Hope From the Short One


The cryo-room was cold, but his suit negated the temperature for him. He walked all the way to the back of the twenty stasis pods, to the only active one. He brushed the ice from the top, and looked down on her face.

She looked no different that when he last saw her.

Going to the control panel, he inserted the keycard and started the wake up sequence. Now he could talk to her, see if a year of dreaming had changed her.

As the cover slid back, exposing her upper body to the air, he wrapped a heated blanket around her shoulders. The black blanket covered her entirely. She looked up at him, her red hair having grown out considerably. Her light blue eyes were bewildered and quizzical for a moment, until he removed his helmet.

"Alex? What is going on? I dreamt that you'd killed people, and joined the council. I saw... everyone die, even you. But, you're alive."

He sat down next to her, taking her cold hands in his gloved ones. "What you dreamt is true. I have killed people, and I'm part of the council. Grinder and Rikki are dead... and I did die, but I'm back to life."

"How?"

He looks away for just a moment, then looked back into her eyes, smirking. "Ghosts. They talked to me in a dream. I learned more about what had happened to me, and therefore, I can change who I became."

Fidget blinked. "Ok... Well, since I don't know who you became, then I guess that really doesn't affect me, now does it? Either way... what am I doing here, nude, and wrapped in a blanket?"

"Tempest saved your life a year ago, and put you in stasis to keep you safe. You owe him a thanks for keeping you alive. I just woke you up. I had to talk to you."

Fidget shook her head. "I'm now really confused. I've been out for a year, and in that time, my whole family has kicked the bucket, leaving me alone on the enemies ship, and under their protection. Yeah, a girl really feels safe, ya know. Now, you're going to tell me exactly what's happened, and what you plan on doing about it."

Alex sighed, and told her all the events since she disappeared.

His frantic search to find her that lead to Grinder getting shot by Dr. X, then Rikki getting hit to protect Alex from attack. The rally that empowered the resistance, and then the feeling of getting revenge for the death of his three friends. There had been many months between getting the feeling to get revenge, and actually going to do it. All that lead up to what could go down as an epic battle of good verse evil... and the one time where good failed.

"But what I have planed will hopefully help me bring down Dr. X. First off, I need to talk to Brandon again, see if he will at least believe that I didn't kill myself, or that I'm not a clone."

"What if he doesn't believe you? I mean, sometimes he does have a one-track mind." She pulled the blanket tighter, hunching her shoulders to keep off the cold in the room.

"Then... I'll deal with that when it happens. I need to talk to Simon Grey. I heard he was still alive. Maybe he could help me in some way."

"I don't think Grey will help... he will have heard from Brandon that you are the enemy in disguise. You can try."

"I will. He can only ignore me for so long. And there are things that no clone would know that only I know. I have to try, no buts about it."

"But?"

"I said no buts."

Fidget punched him lightly, but not like she could hit any harder. "Shut up. After talking to Grey, what then?"

Alex met her eyes in a conspiring way. "I have to figure out the Councils weakness. I need to figure them out, then exploit them. I can't put Colin, Mary's son, in danger, since he has nothing to do with this."

"How old is Colin?"

"Man, have to be going on... I'd say 15."

Fidget smiled. "Way to young for me. What does he look like?"

Alex pulled his helmet off, looking at the visor on the inside to look through the images, and finaly showed the woman.

"Look's kinda like you… same nose and jawline, like that picture your mom showed us of you and first car."

Alex looked back at the image, frowning. "Really? I… never noticed." He studied it a bit more. "Yeah, kinda, I guess. He is Mary's son, though."

"Did you know Mary before?" she held the blanket tighter, watching him with pale eyes.

"Yeah, we went to high school together, graduated same class."

"didn't you graduate like… 15 years ago?"

"Yeah…. Oh crap."

Fidget sighed. "I'm not saying he is, but you might want to look into that."

Alex smiled nervously, not believing what Fidget was saying was true. He had nothing to reply to then.

He looked up into her smile. Her voice was a little comfort. "It's all right. The past is past, tomorrow is the future, and today is the present. I don't think you should worry about it. Colin turned into a good kid, I'm sure."

"Yeah, he did. Dorian, another member, is teaching him about machines and how to maintain the airship. He is a really good kid. Looks like his mom though... least to a degree."

Fidget sighed, shaking her head. "You should try and get him off this thing... take him on a mission or something. Then loose him somewhere with direction as to where to go for safety. He is your son, after all. You should do what you can to help him and keep him safe. His mom did a piss poor job at that."

"His mom is a drug addict, so of course she did a bad job." He looked to the timer on his wrist, and sighed. "No one is going to be looking for me for a while. It's too late for them to really care as is."

"Do I have to stay here?"

"It's safer than the world out there, and no one even knows you are here. This is the safest place for anyone to be."

"So, then you believe that Dr. X will win?"

"Dr. X wont win. I'm going to make sure of that. But you can't be running around the ship. Gangrene or Quake would report you, then Dr. X would find out, and then there would be a whole world of trouble."