Page 43 of Galaxy Between Us

“... Me?” I ask, unfamiliar with the name.

Knox. I kind of like it. It feels right. I don’t know what else my name would be if not that. The Omega searches my gaze and pulls back further to assess me.

“Yes, you, Knox!” he turns to the doctor. “Check his vitals one more time. Including the frontal cortex functions.”

“Already on it,” she mutters, tapping at a tablet screen. Whatever she sees doesn’t look promising. She finally looks up, eyeing me with concern.

“Knox. What is the last thing you remember?”

“Rocks… Pain,” I shrug, scratching the back of my neck as I try to remember anything. My mind comes up short. No clue where I’m at. Who I am. Or what I did.

“Rocks… He saw the rocks! I saw rocks, too!” the Omega beams at the doctor, but she doesn’t join his excitement. She takes a careful step forward like I’m something easily startled.

“Knox… Can you tell me the name of this Omega?” she asks me softly.

The Omega goes rigid, smile falling as he gazes up at me with hopeful blue eyes. What a pretty shade. As deep and immeasurable as the universe. Familiar in a comforting way, but still mysteriously unknown. I shake my head, staring into the blue depths as they begin to flood with the mass of the ocean. I’ve never met him before. I think I would remember those eyes.

The Omega flinches as if I’d hit him.

“And me? Do you know my name?” the doctor continues.

I break away from the Omega’s weeping eyes for only a second to shake my head. I meant it when I said that all I remember are rocks and pain. Nothing else.

“He’s suffering from memory loss,” the doctor decides and the Omega makes a sound of hurt.

“Fix him, Ritza!” he cries.

“What happened to me?”

“We were doing a– “

“Hush!” the doctor silences him and we both look at her. “We can’t tell him everything. That will only overwhelm him more. To avoid this being permanent we need to allow him to recover at his own pace. Let him do what feels natural and hopefully…he’ll remember. But don’t force it.”

Chapter XIX

The Quantum Force Transfer Station hums beneath me, whirring down until it stops making noise entirely. My eyes slowly come back to awareness, and I watch the translucent face shield slide away. There are tears in the corners of my eyes as I take a deep breath.

I hear rapid clicks of Dr. Ritza’s shoes from somewhere in the room, recognizing them immediately. A calming, familiar sound after being isolated in the quiet hum of space. At least, I think that’s where I was. I think it worked. Either that, or I was so desperate for it to work that I dreamt the whole thing.

A group of astronomers begins frantically removing me from the transfer bed, calling out my vitals as I process everything I saw.

“It was beautiful,” I whisper to no one in particular, staring dazed up at the ceiling.

Full recovery will take some time, but I convinced them to at least let me sit with Dr. Ritza the following day so I can explain what I saw before I forget. It felt like I was gone for maybe twenty minutes, but it’s been two weeks. The scientists explained that my receptors failed, but the ejection process was a success. They were able to safely bring me back without causing damage to my brain.

Knox is still under, probably for another week or two. I hope he’s seeing what I saw.

“There were these rock formations, unlike anything on earth. The sediment was compacted as if a collision occurred. Little fragments were everywhere, sparkling with an otherworldly silver sheen.”

“Iridium, perhaps?” Dr. Ritza suggests while typing notes on her beloved tablet.

“No. It was different.”

“Are you sure?” she glances up at me.

I clench my jaw, irritated that Knox isn’t here to vouch for my intelligence.

“I’ve studied the sky all my life, Doctor. This element was something else. Coated in ultraviolet radiation and interacting with light differently than any known element.”