Post by Marshall on Apr 5, 2019 13:59:22 GMT -5
The evening before the journey through the Red toward Tal-Kebii'tra, where the Hapans were said to have somehow sent a party to try to see ground zero, preparations to move when the sky grew lighter were finished. Those who had watch were on watch. Rations had been distributed. Azair guarded the wakeks. Ra'aqi and Ijano watched over the dreamers. Breis Teimar slept in the dark of the cave after a double shift awake, with a few of his company with him. If Jeryndi, Medren, Ava and Solomon wanted a private few minutes to talk, to share information, ideas, or to bicker when Breis wouldn't interrupt, this was the best they were going to get.
No fire burned, as there was no fuel, but two precious glowrods had been tucked near the cavemouth for use by any who needed to move around outside in the dark, and they lent light and shadows to the edge of the bubble-cave.
The darkness hung so close in The Red when daylight disappeared. It was like a blindfold being slowly lowered over the eyes with the illusion of the haze thickening due to the lack of light as dim as what day light could provide. What the glowsticks provided was a sweet little ease to that heavy cover of night for as meager as it was. It reminded him of the nightlights he had put in Ureala's room to help calm the child at night. They were just bright enough to take the edge off of the darkness. Their little comfort only reached so far, though. In the nights that had passed before this the sleeping confines had been close enough that the walls seemed the right distance even if the lack of light hung close. Here, with so much space, and everything so quiet, he found himself unsettled and restless. It was this restlessness that sent him to search out Ava, Medren and Jeryndi. In a camp full of Mandals, he needed to fall back on his baseline. He needed this more than he needed time alone just then. Being alone in the darkness was going to eat him alive.
Ava was not far from him. She'd been only a few paces behind the Tekal as he turned on his heel away from the entrance.
“Hello, Solomon.” She greeted while her steps took her down the path towards the open space. Her face illuminated only by the glowrods at the opening and by the one in her hand.
One glance at the face behind the visor had her brows knitting together. “You seem restless.” She observed. “What’s happened?”
Latching on to the sound of that familiar voice, Solomon looked Ava's way as he turned. He was then moving to meet her somewhere in the middle. Moving toward the familiar was an easy thing to do, answering the question was not quite so easy. He shook his head in the dim and close light of Ava's green glow stick. Even that was affected by the red. It was more of a rusted color, softened and changed by the density of the cloud that hung on everything this side of Keldabe. "Nothing really, I'm just having a bad night. It’s too quiet. I feel like a big storm is coming, but I can't tell from which direction."
Nodding, she stared out at the opening - wide empty space filled with nothing but red. "Your hand... it's been getting worse since we've arrived here."
"It has been," if she had noticed, there was no point in denying it, "The effect has risen to above my elbow. It’s gotten heavier, too, since we reached where the red got thicker. It’s alright, though. It could just be where we are."
Ava didn’t see how this was ‘alright’ nor how easily it was for Solomon to brush something like this aside. Not only was his hand back at the original state before all their work on Ossus, but now the deterioration was spreading up his arm.
“I wonder what’s causing the regression, or is it simply because we stopped treatments when we arrived.” She said, looking over at his arm. “When did this start?”
"I didn't really notice it until sometime after Keldabe. The trouble I was having with it before then wasn't really notable until we set out into The Red. I've been chalking it up to being tired, and stress."
"I'm not as good as Darien." Ava began. "But I think we should try to resume your treatments. At the rate this is spreading... I'm not sure how much use you're going to get from your arm if we don't do something about it - or what will happen if it continues to spread."
"It might be a good idea," he turned his head to look off toward his right where the light of the glow rods at the entrance of the busted bubble formation cut into the night, "Jeryndi offered to help, too. He said he remembered some of the stuff mom taught him and might be able to help, too. We just haven't had time."
“Well.” Ava breathed slowly. “If this is what it’s going to your arm… I’m worried about what it might do if it reaches your chest. Or any other organs, actually.”
"I've," he blinked and looked back Ava's way, "Been trying not to think about that. But it’s been on my mind, too."
"I wish you would have said something sooner." Ava spoke. "Maybe we could have had a chance to keep it from getting this bad if we knew about this when it first began."
"I didn't want to slow us down," he explained, "Not when I feel like we've been too slow as it is. But you're right, I should have said something sooner."
Ava’s head shook but she said nothing more about it. Breathing in filtered air, she stepped away from Solomon and more towards the entrance.
"What do you think about the people here? Breis and the Doctor?”
