5

I came to consciousness in spurts. My consciousness wasn't clear yet, so I somehow perceived the white ceiling as the ceiling of the honey hull on the ship. But when I looked to the side, I saw something that simply couldn't be on the ship. I'd only seen it on a few planets. It was plants. Lush green, with colorful flowers, and there were lots of them.

They were on the window sill of a normal window. And outside the window was a blue sky. I realized clearly that this was not a ship.

Consciousness left me again, and when I woke up for the second time, I felt a little better. I began to look around. My body was in an unfamiliar room. Four white walls, with only my bed and bedside table as furniture. Much of the space was taken up by various devices monitoring my condition. There were wires running from these devices to my hands. Nearby was a stand with a drip. I was lying on a couch, covered with a white blanket.

At that moment another discrepancy caught my eye. My hand with the wires seemed too thin. I lifted it up to make sure, and froze, amazed. It wasn't my hand at all. The small, skinny palm of some teenager, not a grown man in his forties.

I stared at the limb for what seemed like hours in shock. Then, just as carefully, I looked at the other hand. It, too, was childish, undeveloped, and not at all hairy like my old one.

The realization hit my brain - I had woken up in someone else's body. And most likely on a planet unfamiliar to me, as I had never seen such a bright blue sky before.

A little later, I began to think about something else. Those puny little hands aren't necessarily male. My heart started pounding like crazy and I began to lift the blanket with cold sweat, thinking, "Friend, have you really left me?" My heart sank into my heels when I didn't see him right away, but a moment later I breathed a sigh of relief - here he was, my dear, it was just that the room was quite chilly. My buns unclenched with relief.

Only when I found direct confirmation of the fact that I was a male, I realized that there were no female breasts either.

After that, events galloped on. A nurse entered my room, a stout middle-aged woman. She could be called pretty, if the woman did not frown so much eyebrows and did not tweak her lower lip. As it was, she was a bit of an amateur.

She didn't immediately realize I was awake. At first she quickly went to the devices, pressed a few buttons, checked the drip, and only then looked at me. From surprise she even shrieked and covered her mouth with her hand.

It took her about a minute to realize the situation, and all that time we looked at each other. Then it was as if she was blown away by the wind and in a moment the room was filled with people. It was a doctor and several members of the nursing staff.

I knew nothing about this planet or its inhabitants, so I made the decision to go unrecognized. The locals must not find out that I was an immigrant from another planet.

The nursing staff was very active - they were checking the devices, running around the ward, doing some important, no doubt, but completely incomprehensible for me. And the doctor concentrated on me.

He asked me a lot - what was my name, how I felt, constantly felt me and wrote something down. I was surprised to realize that I understood the local language well and could operate freely with it. This discovery surprised me. Probably the knowledge of the language was left over from the previous owner of the body.

When questioned, I answered that I didn't remember anything. And that was true. I really did not remember anything that had happened to this body before I had lived in it.

The doctor called out to his colleague. A fairly young man with dark hair came into the room and didn't ask me anything. He started doing some strange manipulations with his hands on my body. I felt tingling and warmth. Then he grinned and said:

- Your health is fine. The fractures have long since healed, the injuries have healed, and there are no signs of mental confusion. There's some mild muscle atrophy, but that's natural after months of coma. Amnesia. The exact cause of the amnesia is unknown. Could be head trauma, could be shock amnesia. But it's most likely temporary, young man. I'm done. If you'll excuse me, I have good news to tell his family.

The man was followed by everyone else, and I was left alone for a while until the previously mentioned nurse brought me some food. My first meal on an unknown planet. It wasn't until I smelled the food that I felt brutally hungry. But though it was hard to even call it soup, I gulped it down almost without looking, I was so hungry. Too bad the request for a supplement was denied, since my body hadn't taken in food in months, there might be digestion problems. I'll have to be patient until this body's functions return to normal.

Meanwhile, the outskirts of the city center, the Besonov Manor

In the center hall of the large manor, an elderly woman paced back and forth like a caged animal. Her thick gray hair fluttered as she walked, her lips pressed into a thin line, her gray eyes flashing lightning bolts of fury. There was still a sense of confidence and strength in her gait despite her age. Her low heels clattered loudly on the parquet.

Next to her sat a gray-haired man in an expensive, carved armchair, watching the flames dancing in the fireplace. Like the woman, the man was still strong and well-built, his features sharp and predatory. This seemingly old man had a lot of experience and strength behind him.

- Will you stop it already? Isn't it time to calm down?

