Nebulae and Cosmic Filaments - A Second Anthology of SF SD Shorts

Part 5 - Journey's End

The traveller slowly nodded in satisfaction as he felt the healing energies of the Undying Lands coil around his body, healing small wounds and renewing his strength.  He then carefully stowed the heavy metal capsule he had been holding in his hands in his worn backpack.  The snap portal generator he had salvaged out of the downed reaver flyer would come in handy later, giving him maybe five or six more jumps before his unnatural use of it burned it out.

In the meantime, he would enjoy the hospitality of the Undying Lands, one of the few bright lights in the horror that was the Unity.  It had begun as a mere possibility, a dream of a place where all ills could be healed, where no sickness or disease could take foot.  Where, if one applied themselves, they could live forever.  Or, if one were Kursed, they could temporarily have the curse lifted from their flesh.  

The power of the Unity engine had given that possibility the trappings of reality, making a possibility into an actual realm.  Then, of course, the Dedicated restricted access to it, claiming it was for them and them alone.  Foolish arrogance, the mark of the Dedicated.  And soon, with this first step taken against them, the beginning of their downfall!

The traveller watched then as Saana strode into the lush forest grove ahead of where they had jumped into, slowly stripping as she did.  Until, naked, she knelt in the grove's heart and, with light cascading all around her, began summoning the essence of the queen she had been carrying inside her.

"I still think this is a mistake, my lord," the wolf said quietly as she came up and stood beside the traveller.  "Letting the Kursed die out would've saved the entire Unity more suffering and pain."  She gestured at the coalescing energies that now hovered above the kneeling Saana.

"Bringing this new queen to life will only perpetuate more suffering by innocents all across the Flux."

"If she was summoning a Kursed queen, yes," the traveller quietly said, looking over at her.  At the wolf's puzzled look, he smiled.

"Here, in the Undying Lands, it won't be a being burdened with the curse that will be brought into existence.  The curse has no hold here, the nanobots that spread it from old host to new host, rendered inactive. No," he said, looking back at Saana, a filmy figure of a woman now visible in front of her.

"Saana summons a queen from their original, untarnished race.  What they were before the Dedicated cursed them.  And in doing so, will bring her original race back to life."  His smile broadened slightly.

"Definitely a task worth dying for, don't you think?"  Then he was turning away to begin stepping back through the foliage.

"Wait!  Where are you going?" the wolf cried before she hastened to join him.

"To take a look around," was the traveller's reply as she fell in beside him.  "It's been a long time since I walked this realm.  I wouldn't mind a look at it before I have to move on."  His smile became wistful.

"Just to make sure it's still doing what I originally designed it to do!"