Two Suns: Chapter 1
05 May 2016Davadin
Chapter 1The Soldier and The Dead
The room looked sterile and the windows were shut, with streaks of deep red light shining through, telling Darius that it is dusk outside. He quickly glanced the whole room once again to assess his situation. But before he got a chance to recognize the seven people crowding the room, President Halsey repeated her question.
“Darius, did you hear me? Were you…”
“My apologies, Madame President. But….” Darius promptly interject, “I have… no memory.”
“DON’T JOKE WITH ME, SOLDIER!” the Admiral raised his tone.
“Admiral, please. Was that the doctor that got escorted out of the room just now? And you did got the alert just few minutes ago? I’m not a scientist but that tells me we probably cut off his PTAB (Post Traumatic Assessment Briefing)”
The Admiral look irritated but promptly quieted down.
“Right, let’s everyone take a little breather. Darius, do you remember who you are?”
“Not until a few moments ago, ma’am.”
“But you recognized me…”
“Yes”
“…and the Admiral”
“….no”
“Oh… Have you read through your medical results? No wait, we did just kicked out the doctor, didn’t we Admiral?” asked Halsey as she reached out to the on screen display next to the bed while taking a quick glare to the Admiral in question.
After a few moments, she let out a deep sigh.
“Admiral. Get that doctor back in. Right now.”
A few scuttling moments after, Dr. Lapong entered the room again.
“Hello Darius. I hope you excused me for abruptly leaving the room this morning.”
“Don’t apologize Doctor, it’s our mistake. Please finish his briefing.” Halsey said as she made way for the doctor to come closer to him.
“Of course. Where were we? Ah, right. The security personnel just outside downtown hub found you and brought you to us. After we scanned your DNA, we found the info that I was showing you this morning. Now, on to your medical state. You have a slight concussion due to head injury, a few cuts and bruises, a hairline fracture on your jaw, and… well, there’s another thing with your chest. Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”
“…Bad, I suppose?” Darius said.
“Somebody took your lungs, your heart, and one of your kidneys.”
“….fuck.” Darius was not the only person surprised in the room. After a few moments of pause, Halsey sat down with a blank face on her face, and the doctor continued.
“BUT, they…well, somebody, put a new set inside. So technically, you have nothing’s missing! It’s just, well, they’re not yours. But we did check for compatibility issues and complications, and all result came back green! So, after a couple weeks of rest and gamma therapy to accelerate those implants, you’ll be back to business!” the doctor concluded.
“So. My memory…”
“That’s what I didn’t expect. Yes, you have mild head injury, but they shouldn’t trigger any memory loss or long term damage at this scale. But don’t worry. I’ve ordered comprehensive blood test yesterday, so anytime now we can get the result back and I can tell you more about your memory and how can we work on that. That’s all I have, Madame President.”
One of the President’s escorts suddenly stepped closer to Halsey and whispered something.
“Darius, seems like I don’t have much time, as even my presence here completely classified. I’ll leave you with Admiral Artrios’ capable hand. But I want to remember one thing at least…”
This time it’s Halsey’s turn to whisper “I’ll always believe in you, dear. Stay safe. Come to Taylor City in Vega when you’re ready for more answers.” as she tightly gripped Darius’ hand.
Vega. Taylor City. “Dear”? Darius promised himself he will guard this information with everything he has. After thanking the doctor, the President then left the room, taking more than half of the staff crowding the room. The Admiral saluted her and let out a huge sigh as Dr. Lapong also stepped out of the room.
“At ease.” He said, both relieved and concerned with the situation. The three other officers in the room also looked somewhat relaxed. He walked towards the window, shut the blinds completely and turned around.
“So you lost it all, huh? One and a half years of secret ops investigation went down the drain?” Darius listened intensely as he tried his best to remember any kind of info.
“Don’t bother. I trust Lapong. He didn’t remember, but I was in his class when I finished my medical doctorate in the academy. He’s clean. Let’s just see if we can get you back in to finish the job.”
Darius felt a bit relieved with the new personal attitude with a commanding officer, but Artrios didn’t waste any moment.
“INRA. Ring a bell?”
“Yes, a combined organization between Federation and the Empire? Something to do with Thargoids. Weren’t they long disbanded?”
“Not quite. Buckle up. Here comes a shit load of information.”
