Remember the Starfighter
Page 19
She said nothing in response, but stand next to him and look vacantly at the surrounding stars.
He glanced at her, noticing the woman’s empty stare.
“What do you mean?”
Chapter 25
Alone in the classified medical bay, Landon lay on his bed missing the entirety of both his legs. His body, covered in the foil of regenerative bandages, had been ruined beyond recognition.
On his face was burnt flesh, the severe wounds the result of a plasma blast. Glaring at his injuries, Julian stood behind the room’s glass panel, speechless as he saw how the contours of Landon’s body now ended down at his torso. Following emergency revival procedures, his condition had largely remained stable, as a tube funneled oxygen directly through his neck. In another day, the doctors would prep for the weeks-long surgery to restore the remainder of his body.
He looked at Landon and realized that he was now awake. The commander ever so slightly nodded, gesturing him to approach.
Landon said, relying on his telepathy to speak to Julian.
He spoke the words serenely, almost leading Julian to believe that everything was fine. But as he came to Landon’s bedside, he realized it was just an illusion. Landon’s face had been burned black, crusted with scabs. What was left of his long white hair had been charred, in some cases cauterized, severed down to the root. In one labored breath after another, Landon wheezed hard. He was like a man on his deathbed, his lungs struggling to inhale the air.
“No, no,” he replied, his voice cracking. “It’s fine. Really, it...”
Julian glanced down at Landon, and saw the traces of a smile form on his scar laden face.
“You look like shit.”
Julian nodded.
“Still, you look better than me,” he quipped. “I’m sure the doctors will restore your good looks in no time.”
Landon tried to sit up, his lower body almost mummified by the bandages attached to his skin. With his two hands, he clutched the surface of his bed, and propped himself forward.
“Yes… the sovereign. I met with her. I still can’t believe what happened.”
“I know. Sekandry, the other scientists...”
Julian closed his eyes, still wincing at the sight of Landon.
“Are you in much pain?”
Summoning what energy he could, Landon raised his nearly lifeless hand. Slowly, he nudged it against Julian’s arm.
“It’s okay Landon, you’ll be fine. It’s—”
Feeling the touch of the fingers, Julian opened his palm, and held Landon’s weakened hand in his own.
“Yeah,” Julian said. “Evah.”
It was a name he had not said in years.
“It’s in the past Landon. You don’t have to talk about that.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Shaking his head, Julian tried to hold back the feelings.
“It’s not important anymore,” he replied. “I just wanted her to be happy. That’s all.”
“What do you mean?”
Landon started to shake, as he clenched his jaw. Tightly, he held on to Julian’s hand, writhing in his pain.
“Are you okay?” Julian asked. “I can get the doctors.”
He closed his eyes, his deadened face unable to mask the shame.
Saddened, Landon stared off and away, tears nearly brimming at his eyes. Inevitably, Julian asked the question. It was one he could no longer ignore.
“Landon…Where is Evah?”
The commander, anguished by the question, hesitated in his answer.
“What happened?” Julian asked. “I assumed she was with you. I even thought that maybe she was here on the station.”
“It’s okay. Just tell me. I need to know.
Landon, feeling the guilt, let go of Julian’s hand.
Julian nodded, closing his eyes in sympathy.
“Before I came on to the station, I had thought that might have been the case,” he said softly. “The SpaceCore databanks said she was missing. But when I first saw you, I just assumed she was fine. Wasn’t she stationed with the Terran Hegemony?”
Julian let the thought sink in. Part of him had turned numb to such loss, and had grown to accept it. But to his side, he saw Landon and his mutilated body. Once again, it made him cringe.
“I thought both of you would have been safe. Away from all this.”
He walked off, and paced the room. “I thought at the very least you two…”
“The last I heard, Haven’s chancellor and her staff were wiped out. Their ships destroyed in the invasion.”
Julian fell silent, realizing he was only making it worse. He looked at Landon and could see his pain in all its clarity. With little else to say, he merely sat at his side, and repeated the name. “Evah,” he said, shaking his head.
Landon, lying in his bed, waved his hand.
Approaching the commander, Julian saw his glare. The violet eyes, shrouded in burns, still glinted strong.
Reaching out, Landon tugged him closer. He clung to him, his hand sinking deep into Julian’s shirt, even as it strained him to do so.
“What do you mean?”
“Landon, your thoughts, I’m not—”
“Landon, you’re not making sense. The shield, it should have killed off anything left inside.”
you’re skeptical> he said.
Julian saw the intense stare in his eyes. It begged him to act, as a weight seemed to fall into his mind. Landon’s inner voice grew louder. He rose from his bed, and grabbed Julian’s hand.
“Landon. I know the mission. But what you’re asking, I don’t think—”
“But I thought she didn’t have the technology or the means—”
Emphatic, the commander pressed on, using what energy he had left to cement his message.
Julian raised his head, and saw his former friend exhausted, the sweat dripping down all over his burned skin.
“Rest,” he said, grabbing the commander’s hand, and ushering him back to the bed. “I understand.”
Julian did so as Landon’s agitation gave one last echo inside his mind.
“I know,” he said. “I know.”
Catching his breath, Julian placed his face in his hand. To his side, Landon lay on his bed worn and tired. But still, he smiled, his conviction strong and unyielding. In time, the commander fell asleep, leaving Julian to his own thoughts. It was then that even he had begun to believe.
“You’re right,” Julian said. “Maybe. Maybe we can save them.”
