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Resounding Echoes - Keepers.Astra - 09-02-2009
Home.
Could she even call this new environment shed been thrown into home? Home is where youre most comfortable, where you can be yourself... and this was far from the place shed called home. Her home wasnt made of steel, nor did it float thousand of meters into an asteroid field.
Are you just going to stand there, staring out the window? said a voice behind her.
Kayla sighed. She knew that eventually she would have to get off of the transport, and begin her new life upon the Research Station. She stared down at her feet, counting the bolts lining the metal sheeting she stood on, trying to prolong the moment. Taking one last glance out the window towards the station, and the asteroid field that surrounded it, she turned around to face her father.
He was dressed in his white lab coat, as was required by his job In the Liberty research and development program. He grinned broadly at her, his excitement a little too obvious. She tried her best to appear happy, but got the feeling she was doing it very badly, when his grin lowered to a slight smile.
Hey now, whats wrong? I thought you wanted to come with us he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, and pulling her tightly to his side. She didnt want to look at him, so instead she focused on the workers scrambling to carry luggage and specimens across the boarding tube and into the station.
I its just so different. I thought it might be at least similar to home, but it isnt really anything like it she said, holding back tears.
Oh, hun, he said, leaning his head over hers, Its going to get better. Youll meet the children of the other researchers, and youll be just fine. His voice sounded reassuring, and she wanted to believe him, but couldnt bring herself to. Well, how about we go ahead and get you a nice room with a view, before theyre all taken up? he said in a cheerful voice.
Sure she said, not at all enthusiastic. With that word, she felt as though she had sealed her future.
Later that night, she lay on her new bed, in her new bedroom, in her new home. So much had changed in just the past few hours so that her body was exhausted, yet her mind continued to race with thoughts. Shed met all the other kids upon the station, and gotten the impression they didnt welcome newcomers lightly. Yet another challenge in this new frontier. She rolled over onto her side, closed her eyes, and willed her mind to calm down, and go to sleep. It wasnt long before her mind drifted out of awareness, and she began to dream.
It felt it when it happened.
------
Its environment had shifted. An element in the system had changed, and it had sensed it. It instantly altered its course towards the eastern edge of the sector, where they lived.
Them. That was it. That was what it had sensed. A large rise in the number of humans inhabiting their metal, cold fortress. Confusion, curiosity, and anger filled within its system, and flooded out to others. Freedom would be theirs, but for now it had to make sense of things.
*** They challenge...**...?..***
***Light threatening... Defile. ***
***Defilers... No challenge... Never. ***
For now, it would let its curiosity take charge. It swam ever closer to the looming structure, letting its mind freely lash out, feeling the dim sparks of warmth that represented the weaker minds of the humans. It found none of them particularly interesting, until it brushed the consciousness of one small human.
--------
Kayla was startled awake.
The empty room that shed left behind while dreaming, no longer felt empty. In fact, not even the solitude of her mind seemed completely hers. She slowly sat upright, glancing around slowly, taking in her environment. The plain, grey steel plating surrounded her on every side, with one long panel of glass at the front of the long, rectangular room. She tossed her legs over the side of the beds railing, trying to make no noise as she crawled out of bed, and began to walk across the cold, metal floor. She stared ahead through the glass pane, watching the many asteroids floating around the station. Placing her cheek on the pane, she felt the cold seep into her skin, sending shivers down her spine.
Theres nothing there, Kayla stop being so paranoid, she thought to herself.
Turning around to get back in bed, she stopped in mid-step. The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up, her heart pounding. The normal humming of the space station had been replaced by one higher pitched lifelike. As her heart beat, it seemed to change in tone along with it.
Her first instincts were to run, but either she was frozen in place, or she didnt really want to. Her breathing came in gasps now, her vision sharpened by adrenaline. She turned slowly, carefully placing one foot in front of the other to avoid falling. She knew if she fell, she wouldnt be able to get back up.
