Secrets of the Void

Her vision blinked back to reality, blurry at first, but slowly reclaiming it's focus. Her breathing kicked into action over a startled jump, and immediately, she panicked. Still couldn't breathe. In the corner of ehr vision, it read, "Oxygen absent, anaerobic resperation engaging." And then it hurt.

She could feel it as her chest constricted and contorted, finding no real usable amount of oxygen. Just a substitue far less usable, and it circulated. She was suffocating. Or she felt like it. But, she knew she didn't need it, regardless. Prime function requries oxygen, though.

She were suspended. Getting used to the painful, and conscious hindering effects of anaerobic breathing, she began to take in where she was. And her state. Uninjured, uninsulated. It was extremely cold, and only the vacuum met her. Just beside her, a massive hole in the metal walls around her showed, allowing her to gaze directly upon the stars. Reaching down with one foot, she pushed herself towards the ceiling, or rather the floor. Grabbing the raised path, she righted herself, then began pullign herself through.

The first door. A few keytaps showed that it wasn't working.

Override alpha.

Withotu thinking, she placed her hands on the door, then split her arms open as the fibres and artificial muscle beneath strained. She wrenched that door open. And got blasted with the atmosphere inside. She took a few deep gulps, then held it. She'd circulate that for a few minutes. Hurrying to the next door, she stopped and returned to the first, andpushed it closed. It wasn't closed all the way. It had a crack in it, but it'd suffice enough. Wrenching the next door open, it flooded the room with atmosphere, and she took deep gulps of the thin air. Then moved to the next. And the next. It were a circular corridor. By the time she'd made it furthest in, she could breathe nromally again. Then proceeded to delve deeper.

She had to be in the core now, as she wrenched this next door open. Radiation stung her coat like acid, and she could feel it beginning to raise her temperature. It'd nto kill her, but it's not pleasant. In the center, there should be a light, as she remembered. Pure heavy helium in the continuous process of fission. But there was none.

A look around showed the majority of the star cells having been opened. Each carried collected heavy helium froma  star's core. She remembered this. She had opened them before. Maintained this room. She were a lone voyager on a large vessel. And now she remembered her deep sleep...And why she slept. Opening on of th estar cells, she pushed away as the heavy helium flowed out, depressurizing, and as soon as it hit the center, ignited. The process began again. She passed by four others, opened them, and each time, the miniature star in the center grew alrger and larger.

Leavign the room, she gave a long sigh as each door sounded closed. Automatically, gravity returned. Atmosphere began flowing again, and she ran a hand through her wavy mane. Where is she now?

That question was easily answerable as she accessed the nearest terminal. Video feed immediately came up. One marble blue and green planet, swirls of white for obvious atmosphere...Beautiful. Huh. Trajectories came up next. She's been in orbit for...millennia. How logn has she been asleep? The sound of straining metal echoed down the hall, and she paused amidst her keytapping, leaving only silence in the hall. Hesitatingly, she slowly leaned around the corner, just to see what was there. Then pulled herself back into hiding. She tapped one key, and it pinged, closing everything.

"What was that?", the muffled question came from aroudn the corner. Rose quietted her bare feet, stepping slowly to the next door. With a loud breath, she quickly tapped a code, it opened, she slipped through, just as they rounded the corner, and it slammed shut behind her. Locked in place, turned the center piece, and a second door covered it. Blast shields.

"Hello?"

It was muffled. Yes, but she heard it loud and clear. Nothing would have prevented her from doing so, it's so silent, you could hear a pen drop, and she weren't breathing. She remembered to breathe.

"Ok. For the sake fo discovery, lower all your weapons. Put them away. Why did you even bring them?"

A knock came through the door.

"I don't know if you can understand me."

Analysis. Her ears panned and twisted, shifting quickly, and in her mind, an archive began developing. Code, language, conjugation.

"Etsi...Tu ratu etsia.", Rose said. She contained her joy. The first words she'd spoken in an unfathomable amount fo time. She feared for her life, though. What are these things?

