Titan

This short story was the third place winner at the EHS Stem Expo. It was written by Ariel Rose, Jacqueline Ruvira, and Allondra Murillo as part of Mr. Macy’s class.

Prologue

As far as we know, Human life began on the small planet called Earth, where Earthlings grew and evolved to be the planet’s apex predator, unbeatable and unchallengeable by any other Earthly lifeform. First, they learned how to channel dangerous natural phenomenons into something that would light the world, and then, they learned how to create the energy needed to preserve life. Using what the planet could provide, Earthlings had created a utopia, a place where anything could be what they wanted it to be, where they no longer had to fear the wild beasts because all of them were beneath. They thought they’d reached it… Until everything that brought them success had been radically depleted. Most Earthlings hadn’t even noticed or done anything to try and save their home until it was too late, and nothing was left of the planet Earth.

They say that the Fall ignited the cause for Human Expansion across the Solar System, as far as Sol kept planets in orbit. Human life was growing, and it would continue to grow until Sol’s light gave out. One planet was clearly not enough to support the Earthlings, more were needed.

Once Earth died, the entire Human population was moved to Mars, a planet with similar conditions to that of Earth and which had been in preparation for a while before the Fall. From there on, the Martians adapted to their new planet, and upon exploration, found that they were not the only I.L. (intelligent lifeforms) inhabiting Mars. Deep underneath the planet’s red surface lived a species called the Lithocrypt, an alien race that hated the sunlight, and therefore developed a civilization, cities in tunnels and cracks in the ground. To lay claim to the planet, the Martians engaged in a long lasting battle against the Lithocrypt for dominion, ultimately extinguishing the race as a whole.

The brutal Martians were the beginning of the Terraform Revolution. They began by enhancing their space shuttles to enter the atmospheres of planets with stronger gravitational force and dangerous temperatures, then sending people to lay claim to different planets. After a failed expedition to the planet Venus, they realized that the problem did not just lie in the transportation, but in the weakness of the Human race. Experiments were held underneath Mars, experiments to create the Superhumans needed for Humans to take over the Solar System. After many years of research and tests that often ended in death, Martian scientists finally found the chemical equations necessary to change the endurance and strength of Humans. They called them G(alaxy)-Soldiers, Humans with superpowers: enhanced strength, speed, the ability to withstand enormous gravitational force and the oddity of other planets’ natural phenomena, along with multiple other gifts. The gifts came with a curse, for every Human to become a G-Soldier had lost the ability to reproduce.

With the G-Soldiers and new technological advancements that proved very useful for the Martians new mission, the Terraform Revolution was at work. At the cost of many I.L. inhabiting planets and moons over milleniums arose the Venusians from the second planet Venus, Mercuroids from the first planet Mercury, and the Jovians from the fifth planet Jupiter. Human babies, born in special conditions inside the new planets, adapted for life, this allows for them to live in these planets without danger. The third planet Earth became a garbage can for the Solar System, a grey disgusting and dead place ignored by the new civilizations. Humans, even now, continue to make themselves known as the Solar System’s apex predator, and the G-Soldiers growing in their brutality and methods of murder and thievery.

Part 1

“How is she holding up?”

Peering through my nearly sealed eyelids at the scientists surrounding me, sunken in a tube of cold lavender plasma, the breathing tank was the only thing keeping me alive. Short and uneased breaths, shivering and unconscious of what was happening around me, I tried to listen to the words they were speaking.

“This one is strong. She’ll make it. Jovian, isn’t she?”

“Correct. It’s from my understanding that we Jovians are often times more durable and capable than any other race. Will she be a beneficial G-Soldier?”

G-Soldier… That’s right.

With no other way of serving a purpose in my life, I gave it to become a G-Soldier, to aid Humanity’s conquest over the Solar System. My home, I came from Dominalto, a floating city in the skies of the planet Jupiter. After serving so long, helping to deliver newborns in the city’s emergency center and coming to love the fragile innocent babies, I wanted to have one of my own. To find out that I couldn’t, it became painful to see so many young Humans, and none belong to me. My life, no longer belonging to myself, belonged to the new age of Humanity.

“She should be. What about the other?”

Rais?

“The Jovian male is already training with the other G-Soldiers. His endurance during the chemical alterations was outstanding, unlike anything I’ve seen before. He’ll go far. Maybe make a Commander.”

“Incredible. Train him underneath the Martians, they’ll teach him to be a remarkable G-Soldier.”

“Right away, sir. He came with this one.” The man pointed at me, tapping his middle and index finger on the glass. “Should we put her under the Martians as well?”

“No need,” the other man answered, crossing his arms and turning to me. “If they’re friends, it’s best to keep them separate. Besides, we won’t waste Martian training on just anyone. The male is special.” He turned on his heels stepping away to view another Human trapped in an experiment. “Let me know when she’s ready.”

The roar of the starship traveled amidst the thick atmosphere of the sixth planet, Saturn, an emptiness of what used to be skies crowded with Aergiga, ginormous flying I.L. that G-Soldiers had been fighting against for a long time. They resembled things of what used to be Earthling fairy tales, dragons, giant wings and large jaws that snapped ships in half. Two green-blue eyes on each side of its face, staring directly at us, communicating loudly to “Go away!”

The battles in the planet’s rings were the most dangerous, as we lost hundreds of Human lives against the understanding and maneuvering of the Aergiga in their natural habitat, camouflaged amongst the bits of rock and ice accumulated from asteroids, their scales shifting to reflect the colors in the ambience. Had it not been for the destructive force of new starships, the battle would’ve been lost. The Aergiga would’ve kept their claim to their planet, and lived on, reliving to their families of the time they saved the species from extermination. They would’ve…

“Scanning areas for I.L.” The Venusian pilot of the starship announced, turning on the call signal, an expression unreadable behind the dark helmet. As a copilot, my own emotions hidden behind a mask, I examined the holographic replica of the area in front of us. As the starship scanned over the area, the yellow holographic image grew in size, although empty of any red blinking dot indicating I.L. “Clear.”

“Clear. Clear. Clear. Clear…” The call signal repeated the automatic voices of other G-Soldiers patrolling Saturn. After every area had been covered, and every monotone “Clear,” The pilot and I sat back in our seats and examined the planet we’d now lay claim to.

“Mission complete.”

The sixth planet in the Solar System, Saturn, like the rest, taken from the previous inhabitants and fallen into the hands of humanity. The starships returned to a celebration of victory over yet another species of I.L. destroyed, and congratulating one another for being so good at the worst type of thievery. And then, long after an hour of cruel smiles and malevolent laughter, our next mission was assigned.

“As we all know, Saturn belongs to humankind,” General Castor, the head of the space station, announced with authority over all G-Soldiers listening, “and this is a great feat. Before we move on to take the seventh planet Uranus, the sixty-two moons of Saturn are still left, and for all we know, we don’t yet have complete dominion over them. We’ll launch expeditions to search for any known I.L. on the moons and wipe them out, but before that, recent scans have discovered I.L. inhabiting the moon Titan.”

“The largest of Saturn’s moons, correct General?” Valdus, a Martian G-Soldier wellknown and praised by General Castor, spoke above the crowd.

“Excellent, Valdus. Yes, Titan will make an excellent home for many Humans, if we can lay claim to it. I want to send a few squads over, the first I need to locate the I.L. and study their civilization.” General Castor stepped towards the army of G-Soldiers before him, scanning with his own eyes his prized picks. “Rais.”

“General,” Rais automatically responded, not too far from where I was standing.

“Azar.” A Venusian woman with silver hair and orange eyes replied the same as Rais. “Barrett.” A Martian man stood firm in his response, a brown beard and a scar over his eyebrow. Then, the General looked at me, his eyes cold and grey. “Evanna.”

“General.”

He nodded robotically, and stepped back. “Valdus, your squad will land on Titan and find out all the information you can gather. Once you’ve taken enough, request backup and we will begin to take the moon.”

“Understood, General.” Our voices, loud and clear, in response to the power above us.

General Castor turned on his heel, pulling up a holographic presentation of Saturn and the moons it harbored. In the crowded army of hardened G-Soldiers, Rais looked back at me, smiling with his violet eyes.

The G-Soldier suits, altered to the benefit of usage on Titan, were worn by me and my new squad. My ebony curls of hair fell over my face, pushed out of the way of my golden eyes by Rais. We stood in the hangar, right underneath the wing of his chosen starship. He was my best friend, back when we were children on the planet Jupiter. As Jovian kids, we were almost expected to become G-Soldiers. Rais took after his father, a G-Soldier who lost his life during the battles in Saturn’s rings, whose ship was destroyed by an Aergiga. He convinced me to apply with him, as a “way to aid Human expansion” without having to conceive.

“You look upset,” he said to me, voice lowered because he hated attention, “what’s up?”

