FALAHA'S JOURNEY: A Spacegirl's Account in Three Movements

Episode #3

The only way to defeat a Hunter is to engage with it in close combat. General weapons are ineffective and if you rely on them, you will die. Killing these creatures is an extremely hard task. Their speed, strength, vitality and reactions exceed that of anything living or manmade. Also, Hunters are intelligent. This is not an intellect you should mess with, since it is focused on killing by any means possible. The best known option for survival is to use siSystem, which is integrated into our soma.

The siSystem has several Mods for various tasks, including combat, and it fully develops as we grow into adults. All the information about our physical functions, feelings, emotions and thoughts can be shared through the siSystem network, neural Node to neural Node. Our body is the input device, and the display is the brain's visual system, but the visuals can be bypassed during deep Node communication thought to thought.

However, even with all the soma technology available, many Nua cannot use it to defend themselves because, long ago, they abandoned their own ancestry. Soma is almost depleted in their blood and, in some nations, it has vanished completely. To adapt to space travel and to new worlds they now practice genetic engineering and body augmentation, moving further and further away from their origins and making soma even scarcer. And some Nua don't even have a neural interface. We, who follow our Ancestor, Somg, have remained unchanged as a species since we had our eyes on the stars, long before we colonized our first world. Since then, we and most of the Tue Nua have been walking separate cultural and technological paths, settling the Galaxy and exploring places much farther away. Still, we all are a part of the same Commonwealth.

Soma is a delicate tool, but it allows our bodies to achieve optimum performance and is the reason we mature mentally quite fast. Once we Danna reach three years of age, we are trained to survive harsh environments and withstand any possible threats. Although we age and eventually die, we never fall ill and our average life span is around half a standard millennium.

Rumors are that some individuals possess Falaighnn, the complete form of soma and, though they could easily use it, they do not need siSystem or any other additional technology. Kennar Fargann is closely related to kennar Falgh, the most ancient kennar in Danna history, which spans almost a quarter of our Galaxy's age. We both trace our ancestry to the first known owner of Falaighnn. My father, Kieren Fargann, is one of these rumored people.

I haven't told anyone yet, but I killed a Hunter. The only reason my parents didn't see the data is because I was disconnected from the siSystem at the time.

But now I am sure my father knows. Otherwise he would not have agreed on this rescue mission.

I just hope he won't tell Mom, or I'm in big trouble.