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Survivor’s Hope

Domel Arcturus

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** ** “It’s close,” I said. “We’re close to the ancient colony. Kilkaja and George are also there.”

“How about Sel?”

“I don’t know. Her pathfinder device stopped working a couple of hours ago. I hope she’s safe.”

I tried my best not to assume the worst, but we were in the worst situation that could possibly happened to us. We were still inside the forest with the lights going out faster than we thought, and we still had problems with the Saukauri patrol that started opening fire the moment they saw us. For them, we were easy targets, especially given that we were taller than them by a whole foot.

After George told us to run, I immediately grabbed Zarya and ran to a different direction. In the confusion and panic, I forgot to check my pathfinder device. But, in my defense, you would not pull out your device when you are in the middle of a crossfire. Our shield generators had depleted their charges two hours ago. We were able to hide ourselves in the darkness due to my own black scales, though Zarya’s scales were bright and reflecting light.

I told Zarya to try and not use her healing wave, knowing that the bright light effect of her ability would alert the enemies. While her healing wave was far more effective in healing our wounds that the first aid kit she was carrying around, it’s still dangerous and we would lose our cover of darkness.

Our trek through the darkness was full of worry and fear of being shot. I must admit, this was one of the most frightening moment in my life. Here I was, trying to find our friends, with no shield, low power reserve, and trying our best to stay out of sight of forest patrols in darkness, with only the low lighting of the pathfinder device being our only illumination.

It really was a stupid decision to just run blindly in the middle of the forest. We could’ve reached our ship by now and be safe behind its shield. I bet even the soldiers would not even dare to attack us on the ship. It was literally the best place to defend ourselves until morning came. However, things had happened, and we gotta try and survive from it. And besides, we were on the planet for a reason. I was not that stubborn to try and complete our goal here, but we got a chance and I would use it.

I remembered what Sel said about them. Saukaurs. Back in my time, like the Felinians, Saukaurs were not even in our radar, which meant that they were pre-space 3500 years ago. Things had changed too much. Even I wondered how I could keep up, even though in my case it also felt like I went back in time. The Vyrnians lost a lot of their old technological advances in the past 3500 years, and I want to know why the invaders did so, and how far they got themselves involved in our history. The abandoned colony could give us the answer we need, along with the mystery of why the Vyrnians never left.

The peace did not stay long. We accidentally stumbled upon a patrol and our eyes reflected their lights. I acted quickly by zapping them with electricity, but they were not the only patrol in the area. It was wrong to use my electricity against them, because it’s bright and it clearly alerted everyone nearby. Cursing to myself for panicking, I took Zarya’s hand and run towards the direction of the colony’s coordinates.

Energy weapons could not hurt me that badly. In fact, it charged me up. However, the heat of the discharged energy was still there, and upon impact on my body, it felt like being burned by a torch. I felt like burning when one of them, shot in full power, hit me in the back. I immediately turned around and let out a stream of electricity that only hit the tree, which left a nasty scorch mark. They were smaller and nimbler than I was, so our only option was to get out and hope George and Kilkaja knew what they were doing. It was only a small distance away now. I could make it.

However, Zarya was rather exhausted. She was not used to running in a dense forest. She started to draw a heavy breath, and even stopped running all together.

“Just leave me, Arcturus,” said Zarya. “You go to them. Please. Don’t worry about me. I can’t run anymore.”

“I am not going to leave a friend to die!” I exclaimed. In desperation, I started lifting her on my back, carrying her lighter body with me as I ran. I knew this was risky, but I had no other choice if I wanted Zarya to live.

I quickly realized the risk I must take. Due to my straining concentration, I did not manage to absorb most of the energy blast in time, causing it to have enough power to tear through my wing. I roared in pain and dropped to my knee, but I could not stop. The pathfinder device around my neck told me that I was close. I did not even have the time to think whether it was a trap or not. I just needed to reach the signals.

Just then, I could hear some people shouting orders from beyond the forest. Then, before long, we got ourselves involved in yet another crossfire. It seemed that the patrols stumbled upon the enemies and they started shooting them. I felt this was the right call. If we could stay out of their focus for a bit, we could slip away in the darkness. The colony was not far, and we could make it!