I chuckled to myself and pushed a fist against his G-Soldier suit. “Like you’re not upset?”

He scoffed, rolling his eyes and glancing at Valdus, who combed through his velvet red mohawk and polished his starship. “You know how much I hate Martians.”

“Don’t be a racist Rais,” I told him, then smiled to myself, “but I really hate them.”

He laughed, placing a hand on the bottom of his starship’s wing. “Alright hypocrite, be my copilot?”

“I would,” my eyes drifted off to Valdus, whose judgemental attention had been caught by our familiarity, “but it’s best you go with someone else. No time for emotion as a G-Soldier.”

Rais turned to Valdus, who eyed him directly. “Commander Valdus,” he addressed him, and Valdus nodded and moved his attention towards the rest of the squad. “If I were you, I’d go with Azar. At least she’s not a crazed Martian.”

“Commander Rais,” Azar addressed him formally as she approached, dismissing me.

“I’m not your commander in this squad, Azar. Rais is fine.”

“Do you need a copilot? Valdus wants us in the same starship, said I could learn a lot from you.”

“He did?” Rais glanced at me, wordlessly cursing at Martians with his eyes, and I held in a laugh. “Alright, get everything ready then.”

“Right, sir.”

Azar strutted off and boarded the starship, and I turned to Rais and complained. “Guess that means I’m with Barrett. Wish me luck.”

He turned from me and began to board the starship, a smile on his face. “Good luck.”

I left him, ready to fasten my helmet and board a starship with Barrett, when Valdus noticed me pass him and called for me. “You’re with me,” he said, “get in.”

“Aren’t the squad Commanders usually the ones that fly alone?”

“Most of the time, but the flight patterns are decided by the Commander, are they not?”

“Yes, Commander Valdus.”

My helmet fastened and position taken, Valdus turned on his call signal and recited. “Ready for takeoff. On my count: three,” I started the starship’s engine, “two,” Valdus’s hands familiarized with the control panels, “one.”

Weightless in space, the starships cruised from the space station above Saturn and towards Titan. Valdus switched the call signal off, and spoke to me without facing me. “Evanna, was it?”

“Yes sir.”

“This should be your first scouting mission? You don’t look very old.”

“I’m about three Jovian years.”

“So you’ve been at this for a little over one Jovian year?”

“About one and a half.”

Valdus chuckled, “You must’ve really fallen behind Rais. Over a year being a G-Soldier, and you’re still… Just a regular G-Soldier? Aren’t Jovians supposed to be some of the best?”

“Strongest, but not the best. I’m sure that title belongs to the Martians. Rais trained underneath them, though he’s Jovian.”

“I know.” He paused, checking the duration before we reach Titan. “He showed promise the very moment he went through his chemical alterations. They trained him under the Martians because he had so much potential, but he was still weak in his head.”

“Weak in his head?” My attitude slipped out at the comment, causing Valdus to face me. He couldn’t see my anger, but he felt it, and he hated it.

“Rais was distracted by his emotion. It hasn’t been an easy fix.” He turned from me. “Now I understand that you’re the cause of it. You’re ten times worse — it’s no wonder they won’t promote you. At least, now Rais knows where his duties lie and carries them out exceptionally.”

“You should expect no less of him. He’s an admirable G-Soldier.”

“I’m glad we see eye to eye,” he commented, even though we really didn’t. I’d never look that Martian in the eye. “Stay away from him, Evanna. It’s for the best.”

Our mission laid right before us, Valdus turned on the call signal again. “Ready for landing.”

The rocky cliffs of Titan rested over seemingly endless lakes and rivers. Sulphur ground, acidity in the bodies of alien liquid, Saturn grand and big in the skies, yet so far away. We maneuvered carefully across mountains, jumping over chasms, collecting samples of the soil and scanning the area for life. There wasn’t much of anything, but a deserted land of rock and liquid, a yellow sky, Saturn’s rings above us, the soil…

“Got something,” I spoke into the communicator embedded into my helmet, examining the rooted strings across the ground bearing turquoise colored seeds. There were plenty of them, all right up against the sea, some appearing to have been torn or yanked from where they’d been rooted in the soil. Scanning them through my helmet’s vision, I identified prints like claws left at the end of one of the strings, swift and smooth indentations in the soil and treading towards the sea, like a tail, and dispersing right before meeting the sea, clearly batted away by some type of weight that scattered the dust and lost the trail. It was a clear sign left by Titan’s I.L.

“They go into the sea,” I concluded through the speakers, “probably water breathers. It could explain why we can’t yet find anything on land-”

“I’ve also got something,” Barrett communicated to the squad, “strange tunnel like structures in some cliffs here. The entrances are guarded with doors of rock, but I don’t see any handles. The designs are intricate, definitely the work of an I.L.”

“And it’s above the sea?” Azar asked, replied with a positive.

“Could they be secret entrances for cities underwater?” Rais questioned, his voice ringing out that of a Commander. “If these I.L. are the real deal, we shouldn’t underestimate them. Azar, have you found anything?”

“Nothing,” she replied.

“I’ll take it from here,” Valdus announced. “Evanna, what led you to conclude that they’re water breathers?”

I used the laser attached to my right arm to sever a sample from the rough roots. “Some type of plant, growing out of the ground and carrying what looks like seeds or berries. My scanner picked up tracks that led from the patch to the sea. The trail is purposefully lost at what seems to be the cause of dusting with a tail.”

“You said the trail leads towards the sea and ends? That’s definitely I.L. Why would they hide their tracks, though? Is there some type of I.L. predator living here?”

“Either that,” Rais answered, “or they’ve already understood that our species is coming for them next. They’ve probably seen or picked up the starships from Saturn and departed to the sea in advance. Never underestimate I.L. Humans aren’t always the smartest out there. We know how difficult defeating the Aergiga was.”

“Agreed.” My footsteps were careful across the sea banks, for any other evidence of I.L. Multiple prints on the strings of roots, multiple tracks of tails and clawed footprints in various sizes. “They’re not like the Aergiga either. Some come bigger than others, or maybe the smaller ones are just babies.”

“I’m coming your way, Evanna.” Azar communicated to me, her jetpack roaring through the speakers.

For a while, the communication was gone and we spent our time digging up info. I cracked one of the seeds open to find a pale yellow inside, smooth and milky surrounded by the hard blue green shell of the seed. “What is this…?” I murmured to myself, turning to the sound of a jetpack approaching me.

Azar crouched atop a far off jagged cliff, behind a boulder as she told me quietly through the speakers, “Evanna, over here, quick.”

“Coming.” I tapped the red button on my suit and my jetpacks ignited, springing me into the air and towards Azar. Landing on my feet, I crouched beside her and looked over the boulder. “Commander Valdus.”

“What is it?”

Directly below the jagged mountain and surrounded on all sides by dangerous cliffs, homes made of moonrock walls and substances unknown to us lied unharmed on the surface, cold pale blue lights emitting from some, and others dark. Small golden alien creatures ran about outside the homes, chasing each other on all fours with the roots from before and tackling one another, long blue finned tails following behind them. Others, bigger ones that were not golden but a cool purple, stood on two legs, using their arms to create bags and boxes, hold their offspring, carry weapons.

“We found them.”

“On our way.”

“Evanna,” Azar whispered to me, “Look at the guards. They’re prepared for us, they know, and look over there! It’s a stash, of food. And do you see that there? The things are creating boxes and bags to store their belongings. They’re planning to move, Evanna. Do you think they’re actually retreating to the waters?”

I heard her, but I didn’t want to listen. The vision through my helmet scanned over a young one, small and golden and happy. No. The creature was scaly, lizard like, but warm blooded. It’s long slithering tail was heavy enough to use to attack, the fins lined it and the large one at the tip allowed for it to swim and change directions in the sea easily. Its claws could latch onto cliffs, and tear just as well as its teeth. The big ears allowed for it to listen, plan for evasion. It was an I.L., capable of identifying weakness, creating weapons, fighting back, and destroying the Human race; it was an I.L., fully capable of feeling joy, learning new things, creating to stop the crying and the fear…

“Evanna?” Rais’s voice spoke into my ear through my helmet, “We’ve been talking to you for a while now. Are you okay?”

I was silent for a moment, remembering what Valdus said to me in the starship, looking at the young alien, small, golden, and happy. “They can live on both land and in water…”

The space station drifted high above Saturn, silent in the vacuum of space. Spacecraft were sent into the planet, studies being made as to how Humans can begin to colonize it and make it their own home. In the meantime, starships had already been sent to Titan, wiping out the civilizations and cities that my squad’s expedition had found in both land and sea. Our squad was allowed to stay and rest, save for Valdus, who led armies onto the moon in brutal conquest of its I.L., the Ambiluna. For a reason unknown to me, my mind kept going back to the young golden Ambiluna on Titan, the way it yipped and smiled, and it made my stomach turn so much that I couldn’t find rest. So I stood in an empty lounge area, staring down at the illusional rings of Saturn where the Aergiga once lived and fought to keep their planet.

