Month November 2023

Episode 13 – Dark Star, part 4

Captain Mayor Brooks 1 Comment

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

“Greetings, Captain Brooks, I hope all is well.  It took awhile for you to come.”

Admiral Heskall had been waiting an unusually long time to get Brooks on the line, and he displayed the patience that had made him famous.

That it was Heskall talking to him meant this had to be something important.  The man was famed as one of the leading thinkers of Union military command.  Not simply for the parts that involved humanity alone.  Heskall was on the Joint Command Council, which cooperated with the military leaderships of every species in the Sapient Union.

“Greetings, Admiral,” Brooks replied.  “All is fine, I was off-duty and attending personal business.  I apologize for the wait.”

The Admiral nodded, accepting that without further question.  “I can tell you we are glad you are back in command of the Craton.  System-Admiral Vandoss speaks well of your abilities.”

Brooks accepted the compliment with a simple nod.

“We have an interesting development out past the edges of Union space,” Heskall began.  “An independent archaeology team has discovered a structure in interstellar space that they believe is a relic temple.”

“This claim is being taken seriously?” Brooks asked, feeling a clenching in his stomach – of fear but also excitement.

“Yes.  The team has submitted a great deal of imagery in support of their claim, which our science teams have verified as undoctored.  Needless to say, we are hoping to get a closer look.”

Images appeared for Brooks to view.

They showed a structure, which appeared to be a massive ziggurat of a greyish-blue stone.  The scans showed that it was massive, planetary in size.  There were pyramidal structures on the outside, and a single entrance, massively scaled up with the rest of the gargantuan structure.

It was an amazing image, but they were less detailed than he liked.

They were not doctored, no, but they could not tell the composition of the materials.  They did not show anything inside the temple, or even nearer its massive entrance that was so big it must have been for the landing of starships.

And the images were only of the temple; no ships or shuttles or even drones were near it, and the infrared images seemed to suggest no occupants.  All of which lent to the idea that it was an ancient and abandoned structure.

But it still left a lot unanswered.

“These are from over 500,000 kilometers away,” he noted.  “The archaeologists didn’t get closer?”

“They moved as close as was possible for these images, but the relic temple is within an extremely powerful magnetic field,” Admiral Heskall said.  “Comparable to Jupiter’s in strength.”

“It has a magnetosphere?”

“It is not the source – we do not know what is, but there is a dangerous amount of radiation trapped around the station, as if it is in a larger system’s Van Allen Belt.  We believe the temple itself is unaffected; but all the charged particles made it impossible for their ship to get closer.  This is why the team contacted the Sapient Union – they need our help.  We have just concluded our negotiations.”

“What’s the source of these charged particles, though?  You said it’s in interstellar space, so there’s no nearby source of solar wind, right?”

“We don’t know,” the Admiral admitted.

Another mystery to unravel, then, Brooks thought.  “Who is this team that found it?”

“You’ve met the lead researcher already – Nadian Farland.”

Brooks’s frown came unbidden.  “Farland?  He is not a fan of mine.”

The man had punched him the last time they’d met – their first meeting.  Farland was a well-known adventurer and archaeologist.  Famed for taking risks, making big discoveries, and he’d leveraged his success into a media enterprise.  Films, games, merchandise, all sorts of things that kept a steady inflow of money – letting him pay for most of his own expeditions.

If there was one thing the man hated, though, it was tomb raiders – though many might unkindly call him that – and in his youth, scratching a living out on the fringes, Brooks had once led a search for lost relics from the dead civilization of Xiphos.  It had been a move born of desperation, and a lack of other opportunities that were less unsavory.  He was not proud of it.

“I am aware of what transpired when you met the man on Gohhi,” Admiral Heskall said.  “But I hope that will not be an issue.  Farland actually suggested that you be the one to come help.  It seems your work helping the !Xomyi has earned his respect.”

Brooks nodded, but still did not like it.  “I see.  He’s not generally a fan of the Sapient Union, either.  I’m surprised he asked us at all.”

“Most ships can’t easily muster enough protection from as much radiation as is present.  Even a brief exposure to it would be deadly.  Only a heavy ship – or a Cratonic ship.  Since the Glorians are not about to lend out a heavy warship for science, and the Gohhians would charge him more than his entire media empire is worth, we’re the only other option.”

The Union would jump at the chance to study a Relic Temple, Brooks knew.  Even he, despite his misgivings, wanted this opportunity.

Was it really the right call, though?

Curiosity could be a dangerous thing, especially with regards to relic technology.

He thought, for a moment, about Iago Caraval, and the strange, aberrant images he’d seen that had driven the man almost to madness.  It had led him to almost flee with his son for parts unknown, believing that the Craton‘s crew, including his closest friends, were secretly conspiring against him.

That the man had eventually managed to return from that brink spoke a great deal to the strength of his character.  But there were many lessons of caution to be taken from his story.

“Admiral, may I speak frankly?” he asked.

Heskall considered, his eyes flickering over the image of Brooks he would see projected on his end.  It was common in civilian circles to project your image however you liked; you could appear to be skiing along with a friend while you were in fact sitting down at home.

In the Voidfleet, though, images were always projected accurately unless it was deemed a security risk.

Heskall was sizing him up; he was likely wondering the same question Brooks had asked of himself after Ko; was he ready to return to duty?

Hell, it was a question he asked himself regularly, even if he felt confident.  To know yourself was a skill that anyone with this much power had to ask themselves.

“Yes, Captain,” Admiral Heskall said with a nod.  “I would like to hear your thoughts.”

“This last year has been an eventful one for the Craton,” Brooks began.  “We brought Ambassador Kell aboard, we encountered Leviathans, or at least things related to them frequently.  We also brought on board the Cerebral Reader, Apollonia Nor, who grew up as a street urchin.”

Heskall nodded.  “You must be wondering why we constantly send you on these missions.”

“Yes.  I know that we are fast, that our ship resonates in a way with zerospace that makes us able to make jumps easier and quicker.  And that, theoretically, a CR’s presence provides some protection against the reality disrupting effects of exotic matter.  But we aren’t the only ones with these qualities.  So . . .  yes, Admiral, why us?”

“Those qualities are often a consideration,” the Admiral admitted.  “But they are not the only ones that are relevant.  You are, to be frank, perhaps some of the most experienced personnel we have when it comes to these ‘exotic’ matters.  No other Captain has encountered a Leviathan as often as you have.  No other crew has faced them and lived as yours have.  It is . . . perhaps unfortunate that you are a city ship, with civilians aboard.  Believe me that many discussions have been held on this topic, and we have considered sending other cratonic vessels on these missions.  Honestly, Captain, and this admits more than I perhaps should admit, these strange occurrences you encounter are not isolated incidents, and you are not the only one involved in them.”

