***The Hills of Time***
***by George Pollock, Jr.***

***Chapter 12***
***Feelers and Feelings***

   Patty looked down at the diagnostic bed she was leaning over, her hands 
folded in thought.
   "Do you think she hates us ...?"
   Rabby looked askance at her, trying to keep the two guards far across the 
room within view. They were armed. They had to be guards. "Who?" she asked.
   "The Mother, Rabby."
   The redhead turned a little more toward her friend. "Why would the Mother 
hate us, Patty?"
   "She won't let us come to her."
   "What are you talking about?"
   "She won't let us die, Rabby."
   Rabby chuckled shortly. "I love the Mother, Pats, and I want to see her -- 
some day. But I do thank her for letting me live right now ..."
   "I'm serious, Rabby." Patty looked up. Her eyes were dark, lost in doubt, 
Rabby thought. They always looked that way when Patty started to talk like 
this. "You, me, Eluza -- even Lufy -- we all ought to be dead. Twice, damn 
it. Twice. But she won't let us." Her right hand started to tap the bed in 
rhythm with her words. "She ... won't ... let ... us ... die ..."
   She closed her eyes and shook her head softly. "What sin ... did we commit 
... that we can never die ... and never see heaven ...?"
   Deep inside, Rabby faced her own doubts:
   Terra.
   The holy planet.
   The planet that lives on its own.
   The first order of Solnoid space travel:
   If a planet is declared holy, never disturb it.
   But she and Patty had.
   To save two lives, they had sent disturbance to Terra.
   Rumy ... and Patty's child ...
   For that ...
   Were they damned?
   Maybe ...
   Maybe ...
   But right now ...
   No time for doubts.
   Where they were now -- alive, for better or ill -- was all that was 
important at the moment.
   Gotta get her back to now, Rabby thought.
    "Patty," she said softly, "I don't know how Mother feels about us. I 
don't know what she plans for us. I wouldn't pretend to know. But right now, 
it's her plan that we be alive. All of us." She reached out and took Patty's 
hands in hers. "Here. Now. Alive." 
   She smiled. "Promise me something ..."
   She felt Patty's grasp tighten. The darkhaired woman looked at her again. 
"What ...?"
   "Promise me ... you'll leave the Mother's ways to her alone -- and just be 
alive."
   Finally, Patty smiled. "OK ...," she said softly. "Promise ..."
   Then she bent down and gently pressed her lips to Rabby's hands.
   "Thank you, friend ...," she whispered.
   Rabby reached over and stroked Patty's cheek. And smiled.
   "Huh!"
   The two Solnoids looked toward the sound. Nearby, Lufy was leaning against 
the bed, her back toward it. Her arms were folded in front of her. She was 
studying the guards.
    "Your little scene just now interested them," the Attacker said very 
quietly, not taking her eyes off the pair at the opposite side of the room. 
"They looked at each other ... like they didn't know what to make of it ..."
    Patty smiled. "Anyway," she said, trying to sound flip, "I should have 
known: Heaven doesn't have guards."
   Lufy sighed. "Yeah ... but it sure ain't hell. Alway thought hell would be 
a little bit rougher ..." She glanced around the large, open, antiseptic 
room. "... And a bit more excitin' ..." She looked back at Rabby. "By the 
way, how's your arm?"
   The redhead bent and twisted her left arm. "Seems OK. No pain. Guess they 
took the splint off when they thawed me out."
   "Yeah ..." Lufy looked down, remembering an ugly thought she once had -- 
one she regretted. Then something else flashed in her mind. "Say, you got my 
medal? I didn't find it on me."
   Rabby went wide-eyed. She felt about her uniform, then looked worriedly 
around the room. "No ... No! I don't! We had it in bed! That's all I remember 
..." She looked painfully at Lufy. "Do you think they took it?"
   The Attacker shook her head. "They gave us our datatags back," she said. 
"They were in better shape than my medal, so I doubt they thought it was 
worth somethin'."
   The redhead thought. "Must be back on the ship ..." Her tone turned 
apologetic. "Oh, Lufy, it means so much to me ..."