“Thought I’d find you here.” Rais stood beside me and offered me a drink. “You were especially stressed today.”

Taking a sip of the cool crystalline drink, I stared back at the planet in a more refreshed manner. “You were looking for me?”

“Of course I was,” he replied, drinking down his own beverage and sighing, “you’re easily bothered behind that rough facade you put on.”

“I’m fine Rais. Stop worrying about me. Go before you get into trouble.”

“Valdus gave you the talk too?” He laughed it off as if he were nothing. “Told you, Martians are crazy. Always about the killing and the weaponizing, trying to take away what makes us Human. It was better, back on Earth, you know.”

“I wonder… What it was like before the Fall.” I leaned against the ledge before the window, resting my arms and staring at the brown and yellow planet. “They say that it used to be green.”

“And blue,” Rais added. “There were oceans, blue like the sky that sparkled when the sunlight touched the waters. There was green, everywhere, sprouting from the rich brown Earth itself. Do you know what made the plants green?” I shook my head, and he smiled wistfully, violet eyes staring out at space, picturing the planet in his head. “They called it chlorophyll. The chloroplasts, tiny little functions in a plant cell, helped the plants to go through photosynthesis, so that they could get energy and keep on living. There were flowers too, lots. They say that when it rained, it didn’t melt your face off, and it rained frozen water that was white and powdery. Imagine that, white flakes falling from the sky and making a blanket on the land. The animals, oh, there were so many, and they were so beautiful. So many colors, types, soft loyal animals that followed you and loved you.”

I felt happy with him, picturing the ideal home that he saw and loved even without it being tangible. How could Humanity have let something as beautiful as that, crush and die in their own hands? The Earth would never be the same, not after what they’d done. Rais felt joy so contagious that it leaked onto me, and I had forgotten about what had been bothering me as he talked and painted images of what Earth was. “And-” he looked at me and apologized through laughter.

“No, keep talking.” I rested my head on his arm and held his hand on the ledge. “You’re making today a lot better.”

He rubbed my knuckles tenderly. “The food was so delicious, you couldn’t even imagine. They used all these ingredients and combined them to create explosions on your taste buds.”

“Explosions, huh?”

“Literally.” We laughed together, in our own world where everything wasn’t so bad, feeling what Humanity used to be like, but not experiencing it. “But, you know what was most beautiful about life back then? People used to marry.”

“Marry? What is that?”

“Humans chose one person to devote their life to entirely, and they’d stay together for as long as they could, supporting one another and loving one another more than anything else. Isn’t that something special?”

“Yeah, that sort of thing would drive a Martian to insanity. Did they really do that?”

“Almost everyone did, it was regular, dare I say, it was expected. People were a lot different back then.”

“Where do you learn all of this, Rais?” I asked him, curious because information like this would never be spoken out of anyone’s mouth.

“My father used to tell me stories that his father told, and his father before his… These stories of Earth were passed down for generations.”

“You’re lucky, to know your father, and have such a knowledgeable one at that. I didn’t know him that well…” His father hadn’t been a well known Jovian, he usually kept quiet about a lot of things, but he was respectable. He knew so much, but also knew to hold his tongue and understood how the world worked around him enough to stay alive. Rais felt terrible when his father died, but he held onto him and his will through stories of Earth.

“Him, and you, Evanna. It’s rare to find someone in the entire Solar System who still cares.”

“You too,” I replied, thinking back on the Earthlings millenniums ago who cared enough to marry. I looked up at Rais, who smiled back at me, and we thought that maybe if the our world was different, then we too would marry.

Running stomps across the hallway caught our attention, and we turned around to see G-Soldiers armed and wearing the suits designed for Titan. Rais immediately ran to them. “What’s happening here?”

“Backup,” a G-Soldier replied, “for Titan. There was an ambush.”

Returning to Titan was nothing less of what to be expected. A battlefield, burning fire all about the ground, explosions in the distance, starships soaring over and dropping bombs from the sky. The noise was unbearable, enough to drive a Human to suicide, but not a G-Soldier. We’d seen and lived through this daily.

The distorted voices shouting at each other through the helmets, masked faces and heartless orders, “Search the area! If you find anything, kill it.”

Amongst the fires and the charred remains of the Ambiluna village, I searched carefully, my vision through the helmet scanning the area for the smallest disturbances. Before, the G-Soldiers were ambushed, discovering yet another deceptive trait of I.L.: the Ambiluna were able to disappear. Bodies reacting in a way that if they were to stay completely still, they’d become invisible. The only way for us to identify the aliens in hiding was for our scanners to pick up their heat signatures, something they could not hide.

Barrett fired from his blaster into a hut near collapsing, setting fire to anything that wasn’t already burning, pushing remains out of his way to prevent the I.L. from hiding. Armed with my blaster, I fired mercilessly at Ambiluna scaling the rocky formations to flee. G-Soldiers flew across the skies, firing down and dropping explosives into the sea. Everywhere, green stains on the sides of the cliffs, the ground, the homes. Everywhere on Titan, destruction.

“The job’s done over ‘ere,” Barrett voice announced, gruff and hoarse, underneath his foot an Ambiluna struggling to hold onto life. “Took another captive, researching the area now.” I stood beside him, looking down at the purple toned being beneath him, heavy lids over its big eyes, greyness coming to its fins. Barrett took hold of it by the neck, suffocating it until the eyes closed and the creature was unconscious. He hauled it over his massive shoulder and turned to me. “Double check.”

“Right.” Barrett left me, the battle in our designated area now calmed, and many of the G-Soldiers retreating. My orders given to me and a duty to be carried out, I didn’t see with my eyes; I saw only through the suit. The heavy blaster carried with me, I entered and kicked down and destroyed anything that remained. The baskets and boxes, the weapons, the toys and blankets, the small huts, the farms.

The job mostly finished, I turned to the final home at the farthest side of the rocky terrain, dark and burnt and near collapse. Forcefully kicking down the door, I held my blaster up, ready to fire, my vision scanning for prints and heat signatures. A shuffle came from my side, causing me to quickly turn and aim at what I could not see. The clear heat signature was picked up, in the far corner of the hut. A pile of baskets sat there, neatly woven and red, red enough to make the dark orange heat signature almost blend in. Completely still, invisible, the I.L., the Ambiluna, hid inside one of the top red baskets.

“Out!” I roared menacingly, kicking down the pile of baskets, my fingers on the blaster’s trigger, ready to kill the small golden Ambiluna that tumbled out, revealing itself in a state of fear. It backed against the wall, curling up in a ball with its finned tail wrapped around itself, not bothering to disappear right in front of me. The big eyes stared back at me, tear stains on its smooth face, actually trembling.

The helmet, keeping my emotion hidden behind a black screen, reminding me of my duties as a G-Soldier. For the better of the Human race, and for the benefit of Human expansion, kill whatever you find. And yet, I froze, and the blaster never fired.

“Evanna.” I immediately turned, expecting Valdus to be there, blaster pointed at me and ready to kill, not realizing that the voice had come from the speaker in my helmet.

“Commander Valdus.”

“We’ve returned to the Titan Base. Have you completed your mission?”

My body turned back to where the Ambiluna was, to find nothing there. “…Yes, Commander.” The vision through my helmet detected no heat signature, my eyes saw no tracks. “The mission has been carried out. Returning now.”

The line was silent, for a few moments, before Valdus responded to my statement, “Watch yourself, Evanna. A weak mind doesn’t last here.”

Nothing was said after that, leaving static in my ear, and I tapped my helmet to shut off my communication device. The Ambiluna was nowhere to be found as I exited the hut, even after I took my blaster and blew the structure to dust. The village left in ruins, I reached up to touch the red button on my chest and hurry back to the Titan Base.

“We don’t want to go back.”

“What?” I turned back, the smoke from the fire caught up in the air, ashes remained. Nobody was there. I tapped my helmet to shut down the communication, static following afterwards as if I’d already shut it off. “Commander Valdus.” Nothing. “Barrett. Azar.” Nothing. “Rais, are you there?” Nothing.

“We’re alone.”

“Rais, if this is some kind of sick joke, I swear-” I cut myself off, realizing that the static continued through the speaker and the voice was not coming from it. It came from my head. I was alone, in the Ambiluna village, gone insane after seeing so much murder.

“Why do this? We don’t want this.”

“Stop it!” Not realizing what I was doing, I unfastened my helmet and threw it away from me, black hair falling over my face, immediately choking from the foreign air on Titan. My lungs burned even though I had only breathed a small amount before attempting to suffocate myself. Head held in my hands, tears spilling from my eyes, shouting maniacally. When my hands reached up to plug my ears, I felt them push at something, smooth yet scaly skin brushed against my lower jaw.

