egglover
egg
Prelude
The first time she had ever heard the song of the blackbird was her very first morning in England. They were hauling their suitcases up the small flight of stone steps, her and her brother, whilst their father spoke to the taxi driver as they lifted heavy bags together from the trunk. It had been a long, sleepless night. Imani was very sad to leave their home in Ghana, and though Tish had put on a brave face for him she also felt the pang of homesickness. England was already so alien to her. Cold and big and distant from the world she once knew. Imani let out a heavy sigh as he dumped his bag on the top step and stared at their new front door. He tried to open it but it was locked and he let out a whine toward the taxi where their dad was, “Papa. Papa, where are the keys?”
The older man fumbled as he paid the driver with money they had exchanged at the airport, “Oh, Mrs. Johnson said they would leave them under the pot in the garden. Tish, go get it.”
“The pot in the garden?” Tish frowned at Imani, who simply shrugged. With slumped shoulders the young girl jumped off the steps into the grass and found the gate to the back yard. It was a faded red and half hanging off its hinge. Tish pushed with all her strength until it moved the dirt and opened. On the other side was an overgrown path toward the back, where she stood surprised at the humble beauty. Blooming flowers of all colors lined the wooden fence surrounding their property, but most impressive of all was a large, unusual tree. The trunk of the tree was pure white and the leaves, which hung down around the garden, were all different shades of blue. Cyan, turquoise and cobalt glittering in the morning sun. When the breeze blew the leaves they snowed across the garden leaving a layer of blue atop of everything. This was not a human tree. It wasn’t like anything Tish had ever seen before.
“Tish, did you find it? Oh.”
The deep voice of her father interrupted her awe and she turned to face him and her brother emerging from the broken gate. Imani’s eyes lit up at the sight of the blue tree, “Whoa, what is that?!”
Their dad laughed and kneeled down to them as all three gazed at this alien foliage, “Ah, I see you’ve found the Ahxi Tree. Yes, it’s beautiful, eh? Its seed was brought to Earth all the way from Hephas.”
“Where is Hefast?”
“Hephas is a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. Our sister galaxy. All the way up there.”
The two children followed his finger toward the blue sky, where outlines of spacecraft could be spotted amongst the clouds. Space travel was known, it was common even, but the concept of alien life beyond Earth was still foreign to them. Ghana had been very normal. Very Earth. To see something from another planet right before their very eyes turned the concept of space travel from myth into something very tangible. Their dad suddenly let out a whispered gasp, “Oh, look! Look kids, a blackbird! On the Ahxi!”
Tish and Imani looked and saw a small bird on one of the branches of the blue tree, and that’s when Tish heard it. The blackbirds cry. It was a beautiful, melodic song. Nothing like she had heard in Africa. It wasn’t just one blackbird but a family swaying against the blue and the breeze. “I had heard that the blackbirds took a liking to the Ahxi, but to see it with our own eyes!” her father exclaimed. Tish wouldn’t understand his excitement until later in life, or perhaps she would never truly understand the excitement of a scientist unless she became one herself, but seeing their dad's smile filled her with joy. All three sat in the grass together for a long time, tired and hungry but content just watching the blackbirds in the tree. This was one of Tish’s favorite memories.
“It is proof that all creatures can learn to love what is different and strange. Our lives can be integrated, just like this tree into our soil. Isn’t that wonderful?”
In the heart of the living room, where shadows danced with the flickering light of the television screen, a haughty news jingle began to play with the imagery of 'Frontline Galaxy' in big, bold letters cascading onto a backdrop of clips from various places within the universe. With one final flourish of graphics and music the title screen then faded into the background, where a suited olive green zonkoian man stepped forward onto the dark stage, his presence commanding attention like a modern-day oracle.
"Good evening. My name is Dal Ventus, here on Frontline Galaxy - the intergalactic news program where we cover the stories YOU want to see. Tonight we have a very special guest, someone that many of our viewers have been requesting an in depth interview with, and she has finally agreed to chat to us tonight." Dal folded his hands in front of him as the screen behind him changed to an image of a fleet of ships with the words 'Expedition Mystery' below it, "Fourteen years ago The Avian Expedition set off to explore Megalomorchen UOX-35 and find out the truth behind our universe. It was meant to be a quest full of promise, a true marvel of discovery into the unknown, with a fleet of collaborators from every race participating in this grand venture. However, disaster hit on March 28th, 3024 when we lost all communications from the first colony that had been established past the threshold. A year passed without any contact. The Avian Expedition was thought to have been destroyed, and with it our dreams of discovering what secrets lie beyond the black hole."
A slow fade into the next image appeared behind the zonkoian. It was an image of the wreckage of a ship with the words 'The Only Survivor'. Dal began to walk and talk to the camera, "That was until a ship from the expedition crash landed on the shores of Africa, Earth, containing the only known survivor of the expedition. Her wounds were severe, and it took many years for her to recover from the trauma that she had endured, but finally she is here tonight with us to talk about The Avian Expedition and what transpired the night she returned to Earth. What happened to the fleet? What happened to the crew of the Sparrow Wing? Why was she the sole survivor? And, the question everyone has been asking, how did she get back here?"
