"Over 6,000 tones of manmade items, including 200 derelict satellites, are floating in orbit above our planet."
"However, this is no cause of concern, since the International Space Agency has been working since the year 2008 to reduce the amount of space debris."
"Recently though, the prominent scientist, Tyson Granger, has claimed that there may be more than just waste floating up there. Other researchers are reluctant to believe his claim. It is unlikely that investigation will commence."
"And now, moving on to the current state of the war."
The little boy looked up from the television.
"Mama?"
The woman looked up from washing her dishes, and glanced at her little boy. Her eyes softened with love, but at the same time her heart tightened with worry. With so much of the country going into "mechanization", how was she going to provide a natural upbringing for her child?
"Yes Tommy?"
"What if there was someone floating alone up there?"
The pale yellow curtains fluttered in the breeze. Like the little boy, they seemed innocently unaware of the state of the world around them.
"Don't be ridiculous Tommy, it isn't possible for anyone to be alone in space."
Black.
Infinite, unrelenting black.
Rei had never understood the black, even though it was all he had ever seen outside of his window.
He pressed his fingers against the glass, and stared out into the great beyond.
Even though he didn't want to know, his internal counter told him it was now day 4608. He didn't know what it meant, but just assumed it the number of days since the day he woke up.
The day he woke up and realized he was alone.
Alone and maybe, left for dead.
His hand tightened into a fist against the glass. He didn't bother to punch the surface, as he always used to do "back then". Rei counted "back then" as the first 2304 days he had spent here. He had long since switched off the sensors on the surface of his body, tired of always feeling cold.
If I can't avoid being alone, I can at least avoid feeling cold...
Rei sighed, and walked over to the tank. The tank, a gigantic contraption of glass, metal, and buttons, stretched the length from the floor to the ceiling. In the middle ran an ominous mass of metal tubes and wires. These spilled out a gaping hole in the glass onto the floor, twisting and curling haphazardly.
Rei sort of identified with these tubes and wires. They, like him, had been wet on the day he first woke up. But then, over time, they had dried along with him. Rei supposed that if he thought of the tubes and wires as his friends, he wouldn't be alone.
Alone in this black.
He picked up the two ragged books from where he had left them the "night" before. He supposed that it had been night, since his internal counter had told him that 12 hours had passed since the last "night" he had spent, and so on. So he had plugged himself in, even though he didn't need to, and switched himself off.
It was momentary bliss to not know anything. But then his battery had charged full and he had automatically woken up again.
These books were his pastime, and the only thing of interest.
When Rei had woken up, he had spent the first 7 days feverishly exploring the vessel that he was on. After discovering that it, like the room he had woken in, was no more than glass and metal, all eerily deserted, he had returned to "his" room.
I suppose it's my room, since I woke up in it…
The next 14 days were spent trying to remember. Rei didn't know what he was supposed to remember, but he had an instinct node programmed in his left chest that told him he was supposed to know something. So he tried.
He had tried everything from booting up the gigantic screen that he had found in one of the rooms to disconnecting his memory chips to see what was inside them.
Nothing worked. Rei pushed down an electrical impulse that was trying to make its way to his left chest, trying to make him feel anger.
Rei had long since given up on remembering. And feeling.
Out of boredom, he had turned to the manuals. Although he hadn't known how to read, his instinct node had kicked in and connected him to the memory chip in the front of his brain. Learning to read had taken a while, but it was enjoyable.
One manual was titled "How to Operate: Tank for Neutralizing Dangerous Weapons". He had found it in the same room he had woken in. Most of the pages had been ruined by some kind of liquid, but he had pored through the rest of the pages left.
Those were the front three pages, and all he had gathered from those was that the tank could be used to render dangerous weapons useless by containing them.
The other manual was named simply by three letters, "REI". He had named himself after those letters, liking the sound of them.
But after flipping open the front cover, he had found each of the pages to be agonizingly blank.
Almost as bad as the black…
Rei had become obsessed with finding out the secret of this manual. He was sure no one had bound 638 pages (yes, he had counted) for no reason. The instinct node told him not to settle for blank paper, and he agreed. So he battled the blankness.
