CHAPTER FOUR
At first, I didn’t do much. I just sat in that old flight chair, letting Ghost float over the controls, her odd little scanner beam lighting up every now and then. If nothing else, I wasn’t sure if I knew how to fly a spaceship, and it looked like she actually knew what she was doing. Eventually, I managed to set the safety on my rifle and rest it on my lap, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, trying to think. I didn’t have much luck.
Eventually, I came back to reality as Ghost spoke, sounding rather satisfied. “Okay, we’re clear. We got enough of a head start that those Fallen skiffs have given up. Even as old as this ship is, they were never going to catch up with an Arcadia on full burn.” I opened my eyes to look at the little drone floating in front of me. “Plus, they know what happens to any of their ships that get too close to the city. We’re not worth that kind of risk.”
“So, we’re safe?”
“As safe as anyone can be,” she said.
“So I can take this damn helmet off?” I asked, tapping a finger against the object in question.
“Oh, uhm, right. I’m pretty sure the design I used is able to be removed on its own…” She floated in closer, then bobbed up and down. “Okay, there’s two latches under the collar, one on each side…”
Once I knew what I was doing, removing the helmet became rather easy, and in only a few moments I was holding it in front of me, considering it thoughtfully. Most of it was simple grey metal and plastic, and the front of it looked like ski goggles and a rebreather mask had been fused with it. Crude yet complex at the same time. Placing it next to the Khostov, I leaned back and turned my attention to Ghost. “How long until we get to this city of yours?”
“Just under an hour,” she said.
Grumbling, I tried to get comfortable in the flight chair. Not an easy task, given there was what felt like a large spring aimed right in the middle of my spine. “Not enough time for a proper nap. If I even could sleep after all that crap.” Running my hands through my hair, I noted that at least seemed to be short, so I probably didn’t have a severe case of helmet hair. Had I always cut it short? Or was it related to how Ghost brought me back from the dead?
The thought lingered in my mind for a moment, my unease growing as I started to realize there were things I didn’t know. Things I should have. I didn’t know how long my hair was. I didn’t know what colour it was. I didn’t know what colour my eyes were, or how tall I was...
I didn’t know my own name.
I don’t know how long I sat there, simply staring at nothing. With everything that had happened today, I hadn’t had time to even really process the situation. But now, with the adrenaline gone, no monsters about to leap out of the shadows, and nothing to do but think, my mind was starting to notice the little details. Such as the fact that before I woke up on that long abandoned road, surrounded by rusted cars and sun-bleached skeletons, I remembered nothing. Not my home, not my family, not even my name.
Groaning, I leaned forward and rested my face in my hands, trying to control my breathing as I worked through the problem. I wasn’t just a blank slate, of that much I was sure. I could walk, talk, and I obviously knew how to fight. Ghost said she’d brought me back from the dead. At this point, I was actually ready to believe that. She also said I’d been dead for a long time, and the state of that road definitely supported that claim. Hopefully, this amnesia was temporary, caused by being dead for so long. And the questions of my past probably wouldn’t be immediately vital.
“Guardian?” Ghosts voice cut through my fear, and I glanced up to see the tiny drone hovering right next to me, somehow radiating concern despite having only a single optic for her ‘face.’
Sighing, I made myself sit up straight and gave her a weak smile. “Sorry, I guess today’s starting to catch up with me.” Even if I was coming to trust her, I wasn’t sure I wanted to discuss my memory issues with her just yet.
“Right, that makes sense. Um…” the little drone bobbed up and down,the panels around her optic rotating. “I am sorry about dropping everything on you like this. Waking you up with Fallen right there, getting you in a gunfight almost immediately, all that. I mean, I knew I was in Fallen territory, but I still thought we’d have a little time for me to explain things to you.” She sighed. “I had this whole speech planned out, you know? I worked on it for years, but then the Fallen show up and make a mess of everything.”
