Radiance: Part One

L5: Cutting It Short

August 25th, 2686 CE; 1208 hrs

A whole month early.

Vyrik had said that would help keep them safe. They'd had to accelerate everything. They'd decided to have the helpers come a few days earlier, so they would be arriving in two days, now, because his people- mostly his father- thought that it would be best if he were to be one of the six- now seven, with the addition of General Wei- that came and helped them to land safely. Lyda hadn't really slept the past two nights, as a result, though she told herself she likely would have had trouble regardless. Slumber had so far been difficult to achieve, being constantly surrounded by the vacuum of space.

She had reached a point of physical exhaustion that even the strongest of coffees couldn't help her. She moved about, anxious and over-caffeinated, glancing back and forth between the screens and the clock. The day was dragging, more than any of the past few had. If she could just fit in a two or three hour nap, she'd be fine, but with the new schedule, she was getting less and less sleep- and what little sleep she had gotten, had been tense and light. Her kidneys ached, no matter how much water she drank.

A screen popped up in front of her face, making her jump in surprise. Eryk, standing top healer, requested entry. He'd been instructed to come to her if there was a change in Marnie's condition, as the poison she'd been injected with had more than knocked her unconscious. Whatever the toxin was, it had put her into a coma, and even with all of the technology and information that they had access to, they still couldn't manage to wake her up.

She approved his entry and swiveled in her chair to face him, trying her best to be alert. "Status update?" she asked, leaning forward.

His face was red, like he'd been running, sprinting even, "Sh-" He took a deep breath, winded, "She's awake."

Lyda jumped out of her chair and followed him hastily out of her quarters, down the hall and into the lift, sprinting to the infirmary.

Marnie was sitting up on her cot, eating a cereal bar with not a care in the world.

She looked up at them when they walked into the room, smiling. Her eyes were different. It seemed that they had grown and her pupils had taken on a star-shape. It wasn't jarring, or even immediately obvious, but it was certainly strange once Lyda noticed it.

"Hey, Lyda...You look...winded?" She cocked her head at her.

"We ran ... all the way here," she tried to catch her breath. "Anything different about your vision?" she asked, picking up a pen light to test Marnie's strange pupils. They responded like they should, and she seemed alright, so far. She was eating, so that was good.

"Oh, you mean because of my eyes? No, not really. More clarity, maybe? Well, okay, a lot more clarity. But no new colors or anything." She chuckled.

"They just look...different..." Lyda didn't want to scare her. She could be in a fragile state, and Lyda had not the faintest of ideas as to what could possibly happen from then on out. Utterly stumped.

"That's what Eryk said, too. I haven't looked yet. Is it freaky?" She smiled at her, stiffly.

"Honestly?" Lyda asked her.

"Yeah, honestly." Marnie sighed, obviously readying herself for the worst.

"I think it looks cool as shit. I'm slightly jealous- unless it's something terrible." Lyda let some of the tension out of her shoulders. She certainly seemed like herself.

"Oh, okay, well that makes me feel better." She sighed, munching still on her cereal bar.

"How do you feel?" She asked, knowing that Eryk had likely run all of the tests he needed to before he'd come to her.