Andromeda Rises Ch. 5
Andromeda Rising V
"I don't know how the hell this happened," Teresa said in frustration, staring at the brain scan. The activity in Lizzy's mind seemed to have been completely erased. The only patches where any recent activity was registered was in the memory center of the brain, where a thick clustering of activity seemed to have lit up the area in vivid color.
Matthew sat with Lizzy in his lap, her head on his shoulder. She was sleeping peacefully for once. He reveled in silence as he felt the softness of her breath against his neck. The wolf known as Yardley was standing beside her. Apparently, the wolf had rushed to the aid of Byirnah in the reactor room. If it weren't for their combined efforts, the ship would have torn itself apart halfway across to wherever it was they were.
"Well, sorry you lost your cog," Matthew said, standing up with Elizabeth cradled in his arms. "I'm going to get some rest while you try to figure it out."
"You're loving this way too much," Teresa said.
"You listen here," Matthew said. His voice was harsh, admonishing. Teresa turned, her face bewildered. "I lost her way before Nemitz. I lost her when you and your precious Council stole her from me for experimentations. She had destroyed herself years before that day she was stolen from your clutches, and I'll say it now and always from now: I'm fucking glad you lost your super-weapon. She was my wife, first and foremost, and now I actually have a chance to live my life with her as I should have."
"Not for long. With those aliens decimating the galaxy, none of us will have anything left."
"Perhaps we don't deserve it."
With that, Matthew marched out of the room and up to his quarters. Teresa simply stood there, gripping the examination table until her fingers tore through the mattress.
"Mistress?" Yardley said. His voice was diminutive, submissive.
"I told you not to call me that outside my quarters," she snapped. The wolf shied away.
In his quarters, Matthew lay Liz down on his bed. She stirred slightly. "Hey sweetie."
"Hey, Lizard."
Elizabeth giggled. It was such a refreshing sound. She pulled him into bed with her, kissing him deeply before pulling back. "What were you arguing about with that Teresa woman?"
"Nothing, baby."
"She seems to like you... a lot..."
"Yeah, but you're the only girl for me."
"Good," Lizzy said, giggling and wrapping her arms around Matthew. "Now kiss me."
But that kiss never came. Instead, they were interrupted by a loud knock at the door located at the fore of the room, the one that led directly to the bridge. "Crap," Matthew grunted, climbing from his bed. "I don't think I'm ever going to rest."
Opening the door, Matthew saw the worried face on Y'thrix's face.
"This better be good."
"No, sir," Y'thrix squeaked. He pushed the heavy-looking glasses up on his small nose. "It's very, very bad."
"How the hell is this possible?" Teresa said as she crowded over Matthew's shoulder. They were looking at a readout on their location.
"Just a constant for the quality input, aren't we, Teresa," Matthew mumbled, then gave her a dark look that pushed her to back away from his personal space. "Y'thrix, you've had Byirnah independently confirm your numbers?"
"Yes, sir. We've even used charts to locate visible deep space quasars. The estimated mass of the galaxy, the general density, the positioning of key landmarks, it's all there. We're in the Andromeda Galaxy."
"Must've made one hell of a trip," Tak said, munching on some nondescript meal bar as his free hand swept over the controls. "By the way, cap, propulsion is still fried, and we're going to have to do a full check on our warp and tachyon systems before trying to get up to warp speed again."
"What about our trajectory? Are we safely in orbit around those suns?"
"For the moment. We should be fine in that department. There's something else, though."
"What?"
"Perhaps I should speak on this one," Y'thrix said. "There's tachyon signals being transmitted all over Andromeda."
"So there's intelligent life in this galaxy?"
"Sir... the language being transmitted is Aramaic."
Elizabeth was walking through a garden that had been left largely untended since the Red Plague had hit. The silence of the empty planet the disease had left behind filled her head, and she had to admit, it was rather enjoyable. Years and years in the shadows of the superscrapers of Manhattan and the horrendous amount of hustle and noise amongst the many pedestrian and transit levels of the city had filled her head with more noise than she knew what to do with. This silence was more than welcome. Off in the distance was the only sound breaking the silence: birds calling. But that was alright. That's what made this post-apocalyptic world worth surviving in.
