The Black

Jezzaria took a breath as the door opened, This Warren was patiently standing there His species was strangely similar to her own, save he was from a ground-based lineage and lacked her wings or feathers. His skin and body hair also reflected that in its earth-toned hair and pinkish tan skin. He was significantly taller than her1.6meters, and already over the average height that her species possessed. She startled for a second as her thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of more strangers. This time more strange adults. Three figures in total walked in. the first man wore a formal uniform, perfectly pressed. He had jet black hair with a slight hue to his skin and slightly narrower eyes than his species counterpart. Her brain whirred in confusion as the second man had a significantly lighter hair color, rounder and VERY blue eyes, and a slightly taller height. Almost every species she could remember from school did not display this level of dysmorphism outside of gender. These men were clearly the same species, yet as different as they were similar. She turned to see the third entrance and her eyes flew wide in utter shock. This species she knew, but only from her studies. The cascade of silver hair and the auburn patterns were not to be mistaken.

“Captain Morino Yasushi, Commodore James Mackenzie Grarzia, and Lieutenant Lyrian Grarzia.” Warren introduced gently.

Jezzaria gave a small smile, shrinking slightly before steeling herself, “Hello..” She whispered, wrapping her wings around her.

“Jezzeria, I can’t fathom what you are feeling right now. Can you tell us the last thing you remember?” It was the Black haired one in the perfect uniform.

“I... We were being attacked… the Devoted came for my world... Mamma put me in the cryo-stasis tube... Attica tucked me in and then... I’m here, on this ship... millions of years later.. with a species I have never seen before, and one that was just developing sub-orbital exploration.” Jezzaria nodded to the Delmar Female who glanced in the direction of the lighter haired being before turning back to her. “My home is gone isn’t it.”

“I’m sorry… It appears the Vorath succeeded in their attack. We are scanning the surface for more locations like yours, but we have not found any as of yet. I'm Captain Yasushi. For now, just call me Yasu.” The one in uniform spoke gently.

“Forgive me, but what are you. I recognize your female as Delmaracian.. but Your species didn’t exist in my textbook.” Jezzaria asked

“We are Human, our home planet is Terra in the Sol system” the lighter-haired one in some sort of less formal uniform with a vacuum suit poking out here and there.

“Do you remember the Saurian race?” the Delmaracian woman asked gently with a small smile as Jezzaria nodded, “Well, their original homeworld recovered and Humanity Developed on it after the cataclysm. I'm Lyrian, just call me Lyri. Mac here is my husband.”

Jezzaria’s eyes flew wide, “Delmar can’t pair outside of their species… How?”

“Humanity has been a surprise in more ways than one.” Lyrian smiled more warmly taking the human’s hand.

“I’ve missed a lot. What are you going to do with me?” Jezzaria asked, shrinking a little.

“Your world’s gravity is quite low. But not unmanageable. We have several moons that you would be comfortable on. Humanity is expanding, we have outgrown our own home system. What we are to do with your world, and many like it; Is a subject of some debate.” Yasu mentioned, “sadly, there simply is no infrastructure on your world for you to stay. If you are ok with it, we will take you to Sol. Get your knowledge gaps filled in, while letting us learn what you remember from before. After that, you could do almost anything. We have Delmar Captains on Human freighters and warships. And Humans commanding and crewing Delmar vessels. We could send you just about anywhere.”

“I think… I want to come back to help my world... whether or not My species is dead.” Jezzaria said finally.

“Very well, we will…” Yasu paused as his wrist beeped… “Well, my dear, you may be helping you’re world sooner than you realized... Search and Rescue just found 2 more sites with faint power readings…”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“How’s it going.”

Jacob was turned with his back to the bar, and Hera was to his left. Her right hand slowly dropped to the human-style pistol on her hip.

“I am Varkor… You… are human, yes?” the larger of the two Thermians hissed.

“Depends on who’s asking...” Jacob gave a small smile.

“That will be good enough” Varkor hissed and his partner surged forward in a flash, snagging Hera’s arm and sliding a curved blade up to her kneck, “You will come with Me… Someone would like to… meet you... The dagger is poisoned... one prick, and your precious Mate will not survive…”

“My mate?” Jacob raised an eyebrow.

“No. More. Talk. We know you can Mate with Delmar, you talk. Or. She. Dies. ” Varkor hissed as his partner jerked Hera up to her feet, pressing the knife to her throat enough for it to crease he skin but did not cut in. Jacob simply nodded slowly standing as the leader pulled both of their weapons from their holsters and drew his own knife. “Thisss Way, Human.”

