Chapter 8 – Cold Sleep

Vash was up on his feet sooner than Nicholas was – considering they were both hurt, it should have rung a few bells, but Maria knew who Vash was and let his need to move around and help with the cleanup slide.

Maria raised an eyebrow at Vash – wearing a loose shirt and slacks– as he moved over to the pile of puppet parts and picked up something from the pile. She stuck her hands in her pockets as he moved something between his fingers before hiding it away somewhere on his person.

"Vash! Maria!"

Maria and Vash turned their heads as Millie and Meryl came over to the two of them.

Vash smiled as Millie waved at the two of them cheerily. "Hey! Perfect timing – there's something that I wanted to show you two." He looked over at Maria. "Do you want to come along?"

"To where?" Maria asked, raising an eyebrow.

Vash blinked. "To the cyro chambers." His tone suggested it was obvious.

"The cyro chambers?" Meryl repeated. She sounded a little confused and a little surprised at the same time.

"Sure, I don't see why not. Wait." Maria frowned. "Are you saying there are people who are still—"

Vash nodded. "Yup."

"Then I'm definitely coming along."

The two women looked at the two of them with confused expressions.

"Let me get my coat – it's going to be cold in there." Vash nodded to Meryl and Millie. "The two of you should get something warm to wear, too."

"What about her?" Meryl nodded to Maria.

Maria shook her head. "None of the coats would fit well. Besides, I'm more resistant to certain kinds of weather than I appear to be."

Meryl looked doubtful at that, but Millie's wide eyes seemed to suggest she believed every word.

"There should be coats near the cyro chamber, but I'm just gonna grab mine because it's really the only thing that'll fit." Vash gave a sheepish grim. "Come on!"

Swinging by the medbay – and finding Nicholas gone and taken the IV with him – Vash went digging around in a pile of things in the corner and pulled out a tall, red coat as big as he was.

"That'll protect you from the cold?" Meryl asked, frowning.

"Well, yeah – the people here designed it so that I'd be able to hang out on the desert after dark and I wouldn't have to worry about freezing to death." Vash pulled the coat on easily. "They've helped me out a lot, and I always make it a point to come back when I can." He buttoned the coat up with an expression of fondness. "I don't know what I would be able to do without them."

Maria's expression softened into a smile at his words, and she nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Having people around you is a pretty important thing."

Something in her voice caused Vash to nod knowingly while Meryl and Millie looked at her with confused expressions.

Millie's expression softened. "You must really miss your family, don't you?"

Maria bowed her head a bit and nodded. "Yeah. It…it's been a long time, since I've been able to really think about them. Honestly, Joshua is the only living family I have left from…from when I was younger. The rest of my close relatives had already passed a long time before Joshua and I set foot on the colony ships. Now he's really the only family I have left, other than my close friends on Cybertron."

"Cyber-what?" Meryl repeated in confusion.

Maria waved off the question and shook her head. "I probably shouldn't've mentioned them yet. Point is, I have few alive friends, and even fewer alive family members. And I don't know what exactly the future's gonna hold for all of us – yet."

The testy tone in Maria's voice kept Meryl and Millie from asking any more questions about Maria or what parts of her past they might have been curious about. As a result, the trek to the cyro chamber was quiet – perhaps unusually so for Meryl and Millie, but Maria wasn't about to comment on their silence.

There wasn't a guard in front of the large, airlock-type door that Vash led them to.

Meryl's eyes widened sharply. "Hey – is this the place where everyone who came on these ships was supposed to be until we got to a—"

"Yes, that's right." Vash moved over to the door and started turning the hatch. It seemed that he was used to doing this.

"But – but wouldn't that mean there should be someone guarding this place or something? To keep it from getting broken into and—"

"No one here's going to do that," Vash replied evenly. "And besides, the people who might have at one point were the people who tried to…kill everyone here a few days ago." His expression hardened – it looked unusual for his face to be capable of such an expression – but it softened again a moment later when he finished turning the wheel on the hatch and pulled it back. "Come on – most people leave this part of the ship alone, and for obvious reasons."

Vash motioned for the three women to follow him inside as he stepped into the dark chamber on the other side of the hatch. A colder burst of air could be felt coming from inside it.

Millie, even with wearing a coat, shivered a little. "I haven't felt a cold like this before."

"We're basically walking into a room with a lot of ice in it," Maria replied. "It's a different sort of cold than what you would feel out in the desert." She stepped through the hatch and into the room on the other side, Meryl and Millie hesitating for only a moment before following after her.

The soft gasp that Millie gave caused Maria to smile a little as she looked around at the large, cylindrical chamber they had just stepped into. She knew it took up most of the ship – Joshua had shown her the designs, way back in the beginning.

