Astral Legacy Book 1

14

                They had been on the Arktora's vessel for just under twenty-four hours having spent the first several hours pulling shrapnel from Kershala's battered body. The process had been tedious even with the tools they had found to use to pull out the deeper pieces. Kale couldn't imagine how painful it would be to have someone pull jagged pieces of metal out of your skin but Kershala barely even winced throughout the whole process. The tools they found seemed medical in nature, but Anubis was sure that they were not used for this on board an Arktora vessel. Kale had mainly used a very fine silver needle to pull the pieces out trying his best to be gentle. Once they had finished the process Kershala had succumbed to exhaustion and insisted on sleeping while he was able. Anubis had interfaced with the ship and used its sensors to keep watch and was satisfied they were alone in the Sol System.

Kale was still dealing with the sick feeling he got from being teleported to the vessel. The technology was something he had only ever seen watching science fiction television shows when he was younger. Needless to say, those shows didn't do a good job preparing him for the process of being ripped apart by his molecules and put back together in a different place. The buzzing on his skin almost reminiscent of receiving several intense static shocks but all over your body at the same time. Once he had the time, he found himself looking himself over to make sure everything was where it should be. He sat beside Kershala having just woken up and looked at his surroundings. Despite the sick feeling in his stomach he couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement, he was sitting on the bridge of an alien star ship. Likely the first human to be looking at his planet through the viewer of a ship capable of faster than light speeds. The possibilities ahead of him seemed boundless as everything he knew to be reality only a few months ago seemed so insignificant to what his reality was now. He went to go stand up and a light headedness come over him suddenly, he paused and steadied himself on a nearby console.

"Take your time, you are not yet used to the artificial gravity field, most non-spacefaring races have difficulty adjusting to it the first time they experience it," said the AI.

"How long does it usually last?" Kale balanced himself and stood up straight. He hadn't slept well or for very long and he was sure this wasn't helping matters any.

"You should start to notice reduced effects over the course of a couple of hours. I suggest not exerting yourself in the meantime."

"Got it." Kale walked over to the viewer at the front of the bridge that still displayed Earth from a high orbit. He started feeling as though he was looking down from a high place and cracked a smile at the thought of his body reacting to heights. "That's incredible. Completely unbelievable." Kale rested his hand on the screen it didn't react to him, but it was warm to touch. He gazed at the screen at a loss for words when he suddenly had a thought. "Anubis, can you show me the surface of Mars, um, the red one..."

"Yes." The screen went dark briefly and reillumined with an image of the red planet.

"Is this live?" The feed displayed the Mars rover traversing the terrain.

"The sensors on this ship are not often used to collect this type of data but the feed is accurate."

"Is it true what our scientists say? Could it support human life?" Kale wondered at the question.

"It would require extensive Terra-forming to become like your Earth. There is evidence of several major impact events that turned it into the dust ridden mass it is now," Anubis explained. Kale turned at a sound behind him to see Kershala standing up. The shrapnel had all been removed from his body but had left behind scarring that would take time to go away. Kale walked over to him as quickly as he could happy to see him awake. "How do you feel?" Kale suddenly lost his balance and fell forward. Kershala caught him and smiled at him.