When I had first ‘awoken’ to speak to everyone, it had been 26 days since I had escaped Vostroya’s facility. Castecael’s medicae wonders proved tremendously effective for me—had she more resources, I likely could have gotten on my feet even sooner. To that point, it was six days more before I was able to gather some physical functionality again—opening my eyes and speaking. But moving and using limbs—while I was beginning to feel the augmetic arm—were still well beyond me. It was not until day 41 that, in the evening, during my nightly talks with Mirena—and she had been with me every night—I was at last able to lift both arms up and give her the hug she had been waiting for. She had spent some time not with me, to be clear. She had her responsibilities to attend to, and others wanted some time to chat with me. But for the latter ten hours of each day, she kept me company, if usually sleeping for five-to-six of those hours.
Regardless, when my hug did arrive, it caught her off-guard, as she had been beginning to cuddle up with me for a night’s rest. “You’re…Cal, congrats. Welcome back,” she whispered to me.
“Thank you, Mirena,” I replied, able to grin weakly.
“I can finally leave you, then, if you’d like,” she offered with a giggle.
“I think…I think I’d rather you stay the night,” I told her. She broke into one of her beautiful laughs, and then leaned over me and embraced me in another direct kiss. I was able to return it that time, at last, and this one lasted far, far longer than our first.
When she did finally come up for air, she leaned over me and kissed my forehead, and then settled down atop me. “Not a bad kisser after all. Could use some work, though,” she admitted with a chuckle. “I’m not your first in that regard, am I?”
I gently shook my head. “Some girl on Aqaeus-4. Don’t know her name. It was during the 8th’s farewell ceremony before we moved to a different posting. I don’t remember much of the event, but I remember that. You?”
She released a snorting chuckle, then shook her head. “Castecael. Hey, so uh, now that you’re able—relatively speaking, anyways—do you want to—”
“Yes, Mirena, I do. But no. I don’t think we should,” I shook my head.
“Yeah, probably wise. But…damn,” she laughed, winking to me. “Seems I won’t have a sweaty hug with you after all,” she added, still laughing, then leaned in to kiss me once more, though far briefer than before. “Goodnight, Cal. These were some good nights. For me, at least. I hope I’ve been good enough company for you.”
“Mirena, these have been the best nights of my life,” I replied. “Goodnight.”
And that was that. In the morning of the 42nd day, she left me as she usually did. I spent my day reaching my arms to the ceiling of the Bird, stretching, grasping at air. I also moved my legs a little bit back and forth. In the evening, Mirena did stop by, but only to wish me goodnight, and to give me one final kiss on my cheek. I was back to sleeping on my own, as I had for 78 years before then.
On the 44th day, I sat up and began unplugging some tubes and equipment from my body that Castecael had equipped me with. That caught some eyes, and garnered some protests, including from Castecael. I dismissed all the concerns. The quartet that had confronted me to insist I remain in my medicae unit—Penitent, Silas, Mirena, and Castecael—seemed to accept that I was not going to budge on my unplugging of myself, and so backed down for a brief moment. Then I hopped off the unit and landed on my feet, and would have collapsed onto my face had Silas and Penitent not caught me. “Whoa, boss, cool it. One step at a time, please,” Silas insisted, hoisting me to a standing position with Penitent’s help, though they each needed to keep me steady lest I collapse again.
“No time for that,” I shook my head, teeth clenched. “Take me to Luther. That’s an order. I don’t care which of you fulfills it, just get me to him.”
My quartet obliged. Well, Penitent and Silas did the heavy lifting, with Castecael and Mirena following close behind. On our way through the Bird, we passed by Okustin, who asked, “What’s all this, then?”
“Field trip,” Silas replied bluntly.
“I’m in,” Okustin invited himself. There were no complaints.
They brought me to Luther’s medicae unit, which was much the same as mine. He laid in it, motionless, as I had been. He was visibly far less broken than I had been, however. “You will see me bleed,” I spoke then. “I may pass out. You will keep me here, and not take me away from him, or you will be relieved of your services. Tell me you understand.”
“I understand you’re too devoted, Cal,” Penitent replied.
“What she said,” Silas agreed.
“Your complaints are noted,” I shrugged, and then forced myself into Luther’s head with all the strength I had. He was quiet. There was no inner monologue, no speaking. Just familiar, empty darkness. But I knew he was in there. I had been in that eternal darkness, and Mirena ensured I not suffer it alone. Luther did not deserve to be alone. I gave his mind what strength mine had, as Xavier had done for me, and the scene shifted into a familiar nightmare.
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I was in it. Pinned to a desk with a platoon of soldiers atop me. Luther was gunning them down. “Multiple contacts!” he shouted into his vox. “Command withheld! Send the Bird!”
And then the fire.
His body seared, and he fell like a rock toward the cloud layer below. Plummeting, falling, wind ripping past his scorched face. He spun and tumbled, and then as he neared the clouds, a sheet of grey metal emerged from it, unknowingly racing toward him. He had already fired his Grav-Chutes, which had only begun to slow his fall. But it was not enough, and he hit the Bird, hard, crunching against its metal hull. And then the darkness returned, though it did not last long.
I was in Merek’s office again, pinned to the desk. Luther was gunning them down. I would not see his fate a third time. “Multiple contacts!” Luther shouted into his vox. But there were no Psykanic Dampeners in Merek’s office in Luther’s nightmare. Before he could continue, I reached for him and broke myself out of this nightmare, forcing his mind to come up with another scene.
