The Stowaway (Jade, Bio)

GEAR

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Jun 15, 2018
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The Center of the Universe (?)


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A sea of faces, all of them like her own, all standing to attention. Observers, doing what they - what she - had been designed for: recording, cataloguing, inspecting.

A sphere of jet black in a sea of white. That was what her "eyes" interpreted it as, at least. The winged shape enclosed within it, two dots of red that peered malevolently out from its interior, where it was trapped.


..."Trapped?"

No, that wasn't quite right.

"Contained."

That was a natural part of the process - the "ritual", would be a better way to describe it.

This was it.

This was the moment of triumph.

Death, the enemy of humanity, of all of existence, would finally be vanquished.

All would be still. All would be as it was - forever. Never again would mankind be subject to the final, cynical will of a universe that was intrinsically hostile to it.

And yet, among the sea of sameness, she moved.

Her footsteps carried her forward, she and she alone.

Something dark and vile boiled in her chest. It licked her lungs with flame, tearing holes in her flesh, like bubbling pitch. It dripped out of her lips, the corners of her eyes, down her nose, leaving jet black streaks across her white dress.

It hurt.

It was so terribly painful. She was burning alive. Dying. Moving inexorably closer to certain demise with every step, slipping into a vortex that contained nothing but pure, concentrated destruction.

But she couldn't stop.

This was the "bargain" she had made.

Her finger reached out to touch it, breaking the surface of the barrier, so tiny as to be insignificant, nothing but the tiniest grain of sand on a beach that stretched to infinity-

...

And darkness swallowed her.




Present Day
August 28th, OE 102
2:12 AM
Sayuri's Quarters


Eris Pseudea's eyes opened as she jolted awake.

For a moment she simply sat in the dark, feeling the sweat that ran in rivulets down her face, matting her hair to her skin. All around her the ship hummed along, as quietly as it could, as it continued unhurriedly on its way to Mars. Her shoulders shuddered in the cold as her eyes adjusted, comforting, familiar forms and shapes surrounding her. Her throat burned, and she reflexively reached up to it - but found nothing. Her flesh hadn't parted way, her body wasn't melting from the inside.

Just a nightmare.

She leaned back with a sigh, stretching her arms over her head as she stared at the ceiling. It wouldn't be long before they reached their destination. And then, after that?

It would all be over.

...

The thought of it was still difficult for her to accept. Giving a small sigh, she rolled over, and pulled the shape beside her in the covers into a close embrace, slender arms linking gently about her waist, as she planted a gentle kiss on an exposed neck.

At least, she thought privately, she wasn't having to go it alone.