Chapter 2

"After lunch Doctor Hamid will discuss with you the possibilities for improvement which we can bestow and how this will be done. He will also inform you as soon as we receive it, the decision of our council on the matter of your return. Don't worry about it, I am certain they will agree and anyway we can do nothing about getting you back at this time. You will just have to be patient. With your new body and all its future possibilities that should not be hard to do. I will leave you with Hamid to make arrangements."

With that, the General got up and left us. I looked over at Hamid and asked when we would meet.

"I see you have a watch and as our time on board the ship is different from yours, I will work with your time. My wrist computer will keep me right on that point. I will show you to your cabin now and you can rest. I will pick you up and I will order something to be provided for your meal and collect you and take you to my office. We will eat there and then I will take you through what we hope to do for you while you are with us. I suspect it will be almost a year of your time."

I was about to say something, but Hamid held up his hand. "Later, he said, "We will discuss everything later and you will have a better idea of everything when we have finished. Now go and rest."

He beckoned me to follow him and we left the small lounge area. After being taken along a myriad of passages I began to get some idea of the vast size of the vessel which I had boarded. "It must be a cross between Dr. Who's Tardis and the Starship Enterprise," I thought with a smile.

"Unfortunately we cannot make it look small while it has a vast inside," Hamid said with a grin. "But we can screen it effectively from the prying eyes of lesser civilizations. The Starship Enterprise is a useful picture for now though we may be even bigger than that."

I keep forgetting that the doctor can read my mind, this is going to make life difficult for me if I have to live with these creatures for some time. I will also have to stop thinking of them as creatures since they are much more intelligent and advanced than we are. "I will have to think of them as super persons," I thought with a grin.

Once again Hamid replied, "I think persons will be enough. Any of our crew you meet will understand your difficulty when it comes to classifying us."

Just as we finished saying this we arrived, at what I learned later, was to be my cabin for the duration of my stay on the ship. They had catered for me there and was an earth style computer at my disposal. I took the doctor's advice, lay down on my bunk and before I knew it I was fast asleep.

The doctor collected me some time later and we ate dinner in his cabin. Once we had finished a steward came and cleared away the remnants of our meal and Hamid suggested we get down to business.

"From our conversation earlier today you will have gathered that we have advanced your mental abilities in several ways. You now have a photographic memory and we have sharpened your hearing and learning centre so that you will have a facility for acquiring and speaking other languages fluently. Later we will put you on to the ship's computer and you can select the languages you most wish to learn. You will acquire them speedily so tackle them one at a time and then you can practice them with me as your tutor."

I had already French at my fingertips as we had bought a house in France during one of my marriages and used it as a holiday home. I decided that the next two I would learn would be Spanish and Italian since I had liked holidaying in those countries in the past. If I was to live in roughly the same time zone I felt I should also add Japanese and Chinese. Japanese because they were the up and coming power in the early part of the second half of the twentieth century and Chinese because they were the ascending power in the latter part of it and at the beginning of the new millennium. When I outlined my plans, Hamid smiled and told me he thought that they were wise choices.

"Now I want you to consider this, I spoke to the captain about what I feel is your latent potential to develop telepathic abilities. I don't think you will ever be able to probe deeply into the minds of everyone on your planet. I think, however, that you can gain some skill in knowing what is going on in their minds."

"That could be a two edged sword," I told him. "If I can read the minds of people around me I can imagine how horrifying that might be at times, especially if you find the man next door is thinking about murdering his wife or you can hear the obscene fantasies of people around you."

"That may be so, but I don't think you will achieve that level of ability. But you will be able to sense people's moods and anticipate their actions, especially if they are having hostile thoughts towards you. That will be a tremendous advantage to have, especially if we sharpen and enhance your martial arts skills."

"I can see where, at that level, it may well have its advantages though I hope I don't come across too many people who bear me ill will."

"If you are in earnest about helping the girl the general asked you to aid, it will also have advantages in that quest. You will be able to sense if she is attracted to you which, if she is, will help you from the outset of your task. There is also the possibility that as you grow closer, what you learn from her will help you to understand her insecurities and the things which in the end led to her death."

"Are you suggesting I should be her counsellor as well as her lover?" I asked,"Because I don't think that would work."

"No! I am suggesting that you become her lover who as he grows to understand her through the gifts he has been given, will be able help her grow in confidence and bolster her sense of self worth. Hopefully that will help her to come to terms with who she is.

Through your loving acceptance of her you can help her to love and accept herself. I suspect that though she is a shy, timid, but kind hearted person, for some reason her sense of self worth has been undermined so that she does not feel loved or perhaps even lovable."

"That might be an inspired guess," I told him, "But I would not want to approach the kind of relationship you desire with those kind of preconceptions in mind."

"They are not as wild a guess as you might think. General Argon is an old and trusted friend. He let me into his mind so that I could see the nature of his relationship with her over the few days he spent with her. These are the feelings which were inspired in me as I probed through his thoughts about her and her responses to him. Even then, in her first year, she was feeling lonely and isolated."

"I will bear in mind what you say Hamid and you may well be right. If I can develop the abilities you suggest, I will be able to either confirm whether or not what you say is true. I will certainly hope so anyway, because I really would like to help her no matter what form our relationship takes."

"Then I am glad of that, it is because of those qualities within you that we hoped you would feel as you do"

"I am flattered," I said with a smile, "But before you humble me by telling me the bad things you discovered, let me say there is no need. Doubtless there may be more, but I think I have accepted and come to terms with most of them. As a result, I try to control the kind of actions and reactions they would provoke in me."

"Wisdom and experience comes with age in most species within the galaxy, but I am afraid that in all species there are always some who never learn and therefore never change for the better," Hamid said with a rueful smile. "Tomorrow we will start on your teaching process and by the end of it you may well not only be better equipped for your new life, but may even be a better man Because of what you learn here."

"I will look forward to that Hamid and I hope what you say proves true."

"Then let me take you back to back to your cabin. Get a good night's sleep and tomorrow we will begin by getting you used to finding your way about the ship so that you can come and go without getting lost."

One thing I discovered about my life with the new body I have been given since I came aboard this vessel, I have developed a happy capacity to fall asleep and stay that way till morning. This is a pleasant sensation which I had not experienced for more years than I care to remember.

The Next morning was spent with Hamid touring the area of the ship in which I would spend most of my time. I was also shown the areas which I would not be allowed to enter for safety reasons. By the time we sat down to lunch, which was again served in his office, I had a fair idea of my way around the limited area in which I was allowed to travel.

In the afternoon I was given my biggest surprise yet. Hamid sat me in front of a large screen. He then pressed a button and the screen lit up showing me a human form. As I looked the figure on the screen spoke to me.