I was somewhere I had never been. A titanic Hive City, dwarfing Abseradon in verticality. Yellow clouds wafted far below, and even further under them, mountains stretched across this world. An orange sunset simmered in the distance, the upper skies beginning to fall to purple hues. “I don’t recall you ever being here, sir,” Luther called from behind me. I turned around. “Throne, you look like hell.”
“Do I?” I replied, and looked myself over. I couldn’t see any wounds, but a drop of blood did fall from my face onto my jacket. “Sorry about that. Where are we, Luther?”
“You don’t know?” he asked, laughing. “Harakon. My home. What do you think of the view?” he asked, nodding forward to gesture behind me, where I had seen the sunset.
“It’s beautiful, Luther,” I replied. “I’ve never seen a sight like it. We’re so high up,” I could not help but observe. He laughed again. “There’s things moving down there, in the mountains,” I told him.
“Vapour wyrms, yeah,” he told me, still laughing at my naïveté. “We hunt them in training. Learn to fly, to give chase, to not fear heights or anything else. Sir, this isn’t real, is it?”
“It is to you,” I replied.
“It is, yeah. But you’re not, sir,” he observed. I nodded. “You’re in my head?”
“I am.”
“I’m in a bad way, aren’t I? There’s…I was falling,” he stammered.
“You were falling. You are, yeah. You tried to save me, Luther. And you nearly gave your life for it. I will eternally owe you mine,” I told him, wanting to go on but he put a hand up, and shook his head.
“No, sir. I don’t subscribe to debts like that. I won’t have it. I owe myself to the Throne, and if I gave myself up for you, it’s because I believed you could have done more for the Throne than I could. Which is what I believe, sir,” he replied. I was on the verge of tears, having not seen such dedication to a cause since the 8th. “Am I dying, sir?”
“No, Luther, you’re not.”
“Then I don’t see the problem.”
“You’ll be paralyzed. Your waist, your legs,” I explained. The sunset finally finished, and night had fallen. It was not a sudden change, but it happened quickly enough to certainly be indicative of the change in mood. “Castecael believes she can help you get that functionality back, but I’ve been looking into the augmetic spinal designs. Harakon is too low-grav; the augmetics would not survive, and they’d permanently cripple you—or kill you—if you ever returned here. So you can be paralyzed, but see your home, or an amazing soldier, but never see that sunset again. And that is what I owe you, Luther. That is what my work has cost you.”
Luther looked at me a long time, then, expressionlessly staring at me. I continued to bleed in front of him. A few hours into the night passed over what were merely some minutes. Then, finally, he spoke up. “Did I serve you well, sir?”
“Better than any other, Luther.”
“Would you have me serve Holy Terra again, were I able?”
A tear at last joined the blood on my face. “It would be my honor, Luther.”
“Then I need not see the sun set on Harakon again. And that’s the end of it. You will pay your debt to me through my own service to you. And you will not seek further penance, as that will suffice for me,” Luther decided. “Tell Ms. Rock to give me the augmetic. It will be a fine gift to wake up to.”
“You cannot know how proud I am, Luther, to have served the Throne by your side, nor how happy I will be to do so again in the future. You are an excellent soldier,” I told him, and saluted him. He returned the gesture. “I can leave you here, Luther, or help your mind to another memory, before you wake. It’s your call.”
“I think I would like to see the sunrise, sir,” he told me. I nodded, and left him on Harakon, returning to my own mind and body. In doing so, I returned to a world of pain, as my ears were ringing and I was heaving out breath after breath. Silas and Penitent had laid me on the ground of the Bird, next to Luther, clearly believing I should not have been standing.
“You done with the voidshit in your head yet?” Mirena asked me as I came to, arms crossed, standing over me.
“Not quite,” I grunted. “Castecael,” I started. My medicae was tending to me, making sure I was alright. She moved her face ahead of me, worried red eyes looking me up and down. “Give Luther the spinal augmetic. He wants it.”
“I will, Cal. Can we return you to your unit now, please?” she pleaded with me.
“I think…no. Penitent, Silas, are you willing to take me elsewhere?” I asked.
“Not really,” Silas shook his head.
“Where do you wish to go, Cal?” Penitent asked, and planted her hands under me, cradling my still-crippled form in her arms. “I will take you there.”
“I wish to see the sky,” I told her, which was lacking a great deal of description. Even so, she nodded, and hoisted me into the air. It was no more painful than my current state of being. Despite objections from others in my crew, Penitent dutifully carried me the rest of the way across the Bird before gracefully hopping from the landing bay, still not making a sound upon landing. I got to see a bit of the chapel Okustin had referenced a few days ago, and indeed, it was very overgrown. But Penitent carried me even further, until we were fully outside, where she set me down upon a grass-covered shoreline, waves crashing against a rocky coast. “Thank you, Penitent. This is what I’ve needed. Thaddeus is up there somewhere.”
“Yes, Cal, I imagine he is,” she nodded softly, still standing over me. “You wish to spend the night here, don’t you?”
“I do,” I confirmed.
“May I join you? We are too far from the others, and I will not have you be alone again,” she requested.
“Penitent, nothing would make me happier,” I replied, to which she laid down next to me. Quite a good distance further than Mirena would have, I imagine, but next to me all the same. And as befitting of a character totally opposite from Mirena’s, Penitent said nothing further to me, save for wishing me a goodnight when night fell upon Hestia Majoris. I returned the gesture, and went to sleep.