“I see,” Brooks said.  “I have one other question.”

“Go ahead,” Heskall told him.

“I know this is not something that has been overlooked, yet I feel I have to ask it.  Is this worth it?  Are these . . . for a lack of a better word, Admiral, eldritch things something we genuinely should be probing into like this?  Are we perhaps broaching things we should be leaving alone?”

The Admiral was quiet for a few moments.  “It’s a question I think all of us have asked ourselves many times, Captain.  I must admit that I do not know.  We do not even know enough to even know if we are going too far.  That is . . . unfortunately, why we must keep trying.  Perhaps some day we will know that we were all fools.  I hope not.”

Admiral Heskall seemed like he maybe wanted to say more, but thought better of it.  He swallowed and adjusted himself, his uncertainty disappearing beneath confidence.

It was Brooks’s turn to be silent for a moment, as he considered the Admiral’s words.  Slowly, the same confidence that the Admiral held grew in him.

He did not know if this was wise.  Whether it led to disaster or victory, he at least knew he was approaching this for the right reasons, and that he was making the best decision he could with what he knew right now.

“Thank you, Admiral,” he said.  “I’ll begin preparing the Craton for departure.”

< Ep 13 part 3 | Ep 13 part 5 >

Episode 13 – Dark Star, part 3

Captain Mayor Brooks 1 Comment

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

A long strip of the Equator ring was marked off with flashing drones, as the Aeronautics Club of the Craton prepared to launch.

Brooks was the only member, though Apollonia had appointed herself as an honorary member of the club for today.

She had gotten an aviator’s cap and goggles, with a matching bomber jacket.  Brooks had laughed upon seeing them, admitting that he’d never gone that far.

“That’s fine,” she told him.  “I got them in your size, too!”

Brooks had donned the outfit with good cheer, even though it did not suit his typical Antarctican demeanor.

But Apple beamed at him.  “We need more people in the club so I can get everyone to dress up like this.”

“Don’t you dare,” Brooks replied with amusement.  “I don’t want to have to seriously run a club.”

From a protective case he brought out his plane.  It had four wings, and was a mottled tan and green, with large red stars on it.

It was the model he’d been working on before the mission to Ko, months ago.  Even after his return, he’d taken months to return to his duties, refusing to leave the !Xomyi band he had saved.   Until they felt secure in their new situation aboard the vast carrier that was slowly preparing them for life away from their doomed homeworld.

After he’d returned, she had made the suggestion; “Why don’t we fly your plane?”

Now, they were minutes away from its first flight.

He’d said it was a Po-2.  The name had no meaning to her, but she had nodded along as he had told her of its history from nearly a thousand years ago.

“It was a great plane,” he finished.

“Great,” she said.  “Let’s see it fly!”

Brooks urged her to wait a few more minutes while he did last-minute checks.  Opening up a hatch, he tinkered with the engine.  Apollonia thought he was just stalling, but waited anyway.

“So I hear tomorrow is your test,” he said to her.

Oh.  So that’s why he was taking this time.

Nervousness wriggled into her stomach at the thought of her Officer Candidacy Test.  She had taken practice tests, but Jaya had helpfully told her they were not much like the actual thing.  “To let you practice it will be a hindrance,” she had said.  “It’s best if you go in fairly blind.”

“Yeah,” she replied to Brooks.

“Do you feel confident?”

“No,” she admitted, looking away.

“It’s probably good.  Thinking on your feet is better, and the more confident you feel the more shock you’ll have when you find you aren’t ready.”

“That’s a great pep talk,” she said.  “Really.  Truly.”

Her sarcasm got him to side-eye her.  “The plane is good to go,” he said.

Apollonia’s excitement returned.  “Yeeeeeee!”

He lifted it with both hands over his head, while she hopped aside.

“Ready?”

She nodded.  “Let ‘er rip!”

Brooks started the engine.  It chugged to life with an adorably tiny putt, and its propeller began to spin.  She’d seen him test it, but now it really started up.

He threw it forward, trying not to nosedive it, and the plane cruised ahead – at first jerkily, wanting to fall, but the pilot inside – a tiny robot controlled a simple flight AI – corrected and gunned the engine, and it began to gain altitude.

Around the blocked-off area, a crowd of dozens of curious onlookers had gathered.  Their eyes followed the plane on its maiden voyage, a soft chorus of ‘ooohs’ accompanying its success.

It was to be short-lived, as a regular drone blundered into the airspace.  The pilot AI swerved, tipping the wings, but he lost precious lift and began to spin out of control.

Until Urle reached up and caught the plane easily in one hand.

“It was a nice flight,” he called.

The crowd applauded.  Apollonia thought it was more for Urle’s catch than the plane itself.

He came over slowly, the AI pilot in the plane frantically working the flaps and gunning the engine to escape his grip.  The crowd began to disperse.

“That was my drone, sorry,” Urle said as he came closer.

“It’s all right,” Brooks said.  “The plane flew straight long enough to show that she could.  I’m pleased with the result.”

Urle handed the plane over to Brooks.  “There’s a high priority message coming in for you.  You had your system notifications off so I sent the drone to your room.  By the time it found you here, well . . . I was already here.”

There was a little rebuke in his words; the Captain should not be out of communication.

Brooks reluctantly turned his system back on.  “It was only for the flight,” he said.

“Bad timing,” Urle replied, sounding like he felt bad.  “And I wouldn’t have bothered you if the message wasn’t important.”

Brooks looked to Apollonia.  “Thank you, honorary club member, for your assistance.”

She saluted properly.  “Anytime, cap’n.”

He returned the salute gravely before turning back to Urle.  “I’ll take the call in my office.”

As Brooks took his leave, Apollonia looked across the crowd of dispersing onlookers.  Most of the people were unknown to her, though Ann gave her a wave before going back into Watchito’s.  Several other people filtered in after her.

No one could resist good pizza, Apollonia thought.

One person was not moving away, though, just watching her with a serene smile.

“Hey, Cathal!” she called, waving her arm over her head.

His smile grew a little bigger, and she jogged over.  “Or should I say Father Sair?” she said as she got close.

“You may call me however you like,” he told her.

“Just not late for dinner?”

He snorted out a small laugh.  “That was an impressive flight.”

“Next time we’ll be launching a whole air fleet,” she promised him.

“Typical Union extravagance,” he said.  “Why launch one when you could launch a million?”

His tone was light, but his words seemed sharp, and she was caught off-guard.  “Well, why not?” she asked, her tone openly challenging.

