So, why then did he fret over a closed window?
He shook his head in an attempt to dislodge the fuzz filling his brain. No change except for the idea he’d become more alert. In fact, some kind of weirdness amplified his alertness. A low noise filled the background of his hearing, like a flock of birds around the corner.
Unnerved, he labored into a seated position and swung his legs off the bed. A wave of dizziness threatened his stability and his dignity. His stomach gave a sharp twitch of warning. His legs felt gummy, like they’d been replaced by overcooked spaghetti. Then the floor tiles began to revolve.
“What the hell?” He grabbed for his head, but that didn’t help.
He seized the bed frame. That stilled the floor tiles, but didn’t negate the nausea. “Christ…”
“Ah, you’re up.”
Liam turned to the sound of the voice and squinted enough to bring the Urilqii in the lab coat into focus. He swayed for another moment and fought to remember the face. He didn’t, but the nametag on the left chest pocket said Doctor David.
“Welcome back.” The doctor came to a stop beside the bed.
Liam wobbled and his vision doubled.
David cupped Liam’s head and a shoulder and eased him back down. He tweaked the blanket back over his legs and didn’t try to dislodge his hand from the bed frame, which was a good thing because Liam would have fought the idea. That seemed to be the only thing that kept his head on his neck.
“How long was I out?” Liam asked.
“Three days. We’re at Friday night. How do you feel?”
The doctor touched his forehead and the hollow of his throat with a small tube. Lights flashed colors he’d never before seen outside of his dreams and in a combination he didn’t know how to interpret, but the expression on David’s face showed happiness.
Hopefully, that meant he wasn’t about to kick it anytime soon.
“Okay, I guess.” He lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. “Like I’d expect to feel when in a hospital—puny, dizzy, and wanting to puke.”
Compassion filled David’s expression. “That’s never fun.”
Liam agreed. The doctor tugged on hospital gloves, and rumbled through the table drawer beside his bed. He withdraw a small square, then pushed the drawer closed with his knuckles. The outer package was tugged open to reveal a white medical patch, about the length of Liam’s thumb and covered in a viscous orange gel.
The doctor aimed it for his chest.
Liam fought the urge to cringe.
“What’s that?” Liam managed not to whine.
“This will combat your dizziness and nausea,” answered the doctor.
“Okay…good.”
In the next second, the doctor smoothed the patch onto his left bicep with a few quick, efficient movements. He stripped off his gloves as he stepped back.
“The symptoms you report will ease in moments now that the medicine has been—”
Liam gave a sudden roar. The patch was sinking into his skin!
He clawed at it, horrified, only to discover the thing was already untouchable.
Doctor David caught his hand and pushed it away. “Take it easy, Mr. Sinclair.”
“It’s…it’s…”
“Doing what it’s supposed to do.” The doctor had that calm and soothing tone all doctors seemed to have. “It’s a trans-dermal unit. The medicine enters through the skin and is, therefore, delivered directly—”
“We have trans-dermal patches,” Liam shouted. “I know what they’re supposed to do and they’re not supposed to do it that!”
Doctor David squinted, as though puzzled. “Your patches are not absorbed into the skin?”
“No, they…” Something caught his attention. “Wait a minute.
You’re trying to distract me.”
Delight radiated from Doctor David.
“Well done, Mr. Sinclair,” he said, robustly. “Now let’s talk about that.”
Had the guy taken a turn into crazy town? That wouldn’t be in any way okay.
“Talk about what?” He heard the healthy addition of suspicion in his own voice, but the doctor didn’t seem to mind.
“Let’s talk about sounds,” said the doctor.
“Uhh.” So maybe the guy had taken the wrong turn on the freeway of reality. “I’m hearing okay. I mean, we’re talking, aren’t we?” But wait. “Yeah, there’s a ringing in my head, if that’s what you’re asking about.”
“You’re hearing the sound of bells?” Doctor David’s eyebrows rose across his forehead. “That’s unusual.”
“Not bells,” Liam corrected. “Buzzing, like those big-ass bugs that’re always flying around this place.” The doctor’s smile widened. “Or birds. Yeah, like a flock of seagulls on the beach. Noisy as hell, except…” he fell silent.
“Yes?”
“They’re about a block away.”
“Huh.” The doctor pulled out a tool from his lab coat pocket. It looked like the hand-held flashlight medical personnel used to beam lights into a guy’s eyes.
No, he hadn’t lost his mind, for fuck’s sake.
“I mean that in regards to distance.” He rushed the protest.
“Not that they sound like birds or bees or anything like that.”
True to form, the doctor tilted Liam’s head back and beamed a bright light into his left eye. The light was the same weird dark orange of the goop on his skin patch. That alone bore witness to the fact he was in an alien hospital. Human doctors didn’t use orange for anything. Right?
“Uhhh.” It was a bit concerning to note how long David stared into his eye. “I’m seeing okay. There’s nothing wrong with my eye.”
“I’m not looking at your eye.” The doctor switched his attention to his right one. “I’m looking through the optical orbit. Tilt your head up a bit more.”
He did. “Why?”
“I’m checking to make sure there’s no bleeding or bruising in a particular area of your frontal lobe.”
“Whoa…what?” Liam jerked away from the light and Doctor David. “Bleeding or bruising? Why would I have either? I didn’t get a hit to the head.”
Or did he? Would
