Lancieta thought it was weird. Now that she had seen Panzer for the first time in months, finally, a sense of relief washed over her. She'd been in countless stressful situations before; Commanding troops into battle against the Halgred was tough. There was always a high chance that someone under her command wouldn't be going home with their platoon. She wasn't cold to other people but she rarely, if ever, allowed herself to become so manic. This reunion was different. Here on this planet, relatively removed from the chaos of an active war-zone, she felt a stress lift from her when she saw Panzer was ok.
"Are you ok? Did you get hurt? Did you eat anything poisonous?"
"I'm fine mom but Catty got hurt. We were attacked by some impossibly fast reptile-dog-thing. It tore into her pretty bad."
Catty shifted to show her scar as the 10 foot long Komodo Dragon to Panzers left grumbled, scaring a few of the people in conference.
"Oh right." Panzer felt sheepish about not introducing them first."Guys, this is Lancieta. The one who looked after me and got me to go out and find you both" Then he turned to Lancieta. "Apparently, they... we knew each other before the crash. The Tigress is Catty and the Komodo Dragon is Nik. Nik was the 'pull' I felt. Catty felt it too."
Lancieta stood up and she put a hand over her heart and bowed, Catty and Nik bowed back as best they could. Lancieta looked off to the side, tears still forming in her eyes, and spoke seemingly to no one. The group of people started talking amongst themselves again as Lancieta got reacquainted with the grey Panther.
"Yora. Do we have any translators left?"
"I'd say so Captain, I'll bring some out."
"Just two, Panzer's back. He found some of his family. You might have to recalibrate his though."
Catty mewed at Panzer and put a paw on his head.
"You told her we were family? You're adorable."
"Shut up Catty..."
"I guess we figured out if cats can blush Catty."
"Hah!"
Nik and Catty started to laugh, which to everyone else seemed odd since they only heard Panzer speaking. Had this been any other time in history everyone would have assumed they were crazy but now they just looked weird. After a few more seconds of laughing the trio noticed everyone staring at them and they stopped. Yora passed the open doors of Section 6, taking notice of the translators on the table in the lobby. Lancieta helped him put them on Nik and Catty. Since Nik has no fur, the clip simply attaches to the collar but as with the other fur-less humans, Yora spent a little more time calibrating. Then he helped Panzer fit a new translator, copying over the settings from the old one.
Mei-lin noticed they had finished getting situated and turned the congregation's attention back to them. Lancieta noticed all eyes were on her and wiped the tears from hers.
"I'm sorry. I... it's just been so long since I've seen Panzer, please forgive me."
Mei-lin nodded and caught the attention of Panzer and his reacquainted family.
"How long have you three been awake for? So far the 'oldest' one here is about 5 months."
The Gorilla raised his hand and stepped forward awkwardly as everyone looked to him with a sense of respect.
"I'm not sure really. Maybe like... 2 months ago? Just before I ran into Panzer."
"Maybe one and a half months for me if I had to guess. I was focused on staying warm and not freezing to death, not time keeping."
Panzer looked to Lancieta in thought before answering. "7 months, give or take a week."
The congregation nearly gasped at the same time and whispers surrounded Panzer like a tornado of intrigue. Mei-lin quieted them all down. "Alright, alright calm down." The whispers died down and before Mei-lin could ask another question Panzer had one ready. "Have you guys seen the footage?" A few people in the congregation shuffled uncomfortably at it's mention. "Did you tell them about the command rooms you've turned into crypts?"
Lancieta's face fell as did Yora's at the mention of the impromptu crypts. Catty noticed a few people seemed confused at their mention, she was just as confused but Mei-lin spoke before anyone else to bring up something new.
"Well to be honest the general theme in the conversations we were having before you three arrived was how we were going to deal with the living Androids."
Panzer looked like he'd just smelled some horrible aroma. "Deal with them? What the hell is that supposed to mean, deal with them?"
"Well, let me be straight forward. Some people believe that the footage was made to lull us into a false sense of security before their friends come and pick them up and enslave us all. This is the least favoured belief amoung us. Another, more popular sentiment was..." Mei-lin hesitated as she realized what she was about to say, remembering Panzer called Lancieta mom. "Well, I say more popular but only relative to the abduction scenario; execution."
Panzer felt the fur on his back raise and Lancieta knelt down next to him and placed a hand on his back.
"Honey, relax."
"Relax? These people want to kill you! Even though this is NOT your fault! You're all going to have to go through me first!" Panzer roared loudly in defiance as the red continued to spread across his back like a brush fire. Catty spoke without moving into Panzer's eyeline.
"Yo calm down. I know what they're saying but this don't gotta become a battle royale... Everyone's mad and confused right now."