"I haven't talked to the doctor much," he turned as she moved, "I've been trying to keep my distance from him, to be honest. He recognized Jer as the Jedi who did Moonrider in. That's as close of recognition as I can handle right now. Breis is -- fair. Both seem like good people -- what do you think about them?"
“I think they’ve done an awful lot for a group of strangers. What they’ve sacrificed in supplies to help us, to help you… If they wanted to take advantage of us, they would have done so already.” Ava said. “I don’t think they’re here to cause harm.”
"No, they aren't. Their interest is to find other survivors and to help as many sleepers as they can. They all have people they want to find, and until this is all over we're all brothers. We're all family as long as we work together. -- That's how they see it."
"And how do you see it?" Ava asked. "Solomon, what are you here for?"
"I'm here for them," he told Ava, "For those who are here, and for those that are still lost. I'm here to figure this out."
"Are you?" Ava asked. "Because sometimes it feels like you're only here because of Tlin. That, your soul goal in this is to find out what happened to him."
"No," he shook his head and gave a dry chuckle, "Not at all. However, Breis told me that both you and Jeryndi have asked about him. You at the very beginning of our stay here. He said it was the very first thing you asked."
"It was." She replied with no hesitation. "I asked if was with them or if they knew of him."
He made a thoughtful noise before saying, "And it’s your marker we've been following to find him with the surety both you and Jeryndi have that we -will- find -something- of him. I haven't questioned your motivations -at all-, Ava. What have I done, beyond not knowing what to expect, to cause you to question mine?"
"I'm not sure that I will find him." Ava corrected. "But I know that my marker will lead to -something-. I have faith that that something will bring us answers on what happened here."
He took that with a nod, "As do I. We both trust that enough to follow it, whatever may happen. So, trust too that Sadhric isn't my only motivation for being here."
It wasn't a hill Ava was prepared to die on at the moment. Her head nodded with silent agreement as the topic was let go.
"What happened with you and Medren?" She asked. "When I arrived earlier. There was tension." Ava found herself looking away.
"It wasn't Medren, though it was about him," Sol told her, "It was Jeryndi. He called the boy a weapon."
"What did you say?"
Sol sighed, but said, "I told him his son wasn't a weapon, and that he should let Medren keep what innocence he has for a while longer yet. He doesn't need to be put into a position where he'll have to kill, and not one of us should make him do it. Jer said "He's a Mandal. No changing that." I told him, "Yeah, he is, but Mandals aren't weapons."
"I couldn't let it go. I tried, Ava, but the more Jeryndi said, the more I couldn't let it go. He said the boy wasn't -his- weapon. Medren was Medren's own, and that he wasn't going to disarm his son. I hadn't said anything about disarming the boy. Jeryndi accused me of hearing only what I want to hear. I told him I'd heard him loud and clear, and Breis stepped in just after that."
"Did you think he meant it?" She asked, looking over at him. Her brows were knitted. "When he said that Medren was a 'weapon'? Maybe it was a figure of speech in... some way."
"I think it was a poor choice of words. He said that using the boy wasn't what he had meant, but that's what kept coming out of his mouth in one form or another."
"I'd hope so." She agreed. "But... Sol this can't keep happening with you two. I thought you both were at a stable place."
"I know it can't," he agreed, "I've decided that it might be best if I speak to him only when we need to. My concerns are for the wellbeing of the group, and anyone we might find now that we know there -are- people to find. His concerns are for helping those here, and that he thinks my head is too big for my shoulders."
"Only speaking to him when necessary feels trivial." She said. "It feels discombobulated - like we're not on the same team working towards the same goal. Almost like when we were back on Origin. Saying we were working together but not really working together."
Her head shook and just for a moment, Ava longed to breathe real air.
"I keep thinking of the 'Hate Game' and whether it would be best to recreate that for you both." She continued on. "But I don't know if that will work this time around."
"Speaking to him only when it needs to happen would mean only work is getting done," he pointed out, "If we're working there is no room for bickering. I can do the hate game, though. I can give it a shot."
"Can you?" She asked. "Cause it seems like you two can't stop from getting into it with one another. There's this unspoken friction between you two that keeps cropping up. Think of how long we've been here and how many times you both have had words now."
"It’s not unspoken," he shook his head, "He wants me to be less me and more someone else. And I just want him to recognize the danger we are in for what it is. But yes, I can play the bloody hate game if I have to."
Ava laughed at his last sentence and felt the urge to rub her eyes. She could feel a headache approaching.
