Gaia's Blessed Children

Forever Changing

The future is forever changing… She had realized this all to soon…

“Daddy…” Her eyes red from the salty tears, her father was dead…

“I’m sorry Aurora…” The workshop manager where her father worked at gave his condolences. Her father had been working a late shift, while everyone went ‘home’ he decided to finish cleaning the last four pumps and overhauling the remaining two valves he had on his worksheet, all so that he could spend the whole day with his daughter on her birthday. But fate would not have it, the airlock in the nearby bay malfunctioned, along with the safety lock on several doors, so when the they finally got to the locked-down section her father was already dead, zero-pressure, frozen or suffocation… she wasn’t sure which he died from… But she was certain it wasn’t ‘just’ an accident! She wouldn’t believe it not until she personally checked the logs and the ‘trashed’ parts they had to replace… But asking for it wasn’t an option either, even if they would allow her to check it for herself, they would only ‘fix’ the reports and ‘break’ some parts for her to ‘inspect’.

But the question remained then; why ‘kill’ her father? No one had a reason to, not even the detested Council or the Captain or the Guards that worked under the Council and Captain and his crew.

“Aurora…” Harold stepped closer, even if his father was on the Council, she only ‘hated’ Jason not Harold. She didn’t pull away when her friend stepped closer hugging her.

“We’re all here for you.” Vera, Harold’s girlfriend said standing beside them, her hand on her shoulder  reassuringly, not sure what to say to ease Aurora’s heart-ache… it was her birthday and she didn’t have any family left who could comfort her, only a handful of friends.

“Aurora!” Hail came running into the room, Darius eyed all the ‘kids’ that were coming in one after the other, he allowed them to come to the meeting room, where it was more ‘quiet’ and private – he needed to keep an eye on her, she was unstable and he wasn’t going to risk her going berserk on this station while she was grieving. The meeting room was the safest place for keeping everyone safe… from her…

“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this… I was supposed to have two...” She hiccupped as she started crying all over again now that Hail was there.

“Hail… It’s all my fault…” Darius silently shook his head, wondering how she would come to that conclusion; it wasn’t like she broke the airlock.

“We fought yesterday, because he said he had too much work and couldn’t spend the day with me… I didn’t even tell him I love him too when he left.” She realized that the last words her father spoke were words she scoffed at… she didn’t even look at him and even pulled away from him when he kissed her forehead.

“It is not your fault!” He pulled her out of Harold’s hug and wrapped his arms tightly around her lowering her to the floor, sitting her down, her form curled into a ball against him,

“I changed everything…” She still has nightmares from the ‘illusions’ she witnessed passing through the black hole, her dad and her friends dying… she wasn’t sure how they would die, but it happened all at once, not like this…

Felix bit down on his lower lip, he had heard her once telling Hail how they would all die, he like Hail tried to pass it off as just a ‘dream’, but there were things she ‘knew’ beforehand that would have been possible unless she had seen a potential ‘future’.

And  then there was the ‘supposed’ air lock that malfunctioned’s serial code, he had helped his mentor install it two years ago and helped test it just three months ago, it was still working perfectly then. On passing by to come see how Aurora was doing he stopped and paused by the bay… from a glance he was certain… it was still the same air lock… he couldn’t be mistaken!

He recalled her once sitting by a workbench in Old man Dan’s workshop writing some essays, while she waited for him to finish up to go grab something to eat, she was skipping classes again, Dan never minded the girl,  his workshop was small and he mostly taught the young-uns. He saw Aurora as his own granddaughter, his daughter and grandchild aboard Atlas now and not Altair.

“Felix, where’s your mind at?”

“Daren… I don’t think…” He stopped what he was about to say, realizing where they were.

“Think what?” Daren was Felix’s fellow apprentice, they grew up together and were like brothers, even though Daren had little to nothing to do with Aurora, he knew how much Felix cared for the girl, she was like a sister to him, hence why Daren was also there, he understood what losing someone you love feels like, he lost his father too, when he was younger than she was now. His father taught him a lot about machines and like Felix he had a passion for it.

