Remember the Starfighter (18 page)

He had thought that everyone he had ever known was either dead or lost. But the man before him was there to prove him wrong.

“How have you been?” Landon asked, as he pulled the breathing mask from his face. “You’ve been ignoring my messages. Had no choice, but to send a sentinel to escort you.”

Within seconds, Julian’s own suit had retracted the organic glass. The gravity and atmosphere had returned to normal, his feet no longer magnetically sealed to the ground.

It was an empty and confining transport pod, one that lay tethered to a secure line into the station’s inner segments.

Wanting some space, but finding none, Julian vented a sigh. 

“Sorry. I guess I wasn’t ready,” he said.

Without trying to pry too far, the commander examined Julian: he was visibly tired. The fatigue lingered across his sunken face.

“Is it the side effects? Are the treatments causing problems?” Landon asked.

Julian said nothing. He stood hunched over, looking thin and small.

The transport continued on course. The pod flying down the chute. Feeling the reticence, Landon tried to ease into some simple conversation.

“I imagine you’ll be able to return to SpaceCore soon,” he said. “Their new colony at Isen will need good people. You’ll no longer have to worry about the war.”

Barely listening, Julian shrugged.

“But if you don’t wish to go, perhaps I can help arrange—”

“That won’t be necessary,” Julian finally said. “What’s the point?”

The words barged out, the statement wanting to push away the help. Stopping himself, Julian then crossed his arms, and spoke in another exhausted exhale.

“I’ve been put on medical leave. I don’t expect to see military duty anytime soon.”

“But still, there are other duties that can be arranged, you are a starfighter after all, I could—”

“Just drop it,” he snapped. “The S.C. fleet is destroyed. The collapser is coming. I’m irrelevant.”

“My career is over.” Julian said, demanding the discussion end for good.

As Landon fell silent, Julian looked out the transport window. He wanted to view the alien cityscape. Find some distraction within the floating structures. To just forget the man who stood behind him.

But what met Julian’s gaze was darkness. The transport was sinking deeper into the station’s labyrinth-like interior. The only thing left, the man behind him.

He felt Landon’s presence, and so had to ask.

“Why did it have to be you? Why see me now?”

He hid his face in his palm, but Julian still wanted an answer.

“I’m the Terran Hegemony’s liaison here, and one of the few humans on board,” the commander replied. “It only made sense that we meet.”

“Bullshit. Don’t pretend like we don’t have a history.”

“I’m not.”

Both he and Landon knew this was more than just a formality, or a coincidence.

“In all honesty, I was looking for you.” he said. “You and I were once friends. When I heard you were alive, I was eager to meet.”

Julian lifted his head from his hand, and wiped his eyes. The words rattled him.

“I guess you found me, although there’s not much left,” he said. “Not anymore.”

He turned to Landon, and showed his face. This was not the Julian he knew.

Looking at the pale white eyes, what Landon saw was more corpse than man. Parts of his skin were blue, the organs saturated in chemical and implant.

Clearly, his body had yet to recover — the atrophy to the muscle, leaving him weak, cold and nearly broken. 

Julian didn’t care. Sensing the apathy, Landon could tell he didn’t want to talk about himself, or about the past.   

“This Omega Priority,” Julian said. “The sentinel said it was ultra-classified.”

Julian rubbed his shoulders, hoping to change the subject. He had been brought here for a reason, and it was not to reminisce, or to make amends.

“Yes,” Landon said. “Few know about this.”

The transport continued on its path, the final destination close. Julian had been told nothing about why he had been summoned, but he had a good guess.

“I’m betting this has something to do with what I brought back?”

Landon nodded. 

“The matter is urgent. Extremely urgent.”

Abruptly, the darkness surrounding the transport lifted. A white glow beamed through the glass, the aura flashing with each passing second.

“We are crossing through several barriers of dense energy shielding,” Landon said. “Security has been exceptionally tight. But soon we’ll arrive.”

Facing the window, the commander gestured out to the Alliance research facility below. Embedded into the station’s superstructure was the building, a mesh of light glimmering from its domed design.

“Some of the Alliance’s best scientists are there, working tirelessly,” Landon said. “But still they need our help.”

Julian also watched, a gateway to the facility opening before the transport. But unlike Landon, he was less than focused. He was angry.

“This had better have been worth it,” he said. “A lot of good people died on Bydandia.”

He touched his face, picking at the implants on his cheeks. Rubbing the thread-like fringes, Julian wished he could rip them away.

The transport slowed to a crawl and docked at the facility. Shutting his eyes, Julian leaned his shoulder against the window.

“The Endervars,” he said gritting his teeth. “What do they want?”

Looking upon Julian, the commander could both see and feel the suffering. It twisted like a knife, the pain digging in.

Landon sensed the loss, the panic — the grief transferring to him.

“They killed me,” Julian said. “All for this.”

He pointed to the glass, his finger directed at the facility. He thought he knew what was there. The body of an enemy saved when so many had died. 

“No,” Landon said. “It’s not what you think.”

He placed his hand on Julian’s shoulder, and pulled down his hand. “What you brought back wasn’t the enemy.”

“What?”

The commander backed away, his mind going over the situation. Even Landon wasn’t quite sure how to explain.

“Well, that’s the most probable conclusion,” he said. “No, Julian. It’s a she. An Android. One that comes from Earth.”

The fabricated fibering pervaded through the body like flesh, the bones themselves composed out of a dense skeletal plating. Light alloys made up the different joints, synthetic tissue wrapping itself around mechanized gears and what the scientists said were a network of energy nodes. 

The scans showed this and more, detailing the intricate innards of the subject that lay before Julian on the display. Nanoscopic filaments ran data to and fro, connecting themselves to the thousands of components embedded within. “Classification: autonomous robotic construct” the report displayed, the analyses pointing to a complete absence of organic matter. 

