Chapter 44: Believing in the Unseen

Varia

[A Day prior to Deros obtaining the parts]

I rubbed my head. It ached pretty badly. How long had I been out? My body felt hungry, but that didn't tell me much. I'd gone into energy saving mode when knocked out, assuming my chip still had that function.

Standing up, I looked around and saw we were on an island, but it wasn't the same one as before, but it was similar. We probably weren't too far from Deros's hometown.

I frowned. I'd lost my fight against that Titanos Commander, Zephyria. He was very strong. If anything, I was lucky to be alive. Vyran and Deros must've pulled through. Or maybe, someone had saved us.

My eyes fell to the basket of fruit beside me. They appeared to be freshly picked. All looked edible Deros was good at picking fruits from what I had seen on the other island.

Although, there was no sign of him. I bit into one of the fruits and stood up in search of him and my brother. It didn't take me long to find Vyran. He was working on Valkyrie. Had it been damaged during our getaway from Deros's city?

The island's air was thick with the scent of salt and foliage, a natural balm to my aching head. As I approached my brother, I noticed the furrow in his brow, the set of his shoulders—tense, focused. Valkyrie lay partially disassembled before him, its once-imposing form now vulnerable, exposed.

"Vyran," I called out, my voice steady despite the lingering pain. "What happened to Valkyrie?"

He didn't look up, his hands deftly working on a circuit board. "I ended up overdoing it during our escape. I used more energy than its core could take after the original damage it had sustained in space," he said, his voice tinged with frustration. "Some of the core systems melted and others shorted out. I'm trying to find a work around to restart the fusion reactor, but without the right parts…"

His voice trailed off, and I understood the gravity of the situation. Valkyrie wasn't just a machine for my brother. She was a friend to him. Ever since Dad gave it to him for his fifteenth birthday, he had been caring for it as if it were a baby.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked, stepping closer to survey the damage.

Vyran finally looked up, his eyes meeting mine. "Deros went to look for parts. But he's taken awhile now. I fear something might've happened to him."

I gulped.

"I'm hoping it's just because he has to travel far, but..." He winced as if blaming himself for what might've befallen Deros.

I sat down beside him. "Vyran, don't think like that. He might still be fine. You aren't usually one to jump to negative thoughts like this."

He scratched his head and sighed. "I know, but... I can't help but worry, you know? I'm the one who pushed Valkyrie past her limits, despite you warning me to take it easy."

"Well, in your defense, you were trying to get away from an enemy commander."

"Yeah." He sighed. "So much for your claims of 'technological superiority. We all lost to a mecha with outdated specs."

I sighed. Vyran was taunting me, but he had a point. I always thought that newer and better tech could never be beaten by the old, but it appeared I was wrong. Granted, Titanos's mechas used what they considered to be the latest technology.

I placed a reassuring hand on Vyran's shoulder. "I concede, you were right. Technology is only as good as the person wielding it. Zephyria might have had outdated specs, but his experience made the difference. We'll learn from this and adapt. That's what we do."

Vyran nodded, a determined glint in his eyes. "You're right. We'll come back stronger. And when Deros returns with the parts, we'll make sure Valkyrie is more than just technologically superior. We'll make her unbeatable."

The resolve in my little brother's voice was contagious, it gave me a surge of hope. "Let's do a check on what we can fix now. When Deros gets back, we'll be ready to put Valkyrie back together immediately."

Together, we poured over Valkyrie's blueprints, making notes and plans. The hours slipped by, and the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long shadows across the island.

As night fell, we gathered around a small fire, the flames flickering against the darkening sky. The warmth was a small comfort against the chill of uncertainty that hung over us. We still knew very little about our enemy. My databank had a lot of info about what explorers to that universe had learned, but a lot of it could be outdated. One thing that was outdated was the existence of a universe spanning empire. Although, it did appear that Titanos had a few empires close to being one in their ancient past, but none existed by the time of our people's most recent visit to their realm.

One thing I wanted to know was what they wanted with planet Orginal. They had whole galaxy clusters under their command in their own universe. Why would they seek to conquer another?

Better yet, how did they manage to form their original empire? Sadly, it wasn't like I could just waltz into a library and grab a memory cube and learn all that info. Especially not in a world like Orginal where their reliance on technology was lesser than our home world's.

"You okay, Sis?" Vyran asked.

I glanced at him. "Do I not look okay?"

"You seem deep in thought. Something bothering you?"

Taking a deep breath, I nodded. "Yeah. Well, not really something tangible. I was thinking about how Titanos got so strong."

