FSE

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Divine: Chapter 5

Marty had crashed before. Plenty of times. It was part of the job when exploring the universe. A person who said that they had never crashed before was lying unless they had just started. In that case, their first crash was real soon.

Flying was an art. It needed to be graceful and delicate, but harsh and forcefully when needed. Space wasn't just an empty void, but a swirling cloud of forces acting on a ship from infinite directions. Each one was pulling on the ship, dragging across the void. A single miscalculation, a hiccup in a system, could send a ship spiraling towards the nearest body of rock.

Now the reason why Marty was alive to crash into this particular planet was because he managed to make sure all of his crashes were during test flights and simulations in well populated or patrolled systems. It was here, where rescue was assured, that Marty could try different techniques to use out in the field. Practice a gravity slingshot around a gas giant? There were lots of systems that had gas giants with a space station orbiting the Orion system where the Galactic Rangers were home based had one that was perfect for maneuvers.

Marty's first crash was when he had attempted to buzz a comet that was approaching a sun. It required him to come within one hundred meters of the two-kilometer-wide rock and then scoop up ice particles to restore is water stores. He had ended slamming into the comet and embedded his ship into the surface where he stayed for twelve hours before he was picked up by Teth.

Teth could have come within minutes, but the two ended up spending most of the twelve hours discussing how Marty could have avoided the incident. It was a learning experience for both of them, and Marty got it the next time with only a dent when a rather large piece of ice scraped the side of his ship.

From there on out, Marty had been in nearly two dozen crashed across the Milky Way.

"I'll leave my mark on the galaxy, one bump at a time." Was what Marty said to Teth one time when the older Ranger had come to him about his tendency to smash his ship into anything and everything in space.

It had been good fun for the both of them. Ships were nigh indestructible and could take massive beatings before structural integrity was affected enough to be cause for alarm. There was never any worry. The real danger that presented itself to a Ranger was random astrological events. Supernovas were impossible to detect since witnessing a supernova just meant that the impressive death of a start actually happened hundreds of years ago due to the vast distances of space and the speed of light. A star that looked perfectly good in a telescope may not even exist anymore.

More than a few Rangers had been lost due to them jumping into a cloud of superheated radiation, instantly melting them and dissolving them into nothing more than a small cloud of gas. It was a fast death, or at least it was theorized it was since no one had ever survived jumping into a supernova. It was scary, though. There was always a breath of relief when jumping into a system and actually seeing it.

The mission that Marty had gone on seemed like a cakewalk. On paper it was. Go in, make the necessary scans, record and then return to report. Easy day, easy money.

No easy money this time as Marty came to. He blinked his eyes until the blur went away, and then tried to recall where he was. He remembered that he had been on a commissioned mission, but the feeling of soft blankets and the sound of birds confused him. Had he finished, gone home and gotten so drunk that he had forgotten the past few days?

Marty took a deep breath and began to lift his arms to stretch, but a sharp pain up his side stopped him and made him suck in a gasp of air. There was then a sudden movement to his side.

Marty looked over, expecting to see someone else just waking up after a long night of partying. It was almost tradition to spent some of the commission on booze and girls after a mission. When life could end so suddenly, enjoying it was part of a creed to the Rangers.

There was no passed out Ranger, but a small dog. A dog is what came to mind for Marty. It had a long muzzle, perky ears, the wet black nose that quivered and deep expressional eyes that looked at him. He would have called it over if it wasn't standing on two legs and holding a book like a person or wearing clothes, but the book is what Marty found the most strange. It was leather with twine for binding. The pages weren't bleached white, but almost a little tan as if it had been stained by coffee ages ago. The paper itself was odd. Marty hadn't seen paper in over a year. It was more of a novelty to decorate an expensive home, especially if it was paper made on Earth.

"How much did I drink?" Marty thought out loud. Did he go to Lorena's again? He thought that he had sworn off those spiced drinks after last time.

The man-dog turned tail and bolted out of the room without saying a word. Why did Marty expect it to speak? He didn't know.

"What did I do?" Marty slowly pushed the blankets off of him. They were fur. What kind of hotel was he in? The fur felt real, not synthetic. Was there even any commission money left?

The pain was now just a slow burn in his ribs by the time Marty managed to get into an upright position. He winced a little with each breath, and he could see the bandages wrapped all around his chest. There was a small bloody spot on his shoulder which stung whenever he moved his arm.

Marty was still convinced that he had gone back home and was waking up from an alcohol induced coma. The bandages were just more reminders to him to never drink spiced ale again. Lorena was famous for her concoctions that housed ingredients that were highly illegal in the Inner Ring, but not in the Outer Reaches where the law was more of a guideline to follow when one didn't want to be rude.