"I don’t think the danger has escaped his attention.” She offered. “I think his way of handling it is different from what you’re used to seeing. That applies to me as well.”
"What do you think his way of handling it is?"
“I think he does see the larger picture but chooses to focus on what's in front of him. I think he tries to approach the heavy moments with some sort of ease to lighten the mood – maybe for his own comfort. Things aren’t so scary when you can smile at them. But the attempt falters and it doesn’t turn out the way he would hope.”
Taking that into consideration, Sol shifted his weight and went quiet. There were particles of grit floating through the red, catching the faint light from the glowrods and glimmering faintly. He watched that, following the rise and fall.of whatever was in the air around them for those quiet moments. When he spoke next, there was a giving, a slight shift in how he spoke, "If that is what he's doing, it could explain the dismissiveness I see in him."
“Jeryndi doesn’t strike me as unintelligent. He’s not oblivious to what’s going on. I think this is how he’s coping with it and it’s not something that you’re used to dealing with. Maybe it’s something you haven’t encountered since he died and… maybe, on some deep seeded level, that bothers you. Because it was Jeryndi that did it before and it’s Jeryndi that’s doing it now.”
"It bothers me that he seems dismissive of it, whatever his reasoning may be."
"We all have our own reactions and reasons for those reactions. I say that until his actions prove otherwise, I'd let it just be words." Ava suggested.
"Is it really a hill you want to keep fighting on, Sol?"
"No, not really. But his actions have already proven otherwise to me. I don't want his seeming lack of caution or concern to be the reason we don't make it out of this. I didn't come here to die, or to watch anyone around me die. I intend to fight my way through this, Ava. I intend to get us off of this planet if it’s possible, and in the process I intend to figure out just what the nine hells is going on here."
"I think..." Ava said as she found herself finding a seat at the entrance. Her back pressed against the rock. Again, she longed for fresh air. "... my only intention is to see us through to the next day and to help whoever we can along the way."
He watched her go, and sit, and was then moving to join her. He remained standing, though, leaning against the flash frozen wall with his left shoulder that Ava had sat back against, "We've got a lot to help," He noted, "And not a lot of information to go on. Hopefully the Hapans will be able to tell us something different than the handful of 'I don't know's' we've been forced to deal with."
"Let's hope you and Jeryndi don't kill each other before then." Ava said with mirth in her voice and a wink. Her face sobered as she looked out into the distance.
"If you had to guess," She spoke. "What do you think is out there?"
He managed a small crooked smile while looking down at her in response to her comment. It was quick to disappear, though, as he looked up and followed her gaze out into the darkness. He thought for a moment before answering with, "If I had to guess, I'd say an invading force. From where? I don't know yet. But they aren't Mandal born, even if that one we saw on my ship could speak the language. I think what we are seeing are efforts to erase the Mandal population from the world, maybe for enslavement -- maybe just to make space for themselves -- not sure on that yet either. I also think that its possible we are seeing the beginning stages of terra forming. They want this world, for whatever reason, and they are trying to take it."
"That's quite an assessment." Ava said. "What makes you see that?"
"Which part?" He turned away from looking out into the pitch black of night to look back down at the Jedi beside him.
"The invasion and the terra forming."
"The damage that's been done to the world, and to its people. There was purpose behind this," Sol said, looking back out into the night, "I talked a little bit with Teimar not too long ago, before he went to get some rest. He told me that the floating rocks appeared only after the impact -- that there are mountain sized ones near Tal-Kebii'tra, and if they float the wrong way all light gets blocked out and it becomes night until they shift away. The same with those pebbles we ran into, and the floating rocks we saw out there. It’s all new to this planet, and it only showed up after the impact, when the big guys started showing themselves. The people here are isolated, there are no ways to comm out and no technology to use due to the drain. We're all effectively stranded which is just how you would want someone you want to conquer. Weaken them, take away what they know to fight with, leave them without a life line, and then pick them off as quickly as you can."
"If that is so, then this is something quite beyond the capabilities of the Chiss." Ava said. "I don't know anything in existence that could attack an entire planet."
"I don't either, but yeah. Unless the Chiss have made deals with the beings we're seeing here -- I doubt they were involved. It doesn't have blue skin written anywhere on it."
"Sol." Ava spoke his name quietly. Now that they were alone, truly alone for the first time since arriving, she had to ask. "Are you okay?"
She'd hear him give a soft sniff, and then clear his throat before he answered just as quietly as she had spoken his name, "I'm afraid."
