Nnedi ventures headlong into mystery with a confidence that makes her the boldest of her unit. When their ship arrived at a new galaxy and disengaged lightspeed travel to scan the sector for signs of life, she hovered over the shoulder of the scan operator in the communications bay, eager for anything that would necessitate landing on a planet and exploring its terrain. Nnedi is a leader among the unit of soldiers and foragers on this mission who are deployed when new cultures are discovered as the ship charts a journey into unexplored regions of space. They’ve been on the ship for a while since the last planet that proved to be a disappointment to Nnedi with its boring desert terrain and natives who were welcoming to their new alien visitors. She longed for something exciting and new, like the planets of the Paqineth galaxy that were embroiled in interstellar war. After sending information back to command about the conflict among the previously unknown participants, Nnedi and her unit were allowed to intervene on behalf of the Yiopal planet once it was clear that they sought to protect as many beings of their solar system, and greater galaxy, as possible from the ravages of the war.
“Please back off, Commander,” the scan operator whines. “You know the drill, if we find anything…”
“Shut up and do your job,” Nnedi interrupts, never moving from her spot over the man’s shoulder. She points at the screen, “Is that what it looks like?”
The operator taps at the screen with his fingers and then makes a noise like he is impressed.
“That’s a planet-wide communication network for sure. It’s very sophisticated too, I don’t think we’ve seen anything this sophisticated since we started this mission.”
The operator taps more rapidly at the screen and then speaks into his headset.
“I’m sending you some readings, very strong indication of sophisticated life. Opening channels to see if we can pick up and read transmissions.”
Nnedi is beside herself with excitement. Sophisticated technology means sophisticated beings, and sophistication is a precursor for conflict. She doesn’t want war, necessarily, but she wants an excuse to visit as many different planets and interact with as many different beings as possible. It’s why she joined the mission in the first place. Conflicts mean setting down on different worlds to properly document the conflict from as many angles as possible with the hopes of gaining an objective view. The thought of significant time off the ship is exciting to her.
Nnedi smiles as she prepares for first contact with Insluf. Ship command had been in communication with the self-professed leaders of the planet who were able to decipher the language of Nnedi’s ship before they could decipher the Insluf language, which worried at least one of the top commanders of the ship. During the ship-wide briefing on Insluf, Nnedi thought the lack of information about the beings and terrain of the planet was odd. The beings of Insluf seemed more than capable of transmitting photographs of themselves and the terrain of their planet, but the briefing on the planet included no photographs or videos. By the end of the briefing, it was decided that a crew would land on Insluf to meet with the leaders of the planet.
“How can you be so gleeful?” Nnedi hears as she puts on her spacesuit.
“Glee is not the correct word, Light,” Nnedi says. She focuses on the straps of her suit that secures her oxygen tank.
“You forget, even though your language is foreign to me, my understanding of it is based on my bond with you. Glee is the exact word you would use to describe your feelings.”
Nnedi half smirks at Light who is humanoid like her, but their exposed skin radiates a dim, yellow glow that Light could modulate in intensity when they were awake; Light was pitch black in sleep. Their name was not actually Light, Nnedi gave them the name when they were on Yiopal. Light was a refugee from their home, a small and dark planet that was completely destroyed in the course of the galactic conflict, and they became bonded to Nnedi when she saved their life upon landing on Yiopal. So many of the beings of Light’s homeworld perished at the destruction of the planet and it is believed that Light is the last of their kind, which is unfortunate for a being of Light’s species that can only live by joining their energies with another once they reach adulthood. Nnedi agreed to join with Light as the glow of their flesh was fading and everyone was surprised when their union worked. No one understood the exact nature of their bond following the joining, but Nnedi cared deeply for Light and their relationship resembled that of a married couple.
“I am not gleeful, not exactly,” Nnedi says. “This is a strange situation, the Insluf leaders are welcoming but not very trusting. They seem to be guarding secrets. I’m excited to see what the planet has in store.”
“You are suppressing feelings of unease,” Light says. “This is truly a strange situation, you are surprised that Command would approve contact without more visuals from the ground. I am uneasy, Nnedi.”
She loves the way Light says her name, it sounds otherworldly when they say it. Nnedi approaches Light and wraps her arms around their waist. Light is warm in the lowglow and Nnedi finds it comforting.
“Feel my resolve to return to you,” Nnedi says sincerely.
This makes Light glow brighter, a sign of true happiness, and Nnedi pulls away before the heat intensifies and burns her. She smiles at Light.
“I always want to be with you,” Light says. “You put me at ease. I trust that you will come back to me.”
Light is dark, pitch black, and they are not asleep. They are worried about the last update from Nnedi’s ship. They sit in the command room as people rush around in chaos and the ship Captain barks orders. It’s been many standard hours since Nnedi’s ship, that included one member of ship command, a communication specialist, and four members of Nnedi’s unit including her, went silent.
“There’s still no response from Insluf…we should send another ship…we should line up warships immediately…”
Light leaves the room. They appreciated that Command had allowed them to sit in on those high level meetings because of their connection to Nnedi, but the chaos was only making things worse. Light had felt their connection to Nnedi slowly fading as she traveled away from the large ship, and since commutation with the ship stopped, Light can only feel that Nnedi is alive somewhere.
The last complete and intelligible thought that Light had been able to feel from Nnedi was one of complete wonder and awe. She had said one word before Light lost meaningful communication:
“Whoa…”
PRL Serials 