She sounded so utterly offended at that, I couldn’t help but laugh, making the little drone float back in surprise. “It’s alright Ghost. We made it out alive, after all,” I pointed out. Ghost bobbed up and down in a nod, and I gave her a smile. “And all things considered, I think I’ll take being alive over being a skeleton on the side of the road.” My smile wavered slightly at that, but I pressed on before I could linger too much on that unpleasant thought. “So, this city you’re taking me to, what’s it actually called?”
“Actually, it’s just the City,” Ghost replied. “We’ve never really needed another name for it.” Noticing my frown, she nodded. “And yeah, it’s because it’s the only city around. I mean, there’s some towns and villages hidden here and there, but…”
“You mentioned a Collapse earlier,” I said. “From what I’ve seen so far, I think I get where you’re going with it.” Ghost nodded, and I sighed, looking out the cockpit window at the sky beyond. One city. Even with my memories nothing more than a void, I somehow knew how wrong that was. The world was meant to be so much bigger than that. “A Golden Age and a Collapse. I must have missed a lot of history.”
“Centuries. Maybe even longer.” Ghost said, floating back and forth in the air. “It’s a long story, and to be honest, we don’t have all the details ourselves. There’s a lot of holes in the history books.”
Looking up at the cloudless sky above us, I couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly. “Given what the Cosmodrome looks like, I can believe that. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were entire history books missing.” Sighing, I rested my hands behind my head and thought about it for a minute. “Okay. So, before the Fallen, before the Collapse, even before the Golden Age. The story has to start somewhere, right?” Ghost nodded, and I gave her a smile. “Well then. Once upon a time…”
That earned a soft giggle from the drone, before she floated to the center of the cockpit window and turned to face me. “Once upon a time, there was the Traveler. An ancient being, its body forged from the heart of a neutron star, possessing the power to grant life to dead worlds. For millions of years, it’s wandered the universe, for reasons it’s never decided to share with us.And then, in the early twenty-first century, it came to our solar system. One by one, it reshaped the worlds it passed. Gravity changed to allow humans to walk on the surface safely, their atmosphere transformed into clean air. Mercury, Venus, Mars. All of them remade into garden worlds, waiting for humanity.”
I tried to imagine the sheer scale of what Ghost was implying. Oxygen, water, air pressure, shielding from cosmic radiation… The time and resources needed to terraform even one planet was beyond anything I could hope to put numbers to. And this Traveler had done it to multiple planets? “Those ships back at the Cosmodrome, I’m guessing that’s where they were going?”
“And just about everywhere else they could reach,” Ghost said. “Moons, any asteroids large and stable enough to build on, hundreds of space stations… Humanity spread out across the solar system, and maybe even beyond.” She turned to look up at the blue sky, and when she spoke again, I could hear the wonder in her voice. “They say there were cities of crystal on Venus, and beautiful forests covering most of Mercury. Scientific discoveries brought back species humanity had rendered extinct, cured diseases, even created synthetic intelligence. With the Traveler’s help, humanity had entered a Golden Age.”
Pausing, Ghost seemed to lose herself in thought for a moment, still looking up at the sky Despite the wonders she’d just spoken of, I felt a cold dread work its way down my spine. The Cosmodrome, one of humanities gateways to those other worlds, was little more than abandoned ruins, with alien scavengers picking over the remains. The implications for the rest of the world, let alone anything beyond the atmosphere, were obvious and troubling. So I was hardly surprised when Ghost looked back down and said, in a much sadder tone than before, “But it couldn’t last.”
“Because the Traveler had an enemy. Even after all these centuries, we don’t know who or what it was. Just that it was incredibly powerful, and the name the survivors gave it. They called it the Darkness. When it came, everything humanity had achieved, everything they’d created… all of it was just… wiped away.” Ghost sighed, the light in her optic dulling considerably. “We can’t be sure how many people were alive before the Collapse. It’s all guesswork, from what records explorers and historians have been able to piece together in the centuries since, but we think it was at least sixteen billion. By the time the Darkness was driven back, well.” She looked up at me, the panels around her optic slowly rotating. “The most optimistic estimate was still less than a hundred million.”
