"Father?" a small voice called out to a black figure. She was standing in the doorway; her long brown curls framed her face and cascade down to her hips. Every little kink in her hair was a perfect spiral and in the dimmed lit laboratory her seafoam green eyes glowed. She was no older then eight.
"Yes?" he answered without looking at her. He was bent over his table with something in his hands. It was a strange sphere and he turned it over, analyzing it with his black talons, tracing a strange symbol engraved in the top of it.
She was consumed in what he was doing that she had forgot what she was going to ask him, "What is that?" Curiosity overwhelmed her and the words slipped through her lips before she realized she had even said them.
"Nothing, Safiya," his voice echoed off the metal walls and off the glass test tubes. It had a presence of ominous all knowing power behind it that scared her but dragged her in as well. He placed the sphere on the table and turned to her. His face was featureless, black, and smooth. He had no eyes, no mouth, no nose; only what looked like splatters of stars ran across his face in a frenzy of colors. He was tall and lean. His fingers were three large talons, his joints shot out in spikes from behind, and his knees caved inward. She felt so alien compared to him. Her skin was a fleshy pale pink, her nose was covered in small freckles, and her small mouth was paired with scarlet lips.
"Can you tell me about the stars?" she asked him with a frown pasted on her.
"You're supposed to be asleep," he said ignoring her question and noticing her long white night gown.
"I couldn't sleep."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Yes you do."
"Bad dreams."
"Then I will tell you about the stars."
He took her out on a great balcony. It was made of white stone and a canopy of plants that swirled around the columns and the edge. The flowers were in bloom and though it was night, Saf could see the collection of their colors; some of them even glimmered neon purple and blue in the darkness. They lit the circle of the porch in a kind afterglow. The moons were out was well but only two of them, Jemu and Izmu, the two biggest. They shone down upon them as huge giants; one an icy blue and the other a lush verdant.
She jumped on to the ledge and looked up at the sky. The stars were out but since Jemu was at the point of zenith, they were almost outshined. They were just a faded display of a glittery river behind the moon.
Her father came beside her and leaned on the edge, his elbows on the stone, and looked up.
"Do you see that odd sparkling purple star? It's next to the constellation Remilan, the one that looks like a Pularigan bulsar," he said.
"That one?" she pointed into the heavens at the one she believed he was talking about. It was a soft violet light surrounded by a cluster of yellow stars.
"Yes. It is a dead star. It no longer burns,"
"Why is it dead?"
"It was once a massive red giant. It had a dense core, a burning center that kept it burning for millions of years. But unfortunately, its magnificent core burned so hot for so long that it burned it's self to death. The hotter a star burns, the shortest its life is. Now it is a peaceful white dwarf that will sleep for entirety."
She stared at the sky with intense wonder, "It's still shinning though."
"It's a thousand light years away. Even though it no longer gives light, the light that it had once sparkled is still traveling through space and it takes a long time for that light to reach us,"
"So even though it's dead, its light lives on?"
He gave a strange, muffle chuckle and if he could smile, Saf knew he would be right now. "Precisely. You see that cluster to the east? Right of Izmu?"
"Yes."
"A trillion light years from there is a galaxy. It has many-"
"What kind of galaxy?"
"A spiral galaxy."
"Is it beautiful?"
"Yes."
"Are there people there?"
"Yes."
"What kind of people?"
"Many different kinds. Now if you let me talk I can tell you all about them."
"Sorry. Please tell me."
"There are many planets there that hold life. One planet is called Earth and its inhabitants have named themselves Humans."
"Humans?" she repeated looking up at him. He was staring right back down at her.
"Yes, they are… Strange creatures, "he seemed to be looking for the right words.
"What do they look like?"
"They look like you."
"What?"
"Your other fathers and I created you in their image."
"But why? Why didn't you create me like you?"
"I will tell you one day."
"Not today?"
"No not today."
For some reason nothing he had just said bothered her. "What are they like?"
I was floating again, in a deep sleep in a bottomless space somewhere in the universe. I could feel light pour onto me and through me; it dripped down the inside of my eyes and past my heart. It raced in my veins and through my arteries; it was pumping and pumping through my soul and out my fingertips. Where was I? I couldn't open my eyes; they were sown shut by the fabrics of time, laced with fragments space. But I could feel everything. There was heat beating on me, a moist atmosphere around me, a strange taste that was lingering inside my mouth. It tasted… like iron and salt. And suddenly, it hit me. I remembered the tornado of fire swirling around me, my fighter jet being torn from me as the glass shatter across the black and glistened red. I was ripped from the cockpit and pulled into a cosmos of pain. The universe span on an axis and I was falling, I think, and then everything went white.
I must have found enlightenment, I thought, the home of the ancients, the origin of my fathers, and God will be waiting for me there. I could see the white, I could almost touch it with my finger tips but it wasn't white, I realized, it was a soft flesh color. I was looking through my eyes lids and there was light on the other side.
I opened my eyes and there was a blue sky with soft clouds hovering over me in scattered pools. The sturdy glass of my helmet was broken and pieces of glass sat on my skin undisturbed. I'm alive, I grasped, Oh my God, I'm alive. I could feel my lungs filling up with air, my heart pounding, my fingers tingling. I touched my body, feeling my stomach, my sides, my hips, my neck. I reached up to the latch of my helmet, undid it, and pulled it off. My brown hair fell down onto my face as I sat up, the glass shard falling down to my lap with small clanking noises.
I was on a beach; the sand was moist beneath me and in front of me, not even ten feet, was a stirring ocean. I sat there, in awe, looking at it. Trying to comprehend what it was I was looking at and how it was possible.
Maybe I am dead, I couldn't help to think as I tried to attempt to stand on my feet. I stumbled at first, my legs felt burned on the inside, my bones ached, and my muscles strained but they worked. I stood proudly on my feet, looking over the water. I couldn't help but smile then as a salty breeze flew over me and tangled in my hair. I had no idea how I survived, how I made it through the black hole and onto this planet but I didn't care. I was just happy to be alive.
I heard a strange noise, at first I didn't even pay attention to it but when it repeated I finally realized that it was a voice calling and rustling behind me. I turned around me got a glimpse of yellow and white armor laced with black before I was hit with something hard to my face. Blood spat in my vision and I fell to the sand with a hard thump. I was trying to recover but the person stood above me, a gun in hand, and their helmet looked down at me through black glass. There was a strange symbol on his chest; it was a yellow crystal with straight lines to its sides. I heard a crazed laughter and then he hit me with the back of his gun again-pain struck through my skull and before the third strike hit all I saw was the sparkling river of the sand that lead to the ocean and then nothing.
Disclaimer: I do not own a single thing.
I really didn't want to end this chapter this way but it couldn't helped. This is all going to lead up to something epic, I promise. Sorry that Garrus wasn't in this one but he will be in the next!
Please leave me a review if you like it. If you didn't, leave me one anyway.