✧ Chapter 3 ✧

Shining stars passed by like trailing bright city lights. The view of infinite possibilities was there in a blur of time. Her eyes took in everything. She watched Flight as he manhandled the spacecraft with such ease and effort using two special wireless controllers that were electromagnetically connected to his gloves as well. This activated a haptic suit underneath his cloak that locked his arms in a position as if he was holding two invisible control sticks.

His hands could have deactivated them easily but at this speed he was not going to let that thought shake or slip him up once. It proved to be more a representation of determination and skill than anything. This began to fascinate her. The amazing sights she witnessed made her scream with happiness. There, the hyperactive sense of boundlessness pushed her gleeful behavior beyond the edge of her seat like it was a fun rollercoaster ride. The speed was so powerful that by the time they were a few hundred feet from StarSpace, Flight had to stop when Styra's joyous excitement was replaced with strange small bursts of energy coming out of nowhere. He quickly faced towards where she was sitting and to his surprise, her irises and pupils were glowing a brighter purple. This caused him to become concerned and try to pat her on the shoulder.

"Styra, are you ok? Your eyes! They are glowing!"

Styra felt that surge of energy paralyzing her. The power died down as soon as she felt the patting. She could see a little reflection of the cockpit window casting the brightness of her eyes. Admittedly, Flight was a bit skeptical when she explained what had happened to her previously regarding the asteroid. Now it was a completely different story. He had realized his decision to help her could come to fruition. On the other hand, Styra herself was in immediate shock. She had another strange ability that she never even saw for herself until now. She looked at Flight to see his reaction, only to find he was ecstatic.

"How does it feel when your eyes do that?" he asked.

"A burning sensation I guess. I felt something like this when the asteroid hit Perenorbius. There was some sort of force I can't really describe, but it allowed me to survive and it could have something to deal with my eyes lighting up. Unfortunately, I can't remember how long it lasted because all I could see was nothing. When I first met them, they taught me about the asteroids. Telling me to gather the tripedyras and run as fast as possible if one ever hit our home."

Styra froze in extreme nervousness and stared down again at this thought because she had done the opposite of that and saw herself as disobedient for not doing anything different. Suddenly, a memory struck her mind as her eyes glowed again from feeling this way.

Her mind revealed a vision inside of this colorful light which showed a strange background view of the stars surrounding it. She could feel the gravity tossing her slowly into what she thought was a dark abyss. Only then did an opening to a vivid universe reveal itself. Seeing it made the sensation grow brighter inside herself. Shaking her head in disarray to snap back into the current reality, Flight was starting to get worried.

"Styra, you went through the phase again with your eyes. What happened?"

She couldn't make out the events herself. However, the distinct way it felt was as if her eyelids were closed yet she could still see. Then it came to her.

"I think I just had a vision that has something to do with how I was born. If it is true, then that colorful light I saw must be the source of it all. I don't know though. Something about it is just so strange."

Flight was wondering to himself what exactly the light could have even meant. As both pondered about the vision, Flight's astromask received a call. It was from a StarSpace satellite which they used to communicate with their spaceships. The voice started to make fuzzy sounds.

"Come in STS-0. We need your ship to pass through the StarSpace Planetary Quarantine Base. You've been suspended in space for over 10 minutes. Over."

Flight held the left earpiece inside the mask with his finger to allow them to hear him through the mic.

"Roger that SPQB-190. We have a visitor from a foreign planet that has not been quarantined. She requests further examination. Passing now."

The SPQB-190 (StarSpace Planetary Quarantine Base) was responsible for managing the operation of missions outside of StarSpace. They kept in contact with spaceships based on DIVA's map of their galaxy. StormStrike Zero was one of these ships.

The dock where the cargo hold elevated down to pick up ships was lowered. STS-0 landed inside the decontamination pod while being lifted. Styra and Flight exited the ship after that, only to be welcomed by the StarSpace Armed Forces (SAF). Their chief, Broc Boulderman led the entire SPQB-190 himself along with many military forces in StarSpace alone. He was a 54-year-old man with dark skin, buff in size and strength, who wore a special set of blue shades, and a dark gray uniform that stood out among the others.

"Welcome aboard Flight. Who's the visitor?" asked Broc.

"This is Styra. She is from the inhabitable planet, Perenorbius where she is the last living being alive. She is the first I've encountered that can understand our language," said Flight.

Broc let down his shades and raised his left eyebrow for a second, looking at Styra with curiosity.