However, the crossfire did not last long. In fact, it became a fight with swords and shields. We were right between their fight. I could see that half of the Saukaurs were defending themselves, but I did not know one of them even considered my presence.

“Hey, Vyrnian!” he shouted. “Follow me!”

I nodded and increased my pace, but in the chaotic guerilla fight, I got caught in it momentarily.

I could feel the pain when they slashed my leg’s tendon, which caused me to lose my footing. The pain was very unbearable but was dulled by Zarya’s healing wave. I needed to continue on. I did not even think about what permanent damage my leg would get after this. All I wanted was to get away from the nightmare.

We were only saved because of two factors. First, we were saved by some Saukaurs that defended us as I ran towards the clearing. Second, the abandoned colony was heavily fortified. As our pursuers started chasing us after breaking off from the defenders, they were forced to retreat when mortar shots blew up some of them. I was walking in the middle of all that and I could feel the energy of the explosion on my scales, along with some stray shrapnel hitting me. They would not give me permanent injuries like my tendon.

Then, like a ray of hope, George risked his own life to run out of the fortified colony and directed me towards the gate, where some Saukaurs were defending their position. By this point, Zarya’s healing wave could not prevent the pain from my cut tendon, and I roared as I fell to my knees when the pain shot back at me like a bullet. Zarya, who by this point had recovered, then helped me and took me to the fortified colony. I did not remember when we got ourselves behind the gates because all I remembered from this time was the unbearable pain of my leg.

“Don’t move too much, Arcturus! I need to close your wound!” shouted Zarya as she intensified her healing wave. I could hear her asking the Saukaurs bandages and anything they could spare to cover my wounds.

I did not really remember anything from this point on because the cut tendon also cut through my arteries, which effectively cause me to lose a lot of blood. The exhaustion of running through the forest at night and the excruciating pain from the cut tendon effectively took all my energy. After that roar of pain before, I had effectively expended everything and…I felt tired. So tired.

I was always told that if you’re bleeding hard and no one was there to heal you, you needed to stay awake and close the wounds yourself. I knew I needed to stay awake, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even hear Zarya shouting at me, though her face was a comforting sight.

My vision blurred, and I started to lose consciousness. It felt like I was going to go to sleep for a long time. It felt like death.

And I felt lost.

***

Somehow, I dreamed. I remembered dreaming about a white space, thinking that this was the afterlife. I walked around the landscape, trying to contemplate why I was there and why I was dreaming that. Just then, a voice called me. I did not see the owner of the voice, but the voice was vaguely familiar. It sounded like my mother.

I could vaguely remember what she told me. It’s around the line of ‘don’t give up’ and ‘it’s not your time’ yet. Just so you know, I believed in the afterlife, but I did not really believe that I had died momentarily back then. I only believed that it was my subconsciousness telling me not to give in and go to the light. I still had a job to do, and that was to see my planet again.

Afterwards, I remembered opening my eyes. It was already morning and I could hear noises around me. I tried to move my body, but it felt as heavy as a rock. Before I could really force myself to do it, however, Zarya came by me and supported me.

“Whoa, slow down,” she said as she helped me get up. “You lost too much blood. I bet your body’s like being tied down, huh?”

“I…I,” I said. I wanted to say that I was thirsty, but Zarya seemed to understand and get me some water. I drank all of it and I felt refreshed. My body still felt heavy, though.

“How do you feel?” she asked.

“Weak…and light-headed. What…what happened?”

“You lost a lot of blood. If it wasn’t for my healing wave, the wound might kill you,” she said. “One of the Saukaurs in the forest cut through your tendon. I can repair it, but we need a better facility than my ship. We need to get you to Arkari where the healer’s facility will help return your leg to top shape. However, until then, I’m afraid you need to use a stick to walk…or try not to walk too much.”

I sighed. This was the part where I was incapacitated and not being able to help with the fights. Still, my only consolation was the fact that I was still needed for something else.

The Saukaurs could make a good soup even if it was rather basic and, for me, not salted enough. I couldn’t blame them for not having salt as I later heard from one of them that they had exhausted their rations and needed to hunt. Their background as space hunters were well used here as they knew which meat that were edible enough on that planet. They settled with soup since they found out that grilling the meat would not work for them.

