Zion

“...What about the pilot? Were we able to figure out if they were DOA?”

Sai’urn sighs heavily, one of the office chairs creaking slightly as he sits down. “First officer Shaii’kvi died on impact due to engine failure in the pod. An engineering failure in the pod’s design. We suspect she was seeking refuge on station RELLE, before it was taken down a decade ago, sir.”

Wait.

Mom?

“Shit.” Oni hisses under his breath. His heart begins to compete with the officer’s voices, hammering away inside its cage, drowning out the world around him. Slowly, he moves away from the door, his feet pulling the 140lb numb husk of a body and brain down the hallway. 

When he finally comes back to reality, he’s sitting on a bench where all four wings on the deck converge. His leg looks almost as if it’s trying to blast off of his body, bouncing in place like it is. What the fuck was that? When- when did mom crash? How soon after that was it that they actually told us that she died? A day? A week? A month? Three months? She went offline sometimes for safety on her assignments, she was offline for three weeks before that last contact… Was her pod already crash-landing when she called? What was the last thing she said to me? Shit…

“Oni? What are you doing out here?” Sai’s voice cuts through his thoughts.

“O-Oh, hi- hello, sir…” I raise my hand for a salute but Sai’s cuts me off, dismissing the act of respect.

“Not necessary right now, Onii’kvi. I was actually coming to find you.” Shit, why? Onii’kvi clears his throat anxiously. “Is there… someplace we can talk? Somewhere officers won’t come looking on the station, prefferably?” But… their hiding spots! Where would they ditch classes or responsibilities if an officer knew where to find them? “You can… blindfold me if it makes you feel any better about it,” he offers gently, the action striking Oni in surprise.

“You’d… really let me blindfold you and guide you… to somewhere on the station that no officers know about..?” Oni cocks his head to the side, his eyebrows pinched together.

Sai’urn shrugs lightly, as if the mere thought of that wasn’t alarming in the slightest. “We have things to discuss, and I need somewhere without authority, and cameras. I’m aware the…lower ranks often have places like this, and I am willing to do anything at this point.” Fuck, this is serious. 

“Okay… okay, just… you can’t tell anybody. Cross your hearts, hope to die… they’ll kill me without mercy if they knew you were there, alright?” Oni sighs, waiting until Sai’urn offers a firm nod in understanding, and then they’re off. I hope I don’t fucking regret this. 

The silent, anxiety-fueled walk appears endless, navigating distant corridors and scanning the halls for any high-ranking officials or low-ranking pilots that might be curious why the pair are travelling together. Deep breaths, Onii’kvi. Deep breaths. It’s fine, nobody uses this room anymore anyway. Finally, as they approach the asymmetrical double-doors, Onii’kvi pulls out a counterfeit keycard, swipes it along the pad outside the door, and they open. 

“So… this is where the pilots go to escape us, huh? Is that why the corridors feel desolate in the middle of the night?” Sai’urn teases as they step inside and the doors are locked again.

“Not exactly, we have a lot of different spots, but I think the corridors feeling empty is more of you and I being the only ones awake that late ever, and the station being as big as it is,” Oni shrugs. He gestures around the room to various seating options and the stash bins in the corner with drinks and packaged items. 

Sai’urn whistles impressively, then takes a seat in front of the circular window peering into the vast emptiness of space; only a handful of planets visible from the porthole window.

“Nobody will find us here, or use their card on the door, you’re sure?” He seems… anxious. It’s not exactly a common sight for the Captain to come off like this… 

Oni shakes his head and sits down across from Sai in the window seat. “Nobody is coming in. The card is a counterfeit, for an access level that doesn’t exist. There’s only a handful of these circulating the younger ranks, for the rooms. Plus, the security’s been tampered with, it’ll only react to our cards, not yours or the Sergeant’s.” As he explains, Sai’s eyes widen slightly and he scoffs in amusement. 

“I see the younger ranks are much more capable and have more… diverse abilities than you let on, hm?” He probes and Oni shrugs with a small, proud smile. But… nothing good can last. Sai’urn’s smile drops and he adjusts his position on the seat. It almost mirrors Oni’s, his legs crossed in front of him, hands resting on his ankles toying with the branded patch on his combat boots. 

Oni tugs his knees to his chest, arms wrapped around them and his cheek nuzzled into his knee. He glances outside the window, counting as many stars and planets as he possibly can, a calming technique his mother had taught him almost… two and a half decades ago now. Jeez. 

