the last pilot

Smoke from ice

    The planet was strange, and Aria was alone. She knew this was free space, a Helios safe zone, but she was too afraid for Zan to care. She was alone on Brilla, amidst a large gathering of alien creatures, large and small. Her pod had crashed in the desert, only a few miles away from a slav town. Aria sat by herself, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone, unsure of what would happen if she didnt.

     Aria tried to stay calm, knowing her heart was weak and too much stress could be problem causing to her. This was not her world anymore, there was no elders to guide her, no Zan to protect her. She was a fragile sixteen year old girl, with no combat training or means of self protection. She had spent all her life studying on ways to heal, to save lives, but never how to gaurd her own.

      "Hey, you in on the next bid?" a gruff voice asked her, and she looked up to see a cruel, fur covered ape like face. The creatur was large, with a thin frame yet stocky arms. "The names Frixe. All new bidders get ten thousand credits. Beyond that your on your own."

     Frixe handed Aria the money, then walked away. Even trade planets had some rules. Rules to regulate the trade flow and increase profits overall. Aria had no interest in buying anyone or anything, but she decided to be polite. She stood, and made her way to the front of the crowd where she could see cages.

     Each cage held some creature from almost every imagible species. Vernics to Grastilon, they were all there. Each creature apeared to be young, but one caught Arias eye right away. In the center most cage, curled in a tight ball in the corner farthest away, lay a small female human. She wore worn out and torn jeans, with a blood covered purple top.

    From this distance, Aria speculated that the gir was about five years old, and the beaten, abused sight of her brought tears to her eyes. This was cruel, horrible and hard to stomach.

      A deep voice snapped her gaze away from the child, the voice of the creature who introduced himself as Frixe.

    "Attention everone. Todays bidding is now in session. We will start with the human child. Bids start at one hundred credits."

~~~~~

    The Zelpha made its way towards Brilla, as I looked down at Iris. We were now in the ships cabin space. I sat on the edge of the bed as the small girl slept, curled up with her head on my lap. Despite the Helios aspects of her body, she was a normal child. Scared, ambitious, full of the last remaining innocence she had. The thirteen year old let out a content sigh  as she slept, breathing reguarly.

     I opened my mind, and spoke my bioheart command silently in my head, once again giving myself over to the Zelpha. I needed to know more. I needed every last bit of info I could acquire about the keys  about restoring the earth. The Zelphas Mechanical heart contianed a log of thousads of human DNA samples, and if the other ships hearts held the same info, we could restore human life to this new earth.

        Inside the full control of my bioheart, I coud see the Zelpha nine as an entity, and i could see myself interacting with her.

    "Zelpha, tell me about the keys to earth."

    She looked at me, and began to speak in a loud yet gentle voice. "My brothers and sisters, the other Zelphas, were designed to restore planets. The elders encrypted each of us with a set of information describing an aspect of the planet called earth. We were injected with human DNA, and given the ability to form life, to create a new safety, a new world. This world will directly mirror the lost planet earth.

~~~~

    She didnt know how to react. She wanted to protect the destroyed child, but the price was rising fast. It wasnt an issue of wanting any credits left over, it was the matter of having a limted amount. Something her mind wouldnt let her bid, but she couldnt just walk away.