Chapter 1: Learning Dizyntk

Michael slowly regained consciousness. His cockpit was a mess. There were broken displays and pieces of his control panel scattered all over. His head was killing him and he couldn't see out of his left eye. This last worried him quite a bit, until he removed his helmet and realized that his head had been bleeding. The blood had simply gotten into his eye. A quick squirt from his water bottle helped clear things. His head had stopped bleeding on its own already.

"Well thank god for small favors." he thought.

He proceeded to slowly checked his limbs to make sure that they all functioned.

"Ohhh I hurt everywhere" he softly groaned.

Both legs were ok as was his right arm. The left arm was a different story. The arm wouldn't respond and he quickly realized he had dislocated his shoulder in the crash.

"Well if that's the worst injury I have after all that then I'll count myself lucky." he said to himself.

He broke out the med kit and gave himself a strong painkiller before forcefully popping his shoulder back in place. Even through the medication the pain was considerable, he shrieked and almost blacked out again. He quickly, but painfully, set himself about breaking out the ships considerable survival supplies. Considerable because, even if a ship safely crashed on a planet's surface, rescue might be quite some time in coming. If it ever came at all. After Michael had everything he thought he might need set outside the ship, he stopped to look around at his surroundings.

He was in foothills not far from some impressive looking mountains. They were probably about 5000 meters in height. He judged that they were about 20km off.

"Well if there are mountains nearby then there ought to be water." he thought.

About that moment he heard a high pitched sound from high above. Michael looked up and saw a ship plummeting down through the sky trailing fire and smoke. He immediately recognized it as the Dizyntk ship he had seen right before he jumped.

"How the hell did they end up here?" he said.

He watched as it fell rapidly and slammed into the ground about six kilometers away. Even from that distance the fireball was impressive. He instinctively grabbed his ships primary medical kit, slung it over his right shoulder, and took off for the crash sight. He knew that they were Dizyntk. He also knew that enmity sometimes had to give way to compassion. When crashed on a remote and uninhabited planet, you had to pull together. Even if that meant helping a normally enemy race. Michael just hoped that the Dizyntk thought the same way.

After two hours Michael finally reached where the Dizyntk ship had crashed and immediately realized there were probably no survivors. The wreckage of the ship was scattered over almost two kilometers in front of him. The wreckage was still burning and the smoke was acrid and sharp in his nostrils. Michael quickly started calling out and searching through the wreckage nearest him. For almost an hour he searched through the remains of the destroyed vessel. He was finding only bits and pieces of smoldering bodies. The smell of burnt flesh was distinctive. He was, however, finding some equipment that seemed as if it might be salvageable. The best being what appeared to be some sort of medical gear.

As he continued his futile search for survivors he was gathering this equipment and putting it just past the edge of the crash site. As he was searching through the carnage of twisted and smoldering metal, he heard a soft beeping coming from deeper within a pile of wreckage. He was able to pull away some debris and found what looked like an escape pod that had survived relatively intact. Michael's hopes began to rise. He pushed the blinking blue button on the pod's side and it slid slowly open. Inside was what Michael assumed was a Dizyntk. It was crumpled in a heap on the floor of the pod. His heart began to sink as he realized that it had not survived. However, just as Michael began to turn and leave, he heard a soft moan from the crumpled mass of fur.

He immediately spun and knelt to check the alien in the pod. It raised its head a little and stretched its hand slowly, painfully, towards him. Michael had found a survivor. How long it would survive was another question. Suddenly Michael became obsessed with trying to save the alien. He didn't know if he could, but the idea of being alone for who knew how long was a very distressing thought. He quickly administered a dose of the strongest pain med he had. Then, as gently as he could, he lifted the small alien from the pod. It was too small, Michael thought. Dizyntk were a smaller race than humans, but they should be bigger than this according to his field briefings. As he carried the Dizyntk to the edge of the wreckage field he could feel its broken bones scraping together. He could not even imagine the extent of the internal damage. Finally he got far enough outside of the wreckage for the smoke to be cleared. Michael lay the small alien down and that was when it dawned upon him that it was a child. That was why it was so small. Just then, the young Dizyntk coughed violently. Blood was frothing at the edges of its mouth. It opened its eyes slightly and there was even blood trickling from the edges of its eyelids. Michael's determination to save the alien was now redoubled and he quickly began breaking out the trauma gear from his med kit.