George, who had somehow found himself coordinating defense efforts with the Saukaurs, then told me what the Saukaurs needed as I ate my soup. I listened with intent, nodding as he explained some stuffs that happened while I was walking through the dangerous forest without a guide. Of course, I made a point of that towards him. George simply said, “Yeah, I’m sorry for not trying to find you, buddy, but I also got someone to protect.”

Who was Kilkaja. I noticed that the Nuoevan wasn’t around, so I asked. George said, “They’re resting. Leave them be, alright?”

I needed more rest that the others. Well, except Zarya, who admitted to staying awake all night trying to save me from dying. I really owed my life to her, and I wanted to one day repay that. Right now, however, I needed to repay my debt to my saviors.

It was a struggle to even stand up with a damaged leg, but with a little support from Zarya, I managed to stand. One of the Saukaurs provided me with an improvised walking stick he carved from a tree, presumably with Zarya’s request. I tried to support myself with it, but I found that it was harder to walk this way, and it certainly took a lot of stamina just to support myself and walk. Not to mention that I lost a lot a blood and I was still light-headed.

“Hey. Don’t force yourself,” said Zarya. “Take it slow.”

“Can’t get used to it if I don’t try, right?” I said, straining. I turned to George and said, “What…kind of help to they need, George?”

“They need to ask for a ship to retreat,” said George. “Their only comm is destroyed during an early skirmish and they are betting on the communication facilities in the colony.”

“What…will they do if they never got our help?”

“Die trying…I guess,” said George. “Many of them don’t have any training other than what they were given since childhood, which is nothing more than a mandatory sword and shield training. Sethis even said some of his comrades can’t even aim right.”

“Even with such convenience as a wrist-gun?” I said.

“We’re more used to one with an aiming interface,” said a Saukaur, who somehow heard my comment. “We don’t get that privilege since we’re just the reserve.”

“What kind of war are you fighting here?” I asked.

“A pointless war that cost us many things,” he said. “Which came out of a disagreement. I’m Sethis, by the way.”

“Arcturus,” I said.

“Okay, Arcturus…do you think you can help us?”

“I really hoped that I don’t need to re-wire complicated circuits. I’m just a police officer,” I said.

“At least you know what you’re doing,” said Sethis. “We don’t even know how to operate your computers.”

Well. Now that everyone’s putting their hope on me, I could not just sit back and wait how things unfolded, right? It was not just in me to delay if I could help.

When I thought about a colony, I thought it would be someplace rather big and extensive. It turned out that this ‘colony’ was nothing more than a base, with all the mandatory equipment and a place that could fit 7 Vyrnians inside, judging by the size of the penthouse-sized building. It was clearly abandoned a long time ago, and I doubted that anything inside could still work.

The Saukaurs had somehow found a way to turn on the generator. They really needed a Vyrnian to operate the computers inside. Once I got inside, the place was rather spacious, with most of the computers put on one side of the circular building. It was running on low power. Given the technology level, I’d say that it was around my era, but maybe a little later, given how the design was different from the ones I used to. However, the fact that it was a holo-interface was enough to make things easier.

There did not seem to be anything broken or non-functional. I approached the only holo-interface I could find and started operating it. The first thing I did was to check the condition of the computers and if they could still be used.

I knew it would be too easy to assume that it would work. Once I tried to establish communication, I sighed when I saw that the range was insufficient. Of course.

“Is your ship near the planet at all?” I said after I turned to see Sethis.

“If that’s the case, we’d be out of this god-forsaken planet a long time ago,” said Sethis. “Can you…call them?”

“We need a satellite link in orbit to extend the link,” I said. “Given the state of this colony, I bet the satellite itself is already somewhere on this planet, broken and unusable.”

“Fuck,” he said in desperation.

“But,” said Zarya. “We might be able to use my ship’s sub-communicator to get a link. Arcturus, can you link the communicator to the ship?”

