26 (DSV Nautica) Stillness
It was cold. Very cold where Aki was. The sun had not moved. It was almost like a never ending twilight. Celeste stood unmoving, staring off into the distance. Would she ever be allowed back? Celeste smiled, as something moved in Aki's peripheral vision. She looked up and found herself confused. She was staring at a surreal kind of movie. A series of moving pictures on the clouds overhead. Oddly enough, and much to Aki's embarrassment, it was playing the night she and Zhi had shared their first time mating together, in the spring back home on New Ayr. It switched. Her mother...? Again, it switched. The academy on her graduation day. It was like, the movie of her life, in no particular order. Celeste watched with mild interest."Your life. So productive. So rich in events. Not unlike myself. You were destined for something greater, Nee'Aki'Ee'Oh."Aki twitched. It seemed to come out of nowhere, a totally random prompting."Um...thanks?""Its time to go. For now.""Wha-"Before Aki could finish asking, the island dissipated into thin air, and she was falling through the sky toward an unseen ground. She screamed on her way down, trying to catch herself, but the world slowly went black.
May'ael was taking another scan of Aki when she bolted up, flailing about and screaming, before realizing she was back. She had knocked back everyone close to her, and knocked over several tools. Upon realizing she was back on the Erebus, she groaned and fell back into the bed.They were well on the way to the endpoint of the will transmission. The recovered team had also verified the Erebus' data. A Draconid had certainly transported something, or someone, across a vast distance of space. It would take 3 cycles to reach the endpoint. They had time to pause and reflect on the wonders and dangers of this galaxy.The matriarch floated in her relaxation bath, the black stone illuminating the pool with will circuits warming and slowly circulating the water around. The thin cloth clung to her body, her long silver hair fanned out in the water. Her emerald eyes gazed at the ceiling, a perfect representation of the stars overhead. Things were working out appropriately. Perfectly. Just as she had seen, and just as had been promised.