“I don’t think she’s going to be ‘fine’… She’s been acting out a lot more these last six years, like she was driven to self-destruct herself purposefully.”

“Her aunt used to keep her in check, if I recall correctly.”

“Yeah… her hate for the Council also started around the same time her aunt left with Orion, I think it’s to rebel against her aunt for leaving her and her father here alone…” Felix knew it was a lie; she seriously hated the Council for sending her aunt away, not because her aunt left her.

That and… she already ‘guessed’ that her Aunt was dead… Atlas and Orion she said never made it through the black hole like the Council reported, or that is what she said a few years ago.

Aurora visibly calmed down when she heard Felix and Daren talking.

“Hail… tell Felix and Daren everything…” She whispered, drawing on his palm with her finger, telling him to ‘teach’ them about the station’s ‘escape rooms’, about the sections and sectors that can be dislodged from the station. He frowned, still thinking she was paranoid, but her piercing silvery eyes told him to just do it.

“Only if you promise not to do anything reckless or stupid, at least not for the next five years and if it means it’ll help ease the pain a bit…!” It was his ultimatum, if he could get her to behave and it helped her calm down then he would do anything for her regardless how silly her request might come off as.

 She nodded her head, her lip quivering as a new urge to cry set in, but she wasn’t going to because if she didn’t want to lose her friends ‘early’ like she lost her father, she had to fall in line with the Council’s rules and regulations.

Darius wondered what brought that strong a determination about in her suddenly. What was it she said to Hail? He could only guess it was some sort of request.

Once everyone left, Olivia was left to keep a watch on the distraught girl with several guards, she had also noticed the sudden change… it’s not even been thirteen hours since she was woken up in the early hours and learned the terrible news… This change was just too drastic, she should still be crying or screaming… throwing a fit… maybe not that… Olivia had seen firsthand how bad her ‘temper’ could get when one of the guards that was sent to tell her what happened and was ordered to bring her here was thrown with everything she could get her hands on all while the guard tried to ‘secure’ her. Then she got her hands on a monkey-wrench, five stitches, one broken arm and a dislocated shoulder later they finally got her sedated, she woke up only an hour ago…

The dislocated shoulder was Aurora’s only major injury the rest was all inflicted by her on the guard. (That was only the ‘major’ injuries – not including all the bite marks and scratches and other bruises caused during the whole conundrum. The guards had tried to not cause her harm, but she was out to kill them!)

“What did she say to you for her to change so quickly?” Darius asked as he escorted her friends out.

“To leave her alone… She wanted to be alone… I think she’s scared she’s going to hurt one of us.” Hail didn’t say the truth; it could cause a lot of trouble for everyone if it was learned about all the information Aurora had been able to ‘collect’ in the last three to four years. Her ‘mind’ was not that of a child’s at all, but she would act like a four year old on other occasions.

“Because she thinks it’s her fault?” Darius asked, he had his doubts about what Hail said, but it also made sense, he had seen the recording of Aurora going at the guard causing two more guards to come help pin her down.

Her strength wasn’t anything special like some other Touched presented, but she was agile and very flexible, her dislocated shoulder was actually the result of her trying to twist out of the one guard’s grip, she succeeded, and managed to get one more hit in with the wrench before she was finally sedated when the one guard got behind her wrapping his arms around her securing her arms and hands and bringing her down to her knees long enough for Olivia to finally do her part.

“I guess… She’s always blamed her mother’s death on herself too, that’s why she rarely fought with her dad, rarely… in fact this would have been only the fourth time in the last six years.” Hail knew everything, the previous three times were all for stupid reasons, she would come complain about how she messed up, and then go straight to her dad wherever he was to apologize. In that sense she one wouldn’t have ever thought she was such a hell-raiser.