<Better Late, then Never>
December 22 2035
We had tumbled out of FTL several hours ago, our engines were burned out and we were nowhere near the beacon. We were in the middle of interstellar space, venting atmosphere with only a light based distress beacon. Rogue had tried to fix the engines but neither of us had eve the first clue how they worked, and from what she could tell they were completely melted.
Rogue was currently in my lap she had crawled onto me several hours ago, and so far neither of us had said anything.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Rogue, you have absolutely nothing to be sorry for.”
“We walked straight into a trap!”
“That’s wasn’t your fault,” I glanced back at the back section of the shuttle which was sealed off by the bulkhead door. A small hole in the hull on the roof was the only evidence of the glancing blow we had taken, the back panel of the shuttle was distorted from where the FTL engine had chewed itself up.
“Every human on Earth owes you a thank you.”
Rogue frowned, “we couldn’t let them find Earth. Humans might actually be able to give them a run for their money the way you’re developing. You still need a few years to get rolling though.”
“Hopefully. It’s not something we’re going to see.”
Rogue shook her head.
“No, but I can imagine how it will go for the aliens. Humans are insane.”
I pulled her closer to me and she let out a small giggle.
“We like it that way.”
The two of us fell silent and looked out at the stars through the front view screen. They were beautiful, the entire universe laid out in front of us. I couldn’t help but admire it even knowing that the vacuum outside the ship slowly bleeding us dry was going to kill us I couldn’t feel anything but content.
The fact that I held an alien in my arms who had traveled a couple dozen light years, to land on Earth and then let me fall in love with her. The fact that I had only continued to fall in love with her over the years, that she for some reason continued to fall more in love with me, it was proof that the universe was a harsh place but not that she was cruel.
“I love you,” said Rogue, tears were streaming down her face.
Feeling my own eyes starting to water I tilted her head up to mine and kissed her. We held it for several minutes, enjoying the familiarity of the embrace.
The computer next to us quietly beeped, and both of us ignored it.
The beeping began to pick up and Rogue pulling away from me slightly glanced down at it. She let out a small laugh.
“We’re going to get to the rendezvous coordinates after all. Just going to take a little longer than we thought.”
I glanced down at the display and for a moment I felt the reality of the situation, I was going to die in this cabin. I hugged her closer to me for a moment pushing the though from my head.
“Three hundred years, that’s more than a little late,” I said.
“Well better late than never!”
The both of us looked at one another and then burst out laughing. For several minutes the two of us laughed, until the tears streaming down our cheeks were humorous instead of sad. Finally gaining control of herself Rogue glanced at the life support system, showing how much time we had left. Just over two days to enjoy one another’s company and hope that someone picked up the weak distress beacon.
“We need to do something,” said Rogue.
“I’m open to suggestions.”
She leaned forwards and turned on the camera in front of us.
“Sorry I’m late, three hundred years is a bit of a delay I know but I ran into some trouble.”
<First Contact>
< Eridani Landing: 8 years 1 month 4 days>
< Wandering Time: [283 Years] >
Ranlin frowned at the sensor display, and deciding that it must be a glitch in the ancient computer system gave the monitor a hearty slap.
The small sensor blip remained, and intensified. After a moment the computer flagged it, code 01.
The sensor analyst blinked her ears going straight up in shock. Quickly she ran another diagnostic.
Code 01 appeared again.
“Maunt, can you look at this?” asked Ranlin as she leaned back in her ancient chair to address the Captain.
He got up and walked over to her console, “What did you find?”
“A code 01, any idea what that means?”
Maunt frowned and looked at the readouts, “It’s the call home signal we used when we evacuated. They weren’t sure how many people or ships were going to make it out back then so they made up codes.”
“That was what, [300 years] ago though. Why would we be getting a signal now?”
Maunt considered the read out for a moment, “let’s find out. Feed the coordinates to the helm.”
“It’s an old Imperial shuttle, as old as the evacuation,” said Ranlin as she stared out the main display at the slowly tumbling ship.
The hull was scarred and pockmarked, the engine pods showing the unmistakable sign of an FTL burnout. It also looked almost as if the thing had been hit by a glancing energy blast, half of the dorsal plates were melted the armor barely keeping the shuttle in one piece.
“Any response from the thing?” asked Maunt as he stared out at it his ears and the ears of everyone else on the bridge up, several people were blending into their consoles.
Ranlin glanced at her console, “Not even the docking beacon. The only thing that’s running is the transmitter and it has to be on its last legs.”
“Well let’s drag it in to dock then,” said Maunt.
“We’re going to board it?” asked Ranlin.
Maunt nodded, “that ship is transmitting one of our oldest codes, and from what we can tell it was a part of the initial evacuation. Whomever might be entombed on that ship deserves to be remembered.”
Ranlin nodded in agreement, the entire bridge crew watched as several small drones were quickly deployed and attached themselves to the ancient vessel. Moving the comparatively smaller craft in to dock with the [Ascension].
