. We’re at the heart of this project. All the money is being spent on us, on the technology we use, on the ship we’ll pilot. Are you getting my drift?”
“Yes, you’re probably right again. Maybe I should just ignore the whole thing, and concentrate on the mission.”
“I’m not asking you to do that. If you feel compelled to verify the guy’s story, by all means do that, but just don’t obsess over it.”
They finished off their meal, with just small talk about how in a week they’ll be in space. Amongst the team only Commander MacGillvarly had space experience. In fact, he had logged more than two years in space during his career. The fact that they would have a capable commander made life feel a bit easier.
In less than half an hour, they were on their way out of the restaurant.
“Thank you for dinner,” Nermeen said as she pressed her thumb on a small square shaped scanner beside the handle of her car’s driver side door. Instantly, the door unlocked and opened upward automatically. She prepared to get in.
“I have to ask you something,” Bill MacCay stopped her. “How come you’re not interested in me?”
Nermeen was surprised by the unexpected question, but she though she at least owed her friend a straight forward question.
“Bill,” she started softly. “You’re a very attractive guy, but in my opinion, in order for two people to fall in love an initial attraction is not enough. There are many elements that play part in this process, like cultural background, religion, and even age. Unfortunately, many of these aspects don’t match between us, that’s why I think it’s difficult for me to develop a romantic relationship with you. Also, the fact that I was once married doesn’t help the matter.”
“You were married? What happed, it didn’t work out?”
“It’s not that. I was very much in love with my husband. It’s just… I lost him in a car accident.”
This was the first bit of information Nermeen revealed about herself to anyone for a long time, and Bill appreciated the gesture.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“It’s quite alright,” Nermeen smiled a sad smile. “I accepted his death a long time ago.” She paused. “My point is, I respect you and I consider it a privilege to work with some one as intelligent as yourself, but as to a romantic interest, I don’t think I am ready for it.”
There was a period of silence as Bill thought about what Nermeen had just told him, and Nermeen waited patiently respecting his privacy.
“Fair enough,” he finally said. “Thank you for your honesty. It’s one of the characteristics I admire most about you.”
“Thanks.”
“Okay, so I’ll see you tomorrow,” Bill waved as he headed to his car.
“You bet.”
They left to their respective homes.

July 10th, 2033

We launch in one hour. You can’t believe how fast my heart is pounding. It’s an extraordinary feeling I am experiencing now. Nothing, like I have ever experienced in my life. I can’t wait till I get in the shuttle and blast off feeling the G’s building up. Yet, I’m kinda scared, but I guess that’s normal, right? It’s a new adventure possibly the greatest adventure of my life… no, most definitely it is.
Although, I so can’t wait to look at earth from space, there’s something that’s slightly occupying my mind. I went to talk to the director of our program on how much money the government is spending on us and the figures that he gave me are completely different from the figures I saw in the guy’s document. I guess I was a bit relieved for a while, but then I started to think about it again.
This is my problem, I can’t leave matters well alone. I have to analyze and re-analyze everything that happens around me. Why can’t I just learn to take things at face value. Sometimes matters are just what they appear to be. The thing is, I don’t have enough facts to fully convince myself which side is telling the truth, and frankly I don’t think I’ll ever know and I don’t care. I am not in this for the glory of mankind. I am in this for me, because it is my dream, because it is something I have wanted to do since I looked up at the stars. That sounds selfish, but this is how it is. So, I better get these insignificant matters out of my mind and concentrate on my eminent launch.
The shuttle carrying LimitC launched two days ago. Today we’re going up there to dock with the New International Space Station (NISS). We’ll have one brief final meeting, and then we’ll go on and make history. You can’t believe how the fact that I’ll be part of the first team to accomplish something no one has accomplished before makes me feel. I’m the first. Boy that sounds good, doesn’t it? My God, this is it. This is what I have been working for my entire adult life.
This is for you my dear husband.

Now, it’s time to make history.
T minus five minutes

“Everyone secure?” Commander MacGillvarly asked.
The preparation crew had strapped everyone securely in their seats and sealed the shuttle door. Along with the five team members that would fly LimitC, there were two US astronauts that were to pilot the shuttle to the NISS and back to earth.
“Everyone is in, Commander,” MacCay replied.
The shuttle pilots were running through the final checklist with mission control.
Nermeen looked at the count down clock. Only a minute left. She turned to look at Tyler Banks sitting on the seat beside her. The glass shield of his headset obscured her view of his face, but she could still tell he was as nervous as she was.
Fifteen seconds left to lift off.
It all boils down to this, Nermeen thought. In less than fifteen seconds, I will soar where my dreams have always taken me.
She looked out of the view port. Beyond the support beams surrounding the shuttle, she could see in the distance the apartment complex, which was her home for the past two years.
Ten seconds to lift off.
Nermeen started reciting the thanks giving prayer.
Five seconds.
The engines came to life. She could feel the rough vibrations shake every cell in her body, making her heart race in excitement and anticipation.
Two seconds.
She looked out of the view port again. All support beams were now pulled away.
Lift off.
Nermeen felt a sudden jolt, which pined her to her seat. The shuttle started rising and the clouds drew closer. She felt as if a brick wall had just been placed on her chest.
My God, Nermeen couldn’t take her eyes off the window. The color of the sky changed gradually from blue to black. The stars appeared brighter than she had ever seen them before.
There was a final jolt as the fuel tanks separated from the shuttle and then everything suddenly became quite, in fact this was the quietest moment in her life.
The shuttle adjusted its heading as it fell into orbit.
At this moment, time stood still for Nermeen. She was looking at a view that would stay with her for the rest of her life; Earth from space. This was a milestone in her life. Her heart skipped a few beats and she even forgot to take her breath.
My God, she thought, as she had no other words to describe what she was looking at. Finally, she could truly say that she understood the meaning of life; how blessed she was to be human. If every human being could have the opportunity to experience this timeless moment, half of the problems facing the human race would be eliminated. From up here, her home wasn’t Egypt, it was Earth; from up here, there was no boarders, no countries, there was Earth, the home of the human race with all its differences and similarities. At this moment, she realized what it means to be human. Something that could not be put in words, only felt in the deepest part of her soul.
She was, almost violently, pulled out of her meditative state, that she wished could last forever, as a fury of reports and commands were issued by the shuttle pilots. They were approaching the NISS.
Mark ‘c’

