Domel Arcturus

I generally did not agree with having an old Vyrnian joining our crew, even if it was temporary. But, Saif's circumstances were different. Besides, for an old Vyrnian around 155, he was still as fit as a 75-years old Vyrnian, as Zarya declared (Vyrnian's lifespan is twice the lifespan of Earth's human. They can live up to 250). Given his taste of adventures, I'd say he might even think that he was still as young as I was. It was different from a Vyrnian out of time such as me, because even though I'm technically far older than he was, I never lived through all those years I could claim to be my age. Thus, I accepted that I was around the same age I was cryogenically frozen instead of claiming that I was older than that. Time travel could a little finicky, especially if you involuntary chose the long way instead of using a time machine (which is still fictional).

Seif talked with his partner on Vyrkaya's screen, talking about his decision. His partner did not like what Saif was doing since it was unnecessarily dangerous for him, but he could not stop Saif.

"Well, 75 years I've known you and you haven't lost that flair," said Saif's partner. "Just stay out of trouble."

"I've no guarantee, but I'll stay alive," said Saif. "I don't plan on dying outside of my bed."

Hearing that comment felt reassuring, but also sad. Saif clearly knew he was not as young as he was and would try his best to be careful, but the fact that he already decided how he would die felt rather...fatalistic, even if he did not think of it that way. Maybe he was just stating facts. 155 was a long life. He must've seen a lot of things and, given his age, could be a first generation Okthaipan or second. He was born outside the atmospheres of Vyrn, unlike me.

But I was not the only one who thought about Saif. The dragon of Ossogoth, as it called itself, was curious when I thought about Saif.

"You thought about that old Vyrnian's end," it said. "I am curious. What do you see death?"

"The end," I said. "That's it. We're not Felinians who could return back to life after a violent end. We only have one chance and that's it."

"So...an ending."

"Vyrnians always said that we always have a story to tell until we die, where we finally close the book of our life and rest."

"I see...."

"Don't you have an end? I know you're a multi-dimensional being, but even you need an end, right?"

"I wondered about it, too, long before I'm trapped in this dimension," it said. "Life can be boring if you just wander on without ever seeing the end."

"Such is the immortal dilemma," I said. "Except maybe you don't have people you love or like to actually feel the loss."

The dragon chuckled. "I suppose I need someone or something to relate with?"

"If you want to live among us, then yes."

"What do you think I'd want to live in such limited reality?"

"It's just a guess. I mean, for a being possessing my body, you're far from being a malicious one. Well, except that part where you choked Kilkaja."

"Don't you attack those who threatened you?"

"Not always."

"Then I owe that Nuoevan an apology. Is that what you say?"

"Yeah, you can say that. For a multi-dimensional being, you act like someone who have just got out of their home after years of isolation. Kinda ironic, don't you think?"

The dragon did not answer and only silently acknowledging what I said. I felt that it might just contemplate about it.

I felt that I wanted to know it more, so I asked, "Do you have a name? Something we third-dimensionals can comprehend?"

"Name? Oh. I don't know what to tell you since, well, you guessed it. Whoever heard my name in this dimension will lose their mind."

"First three words or syllables are fine by me. My friends call me Arc, short for Arcturus."

"Not Domel Arcturus?"

"Too formal, too long, and unnecessary. It sounds like my academy instructor doing a roll call."

"First three words...Key-Rand-Dar," said the dragon. "I think you can comprehend them. Too short to mean anything for me, but circumstances do not let me."

"How about if I suggest something from it," I said. "How about Kyrand? Or Ky for short?"

The dragon contemplated on it. It seemed curious on why it sounded more sense to me if it's shorter than what it thought at first. Still, Kyrand acted like it did not care or simply fascinated by our penchant of giving nicknames.

Kyrand may sounded like it was out of place at times (I called it 'it' because Kyrand spoke with many voices and it could change forms, only turning into an eldritch dragon of many tentacled, wispy tails because it vaguely resembled what I associated the word 'dragon' with), but most of the times, it was curious enough to comment on what we were doing. But, Kyrand still had a mindset of his higher dimensions' life before whatever happened to him, in which he could give us many explanations of many unsolvable mystery of the galaxy. I mean, why not? Kyrand was an eldritch dragon with more knowledge than geniuses combined. In fact, maybe those geniuses were the only one who could comprehend a higher degree of Kyrand's 'regular' knowledge.

But one mystery remained. Why was Kyrand drawn to me and why me? What did I do to actually be possessed by a trapped eldritch being?

He gave me the answer later, but it would come after we finished this business with Araxonis.

***

We reached the designated planet around an hour since departing from Araxonis. The planet was bronze in color, with slight green faded bronze color that indicated vegetation. We thought that it was one of those naturally-occurring alloy planets from science fictions, but a simple scan showed that the 'bronze' color was only because it looked that way. The planet's surface was covered in metal native to the planet, which caused it to look bronze. It was slightly disappointing, thinking that it might end up being a wonder of this galaxy. Maybe some other time, when we finally reached another galaxy, but not in the current state of fracture.