He had to admit that the hotel room was a little dingy but felt very rustic. How they had managed to recreate a realistic wooden texture on the wall, Marty had no idea. The bed was most definitely made of real wood. The fur blankets. Marty had met people who would spend a fortune to spend a night here and Marty just hoped that it was his own meager fortune that was spent.

Another look around the room revealed a window with morning dew on it which obscured the view outside. That meant that he was planetside which was rare for him now. He never went down to a planet unless he had to which was only when he met with his employers when they wanted to meet in person. That must have been what happened. Rem knew Marty and how much Marty hated him and his company. Probably invited him down to one of his planets to talk in person where he could rub his fortune in his face. Even though Rem was an ass who loved to exert his dominance every chance he got, he was actually a gracious host who held nothing back to make sure those under his roof had a good time. Marty, hating Rem Corp or not, wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of Rem's hospitality.

That must have been it. It made sense now to Marty. He got more wasted than normal on Rem's dime and had some sort of accident or got into some kind of fight which left him in this bed. Worse things had happened to Rangers celebrating before.

"Wonder where Teth is?" Marty scooted over to the edge of the bed and frowned when there wasn't some slippers or some kind of footwear. As far as he could see, his clothes weren't anywhere to be seen. "Maybe in the bathroom." He said and then slowly got up and walked over to the door where the imaginary man-dog had run off to. He peered down to his right and saw more of the same as what was in his room, more rustic cabin.

"He's awake. He's awake." Marty heard from beyond his room. It sounded like some child. Maybe that dog thing wasn't just an illusion, but his mind had just made a child look like an illusion. What was a child doing here?

Marty was going to head out, but realized he was still naked, so he went back and quickly grabbed one of the furs and draped it over his shoulder and pinched the opening shut so his genitals wouldn't be showing. He would have put on some clothes, but there weren't any around. Must have ditched them somewhere else in the hotel.

"Hello," Marty called out, and the voice cut out as if sliced by a hot blade. "Can anyone help me? I've appeared to lost my clothes."

--

Vargus knew that he would wake up soon, and he had been trying to prepare himself for when he did, but the second Petrus came running to him to tell him that the being was awake, he found all the preparation slip between his fingers like water. He had been busy cutting potatoes and meat to make a stew. He didn't know what else to do. He had dressed the wound as best as he could. Do gods get hungry? Do they eat?

All very important questions to Vargus as he looked down at his son who stood before him. Even Petrus looked concerned, and Vargus considered him a more adventurous one out of them both. That was why Vargus had gotten the position as a guard in Melur. It was the safest city with its massive walls and its central location, far, far away from where the war was taking place. The worst he had to deal with was rowdy children that liked to play pranks of the guards.

"What are we going to do?" Petrus asked his father. He held the book in his hand tightly. It was a storybook that had belonged to his mother and was passed down to him when she died. He kept it close at hand at all time and would often read the stories which told childish tales of brave heroes and wild adventures. He had read every story dozens of times and never got bored of them.

Vargus took a deep breath and set down the wooden spoon he had been using to mix the thick broth that was now simmering on the stove. "Hand me that bowl." He pointed at the wooden bowl on the nearby table.

Petrus quickly retrieved it and handed it to his father who then dipped it into the pot and scooped out a portion. He let the excess drip back into the pot before placing it back on the table. He twisted his fingers together nervously. He didn't know what to say or what to do.

Petrus sensed his father's uneasiness and placed a paw on his father's larger paw to settle him. He gave a quick smile of reassurance to him as their guest entered the room.

'I forgot to set our clothes for him,' was the only thing that Vargus could think when Marty stepped into the room and stopped to look at them. Vargus has set aside the suit after rinsing it of blood and sweat, and it was now in the corner of the room.

Marty squinted for a moment, looking at the two figures. They were both dogs. The smaller one was clutching the book from earlier to his chest while the larger one was next to him.

"How much spice did I have?" Marty blinked several times and then rubbed his eyes. They were still there. Still dogs. "Too much I suppose." He walked over to the table, still not aware that everything was real and not some side effect of taking hallucinogenic drugs. "Have you seen Teth?" He asked the two who hadn't moved.

They didn't answer.

"Oh, um. Probably don't know who he is. Big older guy with gray, slicked back hair. He reeks of cologne most of the day and has a snarky attitude." Marty tapped his chin. "Often complains about his ex-wives when there isn't anything else to talk about it." He looked at the two and waited for something. Maybe they didn't speak English. There were plenty of places where English wasn't the primary language. It would be like Rem to stick him with a staff of Chinese. Probably watching right now from a camera.

