Life, as all things, hails from a shared source. Before the creation of that source there was nothing. No planets, no materials and thus, no life.
But within the blink of an eye a spark of light brought a change to this state of stagnance and the universe, the universe we know and love, was born. The building stones of life, the fundaments of stars, all of it came from this one source and spread with vast speed through the nothingness. It continued to grow, to expand, beyond the nothingness and set in motion an event that all life is thankful for.
Stars were born, rocked to the silent noise of vacuum and the energies of their parent. Those materials that didn’t make it that far formed planets, orbiting around their mothers. Solar systems eventually formed, then shortly after, galaxies became visible to one another. As the wheel of time turned, clusters of galaxies populated the darkness. Billions upon billions of stars and planets finally inhabited the infinite expansion of space.
But it didn’t stop there. The universe that was created, this endless vast space, decided this wasn’t enough. It split into other universes, several copies of the first one. Soon enough a number of universes existed and each with their own different types of materials and potential sources of life.
Then, after a time of waiting, the first signs of life began to appear in the various dimensions. Bacterial lifeforms born from the many oceans across the vast area of space, showed no slack in populating their native worlds. They grew and evolved, developed and changed. After centuries of evolution there came to be on some worlds bipedal creatures that showed promising signs of intelligence. These humanoids, as they came to be called, started inventing and building things. Tools were created to get better result from their labors. Clusters of settlements began to form across the surfaces of these worlds. They built mechanical constructs that rolled across the lands, transporting them to reaches they hadn’t been before. It was not long before they even conquered the skies with mechanical machines acting like avian creatures. They developed faster than anything seen before.
A troubling behavior slowly revealed itself during these humanoids’ evolution from bacteria. They are violent and seek battle with anyone or anything. Wars plague worlds, scorching the lands and taking innumerable lives. However, they never once stop to think about why. It comes natural to them.
That is because these humanoids, the collective entity known as mankind, are the destroyers of things. They seek to explore, to invent, to develop, to live and to conquer. They seek amazement of the mind, adventures for the body and a need to expand beyond their domain. Space was the final frontier for these humans, but it was far into the future for them before they could explore the far reaches of the cosmos.
Except for one race of humans. They raced ahead, unknowing of the other human races in the same universe and in other dimensions. Metal behemoths eventually roamed the skies and explored the cosmos beyond anything they had thought possible. They developed superior technology unlike anything ever seen. They even created artificial life, a vital building stone in their chase for godhood.
For that’s what they really wanted.
To be God.
~~****~~
5 years ago, Northern Beskanti, Cancri.
Sigrid turned over another page in her Knight System Logic book when a loud crash from the kitchen pierced her ears.
What in the… Angelika.
In a hurry she threw the book down on the table in front of her and rushed out of the living room. The only one at home except for herself was her younger sister, Angelika. She hadn’t seen her for a while and Sigrid had assumed she was resting.
“I’m sorry, sis.”
A face full of shame greeted Sigrid when she stumbled into the kitchen.
“Angelika,” she said while her eyes travelled over the mess on the floor. “What happened?”
“I-I’m not sure. I think I stumbled on the table leg.”
Sigrid went down on her knees beside her sister and checked. True enough; the leg of the table had moved a fair distance together with the rug.
“You are bleeding.”
She hadn’t noticed until now, but on Angelika’s hand there was a piece of a ceramic stuck in it. Blood dripped onto the floor.
“I’m fine, really,” Angelika said and quickly covered the wound with her other hand. “But what will Mother say… That was one of her favorite vases.”
“Angelika, don’t worry about that. Here, let me help you up,” Sigrid said and took her sister’s uninjured hand to help her up on her feet. “Hold still, I’m going to pull this out.”
She took a hold of the ceramic and pulled it out. Angelika grimaced from the stinging pain.
“Ouch… What are we going to do about the vase, sis?”
“I said don’t worry. It was an accident. You know how understanding Mother is.”
Angelika lowered her head, but eventually nodded.
“More importantly, how could you not see the table leg? It’s hard to hit.”
Angelika froze for a second at the question, but then relaxed. She raised her head and met Sigrid’s deep blue eyes.
“My right eye… I think it’s getting worse. After I woke up from my nap it’s darker and more blurry than before.”
“Let me see,” Sigrid said and reached for Angelika’s head. She let it rest gently in her hands while she stared into her sister’s right eye.
