Faster Than Light

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But I swear at times, I could hear her voice seemingly calling from the darkness. Wherever she was, whatever trouble she was in, I would be there. Every time I’d botch a negotiation, or find myself staring down the looming shadow cast by a Sectoid “man-of-war” cruiser, I knew in turn she would be there to save me.

We were captured, drawn as though two stars caught in the gravity of each other's gaze. Never able to escape the prison we’d constructed for just the two of us. I’d always stared at the stars throughout my career with the Confederation. Rising through the ranks you had a feeling that out beyond in the great unknown was your destiny. Being Captain of the Falchion was no different, just another step in the great unknown to my destiny beyond. A little older and a little wiser than the last ship that I’d been stationed at.

I could still hear the voice of the Admiral telling me the news.

“Captain Raymer Fisk. This mission is one of which carries the utmost secrecy, precision, and most of all importance to those of us within the Confederation. We have supreme confidence in your abilities and most of all have seen your success prior. We know your capabilities.”

Usual standard affair from Admiral. Then came the moment that changed my life. The moment I would never forget, when I met her.

“Since you will be carrying precious cargo that cannot fall into the Rebellion’s hands, we have tasked Specialist Orion Thoros to assist you in the journey. She’s one of CBSO’s best operatives in the field and I have no doubt that she will be incredibly helpful as you make the trek back to the Citadel on Alpha Centauri.”

Helpful. That was an understatement.

As she shook my hand I looked over her slick black hair and stolid face. A mod here and some titanium implants there along the ridges of the side of her cheek up to her ears. What was she analyzing, what edge or forgotten information was she seeking to explore in the secrecies of my facial expression? Then easing up in an instant there was a warmth I was not expecting, a small smirk and then an inviting momentary smile before hearing her hypnotizing voice.

“It’s an honor to work with you, Captain Raymer. I’ve heard quite a lot about you. That maneuver on Veragauss, very cunning with exceptional ingenuity.”

Somehow through the blatant flattery she provided, I saw her prodding smile and her subtle mockery and teasing of my accomplishments. Veragauss was good no doubt but it wasn’t my best by a lightyear. “Another test perhaps?” I thought so naively at the time. But, in hindsight, it was the beginning of “us”.

Her face was so fresh then, and so unknown to me at the time. I couldn’t see all its hidden intricacies, all its mysteries and the masked visage of her person it contained.

As we walked onto the Falchion the entire shipyard was aflutter in waves of activity. The war was going bad back then, we hadn’t figured out how to destroy them. We hadn’t figured out how to defeat “The Maw”. Pristine ships would arrive and be refitted and head out to patrol or for larger combat. Then slowly they’d return, battered, withered, and a husk of their former selves. They’d flown too close and gotten burned. Burned by “The Maw”.

The Falchion was one of the finest ships ever made. Brand new paint and upgraded weapons slots and powerplant engines. It even had partial installs for its nearly completed cloaking generators. Specialized to be able to adapt to any task its Captain and crew saw fit to challenge in their journey across the stars. As I stared out that day at the docks a line of Covert Operations Marines suddenly formed outside the main hangar bay as the final preparations were made.

Draped in all black, except the small white patches on their side, they carried a weight of seriousness with their presence. The main hangar entrance then began to peel aside to reveal the cargo. A large cylinder seemingly emerged from the sleeves of the hangar before silently drifting on the hoverbarge. Slowly the hoverbarge came to a stop in the centerfold of the ship’s holding.

“Stop.” Said Orion, “That’s good enough.”

The barge descended to bring the machine to its newest home. The wiring power cables were plugged into the ship's systems and the internal machinery began to buzz.

“Well Captain, say hello to Project Pentimenti. It’ll be staying with us until we get to Alpha Centauri.”

There was so much joy when she said those words to me then compared to the pain I saw in her face now. Ori’s face was bestrewn with the laces of her hair being barely kept back by the taught bun by the back of her head. Eyes surrounded in the black mire of her mascara’s river like tears. As we stared out at the battered Falchion it was like looking at a mirror of all the great memories we’d made together as the littered fields of ship debris floated off in the distance.

There was that hole made by the invader drone in the battle against “The Maw”. The scratches in the side engine ports by the giant turgion spiders of Turgos IV. The small bits of crystalline matter left over from the battle at the Rings of Aether. But her face stared intently at the small little piece of graffiti we both had made near the hidden part under the forward gun battery. Those moments while making those repairs seemed a lifetime ago.

