We’ve reached the second week of this pseudo-NaNoWriMo short story month. Last time, things took a spooky turn at an aquarium after dark. This time, we’ll be adventuring to a distant alien planet, far in the future.
Let’s get this story started!
Sunrise On Sennis
Even as her arm lifted upward, and her eyes drifted down in turn, Wreno knew what she was about to do was pointless. And yet she couldn’t stop herself from doing it anyway.
Her eyes settled on the small holo screen built into her suit’s gauntlet, zeroing in on the time display.
0900 Hours.
She and her mission partner had been on the surface of Sennis for only three hours, and yet it felt as if an entire day had passed already.
Not that Wreno’s mind could be blamed for coming to such a conclusion. The surface of Sennis was, after all, perpetually cast in a darkness as pitch-black as night itself, no matter what time of day it was. A consequence of the burning of Vilitek bodies, she’d learned in the education center as a young girl. A necessary consequence, though, given that Viliteks would just get right back up if you didn’t burn them.
But because of that, the surface of Sennis had become unlivable. It had already been bad that fateful day the Vilitek Outbreak began, and it got worse as the twisted insectoid monsters multiplied and spread across the planet, turning humanity against itself thanks to their parasitic bites. The burned bodies clogging the sky with an impenetrable veil of dark ash was just the final nail in the figurative coffin that compelled Wreno’s ancestors, centuries ago, to flee underground.
It was a stroke of luck then (if one could kill any such thing ‘luck‘ when surrounding the near-extinction of humankind on Sennis) that the scientists in many colonies had already begun exploring underground settlements and territory expansion. Driven by a desperation to rekindle those lingering flames of humanity’s ever-present determination, the brilliant scientists and engineers of Sennis had worked overtime to develop the underground living spaces, and in the several hundred years that had passed since, pockets of humanity had stabilized in those underground quarters.
The settlement where Wreno lived, Astarius, was the largest settlement on Sennis (perhaps ‘in‘ was more accurate). In ways that sometimes leaned uncanny, Astarius was almost like a classical city similar to the kind Wreno had seen pictures of back on Earth, all those eons ago. Artificial lighting simulated a twenty-four-hour day, complicated machinery handled plumbing, heating, and cooling, and scientists had even replicated things such as a small park with synthetic grass and trees. Entertainment options were available as well, for those so inclined.
Broadly speaking, people were able to go about their day…but they were really only able to do so thanks to the Protectorate, a military defense group Wreno was proud to call herself a member of.
Wreno’s mother had been in the Protectorate, as had her grandmother, so Wreno had grown up desperately dreaming of one day joining the Protectorate’s ranks as well. All she wanted to do was keep Astarius and its citizens safe, even if it meant laying down her own life to do so. There was nothing Wreno would not do for the people of her city, and while boot camp had been grueling, she’d emerged from the other side stronger, with the best test scores in her entire class.
Joining the Protectorate came with knowledge, however, and not all of it pleasant. Mere minutes after receiving a Protectorate out-of-combat uniform, new recruits were told the truth about Astarius: its resources were not infinite. It was the Protectorate’s job to secure more supplies so that the citizens of the underground city could continue to live and thrive.
As a child, Wreno had had nightmares about the Vilitek. Everyone did, adults included. The insectoid beasts were terrifying, unrelenting, and ruthlessly efficient in killing. It was hard to ascribe human emotions to an alien creature, but they truly felt purposefully sadistic. However, despite the death and ruin they’d brought to Sennis, they were still a species that harvested and utilized its own resources. And their presence still dominated the surface of the planet…which meant that their resources did as well.
While many recruits in the Protectorate kept the peace in Astarius, or patrolled the tunnels that connected the various underground settlements of Sennis to make sure no Vilitek breaches occurred, the most elite recruits were sent on missions to the surface to procure supplies, whether gathered naturally or stolen outright from the Vilitek. A single Vilitek battery could power the city for a week, a Vilitek ration pack providing food for a family for a month.
