renaming GPS to 'galactic positioning system' for my reader :)
Thanks for leaving reviews, my friend. I appreciate it.
To be completely honest, he didn't expect to wake up.
He thought he was finished. He thought he was dead. After too many victories, his head got inflated and he got greedy. There was a too-dangerous mission, and he thought he'd be able to handle it. Raiding a sentinel Supply Depot? It was a standard sort of request from The Vykeen high command. It was the best kind of job as well, for The Vykeen were the simple sort who valued destruction all on its own. The Traveller was free to keep whatever he took from the storage canisters, sell it, and use the funds to finance his seemingly endless journey...
But... but of course everything went wrong.
He'd gotten cocky. The Supply Depot in question was on a supremely dangerous planet. Possibly one of the most hostile The Traveller had yet seen. The atmosphere was radioactive enough to melt his bones. There were constant gravity storms that tossed him about like a rat trapped in the jaws of an excitable terrier. And once he did manage to cling to the ground, it was no better. The surface was full of vicious bug-eyed predators with too many legs and mouths full of needle teeth. Tremendous worms and their writhing spawn burst from the ground and took out his Fighter's main thruster (the secondary thrusters were far less powerful and slowed his travel to a miserable crawl). He was bedraggled, frazzled and shaken before he even managed to find the heavily guarded supply depot.
*beep...beep...beep*
Naturally he had no intention of facing down a hoard of sentinels half dead, and so stowed away inside an abandoned building to recover. Had his ship's hull been at full capacity, he would have been more than happy to nap in his cockpit - but alas! He'd sprung a leak - and sleeping with radioactive rain dripping upon your face was not something The Traveller thought wise, even in his exosuit.
-kzzt-...chitter*
Oh, what a fool he was to allow himself to relax against the seemingly dead organic matter that grew sprawled all over the remnants of the abandoned building! Of course he had seen this sort of thing before... he'd traveled worlds for many eons and did not often forget what he saw. But he had (wisely) never spent any extended time inside these infected structures. It was always a quick search for equipment and units before he was out again and on his way. Perhaps if he'd only browsed the terminal records, he would have learned what a dangerous thing this undulating goop was! To imagine it would so easily burrow through his exosuit and root in his skin! That it'd turn his blood rancid, and use his very body to propagate itself! He was so suceptiable to it, and The speed at which it happened was so extraordinary, The Traveller could not help but wonder if this was the reason there were so few of his kind left roaming the universe. And such was one of his last conscious thoughts before desperately casting himself upon the mercy of a stranger and slipping away into a sleep that very well might be his last.
...
...
Eheu! You are awake, Traveller-Entity?*
"Urggg..."
He woke to the noise of rapid chittering and two great stinging pains as light pierced into his pale eyes. Panicked, he instinctively tightened his embrace upon... a large, soft something and buried his face against its silken surface to spare his poor retinas the glare of laboratory lights. A gentle earthy aroma of spices and sugar filled his nostrils as he breathed against it. It was strange and soothing. At the same moment, the overhead lights dimmed considerably. The chittering took on a slower cadence, but nevertheless remained just as excitable as before.
*-kzzt- This entity did not anticipate luminosity would have caused you discomfort, Traveller. It asks you pardon this misstep.*
"..."
He heard what was said to him, but his mind was too foggy to translate then register the words. He simply remained curled up upon a wide padded surface, doing his best to assess his surroundings without opening his stinging eyes.
The room was cold, he could feel the tingle of air upon his bare skin as it circulated in a fashion standard to space vehicles stations. Yet despite he should be shivering terrible whilst completely nude, he found that the scarcely padded surface he'd been lain on was heated quite enough that he maintained a comfortable body temperature. Furthermore... his guts didn't hurt. Indeed, nothing hurt at all, and The Traveller suspected that the IV attached to the back of his hand was the reason for that. Had he simply been given drugs that he might pass on more peacefully? The Traveller tentatively cracked open an eye and looked down to observe himself. He breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't see anything red and squirming across his abdomen. Instead, simply a long winding scar that started at his windpipe and snaked down his body... the minute he was off painkillers, that was going to hurt.