Everything was moving at an incredibly fast pace. They launched, docked with the NISS, had their final meeting and now they were on board LimitC going through the final checklist before their historic test flight. Everyone from the five knew exactly their role. Scott and Bill were checking their flight plan, which will take them just outside the solar system and back. Tyler was checking over all engine readouts, making sure that LimitC was operating at optimum condition. Jonathan prepared to start the five different experiments that he will be conducting while the ship was traveling faster than light. Finally, Nermeen made sure all of the team members were wearing their biological monitoring devices. The computer would record their vital signs throughout the duration of the mission. During the past six months, Nermeen had participated with the WSA’s software team in developing several programs that will assist her in analyzing on the fly the crew’s vital signs statistics gathered. It would be extremely useful to know the effects of long-term exposure to such high velocity on the human body.
“Engineering,” Commander MacGillvarly said. “Status report.”
“All ship’s functions are operating at maximum efficiency,” Tyler reported.
“Science station, status report.”
“All experiments are secure. Ready to roll.” Jonathan said.
“Doctor, status report.”
“All of you are registering on my monitors. All vital signs are perfect,” Nermeen replied hardly able to hide the excitement in her voice.
“NISS, we’re ready for separation,” Bill radioed the command station on the NISS.
“Separation is a go,” the reply came over the intercom.
“Proceeding with separation sequence,” Bill started. “Five, four, three, two, one, separation.”
There was a loud clang and a slight vibration as the locking devices holding LimitC to the NISS released.
The commander used the ship’s thrusters to navigate clearing the space station’s perimeter.
“Separation is complete,” Bill reported. “We’re a go.”
Nermeen was surprised at how cool and professional Bill MacCay sounded. Both him and the commander were so casual as if they were running through a routine simulation, not about to make history.
“Course set,” Scott informed his crew. “Everyone secure your positions.”
They all responded by locking their seats into flight positions and putting on their seat belts.
“All secure,” Bill replied.
“Out there,” Jonathan, who was occupying the station alongside Nermeen, pointed at the unending space in front of them. “Lies our destiny.”
“Amen to that,” Nermeen smiled. She could feel the cold sweat on her forehead; she was that nervous.
“Bring engine one online,” Scott said.
At once they could feel the ship accelerating rapidly.
“Engine one is at 50%,” Bill monitored the readings on his control panel. “60%, 80%, 100%. Cycle one is complete. We’re traveling at one third the speed of light.”
The speed of light was going to be achieved in three cycles, each taking about half an hour.
“Structural integrity within acceptable parameters,” Tyler banks reported. “Engine one is functioning at maximum throughput; clear to bring engine two online.”
“Bringing engine two online,” Scott said.
Nermeen felt a jolt with the increased acceleration.
“Engine two is at 80%, 100%. Cycle two complete. We’re at two thirds the speed of light.” Bill reported.
“No interference between the two engines. Structural integrity is still within normal parameters,” the engineer said. “Clear to bring final engine online.”
“Okay, we’ll stay at this speed for the next forty-five minutes, before we bring engine three online,” Scott said.
This sudden change in plans brought surprise to the rest of the crew.
“Why?” Jonathan asked. “Why the deviation from the preset plans?”
“There’s no deviation from the plan,” Scott smiled. “We’re actually going exactly according to schedule. It’s part of our flight plan to maintain this speed and heading until we clear the moons of Jupiter. There is no telling what could happen when we punch it up to the speed of light, we’d rather be as safe as possible.”
No one discussed the commander’s decision.
The view outside was astonishing. The stars, brighter than Nermeen had ever seen them before, gave her the impression that she could reach up and touch them, and she tried to do just that, but her hand was obviously blocked by the view port. She let her hand float in the weightlessness of space and let her eyes absorb its indescribable vastness and beauty. A moment later, Jupiter with its majestic rings, came into the center of her view. It reflected the light of the sun breaking it up into many colors with clarity that her eyes were not accustomed to.
Nermeen must have been in this state of trance for forty-five minutes, and was only brought out of it by Scott’s firm voice giving the order to bring the final engine online.
“Engine three is at 70%, 80%, 100%,” Bill echoed the readings on his control panel. “We’re approaching mark ‘c’ in three, two, one, now.”
Suddenly, the walls seemed to close in on Nermeen. The screen and the readouts on it leaped at her, then everything froze. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t hear, all her senses shutdown and for a brief second she thought she was dead. The only thing verifying her existence was the steady beat of her heart, and even that was more felt than heard.
Seconds past as eternity.
Silence.
Were they trapped?
Was she going to live the rest of her days in this state of limbo?
She was aware of the passage of time and that terrified her; a few seconds ago feelings of accomplishment and triumph combined with amazement and awe over whelmed her, but now she wished she was back on Earth. Is this how it feels to be completely paralyzed?
More Silence.
As abruptly as this whole ordeal started it ended. The walls returned to their normal position and everything came to life.
“Wow,” Tyler yelled in astonishment. “What was that?”
“Congratulations ladies and gentlemen,” Scott said with a broad smile on his face, keeping a remarkably cool and composed demeanor. “We are now traveling at 3.6 * 108 meters per second, faster than light.”
They all cheered.
“This is amazing,” Tyler said pointing at his consol. “These readings are impossible. They defy all the laws of physics, as we currently know them. I don’t even think we’re traveling in normal space.
“What do you mean?” Jonathan asked.
“I don’t know what I mean,” replied Tyler dumbfounded. “It’s gonna take years to analyze the data we’re gathering.”
“Yeah, you can say that again,” Nermeen said from her station. “According to these scans our bodies are barely operating, our hearts are pumping at less than a third of their normal speed, yet I feel fine, completely normal. Does anybody else feel anything weird?”
“No, I’m fine,” Bill replied.
“This is extraordinary,” Nermeen shook her head. “It’s either there’s something wrong with the computer, or we need to redo Einstein’s theory of relativity.”
“Okay people,” Scott clapped. “Let’s get to work. We’ll maintain this speed for another five hours, before we have to head back. Let’s get as much data as possible.”
Each crewmember started gathering data and recording comments as they noticed discrepancies and there were plenty of them. They worked feverishly trying to accomplish as much as they can.
“There’s something wrong,” everyone froze when they heard Tyler utter this sentence. At this speed, the word ‘wrong’ wasn’t in their list of favorite nouns.
“Engine three, it’s malfunctioning,” he continued.
“What kind of malfunction?” Scott asked, the tension straining at his voice.
“It’s operating over the maximum safe limit.”
“Confirmed,” Bill reported. “Our speed is increasing.”
“I’m ending this mission,” Scott said. “Shutting down engine three.”
A sudden quake took everyone by surprise.
“Emergency, shut down all engines,” Scott yelled.
“Cannot carry out command,” the computer replied in its emotionless voice.
Another quake knocked the breath out of all five crewmembers.
“Structural integrity is approaching critical limit,” Tyler held tightly onto his station. “If we don’t reduce our speed we’ll be destroyed.”
“Damn it, controls are not responding,” Bill tried to use his CID to deactivate the engines, with no avail. Next, he tapped commands onto his computer panel vigorously, but nothing happened.
“We have to cut the power to the engine’s manually,” Scott said. “I’ll do it.”
He started unbuckling himself but was stopped by Tyler, “No, I’ll do it. You need to pilot the ship.”
Tyler unbuckled himself and made his way to the engine room one level below the command deck in unsteady steps caused by the constant rough vibrations shaking the ship.
“Oh damn,” Jonathan swore. “This is not good.”
“What’s wrong now?” Scott asked.
“Not sure,” Jonathan applied a filter to the data being fed to his station by the ship’s sensors. “I am detecting something forming ahead of us, an anomaly. I don’t know what it could be.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Nermeen murmured more to herself.
“We’ve got to reduce our speed,” Bill said over the ship’s intercom to Tyler. “What’s happening down there?”
“I’m having some difficulty,” Tyler’s voice came garbled in static. “Some of the circuitry is fried. It’s going to take too long to try to work around it and send commands directly to the engine’s micro controllers. I’ll have to use the manual override switch. Shit this is going to be rough, you better hold onto your seats.”
“Do it,” Scott ordered.
“The anomaly is getting more pronounced,” Jonathan said. “I don’t like this.”
“Almost got it,” Tyler informed the crew.
What followed was not like anything any of them had ever experienced. The whole mission was unique, but these following events could only be described as bizarre. A bright light blinded Nermeen; however, she honestly believed that there was no actual physical light, but an overload in her optical sensory input. When she could see again, everything was dematerializing around her, the walls, the computer and even her teammates were becoming transparent. The whole seen appeared as a reflection of reality on a liquid surface. She reached for her console, and to her pure shock and disbelief, her hand went right through it. What she was witnessing defied reality; it boggled the mind.
Blinding light.
The ship rocked.
As the light subsided, Nermeen saw that matter around her had returned to its solid state.
However this nightmare was far from over. A sudden loss of power caused an extremely rapid and dangerous deceleration. She felt her restraining belts digging deep into her flesh in spite of the protection provided by her uniform. A split second later she heard a loud crack as something broke, followed by a short scream and a thud. Unable to even turn her head to see what happened, she closed her eyes and prayed.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the ship stabilized.
“Our speed is down to one thousand KPH,” Bill reported.
“The planet is dead a head,” Scott said.
“Our speed is too great. At this rate we’ll have to crash land.”
“Activate thrusters to slow us down,” Scott ordered.
As the thrusters fired, the ship slowed down further.
“Damn it,” Bill yelled over the roar of the engine. “We’re still traveling too fast. We’re going to enter the atmosphere in less than two minutes,” he looked at Scott. “At this entry speed a crash landing could destroy us.”
“There’s no way around it now,” Scott replied. “I am adjusting our entry angle.”
Nermeen could see the planet getting closer. They were indeed moving at an undesirably high velocity, even she could tell that.
No regrets, she thought. It might have been a short-lived dream, but it came rue. I am fortunate; very few people even get the chance I got. I should be thankful for that.
They hit the atmosphere. The viciousness of the impact rattled the ship and its crew. Nermeen could immediately sense a sharp rise in temperature caused by friction with the outer layer of the atmosphere. The sweet dripped over her eyes and some droplets made their way into them. She didn’t mind the sting she felt, a sign of life.
Once the ship cleared the stratosphere, the view of the planet’s surface became clear; a continuous stretch of thick forest, extending as far as she could see. There was no clearing anywhere in sight to land, which meant more danger for the crew of LimitC.
Scott and Bill exchanged a sequence of commands and reports that Nermeen couldn’t hear clearly because of the rumble of the engine, and the continuous shaking made her grow dizzy. Despite her blurred vision she could still estimate that contact with the surface of the planet was eminent, in less than a minute.
She did the only thing she could do. She braced for impact.
An explosion.
Debris flew uncontrollably.
Nermeen hit her head on something.
Darkness enveloped her senses.
The Planet

