Life for 1000 Years

Chapter One: The Nirvana

"Mr Alien! Help me!"

"(Under breath) Damn it, would you just give me a break for once... Alright! I'm coming to help!"

I sliced through the enemy ships with ease before reaching her ship that had many of them clutching on, trying to break through the hull of her Dread. She always panicked under these situations. Can't say I blame her though. She only recently started flying and it didn't help that this new enemy started to attack. To be fair, I still wasn't massively sure how to pilot this Vanguard properly. Damn it, it's been too long… I managed to get the machines off her Dread and then attempted to get away as quickly as I could. The attempt was futile as there was a bright light and I opened my eyes to see her sitting on my lap.

"Yes! I always feel safe when you're here, Mr Alien!"

I mentally sighed and cursed the design of these ships, wishing that she could have her own seat. My Vanguard had combined with her Dread to create a much more powerful Vandread.

"Ok, let's get this over with and get back to The Nirvana." I sighed. I never really liked combining but at least it was useful for quickly and easily destroying the enemy. After a while of fighting, it looked like we'd won. Felt like the first time in a while they didn't have anything to surprise us with. We returned with our squad to Nirvana, our main ship. The crew was almost completely composed of women, the only men on board being Duelo McFile, the ship's doctor, Bart Garsus, the pilot of Nirvana (despite how clumsy he can be at doing so) and me, Hibiki Tokai, former mechanic turned Vanguard pilot.

Men and Women are considered completely different species due to them separating during colonization. For some time, men and women have been at war. We had been prisoners after the women attacked until we showed that we could be more useful when not sitting in a cell. I'm still not really sure I trust anyone. I sure as hell know that no one here trusts me, except maybe for Dita. She's obsessed with aliens, hence my nickname of "Mr Alien". She can be so damn annoying sometimes though. She reminds me of myself, well, my old self… She reminds me of someone else too, but that's not something I want to think about.

Later that night, I laid in bed, just thinking of the past and how I ended up here. My room was a prison cell. I chose to stay there instead of an actual room. I felt more comfortable there. I heard a knock on the door. Dita walked in with her hands behind her back.

"You again?"

"I made you a gift Mr Alien" She said with an innocent smile.

"Hmm, how thoughtful" I muttered. She revealed what she had hidden behind her back and handed it to me. It was a pillow with a little green cartoon alien sown into it.

"Oh… er… thanks Dita… I appreciate it" I said with an awkward smile.

"Goodnight Mr Alien" She said and ran off.

I chucked the pillow over to the pile of boxes on the other side of the room, my only possessions. I didn't need another pillow, these ones were good enough. With a bit of time, I finally drifted to sleep. The next day was the same old crap, people avoiding me, me avoiding people. Dita couldn't leave me alone as per usual although Parfait, the ship's head engineer, did ask me to help fix some leaking pipes. It gave me a good chance to chat with Pyoro, a small droid who was originally part of the male crew before they all either evacuated or were killed.

"So what did you do before all this?" asked Pyoro.

"Then how did you get on the ship? It was a military vessel."

"I was a third-class citizen, remember? I build Vanguards. That's about it."

"I have my ways, Pyoro. Just remember, never underestimate a mechanic." I chuckled "Hey, could you pass me that wrench?" He grumbled and passed the wrench to me. I heard the familiar footsteps of Dita running down the hallway. As I guessed, it was her. Felt like she was stalking me sometimes.

"Hey Mr Alien, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to grab ice cream or something with me."

"I'm a little busy here, maybe later."

"Oh, ok… well… do you think you could visit me in my room sometime? There were some things I wanted to talk to you about."

"What sort of things?" I kept working as if not really listening.

"Well… I wanted to know more about your past and what it's like being an alien."

"My past isn't exactly something I like to talk about" I said, rather sternly.

"Well we don't have to talk about that if you don't want… I just want to know more about you." I stopped working, put down my tools and turned to face her.

"Wait… you want to know about me?"

She nodded eagerly. "Ok then. Here's my life story. I'm a mechanic, I've spent pretty much my entire life in a factory, building and repairing. That's about it." I said with a smug grin.

"But there has to be more than just that…" she said, sounding a little desperate.

"Yeah well maybe I'll tell you some other time."

"Um… ok then… so are you going to come to my room sometime?"

I sighed and reluctantly said "maybe".

"Um… ok! See ya later, Mr Alien!" she said and ran off.

"Are you actually going to visit her?" piped up Pyoro.

"No!" I scoffed.

"Come on Hibiki! That's not very nice of you."

