This chapter was written by: Ben E. Benson or Fry
This chapter was edited by me: Admiral Fisher
Before his senses were made coherent, he could see blinding sounds and deafening lights all around him. The smell of charred electronics and capacitor oils was all the same, though, as it permeated the air and reeked of dysfunction. “Brinus!” A voice came from the dark, and his eyes opened. “Are you ok!? Can you hear me?”
“N-nn-yeah…” He groaned and lifted his head, regretting it with a stiff ache in his neck and a pulsing throb on the back of his head. He rolled over to push himself up from the floor and found himself to be in the back of a personnel transport. Previously, he had been sitting in the co-pilot’s seat but had forcefully been ejected backward. The crew cabin was a wreck but still intact. The meager light armor of the transport did its job and — at the very least — prevented them from dying, but with no further promises. Brinus stood and found his right leg went from numb to an unignorable agony. He winced and inspected it with shaky fingers, feeling it was severely injured.
“My leg is messed up; what’s your status, uh…” Brinus didn’t know the soldier’s name.
“Sanders. I’m in rough shape, and I can’t move.” Brinus felt around the right wall of the dark cabin and searched for a first aid kit. He peeled it off the wall when he had, tore open the case, and grabbed the emergency light to illuminate the transport.
The cabin was worse off than what his imagination could apply. Sanders laid on his back in the broken pilot’s seat, and it looked like they had collided with a shattered concrete wall; rebar and reinforced metal speared through him in four different places. Brinus inhaled sharply with little hope of helping him.
“Sanders, what happened? Where are we?” Brinus asked, searching through the first aid kit for quick shots of morphine, or if they were lucky and the kit was up to date, something much stronger. Sanders winced in pain audibly and was hardly able to catch his breath as he was overwhelmed by it.
“South Lullaby peninsula, on Yeres… we were shot down.” Brinus got the quick shot of, unfortunately, only morphine and pulled himself over to Sanders. “No.” He declined Brinus. “Don’t waste it on me. You need to get going. Complete the objective.” Brinus stopped and thought for a moment. The more he thought, the more it confused him.
“I don’t know where South Lullaby is; I haven’t heard of the planet Yeres before, either! None of this makes sense! Last I remember, I was walking out my front door to pick up my vape juice, and then I’m here!” Sanders cried out in pain, making Brinus second guess his judgment for not wanting morphine. “Never mind, just hold on; help is on the way.” Brinus ripped the casing off the quick-shot morphine and applied it to his hurt leg, hearing a hiss and decompressing of the medicine being injected straight into the injury. It was numb again, but there was no telling how long it would last.
“Brinus, the cargo, it must be delivered… at all costs…”
There was a TriQuarter lying on the floor with a cracked screen. After a few hard knocks against his palm, Brinus got it functioning again. He pressed his thumb into the security sensor, and it came up with the mission briefing. He quickly read it to understand more of what was happening.
“Direct Order: Deliver classified cargo to South Lullaby power station.” Brinus didn’t remember getting any such briefing or orders about this mission. He continued by getting information about his location.
“Yeres: a miniature classed world native to the Lepori; a non-aggressive pacifist race that specializes in defensive and energy-power advancements.”
“Damn pacifists.” There was nothing wrong with them. However, It was the fact that interplanetary law prohibited any weaponry from being left behind at their borders. That didn’t stop someone from somehow shooting them down. He swiped through the tricorder screens to find more information about the Lepori.
“Lepori: A race of Hare-resembling (Rabbit, Lapine) people of shorter than human size and stature. Currently an endangered species.”
Brinus understood his mission, and Sanders wasn’t going anywhere. “Alright, Sanders, I’m sendin' a rescue team as soon as I can.” Sanders gave him a weak thumbs up, surprised he could even move that much. Brinus grabbed the sliding door to the transport and yanked it open with a harsh metallic scrape.
The hole the transport made put them a floor beneath what appeared to be some kind of an office building. The ceiling was low and made him feel large, and he kept quiet and moved deliberately. By the wreckage, he followed it back the way the transport had slid through the destroyed lobby, climbing up from the dark pit. Even though he had his magic that he could use offensively, without a weapon — any weapon — in his hands made him feel naked. He didn’t know what kind of territory he was in or how hostile it would be. He approached the gaping hole the transport had put in the front of the offices, and in a smoky daylight haze, there were parts of airships and chunks of debris on fire all over the open courtyard.