She knew that religion was no longer really a thing in the Sapient Union, and in many ways Father Sair was an outsider on the ship.  But no one ever gave him a hard time or even seemed to think less of him for his beliefs or role as a clergy; they just did not share in his beliefs.

But he did seem to have a chip on his shoulder about that, at times.

He seemed fine, though, to just accept her words.  “Perhaps you are right,” he said.

His smile turned thoughtful.  “I was wondering if you might be interested in spending some time in prayer with me tonight?  I know you do not share my faith, but the practice is still good for the mind.”

That was true, but Apollonia didn’t know if she wanted to.  She had been planning to study more.  But maybe praying would help settle her mind for the test?

Her hesitation prompted Cathal to continue.  “Or, perhaps tomorrow night?  We are holding a ceremony – I think you will find it more interesting, we will be telling myths and legends.  They are quite interesting, even to the layman.”

That was more doable, she thought.  It would be after her test, and she’d . . . well, maybe she’d want the zen, or the consolation.  “Yeah, tonight I’m kinda busy, but tomorrow night?  That’d be great!”  She felt a little excitement about the idea, washing away Cathal’s remark about the Union.

His smile was pleasant and genuine, revealing under his normally serious demeanor the handsomeness of youth.  “I am very glad you will be able to come.”

< Ep 13 part 2 | Ep 13 part 4 >

Episode 13 – Dark Star, part 2

Captain Mayor Brooks 1 Comment

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

Ham Sulp’s eyes opened, and for a moment he was not sure where he was.

The reality sunk in as the old dream faded; he was on the Craton.  This was his bunk.

Really just a cabin in the wall where he suspended his sleeping bag.  In microgravity, as all Spacers were used to.

He opened his bag and slid out into the room.  The floors and walls were all storage for him, and despite the cabin being small, it held a lot.  Defying his great organizational skills, there was so much that boxes stuck out of shelves into the space of the room, held with bungee cords.  Closed bags floated, only their handles attached to a surface to keep them from drifting away entirely.

He weaved between them into a sealing capsule.  Shedding his sleeping spacesuit, he squirted out spheres of water into his hand and splashed them on his face.

The drops that went astray were sucked back up into the recycler, to be filtered and cleaned for re-use later.

“Did you sleep poorly, sir?”

The NI voice came in his ears as if Mo.P was standing next to him.  The NI was really just a neural intelligence, a chat bot with a little extra raw thinking power for lifelike conversations.  He’d made it himself years ago to practice with after he’d joined the Voidfleet.

Spacers were people of few words, but people from planets and intersolar space stations tended to yap a lot.  It wasn’t necessary to make the change, people understood the cultural differences.  But it helped him to understand intersolars to learn about the small things they chattered about.

Even though he no longer needed the practice, he’d grown fond of Mo.P, and kept him around.

“Yeah,” he told the NI.  “I had a dream.”

“A happy one?” the NI asked.

“No,” he said, slamming closed the cover of the faucet.

Pulling on his uniform, he opened the tube and floated out.  He’d take a proper shower later.

a drone appeared, with a projected sad face.  “Was it the same bad dream?”

“Yes,” Sulp said.  The NI’s memory was one of the few things he trusted.

It wasn’t really more secure than a diary or log, and he had to maintain a Resource Log anyway, but the NI was a companion.  Everyone needed their well to whisper down.

“I’m sorry,” it told him.

“Just how it is,” he said.

Every night, the same dream.

No, not a dream.  A memory.  Sometimes details were a little different, a little . . . hazier.  Memory was that way.  On really fevered nights, he couldn’t ever escape Terris.  The Leviathan never came, but he just felt caught in the limbo of trying to leave forever.  Until he woke up, that is, but it felt like forever.

It was worse today; it was an anniversary.  Not of the event itself, but of the day that all the surviving ships had met back up in deep space to take stock of all they’d lost.  When they had counted, they had found it so much worse than expected.

His own home fleet had come then, seeking to help.  They’d been the first to board many of the ships of Battlefleets A, B, and C, and seen the horrors.

This was what came of settling worlds? one of his old friends had asked him later.

Despite it all being an act of brotherhood, of the fraternity of intelligent species, the attempt of help itself had left deep scars.

A sudden burst of energy came through him in a shiver, like he wanted to scream or bash his face over and over into a console.

Just the early morning jitters after the dream.

He still had things to do; his goals, that he kept himself to.  How it had to be, he didn’t know any other way.

Coming to the mirror, he opened it, got out the autoscrubber and put it on his face.  The machine attached to the skin with gentle suckers all over, its flexible body conforming to his features.  Stray skin flakes and shed hairs could float into machinery and cause trouble later.

He ran a hand over his bald head.  Not many hairs to be found there, but the centuries of rads hadn’t made Spacers bald everywhere.  Random hairs on the body still could get shed.  An eyelash, and the worst, a pube.  Who wanted those floating through the air?

As he closed the mirror, he saw his eyes, the same pale blue as Sarah Lachmann.

He froze for a moment, holding his breath.

“Are you all right?” Mo.P asked him.

He turned away from the mirror.  “What’s my itinerary for the day?” he demanded.

Ten minutes later he was safely away from Mo.P’s prying care and among the space hounds, back in a part of the ship with artificial gravity.  Beaux, Cross, Sasha, Zeus, and Apollo greeted him warmly, the uplifted dogs’ voices coming from speakers on their collars.  They were still dogs, though, and danced in anticipation of their morning meal.

This was drone work, in the eyes of most, but there were tasks that were still best done with human hands, he thought, as he served each of the spacehounds.

They thanked him, and he thanked them back with a good head rub.

Angel the little Ship Terrier, was the only one who could not talk; she was just a sweet little dog without any enhancements or implants to improve her intelligence and grant her the ability to communicate with words.

She was a wiggly blur around his legs, jumping up at him, then dancing on her back feet, then running away, then back . . .  It was exhausting just to watch.

“Here,” he said, putting down her small bowl.  She was a lap dog or ratter.  Probably more the former even if her breed was originally intended for the latter.

Once he fed them, he waited while they finished.

“Zeus, you’re with me today,” he said.

The dog offered a human-like nod, and trotted by his side.  The Boku-boku down here in Resources did not like dogs of any kind, and still tried to argue with Angel, even if she could only bark back.  But today the little spazoids would have to get over themselves, because he didn’t want to sit alone.

< Ep 13 part 1 | Ep 13 part 3 >

Episode 13 – Dark Star, part 1

Captain Mayor Brooks 9 Comments

Other-Terrestrial
Season 1, Episode 13
“Dark Star”
by Nolan Conrey

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here!