Fortunately for us, the ship, like many pre-exodus era ships, were built to last. The ship I got exiled in was a special occasion since for some yet mysterious reason, that ship was flung back in time, causing me to spend 2000 years in cryosleep and became a legend on Earth. I wanted to say that it was dad who broke the non-interference policy, but let's not bring that up too often. By this point, everyone's already guilty of interacting with a pre-spacer, namely George, who came with us despite of knowing that he might not do anything except help the security measures.

It took us a couple of hours scanning the planet using Vyrkaya's limited planetary scanner, but we finally got the ship. As Saif said, it was found in an very inaccessible mountain range with its jaggy geography and lack of development in the area, which also made landing impractical. We were lucky that we arrived when it was night around the ship, so we could minimize our interference to the lives of the pre-spacers. Good thing Saif knew what to expect, so he installed a cloaking device around Vyrkaya before we left Araxonis. Our problem, however, would be when we got the ship online. I doubted the ship had a stealth function, so we might end up changing the pre-spacers' lives. Nothing could ever be as planned.

We devised a plan to board the ship and make it operational again. The ship, as Saif said, still had enough fuel for a warp back to Araxonis after some fixes. As a ship salvager and shipyard tester, he knew how holo-interface worked, but he trusted me since I lived with that technology, which should come as natural. Zarya and Areil would stay on the ship to monitor things while Saif, George, and I would get the ship operational again. After we agreed on the plan, we got through the planet's atmosphere and reached the planet proper. With visual contact in night vision camera, we could see the shape of the ship, lodged among jagged rock formation. Like many pre-exodus Vyrnian ships, this ship had a main saucer with external warp nacelles jutting out of its back supported by thin maintenance tubes, completely different from the blocky, bird-like ship Vyrnians currently used, like the Vyrkaya. Those saucer ships were built for comfort and reliability, making them very spacious inside.

From the look of it, the ship was an exploration ship employed to map the regions beyond the Vyrnian Empire. It looked slightly older than the ships I'm used to. The ship's colorization had faded, and rust had formed on parts of the ship. It showed how old this ship had been around.

However, there was still the mystery of the Vyrnians in the ship. Where would the Vyrnians be? Were they all killed when the ship crashed or did they spread across the planet? If so, their descendants might not recognize us and might not even know that they were supposed to be from space. The ship was left undisturbed for centuries, so my guess was they abandoned it, forgotten it, and used their technology to help the people of the planet recover, which clearly did not happen. If that was the case, then the holo-interface would've been gutted years ago, meaning that we came here for nothing.

Saif was proficient enough with his tools to open an emergency hatch on top of the saucer, which was the way for us to go in. In a Vyrnian ship design, the hatch led to a maintenance airlock with the bridge right below it, reducing our need to travel via the proper entrance below it.

We still needed to get to the engine room and jumpstart the ship. The ship may have been in that mountain for a while, but the sediment buildup around the ship was not too severe, meaning that we could still fly this ship when it's fully operational. But, as we walked to the engine room, we also wanted to know what happened to the crew that once regarded the ship as a home.

George helped check the rooms to see what happened while I accompanied Saif to the engine room. I was aware that he might need some help in fending off possible pre-spacers, or maybe operate some Vyrnian stuffs, but I never considered anything more dangerous than that, partly because I trusted George. He clearly knew what he was doing despite of being a pre-spacer.

I was still wary that he might got himself into trouble, so I told Zarya to keep an eye on him as I followed Saif to the engine room. Due to the ship's design and size, the bridge and the engine room were a considerable distance apart. We also checked the damages on the ship and we did find many, but they, as Saif presumed, would not hinder our attempt to fly this ship out into space. There were no exterior damage as the scans indicated, so we might be able to pull this off.

As we entered the engine room, my Pathfinder device beeped, as did Saif's. We pulled it out and found that it detected a dangerous level of radioactivity beyond the transparent wall that separated us from the warp engine core, the power plant of the ship. Saif scanned the core and sighed.

"The reaction starter's misaligned," he said. "Must've been knocked off during the crash. The Thethe radiation's going to screw our internals up."

"Don't they supply radsuits in case something like this happened?" I said. "In fact, I think they need radsuits in case something happened during their exploration mission."

"Hmmm...you got a point there. Maybe they have some in the changing room."

We found the changing room along with the radsuits. There was also a wall mirror where I could see myself on it. Given my black scales, only my clothes were visible without a light source, along with my heterochromatic blue and green eyes. Kyrand was also there, now in the proper size of an Earth's dragon.

"So, that's what I look like," it said as it checked itself.

"Never saw yourself in the mirror before?" I asked.

"I never saw this form before," it said. "I took this form based on whatever you thought a dragon should look like. If not, I will take your form or anything based on your imagination."

"So, what you're supposed to look like? Something incomprehensible?"

"Do you value your sanity?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Then curb your curiosity before it eats you from within."

"Is it hideous?"