To his right, down the way, was a large structure that looked like a satellite dish pointing straight up at the sky; all the rest were office buildings and perhaps some tech-industry fabrication facility. His eyes adjusted to the bright light and began to take notice of the number of dead bodies scattered about. They were Lepories of all kinds and colors slaughtered mercilessly like rabbits and left in the courtyard alone. Nothing else stirred.
Brinus was about to take a step out, but his combat instincts pulled him back. He scanned the area once more with a watchful, trained eye and then finally saw it. On the backside of an armored container, there was a laser point.
“Snipers…” He whispered to himself. He was pinned down, but he wasn’t the only one. The front side of that armored container was a single Lepori. She was golden-colored and wore a white scientist’s uniform. She was waving her frantic little paw at him, trying to get his attention. Brinus took notice and acknowledged that he saw her. She pointed back towards the sniper, and Brinus nodded. He needed to think strategically, and they couldn’t stay where they were forever because if there was one, there was more.
Brinus summoned a sun in his palm, kept it dim for the moment, and gestured to the Lepori scientist. He wanted her to come to him to safety. She was scared; she wasn’t trained or meant for this type of situation, but she had no other choice if she wanted to make it out alive. Brinus could at least protect her with his magic. He put up five fingers so she could see. He began counting down, silently exaggerating the numbers' pronunciation as they went.
Five.
Four.
Three.
The Lepori shook her head frantically. She might not have the courage to run or the strength to endure the stress. She was put under the crosshairs and was as helpless as a rabbit.
Two.
One.
Brinus hypercharged the sun in his hand, turned it into an extremely bright pulsar, and held it out to create a shield of pure blinding light, but that’s all it was: light. He shielded his vision the best he could; the light flared so intensely that with his arm covering his eyes, he could see through his flesh and bone to the world around him in a red, blood-filtered blur. It was enough to see the Lepori scientist run out. She ran no towards him, but the giant satellite dish was further down the courtyard.
“Damn rabbit!” Brinus cursed and began to chase her. The pulsar was burning its energy off fast and had reduced itself down to a regular sun. He saw the laser sight appear again, and it was squared on the back of the Lepori’s science coat. Acting fast, Brinus put himself in the sniper’s sights, and with a glance back, he could see the laser flash its origin as it crossed his eye. He took the sun in his hand and cast it across the courtyard like a cannonball of plasma. It hit the small window where the sniper was stationed and exploded the entire building. It might’ve been considered overkill by most, but to Brinus, it was barely justice.
The Lepori girl stopped at a large console in plain sight before the large satellite dish; there was no cover at all, and she had put them both more at risk. Brinus yelled to her.
“We’re in the open! We need to find cover now!”
“No!” She screamed back. She continued to type and tap away at the computer console, trying to initiate something. “I have to finish! Our world will be destroyed if I don’t!”
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Torpedo-like canisters slammed down all around them, and when they opened, their contents walked out one by one. With sights pointed at the Lepori scientist, large battle droids marched for them. They must have seen Brinus’s pulsar flare; it might have been a mistake. They were surrounded, and there was no escape. They were all identical, with no individual identification, but the nearest one came forward and spoke in a flat robotic tone.
“Relinquish the power source to us or die.” It demanded. The Lepori girl was brimming with fear and began removing her coat, followed by her shirt. Beneath her clothing, she wore a breastplate, and on her back looked to be some kind of advanced compact reactor. Brinus could feel its energy pulsing when he focused on it, and he felt it intensely waving as if any ounce more of it would rip open the universe for lightyears across. It was the equivalent of thousands of worlds’ worth of energy, and it was strapped to her — no — was a part of her as it flowed through her heart. Brinus was in the presence of a cosmic-scale bomb.
She had her paws up in the air and noticed that the droids were ignoring him. Brinus nudged closer to the Lepori scientist, and a droid switched his aim to him despite feeling invisible compared to the gravity of the situation. They weren’t interested in him. The lead droid stomped up and towered over them, overshadowing her and even Brinus. In a precise movement, the droid gripped her wrist and lifted her, crushing it effortlessly. The screams that followed were harrowing, and even Brinus felt a chill seeing this defenseless creature be hurt so intensely. The droid’s other hand folded in on itself and flipped out a blade, and to Brinus’s horror, it was poised to pierce the breastplate. The droid didn’t understand that if she died, it would release all the immeasurable energy inside her.
