Amelia's Journal

Entry 13: Concerning What I found in London

2007-09-30T22:31:00.000-04:00

I took the Camera. I had to. Each bit of information I could provide would assist us. I wasn’t prepared for what I found. I had a special suit, designed to keep the Xarax from entering my mouth, and likewise, stinging me.

There were humans walking around. None of them normal. It was like a horror movie. They weren’t zombies. But they were more insect then human now. Their eyes were black, and they had claws.

I snapped pictures, and they didn’t notice me. At least, I don’t think they did. I walked by them, and they ignored me might be a better word. I held my gun firmly and readily in my hand.

To get to the instillation, it wasn’t that long of a walk. Food was rotting, animals were dead, laying on the streets, it smelled strongly of decaying flesh. There were Xarax drones everywhere. They lined the trees.

I was scared. I have no shame in admitting it. When I entered the instillation, I found several more of these insect men. All of them walking around, looking for something, but not finding it. I went into the main computer room.

“Computer!” I shouted. It turned on, sputtering a little, “I need data on the force-shields.” It beeped, “Access Denied. Voice Print not recognized. Override codes accepted.” I entered the codes that allowed me to have access.

I downloaded the data onto a minidisk, and I put it into my small side satchel. I rushed through the base. Looking for anything that could help, that was abandoned. I came to a door and I stopped.

Professor Xarax.

I reached to open the door, and I heard a screech from beside me. It was raspy. I looked. One of the insect men was there, I shot it in its head, and it fell down. I started running now.

If one was aware, then maybe all of them were aware… When I ran through the room where three or four of them were, they were stiff, ready to fight me. I fired into its head, and then kicked it to the ground, jumping over it to the door.

When I opened the door, all of the inactive Xarax outside had now been on alert. The drones were flying, and the insectoid people were stiff and they stared at me…

I didn’t think running would save me now…

Entry 12: Concerning the Return trip to Earth

2007-09-23T14:14:00.000-04:00

It was simple to get back to Earth on the Rim-Runner. The Rim-Runner was a ship, designed by some Technicians back on Earth; it was supposed to be a secret. I found it in my search. The Rim-Runner is a one of a kind ship.

Its whole purpose is to explore new worlds. It’s very tiny too. It normally can only hold three people. Anymore and it would slow it down and with the imbalance of fuel would inevitably cause it to crash or fall short.

We were exploring new ideas in space travel. The Rimrunner’s thrusters make it go faster then what we dubbed Hyperspeed after the old Sci-Fi shows on Earth. The only way it can do this is because it took the photon avoiding technology to a whole new level and designed it to use the photons to make it increase speed.

Normally this would be exponential, but the engines have a limit, that allow it to seemingly travel between the already ill defined vacuum of space. This makes the Rim-Runner possibly the fastest thing we have ever seen.

Traveling through our Solar System, we saw several swarms. Flying, but we also saw something we hadn’t previously. A larger one. It looked like a large Manta Ray.

We had wondered how they traveled through space, and now it was clear. It was this Manta Ray, She would open her mouth, and this burst of heat came from it, sending the little cicada bug xarax further into space. When she needed to recharged this, burst of heat, she used her giant wings to reflect the heat of the sun.

Riding alone and seeing this, I took pictures, and I documented the movements. Each swarm had one of these with it, and I dubbed her, Xarax Queen.

As the Rim-Runner came to a stop over Earth, I realized how thoroughly they had destroyed our meager holdings in the Galaxy. It made me wonder, if these Xarax existed, then wouldn’t there be other species out there?

Could they have destroyed us?

As I set course for London, England, the capital of the alliance. I felt very small and meek. I would be the only human on Earth. And in the Universe there were now only thousands of us.

How meager and small were we? Mice scraping for survival.

Now, I would avenge my fellows, by protecting them from their attackers.

Entry 11: Concerning Vengeance

2007-09-19T20:37:00.000-04:00

It was out of pure goodness of her heart that one of the nurses who operated on me, Major Kamra, gave me a veil. She explained that a long time ago, the women of her culture had to wear them. She gave it to me, and taught me how to use it. Strapping it around my face, I was not yet done.

