Pull (originally published as Deep Darkness v1)

Seraphim - Part 1

Seraphim

Part 1

    We were a mile away from the monitor's bunker when we ran into Gerad again. This time he wasn't talking. He was sitting with his back against a wall. A blue holo-projection of himself and a woman dancing played out before him. His eyes were red and his mouth was bleeding. He did not blink or say anything to us though we begged for him to follow us. He stared empty at the dancers. The monitor told us to keep moving.  Gerad was alive but his consciousness had already been lost. Gerad was broken. The voice in our head continued telling us there was nothing we could do.

    "Is this what war is like?" I asked out loud. We have been at war with the Skrav for hundreds of years and I have never seen anything like this. I had never imagined going into battle. I was wrong though. I wasn't thinking about it at the time but we had lost worlds before. Anytime humanity settles or slows down death and destruction follow. This is why the monitor said death followed us like a disease.

    The monitor spoke inside my earpiece, "this is an act of nature, an act of the gods."

    I knew little about religion on Errikus.

    I knew that the Eek were polytheistic. They had many temples throughout the world each devoted to a separate deity. The only thing I really knew for sure about their culture and the culture of many Errikans was though they had guards and guns they were all pacifists. Humans would joke and say they had war bred out of them. Others said that in this part of the galaxy far away from the galactic core resources were better, life didn't need to evolve to defend itself. Even if Errikus itself was a hostile planet full of dangerous life the worlds that the Eek, Pok, Myra, and hundreds of others came from must have been pretty nice.

    The Leviathan was nothing more than an animal. Its home was inside the immer - far away from here. The Tritan must have hit it or picked it up. This whole thing was nothing more then an accident. I could hear it now as it screeched and tore through the city. It was just screaming to go home. It was screaming for it's mother. The monitor spoke again in my ear, calling the creature a name that when translated meant Seraph.

    Seraph - Seraphim (plural) -     1. an angelic being, regarded in traditional Christian angelology as belonging to the highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy, associated with light, ardor, and purity.

    The Eek it seemed believe the leviathan was one of these creatures. That it had followed humanity in order to wipe us away and purify the galaxy that they themselves had become caught in the eye of our struggle and would become pure once the creature had killed all of us. I didn't want to think about any of that. I just wanted to survive and not just for myself but for those that had died. If Aira and I stopped now our entire lives would be for nothing, the lives of every human on Errikus would have had no purpose. If we survived the two of us could make a difference.

    "Do you ever wonder why most of the alien's species we ally with all have names that end in k... Eek, Pok, Drok," Aira asked. She was laying in my arms. Night had fallen; we couldn't continue our search for Hayden until morning, especially with that creature out there tearing up the city. "I don't wonder I know, when the first colonists set down and encountered aliens they tried to communicate with them... some of the time it was a success – other times it took years. The only syllable we could ever fluently make out was the 'k' sound at the end." She didn't say anything after that. I think she might have been trying to make me laugh. It did seem kind of funny but scientists never really good at naming things.

    The Aelita was meant to arrive that night but with everything going on it would probably be two days before they came after the Tritan. I knew enough about how they approached situations like this, they would be cautious, they would watch their enemy and make sure that there were no Skrav coming to hinder any rescue. They were only a few hours behind each other in the immer but time works differently once they exit and switch to regular star drives and ion engines. Feeding off radiation and space debris turning molecules into energy... that was the trick to regular space travel. The cost of regular space travel meant that days in real time could be months or years depending on velocity. Time dilation. What would come with the Aelita though... another leviathan, another space beast... or something worse?

    "We will be lucky if the Aelita and Erebus get here at all..." Aira said. She was falling asleep as I brushed her hair. "They will come especially the Aelita. Your father is on that ship." I didn't realize how much of a mistake that was to say. I didn't think about Aira's mother. Aira had left her and their position at the space dock to come and find me. She would be dead or among the missing now. She might even be searching for her daughter. Worst she might have used this as an escape. Maybe she went and joined the runners and deserters hiding underground. Aira cried herself to sleep. Nothing I could have said would have made any difference anyway.

    For the next few hours I sat awake in the dark. All I could think about was my own mother telling me to "run". Her last words, her last lesson in life to teach me. I never really said her name aloud before, it was Faith. It was a kind name and fitting for someone like her. She put her faith in Aira and I to survive. Her death would be her legacy now. I could see someone in a hundred years watching through the nexus. Two scared little brats crying while this middle-aged woman who had given so much to the fleet screamed at them to run. Even in her last dying breath she was giving us a chance and teaching us how to survive.

    The last thing I thought about before falling asleep was how I had never really had a father. He had died giving his life so that others may live just as my mother had. Even if I was her only child I believe that I was something she was proud of. Even if I wasn't going to be a user, even if I just went into stasis and accomplished nothing with my life I was hers and I would always be. Aira was blessed she still had one parent around... and he was coming for her. That's what parents do... they look out for their children, they protect them and watch over them even in the darkest of times.

    The monitor was silent.

    I began looking for answers in my mind, unaware he was no longer listening. Did it mean he was dead? I don't think monitors sleep... and if they did it wouldn't be very long. Maybe they slept one head at a time shutting down certain body parts at will. It was something I had heard some species could do. That wasn't it though. There was nothing on the other end of the comm – just silence. When we were running through alleyways and dodging guards and looters earlier we could still hear his breathing through our headpieces even when he wasn't giving us direction. Aside from telling us to rescue Hayden the only other thing he had said, "Children should never know such violence." Perhaps that was when he stopped. It all feels like a blur now, out of synch – out of order. It was time for sleep was now. Hayden would be smart, he would be doing the same. Unless the leviathan kills us in our sleep we will have a chance to escape tomorrow and find each other. We could retreat underground or hide on the other side of the city. The leviathan was last seen heading in the opposite direction. I remembered that. It was breaking through a part of the wall. It would only be a matter of time before the entire city is overrun.