Brinus grabbed the wrist of the bladed arm, and as the machine tried to thrust, it couldn’t. Its sort of eyes looked at Brinus, and for a machine, it could easily read the anger and desperation in his eyes. The grip on the machine began to warm up and quickly surpassed a super-heat that began to melt the droid’s metallic arm and surge the energy that supplied it. He ripped the arm from its body once it was molten and malleable. He swung the dense arm and slammed it into the rest of the droid, now malfunctioning spastically from its overloaded energy source.
The Lepori girl was already trying to finish her work but didn’t have the time to run the program on the console. She would never be able to finish with their present company, but Brinus could buy her more time. He pushed his hands out with open palms and cast his magic around them, creating a momentary shield of plasma to block the narrowly avoided firepower coming down on them. The Lepori girl kicked open a hatch low at the base of the console and yanked out two wires. She connected one to a port on her lower side and the other port over her heart.
She screamed and groaned as the power coursed from her. The satellite dish lit up, glowed, and bloomed like a flower. All around, deep in the sky, dense energy was cast upward and turned into a blue hexagonal pattern synonymous with defensive shielding. It did more than just protect them. The droids all fizzled out and then deactivated, and the world became safe while a planetary shielding had been securely placed. No such attackers would ever be able to harm them again. The mission had succeeded.
Program Ended.
The world around Brinus sparkled and disintegrated away. He was confused and had no memory of ever entering a simulation.
“What the hell!?” He asked as the door appeared. A human scientist entered and spoke.
“I’ll explain everything. Please come this way.” Brinus followed with plenty of questions in tow.
On the wall of the laboratory was the symbol for the Star Base Terra Research Station, and he knew he hadn’t just experienced any sort of military drill. These kinds of scientists made him weary of their motives, and it was a sector of questionable ethics.
“I would like that explanation now.”
“Certainly.” The man confirmed. He placed his hand flat against a door panel, and it opened for them. The breastplate was Inside the center of the room — hooked into only two wires, one on the heart and one on the side. Sadly, there was no Lepori girl to go with it. “I’m Doctor Sanders. Yes, that Sanders from the simulation. We’ve been trying to crack into this piece of technology ever since we found it on a survey of the KF-09u star and its surrounding planets. We discovered that the star was once the planet Yeres itself from thousands of years ago. The energy contained within this device transformed it. It’s mostly depleted now, but it still holds… something else.” Dr. Sanders gestured for Brinus to approach it. It sat like a centerpiece to be admired, but when it spoke, it surprised him.
“It’s you!” She said. “You were there! You saved me! You helped me save my world and my people!” Brinus didn’t know what to say and went with the truth.
“That was a simulation; it wasn’t real.” Dr. Sanders tapped Brinus on the shoulder.
“She’s been stuck in a trauma loop of a memory. We couldn’t figure out how to break past it, so we requested help, and your commander signed you up. Sorry for the confusion; this psychiatric mental stuff isn’t our forté.” It wasn’t Brinus’s specialty either, but knowing about PTSD and trauma and the psychological impacts of war was something he knew well. He didn't fault the scientist for learning more about the universe — as any good scientist should — it is something that often breaks the heart while the mind is trying to comprehend. Brinus turned to the breastplate.
“Nothing to worry about; you’re safe now; your people are all safe.” He lied.
“Thank you. I’ll share with you anything I know. I don’t think I could ever repay you.” Brinus nodded, unsure if or how she was able to see him.
Dr. Sanders concluded their analysis and ended their work. He carefully handled the breastplate and tried to unplug it from the machine it was hooked to, only to store it in an isolated container and be put under high security.
“No!” She begged. “No, please don’t unhook me! I don’t want to go back into the dark! It’s so cold there! Please no! Please!” A cable came loose, and she screamed, then only audibly; she shivered and breathed as if she was freezing in the dead of winter. “Please…” she whimpered.
Brinus grabbed Dr. Sanders’ wrist as he pulled on the second cable.
“You just witnessed what I’m capable of in the simulation; only this time, it wouldn’t be a simulation.” The scientist’s eyes flashed with fear, and then he let go. He brushed himself off in defeat, then scoffed like he was smarter than Brinus.
“You soldier types are all the same, all aggression and no brains. You don’t even realize what we could gain by studying this thing.” Brinus didn’t like what was said and moved in really close.