I checked myself out of the hospital, and I found out where I was. We were out of our Solar system. One an instillation in the next solar system over. They called it, “La Mancha.”

Using my new rank, I gained access to the computers. I activated them, and started doing my research. That’s where the true work of revenge is done. I found we had six outlying stations, and each one was building another.

That meant soon we would have twelve. But I needed to know where the Xarax swarms were. There was still one over Earth, the moon, and there was still one over Mars. Almost like they were multiplying before they would move on. We were too far away from Mars to launch a counterattack.

But we needed to defend the instillations. From the reports, these Xarax climbed into the cracks in the hull, and entered however they had to. This meant we needed a shield.

If I couldn’t attack these things, then I could propose something that could stop them from killing us.

I immediately headed for the Major-Commander of this vessel. I was taken without an appointment. His name was Major-Commander Xin-Yu Fay. I entered and I bowed to him, he smiled at me and clapped, “Sergeant Amelia Cartwright, I see you’re doing well, all things considered.”

I responded, “Not really, Major Commander. I am here to request a shielding system for our vessels.”

“We do not have that technology,” He responded.

“Yes we do. I was reading that on Earth there was a man who was working on making a system to shield earth from the meteor showers that were happening years ago. He was a civilian, but he never got too far: only able to make small scale shields.” He paused for a second before saying, “What are you suggesting?”

“That I take a ship back to Earth, find these plans, and come back.”

“What ship?”

“A Rim-Runner. Or, The Rim-Runner, I know its on this instillation.”

Entry 10: Concerning what Jacob did when he saw my scars.

2007-09-16T14:01:00.000-04:00

When his hand tugged gently down, and I released the blanket, he gasped at first. He stared, almost as if I was a freak of nature. His lip curled, and his eyes looked for anything to look at but the scars.

He finally settled on my lips. His eyes pleading to stop looking at them, his heart aching for him to speak to me, and his brain telling him to run. But he didn’t, he stared at me, mouth agape.

He reached out, hand unconsciously wanting to touch them. When he finger met the first scar I winced, it was still raw. He withdrew his hand, disgusted, but it went back to seeking. He stood, stared closely.

The tears crawling from my ducts trying to pour onto my face. He leaned up and kissed me, my greatest fear came alive. I didn’t feel anything. He withdrew. He looked at me, and I looked at him.

It was unspoken. He and I looking at each other: we both didn’t feel the feeling. I wanted to, oh I wanted to. But my lips were nerveless. I only felt the sharp pains that came with pressing against them.

He turned from me. With nothing more then a backwards glance and he left the room. It wasn’t something I knew at the time, but I never saw Jacob again. It was something that I had to expect.

The Xarax were to blame.

But at the moment, I blamed myself, and everything around me. I turned my bed over, and I grabbed the picture off the wall, and I threw it into the door, I jumped over the glass and pulled my mirror and medicine cabinet off of the wall, and I threw it into the wall.

When the nurse first arrived, I had just grabbed the largest shard of glass. I forget what my intentions were to do with that shard of glass, but when that nurse shoved me against the dresser, and the daisy fell in my lap, I laid there, on disheveled articles.

I sobbed. The nurse didn’t know what was going on, but out of decent humanity, she knelt down and said, “It’ll be okay honey, it may not seem like it now but he’s not worth the energy you are spending on him.”

I didn’t hear her. My life was ruined… And the Xarax were to blame.

Entry 9: Concerning finding my crush after the Ithaca was taken.

2007-09-11T21:36:00.000-04:00

I was young. Twelve years old, when my mouth was deformed so badly that I didn’t feel comfortable going out in public. I had to, for my own, wellbeing stay in my hospital room and conduct my business from there.

Finding Private Jacob Statler was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. Passing the test to have them give me my own instillation was nothing compared to calling person after person to get the answer as to whether he died or not.

He had not. The Morgues had no-one matching his description. When I finally was about to give up, there was a knock on my door. I grabbed a blanket and I covered my face quickly, “Come in.”

“Hello Amelia,” he said walking towards me.

“Hello Jacob,” I responded.

