"You've rejected them all." This sad and disconsolate accusation carried all of the amounting hopelessness stacking ever higher with each one that was turned away.
"Yes. I couldn't…" There was no way to explain. All the words in her vocabulary, any color, shape, or image she could hold, no matter what combinations she used, would never be able to clarify.
Her sisters were there sitting before her waiting patiently: calm, strong, comforting presences. They existed in the scattered memories of worlds long ago destroyed; created in the disillusioned dreams of people centuries gone, perished hopes given ethereal life.
"We can't fight with one missing."
"We can feel their fear," Helteage added.
"Teela, could it be that we are the ones who are wrong?" Clear, innocent eyes, deep brown irises the color of rich soil, looked up from her round earnest face as Silfee motioned for the other girl to sit beside her.
"No, this is what has to be done." Sounding unsure Teela walked forward, joining the girls sitting in the grass. A breeze danced along the green hills of the fabricated landscape; a scene pieced together from imagined summer days. Warm and playful it leapt through the spreading boughs of the ancient tree, rustling the leaves, causing the shadows to shift, then continuing on its merry way to gently caress the girls' hair.
Silfee slipped her hand into her sister's, entwining their pale slender fingers, and softly asked, "Then is it that you no longer wish to fight?"
"No... Dear sister, I will continue to fight." Leaning over Teela rested her head on the other girl's shoulder and closing her eyes, whispered, "Together, we will fight."
"But...he…" Silfee started.
"He is growing too weak."
"Eila's right, you are having to use your power more and more, having to make your connection stronger."
"We know he can still fight—is still willing," Eila bent forward to touch her sister consolingly, but let her hand fall, "yet he shouldn't."
Teela bowed her head, shielding her eyes from the other's gaze. "I know Kuro is not strong enough. It just…"
"Feels like he's fading," Eila finished for her, in a tone as soft as the rustling leaves.
Helteage reached out from behind the quiet girl. Wrapping her arms around delicate shoulders to pull Eila to her chest, she allowed the girl to lie back into her embrace. Resting her cheek on the silky hair, Helteage looked at Teela reassuringly. "We know as well what it means to be attached to something so frail. To give up someone you were never intended to care that deeply for."
Shocked, Teela quickly turned to face her sister, feeling an overwhelming need to defend herself. "My feelings for Kuro are no more than what is appropriate."
With a small smile Eila added, "And perhaps that is where we are mistaken. Judging our feelings and theirs, but not knowing."
Silfee continued the musing, "To sense their fears, their triumphs and never know what it really is."
"How are we..." Teela questioned, "How can we?"
"Meaningless justifications."
Teela answered with a weak laugh, "I just don't know."
"There is a way."
-
Kuro walked past the four other Ingrids, barely aware that they were on the ship, his mind too consumed with his own clouded thoughts. He stopped in front of the White Goddess, pausing to stare into her face before turning to lean against the railing. Lowering himself to sit on the ground, Kuro sighed and tugged the hem of his shirt to pull it down and smooth out the wrinkles.
"You've rejected everyone so far. Will you also refuse the others that will come?"
The Kuro sitting before Ernn Laties now had changed considerably, even in the time that had passed since trying to find a new pilot the young man's appearance had altered. His face had thinned from that baby-like boy's that had first entered the cockpit. He'd grown taller, keener, his eyes deeper, more intense, as though they could see and understand so much more than any mortal's should.
"We can't stay like this forever Ernn Laties, it's too long." He looked at his hand, remembering the pale light that reflected off of them while in the Ingrid, the feeling as he spread his fingers and the goddess did the same. "So what are we doing, holding on like this?"
The White Goddess had been absent from the last skirmish and called in only as a final precaution in the battle prior to that. Kuro had felt the spirit of the Ingrid so much stronger lately; almost hear her, like she was chanting: "There is a way. But for now, like this, we'll fight a little longer." These words were etched in his mind as though written there: the forgotten lyrics of a lost and fading song. Though the prospects of finding a new pilot still proved just as fruitless, Kuro accepted that somehow it would resolve itself, and although it meant he was no longer needed on GIS it was a tolerable knowledge. He ceased to grow restless when restricted from participating in the war against Victim.
"Attention! All personnel report to battle stations. Victim spotted heading towards Zion."
Riegha joined Kuro in front of Ernn Laties. She looked as though she had resigned to a relaxing time of having absolutely nothing to do—which in a way was true; her duties had declined drastically, and perhaps she resented that, just a little. One of the other repairers, pretty, young, and new, condescendingly waved at her, and Reigha returned the gesture with a grimace.
"Clearance approved. Launch!"
Each Ingrid was catapulted from the ship in turn, pilots accustomed to the procedure. The Blue vessel took the lead, the others fanning out in a V formation behind it.