   Lufy shrugged. "Just a hunka metal, Swabby. I'm glad to be here -- alive 
-- with ya." She smiled. "That's all I care about."
   Rabby smiled back. "... I'm glad, too ..."
   Lufy returned to scanning the guards: They stood silently, hands clasped 
behind them, watching the Solnoids. Their expressions weren't belligerent, 
weren't challenging. Just patient. Watchful.
   It annoyed her.
   They were both in the black-and-gray uniforms that the others here -- 
wherever that was -- wore. They also had gold-colored turtleneck shirts under 
the jacketlike tops.
   And they wore sidearms.
   One was a Solnoid with a small bust and short blond hair. The other was 
one of those whaddayacallems -- males -- and it was a sight: Blue skin. 
Albino-white hair. And coming out just above the forehead were two slightly 
curved antennae with tiny flat discs at the ends.
   "Whadda ya call that?" Lufy whispered.
   "An Andorian," came the muted reply.
   Lufy's head snapped quickly toward the voice.
   Catty stood at the end of the bed.
   "How do you know?" Lufy asked.
   "Because," the android explained, "I saw another when their android, 
Commander Data, took me to their engine room. He said the individual was of a 
race called the Andorians. I counted 12 species of sentient bipeds while I 
was out of this room."
   " 'He'?" Lufy repeated. "What's a 'he'?"
   "Subjective pronoun for a male. Objective pronoun: 'him.' Possessive 
pronoun: 'his.' I noted them during several conversations I heard among this 
crew."
   Rabby giggled. " 'He.'  That's so cute ..."
   Lufy rolled her eyes. "Whatever ...," she sighed wearily, then glanced  
toward the blue guard. She turned back to Rabby and Patty and spoke in a 
hushed tone. " 'He' doesn't look so tough. No one here does ... They all look 
like a bunch of losers ..."
   Rabby smiled. "You thought we were a bunch of losers, Lufy ..."
   The Attacker paused, then chuckled. "Oh, yeah ..."
   "I noticed something else while I was out," Catty said. "I could read a 
lot of the signs."
   "Really?" Rabby asked. "Not that many signs in here ..."
   "Yes, Commander. From what I could tell, their alphabet and numerals are 
similar  to Solnoid letters and numerals."
   "Yer kiddin'," Lufy said.
   "Not at all," the android replied. "Some letters are merely inversions or 
reversals of ours -- but there were a few I simply couldn't make out -- but 
for the most part, I could tell what the words said. In fact," she stressed, 
"if I read the sign just outside correctly, I think this room is called ... 
'sickbay.' "
    Rabby thought. "Similar letters ... Maybe Rumy and the male ... made it, 
after all ..."
    "I'd like to believe that ...," Patty said quietly. After a moment, she 
continued. "But you know what really puzzles me? Remember when that 
darkhaired Solnoid first came in -- the one with the big bust -- and brought 
us these new uniforms and everything else? The underwear and boots?"
   Rabby nodded. "Yeah. They didn't give us any gloves. I feel naked without 
'em ... What about it?"
   "We were still on these beds, under the sheets. She said we could get 
dressed, then went back to the blue guard. She talked to it -- um, him -- for 
a moment and to the blond Solnoid. Then she left with the blue guard."
   "Only the Solnoid guard watched us get off the beds and get dressed," Lufy 
recalled.
   "Remember what happened when we were done?" Patty prompted.
   Rabby said, "She turned back to that sliding door, knocked on it ..."
   "... And the blue guard came back in," Patty finished.
   "Yeah ...," Lufy said thoughtfully. "Wonder what that little charade was 
all about ..."
   "Strange ...," Patty said softly.
   Rabby shrugged. "I wouldn't expect much from them. I tried to get some 
answers from the blond Solnoid, but all she said was I would have to wait for 
the captain."
   "Then you asked when that would be, and the blue one started smirking," 
Lufy noted.