*******

The sun was dimmed as ten thousand vessels ascended into space.

They were staggered out, so from Ham Sulp’s point of view they formed a sheet of moving dots, slowly shrinking in size.

Their engines were in full burn, ascending them at speeds that would, at most times, be considered unwise.  In just a few moments most of the ships had escaped the atmosphere and shrunk from sight.

“We’re almost loaded!” he heard his first mate yell.

He turned and looked at the short woman as she raced towards him.  “One-thousand and twenty-seven, all we can manage!” she said.

“Not all,” he replied.  “Get some sitting in the bathrooms, those seats can function for liftoff, and we can pack on ten more.”

She frowned.  “I’m worried about the air.  It’s gonna get real heavy quick with this many.”

“Crank the air scrubbers to eleven,” he told her.

His first mate nodded, even if she didn’t like that, and yelled for ten more.

There were guards at the edge of the air fields, who pointed to ten people.  They let them through the cordon, as people stood in terror, yet with enough control not to be rushing the fields.

The guards knew they’d never get to leave.  Because they were never going to get everyone off Terris, and they wouldn’t abandon their posts until there was no one else left.

One of the ground crew came up, a woman with the long hair of a terrestrial, which was flying in all directions in her haste.

“I’ve got the next group staged,” she said.  “If you think you can come back for another run.”

“We’re starting pre-lift,” Sulp told her.  His eyes happened to meet hers, and they locked a moment.  She was from Terris, had always known this world.  And he, he was from the spacer fleets.  They were so different, but their eyes were the same color.

He didn’t know anything about her, but his system told him that she was Lieutenant Sarah Lachmann.

“I’ll be back,” he told her.  “I think we can get in one more run.”

The last ten packed themselves onto the ship, and he had to pick his way carefully through the rows of seats to get up to the cockpit of the small shuttle.

People pressed aside as best they could, but they were packed in like sardines.  The trip was only up into space, where they’d dock with a heavy transport.  The people would disembark, they’d refuel, and then they’d head back down for the next group.

This shuttle was good for ten more drops through atmo, he thought.  More than they’d get.

Sitting down in the pilot’s chair, he flipped the air scrubbers to an overdrive feature to take carbon dioxide out of the air.  It’d burn them out fast, but they’d last for a few more trips, and that was all that mattered.

He almost laughed.  Never would such an act have been made in his home fleet.  Any Spacer worth his water weight would rather die than waste air filters.  It was too selfish, it would impact those who lived on beyond you.

But sometimes, in a larger context, you sacrificed in the short term.

“Everyone into liftoff chairs,” he announced.  When the system confirmed there were no errant people, he began the warm-up sequence.

His first mate slipped into her seat.  She was a Spacer, too, but he had only met her a few weeks ago.  She was, like any Spacer, trustworthy with regards to the ship, and that was all that mattered right now.

“Bad idea to burn out those scrubbers,” she muttered.

Not that long from the home fleet, he mused.

“Noted,” he told her.

She did not say anything else; it was only a waste of oxygen.  The ship shuddered and began to rumble as the powerful boosters fired off.

Down below, somewhere, Lieutenant Lachmann, the guards, and the others awaiting evacuation were watching them, hoping that this shuttle, or another like it, would have time to come back.

G-forces began to crush him into his seat.  This wasn’t that bad compared to what he had pulled in the past, and he didn’t even lose vision.  Taking sharp breaths and clenching his body against the g-forces, his fingers still worked the control boards near his hands, getting the computer to plot their course to the carriers.

On the other side of Terris, millions of kilometers out, were the fleets.  They were facing down the . . . anomaly that was fast approaching.

The reality of it still had not settled in for him.  A lifeform of deep space the size of a planet . . . it didn’t even make sense.  What the hell could fleet weapons do against something that big?

Maybe slow it down, he thought.  Every non-combat ship that had gone towards the thing had been disabled quickly.  It didn’t seem to follow a logical orbital path, moving with will, though how it moved was unknown.

His eyes unfocused.  People had said sometimes that when they looked in the sky they could see the thing.  But that was impossible; it was approaching from the other side of the world.

But he, too, could see something in space.  It was not . . . an actual object.  The thing would be visible, and it would look almost like a planet.

What he saw now was more like a void.  A void of blackness so deep that it swallowed even the black of space.

“Comm from the carrier,” his co-pilot said.

He started in his seat.  The g-forces had slackened minutes ago and he hadn’t even noticed.

“Let’s get docked and dump off this lot so we can-“

“No,” his co-pilot said, her eyes going wide.  “It’s a call for retreat.”

Sulp tuned into the call.

“. . . fleets are in full retreat.  The object code-named Leviathan has not slowed, and has accelerated its movement towards Terris.  Repeat, there are to be no new drops to the surface of Terris.  Time to impact is stated to be less than twenty minutes.  All shuttles are to meet up with their mother ships or else to begin a burn along heading . . .”

He ripped off his headset, staring at his co-pilot.  Her eyes were wide, but she said nothing.

< Ep 12 Epilogue | Ep 13 part 2 >

The Exodus is complete

Captain Mayor Brooks

Well, that’s it.

Exodus has been a very special story for me, on a lot of levels. Some of my close friends/editors have told me they liked it more than anything else I’ve written. It makes me glad because it felt that way to me, too.

I think I’ve talked about this already, but now that the episode is posted, I am brooding on it again. The end of Ko and the fate of the !Xomyi is not a wholly happy tale, though I think realistic given the circumstances.

I chose Ave Maria as the song to commemorate the world after giving it a lot of thought. I asked around, but I wanted a song with deep connections to our history. Realizing that the meaning of the song could adapt to a new universe and conditions made it a perfect fit. And I feel that it is simply a beautiful song, no matter your beliefs.

Will we see the !Xomyi again? One of my goals in this has been that individual episodes would not be dropped and forgotten in the future, so yes. There will be references, the impacts it has on individuals and the Union as a whole will be felt in the future. The universe at large has seen the actions that occurred here and will have their own thoughts and views on it. Distance and different outlooks will color their opinions.

It will be some time before we see a live !Xomyi again in the flesh. But I have plans.

Speaking of such plans – there is one more episode of Other-Terrestrial for this season. It is already completed, and posting will begin on Monday, November 27th.

I’ll reveal more about the story tomorrow, including its name and cover art!

Soon after, I’ll talk about plans for after episode 13 is finished.

To those who have been regular readers – thank you. Coming in and seeing that people are looking at these stories makes me incredibly happy. I sincerely hoped you enjoyed this episode and that maybe at some point it moved you, like it did for me when I was writing it.

