Maya forced herself to stand. Forced herself to wipe the tears from her eyes. She quickly made her way to the bathroom and washed her face, fixed her hair, got herself as ready as she could for facing Jacob again. The last thing she wanted was for him to realize that she had been crying in her room for some reason.
She took in a deep breath and pushed the door open. Jacob had made himself comfortable on her couch. He was looking a bit bored as he slowly scanned the room in front of him again.
"Sorry that took so long," Maya said as she stepped out into the room. She made her way over to her desk and grabbed a few pieces of paper and put them into the draws underneath the desk. "Just some things I needed to clear up."
Jacob nodded, "I understand. What's the plan anyway?"
She turned back towards him and shook her head, "We need to get you a suit first."
"Do you know where we can find any extras?" Jacob asked.
"I think so," Maya said as she made her way to the door, pulling her jacket over her shoulders. She pulled the door open and stepped through. "Hang tight. I'll be back."
Before Jacob could reply, she closed the door and walked down the corridor.
Maya, thought Jacob. Was weird.
Jacob had seen a lot since he had left Earth. Even when he was on Earth, there were always those weird ones. The people that for some small reason, were just a little bit odd. Some were odder than others but back when he had an ever-changing group of friends, there was always a weird one.
Maya was unlike any he had seen before. He could tell that she was usually calm and collected. But there were times he could sense her emotions take control of her. She acted frantically and sporadically when things were pulling on her emotions. Jacob was too observant not to notice. Even when she tried to hide it from him.
But then there was the sadness and loneliness he saw in her eyes. The same look that took him off guard. He had never seen that in someone before. That amount of emotion all bundled up in one spot. Maybe that's why he decided to ask her if she would help him. He had never trusted anyone with his past. Even just a little. Maya was the first person he had asked for anything.
Although he didn't really appreciate how she kept leaving him alone.
It took Maya a long time to carry an entire exosuit through the corridors of the space station without anyone noticing. The employees living on the station were allowed to freely roam the station where they were allowed to roam there were a lot of restrictions. A lot more than Maya decided to memorize. She assumed that carrying an un-checked out bright yellow suit down the corridors was not allowed.
Eventually, she slipped into her room carrying the suit in her arms. The door closed behind her and she set the suit down on the gray, thin carpeted floor. She took her jacket off and tossed it onto the wooden stand that held the ultra-wide ViewScreen above it.
"Sorry again, that that took so long," Maya said as she turned towards Jacob. "But, I got your suit. Now we're pretty much ready."
"Ready for what?" Jacob replied from his position on the couch.
"I don't know," Maya admitted. "Find out what that transmission was about for a start. I'm a little more than curious."
"And you know why," Jacob said rather than ask. He already could see that Maya knew why.
"Would it be a bad thing if I still want to find out either way?" Maya asked, confident that Jacob knew exactly what she meant.
He smiled and shook his head, "No. It isn't. Maybe we should take a second and rest for a bit. You seem a little bit… stressed."
"I just told my sister that I won't be answering her calls for the first time in four years," Maya said. Opening up more than she had to anyone. "She wasn't very happy. That would be the reason why I'm 'a little bit stressed'."
"She didn't take the news that well?" Jacob asked as Maya grabbed the chair in front of her desk, spun it around and sat down in it.
"I guess not," Maya said rubbing her eyes. "I've told you more than I wanted to already."
Jacob sat back in the couch, "I'm not prying. Everything you've said you've told me on your own."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Maya asked.
Jacob shrugged, "Don't know. Just popped into the old brain. Sometimes that happens. We can head out if you want to."
Maya wrinkled her eyebrows and looked at Jacob. It took a few seconds but she slowly shook her head, "No. Let's get some sleep first. We'll head out in the morning."
Jacob frowned and patted the couch he sat on, "Alright. Looks like I'm all ready to go"—he swung his legs on the couch and laid back with his head resting on the armrest—"See you in the morning."
Maya smiled. Even though she had just met Jacob a few days ago, and she still didn't trust him at all, she was beginning to think that he might become her very first friend.
The night was full of restlessness for Maya. She spent most of the night worrying about her sister than actual sleep. But eventually, the morning finally came for her. In space, the difference between night and day was nonexistent. People were encouraged to sync there clocks to the home planet of the race that owned the station they lived on. No one followed that advice. They all just set there time to their home planet's time. Maya had set her's to the same time it was at her home town on Earth and being the only human in the station, meant no one was awake when she was.
Jacob was though. And as soon as Maya had showered and gotten ready, they left her room. She wished that she could rip the ViewScreen off the wall and carry the mechanics with her but she knew it wasn't possible.