   "You know," Rabby sighed, "All I asked was, 'We would really appreciate 
talking to the captain. When can we see her?' " 
   She shook her head. "I still don't see what was so funny ..."
   Lufy sniffed. "Yeah, well, it -- 'scuse me, Catty -- he snapped to real 
fast when that darkhaired Solnoid came back. With that older, um, male, 
remember?"
   "He didn't have ... hair ...," Patty recalled. "That was weird ..."
   "Central Guard members shaved their heads," Lufy noted. "Nothin' new 'bout 
it ..."
   "But I've never seen a male without hair before, Lufy."
   The Attacker chuckled again. "First time for everything, Bright Eyes ..."
   "That darkhaired Solnoid," Rabby said. "She whispered to that male. 
Gestured in our direction. Then he nodded and spoke to her. Couldn't hear 
what they said. Then they went into that office."
   "Felt like a damned animal on display in a zoo ...," Lufy hissed.
   Rabby turned to Catty. "And a while after that, you returned with that 
android ..."
   "His name," Catty interrupted firmly, "is Commander Data, ma'am."
   "... Yes ... You two returned, and ... Commander Data .. went to talk to 
that redheaded doctor of theirs."
   "Then they went into that office, too," Patty sighed. "I'd love to know 
what's going on in there ..."
   Rabby nodded. "So would I ..."
   Lufy glowered at the guards. 
   "What these people around here need to know," she growled quietly, "is 
that some animals in a zoo still have claws ..."
   Rabby gasped. The others turned toward her instantly.
   "Eluza!" the redhead whispered.
   They looked where she was gazing.
   Coming out of the office, looking angrily upset, was their captain.

*******

   Guards.
   Eluza sighed.
   Well, that seems to be the pattern, she thought.
   We're "guests."
   Yeah, right ...
   You don't post guards on your "guests" ...
   As she left the sickbay office, Eluza turned away from studying the blond 
Solnoid and the blue-skinned male with the sidearms. Guards. No big deal.
   More important things to attend to right now.
   She saw those things standing by a bed.
   In fresh new uniforms.
   Mother in heaven, the captain thought ...
   I haven't seen them looking that ... good ... since ...
   ... since ...
   ... too long, she thought. Much too long.
   They were beautiful. Even Lufy, who looked uncomfortable in her new 
clothes.
   Like a wild animal washed, preened and displayed in a zoo ...
   A zoo ...
   A prison ...
   Damn, she thought.
   Almost forgot ...
   And I can't ...
   Too dangerous right now ...
   Too many unknowns.
   Eluza knew she had over-reacted when she saw the Ninth Star System on the 
computer screen. And she had been unforgivably uncivil to the captain -- who 
seemed to be a decent ... male. 
   But the thought that occurred when she saw the Terran system was 
frightening. The implications of this ship being from Terra were beyond 
speaking.
   ... Unthinkable ...
   ... beyond understanding in one lifetime.
   But then, she thought ...
   ... I AM starting my third  lifetime ...
   Ha!
   Rabby'd like that joke.
   Gotta remember to tell her ...
   The Solnoid captain approached her crew. The others noticeably 
straightened in her presence. Rabby was the first to offer the Solnoid 
salute. Patty and Catty followed. And a moment later, even Lufy touched her 
right fist to her left shoulder.
   Eluza returned the salute and took a long, silent look at them.
   The last of the Solnoids.
   So many questions. So many unknowns.
   The first question:
   "How are you?" she asked in general.
   "We're well, Captain," Rabby replied. "We've been treated decently."
   "Other than the guards watching us," Lufy volunteered.
   Eluza surveyed the four other women. "Where ... are Amy, Shildy and Spea 
...?"
   Catty closed her gold-colored eyes.
   "Unknown, ma'am," Rabby said, "I asked them ..." She indicated the armed 
pair. "... where they were. The Solnoid said I would have to wait to talk to 
their captain."
   "Have you at least seen them since we froze up?" Eluza pressed.
   The three other organic women looked among themselves and shook their 
heads slightly. 
   "No, ma'am," her first officer answered.
   "I have ..."