"I do not understand you. But can you understand me? Knock on the door twice for no, once for yes."

"Yes. Brown fox, lazy dog."

A pause. "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog?"

"Tell the others to step away from teh door.", Rose commanded, pullign up the terminal beside her. Camera feed, door control. "Tell them to move past the other door and wait."

"Do as she says."

Yet all but one left.

"Him too."

The suited individual int eh front, unarmed, of course, motioned to the other door,a nd the last one slowly followed suit. Immediately, the door shut behidn them, and the blast doors slammed shut. The door slwoly turned it's mechanism, lockign itself. Then Rose's own blast doors lifted, and the lock turned, opening the doors.

"I am an advanced Biotechnological lifeform. My unit number is 546-779 LUCY. My code name is White Rose."

"Advanced enough to learn our language?", the suited indivudal asked.

"A sealed suit. Oxygen tanks. There is proper atmosphere for you to breathe here. Give or take. The oxygen levels are rather low."

The stallion grabbed his helmet, twisting it, depressurizing the suit, and he lifted it off his head. Holding his helmet under one arm, he struck a pose, placing his free hand on his hip. His mane was black, and his coat grey. He smiled.

Though, Rose did not.

He cleared his throat. "I promise that if you lift the locks on that door, it will make things ton easier."

"I give you my faith. Do not discard it, you will regret it.", she hit the release button ont eh raised screen. Across the hall, the doors opened.

"Thank you. I am Mercury. Lead scientist of this expedition, and one of the richest people on the planet. This is my team, a hired group of cohorts, though my advisers insisted they be military. Corporal Holiday, Corporal Steel, and their commanding officer, Kite Shield. Fellows, Corporal Holiday, this is White Rose. And she is unfathomably value as a discovery. More valuable than this satellite. More valuable than anything here."

"I'm flattered.", Rose commented. It was sarcastic.

"We thoguth there was nothing here."

"What do you want?", she asked.

"Uh...To learn, of course. This satellite has been in orbit for millennia, and we're the first to set fot on it. Therefore, it is ours. No one else can claim it."

"So, if I understand correctly, you think this vessel is yours?"

"Uh...N-no! no. We did assume it was ours before, given that there was nothing that owned it before. To our knowledge. I apologize."

Rose huffed. "You said you wanted to learn. Well...meet me on the bridge."

"Alright. Though, we don't know where that is." The two corporals behidn him looked at one another with shrugs.

With a sigh, Rose opened a holographic map of the ship. Then tapped a few buttons and boom, terminals lit up with arrows. "Just follow the arrows. I have to finish waking the ship up.", she began on her way through another corridor.

"Wait, this is a ship?", Mercury asked.

"Of course. How do you think it got here?"

"Well...I thought it was an immobile satellite. We observed no engines."

"Probably because they were closed so that nothing would damage them, but...it seems that the hull can't stop an asteroid. I can't waste time here. I've primed the core, but it's not active, and we are running on minimal power. Not to mention, we're burning through Helium much too fast."

"I-I'll leave you to your duties. Soldiers, let's go.", Mercury began on his way. Left rose to ehr business.

On her way to engineering, she couldn't help but feel...unprepared. She didn't know how to react to this situation, or these new...things. They looked familiar.

With but a few minutes, she had both primed the engines to fire and completed the core cycle, setting full power to everything. Hitting the release, she opened every star cell, and as she passed the only observation window, watched as the golden helium swirled into the miniature star like a vortex, empowering it, makign it grow. That was her star. Not jsut now, but that was hers. To command. To maintain. To own. And this, her vessel.

With a deep breath, she entered the bridge. Which one of the soldiers was deconstructing carefully.

"Don't break anything."

That startled the mare udner the desk,a nd she jumped, bumping her head against the top. "Ow!"

"Oh. Uhm. We got you soemthignt o put on.", Mercury offered her a folded set of clothing.

"What?"

"Well.", he cleared his throat. "You're naked."

