The Coordinate

Chapter 8: Imprisoned

            “Go to Terra, find the Coordinate. And save all of us!”

            He remembered clearly that tired, raspy voice, asking him to do the impossible. Asking him the only thing he knew he could never do. Those words were branded into his brain, and it hurt everytime he remembered it.

            How many revolutions could have passed back in Novaien? Perhaps too long, but for him, the conflict and the obstacles going against his every attempt to reach Terra everyday made it seem like forever.

 Silver light and cold winds passed through thick bars several feet up the walls. It was strange seeing silver light in here. Night light was violet back in Novaien.

            His body was throbbing, his shoulder felt like it was dislocated, and his horns were itchy from the inside. He can’t scratch it. It was torturous.

            He wondered what became of that human girl.

            So many had died because of him. Spacers from Novaien that wanted to learn and accompany him, and always, they suffered first. He didn’t know why it was always him that survived after every near-fatal encounter. The guilt piled on so much, he decided to disregard it and became numb. He always needed a partner to ride. It hurt everytime he piloted a ship alone. His horn always screamed, like his brain stem was being stretched without snapping. He knew he wouldn’t die, but the pain was always there.

            However, it was useless now. That girl was his last chance to find any sort of clue about the Coordinate, and even they weren’t able to find the right building to crash into.

            Soft rustling suddenly echoed through the quiet emptiness, but was then coverd up by a bang on the bars sealing him. He turned his head to face the visitor dismissively and saw two silhouettes

            The darkness sheathed their faces and colors, but that smell was unmistakeable. One of the them was an A’vin.  A male at that.

            “Good evening.” A woman’s voice said. A human woman.

            With two claps, light filled the side where they stood. It was indeed a human woman, carrying a box and wearing a uniform style he hasn’t seen before, and a male A’vin, dressed in a similar uniform.

            “Spare me your formalities.” He said to her, “Just do what the Zionous told you to do.”

            “I am Hanabi Ibis, and this one here is Auk Latre. We are the Preparatories.”

            “Preparatories? Oh, right. The Council of Sectorates’ dogs. Why’s a human a part of it?” he spat.

            “Por’a terkai, Corpi!” the A’vin said.

            His eyebrows furrowed, “Tetrekai sundol.”

            The woman elbowed his partner, “Please speak English. I don’t understand anything you just said.”

            “Your partner here must be stupid then. Can’t even speak a language he was ordered to learn.”

            The A’vin growled and advanced threateningly, but the woman’s hand stopped her. “Calm down,” she said.

            She took a deep breath and pulled a chair from behind her.

            “Alright then. We’ll start the interrogation.”

            “In this primitive dump of a cell? I was expecting a dark room with six armed guards and a one-way mirror while someone listens to us.” 

            “You won’t have the luxury for that. First off, what’s your name?”

            “Swallow.”

            “Judging from your horns, you are are one of the ‘Corpi’ as the Sectorates explained. Is that correct?”

            “What kinds of questions are these?”

            The woman opened the box she carried, and upon sight, Swallow’s mouth watered, his stomach rumbled. It was food. Novasapien food. How were they able to make one here?”

            “Are you not hungry, Mr. Swallow? Before the Zionous himself will arrive here to interrogate you properly, we are tasked to verify some information he’ll need to forge the actual questions they have for you. So it consider it an honor. Understand?”

            “The Zionous? Wow. I get to meet the immortal bastard who has damned three entire global ecosystems? What an honor, indeed.”

            The woman looked at him with shaking eyes, as if confused. The woman then turned the box upside down, slowly taking the cap off.

            “Wait!” Swallow rushed, holding his hands up.

            “Y-You’re hungry, see? Now, will you answer my question?”

            Swallow grit his teeth and lowered his head.

            “G-Good. Now, I repeat, you are a spacer from a ‘Corpi’ group, is that correct?” she asked.

            “Yes.”

            “Are you and that girl already acquainted before you arrived here on Earth?”

            “Rephrase that into something I can actually understand.” He demanded.

            “Is the girl you rode with one of your subordinates even before you came here? Or did you abduct her and force her to ride with you?”

            “No. In fact, she was the one who offered to help me.”

