It Wasn't Supposed to be like This
4K Milestone
Lor’nektaen Forest
Raeo [planet], Aurum [star system]
Sixteen years ago…
Loud chirping echoed past towering trees with the warmth of the twin suns, Iel’ah and Jauptur, breaking through the white leaf canopy and giving scattered sight in the thick brush. Giggling quickly followed the wildlife’s voice as a young girl shot through, jumped over a downed tree, and then slid under another. Her white but dirt-stained cloak flapped behind her as she pushed herself up and continued running deeper into the growing thickness of the forest.
“<Wait!>” another young girl’s voice cried out, calling to the first, “<Wait! We’re going too far! Wait!>”
“<No, I’m not falling for that again, Kaendra!>”
“<Seriously!>” Kaendra, who just turned fourteen not even a month ago, struggled to climb atop the massive fallen tree the first girl had leaped over, she stood up and squinted to see where the other was as she yelled, “<DAX! Dax, please! Your father won’t like this!>”
Dax, who too was fourteen, continued to laugh as she jumped off a large stone and then kicked off one of the trees to her right which launched her through the air. Her hood blew off the top of her head and her dreadlocks whipped back while she smiled, her arms out to her sides as she felt the cool air against her skin. Dax flipped forward as she came flying down to the ground, rolled through, and shot back up to her feet before she pushed through the thickest brush she had come across yet. However, her eyes opened wide as she entered a massive clearing.
“<By the grace of Aaela,> she gasped.
Out in front of her, reclaimed by nature, was a colossal temple. Encircling it were at least one hundred, four-story obelisks that at their center was a giant marble statue of the most beautiful woman Dax had ever seen. This woman had long flowing hair down to the ground where it poured around her feet; a soft smile that was not to be mistaken for weakness; holding a trident in her right hand and her left was extended up to the sky with its palm up. Dax slowly approached, walking between two of the obelisks as she ran her fingers over one and then slowly ascended the twenty-four steps to the statue.
Her eyes had sunk slightly while a small smile broke free from the disbelief. She tilted her head subtly and slowly from side to side the closer she got. Fifty feet away Dax felt a rush of excitement beginning to surge through her, her heart fluttering with curiosity, she then reached out to the woman.
“<Aaela…” she muttered at first as she grew even closer, “N-no, this, it can’t b-be,>” and then she felt a calm wash over her as the bright intensity of Iel’ah and Jauptur beamed upon the two.
Her fingers were within touching distance of the marble but as she was about to touch the statue, Dax heard a high-pitched scream escape from the forest behind her before hundreds of birds erupted into the sky. Dax’s eyes shot wide open, she whipped around at the scream but then everything faded away around her. She then gasped as she shot forward in the chair she had been sleeping on as the blanket fell off her chest, Dax’s eyes opened wide and tears rolled down her cheeks. “<Kaendra?>”
She was breathing quite heavily while the memories of Gabe killing her friend flashed in her head over and over. Dax whispered, “<It wasn’t supposed to be like this,>” but her attention slowly drifted to her right where she looked at Theo who was asleep in his bed.
Dax stood up from the chair, walked over beside Theo where she sat on the edge of the bed, and tilted her head slightly to the left as she gazed upon him. Her bottom lip quivered, she struggled to hold back tears while gently running her right hand down the left side of his face before she looked to Theo’s shoulder and the wound. It was still fresh as Kalber had rejected the stitches and closed up the wound itself.
“Ohhhhh, Theo, what have I done?” she softly said but quickly glanced around as she heard Edmund start to explain to her.
“There was nothing you could do, your Highness - Master Theo was going to do what he bloody did, no matter your efforts.”
“Don’t call me that,” she growled.
“Your Highness? Okay, perhaps you prefer Sparky?”
“I’ll rip out your processor - ONLY Theo can call me that!”
“Quite the change of tune you have on that nickname… I remember your initial reaction to Master Theo calling you that.”
“Things change.”
“Hah! That sounds extremely Human of you, Princess.”
