Beacon

Static

Warmth enveloping her, a delicate golden glow. It was familiar but felt so distant. V struggled to remember, to feel it closer, to recognise who it was. But distant it stayed, just out of sight, just out of touch. Barely beyond her recollection.

"V, have you evaluated the Ajaji files yet?" The freckle-faced woman seemed to be in a trance, ignoring her superior completely. "Ve-Keller!" His voice jerked her back to reality. The Charrian towered over her desk, his golden eyes scouring hers for a response.

"Yes- what? Sarge?"

"Ajaji files." He chuckled, her face heat up and changed complexion faster than she could control, furthering the deep chuckle coming from the Sargent's chest.

"Fuck..."

The Sargent straightened himself and left the chaotic nightmare that was the "desk" of Vanessa Keller. She watched him stroll away until he couldn't hear her slam her head into a pile of documents and shriek internally.

In five seconds I will raise my head high and get it done.

5...4...3...

"V."

Fucking...

Vanessa lifted her head scarcely enough to see her favourite mug offered out to her, the luminous emerald glow from the Sarge's tail coiled around the handle adorned the mug in the most inviting fashion. "Sarge." she gave him a thankful smile, accepting the proffered cup and deeply inhaling in the aroma of herbal tea, honey, with just a pinch of citrus.

Her favourite, she had discovered and only Sarge made it just right.

The Charrian's tail relaxed comfortably on the Ajaji files that she would have wasted considerable time sifting for had she not paid attention to the glowing appendage.

"I figured since you would get to go into the field with me if you got the files finalised..."

"Wait! I am going into the field?"

"If you get the files finalised before I leave, yes. So, finish your tea and get to, V."

Sarge's tail slipped off her desk and swayed behind him as he departed for his office.

Vanessa took another deep breath in, savouring the tea. Her interest in the moment of serenity brought her to her colleagues. All "alien" races but she felt more the alien among them even here on Earth, and even around most humans, she felt off.

From what Vanessa had been told when she woke up two years ago, she was born in 2029 to an upper-class family in Germany, joined the military and became a highly decorated officer and strategist before the Impasse War. After her squad was killed, she volunteered as a subject to assess the effects of the "new" long-term cryogenic freezing on living humans.

She awoke in 2112, and while the others had severe neurological damage or died, she survived, at the expense of her memory.

The last of the subjects to be pulled out was in 2097, they sustained extreme neurological trauma and died in 2099. She was all that remained from her family, friends, from her time and life from before. And she knew nothing of it, of them. Or herself.

Vanessa could vaguely recall the contours of her mother's face, her father's eyes, and that unique warmth she could never place when she tried to focus on her former life.

Perhaps it was what she wanted to imagine. Maybe it wasn't her family she remembered. Just what she craved to remember, to grant her some memories, even false ones.

"Ness~!" Vanessa was plucked from her thoughts again to see Hyuin jabbing her shoulder with a claw.

"Hyu." A Qen, the feline-like race from the jungle planet, Alvari. They reminded Vanessa of elves from storybooks and movies, but with more cat-like faces and tufts of fur. Their absence of tails forever disappointed her.