Cantral The Entra

One day the universe will end.

"Fendan," I whisper, whilst I pace a room covered in white tiles, my washroom, "it's not going to work. Give me a fight, a battle and I'll excel, but not this. Being trapped in here, talking to them ... there's a child, Zafira, she visits me every day. How am I supposed to take her and her people to the hard labour camps—"

"But before you came to Oneera, you thought you could?" Fendan says.

Above a wash basin, that juts out from the wall, there's a glass mirror, flush with the tiles. Completely tamper-proof, I've already tried. There are no weapons to be made from its glass ... not that I have use for a weapon within this prison. It catches my reflection as I pace past, two strides forward, two strides back.

I feel as though I'm little more than a caged animal. Entra don't have such things. Animals are of little use to us, even as entertainment. But when I was a child, when I shared an apartment with Fendan, when energy used to burst from me like an explosion, Fendan would explain that the Energy from past lives pulses through me. The Entara believed that Energy first lived as the smallest creature and upon every death it would ascend until it reached life as a person. They believed that the last animal our Energy lived as was present in every person and influenced their personality.

"Yes—" my hands clamp into fists "—I don't know. How can doing the right thing feel so wrong? I thought if I didn't think, I thought ... I don't know ... my mind is unravelling. I'm questioning everything ... there's a voice in my head, telling me this isn't real, that all these people are simulations. That you and Haroc are testing me, watching me and I'm failing for everyone to see."

"You should question everything. In situations like this up becomes down and down becomes up. You need to allow these thoughts."

"I need to get out!" I lean over the wash basin and stare at my reflection in the mirror.

I look wild and it has nothing to do with my unbrushed, wavy hair. There's something different in my face, maybe it's fear. Maybe it's the wild animal that lives within my soul. A gradern, a giant feline, that lived in the grasslands of Entara, Fendan said. That made no sense to me, Entara was destroyed one hundred years before my birth. But apparently, time has no meaning when Energy is returned to the Universe.

I bite my black lips, what if someone is on the other side of this mirror staring back? An Oneeran listening to everything I say ... or maybe an Entra, maybe this is a simulation. Maybe I never left prime.

"Allowing these thoughts will help you, when the Oneerans feel they can trust you, you'll be allowed out," Fendan says, the gentle vibration of his voice irritates my ears, "then it's just a case of shutting down the generator for the forcefield, there's one located close to you, they're dotted all over the planet."

"They aren't going to trust me, my act fools no one."

"Remember Detrie?"

I huddle into the corner, that memory feels more painful here. "Please, don't," I whisper.

"Let it be the truth, not an act," Fendan says, "to convert them, first you must convert yourself."

"So, I should befriend them and then rip them from their world?" The chill from the tiles beneath rises through my body and I shudder. "What kind of person would that make me?"

"It would make you entra, just like you want." Fendan pauses. "When we last spoke on the Battle Cruiser you said you wanted to be feared more than Haroc, you said you wanted to be everything he wants you to be, and more."

My words hit harder here. Here they aren't idle threats, here they have meaning.

"If you want to be feared more than Haroc, you have to become worse than him."

Worse than Haroc, how could that be possible? I don't allow myself to think of the things I'd have to do or the person I'd have to become.

"I ..." I pull my knees up and rest my head on them. "I need you. Please, you have to come, you said that you would ... you promised ..."

"Cantral, if I could, I would, but I have no way—"

"Find a way! You're all I have, you're all I've ever had. Haroc ... I think ... I think he's lied to me all my life, the Theory of Energy, I don't think it exists." Or maybe it does, and we've just angered the Universe. "Ramet, she's betrayed me, you have to help—"

"Cantral, I'm sorry but I have to go."

And just like that, he's gone and the days pass.

I jog up and down, the length of my room, along the forcefield. Faster and faster, so fast I crash into the wall on either side. Each time the impact winds me, but I need it. Hours pass, my muscles ache and my body bruises. But I'm not finished, I'm not ready to give in to nothing.

Next, I walk. The same circuit of my quarters, my prison. Past my bed, that I lie on occasionally, past my desk with a pen upon it and sheets of paper. Past a cupboard with the same generic underwear and black jumpsuit I'm currently wearing. Past my bathroom, that contains a shower, sink and toilet. Round and round I go until I feel dizzy.

My legs buckle. I'm being dramatic. My forehead touches the smooth grey concrete floor. Does my crew know I'm trapped here? Does Haroc? Has Fendan told them, or is he covering for me, telling them my prolonged absence is all part of the plan?

Footsteps. My head lifts and I rise from the floor. My heart races, excitement ... yeah, I now anticipate my visits eagerly.

"You look tired," Zafira says as I step before the forcefield.

"Entra don't get tired." I mirror Zafira and sit cross legged upon the floor.

"But you're not entra, not completely."

"I'm entra," I say, seriously.

"If we lowered the forcefield in this room ..." she gulps, "would you kill me?"

An entra would, they would kill their captors, that's what Jarem did. Entra don't believe in imprisonment, at least not like this. They don't believe in anything that wastes energy. To an entra Renewing a child's Energy means little more than an adult. In fact, children are viewed as a waste. It's another reason Haroc believes the entra superior because we don't grow from children. Yet, he favours me.

"No," I say, and it's the truth.

Zafira smiles. "What would you do?"

I'd run from this prison; I would force myself outside and then ... then I'd sprint to the nearest generator. I'd disable it and a hole would open in the forcefield. Entra ships would disembark from my Battle Cruiser and fly to the planet. They'd colour the sky black like a swarm of buzzing flies, each one held between Haroc's fingers. They'd fire strategically and the forcefield would go down. And I'd return to Prime, honoured and praised. Cantral the Entra, on her first command she took Oneera. I would save the Empire and bring in a new era of prosperity.

"I think it's best if you don't lower the forcefield." What a strange choice of words. Is that what I really believe?

"Best for who ... Oneera ... or you?"

"Everyone," I say. "Maybe every entra should be put in a room like this."

"I thought you believed the universe would end if entra weren't doing whatever else you do other than stealing planets and killing people?"

"One day the universe will end." I hold Zafira's gaze to my own, my words, my voice have her as imprisoned as I. "Stars will die and transform black, planets will turn into frozen orbs, blackholes will explode and expel their energy." The words delicately fall like feathers floating to the ground. Zafira's eyes shimmer. Am I scaring her? "All life will be gone. Our energy will disintegrate, it will slip through the gaps as space ruptures and then ... then there will be peace. And silence."

Zafira is quiet, still, only the sound of her breath fills the room. Light fades as clouds pass before the sun and we're cloaked in shadow. A brief moment of invisibility, from the eye of the Universe.

"The Entra shall fade into the abys like everyone else," I continue in a whisper, "because we are like everyone else. We are people who can bleed and die. We are not special, and the Universe, she does not favour us."