Headfirst into the Abyss

Small unit is sleeping still, even though they’ve been woken up nearly half an hour ago. Zain’s eyes are drooping, though even so Viktor can notice the purple irises appearing and disappearing beneath the moving lids. Thana and Kendra are leaning on each other, hands entwined and coats only barely draped over their shoulders.

Viktor himself is leaning on Ursa and he’s unsure if the other male is coherent yet – he’s only slightly stirring.’

“Hey, Vik.” It’s Kendra speaking. “How are you feeling?” And then, to clarify, as if though he doesn’t know what she’s talking about—“After yesterday?”

“Yeah.” No, probably not. It just takes a moment to sink it. He’s been fourteen at the time his sister had been pronounced dead. He remembers the tears and the pain and there is painful squeeze in his chest even now. Still, it’s a bit hard to swallow that she might be alive, it would be even in the best of circumstances, but now, it’s just...

He wonders how his mother is doing. He wants to see her.

“That’s not a proper answer.” It’s Ursa that rumbles the sentence, shoulders cracking right under Viktor’s ear, and he moves so that he can let other male get up. “We should probably get going.”

The sedatives used for travels in high speeds and gravities usually affect people like this. They’re moving in strange patterns, though Viktor’s really been here before – he can practically feel himself getting younger with each minute. It’s not going to be much of a difference, not really, seeing that their ship has been practically everywhere in the known universe.

“I’m not sure how I feel.” He admits. Ursa, with his kind bright eyes and million-dollar smile, puts his hand on Viktor’s shoulder and shakes him a bit.

“You’re gonna be fine, Red.” He says, like he knows. He probably does. “We’re gonna make you fine.”

Something is stuck in Viktor’s throat and he nods, eyes too shiny for it to be contributed to his recent sleep. Ursa smiles and, behind him, Kendra does too, a mild expression on her face.

The thing is, he thinks as he slips into his space suit, is that he doesn’t want to get involved. If it was according to him, his parents wouldn’t get involved, either, but it’s their call—he’s not the boss of them, that’s for certain. Stop the tyrant, save the galaxy, those things are easy to talk about, easy to make into the fantasy and forge into the stars they’ve not reached yet.

But to be actually involved in the mess? That’s another thing altogether.

Who would know, who in the entire galaxies would guess that TIA would accept the proposition? Why, why would you bargain with somebody who has cost you more lives than you can fit into the virtual bank? Why bargain with somebody who is openly not only oppressive and set on taking your land, your planets and satellites, but out for your race on no other basis than being lesser?

If TIA, the most sensible force in the universe so far, has agreed to Grimgrinner’s conditions, things must be getting real bad for all of them.

“Captain?” Zain’s voice pulls him out of his thoughts and he shakes his head. It doesn’t matter. His team has been summoned to the Sleeping Sun and that’s where Charybdis is travelling now—only two more hours away and they’ve lowered the speed enough so that they can remain conscious until their arrival to their new base.

Sleeping Sun can be see even from here – a large complex of rings moving one over another in perfect sync a rather poor imitation of planetary rings. They move slowly, although most likely at enough speed that things on it remain on it. For everything to be highly functioning.

Viktor’s so used to the spaceships that he’s not sure he’ll be able to stand on the firm ground. The thought almost makes him smile.

“Just continue towards it.” He sounds more bored than he feels. “We can’t really go past it, I mean—it’s huge.”

“I’m going to turn the auto-pilot on.” Like it probably wasn’t on before this. Thana has this habit; it’s not like Viktor minds. He’s seen her fly a craft during combat. He will not bother her for something as trivial as this.

“What is that?” Now that his suit is on, he can hear all of them over the com. This voice is most definitely Kendra’s. Soon, there’s a small picture in his suit, too—the outside, a view upon the Sleeping Sun complex, something he didn’t notice before, perhaps because it was pitch black.

It should’ve been his first clue, if he’s honest – the myriad of stars just disappearing into the black void.

There, on the twinkling surface of the man-made complex, is a black growth of something that cannot be human, something that cannot be something they would make. All species in the universe abide by the laws it has set for them – the star must shine on all that is organic, if it makes gravity the things will stick to it.

But not this – not the black towers rising from one sixth of one of main Sleeping Sun rings, with the black dots moving around it like flies.

“It looks like it’s festering.” Ursa comments and Viktor can imagine his face without seeing it. It must be displeasure, even disgust.

“There’s no heat signature. It doesn’t even reflect any light.” Of course Zain looked into it. When it comes to things of practical value, he’s always one step ahead of their entire team. He’s right, too, of course he is – the entire structure, apart from hanging unnaturally from the artificial ring, looks like it’s a black splotch on the canvas of the universe.

It’s almost a black hole, Viktor thinks.

“We’re not going there anyway.” He can see – the small fly-like dots that are actually small, compact ships taking off the structure’s surface disappear in small flashes when they get too close to the complex itself. TIA has let Grimgrinner land on the Sleeping Sun, but they have not let them use their space without precautions.

Viktor’s sure that if his ship wanted to go the Grimgrinner, they would be burned, too.

It’s all too well that he doesn’t yet want to see his sister, then.