Marty gave a quick glance around the room for a camera. There were no obvious ones, so maybe it wasn't Rem. That asshole always made sure that everyone knew he was fucking with them. He would have gotten the biggest and most visible camera that he could and mounted it right in the corner of the room.

"Do you at least know where my clothes are?" Marty said and caught a whiff of the stew. It smelled quite delightful, but he wasn't sure if it was for him or not, so he didn't take it. "I don't want to walk around naked all day."

The two looked at each other, and the larger one went over to the corner where the flight suit was. He picked it up and walked over to Vargus and hesitantly handed it over.

Marty took it, making note of how nervous the two seemed and the fact that when he took his flight suit from the person, he had touched his hand. The thing with spice is that it tricks the brain into thinking that things that shouldn't be real is real and it continues to work long after the drug itself is gone because the brain continues to believe in the new reality. However, once the reality is broken somehow, like touching the skin of something that should be furry, the brain instantly reverts to its original state. Marty should have felt skin, but he felt fur.

Vargus watched as the person got his clothes and quickly headed back to his room.

"Smooth," Petrus said more to just make himself feel calmer than actually to make fun of his dad.

"You weren't much help either." Vargus' heart was beating heavily in his chest. He had to sit down. "At least he doesn't appear mad."

"Who's Teth?" Petrus scampered over to his father who lifted him up and set him down on his knee. "I don't know any Teths."

"Neither do I," Vargus replied and tried to think of what he should do. "The storm is over. Maybe I should head back to the city. This is much bigger than what we should be handling. The Vicar... no one of the High Pontiffs should know about this."

"You can't leave me here with him." Petrus quickly protested. It wasn't that he was afraid for his own safety, the mysterious, pale-skinned man that his father thought was a god didn't seem violent, just confused, maybe even drunk. He had seen his father drink on those rare occasions, the lack of care about what is going on and the focusing on one thing without regard to anything else. In this case, it was this Teth person who seemed to dislike ex-wives, whatever those were. Maybe he was talking about mates?

"We can't just leave him here either," Vargus said.

"WHAT!" The yell came from the room where the being had gone. "What do you mean I crashed?"

Vargus set down Petrus and went to investigate. He peered into the room with the God and saw that he had put on his second skin and was talking to the orange light that had come from his wrist earlier.

"Last known records indicated that your ship suffered a catastrophic electronics malfunction, forcing you to crash land on the nearest planetoid." The strange woman's voice came from the light. "You suffered multiple fractures to your ribs along with other less severe injuries."

"I never made it back after completing my mission?" Vargus asked the virtual ai. "I never made it back and reported my findings to Rem Corp."

"You never completed the mission." The ai replied bluntly. "You crashed and passed out shortly after discharging your standard issue weapons multiple times."

"If I never made it back from the mission, then where am I?" Vargus asked and tried to pull up a satellite feed, but there was no connection. He tried to connect to his ship, but there was no connection again. He couldn't get any kind of feed from anywhere but his suit.

"You crashed on the fourth planet of the system you were contacted to scan. You are still there now."

"But then." Marty turned around and saw the larger dog watching him. He looked at his hand that had touched the dog. He had felt fur, not skin because it was fur. "You're not human. I'm not... You're." Marty squeezed his eyes.

"Blood pressure dropping, sir." The suit warned. "Initiating countermeasures.

The suit tightened around Marty like a firm hug, helping him stay up and conscious.

Mind a bit more cleared; Marty managed to sit down on the bed to which Vargus then hurried over, finally spurred to do something.

"Take it easy." Vargus helped. "You've been through a lot." He almost didn't touch the man, afraid that it would be heresy to touch a god. "You fell from the sky."

"Yeah." Marty took deep breaths, trying to contemplate everything. He wasn't scared anymore. Instead, another feeling started to take over. Excitement.

It had been a small thing at the back of his mind ever since he had become a Ranger. Every time he jumped to a new, uncharted system, he wished, he just wished that when the scans came back, there would be a planet. A special planet, unlike any other that he would ever visit, except for one, Earth. He had told himself that it would never happen, that he would never find a rock in the empty vastness of space that would hold another intelligent lifeform. Each time there was nothing, or just hunk of dirt with some bacteria on it and nothing else, the dream faded more and more. Now here he was, looking at an alien being that was remarkably similar to a dog on Earth and somehow was speaking coherent English. What were the chances that he would come across something so familiar? He had to check again to make sure that it wasn't spice.