*-Kzzt- Traveller Entity.*
He was still groggy as a hand laid itself on his shoulder. It was of odd texture, synthetic ridged fibers made for gripping, yet smooth to the touch. They were warm, with a current of electricity running throughout which sent tingles down into his skin and made him shudder. The sensation was not unpleasant Persey, but they did jolt him awake. He blinked a few times and rolled to lay flat on his back. Upon catching sight of the hand's owner, The Traveller sighed and allowed himself to relax. His voice came out far breathier than he was used to.
"Oh...Korvax. You were the one that fixed me?"
The owner of the hand chittered and chirped a response. It spoke in that odd electronic beat typical to those of its species - and had taken The Traveller so long to learn. Even now, he was slow to understand - and when he spoke, his accent was absolutely miserable - but at least this Korvax had understood his plea for help. As it responded, it continued to prod experimentally at his shoulder - scanning as it did so. He grunted as a particularly strong surge went tickling through his nerves and caused him to briefly seize upon the observation deck. The Korvax noted this and scribbled something upon its data pad.
*Eheu! Indeed! I am Scientist-Entity Kezh. You have been in my custody for two sols, wherein you have made rapid recovery. The operation has been successful, the rot has been excised, and naturally I am -kzzt- to thank.*
The Korvax puffed out its chest and blinked its facelights proudly, whirring and chirping in a nearly insufferable manner. Although pride wasn't entirely unwarranted (The Traveller recognized it had saved his from the very brink of death) The Korvax clearly saw him as nothing more than a scientific specimen. If he thanked or lavished praise upon it, The Traveller was a bit worried The Korvax would compel him to stay as an experiment far longer than he intended.
These thoughts floated through his still foggy brain as the scanning laser -and its telltale heat- traveled from his shoulder across his torso, and down across the rest of his form. Only then did The Traveller realize he was completely naked. Instinctively, he moved to cover himself with the... pillow?... he was clutching to his side.
What in the world...
The tingling hand helped him to sit upright as he laid the monstrosity over his lap to observe it. It was a lumpy thing, about the size of his torso and clearly handmade. The stitching was very precise, yet overall it was of poor craftsmanship. It was silk stretched clumsily over bunch of cotton and (he lifted it up and pressed his nose against it, taking in the scent) spiced herbs. On its surface, was a series of 0s and 1s written in very precise handwriting. It took a long while to decipher, but eventually The Traveller realized the binary spelled 'happy'.
Thoughtful, yet rudimentary.
Truthfully, The Traveller did find it quite sweet. He rarely received gifts - and when he did, it was typically some extra 'something' tossed in with the rewards for a job well done. Frankly, when faced with such pure-hearted kindness (surely The Korvax must have taken something from him in recompense) The Traveller simply didn't know how to respond. He had lived a long, long time... he was sure he must have. Although he couldn't recall the years, he could feel it in his bones- in those latent memories that wandered just outside of his grasp. He had died before, then he'd been wiped clean and recreated and materialized once more. Over and over and over again, thousands of cycles, hundreds of recursions. There was no true kindness in this universe. It was bleak, and it was hard. The Traveller set his face like flint and made his voice surly.
"Korvax, have I not given you enough? You've split me open, laid me bare and scanned my innermost parts to your hearts content." He tapped the 'happy' pillow, his finger sinking into the lumpy surface.
"...now do you mean to infantilize me?"
He made his gaze frosty and turned it upon The Scientist - who immediately began to panic. The facelights went from a calm pulse to a chaotic smattering of flashes. It made several hand gestures indicating denial as it immediately began justifying itself in a frantic, stuttering voice.
*Negative! -kzzt- I would never do such a thing to one of Atlas' Honored. This entity simply observed some of Traveller-Entity's mammalian behaviors, and - kzzt- and this entity wrongly assumed Traveller would appreciate such an article!... kzzt - I will remove the offending object at once!*
The poor Korvax looked so mortified and ashamed that The Traveller immediately regretted dealing so harshly with it. Its body language was terribly crestfallen as it snatched the lumpy pillow from him and scurried away. The door closed with a hiss as it exited, leaving The Traveller blinking groggily at the sealed hatch, before falling back against the observation deck and curling up awkwardly on his side. He sighed once more.
Mean little traveller! No! *sprays with spray bottle*