A dull ache was only the beginning.
As Nermeen regained her consciousness this dull ache turned into a throbbing pain throughout her body. The first thing she realized when she opened her eyes was that she was laying on the floor.
How did she get down from her seat?
Am I still in one piece? She thought as she moved her limbs, hoping that nothing was broken. Her body seemed fine as far as she could tell. The next step was to sit up and see what the hell happened.
Bad move.
Stabs of searing pain ran up her right side.
I have a broken rib, maybe two, she concluded.
With much strain and endurance she turned on her good side and held onto a seat close by to support herself as she stood up.
“My God,” she whispered. “Look at this mess.”
Nermeen wasn’t exaggerating. A bulkhead was torn from its position and laid at an angle, one end still connected to the wall and the other on the floor. The wall on her left was completely destroyed by a fire that raged less than an hour ago. At this moment, she noticed that Jonathan’s station was not where it was supposed to be.
“Oh God, no,” she said when she saw the seat with Jonathan still securely strapped to it on the floor. It was torn from its position during the deceleration. Nermeen checked him out, but it was too late. His cranium was caved in and a pool of blood surrounded his cracked skull. She turned away from the scene, overpowered by feelings of remorse.
The realization that Scott and Bill weren’t on the command deck suddenly hit her. A second later she noticed that Tyler wasn’t there either.
“Please don’t tell me they are all dead,” she limped towards the exit. “Maybe they’re down in the engine room.”
She fought away the fear of being completely alone and stranded on God knows where.
What am I going to do if I am completely alone? She thought desperately.
She was a few steps away from the door when it slid open and a man’s figure blocked her way. Startled, she jumped back, a move she regretted. The pain was comparable to ten spears piercing her side, causing her to let out a short pained yelp.
In front of her the man collapsed to the floor. It took her only a few moments to realize that it was Tyler. This realization brought her a small measure of ease, and she was further comforted when she felt his pulse and determined he was still alive; badly hurt, but alive.
“Tyler, can you hear me?” She asked.
A moan was all he could produce.
“Let me help you up,” she knew that with her broken ribs that would be a very painful action, but she went ahead and did it anyway. Once Tyler was up, Nermeen immediately noticed two things; he could hardly put any weight on his right foot and his left arm was hanging at an awkward angle. She sat him on a chair.
“Tyler, try to stay conscious,” she tapped his face lightly.
His eyes were glazing over and he could hardly focus.
“Okay buddy,” she tried to send some measure of relief to her injured friend, but she honestly thought that he didn’t even hear her. “I’m going to find the medical kit and patch you up in no time.”
Nermeen hoped that she was at least partly correct. Beside the broken arm and leg there was a deep bleeding wound in his shoulder. He was losing lots of blood and if he wasn’t treated promptly he could die.
She dashed towards the lower deck of the ship trying her best to ignore her own injuries and the unbearable pain they were causing her.
The corridor leading to the small medical bay built in LimitC was in the same condition as the command deck. Wreckage was scattered everywhere and residual thick smoke hung like a reminder of the disaster that just took place. The smoke irritated her lungs and obscured her vision causing her to trip and bump on the wreckage scattered allover the place.
Inside the medical wing the conditions weren’t much different. In a hurry she scrambled to where the emergency medical kit was kept, grabbed it and headed back to the command deck.
When she approached the double doors leading to the command deck, they didn’t open as expected.
“Damn,” she stumped her foot in anger amplifying her already increasing pain. Holding her side, she tried to remember where the manual switch was, but too much was going on for her to be able to think clearly. Even a simple thing as this she had difficulty remembering.
“Where’s the freaking switch,” she said out loud in anger.
It suddenly came to her. The switch was located behind a small square in the wall left to the door. After removing it she reached inside and felt around until she found a small handle. She took a firm grip of it and jerked it outwards. The doors immediately opened partway in response; however, it wasn’t enough for her to get through. With all her might, she pushed one side of the door open, but inside an unpleasant surprise awaited her. Tyler Banks was nowhere to be found, as if he disappeared into thin air.
Nermeen felt week and dizzy.
“I gotta sit down,” she whispered in a tired voice.
After a minute’s rest she opened the kit and took out an x-ray device that revealed that she did indeed have a fractured rib, but it wasn’t as serious as it felt. Exposing her injured side she ran another device designed to stimulate the melding of broken bones over the fractured rib. The bones would still be weak and need time to completely heal, but much of he pain and time would be avoided.
When she was finished, she slumped back in her seat exhausted, so much indeed that she couldn’t keep her eyes open. In a few minutes Nermeen was asleep.

Nermeen awoke to the sounds of movement and talking. The first thing she did was reach for her broken ribs and feel them gently. They still hurt but not as much. Next thing was to checkout who was with her on the command deck. She opened her eyes slightly and threw a quick glance in the direction of the noise. It was Scott and Bill.
“Where have you guys been?” She asked as she approached them.
“You’re awake good,” Scott smiled. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Nermeen couldn’t return the smile. “I wish I could say the same about Jonathan.”
Scott only nodded in agreement. He was also disturbed by the death of his crewmate.
“Where’s Tyler?” Bill spoke up without looking away from his consol. Nermeen could only guess that he was trying to assess the damage to the ship.
“He was badly injured,” Nermeen replied. “I helped him on that seat,” she pointed where he was sitting. “Then I went to get the medical kit, by the time I came back he was gone. No where to be found.”
“Just poof?” Scott asked surprised.
“Could he have wondered off?” Bill asked.
“Not in the condition he was in,” Nermeen replied. “He was hardly conscious.”
“Where could he have gone then?” Scott asked.
There was no answer. The whole situation was bizarre. Nothing was adding up; too many unknown variables in the equation.
“Did you guys figure out how we got here?” Nermeen asked.
Scott and Bill exchanged a quick glance.
“No,” replied Scott slowly. “But look at this.”
He spun in his chair and faced his station. A star map was displayed on a small screen, at the top left corner of his terminal. On it was a red dot indicating their position on the map, but Nermeen couldn’t make sense of what she was looking at.
“I don’t understand,” she echoed her thoughts.
“That’s the point,” Scott snapped his fingers. “We don’t know where we are either. As far as we can tell we’re in uncharted space. The computer would have matched our location if it knew.”
“That’s not good.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“What do we do?” Nermeen asked.
“First,” Scott started. “We fix the ship, which will be quiet a challenge.”
“Then, I assume that Tyler will be useful at this point,” Nermeen pointed out an obvious fact.
“He’s irreplaceable.”
“We’ve go to find him then.”
“I agree,” Scott nodded. “But Bill and I have a lot of hard work ahead of us. We’re hoping that you could help. We’ve already surveyed the area around us, that’s why we were gone for a couple of hours. The planet, as far as we could tell, is much like Earth, breathable atmosphere. But we’ll be able to tell more about it once we have full sensors up. That’s our first priority.”
“Sure, I can help,” Nermeen agreed. “Beside Tyler probably is in need of medical care. I’ll be able to provide it for him.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Scott got up. “Come along. I’ll equip you with some of our wonderful gadgets that hopefully will be of some help.”
He led her to a storage room where they kept tools and equipment that will be needed to repair the ship. He picked a backpack that was thrown from its place during the crash landing. It contained a basic survival kit, food and water rations that should last an individual a week, a thermal blanket and a mini computer that can be used to interface to LimitC’s central computer.
Scott gave the survival pack to Nermeen, who in turn mounted it on her back, which was somewhat uncomfortable due to her injury, but she could handle it.
“Report to me every five hours,” Scott said. “If you encounter any major difficulties, please come back. I have already lost two men, I don’t want to lose you too.”
“Understood,” she replied. “How long do you estimate repairing the ship is going to take?”
“Maybe a week to two weeks,” Scott sounded disappointed. “And even then we can’t be sure that we’ve done everything right. In short we desperately need Tyler. He knows the inner workings of the ship more than any of us.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry that I can’t give you a clue where to start,” Scott said. “By the time we came back Tyler was gone and we couldn’t look for him since we needed to start the repairs.”
They walked out of the storage room heading towards the decompression bay. Bill joined them.
Scott tapped a sequence of commands on a computer terminal and a door in the floor opened revealing the planet’s surface. A ladder extended from the ship until it was planted firmly on the ground.
“Good luck,” Bill smiled.
“Thanks,” Nermeen said and climbed down.
She looked up at Scott and Bill and gave them the thumbs up. They returned the gesture and closed the door isolating Nermeen on an alien planet. The sun was high and within minutes the heat made her uncomfortable in her own uniform. However, this was a planet that no human had set foot on, and here she was walking on its surface, picking at the flowers of this alien place. Nermeen couldn’t describe what she was feeling at the moment. All the problems facing them and their critical situation seemed insignificant. In a way this mission had far exceeded her expectations. Thousands even millions of people had searched their entire lives for a planet similar to Earth; fantasized about it; imagined it; however, none of them had laid eyes on such a planet. She had. Not only did she lay eyes on one, but in fact she was breathing its air, feeling its gentle wind brush against her skin. She had accomplished in her short life what many have strived for but never achieved since they lifted their eyes and gazed upon the stars. This as far as she was concerned was the purpose of her existence.
She allowed herself a moment to stand and look straight ahead admiring the beauty of the planet. Finally, she took a deep breath, chose a direction and started that way. After a few minutes’ walk she glanced back at the ship to get her bearings. The hull of the ship was scorched from the forceful reentry into the atmosphere; even the letters defining its name were worn off and hardly recognizable. From this distance, dents and extensive hull damage in some areas was evident. If this damage weren’t attended to properly, the ship would not be space worth. From her current perspective two weeks seemed like hardly enough time to finish the repairs. All she could do now, however, was hope for the best and try to find Tyler Banks.
She turned on her heals and headed into the unknown.
The search

