Sadie woke with a splitting headache. Given the bright lights, the smell of antiseptics, and the comfy bed she was in, it must be the infirmary. She tried to sit up only to gasp as a wave of pain like she’d never experienced passed over her. It felt like a needle had been placed in every single nerve and the minute she’d tried to move; someone had connected them to a current.
What happened? She knew the moment she shook the Delta’s hand her world would turn upside down, and then it literally had. It hadn’t felt like she’d fallen asleep. It was an out of body experience only so much more. It felt like she’d stepped out of the universe. There had been worlds upon worlds, side by side, overlapping and intertwining. There had been others out there, shades in the nightmare, following her every step through the nothing. When the aches in her body temporarily subsided, she felt the lingering touch of ethereal hands.
“Don’t move.”
Sadie struggled to gasp in response. Louis was standing over her, but something about him was off. His proportions were all wrong. Her eyes hurt too much to make sense of it. She tried to speak, but that required moving and that made the pain come back.
“She must be awake,” rumbled something. Sadie quivered as the floor trembled. Then an ursa was looming over her. It wore a white mask and what looked like magnifying glasses. All the ursa’s she’d ever seen went around topless, but this one wore a full coat with gloves. He was the most intimidating doctor she’d ever seen. “How are you feeling?”
“Mmmmmm.”
“That is to be expected. Your friend is very eager to go, but I couldn’t release you until you regained consciousness.”
“Is she ready for transport?” asked Louis, impatiently.
“Yes. You may pay up front for the additional medical supplies you will need.”
“I’ll be back.” He didn’t sound reassuring in the slightest. He hopped out of her peripheral vision, only his head floating past as he left. Now she knew why he looked so wrong. He wasn’t out of proportion; the room was. This was an ursa clinic.
“While I have your captive attention,” said the doctor, “I must inform you of everything that has been done. You’ve received a series of injections to boost your immune system. The number of vaccines required for interplanetary travel is considerable. Limited nanotech will assist your body to develop appropriate responses without overloading your immune system.” When he saw her eyes go wide, he tried to calm her with a massive paw. It looked like he was offering to crush her head. “Don’t worry, I said they’re limited. The nanomachines are made of proteins that will be absorbed by your body over time.” How did that make sense? How could a machine be made of protein?
“Your records say you were born in the reservation and have never lived anywhere else. Is this correct?” She gave the smallest nod possible. “This is the harder problem to resolve. You have developed malnourished and suffer from constant nutrient deficiencies. Don’t ask which ones. It’s all of them. Your body has been stunted.” How did that make sense? Sadie was about the size of everyone in the reservation. The doctor took a seat next to her.
“You have two IVs in your arms. They are pushing a mixture of concentrated nutrients and nanomachines which will read your genetic code. It will restore your body to what it should have grown into. Over the next couple of weeks, you should expect to grow considerably, both in height and weight.” That was just, incredible. She was going to grow? The doctor returned his comforting paw. “This process is incredibly painful. You will have to be sedated for a long time as the machines work. To undo the damage done in your development, they have to remove the impurities. The pain you’re feeling are your bones, tendons, and other tissues being broken on microscopic levels. If you tried to stand right now, you’d likely break every bone in your leg, and then any limbs you tried to catch yourself with.” The doctor rose and went to check something on a computer.
“I hope you know what a luxury this is. Your friend just spent more money than any on the reservation will see in five lifetimes.”
Sadie winced in pain, trying not to cough. She eventually gave in and let out a loud hack, spitting all across her face. The pain sent uncontrollable shivers down her body that felt like someone was sticking ice between her joints. This felt like a shitty luxury.
Louis led them out of the clinic and back through the spaceport. Sadie floated behind in a sealed medical pod. She was trapped by her constantly breaking body in a pool of plushy white pillows. The top of her floating coffin was made of some type of composite glass and some dark metal down the middle that kept it sealed. Behind her floated a tall, thin crate filled with more drugs to shoot her up with. She already would do anything to stop the process, but the best she could do was gargle in protest. To fight back she needed the painkillers and sedatives out of her system. And if this was how she felt with them, she was pretty sure she would die if they stopped coming.
She wanted to marvel at everything that was happening. She’d now gone farther into the spaceport than anyone on the reservation. She was boarding a real ship and was going to experience not just flight, but going off planet! The pain kept her so preoccupied that she missed most of it. Before she knew it, her coffin turned and angled upwards, carrying her up the back of a dropship. Through the glass, she caught sight of a black exterior with sharp angles. Her coffin sealed itself against a section of the wall.
If Louis had been behind her, it would’ve been a tight fit aboard the dropship. It was a sleek fighter built with minimal room for crew. All it had was a tiny hallway he had to crouch through and the smallest lavatory imaginable. There were jump seats for four passengers who were never meant to be there, and now Sadie’s coffin took all of them. Automated hooks extended to lock her into place.