‘fuck’ Jacob thought as the two Thermians insisted that he walk in front of Hera... they slowly left the bar, taking a side passage down several stories until a rusted pressure door was opened and the two of them were marched in and strapped to a pair of chairs. The leader hissed something in the Thermian native tongue and the subordinate stood on the inside of the door, watching the two of them intently.

‘This is not good’ Jacob thought, slowly looking around. The good news was that his arms were tied up in front of him with some strange material that reminded him of sun melted duct tape… he tested his binding gently, making sure to appear weak and afraid. Hera was pulling frantically on her binds, clearly panicking. A warning hiss and the scrape of a blade leaving its sheath stopped her frantic pursuits... she descended into a panic’d sob and just sat there shaking.

Two hours later, the door opened, and the lead Thermian walked in again. Carrying his own chair, “I ssee you two have settled in. Now, Jacob Irving of the Lucid Traveler, I can start with you giving me the answersssers I require... or you can watch as I cut your precious Bitch into tiny pieces and feed them to my spawn one slice at a time. Do you undersssstand me...” Varkor’s voice was slow, precise and level...

‘This one has done this before’ Jacob thought, he needed time, he had been putting slow pressure on his wrist bonds. He could feel them slowly freying internally. His bindings to his chair would be dealt with in a moment. “I understand” he said slowly.

“Good, firstly I need to know where your home planet is. Thissss… Terra” Varkor’s breath was stale and reeked of rotten meat...

“Terra is very far from here…” Jacob started, he needed some time... “Its in a very empty and vacant part of the galaxy”

“Oh?” Varkor struck, landing a closed fisted blow to Jacob’s blind side, knocking his eye patch off, “Your stalling, you know better.”

“You’re right,” Jacob whispered coughing and sputtering, as his head languished backward, obviously dazed from the blow “I’ll tell you… Terra resides in a multi planet system” Varkor had leaned in to hear his weakening voice “.. up your ASS!” Jacob used the last work as his moment. Slamming his wrists to his chest, using his bodies width as the lever arm to split his bindings. This was combined with a quick lurch forward driving his forehead into the Varkors snout. Varkors scales sliced into Jacob’s skin but gave way as the denser human skull drove the Thermians nasal and a few jawbone fragments deep into the Lizards brain.

That blow actually did daze Jacob a bit as he tore from his restraints wobbling slightly as he stood over the lifeless lizard corpse. An enraged hiss erupted from the remaining sentry as it dove, blade first toward a stunned Hera. Jacob was on the wrong foot, still shaking off the blow he delivered as he did all he could do, tackling the second Thermian. He ignored the sharp pain in his thigh as he pinned the rank lizard to the floor, a sickening crunch under his right hand signaled the end of his captor’s windpipe and spine. The second thermian’s eyes bulged slightly before going limp as well.

Jacob stood, slowly. He looked down at the blade in his leg, he slowly withdrew it and injected an emergency Nanotech injection from his hidden sleeve braces directly into the wound. He felt the telltale burning of envenomation as the poison reached his bloodstream. ‘fuck’

He turned to Hera who was just shaking and sobbing, “Hera, Hera!” his voice snapped her out, “I’m going to cut you free, you have to get us out of here. I don’t know where to go” She nodded weakly as he cut her free. He hobbled over to the corner where their stuff had been thrown and retrieved their weapons. Hera took her’s and they opened the door to be greeted by three more Thermians. Jacob used the shock of his appearance to open fire from the hip, blowing ragged blood and gore evacuating holes in all three before his gun locked back on empty. He holstered his weapons, his hands losing their feelings. He knew he wouldn’t be able to reload. “We need to go.”

Hera rallied herself and led the two of them clear of the lower levels where she signaled for help from Traveler.

5 min later a group of heavily armed crewmen and women barged down the street bellowing to clear the way. “Looks like the cavalry is here… just in...” Hera looked over just in time to see Jacob hit the deck back first, bouncing his head off the plating. No one noticed the dent in the plating as he was rushed to Travelers Infirmary.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Yasu scanned his screens, “I can’t say that I am terribly upset by this… Discovering Deathworlds was putting a serious dent on my Sake Supplies… How many Pods have we found so far?”

“Looks like…. 326 so far. Almost all of them children or young teenagers. No one over the age of 17 so far… It appears that the Adult’s bodies could not handle the extended time in stasis.” Mac reported gently.

“How many survivors would we need for a viable Genetic pool?” Lyrain asked.

“With genetic modification to help with inadequacies… 20 million or so…” Atticus responded slowly, “If we were… No, I don’t think that would work. We would need 20 million. And we would have to take Draconian measures to ensure the right people were paired together to provide the greatest chance of one day creating a stable Genome… That’s IF I had full Corth medical facilities to patch the gaps for say the next 150 generations or so.”