“We need to stay alive.”

The helmet! I couldn’t run for it, not at the borderline collapse of my mental and physical condition. Crawling amongst the rocks and ashes, reaching for the one thing that would keep me alive, I grabbed onto the helmet and quickly fastened it back on. Breathable air immediately released into my system, and I gasped and lied weak on the yellowed terrain. I still felt it’s warm touch, from a small slice it’d made in the fabric at my neck.

“Are we safe? Will we live?”

“Agh,” I tapped my helmet, ending the static, not realizing a voice had been trying to communicate through it, “hah…” My breath was heavy and rushed, mind hardly comprehending what had happened to me.

“We need to go.”

The fire blowing in the wind, spreading faster over the terrain, I stood up, wobbling slightly on my boots, turning to look at Saturn, magnificently displayed in the sky. My hand found the red button again, and spoke boldly to the Ambiluna, “…Hold on.”

Part 2

The terrain seemed to shift underneath the soles of my boots, the rocks seeming to pound against my skull without stop, my vision blurred and unfocused, my mind drifting from my own thoughts to that of the Ambiluna. At some point, I couldn’t figure out whether my thoughts were even my own. Sick and tired, I forced myself to move towards the Titan Base, faltering and then reminding myself that Rais was there.

It was right there, right in front of me. The Titan Base, a giant ship planted on the moon where G-Soldiers could come to rest after a long day of exterminating the Ambiluna and then go back to do their duties. This, this is where… “The killers live.”

My body froze, planted in the bronzed soil, fear creeping over me. Yes, that’s where the killers dwelled, where they laughed and celebrated and smiled amongst the many souls of the dead lives that they took. They relished in the murder, in the thievery. It fueled them, drove them until they were mad bloodthirsty animals. Valdus, his warning still echoed in my ears, his vicious snarl and powerful jaws, ready to snap my neck the very moment he had the chance to.

“This is dangerous.”

The Ambiluna’s trembling against my neck, I breathed in and stepped forth, lifting up my arm and opening up the Titan Base to me through a gadget on my wrist. My voice low, I commanded the small creature on my shoulder, “Be still. Stay right there. Don’t move.”

The Ambiluna now invisible, what made me now hid behind a mask, I became a G-Soldier again. The Vault hissed loudly, dust from the browning sulfur colored soil rising into the air as the large doors slowly forced themselves open. My first step, slow and heavy with the forced confidence weighing me down, my second, naturally heavy with power.

The weight of my body shifted the very moment we passed through the clear barrier that kept Titan’s air from contaminating our own. Before us were starships that stood planted in the hangar, G-Soldiers all around, helmets off but still armed. Looking at it then, I’d realized that we’d entered dangerous territory. My breaths were shaky, I didn’t bother to remove the helmet and show my face… “We’re scared…”

“Evanna?” Rais stood with Barrett by a starship, the two of them having been discussing something until I showed. “Is that you?”

I approached them carefully, as they were totally unaware of what I’d brought in with me, or of who they were speaking to. “Commander Barrett. Commander Rais. The village is destroyed and there are no remaining lives.” I almost choked on the words, feeling guilty, and the Ambiluna’s own feelings mixing with mine.

“Where were you? What took so long?” Rais asked, formally, but I could hear the worry in his voice.

“There was a bit of a complication. One of them was smart enough to hide behind the color red. It messed up my heat scanners, so I didn’t see when it ambushed me. I took care of it. I’m standing before you now, Commanders. Please excuse my absence.” The half lie had eased my mind, and I thought hard to try to mute the Ambiluna’s thoughts from my head.

Both of them kept eye contact with me, Barrett stepping forward and commanding me, “Take your helmet off, G-Soldier.”

“We don’t want to.”

“I don’t have to.” I answered directly, and Barrett’s face twisted into a look of disgust. Underneath this suit, I was actually shaking, trying to calm my nerves before I got myself into deeper trouble, trying to hide who I was underneath the mask before Valdus seized his opportunity.

“What’d you say?” Barrett questioned aggressively, his arm raising slightly before Rais put his arm between us.

“Commander Barrett,” he turned to me, his face serious and unphased, “Evanna, take the helmet off.”

“…Yes, Commander.” I unfastened the helmet, careful not to bump the Ambiluna into revealing itself. My hair fell over my face, and I swept it out of the way and faced Barrett. “Forgive me, Commander Barrett… I haven’t been feeling well.”

“Get it checked out then,” he replied, “you look like you’ve been in an oven.”

“Will do, Commander.”

I looked at Rais, who not once took his eyes off of me, a calm and knowing expression on his face. He had wanted to say something, but being a G-Soldier, and a Commander, he stayed quiet. The skin against my neck reminded me to stay firm, to not reveal, and so I nodded formally and turned away from the both of them.

Out of the hangar, down the cold hallways, stopped in one that seemed completely empty and leaned against the wall. I really did feel sick, from inhaling just a small amount of Titan’s poisonous air, and also…

“We’re hurting…”

The emotions and thoughts of another I.L. was taking a large toll on my body and mental stability. It was wearing me down, making the need to get to my room all the more hasty. I took a step forward, tired and ill, and another just the same. As I made my way down the hall, I felt regenerated, the pain in my chest not leaving, but everything else…

“No!” I turned around quickly, to see a blue fin disappear down a turn in the hallway. Chasing after it, turning down towards where it went, I stopped to see nothing at all. “Come on, come on,” the helmet, I quickly pulled back over my head, switching my vision to pick up heat signatures, but none came up. “Where…Where’d you go?” I had to find it. If anyone of the G-Soldiers found the Ambiluna, they’d first kill it, then, they’d find out how it got in.

“It couldn’t have just disappeared!” My vision switched again, picking up the Ambiluna’s small footprints and following them down the hall and to the right, to the left, left, right. How far could it have gone? My boots clacked against the hard floor, breath catching up to me, the heat in my helmet becoming unbearable, the pain in my chest making it hard to continue running, until eventually…

“Agh!” My body collided with another, and I stumbled backward, looking up at Valdus who stood unphased. “Commander Val-”

“Evanna, helmet off indoors.” Obediently, I removed my helmet, eyes averting his for a moment. He chuckled, a snaring gaze that left me paralyzed. “Took you long enough… What’s the rush?”

“I-”

“Meeting’s the other way, G-Soldier.” His cold dark eyes threatened me, his lips lifting into a sinister smile, as if he were daring me to come up with a lie.

“… Thank you Commander Valdus.”

“Come then.”

I followed him hesitantly, looking back over my shoulder once, the helmet tucked in my elbow. That Ambiluna was still running around on this ship, on the Titan Base. What would happen if, eventually someone…?

“Keep up the pace, G-Soldier.”

Regardless, now, there was nothing I could do. “Yes, Commander.”

The meeting ended later than I would’ve expected, and I was forced to speak more than I would’ve liked to. General Castor, even as I left the room, his grey lifeless eyes were fixed on me, watching my every move. Valdus and him were trusted partners, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they were both now keeping a careful eye on me.

Rais and I kept at distance the entire way through, and it wasn’t until we’d gotten away from everyone else that he stopped me and pulled me into a tight hug. He held me in his arms, in the middle of a hallway, unafraid of anyone walking in and seeing something so odd and abnormal. “Evanna,” he let go of me, looking at me carefully, “where were you? What happened?”

“Rais,” I lowered my voice so that nobody could hear me but him, “something has happened. I need your help. You’re the only one I trust.”

“What kind of something? Is it that serious?” I looked around hastily, tugging him by the hand closer as if to use him as a shield. “For God sake, Evanna-”

“There’s an Ambiluna aboard this ship.” I whispered to him.

“What-?”

“Rais, we have to find it before anyone else does.”

“Evanna, what are you talking about? There are plenty of captives that we took in-”

“No, no,” I sighed and leaned against a wall, hiding my face with my arm. “It’s not a captive… Rais, I’ll explain later, just help me find it.”

He looked at me, puzzled and trying to comprehend what I had just told him before sighing defeatedly, rubbing his face tiredly. “I’ll help, but this had better not be what I think it is.”

“Thank you-”

“Yeah, yeah… Just keep quiet and follow me.” Rais took off, walking with a fast pace down the halls.

“Shouldn’t we use our helmets to find it?”

“No,” he answered, lifting his wrist slightly and tapping onto his control panel while keeping his eyes leveled directly in front of him, “by now, there would be too many trails to track it, and we don’t want to run around with our helmets on in here. That’ll provoke suspicion, like we’re hiding something. But we have to be fast.” His wrist chimed, and he began to swipe at it. “I’ll access the security cameras, check the footage right now and find the thing.” The gadget began to project images with the location written beneath, and Rais said to me, “look at the images as I swipe, but don’t be obvious. Let me know when you see it or where it could possibly be hiding.”

