Gianna stood frozen.
“Nero!” Mark called again as Dr. Reynard broke the seal and began pulling him through. “Our mission is aborted. Come on, damn it!”
She couldn’t go back now. Not when she’d come so far. Even if she survived the return trip, she would go mad from not knowing what had gone wrong. Breva was here. He had the answers.
“Nero! Don’t make us leave you.”
Gianna slunk backwards, keeping her body pressed against the wall. sSuryn eyes darted her way. First a couple, then dozens more. Chailem licked her own eye in anxiety.
“Leave me.” The words were simple English, and yet tasted so odd in her mouth.
“Damn it, Nero. If you think--”
Gianna tapped her avi-screen and the helmet speaker went silent. She ran, the impact of each step surging through her entire body. The pain in her bones became unbearable. She pressed on until she retched, her obstinate stomach unwilling to give up its paltry liquid contents.
But she couldn’t rest. Wet footsteps slapped behind her. She glanced back and saw a mob of sSuryn after her. Globs of sludge hit the back of her suit, and as it dried, her run became not much more than a quick limp. They were upon her. Padded fingers pulled at her pressure suit, tring to pry off her avi-screen and unscrew her helmet.
Chailem jumped from her shoulder and stuck to the ceiling. “Please, Gianna. Only a little more! Breva is not far.”
Gianna clawed her way forward, cussing her pursuers in every sSuryn swear she knew until she collapsed. She had no energy left to scream, so instead she closed her eyes and waited for death.
But death did not come. She looked up to see the sSuryn mob panting and drooling, not even a meter away. They dared not come closer.
“Chailem!” Metlath croaked, deep and throaty, followed by a string of wet words that Gianna couldn’t unravel. Chailem winked a bulbous eye at Gianna, then jumped down into Metlath’s arms and pointed innocently at Gianna as if this had all been her idea. Metlath stepped forward as if to curse Gianna, but then his eyes fell upon something behind her, and the sSuryn scuttled away en masse.
There was a presence, and Gianna knew before looking who it was. She pulled herself together and stood, despite the knotted ache that was her entire body. Her eyes teared up as she faced him. She kept her composure, and held her arms up in front of her, orchestrating a deep forward bow. Her attempt at grace was short-lived as her helmet tumbled forward and clunked against the floor. She nearly gagged on wet, stale air that smelled like a pond gone foul.
Breva stepped forward and returned her stately gesture. “Akuotraaam sur dekpth Fevch.”
“And a wealth of good tidings to you, highly endeared friend,” Gianna stuttered the greeting in sSuryn. Her eyes darted all over him. When he took a step closer, she stepped back and covered her mouth. Whatever microbes were fluttering around this place, she’d already gotten a lungful. But perhaps for him it was not too late. “Stay back,” she said. “I don’t want to get you sick.”
“You needn’t worry about that, Gianna.”
Gianna kept her hands to her face. They shook badly. The cryo-chamber had not been kind to her. Deep wrinkles had set in at the edges of her mouth and eyes, and her skin refused to hold onto moisture. And yet Breva stood as handsome as he had the day his message had reached Earth. “I can’t imagine what you think of me,” Gianna said.
“Your messages did you no justice.” Breva’s throat bulged, and for a brief moment, his inner glow lit up the corridor. “But you shouldn’t have come.”
“We had to come. You were in danger, and we owed you that at least. You asked for our help!”
“I’ve cursed that message a thousand times. I should have disabled the automated beacon before I damaged the ship.”
“You did this? But I don’t understand. Everything here is so different. Not at all what I imagined. Where is the sSuryn’s grand culture? What about the stories you told me? Was it all a lie?”
“Not a lie. What I taught you of sSuryn culture is the only thing of consequence. Our culture is our legacy.”
“Then how do you explain those ... those monsters?”
“We did not begin our journey this way, but eight hundred years will change many things about a people.”
“You want me to believe that you’ve been aboard this ship for hundreds of years? Don’t lie to me, Breva. Tell me why you did this to me. I’ve wasted forty years of my life!” Gianna’s anger swelled and she took a swing at Breva. Her hand passed through him, followed by the rest of her. Ripples flowed across his body, waves overlapping until they cancelled each other out, and Breva reappeared solid once again. She landed face first, and Breva’s expression turned from sorrow to worry. His arms reached out as if he wanted to help her.
“Please, let me explain ...”
“You’re a holo-projection? I fell in love with a holo-projection?”
“I am more than that. I am the keeper of the knowledge of what were once our people. I reached out to the stars, for someone, anyone to share our legacy with. I thought that was all I was doing, guaranteeing that we would not be forgotten. But then I met you. And merely existing as someone’s memory was no longer enough. I longed to be with you, but in the end, I could not subject you to ... what we have become.”
“But you’re not even real!”
“I am as real as I always have been.”
Gianna bit her lip and braced herself against the intensity of her emotions. Never in her life had she been this angry at anyone. She’d never let anyone else get so close to her heart.
“You used me,” she whispered.
“That was not my intent. I apologize if it seems that way. But you understood me like no one else has. You challenged me, and for the first time in centuries, I felt alive. Can you blame me for not wanting to be alone in this universe?”
That she could not. Had Breva not reached out, her future would have been cut short by a brazen step into oncoming traffic. Breva hadn’t wasted forty years of her life. He’d given her forty years of purpose. And now here they were, her and her age, him and his agelessness. He flicked his tongue out straight at her eye. She didn’t blink.
“You were never alone,” Gianna said in English as a tremble rushed through her--the scraping and searing of their ships uncoupling. Instead of being overwhelmed by the uncertainty that lay ahead, Gianna took comfort that those would be the last words of English that ever passed her lips.
###
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ALSO AVAILABLE
Delightfully Twisted Tales: Volume One – Close Encounters of the Worst Kind
Delightfully Twisted Tales: Volume Two – Fire, Fangs and Brimstone
Delightfully Twisted Tales: Volume Three – The Weirdos Next Door
Delightfully Twisted Tales: Volume Four – Wisps, Spells and Faerie Tales
Delightfully Twisted Tales: Volume Five – Love and Other Filthy Habits
Delightfully Twisted Tales: Volume Six – Family Antimatters
Delightfully Twisted Tales: Volume Seven – The Wide, Wide World of Weird
Delightfully Twisted Tales: Volume Eight – The Worst of Both Worlds
and more soon to come!
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