Nanny Proxima Four

Rishi awoke the next day alone on his bed roll. It took a few seconds for him to realize who he was and where he was.

Light outside the cave indicated it was early morning, around 8:00 AM. Rishi looked to his left and saw a bottle of water. He picked it up, opened it and took a long drink. The water tasted wonderful.

Jonny heard his father stirring, walked from the back of the cave and said, "You okay Dad?"

"Yeah. Why kiddo?"

"You started to bleed clear liquid from your ears. Mom said it was a swelling of the brain. She and Bob left the cave to travel to town to see about getting you lifted before noon today, but I haven't heard from them and, well, they've been gone all night."

"That's not a good sign."

Jonny held out his hand and said, "Here. Bob gave this to me to give to you when you woke up. He said you have to do it, its part of the agreement."

Rishi drank more water, took the paper and opened it. On it was a note from Bob. "You must return without us. Your wife has much to experience."

Rishi looked at his son. "Did you read this?"

"Yeah. What does it mean?"

"I made a promise kiddo. I have to go back with Paul. You can stay if you like and wait for them or you can come with me."

"Can I look for them?"

"I don't think there's any point in that. That old man knows stuff and your mother gave him a very special gift so he gets to help her a lot. We have to trust him."

"I want to look for Mom, but, I know I should stay with you."

Rishi and Jonny waited expectantly for Terrie and Bob's return through breakfast and lunch, but they never came. Paul showed up at about ten minutes after noon with his ship hovering right outside the cave entrance.

Its was a stunning space craft. About thirty feet long, ten feet wide and a sleek oval shape. It was black with oddly reflective highlights of gray and white.

Jonny had waited outside for it and called his father when it appeared.

Rishi walked to the entrance as Paul Ashvale stepped out of the ship through its oval portal.

"Come on," said Paul, "we gotta get you to a hospital."

"But Mom's missing," said Jonny.

"I know," said Paul, "she called me and said she and Bob, that crazy old man, had fallen into a cavern and Bob was hurt. There is nothing we can do for them until they can get to another exit of the cave. Bob knows the cavern and the way out so he'll tell Terrie where they need to go, but it will be slow moving because of Bob's fractured leg. Once they get out, she'll call and I'll go get them." Paul looked at Jonny and said, "Don't worry Jon, she'll be okay."

Johnny and Paul helped Rishi into the space craft and lead him to the copilot's seat. Paul sat in the pilot's seat and said, "Xray-Seven-Alpha-Foxtrot-Delta-Niner-Echo to space traffic control tower seven-two, over."

Rishi put on his headset in time to hear the reply. "Xray-Seven-Alpha-Foxtrot-Delta-Niner-Echo received. Go ahead. Over."

"Permission to leave earth atmos and engage course for Proxima Centuri. Over."

"Permission granted, leave atmos on heading niner niner seven mark six zero five. Be careful around the moon, there's a concert today and a lot of kids who may or may not be paying attention to space traffic control. Over."

"Roger that. Thanks for the expediency. My friend is pretty badly hurt and time is of the essence. Over."

"Glad to be of service. Space traffic tower seven two out."

Paul closed his eyes and the space craft jumped through the atmosphere hitting nine times the speed of sound in a heart beat.

Leaving Earth's atmosphere, Rishi and his son marveled at the beautiful green, brown and blue ball below them.

"Dad?" asked Jonny.

"Yeah kiddo," said Rishi as he got a bit dizzy.

"How did she ever survive us?"

"Ha! I don't know. I guess she's just very resilient."

The space craft left the atmosphere of earth and completed the jump to hyperspace. In a matter of minutes they left hyperspace and were near the fourth planet from Proxima Centauri: a man made planet which, although quite stunning, carried none of the mystique of Earth.

Paul requested landing permission at the planet's main hospital and received docking instructions.

Upon landing a team of medical droids examined them one by one as they left Paul's ship.

Droid One, met Paul first and said in a very motherly tone, "Paul Ashvale! How many times have we told you to drink plenty of water on these inter-solar jumps?"

"Yeah. Yeah," said Paul. "I know. I know. I'm not the patient. Jon Rishi is."

"Oh my," said the Droid Two, "What happened to Jonny?"

Jon Rishi stepped out of the space craft and the Droid Three chastised the Droid Two and said, "Didn't you read Paul's travel report? Its Jon Rishi Senior that's hurt."

Droid Two said, "Oh my! I didn't even know you were still alive!"

Droid One said, "You haven't been in for a checkup in over two years, Jon Rishi Senior. You are such a naughty boy!"

Rishi shook his head and said, "Haven't they shut down those personalities yet? I mean aren't they annoying enough?"

The head shake had not been a good idea. He lost his balance and Droid One caught him.

"I'm going to ignore your careless remark," said Droid One, "now lets get that skull fracture looked at, shall we?"

Droid Three peered into Paul's ship and said, "where is Terrie?"

"She's trapped on Earth," said Jonny.

"Oh my! Can we go to her?" asked Droid Two.

"No." replied Paul. "That planet would destroy you in a matter of days. Medical bots do not do well in high moisture environments."

"But I could be retro-fitted!" demanded Droid Two.

"And who would pay for this retro-fitting?" asked Paul.

While the argument between Droid Two and Paul continued, Droid One was helping Rishi onto a hover stretcher while continuing to scan his body.

"My lord Jon Rishi Senior! You are dehydrated, malnourished, have a fractured skull, a damaged shoulder probably from a dislocation, many many scrapes and contusions and a fractured left tibia. What happened to you?"

"I walked off a 100 meter water fall," replied Rishi.

"Goodness!" Exclaimed Droid One. "Perhaps a psychological evaluation is needed. In any event you'd be much safer here, there are no such waterfalls on P.C. Four!"

By now Paul had requested the language circuits of Droid Two disconnected. Begrudgingly Droid Two complied.

Droid One took silent advice from Droid Two and stopped complaining.

Droid Three and Droid One pushed Rishi's stretcher down the hospital corridor to the waiting staff of humans and droids. The happiness was easier to read on the human faces, but clearly present on all of them. Its as if they were shouting, "Horay! Someone's sick or hurt!"

"I feel like a quark about to be observed," joked Rishi.

"Well," replied his son, "at least they'll not know where you're going, just where you've been."

Rishi smiled. His son had done a lot of growing up in the last couple years.

The medical team took Rishi to a special room and began mending him at the cellular level. The process took about forty minutes.

As the last doctor left the room with his assistant droid he said, "Imagine that! Forty minutes!"

"I know," replied the droid, "That's the most work anyone has needed for two hundred years."

"Feeling better?" asked Jonny.

"Yes. Much better. Lets go look for Terrie and Bob."

"We can't. I'm working on permission to go back. It'll be a while," replied Paul.

"The bureaucracy has gotten worse, huh?"

"Thats an under statement. They are calling it Nanny Proixima Four now."