"Interesting work Flight. Is she a descendant of our ancestors? The suit she is wearing seems to be different from anything we have discovered so far."

Flight knew this was a difficult topic to answer since Styra herself already didn't have a clue where she came from. He did agree on the theory that the possibility of her coming from StarSpace could be true likewise since there was a cryostasis project from beforehand that was used to send people in a resting state to different planets quickly.

"Well that is why we are here. She needs to be examined to correctly identify if she is healthy and of our kind. If she passes, her request is to enter StarSpace City," he replied.

Styra looked disappointed after hearing Flight disguise what they had talked about earlier. While staring around she also noticed that mostly everyone was wearing quarantine suits or masks. This befuddled her sense of trust, knowing that something awful had to have happened for it to get to that point.

Broc nodded in confidence with the approval of this suggestion, turning back to greet Styra.

"Welcome aboard, Styra. Follow me."

As the two went towards the far entrance to the examination room, Flight stared at her with a deep hope that she would pass. When they disappeared behind the door, he decided to visit the interrogation room and visit his friend to have a chat with them about visiting the room where the files would be hidden.

Meanwhile, in the examination room, Styra was amazed at the dark walls surrounding the entire room and the technology that accompanied it. Broc led her to a futuristic chair. Upon sitting in it, examination doctors entered the room setting up the equipment.

"So, what is going to happen? Do I need to do anything?" she asked Broc.

"We are going to start by doing an x-ray examination which will require you to remove whatever you have on and wear a patient robe so it can read your anatomical structure. Just to be sure though, we will need samples of your blood for any signs of abnormal illnesses. You just came off of a foreign planet and we don't know if they are filled with any radiation, parasites, or viruses. Otherwise, you don't need to do anything else after that until it scans you entirely," he replied.

Radiation. The tripedyras did tell her to watch out for any falling objects like asteroids due to its radiation, but she pondered if she might have had any signs of it now. After all, she did survive it and there wasn't any sickness she had after the exposure to it. She convinced herself that it was going to be fine and sat, waiting for the examination to start. Broc and the doctors gave her a robe after the equipment was set. Giving her armor away was an unusual experience since she had worn it for a long time. The stench coming from taking it off suddenly became unbearable to her. They allowed Styra to take a shower when she noticed the smell, which was the most enthralling experience she ever had. After that, they started trying to procure blood out of her veins. The needle used to do so disintegrated past contact with her skin in a smoky haze which prompted them to scan for her DNA instead. They turned off the lights and began to manually control the machine from the outside so it could identify Styra's bones.

In another section of the SPQB-190, Flight found the interrogation room where his friend was. Inside, its council was composed of twelve members sitting around a large desk that was used to check files from the database. They would insert a chip for each specific file into ports on the table designated to each one of them. This would allow them to share information from the file in the form of a hologram in the center of the table. To manipulate the information, they would use special gloves that communicated with the ports whenever they uploaded the files inside. In one of those seats was the leader of that council, Hisa Night.

Hisa was 23 years old, had dark skin, pink hair in a wrapped side ponytail on her right, and blue shining eyes like an ocean wave. Considered the top ranking of the StarSpace Intelligence Agency Corps, she had the most badges commendable to her entitled position. Flight was a childhood friend of Hisa. Over the years their friendship grew. Especially during the days when Flight was in a foster home. Both of them shared similar interests, supporting one another. Then they became invested in their different fields of expertise and as a result, became the leading assets of the world's military. There was a time where Flight and Hisa would share and teach each other about one another's professions. Delving into their jobs made them increasingly busy. Soon, they started to part ways in their interests. It had caused them to barely come in contact with one another. For three years they remained that way with no idea how either one had changed personality-wise, but now Flight had the chance to talk to her again and for a good reason.

Upon eavesdropping to the best of his ability, he heard about a new case revolving around a wanted criminal. The information they had regarding his appearance came from a security camera in a museum. It revealed a slim figure, completely bald, wearing a dark cloak, with a large smirk on his face. There were no leads on a full name which gained him the reputation of being an invader who somehow bypassed the planet's defense systems. According to investigators, a black smokescreen was used to confuse the surveillance whilst using a mysterious weapon at the scene. This was evident due to the large scathing mark on the walls inside the museum. What he stole was a mysterious ancient object discovered on another planet by the SAF. An inscription of words on it could be translated to read, "The Ring Of Infernum".