Panzer turned to Catty and the concern in her eyes seemed to disarm his anger. He looked back to the crowd and they seemed to be recoiling from him. Panzer spoke without looking away from the congregation. "Mom, can I show them? I promise I'll be respectful."
Lancieta was silent for a few seconds. Everyone's feelings might as well have been neons signs; anger, curiosity, fear, depression, each face served as an extended "Mask of Tragedy".
"I assumed this was going to have to happen sooner or later." Lancieta stood up and waited for Panzer to look at her and reaffirm her answer with a nod.
"Yall think she's lying about her crew? Fine, let me prove to you otherwise."
The most skeptical in the congregation look to each other, wondering if following this man into the fairly dilapidated alien warship was a good idea. After a few seconds of hushed agreements, a group of about 12 or so broke away from the congregation and met Panzer by the air-lock to what had become a make-shift lobby.
*****
When they passed by the medical bay Roisin shrieked at the sight. She ran over to a comms console but when she noticed Panzer was with the group she exhaled in relief. They walked for about 20 minutes, which was fairly deep into Section 6, until they came to one of the many Cyber-Assault rooms, which now served as a crypt.
Panzer snarled as the door opened. "If any one of you touches a single body, I'll tear that limb off yours. These Androids died trying to prevent this from happening to us. Even though they failed, they gave their lives - show them the respect they deserve. Their current state shows the respect they held for you even though they never stepped foot on this planet, alive."
The atmosphere in the room was strange but it was definitely unsettling. Since the doors opened there was a slight smell in the air. It wasn't like the smell of death they were used to, it was closer to a bog or a swamp and lots of mold. Bodies were slumped over in their chairs. The assorted connections in their hands, necks and heads were smudged with burn and singe marks.
"There are 150 Androids in this room. There are 5 more rooms like this in Section 6. That means 750 people in this section alone - 10 sections in all. Of the 9 which attempted planet fall, 2 exploded in the atmosphere. In the main Section there were easily 3 times the amount in Section 6 but now it floats lifeless in orbit around our planet and it has been there for 3 years. They've suffered loss too. Our losses aren't to be equated but everyone on the surface of this planet has suffered it's cold touch. You can't put yours above anyone else's... not in this impossible situation."
Some people entered with the unease you'd have walking into a cemetery at midnight during a new moon. A few stole a glance at Panzer before going in as if testing his threat to remove a limb; they were convinced. A few sniffed around, trying to discern if the bodies were real or holograms. They'd gotten a good idea of how good the holograms the ship could produce were, but these bodies weren't holograms. Someone looked back to the doorway and noticed Panzer had left.
*****
When Panzer made it back to Lancieta he noticed a look of concern on her face.
"Don't worry mom. I impressed upon them the negatives of touching any of your crew." Vould's voice sounded in Lancieta's ear-piece. "I've got an eyes on them too."
Mei-lin noticed Panzer had emerged and walked over almost immediately, followed by a few people.
"I didn't make it clear enough before but, neither of the sentiments I told you were majority, they were just the more extreme. What I didn't get to say was that most people feel that we could get a major boost from the aliens and their technology if they come back to pick up their friends."
Lancieta smiled sympathetically.
"At this point my crew and I are no longer friendly with the Andromedian collective. If they come back for us, which is likely, my remaining crew and I will leave your world as prisoners." Lancieta noticed the discouraged look on their faces and tried to quell them. "However, under inter-galactic law, the people of Earth would receive aid as per the Collateral Damage Clauses." Lancieta spoke bluntly as if she'd already resigned herself to the worst possible outcome, which worried Panzer but he figured this wasn't the place to explore that.
The Gorilla approached Panzer and Mei-lin with the rest of the congregation following behind him. He sat down in front of Panzer and held out a hand. Panzer shook it as best he could, then the Gorilla spoke.
"I'd tell you my name but I don't remember it."
"It might come back in time."
The Gorilla nodded his head in agreement before continuing.
"How... how did you get past it?"
Panzer felt like he knew what the Gorilla was getting at but he was too ashamed to acknowledge it.
"Past what?"
"This... the empty feeling. I try to remember and it's just... like an empty room. We're surrounded by people but I just don't 'feel' anyone here."
The group went uncomfortably silent at the notion and Panzer noticed it all too clearly and tried to deflect.
"It... I... Mei-lin seems to be doing pretty well."
The Giraffe scoffed. "Doing pretty well. I was..." The words froze in her throat as if she'd gone mute. "It's taking all of my strength to stop myself from walking into the ocean until it rises above my head. My husband and I, we'd just spoke about starting a family..." She seemed lost in a memory. "Names, carriages, how to prevent diaper rash... 3 years have passed..."
She trailed off slowly but everyone was waiting for her next word. She was speaking to that unmentionable thing they all were feeling but just couldn't bring themselves to mention.