The image cut to two people sitting opposite each other in a warmly lit room. One of the figures was Dal Ventus, and the other was a human woman of African decent, however she looked...odd. Different, somehow. It was only when the camera moved closer to her face that it became obvious what was strange about her appearance - half of her was robotic. Lines indicating that of mechanical enhancement ran down her skin, and parts of her body had been completely altered with prosthetics, including her left arm, leg and left eye that looked at the presenter unblinkingly. Deep scars marked what human flesh she had left, creating a textured look not unsimilar to the skin of a craeden. "Tish Suleiman, welcome," Dal greeted with a smile, "Thank you for accepting our invitation to speak with us tonight."
Tish nodded, eyes darting around to the crew somewhat anxiously, "Of course."
"Now, before we get to the 'nitty gritty' as you humans say, how are you doing? I hear your recovery process is going well?"
"Yes. I'm doing fine, thank you. It's been a...slow two years but - "
"Two and a half years, right?" Dal interrupted. Tish smiled, "Mm, two and a half. I seem to have lost track of time."
The presenter leaned forward slightly, "Right, because when we found you, well, you were..."
"A bit banged up, eh?"
They both let out a laugh as the absurdity of the situation hit. How nonchalant she was about almost being killed, and how he attempted to skirt around the subject as if it were taboo to talk about. Everyone knew that when first responders pulled Tish out of the wreckage she was barely a human, her body torn apart and bloodied, chunks of her limbs hanging from broken bones like some sort of gruesome horror. How she had lived through that was a mystery. Dal cleared his throat, "Well I'm happy to hear that you are doing well, that you're up and walking about now."
"Me too." Tish replied.
"Yes, so, if you'd like, would it be okay to chat to you about the events surrounding your...return?" Dal asked, and continued when the woman before him nodded, "Good. So, I suppose, the first thing on everyone's mind is, what happened?"
A brief pause. Tish seemed to be considering how to best answer his question, and as she sat in silence the entire galaxy waited with baited breath for her answer. There had been rumors floating around here and there, but predominantly the details surrounding her recovery had been kept quiet, away from the media. Even the families of those connected to crewmates within the expedition weren't informed of anything. It had all been quite a mystery. Eventually she let in a breath and began to speak, "So, I guess - I guess that is sort of the question, right? I don't really know. What happened to me and what happened to the colonies are different. Myself and the crew on our ship were on an exploration mission, trying to um, map the space. Our goal was to create a sort of boundary around the first colony and slowly expand out into the further reaches. I only found out about our galaxy losing contact with them after I came back."
"So you don't know what happened to the rest of the expedition?" he pressed.
"No."
"Right, so, what happened to you? Your crew on the Sparrow Wing?"
This time she answered quickly, shaking her head and looking down with a frown, "I'm afraid I don't have answers to that, either. I don't remember. It was dark and cold, I was...trapped on the ship for some time. They say I had hallucinations due to brain damage so I'm not sure what was real and what was not."
"You don't remember?" Dal frowned, "Not anything?"
"As I said we went on an exploration mission. We were on week two, had regular contact with the first colony. There was nothing significant to note. Everything after that becomes...blurry, like someone has pinched pieces of my memory."
It was not the story that they were hoping for. Dal squinted his pale pink eyes and leaned back into his chair. His next words were cutting, "Tish, you are aware that there are grieving families who want to know what has happened to their loved ones, yes? The entire galaxy has been trying to reach the Avian. A lot of hopes and dreams went into this quest. A lot of lives lost."
"I am aware. My brother was on the expedition with me." Tish retorted. "So you don't know anything? Not what happened to you, or to the expedition, or to your crew?" he kept pressing, but she only shook her head, "There was nothing significant about the planet the expedition landed on as home base? Nothing....strange?"
The woman tilted her head, "There were a lot of strange things beyond the black hole, but nothing that hadn't been reported by the communications team. I've read all of the logs sent by the expedition and it's as they say, it was a beautiful, mysterious stretch of space. The planet we landed on, uh, Cubecarro, was the most habitable planet within the perimeter of the white hole, the um, the exit of Megalomorchen. We spent the last decade setting up home base there and slowly expanding out our reach. I was part of the reconnaissance crew." Tish sighed, "It was a normal day like any other. I don't know what happened next other than what the investigative team told me, which was that they tracked my ship to the outskirts of Earth where it had suddenly appeared on the radar, but I don't know how. Apparently a violent stream of debris had hit the ship and I came crashing down to the surface."
"I see..." Ventus leaned forward again, a glint in his eyes, "You said the doctors told you that your hallucinations were a symptom of the brain injury you had received, correct? If you were injured during the crash then wouldn't your hallucinations be a symptom of...something else? Were they even hallucinations at all?"
"I - I don't know. What I remember is all - " a pause, "Crazy. Fantastical. Nonsensical."
Bingo. The interview was intriguing once more and it was obvious by Dal's expression that he had hit a jackpot of a headline, "Was there anything of note in these images? Something that might have been a memory mixed up in all of the trauma you had endured?"
Tish was silent for a moment. A long silence, like the one at the start of the interview. Her gaze seemed to be searching, sifting through realities. Then, as serious as ever, she answered, "Well, there is one. I woke up on the ship to the sound of alarms. The power was on reserve and oxygen was low and it was so cold and so dark. I couldn't even see stars out the window. Then, just as I felt myself drifting back to unconsciousness I saw a blackbird outside. It was flying out in space - just flying where no living thing should be - and the last thing I remember as I passed out was the cry of the blackbird, singing to me."
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