Chapter Five

As his mind returned to him, he heard a low hum. It filled his groggy mind, like a life support pod. He must be in the medbay. He wondered what could have happened to land him there. Despite his best efforts, all he could recall was that he'd had Professor Zeth'an by the tail; everything after that was fuzzy, something must have gone wrong.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open his eyes. He'd lost track of how long he had been aware, the only other thing he could hear, was an incessant humming; it was his only companion, within the hell of his own mind…

At some point the hum, his only companion, had disappeared. He felt himself slipping, deeper and deeper into the depths. If he kept trying to awaken, he'd lose himself to The Darkness.

Ancestors only know how long it had been until he saw it, a glimmer of light. It was faint, but it was there. His salvation was nearing, his time of torture was coming to a close. This was the first time he had he been deprived of his sight and body for so long. Sure he'd gone through his Hatayka without being driven mad, but that was nowhere near as intense as this. He wasn't sure that he could last much longer, until he saw the light, his light…His salvation.

He forced the insanity deep into his mind, he could only hope it would stay there long enough for him to wake up. With his doom back within his grasp, he renewed his attempts to stir his body to life.

He felt a twitch, then another, and another. He finally felt control of his body returning, guided by the light. Slowly, his eyes opened; and the light came flooding, like a tsunami, into his mind.

Finally. His salvation had come.

What he saw was not the sterile white of a medbay, but instead a dull grey. As his vision focused, he could make out the metallic panels above him. Each one polished to a faint gleam, it was a stark contrast to the white light which emanated from a small disk in one of the panels.

He lay there, his body still locked in place; but his eyes open, relishing the sweet release of consciousness. He wasn't ready to let The Darkness take him, not yet, he still had things to do.

Whilst he was basking in his salvation, the hum had returned. His companion through the torment had returned. This time, he heard it to the left of his head. Whilst he could see and hear again, the rest of his body was still refusing his will.

The hum began to move, gradually coming closer and closer. Until he saw the source hover into his view. It was apparently coming from a small floating drone. It was painted white with green stripes, shaped like a rounded diamond with several sharp protrusions at its' front. A single mechanical eye sat in the centre of the protrusions, glowing a deep crimson.

It settled directly above his head, and tilted downwards, he felt like it was glaring directly into his soul; spying all his secrets, sparing no corner from its' cold gaze. After a while it turned, and left his vision, like some ghostly apparition.

He felt several sharp jabs between some of his plates. He winced, almost succumbing to the pull of The Darkness as he did. Almost instantly he felt his muscles begin to loosen.

Was this that drones' doing? Why now? What did it want from him? All these questions, and many more, raced through his mind. Thankfully The Darkness stayed within the depths; he hoped it would stay there, until he was ready.

Mere seconds later he shifted his rear arms to prop himself up, he did so slowly for fear of collapsing. Once he was up, he heard a deep chuckle behind him. He turned quickly, too quickly, almost losing consciousness again. Behind him he saw a massive bipedal figure, leant against the rooms' sole doorframe. It seemed to be a machine, like the drone. Unlike the drone, it was a matte silver, with black accents all over.

The armoured thing meandered over to his side, holding his gaze, with another crimson glare. Once it reached his side, it chuckled again.

"Well spiky, let's have a chat." It sounded too biological, and moved too fluently to be a mere droid. What was this curious being before him, and what did it want?