Awoken

by Alex South

  “Susan, get off of him,” Kai commanded sternly from the other side of the room.

  The strange creature gave a reluctant growl and bounced back off of Oa, floating lightly to the floor. She lay her head between adorably big paws and stared at Oa with eyes of blazing violet light. A long, billowing tail snaked across the ground behind her, wagging softly.

  “Sorry about Susan. It looks like she can’t contain herself around strangers. We never get visitors,” Kai called over from a work table she was sitting at. Oa realized that his crash into the tunnel entrance must have interrupted her work. She had already refocused on a task he couldn’t see from his spot on the floor.

  “She’s fine,” Oa said, bewildered but still grateful to be out of danger. He looked at Susan “What is she?”

  As if noticing his gaze Susan propped herself up on her paws. She puffed her chest out proudly and looked away with aloofness. She was a wispy creature; made entirely of cloud and energy. Like the sky, Oa decided. A lightning of deep violet crackled about her edges, containing her body of roiling grays and dense clouds. He looked closer and the shape of the strange creature became clearer. She had a pointed snout and features that carried a wild beauty. Above her strong jaws, two pointy ears stuck up. One of the ear tips bent slightly, making her face less intimidating and more endearing to Oa. Behind the fluffy head, an equally downy neck curved down to thick shoulders. The shoulders carried a pair of blunt round paws. The remainder of her body wound gracefully into a bulging tail. Susan’s body and tail filled half of the room as she posed nobly, floating lightly above the ground. The tail was the only part of her body not surrounded by the purple energy, and it billowed out in curly tufts. Violet light pulsed from deep within the Susan’s chest. Strands of lightning snaked out of her core to light her eyes and mouth. Other tendrils wound through her shoulders and down to her two paws, while a thick spine of light flowed down through her tail.

  Susan’s mouth opened in a yawn. Her smoky tongue rolled out, sparking with her purple essence. Concluding her yawn, she looked over and released a loud bark in Oa’s direction. The noise was accompanied by a compressed explosion of violet sparks inside her mouth. The energy holding her body together brightened briefly.

  “Susan is a lightning varl,” Kai replied cheerfully, still working diligently on the project up on the table. “I ‘ve heard some wild stories about other varls that used to exist, but I think Susan is the most special. She’s the only one left, and she’s my best friend …” her voice trailed off. The slightest hint of melancholy filled the air. “Come here you!” she called lovingly to the beast.

  Susan paused to stare at Oa briefly. Her wild eyes enraptured him. He had never seen anything like her. Susan was a dichotomy between the terrifying power of nature and the adorable spirit of a loving companion. The young Awoken wanted to hug the varl, but he kept his distance. He did not want to overstep his bounds in the creature’s territory. She curled her paws in close to her chest and bounced lightly through the air as she floated over to Kai. She is immensely heavy, yet she floats everywhere she goes, Oa observed as he sat marveling at the varl. Susan’s undulating body swelled then compacted as she narrowed her frame and shrunk down to lay just off the floor, encircling Kai and the table. The varl’s body hemmed Kai in like a protective wall. She is able to conform to whatever size she needs, Oa realized with awe.

  He looked up from his seat on the floor to survey the room. Light drifted down from strips of glowing white panels inlaid in the smooth high arching stone ceiling. He reasoned that the ceiling’s highest point must be at least three of his body-lengths tall. The light reflected off of golden yellow veins in the smooth stone walls, casting the soft glow he had seen upon entering. In the warm light, Oa could take full measure of the room. Ohm lay on Susan’s cot next to the entrance. The work table Kai was at, sat towards the far end of the chamber. A myriad of tools and machine pieces hung from racks bolted to the walls. Directly across the room from the entrance, an opening led to a second tunnel. A collage of papers had been pinned across sections of the walls; diagrams and charts of all sorts were drawn on the sheets. Oa quickly realized that the drawings were designs of various machines and structures. He stared at several, trying to decipher their purpose. With his curiosity fully piqued, he stood up and walked over to the table Kai was working at.

