CHAPTER 1 – AWAKENING AWAY

"Open your eyes, and Awaken."

– The Mage's dictum

998 RE, deep-space cryoprison habitat "Trad-0", Supernova System

The blackness subsided so suddenly it made Airo gasp. He shuddered as something akin to actual feelings permeated his being for the first time since forever. Burning light seared him, the scouring sensation brutal and harsh, yet promising a long-awaited change.

It wasn't consciousness. It was merely transition from a dark, endless void into a much softer limbo resonating with the tonality of life. Still this transformation continued further, the nothingness becoming lighter and lighter, until Airo felt the spark of vitality igniting once again within him.

That spark never bloomed into a true flame.

Sharp, painful brightness pierced his sight. Deafening hum engulfed him, slowly tuning into comprehensible noise. He felt myriad of tiny pricks washing over, mellow, yet intense and insistent. A cold wave flared throughout his body, shocking, resolute, all-encompassing. An instant later, the world clicked, and Airo became aware.

"Reanimation procedure complete. Subject's vital signs within nominal parameters.

"Subject can be retrieved from cryostasis pod."

He opened his eyes. Light rays rammed into his retinas, snapping shut the eyelids on pure reflex. The pain made him moan and shudder. He was freezing so intensely it felt as if every fibre of his body was set on fire. He gasped again. Voices buzzed in incomprehensible murmur nearby, yet sounded distant and dampened.

Airo slowly tried to open his eyes again. Pain washed over him yet he gritted his teeth, and kept his eyes open this time. He saw only a world of swirling lights and shadows, blurred beyond recognizable shapes. He blinked several times, trying to clear his vision, and some of the shadows took on more defined outlines, but little else changed. He heard a voice again, gruff in demeanor and artificial in quality, then a swooshing noise.

Sudden agony flooded his arm as someone poured molten lava over it. He tried to cry out but managed only a feeble hiss that nearly choked him.

"Great Cosmos, this one is colder than the vacuum outside! Quick, prepare a medbay. Damn, how did they revive them back in the day?"

The pain receded swiftly. He was aware of something – someone – picking him up and carrying him a short distance. He was placed lying on his back. He began to shiver. Soft chimes sounded somewhere beside his head, and arcing lights danced before his vision.

"He should recover within a few minutes," said a melodious voice, again artificial in nature.

There was a conversation, which Airo followed only with distant awareness. His breathing became steadier, and he gradually stopped shivering. His vision finally began to clear up, and he was able to examine his surroundings. He lay naked in a medbay pod inside a small featureless room. The arc-bands of the medbay emitted rays in soothing viridian light, pulsing gently at various intervals. A terminal was placed next to the medbay, its hologram display glowing in muted hues.

Airo turned his head. Two robotic humanoids stood beside the medbay, their robust frames lacking any distinct facial features. Their visual sensors shone in soft, cyan light.

"He's coming to his senses," the humanoid with the gruff voice said. "Let's get on with it."

"Prisoner, stand up," the other commanded gently.

He complied, or at least tried. He nearly collapsed as his feet touched the floor. They caught him under the arms and Airo was half-dragged, half-escorted along the corridors of... it had to be a prison. They took him to a nearby locker room, where he was given a plain orange jumpsuit to wear. After that, the wardens led him along a large open area on multiple levels, where rows upon rows of cryopods lined the walls. The small party moved across one of the narrow walkways and entered an elevator. The elevator arrived at its destination, opening to a labyrinth of hallways and chambers.

The synthetic wardens escorted him to a spacious control room. Various hologram displays were lined up in the center of the room, connected to a mainframe with individual workstations. The entire far wall was taken by a vast panorama of a chamber filled with cryopods, though something in the perspective told Airo this probably wasn't a window. A subtly elevated podium with its own terminal and a rotational seat stood before the mainframe. The lighting was currently dimmed to the absolute minimum, and the shadows were permeated only by blue glow from the view on the far wall.

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A single individual sat in the control room. He was completely hidden by the rotational seat, only a hand and the outline of an expensive suit visible on the armrest. The hand held a lit cigarette.

"Leave us alone," the stranger commanded. The wardens glanced at Airo, then left. He heard the sliding doors behind close with a soft click.

The seat turned, the stranger faced Airo. His features and most of his figure remained obscured by heavy shadows, yet Airo saw he was well-proportioned and probably quite tall. The two of them studied each other silently for a minute.

"Do you know why you are here?" the stranger asked at last.

"No."

The stranger took a drag from the cigarette, the reddish flame illuminating only his focused gaze. "Airo, no other name known," he intoned. "Born on Arceria, Zvezda system, annexed by the Transhuman Order in two twenty-nine RE. Date of birth – unknown. Personal biography – unknown. Assigned a blank blue file per standard Order protocol."

