Crystalline Space (Dark Stars Book 1)

2

"Huh?" I wanted to say something more articulate, but that was the best I had at the moment.

"Forgive me, this all must come as quite a shock." Commander Colren took a seat at a metal table near the viewport. He gestured to an acrylic chair across from him.

"You could say that." Dumbfounded, I stumbled toward the empty seat. I couldn't stop staring out the viewport at my home planet of Erusan. Was I really in space? I'd seen images and tried to imagine the view from a spaceship, but this... It didn't seem possible.

I took a shaky breath. "How did I get here?"

"I'll explain everything, don't worry," Colren replied.

"None of this makes any sense. What do you mean you have a mission for me? I'm no one."

Colren examined me with his piercing hazel eyes. "Had you recently come into contact with a crystal that exhibited a dark cloud?"

I struggled to think back to the events from a few hours before. "Yeah, I was hanging out with my friends outside of town, doing localized resets. We were just about to do another reset when we noticed it."

"In that moment, you were... altered," he explained.

I gaped at him. "What? How?"

"It's something like an immunity. You had a brief touch with the Darkness during the reset just prior, so when you encountered it again during the global reset, you were prepared to hang onto your sense of self."

My heart sank. "What about my friends? They touched the infected crystal, too."

"Unfortunately, we can only perform the extraction on one person at a time. You were the fortunate one," Colren replied.

"What about my family? My world?" Fear and worry clouded my mind. My parents, my brother, everyone who meant anything to me was still down there. They couldn't be gone.

The commander took a slow breath. "The world is suspended and its records are preserved in the Master Archive."

"Suspended? What in the stars does that mean?"

"It's a way of locking the records so they don't become corrupted. It's the best we can do once the Darkness infects a planet," he continued. "But you can help us do more."

I barked a nervous laugh. "Yeah. Right!" Either the last reset had messed with my head, or the man across from me was insane. I was leaning toward the former option; people didn't randomly wake up on spaceships. I had to be dreaming.

"Elle, I know this might seem like an elaborate prank, but I assure you it's not. You're special and we need you." The commander looked me square in the eyes—dead serious, as far as I could tell.

I inched back in my chair. "Whatever you think I am, I'm not. I can't help you." The Hegemony needed scientists or heroic soldiers. Not me. As much as I aspired to be a Ranger, I knew it wouldn't happen. I was physically broken—and I certainly wasn't a genius.

The commander folded his hands on the table. "You're exactly who we need."

"I'm a kid."

He nodded. "The young do seem to be the most drawn during the extraction; there's a fearlessness in youth. I'd never discount someone because of age alone."

I still didn't believe any of it was real, but he certainly did. I figured if I heard him out, maybe that would end the insanity; all I wanted was to go back home and finish my summer vacation. I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat, studying his expression for any tells that might reveal his true intentions. "What is it you want me to do?"