Episode 12 – “Exodus” Epilogue

Captain Mayor Brooks 1 Comment

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

Epilogue

A lone singer’s voice rang out across the Equator square.

She was a lieutenant in the Science division, her name was Lucianna Soler.  Her voice was sweet and gentle as it carried across the silent square.

Thousands of eyes, on the Craton and the diplomatic cortege, were on her.

“Ave Maria . . .”

The words of the ancient prayer were moving, even if the meaning of the song to many of the listeners had changed over the centuries.

“Et benedictus fructus ventris . . .”  Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

A living world, the rarest gift in the universe.  A blessed thing, if anything was.

The concept of garden worlds being holy mothers was an idea that had become very popular in humanity’s journey into space.  Many a spacer in past times, far from any habitable world, had lamented a desire to return to Mary.  To a world that welcomed him.

“Ora, ora pro nobis peccatoribus

Nunc et in hora mortis,” she sang on.

Pray for us, now and at the hour of our death.

The song was sung now for both lost children and the lost mother, the world of Ko.  The 1.6 million !Xomyi, and the service beings of the Sapient Union who had given their lives that at least some might live.

This was not the first time Brooks had seen this ceremony.  It had been performed for the very first time in the Sapient Union after the destruction of Terris.

A number of his crew were veterans of that event.  They all had to be thinking of something similar.

His eyes went over a few of them; Ham Sulp, Zeela Cann.

He settled on Pirra, who had not been at Terris, but who now held the flag of the Union.  She was at perfect attention, her injuries no longer visible.  Her teams had suffered dearly, and she had been given the honor of holding the colors.

Her eyes were forward, upon the ceremony that had now begun, and his eyes, too, went to it.

Ambassador-General Callirrhoe Abashidze walked forward slowly, towards the circle of soil, taken from Ko.  In her hands she was holding a small sapling.

It was a juvenile Pillar Tree, one of the most resilient complex forms of life on Ko.

Abashidze knelt, putting the sapling into the hole that had been prepared, and covered its roots.

Rising and stepping back, a glass tube lowered from the ceiling, covering the soil and sapling, sealing it off.

The air inside would be kept at the precise mixture of Ko’s atmosphere.

And perhaps it would prosper.

The last note of Ave Maria faded, and the voices of people began to fill the square again.  A reverence still hung in the air, and Brooks found himself standing alone.

Apollonia was in the distance, talking to another woman.  Both of their faces were serious, and he wondered at the changes that had occurred to her on the world.

She turned, noticing him.  She waved, calmly, and he returned the gesture, smiling.

She looked back to the other woman, who also looked his way, her face turning to surprise as she saw that Apple had been waving to him.

He had not spoken to Apollonia since he had come back aboard, but he would soon.  Perhaps not yet, though.  She seemed to have made friends outside of the command staff and that was a good thing.

He rubbed his face, realizing he needed to shave.  But the shape of his face had changed a little as well.  He’d shed weight on the world.  He’d been at a healthy weight already, but now he was even thinner.

Turning, he walked away to sit on a bench, letting his mind wander far, far away.

Zey had gotten teary-eyed during the event, and Apollonia patted her friend’s shoulder.

“It was just so nice,” Zey said.

“Yeah,” Apollonia agreed.

Zey bid her farewell, needing to head off to her shift.  Once she was gone, Apollonia was left alone.

In a few hours, she would also have to report for duty, her first shift on the ship.  It would be very different than on the planet, and she was both looking forward to it and feeling a little apprehension.

She looked again at the little tree that had been planted, and wondered if it could really grow on a spaceship.

Would they hollow out the floors above to make room as it grew?  The Craton was a ship that would be in service for as long as people wanted to live on her, so the tree may grow up alongside generations of people, getting ever taller.

She could imagine they would carve holes in the decking for it.  The thought made her smile.

She would never live to see it, but one day it might tower hundreds of feet through dozens of decks.

A creeping sensation came up the back of her neck, and her smile faded as she realized what it meant.

She turned, looking around, her eyes settling onto Ambassador Kell, who was standing ten meters away, watching her.

She watched him back a moment, unsure what to say or do.  Something about the horrible thing felt . . . less horrible today.

Could a feeling that a monster gave you just by standing in its presence feel serene?

She couldn’t even begin to know how to describe that, but Kell approached her.

“You know,” Apollonia began.  “I wondered if you’d not make it back in time and die on Ko.”

It sounded even worse out loud than it had in her head, and she felt a small bit of guilt.

Kell did not seem offended.  “I remember every day that passes, Apollonia Nor.”

His response shut down any retort she could come up with, and she just waited in uncertainty.

Kell spoke again.  “Time is a strange thing.  Sometimes a time comes upon us suddenly, and we find ourselves caught unprepared.”

She didn’t think he meant on Ko, but she did not know what he did mean.

“I am glad that you have begun to think beyond simple survival,” Kell said.  “You are starting to recognize your own agency.”

“I . . . uh, thanks?” she said.

“Your life was a difficult one, and I recognize that it takes time to unlearn the responses that come from such things.”

This was not at all like Kell, and she found herself wanting to look past him, as if the real Ambassador was still out there, and this was just some well-wishing stranger.

But no; she could feel that this was Kell.  It could not be mistaken.

“The time for you to be playing will soon be over,” he continued.  “It is fine that you have been pretending to be normal – to be like the other humans.  But it cannot continue forever.”

His words sent a shock through her system; she felt anger, but she couldn’t hold onto those feelings.

“Awaken what you really are,” Kell told her.  “It is time you learned.  Look within.”

He said no more, but turned, and walked away.

It was still hers . . . for now.

Jaya had been ready to leave Brooks’s office, but now she’d be here another two weeks.

Or more, really.  She had no doubt that Brooks would find a way to spend more time, perhaps the three months he had hoped, helping the !A!amo !Xomyi find their feet.

She had not changed the office while he had been on Ko, but the desire to alter it slightly came to her suddenly.

Nothing large, but she had always thought she would prefer to move the desk back and have it raised up slightly; not a lot, but then she’d have a better view of the floor, which was the perfect place to project certain images of the ship’s floorplan.

Contemplating this, a request for entrance popped up in her HUD.

“Enter,” she said.

Executive Commander Urle came in, and she wondered again how their relationship would work.

He was technically the second-in-command under Brooks.  She had jumped him into this position.

To his credit, Urle did not seem at all put off.  While he was still adjusting to his life back on the ship, his efficiency was still quite good.

“Captain,” he said.  “I have a strange report.  I wanted to bring it to you myself.”

She nodded, bidding him to continue.