After the peace treaty in 3253 between Thargoids and Humanity, INRA was officially disbanded. However, most of humanity had forgotten that INRA has more than the military or research arms. When the media reported that INRA was “dissolved by Federation and Senates of the Empire”, the missed a few important details. The exploration branch was spin off and maintained by both Federation and Empire with the sole objective of scanning all edges of the galaxy for any other hostile alien contact. They were assigned to a secret base somewhere in the 47 Ceti system, complete with any kind of resources they would need to be self-sustainable. They were renamed Intergalactic Naval Exploration and Defense Arm (INEDA), and over time, humanity had forgotten about them.
That same year, The Crimson Arrow, Alliance’s priced Python class cruiser with special long-range drive who escaped INRA’s surprise attack in 3250, was captured in Fujin system when it was trying to resupply. After months of negotiation, the ship was assigned to INEDA to be outfitted for the arm’s purpose. After further custom outfitting, in 3258, The Crimson Arrow sets back out to uncharted territory, but this time bringing Federation scientists with it.
“This brings us to 3294, two years ago. A Commander of Pilot Federation picked up a distress signal and relayed the message to the nearest station, a Federation’s military outpost. But the message was clear – to quickly bring the Arrow to INEDA’s quarantined research outpost with the utmost secrecy.” Artrios continued.
Darius listened as he, himself, barely believed what he’s listening, let alone actually being part of it.
“You, my boy, got a special Top Secret assignment to be Federal’s eyes and ears in INEDA, reporting directly to me, the state’s Admiral. But after three months on-site, you told me that you’ve uncovered something so big, that the whole Universe would turn its head upside down! But your only request is to fly under the radar, going incognito for a year. I still remember your exact goddamn words: Pilot Federation secretly had a hand in this mess and you need to convince them that you would defect the Federation to help their cause!” Artrios fumed.
“Then year and a half later, after no contact whatsoever, I got an alert that you’d been found on MARS, of all places, inside SOL, naked and half goddamn dead!!”
One of the officer jumped due to the Admiral’s tone after nearly falling asleep.
The President. The lost ship. Going incognito. INEDA. The whole setup was racing through Darius’ head as he couldn’t make sense out of any of it.
“Erin”, he muttered once again.
“Who is that? A contact?” Artrios inquired.
“No idea. I know the name. I know she’s involved. I… don’t remember anything else.”
The Admiral suddenly checked his personal communicator on his wrist. “Looks like I gotta be somewhere else real quick. Be glad you’re in a Navy hospital. It’s five minutes walk to the nearest flight sim center. Probably a good idea to figure out if you can still fly or not. Stretch your legs tomorrow and report to me by seventeen hundred hours sharp. Maybe that’ll jog your memory even more”
Sounds like a good idea. Artrios then tightened up his button, put his hat on and walked towards the door. The officers with him started to stand. Then he stopped right just outside the door where Darius can still hear him.
“That said, I wasn’t joking when I said I’m glad you’re with us now.”
That night, Darius couldn’t sleep. On top of the concerns of missing his memories, now he must figure out the tangled web of intel and conspiracies that now seems to stretch across the galaxies, and over years in the plot. Then his mind returned to Halsey once again. She called him dear. Is she a long acquaintance? Family? Why did she has to whisper it? Come to think of it, she’s actually old enough to be his mother. But that’s absurd. How about flying? Artrios asked him to refresh his memory, but what’s to refresh when he can’t even remember what kind of ship he flew before? No matter, he thought to himself. Perhaps there’s still muscle memory left. Was he a good pilot? Or barely scraping by? How much hours did he practice?
He mustered all his strength to stand and walked to the window. The questions kept coming as suddenly he heard an alarm from the outside. There must be some midnight training across the compound at the base, he thought to himself. Maybe he can take a peek if he can just retract the blinds.
Suddenly, it was a blinding light. The room exploded. Darius was thrown back from the window, slammed on the opposite side of the room. His ears ringing. His vision blurred. His orientation is all over the place. When he managed to make some sense, he saw a shadowy figure in full pilot gear standing in front of him amidst the rubble. The pilot extended his hand as his – her visor de-cloaked, revealing a familiar face. She looked young. Teenage, even.
“Sorry, hun’. Didn’t think you were standing at the window. Hee hee.” The figure smiled.
“Let’s go. We don’t have much time. Wanna drive?
What? Don’t recognize your own Vulture?”
Then, as if he’s done this a thousand time, he grabbed her hand and said,
“Pull me up, Erin.”