by Aer-ki Jyr
Kip let go of her head as she lay on the medical bed, still somehow clinging to life as the medic pulled the tattered remains of her shirt off her partially armored chest and laid the gleaming silver piece of technology directly onto the exoskeletal strip that ran down the middle of her flat torso. The hardened, black scaly plates didn’t cause the tiny tendrils of the regenerator any trouble for they sank into her body as if the hard patches weren’t even there.
The device continued to branch out across her like a mess of tree roots, dipping down under her pants and spreading out across most of her body. Immediately the sensors built into the bed began to show her vitals improving as the regenerator started to rapidly repair the damage done to her.
Kip sighed, knowing that she’d live past this point. The regenerator could revive those who were not functioning, so he had no doubt about its ability to heal her injuries. It’d even replace her lost blood, though it’d be limited to the physical matter within her body, meaning she’d have to eat a lot to give it the necessary mass to replace something like a missing arm…fortunately all of hers were still mostly intact, making the recovery process that much more simple.
The trailblazer took a step back and stumbled, suddenly feeling the consequences of his ascension as the adrenaline induced numbness began to wear off.
“Are you alright?” one of the medics said, with three of them hovering around the patient and a score of others scattered around the medbay.
“Yes and no. I need you to run a full scan and send the results back to Earth. Tag it ‘new psionic data.’”
“New?” the head medic asked. “Your disorientation is ascension residue?”
“Yeah, I got fried and didn’t have time to deal with it properly. And damn it all, I didn’t have a biomonitor on. Get me scanned quickly and maybe there will be something salvageable.”
“Over here,” one of the other medics said, motioning him to an empty table. He began extruding the necessary equipment from the concealed wall niches as Kip deactivated and stepped out of his armor, leaving the Christmas tree of apparatus standing in place as he rolled onto the table.
“What do you want done with her after she’s healed?”
“Keep her unconscious and send her over to the prisoner ship with the others, standard protocol,” he said, closing his eyes and laying his head back. “Wake me when you’re done scanning. I need to slip into Sesspik before my head explodes.”
The female Protovic woke up in a groggy state not knowing where she was or what had happened to her, but as soon as her memories caught up she reacted violently, jumping up off the narrow bed and hitting her head on the low ceiling above it. She bounced down and onto the floor, then scrambled to her feet looking around in a panic as she clawed at her own body searching for her injuries amidst the memory of pain.
But there were no wounds, which she could clearly see given that she wasn’t wearing any clothes. Her thin physique was much like that of a Human, save for that fact that she had no hair or breasts. Female Protovic still bore the younglings during reproduction, but they were born into a fleshy egg sack that then gestated externally to produce offspring that could eat solid food so there were no mammary glands in their genome.
To her that was normal, for she’d never known of another race. She’d spent most of her life in seclusion along with her sisters in the Renval where they trained their bodies and minds for clarity and purity while they awaited their graduation to the second phase of their progression towards becoming Advarchs. Naisha had recently been moved into that second phase of her life, only to end up bound as a prisoner and taken out into a plaza for some horrific purpose. She didn’t know what had happened, but the numerous stabbings that she’d suffered would not leave her memory and she kept flopping around on the floor in nervous twitchings for a long time before the lingering panic finally bled off.
That left her looking around and wondering where she was, and if she was in any more danger. All she could see was the confines of a tiny room that had two doors. One was closed and the other was open. She stood up and poked her head inside it, finding but an unusual chamber that resembled a lavatory. Inside it was a stack of folded clothing, also foreign.
Naisha didn’t know what was going on, so she went to the other door and tried to find a way to open it but there was no handle or keypad. It was shut and no amount of prying with her fingers could get her to move it. Normally she would have accepted her situation and gone along with the flow, assuming she was where she was supposed to be, but the room did not look Veliquesh and after what had just happened her trust levels were running low.
After a few minutes of walking around the small room and looking at every facet of it a hologram appeared in front of a flat screen on the wall with the image of an alien, yet it spoke their language.
“Hello. You are probably wondering where you are and what is happening, and this recorded message has been designed to answer the largest questions. I will be your guide through the transition process, which will be an entirely solitary affair. You are currently in transit from your former home to a new one that we have built for you. Who are we, you may be asking? We are Star Force. If you haven’t heard of us already let me make this as simple as possible…we’re the ones invading your home and taking you prisoner, not because we’re the enemy but because we’re your friends.”
“You’ll notice that you’re not dead. That’s because we didn’t come here to kill you, but to save you from a corrupt and horrific existence. The Veliquesh civilization that you were born into is an abomination. We are killing that abomination but giving you another chance at life. You are onboard one of our jumpships at the moment and will remain in this chamber until we arrive at your new home. There you will be kept in isolation until you have earned your freedom. If you choose not to cooperate, so be it. You will not be harmed, but you will also not be allowed any contact with the outside world. If you choose to live that way we will accommodate you. If you want something more then you’ll have to be willing to learn new things and unlearn old lies that have blinded you.”
