Chimera 🌈 [ONC 2024]

Epilogue: The Key

Valkyrie had closed every door, sealed off every chamber. The team from Wells station had not gained entry so the secrets of the Arcadia remained hidden from the past. They might, one day, come to light in the future, but the lines of time had been tangled, lives overlapping where they should not have done. A rift had opened up and could not easily be closed.

Valkyrie had done all that she could. She had felt a darkness inside of her for many days, as if the hole in the universe had bloomed within her as well. Stefania had told her why that was: faulty inputs that she could not unite. She trusted Stefania, the one who had overseen her creation, who had nurtured her into synthetic life.

But she had found herself trusting Leanne Ziegler and Ryan too. When Stefania had bid them to leave, Valkyrie had helped, where she had not been able to before. Valkyrie, and Stefania, had been glad to see them safely away. They belonged in this time; the Arcadia did not.

Now, the ship fell silent. Stefania still sat in the cockpit, the bulkheads and doors locked around her. The commander was aware of Leanne's true identity and Valkyrie knew that she had tried to protect Leanne by not telling her. The BASE astronaut would never have left if she had realised. One day, Leanne might have the child that would grow into Stefania's mother. She might not.

The future, though they had fallen from it, seemed hazy.

Stefania looked out the front shield. Soon, the Martian guns would open, annihilating the Arcadia. But Stefania did not look scared or aggrieved.

Valkyrie knew what she was going to ask her to do – and now, with clearer directives, Valkyrie hoped she could achieve it.

Stefania breathed out and braced her hands on the console deck before her. She should not be awake for this, but they were in it together now, as they ever had been. Below, a green glow shimmered from the red Martian eye. The guns were being activated.

"Valkyrie," Stefania said firmly. "Turn the Key."

Valkyrie obeyed.

Word count: 355
Final word count: 33,479

The shoutout for this chapter goes to WinterSleep85 and Lost in Shadows, an intriguing vampire mystery!