Elizabeth knew what this was. It was her favorite dream. She didn't think about it too much, however. Every time she did, she woke up before the best part. She went along as she always did, then, strolling to the little corner that she had kept tended even as the rest of the large garden went wild.
Then, as scheduled, Elizabeth tripped on a rock and cried out, holding her hands to her right knee. And by the magic that was a dream, Matthew was right there with her. He knelt beside her, looking worried and concerned. And that was the first time she really fell in love with the man. No longer did he look old enough to be her great grandfather, grandfather, or even her father. Only a few weeks ago the nanites had fully transformed him back into the handsome young man she saw now. In spite of the unsettling red eyes and hair, as well as those fangs, he was downright gorgeous. The concern in his face, though, is what made it for her.
Reassuring Matthew she was ok, Elizabeth invited him to sit beside her for a rest. She bent her somewhat bloody knee tentatively. The pain was still there, Elizabeth marveled. Even after all these centuries, she could still feel that scrape from so long ago.
Their conversation was going well, and they moved closer to each other. Elizabeth could not recall all that was said, but that wasn't important. Finally, she put her hand on his and squeezed it. He leaned in and kissed her deeply. Elizabeth's lips tingled.
"Make love to me," she heard herself say to Matthew. He obliged happily.
Elizabeth saw Matthew moving up and down in her vision, feeling him swell inside of her, feeling the blissful sensation that was their first time together, when suddenly it all changed.
Skies turned black, and the wild plants all around them wilted and died within a matter of seconds. When Elizabeth looked back to Matthew, he was still there, but his eyes... those eyes. These dark, gaping orbs stared back at her, cold and emotionless. And then he came, and filled her with that dead chill. Elizabeth screamed.
"Hey! Easy there, baby," Matthew said, holding her back by her shoulders. Lizzy looked around, hair disheveled, eyes bewildered.
"Matthew?" she said meekly, looking at his eyes. They were those familiar red orbs.
"It's me. You were just having a nightmare, Liz."
Elizabeth threw herself against him, hugging Matthew tightly. "Oh god, it was terrible, Matthew."
"It's ok," he reassured, rubbing her back. "You're ok now."
"I was dreaming of our first time... you remember it?"
"How could I forget it? The garden, the birds, the wild plants all around us."
"Yeah..." Elizabeth said, smiling wanly. "But then you changed... your eyes... they went large and black. And it was so cold. The worst part is... it seemed so familiar."
"Well it's ok now, baby. You're safe with me now--the real me."
Elizabeth buried her face into his chest, hugging Matthew tightly.
"You know, that's the same day you got your little pet name. You remember the lizard?"
Elizabeth nodded, looking up at Matthew with tear-streaked eyes. "It crawled right up on my belly when we were enjoying our afterglow," she giggled. "But that doesn't mean you get to keep calling me that."
"And it doesn't mean I'm going to stop."
Elizabeth giggled again, then kissed Matthew deeply. After breaking the kiss, she sat up in the bed they were now sharing. "So where are we?"
"A long way away from The Milky Way and the Council."
"That's a good thing, right?"
"If you don't mind drifting around a planet-less star system for a long time."
"Are we that bad off?"
"No, we're trying to make contact with the intelligent race in this galaxy. After that... it's anyone's guess."
"Well... whatever happens, I'm glad it's happening with us together again."
"Me, too, baby," Matthew smiled and wrapped his arms around Elizabeth, and the pair of them lay together in bed for a repeat performance of their first time. This time, there were no haunting black eyes to worry about.
Oriel timidly stepped his way into the main hall of Queen Chloe's immense palace. He had been roused from bed, thrown into a transport, then taken to a starship that folded space directly to Azophi, the central planet of the systems under Chloe's control. He was still wearing a simple black silk robe tied at the waist, a pair of boxers hidden underneath. Nobody would say a word to him the entire trip over. The short, pudgy man had no concept of what was going on. His hair was raven black and combed back behind his ears to the best of his ability, given the circumstances. His flabby face had a bulbous, unsightly nose sticking out from it, and his body was round and soft from millennia of easy living. His eyes were the only thing that distinguished him as what he was. The fiery red orbs darted around as he tried to study every corner of the opulent hall. There seemed to be nobody there. The walls were solid white with gold accents, as were the pillars, and even the throne. It was almost a blinding kind of white. Queen Chloe was notorious for her obsession for representing purity.
