Page 1 of Rebirth

CHAPTER ONE

HE’ROX

For five thousand years, we traveled to this world. Five thousand years away from our home.

Five. Thousand. Years.

In silence.

Locked in stasis. Our bodies frozen. Our aging suspended.

We left our home to save a world we did not know. And we have succeeded. Our sole purpose, achieved.

The dust from the war with the Gryken has begun to settle. Er’th begins to rebuild. Cities lie in ruins. Billions of hyu’mankin are dead. But the hyu’mans, so fragile yet so fiercely defiant, will continue their era on this planet. They have earned the right to endure. To forge a new age from the ashes of their near-destruction.

And yet…

I stand on the bridge of our mother ship as if I am on the brink. The controls, the walls that surround me, all disappear as I stare out at this planet’s blue sky.

Calm.

It is calm now, this section of the planet mostly liberated. Wherever the war still rages does not affect here, and one can almost imagine what this world was like before we arrived.

Bright star. Blue skies. Crisp air.

Warmth.

So different from Edooria.

Gazing at this world from this viewpoint, I wonder if we Vullan did the right thing. In our thirst for revenge, we saved this planet. But saving this world has come at great cost. Not only to myself but to every Vullan who came here on this ship.

While hyu’manity rebuilds…we are left with nothing.

Our home is long gone. Five thousand years… We may tell the hyu’mans we will travel back…but we know there is nothing left to return to. Our clans. Our nests. Long gone. Through time. Through the war, our extinction event, when the Gryken came to our world.

To return to Edooria would be to lose everything all over again.

And yet, it is a trip we must take.

For Er’th is saved. But it is not our home.

We wanderers have no place here.

I have no place here.

“He’rox.” The sound behind me doesn’t pull my attention from the viewscreen, but the edges of consciousness that create this space I’ve walked into slowly return.

I become aware of the lights on the control panel before me. The walls that enclose the bridge.

I am back.

Down below, small dots move like insects across the surface. Our Vullan-kin and their mates, alongside the hyu’mans they’ve rescued and brought to this place.

This new beginning. This rebirth is the start of a city the hyu’mans have called Unity.

“The drones have picked up a new set of hyu’mans heading this way,” Dri’ro says. “They require your presence on the surface.”

I do not miss the slight shiver that goes through his ba’clan as he comes to stand by my side. The way they ripple to move away from my own, while mine don’t react. And despite how he tries to hide it, standing by my side while his ba’clan rear back for self-preservation, it is a reaction I’ve come to expect. Another thing I’ve adjusted to.

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