“Maia, keep her company,” ordered Louis. He just needed the girl to stay quiet as he took off. The dropship was already warmed up by the time he was in the pilot’s chair. “Tower, this is the Seraphin in Bay 7. Ready for takeoff.”
“Roger that Syrupfin,” bellowed an ursa. It wasn’t the worst phonetic interpretation he’d ever heard. “What is your current flight plan?”
“Returning to Freighter14051643 for system departure.”
“Check Syrupfin, good flying.”
“Thank you, Tower. Until next time.”
The bay door opened, revealing a desolate valley of swirling blues and whites. Due to weather, the spaceport couldn’t have open bays, so they built it over a cliffside to let ships come in from the side. It protected valuable ships from the weather and gave any failing pilot a polite chance to crash into the cliffs. Not that it was a concern for most ships. The ship computer would link up to the spaceport’s navigation to guide them in in a controlled manner. Unless Louis felt like taking manual control, all he had to do was hold on.
Once he was past minimum safe distance, he angled the Seraphin upwards and began to push the throttle down. His freighter was in orbit around the planet and if he continued at a 15˚ angle, he’d break orbit and be right on course for intercept. But that was boring and he was in a hurry. The Seraphin looked like a six-pointed harpoon, with a black body and six blade-like wings sticking close to the hull. When he pulled the release, the six wings expanded outward, revealing thrusters already glowing gold. Now looking like a rocket propelled grappling hook, he prepared to launch out of the atmosphere. But the thrusters didn’t engage above 20%.
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“Louis,” warned Maia, “what are you doing?”
“Making up time.”
“And when the artificial gravity is strained? You have a girl back there who is essentially a bag of wet meat. Do you want to see what happens when you put her through combat maneuvers?” Louis grumbled and accepted the 20% capacity.
“How’s she doing back there?”
“I’m debating knocking her out. How much did you pay for that new liver?”
“Enough.”
“Pain is free,” said Maia with a shrug.
Louis’s freighter was nothing to look twice at. It was a generic beat up space freighter, a beige box that needed an intergalactic car wash. It had already adjusted course to break orbit and Louis flew toward its rear where the lone hangar bay waited for him. The side opened and he glided in without effort, lowering the Seraphin into its docking cradle. The bay doors shut and he powered down the ship. It was a longer wait for the bay to pressurize and bring the temperature back to human acceptable limits. He could survive, but his guest might disagree exiting into subzero temperatures. The door buzzed yellow when living conditions were acceptable, but he waited for it to roll to green, meaning they were comfortable. The freighter was already heading in the right direction so he could wait.
Sadie was so interested in the freighter that she pushed herself up on one side. She saw dark brown walls that didn’t at all match the boring exterior. The wall and floor panels were lined with green and the overhead glowed a warm orange like the home sun she’d never experienced. The exertion pushed her excited heart too far and suddenly she was short of air. One vagal response later and she was unconscious.
“Your pet is asleep,” said Maia from his collar.
“Why don’t you tend to her?”
“Or I could fly the ship and you could do it.”
“Which one of us has a better bedside manner?” He took Maia’s silence as a win and enjoyed the subtle feeling of acceleration. “Is she comfortable?”
“I added antiemetics and a stronger sedative. She’ll be asleep until next year.” Louis shrugged. It was better than he probably would’ve done.
Louis strode down the long spine of the freighter. It had only two floors, the second floor for living quarters and the much larger bottom floor for cargo and engineering. Sadie’s stretcher steered itself into the first door on the right. She’d spend the majority of their journey unconscious in the medical bay. He ignored her, admiring the flawlessly clean white marble floors. Not a metal façade, but real marble. Cool air wafted through the vents with a hint of citrus and leafy greens. Other than the background hum of the reactor, it was quiet. Just the way he liked it.
“Maia, when you get the princess tucked away will you meet me up front?”
“Way ahead of you.”
Louis walked toward the cockpit, which required him to go down some stairs as the ship sloped. Unlike the rest of the ship, the pilot’s area was all business. It was a narrow, slanted room of dark metals and a single pilot chair. His chair was turned toward him and the moment he sat down, it spun him around and four holographic windows opened above and below him, giving him a 270˚ view around the ship. All screens showed black save for a brief view of the planet below him.
“Hey there! You ready to take off buddy!”
“Almost Johnny. Maia is packing in cargo.”
“You just give me the word!”
Behind him on the right were three yellow seats for passengers, the only real color in the room. Opposite of them, the floor was raised a meter for more electronics and on top sat Johnny. Its machine body vaguely resembled a human from the torso up, if it was a Disney animatronic from the 90s. It was a mess of wires, half covered panels, and had two long robotic limbs with five digits. Its head consisted of three cameras that were its eyes and a mouth straight out of the uncanny valley. It spoke like an upbeat jackass excited to be on the bus at the crack of dawn and its mouth never quite synced up with what it was saying. Surrounding it was a variety of analog controls, switches, dials, and joysticks. Johnny was hardwired into the freighter, but digital controls could fail and it needed access to flip a switch or push a button. It was probably a good thing it couldn’t leave its post because Louis was sure if he encountered it in the dark, he would’ve destroyed the goofy machine by now.