Even though I’d expected it to be bad, the sheer scale of what Ghost was suggesting still hit like a punch to the stomach. My first attempt to reply cut off with a pained gasp, forcing me to take a breath. “How? Something that powerful, so destructive, and we drove it back? How?”
“The Traveler,” Ghost replied, her optic brightening again. “Despite overwhelming odds, it stood against the Darkness. Every person killed, every world burned, cost the Darkness dearly, even as it forced the Traveler back. Eventually, in one final battle above the Earth, the Traveler was triumphant, injuring the Darkness to the point it was forced to abandon the solar system and flee into the void. It was a narrow victory though, one that cost the Traveler just as much as it did humanity.”
My mind drifted back to that odd vision I’d had when Ghost had channelled more Light into me. The figure made of Light, trapped in a temple of death, the scars of old injuries running across its body. “It was injured,” I said quietly. “Almost killed.”
Ghost blinked, clearly not expecting that comment. “It was, yes. While the Darkness retreated, the Traveler fell back to Earth. We’re… reasonably sure it’s not dead.” I raised both my eyebrows. “You’ll understand I mean when we get there. It’s…” she paused, then twitched a pair of its panels in what seemed like a shrug. “It’s incredibly alien. But its body still contains the Light, which prevents the Darkness or its servants from getting too close. When people figured that part out…”
“Survivors started making their way there,” I finished, hearing the terror in my voice. “And this City of yours grew up around it.” Ghost nodded, and I shifted in my seat, trying to get comfortable again. Running my hands down my face, I stared up at the sky and tried not to hyperventilate. Regardless of what had happened to the world, having a panic attack while forty thousand feet above the ground would be a terrible idea. Eventually, I managed to calm down slightly, and I pulled my attention back from the clear blue sky, looking at Ghost. “Okay then. I’m following you so far. I’ll probably have nightmares about it later, but I’m following you.” That got a slight laugh from the tiny drone, before I leaned forward to consider her again. “So, next question. What’s a Guardian?”
“You are, obviously.” That non-answer earned her a raised eyebrow, and she giggled. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. When the Traveler was injured, it knew humanity wasn’t safe, and that there was a good chance it wouldn’t recover in time to help them. So it created the Ghosts. I don’t know how many of us there are, but we all have the same purpose. To find our partner, the one that can channel the Traveler’s Light. Together, we can stand against the Darkness and its minions, and give humanity and its children a future.”
“But I was dead, so you needed to fix that?”
Instead of sounding defensive or off balance, as I would have expected, Ghost simply ‘shrugged’ again. “Well, most Guardians are.”
“Really,” I said, giving her another raised eyebrow.
“Really. The ability to channel the Light is extremely rare. Most people with the ability are dead, and have been for a very long time. Which is why I was able to bring you back. And… why I can again, if need be.”
At that comment, I went very still. Taking a moment to compose myself, I kept my voice as level as I could. “Again. Are you telling me I can’t die?”
“Oh, no, you can definitely die, although you’re a lot harder to kill than a normal human. But with the Light flowing through us both, I’m capable of resurrecting you again. There’s limitations, mind you,” she said, sounding almost apologetic. “It requires the Light, I have to be close enough, and if something damaged or destroyed me, that’d be the end of both of us. But I’m a lot more durable than I look, and that’s before you consider the fact that when I’m merged with you, I’m not entirely in this physical dimension.”
Groaning, I dropped back against the chair, closing my eyes and running my hands through my hair. “Holy crap,” I declared. “I am a space magic zombie warrior, in the future. Fighting aliens.” Considering that, I couldn’t help but laugh. “This is definitely the craziest day of my life.”
“Actually, by modern standards, this is kind of normal,” Ghost admitted. Opening my eyes, I gave her a faint glare. “Oh. Sorry.”
“You’re really not filling me with confidence,” I told her, although I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. “Next you’ll tell me cats didn’t survive the Collapse.”
Blinking at that, Ghost tilted to the side. “No, they’re still around. Why cats?”
