by Amanda Rose
Since the insurrection Kaito had been on edge and unable to sleep at all. Survivor’s guilt? He wondered. Yes, I do feel guilty… so many of his brethren had died that day. And Gin had always been a good friend to him. Word had already spread about Gin’s attempt on his own life, and Kaito had felt utterly shocked when word had finally come to him about it.
Kaito had known Gin for years. They often worked together in the military branches with civilian relations. On the Saisei, the military governed day to day aspects such as policing and civilian safety. The simplification of one organization supervising the ship prevented potential conflict and provided a simplistic means to protect and serve the people.
Kaito stared at the clock. It was mid-afternoon, and he doubted anyone else would come by the recruitment office that day. His body felt tired and sore from sitting all day. Normally he didn’t mind desk duty shifts, but in the absence of work, the time creeped by slowly.
His mind felt sluggish, as if his thoughts had to be found in a thick fog. Kaito had always been able to sleep well, and now for the first time he finally understood what insomniacs suffered through. He felt a great deal of empathy for them. He leaned back in his seat, rested his eyes, and before he knew it he had drifted off into a much-needed sleep.
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Freya, with her arms crossed, stood in front of the large window in the atrium that faced the wormhole anchor. The atrium was otherwise empty. Since the mass funeral, and people paying their respects shortly thereafter, no one had wanted to spend time in the space that had held so much sadness.
Hours before Freya had watched Raiden go through the wormhole in a flash and had expected to see him pop right back. But he didn’t. She hadn’t averted her gaze in the several hours he’d been away. He’s coming back, I can feel it… she kept telling herself, trying to allay the worry and anxiety she felt in the pit of her stomach. Stoically she waited for her friend to return. She was so focused on the anchor and her own thoughts that she didn’t hear Koji approaching.
“There you are,” he said with relief resonating in his voice and he walked up behind her.
Freya flinched, and looked over her shoulder to see him standing right next to her, “Fuck!” she blurted out, her heart speeding away.
Koji couldn’t help but laugh, “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I was looking for you everywhere.”
“Why?” she asked curtly, an edge of annoyance to her tone.
Koji squinted questionably at her, “Are you OK?”
Freya rolled her eyes and then turned back to look out the window, “I’m fine. Now did you need something?”
Sighing heavily Koji, “I guess not,” he said, then started to walk away.
“Wait,” Freya said, turning around to grab his arm. “Sorry, look… it’s just. Raiden’s like a brother, we grew up together and… I’m worried.”
Koji took her in his arms, “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Because,” she started to say, resting her head on his chest she felt his warmth and heard his strong heart beat and felt safe, “I don’t know. I just don’t talk about these kinds of things.”
“Heh, yeah you are kind of a hard ass,” Koji chuckled.
“What?!” Freya tried to push him back playfully, but he held her tight, and they both began to laugh. The break in the tension made her feel infinitely better, if only for the briefest of moments. Freya finally wrestled free of Koji’s hold and then grabbed him in a head lock, “Thought you had me didn’t ya?” she said cockily.
“I let you go,” he said confidently.
“Oh, like hell you did!” she said and squeezed tight around his neck.
The restriction, the struggle to breath, and the panic set in fast, “Right, OK, OK, you win,” he wheezed.
Freya released her grip and Koji backed away and collapsed down with his hands on his knees catching his breath. A tremor of terror had rippled through him. He knew in his logical mind that it was just the post-traumatic stress syndrome reaction from the near-death experience in space, and yet he couldn’t suppress the feeling of overwhelm.
“You’re fuckin’ merciless,” he coughed, red faced from the lack of oxygen.
Freya walked toward him, but he backed up, “Koji, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“You never mean to, you just don’t think!” he spat, heaving and trembling.
Taking a deep breath Freya bit her tongue. She was always one to be quick to anger, ready to fight, but she knew more than anyone what he’d been through. “You’re right,” she simply said, and let the silence hang in the air.
Koji regained his composure after focusing on taking deep cleansing breathes like that doctor had shown him. He stood up straight and stared at Freya, his eyes no longer bearing anger, but instead seeking forgiveness. “I…” he started to speak but didn’t know what to say.
Freya shook her head, “It’s alright, I know.”
He smiled meekly at her, and she smiled back. Before either of them could say another word the bright flash of the wormhole opening drew both of their attention. They ran over to the window. Freya’s heart leapt, and for a split second she felt relief, which was instantly swept away by fear.
The ship coming through the worm hole wasn’t Raiden’s ship, it was iridescent white, glimmering from the refractive light of the worm hole. Koji felt his heart skip a beat, “What the hell is that?”