“Maia,” said Louis.
“Almost ready.”
“You strap in!” chimed in Johnny. “Car accidents are no joke.”
“Shut up Johnny!” shrieked Maia, clearly tired of dealing with him alone all day.
“I’m just saying!” There was an electrical zap and Johnny spun comically in a circle.
“That st-st-st-stings!”
“Maia don’t kill Johnny. Johnny, shut up. Here we go.”
“Where to?” asked Johnny.
“Amoroso System, the local gas giant.”
“Let me see.” Johnny tapped a digit to its nightmare mouth in thought. It likely knew the answer a millisecond after the question, it was just being dramatic. “One day to clear the local orbits so we can activate the skip drive. Thirteen days in the skip. One day to enter the orbit of the gas station. You’re looking at fifteen days!” It flexed its hand three times.
“Thanks, Big Bird,” said Maia.
“Maia, what do I always say?”
“Hit them fast, hit them hard, and when that doesn’t work, orbital bombardment.”
“That is not what I say.”
“You say that frequently.”
“True, but that’s not what I meant.”
“Louis, nobody is going to you for diplomacy. Don’t try and judge me.” That made him smile.
“Johnny, how much time can we save if we dial the engines up to full power?” The freighter could take it, but it was old and they rarely asked much of the engines.
“Acceleration will take off eighteen hours. We will have to actively decelerate when approaching the gas giant.”
“Do it.”
“You got it, boss!” Johnny made an engine revving noise, like it was behind an 18-wheeler.
Louis checked the freighter’s systems one by one. One of the two would’ve let him know if there was a problem, but it was a captain’s responsibility. It kept him preoccupied fretting over the thrusters. A pair of the boosters weren’t giving him optimum power again, he’d have to have it looked at. It was within acceptable limits, but now was the time to get it looked at when everything was quiet. He should inspect the girl, the greenhouse, and a dozen other items. Instead he made sure the course was correct and that there wasn’t a ship capable of bothering them for a few hours, and then went to his room.
Being the captain meant he had a real room and even then, it wasn’t much. It had enough room for a large bed, a desk with a keyboard, a bookcase recessed into the wall, and a closet. The entire wall could be turned into a holographic image. Maia usually liked a forest or a lakeside property, something with a lot of water. Today the room was dark save for a candle in front of a glass of freshly cut lilies.
“Having a bad day?” asked Louis.
“I thought it might be appropriate. Sit, I made you something strong.”
“What’s the occasion?” He took his seat, expecting a glass of alien liquor. It was coffee. Not synthetic coffee copied a thousand times from the original formula, but ground coffee beans and hot water. This was a rare treat most humans alive today had never tasted. “What happened?”
“What happened?” asked Maia incredulously. “You just found out Ravi Star is alive. How long ago did we think he died?”
Louis’s breath caught in his throat. He saw Ravi’s ship exploding from the inside out. Capital class ships were so big they couldn’t be destroyed by a single event. But they were like skyscrapers once someone took out the base. It took a while for it all to come apart, but once it started, it was inevitable. He took a sip of the coffee.
“Eighty-two years ago.”
“The Battle of Raining Stars. How many people died?” Louis knew the answer like it’d happened yesterday.
“Twenty-seven thousand, four hundred, and seventy-one confirmed dead. Another ten thousand unaccounted for, but presumed dead.”
“How many of those are you responsible for?”
Louis absently drank the coffee. He knew how many and so did Maia. They were probably the only two who did know. There were countless recordings of Louis fighting on the ground of Tannis, but how he got there or where he’d been before was suspiciously absent. Nobody ever asks questions about a Delta slaying things on the ground. He was just some invincible ground muscle. Why would anyone link him to what happened in the stars?
“Why are you asking me this?”
“Because you felt like assaulting a hive unprepared and scaring me half to death.” Maia’s voice was quiet. She was hurt. “When’s the last time you’ve seen another Delta? Hell, when’s the last time you saw a Rho?”
“Gods help me I avoid the Rho.”
“Louis.” He sighed and looked at the caramel liquid.
“Eighty-two years.”
“Three hundred years since Earth and you’ve spent almost a third of it alone.” Louis felt like breaking the coffee cup. He wanted to go back into that hive and beat every bug to death with his bare hands. He wanted to feel a royal’s strength break underneath him. He wanted to cry, to sob, and break down into someone’s arms. He looked at the candle and the soft blue flowers that shouldn’t exist in his bleak world.
“Why aren’t you here right now?”
“Because I’m not real Louis.” Louis gritted his teeth and set the mug aside.
“You’re real to me.”