“Because I really need something cute and cuddly right now. Preferably fluffy too, which rules you out.” She nodded, conceding the point, and I closed my eyes again, letting a silence settle over the cockpit. Neither of us spoke for a while, as I simply tried to process this impossible world I’d found myself in.
While it was an unpleasant issue, my amnesia likely wouldn’t be an immediate problem. At this point, I was confident Ghost was more or less telling the truth. Which meant I’d been dead so long that there wasn’t much chance of whatever history I might have coming out of nowhere and catching me by surprise. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about that, but at least I’d probably have the time to think it over.
The rest of what I’d discovered was more of an immediate concern. Being brought back from the dead to defend humanity from aliens with some kind of space magic didn’t exactly sound like something I could just say no to. Especially if this City we were flying to really was the only remaining piece of civilisation around. So I may have just been drafted into a war I knew nothing about. And that was the big problem. There was still so much about this world I didn’t know. Not even secrets, just the everyday details that a local would take for granted. If I was going to survive, I needed information. And given I still had nearly a while before we arrived at the City… Sighing, I opened my eyes and looked at Ghost again. “Right, moving on...”
***
The jumpship shuddered in a sudden crosswind, something in the rear of the craft making a disturbing groaning noise. Reaching for my seatbelt, I glanced at my companion. “Ghost, I have to ask. Is this really the best way to get to the City?” Locking the buckle into place, I gestured at the window, and the rather energetic storm that we’d just flown into.
Curiously, Ghost actually seemed to fidget under my gaze. “Well, it’s not the best way to get there,” she admitted. “Going around wouldn’t really have been a problem.”
“Then why didn’t we?” I said, wincing as the ship shook again. “I’m not entirely sure this old girl’s up for this sort of turbulence.” The fact that I could see lightning crackling outside certainly didn’t help with my peace of mind. “It’s not over the actual City, is it? Because if you want to try and land in this…”
“Oh, don’t worry, it’s moving away from the City, and the edge of it is already past the walls.”
Both my eyebrows rose again, and I leaned forward as far as my seatbelt would allow. “Really now.” Ghost squirmed under the attention, and I chuckled. “Ghost, did you come this way so I’d get an impressive first look at the City?” Slowly, she bobbed up and down in a nod, and my chuckle grew into a laugh. “You are a little drama queen, you know that?” I said, leaning back against the chair.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a drama queen,” Ghost protested. ‘I just thought it’d look nice-”
“Relax, I’m only teasing,” I assured her. “Besides, we’re nearly there,” I added, gesturing towards the sunlight peeking through the clouds ahead of us. One last shudder ran through the craft, and then we were out in the daylight again. As my eyes adjusted to the afternoon sunlight, I got my first look at the Last City, and all thoughts of teasing my partner were forgotten.
It was massive, stretching from the giant wall a few miles away, to the snow covered mountains on the edge of the horizon. Even at this distance, I could make out highways, factories, residential districts and parks, all growing larger and more complex the further you went into the city, until you reached the skyscrapers at its heart. It was incredible, the result of centuries of labor and growth, a metropolis unmatched by anything else in history. Just the sight of it outside my window helped reassure me that not all of civilisation had ended up like the Cosmodrome.
But most of my attention was on the skies above the City. Hanging there, in complete contempt of gravity, was a massive sphere, dozens of miles wide. What would have once been a flawless white surface was now covered in scars from an ancient battle, and an entire portion was missing from its underside. More than that though, was the Light I could feel, contained within that impossible vessel. The Light that I channelled, that Ghost used to bring me back, it all came from here.
“The Traveler,” I whispered, feeling so tiny in the face of that being. “It’s…” I pulled my gaze away from it, looking at Ghost instead. “I see what you meant earlier. About it being alien.”
“Oh yeah,” she agreed. “But it’s alive, isn’t it?”
“Whatever that means here. But I think so.” Smiling, I turned my attention back to the view. “Flying through the storm was the right choice.”
Ghost giggled softly, her scanner beams dancing over the controls again. “Welcome to the City Guardian. Welcome home.”