It was the words, “Ray and Ori’ followed by a small heart.

“Forever, till the very end, till the universe went cold. That’s what we promised each other, Ray.”

“I know. But it’s only a matter of time now till CBSO agents will come crashing into this section of the yard. Take it away and then wipe your memory. They’ll probably wipe my memory too just to be safe and make sure that I’d never come after you. The rest of the crew they’ll break up or wipe as well. There’s worse things in the world. They could kill us. At least this way we can survive.”

“No! I can’t. We forgot each other’s faces before we can’t do it again. I don’t want to see the light of your eyes go dark in my mind. To never know you.”

Her face was caught in the gyres of emotional hell. Perturbed to the reality we both were caught in.

“If I ever discovered what we’d lost again. I don’t know if I could live with myself.”

My face tightened at the prospect of the words I had to deliver.

“Ori, I'd rather go forward knowing that you’d be alive, even if it meant sacrificing the memory of you to the tides of space.”

She knew I was right, where would we go? To what hovel on what planet would we stow away that they could not find us? We’d just saved the Confederation. There wasn’t a planet or biome or station that wouldn’t have our faces emblazoned with the picture of our ship in the next week or two.

She gathered herself carefully before looking at me with her searing blue eyes.

“I would risk it all, if it meant that I could have you. I love you.”

The pause between us tormented onward until I loosed my last daggers.

“And I could never risk it Ori, because I love you.”

“Then it’s settled then,” she replied.

“It would seem so my love.”

“Well at least the ship will always have us.” As she stated this she looked out at the small graffiti in the hull of the ship once more.

An idea was struck into my mind. I thought of the possibility and then beckoned her to me.

“Follow me, I have an idea.”

I had been doing my research. Both directly by way of testing and in the field in exactitude. Testing Project Pentimenti.

As I led Orion back into the loading bay of the ship we came to that Cylinder that had been the source of so much success and failure, the object of our mission and goal. Like a monolith to our failures and process of learning I understood it better now than I ever had before. There was only one way. Only one way we could stay together forever. Only one way.

“Load up the charges Ori, and make sure to pack them around the coiling tubes near the middle. It has to be completely destroyed.”

“Sure thing. This idea of yours had better work.”

“Come here.” Staring into her eyes I knew I’d discovered the new path. Discovered my destiny. Discovered my new Polaris. “It’s going to be alright. We will never forget each other.”

Finishing up the explosive charges I walked her back from the ship slightly away till we were outside the blast radius of the explosives. At the very edge of the ship’s bay doors we stood on the precipice.

“Do you trust me?”

“With all that I am,” She replied.

I lifted the detonator, our hands both clasping it before staring into her countenance. With a small click, of both of our hands, a radiant light and blast energy nearly consumed us. For a moment time seemed to slow to a crawl as we flew through the air before it suddenly stopped. I could feel the waves of time that normally wash over us come to a standstill until slowly the explosion began to return back to its point of inception. First slowly, then gradually I watched as we returned to our positions. Watched the heat subside on our faces. Watched as the fragments of metal came back to their moment in time before the explosion. Faster and faster and faster.

Staring at Orion’s face it went from scarred and dithered to that of far greater seemingly contentedness. Scratches and injuries on her body from the battle against “the Maw” started to fade. Her clothing which had been raggled from months of spacefaring suddenly regained a bit of its sheen. The ship’s many memories all along its hull slowly started to reverse course. A scratch here, then a piece of graffiti there. All the while the ship raced across streams of light through the galaxy. It got faster and faster, people whizzing by with a myriad of tales one could scarcely imagine. Memories that seemed a lifetime ago.

I saw us escape that one time barely at Myradon. I saw the giant space spiders of Turgos IV. Until I found myself staring right at Orion once again. Still on the Falchion, but not at Alpha Centauri. Standing there in my perfectly pristine uniform I looked out and saw the beginnings of our journey all those months ago.

Orion looked at me, seemingly in a state of disbelief. Her hair perfectly slicked back once again. Her modifications back in top condition once more with her face unblemished by fighting.

Then I saw a coy smile begin to form in her mind. She’d realized something, then she turned to me and with a smirk and the confidence of memory saying,

“Well Captain, say hello to Project Pentimenti. It’ll be staying with us until we get to Alpha Centauri.”