18 Days Until Mars Arrival

Arachna pounded her head against a large cylindrical tube filled with liquified Xitherium. The gentle hum of the FTL drive filled the engine room, which was still under heavily-armed marine guard. The noise of her banging was drowned out by the steps of their boots on the metal floorboards that made up the room.

Arachna had spent nearly a half day trying release the Xitherium so she could bring some to Beaky. Without a working laser saw or Yumen weapons, she was at a loss for how to get at it. She'd tried everything — nails, screwdrivers, bites, she'd even constructed a pulley system with her webs to apply extra force to try to pry the Xitherium tubes apart.

Horde, if she hadn't spilled the soap all over the floor and attracted attention she'd have a working laser saw. Thankfully, her stealth had helped her escape noticed before flickering out but she needed a better way that didn't involve stealing Yumen weapons. She'd do that if she absolutely had to, but it would risk exposing her.

She breathed a sigh and curled up into a ball. What would her Hive Mother do? Maybe she could find a way to communicate with her Mother again if she focused?

Arachna closed her eyes and drew into herself, focusing her imagination on the vision she'd seen while in a frozen coma. Her Hive Mother's spires rose out of the ocean. Wherever she was, her Mother believed in her. She believed that Arachna would bring great blessings on the Krath race.

But how?

Arachna felt herself drifting off into unconsciousness. Rest would be good, but no, she needed to help Beaky. How would her Mother solve this dilemma? There was no time for resting.

Suddenly, it hit her — Arachna was asking the wrong question.

She shouldn't be asking what her Hive Mother would do. Mother had probably never been on a ship like this in her life. No, she needed to ask what Engineer Carlsen would do.

Scurrying over to the dark corner of the engine room where she kept a hidden stash of belongings, she pulled out the datapad that she had recovered from the utility closet.

What she discovered was interesting to say the least. The 'Alert' images flashed on the screen as they had on the cracked datapad in the trash compactor. This time, however, she used her hands to click on Carlsen's image.

A description of his profile came up on the screen. It was again written in the strange Yumen symbols, which she somehow was able to understand. Horde, her Mother had bequeathed to her a great deal of knowledge at her hatching.

"Humboldt Carlsen, 34, graduated summa cum laude from the prestigious Kaiser program at the Mars Institute of Technology, specializing in advanced quantum mechanics and applied Xitherium processing," the profile read. "He advanced theories in tachyon acceleration and Xitherium engineering that have contributed to the current state of FTL travel and psionic control mechanics using quantum chips."

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Hive Mother, he was smart for a Yumen, Arachna thought to herself. What was a man like this working on a starship? She continued reading.

"Carlsen was the youngest professor of physics at the Mars Institute of Technology, but abruptly left his position after the death of his wife, Ursuline Carlsen. They had been childhood friends at an early age. He took a position on the Starship Eschaton, a scientific research vessel."

It made sense. Suddenly, Arachna felt like she knew this man. She did know this man.

Engineer Carlsen had been a child prodigy. He was a brilliant man with a bright future ahead of him. But he'd lost it all when he'd lost the one person he'd loved most. Then he'd come out here to escape. He'd needed a place to grieve. This ship had been that place.

In a way, she identified with the man who'd been her host. He was lost. Alone out here in the blackness of space. With no family or friends. Just like she was.

An image of Ursuline flashed before her eyes. Sadness filled Arachna in a way that was more visceral than it had ever been before. It was as if she herself had been the one to lose a loved one.

Horde, it felt so real. It was so real. She was in this man's thoughts. He was in hers — part of her very consciousness. Carlsen continued to live on, in some way, within her.

The depth of his loss, his grief, his sadness filled her. Carlsen hadn't known how to deal with this loss. He'd wanted to end his own life at times but eventually settled on coming out here, into the blackness of space, hoping he'd at least find some solace away from the pain that bound him.

Carlsen had been a brilliant man but—like most Yumens—a man who didn't know how to grieve. Ursuline had been his heaven, his all, and the love that they shared had given meaning to his life. Without her, all he felt was the void.

Arachna would honor that pain and that memory. To lose a loved one was a hard thing. It was worse than death itself. Indeed, to truly love was to prefer one's own death to that of another.

Yet the Krath knew how to honor the dead. That was one thing she understood well. She sensed that many Yumens also understood this, but not all, and certainly not as deeply.

Deep within her instinctual memories was a profound belief in the afterlife, that the dead would continue to serve the Cause in the Xither, perhaps even more poignantly than they had in life.

Carlsen, both Carlsens, had entered the Xither, transcending life itself. Arachna would honor their memories, which she carried deep within her consciousness. In death, they would serve the Cause in a way that they never could while alive.

Arachna clicked twice as she contemplated the memories of their love, and offered up a prayer of remembrance.

And yet she still needed to focus on the task at hand.

Her own family, Beaky, was on the brink of death and needed help. There was no way to get him the Xitherium he needed to heal.

Suddenly, a flash of insight crossed her mind's eye. Engineer Carlsen's memories came rushing into her mind like water down an open spout. It was as if he was finally at rest in the Xither, at peace in the afterlife beyond.

Latent memories deep within her broke free like liberated prisoners of war. Arachna could visualize every aspect of the ship and hold it within her mind. In particular, she knew the engine room. Remembering the day she'd first laid eyes on it and experienced a sense of comfort, she now soaked it in with crystal clarity. The knobs and controls to the engine room suddenly made sense. The lights, panel displays, even the physics of how it worked rushed into her mind's eye. This ship wasn't just a lifeless husk floating through space, it felt very much alive as it once had to Carlsen.

Arachna knew exactly how to use her hands to adjust the controls to retrieve a small amount of Xitherium for her injuried companion through a hidden pressure relief valve.

That and so much more.

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Ursuline Carlsen