"... I'm not doing fine at all, I'm just good at pretending it's not getting to me. Everything I built for myself is worthless now. The one thing I've always been good at is getting results out of people. I'm trying my best to focus on making everyone else get through this but, to be honest, my head is a tornado of confusion. It's the same for all of us."
The Gorilla put a hand on Mei-lin's leg in sympathy. Then all eyes trained on Panzer and he knew he couldn't side step the question any longer.
"Look, I didn't - I felt like you do now. I'm pretty sure I still feel that way but I was lucky enough to have Lancieta there. What I'm saying is I didn't – you can't rely on just yourself. After I tried to starve myself to death I woke up on a hospital bed in Section 6." Panzer brushed over that last sentence quickly. "After a few days of them treating me for pneumonia I realized something. I had to accept help from others. It's impossible to get through this on your own. This is the stuff that – it turns people cold, closes them off from the world. If we try to do it alone it'll take us real low, ocean deep it feels like but..." He looked over everyone before continuing. "... now we have each other and anyone else who wakes up. It may have been different before but things have obviously changed and we can't let the stigma surrounding these feeling keep us from each other. We're all we have now."
Panzer wasn't sure he was making sense. He was trying his best to make everyone just stop looking at him. He wanted someone else to speak. Then a voice sounded in his head.
"Just breath."
He wasn't sure how much of it he could take. They looked lost and he didn't blame them, he still felt lost but he did as the voice suggested and it helped, if only a little.
"If we're gonna start over, we might as well do everything different this time. That includes being able to talk about this stuff openly, without ridicule."
Someone snorted in the congregation.
"Like that, what does that mean?" Panzer asked.
The people around the feathered Wolf stepped away from him, putting him out in the open, which he didn't expect. Some people started to come out of Section 6 and noticed the odd situation.
"I – well this touchy-feely crap isn't going to help anyone. What's telling you or anyone anything about my feelings going to do about these bodies? Nothing, that's the answer. We'll all just cry in a big group and nothing will change."
The Gorilla slammed a fist on the ground.
"Emotions aren't something you just hide. That causes shit like anxiety or dissociation."
Mei-lin looked at the Gorilla with surprise, he looked confused, unsure of why he said what he said.
"Are you remembering something?"
The Gorilla grabbed at his head and his face scrunched in agony. "I don't know, I think. My head hurts though. It's like my brain is moving."
Lancieta looked concerned and called Roisin on comms. "Roisin there's an amnesiac out here. He's having a headache or something."
Roisin leaped out of her chair in the medical wing and started grabbing various things while asking Lancieta questions. "How are his eyes? Pupils dilated? Darting back and forth?"
Lancieta ran over to the Gorilla and looked. "His pupils are almost pinpoints, his eyes are moving erratically."
Roisin dropped a few things and grabbed something out of a cabinet and ran to the elevator. "He's having a recall seizure. Have him sit up, slightly reclined if possible. I'm in the elevator."
When Roisin got outside she saw that Mei-lin had knelt/sat down and the Gorilla was laid against her. She was the only one big enough to support his weight. Roisin walked up to the Gorilla, looked in his eyes and attached something to his temples. "I was curious about what would happen to your people if the brain damage I was seeing didn't get repaired. It seems like the possibility for memory recall after waking up is high, if not painful."
The Gorilla seemed like he was going to start having a full body seizure but in that moment his body relaxed completely.
"He needs to rest so, Mei-lin, it looks like you won't be moving from there anytime soon."
She looked at the sea then at the Gorilla before speaking.
"That's fine with me... However we can't forget what Panzer or Dmitri just said."
The ease with which Mei-lin seemed to shrug off the Gorilla's current state caused a few whispers among the congregation, to which she replied curtly.
"Results. Focus on what we can control."
The whispers continued for a bit but died down quickly, then Panzer spoke up.
"So Dmitri, what do you say? What else is there for us to do, other than try and do things differently, the right way, this time?"
Dmitri the Feathered Wolf was hoping the Gorilla's episode would have made everyone forget he opened his mouth; they didn't.
"Well, if you think it will help, having group therapy may be a good place to start."
He spoke more out of wanting everyone to look away from him than actually agreeing. Panzer nodded cautiously before giving the congregation a once over. "What does everyone else think?" His question caught everyone off guard. Answering questions wasn't on anyone's play-bill. After a little more coaxing people aired their thoughts on the matter and discussed varying opinions. No one attacked anyone else, physically anyway, and after tempers simmered down they would continue. It wasn't like they had anything else to do but sit there and figure things out.
After a few hours, a grumble of a different sort was heard, for which Dmitri apologized. "Sorry, guess it's been a while since I ate."
Panzer saw this moment as an opportunity to take a break from the heaviness of the discussions.
"How many of you have hunted together before?"