Michael knew that the blood vessel sealing device he had would not be able to repair any damage more than a couple of inches below the skin. He also knew that that meant he would have to cut open the child. He administered a full dose of anesthetic, praying that the drugs he was administering didn't kill the Dizyntk before its injuries did. He set up his small class one autodoc to monitor the child. Then he shakily used the laser scalpel to cut open the Dizyntk to get at its internal bleeding.

For the next three hours, Michael worked feverishly, trying to save the young alien. He had brought several pints of stabilized blood plasma, and the med kit had blood volume increasing drugs. He didn't even know if they would work on a Dizyntk, but he used them both liberally to try to keep the Dizyntk from bleeding out as he desperately tried to repair the ruptured vessels and damaged internal organs. He was, in fact, doing things he had only the barest of training to try and attempt. The highest level of medical training he had was equivalent to a paramedic. But what choice did he have. Finally, the autodoc reported that the child's blood pressure seemed to be stabilizing. Seemed to be, because the autodoc was guessing as much as Michael was. It had been designed to treat and diagnose humans. He knew he had not repaired all of the damage. But maybe he had done enough to help give the child a chance. He closed up the external incisions and set the bone knitter to work. He knew that this would take a while as well. He gave the child another dose of anesthetic and then noticed that it would be getting dark in a couple of hours.

The Dizyntk was a mess. It was completely covered in its own blood. Luckily, Michael had noticed a small stream nearby. He went to gather some water. While doing this he noticed for the first time that he himself was covered in the child's blood. He stripped off his blood soaked shirt and washed his arms and face as best he could before returning to clean off the little alien. As he slowly, gently, washed the blood off of its small body he finally noticed something that he had not really had time to look at before. The young Dizyntk was female. It took Michael until just after dark to finally get all the blood washed off. He activated the self erecting tent, spread out the bedroll and carefully put the Dizyntk inside. He stripped off the rest of his ruined clothing and climbed in with the young girl. He was exhausted. He only hoped that his own body warmth would help keep the girl from going into shock. He gently held the Dizyntk and fell asleep.

The next day Michael collapsed the tent and, using it as a sled, pulled the young Dizyntk back to his ship. He returned with a repulser cart and gathered as much of the useable equipment as he could. He knew he was taking a risk by leaving the child unattended for this long, but he was going to need this gear if he had any hope of keeping her alive. He got back to his ship about five hours after he had left. He said a silent prayer of thanks when he found that his patient was still alive and got busy setting up some of the gear he had recovered.

What appeared to be a portacomp turned out to be exactly that. Fortunately the Dizyntk seemed to use a similar enough computer language that his own ship's computer was able to interface with it with little problem. It allowed his computer to translate the Dizyntk language, Dizyntilin. Because of this, the computer's AI, Athena, was able to identify the largest piece of dizyntk equipment that Michael had brought back as a type of autodoc. Michael placed it next to the Dizyntk and, crossing his fingers, activated it. It immediately powered up and began scanning the girl and then started performing various procedures and administering drugs. The machine's output screen requested that IV fluids and nutrients be applied. Michael did this and sat down and watched the autodoc work.

