It was no longer limited to the restrictions of the past. In addition to a nearby mining colony filled with delicious Praxians, computers and power plants it could eat, there was something that was just begging for the taking.
The fauna and flora – all living matter – of Kryxo, a massive reservoir of energy that should buy it months, if not years.
It would sweep across this moon and it would eat it all.
It directed Jera to assimilate the nearest plant outside of camp. Then, using its hundreds of thousands of nodes, it started eating everything.
And like an unstoppable wave, it began rolling across Kryxo.
Chapter 11: Recovery
Helley’s recovery had been progressing very slowly.
The days of her initial sleep therapy didn’t seem to help. Her test results since she first woke had not been good and her doctors were doubtful that she’d ever recover fully, if it all. Her speech-center and memory recall abilities were in bad shape.
She couldn’t remember who she was and battled to recall the names of even the simplest of objects and all of this was coupled with a severe speech impediment. The core of her being seemed to be intact, however.
And there were hints of a person trapped inside a broken body, as if she instinctively knew that something was wrong, that she was supposed to be able to know the names of these things, these people, and that she was supposed to know and remember who she was before.
No matter how hard she tried, she could not remember and the answers seemed frustratingly out-of-reach. This created frustration for her, which would eventually manifest in outbursts of anger.
A therapy session would start calmly, with the therapist asking her questions but the session would end rather violently shortly after, with a frustrated Helley throwing a temper tantrum, making a loud racket, shouting incoherently and smashing whatever she could get her hands on or throwing objects at her therapist.
She also suffered from frequent debilitating headaches as well as nightmares and would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, in a cold sweat and screaming.
Helley had become notoriously volatile, and not many people could handle her or calm her down except for doctor Beriyana, one or two of the therapists, and Elzo – the dashing stranger from earlier.
Because her brain was still very fragile and because the strain would probably be too much for her mind to handle, her doctors had decided against a brain-to-computer interface as a communication aid, and opted instead for traditional speech therapy coupled with comprehensive and intense recovery therapy.
Doctor Beriyana had made a deal with Helley and explained to her that everybody wanted her to recover fully, but needed her full cooperation to succeed.
If she promised to cooperate, he and Elzo would try to help and one of them would always be present in a therapy session with her. Helley liked the sound of that and she agreed.
The doctor warned her that it would take time, that it would be difficult and arduous and that there was no guarantee that she’d ever recover fully, but the chance, however slim, was there, and it was worth pursuing even if they attained limited success.
Helley’s therapy began and as promised Elzo and doctor Beriyana each attended sessions with her. For the most part, they were both relaxed and funny and would lighten up the mood, making the sessions easier, helping the time go by faster.
Progress was painfully slow at first, but as time passed, Helley began showing remarkable signs of improvement, especially with her speech. With effort, she could soon string together short sentences and hold brief conversations, before fatigue set in. She had to relearn the names of things, and even this recall began improving. Her basic logic, mental arithmetic and concentration levels also began showing signs of improvement.
And through all this time, she and Elzo had begun growing closer and were forging a special friendship and rapport. Elzo had explained to her that he’d been an admirer since he first heard about her work.
It was good fortune that he was already working as an engineer on the Valiant before she arrived and he had sprung at the first opportunity to meet her, only to find out about her devastating accident shortly after.
Since then, he had come to visit her every second day in the hopes that she’d wake up. He’d been glad that she had and that she later allowed him to assist in her recovery. And although they’d been getting closer, Elzo, out of respect for her condition, had so far refrained from making any romantic passes. They were just good friends, for now.
But for all Helley’s remarkable progress, she could still not remember a thing from her previous life and in terms of her capabilities, she was not even a shadow of her previous genius self.
Samples of her formulae elicited the same blurred out expression with her as it did in pretty much everybody else. The complex formulae had sparked no recognition and no understanding in her.
She was visited twice a week by the Valiant’s captain, captain Ihram. He told her that he’d known her father and had served with him in the Imperial Navy many years ago, that he’d been a friend and a good, honorable man and that he was the best engineer he’d ever seen.
He spent time with her and told her stories of his and her father’s escapades in the good old days. It turned out her dad had a bit of a wacky wild side, which made for some funny and entertaining stories.
For captain Ihram, Helley was like the daughter he never had and they quickly developed a strong bond. He silently promised his old friend that he’d never let any harm come over her, that he’d always protect and watch over her like she was his own daughter.
Helley lived in isolation from the rest of the crew and she had no idea of the sacrifice each person on board had made to accompany her. And as time passed, captain Ihram’s job became increasingly more difficult, trying to keep the peace as the reality set in for the crew that they’d very likely never go home again.
Sure, they’d been made very well aware of that possibility before they embarked on this spur-of-the-moment journey, but after the rush had worn off and a year had passed, some had found it difficult to come to terms with their new situation.