Ava knew this. She'd known since the beginning. But there was something about hearing it. Something about that verbal confirmation that brought her gloved hand up to reach for his.
He reached with his heavy right hand, taking Ava's but barely able to grasp it with the glove making sensation all that much harder. He found the darkness again, out beyond the opening of the formation they were in.
No fire burned, as there was no fuel, but two precious glowrods had been tucked near the cavemouth for use by any who needed to move around outside in the dark, and they lent light and shadows to the edge of the bubble-cave.
The darkness hung so close in The Red when daylight disappeared. It was like a blindfold being slowly lowered over the eyes with the illusion of the haze thickening due to the lack of light as dim as what day light could provide. What the glowsticks provided was a sweet little ease to that heavy cover of night for as meager as it was. It reminded him of the nightlights he had put in Ureala's room to help calm the child at night. They were just bright enough to take the edge off of the darkness. Their little comfort only reached so far, though. In the nights that had passed before this the sleeping confines had been close enough that the walls seemed the right distance even if the lack of light hung close. Here, with so much space, and everything so quiet, he found himself unsettled and restless. It was this restlessness that sent him to search out Ava, Medren and Jeryndi. In a camp full of Mandals, he needed to fall back on his baseline. He needed this more than he needed time alone just then. Being alone in the darkness was going to eat him alive.
Ava was not far from him. She'd been only a few paces behind the Tekal as he turned on his heel away from the entrance.
“Hello, Solomon.” She greeted while her steps took her down the path towards the open space. Her face illuminated only by the glowrods at the opening and by the one in her hand.
One glance at the face behind the visor had her brows knitting together. “You seem restless.” She observed. “What’s happened?”
Latching on to the sound of that familiar voice, Solomon looked Ava's way as he turned. He was then moving to meet her somewhere in the middle. Moving toward the familiar was an easy thing to do, answering the question was not quite so easy. He shook his head in the dim and close light of Ava's green glow stick. Even that was affected by the red. It was more of a rusted color, softened and changed by the density of the cloud that hung on everything this side of Keldabe. "Nothing really, I'm just having a bad night. It’s too quiet. I feel like a big storm is coming, but I can't tell from which direction."
Nodding, she stared out at the opening - wide empty space filled with nothing but red. "Your hand... it's been getting worse since we've arrived here."
"It has been," if she had noticed, there was no point in denying it, "The effect has risen to above my elbow. It’s gotten heavier, too, since we reached where the red got thicker. It’s alright, though. It could just be where we are."
Ava didn’t see how this was ‘alright’ nor how easily it was for Solomon to brush something like this aside. Not only was his hand back at the original state before all their work on Ossus, but now the deterioration was spreading up his arm.
“I wonder what’s causing the regression, or is it simply because we stopped treatments when we arrived.” She said, looking over at his arm. “When did this start?”
"I didn't really notice it until sometime after Keldabe. The trouble I was having with it before then wasn't really notable until we set out into The Red. I've been chalking it up to being tired, and stress."
"I'm not as good as Darien." Ava began. "But I think we should try to resume your treatments. At the rate this is spreading... I'm not sure how much use you're going to get from your arm if we don't do something about it - or what will happen if it continues to spread."
"It might be a good idea," he turned his head to look off toward his right where the light of the glow rods at the entrance of the busted bubble formation cut into the night, "Jeryndi offered to help, too. He said he remembered some of the stuff mom taught him and might be able to help, too. We just haven't had time."
“Well.” Ava breathed slowly. “If this is what it’s going to your arm… I’m worried about what it might do if it reaches your chest. Or any other organs, actually.”
"I've," he blinked and looked back Ava's way, "Been trying not to think about that. But it’s been on my mind, too."
"I wish you would have said something sooner." Ava spoke. "Maybe we could have had a chance to keep it from getting this bad if we knew about this when it first began."
"I didn't want to slow us down," he explained, "Not when I feel like we've been too slow as it is. But you're right, I should have said something sooner."
Ava’s head shook but she said nothing more about it. Breathing in filtered air, she stepped away from Solomon and more towards the entrance.
"What do you think about the people here? Breis and the Doctor?”
"I haven't talked to the doctor much," he turned as she moved, "I've been trying to keep my distance from him, to be honest. He recognized Jer as the Jedi who did Moonrider in. That's as close of recognition as I can handle right now. Breis is -- fair. Both seem like good people -- what do you think about them?"