  Oa took a brief moment to observe his rescuer’s appearance. Kai had a slender white head divided into three sections by a Y-shaped, rust-colored face plate. Her alloys were scratched and scuffed. They gleamed dully in the light. Two round visual receptors glowed softly from the faceplate. Bolted to the top of her head was a tattered piece of purple cloth that hung down to one side, framing half of her face. From the chest down Kai wore a baggy brown jumpsuit. The drab colored fabric was stained and patched in places. Over the jumpsuit. she wore a fitted gray jacket. The front of the jacket was open to reveal the gleam of a soul ember as well as the dented and scored plates of her upper chest.

  Kai looked up at him abruptly, halting her work. Their gazes met.

  “So your friend’s got some serious bandages. You must have put a stasis ring on him to deal with the wounds, huh? Kai asked, staring intently at Oa. “I just ask because I almost mistook him for a Sleeper. Susan tends to get a bit rough with Sleepers when they go rabid.” There was a sharp undertone to her casual words.

  Oa paused before responding. Kai’s warning was clear, but he decided that he would not lie to her. “I wish it was a stasis ring. Ohm collapsed just before you rescued us. I found the Void infection underneath those bandages. He is my friend, though; and I trust him. He isn’t like the others. Fred won’t say anything, but I will demand answers from Ohm when he wakes up.” He took a half step back towards Ohm as he finished speaking, nervously looking at Susan.

  Kai laughed. “Don’t worry Oa. Friends are safe here. Susan will wreck whatever tries to hurt us.” She shifted her gaze back down to the table.

  Oa was relieved and slightly taken aback at the response. Kai was clearly confident enough in her companion to not be bothered by Ohm’s condition. Oa accepted the good fortune and leaned over Susan to see what was on the table. It was cluttered with sheets, most of which were blank. Kai was drawing on one of the larger parchments with a slender needle-shaped tool. A bright red light at the end burned her strokes into the parchment. Oa examined the drawing. In the center, Kai had drawn what appeared to be the layout of a dwelling. Around the central layout, more detailed drawings depicted the rooms from various angles to better display the architecture and design of the structure. There were figures drawn into some of the rooms. He quickly spotted depictions of Kai and Susan. There were two other figures as well in the drawings that he did not recognize.

  “It is very detailed. What is it?” Oa asked politely.

  “This is home, or at least it will be when I get Cale and Jess to help me build it,” Kai responded. She tapped the end of the drawing utensil idly against the table as she considered how to finish her work. Picking a blank spot on the page her hand began to rapidly draw in the final room of the dwelling.

  “Who are Cale and Jess? Do they live here too?” Oa asked looking over at the tunnel that led further into Kai’s home. “Will they mind Ohm and me hiding here?”

  “No they are back in …” Kai paused in her drawing to contemplate something. “I just have to find them again,” she sighed. “It’s been so long that I don’t remember where they are. It was a big place with lots of tall buildings, almost as impressive as mine.” She motioned to the drawings hanging from the walls.

  “Ohm and I were just in Bolleworth. Maybe your friends were there?” Oa offered helpfully.

  “No, no, that’s not the right place,” Kai said after mulling the city name over for a moment. “Who cares what the name of the place is, though? I have a ship now. It will help me find them. Come see.”

  With a flourish of her wrist, Kai finished her drawing. She jumped up onto the chair, drawing in hand. Sh
e hopped over Susan to stand next to Oa. He noticed that he was just barely taller than Kai. Susan had been napping and was startled awake by Kai’s sudden movement. The lightning varl uncurled from around the table and rolled onto her back. She stretched out, sparking slightly as her tail uncurled across the room. Her body expanded then contracted down to the size of an Awoken. Susan floated up next to Kai. The inventor turned and picked an empty spot on the wall, then slapped her drawing up in the blank space. The picture stuck to its new home, held by unseen adhesive.

  Kai grabbed Oa by the hand and hurried him down the other tunnel. This tunnel was shorter than the first one; and when it opened up, Oa could tell he and Kai were in a much more open room. Kai punched a panel on the side of the wall, activating strips of white lighting panels in the ceiling. The same familiar warm yellow glow filled the space as the light reflected off of the veins in the rock. The room was more of a cavern. There were many tools and pieces of equipment scattered about the area. Shelves and cabinets lined the walls, holding more of Kai’s odd trinkets. What caught Oa’s attention most though was a large ship, resting in the center of the cavern.

