The Adventures of Hemera Nyx in the Galaxy of the Future! Read online

  Contents

  Contents

  Title Page

  The Trial by Starfire!

  INTERREGNUM: THE SECRET HORRORS!

  The Alien Galaxy!

  INTERREGNUM: HEMERA NYX, IN HER OWN TIME!

  The Effulgent Recrudescence!

  The Adventures of

  Hemera Nyx

  IN THE GALAXY OF THE FUTURE!

  ============

  [RSK]

  ============

  ========================

  ============

  For my Dad, and his Destination: Universe!

  ============

  [PROLEGOMENON]

  [THE TRIAL BY STARFIRE!]

  [INTERREGNUM: THE SECRET HORRORS!]

  [THE ALIEN GALAXY!]

  [INTERREGNUM: HEMERA NYX, IN HER OWN TIME!]

  [THE EFFULGENT RECRUDESCENCE!]

  ============

  Copyright © 2023 by RSK

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author, except for educational purposes or the use of brief quotations in social media to show everyone your good taste in literature.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  ============

  Crashed and lost on a hostile alien planet, a lone human girl fights for her life! Will she rise to her destiny, or will this fiery hell-scape be her doom?!

  Hemera Nyx

  In…

  The Trial by Starfire!

  ============

  [TIME: 12047:07:14:14:06]

  ============

  [LOCATION: UNKNOWN]

  ============

  [STATUS: DYING]

  ============

  [START]

  ========================

  Twenty thousand light years from Earth, an ancient ball of flame rages in the cold, empty void.

  The wrathful star was a roaring droplet of light and heat from some long-forgotten cosmic explosion, embittered at its isolation, stewing in indignation at its deep exile. But this angry ember wasn’t completely alone: chained by gravity, a tiny mote of dust spun around it, unable to escape.

  That dust mote was a planet twice the size of the Earth. Its rotation and orbit, both far too close and far too quick, scorched and fried the massive rock in its spiraling cosmic dance of death.

  And yet, life. The most mysterious of galactic miracles laughs in the face of impossibility. The surface of this extreme planet was a patchwork of superheated nightmares saturated with plants and animals, all consumed in the universal business of biology: eating, reproducing, and being eaten.

  Rocky mountains made of translucent jewels glowed incandescent in the oppressive light. They framed forests that grew far and deep into steep valleys, filled with scaly ribbon-trees that chirped as they slowly shuffled about, digesting nutrients from silicate microbes. Black rivers that rushed and gurgled spilled out into an ocean made of bubbling oils that reflected the shimmering rainbow-like clouds high in the transparent sky. Under the oils swam unthinkable things, creatures without need for breath or light.

  In some places, deadly deserts, the sand made of crystalline fragments that disintegrated anything caught in the endlessly-refracted light; in others, fungi-like jungles dripping in slime, hungry parasites hiding in nests within nests, waiting for their next meal to walk by.

  And on one charred rocky outcropping overlooking a deep, spongy valley, something familiar: the remains of a human spaceship. The void-raft lay smashed and tumbled, smoke streaming long thin lines that plateaued high in the atmosphere as it roasted under the wrathful star above.

  A human figure shuddered and trembled among the wreckage. The harsh coral light pressed upon the white-and-orange pattern of an emergency spacesuit, an overlay of metal joints and skin-tight synthetic fabrics; a child’s size stretched on a young woman’s frame. Alarms beeped and pinged inside the metal and glass helmet as the young woman struggled to regain consciousness; closed eyes jerked erratically, ragged breathing echoing in the small space between her face and the glass as the temperature continued to rise.

  The young woman was dying.

  ========================

  [CONDITIONS: EXTREME]

  ========================

  Consciousness returned slowly, the electric storm in her skull receding to an aching background vibration; fingers flexed instinctively, feeling stiff material around them. Something over her head echoed her labored breathing back to her. Her heart thrashed wildly.

  A sharp pain stabbed as she tried to move her left arm. Groaning in pain, she instinctively tried to rub away the static that burned behind her eyelids, but her hand landed on something flat and smooth instead. Pulling a sticky eyelid open, her blurry vision could just make out the outline of a glove resting on a clear barrier in front of her face.

  Beyond and high above, dark shapes floated in the deep flaming sky, blocking some of the intense light. Something about the fluffy shapes triggered a memory, a single word recalled with a stab of synaptic pain.

  “Cloud.” She forced the word out, her tongue thick and dry, the sound trapped. Something fast ripped overhead, blocking the sky for a fraction of a second. A trail of smoke and fire followed as a hard thud shook the dusty ground.

