2199 Extinction

I follow Amancia to the elevators, through the winding halls of the lower level, and to Bay 66. Amancia waves her hand over a panel in the wall, and the door slides to the left. Inside I see a small, sleek, silver ship. It’s long with a pointed tip that looks like it could tear into another ship. No windows, anywhere, as far as I can tell. The ship can’t possibly hold more than four Copaie males. Counting us, it would probably hold three males, but it would be a tight squeeze.

“So, what’s the plan?” I ask once we are onboard the ship. “How will we catch up to them? I would estimate that they have about a two-hour head start.”

We are sitting in a small room with four small, beds, that fold up, into the walls. There is a small closet to hang clothes, and an even smaller bathroom, with a sink, shower, and toilet. There is only one other room onboard, and it appeared to be a storage space. Not quite sure how they would cook food, here. Hopefully this ship is just for short journeys.

“Have a little faith, Astra, dear.” Amancia says, unfolding a bed, and laying down.

“Vos. Call me Vos. And what’s that supposed to mean? ‘Have a little faith’. Have a little faith in what?” I ask, unfolding a bunk next to her’s. Even though they are technically built into opposite walls, our beds are nearly touching. If I were to roll over, I could stretch my arm out and touch the edge of her mattress.

“Fine. This ship, Vos. Have a little faith in this ship. It’s called a Cremin. Technically, it’s not even a ship. It’s actually a type of space Ra-

Cis.”

“Wait a minute. You don’t mean? It’s alive?!” I shout, sitting up.

“Yes. That’s exactly what I mean. This particular Cremin was caught and tamed by yours truly. I’ve spent a little over three years, taming her. She’s a real beauty, able to go three times faster than the average ship. I plan on breeding her to an equally fast male, one day. And keep breeding her, until I am able to supply the entire Copaie army with these deadly fast ships. Then they will see Copaie aren’t as dumb as they thought.”

“Wow. That is amazing! But who thinks we are dumb?”

“The Talfarians. You above all else should know this. You were raised on their planet. You know they think we are barely even capable of speech, let alone, intelligence.” She says, sitting up.

“Yes, I guess they do.” I say thinking of my own prejudice against my own people. But then I remember something important. “Amancia. I have a confession. I actually have spent the last twenty years and a few months on Saltu. I have seen both sides of the fence. I know we aren’t as stupid as everyone thinks. Our ways are just different than theirs. If we could make them see, make them understand. Then, maybe, just maybe, we could all get along.”

“Why did you time travel back?” she asks.

“What?”

“Why. Did. You. Time. Travel. Back?” she asks, this time putting emphasis on each word. “Why didn’t you just stay in the future and live out your life, there?”

“Because I failed to stop Malum’s plan. He still released the poison. He still tried to eradicate our entire race. A few were saved thanks to the antidote we came up with. But we didn’t get it mass produced and distributed in time. Most of our race still died.”

“He still thought we were beneath him, didn’t he?”

“Yes, I suppose he did. But Malum is just one Talfarian. He doesn’t speak for all of them. I was raised by one, remember?”

“And she was killed for it. So, what does that tell you?” Amancia asks.

“That prejudice against our people still exists.”

“Exactly.” She says, laying back down.

I’m silent for a moment, just going over everything in my head. While I can understand her point of view, I’m still not going to give up on the idea of a future where our people can be reunited once again. “I do have one more question. Won’t it be easy to destroy a live ship?”

Amancia sighs before answering.

“No. Not really. You have to stop its heart, which can only be done from inside the ship, itself. And you won’t have an easy time doing that, it has its own type of immune system, that will kill you if you get too close.

I accidentally stumbled into the heart of the ship; the ship’s defense killed the male that was with me. I barely escaped with my life. It took me two months before I was brave enough to enter her, again. But I’ve found that as long as I stay away from her heart, I have nothing to fear.”

“How does she know where to go? How does she know where you want her to go?” I ask.

“So much for one question.” Amancia says, sighing again.

“Sorry. I just have so many questions. The minute you answer, I think of something new.” I lay back down in my bunk.

“It’s okay. I do love talking about Sesily. That’s what I named the ship. She knows where to go because we formed a psychic link. It took a while to figure out that part, but I eventually did. Cremin enjoy helping others out. I guess it gets pretty lonely out there in the great expanse of space. Not many of their species exist. That’s why I need to hunt down a male. I could make a fortune, breeding them and selling them to high-ranking soldiers. Copaie, only, of course.”

“How are there beds built in and how is there a bathroom?” I ask.

Instead of answers, I receive snoring. Oh, well. It has been a long day, and time traveling is tiresome. I close my eyes and go over our conversation in my head. I pop my eyes back open as I remember the small vial in my pocket. The vaccine. I brought some back with me. Or did I? I am no longer in that same body, so does that mean I lost it?

I reach in my inner jacket pocket, sure enough, it’s there. Yes! I sit up and pull the small glass vial, and wrapped syringe out. I open the needle, give the vial a small shake, insert the needle, and fill it full of the vaccine. Once done, I insert it into my arm, as Cequill had shown me. I get up and throw the empty packaging into the trash, then lay back down and fall asleep. ​

***************

“You forgot me, again. Didn’t you?” Amlican sits beside me on my bed. Even though his words accuse me, he isn’t angry. ​

​“No, I…” I start, feeling a little guilty. ​

“You did. You started to come check on me, and then you got sidetracked by the General and your mother.”

​ ​“Amlican, you have to understand. It’s been twenty years since I last saw you. Since that time, I fell in love, had children, and got married. My heart belongs to my husband, even though in this timeline we haven’t met.”