 My little brother hummed. "According to the databank, they use something called Ki. Maybe that's it?" He tapped the air, causing a holographic screen to pop out of thin air. It was a report from one of the explorers to Titanos. They happened upon an icy planet called Titania. According to its natives, the planet was said to lack a planetary titan's 'heart', which they blamed for the planet's inhospitable environment. The winters on that planet were rougher than any modern planet in all of Retra. Yet, it managed to have life. 

How did life exist on such a cold planet? According to the scholar, the people used a power called 'Ki' to strengthen their bodies, allowing them to survive the rough conditions. This gave them the ability to adapt to extreme cold. On other planets, the same power was seen being used to survive extreme heat. 

"Do you think their planets actually have hearts instead of cores?" Vyran asked, a playful smile on his lips.

I hummed. "It could just be a very old myth." My eyes looked back at the start of the article. "It says Titania consisted of primitive people fighting amongst themselves for the limited ice-free land on their planet, their civilization not even worthy of being ranked on the civilizational scale."

He tapped the air again, opening up another screen. "It seems to come up a lot, even on journals and diaries detailing other worlds in their universe."

"True, granted, it appears the visitors to Titanos only went a quadrant within one galaxy. Hardly a decent sample of a whole universe's beliefs."

Vyran looked up at the sky. "Hey, sis?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think the story our mom told us is true?"

I blinked. "What story?"

"The one about the hero god. How he saved all of Retra, at the cost of his own life."

I hummed. Retra's religion was rather complex. Even if were were a type three civilization, each planet still has its own blend of beliefs. Quudra wasn't very religious to begin with, so I'd never given much thought to it.

"Why do you ask?"

He glanced back at Valkyrie. "I was thinking that what we're going through is similar to the story. Invaders from another Universe, seeking to capture and destroy Retra."

Was Titanos's aim to destroy? Orginal was still here. It seemed it was more conquest than destruction that they were after. But I still didn't understand why. Conquest for conquest's sake didn't typically breed the kind of zeal that Zephyria showed.

Maybe there was a religious aspect to it instead. In our planet's very ancient past, religious beliefs had played a role in drumming up support for expansion. Sadly, the ambitions of those using people's honest-held belief ended up eroding said beliefs over time. It gave birth to a jaded people, distrustful toward religion. Although, a few still believed in a power greater than our own. Alas, the gods of Retra were a shy bunch. Even with our universe spanning tech, we've been unable to find them.

Mom always said that it was because we weren't looking right. We couldn't find the gods with our own eyes, even if they were cybernetically enhanced. What we needed was to look inward. In retrospect, Mom's words likely struck a chord within Vyr. He didn't like depending on technology and would look at the skies for hours on end. Was he perhaps looking toward the gods of old?

Vyran's gaze lingered on the stars, a silent yearning etched into his features. "Maybe," he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Maybe she was right. Maybe there's more to this universe than circuits and steel."

I followed his gaze, the twinkling lights of distant worlds staring back at us. It was easy to get lost in the vastness of it all, to feel small and insignificant. But within that expanse lay infinite possibilities, and perhaps, the answers we sought.

"Mom always had a way of seeing beyond the surface," I mused. "She believed in the intangible, the things that couldn't be measured or quantified. Maybe that's what we're missing in this fight against Titanos."

Vyran nodded, his eyes still fixed on the heavens. "The hero god in her story… he fought with more than just weapons. He fought with belief, with a conviction that went beyond the physical realm. That conviction was to protect us, the imperfect beings he had created over millennia of patient crafting and waiting."

I let out a slow breath, considering his words. "Belief can be powerful," I conceded. "It can inspire, drive people to achieve the impossible. Maybe that's what we need—a belief strong enough to unite us, to give us the strength to overcome Titanos."

We sat in silence for a while, the crackling of the fire the only sound in the night. The story of the hero god, a tale from our childhood, suddenly felt relevant in a way it never had before.

"Tomorrow," I said, breaking the silence, "we'll start anew. We'll work on Valkyrie, and we'll work on ourselves. We'll find that belief, that conviction. And we'll use it to fuel our fight."

Vyran turned to me, a smile breaking through the uncertainty. "Together," he affirmed.

I nodded. "But for now, we should get some rest," I suggested. "We need to be at our best when Deros returns."

Vyran nodded, and we settled down for the night, the fire's glow a silent sentinel. And as the fire burned down to embers, I felt a shift within me. A spark of something that had been dormant, waiting to be awakened. Life wasn't just about technology, science, or strategy. It was about heart, about soul. It was about believing in something greater than ourselves. About being able to believe in more than what was visible with the naked eye.

With that thought, I closed my eyes, letting the rhythm of the waves lull me to sleep. Tomorrow was a new day, and we would face it with a newfound resolve. For Orginal, for the rest of Retra, and for the legacy left by the stricken hero god of our mother's stories.