  She could feel it now, all over her body: the metal skeleton, the tight synthetic fabric, the bulky boots, the pads at her elbows and knees, the weight of a helmet pulling her head back. There was some sort of hard box on her back, keeping her torso elevated, while a small chest-plate pressed down hard, compressing her lungs.

  The clouds rolled across the sky, revealing the full force of the flaming orb. She winced and rolled her head, searching the gray, dusty ground around her, but twisted smoking steel and shattered glass boxed her view in.

  Her head was too heavy to lift, so she shifted uncomfortably on the hard box attached to her back, huffing the stale air inside her helmet. And then she was wide awake, her addled brain filling with a singular crisis.

  Air!

  Her eyes shifted in and out of focus as she scanned the upside-down view of smashed and overturned crates and shredded hull, only to start at the sight: a handled flat box stuck out of the charred and blackened ground.

  Something deep down inside knew she needed it.

  She needed it now.

  Pushing as hard as she could, she swung her arm over her body and rolled onto her side, grunting in sobs as the useless air rushed in and out of her lungs. Her head swirled, the edges going black again as arcs of pain rippled and burned through her leaden body.

  Inhaling deeply through her nose, she began to crawl. Dark shapes streaked overhead as the ground shook again, but the young woman was too focused to notice. Gasping now, her skin and muscles burning, she dragged herself forward with her good arm, her heavy boots wriggling in the dusty soil.

  It was getting hard to see as she arrived at the small box. Arm shaking, she reached out and felt the connection, a slight buzzing tug as gloved fingers wrapped around the handle. A muffled beep sounded from outside of the bucket on her head as a small display on her glove’s forearm lit up. Her eyes faded in and out, her dry mouth wide and panting as she tried to read the bright words:

  ============

  [POWER LANGUAGE ORGANIC TRANSPONDER]

  ============

  [NAME: HEMERA NYX]

  [CIN: G-FN-RA-12-9799-5]
/>
  [STATUS: ALIVE]

  ============

  A tiny pinprick of hope stitched in her chest at the same moment a metallic ping startled her. Inside her helmet, just above the top end of her visor, a display strip began scrolling words in a faint alarm-red.

  ============

  [!WARNING!]

  ============

  [!SUIT POWER DRAINED!]

  [!MEDICAL EMERGENCY!]

  [!EXTREME CONDITIONS!]

  ============

  The warning alerts continued to scroll by, each with a loud metallic ping! The recognition flared in her gray matter; sparks flew behind her eyes as she peered at the object in her hand, forcing the sounds through her dry, thick lips: “Pee. Ell. Oh. Tee.”

  It was flat and boxy, about the size and shape of a portable video cassette. One side had a small electronic screen displaying information, something she couldn’t see as her vision wavered and darkened. The thick handle sparkled in the same square-triangle pattern as the palms of her gloves.

  Deep, rasping breaths clawed at the useless air in her helmet as her eyes lost their focus. Without thinking, she rolled to her side and shoved the PLOT into a slot in her chest plate.

  Nothing happened.

  She pushed again, then slapped the handle and twisted; her muscles threatening to quit, her lungs flaring. The handle followed and locked the PLOT into the socket with a satisfying click, followed by a another beep.

  Coolness began spreading over her body as the whooshing sound of air and fluids stirred gently near her skin. Fresh air flowed into her helmet as light blue words flashed above her visor.

  ============

  [OPEN: NON][SOAP: NON]

  ============

  [GRAV: 3.2][PLOT: 006]

  [TEMP: 325][LIFE: 001]

  [ATMO: 7.9][ESRA: 000]

  ============

  [12047:07:14:14:09]

  ============

  Her exhausted eyelids closed as she took a long, gasping breath, and passed out.

  ========================

  [SCENARIO: CATASTROPHE]

  ========================

  Hemera Nyx woke up. Every cell in her body was in pain as she lay in the dirt, a coolness flowing over her body in waves. A slight breeze of fresh air tickled her face, calming her outraged body. Gray dust pressed against her visor, the darkness a relief from the oppressive flames above.

  As her eyes fluttered in the renewed oxygen, Hemera could hear the box on her back working hard: small clicks, whirring, hissing air and gurgling water being pushed through small tubes and permeable fabrics, the mechanized exchange of inputs and outputs, hot and cold, taken and expelled. The vague idea came back to her with a sharp stabbing in her head.

  Life support.

  Clicking filled her helmet as new words appeared in a tiny display along the edge of her visor, slightly obscured behind her deeply-yellow hair as it pushed in around the edges.

