Episode 2
Day 1
"We're about to land," Spock says.
It has been two months since they launched into space. The aliens and the autistics get along well. Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅 and Spock work together to analyze the area with their sensors. Isaac and Åଅᐊᅶ work on any engineering problems. Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ and Robota pilot the ship. The autistic children learn quickly and well. The group has detected unusual signals coming from a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. They touch down on the surface.
"It's a type-302 planet. Everyone, get your respirators on," Spock says, flipping the switches that will allow the hatch to open. Everyone also puts the Membrane Suit on. The Membrane Suit is like an earth space suit, except much sleaker and more advanced.
"This is the first time we've felt gravity in three months," Robota says to Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ, "it feels kind of cool."
"Where are the life forms?" Isaac asks Spock.
Spock points.
There, on a hill, is the most beautiful city any of them have ever seen.
"Whoa," Robota says.
"Man," Isaac says.
"Standard according to our readings," Spock says.
The six walk to it.
Immediately, they are confronted by the guards.
Isaac says, "the other people, the Andreans, need to touch your hand to communicate."
The guard has a translator. He suspiciously puts out his hand.
Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅 puts out his hand.
The guard takes it.
"You're good to go," the guard says a few minutes later.
They walk in.
***
They go through the day without much interference. The human children are excited, this is their first foriegn planet. The Andreans let them explore.
Nightfall is when the problems come.
Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅 and Spock have split off from the group. They go to a food shop.
"Why does everyone look so young?" Spock asks Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅 through his mind.
"I don't know. It's weird. They look like your kind, sort of, and they'd look around 20 ish," Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅 says.
A waiter comes to their table. He is humanoid, with a shiny purple skin. Other than that, he looks like a 20-year-old earth male.
"Come to the back room. That's where we serve people of your kind," he says.
Spock and Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅 look at each other.
"It is only logical that we follow his advice," Spock says.
They follow him.
In the backroom, the waiter turns around. He touches Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅's hand.
"We want the creature you carry with you. He would be useful," he says, pressing a gun-like glowing object to Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅's chest.
Spock touches Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅's hand.
Making sure his mind-to-mind communication is private, he says, "let me go. If he's telling the truth, there might be others. I can get out with them. It is only logical."
Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅 looks at him worriedly.
"Fine," he says, "meet us at the Black Wigading inn."
Spock nods.
***
Spock is pushed into a small elevator and sent underground. As he comes out, a group of the natives of this planet meet him.
"Cooperate with us," one says.
"What do you want me to do?" Spock asks.
The blue one smiles.
"Stay still," he says.
Spock notices all too late that there is a needle in his arm.
***
He wakes up. He is in a cage somewhere, just like three months ago. He looks around.
There's a child in the cage next to him.
"Feeling is a waste of time, illogical," he murmurs, apparently to himself.
He looks up.
His wish has been granted.
***
"I don't get it," Robota says, "they should be back."
"We can look for them," Isaac says.
"Okay…"
***
He is thin. That is important as he climbs up through the air duct. He knows that there will soon be a group chasing him. He moves down, muttering that it isn't logical what he is about to do.
"Psst!" he whispers to the girl in the cage.
"I know you are there, Spock," the girl says without turning around, "what you are trying to do is futile. I've tried."
"How do you know my name? Also, we need to get out. My friends, the Andreans, will help us," he says.
"I can sense people's minds. That's why they want me. I guess another round of punishment won't hurt… at least not too much." she says, and climbs into the duct.
He shuts the door.
***
"No trace of him," Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅 says as he comes back, "this is worrisome."
"What happened?" Robota asks.
***
The natives are swarming the air duct. Spock and the girl climb out of a vent in the street.
"We need to get to the Black Wingding inn," he says.
***
"I found them!" Isaac says, holding a pair of high-tech spy glasses, "they're heading towards us!"
"Ready the ship for takeoff," Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ says.
***
The ship hovers above the ground, cruising towards the Black Wingding inn. The two children are running over the cobblestone. Spock trips and falls on the uneven stone.
"Run towards the ship!" he screams to the girl.
For a moment she seems paralyzed.
"Run!" he yells as he is forced up by the crowd chasing them.
What happens next is amazing.
"Fwoomp!" is apparently the sound that a rapidly expanding forcefield makes. Now in what looks like a giant pink hamster ball, Spock is heading towards the inn at approximately 30 miles per hour. The girl's eyes are glowing pink, and she is steering the forcefield with her mind.
"Bam!" The forcefield explodes.
Spock is falling… falling.... Landed. He and the girl look up, dazed and confused. They are both inside of the ship.
"Let's get out of here!" Isaac says.
They all nod as the ship flies out into space.
***
"How did you do that?" Isaac asks.
"It's complicated," the girl says.
They start to notice something about her. Her eyes are small, and have flaps of skin on the sides. The nasal bridge is flat. The ears are small, almost underdeveloped.
"I am, on your planet, what they call 'down syndrome'," the girl says, noticing their stares, "and my name is Talea."
Everyone looks at her.
"It's a long story," she says, "Your planet has not had down syndrome in 400 years, much longer than autism has been destroyed. Except for me."
"What? This doesn't make sense," a puzzled Robota says.
"I am 20 years older than you," Talea says, "they had a problem similar to yours on earth. I was four years old when I was diagnosed. They had combed the books for years, looking for a diagnosis. I remember my parents loading me onto the waste heap, disappointed in me."
Isaac shudders.
"Yes, the waste heap," she continues, "the shuttle that goes into space with all of the bodies and waste. Earth burial is inefficient and expensive. With its increasing population, it cannot afford a useless person. I was that person. I think things have changed- what's his name, McDonnavan? He was the one to protest against my being dumped into space."
"He tried to kill us!" Spock broke in, a rare flash of emotion.
"I know," she says, "and that was when you were a threat."
"Going on with the story," she says, "I was sent into space. I grew there several years, floating in space, no water or oxygen, surrounded by corpses. I need neither water nor food nor corpses, I only need radiation. The rest of my kind on earth are blocked from radiation by the atmosphere. That is why they appear "unintellegent"- they are being deprived of their lifeblood. They are made for space, not the earthly world. That's when they took me as a test subject. I lived there for several years, being tested and tried, slowly deteriorating from lack of radiation. Then you came. I used my last bit of energy to create that forcefield and teleport us onto the ship. I was the odd signal you detected."
She walks to the clear screen. As she stands in front of it, she glows.
"We are all being radiated now, but I'm sucking it away from you and into myself," she said, "Thank you. Thanks for getting me out of there."
The Andreans watch as their earth companions talk. Ṧ𐊖ㄙſ says to Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅, "I hope they can save us. They are our last hope."
Ẓ⩥ᛎ𝖅 responds, "They'll be able to. We have no choice but to hope. Our planet is deteriorating. They have powers beyond their own beliefs. They have all harnessed part of their abilities-- Spock in mental energy, Talea in energy, Robota in cooperation, and Isaac in mechanics."
"Entering andrean galaxy," Åଅᐊᅶ says.
The Andreans look at each other. One thing is on their mind: the new hope.