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

Episode #35

Somewhere in the depths of cold, dark space was the place of the dead, where in silence the thickest blood screamed of both people and ships. As I stood among them, my heart's rhythm embraced extinction, listening to these chilling, angry voices.

[|] System Forced Startup_

Fargann QuanTech Industries :: Falgh BIOME Industries

BrainDrive siSystem FALAHA 9.0.6

Plant age: 217 856 413 seconds

Node updated 9 676 859 seconds ago

[|] System Check_ Complete

OP_STATUS: CRITICAL, 98.3% OF CORE SEGMENTS FAILED TO LOAD

[Event Log_]

[|] Allocating system primary functions to operating segments_ Complete

[|] Emergency Marker_ Call All ON

[|] Network Status: 1 unidentified Node nearby

WARNING: PROTOCOL MISMATCH, UNRECOGNIZED COGNITION TYPE, AUTONOMOUS INCOMING LINK ACCEPTANCE DISALLOWED

E333: FAILED TO INITIATE THE UNKNOWN ENTITY ANALYSIS. CORE SEGMENTS MISSING OR INACTIVE

[|] Verifying System Operator Link_ Connection Failed

E209: NO NEURAL RESPONSE

[|] Initializing siSystem Deep Scan_

[|] Reading Data_ Complete

[|] Analyzing_ Complete

E001: OPERATOR'S INTERNAL FUNCTIONS INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE

WARNING: NO BIORECOVERY SIGNS PRESENT

E000: SOMA LIFEFORM UNRESPONSIVE

[Event Log_]

Brain Death at [2.44.7.15.11].267.8.3 - 0.0.3.[13]

[|] Emergency Marker_ Autonomous Passive Broadcast ON

[|] siSystem Node now terminating its functions_ Farwell

Did I doze off? What a disturbing dream.

Relaxed, I was sitting in shallow hot water, while Orewen and Rifa were at the far, deeper end of the pool, talking and laughing quietly as he was massaging her shoulders and back. It looked like those two were having a good time.

No... A few hours from now the Medan distress call will come in...

Medan?

Done with washing, Eyuran approached me and sat by my side in the pool, his bare shoulder pressing against mine.

"Squeaky clean now," I said, smiling.

"Yeah, feels good." He snuggled into me, enswathed in his usual soft and comforting smell of handmade herbal soap.

Every time I tell him I will make him my spouse, Eyuran gets all flustered and blushes so wildly it radiates through his dusky complexion. I love teasing him on this matter. Yet he enjoys the premise as much as I do and he continues to court me every way he can think of, which sometimes gets him in trouble. But it's not something I can control; if not careful, I tend to destroy the regular order of things quite often. According to my father, it would deprive even the most hardboiled risk-taker of sleep although, also according to him, that is not necessarily a bad thing. However, if Eyuran is to find out I have Falaighnn, he would try keeping up with me and one day he might get himself killed. That thought terrified me more than anything. How should I tell him? Formally, he is my attendant male. We had secretly decided on this even before our parents arranged the whole thing and Eyuran will officially become my consort after we are both mature enough to share quarters.