Eight Months of Something?

                Eight Months of Something?


     Nathum continues to open the sliding entrance into that
room with the palm of his hand as four more males and two
females enter. With his other hand, he gestures for them to
take a seat in one of the empty chairs there. After poking
his head out into the thin corridor to see no one else is
coming in there, he removes the hand stopping the entrance
from closing. When he does that, it closes.

     By the time the entrance starts to close, Nathum is on
his way to stand in front of twenty-seven males and thirteen
females there. “Now that our tour is over, we can talk about
why you are here. This is where you will be living for the
next eight months.” Nathum gestures to the image on a large
monitor behind him.

     Everyone there looks up at that image.

              

                                            Then they look
back at Nathum one to three at a time.

     “Most of you will be trying to solve the reason why we
have been living within Galvian for almost nine hundred
years,” continues Nathum. “And when we can return to living
on Galvian again.”

     “The rest of you will be watching for any threats that
may come to us from Space,” says Nathum. “I have some other
things that need to be done. But if you need me, you can
contact me at any time.” Just then his image disappears.

                              ##

     Cacspon walks up behind Jassina and places his hands on
her shoulders. She pulls herself away from him. First, it’s
with her right shoulder. Then her left one. “Relax, I’m not
here to attack you.”

     “It’s not that,” says Jassina. “I was just a little bit
surprised by it.”

     “Is it that boring here?” Cacspon asks.

     Jassina looks over her shoulder at Cacspon. “What do
you think? It has been almost two months since we have been
here. And nothing has changed. Except for us being both male
and female here.”

     “Most of our time here we are staring into deep Space
looking for any threats to us,” continues Jassina. “The rest
of our time we are protecting everyone else here.”

     “That’s why I’m here,” says Cacspon. “It’s your turn to
protect us.”

     Jassina smiles as she gets up so that Cacspon can
take her place in front of a large monitor in front of them. “I
like protecting us. It gets me away from this boredom for
about an hour. Especially, when everyone else besides the
six of us here is asleep.”

     Just before Jassina leaves Observation, she stops to
look at the other five Galvians there. “See everyone in
about an hour.”

     Almost two hours later Jassina returns. “You have been
gone a long time. Is there something wrong?”

     “Unfortunately, no there isn’t. It’s just that it gets
so boring here that I took my time protecting us.”

                              ##

     “We have been here just over two and a half months,”
says Jassina after she gets up from her chair in that eating
room. “And we are still doing the same thing as we have
always done since we started coming here twice a year.”

     Jassina slowly looks all around her. A few Galvians are
talking to their neighbors. But most of them are looking at
her. “It was just a few Observers here for a long time. And
they were constantly bored while here. So bored that, it
threatened the reason why they were here and Galvian.”

     “The biggest question that almost all of us Galvians
have is when are we going to return to living on the surface
again. So, it was decided that we should start sending our
Researchers here to solve this problem,” continues Jassina.
“That hasn’t solved it either.”

     “Now we are trying to do it by having both male and
female Galvians here,” says Jassina. “So far, this hasn’t
solved anything. All we are still doing is either sleeping,
eating, or doing what we are here to do.”

     Patrinna enters the meeting room and starts walking
toward Jassina. “And what is your solution to this problem?”

     “Look around you. What do you see? Some of us have
gotten to know others here,” answers Jassina. “But most of
us are still individuals. We need to start getting to know
each other a lot more.”

     “Is that why you have asked me to come here during my
off time?” Patrinna asks.

                              ##

     Patrinna stands in front of the large monitor. Looking
up at an image of Nathum as he is speaking to her. “You’re
late for your weekly update.”

     “Sorry about that,” says Patrinna. “But I didn’t get
too much sleep last night because of some fun after the day
was over for our us.”

     “It sounds like your boredom problem is going away,”
says Patrinna smiling. “It’s about time. I was starting to
think that mixing males and females there wasn’t going to
solve it either.”

     Patrinna smiles back. “It has been just a little over
four months since we got here. But I think this problem is
almost over too.”

     “That’s great,” says Nathum. “Tell, me all about it. I
want to know everything.”

     “Well, I can’t tell you everything because I don’t know
it all. But what I do know is that almost everyone here is
getting close to someone else here. Some of them are getting
very close to that someone.”

     Suddenly, Nathum isn’t smiling anymore. “I was afraid
that something like this would happen if we mixed males and
females. That’s why I disagreed about it happening. But I
didn’t have a choice once the decision was made to try it.”

     “It has been about five weeks since it started,” says
Patrinna. “The reason I didn’t bring it up until now is that
at first, I didn’t think that it was going to happen. But
slowly it has. Especially, the last couple of weeks.”

     “Has it affected what they have been doing there yet?”
Nathum asks.