            The woman’s eyes turned to the device the A’vin was holding. Swallow immediately recognized it and scoffed.

            “A lie detector? How dirty.”

            The woman cleared her throat, “Do you pose a threat to humanity and to Earth and its inhabitants?”

            Swallow laughed. “Quite the opposite. I’m here to save your asses, you idiots!”

            The device rang. The woman looked at him with a displeased look.

            “Let me rephrase that.” Swallow took a deep breath. “I’m not here to necessarily save Terra and its inhabitants. But I kid you not when I say that it is in humanity’s best interest that I get out of this place, and leave me to my devisings!”

            The device did not ring.

            Swallow smiled victoriously, as the confusion settled on the woman’s face. She turned to her partner, puzzled.

            Swallow’s eyes burnt full of confidence, but in his periphery, he found the A’vin’s fingers secretly and quickly tampering with the device. His eyes burned.

            “Hey, he’s-“

            The device rang.

            “You lie.” The other said.

            “No, I wasn’t you son of a b***h. You did something to the damn thing!”

            The device rang again.

            The woman looked at the device and exhaled, as if relieved. “We need to commission for a properly functioning lie detector as soon as possible, Auk.” She said.

            “No! Didn’t you see?! That bastard did something to the detector! The device-“

            The device rang again. That noise fueled his rage further.

            “That’s enough, ere you say something that will be held against you. We have all we need to know from you.” The Zionous will be here tomorrow.”

            The woman then tossed the box into his cell, and along with the A’vin, walked away. As soon as the footsteps faded, Swallow immediately reached for the box and hungrily devoured its contents. He didn’t care if his joints and muscles complained, he needed the food. He needed the sustenance.

            The water capsule was within its bottom. He wrested it out of the box and poured it quickly into his mouth and to the rest of his face. He took a deep breath, composing himself.

            Based on what that woman said, that girl was still alive, thankfully. But what about his ship? It needed materials to regenerate, but where could it be? He cast his hand into the air. His horn glowed, his eyes burning.

            “Come.”

            A few minutes passed.

            Nothing.

            Must have been destroyed by now… or something.

            He then lied on the cold floor. It was useless now. He had failed. Everything he had hoped for, every thing his father trusted him to accomplish, gone to waste in a moment where he thought should have turned his luck around. Whether it was going to be tortured for information, killed on the spot, or any other punishment, this was the end, he thought.

            I wonder where and how that girl is doing now.

            She must be incredibly upset.

______________________________________________________________________________

            Winter didn’t know what to feel.

            She stared blankly at her blanket, wondering what response was appropriate both to alleviate the guilt of her friends and herself. She couldn’t blame them for shooting her down. They didn’t know, and certainly, she didn’t know that she was crashed into and tried to level the landscape either.

            “Winter,” Jordan said, snapping her out of her trance, “I hope you’re not particularly mad at us.”

            Winter let out a consoling laugh, “Why would I be? You two are my friends. Besides…” her voice gloomed, “I’m the one that’s supposed to be the one asking for forgiveness.”

            The door between them suddenly opened. A man in a uniform entered the room. “Visitors Jordan Heron and Rori Moa? It’s past the seventh hour. School departments have already declared student recalls. Go back to the testing facility.”

            “Is Winter going to stay here?” Jordan asked.

            “Until she recovers and if the Chief Sectorate is done with her tonight.”

            “Who’s paying for her stay here? Winter doesn’t have the money to spend a single night in a care unit!” joined Rori.

            “Her stay is already paid for. Now, please, exit the building.”

            Jordan and Rori stood up and glanced at Winter momentarily, “We’ll be going now, okay?” said Rori.

            “Mmm. I’ll see you soon.”

            They then left the room, and the guard closed her room, leaving her sight and voice to bounce to the white, empty walls of this luxurious room.

            One thought occurred in her mind, the thought of Swallow. He just seemed different from the other novasapiens. His mannerism, the way he talked, even his diction, he seemed more human than any novasapien she talked to. Her mind drifted back to the freedom she felt flying through the sky with the C.I.F. exhaustions not affecting her. The wind that blew on her face was cool and refreshing too, but she remembered something flying with her as well. Like someone riding on her, or rather, inside her. The things she did felt natural, but the choices that made her do so… was something that was out of her control.

