To say that Sirius was surprised to be alive would be an understatement. His last memory had been the flash of light, after which he was sure he had died. That was after all, when his consciousness had ceased only to kick back up again in a strange place.

That somebody was there when he woke up was even more surprising. A woman had been there, her face was mostly obscured by her EVA suit. She had tried to help him, he remembered, until a stocky and serious-looking man had tased him. His name was Martin? Murtry? No, Murphy.

After being tased they’d dragged him up to some sort of administration building and tossed him in a holding cell. Then he was essentially ignored, which was fine by him. Sirius could use the isolation and quiet to plan his way out. But even worse than waking up somewhere different was waking up different. His body had been changed.

The most obvious change, aside from being completely healed from his ordeal at the station, was that he had both arms now. While his left arm had originally terminated above the elbow, now it was a full flesh-and-blood limb as if he’d never lost it in the first place.

Perhaps I should be happier about this, Sirius thought, it’s not every day you grow an entire arm back.

Still, he felt extremely disconcerted by the new arm. After 6 years without it, he’d gotten quite used to it not being there. And while there was no denying that it was physically part of him, it felt strange, like it didn’t quite belong to him. Every time Sirius saw it out of the corner of his eye he reflexively flinched until he realized it was his own arm attached to his own body. It was irrational, but he almost didn’t trust this new arm.

Alongside the arm, Sirius could swear there were other minor things that had changed. His eyesight, perhaps? Had distant things always looked this clear? He raised his right arm up to eye level and clenched his jaw: the burn scars that had dotted his forearm were gone. Other scars had disappeared too. Aside from where the taser had hit him today, his skin was smoother than it had ever been before.

Sirius felt more uncomfortable than happy about the changes. Maybe because so much of his identity had been a product of what he’d had before and the changes felt like somebody had taken his life and forcibly pushed it into line with some sort of idealized version of him. He felt violated, and not just from his experience on the strange space station. How in the fuck had he gone from there to here?

Over all of this was the familiar sensation of being held down by a gravity that was too strong for comfort. Sirius had awoken in the cell lying down on some sort of cheaply made cot. Even just sitting up felt impossible, but he pulled himself up despite it. He stood unsteadily to feel an oppressive inescapable weight, like a massive invisible hand pressing him into the floor, dragging his insides into his feet. He had weight, and he hated it. Sirius’ joints popped and ground uncomfortably as he walked. Remembering how he’d busted his ankle the last time he’d been somewhere with higher grav, he chose not to press his luck further and return to the cot. Lying down would distribute all the weight over a larger surface area and keep his stomach from being stuck in his knees.

Lying down, he still felt nauseated and sick, but even then, it felt better than whatever that bioweapon had done to him. The force of gravity in this place felt similar to the near full-G of the station he had been on, and Sirius assumed that was why he wasn’t suffering from its effects more severely. He must have adapted to it somewhat during his time imprisoned on the station.

Still, he wished he had the freedom of a lower gravity.

Sirius rested for a moment, then decided if he was going to get out, he’d better get used to walking around. He paced the perimeter of the cell, then kicked at one of the walls in frustration. How much that brief physical exercise took out of him was both worrying and irritating, so he settled for sitting on the cell’s cot again. He needed to get out of here, get off-planet, then figure out where the hell in the universe he was. It wasn’t long before he felt another presence in the room, and he recognized it before he even looked up– Dima.

The big man was leaning against the wall looking very comfortable for the recently deceased. Dima nodded a greeting at Sirius when he noticed him staring.

“So, are you real?” Sirius asked cautiously. His voice was ragged and he realized his throat was dry – he’d kill for a bit of water right now.

“Does it matter?” Dima shrugged. He seemed awfully nonchalant about everything.

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The disproportionate calm was unsettling – was any of this real? Was this some sort of weird hallucination or dream? Given his recent experiences, Sirius felt a thorough break with reality was definitely warranted. And what was Dima doing here? What did he want? As Sirius considered that, the big man appeared to be watching him intently. Sirius felt himself getting warm, he didn’t like being stared at.

“So, uhh, Dima. You’re not mad at me, are you? I let you die; I should have done something, I- “

Dima cut him off with a raise of his hand.