As Rei flipped open the manual to start another 12 hour session, the vessel hurtled on through space.
Black.
Endless, agonizing black.
But Kai was used to looking at black now. After spending so many days and nights looking at the absence of light outside…
Of course, like so many others, he had fervently wished it wouldn't have turned out this way. That fate had not gripped the world as it did in its cold grasp.
War is never a good idea, especially in this time and age.
But someone had had to take action, and he had been the one to do it. Kai grabbed his hair in frustration, fingers twisting the slate and navy blue locks. The sudden action of his elbows rustled the map on the table, knocking the little pieces this way and that.
But why?!
436 of his people, his troops. Of course, statistically speaking, this was not a big number. But then, these were his comrades, ones who had sworn to fight with him, to do all in their power to stop the corruption.
And how had the enemy known?
Kai sighed and looked up as the door to his chambers opened, and Molly came in with a tray of food.
"Morning Kai." She cheerfully bounced her way into the room.
"Molly." Kai acknowledged her with a nod of his head. He continued staring at the map as she set his breakfast down.
The curvaceous redhead finished setting the table, and sat down opposite from Kai.
"Ready for another big day?" She winked at him.
Kai smiled half-heartedly and reached for his coffee. Upon drinking it though, he quickly swallowed. He looked first at the cup, and then at Molly.
"Milk!? Why did you put milk in?!"
Molly pouted with her full, red lips. "Well, you have a lot going on today and I figured I'd slip in a little extra treat the help you on your way."
Kai scowled. "You know how I feel about this, Molly. If I fight with my troops, I need to eat the same as them. Just because I'm the leader of the rebel forces doesn't mean I get special treatment."
Molly rolled her eyes. "Just be a good boy and drink it, Kai."
He sighed. "Go get Tala for me please, Molly."
She got up rather reluctantly. "Can I kiss you again today, Kai?"
"Do I ever say yes?" He was examining the map again, eyebrows knitted in concentration.
She pecked him on the cheek anyway, and flounced out the door. Kai didn't even notice.
A moment later, Tala came into the room, folders under his arm. Kai could hear every step he took with his heavy combat boots.
"Tala, one day you'll put a hole through our ship's floor with those."
Especially with the state its been in as of late...its a feat that we can stay in orbit.
In spite of their dire circumstances, Tala grinned. "But then it'll be easier to get supplies. We could just suck them up through the floor."
Kai laughed, but it was a really empty sound. Tala wordlessly sat down, taking the seat that Molly had just occupied.
For a few minutes they sat in silence, sharing Kai's breakfast. Kai still stared at his map, lost in his thoughts. Tala looked out of the window, into the never-ending darkness.
Kai was the first one to speak.
"You know Tala," he said, still half lost in his thoughts, "we need a miracle."
Usually Tala would have made some kind of joke about how cliché the statement sounded, but this time he was quiet. Then he finally spoke up.
"Kai," he said, voice shaking, "Kai, I think you just got your wish."
Kai looked up, following Tala's gaze out of the window.
At first it appeared like an ordinary piece of space trash, caught in orbit around the earth. But when Kai's eyes caught the small lettering on the ship's side, underneath the large window, he froze.
...
This is not possible.
All the same, it floated on toward them, getting larger as it neared their ship.
...It was destroyed over twenty one years ago! There is no way it could be intact!
Kai and Tala sat mesmerized by something they thought they would never see. They were looking at a supposed legend; something only whispered about in back alleyways, never openly spoken about.
Something that wasn't supposed to exist.
When Kai finally gathered enough wits about him, he rose out of his chair, ready to run to the control room to tell the technicians to pull the ship in, to pinch him, to do something. But he froze again, his jaw open. Tala let out a strained gasp and promptly fainted.
The ship was not empty. A lone figure had appeared in the large window.
Yay! I'm really on a roll now as of late.
Two new stories in three days. Dang.
I promise I will update soon. Especially Operation Griffin. I haven't looked at that in a while.
And I really, really want to finish Let's Do Math. That one is supposed to be short. And sweet.
As always, please review. And share your thoughts.