“Since I left Theo, I’ve been thinking how much easier life would be if I were…” Dax winced tightly and placed her hand over her mouth before she looked back at Theo and whispered, “But, but now look.”
“You do understand that there was nothing you could bloody do, correct?”
“No, I could have fought beside him; I could have killed that naexu; I could have protected him and saved my friend!”
“Forgive me, Princess… Naexu? I don’t have a translation in my database for that.”
Her pupils narrowed to near pinholes as she gritted her teeth, seeing Gabe kill Kaendra again. “It’s a word we use to call the unworthy. It’s what we call those who are deserving of great death. It is the scum of the universe.”
“Universal dictionary database updated…” Edmund announced before his tone changed from very robotic to its normal sarcastic tone, “Ohhhh! You are referring to Master Gabe.”
“Don’t call that naexu a master!” Dax hissed as she glared at the ceiling, “He’s a murderer!”
“Princess, you must understand that Gabe and Master Theo have been best friends since they were young children.”
“Best friends? No, a best friend would never attempt to murder their other!”
Edmund sighed. “Things have become… Well, since Master Theo saved a certain Heiress from her demise, the two have not seen eye to eye.”
“So, so this is, it,” she uttered, looking back to Theo with a tear breaking free and rolling down her cheek, “this is my fault?”
“No, this is a Human complexity… one that species like yourself and even that of a highly advanced artificial intelligence like myself cannot bloody understand.”
“O-oh.”
“Do know, Master Theo would never blame you for what happened. And, if you did attempt to intervene, he would’ve blamed himself if something had happened to you.”
Dax momentarily looked back up to the ceiling with a small smile. Though, as she returned her attention back to Theo who was still asleep, she asked, “Why are you being nice to me?”
“Princess, Master Theo is not in the desired state to have inquiries thrown his way.”
“Not him… You.”
“Uh, oh, um, well Princess… Would you much rather prefer that I’m not during a time when my biometric and pressure readings inform me that I should?”
Instead of answering Edmund, Dax giggled.
“Good… Now please, excuse me while I check in with the other members of the Title,” but Dax quickly turned slightly as she looked to the ceiling yet again and called.
“Wait! Edmund, please wait!”
“Yes, Princess?”
“Where are the others?”
“The others? Well, um… they’re off-ship.”
“I’m aware of that,” she said with her eyes squinting slightly. “But, where are they?”
“I, I believe that Sara’s exact words to me were: We need to grab some fresh air, so watch Theo and the homicidal Princess.”
Dax’s left eye narrowed while her fists clenched tightly.
“It’s Human slang, you’ll get used to it,” Edmund chuckled before signing off to her. “Now excuse me, Princess.”
Dax ran her hands down her face, recomposing herself before she slowly turned back to Theo and then carefully laid beside him where she nuzzled her head upon his chest and wrapped her arm over his waist. “I’m sorry, Theo. I am.”
***
There was a light breeze that blew through the crimson-leafed trees of the small planet, Jasmuhl. Sara was sitting on a large stone where she looked at the forest around her, her eyes were locked into the nothingness as she contemplated everything that had happened over the last year. She rotated the wedding ring on her finger over and over before feeling a hand rest on her shoulder, and she quickly looked to find Drake standing beside her.
“Come on, Sara,” he softly said, “You’re being paranoid.”
She quickly pulled away from him, shot up, and spun to her right with her nostrils flared and brow furrowed. “Don’t you dare call me paranoid, Drake! Don’t!”
“But you are being paranoid - What is your issue here? Why isn’t Theo’s word good enough for you?”
“What’s my issue? Why isn’t Theo’s word good enough? Are, are you being serious right now?”
Drake’s eyebrows raised, he shrugged his shoulders and nodded to her.
“Drake! We just watched two of our friends who’ve been friends since they were like, like six years old, try and kill each other!”
“You know they butt heads from time to time,” he tried to blow her concern off but she snapped at him again.