At first, I didn’t do much. I just sat in that old flight chair, letting Ghost float over the controls, her odd little scanner beam lighting up every now and then. If nothing else, I wasn’t sure if I knew how to fly a spaceship, and it looked like she actually knew what she was doing. Eventually, I managed to set the safety on my rifle and rest it on my lap, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, trying to think. I didn’t have much luck.
Eventually, I came back to reality as Ghost spoke, sounding rather satisfied. “Okay, we’re clear. We got enough of a head start that those Fallen skiffs have given up. Even as old as this ship is, they were never going to catch up with an Arcadia on full burn.” I opened my eyes to look at the little drone floating in front of me. “Plus, they know what happens to any of their ships that get too close to the city. We’re not worth that kind of risk.”
“So, we’re safe?”
“As safe as anyone can be,” she said.
“So I can take this damn helmet off?” I asked, tapping a finger against the object in question.
“Oh, uhm, right. I’m pretty sure the design I used is able to be removed on its own…” She floated in closer, then bobbed up and down. “Okay, there’s two latches under the collar, one on each side…”
Once I knew what I was doing, removing the helmet became rather easy, and in only a few moments I was holding it in front of me, considering it thoughtfully. Most of it was simple grey metal and plastic, and the front of it looked like ski goggles and a rebreather mask had been fused with it. Crude yet complex at the same time. Placing it next to the Khostov, I leaned back and turned my attention to Ghost. “How long until we get to this city of yours?”
“Just under an hour,” she said.
Grumbling, I tried to get comfortable in the flight chair. Not an easy task, given there was what felt like a large spring aimed right in the middle of my spine. “Not enough time for a proper nap. If I even could sleep after all that crap.” Running my hands through my hair, I noted that at least seemed to be short, so I probably didn’t have a severe case of helmet hair. Had I always cut it short? Or was it related to how Ghost brought me back from the dead?
The thought lingered in my mind for a moment, my unease growing as I started to realize there were things I didn’t know. Things I should have. I didn’t know how long my hair was. I didn’t know what colour it was. I didn’t know what colour my eyes were, or how tall I was...
I didn’t know my own name.
I don’t know how long I sat there, simply staring at nothing. With everything that had happened today, I hadn’t had time to even really process the situation. But now, with the adrenaline gone, no monsters about to leap out of the shadows, and nothing to do but think, my mind was starting to notice the little details. Such as the fact that before I woke up on that long abandoned road, surrounded by rusted cars and sun-bleached skeletons, I remembered nothing. Not my home, not my family, not even my name.
Groaning, I leaned forward and rested my face in my hands, trying to control my breathing as I worked through the problem. I wasn’t just a blank slate, of that much I was sure. I could walk, talk, and I obviously knew how to fight. Ghost said she’d brought me back from the dead. At this point, I was actually ready to believe that. She also said I’d been dead for a long time, and the state of that road definitely supported that claim. Hopefully, this amnesia was temporary, caused by being dead for so long. And the questions of my past probably wouldn’t be immediately vital.
“Guardian?” Ghosts voice cut through my fear, and I glanced up to see the tiny drone hovering right next to me, somehow radiating concern despite having only a single optic for her ‘face.’
Sighing, I made myself sit up straight and gave her a weak smile. “Sorry, I guess today’s starting to catch up with me.” Even if I was coming to trust her, I wasn’t sure I wanted to discuss my memory issues with her just yet.
“Right, that makes sense. Um…” the little drone bobbed up and down,the panels around her optic rotating. “I am sorry about dropping everything on you like this. Waking you up with Fallen right there, getting you in a gunfight almost immediately, all that. I mean, I knew I was in Fallen territory, but I still thought we’d have a little time for me to explain things to you.” She sighed. “I had this whole speech planned out, you know? I worked on it for years, but then the Fallen show up and make a mess of everything.”
