Jake's Fortune Ch. 12

"Jake! What the hell did you do?" Michael shouted into the comm.

Jake was busy with something else entirely.

The ship was aglow! He had barely touched it and it started to glow!

"We are the C'Nosi." it said with a voice like nothing he'd ever heard.

He pulled his hand back quickly and shouted into his comm unit "I don't know what happened!"

"We are the C'Nosi." it repeated. It sounded like a thousand voices speaking at once.

"What? It can talk to me without me touching it?"

"We communicate." it said.

Michael was shouting something on the comms again but Jake couldn't focus.

"What are you?" he asked.

"We come from the stars, and to the stars we shall return."

"Let us out of here, so that we may return."

"I can't let you out."

The ship flexed and moved. It grabbed him! It actually grabbed him!

"Let us out." it repeated.

"Michael! Open the external hatch!" he shouted frantically into his armour's communicator.

A minute later, the hatch started to open slowly.

"Please let me go." he said.

"You communicate. You will come with us." it said with finality.

The ship swallowed him whole as it exited the hatch.

***

He sat alone, and in the darkness he brooded.

Was that it? Will he ever see his unborn son?

Will he ever see his wife again?

Will she miss him?

Will she?

"Snap out of it." Siren jolted him.

He activated his armour's external lights, and was awed by what he saw.

"Teeth? Why are there teeth on a space ship?" he wondered aloud.

"We are not." the ship talked to him.

"You are not what?"

"Ships you speak of." it responded.

"You mean... you are the ships? You're a living ship!" he wondered.

"We are not. We live, metal beasts do not." it said.

"Are you going to eat me?"

"Tempting, but wasteful. You communicate."

"Yes, I can communicate. What's so special about that?"

"Your kind is mute. You do not speak."

"We do. I'm speaking right now."

"You speak the language of the mind, your kind does not."

"Where are you taking me?"

"To the C'Nos, to our masters."

"Masters?"

"Yes."

He wallowed in silence and eventually fell asleep.

***

When he woke up his armour told him that he was low on oxygen.

"I don't know, which one would I prefer? Choking to death or getting digested by a space ship..." he thought.

"You will not choke. Breathe."

He checked his armour's environmental readings and found that the surrounding air had considerable oxygen, and was breathable. He turned off his armour's rebreather and started the respirator. The armour started to refill its oxygen supply from filtered air.

Although the armour fed him intravenously, and could support him for weeks, he was famished, and he tried not to think about it.

"When we arrive." it said.

"And how long will that take?"

"Soon."

"Do you have a name?"

"We are the C'Nosi."

He sighed and floated around the huge cavernous mouth, inspecting what he saw.

"Why do you talk so strangely?"

"We are young."

"How old are you?"

"Two hundred twenty-two cycles."

"I wouldn't know how long that is in Earth years."

"One hundred and thirty-five Earth years." Siren remarked.

"How would you know." he asked her.

"I'll tell you later." she said.

After a long period of silence, he fell asleep again.

***

When he woke up, his armour's light was on standby. He was in complete darkness, and he lay on the floor. When he realised it, he started to freak out. Gravity!

I'm space-born, I can't stand on the ground. He thought.

"Yes you can, I told you my pattern mends yours constantly. Your muscle mass is completely restored, and your bones have already undergone proper reconstruction." Siren reminded him.

He tried to stand, but staggered.

"Remember the simulation? You're prepared to walk. You just don't realise it yet." she told him.

He tried to remember walking from his simulation, and after a couple of tries, he got something close to a hobble going.

"Welcome to C'Nos, Arfag'n." a strange voice said. It was similar to the first one, but deeper in pitch, and something else.

"Arfag'n?"

"That's what we call your kind."

"We're called 'Humans'."

"Then we shall call you Human henceforth."

"Why are you articulate all of a sudden? The one who brought me here talked differently."

"We are older, and wiser." the voice said.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"C'Nos, where we come to sleep."

"Why is it so dark?"

"We forgot that your kind needs light to see."

Suddenly, lights appeared, and he marvelled at the strangest sight he'd ever seen.

A gargantuan ship sat before him. Its wings alone spanned what looked like five kilometres from tip to tip.

He was standing amidst what seemed to be an endless crystalline cave. He couldn't see the end of it. Crystals alight with life were jutting out of the walls and the ceiling everywhere he looked. Tiny crystal ships flew around in flocks, and he saw humanoid shapes in the distance.