After six hours of trudging through this forest, Nermeen decided to take a break. It had been a difficult search so far. Some areas of the Jungle were too thick making her endeavor more challenging; on many occasions she had to work around some of these areas. Despite all the difficulties facing her she still found the time to be amazed and surprised by what she encountered. The plant life was largely similar to earth, but some of the small animals were weird at best. In fact if it weren’t for these small odd creatures, she could have mistaken this jungle for the rain forest.
Nermeen found an old tree trunk that lay on the ground and sat on it. As she let the weight off her foot a sensation of comfort spread through her legs, which suffered tiny cuts and bruises acquired when her foot got tangled causing her to fall into an outgrowth of thorns an hour ago. She took out a bottle of water and drank from it, trying to quench the sense of dehydration resulting from the intense heat. The sun had been up for six hours and didn’t show any signs of setting. It was beginning to look like this side of the planet didn’t have night, but that was highly unlikely considering the existence of plant and animal life. The planet probably had longer days, she concluded.
An hour ago Nermeen had made a less than promising report to Command MacGillvarly.
What am I doing wrong? She thought. I have circled the ship seven times, each time increasing the search perimeter by one kilometer, yet I found nothing; no trace of Tyler, not a piece of his uniform, or even a blood trail. He was bleeding, but I am sure I haven’t seen anything.
“Damn it,” she said out loud, tasting the bitterness of anger in her throat. “Without him, we may never get off this planet.”
The heat of the sun had turned her skin a shade of red darker an hour ago. It was an irritating feeling.
“Help me,” she looked up towards the clear blue sky. “What should I do?”
Silence.
Nermeen unzipped the top of her uniform in frustration the unbearable heat served to intensify. As she did that a small sensor fell into her lap. And it suddenly hit her. How could she have not thought of this before?
“I’m an idiot,” she exclaimed out loud. “Each one of us is wearing MMS’s.” MMS was an acronym for “Medical Monitoring Sensors”. “They transfer our vital readings to the ship’s computers at all times.” She opened her backpack and took out a small hand held computer and her CID. “If I can interface with the main computer onboard LimitC, I can get it to roughly indicate Tyler’s location with respect to the ship.”
She put on her CID and closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind. Instantly the computer screen in her hand came to life, but it was blank. A direct link was now established to the ship’s computer. After a few more thought commands, the data she requested was fed to her computer and displayed on the monitor. She opened her eyes slowly and deliberately, hoping she was successful.
“Yes,” Nermeen smiled. “Thank you God.”
On her computer screen was the ship’s location relative to her and Tyler’s estimated location relative to the ship, which meant that Tyler still had these MMS’s on him. The implications of this fact were not clear to her, though. The palm-sized computer was also smart enough to point her in the correct direction. She threw her bag on her shoulders and started walking.
The thing that’s puzzling me, she thought. Is how did Tyler disappear? If I believed in aliens then I would’ve said they abducted him, but I don’t. So how could he have gone? According to what the computer is showing, he’s pretty far from here, maybe thirty, forty kilometers. It’s impossible he could have walked that far in his condition. The answer to these questions could have significant consequences. So far we have no clue how we got here or even where here is. Sure this planet looks much like earth, but it isn’t earth. There could be, I don’t know, things that we have never seen before, things that could pause a danger to us. What if Tyler encounters one of these dangers, even worse, what if he is in their custody. That could mean I am in danger too, in fact that could mean, we’re all in danger. I have no idea how to feel, scared, amazed, disappointed or maybe all of these.
Nermeen was approaching another thick area of the jungle.
“Damn,” she swore. “Is there another way around this?”
She couldn’t find any.
“What the hell.”
She stepped forward removing the branches that protruded around her. The more she progressed forward the thicker the forest became. There came a point where she couldn’t see more than one foot in front of her.
Maybe I should head back and try to find a better way, she stopped in her tracks trying to decided her next move.
“Okay one more try.”
Nermeen broke a dried branch off, using it to swipe the bushes aside and stepped forward. Without a warning a thorny bush she was holding back with the branch recoiled backward, right in her face. To avoid it, she stepped aside and forward quickly, then she lost her balance. Not realizing exactly what happened her world spun around her uncontrollably, and she went into a free fall for less than a second before hitting a soft sandy ground and start rolling down a steep hill. Sand flew all around her, into her mouth and her eyes. She tried desperately to stop her ungraceful descent. Her arms flew around aimlessly trying to find something to hold on to. After what seemed to be an eternity she managed to stop her tumble.
Panic and fear paralyzed her and she breathed rapidly trying to calm herself.
What happened? Nermeen thought desperately. Where am I?
She was laying head down on a steep slope. Any move could lead to another trip that could mean the end of her life. She looked up and all she could see was the sky. Very slowly and carefully she lifted her head, and realized exactly what just occurred. Apparently the forest ended abruptly on the edge of a sandy cliff, which she fell over.
“Damn it.”
Craning her neck backward trying to see what was below her, she saw that the rolling hill continued for another one hundred meters before ending on the bank of a river that extended in both directions.
Nermeen had no choice but to head down to the river. What she had to do now was try to adjust her position so that she would be able to go down feet first instead of head first. The land beneath her was too soft; with every move she made the sand shifted under her and a renewed fear came with every second she thought she would lose her balance once more. When she finally finished her task, she froze trying to recompose herself. Now it was a bit easier to freely look around.
The terrain was quite different from what she was accustomed to. The fact that forest, desert like area and a river existed simultaneously in such close proximity was puzzling. This sand hill looked like it was caused centuries ago by a meteor impact, much like the impacts observed on earth. On the opposite bank of the river was another hill similar to this one, then forest. The river extended and curved behind the hills.
Abruptly, she remembered the computer, which she held in her hand and her CID. Automatically she reached to the back of her head, and felt the CID was still securely attached there, but she lost her computer during the fall. There was no way to find Tyler without her computer or at leas she couldn’t think of one at the moment.
Plan, she thought. I need a plan. What do I do next? Head back to the ship? It’s unlikely that I’ll be able to climb back up again. Towards the top the cliff becomes too steep. Damn, does this mean I’m stranded? No, no. I can still call up Scott. I guess what I have to do is keep looking for Tyler. How do I find him though? How?
The answer to that question seemed obvious than it was readily apparent. She just couldn’t put her finger on it, couldn’t think clearly.
Ok, facts. What are the facts? One, I was on the right track just before this ordeal. Two, Tyler still has the MMS’s on him, that’s how I was able to roughly pin point his location. Three…three…I was able to use the ship’s computer to download his location on to my hand held unit. Obviously, the ship’s computer. That’s the answer. I can call up Scott and get him to locate us both and tell me where I should go. How couldn’t I think of this before? Dumb. I should head down now.
Nermeen started down the hill slowly. It took her almost ten minutes to get to the river. The water was extremely clear; however, there seemed no sign of life or vegetation in or near the water.
“That’s strange,” she furrowed her eye browse.
She picked up a piece of dried wood and threw it in the water. Immediately bubbles formed around the area where the piece of wood landed and the wood erupted in a small fire, which when it was extinguished a second later, there was no sign of the piece of wood.
Nermeen staggered backwards away from the river in a mix of horror and surprise.
“Acid,” she muttered out lout. “The water is highly acidic. Boy and I felt like taking a dive.”
After further observation she noticed that the water wasn’t moving.
“This is not a river,” Nermeen realized. “It’s a lake. Come on Nermeen, why would the lake be acidic? You know this,” she snapped her fingers. “Of course a volcano. Oh God, does that mean I am possibly standing on or near an active volcano? I better get the hell away from here.”
She took out her communicator and opened a link to Scott.
“Commander, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Doctor,” came the reply.
“I sort of had a little accident here and I lost my computer,” Nermeen said. “I need you to locate me and Tyler and tell me which way I should head.”
“An accident,” Scott repeated concerned. “Are you okay?”
Nermeen quickly brought her commander up to speed on the events that expired in the last twenty minutes.
“Better get the hell as far away from there,” Scott said.
“My thoughts exactly,” she smiled. “Now, Tyler’s coordinates.”
“Yes of course, just a minute.”
“Sir, how goes the repairs?” Nermeen asked.
“Not so good, the damage is more extensive than we thought. We need Tyler and you. We need all the extra help we can get.”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
A moment of silence passed.
“Okay, got it,” Scott said. “I show Tyler to be roughly about twenty-five kilometers left of your position.”
“My left or your left?”
“Sorry. Okay, you know that lake you told me about it, turn and face it.”
Nermeen did so.
“Now, Tyler should be to your left.”
Nermeen started that way in a fast pace, motivated more by fear of the idea of a volcano rather than by finding Tyler.
“Alright, I’m on my way,” she said.
“Report to me regularly.”
“Yes sir,” she clicked the communication link off.

Three and a half hours later the scenery had completely changed. The lake was about an hour behind Nermeen and currently she was walking in the middle of a green field that extended straight ahead to the end of her vision. Rocky mountains surrounded the field from both sides and the field itself rose and dropped in gentle slopes. In some areas the grass came to her waist, but in most areas it was short. The mountains on her left were about seven to ten kilometers away and in the distance spots on the mountain reflected the sun’s light brightly, a phenomenon she was not familiar with.
Nermeen took out her communicator and talked to Scott.
“Okay, I think I am close,” she said. “Where should I go next?”
A pause.
“Um, give me a second,” Scott replied. “Alright, you should be very close to his location, maybe four miles to your left. I can’t really be more accurate than this since, the computer doesn’t have a map of the area you’re at.”
Nermeen turned towards the mountains.
“This is going to be hard,” she said, her voice reflecting the exhaustion she was feeling. “He’s probably some where in the mountains.”
“Take some time to rest before you proceed.”
“No, I should get going. He’s injured and every minute counts.”
She started walking.
“Get in touch once you reach the mountains.”
“Alright.”
The link was terminated.