“I think they’ve done an awful lot for a group of strangers. What they’ve sacrificed in supplies to help us, to help you… If they wanted to take advantage of us, they would have done so already.” Ava said. “I don’t think they’re here to cause harm.”
"No, they aren't. Their interest is to find other survivors and to help as many sleepers as they can. They all have people they want to find, and until this is all over we're all brothers. We're all family as long as we work together. -- That's how they see it."
"And how do you see it?" Ava asked. "Solomon, what are you here for?"
"I'm here for them," he told Ava, "For those who are here, and for those that are still lost. I'm here to figure this out."
"Are you?" Ava asked. "Because sometimes it feels like you're only here because of Tlin. That, your soul goal in this is to find out what happened to him."
"No," he shook his head and gave a dry chuckle, "Not at all. However, Breis told me that both you and Jeryndi have asked about him. You at the very beginning of our stay here. He said it was the very first thing you asked."
"It was." She replied with no hesitation. "I asked if was with them or if they knew of him."
He made a thoughtful noise before saying, "And it’s your marker we've been following to find him with the surety both you and Jeryndi have that we -will- find -something- of him. I haven't questioned your motivations -at all-, Ava. What have I done, beyond not knowing what to expect, to cause you to question mine?"
"I'm not sure that I will find him." Ava corrected. "But I know that my marker will lead to -something-. I have faith that that something will bring us answers on what happened here."
He took that with a nod, "As do I. We both trust that enough to follow it, whatever may happen. So, trust too that Sadhric isn't my only motivation for being here."
It wasn't a hill Ava was prepared to die on at the moment. Her head nodded with silent agreement as the topic was let go.
"What happened with you and Medren?" She asked. "When I arrived earlier. There was tension." Ava found herself looking away.
"It wasn't Medren, though it was about him," Sol told her, "It was Jeryndi. He called the boy a weapon."
"What did you say?"
Sol sighed, but said, "I told him his son wasn't a weapon, and that he should let Medren keep what innocence he has for a while longer yet. He doesn't need to be put into a position where he'll have to kill, and not one of us should make him do it. Jer said "He's a Mandal. No changing that." I told him, "Yeah, he is, but Mandals aren't weapons."
"I couldn't let it go. I tried, Ava, but the more Jeryndi said, the more I couldn't let it go. He said the boy wasn't -his- weapon. Medren was Medren's own, and that he wasn't going to disarm his son. I hadn't said anything about disarming the boy. Jeryndi accused me of hearing only what I want to hear. I told him I'd heard him loud and clear, and Breis stepped in just after that."
"Did you think he meant it?" She asked, looking over at him. Her brows were knitted. "When he said that Medren was a 'weapon'? Maybe it was a figure of speech in... some way."
"I think it was a poor choice of words. He said that using the boy wasn't what he had meant, but that's what kept coming out of his mouth in one form or another."
"I'd hope so." She agreed. "But... Sol this can't keep happening with you two. I thought you both were at a stable place."
"I know it can't," he agreed, "I've decided that it might be best if I speak to him only when we need to. My concerns are for the wellbeing of the group, and anyone we might find now that we know there -are- people to find. His concerns are for helping those here, and that he thinks my head is too big for my shoulders."
"Only speaking to him when necessary feels trivial." She said. "It feels discombobulated - like we're not on the same team working towards the same goal. Almost like when we were back on Origin. Saying we were working together but not really working together."
Her head shook and just for a moment, Ava longed to breathe real air.
"I keep thinking of the 'Hate Game' and whether it would be best to recreate that for you both." She continued on. "But I don't know if that will work this time around."
"Speaking to him only when it needs to happen would mean only work is getting done," he pointed out, "If we're working there is no room for bickering. I can do the hate game, though. I can give it a shot."
"Can you?" She asked. "Cause it seems like you two can't stop from getting into it with one another. There's this unspoken friction between you two that keeps cropping up. Think of how long we've been here and how many times you both have had words now."
"It’s not unspoken," he shook his head, "He wants me to be less me and more someone else. And I just want him to recognize the danger we are in for what it is. But yes, I can play the bloody hate game if I have to."
Ava laughed at his last sentence and felt the urge to rub her eyes. She could feel a headache approaching.
"I don’t think the danger has escaped his attention.” She offered. “I think his way of handling it is different from what you’re used to seeing. That applies to me as well.”
"What do you think his way of handling it is?"
