It was 0430 Ship time when Howard woke Kylen. She was immediately alert but still. She still reacts like a prisoner, he thought, then spoke. "They are going to prep Colonel McQueen pretty soon ... for reentry and landing. I thought you'd like to say good-bye. I think things will go easier if you are there."

As they made their way through the darkened passageways Howard told her that the Docs wanted McQueen anesthetized for reentry, due to the nature and extent of his injuries. The Asjiki would probably pull 2 "G's." If it was still working - no one had checked yet - his MEF device could handle it but it will be hell on 2 broken ribs. Kylen was forced to admit that, however unfortunate, it made sense.

"He's not going to like this." She told the Major who grimly nodded his agreement.

The doctor, nurse and a guard were already in McQueen's room when they got there.
"Well, this can't be good if you brought along the little cheerleader." Mc Queen spoke bitterly and transfixed the room with his gaze.

Kylen ignored the insult and sat next to McQueen's bed while the Doctor explained the reasons for putting McQueen under. He then explained the procedure which was straight forward. It was simply a general anesthetic. McQueen obviously detested the whole idea.

"This isn't B.S. Colonel, " Howard said. "I suggest you take the Doctor's offer. You don't have to put yourself through more --ahhh.. discomfort -- than necessary. We still have the guard here to keep watch."

"I'll stay with you, Colonel, until we land and then as long a I can after." Kylen spoke out of turn. She was making a promise Let Howard sort out the details.

"I'll allow Miss Celina to stay with you until we land. She'll keep an eye on things." The Major made it official.

McQueen curtly nodded his ascent to the procedure.

The Doctor spoke. "OK, Colonel, I'll put you under in a half hour or so. When you wake up you'll be snug in a hospital Earthside."

Howard made an attempt to ease the mood in the room. "Colonel, have Kylen tell you about Martin and The Pink." He chuckled. "It's a fantastic bed time story. It has a happy ending and I hope both your stories have a happy ending as well." Howard held out his hand to McQueen who took it. "I'll look after Celina, Colonel. It has been an honor and a pleasure. I'll follow-up, Sir." With that he left taking everyone else with him.

Kylen and McQueen sat silently together in the dimly lit room, awkward with each other for the first time. McQueen spoke first. " So tell me this fairy tale ... about what? The Pink?"

Kylen was thankful for the diversion. "It's not a fairy tale it is real. But I don't really know the ending yet."

"Tell me anyway. Anything to take my mind off of this," McQueen blurted impatiently. He wanted a diversion.

"All right." Kylen agreed and began her story.

"Martin, ... Martin Aalto Guilio, is one of the InVitro colonists." McQueen marveled at how Kylen could turn the name into a chant - almost a benediction. "One of the Replacements. That's how I first thought of them. The Replacements. I didn't really know him on the ship. I was pretty resentful at first. Angry. And by the time my emotions had caught up to my head.......It wasn't the fault of these people that one of us had to be bumped from the flight. Not them personally, you know?"
McQueen noted that she said 'people' and not 'tanks'.
"Well, by then, my behavior pattern had been set up ... I was only just starting change ... To get to know one or two of them when it happened....when we were attacked." Kylen paused to shake the memory, then quietly continued.

"Two InVitros survived initially, Martin and Jessica. They were captured several days before I was. And when I got to the camp they were in pretty bad shape. The AI's targeted them."
McQueen was only too aware of just how well the AIs could target InVitros.
"They weren't the only people tortured but they probably had it the worst. I was the only medical sub-specialist to survive. I did what I could. But ... Jessica died the third week we were held. She had felt such a great hope that Tellus would be different for her."

"Howard said this story was a happy one, Kylen." McQueen sought to change the direction of her thinking.

"He said happy ending ... and It might be. No one ever told you fairy tales did they McQueen?" Kylen asked rhetorically but without the sarcasm that McQueen often appreciated. "The protagonists always face a struggle. The stories are meant to teach little children about life. To give them truth but also give them hope."

McQueen had never thought about it before but she was correct. No one had ever told him stories. "Martin?" he prompted.

"How it ever happened, I don't know but even after the torture - or maybe because of it - I don't know - But Martin has this incredibly gentle spirit - unguarded. He is young, just four years decanted. One of the very last batches on Earth. More open than any InVitro I've met before. It was like the pressure opened him up somehow. I can't explain it."

Kylen could see that McQueen didn't quite follow her. "McQueen, you have to meet him. You expect to see children and dogs following him. Birds should eat out of his hands or something. Like he is a Holy Man."
McQueen felt momentarily vaguely disgusted at the idea of an InVitro Holy Man. He pictured a John the Baptist type wacko. Or worse, a cartoon character with birds fluttering around his head.

Kylen could almost read his thoughts. "No, it's not like he is a prophet or a fanatic. He is a real person with real feelings and he can crack a mean joke on occasion. He is just truly good without being sappy."

McQueen suddenly thought of Damphousse and felt the pain of her loss. He had never met anyone as kind or as truly good as Vanessa Damphousse. Truly good without being sappy. "I understand," he murmured.

Kylen went on. "The In Vitros were last minute replacements but they weren't just people off of the streets. They did have skills. Poor Martin was bred to be a waste management and recycling engineer."

McQueen thought bitterly. Grow a Tank to handle your shit. Then send him into outer space to do more of the same.

Kylen continued to speak and cut off his thoughts. "The IVA is so bizarre. And it seems to me that they are unthinkingly cruel. How they designed Martin ... Someone had to be either high or hungover... When they were filling in the genetic matrix for Martin someone thought it would be cute to give this guy a special gift. Martin has absolute pitch. Not perfect pitch but absolute pitch," she stressed.

McQueen knew just enough about music to understand the difference - sort of. He was being drawn along with the story.