As Nermeen got closer to the mountains the land became more rocky and hard and the instance she was close enough she realized that it would be very difficult to climb in search for Tyler, and possibly extremely dangerous. The rock face was smooth with not many handholds. To add to that she had no climbing gear and her climbing experience was limited to indoor wall climbing. In short any heroic attempt would most likely lead to her death.
The question that still hung unanswered like a splinter in her mind was how could Tyler possibly get here? She was a doctor, a good one at that, and her diagnoses of Tyler was right on the money, no doubt about that. He had a badly broken arm and leg and possibly internal bleeding. He couldn’t make it to the chair without her help, much less all the way here. Then, how?
Nermeen walked parallel to the rock face of the mountain hoping she could find a cave where Tyler would be, or any sign of his presence in this vicinity. She failed. Her frustration grew by the second. She came this far only to be met by failure, not acceptable. There must be something she could do.
“Tyler,” Nermeen yelled at the top of her lungs. “Tyler, are you there?”
The echo of her voice came back a split second later, crisp and clear and that was her only answer.
She leaned on an enormous rock that stood twelve feet high, hiding in its shadow, a sense of helplessness overcoming her. She didn’t know what to do. Tyler was instrumental to the successful repair of LimitC, without him the possibility of being stranded on this planet greatly increased. She stopped at that thought. Until now the reality hadn’t quite sunk in yet; however, as it did a shiver went down her spine. The thought of not seeing earth again, her father, her family terrified her. Her father, the man who worked night and day to be able to put her through school. The man who believed in her dreams and shared in them. The man who never gave up on her even when she herself did; there was a chance that she would never see him again.
Nermeen slipped in a crouching position, holding her knees close to her chest. A tear rolled down her cheek, but quickly, she wiped it away. This was no time to circum to despair. She had to be strong. It wasn’t over yet. What was needed was a fresh mind.
“Scott,” she called over her communicator.
“Nermeen,” Scott replied. “Any luck?”
“Not exactly,” she fought back a tear that eventually forced itself out against her will. “I have no idea how to proceed.”
“Are you okay? You don’t sound well.”
Nermeen took a deep breath, trying hard to compose herself. “I’m frustrated and tired. There’s a mountain of problems facing me, literally.”
“I know this is hard for you. God knows, I feel the same as you if not worse. I feel I have failed all of you. I’ve crashed our ship, killed one of my crew and another just disappeared under mysterious circumstances. I could just shutdown now, but one thing is keeping me going; we must get back to earth. I have a family there, a wife and two kids. I need them and they need me. Bill has his parents and friends, and you have your family, Tyler has his. If we don’t get back they’ll live the rest of their lives not having the comfort of knowing exactly what happened to us, and we’ll live the rest of ours stranded away from the people we love.” Scott paused. “Trust me I know what you’re going through, but we need you to find Tyler and we need you, period.”
Some how Scott’s words made her feel a bit better, less alone knowing that she was not the only one feeling tired and hopeless.
“I know we need to find Tyler, but I don’t know where to start. I don’t know how to find him. There’s a mountain surrounding me and he could be any where.”
“I show him very close to you. On the sensors your positions overlap. He must be within reach and his vitals are week, but he’s alive.”
“Is there a way you can tell his location more accurately?”
“The thing is the MMSs weren’t designed as tracking devices, so the signal is weak and to add to that we don’t have a map of this planet.”
There was silence.
“Wait a second,” Scott said. “Maybe we do.”
“Maybe we do what?”
“We might have a map of the area you’re at.”
“How?”
“The computer was set to automatically collect sensor data during our flight. That means it must have scanned the planet during our crash landing, we just never bothered to check. Can you hold on a second?”
A sense of renewed hope breathed into Nermeen. If Scott was right she could find Tyler easily.
“Bingo,” he said. “Here we go. The computer is interpolating through the data we have, it’ll just take a minute.”
“Please work,” Nermeen crossed her fingers.
“Alright,” Scott said cheerfully. “We have a break through. It’s still not as accurate as I’d like but it’s definitely better. Okay, I’ll guide you.”
“Great.”
“Right behind you there should be a solid rock formation. To your right is a landscape and to your left is the base of the mountain.”
“That’s right.”
“Good, so now turn a hundred and eighty degrees and walk for about two-hundred meters.”
Nermeen did as instructed.
“Face the mountain,” Scott said. “About seventy or so meters above you is a cave or a flat area in the mountain. This is where Tyler is.”
Nermeen craned her neck upwards, but couldn’t see the top of the mountain, nor any caves. The rock face was not as smooth as in other areas, a fact which would lend itself if she decided to climb. However, she was far from an experienced climber, and although climbing this particular barrier seemed feasible, it was still quite life threatening.
“Nermeen,” Scott called. “I would suggest you take a sec…” The rest of Scott’s sentence was drowned in a sudden burst of static.
“Sorry, I didn’t get that,” she said.
Nermeen could hear a concerned exchange between Scott and Bill, which was completely mangled in static. Then more clearly, but still quite distorted she heard Bill say, “What the hell is that?”
“The … can’t … out,” Scott’s voice was dominated by the static over the communication link.
“Scott,” Nermeen called apprehensively.
“Hol… up,” the static absorbed the rest of Scott’s sentence.
“Can’t main… long …” Scott’s voice sounded over the deteriorating communication link.
“Trying… comp…,” Bill’s voice broke up. “No eff…”
Her name being called by either Scott or Bill was the last thing she heard before a final burst of static, then the line went dead.
“Scott,” she yelled into her communicator. “Scott are you there?”
No answer.
“Damn it, Scott come on.”
Again, no reply.
Suddenly, she saw something heading towards her, something she could only characterize as a great shadow consuming everything in its way. She thought of running, but there appeared no escape. Objects beyond the shadow couldn’t be seen clearly at the beginning and then not at al all. It looked like the sun was withdrawing its strong rays, which illuminated the surface of the planet.
Only a second before the wall of darkness reached her. She froze, even stopped breathing, waiting in anticipation as a person waiting for her death. Her life flashed in front of her eyes. She saw her father as he came back from work into their small apartment in Cairo, his cloths filthy and sweaty from a whole day of construction labor in the heat of the sun. He planted a loving kiss on her forehead and wished her a bright future as he is used to every day he came back from work. She must’ve been only sixteen or seventeen years old at the time. This image dissolved away and was replaced by her husband’s face. It was the day she last saw him. They kissed, a kiss she would never forget for as long as she lived. He was going to pick up their son from elementary school, her beloved son. That day when she got the news from the police officer, she felt a piece of her die, get torn away. Even her tears that flowed for two years weren’t enough to let out her grief. The moment changed as they only do in dreams and she saw, in her mind’s eye, earth from space, a spectacular view. The globe shrunk rapidly as her destiny ship sped towards this unprecedented future; the crash landing; the search for Tyler; the wall of darkness.
She looked up and saw the source of this phenomenon. A great body that filled the skies was sweeping across blocking the only source of light. The wall passed her and a second later everything was absorbed in utter blackness.
Nermeen couldn’t believe what was happening. This wasn’t night, there was no stars. Without the sun she was blind, stuck unable to find Tyler and unable to head back. This phenomenon was also blocking her only way to get in touch with the ship. She was completely stranded.
What’s gonna happen next? She thought. What am I going to do?
Minutes passed like hours.
Silence.
Even the sounds of the wind seized.
What terrified her the most, however, was her inability to see, the deathly darkness.
“What more could go wrong?” Nermeen said out loud.
As if in answer to her question she felt a touch on her shoulder. The overwhelming surprise mixed with the uncontrolled terror that surged like an electric current through her body made her turn around in a jerky movement, lose her balance, hit her head on a rock and lose her mind in the depths of the unconscious.

Encounter

“Do you ever wonder what’s out there?” Nermeen asked her husband, Nader. They were both lying on the soft sand of the Sahara desert looking up at the clear night sky. Away from any city lights the stars were as bright as candle light guiding lost souls through the darkness of the night. They were on their way to Hurghada for their honeymoon when the car stalled in the middle of nowhere.
“Sometimes I think about it,” he smiled and then took her hand into his arms, stroking her back gently. “Sometimes I can’t help thinking, in this grand universe, how small I am, how insignificant. But then I realize that this is far from the truth. I look at you and realize, how could I be insignificant if I am with you?”
Nermeen cuddled closer to her husband and planted a kiss on his cheek.
“I know I am special,” she giggled childishly.
He laughed.
“Yes you are.”
There was a minute of silence as they immersed themselves deeper in each other’s presence and marveled at the perfection of the universe, stars, galaxies, planets, the balance of this against that, but most of all they marveled at how the twists and turns of life had brought them together. How life would have been completely different if Nermeen had accepted the scholarship to Harvard last year instead of postponing it to attend her twin brother’s wedding. They wondered if they would have ever met if Nader had accepted the position of software engineer at the Canadian Space Agency right away instead of taking a month vacation off. They wondered what would have happened if Nader hadn’t taken this fateful trip back to his home country after sixteen years of living in Canada.
Somehow, eight years ago a sixteen-year-old Nermeen was chosen from among hundreds of high school Egyptian students for a two-year scholarship at the United World College in Victoria, BC. Being a Coptic Christian she naturally sought to find the only Coptic Church in BC, where she met Nader only a few months before he left to the University of Waterloo for a degree in Computer Science. They stayed in touch even as Nermeen got accepted to Harvard on a scholarship to major in physics and minor in microbiology. However, as life got too busy for both of them they lost touch. A few years later, a twenty-two-year-old Nermeen with a PhD in physics decides to postpone a scholarship for Harvard School of Medicine to come back to Egypt and be there for her brother’s wedding. In a fateful moment of her life, she met Nader, who was on vacation to visit his homeland. They fell in love and the rest was history.
“You’re about to work in the CSA, so do you think there are other living creatures out there?” she asked.
“You mean aliens?”
“Ahuh.”
Nader thought about it for a while.
“To be honest, no,” he finally replied. “There might be earth like planets out there. They might have plant and animal life, but human-like species, no. I believe we’re alone when it comes to that.”
“But with such an infinite universe, there’s bound to be at least one planet with a species like us.”
“If you’re speaking statistically, then sure I agree with you, there’s bound to be at least one species out there. But thinking with our beliefs, then no.”
“The more I learn and expand my knowledge,” Nermeen hesitated. “The more I feel that my beliefs are old and archaic. Why the whole universe if we’re alone?”
“See, that’s what I don’t understand. So many humans insist that in the grand scheme of things we, the human race are nothing, a spec of sand in the Sahara, but I don’t like to think this way. I believe that we are special, that we are unique and that all this, earth and the universe were created just for us. I also believe if everyone on this world could look at him or herself and realize how special and extraordinary they are, then the world will be free of selfishness and hatred, emotions that are a direct result of feeling empty and not satisfied.”
Nermeen rolled on her side, put her arm across his chest and rested her head on his shoulder. He had always been a source of strength for her. Many times when she felt unimportant and lost in a tide of problems that had no end, alone and abandoned, Nader would step in and assure her that problems had an end and that she was never alone.
For a long while they clinched at each other, sharing an unspoken, deep love.
“I wish this moment lasts forever,” Nermeen finally spoke up in a voice not louder than a whisper fearing that anything louder would disturb the serenity of the moment
Nader held her hand closer to his heard and she could feel the rhythmic beat of his heart.
“As long as this heart of mine beats, this moment will never be over,” he whispered back.