Marching forward, Oriel felt like his march towards the empty throne was taking forever. It seemed like an eternity had passed before he finally came within twenty paces of the throne and stopped as if by an invisible force. He, like all others that were even allowed to step foot in this place, was very well trained.
Oriel stood and waited, trying not to fidget too much. It was getting harder, though, as the temperature in this white-walled hall was always so cold, and he was so inadequately dressed. When her voice did come to his ears, however, he wished suddenly he hadn't been so impatient for her to arrive.
"You've failed me, Oriel," came the Queen's voice. It was soft, hurt, and yet Oriel knew the sick and sadistic undercurrents in that tone.
"I'm sorry, my Queen," he humbly said, bowing his head even though there was nobody to bow to.
"Are you? Your lackadaisical nature has proven your undoing, and I seriously doubt you know of what I speak."
"I beg your pardon, my Queen. I do not."
"At least you are straightforward with me," the queen replied. Just then, Oriel could hear her. She was above him, but he dared not look for fear of showing his disrespect. There was the mechanical sound of several spider-like legs moving over the ceiling. Then the sound came down the wall behind the throne, and then before Oriel. "Lift your head, servant."
Oriel obeyed. What he saw was no surprise, but was still terrifying to behold. Queen Chloe looked to be no more than ten years old at most, an eons-old woman trapped inside a preteen body. From her back, it looked like eight legs were extending from her spine. Slowly, the silvery extensions lowered her and retracted. They were smooth and featureless, showing no joints at their bending points. Oriel silently wondered just how much of Chloe was still human, and how much was composed simply of nanites. He thought perhaps all that was left of Queen Chloe as she was in the beginning was her skin, but you wouldn't be able to see it. Her hair dangled down in tight little golden curls. Her eyes were a brilliant blue--artificial, of course. Her thin frame was clothed in a simple sundress that was yellow with white polka-dots. Horrendously cute for such an evil little bitch. She grinned at him, but there was no humor in the smile. Chloe was one of the few eternals that preferred to keep her fangs completely intact.
"You remember the cleansing I ordered you to undertake?"
"Of the Milky Way, my Queen?"
"No, the downstairs laundry," Chloe said, anger flashing in her face. "Of course I mean the fucking Milky Way!!!"
Oriel flinched. "Apologies, my Queen."
"You remember my specific instructions?"
"Leave no human alive."
"Leave no human alive..." Chloe mused, marching around him slowly, her sandals squeaking loudly on the white tile floor. "So then explain to me exactly why a ship FROM THE FUCKING MILKY WAY JUST ARRIVED IN ANDROMEDA!?" As Chloe went into her screaming tirade, she grabbed Oriel by the fleshy part of his throat and held him up in front of her, his legs dragging behind him, not giving any resistance. A screen seemed to pop up out of nowhere, floating right in front of his eyes. It showed a battered old junker of a ship. It had a straight fuselage with what looked to be an ancient warp drive system on the back end and a huge bulge of a cargo hold underneath.
"Your majesty, I swear I didn't leave any chance for--"
"Shut the hell up!" She shrieked. "We've already had them send out distress calls. There are at least two of our kind on that ship if not more, and some sort of hybrid filth helping them out. You didn't even bother to wait behind to make sure the virus annihilated the humans, did you!?"
"My Queen, all tests showed the virus we created from the beneficial strain was one-hundred per cent--"
"And I said that you better make goddamn sure that there won't be any interfering variances amongst the humans of the Andromeda galaxy, didn't I!?"
"Yes, your majesty."
"You're going to pay for this, Oriel. You're going to wish you were dead long before I grant such a pleasure," Chloe hissed, then began dragging him by the neck towards her chambers. Nobody ever came back from there. Ever.
I believe you, he thought to himself. Oriel was already working on methods to get himself killed more quickly, but his racing mind was too overwhelmed to even consider it.