Kylen went on: "A gentle spirit, tempered by pain. Absolute pitch and a beautiful voice. And because of that Martin can find The Pink."

"The Pink?" McQueen asked eager, for her to continue...Thinking that he knew her meaning and if he did it would be a fantastic thing.

"The Pink. The rock we mined. It glows when it hits the air. It's pink so we called it The Pink. "
McQueen did not correct her... He liked The Pink more than Sewell Fuel. Kylen had always given him the right to choose. She was the one who had dug it out of the ground. Let her call it anything she wanted
"One day or night ... who can tell in the mines … but once four of us where deep down at the end of a tunnel in a little cave. The Bugs didn't go down there and the AIs were far behind. They often got lazy and sloppy. We found a few pebbles of the stuff. Martin picked it up and held it. I'll never forget the look on his face. It vibrates, he said and smiled. He handed the stone to us but we didn't feel it ... Not until Martin hummed a note. Then I could feel it vibrate too. Martin began to sing softly and the whole little cave seemed to vibrate. It was like being wrapped in a warm blanket. It was fantastic. Unexpected. It makes echoes seem hollow ... like nothing. The pink surrounds you somehow. We had to smile. The Pink doesn't change. It doesn't glow more brightly or sing or even really make a sound at all but when Martin sings you can feel it. Martin sings the stone."

McQueen believed that Aerotech had to have found this sympathetic vibration....But maybe they hadn't. He knew that they would not share that information if they had. This was a coup. A major coup.

"And this you won't believe," Kylen whispered. "I don't know if I can make you see. We danced. Slowly. Easily. Martin singing and the rest of us dancing. Just for a couple of minutes. But we were so taken away. It was so ... beautiful. One perfect note and the stone somehow replies. It's ridiculous, I know, but I think it was one of the most wonderful two minutes of my life.
McQueen had an uncanny vision of Kylen slowly dancing in the dark light of the cave - It was a fairy tale.

"It's not magic, McQueen, and in a way it's more than magic. It's just finding the perfect A flat minor. No hokus pokus. We used that knowledge against them after that. Martin could find veins and we named the types based on their strength. Lyric down to Basso Profundo. Mezzo was the most common. But Martin would locate the veins and we would just concentrate our work somewhere else. We would bring up just enough to make them keep us alive and feed us."
McQueen was struck by the combination in Kylen of the romantic and pragmatic.

"So I guess the fairy tale is that Martin had a hard life but he was given this hidden talent which was probably meant to torment him. But his gift gave us something beautiful in the middle of despair. It allowed us to trick our captors into keeping us alive but only half serve their purpose. Kept us alive long enough to be saved. And now Howard promised me that Martin will be well looked after." Kylen paused. "Do you think he really means that?"

"Kylen anyone who can sing the stone, as you say, will be extremely well looked after." He stressed.

The story was over. McQueen rather marveled at the unexpected magic Kylen had created in the telling of the tale. So, that is a fairy tale. They shyly smiled at each other. Real life intruded on the bubble they had created as they heard the nurse and doctor enter the anteroom. Their time together was short.

McQueen knew that at this point he should say something to Kylen. He should thank her for staying, for he really was glad that she had offered. It was what had tipped the scales. He should thank her for her story. Like the Arabian Nights.
He should make his good-byes, which he knew that civilians did on such occasions. Something that generally went unspoken in the Corps where everyone expected to be separated sooner or later. He had very little practice at good-byes and went out of his way to avoid them at all cost. Most of all he felt like he should say ... felt like he wanted to say ... like she expected him to say ... To say something somehow meaningful. He was fresh out.

Kylen meanwhile was fighting the desire to hug and kiss him which she knew he would find bizarre and distasteful. McQueen made her feel strong and she found that she wanted to please him, but taking his hand seemed like an impossible intimacy.

"You'll be with your family in a few hours," he offered - saying anything to break the silence that he usually enjoyed. Her eyes 'shine with the glimmer of good-byes', he thought of the quote, but did not say it. McQueen thought her chances of knowing a poet from World War One were slim indeed. Besides, now was not the time to play the game.

"I guess that they are already having meetings on how to deal with us once we get home." She said a little sarcastically. Her sarcasm actually made him more comfortable.

"That's a good thing." He said in all seriousness.

Kylen made one of her dizzying shifts. She reached across the overbed table, gently placing one hand on his arm. She leaned her face close to his, her eyes burned into his demanding an answer.

"What do I do with myself now? How do I make any sense of any of this? She was clearly frightened but in control.

"You survived. Never let them crawl back into your head and steal your victory. Always remember that you are free. You can say "NO" again. Hang on to your family. Let them love you. They won't have the answers but let them do what they can. Rest for a while - then find something that you believe in. Do something useful, something you feel is important. Something you believe in," He repeated softly. It was, for him, a long speech.

The Doctor returned with a syringe. McQueen nodded. The Doc pushed the anesthetic.

As his vision blurred, before he drifted off, McQueen saw Kylen's face. She was again determined. He remembered that he hadn't said good-bye. He heard her say "Thank you" and he thought she said something about Door Number One but he already too far under to ask.

When it was clear that he was asleep Kylen leaned over and kissed his cheek. She then took his hand and held it for several minutes until the nurse pulled down a jumpseat from the bulkhead and strapped Kylen in for reentry.

The Asjiki landed at Andrews AFB at 0730 ZULU (0230 EST). This meant that all the transfers and arranged transport could take place under the cover at darkness. There was no band, no flag waving, no speeches and thankfully, no press. Howard took her to the chopper which would, if not take her home, at least take her to her family.

But Kylen was able to keep her promise; she had stayed at McQueen's side until his chopper had lifted off.

Next : Chapter Twelve

Previous : Chapter Ten

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