The missions were vital to humanity’s survival, but they were also terribly dangerous.
Vilitek’s were dangerous to take down, even with the most advanced weapons that Protectorate had to offer its recruits. More than that, though, was the parasitic bite of the insectoid creatures. A single bite spelled your doom. It could be days later, or mere hours, but someone bitten would, without fail, turn into a new Vilitek. It was a plague, as if the bite seeded someone’s insides with a fledgling larva Vilitek, which would erupt out of them in an explosion of gore without notice. That newly-grown Vilitek would immediately be capable and eager to kill, or worse, bite and infect new human hosts.
There was no cure, no procedure that could save someone.
Doctors had been working for centuries, but always came up short. Attempted quarantine zones had faltered in tragic ways, the worst being a husband-and-wife Protectorate duo in the settlement of Fyrium some fifty years back. She had been bitten, the husband had convinced the city authorities to let her stay in quarantine…and she escaped after turning, triggering a domino-effect cataclysm that killed all 15,000 citizens of that city.
Every time a Protectorate recruit when on a mission to the surface, it was with the knowledge that their actions would ensure the survival of the citizens miles below their feet…but also that it could be the last moments of their life.
And it was for the reason, Wreno always assured herself, that each and every second on the surface needed to be treated with complete and utt–
“Hey, Wreno! Stop zoning out!”
Fingers suddenly snapped in Wreno’s face, causing her to startle. Her hand immediately snapped to her rifle, a high-end plasma model that thrummed with heat in its standby mode.
“Whoa, sorry!” The voice said, in a lilting laugh. “Ease off the rifle, I was just trying to get your attention. You were totally ignoring me.”
Wreno eased her grip (slightly, not completely), and sighed. “Celessia, how many times do I have to tell you to stop that?” She turned to face her mission partner, and grew even more annoyed upon realizing that Celessia had deactivated her nanite helm.
A dark-skinned, amber-eyed face stared back at her, grinning, strands of her unkempt blue hair blowing in the faint breeze.
“Stop doing what?” She inquired, innocently. “Turning off my helm? I told you, the ash in the air doesn’t even bother me. Besides, it’ll snap right back on the instant a Vilitek shows up anyway.”
“No, I meant stop…being weird.”
Celessia snorted, her grin widening. Despite Wreno having a few years on the not-even-twenty-year-old girl, Celessia had a way of always teasing her. “Uh, you picked the wrong mission partner for that, Wreno. I came out of the womb being weird. The Protectorate doesn’t get to take that from me.”
Wreno huffed. “But it’s leading you to not take this mission seriously.”
Celessia’s smile remained, but her eyes hardened. “Of course I’m taking this seriously. So many people are counting on us. My mom and little sister, sure, but also everyone else in the city. I don’t take any part of this for granted.” Her lips twisted a bit, some of that biting sarcasm she usually tried to suppress sneaking out. “Plus, it looks like you were the one slacking here. Staring off into space while I sniped a Veletik down in that quarry and spotted a supply cache.”
Wreno wasn’t too prideful to acknowledge when she’d been appropriately checked. “I apologize. You’re correct. I’m not pulling my weight.”
The younger girl’s posture eased again. “Hey now, enough of that. You’re doing plenty, and you’ll be doing even more when we lug the supplies back underground tomorrow morning.”
Wreno couldn’t help but manage a small smile (not that her partner could see it, since Wreno, on principle, still kept her nanite helm on. “Oh, I’m the one who will be transporting the supplies?”
“With your muscles? Obviously!” Celessia laughed heartily. “Plus, I’m gonna be busy recording footage.”
“Footage?”
“Uh, yeah! It’s why I wanted to volunteer for this specific mission so badly!”
“It wasn’t just for the money?” Wreno inquired, stating her question directly and not accusatorially. Many people in the Protectorate cared more for the stipend than the specific sense of duty that so fervently spurred Wreno herself onward.
