Emergence: Chapter 33

Ilisa was used to crossing from Raan to New Orbus in just a couple of hours, but the ancient ship was much slower; she wasn't sure why she hadn't realised that even before she fired the ancient ship up. The fact that it was ancient wasn't her only clue that it wouldn't be quite up to scratch as modern ships; it creaked when it started up, and it had been creaking a lot since then.

But none of that mattered now; she could see New Orbus now, the grey orb of salvation. She set the controls to autopilot and sat with the comatose Strom. Putting his head in her arms, she cradled it against her chest, one hand running through his black hair, and began to speak.

“Strom?” Her voice was more high-pitched than usual, but she tried to stay calm. “I know you can hear me. You're gonna be just fine; doctors on New Orbus gonna wake you up.” She smiled, relaxed. There was silence for a moment as she held his hair in her hand. It was damp with sweat, but still strangely soft. “Do you remember how we met? Those twats giving me a hard time because I'm a woman? Didn't trouble me ever again.” She gave a short laugh. “They're probably dead now though...” She felt no real sadness at that prospect; all they were to her were just nameless tormentors. “You were my hero. And now I'm yours.” She smiled briefly. “How times change.” She kissed Strom's forehead, before heading back over to the controls.

A display was flashing green, which she presumed wasn't normal. On inspection of the display, she noted that, just behind her own craft, several others had materialised from L-Drive travel. She inspected the ships closer, activating the ship's rear camera and zooming in.

To see the unmistakable wedge of The Dominion.

Around the Xaosian flagship, smaller ships were locked into a defensive spread, surrounding The Dominion in a spherical formation. Ilisa bit her lip, not quite knowing what to do; her first thought was that they had followed her, but she realised that The Dominion had already left the system before her, and that she was nowhere near important enough to follow. Instead, she assumed that Xaos meant to attack New Orbus. She rubbed her hand over her face and sighed heavily, before leaping on the controls. She veered towards New Orbus, putting on a burst of speed; she had to get Strom there before the fighting.

New Orbus's Orbital Defence System seemed to be fully up and running, and Ilisa was thankful for that as she passed it; the Xaosians could be slowed down at least. A satellite near to her exploded, and she shrieked as the shrapnel crashed against her ship. A red light flashed on one of the displays; a wing was damaged. More of the satellites were blasted into oblivion, shrapnel drifting past and into the ship. The ship rocked and swerved off course. Ilisa fell from her seat. Strom's prone body slid across the floor. Ilisa gasped in pain as her head smashed against the controls. She felt the back of her head and found a sticky patch in her dark hair; bleeding. She cursed, before getting back into her seat. The ship was hit by something from behind as she entered New Orbus's atmosphere. Shrapnel burnt up behind her, but still fell, acting as miniature fireballs cracking the hull. Ilisa tried to keep the ship on course. The city was in her sights, but too far away. She tried to steer over, and the city got ever closer.

A piece of burning shrapnel finally breached the hull, distracting Ilisa just enough for her to lose control of the burning ship. When she turned back to the screen, she knew there was no chance of reaching the city now. She turned off the displays and sat next to Strom.

“I've failed you.” A tear punctuated the short sentence, splashing on her lover's forehead.

She held him close and tightly closed her eyes as the ship hit the ground.

A wave of pain then darkness.

*

Her eyes opened to darkness. Panicked, she picked herself up from a rocky floor and looked around, breathing heavily. She reached into her pocket, took out a small flash-light and shone it round. She was in a cave, Ilisa realised. The walls were brown and rough, the same as the floor and ceiling. The ship was nowhere to be found. She checked the ground, and she soon found what she was looking for; Strom was lying on the floor, looking broken in every way. A bead of sweat went down Ilisa's face; while she was glad to be alive, she was terrified. She swallowed her fear. “Who's there?” she called.

The voice that answered sounded more like a bunch of carefully times clicks rather than a real voice. “You woke us. We helped you. We can help your friend.”

Ilisa's brow furrowed. “You can help Strom? How?”

“The same way we survived.” Ilisa could hear the voice drawing closer now. She swung the torch around and recoiled in shock at what she saw. It was humanoid, but its limbs were too long and its body too small. Its head was even more bizarre, with a round, entirely-circular mouth and only one large eye in the centre of their forehead, with flaps of skin covering where their eyes should be. Their skin was jet black, but not naturally so; the skin itself looked deformed and pockmarked. “The back-up project was to be our legacy, and it will help your friend. Give him a new body, with his old mind. A clone, if you will.”

“But he'll still be...him?” Ilisa asked.

“Exactly the same.”

“What are you?”

“My name is Ha'kuun. And for centuries we have been forgotten. But never gone. I am one of the last Orbans, and the Adjeti's back-up project saved our race.”