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

Episode #26

I started to develop a weird habit of checking my clock too often.

[2.44.7.15.11].267.8.2 - 28.18.2.[15]

Twenty-ninth hour of second day of ninth week, year 267.

And minus another half an hour on the counter.

Baro's words were ringing in my ears all the way to the cargo bay. If they were indeed the truth, I must not allow anything of this sort to happen with Orewen or Eyuran. Anger was slowly eating away my fear and numbness. But the sticky black feeling remained in my soma, fluctuating and tense. It was unacceptable. And I didn't see any reason the Medan would lie to me. He seemed like a straightforward person. From what I had learned, he wasn't one to hide his feelings well either. I really wanted to ask him about his family, but my mouth wouldn't open, since I knew he might not see them ever again.

Quennah had almost completed the series of shifts, bringing us closer to the inner system on the follow-up course for Father's spacecraft. Hunter vessels remained in pursuit, adjusting their courses to ours. The Second and Third Kernels continued to watch their positions and changes in velocity. It reminded me of an old board game, only in four dimensions—planning, positioning, evading the closing. If the enemy sandwich-shifts from both sides of our ship, the game will be over. Yet they were not in a hurry to do so and it bothered everyone.

Aona's decision to join us on ship's defense personally wasn't completely unexpected. Her main functions as a Kernel were Mission Control and Data Analysis. Darna was the DIVE and Reaction Control System Kernel, and Tara held the job of the Navigation and Positioning System Kernel. These three were Quennah's actual piloting team. The more people in battle the better, but we could not afford to lose or damage the Second and the Third.

The cargo bay welcomed me with another surprise.

This was the first time I had seen anything like this. A gearbot that appeared as jet black as an outer space shadow, but had no color of its own. It stood there and yet it didn't, being slightly blurred around the edges, regardless of what angle I looked at it from. The machine dropped no shadow and nothing reflected on its surface.

It happened to be the one missing from the sarx and Mom's latest creation. Avila Sorenen Fargann became the first to successfully miniaturize and install the DIVE on an exomachine to be used even by those without soma. According to specs, this assault test-type bore the name of Bradoh, a giant flying nocturnal predator which fed on large mammals and frequently attacked people. The exomachine didn't look anything like a bird, though.

Exomachines have similarities with form-fitting battle suits, but their frame is much larger and bulkier than the wearer or powered armor, and the wearer's limbs do not extend into the machine's manipulators. There is a single-person cockpit instead.

Bradoh had two operating modes—semi-autonomous and autonomous, with the former currently running. The machine was completely versatile and dexterous, and each joint was driven by a high-accuracy servo system.

And boy, was Eyuran right that we were lucky we didn't fight this one! Even if we were to win, a fair amount of damage to Quennah and a lot more deaths would have been guaranteed. Bradoh would also probably have been destroyed. I wondered if Father thought the same and stepped back to avoid the clash.

Still, why is he heading for Medas without trying to contact us? It's as if he is keeping silent to run away from something other than Hunters.

Father, why are you running away from Quennah?

"Aunt Rifa, are there any changes in the enemy count?" I addressed her Node.

"No. Still two on our tail and one slowly following Kieren. No new presence detected."

Something doesn't feel right. What are they waiting for?

It couldn't be... Why didn't I notice this before?! The space close to our ship was different. The oscillating disturbance in my soma grew wilder, with the source being neither the Hunter ships nor my emotional state. Buried in my thoughts, I was too slow to distinguish the difference! The anxious sticky feeling... Falaighnn was screaming, resonating with someone. Someone very powerful. And that someone was getting closer and closer.

"Below us," I whispered, resisting the wave of sudden sickness. Baro caught me before I fell to the floor.

"Rjgnis, what's wrong?!" He lifted me up in his arms.

"Aona, Aona! Below us!" I shouted with my last strength, making everyone present turn their heads to me. "Move away!"

"What?! There's nothing on my sensors!" She hurried towards us. "You are so pale! I'm calling Orewen here!"

Before I opened my mouth to protest, mine and Baro's bodies started to shake. As I soon realized, it was not us but the ship. The shaking was slight at first, yet the tremor grew stronger with every second.

The worried expression on Aona's face suddenly changed to terrified.

"Brace yourselves! I'm getting a DIVE-response right outside my hull! Dear Ancestor, that thing is huge!"

The next moment a violent shock knocked everyone to the ground, followed by a complete blackout, marking the arrival of a stellar-diameter Harvester spacecraft that simply swallowed Quennah.

This is how I met my real enemy.