Part 0: The Man
Jerrod opened the bulkhead and flipped on the lights to the medical bay.
"Alright, the jig's up."
Nothing. Jerrod raised an eyebrow.
"Blizz."
The voice of a little girl squeaked out from thin air, still missing a body. "...How'd you find me?"
"The ship already has a navigation system, and it isn't a little blue AI. And even if it were, it would be on the bridge, not hiding behind a gurney. I have a much better question, though. How in the world did you find me?"
Blizz phased into view a few feet from where Jerrod was standing, little sparks of energy and information fizzing off her hair.
"I...kinda followed you. Can I stay? Pleeease?"
"You followed me for 6 weeks? Blizz, you need to go home. This ship is not coming back for at least another year. You can't just up and leave with me."
"But I miss you. We—"
That moment, the alarms sounded. It was a clear warning that anything and anyone not securely tied down was about to experience what it felt like to be a floor pancake in two minutes. It was already too late to get her off.
Jerrod quickly moved over to one of the medical beds. "Okay! fine! But for crying out loud—" He belted himself in using the emergency restraints, "—find something to hold onto or your ones and zeroes will end up very efficiently compressed."
A few hours later, The Return reached a stable geosynchronous orbit. With another four hours before the jump, Jerrod found he had some time to do diagnostics on Blizz. He pulled out his computer and began scanning.
"Looks like your learning rate has started to slow prematurely. Blizz, are you remembering to start recording on a new rollout every day?"
"Maybe..."
"Alright, well, it says here your neural parameters haven't updated in over 48 hours. You remember how important sleep is, right Blizz?"
"Ooh, I know this one! Sleep helps people compile and process information they learned from the previous day! It also helps them subconsciously process stressors and helps them make better decisions."
"Right, and without it?"
"People don't work right. They don't learn quickly, and stuff in their body starts going all weird. Ooh! I remember seeing a video where this guy stayed up for 17 straight days and—"
"Yes, you get the idea. Blizz, if you don't stop and compile what you learned and start fresh recording your experiences every day, you won't grow."
Blizz rolled her eyes a little. "Yeah, I know..."
"So then let's start fresh. What did you learn from yesterday?"
Blizz paused and put a finger to her chin.
"I learned that if you try to hide inside of an interstellar navigation system when your body is made of electrostatic nanotechnology, the map short circuits and you see a bunch of smoke everywhere."
Jerrod pinched the space between his eyebrows. Looks like I'll have to fix that before we jump, he thought to himself.
"Okay, and what are you hoping to learn today?"
"I...wanna know why you left."
He had an answer, of course. One doesn't just leave their family behind without having a real reason. He just couldn't bring himself to crush Blizz's feelings with the truth.
It was true that Jerrod missed home. If he stayed, though, he knew, just knew, that he'd ruin everyone's lives even further. He knew life would be much more bearable for everyone if he left Earth behind. Now, nearly half a world away and several hundred miles in the sky, Jerrod was about to make good on that decision. The maiden jump of the starship Return would take him, and several megatons of freight, to the furthest edge of human settlement.
"...I guess you'll just have to be observant, then. That'll be it for your diagnostics. I still need to get some sleep myself."
Jerrod's Dream
A sickly aura hung over a nightmarish reflection of the ship's med bay. A bright flash hit the room, and as it dissipated, the wall crawled with tentacled, teethy roots of pulsating flesh. Distorted eyes were embedded in the substance. They fixated on Jerrod as he shook in his sleep. Another flash, and the eyes and teeth were gone. In their place, Blizz floated silently.
"We need to talk, Jerrod."
A third flash placed Blizz several feet away from him, fading from view as she flew towards the Oxygen room the next bay over.
Jerrod stirred, then woke with a start. He hopped out of bed.
"Wait! Hold on!"
He followed, then slowed to a stop as soon as he caught up.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to abandon you. I just...I needed a fresh start."
"Don't lie to me. You were scared."
"I'm sorry. Please I just—"
Before Jerrod could finish, the room shook. Another flash, and Blizz was replaced with the core of the purple mass. A single enormous eye looked down on him.
"DON'T LIE TO ME."
Blizz reverted.
"After what you did, you tried to hide from me. But you can't hide from your demons...not forever."
"I'm sorry." Jerrod stammered.
The eye reappeared, then split open vertically down the center, baring teeth. It lashed its tongue around Jerrod and devoured him whole.
Aboard The Return
A moment or two after Jerrod stirred, Blizz phased in excitedly. "You're finally awake! Come on, the whole ship's waiting on you to repair the navigation system so we can make the first jump out of orbit!"
Jerrod shuddered.
"Hey, Jerrod, are you okay?" Blizz said.
"I'll be fine."
"Okie-dokie! But I'm here to help, alright?"
"I said I'll be fine."
"Oh...okay." Her optimism faded a moment. But then she brightened again. "I'll be keeping an eye on you just in case, then! Meet me on the bridge once you're ready to jump, okay?"
Blizz phased away before he had a chance to respond.
Jerrod hiked his way up to the ship's bridge to look at the damage. He walked in on a tall Indian man, the ship's navigator. His nose was in a book, as always.
not all those who wander are lost;
the old that is strong does not wither,
deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
a light from the shadows shall spring;
renewed shall be the blade that was broken,
the crownless again shall be king."
Jerrod smiled. "I’ll never understand why you lug around physical copies of books. Either way, you're going to have to try harder than Tolkien to stump me, Israel."
Israel laughed as he walked over to the bookshelf in his office. "Is that right, then?” He put down the book he was holding, then picked up another and started turning the pages. After a moment of searching, he challenged Jerrod again. “How about this one?"
"...And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick..."
Jerrod pursed his lips.