“Approximately three hours ago, an unsecured signal was sent from the Craton.  It went through standard channels, but used the ship’s official correspondence line, with every security code that allowed the user access.”

“But the signal itself was not encrypted?” she asked, puzzled.

“No – at least not with the proper grade encryption.  But their access codes did hide who they are from the system.  I don’t have the rank to access the data, and I don’t think you will either.”

“So they wanted privacy,” Jaya said.

“Yes.  But they also didn’t really know what they were doing.  If they had, we wouldn’t even know that such a communication had been sent.”

“So someone with no knowledge of our systems had access to our main communications,” Jaya said, frowning.

“Yes.”

“I cannot imagine you came to me without having figured out who this was,” Jaya said.

“Ambassador Kell,” Urle replied.  It was just a statement, and she could only agree.

Only Kell had both high enough rank but also this little skill in technology to make such a bizarre mistake.

“Since he did not encrypt it properly, we were able to view the message,” he added.  “And I believe we know who it was sent to – it was sent directly.”

“Directly?  No obfuscation at all?”

“That’s right.  It was sent to Director Freeman in Tenkionic Research.”

Jaya took a deep breath.  That man was . . . untrustworthy, to say the least.

“And what were the contents of Ambassador Kell’s message to Director Freeman?” she asked.

“Just two lines,” Urle told her.

He held up his pad, the text on the screen.

‘The planet is bare.  There is no danger.’

FINIS

< Ep 12 part 71 | Ep 13 part 1 >

Episode 12 – “Exodus” part 71

Captain Mayor Brooks 1 Comment

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

Captain’s Log:

I will not be seeing Knows the World soon, he was correct in that.

After docking and retrieval of the !A!amo, Knows the World was unable to be revived.  Medical examination found that he had suffered an internal injury, likely during the earthquake.

I don’t think we could have done anything for him on the planet, and likely in the time spent trying we all would have died.

I do not know if he knew that, but he must have suspected.

The !A!amo are reeling; I fear for them, as many are already spiraling into dark mental places.

We are transferring them to the diplomatic ship soon, where we hope the more familiar environment will help.

I will be going with them; though the mission on Ko is finished, the real work begins now.

I cannot stay with the !A!amo forever.  I know that, and I will have to tell them that.  But I will stay with them for as long as I can; I have applied for three months of leave following this mission.  I hope it will be approved.

It is not just for their sake, though.  I find that I am not yet ready to return to duty.  A part of me might never be fully healed.

I found something on Ko, and I have lost it again.  Like a dream you forget when you wake up, I don’t know that I can articulate it, but I lament its absence.

“How’s the pain, Captain?” Urle asked, stepping into his office.

Brooks put down his stylus, looking up to his Executive Commander.

Absently rubbing the plastic case on his arm, he shrugged.  “My arm aches slightly.”

“Three fractures in your ulna, two broken toes, a cracked rib, and a concussion, and that’s it?”

Brooks leaned back in his chair.  “I don’t even remember hitting my head, to be honest.”

“That’s even more disturbing,” Urle said, sitting down across from him.  “Are you sure Dr. Y was thorough enough?”

“He was very excited to have me back with all of his scanners,” Brooks told him.  “He’s got more procedures planned for me well into next week.”

Urle smiled, but it was a fake, forced expression that faded in a moment.  His brow furrowed.

“I only got seventeen, Ian.  Out of two-hundred and fifty-nine.”

Brooks also sobered, his false cheer fading.  “I know,” he said.  “You did your best.”

“My best was not good enough,” Urle replied softly.

“I think those seventeen would disagree,” Brooks said.  “You saved them.  You can’t control people.  If they chose not to go, then . . . there’s just nothing you could do.”

Urle shook his head.  “I should have recognized what was happening earlier.  Called in a knock-out team and just brought them.”

“They’d hate you,” Brooks said.

“They’d be alive,” Urle countered.

Brooks shrugged.  “I suspect not.  Many of those who have been forcibly abducted have died – suicide by hunger strike or just stress.”

“A lot of the ones who volunteered are doing the same,” Urle said, looking down at his hand.  “Damn it all, how can we still be helpless?  With all we have?”

Brooks could not answer that.

“You played things as best you could,” he simply said.  “I believe that, Zach.  There were power politics at play, something we didn’t even expect.  The Hessa were tied to their land; we should have realized from the beginning that would make them a hard sell even though they initially seemed welcoming.”

“Have we saved their species, though?” Urle asked.  “We got only 129,000 off Ko.  We were hoping for half a million.”

“We did what we could.  Even if it was only a fraction of their total numbers,” Brooks said, “it was more than would be alive without us.”

Urle leaned back, slumping.  “The Aeena have to pay for this.  I know no one wants war, but we can’t just let this sort of thing stand.”

“One day,” Brooks told him.  “There will be a reckoning.  But it won’t be on our personal timeline.”

A chime came to the door.  Brooks frowned a moment, then called out; “Enter.”

They felt the presence already; as the door opened, Kell stepped in.

“Ambassador,” Brooks said.  He did not sound happy.

Kell nodded to him, then to Urle, and sat in the other chair.  Urle moved his chair, going just a little further away from the Ambassador than was polite.  He did not seem to be in the mood for Kell, either.

“I heard that you had both survived,” Kell said.  “I am told you did your work very well.”

“It’s easy for others to say,” Urle said.

Kell looked slightly curious at that, but did not pursue it.  “You had unique experiences,” the Ambassador said instead.

“You could say that,” Brooks replied.  “They are something that will take time to unpack.  I don’t know if that makes sense to you though, Ambassador.”

“It does,” Kell replied with a nod.  “My kind also think on our experiences.  This is one I will be reflecting on quite often.”

Despite himself, Urle felt his curiosity stir.  “I didn’t expect it to leave this much of an impression on you.”

“It was the first time I have experienced an ocean that was not Earth’s,” Kell said to him.  “It was . . . invigorating.  Still water, still saline.  But unique in so many ways.  I greatly enjoyed it.”

Urle’s face turned more sour.  “You do understand that it’s all gone now, right?  That world is destroyed, all of its life gone.”

Kell nodded.  “Yes.  I suppose this makes my memories unique.”

The Ambassador looked at Brooks.  “I have long wanted to experience such a thing as this.  The chance came, and despite the fact that Ko is now dead, I will remember it as a world full of life.”

“Perhaps you will live to see Ko bear life again,” Brooks said.  The words felt trite to him.

They did not seem to impact Kell much.  But he did focus on Brooks now.  “It was special to me.  For a time I was reminded of an age when my kind were young; when the world felt larger and unknown.”