She sounded so utterly offended at that, I couldn’t help but laugh, making the little drone float back in surprise. “It’s alright Ghost. We made it out alive, after all,” I pointed out. Ghost bobbed up and down in a nod, and I gave her a smile. “And all things considered, I think I’ll take being alive over being a skeleton on the side of the road.” My smile wavered slightly at that, but I pressed on before I could linger too much on that unpleasant thought. “So, this city you’re taking me to, what’s it actually called?”
“Actually, it’s just the City,” Ghost replied. “We’ve never really needed another name for it.” Noticing my frown, she nodded. “And yeah, it’s because it’s the only city around. I mean, there’s some towns and villages hidden here and there, but…”
“You mentioned a Collapse earlier,” I said. “From what I’ve seen so far, I think I get where you’re going with it.” Ghost nodded, and I sighed, looking out the cockpit window at the sky beyond. One city. Even with my memories nothing more than a void, I somehow knew how wrong that was. The world was meant to be so much bigger than that. “A Golden Age and a Collapse. I must have missed a lot of history.”
“Centuries. Maybe even longer.” Ghost said, floating back and forth in the air. “It’s a long story, and to be honest, we don’t have all the details ourselves. There’s a lot of holes in the history books.”
Looking up at the cloudless sky above us, I couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly. “Given what the Cosmodrome looks like, I can believe that. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were entire history books missing.” Sighing, I rested my hands behind my head and thought about it for a minute. “Okay. So, before the Fallen, before the Collapse, even before the Golden Age. The story has to start somewhere, right?” Ghost nodded, and I gave her a smile. “Well then. Once upon a time…”
That earned a soft giggle from the drone, before she floated to the center of the cockpit window and turned to face me. “Once upon a time, there was the Traveler. An ancient being, its body forged from the heart of a neutron star, possessing the power to grant life to dead worlds. For millions of years, it’s wandered the universe, for reasons it’s never decided to share with us.And then, in the early twenty-first century, it came to our solar system. One by one, it reshaped the worlds it passed. Gravity changed to allow humans to walk on the surface safely, their atmosphere transformed into clean air. Mercury, Venus, Mars. All of them remade into garden worlds, waiting for humanity.”
I tried to imagine the sheer scale of what Ghost was implying. Oxygen, water, air pressure, shielding from cosmic radiation… The time and resources needed to terraform even one planet was beyond anything I could hope to put numbers to. And this Traveler had done it to multiple planets? “Those ships back at the Cosmodrome, I’m guessing that’s where they were going?”
“And just about everywhere else they could reach,” Ghost said. “Moons, any asteroids large and stable enough to build on, hundreds of space stations… Humanity spread out across the solar system, and maybe even beyond.” She turned to look up at the blue sky, and when she spoke again, I could hear the wonder in her voice. “They say there were cities of crystal on Venus, and beautiful forests covering most of Mercury. Scientific discoveries brought back species humanity had rendered extinct, cured diseases, even created synthetic intelligence. With the Traveler’s help, humanity had entered a Golden Age.”
Pausing, Ghost seemed to lose herself in thought for a moment, still looking up at the sky Despite the wonders she’d just spoken of, I felt a cold dread work its way down my spine. The Cosmodrome, one of humanities gateways to those other worlds, was little more than abandoned ruins, with alien scavengers picking over the remains. The implications for the rest of the world, let alone anything beyond the atmosphere, were obvious and troubling. So I was hardly surprised when Ghost looked back down and said, in a much sadder tone than before, “But it couldn’t last.”
“Because the Traveler had an enemy. Even after all these centuries, we don’t know who or what it was. Just that it was incredibly powerful, and the name the survivors gave it. They called it the Darkness. When it came, everything humanity had achieved, everything they’d created… all of it was just… wiped away.” Ghost sighed, the light in her optic dulling considerably. “We can’t be sure how many people were alive before the Collapse. It’s all guesswork, from what records explorers and historians have been able to piece together in the centuries since, but we think it was at least sixteen billion. By the time the Darkness was driven back, well.” She looked up at me, the panels around her optic slowly rotating. “The most optimistic estimate was still less than a hundred million.”