“Got it.” Rais swiped through the images slowly, and I looked through them, the both of us walking down the hallway as if nothing was wrong. The holograms were lacking any evidence of the Ambiluna, just G-Soldiers cleaning their starships, firing blasters at targets, lounging, eating, and battling each other. Then, Rais swiped, and a blank image showed, as if nothing were there, as if the security camera saw nothing at all. “There, hall 129. That’s not too far from my room. It’s intentionally blocking the security camera.”

“Genius,” he murmured, shutting down the gadget on his wrist and taking the next right. “Let’s hurry then.”

I stepped out of the bathroom to my room, changed out of my heavy G-Soldier suit and collapsing onto my bed. Rais, already changed, leaned against the door, having hacked into my room’s security camera, now causing it to replay yesterday’s events over again. The Ambiluna, splashing about in a bucket I filled with water, had destroyed the hallway camera. I closed my eyes, exhausted from the day’s events and wanting to rest.

“Evanna…” I opened my eyes to see Rais, holding the broken security camera in his hands and staring at the alien in my room. “Explain yourself. Now.”

“Rais…”

He stood up with authority, voice becoming harshly toned. “Now, G-Soldier.”

My face grew hot with anger at that title. “Don’t call me that.”

“You’re a G-Soldier, are you not? Have you forgotten that you live to serve the growth of the Human race? It is our duty. We are Human beings, Evanna. We are not them.”

“It’s a living, breathing, and highly I.L.! Rais, how do you justify annihilating an entire species?”

“We’re making room for Human colonies. We’re expanding. There isn’t room on Titan for two I.L..”

I stood up on my feet, strongly putting forth my own argument. “There’s room in the Solar System for more than one I.L.!” The Ambiluna climbed out of the bucket and crawled up my body onto my shoulder, gently nudging my neck. “Maybe Earth wasn’t enough to support the entire Human population, and Mars wasn’t either, but really Rais, we could’ve stopped at Jupiter! You know that over a thousand Earths can fit inside of it, it’s that big! One planet is really all we need, isn’t it?”

“And what happens when the population outgrows Jupiter, Evanna? We’re planning ahead. Owning the Solar System for Humanity would mean that we’d last longer than any other species. Isn’t that what this fight is for? For the future, Evanna. So that nobody will have to see the devastation of Earth, ever again.”

“We’re sick of it.”

“I’m sick of it!” I yelled back at him, louder than necessary. “All of it! The killing, the manipulation, the justifications! What about the other I.L.? What about the Aergiga, who fought so hard to keep their home so that their own species wouldn’t have to die?”

“Life is a competition, Evanna. There are those who win, and those who lose. I’d rather win than lose.”

I looked at him, Commander Rais, different from the young boy I knew on Dominalto. I sighed, remembering what he said to me before, about Earth, and what he loved most about it. “People were different, back then. Remember, Rais? What you loved most about Earthlings, about the way the world used to be, was that people were still Human. They still cared, they still loved and had compassion. The Martians changed that. Don’t let them change you too, you can’t let them take your Humanity.”

He had nothing to say to me, just looked into my eyes, listening. The Ambiluna on my shoulder peered at him, questioning him, judging him. “You said to never underestimate I.L.. Rais, you’re underestimating them by actually convincing yourself that they don’t feel like a Human does, but they do. They cry, they laugh, they love. And they want to protect their species.”

“We want to live.”

“All I.L. want to live.”

“Save us…”

“Which is why, I’ll save the Ambiluna.” I stepped forward, holding Rais’s gaze and never letting go. “You’re not going to stop me Commander, but,” my hand reached up to touch the side of his face, “I need Rais’s help.”

Rais’s fingers locked with mine, and he brought my hand to his chest. “This is treason. Evanna, you could get yourself killed. I won’t let you,” he sighed and let go of my hand, putting a fist to my shoulder, “at least, not alone.”

The Ambiluna chirped, and I smiled at him. “Really? You’re actually going to help me…?”

“Like I’d leave you to die on your own, Evanna. I’m still Human enough to care for you,” his gaze fell on the Ambiluna, “but, that’s dangerous.” He stepped forward and lifted his hand to swat at the Ambiluna, who backed out of his range and hissed. “Get it off of you.”

I shrugged uncomfortably and the Ambiluna climbed down from my shoulder and hopped onto my bed. “Dangerous, how?”

“I noticed the slice in your suit at your neck, Evanna. Was the Ambiluna on your shoulder when you walked in?”

“It was, but I think it accidently cut the fabric and-”

“That was no accident.” Rais sat down on my bed, and the Ambiluna, startled, backed away from him before approaching him slowly. He held his bare hand out to it, and the Ambiluna pressed its head against his palm. They sat there for a moment, before Rais quickly removed his hand from it and sighed. “I heard it, in my own thoughts. Have you been…?”

“It was riding on my shoulder, that’s when I began to hear it, or… Us.” I moved the Ambiluna off the bed so I could sit, and it crawled back into its bucket. “It’s like it’s my thoughts, but I know its not. They’re louder.”

“That’s because it’s how they communicate,” Rais said, reaching to my desk and pulling out my computer. On the flat disc, he pulled up information on what we’d gathered from the Ambiluna. “They’re telepathic, communicating through thoughts like the Aergiga, but it’s different. The Aergiga got in our heads and spoke their own words, no matter how far away we were, like the communication device in our helmets. The Ambiluna, however, link the thoughts of theirs and whoever they’re trying to communicate with, as a way of reasoning, almost. They can only do this through skin contact.”

“Skin contact?” I remembered, back when I’d first heard the Ambiluna, the slice in my suit. “It had to touch my skin to communicate, that’s why the cut was made.”

“Exactly.” A recording displayed on the disc, of a Human and an Ambiluna strapped together in the chairs. “The link makes both the Ambiluna and the Human sick, that’s why you looked so awful today. If it’s kept long enough, a bond is formed. Eventually, you begin to speak the words that the both of you are thinking.” The Human in the recording, seeming sicker than I was, eventually began screaming, struggling in bondage, panicking. “…It can make a Human lose his or her mind. No more thinking for yourself. It’s as if the Ambiluna itself literally melts your brain, takes who you are, makes you empty headed and crazy.”

“What happened to him?” In the recording, the scientists had to intervene, and then the video ended. “Is he alright?”

“No,” he answered, turning to me with a frown, “he’s stupid, lifeless, empty in the head and the heart. They’re studying him now, but when they’re done, they’ll let him go. The man’s gone, Evanna, and there’s no saving him.” He turned back to the baby Ambiluna, splashing in its bucket, playing with its tail. “That’s why you have to be careful with that thing. I don’t like this.”

“I’m not going to go crazy, Rais,” I took the disc from him and swiped through more information on the Ambiluna. “But I do have to communicate with it, so I can know what to do next.”

“Saving the entire species on Titan is impossible, Evanna. It’s hard enough having just one here.”

I stopped on a slide titled “Ambiluna Reproduction,” reading through it with an idea on my mind. “What if we can get it to a safe place, where it will be able to start the species over again. Somewhere with water, an atmosphere, mountains.” I read through the slide, trying to understand how it all worked.

“Reproduction?” Rais took the disc from me and set it aside. “I was there when the scientists were studying that one. The Ambiluna, just one, can reproduce all on their own. They’re asexual.” He turned to look at the Ambiluna in the bucket, smiling to me as he said, “And you’re in luck. This one is fertile. They say that there’s a fifty percent chance of finding one that can actually reproduce. It could go either or.”

“How do you know this one is?”

“The marks on its forehead.” I looked at the golden Ambiluna again, noticing that it did in fact have marks on its head. A big pink diamond at its forehead center, and six pink dots on each side of the diamond. “They’re marks of fertility. The Ambiluna have three to five babies at once, and we’re guessing they can have babies more than once in their lifetime, since we’ve seen pretty large age gaps in the population. If you can save this one, you can save the species.”

“That’s, oddly fortunate. At least something went right today.” Rais wrapped an arm around my shoulder, giving me a side hug. “So… How can I get out of here, unnoticed tomorrow?”

“I’ll cover that. Just meet me at the hangar after half an hour, it should be empty then.”

“Hm…” I sighed, closing my eyes and leaning against the side of his ribs, my gaze on the Ambiluna. “So… is it male or female?”

“This species is still new, Evanna, we don’t know everything about them. Besides, they’re asexual, gender doesn’t even really matter.” He laughed, “What, are you going to name it?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re kidding.”

“It’s better than saying ‘Ambiluna’ every second.” The golden Ambiluna splashed about, chirping excitedly in the liquid. Small, fragile, a baby. “… I’ll call her Stella.”

“Stella?” Rais recognized the name, sighed, and then pulled me a little tighter towards him. He knew that the Ambiluna wasn’t mine, he knew that I could never have my own baby no matter how much I wanted, but he held me and smiled for me, because as a child I used to always tell him how my daughter would be named Stella. “Yeah, that works.”