  Oa reasoned that he must be staring at a vehicle meant for flight. The vessel’s main structure was a thick disk bisected by a central hub, which sat at the forefront of a powerful engine cluster. The upper right side of the ship was enclosed in scored, gray-metal panels. Oa could tell that the craft had once been adorned with a deep matte-blue and glossy-gray color scheme. Several rough patches of the colors remained in various places along the hull. A gleaming cockpit window made up the forward edge of the ship’s right side. Behind the cockpit, the structure cut inward, making space for a broad wing. The wing was folded back behind the cockpit next to the engines. The other side of the vessel was a half-circle, open-decked platform with only a skeleton of support beams. There was no metal paneling on the left side of the ship, but there were a few translucent panels covering the front of the deck. A rectangular piece of the deck lowered down through the bottom of the floor, serving as an entry ramp.

  Oa and Kai walked up to the ship, but Susan did not follow the pair. Instead she began nosing about the room. She inspected the familiar floor and corners as if to make sure the chamber had not changed in her absence. Standing beneath the vessel with Kai, Oa got a better sense of its scale. The ship rested a body-length off the ground on three sturdy landing pads. Oa ducked slightly as they walked under the craft. The underside of the vessel was covered with the same worn metal panels that clothed the upper half of the ship. The hull curved down into a broad flat underbelly. Several blue glyphs had been recently painted on the bottom of the ship, right next to the landing ramp.

  “ARI,” Oa said, reading the glyphs aloud.

  “Yup! That’s it’s name—ARI,” Kai agreed energetically. “I found it scratched into the pilot’s console. I think it’s a great name for a ship like this.” She ran her hand across the underside of the hull and leaned up close to peer at the seam between two of the plates, inspecting it.

  “Did you build this?” Oa asked.

  “No, I rebuilt it,” Kai corrected as she grabbed a nearby tool from a cart, using it to patch the weld she had been inspecting. The instrument blazed white-hot as its pointy tip sparked and burned. Kai finished her work and tossed the device back onto its tray.

  “I found the wreckage of this hunk of junk scattered in the canyons; most of it buried. Susan and I hunted down all the pieces and dragged them to this cave. Then I rebuilt it. The blasted thing took a billion or so cycles to reassemble. I’m still missing a piece, so it doesn’t work yet. Come here; I’ll show you,” Kai explained as she grabbed Oa’s hand, pulling him up the ramp after her.

  Oa allowed himself to be led up the ramp onto the open deck of the vessel. He had little time to look at his surroundings, but he scanned the deck as quickly as he could. There were two thick metal struts overhead that ran out from the central hub of the ship down into the railing that bordered the edge of the deck. A hefty metal track was bolted above the railing. Several broad metal panels were stacked up at the end of the track next to the ARI’s bulky thrusters. Two metal pillars supported the overhead struts and held a peculiar piece of machinery up on the roof. The machine appeared to be a collapsed metal appendage with four digits hanging limply up at the end. Oa spotted several controls on the panels bolted to the support pillars. He didn’t have time to look further because Kai had pulled him through the first of the two doors leading into the enclosed half the ship. They walked into a circular room that was dark except for a dim light coming through a viewport in the front of the hub. Oa turned and looked out of the window. He was staring out into the large hangar. On either side of the viewport, both halves of the disk-shaped ship extended forward like a pincer. Kai let go of Oa’s hand and hit a panel in the wall. Orange lights in the roof activated with a slight flicker. Oa turned and looked at the room. The first thing to catch his visual receptors’ attention was a raised half-dome platform in the center of the chamber. He reasoned that the platform also sat in the center of the whole structure.

  “This is the central power hub. The whole ship is functional but there is nothing to power it,” Kai said, walking up to the platform. She pointed to a missing section at the front of the power hub. “I think a fusion drive gets plugged in here.”