Celessia tilted her head. “Well, ration allotments have been tighter this month. But no, I was so desperate to come because it’s the Sennis Solstice tomorrow morning! Did you forget?”
Wreno pursed her lips.
She had forgotten, just has she’d forgotten how much Celessia cared about the Sennis Solstice. How much the younger girl fantasized about it.
For reasons that human’s best scientists couldn’t quite decipher, the thick fog of dark ash that blotted out the sun on Sennis’ surface would, one day a year, for about two hours, clear up completely. And it would happen in the morning, at the perfect time for a gorgeous sunrise to settle across the surface, beautiful enough to make you ignore the crumbling ruins, pock-marked bombed-out canyons, and dried landscapes all around you.
Or that’s how the story went, at least. Wreno had never seen the Sennis Solstice herself, just pictures of it. Through holo vids alone, it didn’t seem that impressive to her. Then again, Wreno had never been good at comprehending beauty.
Celessia teased her relentlessly about it. How Wreno’s favorite pastime in Astarius’ synthetic park was to watch the people walking by and try to decipher what job they had, not listening to the simulated birdsong or enjoying the feel of the artificial breeze. Or how, apparently, many other Protectorate recruits their age found Wreno attractive. She herself was utterly oblivious to it, and had never once thought of her appearance as anything other than a side effect of physicality itself, the tool she kept honed in order to help her complete her missions.
Wreno crossed her arms. “We’ll need to head back to the surface tomorrow morning.”
“Sure, sure.” Celessia waved her hand dismissively. “But not before I get some great shots of the Sennis Solstice. Can you even imagine it? A real-life sunrise, not a simulated one? I’ve dreamed about it for so long!”
While Wreno didn’t share her mission partner’s sentiments, she wasn’t coldhearted enough to stamp them out either. Instead, she shouldered her rifle again. “Well, that shouldn’t be an issue. But securing supplies comes first.”
“Roger, roger!” Celessia snapped a theatrical salute, and then reactivated her nanite helm.
Even with the helm back in place, Wreno could practically sense her partner’s teasing grin.
Despite herself, she smiled too.
With that, the two Protectorate recruits resumed their steady march across the surface of Sennis, illumination beams lighting up the surrounding area, audio signals tuned to the skittering of Viliteks, and eyes on a constant swivel for both supplies, and the possible ambush of the deadly parasitic insectoids.
It would be a long day, but a worthwhile on for the survival of Astarius.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Only when Wreno’s wrist holo chimed, signaling that it was midnight, did she call a halt to her and Celessia’s mission, and the two began making camp for the night.
Despite Wreno’s wariness, it had been a routine supply mission so far. Not that she would relax her guard because of that, but it did soothe her spirits to know that she and Celessia had acquired a decent stockpile of supplies and had avoided any intense trouble.
They’d encountered Viliteks, as it was impossible not to for any Protectorate recruit who spent more than fifteen minutes on the surface of Sennis. Thankfully, though, the Viliteks they’d encountered had been single scouts, easily picked off from a distance by Celessia’s sniper, or brought down silently with Wreno’s rifle from close range. The insectoid monsters hadn’t known what had hit them, as Celessia quipped.
Wreno wasn’t quite relaxed enough to laugh at that remark, but it had made her smile.
Now, setting up their tents for the night (made of a special alloy that not only aided in blending in with the environment, but also employed a subtle repellant mist into the air, to keep patrolling Viliteks from wandering near), Wreno realized she may actually be able to enjoy a restful night of sleep for once.
The Protectorate barracks had been Wreno’s home for a while now, and she’d adapted well. The beds had grown more comfortable, the snoring of the recruit who shared the room with Wreno no longer woke her in the middle of the night, and she no longer had difficulty relaxing once more after being woken up by an emergency alert, whether part of a testing drill or an actual crisis.
It was the falling asleep part that Wreno struggled with.