“We’re running out of time. We have to go. Wake up! They’re progressing, moving. Fire! Everything’s burning, we can’t stop it! They’re looking for us! We’re in danger. We’re scared. Let us go. Save us.”

As I rested, I was unaware of Stella sleeping beside me, our thoughts mixing together into torturous chaos that left the both of us shaken and exhausted when we rose. My G-Soldier Suit on, I was hesitant to leave my room, and Stella was much too uneased to turn invisible.

“We need to calm down,” our words came out of my mouth, but I was too tired to realize it. Her uneasiness seeped into me, my fingers trembled against the door. “We need to calm down.” Stella disappeared, and I pushed the door open.

My helmet in my elbow, I kept my goal in mind. We had somewhere to go, somewhere important. Those big doors of rock in the mountain, with the intricate carvings and designs, there was something behind those doors. Stella needed me to go there, before going anywhere else, before they found it, before Valdus got there and burnt anything and everything in there alive. We had to go. We had to hurry.

The halls were empty and quiet at this hour, and I carefully made my way to the hangar, trying not to wake anyone or attract the cameras’ attention. Stella stayed perfectly still and invisible, the only way I knew she was still there was from the touch of her moist skin and the wave of emotions passing over me. We were scared. Nervous. I stopped in my tracks and breathed in a deep shaky breath. “Calm down,” I mumbled to us, and the fear subsided just a little bit.

My own footsteps caused echoes to ring out across the Titan Base, echoes that Valdus would hear and locate and stop me in my tracks, taking Stella from me and finally being able to kill his prey. The closer I got to the hangar, the louder the echoes became, the faster my feet moved forward, the dizziness catching up to me. Faster. Louder. I had to breathe, keep walking. The mask I wore of a G-Soldier, I had lost with my duties. Without my duties, I lost the power in my steps and the strength in my actions. I was weak in the head, weak, prey to Valdus needing to be disposed of. I had to get to the hangar. My footsteps, faster, louder, shaking, dizzy-

“Evanna,” Rais’s hushed voice called me out of it just as he grabbed onto my shoulder, startling Stella who sat curled on my other.

“Rais…”

“You’re shaking. Did you sleep at all after I left?” He asked me, concerned, for he saw that I was only getting worse.

“We’re fine.” This time, I caught my words, and I looked at him, the panic coming to me as I remembered the man who’d lost his mind and became dead. “Rais… We’re scared.”

“Evanna, look at me.” I did, and he put a fist to my armor. “What does that mean?”

I looked at the white armored fist, then back at Rais who stared at me hoping for an answer. “Our loyalty, to one another. A promise to fight ’til the very end, together.”

“What’s paradise?” He asked me.

“Earth was a paradise, and if we could find one like it, you and I, we’d have our own paradise.”

“Who are you, Evanna?”

“I’m your best friend.”

“And who am I?”

“You’re mine,” I answered, my senses calmed and my mind coming back to me, “Rais. Thank you. Stella’s thoughts were linked to mine all night. I didn’t know, I’m sorry. I almost lost myself.”

“You’re stronger than this, Evanna. You’re fine.” He stepped back and smiled. “Let’s get to the hangar.”

Together, we headed towards the hangar, and I told him everything. The thoughts, the doors, my plan. Once in the hangar amongst the ships, Rais stood by his favorite starship, underneath its wing as he looked back at me. “Our helmets, I already set connected together. No matter where you are, you’ll have me right there with you. If anything goes wrong, you tell me.”

“I will,” I replied, watching as he accessed the hangar’s control panel and opened the Vault. Heavy and loud, it slowly opened up, the sun’s orange light seeping into the hangar and brightening everything.

“Promise me,” Rais began, “that you’ll be back here soon, safe and sound.”

“I promise.” I looked at him, realizing that all of this really was treason, and not knowing how much longer I had with him. “And promise me, that you’ll be waiting right here for me when I return.”

“You have my word.” I took his hand, and he held it longingly, staring at me as if he were staring at Earth’s jungles. “If I don’t get to talk about Earth to you anymore, just in case, there’s one last thing I want you to know.”

“What’s that?” I smiled at him, thinking of what could’ve been so wonderful that he’d save it for last. Wordlessly, he held one side of my face and pulled me close to him, gently embracing my lips with his. My eyes grew wide in shock, at the surprising sweetness of the act and the calm that it brought to me. When he let go, eyes focused on mine, I asked him, “What is that called?”

“A kiss,” he answered, smiling back at me and brushing my hair away from my forehead.

“What does it mean?”

Underneath the starship, away from prying eyes, he admitted without hesitation, “It means that I love you.” He grinned and stepped back, touching his fist to my armor and leaving me with my end of our promise. “Come back to me, Evanna.”

Up the rocky cliffs of Titan, I climbed, allowing Stella to lead me to our destination. We eventually had to separate, having been worn out from forming a bond and now understanding one another without having to touch. At the top of one of the most dangerous rocks, jagged sharp stones located all around, there lied the giant doors. The designs were almost like that of flowers, and yet I’d never seen any on Titan’s surface. “We made it, Rais.”

“Good.”

Stella stood at the entrance, looking, staring. “What’s the matter?” I had asked, looking at the walls myself. “You do know the entrance?” Stella walked around, back and forth in front of the grand doors, as if searching, until she found a small crease underneath the left door, big enough for a baby Ambiluna like her to slither itself through, yet small enough for no Human to really notice. She turned back at me, big eyes shining like stars, ears twitching slightly, and almost nodded her head before entering in through the crease.

Immediately afterwards, a blast sounded and a wave of shock sent through my body. “No! Stella!” I ran to the doors, prepared to knock them down if I had to, when I tripped over rocks and my body phased directly through it. The doors shifted, once, twice, before disappearing completely, revealing rubble all over the ground where the entrance had been. I looked forward, an entire hidden village caught on fire, Barrett holding Stella bound in red beaming wires, and Valdus looking down at me.

“Evanna-” Rais’s voice went to static, the very moment I cut off my communication device.

“Valdus!”

“You came just in time, G-Soldier.” He lifted his hands and chuckled at his triumph all around him, smelling of dead carcasses and alien blood. “And you brought a gift. How thoughtful.”

“Let her go you snake!” I yelled, standing up with my blaster, and Valdus shook his head at me.

“Come now, don’t be that way. Surrender now and I won’t have my G-Soldiers fire at you immediately.” I was surrounded on all sides by armed G-Soldiers, and from the cave entrance, three others came up behind me. “Were you really thinking you could get away with this? I warned you.”

“You threatened me.”

He shook his finger, “No, no… You took it as a threat because there already was no stopping you. You’d already made yourself a hero, hadn’t you?”

“Drop her Valdus! Or I swear I’ll-”

“You swore your life to us, remember?” He laughed, waved his hand at Barrett, who tossed Stella onto the ground beneath him. “So, since you couldn’t keep to your duties… What’s it going to be, Evanna? You? Or this creature? Barrett can crush it in a second and it’ll be all over, and you, well, you could come back to your senses.”

“Never!” Stella shook, growling and hissing because she learned that struggling only hurt her more. “I’d rather die than go back to you!”

He walked up to me, looking down on me, exerting his power. “Yes, that is the price for treason, isn’t it?” Behind that black screen, I saw his grin became more venomous now, bloodthirsty, his eyes more evil and his intentions more malevolent than before. “And you, all by yourself, pulled this off without help? I find that hard to believe, for someone who couldn’t access security footage if she weren’t a Commander.”

Rais.

“You must be pretty smart to do all that on your own, or am I wrong? Maybe you did have a little help, from someone as touchy as you are.”

Stella, a rock jabbed at the side of her head and causing her to bleed, looked directly at me, pleading for help. Rais, back at the Titan Base, unaware of what happened to me, his life in my hands. I looked Commander Valdus, the bloodthirsty and powerful Martian, directly at his hidden face, “Never underestimate an I.L., Valdus.”

Part 3

Bound by my hands, trapped in darkness and isolation, for hours. The red beams which held my wrists together unbreakable, the helmet still fastened onto my head and hiding my shamed face, facing the result of my weakness. “Agh…” I tried pulling my wrists free, only for the bands to get tighter, now beginning to crush my armor, my strength, gone.

“Even the Ambiluna figured that wouldn’t work before you did.” The lights shone on, standing before me Commander Valdus, unmasked and taking a seat in front of me. The binds were chained to the desk in front of me, keeping my arms on top and unmovable. “You really are stupid.” Following after him was General Castor, grey haired and grey eyed, sitting down beside Valdus and watching me careful. Valdus smiled. “Address your General, G-Soldier.”

“Like I’d ever-”

“Don’t make this harder on yourself,” Valdus teased, “or your punishment will be much more painful. Address your General, G-Soldier.”

