Emilia's Awakening

After a long morning, me and Xuilana finally arrive at the planetary defense station, that is orbiting around Nibius Prime and we get escorted towards the hangar where my ship has been docked at, I look at my ship and say to myself.

"don't worry Emilia, we'll finally get you out of cryo stasis."

Xuilana squeezes my hand and asks.

"Brian can I ask you something?"

I reply.

"yeah sure I don't mind."

she sighs.

"were you and Emilia lovers?"

I shake my head and respond bluntly.

"no and if we are speaking in military terms, she is my subordinate, and I'm her superior."

we walk inside my ship alongside President Pyotre Shataluv, and General Conti Nadezhad, I then ask trying to see how confident they are in their doctors.

"do you think, your doctors can successfully operate on my subordinate Emilia Schmidt?"

they both nod and President Shataluv answers.

"of course, we got the best doctors in our empire to come here."

I ask curiously.

"are they waiting for us by the cryo stasis tube?"

he answers confidently.

"yeah."

we arrive and gather around the cryo stasis tube, where the doctors have set up a make shift surgery table in front of it, I then approach the cryo stasis tube and press the button to wake her up once the thawing process is done, Xuilana asks.

"will she be alright?"

I answer.

"she will be in pain, once she wakes up, but I'm hoping the doctors can do something about it once they start working on her."

she asks.

"will she start attacking if she sees unfamiliar faces?"

I shake my head.

"you will all be fine since none of you guys are A.I."

as we wait around a commotion outside of the ship can be heard.

"I wad invited on this station to cover the news about the other alien, so let me do my job."

a soldier replies.

"you are not authorized to enter the ship miss."

General Nadezhad sighs.

"alright I'm going to check out who is causing trouble."

I say to Xuilana.

"I'm going to check it out too.

she asks.

"what about your friend?"

I answer.

"it takes a while for the thawing to complete, so there is not much I can do here."

I follow General Nadezhad, outside of my ship and see the same slender female elf with brown hair, wearing glasses over her black eyes, and her red plaid shirt, and light blue jeans, General Nadezhad then says to her.

"sorry, but no media is allowed inside the ship, until, the procedure is done."

I whisper to him.

"you guys invited the media here?"

he answers.

"yeah, we no longer try to hide things from the media."

I then think to myself surprised.

"that's different, usually human governments would try to use the media to our advantage."

as I look out into the distance of the hangar and see more elves with their camera crews approaching my ship, the female elf asks.

"look I know I was a bit aggressive when we first met, but can I please ask you a couple of questions?"

I respond.

"you could have just done that in the first place instead of shoving your recording mobile device into my face."

she apologizes.

"alright, I'm sorry, okay?"

I reply.

"okay, go ahead and ask your questions."

General Nadezhad puts his hand on my shoulder and asks concerned.

"maybe you should wait, until we teach you on how to handle interviews or when the media ask you questions."

the female elf scoffs at him.

"of course, here comes a government official trying to prevent a few simple questions from being answered."

obviously bothered by her comment, he replies.

"fine but only a few questions and then you'll have to wait like the others."

she smiles with a sense of victory, she then turns her attention to me.

"so is your name, Brian Rodriguez?"

I nod.

"yeah."

as she writes it down on her small notepad, I ask.

"you don't believe the official stories?"

she glares at General Nadezhad.

"I guess you don't know what happened years ago, when our government were hiding things from us."

General Nadezhad clears his throat to interrupt her.

"your time is running out, if your going to ask your questions, then get on with it."

she sighs.

"fine."

I ask.

"does that mean you are an independent reporter?"

she answers, and shake my hand.

"yeah the name is, Raylee, and I run an unfiltered blog online."

I respond.

"a pleasure meeting you Raylee."

she then asks.

"are you really from another galaxy?"

I reply.

"yes."

she follow up.

"then what made you leave your galaxy?"

I respond.

"there was galaxy wide extermination of humanity, of sentient Artificial Intelligence, and we left our galaxy, hoping to escape them."

surprised by this information, she replies.

"oh my god."

she looks to General Nadezhad, and asks.

"is that true."

he nods.

"yeah, that is why we invited every media personal, so that we can reveal this information.

she looks at me with sad eyes and asks.

"does that mean, that you and the other in your ship, are the last of your kind?"

I answers unsure.

"I don't know, when I woke up, I didn't see any of our vessels around."

she replies.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know any of that."

I then ask.

"did you get what you wanted?"

she answers feeling guilty.

"no, but I don't want to bother you any further."

as she leaves, General Nadezhad says to me.

"you should head back in, before your friend awakens."

I nod.

"you're right."

I head back in with Xuilana, waiting for the thawing process to complete, and after thirty minutes the cryo stasis tube opens up automatically, and then Emilia falls out of it, coughing violently, I then say to the doctors.