"Graduated from the Starspire Academy," the stranger continued, "to serve as a military officer in the Order. Fought in the Red Colony Campaign on Utopia Draconis, Ver system. Decorated multiple times for exceptional sacrifice above and beyond the call of duty, promoted to division commander. Retired from the military shortly before the campaign's end. Reasons – terminal PTSD. Whereabouts in the following years – unknown.

"In two forty-one RE leads an organized mass insurgency against the native populace of Utopia Draconis and the Transhuman Order. Captured in two forty-six RE and tried for crimes against all life.

"Sentenced to permanent cryostasis," the stranger finished.

The cloud in Airo's mind evaporated. Familiar names battered down the stasis of his consciousness. Memories of his life returned to him as he listened. More names and events entered his numb psyche, and he let out an uncontrollable sob. The life before. The life after. He remembered all those long, bitter years full of blood and tears, of raging, helpless anger, of endless sorrow, all crashing down on him, suffocating everything inside him. He fell on one knee, all strength sapped from him, unable to resist the surge of emotions. Moments passed. The emotional pain receded to a dull throb, and then gradually departed, leaving only a perpetual ocean of intent apathy.

The cold cryostatic ambiguity no longer held sway over him, yet now he was possessed by a far greater remoteness.

"Why did you wake me?" he asked, head bowed, his rich baritone raw from disuse and the lingering images in his mind.

"To make you an offer," the stranger said.

Dull anger rose inside Airo, and then subsided. He felt tired. "I do not believe you," he said, lifting his head, and stood up. "Nobody takes the most dangerous criminal in the galaxy out of cryostasis just so they can ask favor of him."

"An offer, not a favor," the stranger replied, taking a drag from his cigarette. The flicker of flame revealed a faint scowl on his features. "And do not flatter yourself. These days you are only a forgotten relic, and there have been far greater threats to the galaxy since your incarceration. So, do you want to hear what I have to say?"

"Go on."

The stranger shifted slightly in his seat, and took another drag, exhaling the smoke. "The proposition is a simple one: escort some valuable cargo to the planet of Terra Para. You will be given a starship to do this task. Complete it, and in exchange you become a free man, Airo Blueborn."

He glared. "This must be some kind of a poor joke."

The stranger sighed quietly. "Do you prefer to return to cryostasis?"

Airo paused. Something akin to fear twisted inside him. He shuddered from the memory of being reanimated, of how agonizingly cold he was, of the nothingness that was before.

"Who are you?" he asked, folding his arms.

"My identity is of no import to this conversation," the stranger said. "Your decision on my offer is."

Airo did not want to return to cryostasis. Yet he remembered now why he got there in the first place. There was no future waiting him outside this prison. Only ghosts of the past. And hopefully lots of hard alcohol.

Was there any difference?

"You sure I am the person you are looking for?" he asked.

"Yes," the stranger said.

"Then I accept this offer of yours. I will take whatever you want to Terra Para. On one condition."

"Name it," the stranger replied instantly.

"I want my sword and my gridcaster back."

The stranger nodded. "You shall have them." He took one last drag from his cigarette and crumpled it in the armrest. "Airo Blueborn, from this point onward, you act in the capacity of a special agent of the Galactic Stellar Consortium. Arrangements will be made for transportation to your new station. Your mission begins as soon as you depart."

"Wait a moment," Airo said, holding one hand up. "What year was it again?"

***

998 RE, Arceria, Zvezda System

She lifted her head. The sky was crystal blue. The mountains stood proud. The river flowed gently. The air was tranquil. The forest pulsated with life in its numerous emanations. Her gaze tilted downward.

"He is alive?" she asked, stilled in wait.

"Yes," came the reply. "And you can go to him, if you want."

"Go to him..." she whispered, and again looked at the horizon. The twin suns shone brightly, their steady warmth confident and reassuring. Here was a sanctuary, and somewhere out there, on another world she remembered from another time, a terrible war raged.

He was there, and he was searching for her.

"I want to go," she said. "Yet my life is not my own anymore..." Her gaze fell upon the small, delicate entity that lay before her.

"It can be arranged. You need not be separate."

"This is what he struggled so hard to achieve. The things we both endured to be done... I am not sure I want to share this with him."

"What does your heart say?"

A single word escaped her breath. "Love."

"So you will come?"

"I will forgive. And yes, I will come. I want to see him again. To make him happy, and to bring out the very best in him again." She took a deep breath and added:

"I love him, and that is all that matters."