Nermeen opened her eyes to complete darkness. She wasn’t even sure that in fact her eyes were open. The cold hard ground under her sent a chill up her spine. The cold, stale air gave her the sense that she was in a closed area, maybe a cave. Someone had moved her in there, but whom? Aliens? No, impossible, or is it? She didn’t know what to think or what to believe. How could she find out?
Nermeen sat up. Once she did, she heard shuffling, footsteps, gasps. The fear that was pumping through her veins was indescribable. She froze, not knowing what else to do.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she managed to get out. Her voice was strangled and distant.
Abruptly, there was a burst of angry sounds carried by a deep male voice. It was some sort of an alien language that she had never heard before.
Nermeen whimpered.
The voice repeated itself again.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” she said, hoping desperately that whatever it was that was talking to her wouldn’t harm her.
There was a deep grunt and then she heard the alien walking away, his heavy footsteps echoing off the walls of the cave. Silence fell on the place for the next minute, before what Nermeen judged to be the same footsteps drew nearer until she could feel the alien’s presence at very close proximity to her.
There was some noise reminiscent to wood hitting solid rocky ground, then the sound of a fire being lit accompanied by sparks; a few seconds later the fire was lit. The sudden light, even though, it was hardly bright hurt her eyes, forcing her to cover them in protection.
Nermeen’s mind raced through all the facts. Stranded on an alien planet and faced with a situation that struck terror in every cell in her body, she couldn’t believe that this being was not human. What could it be? It sounded human, but she didn’t know what it looked like and in all honesty she was scared to find out. What should she do? One thing was for sure, the being addressing her was intelligent and it was trying to communicate with her, but only humans had the intelligent reasoning to communicate. Therefore, logically he must be human. However, this was impossible, her team were the only humans on this distant planet. All this went through her mind in less than a second, then she came to a decision.
Lifting her hands away from her eyes she saw, for the first time in what seemed to be an eternity, a view drowned in the orange, dim light of the fire. Shadows cast on the walls of the cave danced with the flames.
Nermeen’s eyes gazed through her surroundings unfocused, before finally settling on the being that was talking to her. She looked up and up. Whoever he was, he was extremely tall, close to seven feet. Standing just at the point where darkness mingled with light, Nermeen couldn’t make out the features of his face. Although, her eyes never left the alien, from the periphery of her vision she could tell that they weren’t alone in the cave. On the contrary, she sensed that it was full, but all of the other beings hung like ghosts immersed in the darkness.
Time seemed to stretch; Nermeen sitting frozen, looking at the alien and he in turn staring back at her, evaluating her, gauging the risk she introduced to him and the rest of the aliens occupying this cave. At least that was what she thought he was doing. With every second her fear escalated. Cold droplets of sweat rolled down her forehead and over her eyes, making her vision grow blurry. She blinked, but made no other movements not wanting to provoke the situation any further.
Finally, the alien stepped forward into the circle of light and she saw what he looked like. Beside the fact that he was extremely tall, he was very well built. His face was completely human, but his skin was paler than the norm she was used to. The clothes he wore were light in color to match his skin texture. She wasn’t sure that was because of design, or because they were simply worn out. As he walked closer, her heart raced with terror as she recognized bloodstains on his garments.
What’s he going to do to me? Nermeen thought frantically. He looks human, but they could be savages, cannibals and I am their next meal. I have to get out of here, but how. Damn, I don’t want to die like this.
She knew she had to calm down and think clearly, if she ever hoped to get out of this place alive, but the overwhelming fear made this an impossible task. It didn’t help much when he stepped yet closer to her. His white hair almost glowed in the light of the fire and his delicate features became clearer. He was actually a handsome man, maybe fifty of so years old.
The man started talking slowly and signing with his hands trying to illustrate what he wanted to get across to Nermeen, who at this point realized that he might not want to kill her, and it would be best to try to understand what he was saying in order to increase the chances of her survival.
“You want to know where I come from,” She said more to herself. “How am I going to describe that?”
She paused, trying to compose herself.
“I come from far, far away,” she pointed up. “From the sky. I flew through space, but something went wrong and we had to come here.” All through she was signing with her hands hoping that she was making some sense. “One of us is injured. He is really hurt and I am looking for him. He needs my help. I can make him better. Did you see him? Do you know where he is?”
The man looked at her with a strong and steady gaze and she could see that his eyes carried extraordinary intelligence, his simple looks and clothes didn’t portray. At this moment she wished that she could read his mind and know what he was thinking. Did he know Tyler’s whereabouts? Did he kill him? Despite the strenuous circumstances, she was starting to feel that this man was not a killer.
I don’t even know if I am making any sense to him, she thought. He probably thinks I am a nut. Space. I am trying to explain space travel to him. Look at him, he looks like he’s from the Stone Ages, probably never even seen a wheel. This is a waste of time, Tyler could be dying right now, and I’m tied down unable to act, even my backpack with my medical kit is gone. Damn.
“Look,” she started with as much courage as she could muster. “Try to understand me. My friend is badly injured. Do you know where he is? Have you taken him? He’s hurting. I have to see him. Please tell me you understand.”
There was a long pause before the man stood up, turned and walked away disappearing in the darkness of the cave.
What am I going to do? She thought.
Nermeen felt a sense of helplessness she had never felt before. Away from everything familiar to her, faced with a situation that didn’t even occur in her wildest dreams, she couldn’t think. All she could do was wait, something that she wasn’t very good at. The anticipation ate at her sanity. This wasn’t fair; this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Her name was supposed to go down in history as the first to break the known rules of physics. They weren’t supposed to disappear. She didn’t want to die far away from her family. However, maybe this was a just punishment for her past, which she tried hard to forget about, but seemed to relentlessly catch up with her at every turn.
She tried to convince herself it wasn’t her fault. The message came during the final exams in her last semester at Harvard Medical School. She couldn’t afford any distractions at this point. Although, Nermeen new that the message was from her parents she decided not to read it, even over her husband’s objections, a decision that would haunt her for the rest of her life. This message was the last thing she ever got form her mother. It carried her mother’s dying wish to see her, but by the time Nermeen read it, it was too late. She rushed back to Egypt soon afterwards only to be met by the tears in her father’s eyes. His daughter didn’t come to see her dying mother. This fact doubled the pain of his wife’s loss. Nermeen would never forget the sad disappointment that revealed itself with every tear falling from her father’s eyes. As time passed he forgave her, she knew that for sure, but what she also knew for sure was that she would never forgive herself.
Her attention returned back to the present moment as the tall man made it back, carrying something in his hand. It was her bag. He placed it beside her and signaled her to follow him. He started back in the darkness but stopped when Nermeen called after him saying, “Wait, I can’t see in the dark.” She pointed to her eyes and then towards the darkness, repeating what she said.
The man grabbed a burning piece of wood, using it as a torch and then headed deeper into the cave once more. Nermeen hurried after him, looking around as she walked. Her intuition was correct; the cave was filled with people, men, women and children. However, they lingered in the darkness, trying to hide their existence from her. Why? She didn’t know. They had no reason to fear her. Beside the fact that she meant them no harm, they massively outnumbered her. The fear that she sensed from them wasn’t justified from her point of view.
In less than a minute’s walk she could hear low pained moans that were carried by Tyler’s voice. A few seconds later Tyler’s figure became visible as a silhouette against the faint light of the fire. It soon became clear to Nermeen that it was nearly impossible for her to help Tyler under this inadequate illumination, but this could be helped. As soon as they reached him, she set her bag down on the floor and knelt beside him.
“Tyler, are you okay?” She asked gently, but he seemed oblivious to her presence.
Nermeen reached in her bag and breathed a sigh of relief that nothing was tampered with. She took out a small lamp and set it on the ground and rotated its upper half, flooding the surrounding area with bright light. There were gasps and a burst of sudden shuffling and exchange of anxious alien conversation. It took everyone, including Nermeen, a minute until they got accustomed to the light.
The man shouted at Nermeen, who didn’t make the slightest move trying not to appear in any way threatening. Obviously this lamp was unknown technology to these people and they must have perceived it as threatening and invasive. All through they used the darkness as a cloak, now Nermeen introduced this sudden light, which dispersed the cloak of darkness these primitive people used as a shield.
Nermeen waited until the movement and the talking settled down to a certain degree then without making any sudden moves she said, “I’m sorry. I need the light to help Tyler.” She spoke slowly and in a neutral voice, signing with her hands attempting to convey her peaceful intentions.
“I need to see clearly,” she continued. “I will not do anything to hurt you.”
The tension was so high it could be physically felt. Nermeen remained as still as possible avoiding eye contact with the man, who appeared to be the leader, lest it be considered a form of challenge. Abruptly, she noticed some movement from the periphery of her vision. She looked towards the source of the movement and saw a child, maybe thirteen or fourteen years of age slowly crawling towards the lamp. The man noticed the child as well and shouted, apparently telling him to move away, but the child didn’t listen to the elder. In fact he leaped in one quick motion, bumping Nermeen out of the way, then reached and touched the lamp with the palm of his hand. Nermeen fell alongside the semi unconscious Tyler, fear gripping her heart. This resulted in a rapid succession of events, beginning with the leader reaching for the boy and basically lifting him from his arm and throwing him away in a magnificent show of strength, and ending with a sword, that materialized in the leader’s hand out of nowhere, being trained at her throat.
Nermeen let out a short yelp, but didn’t move, feeling the cold hard metal of the sword press against her skin. She feared that any movement on her part would result in her head being severed from the rest of her body. Tears of terror poured from her eyes defeating any measure of self-control she possessed.
“Please don’t kill me,” she cried. “I didn’t mean any harm, I don’t deserve this.”
Minutes passed like years with the man not moving his sword an inch. Finally, slowly and deliberately the leader returned the sword to his girdle, his eyes never leaving the terrified Nermeen. Surprisingly she thought she saw a hint of compassion towards her in his eyes. She wiped away the tears with the sleeves of her uniform, but other than that didn’t move an inch from her place.
Time passed slowly before the leader signed to her to proceed and help Tyler.

