Echo Alpha's Story

It was out of a vague sense of nostalgia that Jurai had decided to look over the same garden of flowers. Her steps had been meandering in any direction that she leaned toward with no real direction, but once she came to that garden, she found herself stopping in place to stare. Eventually, she moved forward, shoulder not an inch away from the boy who had stopped to look first, though the way she did not try to glance toward him or even flick her eyes in his direction said something about her lack of personal bubble.

The woman was dressed almost entirely in dark clothing. Her ensemble was tight-fitting and, to a point, stylish, but all in favor of movement. A thick belt around her hips held two swords, one on each side, and the gloves on her hand had claws that seemed durable enough to help her scale a structure.

Not odd, to see a warrior in Wing City. Even in the gardens.

Echo looked up at the approach of the woman from where he was sitting in the grass, blinking in surprise at her as she came to a halt so close to him. "Hello?" he said with a confused edge to his voice, "Do you wish to speak with me?"

It was unclear whether the boy was uncomfortable with Jurai's close proximity or if he was just confused as to the reasons behind it, but he did not flinch away or make to move.

The woman's head turned to face Echo, eyes peering down at him half-lidded and lifeless. Her brows quirked, confusion passing over her face. "Do I have a reason to speak to you?" she asked him, her words slightly sharp from an unidentified accent. It was not one familiar to most Terrans, or anyone else in the galaxy, for that matter. Not yet.

Echo blinked in response to the question. "I don't know. You approached me, so I thought you did. I didn't mean to assume. I'm sorry." he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I sometimes speak to strangers just because I'm curious what they might say, but most people do not."

"So I did," said Jurai. "Why is it that you are curious?" she inquired, unable to realize that she was displayed that very emotion herself with her questions. "What purpose does it serve?"

Did you find someone with a Voice?

"I don't understand a lot of things, particularly about people. Speaking with new people helps me learn and understand." Echo replied, frowning faintly in thought. He had never really thought about 'why' he wanted to learn new things and understand them. It was just something that came naturally to him.

And again came that question-

"Why?"

She almost seemed to be asking herself despite looking at Echo. "Someone has told you to do such a thing, then. Who is your Voice?" Everyone who was no one had one. He did not speak with the same striking conviction as...

...someone...

...who was it...

"No, nobody has told me to." Echo said, shaking his head. "It just seems to be ... natural to me. It's something I ... want to do." Was that so strange? It certainly seemed it.

"What do you mean, my voice?"

"Then your voice is here-" began Jurai, pointing to his temple. "And not outside. You do not follow another. Or am I mistaken? Very few others that I have spoken to say I speak strangely and tell me to visit a hospital. I have no money, so they would not see me. One other believes my culture is different, but I do not remember it well. I do remember a Voice though."

A loan ship drifted its way towards Isirian space carrying with it a young Isirian woman clad in the grey uniform of the Aschen Special Projects Division. It had been over six months since she had donned the uniform, but putting it back on didn't carry the dread it might have in days past.

This would be her last assignment before she could return to Langara and start a new life, and for once she had a future that lay ahead of her. A future beyond Mollem's brutality. It was the first time she had donned her uniform with a sense of conviction and resolve. She couldn't afford to fuck this up, nor did she intend to.

The small transport ship she was aboard wasn't anything like the massive warships that she was accustomed to, but it would get her and Echo to Arastel. From there she would report to Raphael... a prospect that she didn't much relish. The man had taken great delight in tormenting her back on Langara, and she didn't hold much hope that he had changed one bit.

No matter. With Mollem's assurance that she would be returned to civilian status once she returned to Langara, she could endure Raphael for as long as was necessary.

It was jarring to return to a long space voyage after spending several months on Terra alongside Kianna, but in a way it was more akin to returning to familiarity than anything else. Echo had spent more time in dull grey Aschen interior spaces than he had in the open air, and it was strangely comforting to be back, even if he had enjoyed the greater freedom Kianna allowed him. He also had a defined purpose, orders - he wasn't required to make his own decisions. That in itself was ... easier than the alternative.

All that said, the company he had was unnerving. It had been a long time since he last saw Whisper, and the last time he had seen her, half of her head had been blown out onto the floor. Mollem had said at the time that they could fix her, however, and so it wasn't her seeming rise from the dead that discomforted her, but her actions leading up to her suicide. She had attempted to kill both Mollem and Kianna, the Emperor and Empress. Admittedly, at that time they had been labelled fugitives (the flip-flopping of the whole affair still confused him if he thought too much about it), but their orders had been to apprehend them, not to kill them.

Whisper had disobeyed - rebelled - and she had paid for it.

Echo observed the white-haired girl contemplatively from across the common room in which they were sat, whilst other uniformed men and women talked and moved around them, paying the two oddballs little mind other than to cast an occasional glance their way.