  One display read:

  ============

  [SUIT OVERLAY ACTUATED PROTECTION]

  [AUTO-DEPLOY: ACTIVE]

  ============

  Another click, and her attention was pulled back to a different side-display.

  ============

  [OPEN: NON][SOAP: YES]

  ============

  [GRAV: 3.2][PLOT: 005]

  [TEMP: 328][LIFE: 032]

  [ATMO: 7.8][ESRA: 046]

  ============

  [12047:07:14:14:13]

  ============

  “UuuuUUGHHHaaaaa…”

  The sound escaped her lips involuntarily as her emergency spacesuit constricted. With a sudden impulse, the metal supports that ran up and down the suit sprung to life, shoving Hemera away from the ground and straight upright.

  “…aaaaAAHHH!”

  Hemera cried out as her shoulder popped into place. The world turned fuzzy and spun as it exploded into a shower of sparks. An incredible pain shot through her injured shoulder as a wave of nausea flooded through her guts.

  Holding her shoulder tightly, Hemera’s eyes adjusted as her visor darken, blocking out the intense light as she gasped at the view.

  “Oh my gods…”

  The star dominated the sky, a god’s eye peering down upon her with unbearable heat and pressure, an ocean of flames in space encircled by a vibrantly black horizon. Her knees buckled as she was awed, unable to stand before the presence.

  Raising her good arm to try to block the light, she tore her hurt eyes away and looked out. The long valley was lined with translucent stone mountains. The valley itself was thick with tall, pillar-like trees that floated blue ribbons into the oppressive atmosphere. Tree-dotted hills moved slowly in the distance, a low rumbling and high-pitched squeaking between them. One hill was crawling up the side of a mountain.

  More clouds roiled off on the horizon, growing ominously darker. And something… something else was flying around in the sky, wiggling through the atmosphere, the sudden shadow overhead vanishing among the thickening clouds.

  Hemera’s slack jaw mumbled on its own accord.

  “…where the gods-hell am I?”

  ========================

  [HELP/HELP/HELP]

  ========================

  Chunks of twisted metal, glowing hot around the edges; padded seats tossed like discarded toys, some broken in half, the synthetic fabric and padding melted and charred; boxes and containers scattered, their contents spilled and shriveled in the intense heat.

  All the evidence of familiar human constructs were melting and burning in front of her. Hemera closed her eyes in an attempt to keep the existential panic from overtaking her. With the visuals shut out her attention was yanked to the the small speakers jammed against her ears, the tinny cacophony of a living alien world invading the most private places inside of her.

  The soft thud of her backside hitting the dirt hardly registered in her awareness. She was overcome with the whooshing of air around her, sharp clicking noises from the nearby trees, dangerous cawing above her, and something else… a whining, barking sound. Something in pain. A wild alien cry for… rescue?

  Hemera slammed her hands on the sides of her helmet, but the sound insisted, demanding her attention. For all the feral exigency that threatened to end her fragile emotional state right there in the dirt, the painful yipping pushed past her defenses, calling to her, driving her forward.

  Keeping her eyes downcast, she scanned the wreckage once more, trying to locate the sound, unconsciously grateful for the sudden purpose in her life.

  “I’m here… I’m coming… where are you?” She breathed the words to herself, the sound bouncing back hot and dry from the thick glass in front of her face.

  Her glove gripped the edge of a dented cargo box, but as she tried to pull herself up the box flipped, sending a long, thin pipe flying into the air. It stuck upright as it landed in the gray dusty soil, shiny brightly in the intense light.

  Hemera’s eyes lit up as she leaned over to scoop it up, the gravity nearly pulling her off-balance. There was a beep as her gloves made contact with the metal studs that dotted the tube. The sounds of crying faded as her fascination with the device saturated her awareness.

  It was nearly as long as her forearm, with an indented spine along one side. One end of the cylinder was an intense series of small lenses with an elevated ring of small magnets. One the other end of the tube was a simple hooked ball. The tube itself had a large red button with two knobs on one side, with only a small switch on the other.

  “I know what this is…” she breathed to herself as she examined the cylinder, tilting to read her forearm display.

  ============

  [RADIATION ASSISTED MAGNETIC ARRAY]

  [P:782][D:12]

  ============

  The big red button was too tempting.

  Click.

  Hemera yipped as a brilliant beam blasted out of the lenses, carving a fiery line in the dusty soil as she stumbled backward. The line followed her fall, ca
rving an almost-molten line along a chunk of steel wall.