            None of the spacer guides and e-textbooks described anything like that. All the spacers she had watched on the internet said nothing about it either.

            The door opened again, and this time, revealed a novasapien with a longer horn and absurd worry lines on his forehead. Augmentations were evident on his cheeks.. He wore a formal suit and was accompanied by two large humans with a similar, less formal attire.

            “Hello. Winter Swan, I presume.” He said, before taking a seat beside the door. He turned to the men following him, and said, “Go stand outside. I need to converse         privately with this girl.”

            Winter gulped and sat up. What did she get herself into exactly?

            The men nodded and left the room, leaving the two alone.

            “How’s your recovery? Feeling any better?”

            “My femur still feels a little too soft, but I’m not in any pain.”

            “Good, good. As you may have heard, I’m the Chief Sectorate of the Sectorate Council. You may call me Sir Stork.”

            Winter nodded. “Are you the one paying for my stay here? I-I really don’t have the money to pay you back.”

            “No, no, no. It’s quite alright. You have information and firsthand experience of something that’s of interest to us, novasapiens. Information like that is much more valuable than what we’re giving to you.” He explained.

            Winter pursed her lips and kept her head low. The words implied to her how great scale of her sins was to them. It felt like she was going to go to prison, or get penalized in a way that’ll ruin her life.

            “In any case, I’d like to talk about you before I get to why I’m here. I need you to be comfortable, and I need to know you to beforehand after all. Like I said, I am here because you have something we need.”

            Winter nodded. It was the least she could do to makeup for her sins.

            “So, what will you now do when you grow up?”

            Winter raised her head and faced him, “I’ll still become a spacer.”

            His left brow arched, looking at her dumbfoundedly, “Err, that won’t be possible anymore, Winter.”

            “Wait, why?” Her voice sharpened, on the verge of breaking down into a panic, “A-am I not allowed to be a spacer anymore? Is that really my punishment? There should be something else I can-“

            “Relax, Winter. If it were only possible for you to be a spacer again, we’d gladly support you. You becoming a spacer in the name of humanity would be a great benefit with your… firsthand experience afterall, but that won’t be the case anymore.”

            “Why is that?”

            “Oh? Didn’t you read the spacer guides thoroughly?”

            The Chief Sectorate paused and took a deep breath, “I’ll keep it short. There’s a reason why we only allow separate spacer ships to be either human, or novasapien-controlled, and if ever two spacers are in the same ship, one of them must pilot the spacer ship solo. Did you know this?”

            “I’ve… skimmed a bit through it.”

            “Why we do that is simple. A human, and a novasapien must never share and pilot a singular ship. A human brain and a novasapien brain are too different things, and drifting together would scramble both. Think of it like mixing chocolate powder with powdered milk. It becomes homogeneous, and one won’t be able to separate them anymore. As a result, one will never be compatible with anyone else except for the partner that they rode with, and solo-piloting will hurt both of them.”

            Winter’s ears blocked out. It was as if she didn’t hear it right.

            “W-would you please repeat that…?”

            “You will never be able to pilot a ship except when that man, Swallow, is with you.”

            She paused, trying to digest the information. She couldn’t say anything. There was nothing else to say. She carelessly soared up on the skies and unknowingly trampled over and devastated properties. She worried her friends, perhaps even tarnished their school’s reputation. She nearly died, and worst of all… she couldn’t fly anymore.

            What will become of my dream?

            All within twenty hours.

            “Now, do you now realize the full extent of your situation?”

            Winter nodded, keeping her gaze low.

            “Are you now comfortable? Can we start?”

            “I hope to make up for all the things I’ve done. I-I hope I can really help with just questions…”

            “Oh, don’t worry, girl. Once we verify that you truly have the factors we need, we will be requesting your full cooperation on a certain project--one that the public, the United Government, and the New World Interstellar Corps. will be pleased with. Does that sound good?”

            “It does.” She said in a monotone voice.

            “Good. Then, shall we start with the real questions?”

            “Yes.”