He smiled, he held a small, wilting daisy in his hand and he held it out to me. I couldn’t reach and get it, the blanket would fall, “Set it over there please.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I was scared you didn’t make it, but when some of the other men were talking about what you did for them. Then what happened… Can I see your face Amelia?” He asked reaching for the blanket.

“Jacob, no, please… You can’t.”

“Amelia. I’m just thankful you are alive.”

He pulled a chair close to the bed, I looked at him, and I could see what I felt for him, I could see my love against his cheek.

But I couldn’t shake this feeling. This feeling down inside of my stomach, sickening, cold, empty. Something that can’t be described but only felt. Something that I didn’t know the meaning of at that moment.

It was so strong, that I shivered, and I stared at him, eyes looking past the blanket’s top at Jacob. He reached towards me, and he grabbed the edge of the blanket.

“Amelia, let me see.”

I knew in my brain: surface thoughts, emptying into my subconscious, telling me, don’t drop the blanket. But when he pulled gently, and I say the earnest in his eyes, I started to lower the blanket, allowing him to see…

Entry 8: Concerning the scars around my mouth- continued.

2007-09-09T22:56:00.000-04:00

I woke to gauze all around my mouth, unable to breath. I had to take a breath through my nose and it was connected to an oxygen machine. I could move, but barely.

I remember the surgical lights of the infirmary room. They were cold and blue, but there was so much heat coming off of them. I was scared and when I tried to scream, it came out as a mumble. My lips burnt. I started to cry in pain just to cause more pain.

The nurse realized I was awake, and she rushed into the room, “Sergeant Cartwright,” she whispered, “Please calm down. You can’t move your lips… I’m going to give you more sedative. When you wake up, you won’t be here. Ithaca has been compromised.”

She took out a needle, and I struggled, but it only lasted until the world went black again. The next time I woke I was in a different room, metallic, cold. I could breath through my mouth, and it was sensitive.

Spikes of weird nerve damage flared with each breath I took. Dead-nerve, trying to feel. I didn’t know that then, but I stood, and I stumbled towards the nearest room. The bathroom, and the mirror had been smeared so it was more opaque and I couldn’t see myself.

I fell on my way out, how long had it been since I used my legs? I opened the door, and when I exited the first person that saw me was a private, and they gasped. I looked down, I remember the blue floral print on the hospital gown, and I remember the look in their eyes as they recoiled from me.

“What?” I choked out. How long had it been since I spoke? The private walked away was quickly as they could. I was looking for the nurse. I couldn’t find one.

I stumbled down the hall, clinging to the walls. When I finally found another person, I looked at them, “Show me a mirror.”

At least it was a private, and he immediately took me to the closest mirror. I looked in quiet disbelief. I ran my fingers over my lips, still sensitive to the touch, the red triangular scars every half and inch. I closed my eyes only for a moment.

I counted them. There were ten, surrounding my lips, except for a small part of my left top lip, and a awkward middle part of my full bottom lip.

I couldn’t stand what I saw, so I screamed. I screamed until my whole body was fatigued, and I collapsed to the floor. My body couldn’t take anymore. I don’t think I’ve eaten anything anytime recently.

The private later told me my scream was the scariest thing he had ever heard in his entire life, and he never wanted to hear anything like it again.

Entry 7: Concerning the scars around my mouth.

2007-08-30T23:18:00.001-04:00

The moon had been overrun with Xarax by the time I was twelve. It appeared they went into dormancy. But with the influx of people to the satellite around Mars, the Xarax came out of Dormancy and headed towards Mars.

Everyone was called to arms, including the trainees: during the briefing I was given a patrol of ten privates. Most of them older then me, and when they realized this, they were not happy. We grabbed our plasma weapons, and our guns, and we went out of the base to stand our ground.

The Pink skies of mars were turned black with the oncoming swarm, and I wouldn’t let them take me. I withdrew my plasma sword, and my gun. My troop did the same. We held our ground and as they came closer, we fired into them.

It was such a futile attempt. We had our weapons, and as the swarm fell upon us, we swung our plasma weapons batting them off of us.

It was so stupid, we were getting no-where, and I was going to lose my troops, and I wouldn’t do that. I yelled, “RETREA-“ and one of the bugs came into my mouth. It started crawling towards my throat.