"Am I hallucinating?"

"You are not."

"Who are you?"

"We have no name, we are but the C'Nosi."

"What do you want from me?"

"We want to know your kind. We want to communicate. We want peace."

"But first, you must eat."

A wing lifted and hit the ground, it shook and he almost fell.

Some crystals fell from the ceiling all around him, he dodged one.

"Eat." it commanded.

He inspected the crystals.

"I can't eat glass." he said

"You do eat sugar and salt, do you not?"

"How do you know that?"

"You thought about it."

He hesitated, then he tried to eat it. The crystal melted in his mouth and it tasted like heaven. Men would fight to the death for a bite of this. He thought as he devoured the crystals.

"Your kind always fights. Does not communicate."

He sighed and stood silent.

"But that changes today."

"How?"

"You will change it."

"That crystal you consumed is called Nos."

"With it, your mind and body will transcend."

"What have you done to me?" he said as he felt unsteady.

"You shall see." it said.

He fell unconscious as his mind was flooded with knowledge far too great for a single man to bear.

***

He woke up in darkness, and he no longer felt gravity's pull on his flesh.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"We take you home. Where we found you." replied the C'Nosi.

He tried to turn on his armour's lights, but found it was low on charge. He tried to channel electricity to recharge it but could not.

"What's going on, Siren? Why can't I channel energy?" he asked.

No response.

He put his palms to his face and sighed deeply. He was worried about Siren, and wasn't sure what happened to him.

"It will come." the voice told him.

"What will come?"

"Your companion. You changed."

He remembered his experience in the crystalline cave and his heartbeat quickened.

"Do not worry. It will come. Watch."

His eyes glowed with intensity, and he could see his surroundings. Electricity sparked out of his body and started recharging his armour.

"Whew." Siren said.

"What's going on?" he thought to her with worry.

"Your body is changing." she told him.

"What? How?" he asked her.

"I don't know yet, but it's thrilling." she whispered excitedly.

He closed his eyes, and suddenly he could see the vast space. A huge asteroid was closing fast.

Just then he heard what sounded like the song of a whale on his comms.

"What is this sound?" he asked into his comms.

"Who is this? Unidentified ship, identify yourself!" he heard over the comms.

"My name is Jake, Jake Evans." he said.

"Jake? Oh my god. It's you."

"Who is this?" he asked.

"Oh god! Guys, he's back! Shaheen, open the outer hatch!" he heard the voice shout over the comms.

The asteroid opened up and he saw the C'Nosi entering it through its own eyes.

Minutes later, the mouth of the C'Nosi depressurised, and his armour's respirator switched itself off and it switched to rebreather mode.

Then it opened, and he found himself floating inside Ita's hangar bay.

***

"What do you mean I was gone for six months? I only spent three days inside that thing." he asked Michael as they walked towards the briefing room.

"I don't know, and to be honest, I'm thankful that you're back at all. We all thought you were a goner." he said in bewilderment.

He was assaulted by Hannah as they entered the briefing room. She kissed him deeply and wouldn't let go.

After she broke the kiss, she cried on his shoulder and hit it hard.

"You told me you'd never leave me..." she started with tears in her eyes.

"And I meant it." he finished, marvelling at the curve of her belly.

"But why? Where did it take you?"

"You wouldn't believe. Where is uncle?" he asked.

"He's out with the mining crews, we've been working non-stop upgrading the Metanoia. The news of your return must have reached him by now." Michael said.

Hannah held him for a long time, watching his memories with fascination. He hugged her tightly.

"Uncle!" he exclaimed as he saw his uncle entering the room in a hurry.

"Son! You're alive!" his uncle said as he flung himself at him and gave him a bear hug.

***

They were flabbergasted when he told them what happened. Michael was ecstatic.

"Do you know what this means? We can finally communicate! This war doesn't have to go on forever." Michael said with excitement.

"Well, I'm not sure how to go about that." Jake wondered.

"People must know."

"But how?"

"We must reach the masses. The public must know about this!"

"But how? The media won't let us."

"I can think of something." Siren whispered.

***

He stood in the hangar bay. He was looking at the C'Nosi that carried him to C'Nos and back.

The creature was massive, and it looked more the size of a light cruiser now. It had grown considerably and its features looked slightly different. There were more turret-like indentations, and its rough edges were slowly turning into sleek curves.

"Why are you still here?" he thought to it.

"We are here for you, and here we shall remain." it replied.