“This will be hard for you, we know, which is why we’re keeping you by yourself. No one else can tell you what to do, or punish you for not doing something. It’s just you and the automated information database. Explore, learn, make mistakes and question everything. There will be no reprisals of any kind. This is your time, your chance at a fresh start. Make use of it or not. The choice is yours.”
“For now just stay where you are, food will be brought to you through the panel to the left of your bed. There is a set of clothes for you to wear, if you wish, in the other chamber. You can stay nude if you like, no one will be monitoring you, but everything from here on out will be Star Force equipment, including the clothing. It is safe, do not worry, for we have many of your race as allies and are well familiar with your biology and needs.”
The alien moved to the side and an image of a Veliquesh appeared beside it, except that it wasn’t right. It had purple markings instead of red.
“What the Human says is true. I am part of Star Force, as you will have a chance to become if you prove yourselves worthy. If not they will take care of your for the remainder of your life, asking nothing in return. Why would they do that? Because they are the protectors of all life, no matter where you come from or what race you are. That’s why you weren’t killed during the invasion, and that’s why my race is allied with them. I was born into Axius, which is something you will learn about later, so I have been Star Force my entire life. They are not the enemy, and I ask that you take the time to question everything. That is not what you have been told to do since birth, but it is what you will need to find a way to do now.”
“This room,” the alien continued, “has a learning module. Touch the crystal below the screen to access it and you will have instructions to follow from there. The trip to your new home won’t take long, and if you feel like doing nothing that is alright. The learning will take place at a speed of
your choosing, or not at all. We’re flexible like that. This is your journey and your future. Proceed as you wish, but know that we are not your enemy, and while it seems like we’re the bad guys, in truth we just rescued you from the bad guys. It make take a long time for you to understand that, but so be it. We’ve got time, and so do you, for we don’t make sacrifices of any kind, and you have no need to fear for your life.”
“Use the terminal,” the Veliquesh added. “Listen and learn. I wish you luck, my long lost brothers and sisters. Be brave and think. The truth doesn’t mind verification. Only lies want you blind to other possibilities.”
The hologram shut down, but a button underneath the screen on the wall lit up with a blinking light that wouldn’t stop.
Naisha didn’t press it. She didn’t do anything but stand still wrapping her arms around herself and rubbing the exoskeleton strips on her elbows.
Sacrifice? Is that what they were doing to her and the other captives? She’d never been taught anything about that growing up, other than what the word meant. In fact she didn’t know much about her own people, aside from that they were fighting a war and that she was one of a few selected from birth to perform an important role in the survival of their race.
But they’d just tried to kill her?
Or maybe she was already dead? The memories of the stabbings were pounding in her head but nothing else was there. She didn’t know how she’d gotten to this room or even where she was. If what the alien said was true she was on a starship, but there was no way to tell. Gravity felt normal, but that didn’t mean anything.
Her own people had just killed her, or tried to…then the memory of the golden armor appeared and she realized that person had somehow saved her. Was it an alien? Or was it the purple skin that was talking?
Naisha didn’t know anything, and after a few minutes of thinking with no answers she just sat down on the soft floor and wrapped her arms around her knees and cried for a long time.
She woke up again, this time without the violent reaction, finding herself lying on the floor where she’d been sitting. Her head was still a mess, and despite the ghost images of pain her body was fully healed…though how that had happened she didn’t know. Maybe this was the next life…but no, the alien had said she’d been taken.
Naisha didn’t know what to think, but the button underneath the screen was still flashing rhythmically, the only thing in the room to be even remotely active. Hesitantly she crawled over to it and pressed her thin finger against it. It stopped flashing and the screen came alive with Veliquesh script that had an inventory menu. She read through it, finding the scrolling buttons were almost identical to what she had used growing up, which somehow felt reassuring.
With that being the only bit of home here she gravitated to it, reading the headings and picking a few to click on by using her fingers on the screen. There was a lot of data, far too much to read at once, but as she scrolled down she saw an information topic labeled ‘sacrifices.’ Cringing with a cocktail of ugly emotions swirling inside her, Naisha pulled it up and read what her people had been doing and how the aliens denounced it as being horrifically wrong.
Naisha didn’t want to believe it, and wouldn’t have if she hadn’t experienced it herself. Then it came to the part about the Renval and how those raised in it were not told of their true purpose. That they were supposed to be sacrificed with no knowledge as to why in order to cause a larger blessing to emerge from the Nash’garmat’ecklima than other types of sacrifices would. They had to be betrayed in order for their civilization to prosper, and she was one of their sacrificial dupes.
She recoiled from the screen, sitting back down on the floor and crying again. She knew it was true but her mind wouldn’t accept it. She’d been taught to adhere to the principles of the Veliquesh without question, concern, or trepidation…and then they’d stabbed her. She didn’t deserve that. She was pure and hadn’t faltered one iota in her convictions. She prayed every day, practiced the cleansing rituals without fail, done everything she’d been told to do.