  Oa looked where she was pointing. There were two empty sockets for the fusion drive to plug into. The spacing and layout of the depressions in the platform seemed familiar, but Oa could not figure out why.

  “Silly question; but you don’t happen to be carrying a fusion drive in your bag, do you?” Kai asked.

  Oa shook his head and shrugged. “Sorry, I don’t know what that is—back in Bolleworth, I saw a lot of strange artifacts. Maybe one of them was a fusion drive.”

  “No,” huffed Kai. She slouched down into the empty power hub. “Susan and I have already checked there. Nothing but useless junk and Sleepers.” The perky Awoken sat up and pointed at Oa. “You seem comfortable enough dodging around the Legion. Their fighters have to be powered by fusion drives. I spotted a Legion outpost a few cycles ago. It’s not too far from here. It’s tucked high up in the canyons. They have been monitoring Bolleworth for several cycles now, probably waiting for something.”

  Oa could sense where the conversation was leading. He wanted to help make the ARI fly again. A ship would certainly speed up his and Ohm’s travels. So he decided that they needed Kai as an ally. He was also growing fond of Kai and her strange comrade.

  “Can you take a Legion fighter apart fast enough to steal a fusion drive before anyone notices us?” he asked.

  “Of course I can!” Kai exclaimed enthusiastically, jumping up out of the power hub. “All we got to do is track down the outpost and infiltrate it. You can watch my back while I nab us a fusion drive. So what do you say to that plan, Oa? If you help me get the ARI flying, I can get you and your friend far away from those goons.”

  Oa considered Kai’s proposal. He wished Ohm was awake so they could talk things over. So far his strategy had worked. He had stolen the soul embers, and now he had the Legion’s attention. He needed help though, and Kai’s motives seemed honest. Oa felt that her ship was his best chance to stay ahead of the Legion while he searched for answers in his quest to stop Eol. The young Awoken’s curiosity also urged him to accept Kai’s offer. He wanted to try his hand at piloting the ARI. It was much more interesting than the crude Reapers the Marauders flew.

  “Your plan seems as good as any. I will help you fix your ship in return for a ride,” Oa said, accepting Kai’s offer. “But only if you teach me how to fly ARI,” he blurted impulsively, slipping the proviso into the agreement before the deal could be sealed.

  “There’s the catch,” Kai said, punching his arm teasingly. “We have a deal then. Let’s get this thing into the air first, and then I will do my best to show you how to pilot it.”

  Oa followed Kai as she walked back onto the open deck and off the ship.
Susan was hovering by the bottom of the ramp, gnawing at an unruly clump of lightning in her tail. Kai patted the varl’s head as they passed. Little purple sparks arced across her hand.

  “I knew you would help, Oa. I can tell you are honest. When you crashed into our door, Susan gave her happy growl. It’s the same one she gave me when I first met her,” Kai explained as she walked toward the far edge of the room.

  “Did she tackle you when she first met you, too?” Oa asked, amused as Susan whizzed by looping around them in excitement.

  “Nah, she took me and flew me far away,” Kai said, fondly remembering her first encounter with Susan. The two Awoken reached the edge of the cavern, stopping in front of several metal cabinets lined across the wall. Kai opened one of the cabinets and pulled out a thick belt composed of cinder-black strips of metal linked together by a shimmering mesh. The belt carried twin holsters made of a thick black material. A purple bandolier hung under each holster. Kai strapped the belt around her waist, over her jumpsuit. Then she buckled her jacket up, covering her soul ember. Oa thought of the cavity in his chest where the mystical stone should be.

  Kai pulled open several drawers, from which she grabbed three fist-sized cylindrical objects. She set them on an empty shelf. Various symbols and hazard warnings were crudely painted on the canisters. She pulled out a box of glowing blue blocks from another drawer. Oa noticed that the pieces where transparent and could easily fit in an Awoken’s palm. The glow came from blue energy swirling inside. Kai removed the bricks from the box one at a time, sliding them into her left bandolier. Then after some hunting, she found more of the strange rectangular bars. These were black instead of transparent, and Oa could not tell what was inside. Kai slotted them into her right bandolier.