Titans

TIMESTAMP: 14:00, March 22nd, 2122

LOCATION: The Hermes Starship, Quadrant 1, Aion Universe

It’s been two days since we made it through the portal and I’m walking down the hallway. The ship is cruising through space at a good 150% of light speed and everything is silent and dull. Good activities include playing cards, reading books and chatting, but after a while even those can get tedious. Save the initial excitement of departure and the thrill of passing through the space-time rift, life on board the Hermes Starship has been undeniably boring.

And then I’m walking down the hallway, on my way to the galley for lunch, when the boring gets un-boring.

At first it’s just a creak loud enough to make me stop. I stare at the metal walls, inspecting them for damage. A loose panel? Nope. A puncture? Nope. I’m so preoccupied with seeking out the cause of the creaking that I don’t notice Atara, approaching from around a corner.

“Lilith?” she says.

Surprised, my head snaps in her direction. “Did you hear that? The creaking?”

She shakes her head. She frowns. She doesn’t move away or stop staring. There’s another creak. It sounds like it came from the roof.

“Did you hear it that time?” Atara doesn’t reply but her eyes lock onto the metal ceiling. “It sounded like–”

In the blink of an eye, the panel above my head shudders and comes loose. My instincts take control of my body. I dive forward and tumble across the floor. There’s several loud smashes as the metal makes contact with the floor. It misses me by inches, but in my attempts to get out of the way, I crash against the opposing wall, hitting my head in the process.

The blow is painful. Black spots dance across my vision and my skull throbs. My brain feels like it’s been stabbed and I put a hand to my head as I blink away the blurriness.

When I can see properly again, I find that the ceiling panel I had been standing under wasn’t the only to collapse. Several others along the length of the hallway have also inexplicably toppled down. And when I look around, Atara is nowhere to be found.

Before I can get up to look for her, however, a second bout of pain hits my head, more intense than the first. I have the bizarre feeling of something cracking, breaking, dissolving. Like a wall inside my mind, it topples down, reveals–

A horrible shaking waking me from sleep. The ship’s metal bones rattling, tilting. Screaming. Stumbling from bed, half-asleep, the floor unstable beneath my feet. Atara in her room, the source of the screaming, thrashing in her bed. “Atara.” And the silent stillness once she wakes, wide-eyed and staring into the night.

An invisible force, tossing me against a wall. My back, pinned against the metal. Cal on the floor, unconscious. Merc held suspended in air, shock and fear grappling for dominance on his face. The echoes of Atara’s frustrated scream. And her sigh as she moves from behind the kitchen counter and cleans up the mess she made.

A room, filling the darkness. A locked door at my back. Atara at the centre, the darkness sliding out of her mouth like a black snake. Choking. Choking. Choking–

I gasp and return to reality. More images like these rise up in my mind. I see destruction. I witness power. I feel my own fear as my life is jeopardised by Atara again and again and again.

My head spinning, I pull myself to my feet. “Atara!” I yell. I’m walking down a hallway, one hand sliding against the wall for balance, my footing unsteady. “Atara! Where are you?”

I keep walking. And the newly unearthed memories keep coming. It’s a downpour of violence. Somewhere deep within me, an anger starts to burn. “Atara!”

I round the corner and find her, and my anger turns into a forest fire. “What have you done?”

She takes a step back, hands up. “Please, Lilith. I can explain. It’s not my faul–”

I don’t listen. I step forward and slam her against the wall, pinning her there like she once did to me. “This whole time,” I say, teeth gritted. “You’ve been – toying with us!”

“It was an accident!”

“You’re lying – you have to be. You erased our memories!”

She swallows.

“My god, they’re all completely unware, aren’t they? What are you?”

“I don’t–” She stops, and in that moment, I suddenly don’t care. I don’t care what or who she is. I don’t care for her excuses and explanations. I am filled with fire and all I want is to see her burn.

“I will show them what you are,” I say, and realise I am shaking with rage. My voice trembles. “I will tear…you…apart.”