   All heads turned toward Catty. She had opened her eyes and looked straight 
ahead, as if something far distant had caught her sense of the eternal.
   "You have?" Eluza asked.
   Catty nodded solemnly. "Yes, ma'am ... I have ..."
   "Where?"
   The android turned toward her captain slowly. Eluza swore she saw deep 
pain in Catty's face. But she wasn't sure.
   Measuredly, Catty spoke. "Captain, ... I request permission ... to address 
the crew as one ..."
   It surprised Eluza: the ancient formal request, usually reserved for 
announcements of great importance. "I beg your pardon, Lieutenant?"
   Catty repeated herself, intonation for intonation. "Captain, ... I request 
permission ... to address the crew as one ..."
   The others were clearly as confused as Eluza was. And clearly concerned by 
the formality. Finally, Eluza nodded. "Granted ..."
   Catty turned to face the others.
   Mother Nebulart, she prayed ...
   Help me through this ...
   "Comrades ...," she said softly, "... I regret ... to inform you ..."
   "Oh, Mother ...," Patty whispered suddenly.
   Catty started again: "... I regret to inform you ... that our shipmates 
... Lieutenant Spea Holgren ... Lieutenant Shildy Beausoleil  ... and ..." 
She paused and collected herself. "... and  Nurse Amy Rusnokova ... died ..."
   "No!!" Rabby blurted out softly in stifled pain.
   "Damn ..." was all Lufy said.
   "... after the battle at Sigma Narse ..."
   After saying it, Catty felt her chin quivering.
   FIGHT IT! she thought. 
   Not for the first time in her life.
   Cry ... later ...
   Duty.
   Duty ...
   Damn it all to hell ...
   "I rendered such rites ... as were possible ...," she concluded.
   Eluza clasped her hands behind her. There, she squeezed them until her 
fingertips were white. She swallowed hard. "How ...?" she asked hoarsely.
   Catty shook her head slightly and closed her eyes. "Captain ... please ... 
I'd rather not ..."
   "That's an ORDER, Lieutenant!"
   The others were shocked alert by the command. Rabby saw the guards at the 
other end of the room look at each other questioningly. "Captain, our friends 
over there ...,"she warned quietly.
    Eluza nodded and turned back to the android. "Catty ...," she said 
gently, "I'm ... sorry.  ... Please, ... for ... all of us ..."
   Catty was silent for a moment. At last, she bowed her head. "They ... took 
their lives ..."
   Quickly, Patty shut her eyes and made a small ritualistic hand gesture. 
"Mother, have mercy," she whispered. "Mercy on their souls."
   "Mercy on their souls," Rabby intoned softly.
   "Mercy on their souls," Eluza repeated quietly.
   Silent Lufy crossed her arms, closed her eyes, sighed heavily and bowed 
her head. "Damn ..." was all she said. Again.
   Catty noticed that the Attacker's fingertips turned white as she squeezed 
her upper arms deeply.
   The captain sighed. "Where ... are they ...?"
   "In this ship's morgue, Captain," Catty said. "Their bodies were found at 
the same time as we were."
   Eluza nodded. "The crew ... mourns them. ... I will ask the captain of 
this ship to let us ... see them. ... That is for later  ..." She paused to 
think. "I ... now wish to ... brief this crew. Is that clear?"
   Patty and Rabby more or less nodded together, drained. A moment later, 
Lufy did the same.
   Catty nodded once, curtly.
   "Very well ... then ...," Eluza said.

*******

    The captain paced her voice back toward control. "First of all ... this 
ship ... is from an alliance called ... the United Federation of Planets. 
It's at war with another alliance ... called the Dominion."
   "Our luck ...," Lufy muttered. "Wake up in the middle of another damned 
war ..."
   Eluza didn't react. Truth was, she felt the same way. She continued: "From 
what the captain tells me, we are a quarter-turn from the Federation's home 
space."
   "A quarter-turn?!" Rabby was wide-eyed. "Mother, how fast does this ship 
go?"
   "Eluza, that would be a scale of speed that ...," Patty started.