- How can I calm down, Misha. How can I calm down? I, like the last stray dog, was not allowed to see him. They wouldn't let me see my own grandson. The boy is finally out of his coma, and I can't even see him. How can I rest after this?

The man lifted the heavy gaze of his dark eyes to the woman and sighed heavily.

- He is not a member of our clan, Marguerite. We need to take special permission to visit him first.

- First, they took our daughter from us, deceived us, and now they won't even let us see our boy.

The man did not react in any way to her words and did not correct her. After all, the woman is wrong. The boy is not ours at all.

- Because of these creatures our kind is dying, we have suffered so much. And as if that were not enough, they won't even let us see her son. He's our only grandson, all that's left of our beloved daughter. They're just mocking us, Misha. Why doesn't the emperor allow us to take him by force?

The man sighed heavily again.

- You know why, Margarita. If he allowed us to do such a thing, the clan would go to war against the clan. The Emperor can't allow that, or the aristocracy will revolt, wondering why he would favor an almost dead clan so much. And he would be doing us a real disservice by allowing it. The Emperor cannot have favorites.

- But to deny me access to my own grandson is beyond insolent.

- It was insolent to turn the boy against us. Do you remember what happened when we went to his twelfth birthday party and I gave him a gift? He told me I was only good for giving trash. That's why our daughter ran away to another clan. Do you remember how arrogant he looked at me then?

- Our daughter fell in love with a bastard who cheated her. And so did you and me. If I'd known how it would turn out, I would have killed that cute little puppy with my own hands. That pathetic little rat showed his true colors only after his father died. He trained his grandson to hurt and humiliate his own family, who really loved him. I'm not gonna let this go, and I've got the paperwork ready.

- I don't understand you, old girl. Why another trial? The last two weren't enough? Wasn't the humiliation you suffered enough?

Margarita Besonova wrinkled her nose at the mention of age. At first she had tried to solve everything peacefully, offered a lot of money for her favorite daughter's talentless, slightly strange child. Tried to negotiate, to make a deal. But that damned clan had humiliated her by pointing her out the door. And even her friendship with the emperor couldn't help. They simply left her no choice.

- This time I'm gonna get what I want.

- You want to hear that again, don't you? Cause that's what's gonna happen. The kid's gonna go public again, saying he doesn't want to go to that rotten family. Is that what you want, old girl?

- You didn't hear all that because you never showed up for any of the trials.

- Because I've had enough humiliation. I've had enough of that boy. If he wasn't our daughter's son, I'd have declared war on those bastards a long time ago.

- Come to court this time, I beg you.

And, turning around, the woman left the room. The man remained, still staring thoughtfully into the fire.

I stayed in the hospital for three more days. All that time I examined my new body, and came to disappointing conclusions - the kid had put a huge bolt on his development. Of course, this could be blamed on a few months without movement, but even so things should be a little better.

But let's leave the physics aside. To my delight, I've discovered something that I'm immensely excited about - this body has a predisposition to psi. Which meant that I might well be able to reach my former level, or even climb higher.

On the third day, a nurse I already knew informed me that I was being discharged today, and that my father was coming to pick me up. I immediately wondered why he had not shown up until now. After all, he was definitely informed that my son was out of the coma.

But my father didn't come for me. I was taken away by some people, men of strong build. These people look like security guards to me. It seems that the father of the previous owner of the body is someone important. They treated me and the people who came to pick me up with respect, even you could say fawned over us. And that's a nice bonus.

Okay, since "father" is a big shot, he's probably a very busy man, so he sent his servants after his son. Let's assume everything's fine.

A few things were packed in just a minute, the young doctor talked to people, describing my condition in detail. I was given some things to wear so that I could leave this hospitable place in peace without flashing my bare ass under the hospital robe.

The clothes were very comfortable and pleasantly cold. Most likely, such attire is used here for sports.

We stepped out into the courtyard, and I was able to look around properly. The hospital building was very large, probably the size of an entire ship of good luck people from a former life. But that wasn't what impressed me. It was very beautiful. There were streets paved with stones I had never seen before, and colorful flowerbeds next to the streets. There were many benches around, and several trees grew over each of them, creating shade.

It was now daytime and I could see everything in detail. There was only one sun in the sky, and it was blinding my eyes. It was all so strange and unfamiliar to me.

The whole hospital complex was enclosed by a fence. I, accompanied by my father's men, went outside it and saw, if I understood correctly, our means of transportation. They looked a lot like the vehicles we used after missions to get home. Big, aggressive black colored jeeps. I liked this means of transportation.

So far, it's going well and is not alienating. Everything I've seen, I basically like it. We'll see what happens next and what I have to deal with.