She had such a hard time willing her mind to calm, to slow, to rest. Her unceasing attention was a boon while on a mission, but a severe bane to her attempts at forming a sleep schedule. While her roommate snored, Wreno would just stare at the ceiling and think. Think about her duty to the Protectorate. Think about upcoming missions, or recently completed ones. Think about the citizens of Astarius, like her uncle back at home, or increasingly, the meals shared at Celessia’s home with the younger recruit’s mother and sister, who both had all but tried to adopt Wreno.
The thoughts were not consistently miserable, or anxious. But they were ever-present, and always exhausting.
Wreno wondered if Celessia knew any relaxation techniques that could–
“That support anchor is backwards, Wreno.” Her partner’s playfully quipping voice cut through Wreno’s thoughts, as if she’d summoned Celessia with her mind.
Wreno blinked, returning to the present, and realized that, indeed, she’s assembled one of her tent’s support anchors backwards. Grateful that her nanite helm hid her flustered expression, Wreno began fixing the mistake her body had made while she’d been on auto-pilot.
Celessia laughed, clearly sensing her partner’s discomfort anyway. “It’s easy to get ’em backwards, Wreno. Seriously! No biggie. You are really spacing out, though.”
Wreno grunted. “It’s a poor mark on my qualities as a Protectorate recruit.”
Celessia shrugged. “Eh, I think killing Viliteks and keeping civilians safe are the only scores they really track. Unless you find a way to defeat those bugs for good with the power of tents.”
Despite herself, Wreno let a short laugh slip out, which of course brought about a wave of near-contagious giggles from Celessia.
After a moment, they settled into a rhythm once more, and Wreno finished assembling her tent. Celessia had finished hers a while earlier, and was busy staring off at the dark sky, presumably at the location she’d already determined would be where the sunrise would be visible come the morning.
Celessia, nanite helm deactivated, her expression contemplative, pursed her lips. “Do we still have enough fuel to burn any Viliteks we might see tomorrow morning?”
“Of course.” Wreno nodded. She was, as Celessia put it, a notorious over-packer. “Unless the send their entire force at us.”
“I think we’d have bigger issues at that point.” Celessia said, smiling wryly, before sobering a second after. “But that’s good. I don’t want their stench ruining the sunrise for me. If any attack, I want to be able to burn them immediately, record some footage, and then just…bask in it.”
“I’ll make sure you’re able to do that.” Wreno solemnly swore, and she truly meant every word…even if, as she said it, she expected a teasing ‘you take things so seriously‘ remark in return.
To Wreno’s surprise, Celessia remained quiet for a long moment.
Finally, she spoke once more.
“Do you think the Viliteks on this planet came from another living being, another sentient race? Like how when we get infected, a Vilitek splits open from inside of us? Did they also come from some other species?”
Wreno paused. “I…confess that I’ve never given it any thought.”
Celessia’s voice lifted with an intonation of passion. “Well, if true, do you think that other species might also be working on a cure to Vilitek bites, like we are? What if we combined our knowledge? We could really make some big strides in developing a cure!”
“The cure is impossible.” Wreno said, definitively.
“So far, sure.” Celessia pressed on, adamantly. “But our scientists are so close.”
“They’ve said that for years.”
“But this time it’s true, it must be.” Celessia turned from facing the horizon. “Didn’t you read the recent reports? There’s a breakthrough that–“
Celessia’s further sentence was interrupted by the piercing shriek of a Vilitek leaping out from the shadows beyond the range of the Protectorate duo’s illumination beams, and slashing one of its long talon-like arms across Celessia’s back.
Wreno leapt to her feet and fired her rifle the exact half-second after the surprise ambush.
The plasma bolts from Wreno’s rifle streaked through the air at the Vilitek, as Celessia collapsed to the ground, screaming. Her screams, though tinged with some pain, were primarily cries of panic and alarm. Though fearsome, a single slash from a Vilitek would not be enough to cut through the Protectorate armor.