Marty reached up and touched the dog on the side of the face. It held still as Marty felt the coarse fur, a mix of black and white that met just above the jaw line. It was real; it was all real.

"Amazing," Marty said, recovering quickly. "Absolutely amazing. I-I never thought that this day would come. Most thought we were alone, but this- this is proof that we aren't alone."

Vargus just held still. He felt blessed to be admired upon in such away. He didn't know what the God was talking about.

Marty pulled back his hand. "I'm sorry. That was rude. I suppose I should thank you for helping me... so... thank you."

"Uhh- You're welcome, my holiness." Vargus gave a bow.

"Holiness?" Marty asked, now confused at the dog that was bowing to him. "I'm no holy man."

Vargus' head shot up. "Are you not a god, prophesized to come back to us?"

Marty raised an eyebrow. "I don't know about any prophecy." He stood up and took the dog by the arms to raise him up. Just got here and was already being worshiped by the less advanced locals. What a way to initiate first contact. "I was just sent here to take a look around."

"A scout then." Vargus felt foolish. He had jumped to conclusions so fast. The gods wouldn't return so fast. They would want to know the condition of their world. The texts never described the gods as all knowing. There were several instances where individuals were able to deceive the gods.

"Sure." It was close enough for Marty. He could explain the Orion's Ranger's, but he was certain that would only confuse the poor thing even more. From what he could see, they were in their equivalent of the Medieval times or right around there. The concept of other planets and faster than light travel would only seem like magic to them. After crashing his ship, it was no wonder why this one being thought that he was a god of some sort. "We'll go with that."

"Are you hungry?" Vargus asked. "God or not, you are a guest in my house."

Marty did feel famished. His suit indicated that he had been out only for a few hours, but during the long crash process, he had been too busy to eat. "I could eat."

The mood became more casual over a bowl of soup. They had exchanged their names. Vargus found the name 'Marty' to be strange, and Marty thought the same of the name 'Vargus." Petrus sat with his father, across from Marty. He slowly scooped his soup into his mouth, but was mostly enthralled with their strange guest.

"So, where do you come from?" He asked.

"Well." Marty didn't want to spill all the beans and create more questions than answered. "I come from a place called Orion." He talked of the planet and constellation where he had set out from initially.

"What's it like there?" Petrus kept the questions going and Marty was more than happy to keep answering them for the time being. He knew that he should get back to his ship and see what was salvageable, but he didn't feel rushed. He was tired and hurt, really in no condition to go rushing off. Even if he could get to his ship, there wasn't much to do there. He was light years away from the nearest inhabitable system, and the chance of a rescue mission being sent out was minimal. There were only a few reasons to why a Ranger didn't come back, and most of those reasons made it too dangerous for a rescue party. He would have to sit tight for some time and maybe even live here if his ship couldn't get off the ground again.

Marty thought back to Orion. "It's a harsh world. Err, place." Orion wasn't a green planet. It was mostly barren with only a band around the equator having plant life that was larger than algae. "The sun is hot, and there's dust, but it's home to me."

"Why don't you have any fur?" Petrus then asked.

"Petrus." Vargus scolded. "That question isn't polite."

Petrus' ears folded back, and he looked at Marty with big, globe-like eyes. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Marty wasn't offended in the slightest. It was a question that he had expected from a child. Petrus was so much like a human child in mannerism. Curious and innocent. "Your fur keeps you warm, right?"

Petrus nodded.

"But you also wear clothes for extra warmth and to cover up."

Again, Petrus nodded.

"My people have clothes as you can see." He motioned to his suit. "We take a lot of pride in making good clothes. So good in fact that we don't need fur."

"Makes sense." Petrus still didn't understand but didn't want to look ignorant.

Vargus got up to stoke the fire, leaving his son to keep talking with Marty. He was more comfortable now than before. Marty seemed genuinely good. One thing he was still wondering about was what the god's plans were. Marty was most definitely one of the beings from the stain glass window in the cathedral but didn't seem to know anything about the prophecy. There was more, that much he knew and as much as it wasn't his place to question. That was for the members of the church. He was planning on taking Marty to Melur soon and get more answers there. They would want to know about this. He would talk about it with Marty in a bit, for now, it was too late to go out. The entire day had been used up, but at least it appeared the storm was now dying down.

"We'll go to the city tomorrow," Vargus told himself and then went back where Marty was showing Petrus his display on his arm. The orange light and the female's voice thoroughly entertaining the smaller pup.