GENESIS

Part Two

The bad thing about having time to (look) for someone or something is you never really go anywhere. You set course for an empty sector of space, stop at an assigned point, scan everything for light years around, and then continue on to the next sector. You never see anything but distant stars, mostly. You spend your entire trip in a vacuum, literally. And there's a funny thing about extra-system travel. When you get so far out that there are no longer any colorful balls hanging reassuringly in the nothingness, you suddenly become much more aware of just how alone you really are. The depth of it becomes much more apparent, and it will cause a tingle of fear to run up and down your spine if you dwell on it too long. No emergency rescue vehicles will come for you if there is an accident. The stars are densely packed in every direction, but they are hopelessly out of reach. In fact, you always have the feeling you will never even reach your destination. The clusters never seem to get any closer, right up until you drop to sub-light. Then, if you are fortunate enough to be close to a system, you find yourself invariably surprised by the massive, erupting fireball at its center and the assortment of planets that usually pay it homage. There is no sound to choreograph a solar system, but inside you can feel and hear the rumble of power.

   It's haunting, but contradictory and comforting. I am alone, always. Until I'm sent on my various missions, to find, salvage, even kill. One particular mission sixty years previous. I had been on the planet Broria. A hundred thousand credits to find my actual now very good alien friend Elion. Didn't go to plan mind you, I lost a few body parts, internal bleeding, near on full organ failure. Had a lot of me replaced with that new synthetic shit. Heart, lungs, liver, spine. Right arm and left leg, part of my brain. I'm less human and more, shit now. Not that I mind, I live longer. Anyway, I never did give them Elion. We kind of ...fucked for a little while. Turns out Nilvolla wanted Elion for information on Fontinial because of the Kore substance under the planet's surface. I don't get it and to be honest I don't rightly care either. I do what I do for a lot of credits. I'm actually saving them so I can live my arse on the planet Fedora. Beautiful, crystal clean and plenty of beautiful Fedorian angels to pick from. Just what a washed up half human half robot needs, maybe a little twink at my side and my life will be complete. "Elion, I'm asking because honestly, I don't want to be alone. You of all people know how awful that is."

  He sighed heavily down the receiver. "I told you, no. End of. You said yes to that stupid mission, so its yours alone."

   "Really?" I asked. Trying not to sound so fucked off.

   "Yes, really. I'm a busy man, I have a family to look after. You know that."

   "Alright," I breathed out and ran my hand through my hair. "Shit, going alone. Nice."

   "You'll be fine. Call it in is what they said? So just call it in."

   I laughed, well it was more of a grunt. "And that's what I'll do."

  He sniggered. Of course he would. He knows me better than I know myself sometimes. "Sure. Let's see if that actually happens. And I hope it does. You're retired. Just live it for fucks sake."

  "I was trying to."

  "You know for a certifiable fact that if what you find interests you you'd go out of your way to snatch it. Am I right?"

   "Fine, you're not wrong. But this time I'm going to stick to my guns and call it in."

   "I hope so and...good luck."

  "Sure thing buddy. Speak to you when I get back."

  He sniggered again. "If you come back."

  I laughed and ended the call. Right. I guess I should head out. I flipped the switch and the engines in my banged up spacecraft rumbled and popped. God, I thought. I hope this pile of shit makes it. I wasn't going to spend my credits on anything new, not if I'm saving to leave this place. Then I left at lightning speed. My craft rattled and threatened to fall apart as I sped through the atmosphere. Until, at last all goes quiet and I finally relaxed.

  Yet, it is very easy for things to go wrong in open space. It must be that the utter vastness of it intimidates us, makes us a little less self-assured, a little more indecisive. Perfect ingredients for promoting a volatile atmosphere in a place which has no atmosphere at all, except for the one you bring with you. Now all I needed to do was sit back and hope my stupid craft makes it.

   I sat back and recalled a mission. God that was fucking awful. There were four of us. Mac. Sophie. Yully and me. We were sent out in search of a lost craft. It was manned by four guys. I don't even remember them, but I remembered how we found them. The craft had collided with some space debris and the craft crashed landed on Gronos. Food for thought. There is nothing quite like a bad suit tear in the vacuum of space. It is the ultimate occupational veto. Whatever you're doing, you'll stop. The absolute terror of it is the way most victims die. No one ever succumbs to suffocation from a cut suit. It's usually the boiling blood that gets you. You freeze on the outside while you explode on the inside. Very messy bodily eruptions mark the end of it. And when it is over the offending suit has suddenly become more of a bag than a piece of apparel. That's exactly what had happened, they were dead before they even crashed. Even the creatures of Gronos thought nothing of it. So we hauld the bodies, well what was left of them onto our ship and that was that. Messy business, but made me a lot of credits. 

   I looked at my screen and decided to re-route. I needed to get there the quickest way possible. I didn't want to spend weeks out here, alone. Going mad with just my thoughts for company and let me tell you, they can be very dark at times. Times like this. "Done." I whispered to myself. My little craft was old and battered but it got me places. Then as I hated my mind started to wander. Fedorian and unknown DNA. What in the hell were they thinking? What other DNA? Fuck, I'm glad I brought my laser sinker with me. That did cost me a lot of credits and sure as they said, it packs a punch. Yet, what was I looking for? Will it look like a Fedorian or will it be some gross dangerous alien freak? Maybe it will have razors for fingers or maybe it will be like ten feet tall. Oh, a ten foot tall sexy Fedorian doesn't sound so bad. They are the most beautiful creatures you'll set your eyes on. Perfect skin. Perfect bodies. Perfect everything. God I want myself a Fedorian.