The bug’s legs grasped my tongue, and held tightly, as it puffed up, there is a set of spines on Xarax that expand and become sharp and deadly. It started to crawl forward with intent to take over my body.

I reached into my mouth while running and spinning my plasma sword trying to protect my troops. I opened my jaw, and with that, the Xarax tried to scurry back faster, I grabbed it on its thorax and I pulled.

I knew it had to be taken out, and when I felt the spines on the insides of my lips, I pulled. I crushed it in my fingers, but it was too late, I only felt an intense burning on the lower parts of my face.

Blood poured out of the new wounds on my face, and I tried to run, but I couldn’t. I fell and one of the men in my troop grabbed me. The only feeling I had was the intense throbbing pain that engulfed my whole face.

I remember the med-bay, briefly, and then I remember being placed on a ship; the constant beeping of my heart monitor, the blood pack hanging giving me more life to keep my heart beeping.

I don’t remember surgery, nor do I remember where they were taking me… But the pain… That I remember, every throbbing second of it.

Was I going to die?

Entry 6: Concerning my first crush.

2007-08-27T23:46:00.000-04:00

When I was eleven, I met a boy. His name was Private Jacob Statler. We met in the library. I was studying and he sat down next to me. It was a delightfully awkward moment, looking back.

Jacob was a sweetheart, and he sat down, and he said, “Corporal Cartwright, I think you are very, very pretty.” I blushed, and I set my book down, “Jacob, my name is Amelia. Please call me Amelia.”

“Okay, Amelia,” he said, “I have tomorrow night off, and there is a meteor shower, and I wanted to know if you wanted to watch it with me?” I smiled, “Of course Jacob.”

He was so charming… to an adolescent female. Jacob was my age. He was from the moon colony. He joined the army because his parents were taken by the swarm. We went the next night and watched the meteor shower. It was amazing, and he held my hand through the whole ordeal.

After that, we began to spend time together at night. He would always have a flower, even if it was a dandelion, one time he found me a rose, and he let me smell it. I remember the fragrance still today.

For months we just spent time with each other, even if I was studying, he would sit there with me and hold my hand. Or if he was studying I would massage his shoulders for him. We ate lunch together, and we were inseparable.

One night, he was crying because he missed his parents, and him missing his parents made me think about mine. I started crying, and we held each other trying to soothe each other through our own tears.

I don’t know what it was about that moment… But we met lips. I had heard from several people that normally no-one had their first kiss at the age of 12. I remember the feeling of his warm lips against mine, a feeling, awkward at first filled my whole body, and when I withdrew from the kiss, our tears had stopped.

Jacob hugged me tightly around the shoulders, and I hugged him back. I was smiling, and I knew he was too.

But with each other good event in my life… it had to come to an end.

Entry 5: Concerning my first few years of schooling

2007-08-22T11:58:00.000-04:00

As a military baby, you grow up with reveille. You know that every morning you’ll wake at 600 hours, and you’ll have to do pushups, run, and climb. For the first three hours of every morning, I was subjected to the most difficult physical training a little girl could go through.

Each day I became stronger, and faster. I enjoyed the shower after it was all done. It was regulation, ten minutes. Afterwards, I felt better. Then I went to class with Corporal Sarah. She taught me in depth and rigorously.

Soon, I advanced and I had to say goodbye to my mother figure. I moved onto the higher levels of education. Some people would argue that the things I had to learn were ridiculous, and by the time that I was 9, I could with a little help, fix a hyperspace engine.

There was also military training. They wanted to take Earth back. I didn’t think they could. When they said there was going to be an attack launched from the Moon Colonies, I figured they were insane. I told my old teacher, Corporal Sarah, she said I was a bright little girl, but I didn’t know what I was saying.

She did however present my request to the higher military officers. To be laughed at. At that point she yelled at me, and she told me to get away. I was nothing but trouble.

When they tried to take Earth, we lost 6,000 highly trained crack operatives. Corporal Sarah was promoted to Lieutenant, and they promoted me to Sergeant from Private.

It was a bittersweet promotion for me. I felt that I shouldn’t have received it for being right about a failure, especially one so drastic and harmful. With no newly appointed rank, I also had access to the loose network of computers.

