Aeon

by Cianien Bloodstone

  Copyright © 2019 Cianien Bloodstone

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and any semblance to a person living or dead, establishments or locales are purely coincidental.

  No part of this book is available for reproduction, scanning or distributing without permission of the publisher or copyright owner in any form.

  All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  About the Author

  She awoke with a low groan, only to find herself in total stillness. Reaghan O’Neill, captain of the Scavenger, clumsily felt her way through the darkness until she found a seat to pull herself into. Every inch of her body ached, and she knew she’d find more than a couple bruises once she inspected her injuries. The last thing she remembered was her ship pitching wildly.

  “Twi?” she croaked, and looked around for her missing friend and only crew member. Wetting her lips, she tried again, “Twi?”

  She turned in the chair to get a better view while she waited for a response. Her companion, however, remained silent. “Twi!”

  Her breathing came in quick gasps as she rose to her feet. Eiha blazed over her form, turning her into a living, blue lantern. Reaghan hurried toward the last place she’d seen Twi—near the pilot’s station. She had been trying to regain control right before everything went dark.

  The console’s crystalline interfaces were shattered, taking the metal casing with it. She crawled around in a desperate plea to find them before any damage became irreparable. Making matters worse, Twi was housed in a metallic body that risked blending in perfectly with the debris.

  “Twi?” she called, voice hitching in her throat. “Come out. Please.”

  Reaghan stood and walked to the other side of the console, casting small stars around the room in order to see more detail. The debris was in larger pieces here, which she shoved aside in order to search. Then she saw it. A small dragonfly on the ground near her captain’s chair.

  “Twi!” Her hand slid underneath, cradling the metallic form in her palms. The Eiha she channeled became wisps of power that flared every so often as she rocked Twi back and forth.

  “Wake up,” she pleaded. She nudged Twi with the retractable claw on the tip of her otherwise human finger. “Twi… please.”

  The automaton remained still in her grasp. She wiped her tears away with her shoulder and took a shaky breath as she stood. The hallway was full of broken pieces of ship that she tripped over as she ran past. Inside Twi’s workshop, she swept the half-assembled ship parts off the table with a blast of wind and settled her in the middle of the cleared space. A diagnostic machine sat on the far side of the room and she made quick work of attaching it to the automaton. It remained as dark as the rest of the ship. Eiha pooled in her hands, then flowed into the machine.

  “Think a little power outage is going to stop me?” she said as it turned on. Her fingers danced across the keys. “Give me some good news.”

  The device measured Twi’s general activity, as well as any data corruption the AI might have received. The readout wavered as it gained a steady reading, then flatlined.

  “How did this happen?” she asked, using the conversation to calm her rattled nerves. “It’s all gone. All your data… All your power…” Her gaze rose to the inert form on the table. “It’s like the Eiha that was sustaining you was drained out. But how?”

  Despite the fact her heart felt like it was being torn in two, she managed to pull herself away and race down the hall. There had to be a connection between Twi’s condition and the ship’s current state, and there was only one place to get her answers.

  The engineering room was sealed when she arrived. She pressed a hand against the surface of the door only to yank it back with a hiss. Orbs of water floated around her while vines of blue energy inched across the door, latching onto the metal. The vines pulled the door aside at the wave of her hand. Flames shot out, only to be quickly extinguished by the water orbs. Once enough of the smoke and steam had cleared, Reaghan could make out the soot-covered interior of the room. She didn’t need to go much further to tell her the extent of the damage.

  She made sure the fire was out before making her way to the backup generator. They couldn’t do much under its power, but it would have enough to help Twi charge and restore from her backup server. Her breathing hitched in anticipation as she rounded the corner and stepped inside the room. A faint, grayish glow of natural Eiha greeted her from within the generator’s storage containers.

  All the weariness Reaghan had been feeling since the crash faded away into nothingness as she made the necessary adjustments to direct the majority of the flow of power to the workroom. Everything would work out as soon as Twi was back and they could finally get to the bottom of what happened. All she had to do now was be patient.

  Back in the workroom, Twi still lay unmoving among the wires. The screens and monitors along the walls were powered of their own accord, though reset. Reaghan dragged three thick cords of wire that were coiled next to the wall and connected them to Twi. Eiha and data poured into her body. Reaghan stretched with a yawn and settled on the floor between two of the robotic arms Twi used in her work to wait.

  “Wha… What happened?” Twi’s voice pierced the darkness.

  Reaghan whirled around from where she had been using a darkened screen to examine the bruising on her chin. “Twi!” She raced to her side.

  The AI stood among the wires that were still connected to them. “Why can’t I communicate with the ship?”

  “We had to use a restore from your backup server. We crashed or something… you and the ship were drained of power and your data deleted.”

  “The ship is that damaged?”

  Reaghan nodded. “Our primary systems were fried and we’re running on backup power. I’ve directed the bulk toward this room, so it should be enough for a while longer.”