I nodded and did just that. For me, it wasn’t that hard, given that I did that when I was a child when I wanted to play a game with friends. Oh, I was reminiscing. Yeah, my childhood’s kinda normal, I suppose. I had friends to play over the net, but I wasn’t that into it, like some Vyrnians I knew in the past. Given how much time had passed, I doubted I could reminisce with them anymore. My childhood friends had already died by this point, naturally or not.

I established the link with the ship’s AI. From here, Zarya took over. She had a little difficulty using the holo-interface, but I helped her when she was asking about things. Before long, she managed to use her ship’s sub-communicator, which was much more advanced than the one in the colony, to open a communication.

After that, I instructed Sethis on how to operate the holo-interface. He had difficulties understanding the Vyrnian words, but I directed him with quite a detail as I sat on a chair nearby, listening to Sethis’s communication with a Saukaur.

“This is Sethis Melser of the Aurelis Three Volunteer group. Do you read me?” he said. “I repeat. This is Sethis Melser of the Aurelis Three Volunteer group. Do you read?”

“Loud and clear, Melser,” said the Saukaur from the other side. “I receive audio and video from your end. Where did you find such comm?”

“From a Vyrnian colony’s comm device. We need your help sending a relief ship for us to evacuate. We lost our rations and our position is compromised. We also need backup.”

“We’ll try to comply. The dispatch is currently compromised, and we can only spare a couple of ships. Most of them are already used to evacuate the HQ.”

“Evacuate the…did we lose?”

“We are winning on a different front, but that sector’s gone. We thought you’re gone when you did not acknowledge our call.”

“We lost our comm and…most of the boys when we lost our base three days ago,” said Sethis. “Do you think you can spare a relief ship enough for 30 Vyrnians.”

“Thirty? That’s all left of you? What’s your status?”

“Ration’s gone, we’re low on energy, the Vyrnian colony’s generator is starting to break down, and we had just used the last of our mines and mortar shells. We really need a fast ship.”

“Can you hold out for five more days?” said the Saukaur. “We can’t spare a fast ship. We just lost one of our cruisers.”

“Five days?” said Sethis under his breath. “We’ll try.”

“Good luck, Melser. You’re going to need it.”

They closed their communication, which left us in dread. Guess they really needed to wait for five more days. Given how they already lost so much in just a week, five days would be a long day ahead.

Of course, that was if we did not try and help. I heard the communication from start to finish and I assessed the situation. They needed a fast lift, and I happened to know someone to call.

“We can try and call the Lekan colony,” I suggested. “They have a fast ship under repair there when I was there. I just need to put a call.”

“Do you think they’d want to spare a ship for Saukaurs?” said Zarya. “Last I remembered, your father’s busy with trying to find a way to get to Vyrn.”

“We can’t know if we don’t ask, right? I’m gonna call the Lekan colony.”

“Wait,” said Sethis. “You have a ship, right? Can it be piloted remotely?”

“It can, and this interface can do it,” said Zarya. “In fact, I can…”

“Wait, don’t,” I said, realizing that it was a bad idea. “If we move that ship here, it will be seen as a relief ship and your enemies will break the guerilla attacks and come attack you in full force. Even if this place is fortified, 30 Vyrnians will not be able to defend it effectively.”

“How big is the ship, anyway?”

“I doubt it can fit 30 adult Vyrnians in it,” I said. “It’s a very small personal ship. We can’t even be sure if we can even keep the takeoff weight down if we try putting you all in there, not to mention the strain to the warp system.”

Zarya contemplated on my words and said, “He’s right. It’s too risky.”

Sethis also realized that it was a dangerous move. We should only move the ship after we are fully prepared. At this point, the Saukaurs currently in the forest had no idea that this base was not as fortified as it was. We clearly could not risk escaping the planet without proper way to defend ourselves.

Just then, one of the Saukaurs walked into the living area and said, “Seth! The scouts are back!”

“Are they fine? How many returned?”

His face looked grim. “Just…three. Sitaris, Tansa, and…Lister.”

Sethis did not reply immediately, but he said, “Take them in and treat their wounds.”

The Saukaur nodded and walked out. Sethis, whose mood changed, said, “Now we’re down to 20. Fuck, at this rate, we’re going to be holed up in this place. Five days will not be enough if we can’t supply ourselves.”