“I don’t fuckin’ know…” Freya said, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck raise up. What the hell happened to Raiden on the other side? Freya wondered fretfully. The Saisei’s emergency lighting went off and the siren sounded. Koji couldn’t take his eyes off of the ship. With difficulty Freya dragged herself away from the window, and tugged on Koji’s arm, “Common, we gotta go.”
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Koi sat frozen in his chair, staring out the window at the approaching white ship. Minutes later Norita walked onto the bridge and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the ship. “Unbelievable,” she muttered to herself. Koi heard her and turned around in his chair, he went to speak but no words came out. Norita noticed him looking at her, “Have they done anything?”
Koi shook his head, “No, just a steady slow approach vector.”
“Who else did you call up?” she asked.
“General Yamamoto and Dr. Takei, I didn’t know who else to call,” he said, feeling lost.
“That’s good,” she said.
They waited in silence, watching as the ship slowly got closer and closer. After another minute had gone by Dr. Takei walked onto the bridge, “Remarkable!” he said looking at the ship with a smile on his face. He ignored Norita and Koi and walked straight over to the computer terminal in the far corner.
“Doctor, what do we know?” Norita asked as she walked over to him.
“That we’re not alone in the Universe,” he said without looking up.
Norita, annoyed, was about to ask what else, when she realized how monumental that statement was in and of itself. She looked back out the window at the ship with a new sense of wonder. Her leadership position had put her into a defensive mode, a feeling of the need to protect her people from the unknown. Now she wasn’t so sure.
“Empress, we’ve got an incoming transmission from the ship,” Koi said, stunned.
“Put it through,” Norita said.
Koi did as she beckoned, and put the transmission on through the bridge’s comm. The fear Norita had felt melted away instantaneously when the serene voice began to speak, “I am Captain Venu, and on behalf of the Bastion Conclave, I welcome you to the cultural hub of our Galaxy.”
After a moment of revered silence Norita turned to Koi, “Call the council into session immediately!”
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It had been a heated discussion in the council chambers. Fear of the unknown ran deep with many, while desperation for salvation fueled others. After 30 minutes of uninterrupted debate it had all but turned into a screaming match.
“They don’t seem hostile,” o
ne said.
“It’s a trap!” another yelled
“Our pilot never came back!” another chimed in.
“We have to go, we’ll die here without water!” yet another insisted.
Norita stood up at the table and raised her hand, beckoning silence. “Please,” she began, “we’re all afraid. No, we don’t know these aliens, or their intentions, but I do not perceive them to be a threat to us. We do need water, desperately, and the likelihood of getting another drill built before we completely drain our stores is low. I don’t see any other choice. We need to trust them, and go through the wormhole. The decision is final,” Norita said.
An uproarious burst of agreeing and disagreeing diplomats spewing their opinions overtook the room. Norita quickly made her way out. The hallway was serenely quiet by comparison and Norita was grateful for the reprieve from the incessant bickering.
Councilor Merrick Uda followed had her out, “Well played.”
She turned to look at him, “I doubt many in that room would agree.”
Merrick shrugged, “No matter. You did what needed to be done. Good job,” he said, and then walked away.
Norita watched Merrick as he walked off, and thought, I hope you’re right.
Chapter 11: The Bastion
It had been 2 days since the Saisei had docked at the Bastion. Due to the massive size of the Saisei passenger manifest a rotation schedule had been put in place for visitation, so as to not overwhelm the Bastions customs terminal with incoming personnel. Norita and Takeo had been granted diplomatic privileges and were provided with accommodations in the consulate branch of the ship.
The room they’d been given was eloquently furnished with beautiful furniture, incredible plants, and provided them with a computer terminal that accessed an immense data base of combined knowledge from all of the species that formed the Conclave government. It had been a lot to take in in such a short time.
Norita stood leaning on the balcony railing; their room overlooked the winding walkways down below, which were surrounded by greenery, and a waterway that stretched the entirety of the wing of the ship, which was over a hundred miles long. An artificial sky created the complete illusion of being on a planet. She inhaled deeply; she’d never smelled such crisp air, not even when she’d been in the hydroponics bay on the Saisei.
How can this be real? She asked, in awe of it all, and squeezed her hands on the cool metal railing to affirm it wasn’t a dream. Who could have built something of this scope? It looks similar to the worm hole anchors. I wish Xan had been able to talk longer…
When Norita had boarded the station, Xan had been there to greet her, and answered a few questions while guiding her to her assigned quarters. Why didn’t I ask more questions? She wondered and sighed. This incredible place had brought up more questions in her than it had answered.
“You should see this,” Takeo said, sitting behind the computer, reading intently.