Whisper could feel Echo studiously watching her while she stood apart, her thoughts billions of miles away. It drew her attention briefly as she partially turned her head and caught a look at him out of the corner of her.

A good part of Whisper reviled the Special Projects Division, and there was a twinge of guilt in the woman that though Mollem would be releasing her, so many others were less fortunate. Kianna had refined her techniques though since Whisper's 'education' at the hands of the Aschen, and Echo was more Aschen than not. Unlike Whisper, Echo served willingly and without question. Well, as willing as one could be when subjected to the high levels of brainwashing and propaganda that Echo had.

"We'll be crossing the Isirian border shortly," she told him as she mistook his attention for restlessness.

Echo blinked as Whisper spoke, surprised that she had chosen to initiate conversation herself. She had been so aloof during their previous operation together that he had expected to fall beneath her attention entirely once more. "Oh, that's ... good, I suppose." he replied hesitantly.

He lapsed into silence for several long moments after that, glancing away. Questions bubbled at the back of his mind but most of them were cast aside. The sessions of brainwashing he'd undergone hadn't dispelled his inquisitive, questioning nature, but it had taught him that in most situations such questions were not to be voiced.

"I... Whisper, why did you ..." he trailed off, shaking his head. No, that wasn't a good question. The reasons for betrayal were not important, for there were none that could be valid or worth discussing.

"Where are you from?" That was an acceptable question. He could learn about her without addressing her crimes.

"I'm from Isiria," she explained. "New Haven."

Given Whisper's mastery of Aschen culture and even languages, the information that she herself wasn't Aschen might come as a surprise to Echo. Had he spent any time in researching the recently annexed Aschen state of Isiria, he might be familiar with New Haven's reputation for being a peaceful planet, ripe with pacifists and religious sects. Otherwise the name probably meant little to him.

"Why do you ask?" she asked.

"I was just curious," he replied honestly, shrugging his shoulders, "You don't ... you aren't like the other soldiers and agents. I thought that you might not be from inside the Empire."

There was another pause as he hesitated, but decided to go on. "What's it like there?"

It occurred to Echo that Whisper might have turned on the Emperor and Kianna because she feared that they had designs on her home-world, but he recalled that she had done so while the pair of them were still fugitives, and before Mollem had announced his intent to take Isiria.

"Quiet," she replied with the faintest of smiles upon her lips.

It wasn't often Whisper was known to smile, but talk of New Haven seemed to have a pleasant impact on the woman.

"It remains largely apart from the technological advancements of the central planets, but that's by choice rather than necessity," she explained. "It's a beautiful planet if you ever visit it."

It had been seven years since she had last seen New Haven she thought, and it would likely be a long time coming before she saw it again. Perhaps one day the opportunity to return there would present itself, even just for a time.

"Quiet..." Echo repeated. Quiet was nice, he thought. Though the young golem was not averse to busy places, as they were often places where he could learn much, they could be overwhelming. His time spent both alone and in quiet, serene places such as deep in the gardens in Wing City had been pleasant. "I hope that I will, one day. Though I don't know why I would be sent there."

He looked down at his feet. "I am from Terra. I did not spend long there, though, before I was found by Kianna. I know less of that world than I do of those of the Empire."

"I think one could spend the entirety of their life on Terra and not truly know it," Whisper replied.

It was what had drawn herself to it all those years ago. Its intrigue and mystery, its melting pot of history and lore from races that spanned the entirety of the galaxy and beyond. But that was a different time, and a different life than the one she found herself in now.

"I hope you're happy," she said after a brief silence.

Such a peculiar and random remark, and yet her words seemed to hold a weight of sincerity.

Echo looked up at Whisper's odd remark, blinking in surprise as he inwardly contemplated the question behind it. Was he happy? He wasn't sure. "I..." he began, pausing to pick his words before going on. "I don't know anything else. I am as happy as I have been."

A part of him said 'no', pointed out at the universe and all it had to offer beyond the constraints of the orders of superiors. But another part argued that he'd scarcely know where to start without the direction serving as a soldier afforded him. Independence was a frightening concept.

"I do not know if I would be happier doing other things. I do not know what I would be doing, if not this. In that regard, must I not be happy?"

In truth, Echo had only a limited concept of what it really meant to be happy. He had of course experienced joy, but a broad happiness with his place in the world he had not ever known, to compare the here and now of things to.

Whisper couldn't help but envy Echo in a way. It was easier to wear chains when one had never known freedom to begin with. She said nothing further on the matter though, and instead changed the topic.

"I understand you spent some time on Terra recently?" she asked simply. "Have you acquired any new skill sets?"

A planet like Terra was ripe with lifeforms for Echo to mimic, and it would be good to familiarize herself with any new developments.