He woke eyes burning throwing his hand up against an unbelievably white light that seared his eyes and face. It was so painful he was doubled over hand clutched to his face as he scrabbled to sit up. His mechanical eye whirred as it adjusted to the light and then overloaded, shutting off and rebooting as he tried to stand, forgot he had only one leg and fell to the floor.
Somewhere there was a whimper.
His eye adjusted switching over to a different mode to handle the brightness, and he was finally able to see, keeping a hand over his human eye as he scrambled to strap on his prosthetic, which was sitting by the bed where he left it. It whirred as it clicked into place. Beside him sunny was on her feet though she held one forearm over her eyes, staggering backward into the opposite wall.
Waffles whimpered from under the bed.
"A large one way viewing window gave him access to a view across the lunar surface.
In the distance the historical landing site at Tranquility Base, was only just visible.
Up in the sky the white light continued to burn, bright enough to have overloaded the setting on the window to block out the sun as they slept. He cursed as he stumbled into the hallway, his eyes casting ghosts of light on his eyelids as his vision tried to recover itself. Sunny followed after him as he grabbed his weapons, a spear in one hand and a gun in the other, preparing for all eventualities.
Sunny had no time to put on her armor, but she grabbed her helmet.
Better something than nothing at all.
He threw open the door and the two of them ventured out onto the lunar surface bright light still searing their eyes. Sunny held onto his shoulder unable to see where she was going. Others filtered outside with similar ideas looking up into the sky and past their small atmospheric bubble as they held their hands against the blinding light.
His implant went off and he reached down to answer it.
"Admiral Vir." He ."aid, "Want to tell me what the hell that thing is."
"She's back, we have eyes on the second space dragon."
Relief washed over him, "Is that her, making the light."
"No sir, something else."
"have a shuttle ready for me, I will be there in five."
"Yes sir."
He hung up the call and raced down the roadway, occasionally kicking up moon dust to stain his sweatpants as he ran. Sunny ran after him, and together they made it to the Lunar Port, slipping in through security just as a young pilot stepped from the doorway of an idling shuttle. The white light still burned down on them. Adam thanked the young pilot and hurriedly stepped into the craft with Sunny behind him, it didn't take long before he had exited their atmospheric bubble and entered orbit, finding their way to his ship, and the nearby structure that contained the sleeping Smaug.
Looking out the window, his back to the blinding white light, he could see her, curled up around Smaug's neck like she had always been there.
Around them, the effort to help Smaug had drawn to a halt.
Closing his eyes briefly, he took a deep breath, and, using the trick Conn had taught him, reached out with his thoughts. He couldn't describe the feeling, and the probe was weak like any sort of telepathy attempted by humans, but the message was received.
His mind was filled, soothed with a deep but cool female voice, like warm water rushing over a waterfall, powerful but soothing, either that, or the waves on a warm sea, "Someone wishes to speak with you."
She did not elaborate further, and he was left to wonder as he angled the ship towards the waiting omen, lying dormant as a hibernating bear in the blackness of space. The docking bay doors opened for them, and they flew inside watching the light throb red as the chamber repressurized.
Lt. Someone was already waiting for them, nervously adjusting her glasses.
"Sir."
"What do we know."
"Almost nothing. I had the crew run a scan on the object, but radio emissions are so high, none of the equipment seems to be reading it. Radar is useless radio typography is useless, particle bombardment is useless." Together the three of them hurried up the hallway, long legs in step with each other as they burst through onto the command deck.
"Admiral on deck!"
Everyone stood, turning to salute him quickly before returning to their seats. He sat down in his chair as Sunny did the same. Before them the front viewing screen had been darkened to its maximum, but still the light was bright enough to cast the equipment of the room into sharp white relief, bleaching everything it came in contact with by way of its brightness.
He was just about to begin giving orders when the light began to fade.
The viewing screen responded, adjusting to the light output slowly, leaving them all leaning forward in their seats as the last of the burning light died away.
The command deck gasped.
Adam's eyes widened.
Two of the officers stood.
Simon dropped her holopad which bounced on the deck and skidded under a nearby console.
The room was silent.
Stunned.
Outside the source of the light moved, and Adam, not believing his human eye, adjusted his mechanical one to a zoom so he could see the figure more closely.
Sure enough as it grew in his vision, he could only shake his head in awe.
The human stared back at him.
***
It was with a slight smirk, knowing just hos shocked they all probably were, as the floating human approached the ship. As far as they could tell, he moved on no power at all, simply drifting forward on the power of his own will. It was difficult to make out any real detail as the light of the sun had finally taken over, lighting one half of his body while leaving the other in darkness.
Adam stood as the figure drew closer eyes wide.