"You'll likely be in cyrosleep for most of the trip – they need me to help with maintenance whenever the ships don't have someone awake on them to keep an eye on the fleet's progress, and that will be me. I'll come and check in on you sometimes, but I don't know if I'll have the clearance to wake you up for even a little while."

The smile faded a little at the memory of her cousin's voice – clear and matter-of-fact. A stark contrast to the glitchy voice that had come over the communications system a few days ago.

"This place is huge!" Millie exclaimed in a quiet voice. "Did all the ships look like this on the inside?"

"Yes," Maria replied with a nod. "All filled with people who were looking for a better life beyond what they could find on Earth."

Vash nodded. "Your grandparents slept for a long time in a cylinder like this, before the colony ships crash-landed here. Some of the people they boarded the ships with are still sleeping here."

"Why haven't they woken up yet?" Meryl asked, frowning.

"That has more to do with the people running this ship now than it does with the computer systems," Maria replied. She folded her arms across her chest and looked around, not at all thrown off by the cold in the room. "A ship like this has limited resources; it can only support so many people at once. And besides, why would you want to awaken people from their dreams when it seems to them that they only just left Earth yesterday? Awakening here, only to find out what their living arrangements are, would only make it seem to them that Earth was a paradise."

"Even with living in a nice ship like this?" Millie asked.

"They're going to want to get out sometime." Maria shrugged. "Get some fresh air. Explore the world. Finding out that it's nothing but desert for miles isn't going to make very many of them happy."

"As far as I know, the people here plan on awakening them gradually, or just leaving them to sleep until they can get a response from Earth in order to get some people here to rescue us or improve things as they stand," Vash explained. His gaze wasn't on them, but on the glass cylinders that were embedded into the walls around them. "Hopefully, we'll be able to get a response from them soon, and then lives will get to be better than they are now."

"Contact Earth?" Meryl sounded doubtful. "Is such a thing really possible? That planet sounds like nothing more than a fairy tale."

"We had to come from somewhere." Maria shrugged. "Just because most people call this planet home now doesn't mean that it was where humanity began."

Vash gave an absent-sounding hum in response, still looking around at the room around them. From what Maria could see, he seemed almost peaceful here.

"I hope that the people here can wake up one day in the future and find themselves in a peaceful world," he said. "After everything that's happened, they definitely deserve some peace, without having to worry about losing the lives of friends and family around them."

Maria was about to nod in agreement when she heard the sound of something moving around quickly in the dim light. She stiffened slightly, inclining her head at the sound.

Vash didn't seem to notice – or was pretending not to notice, Maria wasn't entirely sure which. Millie's eyes were moving around a little, attempting to track the sound.

As the sound got louder, Meryl's brow furrowed.

A pair of figures with abnormally large heads sprung up from behind Meryl and Millie, screaming at the tops of their lungs. "KIIIII—"

Maria moved.

Meryl and Millie barely saw the red and orange blur as Maria leapt up. There was a flash of light from something in Maria's hand, and then a barking cry of "Shock Wave!"

The following blast of bright yellow electricity cut the two screaming voices off with a shriek and sent them blasting back into the wall on either side of the hatch.

Maria landed on the metal floor behind Meryl and Millie as the two women whirled to look at what had just happened.

"Where did that come from?" Millie asked in surprise, gaze on the red staff in Maria's left hand. The strange-looking creature carved into the top looked like some kind of toma, wings outstretched, but there was a fiery affect added to it.

Vash looked at Maria with wide eyes as she got out of the crouch she had landed in.

The sound of footsteps and yells started to come from the corridor as Maria tightened her grip on the staff, her knuckles nearly turning white as the sparks flying from the bodies of the two large-headed, small-bodies figures faded.

"You two were a part of the group that was attacking this place," Maria said in a grim tone. She didn't sound like a teenager now. "Who are you?"

One of the two looked up with a crazed expression. Maria's lips attempted to curl back when she was able to see that his hair was growing in patches, and these two figures – too wild in the eyes to be called "men" – were wearing nothing but rags.

"We are NineLives," the creature said.

"I see," Maria said flatly. She tapped her staff against the metal floor; it echoed in the chamber. "So, someone decided to take the idea of cats having nine lives and twisted it. I don't appreciate that very much."

Her words were clipped short. Meryl took a couple steps back from the sound of it, only for Vash to slip between her and Millie to stand right behind Maria.

Figures appeared in the doorway then – Nicholas, with the IV on its stand in one hand, looking about ready to jump into the fray himself, Luida, and a couple armed men. As soon as they saw that there was electricity sparking from somewhere on either side of the door – and that Maria was carrying a staff she hadn't had before – they paused.

"The two parts of NineLives are paralyzed presently." Maria motioned to either side of the door with her staff. "It might be wise if you grabbed them and put them in a more secure cell before the paralysis wears off; it will only hold for so long."