With Helley in a coma for such a long time and now unlikely to ever be fully-fledged ‘Helley’ again, many of them were feeling that the whole thing had been pointless and had been a mistake.
Resentment had been growing towards captain Ihram and Helley for some time and the captain had been receiving reports of whispered talks of turning back.
What made matters worse, was that there had been no plan and no destination set for this journey. It had just been a case of “pick a direction and go.”
And considering the very little time they had to plan this, the Society’s initial planning had been excellent in terms of getting Helley the care that she needed and choosing the Valiant – as the ship had more than enough supplies for long-term space flight already (for a previously planned survey of the distant Yolari sector), but very little to no thought had been given to the people component, the hundred and fifty crew members on board, and how they’d cope and react to the consequences of this self-imposed exile with no end-goal, no plan and no destination in sight.
The crew was a mixture between Helley’s Society Reactor team (a mix of physicists, engineers and mathematicians), support staff, medical staff and permanent ship crew with a few Society management members thrown in.
The Valiant was no leisure boat, being ex-navy, with relatively cramped crew quarters, and the absolute minimum bare-bones entertainment facilities – there was a game room and a gym but that was it.
For civilians not accustomed to long-term space flight, and being without their luxuries for too long, the environment would soon become too much for them to handle – that much was certain – especially considering that they were effectively trapped here and couldn’t go home.
Even though the Valiant could stay in space for many more years, the captain knew that something had to be done, that they wouldn’t make it v
ery far with this bunch. He saw it on their faces in one of the recent crew meetings. He had a few more months at the most and then he’d face revolt – without a doubt.
They needed a plan and after more discussions with the crew, where he re-iterated that they absolutely could not turn back and that they would certainly be killed if they did, it was decided that they would fly for a couple more months, then do the next best thing and find a nice suitable planet to settle down on.
The crew reluctantly accepted the plan and tried to stick it out until then.
Helley’s team continued to work on deciphering her Reactor formulae, and as he had an interest in her work, Elzo asked to join them as well. The rest of the crew kept themselves busy by running the ship and helping out where they could. It was still tense, but one could feel that some of the edge had been taken off since they had decided on a plan.
In the meantime, Helley continued her remarkable recovery. As she had been an engineer previously, it was felt that if they could get her ready to work in Engineering, even if it was just doing basic work, her being there might jog her memory and cause her to remember. At the very least, it would give her something to do instead of being cooped up in Medical all day, every day.
Her preparation continued for a while longer and it wasn’t long before the Captain, Elzo and doctor Beriyana felt that she was ready, at least for a trial-run and Helley was sent to Engineering – supervised of course.
However, there was no need for concern as it turned out Helley was a natural, and she caught on very quickly. There’d been no major breakthrough unfortunately, and everyone accepted that this was probably as good as it was going to get with her recovery.
She still had the occasional nightmares and painful headaches, but her speech and memory recall abilities had recovered and for the most part she’d become a normal member of the crew, complete with her own quarters.
Elzo and Helley had started a relationship, after Helley had made the first move, and by now the Valiant had started looking for a new home. Life on the ship had taken on a semblance of normalcy and everybody on board were excited to be starting a new live – beginning, hopefully, by breathing fresh air under clear blue skies – soon.
And one day, when Helley was typing commands on a console, out of coincidence she typed the first command her father had taught her when she was still a little girl, many years ago, sitting on his lap by his console in Engineering on board the ship he served on, the ill-fated Oqara.
It hit her with such invisible force that she staggered back and fell with her butt on the floor.
Elzo was near and rushed over to help. Then he noticed her face.
She looked different.
She remembered.
Chapter 12: Jasperville
Mark felt the bite of the cold morning air.
They were still making their way to the center of town. After they passed the small industrial zone on the outskirts near the forest, they entered the residential area, and signs of everyday life were everywhere.
People were leaving their houses, getting into their vehicles and heading to work or for the morning school run.
Things looked ordinary and normal; except for the occasional police vehicle, fire-truck and ambulance zipping past, sirens blaring, heading deeper into town.
There were no emergency sirens blaring in Jasperville – the news had probably not filtered through to these people yet and they were obviously totally oblivious of what had been happening.
Mark had tried calling again and had finally managed to get through to Frank. He was on the way to them now and would meet them a couple blocks away, nearby on Erasmus street.
He told Mark that he and Jo been following the news and had been loading the truck to get out of town. Thousands of strange lights had been drifting from the sky all over the world. He and Jo had decided to head out to their cabin by the lake and hold out there for a while. When he was busy loading the truck outside, he heard an explosion that sounded like it came from the direction of Prospect hill.
