So, you can rise again
26 Sep 2022Sagacious Panda
No pain, no light, nothing…An uneasy slumber, a deep dreamless sleep
At the thinnest edge between being alive and becoming dust.
Then, with blinding lightning Panda came to his senses. A sharp jerk to the land of the living.
His lungs felt the burn while the cryo-liquids were flushed out from him. And he gasped for the air, extending his hand to the blur in front of him, looking for something to hold on to.
His flailing arm got grabbed, firmly.
His body spasmed with electric pain when his nerves returned back to life.
His hand was clasped within a gloved hand, pulling him to a more sitting position.
“We thought we lost you there chief” a friendly voice
“I told you that was way too much amph for him Bell” another friendly voice
“shut the hole Ran, it worked, right?” the first friendly voice
What he thought was the needles that were pricked in his face were pouring rain.
He laying in a pool of cryo-organic liquids and rain was decolorizing it to a sickly white.
It was cold.
Panda’s first thoughts were that this must be hell…
“Yeah-yeah, have it your way, he was almost having a card arrest there Bell” shouted a second familiar voice.
A third voice joined them, a woman shouted “stop it, both of you! We must move now!”
“They will check the transport any second now”
Two of them grabbed him from under his arms.
After those flashes only
Interior of a van, a ghost from the past, shouting voices
When Panda woke up, he saw his ex-crew member standing next to his bed with a grin on his face.
Randt looked back and “Ladies, our guest of honor has arrived”
“R…Randt!” was all he could say. Words came from his throat with a bombardment of pain.
“Easy chief,” Randt said.
Bella entered the room and checked the panel next to Panda’s head for a couple of seconds. She leaned closer and said “Welcome back boss. I’ll keep you under until you will recover.”
Panda noticed that Bella hasn’t changed much. His eyes went to Randt, noticed his artificial eye was locked on to him.
And the world slid back to silence once more.
Her name was Jeanie Garcia. She was tall, fit, and mid 40’s. She spoke rarely but always with a certain wisdom. She was either buried busy to her comms or working on her tech, weapons, parts… A gearhead, Panda thought at first. Jeanie was involved with too many factions. She knew several systems like the back of her hand and her knowledge of key personnel on various ground bases was exceptional. Her base of operations was in Ngun. Ngun was the system Panda was operating from, for a long time, years ago. While he was healing, he started to put the pieces together.
First, they told him that he was in cryo for almost two years…
Jeanie reached out to Bella and Randt to formulate a plan to get him out and back in Imperial space.
All the how’s, where’s and who’s didn’t register much after Panda heard the word space.
-one month later-
It was a pleasant surprise to him to see daylight after he recovered from the small balcony of the pad they were holed up. He could see huge buildings, some connecting with others with bridge-like crossings. He felt himself like a small insect crawling on a jungle floor, where the trees covered the sky.
-one week later-
Bella announced abruptly: “Hey, Jeanie sent another message. She says, tell him to get ready, we are finally going out to have cocktails on the rocks!”
They all smiled at each other and mouthed the word “ICE”
“So, she found them,” Pan said.
Randt ran his hands through his head and face and said “I’ve got to shave, get ready”
-one day later-
Another chirp from the comm and they were all anxiously looking at Bella to read the message.
Bella stood up while reading “Boss, she says tonight”
It was time to go out of this cocoon.
-one hour later-
Far city lights danced at the edge of the horizon. It was cold, even the mud under their boots was crumbling into frozen pieces. They waited in the cover of the night, eyes in the sky. Catching glimpses of stars.
Randt broke the silence “Bell, did she tell you what exactly we are drinking tonight?”
“We are far from the curious ears Ran” Bell said and, “I think….”
She couldn’t finish her sentence
They all heard it. A few kilometers above them, the unmistakable rumbling of the engines, descending graciously.
“Old Fashioned!” Panda gasped
-one minute later-
Panda was sitting on the chair. He didn’t think that he would. Not after all the shit. He rested his hands on the controls, triple checked his straps.
But without lingering too much, with a learned muscle memory that was bruited deep within his mind, Faulcon-DeLacy made Anaconda with its three crew members rumble away from the ground.
While reaching out to the lower orbit he switched on his companion AI. “ICE, talk to me”
“Yes Sir!” ICE came back to his earpiece “It’s good to see you again Pan”
“Miss Garcia relays the following message Sir, for your ears only, please confirm”
Pan looked back at the planet and spoke to the crew “Guys, thank you for everything, we are off to Ngun to get what is ours. Get some sleep.” A pause and “Confirmed, ICE”
“Operation was a success, Pan. For some time, we thought we lost you. ICE tried to warn you before they took you. It took us longer than any of us hoped. While you were under there are major changes in the playfield. I’m sure legion will get you back up to speed. We’ve updated ICE with all recent news and information. He is operating remotely now. I’ll be around Ngun… You fell and rose again Pan, keep your wings this time, no matter what”
“end of message Sir”
“So you do operate remotely now eh ICE?”
“I am” was that a proudness coming from an AI?
“Well, does that mean you can actually replace onboard AI now?”
“It…is!” and enthusiasm?
“….meh, I like my settings as they are, thanks ICE”
While preparing for the first jump Pan walked on the ship, absorbing the rush of emotions and nostalgia. It felt good to be back, now he needed to find out what the Legion was doing in his absence of 124 weeks…