General Castor didn’t move a muscle, just watched me, watched my reactions and expressions, took note of my emotions. “I am no G-Soldier.”

Valdus stood up in rage and yanked my helmet off of my head, throwing it at the wall and turning back to face me. “Look him in the eye!”

I lifted my chin, my gaze shifting before focusing again on General Castor. When I looked at him, he chuckled to himself. “I knew there was something wrong with you from the start,” General Castor stated, calmly, “I thought that maybe Rais would snap you out of it, but you’re much too stubborn.”

I scoffed. “Rais would never conform to what you wanted him to be, and he’d never change me.”

“But you could change him, right, Evanna?” The General asked me, touching the desk and causing it to display security camera footage. Our kiss, caught on camera, angled differently from the rest of the cameras. “He was trained underneath Martians, and yet somehow we still couldn’t wipe you from his mind. You want to take one of my best?” They were spying on us, this entire time. What else did they know? That Rais was just as much involved as I was? That he’d helped me devise a plan to save the very race we were supposed to wipe out? My fear kept me from saying anything, and General Castor nodded at Valdus. “Bring him in.”

Valdus’s face twisted into a smile, and he stepped back and left the room. “He’s had no involvement in this!” The desperation to keep him safe turned into a lie, a lie that I wasn’t sure if general Castor caught or not.

“But he cares for you?” He asked me. “Nobody is that close.

“Rais and I care for one another,” I admitted, pleading for his case, “but he is a G-Soldier. He carries his duties first, he’d never commit treason, not even for me.”

“Weakness is what makes people fall here, Evanna.”

A moment later, and Rais stepped into the room, followed by Valdus. He seemed shocked to see me there, chained to the desk in front of General Castor. Rais, continuing to carry the role of a Commander, turned to Valdus and asked, “What did you need me for?”

“We thought you’d be interested in this case, Commander Rais. Afterall,” Valdus turned to me, “you’re quite fond of her, aren’t you?”

He looked at Valdus, the hate in his eyes seen for a second before he turned to General Castor. “General, what’s happened here?”

“Another G-Soldier has committed treason, that’s all.” General Castor stood up from his seat and turned on his heel towards the door, a smile playing on his face as he left. “I’ll leave you to it, Commander Valdus, Commander Rais.”

The door shut, and I was left alone with Commander Valdus and Commander Rais before me. “Treason…” He looked at me, knowingly, but resuming his duties. “What’d you do, Evanna?”

“Commander I-”

“Where was that formality when you both decided it’d be okay to embrace your feelings for one another, hm?” Commander Valdus turned on Rais, answering his question for me. “She saved an Ambiluna, disregarded her duties, and then tried to run from us. I’d think you to be aware of this. You’re quite the romantic.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“And you know what the punishment for treason is, don’t you?”

No, Rais…

“…I do, Commander.”

Valdus put his hand on Rais’s shoulder. “Now, if you were to have commit treason along with this weak minded woman, it’d be a shame. You know the General adores you and I. We wouldn’t need to let you go, if you swore your allegiance to us once again.”

“Yes, Commander Valdus.”

Valdus sighed, running his hands through his red mohawk and grinning at me. “Then swear your allegiance.”

Rais stood still, staring at me and wordlessly communicating to me, “You promised to let me know if anything went wrong.” My eyes, golden and new, communicated back to him, “I couldn’t risk the life of the one I love.” Commander Rais stood firm, judging me beneath him and declaring, “I’ll let her go.”

Commander Valdus smiled. “Get to it then.”

Commander Rais strapped me tight in the jetpod, as were his orders, making it squeeze my chest to the point where I could barely breathe. Valdus watched us from a distance, to make sure that Commander Rais was really, truly loyal to the Human race. Not making any contact with me, he leveled the pod and set it for launch, then took my helmet in his hands and fastened it on my head.

This was it, then. To be let go wasn’t the way I’d wanted to die. It was looked at as dishonorable, like dying a criminal, dying against your own people. Not only that, the Ambiluna would die off, and there’d be nothing for me to do to stop it. It was my time to die, because in the end, there was nothing I could really offer for my race. I sank into the darkness… A fist against my armor brought me back, and the pod shut closed.

“Goodbye, G-Soldier.” Commanders Valdus and Rais recited simultaneously, placing their hands on the pod, removing them and leaving. The engines roared powerfully, and quicker than a flash, the pod shot out into empty space, jetting past Titan, and farther still. I didn’t know how long I’d been in there, suffocating and losing air in the large vacuum of space. Moving wasn’t an option, for Commander Rais had never carried out his job poorly.

Rais was still in danger, being around Valdus, a predator that tricked his prey into his his snare… But Rais was no type of prey for Valdus. Faster than Valdus could even think, Rais would be out of his line of sight. The trickster, using a shadow to lure the predator into a trap, to gain time for himself to turn the outcome and become a higher predator. Rais was more of an I.L. than most, especially the I.L. that dared to call themselves Human.

Hours passed. The neverending silence was ended with the roar of an incoming starship, and I braced myself knowing that oftentimes G-Soldiers who were let go died from starships purposefully bashing the pods. When nothing came, and the sound was loud yet not as aggravated, and the pod itself began to move, I remembered our promise of loyalty.

Safe in Rais’s hand chosen and stolen starship, he opened up the pod and unfastened my helmet, returning my smile. “Valdus wants our heads,” he announced, “so everything we do from now on can’t possibly make things any worse.”

We had nothing to lose. Risking our lives for the greater good made us feel more alive. There was one last mission for us. “We’re going to save the Ambiluna.”

Our weapons prepared, the starship claimed, our armor and helmets fastened onto our bodies, our minds battle ready. Rais, having pre made modifications to his favorite starship, had copied the remarkable ability of the Aergiga. “Self piloting mode is linked to my helmet,” he said, bragging of how he could telepathically control a starship now, “and I altered the ship so that, if I press this button here, a film will wash over it that will give it the ability to camouflage. Remind you of anything?”

“Saturn’s extinct I.L..”

The starship cruised through space, Rais and I using as much time as we could to discuss our game plan. “The moment we’re close enough to see Saturn’s rings, there’ll be starships sent out to annihilate us. First, we lose them.”

“How?”

“That depends on how they’ll move, but with the modifications I made, we should be fine.” Rais shifted the starship’s engine to a higher power. “After we lose them, we lose the ship.”

“Lose the ship? That’s insane, how else are we supposed to get to Titan?”

“It’s risky,” he admitted, “but if I can use the ship as a decoy, they can chase it all they want in Saturn’s rings, but the main objective for us is to get to Titan.”

“Is Stella at the Titan Base?”

“Yes,” he answered, “once we get her, we get out. Mission complete.”

Saturn came into view, faster than we’d hoped it to, and our communications were intercepted by Valdus’s threats. “Surrender if you don’t want to burn with the other I.L.”

Rais shifted the gears again, engines roaring violently as we blasted towards the rings of Saturn. “Burn in hell.”

Our starship’s trail was a path for multiple others to follow, engaging in deadly fires of blasters aimed right at us. Swerving across the stars, dodging the lethal beams and bullets of pure energy, I fired the guns behind us at the starships, hard shots because they were also well trained G-Soldiers.

“We can maneuver through Saturn’s rings,” I proposed, firing blasters and taking down one of the starships. “It’s the only way we can lose them.”

“On it.” Rais dove down swiftly into the complex rings, maneuvering among the asteroids and ice and rock. Part of the reason he made Commander was because he was excellent at piloting starships, shown by the way he dodged every asteroid without taking a scratch. I continued to fire back at them, aiming at asteroids that exploded and shattered into other starships. “How many left?”

“Eight,” I answered, “And they’re not shaking. We have to go bigger.” I left my post at the blasters and turned to the scanner, pulling up a hologram of Saturn. “We’ll have to lose them in the clouds.”

“The clouds? You can’t see anything but thick dust hiding the tall pillars of rocks!”

“Dive into the atmosphere Rais, into the clouds, and activate the camouflage. We’ll lose them that way.” He nodded, flipping the ship into a loop and firing down at the ships below him, then diving into Saturn’s atmosphere. The moment we lost ourselves in the wispy yellow clouds, Reactivated the camouflage and I watched the scanner carefully. “Right. Right. Left. Right. Left.”

“Are they still on us?” He asked, dodging the pillars as I instructed.

“We’re losing them. Make a right.” Rais turned the starship a sharp right just after I fired directly at a pillar of rocks. An explosion sounded behind us. “Just a little further.”

