POPULATION ONE
Compendium 2020 – Story 12
By Andrew Hawnt
The
journey has been long, but it needs to be undertaken.
I
look down at Vas and scratch him behind the ridges that line his head
and neck in lines of deep red. He looks at me with that beautifully
odd mix of feline understanding and canine affection that is the norm
for his species. My metal fingers only register the feel of his soft
fur in the most rudimentary way.
“Are
you ok, Jim?” the muscular, alert animal asks me.
“I'm
fine, Vas,” I respond, my lipless steel mouth doing its best to
synthesize sincerity. “It's just such an occasion. I waited so long
to hear that beacon's signal, and we're almost there. It's strange
thinking of the person I was when I arrived here.”
Vas
stares down at the valley that stretches out for hundreds of miles.
Our vantage point atop the rocky side of Mount Herina gives us a
clear view of the remainder of our journey. Somewhere down there is a
beacon, calling to me from home.
“Come
on,” my companion says, and leaps down from the rocks and onto a
lower ledge, his body moving like the lions I remember from home.
“Let's get down there and find it. I know this is important to
you.”
I
follow, using my multi-purpose staff to steady my robotic frame as we
go. My sensors are perfect, as are my reflexes, but having the staff
makes me feel more human. Funny how things like that can connect you
to the person you were, no matter what changes.
I
track Vas through the undergrowth at the base of Herina, sparing a
glance at the cyan skies of Gerin IV so my internals can recalibrate
and check on time, weather patterns, approximate Earth date and
current location. I wonder what the weather is like back home.
I
stop, and Vas turns to me, those wise black eyes understanding me
more than should be possible. My face shows no emotion, as I haven't
had skin for so long. My human consciousness lives on, but the flesh
has long since been replaced. My current form is stronger, faster and
certainly more durable than my original body, but clambering through
increasingly thick vegetation, I must admit to missing the feeling of
muscle strain and my lungs burning for deeper breaths.
Hours
pass as we search, Vas using the gifts of his species and me using
the sophisticated sensory arrays that were built into me by the
sentient machine known as the Gathered when it saved my consciousness
from my broken human body.
Darkness
falls, and after so long searching for it, we arrive at the modest
crater where the beacon has landed. I kneel beside it and see the red
glow of its pulsating light dancing against the chrome of my limbs.
I glance to Vas, and note he is watching me more than he is looking
at the device. I set my staff aside and kneel by the beacon. I lift
it from the crater and examine it. An activation stud is flashing. I
thumb it.
Vas
moves back a step as the holographic message leaps up from within the
beacon, the logo of EarthCorp revolving in the air before us. Vas
growls.
“They
want you to go, don't they?”
“I
don't know, Vas. It's been so long. Why now?”
The
message flashes to a date and transmission data, and I understand.
“Captain
James Thomas of the EarthCorp Exploratory League, this is President
Garcia. I pray that this message finds you well.”
“Who
is she?” my canine/feline friend asks me.
I
bask in her image for a moment. Her olive skin, her almond eyes, her
sleek hair and strong demeanour. “The leader of my people. As they
were.”
“We
have located your homing beacon, Jim. We're sending a Med drone to
your location to bring you home. Man, you really had us worried.”
Her image flickers in the air as a Singjay flutters through her
projected form. “We've missed you. This beacon was sent ahead as a
relay. The drone will follow it within a week or so. Come home to us
safe, do you hear? The Med will put you in stasis and get you back
here where you belong.”
My
attention wanders to the Singjay as it flies off to join the others
of its flock above us, moving across the sky as it changes to the
azure of night.
“Will
you leave me, my friend?” Vas asks, solemnly.
I
glance at him and back to the device. “The beacon found the
remnants of my crashed ship on this world. The same remnants that the Gathered
used to build my new body when I died. That's what the beacon has
followed here to bring me home.”
I
close the message down before President Garcia can tell me more. “I
can't go back, Vas. Not now. Especially not now I have seen this.”
“But
they may be able to give you a human body again,” comes his reply.
I
set the beacon back into its crater, pick up my staff and stand. The
servos in my limbs are silent. Much more efficient than the bad knees
I had when I was skin and bone.
“Since
I awoke here I have wondered how long I have been away, and the data
in this message has answered that for me. Vas, there's no world for
me to go back to. Not how I remember it. That message took over a
century to get here.”
“But
you have always lamented being alone, the only one of your kind on
this planet. You could go home.”
I
raise the staff and thumb a command into it. The crystals at its tip
spin and glow, firing a pulse of energy at the device and blowing it
into blackened shards. The red light goes dark. I listen to Singjays
as their song rains down across the valley. Distant rains fall.
Animals cavort in the hidden depths around me. I look to the sky and
know that soon the now-ancient Med drone will pass over, ignoring the
calm of Gerin IV while it looks again for the beacon's signal. It
won't find it.
“I'm
already home,” I tell my friend.
We
leave the crater and head back through the jungle.
I
don't look back.
©
Andrew Hawnt 2020
About
Compendium 2020:
Compendium
2020 is a project from author Andrew Hawnt and consists of 52 weekly
stories encompassing science fiction, fantasy and horror. They are a
mix of short stories and flash fiction, 100% original and written
throughout 2020. Why is he doing this? To keep the words flowing. To
keep the ideas coming. To dance in worlds that are his and his alone.
To prove that he can.
About
Andrew Hawnt:
You
can find Andrew on Facebook at facebook.com/andrewhawntauthor and on
Twitter and Instagram as @andrewhawnt. Formerly a musician and DJ,
Andrew is known for his books, comic book writing, music journalism
and more, including fiction in Doctor Who Adventures, the Judge Dredd
Megazine and others. Look out for his film work soon.
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