Cantral The Entra

Let your doubts guide you.

There's a hole in the back of my head, small, edged with metal and disguised by hair. Wires retract from my brain, then the hole, and I enter a semi-lucid state. The brief time between dream and reality. Behind the glass there's a blur of blue, I try to concentrate but I want unconsciousness to claim me once more. From the veins in my wrist more wires detach and return themselves into the inner workings of the incubation unit. I'm more alert now, and I focus on the blue. I have but a moment to prepare. A moment before I'm shoved out into the innards of Prime.

The incubation unit slides open smoothly, soundlessly and I come face to face with Fendan. Not my preferred view to wake to but it could be worse, it could be Haroc. We stare at each other a moment before I step out and rub the chill from my arms. My last sleep, my last chance of physical growth. Not that I believed I would grow more; my body had decided growing was beneath it months ago.

My forehead rises in surprise. "Hello," I say to Fendan.

He's perched on the back of my sofa, the cushions dip under his weight. His fingers brush over the fabric and create two distinct shades of grey in the material. Past Fendan is a low metal table with a heavy book upon it. I usually flick through the pages at the start of every day. The pictures bring me a sense of calm, but I will have to forgo the ritual today.

"I had hoped you would be pleased to see me, I returned especially for the ceremony." Fendan's blue lips curl into a smile.

His long blue hair falls past his shoulders to midway down his back and his face is clean shaven to match the hairless face of every entra. The entra's inability to grow hair, barring the hair atop our heads, is a constant source of annoyance to Fendan. Hair sprouts over his face, hands, arms and legs. It sets him apart as much as his blue skin. It causes Haroc to refer to him as, 'The Entara'.

"I am." I smile back, the blinds are down, blocking my window, I stare past Fendan, at nothing in particular. My apartment is bland, entra should not attain to possess 'stuff'. "It's just a... surprise, I haven't seen you in a year... you've ignored my every request."

"I've been busy, too busy even for you. But now, I'm here." He laughs quietly. "No longer a child. Will you miss your incubation unit?"

I will miss my incubation unit. I'll miss not being able to shut off at the end of each day. Now, one day will rule eternal. No more sleep but I won't miss the dreams.

At seven foot three I don't feel fully grown, at seventeen I don't feel an adult, but apparently, I am. The shortest Battle Entra to ever exist, is not the accolade I want.

"No," I answer instead, because I know it's what he wishes to hear.

I grab a pile of neatly folded clothes that I laid out the evening before and step into my bathroom. Sterile, bright... and white, white, white, a stark contrast to the rest of my apartment and Prime, the ship the mass of a planet and as black as space.

My hands rest on the metal sink. The mirror above holds my reflection, I look exactly as I did the day before but yesterday, I was a child and today I'm an adult. My black eyes encompass just over a third of my face, and my jawline is the classic entra square. Black hair too, just like every other Entra and black lips... like no one, not a single other entra.

My entire life I've been swept along by the current when all I've wanted is to find land. Today is no different, despite being an adult. I wash and dress quick, too aware of Fendan's presence in my apartment. Where has he been for the previous year? What has he been doing? Questions bury my anxieties for the day ahead, but I wonder, how many questions will Fendan answer?

As I exit the bathroom, I grab my jacket off a hook on the wall and zip it closed over my blue jumpsuit. My uniform. Every entra's uniform. Blue for the Entara, we took their colours when we separated from them. It's supposed to represent triumph, but there was no triumph, at least not in my eyes. Entra committed genocide, but I don't say that to Haroc, or anyone. Maybe this is why Fendan shuns the blue uniform.