​“Our love never had a chance.” He says, sadly.

“I tried, many times, but every time I tried, it would end the same. With you being dead. Eventually I just had to accept that reality. I don’t like it, but I can’t seem to change it.”

​“I know. Vos said there would be a price to pay.”

“I know that too. You already told me that, in a dream.” ​

“This is a dream too. So, wake up. Wake up, Vos!” he shouts.

******************

​I open my eyes with a start and sit straight up in bed. I look around and see Amancia bent over looking at me. “Ahh!” I squeal.

​“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t ever wake up.” She says, straightening up. “I’ve been calling your name for a while now.”

​“I was sleeping good. What’s wrong?”

​“We’ve landed.”

“What do you mean we landed? Landed where?”

​“We landed on Tichihatchi.”

​“Tichi who?” I ask, confused.

​“Tichihatchi. A planet in the Prilynn Sector. It’s where the princess’s ship crashed.”

​“Crashed?!” I jump to my feet. “We were supposed to follow her maybe capture her, but not kill her.”

​“Relax. She isn’t dead, yet. Sesily got a bit excited and overreacted when she spotted the Talfarian ship. But as long as the Talfarians are prepared, they should survive the planet.” Amancia gets up and goes to the small closet, digging around inside of it.

​“’Should survive the planet’? What do you mean by that? What kind of planet is this?” I ask walking towards the bathroom. ​

“You still have your time travel jacket on, right?” Amancia calls.

“Yes!” I holler to her from the bathroom. “Why do you ask?”

​“Because this is the most dangerous planet I’ve ever been to. We will be lucky if we survive the day.” She says from the bathroom doorway.

Good thing she is my mother, because she seems to have zero respect for boundaries. She’s holding two backpacks; I wash my hands and grab one. We each put one on and then we make our way to the cargo bay. Amancia puts her hand on a small section of wall and closes her eyes.

Soon, a door appears in front of her and opens with a hiss. Hot, humid air hits us in the face, as if the planet is throwing punches. In a matter of seconds, my clothes are soaked with sweat and sticking to me. Great, as if the nausea isn’t enough, let’s add some sweat to the mix. A jungle, similar to the holographic one my mother activated, lays before us. Many sounds assault my ears, from birds, and I’m not even sure what else.

A low lying fog covers the ground and prevents me from seeing anything that is more than a few feet in front of me. Looking up, I can see where the fog line ends. Massively thick trees tower over me, and I catch glimpses of things darting through their branches. I don’t see enough to tell if they are friend or foe, so I stay on guard, to be safe. As we walk, I catch sight of flowers larger than my entire head.

These too, disappear into the fog as we pass by them. Such a beautiful place. I can’t believe it’s so dangerous. I think back to Saltu and the day we had to sleep above ground. Saltu was a beautiful place as well, and very dangerous. I guess beauty and danger do go hand in hand.

“Amancia?”

“Yes?” she asks, walking beside me.

“How are we going to find their ship in all of this?”

She laughs before holding up a small device and answering, “With this thing. While everyone was searching for the Princess, I went off looking for her ship. I had a feeling she might try and escape. I found the ship and placed a small tracking device, just out of sight. It’s a good thing I did. I’d hate to try and find them the old-fashioned way.”

I look closely at the device she’s holding and see a small red blinking light. “How does it work, exactly?”

“The closer we get to the device, the faster the red-light blinks. And once we are within a few hundred feet of it, the tracker will start emitting low beeping sound.”

“That settles that question, but how will we find our ship again? Seems like it would be easy to get lost, out here.”

“Yes, it would be easy to get lost, but don’t you remember that psychic bond I told you about earlier?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“All I have to do is call for her, and she will find us.”

“So, is that the beeping for the other ship? I ask, hearing a low beeping.

“Yes, it is. The ship must be close by.”

The crashed ship seems to rise up out of nowhere. We stop and look at it for a moment. There isn’t much of the ship left intact. Just the heavily reinforced bottom of the ship, the door wide open like a mouth in a silent scream. Metal pieces fade in and out of view, as I move around. I step over metal piece after metal piece, it’s impossible to tell which part of the ship it came from. Then I spot the piece of metal with the flashing red light on it. I bend over and pick it up.

“It’s lucky the tracker ended up with the crashed ship, and not somewhere else.”

“No. It’s lucky it didn’t burn up on entry.” Amancia says.

“Do you think anyone survived the crash?” I ask, worried.

“I think we better go inside and find out.”

I drop the piece of metal and walk back towards the open door. I pause a minute, afraid of what I might find. Afraid I might see her dead body. Not sure I could handle that. I step into the ship, with Amancia behind me. I hear a loud trumpeting sound and the ground underneath me starts to tremble. I jump out of the way, then pull Amancia out of the doorway as well. I know that sound from growing up on Talfar. It’s the sound of a herd of Lupadons.

“What the heck, Vos? Why did you….” She is cut off as the herd approaches, and she sees for herself what was shaking the ground.

The Lupadons are the size of a small tree, making Amancia’s ship look like a child’s toy. They are covered in rusty red fur, with teeth that look like they could rip you apart without much effort. Four giant tusks protrude out of each of their mouths, and each one has a tail that curls up on its back.

“That’s why.” I say as we watch them flee the ship and disappear into the jungle. “They would have flattened us both and not even slowed down.”

“What the heck were those?” she asks.

“Lupadons. They are native to Talfar.”

“Wow. That’s pretty scary to think they are out there somewhere. Thank goodness it’s a big planet. Hopefully we don’t run into them again.”

“I would say the odds are against it. Now, let’s search the ship. I am hoping we won’t find any bodies.” I say.