***
He watched from the window and saw the blackness tremble. Across a vastness of space, it was there, eclipsing the starlight and sinking itself into the everlasting night. Stepping closer, he pressed his hand up to the glass and noticed the giant shadow spinning in the void.
“The machine fleet,” Julian said. “My God.”
Out in space, the armada churned, surrounding itself around a portion of Alliance Command. Made up of thousands of automated and self-replicating starships, it orbited the station and stood guard, each ship uniform and indistinct from another. Julian saw them from a station promenade and noticed the vessels were empty of windows, lights and activity. Weapons of war, they had become, discarding their former role as builders of galactic structures. Now they simply existed to fight, beating back the Endervars wherever they could, even as countless of their kin had been destroyed.
This, however, would all change; the end of the war was seemingly in sight. Soon the machine fleets would become more than just weapons, but bringers of galactic destruction. It was through them the Ouryan collapser would be escorted and deployed, their targets numbering at more than a thousand star systems in the first wave.
Specialist Alysdeon transmitted the words into Julian’s communication link, as the shadow in the window continued to ebb and flow. He nodded slowly, his stare still fixated on the power of the fleet orbiting before him.
“How soon will the collapser be deployed?” he asked.
“But now things are different, aren’t they?”
He then asked the question sitting in his mind.
“Is it true? What Landon said? Are there still people living on Earth?”
“Landon was adamant that the android could break the shield. He said we could save them. That all those people on the Endervar worlds must be alive, including Haven.”
“But I still don’t get it. Why is she a target? To go so far to destroy an entire facility, it doesn’t make sense.”
“The death of billions.”
Julian solemnly nodded, already deducing the cold-hearted logic.
“The supporters of the collapser must not be happy.”
“But to attack the facility and kill so many—”
Julian became quiet, realizing the stakes of the situation. “What do you think about all this?” he asked.
“But the collapser. Will the Alliance really abandon it?”
The specialist gave him the only conclusion she could surmise.
“Agreed. We have to see this through. I’ll do whatever I can to escort her.”
He looked at the data displayed on his handheld tablet and saw that it was an inventory of various classified intelligence. All of them were crucial files that would help him in his task. But within the directory subsets, the specialist pointed to one file in particular. In it, the Alliance had detailed preliminary plans for the deployment of the Ouryan collapser. Small colonies and remote planets to entire homeworlds, would be destroyed in the initial assault. However, among them, was also a planet he knew all too well. Haven, which was located near the tip of the Endervar’s advance, would be one of the first casualties, its population of 68 million people soon to be no more.
Chapter 26
It had been ages since she had last seen the image. That of herself staring back.
It came to her accidentally. Along the chrome of her armored hand, she saw the jagged reflection. Shining back was the vague outline of her uncovered face. Human. Female. This she had always known. But there was more. Much more. Her white skin, brown eyes, and black hair, every bit of it peering back. In fact, she could not only see it, but feel it — her body seemingly breathing at some pre-fixed beat.
Extend, she thought, shunning the image before her. Her suit responded, rapidly expanding the armor to cover her face and hair. Arendi had seen enough. She looked down at her arm now, and saw herself as she wanted. A machine, sheathed in silver. Her existence entailed nothing more. Or so she wanted.
Surrounding her now were several armed guards, each one as opaque as the next. Uniformed in black body armor, the guards towered over her, carrying large mechanical rifles at their sides. They had said nothing since escorting her to another secluded room. But Arendi could speculate as to why. She had seen the destruction.
An attack had killed the very people she had only recently come to know. Alien scientists, Alliance officers, and a human, all among those she had been told were dead or seriously wounded. She was not informed as to why, only that she had to be relocated immediately. It was to be done for her safety, the transition both smooth and uneventful. The guards, however, would say no m
ore; their duty was solely made to protect, not to converse.
Analysis, she demanded. As the scan came through, she registered the force fields outside the room walls. Motion trackers detected what she surmised were more guards patrolling the exterior. Protection, they had said, but clearly she was a prisoner. It did not help that Arendi was still damaged. Even as she was fully functioning, the power source inside her remained unstable. Its structure, rife with foreign energies, was barely under her control. For now, she simply siphoned off what she could, thinking it too much of a risk to do more.
She had only one comfort. Gradually, the world around her was becoming clearer, and knowable. Days earlier, she had been provided with access to Alliance networks. Through it, she could view all knowledge residing within the public databases. What she found was libraries of information on the Alliance, its peoples and technology, along with the state of the ongoing war. Of most interest to her was the fate of humanity. A link had been granted, giving her direct access to the Terran Hegemony. Methodically, she recorded all the data available, storing what was hundreds of years of history into her own memory core. Amongst the data, was the one file she had specifically requested. It seemed of little importance, given her circumstances. Her curiosity, however, couldn't help but spur her on.
ACCESSING…..
ID: U-5031-8476-OU
NAME: JULIAN M. NVERSON
BIRTH: 4/36/285 A.F.
CURRENT RANK: SF CAPTAIN FIRST CLASS
STATUS: SUSPENDED ON MED LEAVE
The file was a summary, with its contents written in brevity. The details had been limited to years, locations, squadron groups, and campaign names. Any further depth was locked behind security codes and military confidentiality.
Still, it was enough. Enough to at least learn something of the human who had recovered her.
MILITARY EDUCATION:
- YR 297 INDUCTION INTO STANDARD TRAINING
- YR 301 LEGEON FLIGHT SCHOOL – GRADUATE WITH PRELIMINARY FLIGHT STATUS RECEIVED
- YR 303 HAVEN FLEET ACADEMY – GRADUATE WITH HONORS AS FLIGHT CADET