Even though I’d expected it to be bad, the sheer scale of what Ghost was suggesting still hit like a punch to the stomach. My first attempt to reply cut off with a pained gasp, forcing me to take a breath. “How? Something that powerful, so destructive, and we drove it back? How?”
“The Traveler,” Ghost replied, her optic brightening again. “Despite overwhelming odds, it stood against the Darkness. Every person killed, every world burned, cost the Darkness dearly, even as it forced the Traveler back. Eventually, in one final battle above the Earth, the Traveler was triumphant, injuring the Darkness to the point it was forced to abandon the solar system and flee into the void. It was a narrow victory though, one that cost the Traveler just as much as it did humanity.”
My mind drifted back to that odd vision I’d had when Ghost had channelled more Light into me. The figure made of Light, trapped in a temple of death, the scars of old injuries running across its body. “It was injured,” I said quietly. “Almost killed.”
Ghost blinked, clearly not expecting that comment. “It was, yes. While the Darkness retreated, the Traveler fell back to Earth. We’re… reasonably sure it’s not dead.” I raised both my eyebrows. “You’ll understand I mean when we get there. It’s…” she paused, then twitched a pair of its panels in what seemed like a shrug. “It’s incredibly alien. But its body still contains the Light, which prevents the Darkness or its servants from getting too close. When people figured that part out…”
“Survivors started making their way there,” I finished, hearing the terror in my voice. “And this City of yours grew up around it.” Ghost nodded, and I shifted in my seat, trying to get comfortable again. Running my hands down my face, I stared up at the sky and tried not to hyperventilate. Regardless of what had happened to the world, having a panic attack while forty thousand feet above the ground would be a terrible idea. Eventually, I managed to calm down slightly, and I pulled my attention back from the clear blue sky, looking at Ghost. “Okay then. I’m following you so far. I’ll probably have nightmares about it later, but I’m following you.” That got a slight laugh from the tiny drone, before I leaned forward to consider her again. “So, next question. What’s a Guardian?”
“You are, obviously.” That non-answer earned her a raised eyebrow, and she giggled. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. When the Traveler was injured, it knew humanity wasn’t safe, and that there was a good chance it wouldn’t recover in time to help them. So it created the Ghosts. I don’t know how many of us there are, but we all have the same purpose. To find our partner, the one that can channel the Traveler’s Light. Together, we can stand against the Darkness and its minions, and give humanity and its children a future.”
“But I was dead, so you needed to fix that?”
Instead of sounding defensive or off balance, as I would have expected, Ghost simply ‘shrugged’ again. “Well, most Guardians are.”
“Really,” I said, giving her another raised eyebrow.
“Really. The ability to channel the Light is extremely rare. Most people with the ability are dead, and have been for a very long time. Which is why I was able to bring you back. And… why I can again, if need be.”
At that comment, I went very still. Taking a moment to compose myself, I kept my voice as level as I could. “Again. Are you telling me I can’t die?”
“Oh, no, you can definitely die, although you’re a lot harder to kill than a normal human. But with the Light flowing through us both, I’m capable of resurrecting you again. There’s limitations, mind you,” she said, sounding almost apologetic. “It requires the Light, I have to be close enough, and if something damaged or destroyed me, that’d be the end of both of us. But I’m a lot more durable than I look, and that’s before you consider the fact that when I’m merged with you, I’m not entirely in this physical dimension.”
Groaning, I dropped back against the chair, closing my eyes and running my hands through my hair. “Holy crap,” I declared. “I am a space magic zombie warrior, in the future. Fighting aliens.” Considering that, I couldn’t help but laugh. “This is definitely the craziest day of my life.”
“Actually, by modern standards, this is kind of normal,” Ghost admitted. Opening my eyes, I gave her a faint glare. “Oh. Sorry.”
“You’re really not filling me with confidence,” I told her, although I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. “Next you’ll tell me cats didn’t survive the Collapse.”
Blinking at that, Ghost tilted to the side. “No, they’re still around. Why cats?”