I went onto the computer, and brought up the population count. Before the Xarax invaded there were 60 Billion People on Earth, In the Moon Colony, On the Space-Station, and On Mars. At that time the population had dropped to 60,000 people. With the loss of the Operatives it was a grim time for humanity now being at 54,000 people.

I was still young, but I was trained and I knew that Humanity was on the brink of extinction.

Entry 4: Concerning the secret military base on Mars and My first day of school.

2007-08-14T11:15:00.000-04:00

Civilians on Earth didn’t know about the base. Only very few select people knew of it. It was code named: Star Trek. It wasn’t original of them. Several individuals had been selected from regular army.

The actual instillation’s name was Ithaca. It was one but in a long chain of secret instillations. Several of them had been built around planets, with little feedback to the Earth. They were self contained and didn’t need the supplies.

Ithaca was very similar to West-Point, and it was hidden beneath the rusty soil of Mars. It was the only place to train you for the rigors of long space travel. With the technology we had achieved our solar system could be transverse in a matter of hours instead of years.

But to travel across the galaxy, it would take a couple of years. Depending on where we were to go. But Ithaca could accept students of every age, and Major-Commander Bradford, was one of the few people who knew about Ithaca.

He took me there. Making sure I would be cared for before leaving to go and deal with the new recruits coming in on the moon to fight the Xarax. This left me, all alone. I’m sorry to say that being all alone became something normal for me.

School immediately started and Corporal Sarah Thompson became my new family. She was my teacher and my caretaker. There were no other people as young as me there, so she began to the process of teaching me.

The first day, I was quiet, and she noticed. She tried to get me to tell her my name. I wouldn’t speak. She asked me a thousand questions, and none of which I answered. The question I did answer however was, “What happened to your mommy and daddy?”

“They died saving me.”

She was horrified, and she stopped with the questions. She just brought me water and cookies. I ate the cookies, and that seemed to loosen my tongue. Of course, I do not remember all of this clearly to be honest.

Corporal Sarah Thompson related this story to me per my request recently. She hasn’t seen me recently, I wonder if she would recognize me. It’s hard for people to recognize me now.

However that story is for much later. What was important is that from the point Corporal Sarah got me the cookies, and I started talking to her, she became all that I would have. She was my teacher. And to some extent…

She was my mother…

Entry 3: Concerning how I survived the Xarax swarm

2007-08-08T12:13:00.000-04:00

My parents were nearby, and they didn’t know what to do, so they took my hands and ran with me as fast they could, heading towards our house. But it didn’t matter. It was too late, as the swarm swept upon my parents, they were stung, and likewise the insects crawled into their mouth.

I ran for the door, I tripped over a stone, rolling, and avoiding the first swooping attack. It was purely by luck at that moment. The next action was by a stroke of pure brilliance. The closest safety around; my turtle sand box.

I leapt in, and covered myself with its shell top. The insects flew around, buzzing, covering the sandbox. Leaving me trapped inside. It wasn’t long before the swarm for the most part left. But when I exited the sandbox, I found that they had just moved to my house trying to get in.

My parents were dead; I remember grabbing the ignition code from my father’s pocket, my mother and father died holding each other. I didn’t have time to say goodbye. I had to move on.

I rushed to their ship. It was simplistic, just to get them to the space-port and back. I opened the hatch and jumped into the door. I closed it quickly, and I heard the buzzing. It was the most horrifying sound. Their buzzing: to a six year old, it was the most frightening experience ever.

I inserted the ignition code into the drive. The computer began to beep. I didn’t know how to operate the ship, but I knew the auto-pilot could get me to the instillation. I hit the buttons like my mother did. It seemed to work because the ship jetted out of the hold, and headed into the atmosphere. The higher I went the more black clouds I saw, and once the atmosphere was behind me I noticed more of them were coming.

The instillation was a large top-shaped space station. The ship flew instantly towards the military entrance. There were military ships leaving: they had to pilot around the one I was on and the ship landed.

Immediately the door was opened and three MP’s came in and saw me. I don’t remember if I was crying. I imagine I was. I was a scared little girl. But after that day, I don’t remember crying much. Nor did I think much about my dead parents or the earth.

