Astral Legacy Book 1

16

Several hours had passed and they had all been quiet the whole time. Kale had figured out the rifle with a little bit of help from Kershala on how to read some of the symbols. Kershala himself had left the navigation interface for a couple of hours and was hard at work repairing the AI core. Anubis had been walking him through it almost step by step even though Kershala insisted that he knew what he was doing. Kale could feel himself getting tired but didn't want to leave until he thought Kershala might leave with him. He felt strange, he had been sleeping alone for the last few years but now that he was used to laying with Kershala he didn't want to sleep alone anymore. Then he realized how clingy he was being and stood up.

"I think I'm gonna go catch some sleep before we get to where we're going. I wanna be rested when you introduce me to these people," Kale smiled as he picked the rifle up and headed for the lift.

"Are you sure?" asked Kershala looking up from what he was working on. He had set up a workstation on a table to the far right of the bridge. "I am almost done with this section of the repairs; I will be down shortly."

"Yeah I'm sure. I'm gonna fall asleep on my feet if I stay here. Come down when you're ready okay," said Kale. Kershala nodded and Kale stepped into the lift. As the door shut, he leaned back against the wall. The dizziness had left him after the first hour or so of travel and now it didn't seem to bother him at all anymore. It wasn't long before the lift stopped, and the door opened. The dimly lit hallway was now looming ahead of him and without someone else there with him it was quite unnerving.

He stepped off the lift and into the quiet hallway, as he walked the only immediate sound were his footfalls, he came to the doorway to the living quarters and the door opened. As he walked in the first thing he noticed, was the light reflecting from the window beside the bed, it was like they were travelling through a tunnel of light. He stepped in and the door slid shut behind him, he sat and listened at the door for several seconds before moving on. "You're freaking yourself out, there's nothing to worry about." He shook his head and walked to the bed and sat down. Surprisingly the metal wasn't cold like he expected to feel. He sat the weapon beside the bed and laid back, rubbing his eyes realizing how tired he really was. It didn't matter that he had no blankets or pillow he closed his eyes and was already starting to fall asleep. It wasn't long as he lay there halfway between fully asleep and dozing that he thought he heard something move in the room. He quickly shot up and looked around the room not seeing anything. As large as the room was made it hard to know if he would even be able to see anything right away. There were several things that something could hide behind. He rubbed his face not sure if his mind was just playing tricks on him given that it could just be another effect of the FTL travel. He slowly laid back down this time laying on his side so he wouldn't be able to look at the rest of the room, he stared at the window the light flickered from and tried to focus on it to put himself back to sleep. He was starting to think un-rationally, given all the beings that lost their lives at the hands of the Arktora and what could potentially be lingering in that trophy room from the atrocities committed. "Space ghosts really? You need to shut off." There was another sound, this time quick moving and very much like light footsteps. Kale shot up again and looked around the room suddenly feeling like he was not alone. He grabbed the rifle from where he had sat it and turned it on. He looked slowly around the room, there was nothing out of place but as he looked around, but he felt suddenly uneasy. Given everything he had learned in the last few months he imagined cloaking technology wasn't such a far stretch from reality anymore. He stood up from the bed and readied the rifle he held his breath and stayed as quiet as he could. "Anubis are you there?" he asked quietly, but there was no response. Anubis was either incapacitated due to the repairs its core was undergoing or it wasn't monitoring because Kershala wasn't with him. If there was something in the room with him, he was otherwise alone with no to contact Kershala. He could feel himself starting to sweat a bead of water running down his forehead, it was so quiet he could hear his heartbeat. He put his back to the wall and slowly scanned every corner of the room. He stopped and focused on the corner opposite him, he could see some sort of distortion and an almost humanoid shape that seemed to be standing and looking at him. The light from the window stopped shining as the ship seemed to drop out of FTL. Kale took his eyes off the corner to look at the window and could see the ship didn't appear to be moving. He quickly looked glanced back to what he had been staring at and whatever it was, rushed him. He managed to get a shot off hitting the figure in the chest making it visible, whatever it was it was wearing some kind of protective suit. He couldn't get a look at much of it before he was grappling with it. It grabbed the weapon and easily ripped it from his grip throwing it to the ground. "Holy shit," he called. Whatever it was took a step back from him, he did his best to get his composure. "I'm not here to cause any trouble don't hurt me." Kale didn't know what else to do, all he could do was hope that somehow this thing would understand him and stand down.