“You coming?” asked Maunt as he began to walk off of the bridge.
“Sir?” asked Ranlin.
“You found it, I think you should see what’s inside.”
Ranlin smiled and hurried after the Captain. Walking along the ancient corridors of the ship stolen by her ancestors and improved over the generations by every Vakurian to walk live on her she was one of three capital ships they had escaped the Empire with.
They had remained on the outskirts of Empire territory for nearly [three centuries now] surviving on the fringe of their conquerors domain. Scavenging what they could and eking out an existence.
With the total population of the Vakurian race hovering at just over 50,000 they were slowly recovering. It would be a hundred generations before they could oppose the Empire but the dream was alive in all of them.
Reaching one of the small airlock on the side of the ship Ranlin quickly donned her space suit and followed the Captain into the chamber along with the group of analysts and marines.
“Any response from the computers on the thing?” asked Maunt.
“We’re getting telemetry but even that’s scrambled. Understandable if it’s been without shielding for a few hundred years. The cosmic radiations probably messed with all of the stuff on the ship.” Said one of the analysts.
The airlock depressurized the airlock of the [Valiant] opened exposing the outer hatch of the ancient shuttle. The doors were supposed to automatically open but they seemed to be sealed shut. Maunt and several other men quickly grabbed the handholds on the sides of the airlock doors and tugged at them.
The metal doors slowly slid back, revealing the cargo section of the small ship that had been in a vacuum for nearly [three hundred years].
Maunt pointed a light into the cabin, and it immediately became apparent that the only occupants were in the front of it. The rear compartment was full of odd looking artifacts and technology, things she had never seen before and were most definitely not Imperial technology.
Stepping inside the old ship Ranlin found her eyes drawn to the forward section of the ship.
“What is all of this stuff?” asked an analyst as he looked at the things stacked up around the back of the ship.
Ranlin didn’t answer, she was being drawn inexorably forwards.
Stepping up to the cockpit of the small shuttle she gasped, a man and woman were lying together in the small bunk inlayed on the wall of the ship.
“Captain!” she said.
Maunt hurried over, and shined his light at the two.
The man’s hands were around the woman, holding her close to him even in death, the woman was gripping him in a similar eternal embrace.
“They were mated,” said Maunt. He shined his light at their arms where the promissory bracelets on each of them was apparent.
Ranlin looked at the two strips of metal, they were well worn and imbued with many scratches. The couple had been together for a long time whoever they were.
Ranlin frowned, and pointed her light more closely at the man.
“Captain, what can make hair go grey?” she asked.
Maunt frowned, “Nothing that I know of, why?”
“Look at him he’s got some gray hair and,” she paused and looked more closely, “Where are his ears?”
Maunt leaned forwards, “What’s on the side of his head?”
Carefully so as to not disturb the dead Maunt moved a small amount of the man’s hair aside. Showing off very alien ears, ears that were on many of the Class B species of the Empire.
For a moment the two Vakurians were stunned.
The woman whoever she was, was in an eternal embrace with an alien.
Lights inside the ship flashed on.
“Got power!” said a technician.
The main screen of the cockpit flashed on displaying an image of the two in the alcove alive. It was the first thing in the computer’s memory queued for immediate playback.
Ranlin and Maunt straightened up to look at it.
Glancing over at the Captain Ranlin touched the control panel starting the video.
The two on screen moved, the Vakurian woman spoke first.
“Sorry I’m late, three hundred years is a bit of a delay I know but I ran into some trouble.”
“Trouble? Is that what you’d call me?” asked the man speaking with an odd accent.
The woman rolled her eyes and slapped him lightly on the chest.
“You know what I mean. We were attacked by the aliens who took our home world from us. We lost all FTL capabilities.” The woman paused for a moment and took a breath.
“We lost all FTL abilities and we’re in deep space. So we’re going to die.” Said the man.
The woman chuckled and then looked up at the camera. “Before we do that though, I have to tell you about Humanity.”
<The Ally>
Ranlin spent the next week going through everything on the ship.
Rogue had been an initial escapee from the home world. The small shuttle she had stolen from the Empire had veered far off course, killing everyone else in it but her leaving her stranded in an unknown sector of space with no idea of where her people were.
So she had hidden on another Class C species world, Earth. Labeled as inhabited by Species C1764 in the Imperial registry.
She had fallen in love with a Human, and the two had lived their lives together. She had gotten the signal too late, once it had filtered through normal space limited by light speed.
Still they had left Earth, left the comfort of their lives to seek them out and be reunited. Her human mate, her husband had not hesitated for a moment to follow her to the stars.
The two had fallen into a trap, their FTL engines had been damaged and they had spent the next 300 years adrift in one another’s arms.
Maunt sat down at the conference table and picked up the human computer device.
“You get anything off of these?” he asked.
