When Tommy woke up the following day, he had a headache—not to mention he'd only slept for two hours because of the low altitude. He groaned quietly, throwing an arm over his face and tried to will away the headache again.
"It's too early," Drista muttered under her breath, apparently having half-awoken from his shuffling. "Go 'way, Dream."
"Dream's not here," he said, louder, and smashing any dreams the fifteen-year-old girl had of this being a nightmare.
Drista shot up with a small gasp, and Tommy muffled a laugh at the atrocious hairdo that she'd somehow managed to obtain overnight. "Wha—oh," she said, realizing where they were. The candle had burned away—or been put out, he wasn't quite sure—and the only light in the room was the one filtering under the curtain.
Tommy got up and stretched, wincing at the soreness in both his back and his skull. Drista reached over and shook Lani, the Shulker flapping her arm to ward off the other girl and muttering something about five more minutes. Tommy snickered when Drista grabbed the Shulker's arm and dragged her out of bed.
"I am not going out into the other room alone," the Human growled as Lani shot up with a pained yell, rubbing her arm.
"I'm here," Tommy said warily.
"You don't count. You're not on my side."
"Sides—you know what?" Tommy threw up his hands. "Whatever. He swept aside the curtain and blinked, glancing to the side to dispel the pain that came from the sheer amount of light pouring into the room.
Hmm.
How long had it been since he'd awoken in a room on a planet that didn't include Terra?
Admittedly, a very long time.
Tommy yelled out in surprise as Sykkuno popped into existence in front of him—not really, but the Avian had still surprised him. "Holy fucking shit," he said, swearing like a sailor. Outside of his therapy appointments, his therapist would have said language.
His heart panged for the crew that had slowly become his family.
"Good morning, Tommy!" Sykkuno said brightly.
Tommy frowned at the piece of metal the Avian was holding. "Isn't that a part from the escape pod?" he said bluntly, recognizing the serial number on the side of it.
"Uh, yeah!" Sykkuno said, blinking. "We've found that we can finish the communication signaler with the pieces from your pod!"
"...what?" Drista said, her voice tired.
"You think we were just sitting around making gardens and weaving mats for the past two and a half years?" Valkyrae said, kindly, as she walked into the room. She had a bit of grime on her face, and her hair was tied back, and she had a pair of electrical pliers in the other hand.
"Well—no," Drista spluttered. "But..."
"There wasn't enough left of our pod to create a signal," Rae said politely. "But we've found that with yours, we can finally do it."
"This is dead space, though," Tommy said. "Nobody will be receiving our message."
"It's not about the message, but the signal," Rae told him, and Tommy was reminded of his own words to Kristin on Falir IV. "If we can send it out—no words, just a pulse—someone will hear it."
"Arachnids," Lani said. A single word.
"I know," Sykkuno said. "We know." He glanced at the Avian woman, who smiled. "But—if it's the Arachnids that come, it's them who come."
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The Childrens Rebellion
قصص الهواةthis fanfic is not mine it belongs to @Aria_Cinbun on Ao3 His name was Tommy Innes, and he was born to touch the stars. Of course, touching the stars was going to have to wait, because he'd lost that dream the moment his parents had died when he was...
