"I went out riding, down that ol' eight lane.
I passed by a thousand signs, looking for my own name."
U2 - "The Wanderer"Limbo.
I guess that's what they call the halfway house I was stuck in before I finally died, but it wasn't quiet and peaceful like I thought it was supposed to be. Low rumbles and the tired groans of metal moaned out of the darkness, making the space tremble and I felt fear rising through the numbness.
Images, weird nightmare sights began to come to me through the haze but what I saw was more surreal than any dream I'd ever had. Before me, massive metal fists arced upward and then slammed down against the ground hard enough to shake me. Then there were fields of graves with meager markers lined up in front of me in rows and I wondered if one of them had my name on it. Before I could find out, the light came back and was so harsh that I felt my eyes burning out. I couldn't turn my head, but the cold shadows came back again and washed over me, blocking the light. That was when the sensations started coming back with a vengeance.
Was I dead or not?
I couldn't remember what my hands or feet felt like, but a growing spasm shook my consciousness and the memory of and sense of feeling returned in waves. Suddenly I was gagging up and spitting up sand, but the darkness returned and I was gone again.
Sounds came back to me too and I realized that time must have passed without me knowing. Full feeling (with tingling) and the bright light had returned also, although I couldn't make anything out. Eventually, the sounds boiled down into voices and formed what might have been syllables and words. I think one of them belonged to K'rth, which meant either I was alive after all or he was dead too and had dragged me into his Shaktar afterlife.
"He's awake," were the first words I knew I heard and I knew that I wasn't dreaming. I tried to blink, but someone had glued my eyelids down and they wouldn't open but I could live with it. Somehow, after all that had happened, I was alive. It was either a miracle or Kickstart was a lot better than it was cracked up to be.
"What happened?" I tried to say, but the sand in my mouth was real and I coughed it up. The coughs turned into choking and my entire body ached with the effort, but someone turned me onto my side and I was able to breathe again. Yes, I was definitely alive because you can't possibly feel this bad when you're dead.
A glass touched my lips and gave me a sip of water that I had trouble swallowing. I figured it had to be Nix because she's got the smallest claws of any of my friends and that was how she pried my lips open. I decided to try to speak again, but the cobwebs in my mind were making it hard to think.
"What happened?" I asked, but my voice came out quiet and small. With a lot of effort, I managed to pry my eyes open and blinked. The world was a blinding white light and I tried to cover my face. I didn't get anywhere because my arm was too heavy to move, but someone stepped in to help.
"Can you take the damn light out of my face, please?" I asked and the voice sounded almost like mine. Once it was gone, I relaxed a little and tried to breathe again.
"Welcome back!" a voice said and I tried to smile. K'rth's hand clasped my shoulder and realized with a shock that I could suddenly smell Nix's breath. When I finally got my eyes open, I was nose-to-nose with her and involuntarily flinched. Being that close to a wall of teeth and whiskers isn 't something I'm comfortable with and she snickered and ducked away. When she appeared again, she gently lifted my head and gave me another sip of water. It was still hard getting it down but the next sip was much easier.
"Where. Where are we?" I asked, looking around at the room I was in. My neck was so stiff that I could barely turn it, but what I saw was alien and sterile. Above me was a flat, textured white ceiling and I blinked again, never having seen a room so bright in my life. I had to squint to keep my eyes open because light was bouncing at me from everywhere, filtering through what looked like shaded windows.
"We are safe," he answered and I licked my lips, trying to sit up. He put his arm around my shoulders and gently lifted me into a sitting position while Nix stacked something behind me. Who would have thought that a Wraith and a Shaktar would be taking care of me? They aren't known for being the most gentle or caring species in SLA.
The walls were made of the same textured material and the floor was a polished dark wood, with small patterned rugs in strategic locations. One corner to my side was darker and I looked up, seeing Obie looking down at me. He started forward with his arms open to hug me, but Nix stopped him with a scratch to his hand and a growl. He looked hurt and I tried to laugh at the exchange, but it came out as another dry cough.
"How long have I been out? I should be dead," I said, running the words together. I had a lot of questions, but wasn't sure if I had the strength to ask them.
"Six days," K'rth answered and I tried to nod. "You're alive because of all of the kickstart we had amongst us and a great deal of luck."
"Kickstart couldn't fix what happened," I said and he nodded, giving me more water. "I was dying."
"It stabilized you and our hosts provided medical assistance," he answered.
"Hosts?" I asked, not liking the sound of this. I didn't have LAD and didn't think my credit balance would be enough to have fixed me. "Where are we?"
"We don't know yet," came the answer and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. At least something was working correctly.
"What do you mean? Where are we?" I asked, not liking the sound of this. For the moment, I had enough energy to ask questions, but it was fading fast. "What the hell has happened?"
"The Mariella folded to someplace beyond Mort, but was badly damaged. We believed that the Navigator was killed so we were forced to abandon it and landed here. Fortunately, we were contacted by people who were willing to assist us."
"We think it's some kind of resource world, but we aren't sure yet," Nix interjected.
"Yet? Haven't they told you?" I asked.
"They prefer to speak with a human and were waiting for you to recover," K' rth answered. "For the time being, you should relax. Your strength should return shortly."
I laid my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes, trying to go over what they had told me. We were somewhere unknown and probably far away from Mort, maybe on a resource planet. The locals 'preferred' to not speak with nonhumans even if they were operatives and wouldn't give us any info until I was back on my feet again. There were so many blank spots about what had happened aboard the Mariella that I wasn't sure where to start asking. Did we get Bayer and his crew? What happened to Casper and McNeil? And most importantly, what happened to Gael?
With too many questions and not enough strength, I gave in to fatigue.
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