Wreno’s rifle blasts hit their mark, staggering the Vilitek and pushing it back onto the offensive. She took a defiant step froward, keeping the rifle in its devastating close-range to the insectoid, slowly burning away the hardened carapace of the deadly creature. The Vilitek hissed as it crumpled to the ground, fizzling and steaming.
“Wreno, two more!” Celessia exclaimed, sniper in hand as she fired off a few molten hot slags towards the back of their camp. She was crouched low, in a defensive stance, any traces of the young, spirited, inquisitive girl replaced by the competent and fearless soldier she was in times of crisis.
The only issue was that, due to how their conversation had led them to be distracted, the Viliteks had closed the distance far more than Celessia’s sniper was built to handle. Only Wreno’s rifle was designed for close-quarters combat.
Wreno pivoted around, and aided Celessia in blasting at the two remaining Viliteks. Her rapid fire capabilities kept the Viliteks moving, and like she and her partner were conducting a dance, Wreno guided the insectoid beasts into the severely-damaging slags of Celessia’s sniper. Wreno’s shots singed the alien carapace’s, but Celessia’s punched holes straight through them. Before long, both Viliteks were lying on the ground, twitching.
And then an incomprehensibly heavy load crashed into Wreno’s back, knocking her to the ground so fiercely the air exploded out of her lungs as her chest hit the rocks.
The Vilitek she’d thought that she had killed. Somehow, through sheer rage, it had clung to life, slamming its flaming, ruined body onto her. It chittered a scream like shattering glass, and began slamming its talons into Wreno’s armor, her internal alarm systems blaring.
And then the pressure was gone…as Celessia recklessly tackled the Vilitek off of Wreno.
Her insides aching, Wreno heaved herself into a sitting position, but not fast enough to prevent the Vilitek from wrestling itself atop Celessia, and descending upon her in a flurry of stabbing talons and gnashing jaws.
Celessia screamed in agony, and Wreno let out a similar roar of fury, desperate to stop the insectoid monster from biting Celessia, that one single action being all that it would take to seal her fate.
Overclocking her rifle, Wreno unloaded a massive beam of energy that punctured the Vilitek’s skull, and the headless creature twitched twice before collapsing, its bulk still burying Celessia.
Ignoring the pains in her own body, Wreno stumbled to her feet, ran over, and hauled the Vilitek off of Celessia, revealing a horrifying sight underneath.
Celessia’s Protectorate armor was riddled with gashes and holes where the Vilitek’s merciless strikes had gotten through. One particularly huge gash, near Celessia’s shoulder, had clearly cut deep into the girl’s skin, blood oozing out. It was a deep wound, one that almost looked like…
Wreno felt the world go still. “Celessia…were you bit?”
Celessia’s eyes looked wide with fright, her adrenaline still racing hard, but she managed to shake her head. “N-No, thankfully. It s-stabbed me, but you saved me before it could bite.” Tears sparkled in her eyes. “Th-Thank you.”
“Of course.” Wreno breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
She then, to make up for her lax behavior earlier, the behavior that had led to this whole mess, patrolled the outskirts of the camp she and Celessia had set up, scanning for any more Vilitek threats. Nothing was detected, and Wreno recognized that, most likely, they had simply been unlucky enough to establish their camp along the patrol route of that particular group of Vilitek scouts.
When Wreno returned to Celessia’s side, the younger girl was breathing heavily, and shakily standing up.
“You need medical attention.” Wreno explained, then felt exceedingly stupid at pointing out the obvious. Sometimes she really hated her inability to handle social conversations better, but if she gave herself some grace, she too was still running on a dangerously high swell of adrenaline.
“M-Med kits will take care of it.” Celessia said, in a near whisper, pointing to her tent. “I-I’ll handle it.”
“I can do it.” Wreno insisted, but Celessia shook her head.
“I-I’m gonna pass out, Wreno. But I can use the med kits first. You n-need to burn the bodies and make sure the repellant mist is working. We must’ve not turned it on yet.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep.” Celessia managed a faint smile. “I need my strength if more show up in the morning, right? Especially if I want to match your kill count.”
