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Pilot Reports - The Pearly Gates

The Pearly Gates (3 parter) - Part 1

With a swift flick of my chin strap and a violent jerk on my lap belt, I spun from my pilot's chair and flung my helmet, hard, against the back wall of my cockpit. The room echoed with both the dull ring of metal being struck and a roar that erupted from my lungs as I slammed my back against the far corner of the cockpit, letting myself crouch down, my head nestled atop my knees.

I looked up with wet eyes, my blurry vision barely able to decipher the flashing text atop my Navigational computer. Yet, I already knew what it said, its contents the reason for my outburst. The words "Sea of Shadows" flashed defiantly, its red glow seeming brighter than usual, as though to further aid in taunting my already paranoid mind.

I had "awoken" maybe ten minutes ago from what I could only explain as a epic dream. Disoriented, I had panicked and abruptly realized I was inside my vessel, the "Evenings Run". The last thing I had remembered was departing from Quantar Core, on my way to Wake station to meet...someone. My memory clouded and then evaporated as my collision alarm screamed its warning at me.

Shaking my head to somehow shake the fog from my mind, I had grabbed the joystick, instinctually pulling up while firing my afterburners, seeing infront of me a Blue Tuned beacon. The cockpit echoed the sound of my ships belly lightly scraping the bottom of the beacon, further adding to my frustration.

My mission computer read that I had accepted the FM in Amanth and even more to my surprise, had completed already at least 25 of the patrols. Yet, my mind barely had time to contemplate the fact, my attention being diverted to the light show ahead of me. There, between a handful of flux, there was what appeared to be a transport ship...it's type hard to tell due to its paint job blending so well against the dark purple void that was Amanth Space. Yet, it was definitely TRI.

I had come to the pilot’s aid, taking down a sentient in the process and several of his purple allies. Luck had indeed awakened with me that day. The lone pilot, a woman by the call sign Faith, had been quite pleasant and appreciative of my assistance. I now regretted my rudeness that I had shown to her, a regrettable after-effect of my still disoriented and confused state. Yet, I felt as though my feelings of anxiety and insecurity had been shared with the pilot. She had a pleasant, yet almost desperate tone about her voice, as if a hint of fear or un-surety plagued her. She had stated something about her being a member of TRI and that she was involved in a mission and had asked a favor of me. I was to find a Solrain pilot, named Iwakura, and tell him that she was alright and thank him for her. I had accepted both out of my feeling of regret that I had been so callous with the kind pilot and the fact that I felt, if I had declined, it would have only increased the obvious burden that was apparent on her voice.

Sitting in my corner, I once again composed my self and looked about my cockpit. My calendar confirmed that I had been "out" for more than a weeks time. With a deep breath, I sat back into my chair and held my still pulsating temple.

My bodies rejection of TRI's conversion had started to evolve into some sort of "jumpgate sickness". Everytime I jumped, I had known that I was only risking injury even more so. Yet, I had kept my conscience at bay after finding hope in the Nano-medicine my contact at Wake had sold me. Now though, I knew that I had reached the point to where my Nano-medicine was only delaying the symptoms. My "blackouts" were getting worse and lasting longer every time. The last one had been only a night, this one a week...how long would the next one last?

And even more disarming was the fact that I seemed to have no control over the events that occurred when I blacked out. Luckily this time, I had only participated in a Patrol run, albeit in dangerous space. What "activity" would I wake up to next time?

With a soul-breaking sigh, I sat down once again and waypointed back to Amanth. I had to get to Solrain and keep my oath to the female pilot. Perhaps the trip would prove to calm my nerves, yet somehow I knew that the last place a Quantar Pilot with what seemed to be violent and ambitious second personality should be heading was Solrain Space.

Yet, I knew deep down, this wouldn’t be the first stupid thing I had done...and I knew even more, that it most likely wouldn't be the last.