"handle her gently, the thawing process is very taxing to the body."

they pick her up and lay her down carefully on the operation table, and while they hook her up to their life support machines, I grab her hand and whisper.

"Don't worry Private Schmidt, everything is alright now."

she breathes in and out, using the ventilator they put on her, she then groans weakly.

"Lieutenant is that you?"

I chuckle.

"yeah it's me."

she asks while breathing in and out.

"did we make it."

I stroke her hair and reply trying not to cry.

"yeah, we are both in a safe place now."

she gives me a weak smile and asks.

"did Johnson make it out alive?"

I shush her.

"don't worry about that, for now just let the doctors do their thing."

as she drifts away to sleep, Xuilana hugs me from behind and whispers.

"I'm glad that your friend is still alive."

I sigh.

"but what would should I tell her when she wakes up?"

she answers.

"just tell her everything that has happened so far."

I respond.

"I guess so."

we sit down and watch the doctors start operating on the wound where the metal piece pierced her, Xuilana then says.

"don't worry, she can stay with us, after she recovers from her operation."

I reply.

"I'm not worried about that."

she asks.

"what is worrying you then?"

I answer.

"I don't know how she is going to handle, the fact that we didn't make it to the galaxy, we were supposed to go to."

she asks.

"did you guys name the galaxy, that you were heading to?"

I nod.

"yeah we labeled it as the Andromeda galaxy."

she replies.

"I'm sure if you talk to some of our astrologists

they can help you find the galaxy your looking for."

I respond.

"thank you, but even if we find it, there is no way that we can get there."

she places her bead on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I wish that there was something I can do to help you."

I reply.

"it's okay, I already accepted that I'm going to live out the rest of my life here, and besides you are already helping me."

I squeeze her hand and kiss her.

"you being here beside me, is already helping cope with my new life."

she lightly slaps my chest with embarrassment.

"you always say embarrassing things."

I ask smiling.

"you want me to stop?"

she replies also squeezing my hand.

"no, that is what I like most about you."

we drift off to sleep, and in my dream, I'm back at the surface of Alpha Orbis, running low on oxygen and still not having found a way off the planet, I look around the soot falling from the sky and think to myself.

"damn it, I'm going to die here."

I sit down up against a building, trying to conserve the last of my oxygen, I take slow and shallow breaths, but I didn't make much of difference, as the gauge around my wrist continues to drain at an alarming rate, but then the sound of a ship landing nearby causes me to stand up, I then ask myself.

"is it an evac ship looking for survivors?"

I shake my head and answer myself.

"no it can't be, all of the evac ships have already left."

I take a peek around the corner of the building and see two synthetics A.I come out of their ship, I then come up with an idea.

"there it is, my ticket, out of this planet."

I grab my sidearm and watch as one of the synthetics starts patrolling the are, while the other one, guards the entrance of the ship, I then think to myself.

"I guess sneaking onboard, is out of the question."

I continue to wait around until, the patrolling synthetic moves out of sight, and then I make my move by firing multiple shots at the synthetic guarding the entrance of the ship, I destroy it, before it got a chance to fire anything at me, I then look around and don't see any signs of the patrolling synthetic, I then think to myself.

"alright this is my chance to get the hell out of here."

I quickly enter the ship and upon entering the cockpit, I find myself completely confused on how to fly this thing, I close my eyes and say as I press random buttons.

"fuck it."

Xuilana wakes me up.

"Brian, your friend is awake and the doctors are having trouble trying to communicate with her."

I stand up and see her panicking, I then say to her.

"relax Private, these doctors just saved your life."

she looks at me with a scared expression and asks.

"Rodriguez, where am I and who are these strange individuals?"

I grab her hand and say.

"they are intelligent life forms just like us and they inhabit this galaxy."

relaxing a bit, she asks.

"does that mean, we actually made it to Andromeda?"

I take a deep breath and reply.

"I don't think we are in the Andromeda galaxy."

she asks starting to hyperventilate.

"what are you saying Rodriguez, where is everyone?"

I answer unsure.

"I think we were somehow flung in another galaxy while the others successfully made the jump to Andromeda."

as she begins to cry, I stroke her hair gently and say to her.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but I want you to know that we are in a safe place."

she wipes her eyes and asks.

"how do you know if they are still alive?"

I respond.

"I don't, but I've got to believe that Maria and Ruby are out there still alive."

she sniffles.

"how long has been?"

I reply.

"almost two months."

she gasps.

"oh god, have you been around these aliens alone this whole time."

I nod.

"yeah, and they have given me great treatment, since they found me."

she breathes a sigh of relief and asks.

"so what now?"

I answer.

"for now you will rest and recover, the we'll have you learn their language."

she nods.

"okay, Rodriguez I'll do that."

as she drifts away to sleep, Xuilana asks.

"so what now?"

I answers.

"we are going to wait around until doctors clear her, and when she is ready to start a new life here."