Drawing her attention away from the people that wandered around below, she looked over to Takeo. “What is it?” she asked, then added, “it’s incredible they created translations so fast for us.”
“Agreed. I’m glad Dr. Takei is handling the information exchange, he works fast. Though I think he’d benefit from this database more than we do,” Takeo chuckled.
Norita couldn’t help but smirk, “Oh I bet he’s had them patch it to the Saisei’s central computer hub; he’s probably reading all of this at night instead of sleeping.”
“True enough,” Takeo smiled and nodded in agreement.
Norita walked around the desk and stood behind Takeo, leaning on the edge of the desk to view the computer screen. He sat back in the chair and waited while she read. “This is incredible,” she said after several moments, “I sure as hell hope Dr. Takei downloaded all of this.”
The data included the complete informative breakdown of all species that lived aboard, or had dealings with, the Bastion. Sociological, economical, religious, biological, historical, political; every piece of information one could ask for was available at a click.
“We can get to know our neighbors better,” Takeo said.
“I’ll take it,” Norita said, enthralled with the find.
The Conclave had set an appointment to meet with Norita for 3 days after their arrival. She had brought General Yamamoto aboard for protection, as well as to get his opinion. After all they’d been through she’d come to trust him implicitly.
The first day aboard the Bastion they’d cautiously explored the wing of the ship they’d been assigned to, the consulate wing. It was massive in scope, and it made Norita wonder how anyone could conceive of such a place, let alone build it. There were so many aspects of the ship to be maintained, it seemed a logistical impossibility, and yet everything was running in perfect harmony. Zavion would have an aneurism just trying to fathom how to handle this ship, she remembered thinking.
After a few hours of walking down the many pathways they had stopped for lunch. Both felt a nervousness in wondering what might appear on their plates. Their waiter scanned their DNA before providing them with menu’s, explaining that their digital system removed anything potentially hazardous and optimized ideal nutrition meals for each species at the top of the list.
After lunch they had continued to walk until they came to a recreational area. Green grass had been spread out, benches for seating, and various trees, flowers, and bushes had been landscaped in a perfect zen-like fashion.
“It’s perfect,” Takeo had said, as he sat down on the bench next to Norita.
They sat for nearly an hour, marveling at the station and the passers-by. Occasionally a member of the Saisei would wander by, too enraptured by the sights to even notice Norita or Takeo. As they sat on the bench watching everyone go about their business, they couldn’t help but note the incredible variances in the many forms of sentient life aboard the station. Some looked majestic, some small, some large, some like their idea of a monster out of a nightmare, however there seemed to be complete order among them. Bastion security personnel were scattered around everywhere they had attended, but no incident had occurred in all of the hours they had been out exploring the station.
They’d considered another stroll on the second day, but both Takeo and Norita were anxiously waiting for their meeting with the council the next day and found themselves uncertain of what to do with themselves. And so, without a decision they had holed themselves up in their quarters, ordered in food, and spent the day discussing what might happen the next day at the Conclave.
Now midway through the afternoon, the data base Takeo had found had breathed new life into them; the distraction easing their nervous minds. Takeo scrolled slowly through the database, while Norita stood next to him reading along.
“How in the world do they keep all of this straight?” Takeo said after some time.
Norita shook her head, “Hard to say. Although I suppose if this was normal, growing up with all of these other species around, I suppose they’d learn it early on. It seemed from their reaction to us like we’re the first new species to arrive at the station in a while.”
“That makes sense… but still,” Takeo let out a deep breath.
“I know what you mean… Oh hey, that looks like Xan. Ethlana, I guess that must be the name of their race,” Norita said, tapping the screen.
“Yeah it does. Says here their home world is in a nearby system… holy hell, their natural life cycle is 700 years! …They were the first specifies to find the Bastion about 3,000 years ago, but they didn’t build it,” he said.
“I thought for sure they’d built it,” she replied.
“I thought so too, they seem to be the predominant species aboard. I wonder if anyone knows who constructed this, it doesn’t seem to say…” Takeo’s words trailed off for a moment as he continued searching. “It seems they call the wormhole anchors Heaven’s Eyes,” he said, then again Takeo got quiet while he continued reading.
“3,000 years ago, this place i
s ancient, and yet it looks new… It’s remarkable. I hope the Conclave can answer some of these questions tomorrow, I think I’m more confused now than I was before,” Norita chuckled, though she felt slightly unnerved.
Before Takeo could say another word, a knock came at the door. Norita and Takeo shot each other a look, wondering who might be coming by, but neither knew. Takeo stood up from the chair, and briskly walked over to the door, and hit the switch to open it to find Raiden standing there.
“It’s you,” Takeo said, surprised.