“Fuck…” Mac swore, “25 more pods in sector 883. I don’t like our chances.”

“We are only one out of 5 contenents in. At this rate there will be survivors… but not enough Genetic Diversity…” Atticus spoke from a near by speaker as he worked from an isolated computer console with limited but adequate access to Excelsior’s mainframe. “I’m not sure what is more cruel, knowing that your species is dead and being forced to live with that knowledge... or having died with your people.”

“That is a heavy question... Let’s keep to the mission” Mac grumbled.

“Another 42 stable pods found in sector 902… What is the timetable on the Hospital ship?” Atticus asked, thankfully with more professionalism.

“Two days. We have the spare power to run the pods. They are currently being looked over by the Engineering crews.” Yasu spoke.

Lyrian sat close to Mac, reading through the data stream from the Fleets pickets, “How is young Jezzaria doing.”

“I pulled Warren off of his regular shifts” Yasu stated, “He is the only crewman near her age, I hate to put the lad on babysitting duty, but needs must. We had to reduce the ships gravity in the unsecured sections. We can’t have our new guests getting smashed to the floor with a wrong step.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Ok, Ok. Can you come down from there?” Warren chuckled as ‘Jezza’ circled high above him in the biggest semi empty cargo bay in Excelsior. I’m baby sitting an adolescent angle... this is happening’ he shook his head to himself as Jezza swooped down, flaring out her wings as she bled speed to alight in front of him with a smile.

“Oh, gods I needed that.” She sighed, “Sorry. Humans are a little too dense, or I would have taken you for a spin” she raised an eyebrow at the quickly reddening human in front of her, “What?”

Warren simply shook his head, “Its… nothing, lets get some food. You haven’t eaten since before we started hunting mamoths...” He joked before pausing at her expression, “I’m sorry, It’s military humor. Its how we deal with tragedy, we joke about it.”

“I think… I understand… I’m ok, but you are correct... I’m famished” Jezza said finally, hooking her arm around Warren’s left arm, “To food then!”

Warren tried not to recognize the stares as he and a literal angel species walked arm in arm to the mess hall.

Cheff was on point as usual, and the smells of the kitchen enveloped the two of them as they entered the mess, “So. What does your people eat?” Warren asked, “We are going to need to figure that out before we wake up the survivors.”

“Ma ken zeee gave me this after scanning me with it.” Jezza pulled a medical scanner out of her pocket, “he told me to point it at food and eat the stuff that turns the screen green.”

“Well, Ok then.” Warren grabbed a pair of trays and headed for the line. He had to hold back a laugh several times as His charge dramatically waved the scanner over different items before making her selections. Soon... ish… they were done and headed for the tables to eat.

“So, You’re an Omvnivore?” He asked between bites.

“Sort of, we developed to catch small prey, but we are able to subsist on fruits and nuts. So, I never actually asked.. what is all this.” She waved a fork over her food. Over the next hour or so, Warren would describe an item, then watch as Jezza tried it. Some food, like the grapes, and the chicken fingers, were a hit. Others, like the okra or the root vegetables did not ‘taste good’ and were discarded for now. Warren had to laugh as Jezza walked back to the Kitchen window, only to return with an entire red bell pepper that she was eating like an apple.

“where to next” Warren asked as both of them finished clearing their own table.

“I want to see my world,” Jezza said quietly, “I know I can't go down.. but I… I want to see it…”

Warren looked down for a moment, before remembering something. “I think we can do that. Follow me but stay quiet.”

____________________________________________________________________________________

Doc Icario stood next to the bio bed as Jacob lay covered in sweat with an old style IV in his arm. Hera stood next to him, she had cleaned up and changed, but the terror of the evening’s previous events were present in her expression.

Mac had been stabbed by a blade coated in a toxin that was regulated to only Unity military personnel, and only for special operations... It had no known composition. No known antidote... its only known name was M8800… Most importantly, it had no known survivors…

“I’ve done all I can for him. I’ve never seen this type of reaction, in this measure, from any being I know of. He should have been dead inside of minutes… His body is fighting the toxin, look” Icario walked over to a digital microscope. It zoomed in on a spec of Jake’s blood. “His immune system are those white cells.. they are literally eating and deconstructing the biotoxin as we sit here…”

“Doc, He saved my life… What are his chances...” Hera asked, hugging herself slightly for comfort.

“If he makes it through the night, He should be mostly out of the woods” Icario said softly, “you should get some rest.”

Hera only shook her head, curling into a chair she had dragged to the side of Jacobs bed, “The offload is complete. We will be departing in the morning. We have another contract one system over. Traveler can’t affort to run back to Delmar this time… Do everything you can Doctor.”