“Some, it’s not much. The data storage method was antiquated to say the least. The fact that it got three hundred years of cosmic rays hasn’t helped.”
Maunt nodded, “No I suppose it wouldn’t, there’s a bigger issue at the moment than retrieving the data.”
Ranlin looked up, “What?”
“There are some factions in the council that want to commit the woman to the stars as is proper, and keep the human as a sample for study.”
Ranlin’s ears went flat to her head in anger for a moment, “NO!”
Moving to the side she motioned at the table in front of her pulling up the hundreds of images that she had already retrieved from the computer devices on the shuttle. Two dimensional images were projected up from the table showing the two, and the life they had together.
Images inside of an alien domicile where light streamed in, both of them hugging some small furry creature.
Another showing the two of them sitting on an outcropping of rock, behind them an alien sunset.
Ranlin cycled through another dozen pictures showing the two as they aged.
“They were together for almost their entire lives, the human left the sanctuary of his home world to follow her to the stars. We can’t separate them!”
Maunt felt his own ear twitch downwards and he glared at the analyst, “This is an opportunity to gain intelligence on another Class C species, one that developed further than we managed too! If the records you translated are correct they managed to create a small colony on another planet in their solar system without Imperial technology, almost three hundred years ago! Think about where they could be today!”
Ranlin nodded, “They could have technology that would allow us to get an upper hand on the Empire, but I hardly think that saying we separated a mated pair in deaths embrace will be the best introduction. From what I understand about their culture they would be as angry as any one of us would be.”
“Cultures change in that amount of time,” said Maunt.
Ranlin glared at the Captain, “I doubt something as fundamental as mating would change sir.”
Maunt paused for a moment and shook his head, “No I don’t think so either. Predictably the Council has said they will support whatever choice I make. To them this is merely a curiosity and nothing of actual importance.”
Ranlin shook her head, “The Humans if they kept up with the pace of technological development these records show they could be our biggest allies against the Empire! This is huge!”
Maunt considered the young officer for a moment, “what would you propose?” he asked.
Ranlin hesitated, “I say we leave them to continue drifting. We take the message that they died to give us and seek out Humanity.”
Maunt looked down at the images on the table in front of him, and sighed.
“I agree. The techs have gone over the shuttle, it’s worth is only in raw metal. The computer systems are so far out of date we can’t use them, the Tachyon drive is completely fused and the frames got so much impact damage it would be impossible to fix.”
“We need to give them proper respects. We might not know much about Humanity, but we do know this human comforted someone who thought she might be the last of her kind. They were mates.”
Maunt nodded, “I’ve already gotten requests from the crew for a proper burial.”
<The Valiant Few>
Ranlin looked inside the cabin of the shuttle, the couple had been carefully moved from the alcove and placed in the center of the cargo section of the shuttle. Instead of the cold featureless blankets they had been wrapped in they now lay on a bed of colorful carpets and embroidered blankets.
Ranlin even spotted one of the few pieces of cloth that had been part of the initial evacuation tucked around Rogue. Born on the home world she had more right to it than anyone else.
Ever since the Vakurian race had taken to wondering the stars simply to survive they had buried their dead in the stars. A cremation that would once the star exploded in the future spread what was left of the individual amongst the universe.
This burial though was closer to what had been done of the home world, sending off those who had died with everything they might need.
The improved bed for the two to spend an eternity on was hardly the only addition, around them lay food and ornaments, old books, messages and anything else they might need. Ranlin couldn’t help but be a little stunned by the response given the small amount of data had been released to the public about the pair.
A single image had been making its rounds though, an image showing the eternal embrace the two were in. It seemed to have struck something in the population of the ship.
Stepping back from the shuttle Ranlin looked back at the honor guard.
Maunt nodded to the men and stepping forward they closed the doors to the shuttle.
The Captain of the [Valiant] turned and pulled the airlock release. With a solid clunk that reverberated through the airlock, more felt then heard the shuttle detached and once again began to drift, the message of an ally amongst the stars delivered.
<Eternities Embrace>
I was cold, the air around me was thin and I could hardly think.
She was on top of me, the two of us wrapped together in the small bunk all of the blankets wrapped around us. Like always she was on top of me stealing away my body heat.
I was so cold.
She let out a slight whimper and slowly turned up to look at me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my breath clouding in front of me. I carefully wrapped my arms more tightly around her, trying to keep her warm she hated being cold.
It was hard to breath.
I was so cold.
Rogue drifted away, I felt it happen.
One moment I was holding her in my arms, the next I was holding her shell the spark inside of it gone.
Letting out a strangled cry of pain I pulled her closer to me, I had to keep her warm.
I didn’t want to die, but living without her was too painful.
Slowly I moved my hand and cupped her face tilting it up to me. I saw in it the warrior, the refugee, the survivor, and most prominent in her face was the woman I had fallen in love with. Her beautiful face ingrained in my mind I slowly closed my eyes and followed her into the void.