“I think he does see the larger picture but chooses to focus on what's in front of him. I think he tries to approach the heavy moments with some sort of ease to lighten the mood – maybe for his own comfort. Things aren’t so scary when you can smile at them. But the attempt falters and it doesn’t turn out the way he would hope.”
Taking that into consideration, Sol shifted his weight and went quiet. There were particles of grit floating through the red, catching the faint light from the glowrods and glimmering faintly. He watched that, following the rise and fall.of whatever was in the air around them for those quiet moments. When he spoke next, there was a giving, a slight shift in how he spoke, "If that is what he's doing, it could explain the dismissiveness I see in him."
“Jeryndi doesn’t strike me as unintelligent. He’s not oblivious to what’s going on. I think this is how he’s coping with it and it’s not something that you’re used to dealing with. Maybe it’s something you haven’t encountered since he died and… maybe, on some deep seeded level, that bothers you. Because it was Jeryndi that did it before and it’s Jeryndi that’s doing it now.”
"It bothers me that he seems dismissive of it, whatever his reasoning may be."
"We all have our own reactions and reasons for those reactions. I say that until his actions prove otherwise, I'd let it just be words." Ava suggested.
"Is it really a hill you want to keep fighting on, Sol?"
"No, not really. But his actions have already proven otherwise to me. I don't want his seeming lack of caution or concern to be the reason we don't make it out of this. I didn't come here to die, or to watch anyone around me die. I intend to fight my way through this, Ava. I intend to get us off of this planet if it’s possible, and in the process I intend to figure out just what the nine hells is going on here."
"I think..." Ava said as she found herself finding a seat at the entrance. Her back pressed against the rock. Again, she longed for fresh air. "... my only intention is to see us through to the next day and to help whoever we can along the way."
He watched her go, and sit, and was then moving to join her. He remained standing, though, leaning against the flash frozen wall with his left shoulder that Ava had sat back against, "We've got a lot to help," He noted, "And not a lot of information to go on. Hopefully the Hapans will be able to tell us something different than the handful of 'I don't know's' we've been forced to deal with."
"Let's hope you and Jeryndi don't kill each other before then." Ava said with mirth in her voice and a wink. Her face sobered as she looked out into the distance.
"If you had to guess," She spoke. "What do you think is out there?"
He managed a small crooked smile while looking down at her in response to her comment. It was quick to disappear, though, as he looked up and followed her gaze out into the darkness. He thought for a moment before answering with, "If I had to guess, I'd say an invading force. From where? I don't know yet. But they aren't Mandal born, even if that one we saw on my ship could speak the language. I think what we are seeing are efforts to erase the Mandal population from the world, maybe for enslavement -- maybe just to make space for themselves -- not sure on that yet either. I also think that its possible we are seeing the beginning stages of terra forming. They want this world, for whatever reason, and they are trying to take it."
"That's quite an assessment." Ava said. "What makes you see that?"
"Which part?" He turned away from looking out into the pitch black of night to look back down at the Jedi beside him.
"The invasion and the terra forming."
"The damage that's been done to the world, and to its people. There was purpose behind this," Sol said, looking back out into the night, "I talked a little bit with Teimar not too long ago, before he went to get some rest. He told me that the floating rocks appeared only after the impact -- that there are mountain sized ones near Tal-Kebii'tra, and if they float the wrong way all light gets blocked out and it becomes night until they shift away. The same with those pebbles we ran into, and the floating rocks we saw out there. It’s all new to this planet, and it only showed up after the impact, when the big guys started showing themselves. The people here are isolated, there are no ways to comm out and no technology to use due to the drain. We're all effectively stranded which is just how you would want someone you want to conquer. Weaken them, take away what they know to fight with, leave them without a life line, and then pick them off as quickly as you can."
"If that is so, then this is something quite beyond the capabilities of the Chiss." Ava said. "I don't know anything in existence that could attack an entire planet."
"I don't either, but yeah. Unless the Chiss have made deals with the beings we're seeing here -- I doubt they were involved. It doesn't have blue skin written anywhere on it."
"Sol." Ava spoke his name quietly. Now that they were alone, truly alone for the first time since arriving, she had to ask. "Are you okay?"
She'd hear him give a soft sniff, and then clear his throat before he answered just as quietly as she had spoken his name, "I'm afraid."
Ava knew this. She'd known since the beginning. But there was something about hearing it. Something about that verbal confirmation that brought her gloved hand up to reach for his.
He reached with his heavy right hand, taking Ava's but barely able to grasp it with the glove making sensation all that much harder. He found the darkness again, out beyond the opening of the formation they were in.