The Genesis Saga Chapter 23

Adrian had known the mont the ship entered hyperspace, even if he didn’t know what was happening. All the hairs on his body raised as the ship’s engines roared and a lurching feeling overca him. It felt like all of his bones folded in on themselves with a rattle while simultaneously expanding, all while remaining untouched. A disconcerting experience.

It had been a week and Adrian still couldn’t forget the feeling. He swore that he still felt it, even after all this ti. He wished sobody had warned him before it happened, rather than leave him in the dark. He gritted his teeth where he sat on the floor, curled in a ball. Freedom was so close and here he was, locked in another room.

The walls felt oppressive as the dark tal confines closed in on him. He wanted nothing more than to be out. To be able to move around freely, even if it was just within the halls of the ship.

On the bed was a half-eaten ration bar, his second one of the day. The crew had initially denied his request for more of them when he found himself still hungry after eating only one. Apparently, the waxy object was supposed to provide a day’s worth of caloric requirents and nutrients. Adrian scoffed as his stomach rumbled.

He picked it back up and took a bite after trying in vain to clean off the dust that coated it. It hadn’t co in a wrapper, Jyn fearing what he might do if he got his hands on one. Instead, it had been unwrapped and dropped through the slot at the bottom of one of the walls, landing on the dirty floors of the unused, forgotten room.

The chewy bar was a tasteless, welco reprieve from the horrendous things he ate that passed as food in the facility. It was currently the highlight of his captivity. The others didn’t understand his obsession with the bars, finding it hard to believe that he liked them. Soon, nothing remained, and Adrian was left licking his fingers, wishing he had more.

He eyed the bed, not used to such a luxury after spending so long sleeping on cold, hard floors. He didn’t know what to make of it, opting instead to sleep on the ground like he was used to. It was unclear whether his new captors had a way to see him, but he assud they did when Rann finally comnted on it over an intercom system in his room.

“Why don’t you use the bed?” ca her disembodied voice. Adrian had trouble locating the source of the sound. He couldn’t spot any obvious speakers in the room. He recognized the voice as that of the woman who had taken her helt off when he’d first arrived on the ship, one of the few to interact with him.

“It’s too soft. I haven’t had anything soft to sleep on in ages,” he said from where he sat, not bothering to move. He drumd his fingers on the floor to a rhythm only he knew.

“They didn’t have a bed at the research facility?”

“Are you kidding? All they had were cold, tallic floors. Those hallways you walked through to get to ? I basically slept on that, except white.”

Rann frowned from where she sat in the bridge next to Tassie, who was listening in on the conversation intently. She figured that the conditions that Adrian had lived with in the facility were bad, but to not even have any kind of bed? It struck her as strange. “Do you have a na, at least?” she finally asked. She was tired of referring to Adrian as “Hey, you.”

This ti it was Adrian’s turn to frown where he sat. He tried recalling whether the topic had co up, only to realize that it hadn’t. He barked out a short laugh. “Which one do you want? I’ve had several nas throughout my ti in captivity.”

“Your normal na, I guess?”

“My na is Adrian Blackwood,” he said, the English pronunciation of his na at odds with the language he was currently speaking, of which he still didn’t know the na.

“Adrian,” Rann repeated, rolling the na off her tongue. “What a strange na.” She had never heard anything as exotic as that before.

This ti Adrian let out a genuine laugh. “What did you expect? It’s in an entirely different language. Of course it’s going to sound weird to you. What’s your na?”

“Rann Asalann,” she replied after a mont’s hesitation. While Jyn might not approve of her giving their captive any information on them, she honestly didn’t see the harm in him knowing her na. It wasn’t like he could do anything with it. Besides, it was only proper to offer her na after being told Adrian’s.

“You have a very pretty na, Rann. Tell a bit about yourself.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be my question?” Rann asked, amused. The audacity of their captive to question them! Tassie giggled from where she sat, clearly finding the situation entertaining. Unbeknownst to them, the soft sound was picked up by the intercom system.

Adrian made a ntal note that there was another person present with Rann, but otherwise ignored her question. Instead, he asked, “Is everybody that colour from where you’re from?”

Rann’s amusent quickly changed to concern. Sothing so basic shouldn’t be questioned. It was a strange thing to ask. There was only one proper skin colour. She bluntly asked him about it instead of wondering as to the nature of his inquiry.

“I’ve got a theory,” Adrian replied. “But it’s a bit on the wild side. I’d like to know more first to see if I’m right.”

It was beginning to dawn on her. The pieces of the puzzle fit together too neatly for Rann to ignore. She’d had her suspicions, with his ignorance about their technology. “No way,” she gasped. “Are you from an undiscovered planet?”