The tedious discussion in the room ended, promising a chance for Flight to talk with Hisa. He casually waited at the far end on the opposite side of the hallway. As all of the council members left, Hisa was last after organizing the files and shutting down the room until further notice. When she walked outside the room, Flight went up to her with little intentions to make small talk.

"Hi, Hisa. It's been a while," he said with a charismatic tone.

Hisa looked confused at first for a moment but began to recognize his face. She smiled and responded with joy.

"Flight! How are you? I can't believe we meet up again of all places like this."

Flight felt the childhood memories as his heart pumped with youthful adrenaline.

"I've been doing fine. You look great as well. To be honest I am actually in need of your help. There is this new planet I discovered called Perenorbius. In it, there was this girl with strange powers. She understands our language and I think she may have been one of the people held in past cryostasis projects that survived during the ship crash in space around the time of The Great Invasion."

Hisa's face was in shock, as Flight continued to speak.

"I know we haven't talked for a long time but if you're not too busy, I need to see some files regarding planet inhabitation after the analysis and inspections. It is extremely important."

She started to look uncomfortable with the request.

"Flight, it was nice meeting you again. Really. I cannot show you the files unfortunately, as their confidentiality is limited to the intelligence agency and anyone above it. I really wish I could. Giving the files would cause me to get blacklisted from my position though, fired even. You understand that, right?"

Flight decided to ask a question that would serve as a backup to getting the information.

"Hisa, I understand. Is it still possible for you to tell me briefly what happens to them in any way at all? I need to know the truth."

At this point, Hisa knew he was desperate. This reminded her of how he was in the foster home. Such a memory made her feel obligated and it was hard to imagine what it would have been like to have not been there for him.

She had her head turned at first to ensure that no cameras or anyone was watching. Upon seeing that it was safe, she finally opened up with a slight feeling of hesitation.

"The lifeforms that inhabited other planets were allowed to co-exist with us. This has led them to live separated from the cities that have been created there."

The hallway was filled with an unusual silence. Flight was initially surprised by this.

"As nice as it is to hear that we have learned to co-exist in those planets, I thought that the government would improve upon creating healthy environments for citizens who travel there. That's why I agreed to this in the first place. They may not understand this language, but that doesn't mean the leaders of StarSpace can take advantage of that and start replicating construction on devastating those planets' resources as they did to this one," he said.

Hisa began to get defensive.

"They are building healthier cities that do look much better and different than StarSpace itself. My only complaint is that they need to shift focus on rebuilding this planet to have an ecosystem similar to how they are doing it out there."

Flight felt taken aback. Knowing that the planets would be safe gave him hope unparalleled to what Styra had worried him about. However, thinking this made him want to visit the planets that had been recently populated with their new civilization. StarSpace to him was filled to the brim with some sort of dystopian nature about itself rather than the proclaimed lively planet it was supposed to be, but he was stuck there for the sake of helping the government analyze the galaxy. Either way, he felt he had no choice since it was his job. The entirety of their species depended on it. He had to tell Styra the news that she would be safe to go back home after visiting StarSpace City.

Back at the examination room, Styra had been waiting around thirty minutes already as they were finished with the x-ray examinations and were finally ready to analyze her entire body for DNA matches by using a supercomputer that connected to the entire room. Broc and a team of scientists were outside watching hidden cameras from inside the room.

"Supercomputers are online and ready to scan," stated one of the scientists.

Broc nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Good. Proceed to start the initial genetic screening process."

Styra stared around the room as it became a white background with red lines stretching above her in an infinite array. She was filled with fascination as there were no floors, ceilings, or walls to be seen. During the process, Flight led Hisa to the examination room to meet Styra. Upon arriving, the quarantine process was near completion, but the results for the x-ray were in.

While looking at the statistics collected, a doctor showed the team of scientists after concurring an anomaly between the other doctors. They gave it to Broc upon speculating it to be something they had never seen before. His reaction was filled with confusion as he showed Flight and Hisa an image of Styra's x-ray on the screen. Her bones matched the anatomical structure of a human but they looked dark with a flashy outline surrounding them. Both Hisa and Flight were in disbelief at what they were witnessing. Fifteen minutes later after taking another shower, the SAF provided her with black bras that matched the color of her new t-shirt, a white dress shirt, blue jeans, and dark gray trouser socks to wear. Styra came out of the room with these clothes underneath her armor which were also cleaned for quarantine purposes. She seemed content and thrilled at what she had experienced inside the room.

"So, how did my examination go? That was more immersive than I expected," she said.