One in a Trillion: Chronicles of the Traveler: Vol. 1

One in a Trillion: Chronicles of the Traveler, Volume One

Prologue

Preamble:

I never asked for this. I never asked for any of this...

...

It says here I'm supposed to, 'Rectify insufficient data on tether twenty-three oh-three, dash eleven, dash twenty-two.'
Looks like I found someplace even God can't see.
Six years... It wasn't supposed to turn out like this.
But I guess I never was calling the shots.
...
Oh, you're getting this report verbally, I have no data to upload in regards to the events of the past six years. Just memories...
...
Also, consider this my second and final letter of resignation from the J.C.S... Or the N.J.L. or whatever you lot are calling yourselves these days.
I'll be running this in H.S. Six to accommodate file size, so program accordingly.

It's probably best if I start from the beginning.
It started with pain, cold and an awful lot of confusion...

Prologue

Mbinguni Amina

Location unknown
D3-08
2303.11.03?

The sensation of falling was a familiar thing, I'd experienced it many times. The sensation of an uncontrolled free-fall however, was very much unfamiliar.

All at once that unfamiliar sensation was replaced by so many new sensations, several familiar, several more not so familiar. A collision with a hard surface would usually warrant a rebound or recovery, but as I met the ground I found myself assaulted with new and horrible sensations: pain.

I had never known pain, not really. Sure, I understood it, in abstract. But to feel it, all so sudden - along with a chill so thorough I thought perhaps I'd been cast out an airlock unprotected - sent my mind reeling. Shock took hold of my psyche and against my will I cried out, and as a reflex I attempted to bring my hand up to my mouth, only to meet my mouth too soon with something not at all a hand.

I cried out again as I thrashed there, surrounded by white, unfamiliar terrain. In my thrashing and wailing, I caught a glimpse of myself as I tossed my head about, looking for anything to identify where I was or what had happened. My body was covered in blue fur, and did not in any way resemble the body I'd had moments ago.

The thing that had assaulted my cruiser, had it caused a malfunction with the rejuvenation matrix when it struck me? But then, where was the cruiser? And was this snow? There hadn't been snow on Externus-

Something gave out beneath me as I heard a great crash not unlike the shattering of thick glass. Then I was met with a new reality: the need to breathe. I reflexively tried to suck in air, and was met with a chilling fluid filling my lungs instead. Wait, lungs? Since when did I-

Air! Breathe! Scream! My head surfaced for just a moment, and I vomited frigid water out my lungs while simultaneously trying to breathe in and stay above the water. Quite a chore to do all that at once. I managed another half-shout before my head collided with something and I fell beneath the flow again.

Where's my compass? Was all I could think as my body quickly stopped moving as I asked it to, and my vision began to fade...

Maybe I'll see them all again, soon...

...

"Scotch! Over here, quick! I'm gonna break the ice!"

Thud.

...

Something new. Yet another new sensation. Like being crushed. And there was something being pressed against my mouth. I opened my eyes, to behold golden beauty.

"Shit, Butterscotch I think I broke my leg..." There was a voice somewhere far away. I didn't care. There was an angel's face mere inches away from mine, a very... equine face... My eyes went crossed as I stared along a blue furred protrusion to where it was pressed against a similar length of golden yellow. An equine angel, come to rouse me from this purgatory and put me back in the fight...

She pulled away after forcing her breath down my throat and into my lungs, a thin streamer of saliva trailing between our lips. I stared up into her glistening blue eyes, and she stared into mine. I'd never known panic, nor relief, but I felt both in equal measure at that moment. Something had saved me, and though it was completely foreign, I felt such gratitude for her mercy.

"Ah think I got her..." The angel's voice barely reached my ears as the world faded again. "Aw hay! Stay with us girl, you're gonna make it!"

...