Redemption Installment 1

My story to redeem myself in my families eyes. ;)

Monday morning, August 21, 2007, at approximately 6:34 and 30 seconds, the ship landed at the docking site. All was quiet along the street as the Myantides quickly began the tedious work of extracting the specimen from its habitat.
By 6:34:45 the specimen was safely aboard the craft and the droid was ready to be inserted into the habitat. But the Myantide captain shut down the operation. There would be no need for a droid this time. The specimen’s habitat would not last to see its absence. 6:34:52, the ship was back in space again, the crew preparing for demolition.
At precisely 6:35:00, Joanne’s alarm clock went off.

A strange humming sound filled the room and awoke Joanne. She wondered what time it was, and turned to look at her alarm clock, but it was gone. Everything was gone. Instead of her twin size daybed, she was laid out on a cold stone table, and her mahogany furnishings were gone, replaced by absolute emptiness in a room washed in a brilliant blue light. Either she had been abducted by aliens, or she was dreaming. Figuring it was a dream she relaxed back onto the table and closed her eyes, thinking if she fell asleep, she’d wake up again back in her own room. It should be close to 6:35 by now. Any minute her alarm would go off and she’d get ready for another predictable day of work and school. The cold surface of the table stung her bare arms, and she pondered the strange way dreams could feel so real, and how one could sometimes control their actions within a dream.
Except for the humming everything was silent, and after a few minutes Joanne opened her eyes again and sat up. It must be a dream; aliens would have tied her up or something and be performing all sorts of strange tests on her. She got up off the table and wandered to a steel frame that resembled a doorway. Tentatively, she put her palm against it and pushed. The door swung outward, revealing a large tunnel with a few other doors like this one on each side. She ignored the doors for now, choosing to wander down the tunnel, where a green light was glowing. Her feet were bare, and she was still in her shorts and t-shirt, her typical summertime bed attire. The floor was a bit warm on her toes, and she moved quickly down the passage, feeling bursts of warm air flowing at her from the source of the green light. She wondered if this was the smartest thing to do. But this was a dream, the worst that could happen was she’d wake up and have to go to work.
Loud clicking noises emanated from a room just off the passage. There was an archway for an entrance, and Joanne stopped right in front of it to look around. The room was like something out of Star Trek. No, it HAD to be from Star Trek. Control panels, screens, computers, and a huge window that overlooked the galaxy. A tiny green and blue sphere seemed to rotate in midair outside the ship, and Joanne guessed that was Earth. She tried to remember what she had watched on TV the night before, but Extreme Makeover Home Edition didn’t seem a good excuse for this dream.
The clicking noises were coming from the people manning the craft. Well, they looked like people. They had the same basic shape and body size, two arms, two legs, most appeared to have two eyes, one nose, and a mouth, but their skin was anything but black or white. Iridescent was the best word for it. Some were green, a few blue, but the majority were an iridescent red. Joanne stood staring, wondering at the things her mind could come up with late at night.
A female with blue skin and dark black hair braided down her back spotted her first. She rushed over to a dark blue male dressed in a black uniform with multiple pins and stripes adorning his sleeves. Joanne guessed he was some kind of commander. She took a tentative step into the warm control room, and all movement suddenly stopped as every eye turned to look at her. The heat from the air vents rushed through her body, and she fell panting to the floor, breathing heavily as if she had just run a marathon.
The man in the black uniform pulled her to her feet and dragged her back into the tunnel. He propped her against the tunnel wall and a few clicking noises later, a few green men dressed in white had run off and through another door off the tunnel. Joanne stared blankly at the man kneeling beside her. His eyes seemed to laugh, but his face stayed serious as he looked her over. He was just as human as Joanne was, except the strange deep blue of his skin. She shook her head, feeling the effects of the immense heat wear off, and wondering how much more real this dream could feel.
The man opened his mouth and moved his tongue, producing various clicks and whistles that Joanne just couldn’t comprehend. She blinked rapidly, and shook her head vehemently, trying to wake up. Two large hands gripped either side of her head as she shook it, and the blue man clicked at her again.
“It would be best for you to stay still until you are feeling a bit better,” a mechanical voice came from above her. Joanne looked up slightly to see a man a few shades of blue lighter than the one before her, dressed in a red uniform.
“Oh good, someone in my dream speaks English,” Joanne laughed, but both blue men just watched her silently. She cleared her throat awkwardly. “So, what is this thing anyway?” She gestured to the space around her. “I mean, it’s my dream and everything, but I have no clue what’s going on!” She laughed nervously, looking from one man to the other.
The lighter blue man clicked at the darker one, who eagerly clicked back as he stared at Joanne. The second man nodded and spoke, “The captain wishes to welcome you aboard his ship. In your Earth tongue you might call it, a space craft. If you are feeling better, we would be glad to escort you to where your comrades are.”
“Comrades? I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Come with me,” the light blue man clicked at the captain, who smiled slightly, patted Joanne on the shoulder, rose, and went back to the control room where movement had started again. The light blue man began to walk away from Joanne, and she figured she should follow him. She pushed herself up weakly and struggled to catch up. Her body felt strangely heavy and tired, but she made it to the door the light blue man held open for her. “In here, I will not join you, but someone will be along shortly to feed you.” Joanne scratched her head, but entered the lightless room, which was much cooler than the tunnel. The door shut quietly behind her, and a few hushed voices came out of the darkness. A light suddenly turned on, and Joanne was startled to find various lumps scattered across the room writhing and kicking at her feet.
Before she could react, a head poked out of a blanket and shouted, “A newbie!” The other forms grew heads out of their blankets too and wide eyes looked at her in fascination as they came out of their cocoons. These people looked relatively normal, about as normal as a person could be. There seemed to be about nine of them, five men, and four women, a few black, some white, and others Asian. Joanne sighed at the elaborate designs of her mind. She sunk wearily to the floor, wondering how it was possible to need to sleep within a dream.
A small white woman approached her first, a few messy strands of red curly hair falling into her smiling face. The woman gingerly wrapped a blanket around Joanne and then sat back and stared at her, kind of like the dark blue captain had done, only this woman’s whole face smiled with her.