I sat cross legged upon the bed, arms locked behind my back in metal restraints. They were heavy, reaching from my elbows to fingertips in a painful conjoining.
They could’ve been gentler about it. They’d chosen not to.
My neck was stiff from the electricity that’d passed through it as well, there was blood on my face, and my shins ached from kicks they were not trained to deliver. I even suspected one of my teeth had come loose.
In short, it'd been an ugly scramble, and it was only some minute ago that the two guards had finally stepped outside as they accepted that I wouldn’t fight back anymore. That I couldn’t.
The figure sitting across from me made sure of that.
Unreadable eyes, carrying three shifting rings instead of the normal pupils, stared into my own. They were set deep within a face which lacked any expression to speak of. I didn’t find any, at least, not that I’d ever been good at reading the emotions of a Luminesari.
The alien species lacked much of the facial structure of mankind, and instead communicated their more subtle feelings through the undulating colors of their tattoos.
They were inherent things, seeming more like luminescent groves rather than lines of ink. In one second yellow, then light green, only to switch into an overlapping mix of the two. I knew there were other colors as well, but their skin always remained in the hues of blues or purples.
The one before me now almost had an ocean green tinge to his pale complexion and he was tall. He would’ve been even if I wasn’t so damned short.
The Luminesari used to stand at an average height of 7 feet before they went extinct along with humanity. They should have, at least.
My head pounded.
I remembered seeing their home world collapse upon itself, leaving the last celestial lights to extinguish across the cosmos. Yet here one of them was, and in the corner of the room stood their young assistant — dressed in the same medic’s garb as the Luminesari — slowly rubbing her neck where ugly marks were forming. Human.
“You must be surprised,” the Luminesari said. Male, I realized.
Although over a hundred years had passed since I last saw one of his species, alive and undefiled, I could still recall how the words of their female counterparts touched the mind as much as they touched the ear.
“I am Celian Il Suen Vilcalori, Luminesari, descendant of Celesium and—”
“I know,” I said, shortly. It wasn’t his species that confused me. It was everything else. “Where are we?”
My interruption caused a ripple of light blue to pass across his glowing tattoos, but beyond that, he didn’t react. He was observing me just as much as I was observing him, but where he held scientific inquiry in his demeanor, I was merely cautious.
My eyes darted across the walls, trying to find any irregularities. I carefully studied every movement they made, searching for inconsistencies.
I still hadn’t ruled out the possibility that this was all an illusion – a suspended mind simulation made to extract information from me.
Why or what information they looked for, I didn’t know, only that I needed to be careful.
“It can be a disorienting experience,” the Luminesari — Celian — said, his tone just as calm as before. “The first time you leave your home world to come beneath the Triumvirate’s touch is said to be life changing. You’re bound to—”
“Hold on,” I said, having just managed to pull myself upright on the crisp bed sheets.
My cuffs weighed heavy on my arms, but I just stared at those shifting tattoos of the alien before me, trying to unveil the lie that lay hidden underneath.
“What do you mean?” I asked with a frown.
“That the moment we left your mesosphere behind, you became another child blessed by their eternal light,” Celian said, and with a lax motion of his fingers, the lights within the room dimmed. A second later, three bright stars came to life, suspended in the air before me.
My heart beat faster.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Their light still burns?
“The Triumvirate will nurture you and set you on your correct path,” Celian continued, and the vision distorted. The stars disintegrated, turning into bright dust which spread across the galaxy – reaching every planet and living being within. “You humans have called it ‘the System,’ ever since you first began wandering the stars millennia ago.”
I fought to keep the frown off my face.
It wasn’t like this was new information to me, but for mental trickery, it was all too convoluted.
If they’ve managed to strip me off my mental protections, bashing straight into my mind wouldn’t be hard for any competent psycher. Least of all someone capable of creating such an elaborate illusion…
There must be inconsistencies. Somewhere.
“And my home world is?” I asked.
“Ferada-1109?” Celian said, the yellows of his expressions intensifying. Concern? “Did you suffer memory loss from the integration with the interface?”
He leaned in closer, raising a few slender fingers towards my face. Those swirling, tattoo-like patterns were present there on his hands as well, lighting up in a hypnotic manner in front of my eyes.
Before the mental probe could begin, however, I pushed back against it with force.