He shook his head, seemingly more talkative than normal.  “It is not quite the same, of course.  To recreate the past never is the same as the real thing; we can only experience some wonders once.  But it still held a quality that was . . . both transcendent and yet I cannot put into words.”

Kell’s uncomfortably intense stare bored into Brooks, and he found himself wanting to look away.  But he could not make himself do it.

Kell was not simply conversing with him, but imparting something.  Something that his words left unsaid.

And in a moment, Brooks realized that Kell was saying these words not so much about himself, but about . . .

Brooks’s own experiences.

How could he know what I felt? Brooks wondered, feeling a shiver go down his spine.

For the first time, Kell did not seem an alien entity, something he could not ever understand.  The Ambassador seemed almost human; or at least sharing in some quality of humanity.

A moment passed between them, and Brooks realized that what he had felt had been a touch, an inkling, of humanity’s own past.

Just as the primordial oceans of Ko had been like Kell’s own.  They were given a taste of an ancient past.

And even if it had been taken away again, for that taste they were better off.

Brooks nodded slowly to Kell.

“Thank you for sharing with us, Ambassador,” he said.

Kell nodded, and his expression made clear that he saw that Brooks had understood his meaning.

Without another word, merely a nod to Urle, Kell left.

Brooks and Jaya observed the !A!amo for several minutes after arriving.

The band, now 48, were eating.  The food was made to look like a common meal on Ko, but they had made clear that it tasted strange to them.

It did not help that the food was simply served through a hole in a wall.  Even though every trick had been used to make the area feel natural, to people who had lived their entire lives on a world, this would feel fake and wrong, almost mocking in its difference.

There was little talking.  It was not at all like how it had been during meal time down on the world, Brooks thought.  They were withdrawn into themselves, in shock.

Something had to shake them out of it, he knew.  They had to be guided so they could find themselves again in a universe entirely different from that which they had known.

Maybe they should have just brought them into a normal area, he thought.  Perhaps that would have been better than this fake Ko.

But he was not a psychologist, who he knew had planned all of this out after studying the !Xomyi mind as much as possible.

“I have a favor to ask of you,” he said.

Jaya turned slightly.  “Yes?”

“I was wondering if you might be willing to continue as the Craton‘s Acting-Captain for a little while longer,” Brooks said.

“I have heard that you have put in for a three-month vacation,” she said.  A pause, then; “It is a reasonable request, I think, given you have rarely opt to take vacations, and given the stresses of this recent assignment.

Brooks looked thinner, she thought.  His cheeks slightly hollowed and haggard, but his face had tanned somewhat under Ko’s sun.  In his eyes, she saw that there were things on his mind, something different from his normal pattern of thoughts.  He was living both now and sometime distant.

“They agreed to only two weeks,” he said.  “Three months seemed reasonable when I asked, but my star has apparently climbed after this – they are hailing it as a great success, and they want a debriefing now that we are raising issues with the Aeena over Ko’s destruction.”

“That is understandable,” Jaya said, knowing it was but not liking it.  “Do you believe there will be war?”

“Not now,” he said.  “Maybe later.  The Aeena will give some concessions to bury this – it’s an embarrassment that they failed here.  They thought it was far too subtle to be found out.”

She nodded.  “To answer your question, Captain, I am . . . glad to help you in this,” she said.

He looked at her now.  For a while, since the event with the pirates and their relic technology, Jaya had been acting differently.  Coldly, and he knew that she had been disappointed and upset with him.

But it appeared gone, and he saw instead respect in her eyes.

It felt wrong, because he could still feel the burning sense of failure for those he could not save.  But her respect was a good thing to have.

“Thank you,” he said.  He stepped to the side, towards the door.  “I must spend some time with them.  They must not feel I have abandoned them.”

“That is good of you, Captain,” she said, following him.  She hesitated before asking her question.  “Will you be returning?”

He smiled then, surprised at the question, but pleased.  She knew that he had considered resigning his commission.

“Yes,” he said.  “I will be back.”

< Ep 12 part 70 | Ep 12 Epilogue >

Episode 12 – “Exodus” part 70

Captain Mayor Brooks 1 Comment

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

The cheers were still going, their third round of celebration, but Jaya did not tell anyone to be quiet or to calm down.

Streaks of light shot out from the Craton, their missiles intercepting debris by the dozens that threatened the shuttle that carried Brooks, Kai, and their rescuees.

“They are the last shuttle, give it everything we have.  We will not lose them,” she ordered, her voice still mostly calm.

Mostly.  There was a shake in it, and she had to tell herself to stop clasping the arm of her chair so tightly.

The shuttle’s system reported that there were two humans and forty-nine !Xomyi aboard the ship.

More than were even in his group, she thought.  Somehow, he’d found more.

“Captain,” an officer said to her.  “Executive Commander Urle is back aboard.”

“Good,” she said.  “Prepare to receive Brooks’s shuttle, and then to pull back from the planet.”

“Aye, Captain.”

She looked to Ko.  The blast wave from the last impact was still racing across its surface.  The land where Brooks had been was leveled; not even the trees of that planet could withstand the force of that second blast.

Debris from the impact, millions of tons of it, was being pulled back by the planet’s gravity.  They arced down onto the planet, glowing as they went through the atmosphere.  Their energy was heating the air in their passage, and already the surface temperature of Ko was rising.  Soon, it would be hotter than a kiln, and everything that lived on the surface would cook in air that was over 1200 degrees celsius.

After that, all that would be alive on the planet would be microbes, she thought.  Some that lived deep within the planetary crust.  And with subsequent impacts, even they would likely go extinct.

A message came in; it was Ambassador-General Abashidze.  Her image appeared before Jaya, her face looking as stressed as Jaya felt.

“I see your last team made it out,” Abashidze said.

“Yes,” Jaya said.  “Just barely.”

“I’m very glad.  All of ours were out a few days ago, but I . . .  I greatly respect that your people stayed until the last moment, saving all they could.”

Jaya nodded.  Of course, Brooks had done that, she wanted to say.  She knew, had known for years, the mettle of the man.

Guilt suddenly wracked her.  After the pirates, and . . . and his decision to destroy the relic technology they had found, her faith in the man had been shaken.

But this was the true depth of him, wasn’t it?  He would do anything to save a life.  If he could not throw himself into the line of fire, he would perform that cold, impossible calculation that no one wanted to contemplate; who must die so that many others could live?

She blinked, cleared her throat.

“Thank you, Ambassador-General,” she said.  “I will relay your words to the Captain when he returns.”

