Out of This World

Krel

She turned to look at him, clear and perfect and still one moment, the whole world going to hell the next.

Her eyes widened and she sprinted towards him, screaming "KREL! GET DOWN!" When she reached him a split second later, she flung him out of the way. He hit the ground, chin bouncing off the forest floor with a thunk that would've split the skin if he were still under the effects of the transduction.

The blast from the hidden ionic cannon enveloped her, covering her in white light and fire and pain. It was like losing his parents all over again, only this time, permanently. Humans don't come back.

It felt like the world was moving in slow motion, Krel cold with fear. She was there one moment, gone the next. No, no. No. No no no no no, this wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. There was no way this could be happening.

"ANDROMEDA!" he screamed, feeling his throat tear at the scream. Rushing forward across the clearing, he searched for any sign of her, frigid fear turning his veins to ice and filling his head with both a cold clarity and a panicked fog. "Please, please," he whimpered, scanning for any sign of her frantically.

There! He saw her form and rushed to her, scooping her out of the fire and dragging her a few dozen feet to safety.

He sank to his knees, sob catching in his throat. Her head was turned to the side, obscuring the right side of her face. He cupped her jaw in one hand and gently turned her head, only to pale in horror at what he found. It was mostly missing, and he stopped looking after that. He did not want to remember her face this way.

"Not again, please, Seklos, please," he whispered, voice trembling as he held her under the trees, the only light coming from his glowing form and the golden fire. With a free hand he searched until his hand was pressed up against her battered chest cavity, feeling for a heartbeat. He held his breath, waiting.... Nothing.

"NO!" he keened, gripping the fabric of her shirt and sobbing into her burned hair. It wasn't supposed to end like this, it wasn't! It couldn't end like this! They hadn't even said goodbye. She had loved him.

In the distance he heard familiar screaming and the sounds of serrators being fired. All of it was peripheral, the only thing that mattered was Andy. The only thing in the whole world that mattered was Andy.

Suddenly, very strong arms scooped him and Andy up, Varvatos sprinting in the direction of the Mothership. Aja ran behind, firing her serrator behind her at whomever had attacked Krel and Andy.

The run back was an adrenaline filled, shock ridden blur for Krel. He didn't even form a coherent thought until they were in the Mothership, and Krel was running alongside Varvatos into her inner maze.

He skidded to a halt in front of the stasis chambers housing the king and queen, Krel nearly running into the big man as he stumbled to a halt. He looked around wildly, attempting to figure out what to do.

"The spare!" Aja exclaimed frantically. "Help me with the spare!"

That seemed to snap Krel out of his shocked stupor enough to get him moving, stumbling up to the control panel and retrieving the spare pod. On the other side of Mama and Papa, facing the back wall, the two spare pods sprung up.

Vex dashed to the nearest one, the one on the left, setting down an unconscious Andy inside of it. The gel enveloped her unmoving form, hair billowing out around her like a cloud of golden spider silk. A few stray bubbles escaped her mouth as she settled to a neutral position.

"Mother," Krel said, voice raw, "Mother, please save her. Please rewrite her molecular structure and begin regeneration."

"I am afraid I cannot do that," Mother's voice said solemnly. "I am only made to repair energy based life forms, I am not programmed to understand biology."