Pull (originally published as Deep Darkness v1)

Child of Errikus

Child of Errikus

"I am not human, I am human. I am human but something more."

Child drawings hung on the wall in the schoolyard. Each was eighteen by twenty four inches drawn with a mix of crayons, acrylics, and chalk. The illustrations depicted rockets and spaceships; starships that would touch stars or fly through clouds. Each drawing made to tell a story, an idea. Each drawing envisioned a future that each human child held close. Our colony on Errikus had seen its fair share of ships come and go but these were special. These were for the Erebus; one of the three great Earth ships of man was set to arrive in a week's time. My drawing was a giant rectangle full of small details. If you looked close enough you could see little air hatches, turrets, and even people. I used chalk to shade the ship in and I used red and orange acrylic for the fire coming out the bottom. My mother loved it. Before it was hanging in the schoolyard she had hung it on our fridge. For some reason there seemed no better place.

I was born on Errikus. It was my home. However, like the other pale skinned red-eyed boys this wasn't were I belonged. We were fourteen years old. The Erebus had gone on a short journey to visit a world called Epsilon Eridani, a binary star system full of gas giants that would put anything near us to shame. We were on a border world, the edge of known space. The Erebus was getting several upgrades from the cybernetic race called the Arr7, a race of machines that resembled old Earth spiders and centipedes. The upgrades included massive solar sails and biorigging equipment that would both guide us and feed us. These upgrades would help us in our journey through a darkness we called the immer or as some of the elders called it "the aether". The immer was named for its unknown. It was a reality set on top of our own. We were about to begin a journey through "the black". The black was exactly how it sounds; a pitch-black area of space between two spiral arms in our galaxy. We wouldn't be crossing alone, even though no alien species we knew would dare to follow two other human starships the Aelita and Tritan would be joining us.

We really had no choice but to go. No matter what we wanted we were told this was our destiny. Humans were feared throughout the galaxy. Even on this backwater world the other species treated us with respect but would whisper of our savagery. "The cries of Deimos" a song of man that they would sing in dark corners, a song meant to frighten alien children and teach them of tyranny and equality. Human was a word synonymous with terror. This is how we became known as the ter, terre, or other times simply terra, terrans. Only every once in awhile did anyone call us human. Partly named for our home world Earth-Terra and part terror. What made us feared though wasn't just our ruthlessness when it came to war; we were the only species in the galaxy that challenged the Skrav. For hundreds of years we waged war. Any planet caught harboring humans was considered contaminated. The Skrav would turn civilized worlds into deserts in mere hours just for harboring us for a day. The Skrav called us a plague. As far as they were concerned we were a blight and we had to be eliminated. They were the true embodiment of childhood fear.

Errikus was a haven. Full of spiraling towers, rivers, and home to the largest supply of core mines and natural resources you could ask for. It was home to over a hundred species of life. Some were even allied to us like the short and fuzzy Pok and the tall and grey Eek. The city ran for miles surrounding rivers and atriums. Some areas rose higher covering hills. Homes were played on top of one another or etched into the sides of rock. Its sky was full of paper-thin birds and triangular beasts. The sky also carried with it massive ships that would sometimes stretch across the horizon. A massive wall protected the city. The planet itself was full of air we couldn't breathe. Even close to the outskirts we had to wear breathers but inside the city organic vines ran through the streets and sides of houses like wire cleaning the air.

The best part of Errikus though was my family. Hayden, Aira, and Dom were my best friends. Aira and Dom belonged to the Aelita crew. Hayden was a Drok. Years before any of us were born humans found a civilization that was almost identical to us in our anatomy. The major difference between us was their blood was black and their veins glowed red sometimes giving their skin a red pigment. The Drok were also famous for their yellow eyes. This made them look angry nearly all the time, even when smiling. The Drok, aside from being an angry mirror image of us were also the first race we encountered in deep space aside from the Skrav. They were primitive warriors when we first met but we were able to develop communication with them and in less than fifty years we had become allies. Hayden was born into a small number of his people that had joined us on our crusade through the immer. He was a member of Erebus and would be side by side with me. Each of us was taught at the age of three the histories of our worlds. Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, the Victorian age, the Industrial Revolutions that occurred throughout the various sects of Earth, the rise and fall of superpowers and world governments, the world wars and resource wars and the rise of the space age all the way to the destruction of our sun (which had become known as the collapse) and our escape into the stars, the different wars we fought, the bloody skirmishes with alien races, failed human colonies, forbidden worlds, planets of dead, and we were even taught how we changed.

We were told once that the human race was made up of different races, each a different skin color, different eye color, even different hair. That changed when we came out into space. Over the course of a few hundred years our skin had become mixed we were neither black, white, Asian, or tan. Our eyes had turned shades of red, blue, orange, and sometimes brown or even yellow. Our bodies and posture remained similar to how it had been since before we left Earth but our stomachs had grown smaller more resilient to toxins and our digestive system was more advanced able to use more nutrients from things that once would simply not have been enough. Our lungs were smaller but we were able to expand them at will and take deeper breathes. None of this affected the way we looked because our bones grew denser and tougher from the hard artificial gravity, the constant turning of our ships, and the gravity of worlds we temporarily called home. We had adapted to space and the new environment we called home.

The journey was all anyone ever talked about "The void this, the void that".

Once it was a myth. Humanity drifted in space the Erebus and Tritan disabled from years of war. Then the Aelita returned from a journey across the stars and somehow everything became whole again. We reached back into the immer and went along our way. What it was no one knew. That piece of information was forgotten. Hundreds of years ago the 'Sons of Sol' saw into the nexus what many believed was a place where humanity would flourish. Something that would save and let us forgive ourselves for all the things we had destroyed or let die. This was a journey for redemption. My sins. It was a burden I was born with for being human. Sin was hardcoded into our DNA. Priests and scientists debated, Elders and captains meditated for hours arguing-pondering over what this journey meant, whether there was any point. In the end the opinion of one man could do very little to sway anyone. We had already been on the run for so long it didn't matter. If there was any reason other then redemption it was lost to time. Both sides speculated that the void was the place the nexus had come from. They believed this void was leftover from the creation – a divine passageway to the heart of God. Others said it was a doorway to another world. Many others believed it was the face of God. They believed the Nexus was a small veil. A keyhole. Maybe it was even a key. This is why touching it showed us visions - realities that mirrored the past, present, and future.

As a child growing up in Errikus, it was in my blood to seek out the void no matter what the cost. This is what humanity had done for hundreds of years. This is what humanity would do for thousands more should nothing ever change.

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