A familiar condensation buildup greeted Eelaya when she opened her eyes. The blinking blue-tint of the dark interior came to view as she straightened her posture on the pilot seat. It wasn't alien to her. Not anymore. After so many dreams in the same shuttle--which she now came to learn was called a 'life-boat'--she felt at home waking up in this gloomy dark cube.
Eelaya pressed the floating 'wake' button and the ship came to life again. Everything was exactly the same each dream. Right from start to finish. The only difference was her--she felt each dream was starting earlier and she had more time to explore before the planet below her was swallowed by the black-hole.
The past few weeks she was researching about this kinds of ships and how to pilot them. Although she was proficient in the Miner-XV, she was no where near good enough to pilot the life-boat down to the planet. It required her to breach the atmosphere in the precise angle, without burning the shields of the craft, not to mention handle the landing on the surface--if she ever got there alive. During the last few dreams she was still testing all the systems, playing with the computer and allowing the black-hole to swallow her whole. But it was time to try and land this thing.
Can't learn without practice, she thought and grabbed the navigational controls of the shuttle.
As she twisted the left orb of the controls backwards, the humming of the Grav-Engine increased and the ship's radial velocity was beginning to drop. It was her first attempt to actually land the shuttle on the planet. She was stuck in this ship every night, dying the same way and wasting her days on research. It was time to use the knowledge and make the leap.
Eelaya narrowed her eyes as the ship shook slightly. Redness appeared on the view-panel which reflected the outer-shell of the egg-shaped craft. It surrounded her and repainted the ship's interior in crimson. She knew it was normal for the ship to shake at re-entry, but never doing it on the first place made it difficult to control her own emotions.
It felt like fire consumed her and twisted in her body, reaching every limb and organ. Her eyes were fixated on the control-panel, trying to read the angle of attack on the planet, reciting every manual she read about planetary-re-entry. She was focused and very much aware--more than ever.
The rattling increased and became a violent eruption of tremors, as if a giant Martian held the ship, tossing it from side to side and trying to rip it apart.
She felt a sudden jolt. She first thought it was all just part of the re-entry--as though the shakes were so violent the suit couldn't compensate them. But after a while, the jolt developed into coldness. The familiar feeling. The twist of her stomach which spread to her entire body.
Eelaya's eye danced around. The ship was extremely vivid, the air felt real and the space-suit felt natural, while the redness around and the tremors were keeping her rooted to this current reality.
Just a dream, she reassured herself, breathing deeper.
"Welcome." A low male voice surrounded her.
Eelaya cocked her head, trying to realize the source of it.
"Keep breathing, and focus on that coldness of yours." The voice again.
"Who is it?" she asked.
"Breathe. All your answers will soon come." It said.
She did.
She tried to slow her breathing, concentrating on her coldness--deep inside her core. She remembered trying it once in her childhood. She remembered running away from the bullies in her class--images of giant Toby popped in her mind. She also remembered how she found herself in the local hospital after trying to touch that coldness with her mind. Pleasantries were not a big part of her life during that time.
"Yeeees..." it said. "Keep breathing. You know you are dreaming. You know where you are."
She inhaled and closed her eyes, concentrating. Eelaya felt the coldness spread, not inside her, but this time it surrounded her. As if a damp blanket wrapped her in a cold night. As if she was the coldness itself. She actually was.
The coldness floated and flowed around for a couple of moments, allowing Eelaya to forget about the ship, about the suit about everything but the coldness itself.
Then, when it swallowed her entirely, she opened her eyes.
YOU ARE READING
Awakening
FantascienzaEelaya lived through calamities her entire life. Born in the cruel streets of Undertown, Origin--what was once known as Earth, before it lost all its green. Raised beneath the lethal blanket of pollution and radiation. Sent as a slave to repay her...