A few assorted limbs or heads raised but it was much less than half.
"Perfect! We'll form smaller hunting groups and catch a meal for everyone here. Lancieta or Yora could join us, seeing as they eat too."
Lancieta smiled and bowed with her hand over her heart as Panzer continued.
"I've noticed, and I'm sure you have as well, that we've been reborn with new - abilities. Try not to join a party with those who can do the same things as you. For example, Catty has camouflage, I've got reactive armour and Nik can breathe fire."
At the mention of his name Nik loosed a blast into the air a little too close to some of the others before elucidating.
"It's not really breathing. I spray this pressurized liquid from these pouches in my cheeks and..."
Nik started trying to speak while showing everyone the pores in his mouth and accidentally loosed another fireball with his head slanted sideways, lighting the ground in front of him on fire.
"Oh shit! Sorry!" He walked over the fire and started frantically rolling around until it was snuffed out.
"Oh my god, you're going to burn yourself!" Someone yelled, terrified by the action. Nik regained his bearings from making himself dizzy before speaking.
"Gotta love mother nature, she made me impervious to my fire... uh, sorry."
In that moment the new world seemed to be solidified for them. Surprises were around every corner. After a sort of "strategy overview" they broke up into various hunting parties, agreeing to reconvene after dinner. The sun was starting to get low in the sky and a few of them wondered if all of them hunting in generally the same area would make food scarce for others.
When everyone came back a few groups weren't as successful as others. A few deer were caught as well as some rabbits, wild dogs and quite a few different small animals. When everyone noticed the haul, they knew they would still be a little hungry. Panzer sat next to Nik and Catty with his portion of the meal.
"Now I understand the whole marking your territory thing..."
The trio overheard someone speaking nearby and listened.
"It's just that – we've gone backward. We went from having cities and robots, to this. Is this how it's going to be from now on?"
What looked like a furry Hawk put it's wing on the lamenting Serpent in comfort.
"Hey, I used to hunt before this happened. My... my brothers and I used to keep track of hunting season. We're not lesser than before because everyone has to hunt now. If anything we're just going to have barbeque's more often, without the cooking anyway."
Panzer looked at Nik and Nik knew exactly why.
"No. I already told you, and you've experienced it. My flame makes food taste weird. We can't use it to cook. I'm not even sure I'd be able to keep the fire going long enough to cook everyone's food."
A few people overheard the mention of cooking and Yora looked up from the bowl of salad he was sharing with Roisin.
"I think I can do something about this curious cooking conundrum. Be right back!"
He ran into the ship and the elevator shot up quickly. His hyperactive movement made a few people curious and a few minutes later the elevator came back down and inside was Yora accompanied by a massive, custom-built, grill.
"I'd came across a form of cooking you have which is similar to what my creator enjoys. So I uh – made a grilling station just in case."
Yora noticed how childish he sounded and blushed as he rolled the grill out of the lobby. He wheeled the grill over to where he and Roisin were eating and turned around.
"Who wants a cooked meal?"
A few people started crying which served to confuse Yora.
"I didn't mean to – I can put it away if..."
But the tears were joyful and they started cheering. A few people rushed Yora and hugged him the best they could with their assorted limbs.
Panzer looked at Nik and Catty with a smile. At that moment Lancieta came over to them, sat down and simply said: "Normalcy."
Panzer smiled at the word and looked at everyone as they figured out a system for getting their food cooked for the first time since they woke up. Yora slid out a draw filled with containers of spices and someone yelled in excitement at the sight. Lancieta spoke again as if she'd just remembered something.
"After a traumatic experience people are desperate for some measure of normalcy."
Almost as if he were listening for the right moment, Rould started playing some music for the impromptu Section 6 Bar and Grill. Someone waved over to the group prompting Nik and Catty to walk over with their portion of dinner for cooking.
"Hey Nik, before you go, can you give us a small fire?"
Seeing as how he didn't have to provide a fire for everyone now, he loosed a flame at the ground in front of them. Lancieta grabbed some sticks, skewered her and Panzer's dinner and set them by the fire. Roisin noticed the two sitting together. "You guys sure you don't want any sauce or spice added to that?"
Lancieta and Panzer shook their heads no, continuing to sit in silence while taking in the sunset and music, both wishing things could stay like this forever.
*****
After everyone had finished their meals small conversations started back up again with the lounge music still playing calmly. Panzer and Lancieta were sitting in the same place and both were still quiet as Nik and Catty were talking with Yora and Roisin a few feet away. Panzer broke the silence between he and his mother.
"Normalcy huh?"
Lancieta nodded. "For now at least, it's that simple."
"Well, for me - I want this to go on as long as possible. It feels like we're getting some kind of momentary reprieve." Panzer nudged Lancieta and they both smiled as the sun sunk slowly into the ocean.