“Then we really have to risk it,” said Zarya. “I’ll check the ship AI if we can take off with an extra 20 Saukaurs. From what I gather, you’re pretty light yourselves.”

Sethis nodded. I quickly remembered something and said, “Zar, if you can, download the data of this colony to the ship. We’ll send it to dad later.”

Zarya nodded and did just that. As she started a communication with the ship’s AI, I turned to Sethis and said, “The volunteer group…is nothing but a distraction, isn’t it, Sethis?”

“I did not want to believe that, but at this point, I believe we are. Five days is far too long for a relief ship to come. We came here with a regular ship and it only took 15 hours. They’re abandoning us. They just don’t say it in my face so that I can try and keep optimistic about it, but I’m not an idiot.”

“So, we’re on our own, then,” I said. “I wonder, though. How devastating is this skirmish if you’ve lost so much in less than a week?”

“Too devastating to tell,” said Sethis. “If you have fought with the coalition, you’d know that even they are inexperienced in the art of war and are only winning because of their number and supplies. If they were trained, this fortification is not going to last a day. We were all trophy hunters before all this nonsense with the Felinians, and before this war, we were…well, we hunt, both as a job and as a ritual to adulthood. Some of the soldiers were untrained hunter who only survived their first hunt. They were the first to die.”

“What’s the deal with the Felinians?”

“I think it has something to do with the Felinian’s population problem, and how they took a lot of our hunting planets to prevent overpopulation. Yes, I know they’re wrong, but our government is trying to find a compromise for them, but only if we stop this pointless war. Some of us disagreed and just wanted to wipe the Felinians or try and control their absurd fertility. The problem is…even if we win this, we gain nothing and the Felinians are the true winner.”

“So, you hate Sel because of this?”

He chuckled. “Hey, I’m not the kind of person to blame someone as a proxy for the entire race. Even if I want to hate her, her reaction against me is clearly because she was wronged by our kind in the past.”

I was confused about this fact until George told me what happened last night.

“So, I know in this war, the winners are the Felinians, not us,” said Sethis. “And our fight with the coalition is pointless. Still, the coalition followed a violent path, and negotiating with them would that as much effort as negotiating with the Felinians.”n

“That’s why I propose we get out while we still have a chance,” said Zarya. “The ship’s computer has given us a prediction that we can carry 20 or so Saukaurs without burdening the propulsion system, but only if all the Saukaurs were below 200 pounds or so.”

“Are they?” I said as I turned to Sethis.

“Yeah. We can fit everyone inside,” said Sethis. “But one more thing. We begin this operation at night, when they are resting. We’ll take the chance to get the hell out of this planet while they are still confused. Does your ship have a stealth function?”

“Unfortunately, no,” said Zarya.

“Then we need to be quick,” said George. “I’ll go out there and coordinate our efforts with Astha. The least we can do is to go out with a bang and hope everyone is accounted for.”

“You do that. I’ll tell the rest to be ready and prepare to defend the colony until that time comes,” said Sethis.

George nodded and walked out of the building with Sethis, leaving me and Zarya behind. While she was doing her work, I proceeded to talk to her, both to relieve my boredom and to maybe know Zarya better.

“Have you…ever regretted traveling with us?” I asked.

“Why did you ask that?” said Zarya, who looked confused.

“I don’t know. It’s just that we faced so many dangers and stuff that this might not be your cup of tea. We faced death every corner and, well, get into trouble.”

“Well, to be honest with you, I do have the idea of just go home and stay out of trouble,” said Zarya. “But, I guess I am just too curious to stop, especially after I know that we can return to Vyrn after 500 years.”

“You mean you’ve always wanted to travel?”

“Why do you think I bought a medium-sized ship, anyway? My friends have their own ships, and those ships are just for their own personal use. I wanted traveling companions, people that I can share what my thoughts are on stuff. I asked some of my friends, but they are too busy with their work…until you and George came along.”

I chuckled. “That sounds like we’re unemployed.”

“Well, technically, you are. You hired me for this travel, and you haven’t paid me one point of credit since we left Arkari.”