The starships were off of our track, and Rais slowed the starship down and the sides lifted open. “Time to ditch.” I touched the red button on my chest, my jetpacks carrying me in the thick atmosphere of Saturn. Blasted at full power, we pushed through the clouds, towards a starship my scanner picked up as it stayed still midair. Rais and I carefully took each opening, prying the doors open with our superhuman strength and firing at the two pilots inside. I muted the ship’s communication device, and Rais dragged them out, touching their red buttons as they fired up out of the clouds and unconscious. He sat down in the copilot seat this time, focusing himself on controlling our abandoned starship. “I’m trusting you Evanna. Don’t get us killed.”

“I’ve survived too many deaths for that to be likely.” I shifted the starship’s gears, blasting out of the clouds, following after the starship Rais had controlled to leave the atmosphere as well. It was followed by four other starships, convinced that we were in that same starship.

“Step two, complete.” Unnoticed, I took the starship out of Saturn’s atmosphere and followed Rais towards Titan, acting the part of a G-Soldier by firing at the ship, intentionally missing.

“Nice flying, Commander Rais.”

“Don’t break my focus.” He forced the ship to dodge and turn and shift gears, moving just as if Rais was piloting it inside. The starship lasted long enough to arrive at Titan, passing the Titan Base, whose large cannons fired menacingly at it.

“Rais, have the starship ‘shoot us down.’ That way we won’t look out of place.” The starship somersaulted midair, zooming past the ships that were chasing it and firing at the starship Rais and I were in. It fired at one of our wings. “I didn’t mean literally!”

“It’s a minor hit, just land the starship.” He controlled it to move away from the Titan Base, and as we landed roughly right by it, the other starships chased the decoy. “Go get the Ambiluna. I’ll take it from here.” I nodded, jumping out of the starship and tapping the red button on my chest, flying towards the Titan Base where starships left its hangar in pursuit of the decoy.

I passed through the Vault barrier, weight shifting, running past all the G-Soldiers in the hangar and out, down the halls. Right. Left. Left. Right. Right. Left. Down one hall, a set of stairs descending and met by a set of locked doors with a sign saying, “RESTRICTED.”

“Ugh!” I threw my shoulder into the dense heavy door, denting it, and then ramming it again with the side of my body. The door flew down the hall, clanging loudly against the floor, alarms flaring wildly. Having to be fast, swift, I ran down the dark hall, glancing at the cages for Stella. The number of Ambiluna held captive disgusted me, and none of them I felt the bond with. At the end of the hall was a large cell, with an opening big enough for a G-Soldier to walk through, yet miniscule compared to the cell’s size.

“Who are you?” The voice thundered in my head, powerful and clear. “You’re not like the rest.”

What was in there? I opened the door I could fit through, stepping in and gasping at the scaly creature with jaws bigger than our starships, four eyes staring at me. “An Aergiga…” I whispered. There were rumors that General Castor had authorized keeping one for the scientists to study and perform experiments on.

The giant creature breathed, creating a wind. “I know what you’re thinking…” Its green eyes glowed in the darkness of the cell, it’s telepathic voice louder than the wailing sirens. “You cannot save the Aergiga. It’s much too late for that. Who are you looking for?”

“An Ambiluna,” I answered, “a baby. Golden with a long blue tail. Big purple eyes. Feisty, growls and hisses a lot. She should be a new addition.”

“Hmmm…” The Aergiga’s body shifted in the cell, resting calmly on its belly. “They locked her away, somewhere else. General Castor… He ordered it to be delivered directly to the scientists below.”

“You know this? How?”

“Silence, Fighter. You have a mission to complete. Go…”

The alarms sounded in my eardrums again, and the Aergiga’s four eyes shut closed. Wordlessly, I left the remaining Aergiga, the last of its kind, and left to find Stella.

Back up the stairs. Left. Right. Left. Left. Right. Left. I broke into the scientists’ labs, empty at the moment due to current events. In a cage on top of a table was Stella, biting ferociously at the metal bars. She looked up at me and growled.

“Stella, I’m getting you out of here.” The laser on my wrist easily cut through the bars, and Stella pushed herself out, crawling onto my shoulder quickly. “We’re happy.”

“Evanna,” Rais’s voice rang in my ears, “Hurry up. I can’t keep this up for long. Grab a ship from the hangar and let’s go!”

“Right away.”

“You’re not going anywhere with that, Evanna.” A blaster met at my back, Valdus’s voice was quiet and humorous. “I don’t know how you got in here, but you’re not getting out.”

“We’re done with you.”

I activated my laser just as Stella launched herself at Rais’s unprotected face, clawing at his skin and biting his nose. He shouted and raised his blaster at me, and I sliced it in half with the laser before he could fire. “Get off!” He threw Stella off his face, and I kicked him directly in the ribs across the room. Valdus crashed into some tables and lab equipment, and I picked up a snare gun and fired it at him, red sizzling bondages wrapping around him and holding him still. “Agh! No!” The more he struggled, the tighter it got, until he couldn’t speak anymore.

Stella hurried back onto my shoulder, and I faced Valdus, looking him in the eyes. “Never underestimate us.” He cursed at me, yelling and shouting, but I didn’t fear him anymore. I fought against his power over me, and now, I was in control.

The fear gone and the strength regained, I ran as fast as I could down the many turns of halls, until I reached the hangar and hijacked a ship. “Rais, I’m on my way.” Stella climbed into the very back of the ship, and the jets boosted the starship out of the hangar.

Landing next to the wrecked ship, Rais stepped out and climbed aboard. “Let’s get out of here already!” The starship raised up from Titan’s surface, Stella in the back and Rais monitoring the scanners, and blasted away from the moon.

Exiting the thick atmosphere, faster, my hand ready to change the gear to lightspeed, the starship’s communication device emitted a voice. General Castor, his voice calm and authoritative like before, spoke to the both of us. “No matter what you do,” he said, “You’ll never truly be able to prevent disaster. That’s what Earth taught us.”

Lightspeed.

Titan behind us, Saturn, the G-Soldiers behind us, Valdus behind us, the grey planet behind us, and the inhumanity behind us. All that was left, static, from the communication device.

Eyelids heavy, I tossed and turned in the back of the starship, curled up in a ball for warmth. The temperature had dropped as we were far from Sol, in dark space with twinkling stars. Stella slept on top of the control panels by Rais, who’d fallen asleep in the pilot’s seat, exhausted from a year of traveling.

We were lucky, to have a Human starship, so advanced that the fuel could last five Uranian years and oxygen levels nearly the same. I rested against the floor of the ship, anxious knowing that underneath was vast nothingness for miles and miles on end. It’s funny, that a Universe so empty would be filled with so much. How big was the universe, anyways? Could it fit a billion Solar Systems over and over, all with trillions of miles of empty space in between? Was the Universe so big that no Human mind could wrap around the fact that it was constantly growing every second of everyday and was therefore infinite? Did a paradise such as Earth even exist, in the quintillion numbers of planets that existed? Could we find it, soon, before Stella’s life passed before our eyes?

The questions running rapid around my mind, I silenced through sleep.

“Evanna.” Rais shook me awake, jolting me up in the drifting starship.

“Oh, Rais,” I looked at him and then at Stella, who sat at the front of the ship staring out its windows. “What is it? What happened? Did they find us?”

“Humans don’t want anything to do with what’s beyond their reach, it’s why they gave up on searching for a God.” He stood up and offered me his hands, pulling me up off the ground. “We made it,” he said, “to paradise.”

We approached the front of the ship, where Stella gazed at the Heavens before her. A large planet, much bigger than even Jupiter, with colors of lush green and blue and pinks and purples, white clouds rising from it, seven moons in our line of sight, all seeming to have atmospheres as well. The twinkling stars around it, the colors colors of reds and purples across the galaxy.

“Only a God could make this,” Rais commented, a real smile on his face.

Planet Lev, one of the many other planets orbiting the sun Sirius. It was our greatest discovery, the highlight of our lives and the spark of joy that changed everything we thought about the world. Stella chirped, and Rais’s hand found mine. “This is a new beginning, Evanna.”

“For the Ambiluna,” I said, “but we can’t start a new Human civilization here. We can’t have children…”

“We’ll live on,” he said, “afterall, we kind of did adopt a baby alien. She’ll remember us, and we’ll shape what this new population of Ambiluna will be like, together.”

“Yeah… It’s beautiful, Rais, a true paradise. I think we can marry now.” This planet, this star system, a new beginning. Stella turned around to face us and chirped with delight, a playful smile on her face.

Planet Lev, light years away from the Solar System, the home of life even more beautiful and special than that of Earth. This was where plenty of I.L. lived in harmony with each other, united through the efforts of the Ambiluna, a species whose ideas birthed through two Human beings who left their own race that’d fallen apart from the mistakes of Earthlings so many years ago. There would be laughter here. There would be tears and pain. Things would be alive, living the lives they can and trying their best to keep it that way. They’d create, they’d destroy, and they’d rebuild and learn from their mistakes. They’d start over again, and try to be better than us.

Earth was a paradise, just like it, but not everything lasts forever.