Abashidze nodded, studying Jaya silently for a few moments.  “I will give my commendations to you as well,” she said.  “You were more than worthy of the trust Captain Brooks placed in you.”

“Thank you,” Jaya said, finding her voice shaking.  “Thank you.”

< Ep 12 part 69 | Ep 12 part 71 >

Episode 12 – “Exodus” part 69

Captain Mayor Brooks 1 Comment

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

As Brooks stumbled out of the jungle to the clearing around their escape rocket, he paused.

The ship was still upright, but the once-flat clearing around it was now rippled.

The platform it sat on had multiple layers of seismic isolators, letting it simply move with even the strongest of shaking.  A good precaution when such a ship was, by its very nature, meant for an emergency evacuation from a planet.

Despite the precautions, the shaking must have strained it, he thought.  Parts of the edges were damaged, and though the rocket appeared intact, that did not mean it was all okay inside.

The ladder up the side of the platform was a twisted mess, and he climbed up without it, hoping for no further quakes.

The hatch was open, and he threw himself into the ship, tumbling to the ground.  Pain in his shoulder blinded him, but he forced himself up, grabbing a handlebar set in the bulkhead and pulling himself up.

“Close it up!” he yelled up to Kai.

The door began to close behind him, sealing with a perfection that made it impossible to tell it had ever even been a hatch.

Nothing around the ship looked damaged or amiss, but that was only a good sign, not a promise.

He started to haul himself up the ladder towards the bridge, but Kai’s words came down.

“Check the !A!amo, they need their lullabies,” she called back.  “I’ve got the engine starting!  Three minutes!”

Lullabies – the drugs that would render them unconscious for transit.  Every bit of data they had on !Xomyi psychology and physiology suggested it would be better for them this way.  But that didn’t mean they would like it.

Brooks went into the passenger section.  Things looked fine in here, and he saw that most of the !A!amo were already seated.  The seats were designed for their biology, and where each one sat it inflated around them, holding them tightly and securing them for what was going to be a difficult climb.

“You’re going to sleep now,” he told them.  “It is a special power.  When you awaken, you will be safe,” he said aloud for them.

Their eyes opened wide; their hearts were still racing from the earthquake and all else.

“Please,” he said.  “You must trust me.  I know it is frightening.  But . . .”

He stopped, realizing his own fear and pain were showing through.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, finding the calm within himself.  It took a moment to look past the pounding of his own heart, but he found it.  The calm he was known for settled upon him, and he opened his eyes.

“I will give my life for you,” he told them.  “And so you must trust me one last time before I deliver to you what I have promised.  I will make you sleep, and go to sleep knowing that you will awaken again, with a new future before you.”

The !A!amo listened to him, and he saw his words sink home.

“I will sleep,” Knows the World said.  His eyes went over the rest of them.  “I have come this far, and I put my trust in True Striker.”

The others nodded, and Brooks stepped closer to the wise man, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I will see you again soon, my friend,” he said.

Knows the World said nothing, but smiled.  Brooks thought it seemed sad.  For Tracker, his son, who he could plainly see had not come.

“It will not be soon, No Wings,” Knows the World said quietly.  He leaned his head back, and the injector in his seat gave him the sedative.  He relaxed into sleep.

Seeing that all of the !A!amo were asleep, he rushed towards the cockpit, hauling himself into his seat with less than a minute to spare.

“Cutting it close, don’t you think?” Kai said.

“Wouldn’t be me if I didn’t,” he muttered as the automated webbing strapped him in.

“Cutting startup short,” Kai said.  “Ship’s eager to go, and so am I . . .”

“Hit it!” Brooks said.

Kai slammed the lever forward, and then they were thrown back in their seats as the engines roared to life.

The liftoff felt slow for a few moments, but then they began to feel the pressure of movement upon themselves; at first light, then firm, and then crushing.

The whole cabin was shaking, and Brooks knew that if the ship had damage, at any moment their trip might end in fire.

“Look,” he heard Kai say with difficulty, her eyes turned hard to look out their front viewscreen.

Brooks turned his eyes as far as he could.

And saw a streaking light moving through the atmosphere.

It was not near them; it must have been hundreds of kilometers away, at least.  Yet it was huge, lighting up the entire sky.

A piece of Omen, coming down.  A piece that would wipe out all life on the world.  And if they did not get out of the atmosphere fast enough, them as well.

It hit.   The windows tinted against the immense burst of light that ensued, and he could see vaguely Ko’s surface peeling back, moving more like a liquid than a solid, under the impact.

That piece had to be twenty kilometers, he thought.  The ocean beneath it would part like it was nothing, and the rock would still punch dozen of kilometers into the crust.

The shockwave, if it reached them, would swat them from the air like a gnat.  Any piece of high-speed debris would annihilate them, and he saw dozens of pieces of the planet thrown up by the impact, flinging into space.

The ship began to shake more, and an alarm went off.

“What’s happening?” he yelled.

“We’re okay!” Kai yelled back.

“That does not sound okay!”

“Trust me!” Kai replied.

He did.  But he hated not knowing.

“Booster separation!” she called.  The ship jolted; throwing them forward, then the next stage started, slamming them back into their seats.

“Bump!” she yelled.  He looked over and saw that, despite it all, Kai was grinning like a madwoman.

The shaking subsided, as they cleared the atmosphere, entering into the empty void.

The stars were visible, shining at him with unblinking light.

Despite it all, he found himself wanting to laugh, too.

“Craton, this is Team Brooks,” Kai called over the radio.  “We have cleared atmo.  Can you hear us?  Please respond.”

There were a few moments of silence.  Then, a voice came.  “Team Brooks, this is the Craton.  Nice to hear from you again.”

The voice of Shomari Eboh contained a warmth that was humbling.  Behind him, the sounds of uproarious cheers could be heard from the bridge crew.

They had escaped, he realized.

Brooks could not stop his mind from tallying that; then from thinking of just what he had escaped.

The realization of what they had left behind began to hit him.

Tracker, his friend, Young Mother, and Little One were gone.

The world of Ko was gone.  The land where he had . . . he had become friends with these people.  It was all they had ever known; all their ancestors had ever known.

Their way of life destroyed.  Those moments of their lives, nothing like them ever to be repeated in anything but memory.  All of the knowledge of lifetimes now only reference to something past-tense.

The land where he had hunted with them.  The land where he had bled with them, where he had held a spear, and killed the keko!un.

His hands were shaking.  Kai was looking at him, worriedly, judging if he was injured and simply had not told her.  But he could not tell her what was the matter; she would feel it in her own way, but right now he could only feel what was in his own head.

Tears gathered in his eyes.

< Ep 12 part 68 | Ep 12 part 70 >