It floated towards the viewing window and stopped.
He was tall, but not inhumanly so.
He smiled at them, and then playfully wrapped his knuckles against the glass smile widening int o a grin as Adam scrambled for the comms button, "Someone open the damn airlock!"
The figure nodded and floated away, Adam racing back out of the room and down the stairs. Sunny followed after them, Conn joined them and some point during their descent, as did Krill. They made it just in time to see the airlock open.
People stood in a wide semi-circle, staring at the man as he stepped inside now illuminated by the overhead lights which seemed dim and yellow compared to the bright white light which had woken them before.
Adam took a step forward and so did the man, cutting the distance between them and stopping not a few feet away.
They faced each other, each man measuring the other with an appraising look, one in wonder and one in.... what? What was that look on his face.
It was hard to tell.
"We need to talk."
***
The two men sat across from each other in the war room, one wide eyed and open mouthed, the other curiously turning his head to examine the room.
Adam opened his mouth and then closed it, starting at the figure.
He was human alright.
Not once during his short time on the ship had he demonstrated anything otherwise, well that was of course accept for his ability to survive in the vacuum of space and propel himself like a star born despite his obvious lack of solar ribbons.
Yes.
He was certainly a man, but the ore Adam looked the more he.... Had trouble placing him.
As far as he could tell he had no obvious family lineage . he had a face that was of indeterminate race, Adam might have said middle eastern, but the more he looked the more he was not quite sure.
His eyes were brown, as was his hair, and there was something about them that almost hinted at East Asian ancestry .
It was only after staring at him for a few minutes did he realize that this man might have been anything. Based on how he tried to look at him, features jumped out which could have tied him with any group of people from any continent at the same time.
He shook his head almost thrown off by the same affect.
Either this man had the most diverse background in human history.... Or...
The man's head turned, and Adam followed his eyes to where Conn was floating I the corner. The two locked eyes and stared at each other for a long moment before Conn pulled back wincing.
The human grinned, "A good attempt, but not good enough."
Across the room, Krill and Sunny shot him a look.
They couldn't understand the man, as he was speaking in whatever language it was that was spoken in the Eden archive.
Adam continued to measure the man for a long moment.
The other interesting thing about him.
He was.
Perfect.
It wasn't in a weird way, but it was simply a fact. The man was a perfect human specimen . He had a perfectly symmetrical face that could have been mapped to perfect mathematical proportion by a Fibonacci spiral. His eyes were large but not to big, his lips were full and his cheekbones were high, but not necessarily sharp. He had a jawline that could have cut paper at the right angle, and he had the body of a Greek statue.
Even his skin and hair was without flaw.
It was....
Unsettling wasn't the right word, but it was close.
Adam ventured a guess, "Deus?"
The man smiled, "I see you have discovered the Titles?"
"Titles?" He ventured nervously.
"Yes, the titles by which we address each other in a formal setting, or when meeting for the first time."
Adan passed, took a deep breath, and rested his hands together, interlocking on the table, "So, you are what a Deus is when they...." He paused searching for the words, "Fully mature?"
The man smiled again , "We didn't anticipate how clever you would be." He looked around the ship, "A lot of things have changed since I was on earth."
Adam frowned, "You...."
"Yes of course, where do you think I got this body."
Adam shook his head in confusion, "I.... Wait, so....." He rubbed his temples, "This is complicated."
A hand rested on his shoulder, "Don't feel bad, we don't expect you to understand anything."
When Adam looked up he could see the eyes of the man had softened as if he was looking on a child.... Which Adam supposed he was.
That thought made him feel suddenly very small.
"Stand up, let me have a look at you."
Adam did as told and the man stepped around the side of the table, taking his arm and turning it over with a thoughtful expression. He looked up and rested both hands on either one of his shoulders, running his eyes slowly over Adam's body.
Eventually he paused and looked over.
"This is a good vessel." He glanced at Adam's missing leg, "A good vessel which you seem to have lost pieces of."
Adam found himself blushing hanging his head a bit like a child might after neglecting to take care of an expensive toy, "I.... there were.... Circumstances."
The man tilted Adam's head to the side pursing his lips when he saw the white hair that was beginning to touch Adam at the temples, moving its way up, "Its not the worst reaction to stress I've seen. But back in my day we didn't have things to stress about like you do."
"You keep saying, Your day? I.... when was your day? Who are you?"
The man shrugged again and smiled coyly as if he was enjoying this.
"Oh it was a long, long, long time ago." He patted the ship this place would have been beyond comprehension. Very nice though."
"You didn't answer my question."
"I have been called many names."
"Is cryptic one of them?"
He laughed again, "Ok, ok, depends on which language, but in the original. My name is Adam."