"The victim are in blue sector, eleven type-R confirmed, nearly thirty other various types as well. Relaying fastest route."
"Understood." the pilots answered in unison. R type victim were the biggest alien form known to the goddess crew, their thick magenta skin proving rather difficult to pierce.
Inside the white Ingrid, Kuro patiently waited listening to everything the others said, disregarding the usual jests and boasting the pilots sometime used to set themselves at ease.
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?" Kuro, more attentive to the happenings outside, was clueless as to what Reigha was talking about.
"Just sit in there," Reigha clarified.
"Talent."
"Thanks for that all-important wisdom."
"You're welcome."
"You don't have to be such a smug jerk about it."
Kuro had stopped paying attention to his partner, it wasn't as though what she said had any significance, what mattered was the current battle, but it had not yet begun in earnest.
Arden sent out the shields and they all waited for the enemy to continue in its predictable course, heading straight for them and Zion. Seconds died quickly and the first of the smaller victim, that seemed to be heading the horde, was within firing range; one blast and it was defeated. Rapidly closing in on another victim the blue Ingrid delivered a fatal blow. With amazing agility the red vessel terminated a third. Several of the remaining r-types veered away from the battle, but had not changed course enough to appear like they were retreating. These victim were now gaining speed, the lager magenta forms now taking the lead of about half the others, obviously heading toward a new target.
"What's happening?" Someone from GIS asked.
"They may be heading for something, a ship," Whittaker answered, straining to see the vessel more clearly. "It's a transport shuttle. What's it doing here?"
"Why would victim attack a colony shuttle?"
"We'll finish with these first," Ravi ordered.
The orange Ingrid pulled in its shield and flew away from the group.
"What are you doing?" In the position of leader by default, Ravi was shocked that his command wasn't followed, not that it was mandatory for the others to obey, but an explanation before acting was something expected, almost required; all the others would have. Though the pilot of the blue vessel was just as reckless, he too would have said something first.
"I think I should go, just in case." Arden continued heading toward the colony transport shuttle.
"Whatever? Be careful."
Two more victim were skillfully executed by the red Ingrid, "Shall I go too?"
Before Kieran's answer came there was a flash of light and a wave of energy, the green Ingrid turned, the pilot's hair glowing slightly, "They are heading for the ship. Arden can't hold that many off."
One of the alien forms crashed into the back of the green goddess sending it spinning, Whittaker quickly regained his position with a reminder to be more attentive.
"What are you doing?" Reigha called to Kuro, in an agitated tone. "You haven't been cleared."
Ernn Laties was backing away from the catwalk, and Kuro was preparing to launch. "Then get clearance—Quick! I'm leaving, you have five seconds."
His repairer furiously, possibly too furiously, typed in the correct codes and contacted the others. Reigha's voice carried the authority of necessity as she responded harshly, "Ernn Laties joining the battle, launch cleared."
The White Goddess was a mere streak as it flew through the darkness of space to join the orange Ingrid in defending the transport shuttle. With one fluid movement Kuro had placed himself near the ship, facing his opponent. Shouting a command, he flung his arm forward and Ernn Laties did the same, rushing forward and piercing the first victim's skin as easily as if it were wet paper.
"Hey Kuro, thanks," Arden encouraged him. The orange goddess' shield was out and holding but with the continued hammering of several alien forms it would soon crack, and the one the white Ingrid had just terminated might have been able to slip through.
The red goddess darted through the victim, striking two R-types as it went, but not delivering a vital blow, Kuro finished them. "The others will be here soon."
The victims continued fervently trying to break through the shield; a single mindedness driving them toward the shuttle. With the three goddesses the defense was managing to hold and the enemy's numbers were rapidly dwindling but the pilots all knew that the balance was precariously tilting away from them. True to Kieran's words the others were soon there, though nearly too late. With only a few type-R remaining in the battle, one had managed to wiggle through the shield, its viscous blood seeping from a deep gouge in its side. Injured but determined, it rammed the ship, denting the hull and making it tilt slightly; a goddess carefully fired killing the alien before it could strike again. Whittaker shot at one last victim, the creature, oblivious to the goddess's actions, sped on.
Arden pulled in the shields completely, rushing toward the shuttle, racing with it. In a final attempt to stop the enemy the orange Ingrid lunged into its side. "Shoot it now."
The others obeyed his command, sending insignificant pieces of alien drifting through space as he pushed away. Unable to correct his spin in time, Arden crashed into Kuro, causing them both to collide with the fractured transport shuttle, putting the final strain on the battered hull and puncturing the metal wall. Pressurized air jetted out from the rigged gap, bits of the shattered mettle separated and flew out.
Being the possessor of a vast vocabulary, Ravi let fly a long string of profanities as the others watched in silent horror while the force of the air slowly enlarged the hole.
"Do something!"