  “Disconnect me,” Twi ordered. “Now that I am awake, I can gather energy on my own. There is no need to waste what we don’t have.”

  Reaghan gently tugged the cables free. “I still want to keep you hooked up to the server a while longer though. To be honest, I’m amazed you’re already back up and about. According to my readings, you’re only at about eighty percent restored.”

  “I am an AI,” Twi reminded her. “I can function normally even with some of my memory files still being downloaded. The condition is similar to humanoid amnesia.” The automaton paused. A thin wire shot out of her abdomen and jacked into a port on the wall.

  “There’s no point. I’ve accessed it myself. It’s just fragments of data that’ll take forever to make sense of.”

  “I would still like to try.”

  Reaghan sighed, “Well, at least you know what to expect so you won’t give yourself a heart attack.”

  Twi tilted to the side. “But, Reaghan, I do not possess your cardiovascular system.”

  “Figure of speech, Twi.”

  Reaghan leaned heavily against the wall, a sudden weight lifted from her body. Twi throwing herself into her function of being the link between her and the ship was a good sign. Even an AI wouldn’t resume their duties if their ability to perform them had been greatly impaired.

  “How much of a visual survey have you done?” Twi asked.

  “A bit when
I turned on the backups,” Reaghan replied with a shrug. “Tried to look out a window too, but it’s too dark to see if anything’s out there.”

  “That’s because we’re in the Void.”

  She straightened, eyes wide. “What the hell is the Void?”

  “It’s a region of space which exists outside our own. There is a hypothesis among scientists that the Void only comes in sync with our space on occasion. And given the readings I’m able to recover, the theory that this place might be the origin of Eiha in our own reality definitely has promise. The levels are off the charts.”

  “Sorry, but how do you know? The last thing I remember is getting hit by a massive distortion wave and being thrown off course as everything came crashing down around us.”

  “I’ve cross-referenced everything I can and it’s the only explanation I have for the readings we got. It’s a pretty well-known phenomenon, though no one’s ever done more than send a probe through one of the tears.”

  Reaghan rubbed the bridge of her nose with two fingers. “Twi, I was born with a decent amount of knowledge downloaded into my brain already. Most of which could be considered state secrets. Why don’t I have this?”

  “Likely because it is useless to someone whose primary function was supposed to be a soldier,” Twi replied.

  Reaghan winced at the reminder of what used to be her sole reason for existence. Luckily, no one had any chance to draft her into service before the ship containing her stasis pod had been shot down.

  “Well,” she said, brushing it aside. “How do we get out with our ship being a wreck? I suppose our backup generator might be enough to give us power if Eiha is as plentiful as you say, but our engines are dead in the water.”

  “I do not know,” the AI replied, an agitated edge to her voice. “I don’t have enough data in my own records to guide us and the probability of finding replacement parts are quite low.”

  Reaghan sighed. “Well, I wanted to see the universe. I just didn’t think we’d be pioneers in what we’d see.”

  “What did you expect?” Twi asked

  Reaghan pulled a blanket around her in an effort to fight off the chill. She’d set the environmental controls to the minimum in an effort to conserve power. “Fly around… See what we can find. Nothing too complex or groundbreaking.”

  “I’m not sure how you hoped to accomplish that considering what your existence is—”

  Reaghan put a finger up to Twi’s mouth. “Don’t.”

  Twi’s wings twitched innocently. “Don’t what?”

  “Exactly. Whatever we do, we need to find some way to get moving again.”

  “We’ll need to find out if we can make contact with anyone first.”

  Reaghan yawned, then reached over and hit a button on the wall. The room was plunged into darkness, with only the glow from Twi’s eyes to provide light.

  “What was this for?” Twi asked.

  “Conservation. The Eiha here might be plentiful enough to let our back-ups become our primary power source, but why use it when we don’t have to? The server has enough reserves to finish your reboot.”

  “Won’t it be uncomfortable for you? You’ve always hated the dark.”

  “I’ll make due. It hasn’t bugged me for the past few days. Besides,” Bits of blue energy appeared in midair before they morphed into small stars, casting their glow. “I think I can handle giving us a little bit of light.”

  “They’re blue stars,” Twi noted. “It’ll be hard for you to work by.”

  “Get some rest, Twi.”

  Reaghan rolled over with a wince. Her back ached in places she hadn’t been aware of existing before. Opening her eyes, she could see the outline of the workbench towering above her. The sound of something clinking on the metal surface reached her ears a second before Twi peered over the edge.

  “Why didn’t you use a sleeping bag?” she asked.

  Reaghan put a hand on the back of her head. “Guess I was so tired that I didn’t care.”

  Rising to her knees, she instantly regretted the decision when her back twinged in pain. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m back within normal parameters.”

  The ship lurched around them. Reaghan had to maintain a death grip on the table to keep from being thrown to the ground. Stumbling her way through the remaining quakes, she reached for the light controls. The room stayed dark.