Part 2 - Humanity found

With a mechanical hiss, the automated Cafeteria dispensed a glass of Cornerian Orange juice. With a shrill beep, the machine finished as I grabbed for my purchase. Amanth station had been abuzz with activity this day. I had returned to Amanth station to find myself in the middle of an attempted invasion by the Conflux Sentients. Forgetting my honor-bound mission at hand, I had joined with several other pilots in turning back the invasion. Standing with my back against the wall, I took a sip of my beverage and found some humor in the metallic aftertaste that was so common when “dining” in Amanths fine establishments. A hearty laugh sprang from my mouth, a sound that had been rare in the past year of my life. It had been a long while since a laugh had found a home upon my lips. This laugh sprang forth as a laugh of hope and sheer happiness. I had today, seen something that had been to me, a fable. Pilots had fought together, unconcerned with neither faction or squad, for a common cause. I looked across to one of many full tables that covered the main meeting room. The sounds of laughter and excited banter echoed through the dismal walls of Amanth. Men and women sat together, flags of affiliation and race had been replaced with signs of friendship and high hopes. Octavians sat together with Solrain, Solrain with Quantar, arms about one another’s shoulders, recounting maneuvers and explosions, close-calls and near-misses.

For what I knew would be a brief moment in our history, humankind had been brought together and had thrown bias to the wind to share in the joy of victory. My laugh turned to a smile as I tried hard to burn the image into my memory, for I knew that the next days and months would make hope as rare a find as any artifact. I knew that this moment, this leaf in the wind of time, would always be a healing memory. It would be a grand reminder that mankind’s future was with promise.

Setting my drink on the table, I grasped the shoulders of some of my new friends, Oct, Quant and Sol alike, and wished them the best of nights. Shouts of “boo” and sarcastic taunts alike rose from the table as I laughed and shrugged my shoulders, attempting to explain my need to get rest. Receiving the last of my taunts with a bow, I spun on my heel and made way to my rented quarters.

As I placed my head upon my pillow, my soul found solace, and for the first time in a long while, peaceful slumber found me.

It was welcomed, for tomorrow I would start my long journey towards Wake; to complete my oath to Faith, and to once and for all, face my fate.

Part 3 - Reflections

My dreams came to me, wrapped in soft images of the stars and the amber twilight that was the sun. I floated motionless, my arms folded behind my head, my attention paid fully to a bright white star that outshone the rest. This was the peace I had enjoyed all these years, those quiet moments between chaos that rest found me. The silent calm of space, the inner-peace it allowed gave refuge to think of my past. How far I had come, from the young man I had once been. My dreams brought to surface the loneliness I had felt after the passing of my mother and father. Deep in my mind I knew many that had made the vastness of space their home, had shared the same fate. Most that had left everything to join TRI, had usually had very little to leave behind. So many personal tales of loss and grief had I heard, and so many times had the loss of a loved one been the spark that had driven these pilots to their now present career. I admitted to myself, as I floated in the limitless void of my dream, that I too had been no different. I had come to the stars with the hopes to finish my parent’s research. They had gave their life to find the key to defeat humankind’s newest enemy, yet their names and deeds would never ring loudly in a history book or bard’s tale. My heart ached at the random thought of my parent’s sacrifice being forgotten, but the serenity of the stars before me caused my heart to sink back to its peaceful pace as I realized in that moment that it would be I that would carry on their work, their passion for humanity. I would give mankind the gift that they had crafted but had never finished. I would chisel that last edge upon their work and present it to those they had intended. It was my bloods’ destiny. No thought of greed or power crossed my soul, just the anticipated satisfaction of completing their life’s work and the possibility of securing a race’s future that I had come to love once more.

Irony then fell over me as I recalled their deaths. They had died from a mysterious virus, one that had just months ago reared its ugly head in the Hyperion Empire. Fate had spared me that day, had given me the chance to live on. Yet, as wise men said, “Fate was not without a sense of Irony”. I knew, that I too, would someday die as an effect of that vile virus, the dark reaper that had claimed 90% of those on Corneas Science Compound so many years ago. It had weakened my genetic code, or so the TRI geneticists had told me, and had made it near impossible for the “TRI conversion” to take hold in my system.

It mattered not though, death came to all. I would simply find ways to delay its arrival until I was ready to accept what destiny had chosen for me.

My thought-filled dreams were interrupted as I awoke suddenly, driven by my sleep by the beeping of my com-device. Rising up, my eyes blurry from the sands of dreams, I was surprised to see my com-device at eye level, its neon green LCD so close, it stung my groggy and sensitive eyes.

It was then I realized that I was not alone in my quarters; if I was even in my quarters at all. The accustomed wave of paranoia washed over me once more, and I looked about my surroundings in panic, expecting fully to have once again awaken from yet another sickness induced “lapse”. Before my paranoia could take full hold of me, fear replaced it, as a strong and sharp voice spoke over the minor beep of my com-device.

“You should answer that.”

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