She loooked down, "Uhm...I guess I am. No harm in it.", she grabbed the suit. It were a single piece, colored carbon grey, and fit tightly. Or rather, it stretched over her skin loosely. Wonderful. Hugged her body comfortably. "Why are you hre?"

"Discovery!", Mercury smiled. "This satellite, as I said, has been here for a long time. We are just the first to get here."

"Explorers, and what do you hope to get from here? Don't steal anything from my ship."

"We won't.", the mare udner the desk assured. "But we need to borrow this.", she ducked out from under the desk, holding a crystal circuit board.

"For?", Rose asked. She knew exactly what that was, a drive. Specifically for the ship's archives and one of the sixteen archives needed to run the ship properly, yet this is one of three that can be removed without causing damage.

"Understanding."

"I'll help you.", Rose approached, grabbing the archive from her. "First, it's going back in. But, provide me with a drive, data storage, anything. I'm sure that if you could make it here, you have that kind of technology, correct?", Rose ducked under the desk. Slotting it in place, every loose wire and panel flaoted back into palce, snapping together.

"Uhm, yeah...but we didn't bring any."

"That's...unfortunate. Look, I will help, but I'm not lettign you take the archive."

The commanding officer, who still had his helmet on, raised his rifle to Rose. And she slowly turned her gaze to him. Casual. And the first look she shot him was absent of fear or worry.

"Put your gun down.", Mercury commanded.

"Protocol one. Retrieve data disc. Specifically assigned to me."

"How did you know about the archive before you got on this ship? Radiation shielding, a layer of dense material all over the ship."

"Magic. Same as always."

"Ok, of all the blackholes to pass through, this one had amgic ont he other side. That's heavily exploitable. Alright. I'll be nice. I'll be nice. This ship is a marvel to you, no? Where I come from, someone gives a word, and ten of these are built. This right here, however, is one of the greatest constructions ever made in my civilization. Same as the previous three thousand, same as the next fourteen thousand. I offer you this technology, this knowledge. But you cannot take anything. You're a war hardened stallion, I can see it beneath your visor. Be fair and return to reasoning. You will be the first to receive the data, however, simply bring me a disc, and I promise you everything."

He lowered his rifle. "I have thirty two terrabytes."

"I thought we had none!", one of the two corporals added in.

Rose nodded. "It will require much more than thirty two terrabytes. Most of this information is the technology itself and how it functions, but the compilation of data needed to run this vessel is well beyond thirty two terrabytes. The information here is well into the exabytes range."

"Mercury.", the commanding officer turned to the grey stallion.

"Alright. Hmm. you said majority of the data here is to run the station, correct?"

"Yes. Vessel. Her name is the White Giant."

"Alright. Nice name. What other information do you have. Something worth of great value, in particular."

"Well, me. I was artificially made. I can't say I wasn't born naturally, I have a mother, but I'm not natural."

"Alright. How much storage space is required?"

"I dont' know, I'd have to teach the process to someone. It's memory, not data."

Mercury sighed. "Ok.", he cleared hsi throat. "Just...give him somethign small. Please?"

"Alright. Not data, but somethign better.", Rsoe approached the main console. She picked up a small, clear glass cube, and made way over to the commanding officer. "This.", she held up the cube. In it's center were a glowing golden light. "Before you take this, I want you specifically, Commander, to understand how important to me this is. This is where you make a pact and a friend. In my hands, I hold a star. But it's not burning, it's not consuming any of it's fuel, and it is made up of exactly sixty eight heavy helium atoms. Your basic instance of infinite power. It will never cease to stop glowing. I give this to you to help you. Learn from it. And don't break it. It means a lot to me, so obviously, I ask you to take good care of it. Commander, I give to you an unfathomable amoutn of trust because I am generous. Simply assure to em that you will bring it back."

The stallion lowered hsi head and helmet, grabbed the sides, and turned it. The seal hsised as it opened, and he removed his helmet, showing his gruff features. He bore a thick red chin curtain beard, short mane cut, military obviously, and his coat wer blue. Over one eye, he bore a scar. Not just your average cut, but his eye had a glass decorative replacement. I glowed with magic. "I...", he raised his gaze to rose's, "Give you my word that this will return to you."