   "They use a wormhole between their quadrant and this," Eluza explained. 
"It cuts down on the trip. Right now, we're actually in their enemy's home 
space. They're going to a parley, under a truce."
   "How'd they find us?" Rabby asked.
   Catty spoke up. "My positronic-net-maintenance signal disabled their 
android ... Commander Data. They followed the signal back to the Star Leaf."
   Eluza nodded. "We were drifting in a belt of spatial debris. It's called 
'the Wastes' in this space."
   Patty squinted, trying to understand. " 'Wastes'? As in 'trash'?" 
   "As in 'rubbish'?" Rabby suggested.
   The captain shrugged. "For lack of a better translation ..."
   Lufy huffed. "Translated: We were found in a garbage dump ..."
   "Given what happened to our civilization ...," Patty said quietly.
   "That reminds me," Rabby said. "How long have we been out, Eluza? Do you 
know? Do these people?"
   Eluza sighed. "No ... not exactly. The captain here suggested we compare 
our star charts with theirs, but I said we didn't have access to those 
anymore -- what with OX-11 having been killed ..."
   Catty started.
   Started so suddenly that Lufy, next to her, jumped in surprise. "What's 
with YOU?!" the Attacker cried.
   The android paid no attention to her. "Captain ... we still have the star 
charts ..."
   Patty was confused. "How?"
   "Before I froze," Catty said, "I downloaded OX-11 into an auxiliary 
central processing unit. All the ship's data ..." Her tone turned almost 
mystical. "... all the knowledge of the Solnoid ... are still ... alive, 
Captain ..."
   Eluza eyed the lavender-haired woman warily. "I wasn't aware of this 
capability, Lieutenant ..."
   "It was an idea of ... my mother, ma'am ...," Catty replied. "One of her 
many secrets ..."
   The pink-haired woman nodded slowly. "Uh-huh ... Speaking of secrets, 
Lieutenant ... you and I need to have a little chat about a certain 
hypospray-injection incident ..."
   "Yes, ma'am ..."
   "Where is this auxiliary unit now, Catty?"
   "I fastened the ACPU to the chair I was sitting in on the bridge. It 
should still be there."
   Slowly, Eluza began to rub her forehead. "All right ... I'll inform the 
captain of this ship about that."
   "By the way," Rabby ventured, "about the captain of this vessel ... what's 
she like ...?"
   Eluza couldn't contain it: 
   "HA!" 
   She smiled broadly, then covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. "Oh, Rabby 
... Oh, Rabs ..."
   The redhead looked at her comrades, trying to understand. "What ...?" 
   Her comrades shrugged.
   The captain calmed down. "Oh ... mmmm ... oh, dear ... Commander ... the 
captain of this ship ... is a male ..."
   "Like my child?" Patty asked quickly.
   Rabby said nothing for a moment. Then a smile curled her lips, and she 
started to shake her head. "Nooooo ... nooooo ..."
   Eluza was hurt. "I'm serious, Rabby."
   The redhead kept chuckling and shaking her head. "Nooooo ... You've gotta 
be kidding me, 'Luza ..."
   The captain drew herself up. "The captain of this ship is a male, 
Commander. Name of Jean-Luc Picard." She paused. "And for the record, the 
captain has no hair on the head ..."
   "Oh, Mother ...," Patty whispered quickly.
   Eluza noticed that her first officer had stopped smiling. 
   Rabby searched for words. "No ... hair ..."
   A picture flashed in Lufy's memory. "Did he come in here earlier with that 
darkhaired Solnoid with the big bust and the annoying 'lemme-help-you' 
attitude?"
   "That's him," Eluza confirmed.
   "Oh ... Mother ...," Rabby whispered.
   "No hair ...," Patty recalled. "That's so ... weird ..."
   The captain crossed her arms. "The weirdness has just begun: Now, I have 
yet to be completely convinced of this -- but according to the captain, this 
ship's homeworld is ... Terra."