She sent Jacob's AI a route to the cargo hangar and he made his way there. Maya turned the opposite direction and walked down the corridor and the stairs. She made her way to the public hangar and found her ship. Once she got in, she activated the LaunchThrusters—not even carrying to do a system check—and blasted off into space.
Jacob joined her a few minutes later. She had weaved around to the backside of the station to see his ship fly out of a hidden entrance. She followed his ship away from the station and then both of them jumped to the system were Maya had received the mysterious transmission.
The small red hexagon still hovered in front of the planet in the distance. Maya took the lead and Jacob followed behind her as they flew towards the planet.
The PulseEngine disengaged as Maya broke through the planet's atmosphere. Her ship rattled and the glass canopy was filled with orange fire as she did. A small part of Maya almost thought the ship could have fallen apart at any second but it didn't. Eventually, the ship slowed and the fire dissipated leaving the surface of the planet in full view.
Maya could see a pillar of black smoke that was rising towards the sky. She flew her ship towards it. It looked like it was a crashed ship of some kind. It looked like a small yellow Fighter with a short and stubby front. It was sitting in a flat circle of land on top of gentle hills. Maya knew as she initiated her ship's landing procedures that that ship would not be able to fly again. There was no doubt in Maya's mind that whoever had piloted that ship was long dead.
Jacob had to land his Hauler a little farther away since the area surrounding the wreck was too rocky for his ship to land in. Maya's, however, was able to land just a few meters away because of its small size.
She got out of her ship and slowly walked towards the wreck. Her AI must've made a mistake. There was no way whoever had contacted her had flown this ship. Maya predicted that it had crashed three or four days prior.
"Computer, voice command," Maya said as Jacob walked up behind her in his new yellow Exosuit. "Tell me how long ago this ship crashed."
"Estimated four day period due to structural degradation," her AI replied.
"Four days," Maya repeated. Then she noticed something lying at the base of the hill. It was a round piece of machinery shaped like a sphere.
As she got closer she saw that each side of the sphere had circle panels on the device. One had popped off and thick black rubber tubes were spilling out onto the ground. She assumed that it was some kind of distress beacon. That she would be able to find out what had happened there by interfacing with it.
Maya slowly walked towards the device. She saw a large handle on the top of the device that allowed the panel to be removed. She stood over the device and reached down towards the handle. Jacob was behind her and ready to say something but she had already grabbed the handle.
The device started to glow as Maya stepped back. It got blinding that Maya shielded her eyes from it. Then her body went limp and she snapping into unconsciousness as quickly as a twig getting broken in half. Jacob caught her as she fell back and slowly set her on the ground.
"Maya?" He asked but he couldn't see through her visor. "Maya!"
He managed to pull her arm over his shoulder and grab her waist. He brought her back to his ship. Once they were in and the ship was sealed, he unlatched Maya's helmet and took it off. Her eyes were darting around underneath her closed eyelids and her hands were completely clenched. Jacob pulled his gloves off and held Maya's head in his hands. He used his left thumb to lift up Maya's right eyelid.
Jacob let go of her head and jumped back when he saw nothing but a black orb where he should have seen her bright hazel eyes. Something was going on inside her mind and he didn't know what.
He sighed and rubbed his forehead, "Maya, what's going on in there?"
She stood in front of the spherical device. It was blindingly bright. She shielded her eyes from the light and realized that she wasn't in her suit anymore. It seemed to have just disappeared. She stood in the skintight clothes she would wear underneath the suit.
She squeezed her eyes closed when the light got brighter and brighter. It burned through her eyelids. Her eyes started to ache from the amount of light pushing through them. It started to hurt. Like she was staring into the light of the sun.
She formed her hands into fists and pushed them into her eyes trying to relieve the pain. She screamed when it became too much to bear but there was nothing. There was no sound. Nothing but an intense vibration that seemed to have come from nowhere. Her knees shook and she fell to the ground but as soon as her knees touched the ground, everything disappeared. The sound, the bright light, the pain. It was all gone.
He lowered her hands from her eyes and opened them. Everything was dark. The ground was black and reflective like water and it was eerily quiet. In front of her was the spherical device. The top panel was on the ground beside her and something was floating inside of the hole it left in the device.
Maya slowly stood up and peered inside. Something shot out of it and she fell back to the ground, pushing herself away with her hands and feet. She looked up at what now hovered above the device. It was another sphere made out of what looked like marble. It was colored a bright red and it was slowly rotating. It cast a red glow on Maya's face as she stood up. The orb pulsated as she got closer. It's smooth marbly surface suddenly becoming rough with large, sharp points pointing away from it.
Then there was a burst of deafening static coming from the orb. Maya jumped back and immediately covered her ears with her hands. The static didn't end. It never stopped but Maya could hear something else among the static. A voice. The sound made chills run down Maya's spine. But the voice was saying something. It was a name.
Artemis.
