01: Birth

After the battle, the victorious starship fell into an irregular orbit around the large gaseous planet, which had taken grievous injury during the combat. The wound, created by a small satellite of the planet accelerated to relativistic speeds and shot through the planet like a bullet through a balloon, appeared as a large dark hole in the northern hemisphere of the planet. The green and blue clouds of the planet spiralled, swirling into the hole, draining through it. Rotating to the other side of the planet's face, massive amounts of the gas poured out into space, spreading out in a large cone. The moon, which had been the ammunition for the fatal shot, was still blasting out at a significant fraction of the speed of light, on a trajectory to leave this star's gravity and wander out into the greater darkness of space.

Within the starship, inside a dimly lit chamber without windows or corners, a man wearing robes and a mask stands in front of a tank filled with a bubbling pale red liquid. The tank is pear-shaped, with its large base mounted on a base connected to a console consisting of several buttons, levers, and sliders. The man presses the buttons and pulls the levers, and the machine responds by releasing a viscous black fluid into the tank, then purple globules that attach to the black fluid, then absorb into it, adding glowing purple stripes to the spiky black shape, which starts pulsating. The man pulls a lever and a green laser blasts the black shape, which freezes into stalagmites. He then begins typing, copying a sequence from a small gray stone slab that sits on the flat surface of the machine next to the buttons. The laser turns from green to blue then splits into three and starts cutting helix patterns out of the stalagmites. As the lasers work, the man releases a cloudy yellow substance which absorbs the helixes. As the yellow mist dissolves the cut out helix patterns, it solidifies, becoming chalkier, until the process completes and it becomes a powdery yellow sphere that almost fills the entire tank. Over the course of the next twenty minutes, it shrinks down until it occupies only a quarter of the available volume. Then it starts growing again, becoming rubbery and expanding by stretching out in one direction, then another, pulling itself apart and unfolding.

When the unfolding completes, the body of a human woman floats in the tank, with golden skin and hair. The man in the mask decants the tank, draining the red fluid. A metal arm fits a cloth garment over the woman's body, as much to dry her as for modesty. Another metal arm places a U-shaped green metal device on the back of the woman's head, over both of her ears. A moment passes in stillness, then she opens her eyes, which are bright gold, even more than her hair or skin. The glass tank spins itself unscrewed, then lifts, disappearing into the ceiling. The platform and console recede into the floor, leaving the woman standing on empty stone floor. The woman looks at the man wearing the mask and robes. The man looks back at her.

The man speaks first. "Welcome to life, new human."

She stares at his mask, then she looks down, around, then back at the mask. "What. Who are you? Where am I?"

The man shakes his head. "I cannot answer. It would be against protocol. Do not worry, you are safe, and you will remain safe."

The man moves to another side of the room and opens a cabinet. He removes a bottle and a package, then returns and places them on an elevated table rising out of the ground next to the cabinet.

"The package has food. Eat it if you're hungry. The beverage has psychoactive effects. What they are, I do not know, but they will not be harmful, and may be beneficial. It depends on you. Drink it if you want, or don't. The decision is yours." He moves his head, and she can tell that he's looking directly at her. "Good luck." He moves towards wall in the room, which suddenly has an opening, which he exits through, then it closes. The man is gone, and the woman is left standing alone, her golden hair still dripping with red fluid.

The woman considers the man's words, and the objects left behind. She suddenly realizes that she's hungry, no, she's ravenous, she's never been so hungry in her life. She climbs down from the platform, which conveniently has a staircase going around the back, and moves over to examine the objects on the raised stone table. She examines the package first. It is larger than her hand, a rectangular prism twice as tall as it is wide, and half as thick as its width. The outer shell is smooth, but loose around the contents, allowing them to move around a few centimeters in any direction. She tears the package open, finding that it contains two rectangular beige blocks speckled with red, gold, and brown flecks throughout. She pokes one, then sniffs it. The block is firm, cold, and slightly sticky. It smells of cinnamon and clove. She skeptically nibbles a tiny piece off of the edge of one of the blocks. She rolls the tiny morsel on her tongue. It tastes sweet, slightly savory, definitely with some cinnamon flavor, but there's something else there, is it vanilla? She takes a larger bite. The block is chewy and grainy. There are many rich flavors, too many to identify, and as she swallows, her hunger overcomes any curiosity concerning texture and taste. She consumes the first block in four large bites, then starts in on the second. She finds herself sated quickly, however, and returns the majority of the second block to the torn packaging.

She turns her attention to the bottle. The small vessel is a soft ceramic white, with a black lid atop a narrowing neck. The woman finds it easy to lift the top directly off of the bottle. She carefully sniffs the opening, and smells a potent combination of herbs, with a slight hint of something mildly noxious. She takes a small sip. The intensity of the strong and bittersweet flavor surprises her, but then she immediately feels a warmth spreading from her chest out through her arms and legs, feelings of calmness, energy, and focus. She takes a longer swig from the bottle, and the effects intensify. In her vision, colors start to dance around the edges of objects. She shakes the bottle, feeling out the remaining portion of liquid. She estimates that she drank one third of the total beverage, and decides to leave the rest in the bottle for now.

She looks around the room, evaluating the situation. The room's nearly circular shape is divided into three circular segments. The first contained the machine and platform that she had emerged from. In the second was the table she stood at now, as well as a sort of stone cabinet that the man had removed the food items from. The woman opens the cabinet, finding more bottles and packages. She closes it again, then moves into the third circular segment of the chamber. In this area, she finds another, larger cabinet built into the wall. As she approaches it, the ceiling opens up, and droplets of water fall down, rinsing the remnants of the red liquid from the tank out of her hair and off of her skin. Pausing for a moment, she removes her simple garment, running her hands through her hair and over her body to clean it more thoroughly. One done, she continues to the cabinet, opening it to find clothing in different styles and colors, towels, and grooming supplies. She chooses a cerulean robe, tied at the waist with a sash, and begins to put it on.

As she clothes herself and dries her hair with a towel, she considers her situation. I don't know who I am, where I am, or what is happening to me, she thinks to herself. That man called me 'new human', does that mean I've just been born? I know the names of different colors and flavors, and I know how to put on these clothes and comb my hair. How do I know these things if I've just been born? What else do I know? She cannot answer herself. She looks around the chamber again, and finding no new clues, approaches the area of the wall that the masked man had disappeared through. As she approaches, an opening appears. She remembers the man's assurances. I am safe. I will remain safe. She doesn't know why, but she trusts the words.

She moves away from the opening. It closes again. She steps towards it again, and watches it open again. She returns to the table where she left the remnants of her meal. She puts the cap back on the bottle, folds the torn package over the leftover food block, and places both in one of the many pockets in her robe. She pauses a moment to consider, then takes two more packages from the cabinet, and another bottle, and puts them in other pockets.

The newly born human returns to the opening in the wall. She steps through the door, ready to find the answers to her questions that she feels certain are waiting just on the other side.