“Oni… What we found earlier…” Sai’urn begins and Oni’s heart drops. Even though he knew, even though he had been listening, had put it all together right there outside the door; despite all of that he still truly believed just a little that he had been wrong–he’d hoped he was wrong. “...I’m sorry, I should have been up front with you, but the pod that we found was one of the GCD’s, from a long time ago.” Sai inhales softly.

Onii’kvi barely glances over to let Sai know that he heard him when he notices—Sai’s hands are shaking. He’s trying to hold onto his ankles to keep them from moving but he’s… shaking. “Sai…?”

“I should have told you right then but I needed to know for sure because… ‘cause…” Sai’urn shakes his head and slowly a hand comes up to wipe at his eyes. “It’s your mom, Oni. Shai-Shaii’kvi, she was… she was in the pod. Her station’s insignia was on the side of the pod-” -flashes of his mom’s jacket with that same design on the patch on her shoulder flash in Oni’s head and it all feels too real- “-we had the body examined, ran DNA samples, and yours is the only one that popped up in our system, besides hers. You’re almost an identical match, Oni, there’s… there’s nobody else that it could be. I’m sorry…”

Oni’s grip tightens on his shins, curling the fabric of his pants together in his hands. “She… you said she died from engine failure, right? That’s why her pod crashed?” Sai’urn pauses, studying Onii’kvi. Finally it seems to click in his head that they’d had an eavesdropper outside the door. 

The Captain reaches out to offer Oni some comfort, squeezing his shoulder. “She was… the body was hard to dissect, to figure out what had happened, but…” he sighs, “I took scans of the pod, the interiors too, while I made you wait at yours. Shaii’kvi had… carved into the inside of the pod what had been happening. She made sure that whoever found her, knew the engine failure she experienced, and when I sent the scans to a few engineers, they confirmed it. There had been tampering with her fuel gauge and the internal fans.”

“Someone limited her air supply, and starved her fuel tank to boot.” Oni finishes what Sai clearly didn’t want to admit. “Her pod was clearly marked GCD… and We never heard anything about this, my dad or I, we… they just told us she was MIA, not that she’d died… do you think they knew?”

Sai’urn sighs, rubbing a hand over his face, wiping his eyes. “I think… even if someone in the GDC knew what happened to her, they wouldn’t tell you. As fucked-up as it is, it’s the way some parts of it operate, especially if she’d been on something classified when it happened. Do you remember if she said anything to you about what she was doing?”

Oni shakes his head, “she never mentioned things like that to me because I was so little when she had been enlisted… and then when she died. I overheard her and my dad talking once before she went on an assignment about something… Zen or Zine… Zi-Zion?” 

Sai’urn’s body freezes, caught in the headlights of the word that fell from Oni’s mouth.

“Sai…? What’s wrong? Does- Does that mean something?”

Sai’urn swallows nervously, exhales, and places his hands out in front of him. “Are you absolutely sure that’s what you heard, Onii’kvi? Absolutely sure?”

“Wh-” Oni frowns, “yes, I’m sure. I- I remember, it was a city where I grew up, it was something about Zion, I thought we were taking a trip for my medical treatment at first but-”

“Oni… what your mother was talking about… is a government project. It was in Kak’ev’s solar system, right next to Ac’ai.” 

“Where we found her.”

“Exactly. The project is extremely classified, as in—only Lieutenant Nal’eid can access those documents and they’re blacked out even for him. This is way higher than we possibly know, your mother– whatever she was doing, it could put your life in danger if they find out you heard them talk, and it can put me in a serious amount of danger, probably already has.” He pauses then mutters softly, “it probably already has put a target on my back, honestly.”

Onii’kvi shakes his head and huffs, pushing his sleeves up his arms. “So, what are we supposed to do? I need- I deserve to know what happened to her, she was my mom, Captain.”

“I understand, Oni. Believe me, I do, if something happened to mine—if I had a chance to find out what happened to my other mom… I’d do anything to find out. But we need to be careful with it, alright?” He sighs, reaching out to offer Oni a hug, wanting to give him any form of comfort he might want. 

“I think…” he sighs, leaning into Sai’s embrace. “I think I know how we can get access to those files. I just need to go see Ti-”

“Shh-shh… wait a second.” Sai’urn whispers and wordlessly stands from the seat, crowding closer to the door and pressing his ear against it. “I think someone’s listening-”