The Recovery

Tyler’s eyes fluttered open, to the faint light of a near by fire. He looked around and realized he was in some sort of a cave. Confusion and disorientation rattled his mind, rendering his reasoning process useless. He tried to get up but felt a gentle, but firm hand pushing him back to his laying position.
“You’ve got to rest until your wounds heal some more,” a female voice said. It took him a while to put a face to the voice.
“Nermeen,” he sounded exhausted. “What happened to me?”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” She asked.
“I was in the engine room preparing to cut power to the engines,” he strained his memory in a futile effort to remember every detail. “I think I did that, then I came up to the command deck.” Tyler paused. “Did I? I’m not sure. I remember running through the forest, but this must be a dream. I’m not sure of anything.”
“Take it easy,” Nermeen said in a soothing voice. “You sustained a bad concussion, so you might not remember everything in detail.”
“So what happened to me?” Tyler voice carried a hint of frustration. “And where the hell are we?”
“Well, you were successful in shutting down the engines, but when you did that we decelerated rapidly, and you hit your head on something resulting in a pretty bad concussion. During the crash landing you got hurt even more, a broken arm and leg, and two broken ribs.”
“Wow,” Tyler didn’t believe what he was hearing. “We what? Crash landed? Where?”
“We have no clue,” Nermeen shrugged. “All we know is that it’s a planet outside any charted star system. Don’t ask me how? I haven’t got the slightest idea. And this is not the whole story.”
“There’s more? I am not sure I wanna hear the rest.”
“You’ve got to know. Somehow these aliens… people… whatever they are, were able to get into LimitC and kidnap you, for yet unknown reasons. I went searching for you only to fall into their custody as well. Fortunately, they were willing to let me help you, but afterwards they took my equipment. They clearly don’t trust us. I can’t communicate with them, I don’t know anything about them, and right now I don’t really care.”
“How long have I been out?”
“If I have to guess, I’d say two days. I can’t tell for sure since I have no way to tell the time,” Nermeen sounded detached. “And there’s some phenomenon that’s causing complete darkness on this side of the planet. It’s also disrupting communication with Scott and Bill.”
“This is too much information to absorb in one shot.” Tyler said. “At least we have a couple of thermal blankets to keep us warm, it’s pretty cold in here.”
Nermeen didn’t reply, staring off into the darkness.
Every bone in Tyler’s body ached, and he had a terrible headache, but he was sure glad to be alive. He was even more thankful that Nermeen found him, without her he could’ve died. However, looking at her now she seemed detached, with a blank expression on her face. He tried to think of something comforting to say to her, but nothing came immediately to mind. He didn’t know what she went through, but it must have been difficult on her. Nermeen was such a sweet person, he wanted to hug her, show her how he felt about her, but he knew that that wasn’t a good idea. Many guys back on the WSA’s base had a thing for her, including him and Bill and he was certain that she knew, but she was always friendly with all of them and was never mean or disrespectful in her treatment with her colleagues. It was always a pleasure, just spending time with her. It was time to try to return the favor.
“It sounds like you’ve been through a lot,” Tyler tried to smile. “How are you holding up?”
“Well, considering that I almost jumped into an acidic lake, get my head cut off and haven’t eaten a thing for the past… I don’t know how long, I’m okay.”
“You mean that these aliens didn’t give you anything to eat?” Tyler asked. “What do they look like?”
“I’ve only seen two of them and they look and sound human, but that’s about all I can tell you about them. We’ve been here for about two days and all they’ve given us is some water.”
“This is too much,” Tyler whispered, almost to himself. “What are we going to do?”
“I’ve been asking myself this question since we got to this godforsaken place.”
“We should try to communicate with them.”
“I tried and almost got killed. Beside they seem to disappear in the darkness. They prefer that we not see them. And I haven’t seen their leader for a while now.”
“I really don’t know what to think,” Tyler said in puzzlement. “I never expected something like this to happen.”
“Join the club.”
Long pause.
“How am I doing?” Tyler asked. “Am I going to live?”
Nermeen smiled, “Yes you will. I repaired all the damage to your body. It’ll just take a few days for your wounds to heal properly.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“Yeah,” Nermeen nodded. “You know what surprises me, is that they tried to help you, not very well but they at least tried. This confuses me. If they didn’t want to hurt you, why did they kidnap you in the first place?”
“I don’t know, maybe because I was hurt and they wanted to help me.”
“Are you kidding? I don’t buy this explanation, not after the hell I’ve been through. I think, maybe they thought we are a threat to them and they needed a bargaining chip.”
“I don’t know. All I do know, however, is that I’d really like to get back home, which means we’ve got to talk to them and convince them to let us …” Tyler’s voice trailed off.
“What?”
“I was just thinking, we have a translation program on our personal computer. I can modify the program a bit so that it would try to translate their language.”
“How? Their language is probably not in our database.”
“Yes, but all Earth’s languages are. Now assuming that their language has the same lexical structure as some language that we have in the database, then the computer can use these as a reference, a starting point and work on building a translation table for the sounds and words it accumulates. After a while the computer should be able to translate their language to a certain degree of accuracy.”
“Sounds like a good idea, if we had my personal computer. I lost it when I fell off a cliff.”
“You what?”
“It’s a long story.”

“I still can’t restore power to the engines,” Bill said. “This darkness is disrupting all the electronic systems on the ship.”
“Damn it,” Scott swore under his breath. “This is not how we had things planned. We were supposed to be in and out, no problem. What went wrong?”
“As far as I was able to figure out before this darkness,” Bill started. “Is that somehow the engine control software got knocked in an unexpected state due to an unknown reason, causing the system to accelerate the ship and for another unknown reason, I couldn’t over write and shutdown.”
“Could it be a bug in the software?” Scott asked.
“It might have well been that,” Bill nodded. “This mission has been rushed. The software team didn’t get the chance to run full testing on the system before taking off. There could have been some path through the code that was never manifested until now.”
“Do we have the source code? Can we try to figure the problem out and fix it?”
“Yeah, we can do that assuming I can turn on the computer,” Bill sounded frustrated. “This phenomenon is causing some electro magnetic interference that’s preventing me from doing even that.”
Scott leaned his head on the now inactive pilot’s consol. He hadn’t slept in two days and exhaustion was gaining the best of him. However, there was no time to rest, so much needed to be done.
“What do we have left to do?” He asked.
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“No, but tell me anyways.”
“The damage is two fold, hardware and software. Our last assessment of the ship’s hull is bad, it’s going to take not less than two weeks to fix it, and even then, we’ll only be able to restore it to seventy percent if we’re lucky. Engine number three was damaged during the crash landing, I’m not quite sure how bad, and the only one who can tell us is Tyler. There are three CPCs (Command Processing Cards) that relay the control traffic from the central computer to each of the Engine’s firmware; CPC 1 is irreparably damaged. We’ll have to route the control traffic for the first engine through one of the other CPC cards. I’ll have to investigate how to do this.” Bill stopped to take his breath. “Believe it or not this is the simple stuff. The heart of this ship is its central computer, and I fear that this magnetic interference could possibly corrupt the software systems and the data needed by these systems. If this happens we’ll be stranded here for sure. This whole ship will just be a big chunk of useless metal without the computer.”
“I guess what we have to do first is clear,” Scott started after a long pause. “We’ll have to find some way to protect our data against this electro magnetic interference you suspect this phenomenon is causing.”
“How are we going to do that?” Bill threw the question out; hoping that one of them would come up with a creative answer.
“Wait a second,” Bill started after a considerable pause. “We have a safe room on board. It’s designed to protect us from radiation in case of a solar flare. Can’t we move all hard drives and any chips that contain data to this room, which will probably provide adequate protection against the electro magnetic radiation?”
“Yes, that’s an excellent idea sir,” Bill replied enthusiastically. “But it will require major disassembly.”
“Better, than being stranded here, don’t you think?”
“Way better.”
“We’ll start with the equipment that’s necessary to operate the planetary sensors, without these our mission will be a total failure.”
“I hear you, sir.”