   Rabby and Patty were stunned. A million memories -- of friends and forests 
eternally lost -- kept them silent. It was Lufy -- who last saw the 
blue-and-green planet -- who spoke for all. "Terra? You sure?"
   Eluza nodded. "I saw the schematic. It's the Ninth Star System. They say 
they come from the third planet."
   "Terra ...," Patty said, as if it were a prayer.
   "They call it 'Earth,' " Eluza noted.
   Rabby started shaking her head slightly again. "No ... that's impossible 
..."
   "The implications are ... unsettling, I admit ...," the captain said.
   "I ... don't ... understand ...," Patty struggled. "How could Rumy and ... 
my child ... lead to ... this ...?" She looked around the room anew, as if it 
had suddenly become a temple.
   Eluza sighed. She considered how to broach what she had to tell them.
   Her guts told her: 
   Be direct.
   "I don't think they did, Patty ...," the captain said softly. "I don't 
think they had anything to do with it at all ..."
   Rabby studied Eluza. "Captain ...?"
   Eluza turned toward her. "Rabby ... everyone ... do you know why the 
Solnoid had the first order of space travel? Why a planet was declared ... 
'holy' ...?"
   "Because it lived on its own," Patty said, almost chanting the ancient 
phrase. "Because the Mother had put life there that we must never touch ..."
   Rabby spoke up. "The Council of Elderwomen would declare a planet holy 
after consulting the Sacred Sisterhood, the highest religious authority."
   "And that was done after Solnoid ships found new planets," Lufy continued. 
"At least ... in the really ancient days, before the damned war ..."
   Eluza spoke slowly. "What made it 'holy,' my friends ... was any evidence 
of evolving ... sentient ... life ..."
   "Intelligent ... life ...?" Patty asked.
   Lufy wrinkled her nose. "On Terra?" 
   "I always heard that 'holy' meant any independent life," Rabby said. "I 
never heard  the 'sentient' explanation about the 'holy' planets."
   "When you're promoted to captain, Rabs," Eluza said, "your very first 
briefing is when they tell you." She smiled affectionately at her friend. "I 
never doubted for a moment that you'd get that briefing some day ..."
   The redhead smiled in return. "Thank you ..."
   "What's this gotta do with how long we were on ice?" Lufy asked 
impatiently.
   Catty replied, "Consider this, Group Leader: There was no evidence of 
civilization on Terra when you and I saw it."
   "The sentient life was only just recognized as such when Terra was 
declared holy," Eluza added. "The species had barely left the trees, 
evolutionarily speaking."
   "And now," Rabby said with a tone of putting puzzle pieces together, "... 
if we believe that these people come from Terra ... that species has evolved 
... to light-speed spaceships ..."
   Lufy shrugged. "Maybe Rumy and that male of Patty's were fast learners."
   Patty bristled slightly. "Even if I thought that was funny, Lufy -- which 
I don't," she said, "they were left with only the technology of a Blossom 
escape pod. A light-speed ship is generations removed from that."
   "They had to have some data in the pod's computer," the Attacker 
suggested. "That coulda gotten them started."
   "And they found anti-matter or an artificial singularity just lying around 
Terra? Right ..." the darkhaired woman answered acidly. "Lufy, there's no way 
they could have gotten back into space -- alone on Terra, with just a Blossom 
pod -- in their lifetimes ... No one could ... not in ... several lifetimes 
..."
   Eluza nodded. "And they would have been too busy just surviving to bother 
with reconstructing Solnoid technology." She sighed. "I think that leaves us 
with the first explanation, my friends."
   "Early sentient life on the Terra we knew ..." Rabby started.
   "... Evolved into ... our hosts ... in the stars ..." Patty finished.
   Eluza scanned each of her friends in turn.
   "Do you have any idea ...," she said to Rabby.
   "... Do you have any conception ...," she said to Patty.
   "... Of how much time we're talking about here ...?" she asked Catty.
   She glanced at Lufy. "... Do you ...?"  
    In silence, it sank in.
    "That ...," Rabby said quietly at last, "... musta been one helluva nap 
we took ..."

TO BE CONTINUED