  “Come on,” Reaghan said, ignoring the rest of her body’s protests as she strode out of the room.

  Navigating the damaged hallway to the bridge wasn’t any easier the second time around. Since she hadn’t bothered to recast her stars, even the smallest pieces of debris became a tripping hazard. Twi darted ahead in an effort to guide her through the worst of the damage.

  “The bridge was okay?” Twi asked.

  Reaghan winced, a wave of embarrassment washing over her. She hadn’t actually taken a good look at the bridge before she left. “How are you going to access anything? There’s probably no power, remember?”

  “I might need to borrow some from you.”

  Reaghan froze in shock at what the AI was implying. “I’m not a battery, Twi!”

  “Well then, I suggest—” Twi broke off at the closed doors in front of them. “Did you?”

  “No. But I’m surprised the security measures are even working.”

  “Even if you directed it to do otherwise, the system isn’t designed to take power away from such an essential function,” Twi explained, and Reaghan tried her best to ignore the AI’s obvious tone.

  She pressed an ear to the bulkhead after making sure it was cool to the touch. Based on the hiss she heard, more than a few life support lines were broken on the other side. Reaghan turned to the storage locker on the right where they kept gear in case an emergency evacuation was necessary.

  “Hop on.” She motioned to her shoulder.

  Twi’s legs dug in as she lifted a mask off its hook. It looked more like what someone would use for deep-sea diving than going off a starship. Still, the clear screen allowed her to have unobstructed vision, while small capsules of compressed air would give her needed oxygen. An Eiha-created shield would seal everything, as well as protect her from the harsh environment. Admittedly, the system wasn’t for everyone, especially if one had low Eiha reserves, but for Reaghan, it was perfect.

  She untangled the mask’s straps and secured it in place, wincing when it snagged on her long brown hair. A shield bubbled around them, joining with the sides to seal everything with a hiss.

  “We will need to shut the door as soon as possible,” Twi said. “That way, the ship won’t decompress completely.”

  Reaghan nodded her agreement. The AI was saying the obvious steps again, but she knew this time was more a coping mechanism than insult. “Ready?”

  “Of course.” The wire shot into the door’s controls. It beeped, then opened. Wind threatened to pull them forward as everything was sucked toward the other side. Vines, much like she used on the door, grew until they were large enough to latch onto the edges of the doorway while they wrapped around her waist. Twi’s wire whipped wildly, though it still held on. Reaghan pulled herself along a vine until she could grab the doorframe herself and throw herself around the side.

  Her fingertips searched for the buttons to the controls on this side. They barely grazed the surface before the door slammed shut and she fell to her hands and knees on the floor.

  “That sucked,” Reaghan muttered.

  “Not as much as repairing this mess will,” Twi said.

  She looked up at the alarm. How she had missed it in the first place was beyond her, but the section of ship she was looking at spanned the entire bridge. With no shields, it had broken through the front part of her ship.

  “It is not any ship model I have on record,” Twi said.

  “I’d imagine not.”
Reaghan recovered enough to take a step closer. “Even I can tell it’s old. Might be early Dynasty.”

  “The more pressing matter is what we should do now.”

  She angled her head to see through the gap between the other ship and the remaining hull of the Scavenger. She could just make out the edge of a door on the other side. Waving a hand, she tested to see where the other ship’s shield was. Nothing.

  “Let’s see what their situation is. Despite our collision, they might be in better shape and can get us out of here,” she suggested.

  “And how do you suggest we do it?”

  She pointed toward the crack she’d examined; her vines grew across the room and pulled at the frayed edge until it was big enough for them to squeeze through. “How about through the door?”

  The interior of the ship was dark, though so much Eiha had gathered in the conduits that Reaghan could sense it with little effort. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small, reserve-operated light to illuminate the way.

  “No Eiha?” Twi asked with a note of curiosity.

  “Not with this much already in their systems,” Reaghan explained, knowing Twi’s ability to sense it was less than ideal. “I don’t know what reaction there could be if there’s a leak.”

  “No one around. I say we head to the bridge. If there’s anyone aboard, they’re bound to be there.”

  They rounded the corner and continued down a straight hallway that seemed to run the length of the ship. It was impossible to tell from what they’d seen so far, but Reaghan wagered this ship was significantly larger than the Scavenger. As tempting as it was to look in the rooms they passed in order to find out more, she didn’t risk it in a case larger dangers were hidden inside. Regardless of her caution, her curiosity drew her to a stop in front of one of the larger doors. Her brow furrowed as she stared at the walls along the doorframe.

  “What is it?” Twi asked.

  “No signs. And I haven’t seen any the entire time we’ve been on board. I don’t care how familiar you are with a ship, there’s going to be a time when you’ll need to know exactly where you are. Maybe seasoned crew members might be able to get away with it, but what about new ones?”