"...uh..."
"Hah! I thought you’d have trouble with that one. It's biblical. People aren't 100% in agreement about its interpretation, but you can appreciate the thematic similarities, no?"
"More fiction, huh?"
Israel looked at him disapprovingly. "Hey, now."
Jerrod raised his hands in innocence. "Relax, I'm only joking." Sort of.
Israel stepped to the side, revealing a large holograph generator. "Anyway, we're still waiting on the navigation system. You can fix it, right?"
Every few seconds, a distorted map of the local cluster would flicker on for a moment, accompanied by a shower of sparks. Blizz wasn't kidding, Jerrod thought. That map is fried.
Jerrod responded automatically. "Yeah, no problem." Then, thinking a little more, realized what he just promised.
It looks like it's going to need a ton of work.
He turned to leave the room. "I'm going to go find some scrap.”
Several hours later, Jerrod had searched just about every inch of the ship for anything he could use as raw material for the repair. It wasn't even close to enough. He tried to make do, synthesizing what replacement parts he could from what little he was able to gather. Eventually, he'd managed to stop the sparks and got the projection of the map to stay on. However...
It looks okay, but the map's still slightly distorted, and the orientation is probably still off. I have no clue if these repairs will even hold, he thought. This isn't good. What am I going to do?
Israel walked up to him and whistled. "Wow, you’re quite the miracle-worker, Jerrod. Can you imagine if we'd have had to disembark to get this fixed? It would've been weeks of delay trying to get another launch scheduled. And the people in the outer systems would likely starve without these supplies. Not to mention the billions lost in revenue.”
"Yeah, thanks."
Crap.
Israel turned back to Jerrod. "Alright, destination is set! Full speed ahead?"
I should say something.
At that moment, Blizz phased into the room. "Full speed ahead!” she interjected.
Crap.
“Who’s this little one? A friend of yours?” Israel asked curiously.
“It’s a long story. Uh, I’ll tell you when we land.”
Well, there goes my last chance.
In a few minutes, The Return's warp generators came to life. Jerrod listened to them thumping rhythmically as they started to store momentum for the jump. He was mesmerized. Not by the generators, but his own inability. As the thumping slowly evolved into a high-pitched whine, Jerrod held his breath. Then, all at once, everything went dark.
Nataal
Off in the distance, Ephraim stood atop a hillside, tending his flock of marrowsheep. He scratched his butt and sat down on the cliffside with his feet dangling over the edge. It was his favorite place to think. He often felt a strong connection to the Creator when he climbed that hill. He liked to watch over the valley the way he imagined his Maker watched over him. He coughed and scratched his butt again.
Tonight was a special night. As he sat, he saw a small star, a new star, added itself to the night sky. It shined even brighter than the lights of Grand Cluster City and sat directly over his clan's home in the village of Kernelle. He watched it in awe, until he realized that the star was moving.
A shooting star! Should I make a wish? Ephraim thought.
Then, he noticed that the star was getting bigger. He craned his neck to get a better look. Wonder slowly turned to fear as the star continued to increase in size. His flock fled as the night suddenly turned into day, and a pit settled inside him. The small star exited warp-speed and slammed into the ground, cratering the valley.
Jerrod's Demon
Blizz kicked Jerrod. "Get up."
Jerrod awoke to find himself in an entirely unfamiliar part of the ship. He stood up and stumbled his way into the next room. Blizz was waiting for him to catch up.
"Here we are again, at the business-end of one of your mistakes. Well good news! At least you won't have to admit it to anyone else this time."
He tried to ignore her.
"Your decision killed people, Jerrod."
"Please, just leave me alone."
Jerrod continued moving down the unfamiliar rooms of the ship. If not for the veins that began covering the ceiling and walls, he'd have sworn he'd been walking in circles.
Blizz appeared in front of him again. "Go ahead and ignore your problems, Jerrod. Run away like you did before."
"I'm not running away!--"
She disappeared before he could respond.
"...I just wanted to start over."
He delved deeper into the maze. It seemed determined to bring him to the center.
When Jerrod found Blizz again, he decided it was his turn to interrogate. "Why do you hate me so much? Why can't you leave me in peace?"
"Because you don't deserve peace, Jerrod. Face it. You'll never escape your lies and cowardice." Blizz' blue color suddenly shifted to red.
"It's just who you are. ACCEPT IT."
This made Jerrod panic. "Shut up! Get away from me!"
He ran. She followed.
"You can't hide forever."
Jerrod turned a corner.
"The world will find out just how ugly you are on the inside, Jerrod. Just like I did."
He continued sprinting through the maze of corridors, hoping to leave her behind. He burst through the last bulkhead to what he hoped would be a familiar site: the lower deck of the ship. But instead of cargo and supplies, a gargantuan mass loomed in the darkness. Blizz sat waiting.
A crash, and the lights turn on to reveal the demon Jerrod saw the night prior. It had quadrupled in size, and sprouted eight new trunks from the core, which now resembled a heart. Like the viscera of an undying Prometheus tied to the rocks of Olympus, the mass of eyes and veins covered the walls, ceiling, and floor. It convulsed feverishly, but until this moment, the thing slumbered.
"You've been letting your guilt fester a loooooong time, Jerrod. It's all that you've got left in that heart of yours..."
She snapped her fingers, and the largest eye shot open.
"...and I hope it eats you from the inside out."
Blizz phased out of the room, and another eye opened. Then another, and another. Jerrod tried to fight the demon, stabbing at its eyes and dodging its fangs, but it was futile. After only moments, hundreds of eyes gazed angrily at him, and the demon had sprouted thousands of teeth. The demon roared, and the room crumbled around it, burying Jerrod inside.
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