Wreno rolled her eyes, but accepted the playful remark. “Your sniper slugs were what really did those other two in.”
“Sure, sure.” Celessia conceded, before shuffling over to her tent and crawling inside.
Once she was away, Wreno let out a trembling breath, forcing her nerves (and pounding heart) to calm down once more.
Letting the Viliteks sneak up like that had been stupid, exceedingly so. A rookie mistake, and nearly a fatal one for both her and Celessia. They’d gotten caught up in conversation, and nearly lost their lives. Worse, the supplies they’d gathered, those critical resources, would have never reached Astarius if they’d perished. Civilians would have suffered all because of their mistake.
Any remaining mirth drying up, Wreno dutifully dragged the Vilitek bodies away and burned them, double-checked that the repellant mist systems were working, and did two more sweeps of the nearby area to make sure that everything was secure. She popped her head into Celessia’s tent, satisfied to see that her wounds were closing and she was sleeping.
Finally, Wreno crawled into her own tent, closed her eyes, and tried to fall asleep.
It did not come easy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first thing Wreno heard when she awoke, and her senses returned to her, was a coughing noise.
Celessia coughing.
Blinking a few times to clear her vision, and stretching her arms and legs to work out any initial early morning kinks, Wreno couldn’t help but continue to listen to Celessia cough, the noises traveling strongly even from the younger girl’s tent.
It was hardly a standard cough. More of a hacking wheeze, deep and guttural.
Wreno winced in sympathy. The surface was known to hold viruses and strains of flu that Astarius, deep below, had long since eviscerated. It would be just their luck for Celessia to have contracted such a sickness. Wreno would probably catch it next.
Crawling out of her tent, Wreno noticed that the sky was just a sliver less oppressively dark. There, on the distant horizon, the almost-imperceptible glow of sunlight, real sunlight, was beginning to peak through. The sunrise would arrive in minutes, the Sennis Solstice. The beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime view Celessia had been dying to see.
Whittling away the remaining minutes until the Solstice drew near as efficiently as a tried-and-tested Protectorate recruit could, Wreno packed up her tent and several of the other belongings scattered around the campsite. She then sat on the packed bundle and performed some routine maintenance on her rifle.
She was still doing as such when Celessia finally crawled out from her own tent a moment later.
Wreno looked up, smiled…and nearly dropped her rifle.
Celessia looked terrible. A pale, patchy blotch of skin was crawling up her neck from the wound on her shoulder, like the skin around that area was decaying.
Whatever sickness she’d contracted, it had worsened while they’d slept. Or, more dangerously, it was possible that the wounds inflicted by the Vilitek had mixed with the illness, worsening the side effects.
Wreno set her rifle down beside herself, and started to open her mouth to voice her sympathies for how much pain Celessia must be in. Celessia caught Wreno’s eye, but instead of the weak smile or wry expression Wreno expected, the younger girl looked…terrified.
Terrified of Wreno herself.
Wreno sucked in a harsh breath, time seeming to freeze.
Her voice sounded hoarse as she spoke. “You…you were bit.”
Celessia’s lower lip quivered, and she nodded.
Wreno felt her entire body tense up, but a burst of panic subsided into confusion as Celessia did, indeed, finally smile.
“It’s good that we’re going back to Astarius soon, right? I’ll be able to make it to treatment.” She said, forcing a hint of peppiness through her scratchy voice.
“Wh-What?”
“The doctors, at the city. They’ll be able to help me, or at least keep my symptoms at bay. I was trying to tell you about those reports last night! They’re so confident they have a cure, they just need to run more tests!”
Wreno felt like she couldn’t breathe. “…you were bit.”
Celessia shook her head. “But I’m fine right now! A whole night passed, and I’m fine, Wreno! Look at me. I can make it to Astarius before I turn, they can keep my transformation from happening, or put me in quarantine or cold storage or something. They’ll pull me out once it’s time to fix me!”