He figured that that’s where the emergency vehicles had been heading to. But as far as he knew, no blobs had landed in Jasperville yet.
He said that he and Jo had been trying to call Mark for a while, but there’d been problems with the signal and they hadn’t managed to get through to anyone until now. Also, they haven’t heard anything from Stacy yet either but Jo said she’ll keep on trying to call her.
Jo just had a few last things to pack and after he picked them up, they’d swing by the house for her, and then get out of town.
When Mark asked him if he knew why, if the city sirens had been activated, Jasperville’s were still quiet, Frank said they were probably not working, as ever since the end of the Cold War, no one had bothered to tend to them and the old fallout shelters in years.
Someone probably figured there was no real need to, as the perceived daily threat of nuclear annihilation was supposedly gone.
Mark and the kids continued walking for a while, his leg making it painfully slow going, and were now heading past JF Kennedy Primary school. There was some sort of commotion there and a crowd of what looked like parents were gathering near the playground.
Children had been getting out of their parents’ vehicles and had been rushing over to the playground. At first, Mark couldn’t get a view of what was happening, until they walked past.
Excited kids were dashing all around, with happy laughter, arms out stretched and hands open, trying to capture thousands of small glowing lights that were drifting down in the air. For all intents and purposes they looked like…
“Look Mommy!” a little girl yelled, “Fairies!” she ran over to show her mom, with a little orb glowing in the palm of her hand.
Mark felt a bolt of fear shoot through him. He could almost see Liz’s eyes widen in excitement. He yanked her away and got them away from the school. He looked around for any of the blobs – apart from the “fairies” at the school – there was nothing.
He hurriedly moved them into the nearest side-street, trying to get away from people and any commotion.
From here, Mark could see the tower of the Old Church rising above some trees ahead.
The Old Church, built a few hundred years ago at the time of the founding of the town – was still very much in use, with father O’Bryan, living there and dutifully serving the congregation for the past thirty years, and having grown up in Jasperville and its small community, Mark knew father O’Bryan well. It was near the entrance to Erasmus street.
The street they were in now was quiet but Mark had that strange feeling from this morning that something was wrong. He couldn’t see the church itself yet, as it was next to the house on the corner, but he could hear father O’Bryan talking loudly, almost like he was conducting a sermon to people outside, but he couldn’t quite make out what was being said.
Eventually, they got to the end of the street and were about to cross the road to get into Erasmus street.
Father O’Bryan was diagonally opposite, standing on the sidewalk across the street from the church and was addressing a crowd of about twenty people.
Mark felt that strange electrical sensation in the air. The father was speaking passionately to the crowd.
As Mark walked over the road, to the sidewalk opposite that turned into Erasmus street, he scanned the sky and surroundings for glowing blobs of lights. By now he could hear some of what the father was saying.
“...when I read the news this morning over breakfast and my coffee, I read once again about the insanity, and the sad, broken state of the world we live in. The natural disasters, the evil deeds, the suffering – all of it, made me wonder again if this is indeed the End of Days. And as I always do, I prayed and I asked the Lord to come and heal His children and mend this broken world...” he paused, then continued, “no one knows His Divine plan and when He’ll return to fix things, we’re only asked to trust Him and be patient and be assured that the time will come one day”, he paused
again and now tears were running down his face, “I accepted that and once again vowed to carry on to do God’s good work in preparation for that day. But when I opened the doors of church this morning, my prayers were answered!”
Mark reached the other side of the road, if he looked back, he would be able to see the Old Church that was previously hidden by the house on the corner.
He hadn’t realized that the crowd and father O’Bryan had been looking at the church all this time. The father pointed to the church then yelled ecstatically, “Behold! At last! The advent of Heaven on Earth has arrived! He has come to save us all!”
Mark looked back at where the father was pointing at; then gasped with shock.
Resting on the sidewalk between the road and open main door of the church, was a large glowing ball of white light; faint arcs of electricity arching all over its smooth, translucent surface. Father O’Bryan must’ve walked straight through it to get to where he was now.
Thankfully, the father and the crowd were too transfixed on the orb to notice Mark and the twins slipping into Erasmus street.
Mark didn’t think, didn’t bother about his leg, he just grabbed Liz and ran all the way, without looking back, to the bottom of the road.
He’d run even further, if it wasn’t for Frank, pulling up just in time.
And as Mark slammed the door of the truck shut, he noticed thousands of orbs of light in the nearby distant sky drifting down onto Jasperville.
Chapter 13: Space
Grex had broken out into a nervous sweat.
What had he done? Had he gone mad?
The shuttle continued its steady ascent towards space; it would breach the atmosphere in about five minutes.
Grex had set a course for the Imperial fleet and had hoped to God that they wouldn’t blast him to pieces.
The Light Page 7