“I think you are right. It’s hard to see, but it seems brighter than yesterday. We need to let Doctor Emolus take a look at it.”
She let go of Angelika’s head and they fell into silence. Angelika covered the wound on her hand and let her gaze drop on the floor. Sigrid observed her silently and wondered if she felt ashamed or if there was something else on her mind pestering her.
“Sis…”
“Yes?”
“Why was I born with this eye?”
She had asked that several times and every time Sigrid didn’t know how to answer. She wanted to give her sister an explanation. She wanted to explain to her why she had gotten that eye that had caused her so much misfortune.
But she couldn’t.
“Angelika, I promise I will give you a clear answer sometime in the future. I’ll do everything I can to help you find out, but for now I still don’t know.”
Angelika stepped over the crushed ceramic and tugged at Sigrid’s shirt. She looked up at her with gloomy eyes.
“Promise?” she said in a quiet voice.
Sigrid felt a need inside her to hug her sister, which she did. She let her fingers dance over her hair and patted her on the head.
“Yes…I promise.”
~~****~~
When Sigrid returned to her apartment with her newly bought clothes, she was stopped in the doorway by Forseti. He told her that there was an informant waiting for her at a bus stop north of the city, but when Sigrid asked who it was Forseti refused to answer. She tried various ways to persuade him, but he kept quiet.
The next morning she got on the bus and headed north. This time she had Forseti with her and she was dressed in her usual combat attire. Thanks to that she earned a few suspicious glances from people on their way to work, wondering why a combat mage in such strange clothing would take the bus to her destination. Luckily, no one made an attempt to inquire about who she was.
On the way out the weather had turned sour, and big, dark clouds occluded the sun. The weather report had stated earlier in the morning that a possible storm might arrive from the sea. Not that it bothered Sigrid; she had other matters on her mind.
When the bus arrived at the stop, Sigrid stepped off and took a seat in the bus cage by the side of the road. Large drops of rain had already begun their descent, sliding down the windows of the cage. Sigrid sat there in silence, waiting. She hadn’t bothered asking Forseti anymore about who she was supposed to meet. His virtual lips were sealed and knowing his personality, he would never tell.
The rain increased in strength and the noise of the droplets hitting the ground started to grow louder. Puddles were starting to form around the cage when Sigrid heard a noise. It sounded like a boot splashing through water and she turned to its direction.
The figure of a tall man stepped through the rain and walked towards her. He wore a black raincoat that was slung over his whole figure so Sigrid couldn’t see his face. His posture was hunched, as if trying to avoid being seen. As he got closer, Sigrid could hear an additional pair of feet walking behind him. She couldn’t see the person but judging from the steps taken, the other person was lighter.
The man stopped a few meters in front of her, still out in the rain and spoke.
“Knight Captain, it has been a good while since I last saw you.”
She recognized the voice immediately but couldn’t believe her ears. She got up on her feet and stood just outside the cage, letting the rain fall on her too.
“Ragnar?”
“Yes, it’s me.” He tilted his head upwards and let the hood fall off. A familiar face was looking at her and whatever doubts about his identity vanished. “But I’m not alone.”
He snapped his fingers. The figure behind him stepped out as if commanded and took of its hood. Blonde hair flowed down the shoulders and a peculiar yellow eye peeked forth.
At the sight of that, Sigrid’s throat locked up.
“I’m sorry for not letting you know I was alive,” the girl said and walked up to Sigrid. Her arms embraced the taller woman and pressed against her.
Sigrid slowly came back to her senses and touched the girl hugging her, as if assuring herself that this was not a dream.
“Angelika… I thought… how?”
Tears flowed while she spoke, because this wasn’t what she had expected. Her sister who was kidnapped two years ago was now hugging her, on another planet, three-hundred light years from their real home. It was too surreal.
“I thought you were dead…and you too Ragnar.”
“I’m not that easily killed off, you know.”
His bragging demeanor never took a pause and even in this moment he retained it. Sigrid smiled at memories flooding up and held Angelika tighter. Ragnar smiled too but kept his distance. He observed them for a few seconds before turning around and his face turned into something akin to worry and annoyance.
“Knight Captain, not that the situation fits, but, we are still being chased by someone.”
Sigrid released her hug on Angelika and looked up.