The look in his eye caught Rose's attention.

"the look in your eye...", he began. Rose stopped him, raising her hand.

"Commander. I know what you're going to say. And...Thank you."

He smiled wide, taking the item gently. His expression turned serious immediately. "Alright. One micro star, never to be damaged. I will never let it leave my sight."

"If you never let it leave your sight, then I'm not bringing scientists with me.", Mercury quipped.

The blue stallion chuckled. "I'm going to give this to the scientists and retire from your exploration group. This vessel is not for anyone to take, she owns it.", he motioned to Rose. "Takign anythign would be stealing, and if you want this ship on your side, you ahve to go through it's captain first. Got a problem with that, take it upw ith me first. Go on. challenge me you disgusting robber baron."

"Oh?", Rose raised an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?", Mercury scoffed.

"Yup. I don't care if I get paid anymore. I don't even need your help getting back home. Therefore, I admit. I hate you. You are disgusting to me. The amount of greed in your eyes angers me, and the stench of overly expensive cologne is like the smell of sin. Corporals."

Both corporals left Mercury's side, takign teh commander's own.

"Do you have a way to land this ship? Or a smaller vessel to fly to the planet?"

"Both.", Rose crossed her arms. "Commander. Thank you. Not for...berating Mercury here, but for the whole thing over the star. Anyway! This is my home, I am hospitable, feel free to stay for as long as you want, jsut let me know when you leave so I can say my farewells."

"Thank you...", Mercury nodded, running a hand through his mane. "I won't leave jsut yet, but I'm going to return to the ship. See about communications."

"Oh, thank you.", Rose thanked.

"Would you mind showing me something?", the commander asked.

"Sure. Name it.", Rose answered.

"Somethign beautiful."

"The core. A miniature star used to power the ship."

"That sounds cool. Would you mind?"

"Not at all.", she turned to the console, tapping on the holographic pads a few times. "Core status nominal, so nothing important has been damaged, and the archive's removal has not proved any trouble. Mercury. If you would be so kind.", she reached her hand into one of the open panels. She removed a thick cartridge, and offered it to Mercury. "This will make things tons better. This is wireless communications based. Using it to communicate with both me and my vessel will make things that much better. Compatible tehcnology, and what not."

"Alright.", Mercury took the cartridge. "I will give this to my science team back on planet. Hmm.", he smiled. "That's the first time our civilization ahs ever said, "Back on planet.""

"Congratulations. One small step for you, one giant leap for your species."

"You are...equine too, though. Same bodily structure as us, but you did say you were not naturally born."

"No I'm not, and you're right. I'd like to explore that more. Not now. The commander will get his view of my star. As he requested."

"thank you.", the commander set his weapon over his back. "Lead the way."

"W-wait!", one of the corporals stopped them. It were Holiday.

"Yes?", Rose asked.

"Can I speak to you afterward?", she asked.

"Me or him?", Rose asked.

"You."

"Sure. Feel free to explore."

And they elft. Passed through several corridors until they finally came upon the very observation deck of the reactor itself. The window before them provided enough protection fromt he star's radiation and brightness.

"That is what I would call a marvel of the universe. Beautiful.", Kite complimented.

"It took me seven years to make that happen. To get the color right, I had to find the rigth star and pull heavy helium from it's core. Finding it wasn't but maybe a few minutes long. Getting there and getting the helium took time. So, Kite Shield. Show you something beautiful?"

"Yeah. You agreed, you'r definitely interested."

She smirked. "I don't know yet entirely, commander. I have slept for over twenty thousand years. I'm a machine, I wake up and I'm ready to go immediately. But my biological side, the prevailant side, is still groggy and unsure of this new world. Give me some time, maybe it could work."

"At the same time, is you don't mind me asking, what are you, exactly?"

"Biotechnological monstrosity of my old civilization's golden age. Got a lot of negative response from a lot of people."