                             ####

     Cacspon comes into Observation and suddenly stops. His
jaw drops as he slowly looks around him only to see Jassina
looking at the monitors in front of her. Everyone else there
isn’t. They are having fun getting closer to each other.
“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” Cacspon asks very loudly.

     Jassina spins around in her floating chair. “I’m sorry
that I suggested that we get to know each other more. It’s
all my fault that this is happening.”

     “It’s not your fault,” says Cacspon. “It was a good
suggestion. After all, it did stop our boredom.”

     “It has been close to five months since we have been
here,” says Jassina. “And for almost two months now we have
been acting like this.”

     Jassina spins back around to her monitors and continues
looking out into deep space. “I think we would have been
better off if we had stayed bored.”

     “I don’t,” says Cacspon. “Boredom made us weak, lazy,
and tired. That’s how mistakes are made that endanger all of
us on Galvian.”

     “How is this any better?” Jassina asks.

     Cacspon walks up behind Jassina and puts his hands on
her shoulders again. Only this time she doesn’t pull away
from him. “Because of Galvians like you and me.”

     “This fun is happening all over where we are at here,”
continues Cacspon. “Most of us would rather have fun getting
to know each other than do what we are here to do. But some
of us haven’t given in to that fun.”

                              ##

     “It’s almost like we are suffering from some kind of a
sickness,” says Patrinna as she looks up at Nathum on the
large monitor in front of her. “All we want to do is have
fun now.”

     Nathum steps out of that large monitor and stands face
to face with Patrinna. “Is it possible it is a sickness?”

“     There have been a lot of sicknesses here since we
started coming here,” says Patrinna. “But none of them have
been like this one. That’s one reason why we don’t think
it’s a sickness.”

     “If it’s not a sickness, then what is it? Nathum asks.

     Patrinna shakes her head sideways sadly and sighs. “We
don’t know what is wrong with us yet. All we do know is that
we have been here three-fourths of six months. And only a
few of us aren’t acting like that.”

     “Maybe I should come up there,” says Nathum. “And check
it out myself.”

     “As the leader for this Galvian Community, that is your
right to do it. But I don’t think that you should,” says
Patrinna. “We still don’t know if it is a sickness. And if
it is, we don’t want you to get it too.”

     Nathum steps backward back into that large monitor.
Now he is facing her again as though he has never left it.
“You are the leader there. I will let you handle it. But
there are only about two more months for this group. So, you
need to handle it quickly.”

                              ##

     Nathum enters what has been a meeting room where they
also have been eating in. But now instead of floating tables
and chairs there are hovering Sleepers. And every one of
them has a Galvian on it. Nathum shakes his head sadly as he
slowly looks at everyone there.

     “So, it is a sickness. I have been thinking that it may
be one since you haven’t contacted me for a Weekly Update in
four weeks,” says Nathum.

     “Has everyone here gotten this sickness?” Nathum asks.
“Because it sure does look like they have. Is there anyone
looking at deep Space for any problems heading toward us?”

     Patrinna tries to sit up in her Sleeper. But she can’t.
“There is one watching deep Space. It’s Cacspon. And he has
been doing it thirty/eight for the last three weeks.”

     “That’s it,” says Nathum. “The mixing of males and
females has been the biggest mistake that any of us have
made since we started doing this.”

     “I know that you are only about halfway through your
seventh month here,” continues Nathum. “But after what has
happened this group can’t continue its eight months here.
Something else that has never happened before.”

     Jassina also tries to sit up. But she tries it on her
elbow facing Nathum. She also fails too. “It’s all my fault.
I’m the one to blame for what has happened here.”

     “It’s not Jassina’s fault,” says Patrinna. “I’m the
leader here. So, what has happened is my fault.”

                              ##

     “No, it’s my fault. I’m the one who walked into that
research room and got exposed to that sickness. And I’m the
one who has it to almost everyone here when I suggested what
we should try to get over our boredom problem.”

     Jassina stands in front of everyone in that meeting
room that now looks like one. “The only reason why Cacspon
and a few others didn’t get it was because they were doing
what they were here to do.”

     “If not for me, this mixing of males and females would
have been a success. Don’t blame that success because of
me,” continues Jassina.

     Just then, Jassina starts shaking her head vigorously.
She’s now back in Observation staring into deep space. “Did
you say something Cacspon?”

     “I said that I can’t believe our eight months here is
almost up,” answers Cacspon. “Only two more weeks and we are
out of here.”

     “Well, at least most of us are leaving. You are one of
us that isn’t going. Why are you staying after what almost
happened?” Cacspon asks.

     Jassina looks at Cacspon. “You have just answered your
question. After what I have done, it’s the least that I can
do for Galvian. I’m just happy they are giving me another
chance at helping Galvian.”

     “How many chances have you given us,” Cacspon asks.

     “This will be my third time in a row,” answers Jassina.
“But I have done it eleven times total over the last few
years, though.”


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