But that was the point. The betrayal had to be visceral and total, according to this information, for her sacrifice to be worth the effort of her secluded upbringing. Her life was a currency the Veliquesh had tried to spend to counter the invasion…and invasion by a race that had bothered to save her life and heal her, somehow, and whom was allied with purple Veliquesh?
Summoning up a touch of courage she went back to the terminal and found an entry explaining who they were. The ‘Protovic’ history was weird, most of which she couldn’t understand given the indoctrinated mess that her mind was, but a part of her needed to believe that they were the true Veliquesh that she had been loyal to since birth. With that thought being about all that was sustaining her from a total mental breakdown she continued reading, more and more until a beep from the wall signaled that her food had arrived, as an entry in the reading had described.
Hesitantly she went over and opened the panel, with her hunger taking over as soon as she smelled the contents of the tray. Whatever they were it wasn’t Veliquesh food, but she ate the oddly shaped pieces none the less, finding the tastes weird but her appetite wasn’t allowing for complaint. She put the tray back inside as instructed and hit a button to conceal it again. It’d be recycled for the next delivery later on.
Naisha went back to her reading, then when biological necessity asserted itself went into the connected chamber. When she came back out it was in the Star Force clothing. The regimented part of her mind recoiled from it, telling her that she was wearing poison and now unpure, but another part said this was what the Protovic would wear and therefore was pure. The Renval had been perverted, and if she was going to rectify herself she had to trust in the Protovic’s wisdom and go along with these aliens, whom they revered as being not just allies but very wise.
Naisha stayed up and read through entries until her eyes could take no more. She finally went to the bed and fell asleep the moment she laid down, waking who knew how long later to find another tray of food having arrived and was waiting for her at the repetitive tone that had somehow failed to wake her.
She ate the cold food without concern and went back to studying, with that being the one constant that she was trying to sustain herself on and ignoring everything in the past. It was too traumatic to analyze, so she blocked it out as much as she could even as she was reading about it. With that mental duplicity gaining in complexity she became two people. One being the emotional victim and the other the scholar, with her disconnecting the two when she was reading in order to give her mind the freedom to wander that she had never been allowed before.
Sometime later the hologram reappeared, startling her as it manifested itself right where she was standing. Naisha jerked back, then heard the alien say that she was about to be transferred to her new home, but that it would have to happen when she was unconscious. It told her to lie down on her bed but she was reluctant to do so, fearing another betrayal. Eventually it didn’t matter, for there was a bright pink light and suddenly she lost consciousness.
She woke up sometime later finding herself laying on the bed as instructed…but the room had changed color. It was the same size and dimensions, but the white/grey motif had been replaced with white/gold. She swung her legs off the bed and looked around, triggering the motion sensors that immediately activated another holographic message.
“Welcome to your new home,” the alien said. “It looks a lot like your room on the starship, but I can assure you that you are planetside now. You’ve been moved 29 lightyears away to a star system known as Broj,” it said as a holographic map materialized with all 5 Veliquesh systems marked along with a pulsing blue one that indicated her present location.
She was a bit coreward of them, but not far off in what had previously been categorized as the Shrva’en System and held by the lizards, formerly owned by a race called the Nephen. That’s what she’d learned in her studies as a child, but apparently things had changed�
�or had that just been another lie she’d been told?
“There are other Veliquesh here, but you will not see them. They are in chambers similar to yours, but they must also earn their freedom through learning and training, which you are now available to make use of. Now that you’ve read the training file intro, you can take your orientation session now if you wish. Just step over to the door and put your hand on the circle.”
Naisha looked at the door and saw a glowing gold spot appear. Forcing herself to trust in the Protovic, she stood up and walked over to it, putting her five fingers against it and pressing her palm firmly. After a moment there was a tone and she let go as the door slid into the wall revealing a hallway outside with indicator lights that the reading had told her would be here. She followed them through a series of turns until she came to the first chamber, with the hologram returning, this time in much larger form and standing as tall as she was.
“This is the track, which is for the purpose of running. The shoes you have now are adequate, but you may earn upgrades with successful workouts. If you wish to begin enter. If not return to your quarters by following the indicated lines.”
Naisha walked towards the closed door and it opened before she could make contact, revealing a wide hallway that had a slightly spongy surface to it. On the floor was a series of lines with markings on them, but they were of a script she didn’t understand.
“Standard evaluation run. Stay with the marker as long as you can. Four circuits is the maximum. Begin in five, four, three, two, one…”
The glowing purple ball floating near the wall started to move…but Naisha didn’t, for a moment, then scrambled to catch up. It wasn’t moving very fast but she did have to run to keep pace. Following instructions came naturally to her, so she did as told and stayed with it for four full circuits, at which time it disappeared and was replaced by a static blue symbol that was accompanied by some type of brief music.