The two men took a second to get over their surprise, and when they had they moved into the room and grabbed the two creatures that used to be men before carrying them off as they shrieked curses.

"We won't forget this!"

"You will be haunted by us for the rest of your life!"

"For the rest of your lives, maybe," Maria muttered.

Wolfwood stepped into the room and looked around before focusing his attention on the four people standing in front of him. "You guys all right?"

"We're fine," Meryl replied. "Thanks to Maria – which, by the way, where did that come from?" She pointed at the staff in Maria's hand.

"It's something that I've always been able to do," Maria replied. Now that the two creatures had been dragged out, the others saw there was a tiredness to her face, and a slump in her shoulders. "I'm just glad I was quick enough with it this time – those two were armed."

"Most people are these days," Nicholas said. He looked over at Vash, and Maria followed his gaze just as Vash lowered his prosthetic hand from a ready position. "If you hadn't done anything, I bet he would have. Even if it meant possibly getting his arm blown off."

"Hey now." Vash frowned at Nicholas. "I'm not planning on getting anything blown up in this room – not when there are too many lives in here that were placed in danger!" He shook his head. "Just thinking about what could have happened…it's a terrifying thought!" He stiffened. "Right! Areas 3070-4070 – they would have had to pass through there in order to get here from the cells. Brother Garcia, the Reeves, Melro-san – they all live over in that area. I'm going to go make sure they're okay!" He dashed out of the chamber and turned a corner sharply, disappearing down the hall.

Meryl and Millie were left standing there, looking a little dumbfounded. Nicholas looked more annoyed than anything else.

Maria sighed and relaxed her grip on the staff. Just when it looked like it was going to fall to the floor, it dispersed in a flash of red-gold sparkles that looked like embers. "Let's get out of here. I'd rather not have more cold escape than we've already let slip out." She started for the door.

Millie and Meryl quickly followed after, and Maria pushed the door shut, leaving her, Millie, Meryl, Nicholas and – surprisingly – Luida standing out in the corridor.

"What are you?"

Maria looked over at Meryl at the question, raising an eyebrow. "In what manner?"

Meryl spluttered. "How did you just – just summon that from out of nowhere? I haven't seen anything release a blast of electricity like that before – and what was with your demeanor in there just now?! You sounded like a – like a sheriff who has been at war with outlaws for years! There's no way that you're old enough to have—"

"Maria is different from what we understand humans to be," Luida spoke up in a casual tone. "That is why she was chosen as one of the two scouts for the colony fleet. She and her cousin, Joshua, have skills that we do not have, and powers that we might not normally comprehend as something that could be passed down."

"So, what, their dads got a little frisky and decided they wanted to try it with a Plant or—"

"Excuse you!" Maria barked sharply, cutting Nicholas off. "For a pastor you are very dirty minded, sir!"

Nicholas flinched. Maria's tone was jabbingly sharp.

Maria huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "My parents were normal humans, and the same goes for Joshua's. What makes us different mostly happened after birth, not before. In my case, my father came into contact with something that gave me a part of my talents, nothing more. Had intercourse with Plants my foot."

Nicholas looked thrown off at Maria's response. Millie put her hands on her hips and frowned at him disapprovingly.

"Really, Pastor-san! You should know by now that Plants can't have that kind of a relationship with anyone!" Millie said sharply. "It just doesn't work!"

"Like I know all the details of those things," Nicholas muttered in reply.

Maria huffed. "My cousin studied them, but I learned how to communicate with them first. They can't live very well in our dimension – they can't survive off the air we breathe. As soon as one steps out of those bulbs, they suffocate. The best thing that Joshua ever did was design a dimensional backdoor so that they could slip out if things got to be too bad, but most choose to stay and use up all the power they have to help us."

"How do you know that?" Meryl asked.

"Belle told me."

Maria's answer was straight and simple and it left Meryl and Nicholas looking a little gobsmacked.

"Who?" Nicholas asked.

"A Plant." Maria's expression softened a little as Nicholas' eyes widened. "They can talk to me just as well as anyone else, it's just that most people don't think to try."

Luida seemed interested. "Do you have access to your cousin's notes? I think our engineers here would love to be able to speak with the Plants themselves."

Maria tilted her head slightly, considering. "It's likely he left a copy encoded into the data in the R&D branch here. I'll locate it and make it public so that the engineers make use of it, but I think I'll need to be present when they first attempt to initiate contact. It might make things smoother – might."

"Very well then. If you'll lead the way." Luida motioned down the hall.

Maria gave Luida a nod in return, then started down the hall, leaving Nicholas, Meryl, and Millie staring after her with wide, confused eyed.

Whatever questions they might have had on their minds, they likely had only increased.