Titans

The Stelliferous Era [203:45]

Location: The Hermes Starship

The ship levels out, the nerves in my gut slowly dissipating. Before us the dark sky gapes wide, the last of the explosion dulling to reveal the new star: a deep orange orb.

At the helm, Atara sits still, a little out of breath. Even now, she grips the shift stick with white-knuckled fingers, as if her body has yet to realise it’s over.

“We made it,” Merc says, almost in disbelief. He’s seated adjacent to me in a sturdy grey leather chair. The control room is made up of two driver’s seats behind a long panel of controls. Above is a wide window, and above that is a long strip of screens, displaying various chains of data and maps. I surprise myself by understanding them.

Behind the driver’s seats are chairs for the crew, laid out in a four by four grid. Each has its own desk and glass monitor, using holographic technology to display miniature versions of the data up on the larger screens.

Atara flicks a few controls, presses a couple buttons, and stands. Before any of us can say anything, she disappears out the door.

“Um…where is she off to in such a rush?” Lilith turns in her seat.

I don’t have an answer for her.

“Just give her some time,” Merc replies, standing. “She’s been through a lot.” His eyes land on Lilith when he says this, though thankfully she’s still focused on the hall Atara rushed down. He continues. “The way I see it, you owe her double. Once for shooting her, once for saving your life.”

Lilith finally looks up. Her gaze could fell a horse from a mile away. “Unless you’ve recently grown blonde hair and breasts, how about you let Atara tell me what I do and do not owe her?”

He raises both hands in surrender and backs out the door.

I look at Lilith. Beneath her tough-girl attitude, there’s the tell-tale signs of injury: a sheen of sweat on her skin; slow, lethargic motions; a hint of something red on her forehead, hiding behind dishevelled hair. It’s abundantly clear she’s in pain.

I recall the flight, the initial jerk as we were hit by the shock wave. She hadn’t been seated like I was when it struck.

“Are you okay?” I ask, reaching to brush back the hair clinging to her forehead.

She smacks my hand away. “I’m fine. It was just a bump.” But when she tries to stand, her eyes fall shut and she sways. I quickly stand up, catching her before her feet fly out from underneath her body.

Lilith jerks back to consciousness. “I said I’m fine.” She pulls away from me and storms out of the room.

I sigh, staring after her. She remains steady for the whole length of the corridor, then she rounds the corner and disappears from sight.

I move to take a seat at the controls, set to auto-pilot thanks to Atara. It seems everyone has a special talent now – Merc’s good with healing, Atara can pilot ships, and I somehow know how they work. Everyone is good at something – everyone except Lilith. The only special skill she’s presented has been her ability to shoot someone and not miss. But it’s obvious now – whoever we were before this, we were here together. We were a team.

My mind veers away, beyond the ship and its current inhabitants. Outside, all is dark, just as it has been for as long as I can remember. Still, I can feel the motion of the ship; I can imagine the ground rushing away beneath us, the rocky, barren earth blurring into one smooth strip of dirt. After days of staying in one place, suddenly we’re on the move, and I have no clue where we’re headed – or if there’s even anywhere to go.

Something in the motion triggers the beginning of a thought – the tiniest wisp of an idea. The more we travel, the more the idea grows, expands. It digs at my mind, through everything I’ve managed to read and learn, evolving to the point of a realisation. When it finally hits me, it seems so ridiculous that I wonder I hadn’t thought of it sooner.

Quickly, I exit the control room and head back to the observation deck. Once there, I find Merc on the couch half-asleep, his dark hair grown to the point where it falls into his eyes.

His eyes open. “What’s up?” he says groggily.

“For the longest time, I’ve had the feeling that something’s not quite right about our situation.”

“Well, yeah,” Merc interrupts. “We’re alone and memoryless on a barren planet at the beginning of the universe. It’s definitely not normal.”

“But it was more than that. It was something about the place we’re in, more than just the fact that we’re here, that felt wrong. It was the unnaturalness of it all.”

“Of course it’s unnatural! Cal, what are you talking about?”

“For the first time, we’re actually moving. Like we’re travelling really fast. And it made me think about how fast everything has happened. Between our ‘awakening’ and now, it’s probably only been just over a week. And in that time we’ve experienced the births of three stars. We’ve experienced their explosions and witnessed their formation into blue and orange lights. Each one only took a matter of minutes.”

“Just spit it out, Cal.”

“Well, obviously, it’s happening too fast. In everything I’ve read it’s talked about how stars take thousands of years to form, and in the early days, their births were thousands of years apart. But three stars in a week? It’s impossible.”

“So…what? Now we’re not at the beginning of the universe? What does it mean?”

I look out the massive windows at the endless dark, thick and unyielding. If only we could see.

“Who knows.”