“She’s the goddamn heiress of what might be the most dangerous empire in the universe, Drake! They’re a bunch of genocidal psychopaths who are hellbent on conquering the whole universe! And, and now she’s tagging along with us!”
He sighed and then glanced to Talon as she aggressively pointed to the ship, saying, “And Theo - I’ve come to understand what he originally did, I do, BUT, but now he’s letting his dick put all of us in danger! Cole, you, me… and, and,” Sara grabbed his robotic hand and placed it upon her stomach, “and our future.”
Drake’s eyes sunk as his mouth opened slightly. “Our future?”
“Yeah, our future.”
“When? When did you find out?”
“Before we connected back up with Cole and Theo on Vectir,” she smiled with tears welling up, softly saying, “I was going to tell you and then e-everything happened.”
Drake dropped down to his knees in front of her, resting his head upon her stomach as he told her, “I’m so happy!”
“I’m happy too, Drake, but… but I’m so scared. You saw what happened on Ravelous, how self-destructive our friends got, wuh-what happens if that means we get caught in between it—” but Cole confidently told her.
“Theo wouldn’t let that happen.”
The two turned to find Cole standing several feet from them. Sara couldn’t hold back her tears anymore as she yelled at him, “How do you know that? Huh? He hasn’t been the same since that Shim came into our lives! It’s spreading! Have you seen his hands? Have you?!”
“Sara—” Drake tried to calm her down but she now turned her fury at him.
“NO!” and she crossed her arms in front of her stomach before closing her eyes tightly
while the tears pushed their way free.
“Look, I’ve known Theo for a while,” Cole said as he rubbed the back of his neck, “Granted, not as long as Drake or Amelia but I call him a brother. I’ve seen him eliminate some of the evilest people in this universe, and, heeeeh, hell, I’ve witnessed him do some questionable things too… but I think, no, I know that Theo taking that stand he did when he refused to eighty-six the Princess back on Gavilun, that’s enough for me to show he wouldn’t let anything hurt you or your child.”
“You, you heard us?” Sara stammered as Drake stood up and placed his arm around his wife’s waist.
Cole forced a smile. “Congratulations, to the both of you.”
Drake half smiled. “T-thanks.”
“Look,” Sara stepped toward Cole, saying as she motioned her hands around, “I love Theo like he’s my older brother. I’m eternally grateful for everything he’s done for Drake and me…”
“I feel a but coming,” Cole chuckled.
“…but something isn’t right! Ever since she came along, something changed! I can feel it in my soul!”
“You can feel it?”
“Yes!”
“Maybe, and I’m just spitballing here,” Cole said as his left eye squinted, “maybe you’re just feeling things because you’re pregnant.”
“Don’t say that! That’s not what’s going on - And Drake can prove it!”
Drake’s head clocked back, he choked on air and struggled to say, “I’m, ugh, I, I can, um, I can what?”
Sara quickly turned to her husband, she took his hands in hers and looked him deep in the eyes. “Glimpse her! Glimpse her, Drake! Glimpse her and prove me right!”
Cole now squinted his eyes at Drake. “Wait, you can just glimpse someone on command, Drake?”
“No,” he shook his head, explaining, “I can’t, and Sara knows that. The Union wanted me to develop my blood ability to its full potential BUT I knew what they meant by that, and I wasn’t going to allow them to use me as a weapon the, um, well, the way they—”
“The way they used Theo,” Cole cut him off.
Drake sighed, “Yeah.”
“Pardon,” Edmund called over the three’s comlink earpieces, “I hate to interrupt your deep conversations but I wanted to alert you all that Master Theo’s vitals have stabilized.”
“Good,” Drake said, “I was beginning to worry.”
“What about the Shim?” Sara growled as she turned back to the forest and folded her arms in front of her stomach again.
“Oh, the Princess?” Edmund rhetorically asked.
“Obviously!”
Cole rolled his eyes at her before Edmund answered, “Well, the Princess is lying down with him - watching him quite attentively, I might add.”