“Uh…”

“And I don’t really care, because for me, the excitement of adventure is what matters.”

Her confession felt genuine, even if it was a bit rapid. I never thought Zarya to be someone with that sense of adventure but given how she did not complain about many things, I’d say she really liked it. Within reason, of course. You wouldn’t want to be a danger junkie, right? Not that I’d call Zarya that.

We really did not have anything to do but wait until the download process was completed. Due to the distance between the ship and the colony, it took a while to download the load of information within the colony, giving us time to just sit back, relax, and wait for the plan that night. While we had it, we started talking again, this time about both of our pasts. I tried not to talk too much about how ancient life worked, given that by this point, it was all in the past and clearly would make Zarya felt alienated.

However, what I did know was that we slowly started to talk about more…personal things, like what I like and…Vyrnians I was into. It was only later that I realized that this private setting felt a lot like a date than just a simple talk, and both of us felt something more than just friendship. We had been piloting the ship together, but we had never talked about stuffs except things related to the planet or mundane things like colonies to visit and things to see. This was the first time we talked about our lives, and her past.

I remembered asking her about her family, and she said, “I never knew my real parents. I was raised by a kind elderly healer who taught me the healing wave ability and many things that would inspire and help me to become a healer, partially to try to continue his legacy, and partially to try and help him. He was already old when I first remembered him, maybe around 199 years old or so. Didn’t live longer than that, unfortunately. He died around ten years ago.”

“Oh…I’m sorry,” I said.

“I did not end up saving him. Still, I learned a lesson that day. When the time’s up, it’s time to go. I learned about mortality that day, and to be honest, it makes it easier for me to accept deaths. I’ve encountered many deaths as a healer, mostly from old age or just an alien sickness. I tried saving them, but not all survived until the end. I remembered feeling very distressed about it, but after a while, it’s just…gone.”

“Being attached can be a problem if it’s excessive,” I said.

“But I want to be more attached to some people…like you,” she said as she scooted towards me. That’s when I realized that she was practically confessing that she had feelings for me. But I felt reluctant. Not because of the age discrepancy, given that my body did not age when in cryo, but because of my rather ancient look of life…and romance. Of course, I would be willing to learn, but would she be patient? Of course, I quickly got the answer after I asked her.

“Do you really want to be with someone like me?” I said. “I mean, I am rather disconnected from the world and my education came from 3500 years ago.”

“There’s no better time to learn than now, right? Of course, you need a guide, and I’ll happily help you with that.”

“I’d be happy to follow,” I said. Look, I know we were hooking it up faster than anyone could imagine, but hey, it’s not like it was love at first sight, right? We had been involved in many dangers together and we had practically had each other’s back, so of course some feeling might develop between us. It was still rather early to tell if this would continue or not, but I knew that this was a good start.

Things could escalate there and then if Sethis did not walk in, causing us to break our gazing to each other. The Saukaur seemed to know what happened when he said, “Am I interrupting something?”

“Well…kinda,” I said. “But it’s alright.”

“It’s not the right time either, you know,” he said. “But no matter. It’s going to be dark soon. Just want to tell you if you’re ready with the ship.”

“Whoa, wait...it’s going dark soon?” I said, perplexed. “I thought it’s only several hours since I woke up.”

“The planet only has ten hours of light,” he said. “And you woke up in the afternoon. Things go so fast if you’re sleeping all day.”

“I guess so,” I said. “So, is everyone ready?”

“Are you?”

“I’ll try,” said Zarya.

“Good. Try and focus on the job, and I hope you can fit 20 extra Saukaurs in there.”

“We will. Trust me on that.”

Sethis nodded. “I just hope this plan is going to work. If not…we’re all fucked.”

“It’s always dark before the dawn, Sethis,” I said, trying to keep him optimistic. Sethis acknowledged it with a nod.

“Nice quote,” he said.

“I forgot who from, though,” I said.

“Let’s stick to that, shall we?”

We nodded at each other, acknowledging the fact that things would work out. I really hoped it would be, because I wanted to see things through. I wanted to go back to Vyrn again and see my home in whatever state it was. I missed my home.

And I would fight to live another day, for me…and for Zarya.