A small tone chirped from Kite's wrist, and he turned the small terminal to his attention. "Damn. Unfortunately, I have to go. And before I leave...", he paused.

"What?", Rose asked.

For a long moment he didn't respond.

"What, commander?"

"We came here because of war.", he took a deep breath, letting out a long sigh. "I wanted you to know now rather than later." He weren't looking at her.

Rose didn't say anything. Instead, she nodded. "If that is so, I'm not letting anyone else onto my ship."

"War may drive our enemies to assault this vessel."

"None of you can have my ship.....", Rose stated. "Communications are all you will get, I will not help anyone, for the sake of my White Giant."

"I understand and respect your wishes. I will give you your star back.", he offered her the glass cube.

For a moment, she considered it, then sighed. "Keep it. For now."

"May I come to visit sometime?"

"Thats fine. Are you at war?"

"I'm just a retired war hero."

"You're so young."

"Yeah.", he smiled. "I kow. I've been through a lot."

"Take your corporals and go. Make it home safe."

"Can do. Do...you just not wear clothes?"

She scoffed, chuckling. "I'm a beauty and marvel of technology and life. Call it self love, sick pride, thankfulness for my beauty. Whatever you'd like." Her cheery expression changed. "You may give that star to your scientists to study. But in return, I want the strongest possible protection from amgic."

"I'll give this to Celestia, then.", he looked at the cube.

"Who is Celestia?"

"A goddess. Literally. She is of god nature. She can make sure you stay safe. She might not even accept this as payment and may simply do it to be nice."

"Either way, give her my regards. I look forward to meeting her, if possible."

"I'm sure she can arrange that to happen. Corporal Holiday, you're moment with Rose.", He practically curtsied to the mare at the doorway as he left.

She nervously entered, holding her arms close and walking unsurely.

"Something wrong?", rose asked.

"Can I ask you for some advice?"

"Uh...Hold on.", Rose said. She thought for a moment. "You just asked for advice?"

"Yeah."

"Well...why? Specifically, why me, I don't mind, jsut...why me, an alien, of all people to ask?"

"No experience?", Holiday shrugged. "I've...got feelings for someone, and I'd like to know what I should do."

"Wow...You're so naive it's cute. Well. For starters, stay calm, you look so up tight that it hurts. Beign closed and stressed out makes it harder."

"Is that why you and teh commander hit off so well? Because you stared him in his fake eye without a shred of fear..."

"Nnnnnot exactly. I'm millennia old, I don't age anymore. I've got a total of four hundred and sixty two years of an actual life to account for, though. I've learned a lot. Though, I've actually never had an admirer. Dunno if you heard what I said, eavesdropping as you were, but I was considered an abomination for a long time. I was treated, literally, like a machine. Machines don't ahve rights. And it's the unfortunate truth."

"Wow. I'm sorry to hear that."

"I learned from it.", Rose sighed in satisfaction. "Did you send him that call?"

"No. We all got it. Mercury is leaving, and despite our voiding of the work contract, he'll take us home."

"I'll visit.", Rose smiled.

"Thank you."

"Hey! That right there. See how you're smiling, relaxed, and happy? Use that. Don't revert back your nervous, uptight self, and just talk to him."

"thanks Rose."

"Still weird that you asked me for advice, I literally just met you."

"Yeah, I know. Trying new things?", she shrugged, smilign nervously.

"Alright. Go on, I'll meet you guys in a minute to say my goodbyes. I need to step inside the reactor for a moment."

"Uhhh....inside the reactor?"

"Yeah. I'll live, don't worry."

"Alright. I belive you. I'll be waiting int eh ship bay.", Holiday shuffled out.

Ros echuckled, and turned towards the second, closed door in the room. Approaching the panel, she got as far as to reaching her hand out to touch it when somethign pierced her cehst. The gunshot was loud in her ears, and the blood that spilled out of her chest was enough to knock her onto her knees. Straight through the heart. Warnigns flared, solutions began spinning into action. Arterial bypass. She clutched her chest, and grabbed the console. Another gunshot, and everythign went black.