Nermeen heard footsteps closing in. The fire was almost out and she could feel the cold descending upon them. Somehow the inhabitants of the cave could do without any source of heat and that was surprising considering that from the time the darkness came, which was approximately three days ago, the temperature had dropped sharply. If it hadn’t been for the fire and the thermal blankets Tyler and her would have died of hypothermia. Every few hours for the past days, however, the leader of these people brought a few blocks of wood to keep the fire alive. He obviously knew that they needed the heat to survive and that meant he had the upper hand. He knew at least one of their vulnerabilities, while they knew none of theirs. That made Nermeen uncomfortable, but deep beneath her doubts, distress and fear, she felt that there was more to this adventure than just getting captured and killed. There must be something more to it. Where was the divine plan that she learnt about since she was a baby? There must be a purpose for her being here. She didn’t know what it was, but just because she didn’t comprehend it, didn’t mean it didn’t exist.
The footsteps drew closer until the leader entered the circle of light cast by the fire, holding in his hands a few blocks of wood. He looked at her, then at the sleeping Tyler and back at her. After a brief pause he threw the wood in the fire. A second later it grew as it consumed the new added fuel. The leader was about to turn and leave when Nermeen stopped him.
“We need food,” she gathered every ounce of bravery she could muster. “Anything to eat for Tyler and I. Especially him, he needs energy to heal.” She was signing with her hands trying to convey what she meant.
At first, the man didn’t seem to understand what Nermeen was saying, but when she made further clarifying signs, he nodded, turned and disappeared in the darkness.
Nermeen hadn’t eaten since these people captured her, and she felt weak. However, it was Tyler who needed food the most. He hadn’t been able to stay awake, developing a fever. It was the lack of energy his body needed to heal after the pounding it endured during the crash landing. She feared if he didn’t eat something, he might die. What brought much uneasiness to her wasn’t the fact that he might die, but the fact that if he died she would be completely alone among a people she didn’t understand and that terrified her. Guilt troubled her at the realization that she really didn’t care for another human being, but all she could think about was herself.
This was her problem all along; she constantly put her needs and ambitions selfishly before the needs of others, even those closest to her. She was the one who was supposed to be in that car instead of her husband. She was the one who was supposed to die in the car crash, but she didn’t because she had to study and had no time to pick her son from preschool. He was only four when he died. In spite of this harsh blow to her emotions and life in general, she pressed on. She worked hard to finish her MD and that increased the guilt she felt. How could she put her husband and son behind her that quickly? How could she think about herself? How could she be so selfish?
As the years passed she was able to burry these feelings of guilt, suppress them and convince herself that there was nothing she could have done. But now as Tyler lay there at grave risk, this guilt that once troubled her deeply, started surfacing once more. Was she going to let her selfishness get in the way of Tyler’s well being?
Her train of thoughts was interrupted as the leader came back with two fruits that looked rather alien to her. He gave her both and then made a sign that she interpreted as meaning ‘take a small bite at a time’.
She didn’t listen. Feeling her stomach growl, she sunk her teeth into the fruit, not thinking about what kind of health hazard that could pose to her. At first the juices that flowed into her mouth felt cold, then a burning sensation followed. Mild at first, but a second later developed into an unbearable pain.
Nermeen immediately spat the piece she bit out, coughing loudly, rubbing her tong on the sleeves of her uniform in a futile effort to ease the pain.
“Ah,” she said, her voice barely audible. “What’s that?”
Through her watery eyes, she thought she saw a smile form on the man’s face, but quickly disappeared and was replaced by the serious look he always wore. He shook his head as he left.
Alone, Nermeen looked at the fruit in disgust; however, she was too hungry to throw it away. This time she followed the man’s advice taking a tiny bite out of the fruit. She chewed it carefully allowing her taste buds to get accustomed to the alien taste. It tasted bitter, but she didn’t let her mind do any of the thinking, mostly her stomach. In only a few minutes she had eaten all of it and felt her strength returning. This fruit must be high in sugar, or a similar substance to boost her energy in such a short period of time, she concluded.
She woke up Tyler Banks and fed him the other one.

Nermeen didn’t know when she fell asleep or how long she had been asleep. Time had become meaningless to her. The unending darkness had blurred her perception of time, space and reality into a dizzying stretch of nothingness. She tried to estimate how long she had been a prisoner of these people, but failed. What angered her further was the fact that there was nothing she could do about it. She was alone, and Tyler was still unconscious, although his pulse was getting stronger.
Her attention returned fully to the present moment at the sound of shouting and shuffling as these people moved frantically about. The sudden and unexpected change to the mood in her surroundings perplexed her, but at the same time she couldn’t see except shadows in the dim lighting.
“Tyler, wake up,” Nermeen shook Tyler urgently. “Tyler.”
He finally opened his eyes dazed. The noise and the chaos were causing him as much confusion as they were causing Nermeen.
“What’s going on?” He sat up feeling his head spin. “Where is everyone going?”
“I don’t know,” Nermeen replied alarmed. “But I have a feeling they are scared of something.”
“They seem to have forgotten about us,” Tyler observed. “It’s our chance to get the hell out of here.”
“And where would we go?” Nermeen asked as she knelt beside Tyler helping him up. “More importantly, how would we get there in the darkness?”
“Point well taken,” Tyler steadied himself by rapping his arm around Nermeen as they stood up. “I’m still not thinking clearly.”
“No worries,” Nermeen said. “I think our best bet is to follow them.”
“Back to your point, how would we do that in the darkness?”
“Damn, you’re right.”
There was a pause as they tried to figure out what to do.
“Excuse me,” Tyler yelled at the people passing around him. “Can any one tell us what’s going on?”
Neither Tyler, nor Nermeen could make out the faces of the people rushing around them. With the dying fire as their only source of illumination it was getting exceedingly difficult to make out their surroundings.
“Excuse me,” Tyler yelled again. “But we need help here.”
“Tyler,” Nermeen said looking around. “I don’t think this is working. They don’t understand us at …”
She was interrupted when a young boy, thirteen or fourteen years of age, broke from the moving flow of people and approached them. As he got closer, Nermeen recognized him. He was the boy that jumped at her to touch the lamp, when she first got to Tyler.
“I know you,” Nermeen said. “You’re the kid who almost got me killed.”
“What?” Tyler looked at her surprised.
“It’s a long story.”
“Well, everything seems to have a long story behind it nowadays.”
“Come, me, come,” the boy said in a heavily accented English.
“What did you just say?” Nermeen squinted at the boy in the fading light. “Tyler, I think he just spoke to us in English.”
“Yeah, I think he did.”
“Bokh lynta’, come,” the boy said.
Both humans looked at him puzzled.
The boy didn’t waste much time. He grabbed Nermeen’s wrist and dragged her towards the moving crowd. Within seconds they moved away from the light and she became blind once more, but she made sure to hold onto Tyler in order not to lose him again.
“Where are we going?” She yelled over the noise of the people as she was being shoved around from all directions, but couldn’t see anything.
“I’m not the best person to ask at this point,” Tyler yelled back.
In less than a couple of minutes they exited the cave and from the echoes of the people’s voices Nermeen and Tyler judged that they were at a high altitude, surrounded by mountains. The terrain they were walking on was rocky and very irregular, causing both humans to trip every two steps. Nermeen was only steadied by the young boy’s firm grip.
“Damn, I can’t see a thing,” Nermeen murmured as she tried to keep up with the group.
“This is not good,” she yelled to Tyler. “A day ago we wanted to get away from these people and now we willingly go with them.”
“We have no other choice,” Tyler replied back. “Would your rather face whatever these people are running from alone?”
“Frankly, I would rather be back home.”
“Given the circumstances, I think I want the same thing.”
Nermeen tugged at the boy’s arm and asked, “What are we running from?”
She wasn’t even sure if the boy heard her.
“Yag da’ebak Gulantany er,” the boy finally replied in his language.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“Running, Gulantany,” he said in English.
“It seems that that Gulantany thing really scares them,” Tyler said.
“What is the Gula…” Nermeen started but was interrupted by a sudden whine of a sharp object passed fairly close to her head at a high speed.
“Shit,” Tyler swore. “What was that?”
The level of horror in the group went up a notch accompanied by deafening yells and screams.
“I think something is attacking us,” Nermeen realized in shock.
There was another whine and a pained scream.
The boy pulled her to move faster.
She tried to move as swiftly as possible without letting go of either Tyler or the boy, but someone got in between her and Tyler forcing her to let go of his hand.
“Tyler,” she yelled.
“Keep going,” he replied. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Grab my hand,” she stretched her hand as far back as she could, but another dreaded whine sounded and a split second later she heard a thud and someone was pushed right into her causing her to lose her balance and fall backwards. To her horror, she realized she just fell off the edge of the mountain. She whirled her arms around frantically managing to stop her fall by grabbing onto a rocky protrusion with every ounce of strength she could muster, realizing fully that this could be the last minute of her life.
“Help me,” she screamed. “Somebody, help me.” But she was certain that her pleas for help were drowned in the noise and the terror.
Nermeen tried to pull herself up but the pain throbbing uncontrollably through her injured rib cage prevented her from doing so. Despite the pain, she was not willing to accept her fate so easily. She swung her legs sideways trying to gain enough momentum to throw herself onto level ground. Nermeen was sure she was almost successful when she felt a hand reaching for hers. For a moment she thought that Tyler had come back to her rescue, but then that hand reached for hers and instead of pulling her up it pushed her away from the only thing that was stopping her descent.
Nermeen fell.

Tyler was shoved to the right by a frightened person, and then pushed again by another whom he bumped into. He felt that he was completely out of control, not knowing what was happening, and not even seeing his surroundings. Even though, he was trying hard to maintain his cool, the fear and terror overpowering everyone around him seeped into his heart, and he started to panic.
“This is not happening,” he yelled out apprehensively. “This is not happening. I gotta get out of here.”
He started moving, pushing away anyone who blocked his way aggressively.
“I gotta get out of here.”
Abruptly, he felt a sharp pain to the back of his head as he was hit buy a dull object and then he lost consciences.
When Tyler came around, he instantly realized that he was no longer outdoors, but in some closed area, and not a cave either. It was warm, and he was not lying on the hard rocky ground of a cave, but on a more or less soft cushion. He actually felt comfortable and didn’t wish to open his eyes or think of anything else, but sleep.
Then with the first throbbing pain resonating through his head, the memory of what happened returned to him and with an abrupt movement he sat up opening his eyes. The light immediately forced him to cover them in protection. It took him less than a minute to get accustomed to the light, which emanated from a torch that hung on a hinge on the clay wall of the small room he was in. The windowless walls and roof of the room were all made of hard clay and the only door, set opposite to the primitive bed he sat on was made of narrow tree trunks strapped together with rope. Tyler could see the outside world through slits between the tree trunks that made up the door. Out there, were many soldier scattered in groups, sitting around fires and eating some sort of cooked animal. Tyler got up and walked closer to the door, careful not to make any noise that would attract attention to him.