"Yeah well life's a bitch and everyone is dealt a shit hand eventually… some more than others…"

"Are you ok Hibiki? You sound kind of angry…" he said reluctantly

"I'M JUST… I'm just feeling a little stressed. No one trusts me and sometimes it just feel like everyone is out to get you, especially Barnette. With all those old guns, I wouldn't be surprised if she had a sniper rifle and a bullet with my name on it." Later that night, I returned to my room in the brig. There weren't any prisoners, people in this crew were too loyal to do anything that would get them locked them up. I was working on repairing an old music box I've had since my childhood.

"Hey, Hibiki." I turned around and noticed Parfait and the door. "I just wanted to say thanks for repairing the pipes earlier today."

"No problem Parfait. I'd like to make myself more useful around here anyway. Maybe everyone will actually start to consider me a crew mate, heheh."

"Well I consider you a crew mate and so does Dita." Those words made me feel something I hadn't felt in a long time, a sort of warmth, even happiness.

"Thanks Parfait. That means a lot to me. Really, it does." I said, barely being able to hold back a smile.

"So what are you working on there?"

"Oh, just an old thing… from years ago, erm… yeah"

"Uh… how's it going between you and Dita?"

"Ok I guess. Kinda wish she'd leave me alone sometimes though."

"What makes you say that?"

"She follows me constantly, asking me different questions every day and aliens this and aliens that..! Sigh"

"She just wants to get to know you better, but sometimes you just cut her off."

"Yeah well it's really starting to piss me off!" I said, slightly sterner than I had intended. We heard something from around the corner of the entrance, almost like a sniff. I started toward the door but then I heard someone burst into tears and run off down the hallway. I knew it had been Dita. She heard what I said. She had dropped something, another handmade pillow with two figures sown into it. I guessed that it supposed to be me and Dita. I stared at it and sighed, not out of frustration but out of sympathy. Parfait also had the same expression.

"She adores you, you know?" said Parfait

"What?"

"She's always been fascinated by aliens. She once told me that she wished that one day, aliens would abduct her and become her best friends to stay with forever. You're the best thing to ever happen in her life. She's waited for this moment."

I stared at the pillow she had made "She reminds me of someone… from my past… a moment of my past that I don't want to remember. Seeing those memories just… bring out the worst in me" I sighed and sunk my face into my palm.

"I had better go… see if she's alright."

"Thanks… I just need to spend some time alone for a while. Tell her I'm sorry…" Parfait exited, leaving me with my own thoughts. I placed the pillow on the bed and just looked at it for a while until I heard another voice behind me. This one was different, the voice of a man… my own voice.

"Well well… looks like you screwed up yet again. Honestly, will you ever learn?" I turned and saw myself, leaning on the wall and shaking his head at me.

"You again? What do you want this time?"

"Oh, plenty of things! The death and destruction of innocent lives, the misery of the galaxy, unlimited power, but most of all your suffering."

"Well there you go, I'm sad. Now would you kindly fuck off."

"Now now Hibiki, that's no way to treat yourself." He had a constant grin, almost as if to taunt me.

"Look, I don't know who you are or why you're here, hell you're probably a figment of my imagination… I wouldn't be surprised if I was that crazy by now, but please, leave me alone."

"Are you sure that's what the girl would want you to think?"

"What girl?"

"I think you know very well what girl I'm talking about Hibiki. Ohhhh I hate to see how things would be like if she was still here."

"Don't you fucking mention her!"

"I don't think any of them would want you to be acting like that."

I couldn't reply. I only snarled at him.

"Hibiki, look out of that window. You see that? That's space. Infinitely expanding with so many deadly things out there. I mean the chances are just impossible, don't you think?"

"No… she's still out there, I know it…"

"Oh come on. Stop lying to yourself. She's dead, and so is the other one. You're supposed to be alone. Why do you think you were born this way?"

"Shut up…"

"No one here likes you, and even if they do, they'll die eventually. It always happens, doesn't it? Whenever you make a new friend, poof, they die. Honestly, I think you're becoming a plague, killing everyone around you wherever you go."

"Shut up."

"Maybe you should just end it, Hibiki. Your gun is just over there in that pile of junk that you call possessions. Think of the bright side. You'd be able to see all of your old friends again. You wouldn't have to worry about what happens in this world. Besides, no one will care here anyway. Who cares about Hibiki Tokai, the unlikable mechanic with no friends?" By this point, he was whispering in my ear "Go ahead. Do it. Do it now. It won't even hurt, I promise."

"SHUT UP!"