“We soldier types help our comrades when they’re down, but you science types, nah, you don’t care at all about your colleagues when they’re suffering. You care more about your results and recognition and your grant money.” Brinus pointed at the breastplate. “She is a scientist just like you and the very last of an extinct, highly advanced race, and you’re treating her like a data drive to be hacked and extracted. If you ask me, as she is now, you don’t deserve her respect, nor mine.” Brinus took the loose cable and plugged it back in, and she came alive and whole again.
“Brinus! Thank you! My stars, thank you!”
He smiled quietly and asked, “What’s your name?”
“Tangent.” Brinus nodded, then turned to speak to Dr. Sanders again.
“Put your big brains to good use and give her a body of her own. I’ll fund it myself.” Dr. Sanders agreed.
“Well, I wouldn’t be a man of science if I didn’t learn from my mistakes. I’ll see about giving her a synthetic body. Perhaps we can learn more about her and her people along the way.” The scientist smiled and was confident in the solution. He put his hand out to shake on the agreement, but Brinus didn’t.
“I’m expecting satisfactory results. I’ll keep in touch.” He said.
“Brinus?” Tangent asked. “When I can, I’d like to go home. I want to show you my world.”
“Sure.” He replied, wondering how deep her denial went and if keeping her world alive in her mind was even the right thing to do.
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One week later, The evening streets thrummed with the usual bustle of either those coming home or those going to work their graveyard shifts. With bleary eyes and exhaustion in his fingertips from having to overhaul four ships’ cores, he looked forward to vaping at his leisure and embracing Simmie. Brinus and Simmie were given temporary quarters in the city of Saffron as the Victory underwent maintenance and repairs.
He met a man after looking up from having his attention sucked into his TriQuarter’s music selection. The gangster rap hardly started playing when the man addressed him.
“Brinus Helios?” He asked.
“What now?” He whined and rubbed his sore neck. He wanted to escape past him and finish the last 20 feet to his front door, but the seal on his lapel said otherwise.
“I’m Dr. Ramirez. I work for Dr. Sanders on the Star Base Terra Research Team.”
Brinus scratched his chin, trying to remember. “Oh, you’re from that one time you tossed me into a simulation and said nothing. Yeah, that was awful. You’re all a bunch of assholes.”
Dr. Remirez cleared his throat and signaled to a car parked in front of his door, only an impossible 20 feet away. The back passenger-side door opened, and Tangent stepped out.
“Brinus!” She called out. She looked as she did from the simulation, but with a few mechanical parts. The breastplate was the main feature of her design, and the way her synthetic fur and limbs were rebuilt made her look more like a Lepori in sleek armor than some kind of android. She ran to him with an agile step and hugged him. She only stood as tall as his waist but was undoubtedly heavier. Brinus was nearly knocked out of his balance.
“Uh… Hi Tangent.” He said, keeping his hands above her, unsure if a hug would be alright.
“Oh my, you are so warm! Is it always cold here? What’s wrong with your weather systems?” She hugged tighter and squeezed Brinus with an affection matched only by a strength she wasn’t accustomed to with her new body.
Brinus looked to Dr. Remirez with confusion. “So what brings her here?”
He responded. “When you two met, you had shown interest in the development of her body. We have done just that. You did say you would pay for it, too.”
Brinus sighed heavily and cast his eyes to the sky like some deity would strike him down for being stupid. “Awww, right. I did say that, didn’t I?”
Dr. Remirez presented a data pad and a digipen. “The first payment is due now. Please sign here.” Brinus took the pen and scratched his name on it angrily. If he could, he would have scribbled across the entire document. “Thank you,” He said and began to walk away.
“Doctor Ramirez, ain’t you forget’n somethin'?” He meant Tangent, who was still clinging to his leg.
“Oh, you paid for her development. She’s your problem now.” He adjusted his tie, stepped into his car, and rolled away.
Brinus cocked his head back and spoke to the heavens. “Fuck.”
Tangent followed Brinus into his home, where Simmie had just finished making dinner. Simmie was cheerful and welcomed him home, knowing he had a hard day’s work on a few ships. “Hey love… who’s this?” He pointed to Tangent. She smiled and waved cutely at Simmie. Brinus was stuck in a mental loop before finally blurting out what happened.
“I bought a pet rabbit.”