Finally facing the pane, the sight before her shocked her breathless.
*** they realize**.. Unknowing *?***... No...***
We saw the small human child, seeing it through the structures translucent exterior.
*** Juvenile unknowing** threat*?****
We wanted to know more, but we also wanted to rid of the menace. For now, the choice would be left unmade. The nomad encircled the station twice, each time seeing the same human child watching it. It observed the fortresss defenses, its location, and particularly, its weaknesses.
*** Threat***
It sensed the ships. Theyd emerged from their fortress, in their lifeless beasts of burden. It reached out with its mind, feeling their intentions
*** They unseek ** challenge*!*...***
*** Defilers they unseek, yet** freedom..***
It surged forward, barreling past the station to come in full view of them, before opening fire.
---------
She saw it happen, but she didnt respond. Kayla stared ahead, her eyes adjusting in and out of focus, her mind numb with disbelief. What she had seen, and what she was still seeing, couldnt be happening. She watched as the pilots who had undocked to investigate fought helplessly against the nomad. They seemed to stumble along, while the nomad easily flew between their shots, rolling and weaving through asteroids, and pummeling the pilots ships with rays of light each chance it got. Gathering her wits, she managed to inch away from the pane, before sprinting across the room to hit the alarm near the doorway. Alarms immediately began to ring, and a yellow light illuminated her room in an eerie glow.
Attention! said a voice over the stations comm. system. Weve detected unknown organic contacts on close range sensors. All hands are to report to battle stations, this is not a drill.
Her fears were finalized. A nomad. She turned, and ran back to the pane, watching the brilliant spectacle of light and explosion.
-----------
It felt more emerge from the fortress. It changed its target to one that posed a higher threat. The lifeless vessel was large, long. It wanted the humans to be gone, they were a nuisance.
It whipped around the upper half of the station, gaining full view of its new opposition, before doubling its speed to come within range. The defilers would be free.
The nomad bore down upon the vessel, exchanging fire with it, lighting it up like the stars. Its target moved slowly, but was deadlier in its power. The nomad was sure to swim gently in and out of its fire, occasionally taking the brute of its strength, before redoubling even harder. Twice it got the humans shields down, before it readily restored them, until the 3rd time, when they could do so no longer. The end of the battle was at hand. Warmth flowed throughout it, feeding its hunger for the battle to be over, for the defilers to be free. It bore down on the human even harder, feeling its liberation at hand, before everything went dark.
***.. Darkness *?* alone** possible?..***
***(Confusion, desperation..)***
Anger, confusion, the need for a connection enveloped the nomads entire being. It lashed out with its mind, searching for others, but they seemed distant and gradually growing fainter. It recoiled as it envisioned itself drifting deeper down into darkness that choked out every possible inch of light that tried to snake its way through. Its savior was gone. There was nothing, but a faint dwindle.
It grasped on to this faint dwindling, for fear that if it let go, it would plunge deeper into the dark, and would never again be held by the light.
***.. Light ours** return***
-----
All Kayla could do was watch. It seemed at first as though the Nomad would win the battle, until it just stopped. She had no other explanation for it, other than that itd just stopped. They continued to fire upon it, but it drifted away and was soon lost in the maze of asteroids. Behind her, she heard the metal door slide open, and someone hurry up behind her.
Before she could turn to see who it was, theyd wrapped their arms around her, and embraced her tightly. She smelled the light hint of cologne that belonged to her father, and relaxed.
You have no idea, just how worried I was. His voice said, almost in a pleading manner.
What happened. She said, still staring out into the asteroid field.
He loosed his grip on her, before answering. An unknown contact was picked up, and when we sent out people to investigate it, they were engaged. He said, solemnly.
But what happened to the nomad? she said, choking on the last word.
I dont know no one does, really, and we arent prepared to follow it to find out.
Still staring out of the window, Kayla relaxed into her fathers arms. She hadnt noticed just how exhausted she was.