Although I’d never had any real talent in the mental arts, even for a Luminesari, Celian was a century too early to try me. Mental enhancements or not.
Or so I thought until I brushed up against something vaster than the deserts of Ikal’d. Deeper. Older. More complex. Nothing that should’ve been present in a place like this, and I slammed into it like a speeding meteorite.
My headache flared up again, worse than ever before. It was skull splitting, and even as that mental probe hastily disappeared, the fizzling streaks of black and white kept crackling across my vision.
“My apologies, child,” Celian said, another wave of blue having passed across his impassive face. Faint surprise? “I hadn’t realized you knew to resist. I’ll ask next time, and…” His hand began to move once more before he caught himself, and he slowly lowered it. “Is your head all right?”
“I’m fine,” I groaned, having sagged down against the wall. Mental whiplash was one of the reasons I’d always preferred mods over training when it came to shielding my mind. I hated this feeling. “Just a bit fuzzy.
“I…I’m sure, if you just help answer a few of my questions, everything will become clearer.”
My pained expression must’ve been worse than I realized as the medical assistant stepped forward, a syringe ready in her hands.
“Sir, should I…?” she asked, her tone professional even as the glances she sent me seemed a bit too eager. Those marks I’d left on her neck really did look painful, and I wasn’t keen on finding out what that syringe contained.
Fortunately, Celian shook his head.
Then again, where the gesture was probably meant to put me at ease, it instead caused my pulse to rocket.
Where most Luminesari were undoubtedly familiar with human customs, few ever lowered themselves enough to partake in them. Least of all someone with powers on par with their great nobility.
A renegade or an exile?
I measured the distance between us, suddenly tense.
No matter who Celian Il Suen Vilcalori was, he was dangerous.
Then again, the fact that he hadn’t mentally lobotomized me yet out of pure curiosity meant something, and as he gestured for me to go on — another motion that was too human — I managed to keep my composure.
“What’s my full name?” I stiffly asked.
“Nyamien Yerak Astera, born of Sir Gristen Astera and…” So, they do know my birth name, I thought as Celian continued.
Most would’ve known me as Yamien Silmund, the adopted name I’d taken as I rose to the commanding ranks within the Astral Fleet. Nyamien was our solar system’s guardian star back at Ferada-1109, meant to ‘always guide me home,’ according to my parents. I’d hated it with a passion in my youth.
“…younger brother to Cadet Kalyteros Vinyera and—”
“That’s enough,” I said, not needing to hear my entire family tree read up to me. Celian probably could and would have if not for my interruption.
The Luminesari’s connection to the System was greater than ours. He wouldn’t even need an interface to access whatever files they’d gathered about me.
“What is this ship’s model and serial number?” I asked instead. “Keep it short."
“A BROW/WING Carrier, serial: A094CC37D,” Celian answered without as much as blinking.
Those colors of his face kept changing though, pulsating in warm oranges and pinks. Curiosity? Confusion? Amusement? I wasn’t sure, but I still bit my lip.
It all checked out too well.
For nearly five decades, the BROW/WING Carriers had served as the standard issue vessel meant to gather new conscripts across the rim-worlds. Only as the rebellions broke out, necessitating more heavily armed models to be put into use, had they been retired.
“What are our galactic coordinates?” I still persisted. “What’s your superior’s name? The captain of this ship? Our current year? Who’s the leader of…”
Endless questions, all answered in detail.
Celian didn’t seem to mind. Another trait of his species. As long as a Luminesari didn’t think that you were deliberately wasting their time, they’d entertain your inquiry endlessly. Most of them would, at least. Celian seemingly included.
Not that my mind became any more at ease as the full picture began falling into place.
My teeth had sank deep enough into my lip to pull blood, but I’d yet to wake up.
Either I was stuck in some weird limbo after death, or I’d returned to the very day I’d set foot beyond my family’s farm for the first time, nearly three centuries ago. I wasn’t sure which one was weirder, only that every impression I took in pointed toward the latter.
What the fuck is going on?
Full Synchronization, Unavailable…
Error…
Process Incomplete…
Error…
Interference During Transfer, Detected
Substantial Data Loss in Progress
Attempting Recovery…
Error…
Playing Starting Message:
“Welcome, Admi&%!~”
Error…
Error…