***
“I don’t know which I find more beautiful,” Theo remarked and Dax’s eyes shot wide open before she quickly sat up beside him.
“You’re, you’re awake!”
“I’m pretty sure I am,” he chuckled, “because let me just say, I’d be one angry sonofabitch if it turned out I’m dreaming.”
She blushed. “N-no, no you’re not dreaming.”
“Good.”
“How are you feeling? I, I was worried about you.”
“Ohhhh, Sparky, you were worried about little ol’ me?”
“Stop it,” Dax giggled, playfully smacked his shoulder but then quickly pulled back from him as she saw him wince with sincerity.
“Hey, hey, Sparky,” he struggled to get out with a clear voice as Dax repositioned herself to be sitting on the edge of his bed. “W-what’s wrong?”
“You’re not, you, you’re not completely healed,” with sunken eyes, she slowly looked over to him out of just the corner of her eye as she asked, “Are you?”
Theo let out a deep sigh before he managed to sit up on the bed beside her. “I mean, when was I last at one hundred percent?”
“Don’t give me non-answers, Theo.”
“I, I’m not.”
“Come on, how many times do I have to point out that you’re a terrible liar? You’ve always been!”
He smirked, took her hand in his, and whispered, “See, this is what I mean… I can’t tell what’s more beautiful; when you were laying beside me all worried, or when you’re mad at me…”
She smiled.
“Ah, wait, there - That’s for sure the most beautiful.”
“What does this mean?”
Theo’s eyes squinted. “That I find your smile beautiful, Sparky.”
“No,” she looked up to him with tears welling up, whispering, “My father will not rest until he recovers it - Things have changed… It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
“Hey, hey, come on now. I won’t let anything bad happen—”
“Theo, you’re in no condition to stand up, let alone fend off who my father will send,” she respectfully explained as she gently placed her hand on his chest.
Theo, at first, subtly shook his head before he looked down at his hands with the darkness now spreading completely through his fingers and nearly past his knuckles. He then turned his attention to Dax, assuring her, “Believe me, no one wants to test me right now… He’s itching to take a ride in the driver’s seat, and depending on the circumstances: I might let Him.”
“Don’t say that!” Dax snapped and took his hands back in hers. “Theo, please, don’t ever say that! I know what He is capable of! I remem— I, I, I know of the tales! So, please! Please don’t! Please!”
A black tear pushed free and rolled down his cheek while a small smile cracked across his face, and he whispered, “Okay but only for you,” she returned his smile with one of her own, “But promise me—”
“No, no promises right now.”
“Heh, oh-okay.”
The two then just gazed at one another, still holding hands. Though Theo’s face then lit up as his smile grew twice as big before he said to Dax, “Oh, Merry Christmas.”
“Merry, merry Chris-Christmas?”
Theo winced and then laughed. “That’s right, why would I think you know what Christmas is?”
“What is it?”
“It, um, it’s kind of hard to explain.”
“Explain it… please?”
“Okay, uh, Christmas is this, um, it’s a holiday that we Humans celebrate. It’s kind of lost its original meaning from my little backwater planet, but long story short, it’s a celebration of a very important Man’s birthday where we give to others in a way of living out what he gave for us.”
“Oh,” her eyes fluttered and she said, “that’s beautiful.”
Theo then cupped her right hand with both of his and she looked down at them as he said again, “Merry Christmas, Sparky.”
Dax’s eyes opened wide as he removed his hand from atop hers and she saw a black-heart necklace that was in her palm. Her heart raced, pupils shrunk to nearly pinpoints and she shook her head as she could barely get out, “Nah-no, not already.”
“W-what? What was that?”
“Oh, uh, n-nothing,” she practically yelped and looked at him, forcing a smile.
He tilted his head to the side. “You don’t like it?”
“No, no, I love it.”
“You sure, Sparky?”
“I’m certain! I, I love it!”
“Okay, good,” he took the necklace and gently put it on around her neck with the heart resting above hers, and Theo whispered before he kissed Dax on the forehead, “Merry Christmas.”