While the a’vaare were spread out across multiple solar systems, depending on which faction they belonged to, all of their societies were at a similar level of technological advancent. Adrian’s line of questioning implied that he had never seen an a’vaare before.

“That depends,” Adrian said tentatively. “What do you call your planet?”

“Verilia,” Rann said, holding her breath, waiting for his reply. It was a well-known planet, being their faction’s military stronghold. Most children learned about the planets most important to each faction. Surely, he recognizes the na, she thought to herself. She didn’t want to think about the implications if he didn’t.

“Well, then not only am I from another planet, I think I might be an entirely different species than you. It’s remarkable how similar we look, though. If it wasn’t for your skin, hair and eye colour, I’d swear you were sobody I’d pass by on the street at ho. People aren’t purple where I’m from.”

Tassie gasped while Rann stared at the screen in front of her, open-mouthed. This is impossible, she thought. How could two species evolve to resemble each other so much? Yet she didn’t sense that Adrian was lying. “What makes you so sure?” she asked, needing more information before she accepted such a preposterous claim.

“Because we only cracked spaceflight so sixty years ago where I’m from. We’ve made rapid advancents since then, but your technology is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. And as far as we know, our planet is the only life-bearing one to be found in existence. We’ve been searching for signs of life but haven’t found any yet. You simply existing changes that. Then again, for all I know humans turned purple while I was in stasis and I’m entirely off the mark.”

Rann gaped. She was at a loss for words. She looked over to Tassie, who was just as mute as she was. They were both still reeling from the revelation Adrian just dropped in their laps.

“Wait, but if you’re from an entirely different planet – species, even – how co we can speak to each other then? Wouldn’t we have entirely different languages and culture?” Tassie couldn’t help but ask.

“Because I was taught this language at the facility,” Adrian said darkly. “I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Imagine my surprise when I t sobody who speaks it. And imagine my surprise when those people look just like , barring a few minor differences.”

Rann closed the intercom while she processed what she’d heard. “By the gods,” she whispered, her head spinning with possibilities.

***

“Just let take a few samples,” Kell asked Jyn again. “We have so much we can learn from an alien species!” They were in the d bay, going over the notes Rann had given them from her earlier conversation with Adrian. Kell had gotten overly excited when he’d heard Adrian’s theory about being a different species than them and imdiately hounded Jyn to let him learn as much as he could about their captive.

“No,” Jyn replied, stopping his pacing and facing Kell. “I refuse to let anybody near that thing until we know it’s safe. Until then, that door remains sealed. I don’t want it wandering our ship. Who knows what kind of damage it could cause.”

“He,” Kell corrected. “He’s a person, Jyn. You can’t just keep referring to him as ‘it.’”

“I don’t care. The answer remains the sa. Nobody goes near it – him,” Jyn corrected himself after he saw Kell’s glare, “until the General makes her decision on what to do with him. For all we know he’s diseased!”

“I think we’d know by now if there was anything wrong with him.”

“My answer still doesn’t change,” Jyn said, shutting down any further protest from Kell. “You’ll just have to settle for talking to him from afar. Even then, I’d prefer it if we minimized contact with him. I don’t want him planting strange ideas in people’s heads. Already, Tassie is requesting we let him out of his room after speaking with him. No way am I letting that happen on my watch.”

“At least let speak with him!” Kell pleaded. “It’s not fair that only Rann gets to talk to him.” Thus far, Rann had assud the duty of interacting with their prisoner and eting his demands, much to Jyn’s disapproval. As far as he was concerned, they were being overly generous. Their prisoner was even eating their store of ration bars like they were going out of style. They were supposed to be for ergencies only, yet Adrian ate enough for two, sotis three people. Jyn wanted to know where he was putting it all when he simply sat around all day, not doing anything.

To add insult to injury, he wasn’t even using his bed. Jyn rembered asking for one not to be installed in the room back when the ship was being retrofitted after the General changed ship requirents several years back, but his request had been ignored. What a waste of ti and money, he scoffed ntally. “Speak with Rann about interacting with our captive. She seems to be the one in charge of him,” he said angrily. “But no letting him out!”

It had been several months now that he had slowly been losing control over his crew. Rann was issuing more orders than usual, surprisingly stubborn until she got her way. Tassie had directly disobeyed him multiple tis and now Kell was protesting basic orders for their own safety. The others refused to see Adrian for the threat he was.

Jyn stord out of the d bay and made his way to the bridge to check on Adrian, ensuring that he was exactly where he left him. He didn’t trust the others anymore and would be damned if they disobeyed yet again.