“Sirius, listen, it wasn’t your fault, in fact it’s a very good thing you were the one to find the artifact, because I need you to do something for me”.

“Yeah, sure, what do you need- wait, how did you know about that thing? You weren’t there when whatever the fuck it was that happened, so you’re not the real Dima, are you?”, Sirius asked, trying to keep the fear and accusation out of his voice.

Of course, the thing he was talking to wasn’t Dima, he was clearly losing it. It was stupid that he’d let himself believe that. The thing that looked like Dima smiled and laughed. Even his hallucinations were mocking him.

“Look, you’ve got me, I’m not the real Dima – he’s dead but you knew that already. I’m no fake either. If you want proof, the reason we’re both alive is thanks to my intervention. I’m just a visual construct drawing from your memory – I can look like anybody that you’ve seen before”.

“Why do you look like him, then? Who are you really?” Sirius could feel himself growing angry, “Don’t you think it’s kinda sick to wear the face of a dead man? I watched him die”.

“My name is Orion, I’m…not exactly…human. I chose this form because it was the last one you remembered fondly, and I thought it might be more comforting to you if we met first like this. If this is too disturbing for you, I can change”, the figure offered.

Sirius considered it for a minute, did he feel disturbed? Or did he just feel like he should be disturbed? He wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like he had much experiences with things wearing a dead friend’s face. Then he shrugged. It was all too weird.

“Fuck. I’m going fucking crazy anyways. To be honest, I can’t think of a friendlier face, anybody else would make whatever the fuck this is weirder.”

“You’re saying that about a guy who was ready and willing to beat you then throw you out an airlock? Your social circles must be severely lacking” Orion-wearing-Dima commented.

“You got that one right”, Sirius replied, “So, what the fuck are you, and why the fuck are we here?”

He had a million other questions, but those were the first that he could find words for.

“First, what you see as Dima, or me, is just a projection, not actually real. I’m using your memories to simulate this image of your friend, which is why I had to pick someone you knew. I’m just sending the right impulses to the right parts of your brain so that in your experience, you’re seeing somebody in the room with you. I thought having a conversational partner might make things more comfortable for you”, Orion explained.

Sirius stared at him, challenging himself to find some error in the projection, some sign that differentiated Orion from the real. There it was. The devil was in the details: things like whether the man had his sleeves rolled up above the elbows or below the elbows, or if he left one or two buttons undone on his shirt. It was like his eyes were conditioned to just skate over these small details, and every time he tried to focus on them the image seemed to shift from one state to the other like an optical illusion. It made his head hurt just watching it.

“Stop that! All you’re gonna get from doing that is a headache and that’ll be annoying for me and painful for you. Secondly, you’re alive because I need you to be. I don’t have much of a physical body anymore and I needed something a little more mobile to help me get off that rock. You were the first viable option”.

Sirius froze. He felt his skin crawl. Did that mean that Orion was some sort of parasite?

“Wait, so you’re in my body?! Pardon my language but what the fuck?! How do I get rid of you?”

“As soon as you help me, I can leave. Believe me, these aren’t my ideal circumstances either. If you can get me back to the Gate on this planet, I can give you a much clearer picture of what we need to do to fix this. It’s not overstatement to say that my very species depends on this.”

Sirius laughed at the thought of some possibly ancient, at the moment formless being begging him for anything. It was absurd and he still wasn’t sure if this was reality or not.

“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re not exactly in a position to be going wherever the hell we want, and even if we did get out, what makes you think that I want to go back there? You can talk all you want, but it seems that I’m still the one in the pilot’s seat and you’re just a passenger”.

“You’re right”, Orion nodded, “it would be rude of me to force you to go anywhere…but perhaps we could cut a deal? Forgive my assumption, but from what I’ve seen of your memories, trade is rather important to you. I’m sure I could provide something you’d want in return for your assistance. What is it that you want?”

Sirius didn’t take long to think about it, right now, he’d settle for getting out of this cage and gravity well.

“Get me off this fuckin’ planet and we’ll take it from there”.

“In comparison to your initial distress and distrust that’s fairly permissive, are you sure that’s what you want?” Orion asked.

“It’s the best thing I can come up with so far”, Sirius replied, “now, can you tell me where in the universe we are?”