The MP’s took me out of the ship, and as they were dragging me off to the orphanage or jail, Major-Commander Michael Bradford noticed who I was. He was one of my parent’s friends. He told me if we didn’t leave soon that the instillation would blow up with us on it.

The Self Destruct codes were activated to keep it from being taken by the Xarax.

Entry 2: Concerning the Xarax and The first encounter.

2007-08-05T13:00:00.000-04:00

In the year 3 BX or for you traditionalist 2216 AD, The English Professor landed on the unknown planet. The most we know about this is few reports from the families of those who worked with him after he returned.

What he found there was a planet inhabited entirely by insects. We do not know what all he found there, what we do know is he found an insect race that was very similar to our cicadas. These insects were all over the foliage seemingly eating slowly.

Among these insects, this Professor found an albino one. He bottled it, and he grabbed several others for testing. He then began his flight back. It was harmless enough, one of the first planets able to hold life, to examine that life shouldn’t matter.

He was wrong.

Professor Xarax was his name. He brought these creatures back in 0 BX or 2219 AD, and discovered much about them. One of the interesting traits was that it had was an outer exoskeleton and an inner exoskeleton. It was an evolutionary trait. Professor Xarax thought it was for extra protection.

He also noticed… He noticed a set of spines similar to that of a bearded lizard. They could inflate them so they were thick and spiny. Able to cut through flesh; that wasn’t the worst part, the worst part was what happened to one of his lab assistants. Another terrible part was their stinger contained arsenic. When they stung they injected a lethal dose of arsenic into whatever they stung.

Something happened, the Xarax, as they were dubbed began to awaken from dormancy. They began to fly around their jars. When one lab assistant opened one of their holds the insect flew out, and into his mouth.

Moments later, there was a scream of pain, and his mouth filled with blood. The Professor said it was the most horrifying thing he had ever seen. But what was more horrifying was when the lab assistant rose. The Professor locked him in a room and watched his progression. Slowly his body started to change.

The findings were next complete, but from what we have seen we can theorize that he started to become more insect. His hands became poisonous claws, and he started hissing and trying to speak, but unable to due to the severe damage to the back of the throat.

Professor Xarax, and his Albino Xarax vanished by the time it happened.

November 18, 1 AX, 2220 AD, is a day I remember clearly. It was bright and sunny, then it was all black. With the buzzing sounds of trillions of wings.

The Xarax invaded Earth…

Entry 1: Concerning Childhood and Earth

2007-08-02T22:23:00.000-04:00

My name is Amelia Cartwright. I am a survivor.

I was born to Major John Cartwright and Sergeant Mary Cartwright. My place of birth was Corpus Christie, Texas. The date? August 5, 6 BX or for more traditionalists 2213 AD. Deep space travel had just been discovered, and so had the hyper-thruster that we take advantage of now.

The world was at Peace for the most part. We had found a way to preserve our ecosystem, and conserve our natural resources. We also colonized the moon. It was a big step for our people.

Little did I know, that on my day of birth, there was a Professor from England flying towards an unknown planet near our little solar system. But we will get to the repercussions of that at a later time.

As for World Peace, under England and United States, the world united in a United Countries of the Earth. In which there was one leader from a country elected to a six year term. Underneath him, there were two representatives from each country.

Ultimately they held more power then the Lord-General or Lady-General as he was called. Underneath him was the Duchess-General or Duke-General. The Government was running smoothly. There were no religious intolerances, and no racial intolerances; At least none that were spoken of.

For the first few years of my life, it was wonderful. My parents took off from their jobs in the navy and spent their time taking care of me. I don’t know much of my parents, nor do I know much about my early childhood.

The most I learned was from several officers who knew my parents. They fawned over the woman I had become from the baby girl that I was. I wish I could remember more. But unfortunately I can’t. There is something I can remember.

How blue and wonderful the sky was. I remember lying with my mother and father, sitting under a large tree, and staring at the sky and imagining what the clouds could be. It is the happiest memory I have.

I don’t have many happy memories. I wish I had more. But I remember how beautiful my mother was. I also remember my father. He would hold me, and I would lie on his chest. Sometimes I wonder how life would be different.

All I know is when I was Six. My life changed forever…