“Because I really need something cute and cuddly right now. Preferably fluffy too, which rules you out.” She nodded, conceding the point, and I closed my eyes again, letting a silence settle over the cockpit. Neither of us spoke for a while, as I simply tried to process this impossible world I’d found myself in.
While it was an unpleasant issue, my amnesia likely wouldn’t be an immediate problem. At this point, I was confident Ghost was more or less telling the truth. Which meant I’d been dead so long that there wasn’t much chance of whatever history I might have coming out of nowhere and catching me by surprise. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about that, but at least I’d probably have the time to think it over.
The rest of what I’d discovered was more of an immediate concern. Being brought back from the dead to defend humanity from aliens with some kind of space magic didn’t exactly sound like something I could just say no to. Especially if this City we were flying to really was the only remaining piece of civilisation around. So I may have just been drafted into a war I knew nothing about. And that was the big problem. There was still so much about this world I didn’t know. Not even secrets, just the everyday details that a local would take for granted. If I was going to survive, I needed information. And given I still had nearly a while before we arrived at the City… Sighing, I opened my eyes and looked at Ghost again. “Right, moving on...”
***
The jumpship shuddered in a sudden crosswind, something in the rear of the craft making a disturbing groaning noise. Reaching for my seatbelt, I glanced at my companion. “Ghost, I have to ask. Is this really the best way to get to the City?” Locking the buckle into place, I gestured at the window, and the rather energetic storm that we’d just flown into.
Curiously, Ghost actually seemed to fidget under my gaze. “Well, it’s not the best way to get there,” she admitted. “Going around wouldn’t really have been a problem.”
“Then why didn’t we?” I said, wincing as the ship shook again. “I’m not entirely sure this old girl’s up for this sort of turbulence.” The fact that I could see lightning crackling outside certainly didn’t help with my peace of mind. “It’s not over the actual City, is it? Because if you want to try and land in this…”
“Oh, don’t worry, it’s moving away from the City, and the edge of it is already past the walls.”
Both my eyebrows rose again, and I leaned forward as far as my seatbelt would allow. “Really now.” Ghost squirmed under the attention, and I chuckled. “Ghost, did you come this way so I’d get an impressive first look at the City?” Slowly, she bobbed up and down in a nod, and my chuckle grew into a laugh. “You are a little drama queen, you know that?” I said, leaning back against the chair.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a drama queen,” Ghost protested. ‘I just thought it’d look nice-”
“Relax, I’m only teasing,” I assured her. “Besides, we’re nearly there,” I added, gesturing towards the sunlight peeking through the clouds ahead of us. One last shudder ran through the craft, and then we were out in the daylight again. As my eyes adjusted to the afternoon sunlight, I got my first look at the Last City, and all thoughts of teasing my partner were forgotten.
It was massive, stretching from the giant wall a few miles away, to the snow covered mountains on the edge of the horizon. Even at this distance, I could make out highways, factories, residential districts and parks, all growing larger and more complex the further you went into the city, until you reached the skyscrapers at its heart. It was incredible, the result of centuries of labor and growth, a metropolis unmatched by anything else in history. Just the sight of it outside my window helped reassure me that not all of civilisation had ended up like the Cosmodrome.
But most of my attention was on the skies above the City. Hanging there, in complete contempt of gravity, was a massive sphere, dozens of miles wide. What would have once been a flawless white surface was now covered in scars from an ancient battle, and an entire portion was missing from its underside. More than that though, was the Light I could feel, contained within that impossible vessel. The Light that I channelled, that Ghost used to bring me back, it all came from here.
“The Traveler,” I whispered, feeling so tiny in the face of that being. “It’s…” I pulled my gaze away from it, looking at Ghost instead. “I see what you meant earlier. About it being alien.”
“Oh yeah,” she agreed. “But it’s alive, isn’t it?”
“Whatever that means here. But I think so.” Smiling, I turned my attention back to the view. “Flying through the storm was the right choice.”
Ghost giggled softly, her scanner beams dancing over the controls again. “Welcome to the City Guardian. Welcome home.”