Amy Thomson - The Color of Distance

“Good. I’ll be bringing Anitonen over around noon to give you a checkup.”

“I’ll see you then,” Wu said.

Juna patted his hand and left. The medical techs were clustered at the door, watching her. They parted to let her through, like the sea parting for Moses.

As she was leaving the medical wing, she ran into Patricia Tanguay. “How is he?” she asked Juna.

“He’s fine. The doctors are busy running tests on him, and Anitonen will be coming in around noon to check on his progress and answer the doctors’ questions.”

“I’m glad to hear it. The whole ship is abuzz about your saving Dr. Wu’s life.”

“I’ve noticed,” Juna said. “Anitonen is the one who saved Dr. Wu. I only watched.”

“Juna, I heard about what happened. You and an alien clasped the arms of a dying man, closed your eyes, and sat still for perhaps twenty minutes. When you were through, Dr. Wu was healthier than he had been for years. The doctors are amazed. You helped perform a miracle.”

“It wasn’t a miracle,” Juna insisted. “Anitonen and the other Tendu do this sort of thing every day. It’s a little harder to work on a human because we’re new and strange to them, but it’s a skill that every single adult Tendu possesses.”

“It’s still a miraculous skill.”

Juna spent the rest of the morning visiting labs, answering questions, and making suggestions to various researchers. It was nice to be able to take part once again in the work that she loved. It also reminded the researchers of how valuable a resource she was. The morning passed quickly, and Juna was sorry to have to leave the labs to go pick up Anitonen.

She entered the airlock, climbing out of her uncomfortable e-suit and into some light cotton clothing. Temporarily freed from the restrictions of quarantine, she opened the heavy outer door, and ran down the gangplank to the floating dock. Bruce was waiting for her in the boat. She smiled, and her step lightened. For once she was going to get to visit the forest without a gaggle of noisy humans trailing behind her.

“Hey there, miracle worker!” he said as he helped her into the boat. “Oh please!” Juna said. “I’ve heard that all morning long!”

“It’s all over the ship. The boat crew yesterday got an earful from the people they took back. So what really happened?”

Juna shrugged. “Anitonen and I performed some Tendu first aid on Dr. Wu. We saved his life, but it was not a miracle. Anitonen just did what any Tendu does. All I did was monitor Anitonen in case anything went wrong.”

“Can you do what Anitonen did?”

Juna shook her head. “I’m not that good. I can only heal easy things like flesh wounds and simple fractures. I might have been able to stabilize Dr. Wu until the medics came, but I couldn’t have cleared his arteries or repaired his damaged heart.”

“Anitonen did all that?” Bruce asked incredulously.

“The doctors say that Dr. Wu has the heart of a twenty-year-old now,” she replied.

“Well, tell him to give it back!” Bruce said with a grin.

Juna laughed, relieved that he wasn’t treating her like some kind of saint. Bruce was one of the few who saw through her alien skin to her human self.

“You’ve got a nice laugh,” he told her.

Juna turned a deep brown and looked away. “Thank you.”

The boat nosed onto the beach, and Juna leaped out to help pull it ashore.

Anitonen was nowhere in sight.

“Where is she?” Bruce asked.

“I don’t know,” Juna said. “The Tendu have a very flexible concept of time. Why don’t we go up and see if we can find her?”

“That would be wonderful,” Bruce agreed. “I’ve never seen the jungle.”

“Then let’s go.”

Somewhere near the top of the cliff path, Juna took Bruce’s hand to help him over a rough spot. They remained hand in hand as they strolled through the cathedral-like forest. Bruce moved quietly, Juna noted with approval. They paused in a sun break created by a recently fallen tree. The upper branches of the downed tree were covered with bromeliads. The tree’s fall had carried the doomed bromeliads down into a zone that was too dark and moist for them to survive; they bloomed in a last brilliant rush to procreate before they died.

Juna leaned against the tree’s massive flank. The noises of the jungle seemed very loud in the silence that hung between them. Bruce settled himself beside her, sliding one arm around her shoulder.

“It’s beautiful,” he said, breaking the heavy silence.

Juna nodded and looked up. “It’s even more beautiful up there. It’s like a whole separate world.”

He followed her gaze into the canopy. “What’s it like?”

“It’s a lot cooler, there’s more wind. Even the big branches sway in the wind.” She shook her head, remembering. “I was too scared at first to notice much, but now there’s so much up there to look at, I don’t have time to be scared. I’ll miss it when I go.”

“You sound like you don’t want to leave.”

“I’ve come to love this planet. There’s the forest, the Tendu, and the freedom of the life that I’ve found here. And then there’s Moki. I wish I could tear myself in two and leave one part here with him.”

“His people will look after him.”

Juna’s eyes welled with tears. “He won’t accept another sitik. If I go, he’ll probably die.”

“I’m sorry,” Bruce said. “I wish there was something I could do.”

Juna shrugged and looked away. “The hardest part is living in that damned suit. You know,” she said, looking up at Bruce through the glare of his faceplate, “Dr. Wu was the first human being I’ve touched in four years.”

Bruce drew her closer. She leaned against him. Suddenly she was weeping, all the loneliness and isolation of the last four years pouring out of her.

Bruce held her, patting her back as she cried herself out. Her cheek stuck to the slick plastic of his e-suit. She felt a small, cool hand on her thigh. It was Moki, ochre with concern. She rippled reassurance at him and drew him close. Moki’s hand clasped her arm, and he linked with her. His small, observant presence blended with the secure warmth of Brace’s arms.

At last she broke the link with Moki and pulled away from Bruce. She wiped her eyes. “Thank you,” she said, feeling suddenly awkward.

“Any time,” he replied with an affectionate squeeze of her shoulder.

“God, I hope not,” Juna said with a shaky laugh. “If I cried like that all the time, I’d melt away like a sugar cube in a rainstorm.”

She glanced down at her wrist chronometer. “We should go find Ani-tonen. The others will be wondering where we are.”

“Anitonen’s waiting at the top of the cliff path,” Moki told her. “She was talking with Lalito and the village council until almost noon.”

Bruce scooped Moki up and set him on his shoulder. Moki rippled with laughter. “Let’s go, then,” Bruce said, taking Juna’s hand.

They walked together through the forest, hand in hand. Moki rested one of his long arms on Juna’s head. It was a good moment, bridging the best of both worlds, and Juna was sorry to reach the edge of the forest.

Anitonen swung down from the trees, greeting them cheerfully. Bruce said hello to Anitonen, set Moki down, and then went on ahead to get the boat ready.

“Bruce makes you happy,” Moki said as they were crossing the beach, hand in hand. “I’m glad. Will you be mating soon?”

Juna blushed brown. “I don’t think so,” she told him. “It’s different with my people, Moki.”

“He arouses you, though. I felt it in the link.”

Juna looked out at the distant ship. “Moki, I’ve been away from my people for a long time,” she said. “I’m easily aroused, but I don’t mate with strangers. I don’t know Bruce well enough. Besides, there’s the quarantine.”