For the next two weeks, Michael began setting up a shelter for a prolonged stay on the planet. He also determined which plants in his survival kit's supply of seeds would grow in the climate of the area he was in and prepared a garden. He also gathered samples of the local flora and fauna so that Athena could determine which were safe to eat. There was no telling how long he would be here, and he only had rations for about four months. Less than that really. If the young Dizyntk survived she would need food as well. For the time being, however, she was having to make do with a nutrient enhanced IV glucose solution. There was little else Michael could do for her now. The Dizyntk autodoc seemed to be handling things as well as he could. The machine's readout, translated initially by Athena, said that the girl's injuries were still significant at first.

"Oh, really. Tell me something I don't know." Michael had said out loud to the machine when it had told him this.

By the end of five weeks things had changed. Michael had been trying to learn Dizyntilin and was doing well enough. Luckily he had always had a good knack for languages. He had learned enough that he could read most of the autodoc's readout reports without having to ask Athena for a translation. By this time the machine was reporting that the girl's injuries were getting better, as well as her chances of survival. When it had first reported on her condition, these chances had been given as about 25 percent. They had now been raised to 70 percent. If nothing else could be said about this young Dizyntk, she was a fighter. She seemed to refuse to give up.

At the end of the second month Michael had everything fairly well set up for a prolonged stay on the planet. He had the emergency shelter set up and even enlarged and re-enforced it with sheets of plating from his ship. The garden was starting to bud. He had even killed a couple of local animals and prepared their meat for storage. He had continued to learn Dizyntilin, and was now fairly proficient with it. At least he was when using it with Athena. He would get his chance to use it for real however. One late afternoon, ten weeks after the crash, he was walking by the ship, carrying preparations for dinner. As he passed the entrance, he heard what sounded like muffled crying coming from inside the ship.

Michael slowly entered, not exactly sure how the girl would react to a human. He saw her sitting up on the small bed and holding her knees, her face buried against her legs. It was obvious that she was trying not to make too much noise.

Michael very gently asked her in the best Dizyntilin he could muster, "Are you in physical pain? Do you need medicine?"

She looked up quickly but she did not scream or even react to the human standing before her. It was all Michael could do not to stare too blatantly at her. Her eyes were beautiful. He had taken note of her appearance, obviously, during the weeks of taking care of her. The fine red/auburn fur covering parts of her body. The long hair on her head of the same color. The ears on top of her head that very definitely resembled those of terran felines. Her slender furry tail that was about two feet long. But her eyes, he had not seen her eyes as she had been unconscious the whole time. They were stunning, almost mesmerizing. A green that was the color of an emerald with what looked like flecks of silver and long vertical pupils. Not to mention that the eyes of the Dizyntk were about twice the size of a humans.

"No." she responded quietly as she put her head back down on her legs. "Thank you for your concern over me, human." she said, her voice cracking. "But, please, leave me to myself for a while."

Michael understood. She was probably mourning over lost friends and family on the ship. He slowly turned and went back to preparing a meal.

Michael slowly stirred the stew he was making while he thought about what he had been told about the Dizyntk. They were monsters the Protectorate said, predatory and bloodthirsty. He had been told of their general physical description, but it had obviously been exaggerated. The descriptions of long canines and terrible claws were often emphasized in his field manuals. He had never personally seen one before all of this, but he could definitely tell they were not monsters. He obviously had no idea of their thought processes or emotions. But the girl seemed to be mourning her friends.

"Not so different from us." he thought.

As for their appearance, if this young girl was a typical example then they were a lovely race.

He shook his head as he thought to himself, "Maybe I am just being biased, after all I have always been fond of cats."

After two hours she came outside, wrapped in the blanket she had been sleeping under, and walked slowly towards the fire he was cooking over. It was obvious that she was still weak and in some pain from the effort. Yet she still managed to be as graceful as any feline from earth. Michael watched as she walked towards him and smiled lightly.

She sat down on her knees and asked, "Why did you save my life human?"

He looked at her for a second and replied, "Because you were hurt, and you are the only other sentient on this planet. It would have been lonely by myself. Besides that you are a child, could I really have left you to die without at least trying to save you?"