“…you were b–“
“You know me, Wreno. You know me!” Celessia’s eyes were wide as she turned towards Wreno, too panicked to even notice the dawning of the Sennis Solstice unfolding behind her.
“Celessia, there is no cu–“
Celessia clutched at her heart, squeezing tightly against her uniform. “I’m not gonna turn, Wreno. I’m not gonna die! I can’t die! Mom and my sister need my money. I-I didn’t even say ‘goodbye‘ to them before this mission. They need me. A-And I’ve never fallen in love, and I’ve never h-had a life outside of the Protectorate. I can’t die yet.”
Wreno’s voice trembled. “We have to do what’s right for Astarius.”
“And I want to!” Celessia flung out her arms wide. “I want to do so much more for that city, for those people. For my family. For you. That’s why I can’t give up here, I can’t stop fighting, everything that I am can’t just…end, because of one stupid bug bite!”
“But it–“
The younger girl frantically pressed on. “Wreno, remember how you got that stomach ache for a whole week, but it only affected me for a few hours? Or how exhausted you were after that one training, while I felt like I could keep going? Y-You know how good I am at this. You know I can survive!”
Wreno stayed silent.
Celessia coughed violently, and then smiled. “I-I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Y-You should see the reports from the doctors, I’m telling you. The r-results are so promising for that cure.”
Wreno let out a heavy breath, and slowly nodded her head. “…right, yeah. Okay, Celessia.”
Celessia blinked, pausing for a moment, and then smiled. There was a strange, far-off look in her eyes. “Okay? Great! Th-Thank you, Wreno.”
Wreno swallowed heavily, and then pointed at the sky behind Celessia. “…the Solstice, Celessia. Don’t miss it.”
The strange look still in her eyes, Celessia’s smile widened. She turned around, and gazed up at the brilliantly shining sky.
The Sennis Solstice truly was magnificent. The sun blazed with all the fierce fire of a sunrise to end all sunrises, as if its power banished the ash that choked the heavens every other day of the year. It was mesmerizing.
Wreno’s hands lowered to her side.
Celessia let out a raspy, awed breath. “It’s…so beautiful, Wreno. It’s perfect. I’m so happy I got to–“
Her words cut off at the same time that her body pitched forward, the hole in her head still smoking even after her corpse collapsed to the ground.
Wreno set her rifle back down on the ground, her hands shaking. She stood up, walked to where Celessia had fallen, and gazed down at her partner. Vilitek infection only spread through bites, so Wreno allowed herself to close Celessia’s eyes, leaving the girl looking almost…peaceful.
Protocol still had to be followed, the safety of humankind ever paramount.
Dutifully, silently, as if running on nothing but instinctual training, Wreno burned Celessia’s body, until the girl was nothing but ash.
Wreno then finished packing all of the supplies up, and began the journey back to Astarius…
…but not before using Celessia’s holo recorder to archive footage of the Sennis Solstice, in all its ethereal beauty.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Wreno returned beneath the surface of the planet and gave her report on the mission, she said nothing.
When she collected Celessia’s belongings, and the recorder that had captured footage of the Solstice, and delivered them to Celessia’s mother and sister, she said nothing.
When mother and daughter had sobbed, clinging tightly to Wreno, as if squeezing her hard enough would bring Celessia back, she said nothing.
When she walked back to the Protectorate barracks, and overheard a news report convey the dismal announcement that recent Vilitek infection cure results had come back as a failure, she said nothing.
When she entered the barracks, and her fellow recruits asked her how the mission to the surface had gone, she said nothing.
Only when she reached her room, sat on the edge of her bed, and held her head in her hands, did Wreno scream.
That brings this story to its end.
I’ve actually had the idea for this story in my head for about two years now, so I’m glad I finally got the chance to bring it to life. Despite my deep love of sci-fi, I haven’t given myself a lot of opportunities to write in the genre, so this was a very appreciated chance.
See you with the third short story next week.