“She’s entirely artificial,” Landon said, as he stood next to him inside the lab room. “Nothing to indicate any sort of bio-mass. Mainly just metal, and plasmatic compounds.”

Julian nodded, fully aware of the scans and their conclusions. But as he gazed at the image, he became fixated on what he saw. It was stunning.

“The face… it’s changed,” he said. “It’s human.”

Projected on the lab room wall displayed a real-time view of the subject, outfitted in the same distinct metallic gear Julian had seen before. From neck down, the plates of polished silver weaved on, segmenting around arm, leg and chest. Gone was the damage, the suit’s nanotechnology healing the ruptures and cracks that had once riddled its surfaces. But even more jarring was the subject’s once featureless face, the armor peeled back to reveal human-like skin. Julian walked closer to the image, realizing he was staring at a young woman, the white lips pursed into silence. Comatose she lay, her body strung against a raised platform in the center of the room. Long black bangs drooped close to the woman’s brow, as a pair of sepia rimmed irises seemingly stared back.

“Appears very life-like, doesn’t it?”

Julian looked over his shoulder, hearing the palliative voice of a translation module. At the lab’s doorway entered the Alliance scientist. Swiftly, the official approached, not walking, but levitating from the floor.

“This is Director Jira Sekandry, head researcher of this facility,” Landon said. “The team here has been overseeing study of the android.”

Julian stood still, recognizing the translucent shell of the scientist’s rotund body.

This was the first time he had met a member of the Lanadi Yissau, a founding race of the Alliance. The scientist saluted, placing its tendrils across its chest. Like them, it lived off an oxygenated atmosphere, discarding the need for an environmental suit. But to move, the scientist relied on anti-gravity fields, boosting its delicate frame through the air.

“It’s rare to see a human on the station, especially two of them,” the scientist said, speaking through the module. “But even rarer is her, the specimen you brought.”

Extending out its tendrils, the scientist pointed to the real-time image of the woman.

“She’s been like this for five of your standards days. Utterly silent. Not a sign of any physical movement. We can only surmise that she no longer wishes to cooperate with us.”

Julian gazed at another scan, one that spliced through the subject’s mechanical suit. Under it, he could see the outline of a human body encased within, the hourglass shape of a woman apparent.

“Are we sure she’s from Earth?” he asked.

The scientist drifted away, linking its tendrils to a nearby console bay.

“There’ve been a number signs, the most evident being her human design. The other is the remarkable fact that she speaks your language, Terran Neo Standard, in addition to the African, Asiatic, Marsonian variants. Perhaps more. She revealed this the moment she retracted the armor from her face and spoke to us.”

The room then became lit with columns of holographic panels, the data reports surrounding Julian and Landon.

“These extensive scans were also taken of her body. As you can see, much of the technology is foreign to us, yet some of it may be strikingly familiar to you. Look.”

In front, of Julian hung the image, a microscopic shot of the android’s inner systems. A scan had noticed a repeating sub-atomic signature throughout the body. Looking closer, Julian saw the matched identifier.

“This says EarthForce,” Julian said.

“Yes. I believe that was the name of a military organization on your ancestral homeworld before it was invaded,” the scientist replied. “There are also other markers showing old Terran tech, pre-Exodus era.”

“That would be over 2,000 years ago.”

“But the major revelation was when the subject began divulging her background. She says she is from Earth, and that she escaped the enemy shield. As far as we know, she is the first being ever to do so.”

The scientist displayed portions of the recordings, showing the woman standing, and speaking behind the interrogation room’s force field walls. Gathered data had collected hours of content, the files covering topics on Earth, the enemy, and her mission.

“It says here, her objectives are to stop the Endervars. That the enemy was tracking her ship. Is this true?”

"Supreme intelligence has analyzed the evidence, and concludes there's a 79 percent chance our subject is speaking the truth,” the scientist said. “However, there's also a 20 percent chance she covertly is an Endervar, or in some way aligned with them. You of all people should know the dangers.”

Julian nodded, feeling the pang of Bydandia’s destruction still fresh in his mind.

“Regardless,” Landon interjected. “It’s absolutely imperative we re-establish contact with the android. That’s why our presence was requested.”

He looked back at the image of the subject, and saw the woman’s vacant face.

“Have you tried accessing her systems directly?” Julian asked.

“So far, our attempts have failed. The coding used to design her is based on old Terran computing languages, but it’s far evolved beyond that era and is alien to us. Almost living it is. At best, we would need several cycles to decipher and crack it. But I’m not even sure it’s possible.”

“She’s that advanced?”

“Indeed. But I think we’ve found a way to re-establish contact.”

The subject may have gone silent, but scans showed the woman to still be active, the scientist explained. Activity in the artificial brain, assumed to be dormant, had in fact remained high, even spiking to new levels in the five days that had passed. But also active was a communication signal emanating from the subject’s body.

“The information she’s sending is encrypted, but the frequency we recognize. In fact, it’s still in use, and basically a variant of Uni-trans standard,” the scientist said. “We’ve isolated the transmission band.”

The holographic displays dimmed, as the scientist passed on the research facility’s security clearance to Julian’s bio-ID. He looked at the digital feed embedded on his wrist and noticed the automated codes downloading into his comm-band.

“The woman pleaded to speak with you,” Landon said. “She wanted to know about us, about humanity and its fate. That’s why we’re here. To gain her trust.”

In moments, Julian would see the subject for himself, this time closer than ever. But before he did, he glanced off at the collected scans and images. Catching his eye was not the woman’s face, but another data point among the many. This one, however, was simple.

“Subject’s designation,” it read. “Name: Arendi Soldanas.”