“I will. I’ll be in my office, and the blankets are in that cabinet if you like.” Icario’s soft tone let Hera know he was not kicking her out. “Traveler needs you too, just remember that.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“wakey wakey jakey-boy… It's time for your bath…” a dark chuckled eroded away the darkness just in time for Jacob to see a damp cloth descend on his face, “don’t forget to scrub” the voice said as water started slowly pouring over the cloth. Jacob sputtered and coughed, gasping, and gagging in futility as the water kept pouring for what seemed like an eternity. His chest was heaving, heavy with the weight of a boot pressing down until he ribs creaked. “Common Jakey-boy, don’t give out on us now… the fun is just beginning”. The water stopped and the cloth came off. Jake heaved for air desperately.

Jake knew what was happening, he knew that he wasn’t actually going to drown. It was little comfort as his body betrayed him to its subconscious panic. “Fuck you... Duster” He sputtered just in time to be punched square in the gut. The blow removed any thought of breathing for a few moments as he reeled, strapped to a chair, without the ability to double over. He finally was able to force himself to breathe just in time for the cloth and water to come back.

“Common jakey-boy. Its not over that easy… You’ve yet to answer me... Times a tickin!” The water began again. Jake steeled himself, fighting to keep slow steady breaths. “Jakey boy!” the voice started distorting, “Don’t you pass out on me Jakey- boy” it slowly began shifting up in octive, “jake, wake up. Common jake, wake up. What’s happening. Common jake wake up.”

Jacob Irving’s eyes snapped open he was breathing heavily, He couldn’t move, every inch of him was pinned down with a mountain of weight, an oppressively white light blasting him in the face. He bellowed his rage, “FUCK YOU DUSTER!!! YOU DOME CRAWLING SHITFUCK!! IM GONNA KILL YOU CUNT!!! IM GONNA RIP YOU LIMB FROM LIMB AND PIKE YOU HEAD YOU COCK SUCKING ASS MONK……” Jacob froze, halting his litany, as a pair of hands placed themselves on either side of his face and a beautiful visage appeared in his vision.

“Jacob, Jacob.. it's Ok, your ok… It was just the poison…” Jake’s brain finally put the face and the voice together Hera was terrified, but she was there non the less.

“Hera?” He asked more calmly this time.

“Yes, you got stabbed with M8800... You’re alive, it’s just the poison. You beat it... shhh, you are safe… You are on traveler” Hera repeated.

Jacob took several deep breaths, the Apparitions of his subconscious slowly receding as the last of the fog in his mind cleared, “We made it?”

“Yes, we made it. You made it. We are in subspace, headed to our next contract. Doctor Icario said that a run for Delmar wouldn’t save you anyway.” Hera said softly. Jacob’s eyes focused on her face; he felt the drip of her tears onto his cheeks.

“Can I... get released... I think, I think I’m ok now.” Jacob stated.

Icario stepped into view and did a few response tests before deactivating the restraining field, “Slowly. You are literally the only being who has ever survived M8800. I’m ordering you off duty for the next two weeks so I can monitor you. DOCTORS orders young man.”

Jacob sat up slowly. Then slid off the bed slowly. His legs almost instantly buckled, and he heard a grunt as he felt Hera catch him. He felt her small frame struggle to hold him, stead herself under his weight as he slowly added weight to his legs to try to help.

“Into the chair Captain. Hera, please get him to his Berth.” Icario stated curtly before leaving for his office.

Jacob sat in silence as hera pushed him on the lev-chair to the captain’s quarters of the ship. He turned the gravity down from the outside before they entered, and Hera pushed him up to his bed. Jake couldn’t so much as get out of the chair without Hera’s help. Hera rallied and lifted him just enough for him to grab one of the zero-g emergency bars scattered about Traveler, this one was one of two set up over the bed to aid in case of emergency. Jake pulled and Hera guided him with her shoulder, forcing his head into her hair as she got him sitting on the bed. He felt her lean into him in exhaustion as they both just panted with the exertion.

Hera’s whole body ached; she hadn’t realized that she was so close to him until she felt his breath on her neck. Every hair on her mane stood as she shivered with the sensation slightly before pulling away to look him in the face. They paused just a moment, almost touching foreheads before Hera forced herself away and stood, “Humans, you are so dam heavy.”

She leaned in and helped Jacob move his body into a comfortable seating position before turning to leave, “If you need anything, let me know. I’ll have Martin send over some easy-to-eat stuff. Any suggestions?”

“Uh… no… I think I’ll leave that to martin.” Jacob said, already dosing off, “Magnolia...”

Hera turned to respond, but Jacob was already out completely, snoring slowly. Hera checked the monitor that he was wearing as part of his release from her wrist pad. Then let a small smile flicker across her features before she left the room.