"Hideous or magnificent, it's whatever you want to know," it said. "But I know every single living third-dimensionals fears the unknown. If I must borrow a phrase, it's 'you stare at the abyss, the abyss stares back at you'."

I knew that phrase well and I knew Kyrand was capable of it, given his warnings about his true form or what he was capable of. Maybe he was bluffing, but I dared not to bet on it.

We both go in after we put on our radsuits. I told George, Areil, and Zarya that we might encountered some problems with communications since the Thethe radiation interfered with short-range radio wave before we got into the reactor starter room. After they all acknowledged it, I walked in with Saif. The radsuit worked well enough to prevent any side effects, so we simply did our job without any additional problems.

Saif knew what he was doing despite of not living during the pre-Exodus era. I was curious about this, so to prevent boredom, I chatted with him.

"So, Saif," I asked through the suit's radio. "You know a lot about pre-Exodus tech. Where did you learn about all that?"

"I'm 155 years old, sonny," he said. "In my youth, pre-Exodus tech was still around. The loss of Vyrn and the loss of all the blueprints regressed our technology as the year went on. I learned how to dismantle holo-interfaces with my dad, who was still a child when the Exodus happened. He only had little memories of that time. He's an off-worlder."

"But do you know how to remake the whole interface?"

"No, but I do know how to hotwire a ship with holo-interface. Not something this big, though. Never got a chance to fly a ship this big, either, or anything this perfect. Whatever happened to this ship preserved it far too well."

"It's what they always say. Vyrnians built things to last," I said with a wink. "At least before the Exodus, anyway."

"Huh. That's a claim I've not heard since my dad told me that a hundred years ago," he said. "Well, years went by, I slowly think that it's an illusion based on nostalgia. Then, I heard it from a Vyrnian out of time and I guess it is not an illusion at all. You pre-exes clearly believe that, huh?"

"And most of the times, we got the physical proof of that phrase." I glanced around the reactor and said, "I mean, look at this ship. Centuries of abandonment and it's still in good shape. Not sure about the crew, but at least the ship survived long after the crew."

"You think the place's haunted by the crew?"

"Because we found bones and dried blood across the floor? I'm more concerned with their fate just before their deaths, though. I was hoping it would not be violent but given what we saw, I think it's sabotage. Not only that, the Vyrnians became prey to a dangerous monster. I had an idea what caused it...but I don't want to be right."

"That reminds me," said Saif as he straightened the starter spark. "You haven't told me how you know the pirate raid on Araxonis was caused by a suspicious Vyrnian. We assumed he was just disgruntled by us. You know...the unhappy sort?"

"An unhappy worker who happened to be a raider in disguise? I don't think that's the case. But if it was, then it's just a coincidence that the attacks were similar."

"At least tell me what you think happened to that Vyrnian."

"That Vyrnian was taken over by a parasitic alien race called Trikelian," I said bluntly. "We don't know how good they were with possessing us. One of ours was taken over and...let's just say things got out of hand. They are the reason we lost our home planet, spread the Vyrnians throughout the galaxy, and caused the Exodus."

"Oh...." Saif contemplated on the words. He clearly thought that I was joking. I tried to make it as sincere as I could, but those claims were not as easily explained as a 'crazed unhappy employee'. In fact, I thought it would be easier to explain that a pirate conspiracy was happening instead of an unknown hostile race that was the root of all our problems.

We took at least ten minutes setting the reactor up before we heard a thump on the glass. I turned and saw Areil banging on the glass asking me to get out. Her face was full of distress. Realizing something was wrong, I excused myself and got through the glass airlock, going out after decontamination.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's George," she said, half-panicking. "We lost his signal after we heard a scuffle on his radio. Something happened to him!"

"What?!" I expected an attack from the pre-spacers, and I had a feeling George was ambushed while exploring. I should've told him to stay around the engine area so we could see him (I mean, pathfinders are also good, but a blip on the radar doesn't mean much). Even then, the ship was already in such a remote location any chances of meeting a pre-spacer was low. Even after I already warned George that we might not be able to contact each other, I never thought this would happen. I hoped he was alright.

So, I went to find him while Areil helped protect Saif. I remembered him going to the crew quarters to check the fates of the crewmembers, thinking that they might die in their own rooms to protect something. But we never considered what happened to this ship and the danger it faced before its crashed.

When I reached the room where the pathfinder beacon was, I heard a scream and several people talking with tone of distress evident in their voices. I quickly assumed that they were pre-spacers because they talked about 'a monster lurking in this metal contraption', but I did not hear what they said next until I reached them and saw it.

One the hand of the smaller, furred pre-spacer was a furless, light-skinned hand, horribly maimed and bloodied. There was no other part of the body found except maybe chunks of flesh and a big pool of blood. I became speechless and my breathing ragged. There was no doubt about it.

That was George's hand. It was grabbing his gun-sword. It was his right hand.

My stomach churned, making me sick and almost making me puke. I was holding back tears and anger from the shocking sight. I couldn't believe what I saw. I did not want to believe it.

My friend from Earth...George Atmell...was dead.