The Cycles of Revelation Series
Artifact of the Dawn: Aftermath (A Queer Sci-Fi Adventure)
Episode 37: Ardyn struggles to deal with the aftermath of the battle, while Jevan does his best to comfort his friend.
The rest of the group walked back to where Druyndar had made his last stand. Aerys and the medical techs were already moving through the wounded and stunned. They stabilized the more heavily wounded and sent them below to the medical bay to be treated before moving on to treat those with minor injuries.
When they approached Aerys, he turned to them with a grim look. “We found Druyndar. I’m sorry to report that he’s dead.”
“What? No!” Ardyn shouted.
Ardyn’s heart lept into his throat, his eyes scanning until he saw the body of his fallen elder. He ran toward Druyndar, dropping to his knees next to his still form. Druyndar’s eyes remained open, staring lifelessly at the sky.
Looking up at Takyra with tears streaming down his pale face, Ardyn shouted, “I thought you said the rahn’ora couldn’t kill on the stun setting! Why is Druyndar dead!?”
“I am so sorry, Ardyn.” Takyra looked equally horrified as she glanced between Ardyn and the two remaining elders. “The techs should have had all their weapons set to stun. Let’s get him down to the medical bay so we can figure out what happened.”
Two security techs came over with a stretcher, gently placing Druyndar’s lifeless form on it, before carrying him away into the tower with Aerys accompanying them. Takyra tried to reach out and comfort Ardyn, but he shrugged away and ran toward the tower, with more hot tears streaming down his face.
When Ardyn ran into the tower, instead of taking the elevator down into the ship, he sprinted up the stairs to the next level. There, he found a corner of the platform that overlooked the valley through the large windows. Sliding to his knees, Ardyn sagged onto the floor.
As much as he had butted heads with the Triumvirate over the years, especially with Elder Druyndar, Ardyn had never wished for their deaths. Seeing him lay there, with his lifeless eyes staring into nothing, haunted him. This is all my fault. If I hadn’t found that damned key…
It took Ardyn some time to calm himself. When he heard people moving on the level below, he looked over the landing to see Aerys and his two security techs return, along with Jevan. “This is most unfortunate,” Aerys said. “While Amyra does a full analysis on Druyndar, have every rahn’ora inspected for possible failures.”
“Yes, sir,” said the tech, sprinting ahead.
“I should go find Ardyn,” Jevan told Aerys, before he turned and left the tower.
Taking a deep breath, Ardyn composed himself and followed Jevan outside, looking to see where his tall friend had gone. When he found Jevan, Ardyn approached and gave his friend a sheepish smile.
“Hey, are you okay?” Jevan asked.
“No,” Ardyn admitted, letting Jevan wrap an arm around his shoulders.
The two stayed back, watching in silence while the techs made their way through all the stunned and wounded. Once they tended to everyone, Aerys approached Takyra. “We have fourteen dead. Druyndar was the only casualty on their side. The rest were our people. Ior’kah, what a mess!”
“It’s not your fault,” Takyra said. “Those shields had to come down or our two new Medellan friends would have needlessly died.”
“You’re right,” Aerys agreed. “It was the right call. I just wish we could have made the other side see reason and prevented this tragedy.”
“As do I,” Takyra said.
As the techs carefully laid out the dead next to each other, Ardyn watched in shock. Jevan let go of his hand and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, careful of Ardyn’s injury. “I’m sorry about Druyndar. It shouldn’t have come to this.”
Leaning against Jevan, Ardyn didn’t know what to do. He ached to scream or cry or… anything. All these pointless deaths, and for what? While losing Druyndar had come as a shock, it hit Ardyn even harder to see some of his newfound friends lying dead after having just escaped from a millennium-long slumber. It all felt so senseless.
Jevan squeezed him gently. “Let’s go down to the medical bay and get that wound looked at. Maybe they’ll know more about what happened to Druyndar by now.”
Nodding, Ardyn allowed Jevan to lead him back down into the ship. As they neared the medical bay, there was a flurry of activity in the corridor as the other wounded were still being helped into the bay, which only had eight active beds. Those with less serious injuries had lined up along the corridor and were waiting their turn.
While the Rahn’naa had a full hospital wing on board, it wasn’t operational yet. They hadn’t expected needing it before Druyndar’s forces arrived, and there wasn’t enough time to bring the wing online now. So, Amyra had to make do with the smaller medical bay.
Jevan tried to guide Ardyn past the crowd, but Ardyn held back and led Jevan toward the end of the line. “My wound is not that bad. I can wait.”
A few of the techs had severe injuries, so it took some time for everyone to get treated and then sent back to their quarters with orders to rest. Meanwhile, Takyra and Aerys passed by them, most likely to check in with Amyra on the status of the wounded. When Ardyn and Jevan finally made it into the medical bay, they found them still speaking to Amyra.
“I’m sorry to make you wait,” Amyra apologized.
“I’ll be fine. The wound isn’t serious,” Ardyn insisted. “Do you have news regarding Druyndar?”
“We’ve summoned for Aelrynd and Taeglyn. Let’s get your injury taken care of while we wait,” Amyra suggested.
Ardyn hopped up onto an unoccupied exam bed and Amyra carefully cut away the sleeve around his wound. While it was only a flesh wound, it looked worse than it felt. Next, she swabbed the wound and put the swab into a glass vial. “Takyra told me you were curious about your ancestry,” Amyra explained. “When I have some time, I’ll analyze that sample of your blood I just took and compare it to the records of everyone who was on board the Rahn’naa.”
“I had almost forgotten about that,” Ardyn admitted.
Amyra cleaned the area around the wound with something that looked like water but stung, making Ardyn hiss. “I’m sorry. I should have warned you. This removes bacteria from the wound before I close it up.”
Close it? Ardyn wondered to himself while Amyra went to fetch a small device. As she held the device over his injury, it emitted a light that she moved slowly over the wound. The light caused a warm, tingling sensation under his skin. Ardyn watched in amazement as the flesh around his wound slowly knit back together. A moment later, his skin looked unmarred.
“That’s amazing!” Ardyn exclaimed as he ran his finger over the smooth skin where his wound had been.
A moment later, Aelrynd and Taeglyn came in. Now that they were all gathered, Amyra led them to the bed where Druyndar’s body lay covered with a thin sheet. “I ran several scans of his body; I can confidently report that Druyndar died from heart failure. He had been under severe levels of stress, and I believe even before he was stunned with the rahn’ora, that his heart was on the verge of failure. Being stunned sped up the process.”
While it still saddened him that Druyndar had died for his misguided cause, Ardyn was relieved to know that whoever had stunned him hadn’t been personally responsible for his death. There was enough animosity without having someone to blame.
That’s when Ardyn remembered the reason behind this idiotic conflict in the first place. His people’s hatred and fear of technology. Turning to his two remaining elders, Ardyn couldn’t hold back. “Do you see now? They ended this conflict without deliberately killing our people. Our primitive technology did far more harm! This advanced technology is not more dangerous as you have always claimed!”
“You’re right. This incident has given us much to think about,” Aelrynd agreed. “However, first we should honor the dead and perform the funeral rites. Will you allow us to assist in the rites, Takyra?”
“Yes, of course,” Takyra replied. “One of your own is also dead. Regardless of the circumstances, let us come together so our people can heal the rift between us.”
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