“’Chased’?”
Ragnar nodded and let his face show a hidden sense of guilt. If it was intentional or not she couldn’t decide.
“We ran into some trouble after we landed and I couldn’t take care of Ms. Angelika thanks to a wound I had received earlier. I had to make use of her… powers.”
“Powers?” Sigrid was dumbfounded and didn’t know what was going on. Angelika remained oddly quiet and let Ragnar do the talking.
“Oh right, right, you don’t know about that. Well… shit. Come on, let’s get out of here first and I’ll tell you later.”
He grabbed Angelika’s hand and began to run towards a house not far from where they were. Sigrid followed after a few seconds of hesitation. Her ears picked up something mechanical amongst the rain, something almost like a helicopter.
The ground they ran on was muddy and slippery, but they managed to retain their footing all the way over the field. When they arrived at the house they noticed it was abandoned, which was perfect for the moment. Ragnar released Angelika’s hand and slammed his body against the front door. It was weaker than he had thought and he literally flew through it and landed inside.
“Are you OK?” Sigrid asked.
“I’m just fine. My left arm is broken anyway.”
“…your arm is broken? That’s just typical not telling me about it.”
Sigrid had regained her senses fully by now and ordered him to sit down on a chair. He took off his coat and jacket exposing the broken arm fully. It was bloody and bent at a strange angle.
“While I work on fixing this,” Sigrid said and began to fix a bandage thanks to a first-aid kit she had found left behind in the house,” tell me everything. Start from two years ago.”
Ragnar sighed and nodded. His tone was that of someone who really didn’t want to talk and just wanted to enjoy the momentary peace.
“Very well. Angelika, you know that part best.”
Angelika sat on a sofa nearby with her legs close to each other and her hands on her lap. She had watched the two while they talked.
“That night, on your twenty-fifth birthday, it’s true I got kidnapped. I was awakened by some men in my room scrounging about but before I could scream they put something over my mouth. I got sleepy again and I don’t remember anything after that until they woke me up. I was in some sort of basement, a prison cell perhaps, with guards around it. I can’t recall what they were talking about, as my mind was still foggy, but I think they mentioned me a few times. They left after that. I was never really awake throughout the whole ordeal.
After some time had passed, I’m not sure how long it was, they returned and began their interrogation. They strapped me to this strange chair, put some machine on my head and-“
“Angelika, stop.”
Ragnar held up his other hand and interrupted Angelika’s account. She had begun to ramble and was losing focus. He also noticed that the more Sigrid listened to her story, the more flustered she had became and made more and more mistakes while bandaging his arm.
“I’ll take it from here,” he said. “Knight Captain, do you remember the days after she got kidnapped and I was unable to come with you on a few occasions?”
“Yeah, I remember. You told me you had a doctor appointment or that you would be meeting with someone.”
“Yes, that. Actually, I was lying.”
Sigrid stopped what she was doing and stared at him.
“What?”
“I didn’t want to tell you back then because… well you weren’t very stable the few days immediately after Angelika’s kidnapping. I began to investigate the matter myself and a few interesting things popped up.”
“And how long did the investigations go on?”
“Until a few days before the revolution. I disappeared that day without telling you. I wanted to but something got in the way.”
Sigrid glanced at Angelika and then back to Ragnar. She had finished the work on the bandage, a white material stretching around his arm several times.
“And then?”
“I found her. It was a few soldiers from our own army that had rebelled against us and placed her in an old prison building. She was in pretty bad shape when I arrived though; I’m not sure what they did.
It took some force to break in, but when I got inside there was only five of them, ordinary soldiers. I don’t think they even had a plan so I overpowered them pretty fast. I got to where Angelika was held, escaped the facility with her and tried to get back to base. Before I could contact you or reach the base, the revolution broke out. We hid for a while and made our way to another spaceport where we stole a shuttle. After that my mind is blank until we crashed here. I think something malfunctioned within the cryopods.”
“By Thor’s hammer, that’s insane. Two years and you hid it from me.”
Ragnar shrugged.
“I can be elusive when I want to, but don’t even for a second think I enjoyed it. As Knight Captain you should have known what I was doing but I just didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want you to have any false hopes since there was always the chance that I might fail.”
Sigrid didn’t say anything and rose to her feet. The air between them was dark and quiet. Angelika still sat quietly and observed them, but gritted her teeth for what was to come. She had seen her sister like this many times, never against her, but at other people.
Ragnar himself felt uncertain and didn’t dare to look up. He waited for that slap he hadn’t felt in two years to fall upon his cheek, as it often did after he had disobeyed orders or gone behind Sigrid’s back.
However, a pair of lips fell upon his cheek instead and a whisper reached his ear.
“Thank you.”
While Ragnar tried to make sense of what had just happened, Sigrid ventured over to a window to take a look outside. A searchlight wandered around the field outside and the sound of the helicopter got closer. She couldn’t see it, but it wasn’t far off.
“If they have IR vision we can’t escape, but why we are fleeing from them in the first place? I know these people; I can get you out safely.”
“I doubt it,” Ragnar said and looked at her wearily. “Things happened until we reached you.”
“Such as?”
“I have strange… powers.”
The calm voice that interrupted them came from Angelika. She still sat on the couch with her hands on her lap, looking completely calm. When Sigrid saw her like that she realized something. The sister she knew was a little different from the person that sat before her now. In such situations Angelika would constantly worry and not show this kind of serenity.
“Yes, you mentioned it before. What kind of powers?”
Sigrid sat down next to Angelika and wrapped an arm around her reassuringly. The warmth of her sister was comforting and reminded her that they were together again.
“Strange powers that I don’t like or understand. I just need to access a certain part of my brain and people break down. I’m not sure about the extent of my powers.”
“I thought about this,” Ragnar said and sat upright on the chair,” and I have a theory; what if her Gift, the one that was deemed weak and unusable, is the factor that affects her vision and gives her these powers?”
“You mean her Gift is what makes her eye go yellow and blurry? Sounds ridiculous,” Sigrid said. She didn’t want to believe it but at the same time it felt hopeful, as if she finally had an answer to Angelika’s question.
“I know it’s just a theory. We need someone else to look at it; a specialist in Gifts would be preferable.”
“I might know someone that could help in that area. During my time here I’ve meet a lot of new people, nice people. I’m sure someone knows a specialist that would be willing to help.”
Ragnar chuckled.
“Three-hundred light years from home and you already made new friends. Amazing.”
Sigrid risked a glance outside the window again. The searchlight had disappeared but she could still hear the helicopter somewhere in the vicinity. It was only a matter of time before they resorted to IR.
“Well, they wanted knowledge from me and I let them have it. They even gave me an apartment in the city, although I guess you know that already.”
“Yes, I made some investigation into that. Some hacking here, some infiltration there and I found your address. A longshot, but I’m glad it worked. However, I think they want more of you than that.”
“More than knowledge you mean? Certainly, they will probably not let me leave if this goes on, but it’s not like I can go back anyway. Neither can you.”
Ragnar merely nodded and fell quiet.
The noise from the helicopter’s blade slashing through the air intensified as it flew over the house. The searchlight came online again and a voice called out into the air.
“This is the TSAB! Come out with your devices offline and your hands behind your heads! Any attempt to escape will be gravely punished so don’t even think about it!”
“Time to go then,” Sigrid said and kissed Angelika on the forehead. “Trust me.”
“I always have and I won’t start now.”
That answer brought up a strong resolution in Sigrid who walked out of the door first into the warm light.
~~****~~
“This is Airfox 1 reporting. We have located three individuals at an abandoned house a few miles north of the city. Confirming identities…
Identities confirmed. It is our two suspects and the woman you said would be with them ma’am, over.”
“Roger that Airfox 1, you are clear to disengage. Pelican 3 will take over from here, over.”
“Confirmed. Disengaging, over and out.”
The panel in front of Hayate turned itself off and Rein Zwei circled around her.
“Uwawawa, do you think Sigrid is hurt? Maybe they tried to capture her or something…”
“She can take care of herself and they didn’t mention anything of that nature. Besides, she would only have herself to blame going so far out without telling me.”
“Is she in trouble?” Rein said and stopped flying around to eye Hayate.
“Maybe. I’m not aware of the circumstances yet, but I will chew her out anyway. She can’t do what she just did.”
Hayate was visibly agitated and Rein refrained from commenting any further. She flew over to her little miniature desk and took her seat. She spun around with it a few times with a worried look on her face.
2009-06-30, 23:30
Author
... I've been forgotten...
